Regional
News
Asia/Pacific
AFGANISTAN
Private
Universities to Fill Demand 
Despite Afghanistan’s poverty, international institutions of higher
education say there is a market for fee-paying education, and there are
now plans for at least two international colleges in Kabul. Demand is
high in a country where teaching and education are well respected but
years of conflict have brought the state system to its knees.
There is
talk of setting up an American University in Afghanistan, along the lines
of the long-established institutions in Cairo and Beirut. There apparently
are enough people with money to make private schooling a viable prospect
-- Ariana Gulf Medical College,
with financing from the United Arab Emirates, has just announced it will
open its doors in Kabul to 100 students for the 2004 academic year. Those
students will pay $US10,000 a year to follow a six-year program, using
English as the medium of instruction.
There is
already a burgeoning private-college sector that mainly offers courses
in English and computing, despite the 1964 Constitution that stipulates
the “state alone has the right and duty to establish and administer
the institutions of public and higher learning.” A new constitution
is expected to be completed in December, before either the American university
or the medical college will open.
—
Institute
for War and Peace Reporting
Nov. 3, 2003
AUSTRALIA
Associate
Degrees Given the Go-Ahead
Private colleges have been given the green light to offer associate degrees
after a hard-fought two-year national campaign. State, territory and federal
education ministries decided in July to include associate degrees in the
Australian Qualifications Framework
as a higher education qualification.
Controversy
has centered on whether the qualification should be a higher education,
vocational or dual-sector one. The Ministerial
Council on Education decided that it should be only a higher education
qualification. But vocational colleges will still be able to deliver it
as long as they go through state higher-education accreditation processes.
—
The
Australian
July 16, 2003
Technology
Institutes Combine to Offer International Joint Degrees
Institutes of technology in Australia, the United States and Canada have
established an education network to develop an “international skills
passport” that will give students global employment opportunities.
The Box
Hill Institute of Technology and Further Education in Melbourne developed
the scheme with the Southern
Alberta Institute of Technology and the Colorado
Mountain College. The ultimate goal is to allow students to gain employment
in any continent by providing them with industry-focused courses that
would be recognized worldwide.
Student and
staff exchanges have already taken place in trials of the scheme last
year, in which Melbourne students attended the Canadian and U.S. colleges.
The first semester-long exchange, in which Box Hill students will attend
classes at Alberta College, has been planned for later this year. Students
will receive a Box Hill diploma with a logo from the Canadian institute
indicating the work completed there.
—
The
Times Higher Education Supplement
May 16, 2003
Off-Shore
Institutions to Be Audited
The National Quality Agency has backed federal moves to conduct audits
of Australian higher education activities abroad on a whole-of-country
basis but has warned of the risk of overlap and duplication.
Malaysia,
one of the biggest source countries for Australian universities, has been
cropping up as a possible first target for audits. Details of the government’s
plans are still scant, though. Education Minister Brendan Nelson has earmarked
A$590,000 a year from 2005 for the Australian
Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) to conduct the audits. The move
comes amid a growing push to tighten quality control in the expanding
international education market that, in Australia, is worth A$4 billion
a year.
At present,
AUQA audits individual universities. That includes looking at their operations
off-shore and sometimes having auditors visit those. Whole-of-country
audits would be a significant development in an Australian quality audit
system that is still in its infancy.
—
The
Australian
June 18, 2003
Forgeries
Play Havoc with Visa Process
The increasing sophistication of forged documents and the surging volume
of applicants – especially from China – are beginning to clog
the visa-processing system of overseas students. The Department of Immigration
told an international education conference in October that forgeries,
although small in number (1 percent to 2 percent of 90,000 applicants
annually), are becoming harder to detect.
According
to Australian officials, document fraud – usually forged qualifications
– is especially prominent in China, Vietnam, India, Pakistan and
parts of Eastern Europe and South America. Modern publishing software
is making detection of forgeries more difficult. Delays occur when fraud
is suspected and documents have to be checked against records at the source
institution. Students from India and China show the most concern about
delays in visa applications.
