II International Conference “International Cooperation: Integration of Educational Areas”, 17—19 November 2011, Hosted by Udmurt State University (Russia).
Udmurt State University is pleased to publish a Second Call for Papers for the II International Conference “International Cooperation: Integration of Educational Areas” to be held on 17—19 November 2011, in honor of its 80th anniversary.
The conference aims to increase effectiveness of international cooperation in the sciences and education, and to summarize the experiences of teachers and students in institutions of higher education within academic mobility programs during the transition to a multi-tier education system.
The Organising and Program Committees welcome contributions on the following topics:
    Russian and international experiences with multi-tiered systems of higher education;
    Innovative technologies as a factor of the improvement of quality education;
    Cross-cultural communication in modern information and academic areas;
    Challenges of training international students;
    Language education as a means of developing cross-cultural contacts;
    Practical aspects of academic mobility for students and instructors;
    Integration of research and education: the institutionalization of innovative ideas and projects at a university.
The event should be of interest to institutional leaders, university researchers, professors, student unions and representatives of other bodies involved in educational policy. In-person and virtual participations in the conference are possible.
The conference languages are Russian and English. To register, please, download the registration form below, fill it in and send it to the Organizing Committee at interpro@udsu.ru. Registration deadline is prolonged until July 11, 2011.
The registration will be confirmed by an email. Please wait for your confirmation before making any further arrangements. However, please note that your registration will be completed and considered final only when your payment has been received by the host university.

By Brendan O’Malley. The European Commission announced on Tuesday that EUR66 million (US$90 million) will be allocated to extending the Erasmus Mundus higher education programme to support European Neighbourhood countries, in response to the Arab Spring.
The initiative is aimed at achieving better understanding and mutual enrichment between the European Union and neighbouring countries by creating possibilities for student and academic staff mobility - for example, the opportunity to study in universities in EU member states - and exchange of knowledge and skills.
The move is part of a new approach towards Europe's neighbours to the east and south, based on "on mutual accountability and a shared commitment to respecting universal values, international human rights standards, democracy and the rule of law", the commission said. The Polish government, currently holding the EU presidency, has made expansion of Erasmus programmes to eastern and southern neighbours a priority, as reported by University World News.
Following a comprehensive review of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), launched in 2010, the commission says a strengthened engagement in the area of education is a crucial element of the new approach towards the ENP countries. The funding will be spread over the next four years.
"In the context of the recent developments in the south, particular attention needs to be given to supporting actions in favour of young people in the southern ENP countries, who play an important role in the current democratisation process of the region," the commission said.
The commission argued that, as most European Neighbourhood Policy countries are in the process of working towards establishing fully-fledged market economies, higher education institutions are under strong pressure to provide the skills required by new economic conditions.
"Support for partner country institutions in their reform efforts and in establishing people-to-people cooperation, especially in the field of higher education, is therefore needed and can contribute to mutual understanding between people, countries and cultures in the EU's neighbouring countries," it added.
The Erasmus Mundus extension is one aspect of a four-part plan, outlined this week, to respond to the Arab Spring. The flagship initiative is the Support to Partnership, Reform and Inclusive Growth (SPRING) Programme, adopted on 27 September. Through SPRING the commission will provide support for the Southern Neighbourhood countries for democratic transformation, institution building and economic growth in the wake of the Arab Spring. This is expected to improve human rights and fundamental freedoms, democratic governance, freedom of association, expression and assembly and free press and media. Improvements in public administration, rule of law and the fight against corruption are also anticipated.
Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, said: "The European Union was the first to offer a serious response to the Arab spring. This new set of decisions is the result of the new and ambitious European Neighbourhood Policy launched in May and it confirms that the EU has made it one of its main priorities to support 'deep' and sustainable democracy, but also economic recovery, in North Africa and the Middle East."
SPRING will provide EUR350 million of support in 2011 and 2012, using the 'more for more' principle. This means that the more a country progresses in its democratic reforms and institutional building, the more support it can expect. It is expected that initial support will go to Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. Stefan Füle, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, said: "These decisions prove our strong commitment to our neighbouring partners. Through job creation, improved living conditions, university partnerships and promoting a stronger voice for civil society, this support demonstrates Europe's full engagement in ensuring the desired transition to democracy in the region."
