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Three
Universities Team Up for European MBA
Warwick Business School in the
United Kingdom, the University
of Mannheim in Germany and ESSEC
in France are set to launch the first master's in business administration
program tailored specifically for the European market in September.
The European MBA
is a one-year, full-time program, and comprises the following modules:
Core courses from September to December at ESSEC or Warwick.
These provide an extensive overview of general management topics
such as marketing, finance, human resource management, strategy
and accounting.
Advanced, elective courses from January to March at ESSEC
or Warwick.
"European topics" from April to June at Mannheim.
During this module, participants prepare for the team project to
be carried out during the summer for selected international corporations.
Three-month project-management experience. Teams of three
students, each of a different nationality, participate in this final
module.
—
ESSEC
Business School
April 2, 2002
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FINLAND
Official
Suggests Lowering Threshold for Adult Education
Minister of Education Maija Rask suggested recently that adult education
should be more accessible to the groups that need it most — in particular
immigrants and the unemployed. "The threshold for participating in
education is clearly higher, and the opportunities less abundant, for
those with low level of educational attainment, the unemployed and immigrants,"
Rask said.
She further
noted inadequate vocational skills are clearly a major reason why people
in Finland retire comparatively young — on average — at age
59. She also noted that poor computer literacy and reading skills are
leading factors in deterring Finns from pursuing in adult education.
—
Finland's
Ministry of Education
March, 2002
GERMANY
German Academic Leaders meet with Blackboard Reps
Academic leaders from all over Germany, the birthplace of the modern university
system, recently converged in several cities to share ideas and discuss
practices concerning e-learning. The event was hosted by Blackboard
Inc., and participants (comprised mostly of faculty and academic IT
staff) were previewed the latest developments in e-learning technology
provided by Blackboard.
German academic institutions have similar needs that must be met for an
e-Education implementation to be successful: an accessible and easy-to-use
e-Education platform, a software platform able to support multiple languages
and third-party applications.
—
Distance-Educator.com
June 03, 2002
IRELAND
Battle
Looms Over Scots E-learning Market
Enterprise Ireland,
the Republic of Ireland's leading development agency, is poised to mount
a coordinated attack on the Scottish e-learning sector. The hope is that
they will soon control the US$17.52 million market.
However,
the Irish move comes as five Scottish e-learning companies have created
a new joint venture called Scottish Online Learning Consortium (SOLC).
The company
has access to more than 75 educational technologists, developers, content
producers and designers, and currently has a combined US$2.92 million
turnover, along with nationwide sales teams.
SOLC is made
up of Digital Stream, eCom Scotland, MediaCorp, Multiverse Solutions and
Bob Christies Associates — all companies that specialize in particular
areas of the online learning market.
—
The Sunday Herald
May 21, 2002
ITALY
Italy
Waivers on Bologna Reforms
Italy appears to be backing away from higher education reforms set down
in the Bologna
Declaration. The Italian
Ministry of Education recently announced that bachelor's and master's
degrees would be offered in the scientific and technical fields where
they have already been implemented, but would not be offered in some or
all of the humanities.
Italy was
one of the signatories to the 1998 Bologna Declaration, which called on
European countries to adopt a three-plus-two-year degree system as part
of the greater plan to create a unified European system of higher education.
According
to education sources, the ministry is under tremendous pressure from the
more conservative academics in the humanities who fear that the reforms
could undermine their time-honored prestige.
—
The Times Higher Education Supplement
April 4, 2002
SLOVAKIA
New Law
Makes Distance Learning Free, Creates Rift
A new higher education law in Slovakia prohibits universities from charging
fees to students enrolled in distance-learning programs, but some universities
vehemently oppose it, calling it counterproductive.
Before the
law was passed, the country's 92,000 day-students studied free of charge,
while some 40,000 students enrolled as "external students" paid
anywhere from $250 to $600 per year.
The external-study
programs brought in important income to Slovakia's universities and helped
accommodate the growing number of students who were unable to get a full-time
slot in school.
The new law
took effect in April, forcing universities to offer their external-study
programs free of charge, beginning this fall. Some universities may discontinue
their external-study programs in retaliation.
University
officials say they hope the law can be changed after the next general
election, scheduled for September.
—
The Chronicle of Higher Education
April 11, 2002
SWITZERLAND
Swiss students and university planners are divided over the implementation
of reforms stemming from the Bologna
Declaration. Students feel they have not been properly consulted on
the proposed changes, which would significantly restructure the country's
system of higher education in part by introducing internationally recognized
bachelors and masters degrees. The issues that concern the students most
are lack of transparency, educational quality, lack of transparency, and
political motivations behind the reforms.
After several
protests organized by the National
Union of Swiss Students, the rectors' conference recently announced
that student unions would be invited to participate in meetings this summer.
A few Swiss
universities have already adopted the Bologna reforms. These include the
University
of St Gallen and the University of
Basel, as well as the law school at the University
of Lucerne and the Technical Institute
in Zurich.
—
The Times Higher Education Supplement
May 10, 2002
UNITED KINGDOM
Universities
Demand More Funding
A November pre-budget statement promised little to education, and university
chiefs say they need extra funds if they are to achieve the government's
target to increase the number of places in higher education. The schools
will undoubtedly be looking to Chancellor Gordon Brown's budget to tackle
what they say is a serious funding shortfall.
Universities UK, the organization
that speaks for all universities in the United Kingdom, has written to
Education Secretary Estelle Morris, warning her that many vice chancellors
are "deeply unhappy" with funding allocations.
They say
funding arrangements will mean cutbacks for some universities and departments.
The government wants universities to expand to provide places for at least
50 percent of young people by the end of the decade. But universities
argue they are not receiving budget increases to match these ambitions,
which they say will require an additional 17,000 staff.
With little
promised for education in the pre-budget statement last fall, teachers
were also looking to the spending review for extra funds, rather than
April's budget. Teachers unions have threatened industrial action unless
the government resolves a long-running dispute over workload.
—
BBC News
April 17, 2002
University
Applications Increase
The United Kingdom is witnessing a large increase in the number of higher
education applications for the fall 2002 semester. A significant portion
of the applications are from overseas . Official figures show the number
of people who applied to both degree and non-degree programs by late March
was up 1.5% compared with the 0.8% annual increase registered at the same
time last year.
The Universities
and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) said that of the 5,625 applications
this year 3,000 of them were from other countries. The biggest increase
came from China, with applications up 77 percent over 2001. Nigerian applications
were also up from last year (68 percent), as were those from Ghana (43
percent) and the United States (30 percent).
—
BBC News
April 11, 2002
AUT Boycotts
E-Learning Elite
The Association of University Teachers
(AUT) is boycotting online courses offered by Universitas
21, a consortium of top universities from around the world. Universitas
21 is scheduled to launch its business administration program in 2003.
AUT has called on academics not to become involved on any level with Universitas
21. The union's main concern is that academic standards will be compromised.
—
The Times Higher Education Supplement
April 25, 2002
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