—
The
Australian
Oct. 29, 2003
New University
to Offer Australia’s First Online Law Degree
Charles
Darwin University, to be established Jan. 1 through the merger of
Northern Territory University and
Centralian College, will
offer the country’s first external, fully interactive online bachelor
of law degree, giving students living in remote areas the opportunity
to experience lectures, debates and all other interactive aspects of a
degree from their home.
—
EDNA
Online
Oct. 10, 2003
BANGLADESH
All-Female
University to Open
Work has begun on an all-women’s residential
international university in Kaliakor, scheduled for completion no
later than 2005.
A five-year
residential study program with master’s degrees combining liberal
arts with professional training in engineering and other fields will be
rare, if not unique, in Asia. The course of study will include three years
of undergraduate study, primarily in the humanities, combined with two
years of professional training in one of five fields: management, public
policy, education, environmental engineering and information technology.
Those involved
envision a student body of 2,000 from 20 Asian countries. It will be staffed
by Asian faculty who will teach courses in English.
—
Women’s
Enews
June 18, 2003
CHINA
University
Complex in Beihai
Construction of a university park in southern China’s Guangxi province
got under way in July. The complex will play host to a number of institutions.
Those already invested in the project include Beijing
University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing
Foreign Studies University and the Sino-French Association for the
Development of Education.
The estimated
cost of the project is about US$1.2 billion, it is due for completion
by April 2004, with the first 1,500 students expected to enroll by fall
of the same year. It will be located in Beihai on the border with Macau.
—
People’s
Daily
July 31, 2003
Shanghai
JiaoTong Builds International Partnerships
Students at Shanghai’s
JiaoTong University now have a number of international options in
the course of their studies due to a number of cooperation agreements
that the institution has entered into recently.
Students
from the mechanical engineering department will soon be able to participate
in a joint program with the University
of Michigan that covers undergraduate through doctoral level studies.
Some students will go to Ann Arbor to pursue master’s degrees and
then return to JiaoTong for three years of doctoral studies. At the business
school, a recent agreement sees the University
of Southern California Marshall School of Business offering its global
executive MBA degree program for U.S. and Asia-Pacific nationals to begin
in 2004. Future projects listed on the JiaoTong Web site feature names
such as the University of London,
the University of British Columbia, the
University of Sydney and the University
of Nottingham.
JiaoTong
is also exporting programs and has recently set up an office at Nanyang
Business School in Singapore, where it will offer an 18-month part-time
MBA program resulting in a degree awarded by JiaoTong.
—
JiaoTong
media advisory
June 9, 2003
New
Law Puts Growing Private Sector on Equal Footing
China has put into force a law giving private education providers equal
status with state-owned schools. The private education sector has been
growing ever since its initial vague recognition in the 1982 constitution
that encouraged not just state-owned education providers, but "other
entities." This language contributed to bureaucratic misconduct,
lawsuits, and a yearning for greater clarity and support. Private-education
providers have essentially held the status of nonprofit providers whereby
"investment with no repayment," has been the official line.
However, in reality private institutions have been allowed to make profits
and therefore needed to pay taxes.
The nation's
1,300 non-governmental colleges service approximately three million students,
or 10 percent of China's higher education enrollments, and have generated
300 billion RMB (US$36.1 billion) in revenue in the past 10 years. The
new laws represent an effort by the national government to come to grips
with the legal issues concerning private education in its current state
and to clarify the previously opaque language legislating its provision.
The Law on
Private Education Promotion, passed at the end of 2002 and effective Sept.1
this year, stipulates that "private-school investors can get a reasonable
repayment after deducting schooling costs and reserving development funds
and other expenses." Further laws recently passed give private schools
an equal footing with state-owned schools in what the Economic
Daily called "a marker of the great changes that have taken place
in the educational system of the country". According to the law,
non-state educational sectors can enjoy national and other preferential
treatment in the management of schools. The law also regulates both the
government's and the investor's activities in order to safeguard the legal
rights and interests of the schools, students and staff. In effect, the
law attempts to both promote and regulate private education.
It is important
to note that although there are 1,300 private institutions of higher education
licensed by the state, only 167 issue credentials recognized by the ministry
of education as equal to those from a state school. Students enrolled
in private schools have the option of sitting external exams in their
programs of study that are offered by the state twice a year. If passed,
the exams represent a validation of student knowledge and credit is accumulated
towards the award of state-recognized credentials.
