The launching of 25 Technical Universities throughout the country to provide technical educational to school leavers who fail to get entry to the Universities will be launched today.
The signing of a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the first Technical University, which would provide technical education facilities to 1,500 students in the Eastern Province will take place today.
The MOU will be signed at the auditorium of the Hisbullah Society this morning.  Minister Dallas Alahapperuma, the Deputy Minister M.L.M. Hisbullah and the representatives of the Hera Foundation will attend the function.
This University will be established under the programme of establishing 25 Technical Universities throughout the country. The Hera Foundation will invest 1,200 rupees for the establishment of this University. Read more...

By Mayumi Ujioka. One of Tokyo’s top high schools will offer extracurricular classes in English from next year for students who want to study abroad, part of the rekindled interest in Japan for higher education in foreign countries.
Nezu Educational Foundation in Nerima Ward, which runs Musashi Senior and Junior High School, will offer the night classes for 120 students--twice a week for junior high school students and three times a week for senior high school students from September to next June.
The school dubbed the course the “RED Program,” with R standing for voluntary research, E for writing essays and D for debate.
“Amid the age of globalization, we want students to have options overseas. We want to nurture human resources who can play an active role as international citizens in the future,” a school official said.
According to Musashi, the classes will focus on science, including Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the strategy of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and the experiments of Galileo Galilei. Read more...

By Didi Tang. In the capital of tropical Laos, two dozen students who see their future in trade ties with neighboring China spent their school year attending Mandarin classes in a no-frills, rented room. It's the start of China's first, and almost certainly not its last, university campus abroad.
"There are a lot of companies in Laos that are from China," said 19-year-old Palamy Siphandone. She said she chose the Soochow University branch campus after hearing it would offer scholarships to students with high scores.
"If I can speak Chinese, I get more opportunities to work with them," she said in a telephone interview during a trip to the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou - the home city of Soochow University.
Education officials in China are promoting the notion of the country's universities expanding overseas, tapping new education markets while extending the influence of the rising economic power. China so far has been on the receiving end of the globalization of education, with Western institutions rushing to China to set up shop. Now it's stepping out. Read more...

Asian universities have gained significant ground on their Western counterparts and could overtake them within two decades, but Indonesian universities are being left behind, according to the results of a survey released on Tuesday.
The QS University Rankings: Asia survey showed that the top five Indonesian universities have all lost ground on their regional rivals, with the overall standing of the archipelago’s universities having waned significantly since 2009.
“In the years since the financial crisis Indonesian universities have struggled to match the rapid development seen in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea,” QS head of research Ben Sowter said.
Only University of Indonesia makes the top 100. The nation’s top-ranked institution dropped to 64th in the table this year, from 59th in 2012. The university ranked 50th in each of the first three editions of the rankings, between 2009 and 2011. Read more...

Vice President Jejomar Binay has called on the government to look into Germany’s dual vocational system and see how it could help reduce unemployment in the Philippines. The German dual vocational system combines apprenticeships in a company and vocational education at a vocational school. The in-firm training lasts from two to three and a half years and the trainees receive a certificate at the end of the training.
“Germany has a very strong dual vocational system and this is one of the reasons why unemployment among the German youth is low by international standards,” Binay said in a statement on Tuesday. Read more...

Almost 7 million ­― this will be the number of college graduates in China in 2013, a year which promises to be the toughest job-hunting season in Chinese history. Never before has the nation had so many graduates competing for jobs, particularly when so few are available. The number of vacant positions offered by employers has shrunk by 15 percent. Without a doubt, the job market is white-hot.
As of April 19, less than 30 percent of graduating seniors in Beijing had signed contracts with employers. Shanghai faces a similar situation.
The title of “college student,” once a shining halo for Chinese people in the 1980s and 1990s, is now virtually synonymous with “soon-to-be unemployed.”
“In the late 1990s, the number of college graduates just exceeded 1 million. Now we have almost 7 million,” said Xiong Bingqi, vice president of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Center. Read more...

By Ki Mae Heussner. As interest in massive open online courses (MOOCs) expands around the world, overseas startups like Berlin-based iversity want to take on American MOOC providers Coursera, edX and Udacity.
Silicon Valley startups Coursera and Udacity — as well as the Harvard and MIT-backed non-profit edX — may be driving the momentum behind massive open online courses (MOOCs) for now. But that doesn’t mean organizations around the world aren’t trying to get in on the action as well. Earlier this year, two-year-old Berlin-based education startup iversity announced that it was pivoting to become a MOOC platform for Europe. On Monday, the organization took its next big step in that direction with the announcement of its first 10 classes, which were selected through an open competition. Read more...

