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Volume 12, Issue 1  
REGIONAL NEWS
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
RESEARCH
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REGIONAL NEWS
According to a study conducted by Paul Bennell, an independent consultant, there are currently more than 100,000 overseas students enrolled in distance-learning courses via the Internet at 84 universities in the United Kingdom.
At least 25 percent of these students are studying with Open University.
The most popular courses offered at the undergraduate level were in business, computer science and accounting.
At the graduate level, more than two-thirds of those enrolled were pursuing management and MBA degrees in particular.
Bennell estimates that students enrolled in distance learning programs have contributed a total of £250 million to universities in the United Kingdom.
In November, Open University created a joint program with Western Governors University (WGU) to offer courses in the United States.
The new program, called the Governors Open University System, allows students to take Open University courses offered in the United States while enrolled at WGU.
The Open University’s American branch is expected to gain U.S. accreditation in the near future.
Many other colleges in the United Kingdom are also offering courses over the Internet.
Birkbeck College in London, for instance, offers a program where students can gain postgraduate qualifications in a wide range of subjects, including protein crystallography, geographic information systems, organizational psychology and computer applications for the history of art.
In January, Oxford University will enroll 160 students in an Internet-based course in computer science. In March, another distance-learning course will be offered in local history, and a third in April will offer a professional update in immunology.
— The Times Higher Education Supplement
A recent survey revealed that British colleges and universities suffered a 13-percent drop in new foreign-student enrollments for the 1998-99 academic year.
The decline was largely the result of the aftershocks from the economic collapse in Asia.
According to the survey, conducted by the British Council, the number of students coming to the United Kingdom from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia has dropped considerably.
While Malaysians accounted for about 30 percent of Britain’s foreign students in 1996, their numbers have fallen by 44 percent.
At the same time, recruitment from Thailand dropped by 29 percent compared with last year. The decreases in numbers from other countries are: Korea, 23 percent; Singapore, 19 percent; Indonesia, 19 percent; and Hong Kong 7 percent.
Because Malaysians are hard pressed to cover foreign tuition costs due to the devaluation of their national currency, British universities have been setting up courses and programs they can enroll in at home.
The foreign-student markets of Brazil, India and Pakistan are also drying up while, in comparison, China yielded an increase of 6 percent.
— The Times Higher Education Supplement
The Romanian government is currently looking into the possibility of opening a new university to accommodate the country’s Hungarian community.
Although Hungarians have frequently voiced their demand for such a university, the state has been reluctant to build an institution strictly for the benefit of an ethnic minority.
However, when the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania threatened to pull out of the country’s ruling coalition, the two sides reached a compromise of sorts.
The proposed institution — to be called Petoefi-Schiller University — will be multilingual, offering courses in both Hungarian and German.
The establishment of Petoefi-Schiller University is clearly a concession to appease the Hungarian minority and prevent its party from taking drastic measures that may threaten to destabilize the government.
However, the university will only acquire government accreditation if 51 percent of the first two freshman classes graduate.
— The Times Higher Education Supplement
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