HE News Brief 03.12.2012
- Chile: OECD advises a tighter scrutiny of university accreditation
- UK: 10 new universities formed, focus is humanities
- South East Asia: Greater Mekong region to emulate ERASMUS & Bologna processes
- India: Waking up to international student recruitment
HE News Briefs 13.8.12
- BRAZIL: Affirmative action policies approved
- CHILE: Violent student protests demand changes
- USA: Community colleges piloting new employment software
- IVORY COAST: Fee hikes coinciding with opening of universities
- UK: English student applications see a 10% drop
HE News Brief 11.6.12
- UK: A new report about the merits of a degree
- UK: Will elite institutions go rogue and charge more in the future
- VIETNAM: Crack down on fradulant colleges
- CHILE: Call for admission system reform
HE News Brief 2.4.12
- Iraq: Institutions struggling to rebuild
- UAE: Institutions submitting data for 61 indicators for evaluation
- Chile: The imperatives of Classification
- UK: Institutions in the ‘middle’ set to see a 10% shortfall
HE News Brief 21.11.11
by Abby Chau
- AUSTRALIA: Internalisation activities are entering a third stage
- MIDDLE EAST: Foreign branches in Qatar and Dubai are faring well
- INTERNATIONAL: A new Autonomy Scorecard produced by the EUA
- CHILE: Students are going to the table after six-months of protests Continue Reading
QS University Rankings: Latin America™ launch event a big success
By Danny Byrne
The first ever ranking of Latin American universities was launched by QS on 4th October with an event at Canning House in London. Attended by an important number of embassies from Latin America in UK, journalists, universities in the UK, and other key stakeholders, the event was sponsored by IELTS and supported by the Foreign Commonwealth Office and the Canning House, and viewed live online by over 2,000 people among universities, students, employers, media and independent organisations from Latin America and other countries in the world.
Ben Sowter – Launch of the QS University Rankings: Latin America from QSIU Latin America on Vimeo.
The event was opened by Professor Maxine Molyneu, Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas, who welcomed the new ranking as a positive development for universities in the region.
“This exercise draws attention to the significant achievements that Latin America has made in higher education, and serves as a reminder that a good number of universities have attained international standing for the quality of their research and teaching programs,” Molyneu stated. “The information will help to support international exchange and collaboration between scholars and institutions, and that in turn will help to advance knowledge”.
Maxine Molyneux – Launch of the QS University Rankings: Latin America from QSIU Latin America on Vimeo.
Introducing the new exercise, QS Managing Director Nunzio Quacquarelli situated QS University Rankings: Latin America™ within an evolution toward more nuanced and targeted QS research exercises, stretching from the first QS World University Rankings® in 2004 through to the QS Asian University Rankings™, QS World University Rankings® by Subject, QS Stars™, and the now QS University Rankings: Latin America™.
“QS serves the informational need of students and parents first and foremost, and we have set out to innovate in the information we provide since our launch in 1990,” he stated. “These rankings meet a real need for information for a major part of the world’s population”.
QS Head of Research Ben Sowter pointed to increased student mobility as one of the factors driving the need for greater comparative information on the region’s universities, citing as an example the 250% growth in international students in Chile between 2000 and 2008. “There has been a dramatic change in some of the migration patterns and some of the decisions being made by international students in the region,” Sowter stated. “While much of that mobility stems from within Latin America, increasingly European students are beginning to look to the region as a potential destination.”
Sowter outlined the detailed consultation with Latin American institutions that QS undertook while finalizing the methodology for the rankings. A survey of over 110 institutions in the region identified the importance of factors such as the proportion of academics with a PhD, web presence, and research papers per faculty, which were introduced for the first time alongside more staple QS rankings criteria such as academic and employer reputation, student/faculty ratio and research citations.
“University systems in Latin America are now among the fastest changing and fastest growing in the world,” said Sowter. “We have been able to gather an unprecedented level of information to put together a much richer comparative picture of Latin American higher education than has ever been compiled before”.
QS University Rankings: Latin America™ Project Manager Liliana Casallas emphasised the wider importance of the rankings for universities in the region, and outlined the extensive consultation that ensured that data was available from all universities in the region: “This has just been a very valuable exercise for universities in data collection, integration and communication within the different departments”, Casallas stated. “For some it has been easier than for others, but this is one of the indirect benefits of participation in this type of study”.
Casallas also stressed that the rankings will expand and develop as they mature, with universities becoming more familiar with data collection processes and continual work being carried out by QS to develop new assessment criteria. “The next edition of QS will have more challenges, such as developments in the methodology, expanding and improving channels with universities for data collection, strengthening data collection in Central America in particular, increasing our operational capacity, and including new partners and sponsors”.
Stephen Carey (IELTS) – Launch of the QS University Rankings: Latin America from QSIU Latin America on Vimeo.
To follow the video conferences and dowload the presentations please click here
HE News Brief 25.10.11
by Abby Chau
- CHILE: Student protests have erupted in Santiago
- CHINA: Collaboration of 11 institutions to form the Beijing Tech
- INTERNATIONAL: A new report by the World Bank follows 11-leading universities
- UK: A BBC investigation into graduate employability
- NETHERLANDS: Call on cap for foreign student numbers Continue Reading
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 12.7.11
by Abby Chau
- NETHERLANDS: New policy changes to increase completion rates
- UNITED KINGDOM: University minister seeking international students from Brazil
- CHILE: Students force the government to invest 4 billion dollars in higher education
- SOUTH KOREA: Decreasing birthrates will stagger particpation in higher education
Continue Reading
HE News Brief 5.4.11
by Abby Chau
IN THIS EDITION
- LATIN AMERICA: Regional and national university rankings emerging
- UNITED KINGDOM: Could number of high charging universities undermine the whole idea and result in reduced places for students?
- CZECH REPUBLIC: Foreign students quadrupled in four years
- GLOBAL: Britain’s Royal Society report that the landscape of international research collaboration has changed dramatically
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