Australia

Diploma Supplement in the Works

Inspired by ongoing education reforms in Europe, the Australian Federal Government announced in September a grant of US$300,000 to be spent developing an Australian diploma supplement that would provide a detailed explanation of a student’s qualifications in order to improve job prospects overseas and give Australia more appeal to foreign students.

As part of the European education reform movement, known commonly as the Bologna Process, universities across the continent are now required to append a supplement to all diplomas they issue. The diploma supplement provides an explanation of the country’s education system in addition to the nature, level and context of studies undertaken by the graduating student. The overall aim of the diploma supplement is to increase the transparency, recognition and comparability of European credentials in a bid to make the European education area more attractive to international students and to increase European student mobility.

— The Border Mail
    Sep. 8, 2006

China

State University of New York Considering China

The State University of New York is exploring the possibility of opening a branch campus in China. The proposed campus would be built at Nanjing University and SUNY would provide staff and curriculum. Two memorandums of understanding have already been signed to this effect, which also cite the name for the new institution as Nanjing University — SUNY International University.

Preliminary plans for the project include a campus that will accommodate 500 students when the institution opens with an enrollment capacity of 5,000 students within five years. Under current plans, International University could open as soon as 2008. The majority of students at the international SUNY branch would be Chinese citizens completing degrees in the fields of accounting, engineering and environmental studies among others. Graduate degrees in international trade, molecular biology, and nanotechnology would also be offered. Students at the institution will have the opportunity to study both in China and at one of the many SUNY campuses in New York and would be expected to pay out-of-state tuition fees. Nanjing is a well-regarded Chinese institution that already houses a small facility sponsored by Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University.

— The Daily Star
    Aug. 16, 2006

Yale Develops Innovative China Study Abroad Program, Receives Large China-Related Capital Gift

September marked the inauguration of a unique international exchange program that pairs 21 undergraduate students from Yale University in the United States with their Chinese counterparts at Peking University. The program, which Yale dean Peter Salovey calls the first “genuinely joint international experience,” will pair the American students in a dorm with an undergraduate from Peking’s Beida Yuanpei Program in an effort to offer students a first-hand understanding of China from both the classroom and their living experiences. The new international education model emphasizes comprehensive studies in classes taught by both Chinese and Yale professors and increased interaction outside of it. Students at Yale reacted quickly and the office of study abroad applications easily filled the program’s 21 places.

In related news, it was announced in September that the New Haven-based Ivy League school has received a gift of US$50 million from Maurice R. Greenberg, through his family foundation, and The Starr Foundation to create the Maurice R. Greenberg Yale-China Initiative, which is to be used to develop relations and collaborations between Yale and Chinese interests. 

— People's Daily Online
    Sep. 25, 2006

Recruiters Scouting Education Expo in Large Numbers

This year’s China Education Expo has attracted approximately 450 overseas institutions of education according to the Xinhua news agency. Representative from 30 different countries will undertake a six-city tour expected to draw 60,000 visitors in the second half of October. The U.K. will be represented by almost 60 schools, the largest number from any one country.

— Xinhua news agency
    Oct. 2, 2006

Suzhou “Education Town” Attracting Top Chinese and International Universities

Located approximately 40 miles west of Shanghai, the town of Suzhou is attracting national attention for its newly established education district: the Suzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town, which currently houses a number of new college buildings, research facilities and libraries.

The project was started in 2002 and contracts have so far been signed with eight prestigious public universities to establish branch schools, mostly offering graduate and undergraduate programs with a scientific or technical focus. Many of the branch campuses have been or will be established in cooperation with universities in Britain, Singapore or Hong Kong. The most high-profile example to date is an agreement between Xian Jiaotong University and Liverpool University, officially inaugurated in May, to establish a joint university awarding joint degrees. The new university welcomed an inaugural class of 170 students this summer to one of a number of IT-focused degree programs. Another example is an agreement between U.S-based Dayton University and Nanjing University to develop a research and entrepreneurship center at the park.

