03 février 2013
How Facebook Can Ruin Study Abroad
By Robert Huesca. Taking an administrative leave in Benin for the past six months provided an eye-opening contrast to my first study-abroad experience, in Mexico City back in 1980. Of particular note was the insidious impact of new communication technologies on living and learning in another culture.As a former director of the office of international programs at Trinity University, in San Antonio, I am particularly attuned to the issues that concern professionals in study abroad—ranging from cultural immersion to health and safety. All of those issues seem to have been transformed for good and for ill by advances in information and communication technology.
While in Benin, I lived in the town of Ouidah, population 90,000, on the Atlantic coast of this West African republic. I had signed up with a program called the Humanity Exchange, which organizes volunteer opportunities and French-language instruction. Read more...
Endowment returns flat for universities
By Justin Pope. After two strong years, college and university endowments lost ground slightly during the fiscal year ending last June 30, with their investments declining 0.3 percent on average, according to a new study.U.S. stock markets have risen around 10 percent since then, and many global markets are also higher, so recent performance is likely stronger.
Endowments are the assets owned and invested by universities, who typically spend about 4 to 5 percent of their values annually to support things like financial aid, faculty salaries and other expenses — and then try to replenish the payouts through fundraising and investment returns. Read more...
Higher education giving expected to reach pre-recession levels
By Whitney Burdette. Colleges and universities depend largely on donations, and if one estimate holds true, giving to higher education institutions is on track to exceed the watermark set before the 2009 recession.The Council for Advancement and Support of Education found in a survey that giving to colleges and universities grew by 5.5 percent in 2012. The survey also predicts additional growth of 5.8 percent in 2013, exceeding "the high watermark set just prior to the recession," according to CASE President John Lippincott.
"This is very good news," he said in a news release.
Donations to higher education institutions reached a record $31.6 billion in the 2007-2008 school year before dramatically declining the next year, thanks in part to the economic downturn. However, giving began to increase again in 2010, reaching $30.3 billion in the 2010-2011 academic year, according to the Voluntary Support of Education report issued by the Council for Aid to Education. Read more...
PA official: Female Dress Code At Gaza University ‘Illegal’
By Maan. The Palestinian Authority Minister of Higher Education on Sunday issued an official condemnation over a Gaza university’s decision to implement an “Islamic” dress code for female students.Al-Aqsa University president Salam al-Agha told Ma’an Sunday that the code, which is set to be implemented when the new semester begins, does not require the jilbab (full-length coat) or niqab (face-veil), but rather what he termed dress befitting of the university.
He said students would not be expelled for violations of the dress code. Read more...
Universities complain of difficulty employing foreigners
Despite promises from the government, the number of rules and the cost of employing foreign researchers have increased.
Universities wanting to employ foreign researchers are still facing significant immigration barriers, Information newspaper reports.
After the current centre-left government assumed power in 2011, it stressed that attracting and keeping highly skilled foreigners was a vital pre-requisite for Denmark’s ability to compete internationally. Read more...
PM urged to remove overseas students from migration target
The chairmen of five parliamentary committees have written to David Cameron to urge him to remove overseas student numbers from migration targets.They are asking him to "reconcile" the "tensions" between tougher restrictions and the desire for economic growth.
Net migration figures fell last year, with officials saying this was "largely due" to a drop in foreign students.
But the government says it is committed to stamping out abuses of the immigration system. Read more...
Students rate the branch campus experience
By Stephen Wilkins and Melodena Stephens Balakrishnan. In response to the forces of globalisation, many universities worldwide have decided to engage in transnational education. In the 1990s, common forms of transnational education included distance education and partner-supported delivery, which includes franchised programmes and twinning. Since the turn of the century, the international branch campus has emerged as a popular form of transnational education with both higher education institutions and students.At the start of 2012 there were more than 200 international branch campuses globally and, with 39 institutions, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was host to more branch campuses than any other country worldwide. The largest source countries of international branch campuses (where the parent institutions are based) are the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Read more...
Urgent need to strengthen university accreditation
By Carlos Olivares. In recent weeks, the Chilean university community has been shaken by a scandal concerning the National Commission of Accreditation. The Prosecution Office surprised the public when it arrested the former president of the accreditation commission, two former rectors of private universities and the universities' owner. The charges are serious: money laundering, bribery and taking kickbacks. New investigations are under way to find out whether other university authorities were involved in these illicit activities. Read more...A new phase in the battle for higher education
By Serhiy Kvit. At least three events that could influence the future of higher education have taken place recently in Ukraine. This influence could not only lead to a change in how the sector develops but also, quite possibly, will speed up its post-Soviet demise.Elections to the Ukrainian parliament, held in October 2012, strengthened opposition forces – though they are still in the minority and unable to push through important decisions. Just before the New Year, cabinet approved the Draft Law on Higher Education mentioned in previous blogs. Nevertheless, its implementation is not a fait accompli, given the competing views of government and opposition members. Read more...
Quality assurance in a changing higher education world
By Karen MacGregor. The first annual meeting of the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation’s International Quality Group was held last week, with a focus on the open education movement, growth of online, competency-based education and learning outside the traditional university – major higher education trends worldwide.The gathering explored issues in international higher education and their implications for quality assurance, academic corruption, ‘open badges’ and new ways of validating learning achievement, the open education movement including MOOCs, quality assurance in Central and Eastern Europe, and whether higher education is addressing economic and employment challenges.
What the meeting of the CHEA International Quality Group (CIQG) and the CHEA annual conference that preceded it tried to do, President Judith S Eaton told University World News, was “to focus on what the future is going to be like. Read more...
