By Nick Anderson and Philip Rucker.For decades, magazines have rated colleges to help families navigate the higher education market. On Thursday, President Obama proposed that the federal government rate the nation’s schools to hold them accountable for performance and help bring soaring tuition under control. By the 2015 school year, Obama said, his administration will begin evaluating colleges on measures such as the average tuition they charge, the share of low-income students they enroll and their effectiveness in ensuring students graduate without too much debt.
The president also will seek congressional approval — which could prove difficult — to steer more federal student aid toward colleges that score highly in the ratings. A student in financial need at such schools might qualify for a larger Pell grant or a better interest rate on a federal loan. The result, officials hope, will be relief for families from college bills that are in many cases three times as high as they were 30 years ago even after adjusting for inflation. More...

By Cristina Bonasegna Kelly and Daniel Levy. A Few Final Comments on the Dropout Problem, Cristina Bonasegna Kelly
Ana Fanelli has written a most thoughtful response to my piece and she adds very interesting and valuable data. I was aware that, since students take longer than the scheduled five years to graduate, the best way to count the drop-outs would be to compare the number of enrollees and graduates of each cohort. But since the figures are unavailable,  I figured that I could establish a reasonable estimate of the graduation rate by comparing  the number of enrollees with the number of graduates each year, given that the level of enrollment remains more or less stable at public universities.  I know it is a very simple methodology but it compensates for the fact that in Argentina it is not uncommon for students to  take 10 years to graduate, or even longer. Read more...
Complexities in Understanding Argentina’s High Dropout Rate, Daniel Levy
The blog Argentina at the Top — For Its Dropout Rate! highlights an alarming fact: Argentina’s dropout rate. It is put at 73%. Beyond being alarmed and saddened, however, what are we to make of the situation, its causes, and what might be done? As I reflect on the blog’s quite reasonable interpretations, and offer some additional interpretations, I’m impressed by how uncertain such interpretations are. Read more...

By Jeff Bryant. I have this recurring nightmare – one that, I fear, is about to become reality for most of America’s school children. In my dream, I’m back in elementary school. It’s testing day and I’m struggling to remember my locker combination and get to class on time. My backpack implausibly opens and spills its contents into the hallway. Indifferent schoolmates rush by.
Finally I’m seated in class. The other students are already busily filling out their tests. An unfriendly proctor passes out the exam, and as I scan down the page, my stomach seizes into knots. I can’t answer a single question. The math problems are a confusion of numbers and symbols. The readings are worded with vocabulary totally foreign to me.
Oh, and did I mention I’m not wearing any pants?
Why do I fear my recurring nightmare – except the part about not wearing any pants – is becoming a reality for more of America’s school children? And why should anyone professing to care about the welfare of the nation’s school children care about this? More...

By Jonnelle Marte. 1. “Expect empty seats.”
Many people sought shelter from the recession by heading to graduate school, but enrollment has declined as the economy has improved. The number of first-time masters’ and doctoral students starting classes on campuses around the country dropped 1.7% in the fall of 2011 from the year before, according to the most recent data from the Council of Graduate Schools, a national organization that advocates for graduate programs. (Applications to law school and full-time two-year M.B.A. programs, not included in the council’s data, are also declining. Medical school applications rose slightly last year.)
It was the second consecutive drop in first-time enrollment, following a stretch of annual increases going back to the fall of 2003.While people with advanced degrees generally earn more than the average American, and are less likely to be unemployed, more people are now skeptical about whether those advantages are worth the upfront costs — and the growing debt burden. In 2010, enrollment dropped more significantly at public universities, but that shifted in 2011, when private not-for-profit universities saw the largest declines. When it comes to majors, the biggest drops in 2011 were in education, arts and humanities. Enrollment still grew in health sciences, math and computer science, according to the report. Read more...

The latest edition of the IAU Horizons (Vol. 19 No.2) is now available online.
16-18 October 2013: Third Conference of the Americas on International Education (CAIE 2013), Monterrey, Mexico.
For the third time, the IAU has been invited to partner with the organizers of the Conference of the Americas on International Education that is planned for 16-18 October, 2013 in Monterrey, Mexico. The third edition of the CAIE has, as its focus, Knowledge Mobility: Responsibility and Resources. The conference is being coordinated by the Inter-American Organization of Universities (IOHE) which holds the secretariat for CAIE until 2013 in collaboration with more than 20 organizations from Canada, the USA and Latin America. It is hosted by Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon and AMPEI, the Mexican association for international education. IAU has agreed to join once again the Advisory Committee for the Conference and to take part in the event which will examine the role of various actors in the processes of internationalization and discuss how best to mobilize and engage them in the interests of strengthening the quality of higher education. A large number of sessions, workshops and networking sessions are being planned. For more information and to get involved in diverse ways in the conference, please visit the new CAIE website: www.caie-caei.org.