Currently the Erasmus Mundus II (2009-13) programme - the EU's flagship higher education initiative - provides support to universities that wish to implement joint postgraduate degrees or set up partnerships between universities from Europe and targeted partner countries. It also supports individual students, researchers and university staff who wish to spend a study or research or teaching period in the context of one of these joint programmes or cooperation partnerships. And it supports any organisation active in the field of higher education that wishes to develop projects aiming at improving the attractiveness, profile, visibility and image of European higher education worldwide.
Erasmus Mundus II (Action 2 Partnerships, Strand 1) seeks to extend the best practices of the internal Erasmus Programme to ENP regions, and to expand mobility opportunities to include all levels of higher education. The programme supports the establishment of cooperation partnerships between European universities and those in neighbourhood countries. Scholarships of various lengths can be awarded to interested students and the exchange programme is open to undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students from partner countries, and will allow for student and teaching staff exchanges. Since 2007, more than 4,000 students from Neighbourhood countries and Russia have benefited from this exchange programme.
According to Cecile Hoareau, a researcher at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, Erasmus is tipped to increase by 71% in the 2014-20 budget, making education the area with the highest budget increase, as reported last weekend in University World News. This budget would double the number of young people, students and academics involved in mobility programmes from 400,000 to 700,000-800,000 each year.

Monday 21 November–Thursday 24 November 2011. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The first International Leadership Conference took place from 8-12 November 2010 at The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. Delegates attended from the UK, Denmark, China, Colombia and Australia to discuss and share best practice on important topics around the internationalisation of higher education.
"Attending the first 'International Leadership Conference: Managing Global Universities' last autumn in Ningbo, China was of considerable value in developing the internationalisation strategy for the University of Reading. The week was a valuable mix of high-level strategic discussion and knowledge-sharing to gain practical insights from university leaders with experience of building and running campuses overseas.
I would recommend the opportunity to attend to anyone involved in planning and developing their institution's worldwide reach." Professor Steven Mithen, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International and External Engagement at the University of Reading
"...it was a pleasure to join such a stimulating event." Phil Baty, Deputy Editor, Times Higher Education.
Building on the success of this event, we will be hosting the 2011 event at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, 30km from Kuala Lumpur.
This intensive four day programme is designed for senior managers and leaders from higher education institutions from across the world. It will take place at The University of Nottingham’s campus in Malaysia, an extremely successful research-led UK university with an excellent reputation for global leadership and management.
Keynote Speakers
    Ken Sloan, Serco
    Paul M. Marshall, 1994 Group
    Graham Cartledge CBE, Benoy
    Dr. Janet Ilieva, British Council
    Tan Sri Lodin, Boustead Holdings
    Phil Baty, Times Higher Education
    Professor Robin Pollard, Monash University
    Patrick Freeland-Small, The University of Melbourne
    Professor Craig Mahoney, The Higher Education Academy
    Professor David Greenaway, The University of Nottingham
    Datuk Prof. Dr. Roziah Binti Omar, Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT)
    Dato Prof. Dr. Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Programme overview
During the four day programme a selection of the following will be covered in workshop and seminar sessions:
    developing university strategy
    different approaches to internationalisation
    enterprise
    effective financial management
    development and fundraising
    capital planning
    building research capacity
    leadership in an international context
    quality, ratings and rankings
    international partnership
    leading innovation in teaching and learning
    marketing on the global stage
    global governance
 For full details, please refer to the programme tab in the menu bar.

The Changing Concerns of Higher Education. Examining The World Bank’s Papers on Higher Education Since 1994.  In this article Amy H. Ewen of the University of Kassel presents a historical comparative analysis of the World Bank reports on Higher Education. She critically engages with the proposals of the World Bank emphasizing its success and learning process. She briefly reviews some of the core tenets of the WB reports passing from access and equity to finance and institutional autonomy.
The World Bank has been active in supporting higher education since 1963.  In 1992, they began an internal review of Bank higher education projects from the previous 30 years (New Challenges, 2004).  Perhaps it was this review that led to the Bank’s first publication specifically addressing higher education two years later: “Higher Education: Lessons of Experience”, (hereafter referred to as “Lessons”).  The executive summary of this publication states from the start that higher education is in a state of crisis.  The reasons are primarily financial, and as a sort of trickle-down effect, the financial issues lead to several other concerns.  “In an era of widespread fiscal constraints, industrial as well as developing countries are grappling with the challenge of preserving or improving the quality of higher education as budgets are compressed” (Lessons, p. 2).  The executive summary goes on to discuss the particular challenges facing the developing world as a result of this crisis, outlining the circumstances under which these lessons were learned.
