RHB Research expects the earnings of higher education institutions to be affected if the delay in foreign student visa approvals persists.
In a research note today, it said that Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS), established by the Ministry of Higher Education, had tightened entry requirements of foreign students.
"This could potentially mitigate the misuse of foreign visas and attract quality students.
"But despite early submissions from foreign students, it was revealed that they still faced delays in having applications approved. This delay if left unresolved, could turn prospective students away and potentially affect the revenue of education institutions," it added.
RHB Research highlighted that the earnings of SEG International (SEGi) and HELP International Corp may decrease by 10 per cent and 17 per cent respectively, if their international student base were to be cut by half. Read more...

University rankings can lure international students, but some experts fear the league table is unreliable, writes Yojana Sharma. Students intending to study abroad are so used to looking up where universities stand in global league tables that it is easy to forget the rankings are just a decade old - the first was released by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2003, creating a huge international buzz.
Since then there has been a profusion of international rankings, mainly published by newspapers and magazines, such as Times Higher Education (THE) and The Guardian in England, and the US News and World Report in America, as well as commercial organisations, such as QS.
International rankings have become so popular that organisations vie against each other to release new lists every year or sub-lists with a tweak - THE's first Asian regional ranking was released on April 10 and QS is planning a Latin American ranking based on "methodology more appropriate to that region".
The main global league tables are timed to coincide with the university applications season - some students wait for the rankings before deciding where to apply. Read more...

By François Therin. THE recent release of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (Timss) ranking has resulted in many articles being released, commenting on the pros and cons of education systems and how they can jeopardise the economy of a country. But is that really the case?
I did a little exercise using the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2009 results. Pisa, launched in 1997 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is an international study which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills (including many different reading skills) and knowledge of 15-year-old students.
Besides using the Pisa 2009 results, I also gathered information from the Global Innovation Index 2012 results published by Insead and World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo); and the unemployment rate of 36 countries, mixing countries which ranked at different levels on Pisa and which are at different stages of economic development. Read more...

By Ariel Kaminer. When the trustees of Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art voted this week to start charging for an undergraduate degree, it ended the institution’s lengthy reign as the most famous tuition-free private college in America.But it was never the only such place. While most colleges grapple with the growing burden of student debt, a few outliers across the country and even New York State offer a college education for the one price that looks good in any economy: nothing.
To qualify for Cooper Union’s largess, applicants had to prove themselves on the highest tier of the highest tier of academic or artistic achievement. That might strike some New Yorkers as easy compared with the requirements at some of the other free colleges. Read more...