In 2003 there were just 200 enrolled at schools in the education district; this summer there were 12,000 and projections estimate the number reaching 20,000 in the near future. Reportedly, a U.S journalism school and China's leading film school are also considering setting up branch schools in the academic district.

In an industrial development zone next to the education district, 2,000 foreign companies from Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries are hoping that a symbiotic relationship will grow between the two districts, whereby capable graduates are hired and research in fields such as electronic engineering is shared to develop new products in related industries.
 
Since former Chinese president Jiang Zemin announced in 1998 a university expansion policy that would give China "state-of-the-art world-leading universities," more than 50 "university towns," including the Suzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town, have been developed.

— Asahi
    Sept. 13, 2006

140,000 International Students in 2005; 300,000 by 2020  
 
The number of overseas students in China exceeded 140,000 in 2005, according to a recent statement from the Chinese Ministry of Education, which included a prediction that 300,000 students would be studying in China by 2020. The 2005 figure includes both high school and university-level students at institutions in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

China has signed agreements to have qualifications mutually recognized by 26 countries, and there has been an annual increase of 20 percent in the number of overseas students coming to China since 2000, although this figure is expected to drop to eight percent by 2020. A total of 568 universities in China are qualified to enroll foreign students, and most of the foreigners studying in China major in Chinese language and traditional Chinese medicine.

— People’s Daily
    August 8

India

Unqualified Evaluators Found to be Grading Indian University Papers

A police raid this August in northern India found 60,000 answer sheets from university students in the home of a university registrar’s son. B.L. Arya, the registrar of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, allegedly sent the academic papers to his son for evaluation and a tip led investigators to the home where they found unqualified evaluators, some as young as 16 years-old, grading the university answer sheets. Secondary school students were reportedly evaluating the papers in subjects ranging from business administration to computer science for the wage of 5 to 11 cents per paper, significantly less pay than the average grader receives.

Students reacting to the news of the investigation committed acts of vandalism on the property of university administrators. It is still unclear as to the breadth of the scandal and whether or not students will be required to retake exams that may have been assessed by unqualified evaluators. Chaudhary Charan Singh University is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh and counts nearly 100 affiliate colleges. The university and the state government have ordered an inquiry into the matter.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
    Aug. 17, 2006

Two U.S. Institutions in Tie-Ups with Indian Universities

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) has established an agreement with the University of Maryland that entails cooperation in teaching and research between the two institutions. Vice Chancellor of CCSHAU Dr. J C Katyal voiced hope at a meeting of delegates from both universities that the union would bring advancements in agricultural science and improve farm technology in India.

The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad will collaborate with American partner Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to offer a master’s program in management of software systems and development. The degree was originally developed at CMU’s School of Computer Science, and focuses on improving the executive skills of software experts.

— University News
    Aug. 14-20, 2006

French Business School Expands into India

The Grenoble Graduate School of Business (GGSB) has announced a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. The two institutions will share faculty and develop curriculum jointly as well as invite each other’s students to spend a semester studying for their advanced business degree abroad. In recent months, GGSB has entered into relationships with a number of Indian institutions in an effort to increase its visibility on the subcontinent. These institutions include the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, the Institute of Management Technology, the International Management Institute and the Institute for Integrated Learning in Management. Officials at GGSB also announced that in conjunction with forming partnerships with Indian schools, the institution is considering the possibility of opening a stand-alone campus in India.

— The Financial Times
   Sep. 8, 2006

West Bengal to Switch Grading Systems

Following the recent lead of other state examination boards, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education made the decision in July to switch from a high school grading system based on marks to one based on grades for students taking class XII school-leaving examinations.

The new grading scheme will be effective from the 2007 academic year. Similar grade point evaluation systems were recently introduced by the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as well as the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) which respectively conduct the CBSE and ISC examinations.

New marksheets from West Bengal will no longer mention division or aggregate, instead, they will show grades obtained by students in individual subjects. Students scoring between 80 and 100 percent will be awarded A+ (excellent). Those securing between 60 and 79 will be graded A (very good). Those scoring between 45 and 59 will be placed in grade B (good). Students marked between 30 and 44 will get grade C (satisfactory), while those scoring less than 30 will be graded D (disqualified). To pass the high school exam, students will have to score above 30 in six subjects, including two languages (first and second), three elective subjects and environmental education.

