HE News Brief 29.11.11
by Abby Chau
- SOUTH KOREA: Recognition of foreign diplomas paves the way for Asia-Pacific higher ed collaboration
- UK: Initial figures show that applications for 2012 sees a 15% shortfall
- CANADA: Positioning itself as a popular destination for international students
- RUSSIA: Recognition of foreign degrees in 2012 Read more
Russia’s Education Reform
by Ina Chiriliuc
Almost two years after Russia fully introduced its Unified State Exam (later referred to as EGE –“Ediny Gosudarstvenny Ekzamen”), students, parents and teachers are still dismayed by the change. The exam is similar to the American SAT-s and is a mandatory requirement for acceptance into higher education institutions. At the polar opposite of the oral exams and essays that were the basis of the Soviet testing system, the new multiple choice testing is supposed to be “directed against corruption and should be much more transparent”, according to president Medvedev, a strong supporter of the EGE.
Introducing the EGE is part of Russia’s commitments as a member of the Council of Europe, under the Bologna Convention on Higher Education. Besides its strategic role, this education reform is expected to introduce an unbiased, consistent and measurable method of evaluating students before they enter universities.
The intentions behind EGE are apparently the best, but people are still protesting; the main subjective reason being that it completely substitutes the once glorious Soviet education system, which was very focused on science and produced bright minds. Unfortunately the reality is that the former Soviet system has been lagging behind the rest of the world for quite some time and Russia has been losing its best high-school graduates in favour of Germany, US and UK. A reform was thus necessary. A more believable reason to reject the new EGE is that it has caused even more corruption, particularly in schools. Teachers were caught taking the exams in place of students for 40000 rubles. Read more
HE News Brief 17.08.10
by Abby Chau
Here are this week’s news stories:
- Shanghai Jiaotong just published its 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities and it is causing a bit of a splash. Using the number of professors and alumni who have Nobel prizes and Fields medals as indicators as well as other criteria, the ARWU, according to this report, has Education Ministers from Europe visiting China in the hopes of discussing the rankings. The results has Harvard topping the league table with Stanford following on their heels.
Full Story: AFP
- Russian higher education institutions are lamenting the fact that they are severely lagging behind their North American and European counterparts in terms of research and the number of international students. Government officials say that they need to double the amount of educational spending to 24 million dollars in order to compete on the world stage. According to UNESCO, only 3% of the world’s international students study in Russia whereas 20% (in 2007) studied in the US. Officials also say that language barriers also accounts for the lack of Russian-produced research papers one can find in Scopus.
Full Story: University World News
- Higher education debt in the UK, according to a new report, is reaching £25,000 with an average yearly debt raising 5.4% to £5,600. In Scotland, costs are sufficiently lower, topping £10,000 in total. In response to this report, Higher Education Minister David Willetts reiterated that the government believes in social mobility and that there is indeed a need for people who benefited from a university degree, to contribute fairly to pay for their education.
Full Story: eGov
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