HE News Brief 13.07.10
A gay-friendly university ratings and Abu Dhabi’s ambitious goals for 2018 – here are this week’s news stories:
- At the Saudi Arabia and Japan: A Dialogue for the Future Seminar held recently in Tokyo, the two nations heralded the need for further educational collaboration. According to the Saudi Ambassador to Japan Abdul Aziz Tukistani, Japan is the second largest trading partner of Saudi. Full Story: Arab News
- As a new fiscal year begins in the states, public colleges are experiencing a tough time as federal stimulus money dries up. Hawaii slashed their educational budget by 26%, and Florida has laid off 21 tenured and 34 tenure-track professors after $82 million was cut from their budget.
Full Story: USA Today
- Executive Director of Strategic Affairs Rafic Makki delivered Abu Dhabi’s Higher Education Strategic Plan recently. Under the Economic Vision 2030, the country plans to move away from oil based revenue and develop a research and knowledge-based workforce. The government plans to invest 1 billion dollars to accomplish this Vision with the goal of having two Abu Dhabi universities ranking on a global Top 100 by 2018.
Full Story: University World News
- Lobby Group Stonewall has published a new universities ratings guide which analyses gay-friendly universities. Measuring 125 institutions using 10 indicators, Stonewall rated marks for LGBT initiatives such as availability of counselling and a strong anti-harassment policy. Birmingham, Cambridge, and King’s College did extremely well, scoring nine out of the ten indicators while Huddersfield and Strathclyde poorly performed, with only two points.
Full Story: Guardian
HE News Brief 6.7.10
From Students studying a Masters degree to new graduates working in low-paid jobs, here are this weeks news:
- In Dubai more and more students are returning back to higher education, in particular studying for a Masters or a Postgraduate Diploma due to the downturn in the job market. Students are incurring a huge financial burden but are anticipating securing a job in this tough climate.
Full Story:The National
- Universities in Pakistan are going to have a tough job of verifying degrees of high ranking officials, such as law makers and members of parliament. The Higher Education Commission has barred the Al-Kahir University from admitting any new students from last year as the university failed to meet government approved criteria for what is classified as a ‘degree’. Universities, including University of Punjab, Peshawar University, University of Karachi and The Pakistan Military amongst others have until the 13th July to verify these degrees:
Full Story:Dawn.com
- The Times Higher Education announced the plan to fund 10,000 extra places by the government is to be scrapped due to the general election and problems experienced by the Students Loan Company. Under the Tories manifesto, they suggested, early student repayment loan would be encouraged to create and fund the 10,000 extra places. Mr. Willets, the Education minister said there simply wasn’t time to propose a new process to replace the ‘University Modernisation Funding’ implemented under the Labour government. The Coalition government however did say it would look at options for the early repayment of student but when that will be, is still unclear.
Full Story:Times Higher Education
- According to The Evening standard, 70,000 new graduates are on state benefit or working in low income jobs, such as factories, bars or shops due to the recession. However some graduates have opted to study for a Masters degree in hope to improve their chances to secure employment. Charlie Ball, from the Higher Education Careers Services Unit said that the public cuts will have a huge effect on new graduates seeking employment in the labour market.
Full Story:Evening Standard
HE News Brief 29.06.10
From poor performance European Universities to a retail store offering degree courses, here are this week’s news:
- A group of experts at the University of Maastricht at Brussels are calling for a manifesto to be drawn in order for differentiation between teaching and research universities, greater autonomy from the government and increased internationalisation. The manifesto urges European universities need to act quickly as performance in general is quite poor in the university world rankings. Europe needs to attract more students from all over the world but the government are reluctant to put any more funding in the higher education. The manifesto highlights the need for graduate contributions and business funding in order to recruit skilled graduates.
Full Story: Times Higher Education
- A letter from the Higher Education Funding Council for England announced £200 million cut will be made for universities this year, alongside 10,000 student places would be funded this autumn, the government announces. Tighter savings cost have to be made by univesities after 2011. According to University College Union, secretary, Sally Hunt argues making cuts to the this sector is a wrong move at the wrong time.
Full Story: Google
- Private colleges in America are being accused of recruiting vulnerable students, leaving them in huge student debts and without any high job prospects. Universities are breaching federal rules to recruit these vulnerable students and are having to fork out in millions to settle these charges. The US Public Interest and Research Group and US Student Association are calling for strong rules to help protect students being recruited by deceptive recruiters on one hand as well as from ruthless lending companies on the other.
