16
Aug
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 Read more
28
Jun
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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12
Apr
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
22
Feb
HE News Brief 22.2.11
by Abby Chau
- The UK government’s plan on curbing foreign student numbers is lambasted by a recent study for the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi). Foreign students contribute approximately £5 billion a year to the economy. With devastating budget cuts planned for the sector, the study points out that the government plans to target visa abuse will only reduce crucial recruitment numbers, particularly if it targets the number of pre-university pathway courses, which is a set of English language courses and academic preparation courses used as a gateway for foreign students to study in the UK. The study also points out that the figures the government used to justify these new visa restrictions are based on unreliable statistics.
Full Story: BBC News
- Last December, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked universities from anywhere in the world to submit a proposal to build an applied-science facility in NYC. Now the buzz is that Stanford University is preparing a proposal for the venture. Stanford president John Hennessy says that the institution was the epicentre for the success of Silicon Valley and that the type of progress achieved on the west coast could easily be replicated on the east coast.
Full Story: Wall Street Journal
More: New York Observer
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15
Feb
HE News Brief 15.2.11
by Abby Chau
- A 346-page report on business school trends has just been released by the Association to Advance Collegiate schools of Business following an intensive three year study by deans and scholars from top b-schools. The finding show that business schools have an uphill battle in terms of successfully implementing internationalisation strategies. Many courses, particularly in the states, focus more on study abroad programmes than internationalisation strategies and concentrate on North American rather than global markets.
Full Story: Chronicle of Higher Education
- It looks like the Lib Dems will finally have some talking points about the tuition fee hikes – Universities Minister David Willetts announced that institutions who want to charge more than £6,000 must comply with requirements to admit more poorer students. As a strategy to counteract the tuition fee hikes due to commence in 2012, the coalition government has decided that universities charging higher fees must work with the Office for Fair Access (Offa) to establish targets for accessibility. Willetts also announced that institutions charging more fees will also have to participate in the National Scholarship Programme, which will eventually help 48,000 disadvantaged students. There are of course critics of the announcement who are saying such an initiative will not do very much to offset the damage the fees will in incur in terms of social mobility.
Full Story: BBC News
More: Guardian
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14
Dec
HE News Brief 14.12.10
by Abby Chau
- The tuition fee hike passed in the Commons this past week, with the proposal to set the tuition cap at £9,000, due to go to the Lords for a final vote. Thousands of protestors hit the streets last Thursday to convey their dismay over the initiative. Vice chancellors applaud the move saying that this will give universities a chance to succeed as budget cuts are imminent. Most Russell Group universities will charge the maximum but many say that the average fee will hover around the £7,000 mark.
Full Story: BBC News
- During the last five years, institutions in Kenya has ballooned, with many saying that higher education has become more of a cash cow than a centre for learning and employability. Following this, the Kenyan government’s efforts to reform higher education has lead to the closing of hundreds of unaccredited tertiary institutions. Only 464 out of Kenya’s 1,000 colleges have passed the audit which the government initiated by weeding out institutions that did not have adequate facilities or teaching resources. Many are saying that this will cause chaos as students will be left either holding degrees from colleges that will no longer exist, or scrambling to get a place in one of the accredited colleges.
Full Story: University World News
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1
Sep
HE News Brief 1.9.10
by Abby Chau
Here are this week’s news stories:
- University rankings hits its zenith in autumn, with different league tables pronouncing their take on a world-class university. The Chronicle of Higher Education has devised a nifty chart to compare Rankings and sheds a bit of light on which indicators are predominantly used, and which ones are ignored.
Full Story: Chronicle of Higher Education
- In a shocking directive, the Ethiopian Ministry of Education decreed that there is to be a ban on distance learning programmes across the country. Stating that distance learning is unnecessary at this point in the country’s higher educational development, the Ministry also said that quality assurance is a major priority. This will have a drastic effect on the estimated 64 private institutions in the country, as well as vocational education. Critics argue that this directive goes too far and does not offer solutions to the current problems facing higher education. Others are worried about the impact on current students – St Mary’s University College for example currently enrolls 75% of its students in distance learning courses.
Full Story: Addis Fortune Read more
27
Aug
HE News Brief 24.8.10
by Abby Chau
Here are this week’s news stories:
- The glare on UK universities continue to mount as it was announced that over 150,000 potential students will not get a place at a university. Last year 130,000 would-be students were also disappointed. It seems as though, although worsening, this trend is not new. An article in the FT espouses the need for universities to be autonomous, as Whitehall still dictates the number of students who can study a specific subject at an institution.
Full Story: FT
More: Guardian - Asian countries, as oppose to their European and American peers, have well documented problems retaining the talents of young academics who often study abroad and take up residence in their host country. However there is hope that young and bright Indian professors will take a salary cut and return to their motherland. New opportunities in India as well as a chance to contribute to building their country’s higher education institutions, is a lure as western nations’ economic instability is making finding a job abroad a lot less likely. It is estimated that by 2020, 42 million 18-24 year olds will be competing for a place at a university and a 4.2 million lecturers will be needed to supply this demand.
Full Story: University World News
- Measuring student satisfaction has always been difficult but at the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology they are administering a student survey in the hope of discovering what students are thinking. In collaboration with Indiana University’s National Survey of Student Engagement and with the backing of Tsinghua University, they are joining 49 institutions this year who will look at results in order to drive up students quality of life and teaching standards.
Full Story: The Chronicle of Higher Education
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28
Jun
HE News Brief 29.06.10
by Abby Chau
From poor performance European Universities to a retail store offering degree courses, here are this week’s news:
- A group of experts at the University of Maastricht at Brussels are calling for a manifesto to be drawn in order for differentiation between teaching and research universities, greater autonomy from the government and increased internationalisation. The manifesto urges European universities need to act quickly as performance in general is quite poor in the university world rankings. Europe needs to attract more students from all over the world but the government are reluctant to put any more funding in the higher education. The manifesto highlights the need for graduate contributions and business funding in order to recruit skilled graduates.
Full Story: Times Higher Education - A letter from the Higher Education Funding Council for England announced £200 million cut will be made for universities this year, alongside 10,000 student places would be funded this autumn, the government announces. Tighter savings cost have to be made by univesities after 2011. According to University College Union, secretary, Sally Hunt argues making cuts to the this sector is a wrong move at the wrong time.
Full Story: Google - Private colleges in America are being accused of recruiting vulnerable students, leaving them in huge student debts and without any high job prospects. Universities are breaching federal rules to recruit these vulnerable students and are having to fork out in millions to settle these charges. The US Public Interest and Research Group and US Student Association are calling for strong rules to help protect students being recruited by deceptive recruiters on one hand as well as from ruthless lending companies on the other.
Full Story: University World News
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