— Educationworld
   September 2006

Engineering Colleges to Become IIESTs not IITs

Plans to upgrade seven engineering colleges to IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) status have been in the works for a few years; however, it now seems that just five of them will be upgraded, and not to IIT status but to an entirely new designation of national institute: IIEST (Indian Institutes of Engineering, Science and Technology). The IIEST is being touted as a blend of the IIT and IISc (Indian Institute of Science) in terms of curriculum and fields of study. Two institutions – the engineering colleges of Aligarh Muslim University and Jadavpur University – have been dropped from the running. The original seven institutions were chosen on the basis of the findings of the SK Joshi Committee and current plans result from the findings of a follow up committee which have been published in what is known as the Anandakrishnan Report. Although there are still a few hurdles to clear, the five colleges likely to be upgraded to IIEST status are:

• Andhra University — College of Engineering, Visakhapatanam, Andhra Pradesh;
• Banaras Hindu University — Institute of Technology (IT-BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh;
• Bengal Engineering College, Howrah, West Bengal;
• Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi, Kerala; and
• Osmania University — College of Engineering and College of Technology, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

Like IITs, IIESTs will be awarded the status of Institution of National Importance, which means they will be funded directly from New Delhi and have autonomous governance structures. In an effort to improve engineering instruction at the graduate level in India, the colleges will only be allowed to offer five-year integrated master’s programs and doctoral programs, and will have to stop offering existing four-year bachelor degrees within five years. Ninety percent of all engineering programs in India are currently offered at the first-degree level, according to the Anandakrishnan Report. Admissions will be through a national entrance examination similar to the IIT-JEE used for IIT admissions.

— Rediff
    Sept. 28, 2006

Will India Open to Foreign Providers?

Approximately 150,000 Indian students are currently studying abroad, primarily in the United States, Britain and Australia. An additional 100,000 depart every year to pursue foreign degrees at an average cumulative annual cost in tuition and housing of about US$4 billion. No wonder the prospect of bringing big-name campuses to Indian soil is so alluring for many government officials, long tired of seeing families pay huge sums to send the country’s best talent overseas, often to stay there forever.

Then there is the question of an Indian education system that is in desperate need of investment and increased access. Nationwide, only 15 percent of the 200 million-plus student population makes it to high school, and only half those students actually graduate. In the 17-to-23-year-old age group, only 11 percent (or 10.5 million students) enroll at an institution of higher education, compared to 13 percent in China, 31 percent in the Philippines, 27 percent in Malaysia, and 19 percent in Thailand.

This is why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is making the argument that the country needs to open up its tertiary sector to foreign providers and foreign direct investment. However, there continues to be strong resistance from the Human Resource Development Ministry that wants the government to closely regulate educational offerings from abroad and set faculty salaries of any foreign university establishing in the country. Another stumbling point is India's controversial quota system that reserves seats at universities for underprivileged castes, and whether it would extend to overseas schools entering the market. Such issues have held foreign higher education investment back, despite the government's lifting of FDI restrictions in 2001.

Regardless, big foreign universities have shown interest in India — it is the third biggest educational market in terms of enrollment behind China and the United States. Harvard's South Asia Initiative in Bombay was set up last year not just to facilitate research for its faculty in India, but also to provide the India experience for its interns. Other foreign schools are starting to set up field offices and research centers to explore the possibilities of bigger investment down the road. The Indian School of Business in the southern state of Hyderabad was set up in 2001 in association with Kellogg, Wharton, and London Business School for managerial training. Two years ago the University of Michigan's business school opened an economic research center in Bangalore. Whether or not the foreign universities will be allowed to set up and offer a broader array of undergraduate courses depends to a large extent on whether New Delhi will remove regulations standing in the way.

