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Developing
Countries Embrace Distance Education
In
Beijing, Jakarta and elsewhere in Asia large state-run distance-learning
institutions have been established to help meet the burgeoning demand
for higher education, which governments can no longer satisfy through
traditional bricks-and-mortar schools. But proponents of distance
learning are finding themselves faced with new challenges and obstacles.
Two of the biggest problems remain: 1) how to introduce online technologies
in places where few have access to computers or phones and 2) the
difficulty of guaranteeing the quality of programs offered by distance-learning
institutions operating both inside and outside their borders.
The
trend towards distance education in developing countries is being
fueled by the need to close the education gap with rich nations.
According to the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) only
7 percent of young people in Asia attain some form of post-secondary
education compared with 58 percent in industrialized countries,
and 81 percent in the United States.
Distance-education
programs are gaining popularity in many poor nations because they
are perceived as being an affordable way to educate large numbers
of people. Both UNESCO and the World Bank confirmed this to be true.
In a recent joint report, they found that the cost of education
per student at the world's largest distance-learning institutions
(most of them situated in developing countries) is, on average,
about one-third the cost of education at traditional bricks-and-mortar
schools in the same country.
In
China, for instance, where a mere one out of 20 young people goes
to college, distance-learning technologies have been widely adopted
to facilitate the transition from elite to mass education. The China
Central Radio and Television University, founded in 1979, has 1.5
million students, two-thirds of which are in degree programs. It
caters mainly to working adults.
As
a result of the need for better-trained professionals in an era
of unprecedented economic growth, the government has ordered China
Central to expand its enrollment by 100,000 students per year.
To
maximize flexibility, China Central has turned for help to the Open
University of Hong Kong (OUHK), which provides study materials
in print and CD-ROM formats for its 25,000 degree students, in additional
to individual contact with tutors by telephone, e-mail and face-to-face
meetings.
OUHK
has already trained about 100 educators from China Central through
10-day seminars. The two institutions are currently considering
joint courses in business administration, education and nursing.
China Central has adopted a credit system and is also experimenting
with more multimedia and with making study materials more accessible,
especially in the big cities where Internet use is increasing.
Other
countries in Asia are grappling with similar challenges. In Iran,
for instance, the University of Welfare Sciences and Rehabilitation
uses distance education to provide in-service training to social
workers, occupational therapists and other working professionals
across the country. However, while the institution would like to
supplement its use of printed materials and videocassettes with
Internet-based learning, officials claim that the lack of computer
technology and teacher training for this kind of delivery would
make it difficult.
In
other Asian countries governments are investing heavily in online
programs. The Southeast Asian Ministers
of Education Organization is in the process of developing a
project for a regional "virtual campus system" designed
to upgrade the skills of employees who work within the expanding
"tiger economies" of Southeast Asia. The new inter-regional
campus system is expected to face fierce competition from Australian,
British and the North American distance-education programs, provided
by both traditional universities and private businesses.
Another
problem is quality control. Despite quality assurance systems, transnational
distance programs are often beyond the control of governments. In
India, for example, foreign degrees are considered highly prestigious,
and private distance-learning institutions are taking advantage
of the huge demand. While no one knows how many students are actually
enrolled in these programs, the country has been inundated by advertisements
targeting students interested in earning a foreign degree online.
Trying to determine which institutions are legitimate and which
ones are bogus diploma mills can be difficult.
Hence,
India's University Grants Commission plans to require mandatory
registration to protect students from scam schools and diploma mills.
All foreign institutions that wish to offer distance-education programs
in India will soon be required to register with the government.
— Chronicle
of Higher Education
June
15, 2001
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CAMBODIA
Cambodia's
Course in Law Studies
Cambodia's Faculty of Law and Economics currently offers a degree program
in law studies, developed with the assistance of the French government
and recognized by the Cambodian
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The standard length of this
program is four years, at the end of which time the graduating student
obtains a licence en droit, equivalent to a bachelor of
law degree.