Par Alexandre Bassette. Pour remédier aux difficultés que rencontrent les détenus pour prolonger leurs études supérieures, la région Île-de-France offrira une bourse, des livres et des frais d’inscription gratuits à l’université aux plus motivés. Ce projet expérimental à vocation a s’étendre à toutes les prisons françaises.
Les détenus qui poursuivent leurs études supérieures sont une minorité. Les lourds problèmes financiers, le manque de matériel et une offre pédagogique réduite, ne permettent qu’à 1,4% d’entre eux d’étudier dans le supérieur une fois incarcérés. Ils sont d’ailleurs surnommés «les étudiants empêchés». Mais cette situation pourrait changer dès la rentrée prochaine.
Une convention a été signée mercredi entre la région Île-de-France ,l’administration pénitentiaire, l’Éducation nationale, l’université Paris-Est-Marne-la-Vallée et la maison d’arrêt de Fleury-Mérogis, dans l’Essonne. «L’objectif est de venir en soutien à des détenus qui souhaitent s’engager dans des études supérieures», explique Isabelle This-Saint-Jean, vice-présidente du conseil régional en charge de la recherche et de l’enseignement. Suite de l'article...

Dans le cadre de la loi du 24 novembre 2009 qui instaure un droit à l’orientation pour tous, et en attendant la loi de décentralisation qui revisitera l’organisation régionale du Service public de l’orientation (SPO), chaque territoire des Pays de la Loire s’organise.
Pour rappel, l’objectif vise à offrir à toute personne une réponse à ses questions sur l’orientation en deux structures maximum à proximité de son domicile ou de son lieu de travail.
Sous l’égide du Comité de coordination régional de l'emploi et de la formation professionnelle (CCREFP) qui définit le cadre de mise en œuvre de la labellisation et qui émet un avis sur la demande de labellisation, et en s’appuyant sur les huit réseaux signataires* de la charte régionale charte régionale signée le 22 janvier dernier, les équipes locales s’activent.
La couverture territoriale s’organiserait en 17 territoires: 5 en Loire-Atlantique, 4 en Maine-et-Loire et 4 en Vendée, 3 pour la Sarthe et 1 en Mayenne. 3 territoires seront labellisés au 30 juin (Ancenis, Sud-Vendée, Atlantique Nord). 3 autres devraient l’être au cours de l’été (Angers, Pays Segréen, Sud-Sarthe). 9 autres le seront vraisemblablement à la rentrée.
À partir d’une animation voulue par la commission SPO du CCREFP, et accompagnée par le Carif-Oref, c’est toute une culture partagée qui se construit. Le travail engagé permet de dépasser les incertitudes des structures pour construire collectivement un réseau pour le bénéfice des usagers, et de renforcer et ouvrir de nouveaux partenariats.
L’étape de la commande est dépassée, avec une vraie appropriation des acteurs du territoire qui rendent le système dynamique. Par ailleurs, cette mise en place du SPO est facilitée par des outils construits collectivement, comme l’outil d’auto-évaluation, le livret d’accueil en direction des publics et le guide pratique des services qui recense l’offre de services des structures locales d’accueil, d’information et d’orientation.
La labellisation obtenue, le travail continue. Il faut rendre opérationnel le SPO, en mettant les professionnels de terrain au même niveau d’information, en organisant les complémentarités et en structurant la communication. La profession–nalisation reste à organiser. Enfin la réalisation d’actions en commun sous label SPO signera la phase de concrétisation.
À noter enfin que les Pays de la Loire font partie des six régions retenues au niveau national pour expérimenter et opérationnaliser les démarches engagées par l’ensemble des acteurs du SPO en région.
* Cap emploi, Centres d’information et d’orientation (CIO), Fongecif Pays de la Loire, Maisons de l’information sur la formation et l’emploi (Mife), Missions locales des Pays de la Loire, Pôle emploi, Réseau information jeunesse, Services universitaires d’information, d’orientation et d’insertion professionnelle (SUIO-IP).
Charte du service public de l'orientation dans les Pays de la Loire: Télécharger la charte.
Dossier de Demande de labellisation Orientation pour tous: Télécharger le fichier en version pdf.
Cahier des charges relatif au label Orientation pour tous: Cliquer ici.
Les réunions départementales: Télécharger le diaporama des réunions départementales.

NovoEd Introduces First Team-Based MOOC in Spanish
"Evaluación de Decisiones Estratégicas" taught by renowned Stanford PhD, Catholic University of Chile professor and strategic decision expert, Patricio del Sol, is the first massive open online course (MOOC) offered solely in Spanish where students can work together on group projects in true collaboration. The five-week free course will teach students key principles of strategic choices in the business landscape.
MOOCS, while making international headlines, are primarily offered in English, shutting out students who speak Spanish only. This free course features creative class work and engaging video filmed on location in Silicon Valley, and is available to any Spanish speaking person with an Internet connection.
The course, offered by the prestigious Latin-American University, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, is available on NovoEd, the revolutionary online platform developed at Stanford University in March of 2012. “NovoEd is the only one to use the power of the social web. It’s designed with teamwork in mind,” says NovoEd founder and Stanford professor Amin Saberi.
More than 80,000 students in 150 countries participated in the first NovoEd course (previously known as Venture Lab), working in teams on projects and business models. “We had students from Silicon Valley to Russia to third-world countries in Africa,” Mr. Saberi said. Read more...