— BusinessWeek
    Oct. 6, 2006

Nepal

TOEFL Tests Suspended, Students Stranded

Nepalese students with aspirations of studying outside their home country may have to wait until next year to see their goal of international study achieved. The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), an admission requirement for foreign students applying to institutions of higher education in the United States, has halted its daily computer-based testing service and it might not be restored until next August. The Educational Testing Service center in Katmandu that offered the computer-based test daily has shut down registration for the test while they upgrade the local system’s Internet capability, a process that might not be completed until next year. There are four locations in Nepal where paper tests are administered six times each year, but their registrations are full and look to remain that way through 2007.

Nepal is one of the top 25 annual senders of post-secondary students to the United States. In the academic year 2004/2005, 4,861 Nepalese students traveled to America to pursue their higher education.

— eKantipur
  Aug. 24, 2006

New Zealand

New Zealand Moves into Indian Education Market with new MBA Partnership

The Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has signed an agreement with the Indian non-profit Center for Developmental Education to offer an international MBA program. This fall, AUT will begin oversight of an 18-month international MBA program taught by AUT professors as well as instructors from the Institute of Finance and International Management of Bangalore, an institution operated by the Indian partner organization. The two institutions hope to attract some 50 Indian students in the first year. New Zealand’s institutions of higher education lack the amount of experience in overseas course offerings of neighboring Australia, but the move into south Asia is timely due to a drop in business education enrollment at New Zealand’s universities in recent years.

— The Australian
   Aug. 9, 2006

Education Ministry Research: Internationalization Uneven

A report released in August by New Zealand’s Education Ministry criticized the country’s higher education establishment for utilizing an uneven internationalization policy. The ministry report stated that higher education policy in New Zealand focused too squarely on selling international students on the benefits of studying in New Zealand and the economic benefits it produced when its goal should be enriching the international experience and education of both domestic and foreign students. New Zealand’s education export industry is globally unique in that it has such a high proportion of international to domestic students (16 percent) and that its market is extremely narrow (60 percent of all foreign students hail from China).

The ministry report argued for a policy shift towards improving the international experience of domestic students, fostering world-class research in specialized fields, and the improvement of the overall environment for international students and academics. Without these reforms the ministry predicts that the country will have difficulty remaining a major provider of education to international students on the world stage. From 1998 to 2004 the number of foreign students in New Zealand exploded from a few thousand to up over 26,000 before enrollments fell around 10 percent this past year.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
   Sep. 8, 2006

pakistan

University Ranking Introduced by HEC

According to the results of a recent assessment of university performance, the best “general” university in Pakistan is the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

Conducted by the Quality Assurance Committee of the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan’s university regulatory body, this inaugural ranking is based on data collected across five broad categories with a total of 40 sub indicators: student quality (17 per cent of overall score), facilities (15 per cent), finances (15 per cent), faculty (27 per cent) and research (26 per cent). Much of the information was based on the results of a questionnaire sent out to all universities.

Universities were ranked in a number of different fields: agriculture/veterinary, art/ design, business/I.T., engineering, general, and health science. Results are available from the HEC website at: www.hec.gov.pk/new/QualityAssurance/Ranking_lists.htm

— Higher Education Commission
    September 2006

Philippines

Many Ordered to Retake Nursing Boards Following Testing Scandal

The credibility of Philippine nursing programs has been tainted after it was disclosed that questions for the country’s nursing board examination this June were leaked putting the immediate future of 42,000 nursing graduates in limbo. The Philippine Professional Regulation Commission confirmed that somehow the answers to the board examination were obtained by examinees before the test date. While industry advocates called for a readmission of the exam, Philippine officials bemoaned the potential economic hit the country could take as a result of the scandal.

Hoping to end the controversy, an appellate court in October ordered a "selective retake" of the national licensing test. The court ruled that only students who had attended one of three test-review centers where questions and answers were deemed compromised would have to retake the examination. All others should be immediately awarded their nursing licenses, the court said.

