Plus de 500 participants, représentants 200 institutions et 27 pays d’Europe, d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes, se sont rendus au « Premier forum académique UE-CELAC », à Santiago du Chili, les 22 et 23 janvier 2013.
Ce forum visait à réaffirmer l’importance du partenariat et de la coopération entre l’Union européenne (UE) et la communauté des Etats d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes (CELAC), en vue de la création d’un espace d’enseignement supérieur et de la connaissance UE-CELAC.
L’une des thématiques portant sur les questions d’assurance qualité et d’évaluation, il s’agissait pour l’AERES de prendre position dans la construction de ce nouvel espace. Lors des échanges, Patricia Pol, responsable des affaires européennes et internationales de l’AERES, a proposé des pistes de travail: la mise en place de lignes directrices communes UE-CELAC à l’instar des European Standards and Guidelines, un rapprochement avec le réseau européen d’agences d’assurance qualité ENQA et l’évaluation de diplômes conjoints.
En conclusion des discussions, la déclaration de Santiago met notamment l’accent sur la promotion d’un système d’accréditation de l’enseignement supérieur commun aux pays d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes basé sur des indicateurs de qualité pour la formation, la recherche et leur internationalisation.
Cet évènement international s’inscrivait dans le cadre de la préparation de la 7e rencontre entre les chefs d’Etats et de gouvernement de l’Union européenne, de l’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes, qui s’est tenue sur le thème “Une alliance pour le développement durable: promouvoir des investissements sociaux et environnementaux de qualité”, les 26 et 27 janvier derniers, à Santiago du Chili.
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Le sommet de Santiago du Chili des 26 et 27 janvier 2013, est le septième rendez-vous entre chefs d’État et de gouvernement de l’Union européenne, d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes. Ces sommets régionaux ont lieu tous les deux ans depuis 1999, la 6ème édition ayant eu lieu à Madrid le 18 mai 2010.
Pour la première fois, la communauté des États latino-américains et des Caraïbes, nouvel espace régional latino-américain de 33 pays créé en février 2010 à Cancun au Mexique, sera l’interlocuteur de l’Union européenne dans le cadre de ces sommets.

Like many proud citizens of the world today, there are times when you might feel like the country you live in is one of the best on Earth—and there are times when you might feel that your country could make some improvements. When it comes to education in particular, some countries are ahead of the game. What does a “well-educated” country look like? Things like high school graduation rates, number of citizens with a college degree, and even things like employment and rate of pay, can be combined together to serve as a reasonable meter for educational success. At the end of 2012, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calculated what proportion of residents in 34 countries had obtained a college degree or the equivalent of one. From there, the top 10 “most educated” countries were determined. Some countries are more surprising than others, but all seem to have their own unique way of ensuring that their citizens are educated properly. While not all countries have the same resources available to create wonderful education opportunities, those countries that use their highly-educated citizens to further world progress and assist those countries who have less can do amazing things for the future. Take a look at the stats behind these well-learned nations. Read more...