The academic
year is divided into two semesters, comprised of 13 weeks each. Admission
to the program in law studies requires a baccalaureate or equivalent qualification
and the successful completion of an entrance exam.
—
Correspondence
from the Faculty of Law and Economics
June 7, 2001
CHINA
Only the
'Medically Fit' Can Go To College, China Decrees
Authorities have introduced new examinations for students wanting to attend
universities in China to judge their medical suitability and physical
fitness. Teenagers whose legs differ in length by more than two inches
or whose spine is curved by 1 1/2 inches will be prohibited from attending
courses as varied as geology, law and civil engineering.
Students
who suffer from color blindness will be banned from attending business
administration courses, while those diagnosed with cancer, epilepsy, high
blood pressure or "mental disorders" will be prevented from
enrolling in universities altogether. According to authorities, the new
medical examinations aim to "engineer" a stronger, healthier
student population, free from physical and mental handicaps.
Given the
level of competition to get into college, weeding out the mentally and
physically challenged is seen as necessary. There are university places
for only about 5 percent of China's student population, although some
20 percent apply. Few objections have been raised to restricting university
entry to "healthy" students. Chinese law requires the government
to work actively to "raise the quality of the Chinese people."
A debate continued to rage about how far the country should go towards
removing the mentally deficient from the population.
—
Sunday
Telegraph (London)
June 24, 2001
China
Wants to Increase Student Enrollment
According to the Beijing Youth Daily the government's campaign
to broaden access to public, higher education and increasing support for
private universities has led to a 14% enrollment increase over the past
year.
The government
wants more than 20 percent of the eligible population to receive a higher
education by 2015. The current percentage is about 11 percent compared
to 60 percent in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Experts have expressed
concern over the diminishing quality of education in recent years resulting
from teacher shortages and overcrowded classrooms in some colleges. They
note that the deterioration is due to the country's rapid economic expansion.
—
Chronicle
of Higher Education
March 23, 2000
A U.S.
Law School in China
On April 26, 33 students in Beijing received LLM degrees from Temple
University, the first law degrees conferred by a foreign university
in China. Temple University was invited by the government to develop a
law program on Chinese soil as part of the country's efforts to integrate
itself with a global economy, partly through the reform of the legal system.
New legislation was recently passed, for example, requiring officials
and judges to be competent in contract law, a concept that has been absent
so far in the Chinese legal system.
Half of the
64 students enrolled in Temple's law program in China are private lawyers
paying $15,000 in tuition. Tuition for the remaining students, of which
14 are judges, is covered by the Chinese government and partially sponsored
by foreign scholarships offered by such organizations as the Starr
Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation,
the Trace Foundation and by multinational
corporations like General Motors, Dupont and Microsoft.
—
World Higher
Education Reporter
May 14, 2001
INDIA
New Degree
Programs at IGNOU
Indira Ghandi National Open University
recently launched a master's program in Hindi and a certificate program
in HIV and family education.
Applications
to MBA programs and other specialized diploma courses are also currently
being accepted.
—
Education
Times
June 6, 2001
Demonstrators
Fight Private Education
Students and professors in New Delhi demonstrated in protest of government
efforts to privatize higher education in India. They fear that the Ambani-Birla
report recommendations advocating substantial cutbacks in virtually all
fields of higher education, except in liberal and performing arts, will
be reflected in the 2001-02 budget that is now being considered by Parliament.
The report was prepared for the Prime
Minister's Council on Trade and Industry last April.
If the recommendations
are passed into law, students in the sciences, medical and legal fields
would have to bear all university costs ranging between $1,500 and $8,000.
This would make higher education accessible to only a small percentage
of people. Currently, college and university tuition in India is among
the lowest in the world. Critics argue that this is the reason for the
country's dilapidated educational facilities.