The Philippines sends thousands of nurses to the United States, Europe, Japan and other Asian nations each year and the remittances that are sent back each are an essential contribution to the national economy. Since the release of the news about the exam leak, questions have been raised about the integrity of nursing exams in previous years, and recruiters around the world and at home are turning down nurses from this class of graduates. The president of the Philippine Nurses Association, George Cordero, has stepped down amid allegations that he provided the exam questions to students in his test preparation class in order to increase its prestige and bribed examiners to get advanced copies of the annual test. Cordero denies the allegations and has threatened to sue for libel.

— The New York Times
Aug. 20, 2006
— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Oct. 17, 2006

South Korea

Universities Open MBA Programs, Fewer Students Travel Overseas

Korean businesspeople have traditionally pursued master of business administration (MBA) degrees overseas due to a lack of programs in their home country. Now after years of planning and deliberation among the academic community and a new wave of cooperation between the corporate world and the nation’s universities, a new government initiative will encourage the enrollment of over 2,000 MBA students over the next two years. MBA programs have been approved at Sogang University, Ewha Womans University, Hanyang University, Korea University, Seoul National University, and Yonsei University among others.

— The Australian
   Aug. 9, 2006

Export Education Numbers Looking Up

The South Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development has released numbers that show the figures for foreign students and professors at the country’s universities continue to rise. Since 2000, the number of international students at South Korean universities has risen nearly six-fold from 3,969 in the year 2000 to 22,624 for 2006. The figures on foreign professors in South Korea have also increased during the same time period, doubling from 1,313 to 2,540. International students from China account for 65 percent of all enrollments with students from Japan (3 percent) and Taiwan (3 percent) constituting the second and third highest concentrations of student from any one country, respectively. Seoul, the nation’s capital, hosts the vast majority (6,610) of foreign students studying in South Korea.

— The Korea Times
    Sep. 4, 2006

Education System Marketed to Regional International Education Professionals

South Korea’s Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development has developed a training program on the nation’s education system and international exchange programs for educators from neighboring Asian nations. Twenty-one foreign educators from nine Asian nations including Vietnam, Taiwan, Mongolia, India, and Malaysia will visit Korea this month for the seminars designed to educate their visitors on Korea’s educational offerings both domestic and international. The officials will also visit local universities, major companies, and industrial facilities. The ministry hopes that this program will encourage more students from overseas to study in Korea and share their experience with others from their home country.

— The Korea Times
   Oct. 16, 2006

Less Emphasis on National Examination in University Admissions from Next Year

More universities will place greater emphasis on essay writing and student records for admissions purposes beginning in 2007. Traditionally university admission have been based almost exclusively on student performance in the high stakes national college entrance examination, a test that causes high levels of anxiety for high school graduates. 

At the end of September, the Korean Council for University Education announced that the number of universities requiring students to take an essay test would increase to 44 from 20 and it will count for as much as 30 percent of a student’s evaluation. In addition, 106 schools decided that 50 percent of their evaluations will be based on student records, which include grades, attendance and extra-curricular activities. Currently, only 29 schools apply these standards.

— Herald Media
    Sept. 29, 2006

Thailand

Universities Cry Foul on Rankings Process

Sub-par evaluations in the national government’s first ever ranking of Thai universities released this past September caused many institutions of higher education to publicly criticize the process and the results. The Thai Commission on Higher Education ranked 49 of the country’s 138 public and private universities and only offered three — Chiang Mai University, Chulalongkorn University, and Mahidol University — ratings of “excellent”. A large number of universities, especially those in provincial locales, were scored “needs improvement.”

Thai academics and university rectors criticized the evaluation methodology and the short timeframe within which they were required to provide vital information to the ranking organization for evaluation purposes. Higher education officials also expressed concern over the fact that the body conducting the ratings exercise is the same body that oversees the administration of higher education within the country. They argued that a ranking process directed by an independent researcher such as a periodical would lead to less biased and more equitable results. Well-known Thammasat University declined to participate in the rankings altogether.

Officials from the Commission on Higher Education stand by the results of their ranking exercise and have touted them as a method for employers to evaluate graduates, for universities to benchmark their improvement, and for prospective students to compare universities. The commission plans to continue to issue higher education rankings annually.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
    Sep. 15, 2006

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