By Francesca Andrich, International Students Office, Politecnico di Milano. Are you looking for ways to ensure a smooth integration of international students in their first week at your institution? With the growing popularity of student mobility, helping your new international students to settle in quickly and efficiently is becoming increasingly important for higher education institutions. Here are some tips on how to go about ensuring that your international students are made to feel welcome in their first week at your institution.
A structured programme of events
Organising a structured programme is the best way to engage new students. A rich programme of events, which can last from one or two days up to a whole week can help to answer most of your student’s questions and make sure they are equipped to start the academic year feeling confident about the new environment, professor’s expectations, and opportunities on campus. Moreover, being able to share the upcoming experience with friends and colleagues met during the orientation activities may help students overcome anxieties and uncertainties linked to their new cultural environment.
Who to involve in planning a welcome week
The organisation of an event addressed to a great number of students, offering a wide range of activities, requires involvement of many different parties and consideration of a wide range of logistical issues. If you are not familiar with organising events, you might want to prepare a draft of your orientation programme and discuss it with the office in charge of organising events within your university.
The most important thing to remember is that you cannot just count on your own resources. Think about the issues you would like to cover during the orientation programme and start setting up meetings to make colleagues, other university services, students and external parties aware of your intentions and objectives. In most cases, the people you will meet will agree with you on the fact that talking about their services to a larger audience is much more efficient than talking to students individually.
Colleagues from other offices, faculty with specific competences or those simply involved with tutoring and academic support can be great resources which help to widen the range of topics covered during the orientation programme. Consider involving the following:
• Students are usually quite eager to be involved in orientation activities. International students already studying at your university have been through the same difficulties and challenges the new students will face, and will be happy to collaborate in order to make things easier for them. Additionally, student associations and student representatives looking for a wider membership or more votes at the student elections and will do their best to attract incoming students.
• Main reference offices for international students (eg international students office, accommodation services, career service, library and counselling services etc) will be glad to give international students information on how to use services offered and can provide a longer term perspective of their presence on campus (eg job opportunities before or after graduation, psychological support throughout the semesters etc).
• Experts in the fields of immigration, health and integration issues can give valuable information and tips to new students. Their presence during the event might help in decreasing the feeling of distance that often arises between immigration officers and foreign nationals. Unless you have a long experience of cooperation with immigration authorities, you should define exactly which topics you wish them to cover during their presentation, as well as share suggestions on the best ways to address students on such delicate issues.
• Local institutions might be able to contribute to the enrichment of part of your programme, also from a financial point of view. The local transportation company, for example, might make a tourist guide and/or a public means of transport available for a tour of the city at a discounted price, while the municipality might arrange a special opening of a museum or cheap tickets for the local opera house.
Importance of feedback
In order to improve your programme for the future, ensure you administer a satisfaction questionnaire to your international students in order to gain useful feedback. Make sure your questionnaire relies on some well defined questions about your needs. Multiple choice answers and Likert scales are the best way to address student’s answers, but don’t forget to include some open answers where students can freely write comments and suggestions: you will discover that many of them are quite eager to express their opinion! The results of the questionnaire will be the starting point to improve your orientation events for the subsequent year.
A good case study
Over the years, welcoming new international students has grown to be an important aspect of one higher education institution’s internationalisation policy. The increasing number of international students enrolling at Politecnico di Milano in Italy required a shift in welcoming formalities from individual and front desk encounters to structured events. In 2011, the conditions to set up such a structured event – a Welcome Week – were created: a new office dedicated to international students with increased staff members and a stronger focus of the university’s managing bodies on the internationalisation of student services. These were the starting points for the organisation of new orientation activities dedicated mainly to newly admitted international Bachelor’s and Master’s students. You can read more about their Welcome Week here.
Helping your new international students to settle in during their first week is vital to ensuring their overall success and wellbeing during their time at your institution and it’s worth putting in the extra time and resources to ensure a smooth transition.

Learning Analytics is a rapidly growing research field and commercial , with potentially disruptive potential. While educational researchers have for many years used computational techniques toanalyse learner data, generate visualizations of learning dynamics,and build predictive models to test theories — for the first time, these techniques are becoming available to educators, learners and policy makers.
Learning analytics promise is to transform educational research into a data-driven science, and educational institutions into organisations that make evidence-based decisions. However, critical debate is needed on the limits of computational modelling, the ethics of analytics, and the educational paradigms that learning analytics promote. URL: Unesco IITE.

By Rob Kidd, The Courier-Mail. INTERNATIONAL students are being targeted by scammers impersonating immigration officers in order to steal "thousands of dollars" in cash.
Students have received "fine notices" demanding payment of thousands of dollars for alleged breaches of visa conditions, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship warned today.
The scammers are targeting overseas students who have limited working rights as part of their visa conditions, the department said.
A department spokesman said it was a well-organised ruse to con visa holders into transferring a purported "penalty payment" offshore, when none is needed. Read more...

Experts suggest that Russia may become the global business education hub for Eastern Europe, along with Dubai for the Middle East and Berlin for Central Europe. The topic was discussed at the “BRICS Management Model and Challenge of Training Multifunctional Managers” roundtable discussion at the recent Gaidar Forum in Moscow.
Business education in the BRICS countries has substantially increased in the last 12 years. Back in 2000, BRICS accounted for only 8 percent of the GMAT exams taken around the world, but that figure has risen to 33 percent in 2012. China and India lead the way, accounting for 95 percent of all tests taken by BRICS residents.
President of the Association of MBAs, Sir Paul Judge, notes that, rather than general MBA programs, developing nations are more interested in specific training programs for entrepreneurship, family business, diversified conglomerates, state corporations and marketing in rapidly growing economies. Read more...

By Anna Fazackerley. The closure of any higher education institution would be a huge embarrassment to Britain, say vice-chancellors. For many years the idea of a university going bankrupt has seemed impossible. But senior academics are warning that some universities could easily go the way of HMV or Jessops – and leave a huge dent in the image of British higher education.
Data on the number of new students accepted in universities for the 2012-13 academic year, released by Ucas on Friday, revealed that a large number of institutions suffered a drop in numbers compared with the previous year. But some modern universities took a disproportionate beating.
Student numbers at the beleaguered London Metropolitan University, which has undergone serious subject cutbacks, were down a huge 43%. They were down 20.4% at the University of East London, 18.4% at the University of Cumbria, 16.3% at the University of Central Lancashire, 16% at Liverpool Hope University and 15.6% at the University of Lincoln. Read more...