Since Lessons was published in 1994, the Bank has published four major policy papers on higher education.  In 1998 the Bank published Higher Education Relevance in the 21st Century, (hereafter referred to as “Higher Education Relevance”), by Michael Gibbons.  In 2000 the Bank published a paper in partnership with UNESCO entitled “Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise”, (hereafter referred to as “Peril and Promise”).
In 2002, the Bank published “Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education”, (hereafter referred to as “New Challenges”), which also reflects upon the Bank’s history of support, calling it “piecemeal” (p. 100) and again noting the narrow focus.  Projects undertaken throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s tended to work primarily with top government officials, and relied only on a sound and intelligent proposal for reform (New Challenges, 2004).  This approach occasionally resulted in isolated successes, but without a comprehensive plan for follow up, these “well-equipped academic oases” (p. 100) could not be maintained.  There was often no follow up plan for sustained institution building.  It was soon realized that a system-wide approach would render more consistent and entrenched accomplishments (New Challenges, 2004).
Finally, in 2009 the Bank published “The Challenge of Establishing World Class Universities”, (hereafter referred to as “Establishing World Class Universities”) by Jamil Salmi. The Bank has published several other smaller papers addressing specific aspects of higher education which serve to supplement the major policy papers.  While each of the major papers has a specific focus, there are a few themes that are echoed in several papers.   However, The World Bank could not remain a relevant actor in the higher education arena if their studies and recommendation did not change and evolve to fit the times.  This article will examine the themes that emerge in the Bank’s publications.
Consistent and Evolving Themes
The problems of access and equity are often considered jointly in World Bank publications, and the implication is that one directly affects the other.  In order to address the problem of inequality in higher education, it may be beneficial to view it as a two-step process. Improving access will bring more applicants to the higher education system, and improving equity will bring a larger number and greater diversity of enrollees in the system. There are dozens of potential solutions to eliminating the inequality in a particular system, but deciding upon the most constructive strategy must come from understanding the nature of the problem. Still, in several Bank publications a few overarching solutions are identified that can help to increase access in equity in all cases.
First, the Bank advocates a focus on access to financial support for disadvantaged students. Students from wealthier families simply have more resources at their disposal, giving them an advantage when pursuing higher education (Peril and Promise, 2000). These patterns can be particularly degenerative in countries where there are high numbers of high quality private secondary schools. Students who are able to attend these schools are usually from families with higher income and often better prepared for public university entrance exams (New Challenges, 2004).  This leads to the second recommendation that the Bank makes: improved primary and secondary education for all classes, genders and groups.
Often, when a student from a disadvantaged minority is facing admission to a university, the system has already failed them.  It’s a harsh reality that many of these interventions “come too late to assist the cast majority of disadvantaged students, who have already suffered institutionalized discrimination in access to primary and secondary education” (New Challenges, p. 58).  Therefore, the Bank argues that improvements at the lower levels of education will improve student’s chances when pursuing higher education.
The last general solution that the Bank mentions is adapting admissions criteria and imposing admissions quotas.  (Lessons, 1994)  “Admissions quotas” eventually evolved into the practice of affirmative action, which is discussed at length in New Challenges.  The authors define affirmative action as “preferential treatment of minorities and disadvantaged groups” (p. 57). To be clear, while this practice is mentioned in more than one Bank publication, the Bank doesn’t fully advocate the use of affirmative action. The authors of Lessons concede that this is often the most direct way to increase representation of minorities in higher education, but cautions that it is “fraught with difficulties” (p. 78).  While it is important to ensure that admissions processes are fair and just, the integrity of the university cannot be compromised.  “Merit criteria cannot be relaxed.  Awarding degrees or certificates to people who do not deserve them cannot be in the public interest” (Peril and Promise, p. 41). This leads to the issue of quality.
“Today, more than ever before in human history, the wealth- or poverty- of nations depends on the quality of higher education.”  This quote from Malcolm Gillis, President of Rice University, is prominently displayed atop the first page of the introduction of Peril and Promise (2000).  Gillis expresses the weight of this issue so succinctly, and the Bank publications underscore the importance of higher education quality in the developing world.
The authors of Lessons state from the start that higher education is in a “state of crisis” (p. 1), and go on to discuss the effect that expansion has had on higher education systems. The crisis is “most acute” (p. 2) in the developing world, as higher education is the fastest growing segment of education, but responses to the growth have resulted in “fiscally unsustainable enrollments growth and a sharp decline in quality” (Lessons, p. 2).