Full Story: University World News
- It is announced that Kenya will be spending $239 million on its public universities in the next fiscal year. Subsidies to universities will be doubled to $640 million. The 2010-11 budget also revealed 13 new college will be created that will be run by the public universities. However fears are rising as not all the $640 million will be spent on the projects. $512 million is to be spent on expenses and salaries , whilst only $100 million is to be spent on the new projects. Experts have commented the allocation of the $640 million is not enough to finance the enrolment of several tens of thousands of students that have created a backlog for 2 years for students to enter universities. Administrators argue more funding is needed to create facilities in order for more students to be enrolled as institutions lack space. Experts argue failure to match enrolment needs could mean there will be an increase increases to support the larger population of students.
Full Story: University World News
- According to The Telegraph, undergraduate places are to be cut, tuition fees to rise and alot of lecturers jobs are to be slashed due to the UK’s deficit. Tuition fees could raise to £5,000 according to some researchers. The University and College Union, which represents Lecturers have said 6,000 jobs are to go and students will be made to face higher tuition fees. The Russell Group that represents the top 20 universities in the UK argues the cap on student fee should be removed and to adopt a US style where fees could be raised anything up to £20,000.
Full Story: Telegraph
- Harrods is to be the first retail store to offer its employees a BA Honours degree in sales. The degree is only available to staff who work in Sales and have worked in Harrods for 2 years.
Full Story :Telegraph
HE News Brief 22.06.10
From a dispute of a control USA-Indian project to the World University Rankings, Here are this week’s news stories:
- A $10 million project financed by the USA and India has been in dispute regarding who will control this project. The project is to enhance the ties between the two countries higher education system and promoting exchanges between junior faculty members in the American and Indian colleges. The USA are arguing they want full control of the project and India are arguing they want partial or full control. A senior Administrator at the Indian Ministry and a U.S. Embassy spokesperson deny there is there is a power control issue that exists between both parties. However The US government argue the Intuition called the India-United States Educational Foundation are best equipped to take control as they have the right sources, experiences and infrastructure. However the Indian Regulating Agency (Government agency that regulates India’s university) argue that the Educational Foundation is still predominantly an American organisation and not entirely neutral.
Full Story: The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Business Leaders are urging the British Government to think long and hard before they make cuts on university fundings. Senior executives from Shell, Glaxo Smith Klien, National Railway amongst others argue universities make a huge contribution to the UK economy. The British Government are planning to make £650 million cuts in the higher education. According to the University sector links between businesses and university contribute £31 billion directly and £59 billion indirectly.
Full Story: BBC News
- University complaints have arisen very sharply in 2009 compared to 2005. The Independent Adjudicator’s office announced 1,007 complaints have been lodged in 2009 compared to 537 in 2005. Students are becoming more aware and are expecting to get value for money. The National Union of Students suggest the rise of complaints reflects upon the rise in student fees, whereby students are not settling down for sub-standard education. Rob Brehens (CEO of the Independent Adjudicator), says students are seeing themselves more as consumers and expects the complaints to rise in the next few years.
Full Story: BBC News
- The Times Higher Education (THE) will use 13,000 opinions of Academics to build up what they believe to be the standard of teaching and research of the World’s university rankings for 2010 THE. According to the University World News the final score will account for 20% of its findings compared to 40% done in previous years. Phil Baty deputy editor of THE says the new system comprises of 13 indicators, which will improve accuracy and stability, compared to 6 used in the old methodology. He also suggests that the old methodology gave too much emphasis on opinion based surveys. Richard Holmes, author of University Ranking Watch claims much of the new methodology THE have used have missed vital information to assess the standard teaching and research to evaluate university rankings, such as student to faculty ratio.
Full Story: University World News
California Higher Education: a system in peril
They were told that there’s no low-hanging fruit. Just one month before the crucial Californian budget deadline at the end of June, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told his constituents, who once enjoyed the status of ranking 8th in the world for their economic prowess, that they were essentially broke and that cuts to the state budget would be long and deep. Schwarzenegger exclaimed, “California no longer has low-hanging fruit. As a matter of fact, we don’t have any medium-hanging fruit. We also don’t have high-hanging fruit. We literally have to take the ladder from the tree and shake the whole tree.”