The authors
of the report advocate a more free-market approach to higher education,
which includes doing away with the labor laws that govern teachers and
professors. However, no decisions on the report's recommendations have
been made, as of yet, according to a spokesman in the Ministry
of Human Resource and Development, which oversees education.
—
Chronicle
of Higher Education
March 23, 2001
Joint IT Program for Commerce Graduates
Osmania University and Eastern
Michigan University in the United States have entered into a "Memorandum
of Understanding" for the promotion of academic cooperation between
the two institutions in the fields of teaching, research and academic
exchange. In particular, the agreement between the two universities will
create a joint master-of-commerce program in information science. The
objective of the new program is to prepare new commerce graduates with
strong backgrounds in information technology to take up challenging careers
in international business and the service sectors.
The
Memorandum of Understanding seeks to develop mutually acceptable systems
for the recognition of academic credits between the two universities to
ensure a smooth transfer of credits.
—
The Hindu
Jan. 11, 2001
JAPAN
Berlitz
Goes Franchise Route in Teaching English to Kids
In light of the growing demand for English education for children, Berlitz
Japan, Berlitz International's language branch in Japan, plans to
aggressively open new schools all over the world. Although Berlitz has
traditionally operated as a language school primarily for businesspeople,
the school has been offering a new English language program geared towards
children since April 2000.
The new program,
called Sesame English, targets youngsters between the ages of 4 and 12,
and is being offered in Europe, Latin America and other parts of Asia,
including Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Sesame English was jointly
developed with Children's Television Workshop in the United States. At
present, approximately 3,500 children are enrolled in the program's 42
branches throughout the world. The monthly fee is 9,200 Yen (US$74.25)
for four 40-minute lessons. Berlitz Japan now has a total of 54 branches,
51 of which are directly operated by the parent company and three of which
are franchised.
—
The Nikkei
Weekly
June 4, 2001
MALAYSIA
Malaysia
May Force Private Colleges to Use Ethnic Quotas
Malaysia Education Minister Musa Mohamed announced that the country's
laws requiring public universities to abide by an ethnic quota system
in selecting students may be extended to private colleges. This measure
aims to rectify a perceived chronic imbalance between the number of Malay
and non-Malay students at private institutions of higher learning. Malays
make up no more than 15 percent of the intake in private colleges, which
enroll some 215,000 students, compared with about 145,000 at the public
universities. The rest of places go to students who are ethnically Chinese.
Zheng Guangzu, the Malaysian Chinese Association secretary, denounced
the proposal as "regressive," making Malaysia the only Asian
nation that officially discriminates against a segment of its population
in matters of higher education.
While attempting
to create a flourishing private market for higher education, the policy
has sought to help the country's ethnic majority, Malays, advance over
their financially dominant Chinese counterpart. It has also sought to
increase the number of Chinese Malaysians who pursue post-secondary studies
abroad. This issue has been prominent since Ministry of Education statistics
indicated that this year's total enrollment at public universities was
about 20 percent below the target of 38,000, with some 7,168 university
places still vacant because not enough Malays applied. At the same time,
the ministry revealed that 560 Chinese Malaysians who scored among the
very highest levels on last year's university examinations had failed
to secure places at any public universities.
—
The Chronicle
of Higher Education
June 15, 2001
Cosmopoint's Advantage is its Wide Twinning Programs
Malaysia's Cosmopoint Institute
of Information Technology recently set up a twinning program with
Swinburne University of Technology
in Australia. The new program allows Cosmopoint students majoring in multimedia
to finish the last year of their degree program in Australia. The students
must first complete their year-long diploma program at Cosmopoint in Malaysia,
consisting of nine subjects and a final project. Courses utilize online
learning technologies, complemented with face-to-face lectures and tutorials.
Cosmopoint's
diploma in information technology targets students who wish to embark
on a career in IT, but don't necessarily have any previous computing knowledge
or experience. The program requires 16 to18 credit hours per semester
for full-time students, and 12 to14 credit hours for part-time students.
