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| September/October 2004 | Volume
17, Issue 5 |
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PRACTICAL
INFORMATION REGIONAL
NEWS FEATURE BOOK
REVIEW WES
IN THE NEWS
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Regional
News
Americas CANADAReport: Overseas Student Enrollments on Rise
The report released by Statistics Canada, the federal statistics agency, reveals a 60 percent increase in foreign student enrollments at Canadian universities over the five-year period. In academic year 2001-02, total overseas student enrollments stood at 52,600; however, as a proportion of total enrollment, the number of foreign students remained relatively low, at just under 6 percent. The increase is largely attributable to enrollment at the undergraduate level, which accounted for 54 percent of foreign students. Foreign students’ places of origin are more diverse than in the past. In 1992-93, nearly 50 percent of foreign students came from Asia, while only 39 percent did so in 2001-02. During that academic year, 21 percent was from Europe and 18 percent was from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. A report by Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Monitor/Observateur released in early July provides information on international student numbers for the last quarter of 2003. A particularly interesting trend from this report is the decline in the number of students from the top-two sending countries, South Korea and China, and from all the other top-10 source countries except India. The report points out that the declines may reflect regulatory changes that came into effect in June 2002 that no longer requires students to obtain study permits for short-term (less than six months) programs. —
CIC Corinthian to Close 10 Colleges
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Globe
and Mail Vancouver University Opts Out of IAU
The Vancouver-based university has withdrawn from the 600-member, UNESCO-affiliated International Association of Universities (IAU) and is establishing global contacts through the 16-member U21 and the 36-member APRU. It is one of only five universities with overlapping membership of the two groups. The others are Fudan and Beijing universities in China, the National University of Singapore and the University of Auckland. The IAU seeks to secure an international common framework for cross-border higher education and quality programs in the medium to longer term; however, the University of British Columbia wants to see concrete and sustainable results more quickly. —
The
Times Higher Education Supplement MEXICOWorries of Health-Care-Drain Grow as U.S. Looks to Mexico for Nurses
Recruiters have long found help in the Philippines, which established schools to train nurses to work in the United States. Health-care forces in India, South Korea and Nigeria also have been tapped. But the latest focus is on Mexico, whose nurses could help serve the United States’ rapidly expanding Hispanic population. Mexican nurses with advanced degrees can multiply their pay up to tenfold. Recruiting of Mexican nurses is still in the early stages. Just 16 of 58 passed the U.S. nurse-licensing exam in 2002, according to the most recent statistics from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Recruiters have been very active in the last 48 months, however, and are going out of their way to attract Mexican nurses, who are often provided free English-language classes, visa applications and tests for U.S. certification. Some health experts are alarmed, warning that Mexico can ill afford to lose highly trained nurses. Research sponsored by the World Health Organization has found the quality of health care suffers in poor countries that become sources for nurses working in rich countries. Some wealthier nations, such as Norway, have put caps on the number of foreign nurses the government may hire. Others, such as Britain and Ireland, have set ethical guidelines for international nurse recruitment. (See Africa section of this issue.) —
Associated
Press Phoenix Enters Mexican Market Through ‘Learning Centers’
The centers, expected to open in early 2005, will serve the several hundred students who cross from Chihuahua into Texas and New Mexico to attend the University of Phoenix campuses in the United States. The Apollo Group, parent company of UoP, said it will continue to cater to working students. The centers will first offer English classes; the company may later implement its Spanish curriculum, which is currently used in Puerto Rico. The company plans to expand the University of Phoenix into other parts of Mexico in partnership with other institutions. —
The
Chronicle of Higher Education PERULaureate Extends Operations in Latin America, Europe
Founded in 1994, UPC offers undergraduate and graduate programs in business, engineering, law, communications and architecture to approximately 4,500 students. The institution also provides programs in engineering and information technology to more than 1,500 students through its technical/vocational institute, Cibertec. UPC serves Peru's rapidly growing population of 830,000 postsecondary students — a target market 60 percent larger than that of Chile, where Laureate has a significant presence. ECE is accredited by the Commission des Titres d'Ingénieurs (the accrediting body of the French Ministry of Education for engineering schools) and is a member of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles. Together, ECTEI and ECE serve approximately 1,350 students in the Paris metropolitan area, offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in engineering, information systems, embedded systems and telecommunications. This is Laureate’s second acquisition in France, after the 2001 acquisition of Ecole Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur (ESCE), which offers undergraduate and graduate programs in international business with approximately 1,200 students in Paris and Lyon. —