With house foreclosures and record unemployment plaguing the Golden State, recession-vulnerable public expenditures like welfare programmes and higher education are on the chopping block. The Daily Californian reported that in January of this year, Schwarzenegger planned on suspending the new competitive Cal Grant awards and cutting the budget on educational enrolment growth. With the proverbial knife slashing educational expenditures, many people don’t remember that back in 2004 and in the name of a fiscal crisis, Schwarzenegger, along with the help of then UC President Robert Dynes and California State University Chancellor Charles Reed, was quick to cut the purse strings of public education in favour of privatisation by signing the Higher Education Compact.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “the compact substantially cut base public funding for higher education, required both UC and Cal State to impose large and rapid tuition increases as a permanent source of operating revenues, and committed our universities (in the compact’s own words) to ‘continue to seek additional private resources and maximize other fund sources available to the University to support basic programs.’
Now with unemployment hovering around 12% Californians may have to brace themselves for another and more substantial hit to their beloved higher education system. The economic crisis spurred on by the housing crisis and dubious financial trading and unchecked lending has robbed California twice, the second burglary will take the shape of whatever new economic policies will be crammed down their throats. They were will be told again that there is a new economic reality (one power players created) and everyone (except the people who caused it) will have to buckle down.
Governor Schwarzenegger has signalled recently that he will save higher education although this could only really be fiscally possible by eliminating welfare programmes, a compromise many Californians will find hard to stomach. Now with the budget proposal heading for a legislative vote soon, Californians are waiting for the other axe to fall, albeit hopefully this time with fewer confused fruit analogies hurled at them.
http://www.ucop.edu/acadinit/mastplan/mp.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23367458/Privatization-Info-Sheet
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/compact/compact.pdf
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/09/opinion/le-monday9.2
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/09/opinion/le-monday9.2
http://www.dailycal.org/article/108123/state_education_shouldn_t_hold_its_breath
http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-01-15/opinion/17276299_1_uc-and-cal-state-higher-education-tuition
http://www.calstate.edu/pa/news/2004/compact.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/california-failing-state-debt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2008/oct/12/uselections2008-useconomy/print
http://www.dailycal.org/article/109472/uc_system_cal_grants_escape_cuts_in_governor_s_bud
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8684188.stm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/14/AR2010051405536.html#
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-reed-state-colleges-20100527,0,6849110.story
http://mustangdaily.net/governor-keeps-366-million-for-csu-system-in-state-budget/
HE News Brief 15.6.10
From spending cuts on UK education to reforming higher education in Abu Dhabi, here are this week’s news stories:
- David Willets the Minister for Universities for the UK, told the BBC that the current university system needs to be changed to give taxpayers and students a better deal. Universities are facing hard times economically and therefore need to find cheaper and flexible methods to teach. A report is expected to be due in the autumn regarding funding. Many students fear that tuition fees will rise and are angry at this.
Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10278662.stm
- Almost 200,000 places are being frozen for university places due to public sector cuts. Students are to be left without degree courses and foreign students are likely to be charged very high fees.
Full Story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7823509/More-students-to-be-rejected-from-university.html
- According to the Times Higher Education, start up companies by academics and graduates are an important source of university income. For instance contract research grew by 12% totalling a revenue for universities of £938 million 2008-2009, whilst collaborative research grew by 5% totalling a revenue of £732 million.
Full Story: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=412048&c=1
- The Government of Abu Dhabi are to spend $1.3 billion by 2018 to reform the current higher education system to meet the socioeconomic demands of the labour market. Local Leaders hope the education reform will enable the higher education sector to meet the domestic needs of Abu Dhabi, instead of relying on its oil dependency economy that Abu Dhabi is well known for.
Full Story: http://chronicle.com/article/Abu-Dhabi-Proposes-Ways-to/65851/
HE News Brief 8.6.10
From a French higher education revolution to a growing American uneasiness about their ranking, here are this week’s news stories:
- The second Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Higher Education was supposed to take place in April but due to the Icelandic ash cloud, it was postponed. Stakeholders of this conference, from Southern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern States, seek to establish dialogues and agreements based on the 2007 Cairo Declaration which, akin to the Bologna Process, aims to harmonise higher education and promote knowledge sharing within member states. This editorial argues against the wholesale acceptance of Bologna and cautions against the so-called neoliberalism of internationalisation and privatisation.
Full Story: Times of Malta
- According to the Chronicle, France is allowing its 83 universities to become autonomous, cutting off traditional ties to the government. In a major overhaul, Sarkozy also plans on investing billions of euros into creating 10 regional “supercampuses” with the view to compete with American Ivy Leagues. The Chronicle posits that the poor performance of French universities in international league tables has had a hand in ushering in this new system.