The TREAQFP (Table des responsables de l’éducation des adultes et de la formation professionnelle des commissions scolaires de Québec), is a network of stakeholders in adult education and professional training in the Quebec region in Canada. A colloquium is organised every year.
The 2013 Colloquium was titled ‘Complices de leurs succès’ (‘agents of their own success’), and took place from 22–24 May 2013.
It started with the key note address by UIL Director Arne Carlsen on Adult Education: Developments since CONFINTEA VI. A panel discussion followed on the situation of adult learning and education and TVET in Quebec, with Ms Denise Boucher, vice-president of Confederation of national trade unions, Mr Yves-Thomas Dorval, president of the Employers Council at Quebec, and Mr Raynald Thibeault, president of the Association of director-generals of the school commissions at Quebec.
Quebec’s Education Minister Ms Marie Malavoy also participated in the meeting and gave her full support to adult education development in Quebec and its role not only for TVET but also for social cohesion. On 23 and 24 May, 42 workshops were organised on themes like the relation between general adult education and TVET, need for strengthened guidance-counselling, social networks, virtual meetings, partnerships, apprenticeships etc.
Links
Programme of the 2013 TREAQFP Colloquium.

By Axel Didriksson. Introduction
Resolving the urgent need for a new form of development founded on equality and sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean is strongly dependent on the outcome of strategic decisions currently being taken with regard to public policies on higher education, science and technology, and on the stances that governments adopt regarding participation in the creation of new knowledge platforms and learning experiences.
This view was expressed and universally supported (by more than four million representatives of higher education institutions) in one of the documents forming the basis of discussion at the UNESCO Regional Conference on Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (Gazzola and Didriksson, 2008), held in the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in 2008, and in the conclusions reached at the Regional Conference and those outlined in the final communiqué of the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, held in Paris, France, in 2009.
According to these outcomes and conclusions, the past decade has seen some twenty academic, institutional and legislative reforms (some of them at national level) that, in one way or another, have had – and continue to have – a bearing on the construction of a new agenda for discussion between universities, education ministries and government departments. Read more...

Changes in the presidency and secretariat of the regional representation.
GUNi is pleased to announce that the presidency of the Latin American & The Caribbean region (GUNi.LAC) hasbeen assumed by Dr. Axel Didriksson, Associate researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair "University and Regional Integration".
Furthermore, GUNi also announces that Dr. Denise Leite, Permanent Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), will be the new Regional Secretary.
GUNi would like to thank the outgoing members, Rodolfo Pinto and Giovanna Valenti, for supporting the activities of the network in the region, and for their contribution to help us achieve the GUNi goals. For these reasons, and for their undoubted commitment to strengthening higher education, they have been nominated honorary members of the network.

La formation professionnelle en Amérique latine. Formation Emploi, n° 107, 2009, 113 p.
Jean-Frédéric Vergnies
Editorial : Des (bonnes) pratiques situées
Dossier : la formation professionnelle en Amérique Latine
Julio César Neffa
Introduction
Martín Spinosa et Julio Testa
L’enseignement professionnel en Argentine. Entre volontarisme et isolement dans la recherche d’un pays possible
María de Ibarrola
Priorité à la formation scolaire pour le travail au Mexique. Tensions et contradictions entre l’Etat, les secteurs professionnels et les étudiants
Claudia Jacinto
Un dispositif d’insertion des jeunes : contextes et acteurs dans les nouvelles stratégies d’action publique. Le cas du programme « pro-jeunes » en Uruguay
Mariela Quiñones Montoro
Demandes de formation et formation pour le travail dans le secteur des services financiers en uruguay: biais de genre et évaluation par les compétences
Catherine Agulhon
Postface : Les relations entre formations et emplois : une adéquation improbable
Profession
Florence Jany-Catrice, Emmanuelle Puissant et Thierry Ribault
Associations d’aide à domicile : pluralité des héritages, pluralité des professionnalités
Note de lecture
Sylvie Monchatre
Lettre à un jeune chercheur : Présentation de l’ouvrage Pour une sociologie des rapports sociaux. L’enseignement de Michel Arliaud
Lectures
Sylviane Ceccaldi, Isabelle de Lassus, Nathalie Leménager et Magali Thévenot
Lectures.
Télécharger le bon de commande.

By Jaime Lopez. Costa Rica’s prized quality of life in the Central American region owes a lot to her focus on education. Since there is no military to spend money on, Costa Rica has had an opportunity to invest a greater portion of the national budget on academic affairs -particularly at the higher education level. As such, the number of colleges and universities in Costa Rica has increased along with the diversity and quality of educational offerings. The cost of tuition, however, is also on the rise. According to a recent report by Central American business magazine Summa, Costa Rica ranks as the best country for higher education in Central America. These findings come from the 2013 QS Quacquarelli Symonds ranking of the best universities in Latin America, where the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil tops the list. Read more...