—
Nick Clark,
Assistant Editor WENR
Ministry
to Evaluate Foreign Institutions
For students wishing to study abroad, the Ministry of Education plans
to establish an official center to evaluate the quality of foreign institutions
of education, with evaluation results to be posted at http://www.jsj.edu.cn.
It expects to establish service standards for intermediary agencies and
to train agency managers in a bid to curb “unethical” practices.
The number of Chinese students studying abroad is increasing, and nearly
70 percent use the services of agents. Currently, there are 270 authorized
agents in China and an untold number of unofficial “consultants.”
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003
INDIA
Chhattisgarh
State Inundated with New Institutions
Thirty new private universities have set up in Chhattisgarh over the past
six months, and another five are waiting in the wings. Chhattisgarh is
a new state that was created in 2000 by splitting Madhya Paradesh into
two states. The establishment of private institutions in the country has
been on hold pending the passing of the Private Universities Bill, languishing
in National Parliament since 1995. But Chhattisgarh passed the Private
University Act last year, thereby becoming the first state in the country
to allow private universities and opening the floodgates to for-profit
institutions.
Students
are reportedly flocking to newly created institutions from both within
the state and from neighboring states, snapping up the opportunity to
take classes at roughly half the cost of elsewhere in the country. Serious
concern has been raised, however, that these institutions are not always
entirely honorable in their intentions and that many institutions often
lack the necessary infrastructure and faculty to offer acceptable standards
of education. Some ask whether these degrees will be recognized elsewhere
in the country and state that if these universities become discredited
in the near future, the degrees they have issued will be worthless.
—
Indiaedunews
July 28, 2003
Trade
in Education Services Not a Go for India
India currently has no obligations to allow foreign educational services
into the country under the 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services
(GATS). The country is saying that it has no intention of making commitments
to the contrary in the latest round of talks, despite pressure from major
education providers such as the United States, the EU, Australia, Canada
and New Zealand.
Indian institutions
such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management
do have the potential to attract and supply foreign markets, especially
in developing and neighboring countries, but India has decided to protect
its own market rather than trying to pry open other markets. The industry
seems to back the government’s stance. The Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has made statements
indicating that India has nothing to gain from the liberalization of trade
in educational services because it is a net importer—i.e., more
students go abroad for education than India welcomes to its shores. Meanwhile,
India is continuing its recent policy of regulating foreign activity in
the country (see May/June
and March/April
issues WENR).
—
The
Times of India
Aug. 28, 2003
Tamil
Nadu Open University Offers First Courses
This academic year sees the Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU) offering
certificate, diploma and degree programs in a number of faculties. The
university has tied up with Indira Ghandi
National Open University (IGNOU) to provide distance education and
develop learning materials. Initially, TNOU will be using the IGNOU syllabus
and materials for delivery of its courses, while developing its own educational
infrastructure for course delivery.
The institution’s
long-term plan envisions learning centers located across the country to
enable face-to-face learning to supplement online courses. The institution
has gained approval to offer B.A., M.Com, M.A., MBA, diploma and certificate
programs. All programs are based on a full-time load of 36 credit points
per year.
—
Indiaedunews
Aug. 4, 2003
Manipal:
Education Mecca
Dr. Ramadas Pai is the driving force (and pocketbook) behind one of India's
largest educational empires, or, as described on its Web site, "A
Mecca of education and health services." Situated in the province
of Karnataka, the town of Manipal has grown to accommodate 53 schools
and colleges, 30,000 students, and 3,000 instructors and administrators
under the umbrella of the Manipal Group and its deemed university, Manipal
Academy of Higher Education. The Pais family, whose corporate entity is
the Manipal Group, owns it all.
The Manipal
Group's schools and colleges have always followed a unique self-financing
model. Simply put, that means admission is based on merit and ability
to pay. Today, 25 percent of the places in all institutions run by the
group are reserved for non-resident Indians who, along with foreign students
from 32 countries, are charged a tuition fee that is typically four times
what locals pay. The Manipal Group also operates colleges in Malaysia,
Nepal and Sri Lanka.
