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Engineering
Goes Global
Old
Dominion University, in conjunction with eight universities
from Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland,
Sweden and Switzerland, recently created a master's degree program
in global engineering.
This
program allows students to spend one semester at Old Dominion in
Virginia and two semesters abroad at the university of their choice.
The
participating universities are members of the International
Network for Higher Education in Engineering.
Project
management, computer engineering and telecommunications are some
of the courses offered at Old Dominion; course offerings at the
European institutions include product innovation, biomedical engineering
and technical informatics in engineering.
English
is the language of all course instruction.
The
semester at Old Dominion requires tuition, but the semesters abroad
do not; however, students must pay for their transportation and
living expenses. Participants may also receive additional degrees
from the collaborating institutions.
—
The
Chronicle of Higher Education
Oct. 12, 2001
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CANADA
MBA
Program Reaches Global Audience
Canada's Queen's School of Business
now offers a full-time, one-year master's degree in business administration
as well as an executive program. Because of the school's isolated location,
courses are offered via videoconferencing, utilizing the facilities of
large corporations to minimize costs. The success of this program has
inspired other institutions to start developing part-time, one-year MBA
programs.
— Financial Times
Oct. 22, 2001
Qatar
invests in Canada
His Highness Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, emir of Qatar, recently
announced plans to invest more than CAN$500 million over the next 10 years
in a new Canadian College of Technology. The soon-to-be established institution
will offer certificates and diplomas in 32 fields of study, and enrollment
is projected to reach 3,000 from the initial 300. The Canadian
Bureau for International Education (CBIE) will act as the executive
agency in the school's development. CBIE plans to work closely with the
College of the North Atlantic,
which will aid in the establishment of the new school.
—
The Canadian Bureau for International
Education
June 4, 2001
CHILE
U.S.
Teams up With World Bank to Improve Quality of Education
The World Bank and United States have joined forces to financially support
Chile's Higher Education
Quality Improvement Program. The program will implement reform measures
to Chile's higher education system, focusing on three main areas: 1) developing
and implementing a national accreditation system; 2) strengthening the
links with national development and qualitative improvement at the technical,
undergraduate and postgraduate level; 3) improving the administration
of higher education.
Two accreditation
commissions, at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, will ensure
the quality of higher education credentials. Accreditation will be based
on self-evaluation, external peer review and academic audit.
— International
Higher Education
Fall 2001
COLOMBIA
College
Professors Become Latest Victims in Civil War
According to the Chicago-based Scholars
at Risk, Colombia has become the world's most notorious nation for
violence against academics. At least 27 professors, students and university
officials have been murdered since the beginning of 1999. Authorities
blame the violence on the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC),
a paramilitary organization that has declared war on the political left.
The AUC is officially illegal, but many Colombians claim that its troops
are being used by the government to help root out and destroy leftist
guerrillas.
Although
the war between the ultra-right and leftist insurgents has mainly been
played out in the street, the conflict recently spilled over onto university
campuses where students and professors perceived to be pro-leftist have
become targets. Among the hardest hit has been the University of Cordoba
where five professors and four students have been killed since 1998. Professors
at the university went on strike to demand better protection after the
head of one of the school's faculties was forced to resign because of
death threats made against him. Last year the Ministry of Interior received
2,000 requests for protection from threatened scholars. Twice that number
was reported this year.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Nov. 2, 2001
UNITED STATES
Anthrax
Scare Foils Application Deadlines
The recent anthrax scare in mailrooms on the East Coast is complicating
the admissions process for some students and colleges. The early-decision
application deadline for many colleges was Nov. 1, enabling a notification
date of mid-December. Although many students turned to FedEx, United Parcel
Service and the Internet to assure the timely arrival of their applications,
some universities have extended their deadlines. However, these extensions
may cause delays in the universities' notifications to students.
— The New York Times
Nov. 2, 2001
Harvard
Honors Losing Luster?
Graduating with honors is a highly sought after status symbol at Ivy League
institutions. However, last June an unprecedented 91 percent of Harvard
University seniors received this distinction. Although many students
at Harvard may in fact be doing honor's work, the concern is that too
many distinctions render the honor's designation null and void. The disproportionate
number of honors compared to other renowned universities indicates a possible
problem with the school's grade inflation and achievement expectations.
A study conducted
by the Boston Globe revealed
that while schools such as Princeton
and Yale have addressed the grade inflation
trends, Harvard has chosen to ignore the issue. While Harvard virtually
guarantees honors to any student who receives at least a B average, the
other institutions also look at the student's class ranking.
Like Harvard,
Dartmouth's system is based on
grades, but only one-third of the graduating senior class receives distinction.
Dartmouth students receive two grades for each course. One grade indicates
the individual's earned grade and the other is the median grade of the
class. These two grades demonstrate a student's comparative performance.
—
Boston Globe
Oct. 9, 2001
Largest
Increase of International Student Enrollments in U.S. Since 1980
Open Doors 2001 reports that
the number of international students enrolled at colleges and universities
in the United States rose 6.4 percent during the 2000/2001 academic year
to reach a record total of 547,867. This is a significant increase over
last year's total of 514,723 students and continues the upward trend in
international enrollments that began in 1997, following a four-year period
of minimal growth.
The report,
published annually by the Institute for
International Education, with support from the State Department's
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, revealed notable increases
from China, India and South Korea. For the third year in a row, China
has sent the largest numbers of students to the United States for higher
education (59,939 this year). There was a 29 percent increase from India,
which for the first time surpassed Japan as the second largest provider
of international students.
Although
Japanese student enrollments dropped by almost 1 percent, Japan came in
third this year. The number of students coming from Korea increased by
nearly 11 percent. In 1998/1999 Korean student enrollments dropped off
precipitously by 9 percent due to the Asian economic crisis, but Korea
has now surpassed its previous high after two years of steady growth.
See graphs
below, which illustrate the data supplied by Open Doors 2001:
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