HE News Brief 19.3.12
- UK: Elite Russell Group of universities announce four new members
- Mexico: New regulations for private institutions
- Uganda: Private universities emerge in Uganda
Leaving their 1994 Group membership , Queen Mary, Durham, Exeter, and York have all joined the elite Russell Group, which now has 24 members. The Group represents the UK’s elite group of research intensive institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial. According to the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, 60% of research in the UK is produced by the Russell Group. Professor Michael Arthur, chair of the Russell Group and the vice-chancellor of Leeds University, says that the four institutions were invited to join the Group because of their innovation and research intensity across a broad range of subjects.
The number of private institutions have grown considerably in Mexico, from 995 in 2006 to close to 1,500 in the current year. The number of students attending these universities increased from 400,000 in 2006 to one million in 2012 and come mostly from underprivileged backgrounds. The rapid growth rates are prompting many to be concerned with the quality of education received at private institutions, particularly because there are no quality assurance regulations in place. In order to curb this, the Ministry of Education has announced that private institutions will go through a thorough assessment process by national assessment bodies to ensure standards are up to scratch. The government is trying to balance increasing student enrolment numbers (Mexico (37%) trails behind Chile (56%) and Argentina (71%) for instance) with policing new institutions for quality.
A year after the furore surrounding Makerere University, which was once known as the ‘Harvard of Africa’, many are contemplating the role of private institutions in the country. Makerere, some are saying suffers from overcrowding which may have contributed to the strikes that took place last year. Private institutions, which total 30 in the country, are viable alternatives for many however some worry that the rapid growth in private institutions may contribute to further divisions within society. Mahmood Mamdani, director of Makerere’s Institute of Social Research, says that ‘commericialisation’ of higher education may lead to an even deeper divide between the rich and poor. Private institutions at the moment costs more than public universities and Professor Mamdani worries that only richer students could afford to go to a private institution while poorer students are relegated to overcrowded and badly managed public institutions
HE News Brief 20.2.12
- India: Distance learning institutions are widening participation
- UK: Universities are fined record amounts for accepting too many students
- UK: British government have implemented stricter rules for student visas
- Rankings: Kenyan government to produce rankings
Classifying higher education institutions in the MENA region
By John O’Leary, executive member of the QS Global Academic Advisory Board
Universities in seven Arab countries have been classified as part of an international project that is intended to lead to a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of higher education across the Middle East and North Africa.
The Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Lebanese Association for Educational Studies launched their findings at last month’s World Innovation Summit on Education, in Qatar.
Research for the classification was carried out at the height of the Arab Spring, which restricted its scope. Egypt would have been the largest higher education system to be surveyed, but the researchers eventually settled for a classification of universities in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
The draft report stressed the rapid development of higher education in the seven countries, where the number of students grew from 2.9 million in 1998-9 to 7.6 million in 2007-8. The number of universities had grown from 174 to 467 in a decade, supplemented by countless other higher education institutions, many of them privately owned. Dr Rajika Bhandari, deputy vice president of research and evaluation at the IIE, outlined some of the challenges. “It was difficult to get education ministries to cooperate, even before recent political events in the region,” she said. “There needs to be more complete data before we can say this is reliable and valid.” However, the research underlines the diversity of higher education provision in the region.
Universities are classified according to 11 different dimensions, from the student and faculty profiles to their cultural and religious orientation, and regional and international engagement. The report suggests growing use of English throughout the Middle East and North Africa. In the countries surveyed, 23 per cent of universities were using the language for administration, 36 per cent to teach the humanities and nearly 47 per cent to teach the sciences.
This trend reflects an increasingly international outlook. Some 35 per cent of universities had international offices, although 42 per cent were considered to have no or only a low level of international engagement.
The authors do not claim that their research is yet representative of the region as a whole. In particular, they found it difficult to extract complete data from private institutions, many of which were relatively new. Classifying Higher Educations in the Middle East and North Africa: a Pilot Study is available on the IIE website. A full report is also available.
Public spending and university quality: is there a link?
by Martin Juno
Broadly speaking, higher education systems range from those relaying almost entirely on public funding to those mainly supported by private sources. Of course, there are a variety of options between those extreme points and most countries try mixed schemes.
Which system provides the better outcomes in terms of university teaching and research quality?
An interesting exercise that may provide a general answer to this question is to compare the relative performance of institutions operating in different funding environments. In order to conduct this analysis we used the higher education finance indicators provided by UNESCO (available here) , establishing four range groups (or quartiles) of public spending on tertiary education as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the countries . Then the top 400 QS World University Rankings (QSWUR) institutions – available on topuniversities.com- were distributed among each spending level quartile and the average scores for every group were calculated.
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HE News Briefs 14.9.11
- KOREA: After an extensive audit, 43 institutions have lost important funding
- ENGLAND: Institutions are rethinking the amount they want to charge for tuition fees
- INTERNATIONAL: According to a new report, collaborative international degrees are on the rise
- NETHERLANDS: Morning raids at VU Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam
- UGANDA: Institution shutting down due to lack of funds and staff discontent
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HE News Brief 16.8.11
by Abby Chau
- RANKINGS: Publication of the Academic Ranking of World Universities
- LATIN AMERICA: Alba member states looking to harmonise higher education
- SOUTH KOREA: Auditing of institutions to ascertain whether they are fit for foreign students
- EAST AFRICA: Plans for harmonising of higher education
- LATIN AMERICA: Region increasing study abroad programmes Continue Reading
HE News Brief 9.8.11
by Abby Chau
- UNITED STATES: Forbes publishes the top 650 US undergraduate colleges
- GHANA: Student protests erupt in response to what some deem as unfair fees
- SWITZERLAND: Institutions are considering limiting foreign student figures
- CHINA: To expand its online activities as part of its Five-Year higher ed strategy
- UK: New forecast for England’s higher education woes Continue Reading
HE News Brief 28.6.11
by Abby Chau
IN THIS EDITION
- KENYA: Government’s plan to substantially increase student intake is criticised
- SOUTH KOREA: The government pledges to cut tuition by 30% after a series of student protests
- UNITED KINGDOM: White paper on higher education is anxiously awaited
- SAUDI ARABIA: A new institution has its sights set for world class university status
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HE News Brief 12.4.11
by Abby Chau
IN THIS EDITION
- AUSTRALIA: Leadership at top institutions are targeting indigenous students’ leadership and participation rates
- SOUTH KOREA: Series of suicides on the KAIST campus has forced a change in student scholarship policies
- POLAND: Private and public institutions jostle for students and supremacy
- KENYA: Brain drain affecting professors and students
- GLOBAL: New QS Subject Rankings – Engineering & Technology has recently been released
HE News Brief 15.3.11
by Abby Chau
IN THIS EDITION
- UNITED KINGDOM: British Council’s “Global Gauge” places Germany as the best country for international study
- HONG KONG: Do rankings encourage Asian universities to “westernize?”
- INDIA: Ministerial support for foreign universities establishing campuses reiterated
- NORTH AFRICA: Do student protests work after all?
- DENMARK: Foreign students priced out of courses
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