By Melanie Kembrey. APPALLING conditions facing overseas students in Australia, including housing in overcrowded firetraps and abuse by host parents, have been highlighted by a NSW government-appointed task force.
In a rebuff to high-level rhetoric about the importance of engagement with Asia, the International Education and Research Industry Action Plan has found NSW is in danger of losing its appeal as a destination for overseas students. It reports abusive host families, unsafe rental accommodation and expensive public transport, including the claim that students are being underfed by host families.
It also raises concerns about overcrowded rental lodgings and fears about safety when walking home from campuses at night because the students receive no transport subsidies.
The report makes 21 recommendations to stop NSW falling behind the US, Canada and Britain in the competitive market for international students. Read more...

By Sarah Boesveld. The “abysmal” state of free speech at Canadian public universities is stifling students’ right to speak their minds, according to a new report card that gives mostly failing grades to universities and their student unions.
The 2012 Campus Freedom Index (download PDF), released Wednesday by the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, awarded only three A’s to 35 universities and student unions it analyzed in its second annual report. A grade of ‘F’ was far more common — handed out 28 times to 12 universities and 16 student unions for everything from cancelling controversial speakers and obstructing pro-life groups to banning the expression “Israeli Apartheid.”
“Everyone’s forced to pay for these universities through tax dollars and the universities get the money in part by claiming to be these centres of free inquiry,” said JCCF president John Carpay, who co-authored the report. “It’s fundamentally dishonest for the university to go to the government … and ask for hundreds of millions of dollars on the pretext that they are a centre for free inquiry and then receive the money and turn around and censor unpopular opinions.”
While universities scored an average grade of C for having fairly sound policies and principles around free speech, the report said they weren’t as good at following them.
For example, the University of Toronto earned an A for its policies, which include a statement on freedom of speech from its governing council and student code of conduct provisions that protect a person’s right to voice views not everyone may agree with. But it scored an F for its actions — the report citing the administration’s 2008 effort to have pro-life groups turn their graphic posters towards the wall. Another example was a group being charged a $400 security fee for holding an Israeli Apartheid Week, a move study authors deemed unfair.
Student unions scored lower in the rankings, earning a D average on both policies and actions.
“The Index sheds light on the significant role that Canadian student unions play in damaging the free speech climate on campus,” the authors wrote, adding that they were particularly troubled that 10 student unions denied official club certification to student groups based solely on the content of their message, not because of misconduct. The student unions at Carleton University and Memorial University of Newfoundland scored Fs because they “refused” to certify pro-life clubs, the report said.
Student unions at the University of Saskatchewan, University of Victoria, University of Calgary, University of Western Ontario, University of Guelph, McGill University and Lakehead University have all banned campus pro-life groups at different times in recent years, earning them Fs, according to the report.
Pro-life groups seem to be the “current target” on campuses, Mr. Carpay said, but in 20 years it could well be another group that doesn’t fit with the popular view of the day. He was especially troubled by the arrest of pro-life protesters at Carleton University in October, 2010, whose trespassing charges have since been dropped. President of the Carleton University Students’ Association, Alexander Golovko, said in an email to the Post that the results from this index “are not fully representative of the current state of affairs” at Carleton. “This year my team and I are striving to ensure there are open and accessible debates on issues that matter to students.”
The national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, Adam Awad, dismissed the index, saying it did not explain its methodology well enough to support its criticism of student unions. Email: sboesveld@nationalpost.com.

By Judy Dempsey. BERLIN — Many countries in Central and Eastern Europe have trimmed back spending on education after the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath. But Poland and Lithuania have managed to buck that trend. Given the importance of a well-educated and skilled work force for future growth, that may prove to have been the smart way to go.
When the East and Central European countries joined the European Union in 2004, foreign direct investment increased and trade with E.U. partners flourished. For the young, membership opened the door to participation in E.U educational programs like Erasmus and student exchanges between European universities. The opportunities were huge.
Then came the global financial meltdown and its aftermath, a systemic banking and debt crisis and economic stagnation across most of Europe.
Among the newest E.U. entrants, Latvia and Hungary needed help from the International Monetary Fund to save their banking sectors from collapse, and amid ongoing pressure for budgetary rigor, several governments in the region moved to cut planned spending — including expenditures on education. Read More...