The issue of expansion is also addressed in Peril and Promise.  As systems grow and enrollment rates continue to increase, the existing resources are stretched thin.  It’s a daunting task for universities and higher education systems to respond to the new phenomena, while maintaining quality (Peril and Promise, 2000).
New Challenges also addresses the issue of quality: “Many universities operate with overcrowded and deteriorating physical facilities, limited and obsolete library resources, insufficient equipment and instructional materials, outdated curricula, unqualified teaching staff, poorly prepared secondary students, and an absence of academic rigor and systematic evaluation of performance” (New Challenges, p. 58). This last point is of particular note, as regulation and accreditation have emerged as central aspects of quality control and assurance. The procedure of establishing external bodies to review and ensure quality is advocated repeatedly by the World Bank, and happily, most transition and developing countries have supported this practice fully.
Furthermore, the Bank has continually stressed that a successful higher education system needs government involvement.  However, the World Bank has also been consistent in their support of institutional autonomy.
In 1994, the World Bank stated that “greater institutional autonomy is the key to the successful reform of public higher education, especially reform aimed at more efficient use of resources” (Lessons, p. 63). Later, the Bank established a direct correlation between a lack of autonomy and an institution’s ability to stay relevant. When there is too much pressure for a national system to expand, more resources are put towards expansion and personnel costs, and less is earmarked for research.  Without the ability to conduct research, universities can no longer serve as relevant reference points for the rest of the knowledge society (Peril and Promise, 2000).
When universities are heavily dependent on government funds, often the result is a line-item budget that reflects the needs of the state, rather than the institution. This can have a stifling effect on research when there are funds allotted for it.  When the state is providing the funding for research, the topics and issues are frequently defined by the state (New Challenges, 2002).  Research institutions are left with the uncomfortable choice of rejecting state funding, or giving up their autonomy to do research that the state sees as relevant. The Bank recognizes and maintains that “autonomy remains largely an empty concept as long as institutions are dependent on a single government funding source” (Lessons, p. 64).
New Challenges presents institutional autonomy as an essential part of a successful transformation of public systems.  “Autonomous institutions are more responsive to incentives for quality improvement, resource diversification, and efficient use of available resources.  Tertiary education institutions must be in a position to exercise meaningful control over the principal factors affecting the quality and costs of their own programs” (p. 89).  It is important for institutions to have the ability to make swift changes in response to changing needs and circumstances.  The ability to make decisions and react quickly to one’s own unique circumstances will make an institution a stronger and more relevant part of the whole system.
The issue of relevance is a newer theme in World Bank publications, and is a key issue along with those discussed above.  However, relevance has not simply been added to this list, but has in effect become a key element of quality.  Eventually, “‘relevance’ in general will be translated into a nest of performance objectives relation to teaching quality and research performance, among others” (Gibbons, p. 2). In reading the Bank’s recent publications on higher education, it becomes clear that relevance has quickly become an essential issue in higher education reform.  In fact, New Challenges has a full section devoted to the matter of quality and relevance.  Conversely, Lessons has just one short paragraph mentioning relevance, and only in the context of ensuring “that institutions’ enrollment patterns and curricula reflect local skill requirements” (p. 74).  International relevance is not mentioned at all.
Another new issue addressed by the World Bank is that of “brain drain”.  A major obstacle in curbing the harmful effects of brain drain is that it is a global issue, and not one that can be dealt with by one national government or administration. It is this aspect of the problem that puts the World Bank and other global organizations in a unique and influential position.  The goal is not to hinder movement and internationalization, but to foster it in a mutually beneficial way.  In other words, it’s alright to have skilled people headed out of a country for schooling and employment, as long as there are a comparable number of skilled people coming in as well.
The Bank has set out a few recommendations for dealing with “brain drain” that serve to improve the situation in developing countries. Joint degrees, scholarships, increased funding for up to date equipment, allocation of funds for travel to supplement knowledge, and specializations in a particular field are among the suggestions that are offered (New Challenges, 2002). Peril and Promise does not offer specific strategies for combating “brain drain”, but rather outlines what the conditions should be to attract gifted individuals to a nation. “The retention of top-level talent in developing countries requires improved governance in higher education institutions, greater intellectual opportunities, higher professional salaries, and better working conditions” (p. 73).