Full Story: The Chronicle of Higher Education
- As different countries talk about increasing the number of people attending higher education institutions, the U.K is contemplating a move in the opposite direction. This would be a stark policy change from Labour’s pledge of sending 50% of young people to university. New Business Secretary Vince Cable will be looking into whether a record number of graduates is leading to the devaluation of higher education. A look toward vocational training, which is highly successful in Germany, is on the table.
Full Story: Guardian
- The United Arab Emirates ambitious Vision 2030 (based on Singaporean targets) of doubling the amount of higher education levels in the workforce may be a tougher task than anticipated, according to this article. A recent study cites a large high school drop-out rate as a concern, as well as the fear that this Vision may only benefit visiting students rather than UAE residents.
Full Story: The National
More: Trade Arabia
- As the dialogue, and uneasiness, concerning the rise of Asian universities continues, this article looks at the state of higher education in the United States. It argues that U.S professors fleeing from cash-strapped American universities to countries like Saudi Arabia, China, and Singapore who are investing heavily in education, is contributing to Asia’s rise in league tables.
Full Story: The Christian Science Monitor
HE News Brief 1.6.10
From the Iraq higher education system to a boost in the kiwi economy, here are this week’s news stories:
- During the India-UAE: Leveraging the Knowledge Economy Paradigm forum in Abu Dhabi, both countries pledged more robust cooperation in education. Citing the economic climate and the possibility of a human resource crisis, both India and the UAE said distance learning programmes may be a good way forward.
Full Story: Gulf News
- One of the many legacies the U.S will leave behind in Iraq appears to take the form of an uber expensive liberal arts university. The American University of Iraq, according to this article, has only attracted 375 students as high tuition costs and the impracticality of a liberal arts education are cited as barriers to attract enrolment.(See our 16.3.2010 post for more information regarding the Iraq Higher Education System)
Full Story: Guardian
More: Asharq Alawsat
- New Zealand and Saudi Arabia have announced stronger collaboration in the higher education sector which will involve improved mobility, joint programmes and research projects. New Zealand Education Minister Anne Tolley says that international students hailing from Saudi generate 250 million dollars of revenue a year.
Full Story: Voxy
- During the 2nd International Meeting of UNIVERSIA Deans, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that higher education must play a significant role in Latin America, especially in Mexico. The goal, he said, is for a 30% growth in higher education, with an eye on opening 20 institutions this year.
Full Story: Isria
- Australia’s top two export education markets, India and China, have renewed agreements to establish partnerships. Announced during the Shanghai Expo, this collaboration is viewed as a boost for what this article calls the “embattled 17 billion dollar market” in Australia.
Full Story: The Australian
HE News Brief 18.5.10
From the new British coalition government to Puerto Rican protests, here are this week’s news stories:
- Rwandan university students negotiate a post-genocidal social and ideological minefield, where talk of the 1994 genocide is muffled by government rhetoric based on a stringent reconciliation policy. According to this New York Times article, after high school, students are sent to ingando, isolated camps where students are taught among other things, that the genocide began with the Belgian colonists. How students will walk this very fine line between the freedom to learn and the campaign of imposed silence will be difficult.
Full Story: New York Times
- Now that the new British coalition government has the keys to 10 Downing, people are watching to see which pre-election promises will be kept. The Conservatives said that tuition hikes may be a possibility while the Liberal Democrats promised to phase out fees altogether in six years. With Conservative David Willetts overseeing universities and Lib-Dem Vince Cable as Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, this will no doubt prove to be an interesting topic to watch.
Full Story: University World News
More: The Guardian
- This is an interesting article concerning Big Business and the state of universities in the Philippines. Large companies have been either purchasing 100+ year old universities or purchasing a 60% stake in universities. Some companies own or have a stake in as many as three universities. According to this report, Philippine Investment Management bought an 80% stake of Araullo University for roughly eight million dollars. Some are arguing that the state of higher education in the Philippines has been deteriorating.
Full Story: Manila Bulletin
- According to this report, 3,000 students have staged a sit-in at the University of Puerto Rico since April 21st. Protesting what they see as increasing privatisation of universities and budget cuts, students are peacefully demonstrating their cause, gaining the support of people as diverse as musician Ricky Martin and celebrated Uruguayan poet Eduardo Galeano.
Full Story: Stabroek News
- Malaysian Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that the absorption period, or the time it takes a student to obtain a job after graduation, should be one year. According to Mohamed Khaled, the absorption time in Australia is two years.
Full Story: Bernama