By Michael Gardner. The German Employers’ Federation (BDA) has called for sweeping changes to the country’s teacher training system. The organisation warns of a possible shortage of teachers if the profession does not remain attractive.
Training for teachers in higher secondary education (comprising Gymnasien and similar institutions) is usually supposed to take nine semesters and covers at least two subjects. The old first State Exams concluding the courses have largely been replaced by Germany’s new bachelor and masters degrees.
The second State Exams follow a 12- to 24-month internship (Referendariat) at a school, accompanied by further theoretical training at a teaching seminar (Lehrseminar). The second phase of training prepares candidates for a civil service career as a teacher.
Study programmes for other teachers (at primary schools or secondary education institutions) follow the pattern above, but are shorter, lasting seven to a maximum of nine semesters. Teacher training programmes are run at universities and similar higher education institutions up to the first State Exams.
The new structure, based on the Bologna reforms, incorporates two phases at university level, and a further 12- to 24-month preparatory stage at schools. Read more...

By Sue Brownlow. Some areas of Europe struggle economically because of their remote locations: hundreds of kilometres from the centres of power, with sparse populations and few large businesses, their employment prospects and skills levels are often poor, and wages low.
In other places, infrastructure may be better and populations higher but the regional will to change things for the better may have been hampered by years of under-investment or political inertia. A recently completed three-year European Union (EU) project has brought together higher education, business and the public sector to focus on the needs of regional economies in geographically remote areas, where traditional industries are often in decline. Led by Cornwall, one of the UK’s peripheral regions, the University Collaboration in Regional Development Spaces project – or UNICREDS – has developed important insights into how higher education can play a key role in boosting struggling economies by working with businesses and public sector partners.
As Project Manager Nicolas Wallet says: “If policy formers take just one lesson from the findings of this project it should be that when higher education works closely with businesses and communities, and with governments and administrations, it can not only transform regions, it can make that transformation sustainable.”
As well as Cornwall, UNICREDS partners were drawn from several regions of Europe including the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Northern Sweden, the South Ostrobothnia region in Finland, Southern Bohemia in the Czech Republic, the North Central Region of Bulgaria and the North Great Plain region of Hungary. UNICREDS partners have worked closely together, identifying examples of current good practice from their regions, some responding to unique circumstances but many providing generic lessons for national and pan-European decision-makers.
The strength of these lessons is that they are not based on a single region’s experience, but on practice shared, considered and debated across seven quite different European regions.
Sharing good practice across regions
One of the principal UNICREDS partners has been the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), an unusual partnership of six UK higher education institutions operating in the far south-west of the country, using university-level education to help local people, businesses and communities to thrive. For us at CUC, the UNICREDS project has been about learning from on another and we’ve had a clear focus on using those lessons locally.
In Finland you’ll find world-class forestry research, developed in collaboration with industry and directly reflecting the local economy. Scotland funds some very small higher education centres at the heart of remote island communities, enabling people to gain higher-level skills without leaving their local areas and helping keep those communities sustainable.
Across Europe, innovation centres where businesses and universities can collaborate, and shared campuses where two or more universities collaborate to provide excellent facilities, are now part of the landscape, as they are here in Cornwall, and UNICREDS has helped us all to get the best from these innovations. The project’s closing conference took place on 25 October in Cornwall and attracted more than 50 delegates from across Europe to see how new initiatives based on outcomes from the UNICREDS project are already influencing regional policy.
The central result of the project has been clear confirmation that higher education contributes most effectively to regional economic development when it works together with local or regional government and businesses. Known as a ‘triple helix partnership’, this approach has been at the heart of the UNICREDS project. The project identifies innovative ways in which universities can focus on the needs of their local and regional economies in shaping their academic offerings and curricula, their modes of delivery and their research and knowledge transfer activities.
Stimulating demand for university-level activity has been a shared challenge for most of the UNICREDS partners, and the project has also helped identify the most effective ways of encouraging businesses, especially small and micro-businesses, to work with universities and colleges to build competitiveness, increase the adoption of higher-level skills and employ new graduates.
Key policy recommendations
A key component of both the final report and the conference is the wealth of good-practice case studies collated throughout the three-year project.
These act as a ‘toolkit’ for other EU regions facing similar challenges, as well as also providing evidence to support the report’s key policy recommendations, which include:

• A need for the EU to motivate and help universities to contribute to their regional development, in collaboration with regional government and businesses.
• A flexible approach to collaborative working between higher education, business and the public sector.
• Encouragement for policy-makers to provide additional support to overcome the distance, both geographical and cultural, between regional government, universities, businesses and communities.
• The freeing of EU funding from conditions that unintentionally limit access to support for micro-businesses and small and medium enterprises.
• A clear need for the public sector to take a strong lead in establishing a vision and ambition for regional economic development.

It quickly became clear to all of us involved in this project that our local circumstances and national higher education policies were very different, and that because of this a good practice in one region could not simply be copied across the partners. Rather, the project offers a toolkit of ideas that have worked in particular policy, social and business environments and which, with proper reflection, can offer pointers to other regions wishing to embark on their own development journey.
‘Smart specialisation’ encourages regions to identify and build on their competitive strengths in research, innovation and higher-level skills. This project has shown how universities working with business, social and community partners can play a powerful role in driving this development in remote regions. The project has now come to an end, but we are confident that the results will have an important impact on people across Europe.
Another UNICREDS partner, Sandra Rothwell, head of economic development at Cornwall Council, has clear views on the project’s success: “UNICREDS has helped to highlight some big opportunities for Europe’s underperforming regional economies,” she says.
“The story that is beginning to emerge is how higher education working effectively with businesses and the public sector is transforming people’s lives, helping their communities grow economically and socially, and helping regions that have struggled for many years to face the future with confidence.” Further information about the project and the final report are available here.
* Sue Brownlow is director of Combined Universities in Cornwall.
* UNICREDS is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and made possible by the INTERREG IVC programme. It involves 14 partners from seven EU regions who share the belief that universities can help transform deprived regional economies into centres of excellence in research and innovation. The aim of the UNICREDS programme is to share knowledge between the member partners, to further develop the triple helix model, and ultimately to lobby EU policy-makers to adopt the model across Europe.
UNICREDS partners
1. Cornwall Council, UK
2. Combined Universities in Cornwall, UK
3. Municipality of Skellefteå, Sweden
4. Regional Council of Västerbotten, Sweden
5. Akademi Norr, Sweden
6. City of Seinäjoki, Finland
7. Frami Ltd, Finland
8. University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
9. South Bohemia Regional Authority, Czech Republic
10. Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, Bulgaria
11. Sofia University, Bulgaria
12. University of Debrecen, Hungary
13. Institutional Maintenance Centre Hajdú-Bihar, Hungary
14. UHI, University of the Highlands and Islands.

By Hiep Pham. A new government decree to tighten regulations on foreign-based education institutions and cross-border programmes in Vietnam will come into force this month, aimed at arresting the unregulated proliferation of foreign-linked institutions and raising standards in the sector.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the new decree 73/2012/ND-CP, often referred to as Decree 73, on 26 September. It will come into effect on 15 November and covers education institutions with foreign links from early childhood education to university level.
For higher education, it specifies a minimum level of investment per student, strict rules on teacher-to-student ratios and on minimum English-language proficiency, as well as regulations on teacher qualifications.
It follows a government order earlier this year to seven higher education providers affiliated with institutions in Singapore, Australia and France, to cease operations and pay fines.
They were said to be violating rules and were denounced as unqualified, unlicensed or even operating as ‘degree mills’.
For the first time, a foreign-owned education institution – Raffles Vietnam, run by Raffles Singapore – had its licence to operate in Vietnam revoked in March because of “continuous violations” of the rules, according to official accounts.
Two other foreign-affiliated institutions – ILA Vietnam and ERC Vietnam – were fined US$10,000 each for ‘illegally’ recruiting students onto several degree courses. Read more...