Conclusions
The Bank has acknowledged their mixed record of success in higher education investment. As a result, with the publication of Lessons in 1994, the World Bank sought to make their investment in higher education more equitable and cost-effective, and “to support countries’ efforts to adopt policy reforms that will allow the subsector to operate more efficiently and at lower public cost” (Lessons, p. 13).  Eight years later, the authors of New Challenges echoed this concern that the Bank had not been entirely successful in their response to the needs of higher education. However, this time the criticism was that the Bank’s lending had not “matched the growing importance of tertiary education for economic and social development” (p. 2).
Once again we see that the changing global environment has steered the role of primary players. In 1994 the concluded goal was to assist higher education systems in using their existing funds to operate more efficiently, and in 2002 the presented goal was to engage the international community in a dialogue about investment in higher education.  The Bank can act as a “bridge-builder” (New Challenges, p. 107), and bring together stake-holders from across the education sectors.  It is no longer enough to work only with government officials. The reform of higher education affects every level and sub-section of the system, and representatives are needed from each level to make any change possible and productive (New Challenges, 2002).
It is also clear that basic education and higher education are no longer mutually exclusive. The quality of higher education directly affects the quality of primary and secondary education through training of teachers and administrators, and the quality of secondary school graduates has a direct influence on the quality of the higher institutions (New Challenges). In the earlier years of World Bank involvement, higher education was a relatively low priority in many developing nations, pushed to the side in favor of investment in basic education. The idea was perpetuated that investment in higher education yielded far lower returns than investments in primary and secondary education.  The result of this misleading, but generally accepted idea is that higher education systems in developing countries were under a tremendous strain (Peril and Promise). Currently, the link between higher education and basic education is recognized and a key component of education investment. New Challenges goes so far as to say “it is doubtful that any developing country could make significant progress toward achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for education—universal enrollment in primary education and elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education—without a strong tertiary education system” (p. 79).
The World Bank has been a consistent actor in the field of international education, and while there have been varying degrees of success over the course of their involvement, the Bank has learned from experience, and shared those lessons. After studying the Bank’s major publications over the past 15 years, it seems that there is a commitment to self-evaluation and a willingness to adapt as needed. The World Bank will be involved in the development and support of higher education in developing and developed countries for a long time to come, and with every project and investment, there will be lessons to learn and knowledge to share.
Reference List
Gibbons, Michael (1998). Higher Education Relevance in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: World Bank Publishing
Institution for Higher Education Policy (Ed.) (2007). College and University Ranking Systems; Global Perspectives and American Challenges. Washington, DC: Institute for Higher Education Policy Publishing
International Ranking Expert Group (IREG) (2006). Berlin Practices on Ranking of Higher Education Institutes. URL:  http://www.ireg-observatory.org/
Lin, Justin (2009). Foreword. In Salmi (2009) The Challenge of Creating World Class Universities. Washington, DC: World Bank Publishing , pp. ix – xi.
Salmi, Jamil (2009). The Challenge of Establishing World Class Universities. Washington, DC: World Bank Publishing
Task Force on Higher Education and Society (2000). Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise. Washington, DC: World Bank Publishing
The World Bank (Ed.) (2002).Constructing Knowledge Societies:New Challenges for Tertiary Education. Washington, DC: World Bank Publishing
The World Bank (Ed.) (1994). Higher Education: The Lessons of Experience.  Washington DC: World Bank Publishing
The World Bank (Ed.) (1995).  Priorities and Strategies for Education. Washington, DC: World Bank Publishing
United Nations (n.d.) URL: http://www.un.org/ (Retrieved October 24, 2009)
World Bank Higher Education (n.d.). World Bank Higher Education website. URL: http://go.worldbank.org/ (Retrieved October 24, 2009)
World Bank Lending Figures (n.d.). World Bank Lending Figures website. URL: http://go.worldbank.org/ (Retrieved October 30, 2009).

By Tim Hathaway. The ethical debate over whether to use paid agents to recruit students abroad has polarized college admissions officials in the United States. No one disputes that the best interest of students must be protected, but their voices are conspicuously absent from the discussion.
For a Chinese-language newspaper, I recently did a report on the use of such agents in China. A study done at Iowa State University and published in the Journal of College Admission suggests that most Chinese undergraduates enrolled at American colleges had relied on intermediaries to help them navigate the admissions process. Through dozens of interviews with agents, students, and experts, it became clear to me why that is. A tremendous disconnect exists between Chinese students and American universities.