Classes will run for 14 weeks, with one week for review and another week
for the final exam.
The diploma
in information technology is fully approved by the National Accreditation
Board. Students graduating with this diploma are eligible to enter the
second or third year of programs offering the bachelor of science degree
in many Australian, U.K., Canadian and U.S. universities.
Cosmopoint
signed a similar twinning agreement with the James
Cook University also located in Australia.
—
New Straits
Times-Management Times
June 3, 2001
PAKISTAN
Isra University
to Offer IT Degrees
Isra University recently announced
it is launching three new degree programs specializing in information
technology. Beginning in October, the following new degrees will be offered:
• Bachelor
of business administration, BBA (IT)
• Bachelor of information technology (BIT)
• Master of information technology (MIT)
Isra University
is the only private university in the city of Hyderabad duly accredited
by the University Grants Commission and chartered by the government of
Sindh,
—
Business
Recorder-Financial Times Information
July 8, 2001
Islamabad:
Public Sector Information Technology Universities to Have Low Fee Structure
The Ministry for Science and Technology
recently announced that the Pakistani government plans to subsidize information
technology (IT) education. Ministry officials have instructed Pakistan's
Internet Service Provider, Comsats
Internet Services, to lower its proposed fee structure for the new
IT university in Abbottabad. The University of Abbottabad is expected
to open its doors to students on Sept. 1.
Another IT
university is also expected to open soon in Lahore. In selecting next
year's curriculum, priority will be given to job-specific, needs-oriented
programs, especially those that can contribute to poverty alleviation,
as determined by a sub-committee.
—
Financial
Times
July 4, 2001
SOUTH KOREA
Admissions
for Sale in South Korea
South Korea's Yonsei
University in Seoul will introduce its "donation-for-admissions"
system at the beginning of the 2002-2003 academic year, despite government
opposition. The system would set aside a limited number of spots for people
who have contributed $1.5 million in cash or land to the university.
Yonsei officials
claim that this is only way to resolve chronic financial difficulties,
given that more than 70 percent of Yonsei's budget comes from tuition.
South Korea's Ministry of Education has opposed the plan, calling it unfair,
while students have criticized it as well. The university's student council
has proposed, as an alternative, that the administration takes measures
to reform the Yonsei's financial structure.
—
The Chronicle
of Higher Education
June 15, 2001
TAIWAN
Taiwan
Universities to Look Beyond Test Scores for Admissions
A new diversified
university entrance system will replace the 48-year-old standardized,
joint university entrance examination next year to take into account factors
like student aptitudes and extra-curricular activities, in addition to
academic performance. A basic learning abilities exam will test students'
capacities to handle college work, instead of the three-day joint entrance
exam.
Exams will
be scheduled twice yearly, in February and in April, enabling students
to retake them, if necessary. Students will be able to enter a university
either by direct application (passing the basic learning abilities test),
through school recommendations or by assignment. Universities will have
to organize their own entrance tests and interviews for candidates. Students
applying to universities could use their results from the learning abilities
test, or take another course-related exam held in July, which would resemble
the soon-to-be-defunct joint entrance exam.
—
Business
Recorder-Financial Times Information
July 4, 2001
VIETNAM
First
Foreign University
Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute
of Technology (RMIT) has established Vietnam's first foreign-owned
university, a year after the country's communist government agreed to
license the university. The new institution is called the International
University of Vietnam, RMIT will cover 40 percent of the $50 million
costs, while the remaining 60 percent will be financed by foreign investors.
Completion of construction work, aided by a recent $7.5 million contribution
from the Asia Development Bank, is expected
by 2003. However, students are already enrolled at the university and
classes are in session. The new university will offer bachelor's, master's,
and doctoral degrees in subjects ranging from technology to economics
and natural sciences.
—
The Times
Higher Education Supplement
May 25, 2001
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