—
Business
Today
Aug. 17, 2003
U.S.
Drops Student Visa Fees
The United States has scrapped student visa issuance fees for Indian students,
although application fees of US$100 for potential students wishing to
study in the States still apply. It was made clear that the application
fee was not being eliminated and must still be paid for all visa applications
that currently require the payment of an application fee. These include
applications for students. The new fee structure began Oct. 11.
—
Hindustan
Times
Oct. 7, 2003
IIT Abroad?
In an effort to market Indian education abroad, the government has been
discussing plans to promote the world-renowned Indian
Institutes of Technology (IIT). According to a release, the government
will first set up IIT campuses abroad, in such developing nations with
growing demand as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Mauritius and the countries of
West and Southeast Asia. Expert committees believe institutions with good
brand equity operating abroad can establish a base from which other institutions
can springboard.
A recent
proposal from Singapore to facilitate the presence of an IIT for postgraduate
education and research is fast-tracking the Indian government’s
plans. At a recent IIT council meeting, members saw the benefit of working
with other top Singapore institutions. In addition, IIT’s presence
will help India develop links with Southeast Asia and China, as well as
support the promotion of its economic and commercial interests in the
Asia-Pacific Region.
—
Economic
Times
Sept. 23, 2003
MALAYSIA
International
University Links with U.K. Institutions
INTI Management Services (IMS), a wholly owned subsidiary of INTI
International Group of Colleges, has forged an agreement with U.K.
eUniversities ((UKeU); see January/February
issue WENR) to market and support the online provision of degree courses
from the various universities offering courses through the UKeU platform.
IMS will function as UKeU’s accredited partner in Malaysia, upon
approval from the Ministry of Education.
Currently,
only four programs are available through UKeU, although more are in the
pipeline. UKeU was set up on the initiative of the British government
as a platform for British universities to offer programs online to students
around the globe. INTI International Group of Colleges has five campuses
in Malaysia and five internationally in Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia,
Vietnam and Beijing. INTI has a number of agreements with institutions
from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand, offering
their programs through licensing agreements.
—
The
Star
Aug. 3, 2003
MMU Expands
into Oman and Thailand
Multimedia University, Malaysia’s
first government-approved private university, plans to open branches in
Oman and Thailand within the next six months.
Each campus
will initially enroll about 30 students into a bachelor of business administration
program in the Oman campus, and e-business programs in Thailand. The university
also has branches in Ghana, South Africa and China.
—
The
Star
Aug. 3, 2003
Technical
University Opens
Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) is
the latest university to open in Malaysia and joins the list of 16 public
and 21 private universities in the country. It is the result of the integration
of various Mara institutes with input from France, the United Kingdom,
Germany and Japan. It will be managed by Universiti
Teknikal Mara.
The institution
is modeled after the German fachhochschulen, where students spend a few
semesters on practical training. It aims to produce graduates specializing
in engineering and technology, with about 60 percent of its curriculum
devoted to hands-on learning.
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
May 2003
3 Private
Institutions Given ‘University-College’ Status
Ikram College of Technology (renamed Kuala
Lumpur Infrastructure University College), University
College Sedaya International and International
University College of Technology Twintech were upgraded to university-college
status in September.
A relatively
new innovation, university-college status allows private colleges to offer
their own bachelor- and master- level degrees. Kolej
Universiti Teknologi dan Pengurusan Malaysia was the first private
institution to be granted university-college status in 2001. However,
other colleges were hesitant to seek a status upgrade because they would
have to give up their staple of franchised foreign degree programs and
offer their own degrees instead. A recent policy change allowing university
colleges to offer franchised programs in addition to their own courses
has changed all that.
Earlier this
year, Limkokwing University-College
of Creative Technology was the second private institution to be upgraded,
followed by the three newly upgraded institutions.
In 1999,
one private college secured university status: International Medical College
was upgraded to International Medical
University. It now offers its own medical degree programs in addition
to medical degrees offered in collaboration with 24 partner universities
from seven countries.