While many industry norms are questionable at best, agents provide necessary and important services. Unlike their American counterparts, the vast majority of Chinese high schools do not have guidance counselors, and many parents lack the English skills to help their children differentiate between an accredited college and a diploma mill. It is quite natural to seek professional help for what may well be the largest investment of their lives.
Agents also provide valuable information about the differences among universities and about campus culture, application requirements, and other information considered common knowledge in American society. Students have typically never received adequate training in academic or expository writing in their native languages, never mind English. Although many choose to write personal statements and graduate-level sample essays on their own, agents' editing assistance is highly valued.
Despite the positive effects, employing an intermediary often results in an unbalanced triangular relationship among the agent, applicant, and university, which can lead to manipulation of application material. Students don't know what they need to produce a successful application, while agents, afraid of losing business if their clients don't succeed, are all too willing to embellish information on personal statements, fabricate recommendation letters, assist in transcript alteration, and ghostwrite essays. Ultimately, though, I believe American colleges are in large part to blame for this problem, because they have failed to effectively communicate with foreign applicants. Here are some measures colleges can take to make the application process clearer and thus mitigate both the need for agents and the incentive to falsify documents.
- Consider the parents. Construct Web pages in the applicant's mother tongue that explain entrance requirements; your policies on application fraud and the use of agents; and enrollment costs beyond tuition, room, and board; many families grossly underestimate additional costs. Have current foreign students contribute information they wish they had known before arriving. Provide a link to and explanation of Education­USA, the main venue through which the United States promotes its higher education system abroad.
- Create an online application form tailored to the country of origin. Questions need to be pertinent to students' educational background; otherwise the university creates an incentive for false or exaggerated information. For example, I found that transcript alteration is one of the most common forms of fraud among undergraduate applicants because students and agents believe that grades are a prime determinant of admission. Yet many bright Chinese students may have mediocre GPA's because their teachers give them extremely rigorous tests.
- Even though agents, to avoid liability, generally do not recommend transcript alteration, once a client obtains permission from the high-school academic-affairs office the agent will often alter or delete grades to ensure that the client meets the minimum standards of a selected university. Schools are usually very willing to notarize these documents for the honor of having a graduate study abroad.
- Be respectful of Chinese teachers. Most do not have the time or English skills to navigate online recommendation forms. Allow them to handwrite recommendations in their native language. Require the applicant to have the letters professionally translated and submit both copies with contact information. Often teachers will not agree to recommend a student unless the letter is written by someone else, simply because the process is too much of a headache for them.
- Make use of the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center, which offers credential verification. This office is run under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Education and State Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. China is one of the few countries that offers credential-verification services to foreign institutions.
- Provide better training and resources to admissions staff. Application falsification seems to be an overwhelming problem for many admissions offices in the United States, in part because they are unable to provide a professional assessment of foreign applications.
I contacted about 30 American institutions to ask them about problems they might be having with Chinese students' applications. To my surprise, only one person agreed to an interview. She said her office was updating its policy on fraud specifically because of problems with Chinese students: Professors had complained about their ability to participate in class. She said admissions officers take pains to check English ability through e-mail exchanges. When I asked if she could confirm the identity of the sender, she abruptly discontinued our correspondence. It is common knowledge in China that agents register e-mail accounts on clients' behalf and control all communications.
Agents have earned a bad reputation among some people in American higher education—but what of the reputation of American admissions officials in the eyes of Chinese agents? I once attended a lecture in which an agent mocked the recruiting methods of some universities in the Chinese market. Those Americans are seen as culturally inept and unwilling to provide substantive oversight, even though they tout the integrity of their systems.
"You've got [American] schools admitting people quite literally to graduate schools who only have a high-school diploma, because they misunderstood what the credential represented. And you have people with degrees who are being rejected because they don't understand that their degree is in fact comparable to a U.S. bachelor's degree," said Dale Gough, director of International Education Services at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
Gough said that the majority of U.S. institutions do not have the training or resources to evaluate foreign credentials, and that standards vary greatly among independent providers. The best option perhaps is the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center, which recently signed cooperative agreements with both the registrars' association and EducationUSA. I do not believe the use of agents, or the amount of fraud, will decrease until colleges are prepared to do their due diligence. Moreover, foreign students deserve the dignity of a professional assessment of their credentials, especially when colleges accept application fees.
