|
Volume 12, Issue 3  
eWENR Index: Contains links to all eWENR issues that are currently available for viewing.
Masthead: Learn more about eWENR and its editorial staff.
Subscriptions: Don't miss future issues of eWENR.
World Education Services: Learn more about the organization that brings you eWENR.
Comments: eWENR's editor welcomes your comments. If you have story ideas, suggestions or feedback regarding eWENR, e-mail us with the details.
WENR Archives: You can read WENR back issues from Summer 1995 through Fall 1996.
WENR Article Index Through 1996: Features an index of all WENR articles through Fall 1996.
|
REGIONAL NEWS
In accordance with a structural adjustment plan sponsored by the International Monetary Fund, the government has agreed to trim $280 million from the education budget.
— New York Times
Universities in Ontario receive the lowest public funding per capita in all Canada. Years of financial neglect have resulted in deteriorating buildings and have led to overcrowding, escalating tuition costs and fleeing professors. According to the Friends of Ontario Universities, an organization of alumni associations, Ontario’s institutions of higher education presently require an additional $600 million (about $50 per student) in funding to reach the national average.
A spokesman for the organization warned that, unless public funding for universities increases dramatically during the next few years, fewer and fewer students can expect to have access to higher education.
In just the last four years alone, tuition has climbed by more than 60 percent. The new coalition was sure to press the issue with MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) candidates during the June elections.
In April, the Council of Ontario Universities petitioned the provincial government to invest between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion a year to prepare for the deluge of enrollments expected in 2003.
— The Toronto Star
Romero currently enrolls 500 students and offers five-year professional degrees — called licenciaturas — in agricultural engineering, education and law. Tuition is $34 a month. The university also has degree programs in technical fields such as agricultural and veterinary sciences. Both of these programs take two-and-a-half years to complete.
The Ministry of Education recently denied Romero University permission to grant additional technical degrees in accounting, business administration and computer science because it lacks the necessary support systems (like telephone lines).
Although the university only has 11 classrooms and a biology lab, more facilities are being planned. Reverend Gabriel Rodriguez, the university’s acting rector, wants to add a philosophy department that would enable Chalatenango to retain its seminary students.
Each year Chalatenango produces about 1,600 high school graduates. Until the university was built, students who wanted to continue their education had to go to San Salvador, the capital. Many left the country altogether. A recent study revealed that 14.8 percent of all Salvadorians living in Los Angeles originated from Chalatenango — a region that comprises only about 3.5 percent of El Salvador's population.
— Chronicle of Higher Education
The strikers are protesting the university’s plans to increase tuition from the U.S. equivalent of 2 cents a semester to $90. This is the first tuition hike in 50 years.
— New York Times
Signs to look for:
1) Misspellings and/or grammatical mistakes in the catalogues.
2) Overemphasis on degree titles following a professor’s name (for example, Dr. John Smith, Ph.D., Ed.D., etc.).
3) Students are asked to send application forms, other documents, checks, etc., to rented post- office boxes.
4) Tuition charged by the degree instead of by the credit hour, course or semester.
5) Discounts offered for enrolling in two or more programs at once.
6) Credits given for activities such as model shipbuilding, yoga, watching TV, etc.
7) Degree programs that can be completed in a very short time. A court order recently shut down Columbia State University for offering phony bachelor's degrees that could be earned in only 27 days.
8) Little or no interaction between students and professors.
9) A long list of accrediting agencies not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
10) Overemphasis on the program’s accessibility and the long-term benefits of having a degree in today’s competitive job market.
— www.usnews.com/usnews/nycu/28dipbox.htm
|
Thousands of students at the University of Buenos Aires and other state universities around the country launched a strike following proposed cutbacks in state funding for education.