—
The
Star
Oct. 5, 2003
New
Teacher-Training Programs to Start
A new, six-year program for teachers begins in 2004. The course provides
qualified teacher trainees with a foundation program before being placed
in local universities to pursue graduate-level degrees. The current Malaysian
teaching diploma reportedly will be gradually phased out. The Ministry
of Education has set a target of 50 percent graduate teachers in primary
schools by 2010 and 100 percent graduate teachers in secondary schools
by 2005.
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003
Number
of Foreign Students Grows
There has been a 60 percent increase in the number of foreign students
enrolled at schools in Malaysia, from 22,824 in 2002 to 36,466 in 2003.
Minister of Education Tan Sri Musa said 28,827 of the students are in
private universities and colleges, while 5,668 are in private schools.
Among the 150 countries represented, China tops the list with 11,058 students,
followed by Indonesia with 7,500. The target of enrolling 50,000 overseas
students by 2005 now looks achievable.
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003
MYANMAR (Burma)
Education
in Crisis
Myanmar’s government is jeopardizing
the future of an entire generation, with children being denied educational
opportunities and basic health care, an international labor union said
recently in a report.
The Belgium-based
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions released the report on
Aug. 8 to coincide with the 15th anniversary of a Myanmar crackdown that
killed thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators, the vast majority of
whom were students. The report said that the “catastrophic economic
situation” in Myanmar had forced the “vast majority”
of parents to rely on their children to work to support their families,
and that “access to a school will remain a dream unless and until
the military regime radically changes its policy.”
In 1998 and
1999, 50 percent of Myanmar’s budget was spent on the military,
compared with 7 percent on education, according to a UNICEF report from
2001.
—
The
Star Online
Aug. 17, 2003
NEW ZEALAND
Flow
of International Students Stemmed
The collapse of one of the country’s
biggest international-language schools has industry representatives worried
that reliance on the volatile Asian markets, particularly China, could
be disastrous. The Modern
Age Institute of Learning, with campuses in Auckland, Wellington and
Tauranga, was placed into receivership in early September.
International
education is one of New Zealand’s top four export earners. A huge
proportion of New Zealand’s foreign students are recruited from
China—a market that, according to industry experts, is starting
to dry up, forcing English-language providers to “re-group.”
The Association of Private Providers of English Language Chairman Patrick
Ibbertson said New Zealanders should be extremely worried about the plight
of the country’s English-language schools, stating that the Chinese
Government had “more or less switched off the tap for Chinese students
coming to New Zealand schools,” leaving the industry in a perilous
state.
A high-powered
mission was recently in Beijing in the hopes of reversing negative media
coverage within China, which claimed that New Zealand was anti-Asian and
that 20 Chinese students attending New Zealand schools had died over the
past six months.
—
STUFF
Sept. 8, 2003
Indian
Fairs Buoy Export Market
The number of students from India
studying in New Zealand at tertiary-level institutions has increased from
about 150 in 1999 to 3,000 in 2003, according to the New Zealand High
Commission. Officials attribute the rapid increase in numbers to the education
fairs held annually in five cities around India, which were started four
years ago.
—
Business
Standard
Sept. 11, 2003
Polytechnic
Sector Renamed
The polytechnic sector in New Zealand
has been rebranded in an attempt to attract a more positive view of polytechnics
and institutes of technology and therefore attract more students. The
new brand was launched in August and has been applied to the sector’s
peak body, the Association of Polytechnics, changing its name to the Association
of Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics New Zealand. The aim
is to refer to the polytechnic sector as the ITP sector and to emphasize
polytechnic education and training as excellent and relevant to the workplace.
The move
comes after the government asked tertiary institutions to differentiate
themselves from one another and explain their place in the sector. It
also comes amid a general feeling that polytechnic education and training
have been regarded as second-rate by the public and after historical efforts
by some polytechnics to become more like universities.
—
Campus
Review
Aug. 5, 2003
SINGAPORE
Blueprint
for a Global Education Hub
Singapore in August unveiled a blueprint
aimed at lifting its education exports and capturing a larger slice of
the burgeoning demand for higher education in Asia. There are currently
50,000 full-fee-paying foreign students enrolled in Singaporean schools,
and the “Global Schoolhouse” blueprint hopes to raise the
figure to between 100,000 and 150,000 by 2012.