Business
Wire United States of AmericaFalling Demand for MBA Echoes International Student Trend
With the economy on the mend, some believe demand is returning to “normal” levels. Others, however, point out that the decrease is even greater among foreign students than U.S. students. They attribute the drop to such issues as visa restrictions and growth in overseas alternatives. The biggest lag in interest is among Chinese and Indian students, who now have better job and study options in their own countries, as well as in other parts of the world. The GMAC survey also reported growth in the demand for executive MBA programs, which are designed for management professionals. In the council’s most recent MBA graduate survey, 60 percent of respondents felt the value of their degrees was “outstanding” or “excellent.” —
Boston
Globe Accreditation Proposal a Divisive Issue
The argument is proving divisive. On the one hand, university officials and some accreditors say they are willing to accept requirements that certain statistics be made public, including graduate success rates, to inform prospective students looking for quality indicators in certain areas, rather than a blanket statement of quality as provided by the current accreditation system. Others complain that this would encourage unfair comparison of dissimilar universities. They say it is sufficient for the public to know whether an institution is accredited, and which standards and procedures were used to evaluate it. Unless a school fails to meet accreditation standards altogether, the evaluation results are not made public. The proposed College Access and Opportunity Act would fall in line with the administration’s campaign to hold public primary and secondary schools more accountable for the success of their students. —
The
Times Higher Education Supplement Ivy League Continues to Dominate Rankings
The top 10, rated on a range of factors that include staff qualifications, student ratios, dropout rates and peer assessment by other university heads, has changed little from 2003. Three universities tied for fifth place: Duke, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. The California Institute of Technology was eighth, followed by Columbia University and Dartmouth College, which tied for ninth. The highest-ranking public university was the University of California at Berkeley, followed by the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. Williams College topped the rankings of liberal-arts colleges, followed by Amherst and Swarthmore, which shared second place. —
US
News & World Report Federal Report Leads to Multimillion-Dollar Wrist Slap for Phoenix
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Associated
Press International Graduate Student Numbers Continue to Decline
The report is based on data collected from 126 schools. There was a 45 percent drop in applications from China, which was accompanied by a 34 percent drop in admissions. The number of applications from India declined 30 percent; there were 19 percent fewer admissions. The numbers from South Korea declined 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Experts blame the trend on more-stringent visa requirements for foreign students since 2001. In addition, foreign competitors have been recruiting aggressively to pick up the slack. The report concludes, rather pessimistically, that “there is no reason to believe that these factors will diminish in the short run.” —
The
Council of Graduate Schools news release VENEZUELANew University Sparks Controversy, Debate
The university, named after Simón Bolívar, who led the revolutionary armies that liberated northern South America from Spain, has both detractors and supporters. Opponents argue that improving public schools would benefit poor Venezuelans better, enabling more lower-income students to gain admission to established public universities. The debate over the new university and the policies of President Hugo Chávez, who was elected in 1998 on a promise to help the two-thirds of Venezuelans in poverty, overshadows what may be a deeper and more important concern: Academics, government officials and others worry that Venezuela’s 24 public universities have become the preserve of the wealthy – despite charging virtually no tuition. Meanwhile, low- and middle-income students, with their low standardized test scores, are forced to attend private universities, which charge tuition of approximately US$800 a year. According to the Ministry of Education, less than 1 percent of public university freshmen in 2001 came from the poorest 42 percent of families. The government announced in 2003 that the new university would enroll 450,000 students during its first year, nearly equal to the 500,000-student enrollment at existing universities. The university currently enrolls 10,000 students at five campuses. University officials have since scaled back estimates to 20,000 enrolled students on a half-dozen campuses around the nation by year’s end. Government officials say they created Bolivarian University only after attempts to reform existing higher education failed. Of particular concern, they say, is the trend away from the national examination and toward reliance on university-based entrance exams, which they believe are even more biased against low-income students than the national test. —
The
Chronicle of Higher Education
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Figures released at the end of July show a dramatic increase in the number
of international students that enrolled at Canadian universities between
1997-98 and 2001-02.