Plans to
expand the industry include the welcoming of providers from both Singapore
and overseas at all levels of the academic food chain. According to the
Straits Times, at least five schools from Singapore and abroad say they
are keen to set up new private secondary and junior colleges in Singapore,
now that such proposals are officially welcome. Proposals must be in by
year’s end, and the decision on who gets the go-ahead should be
known by next March. The Economic Development Board (EDB) has said that
such schools will receive no state funding but will be free to run their
own programs, as long as they follow the bilingual education policy and
include national education.
The door
has also been left fully ajar for the establishment of a fourth university,
and it is likely to be an established foreign one. The EDB is hoping to
sign a deal with an institution by mid-2004 and has been wooing institutions
to set up a campus that will offer a comprehensive curriculum from liberal
arts to engineering. Unlike the National University
of Singapore, Nanyang
Technological University and Singapore
Management University, the new university will be funded privately.
The EDB has
already convinced 10 top-ranked institutions, including Johns Hopkins
and INSEAD, to offer programs. The board is also working to attract brand-name
specialist schools from overseas, such as the London
College of Fashion and Le Cordon
Bleu, to open branches in Singapore in order to make the city-state
an educational hub that offers a wide variety of top-quality educational
opportunities.
—
The
Straits Times
Sept. 8, 2003
NTU to
Expand Curriculum
The Nanyang Technological
University is in the process of setting up the School of Humanities
and Social Sciences, its tenth school. The school, due to open July 2004,
will offer language studies, behavioral psychology and economics.
This venture
marks NTU’s first step toward offering a broad-based curriculum
in 2005 (perhaps adopting American-style liberal-arts ideals), offering
degrees in the physical sciences, humanities and design in addition to
engineering, which is its mainstay. In a move to turn out well-rounded
graduates, all students, by 2005, will have to study humanities and science
subjects in addition to their core discipline.
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
May 2003
Indian
IITs Eyeing Singapore Market
Six of the seven campuses of the Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT) have had talks with the Singapore government’s
Economic Development Board, aiming to establish programs in Singapore.
The move is one result of a planned increase in economic cooperation between
Singapore and India. The initiative seeks to boost local research and
development talent pools and to enhance Singapore’s reputation and
identity as a regional and global hub for education.
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
May 2003
Duke,
NUS to Establish Graduate Medical School
The National University of Singapore
(NUS) will partner with Duke
University Medical Center to establish the NUS Graduate Medical School
by 2006.
The new school
will be based on Duke's medical school curriculum and the U.S. model,
in which students enter medical school after earning a baccalaureate degree.
The new Graduate Medical School will supplement the existing NUS School
of Medicine, which is based on the British model, in which students enter
medical school with essentially a high school degree. The new school will
admit students with bachelor-level qualifications or adequate work experience.
The program will follow Duke’s four-year curriculum, featuring one
year of basic science, one clinical year, one research year and then one
final clinical year. The program will lead to a doctor of medicine (MD)
degree.
—
Association
of American Medical Colleges
July 1, 2003
THAILAND
Slow-Paced
Reform Process Criticized
Lack of progress in reforming the Thai education system has prompted frustration
and criticism from academics, who have cited a deadline of October 2002
for changes that had not been met.
Frequent
personnel changes in key positions within the Ministry of Education have
been offered up to explain the delays. Many education bills are being
drafted, but more work is still needed, according to some lecturers who
do not see reforms coming into effect for at least a decade. Education
Minister Pongpol Adireksarn admitted the going had been slow but that
the authorities are committed to modernizing Thailand’s outdated
systems.
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
May 2003
VIETNAM
Curriculum
Reform Stresses Patriotism
Political and ideological education will be integrated into the higher-education
curriculum in the near future. A conference held by the Education Ministry
and various (Communist) Party Committees revealed that ideology and politics
will be a high priority, with emphasis on patriotism and love for one’s
family. The focus will also be on moral, physical and arts education,
with teaching and learning methods updated to encourage creative thinking
and self-learning.
—
Education
Intelligence Asia
May 2003
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