If colleges truly care about their international students, they should ask them what aspects of the application process seemed unreasonable or so daunting that they felt obliged to turn to a third party. Then enlist them in the fight against fraud and wasteful spending on agents by giving advice to prospective students. Colleges could even employ them to vet applicants over the phone in their native language, as the University of Virginia does. After all, students, too, have a stake in the reputations of their universities, as well as of their own countries. And their parents would rather not have to pay those exorbitant fees.
Tim Hathaway is curriculum coordinator for advanced communicative skills at the School of Foreign Languages at Renmin University of China.

By Ian Wilhelm. In view of the debate about paying agents commissions for recruiting international students, it may be useful to give a perspective from Australian universities, which have long paid agents a commission for each student they recruit.
One of the reasons Australian institutions are comfortable with commission-based agents is because they established one of the biggest, IDP, in 1969. Originally known as the International Development Program, most Australian universities have been closely involved in its development.
But while commission-based agents aren’t contentious in Australia, they aren’t necessarily problem free. Here are five lessons Australia has learned from its experience with agents over the years–lessons that universities and government officials in the United States can use to help them decide their own approach to agents.
Make institutions explicitly responsible for their agents. A college is legally liable for its agents’ actions within their apparent authority so most potential problems with agents may be avoided by regulating colleges well. Colleges’ responsibilities should be made explicit by establishing a framework or guidelines for managing their education agents. The framework should include criteria for selecting agents, a standard agency agreement, induction and training for agents and their staff, and guidelines for monitoring agents. The certification standards of the American International Recruitment Council are a good start.
Require public disclosure of key information about agents. One important lesson for Australia was to require both public and private colleges to disclose key information about their recruiting agents. Minimally colleges should be required to publish the names of their agents on their Web site so that prospective students may check that an agent is authorized to represent their preferred institution.
Monitor continuously, not periodically. An agent’s contract renewal is the usual time to review an agent’s work for a college. But an agent’s performance needs constant monitoring and support. Likewise international education develops and changes so fast that the relevant authorities need to monitor colleges’ maintenance of appropriate quality and standards continuously. Reviewing performance as part of an accreditation every five years is not sufficient to identify and remedy issues before they become problems.
Regulate according to risk. While regulation is important, too much burden can be imposed on colleges and regulators by monitoring every college the same. Colleges and universities have different levels of risk in managing their agents and this should be reflected in different levels of regulation. The colleges that seem to have most difficulty managing and disciplining their agents are small, less prestigious, and rely too heavily on one agent. They don’t have as many resources and as much authority as established universities, which have staff members dedicated to managing the agents in their region. They need to be monitored more closely than bigger universities with a reputation to protect.
Consider an independent international student ombudsman. Some students, especially those from countries without a strong tradition of internal administrative remedies, are not confident of college review processes. They doubt that internal reviews can be independent and may fear that they or their grades would be in trouble if they complain to their college about an agent or other concerns. An independent office for international students is an important protection of their rights. The overseas student ombudsman established by the Australian federal government gives current and prospective international students confidence that their complaints are investigated thoroughly and fairly, helps institutions manage internal complaints effectively, and reports on problems and broader issues that it identifies from its investigations. The office includes a former international student of a private college.
Undoubtedly commission-based agents may cause problems. But most agents serve their students and colleges well. The correct response to potential problems with agents is not to ban them outright, but to implement processes that protect students while allowing them to benefit from the services offered by reputable agents.

By Yojana Sharma. What started with just a few universities "and the simple wish to harness academia's great power for the common good, has become a global enterprise," said United Nations Secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, opening the UN Academic Impact (UNAI) forum in the South Korean capital Seoul last week.
In less than a year since the secretary-general launched the Academic Impact at UN headquarters in New York last November, more than 670 universities in 104 countries have joined the initiative, hoping to strengthen the UN's ability to tackle major problems by harnessing their expertise and research for the global common good. University teachers and leaders have the means to "serve not one student, not one university, but a global community," Ban said on Wednesday.
The Seoul forum, held from 9-12 August, was the first ever meeting of all 11 Academic Impact 'university hubs'. The individual hubs are organised around UN goals and principles such as human rights, sustainability, peace, educational opportunities and eliminating poverty.
Each participating university undertakes at least one project that advances one of the principles, interacting with other universities on the issue as part of a particular hub.
For example, Ban noted that Handong Global University in South Korea has launched 'global entrepreneurship training' for more than 90 students from 10 African countries. Universities in Ecuador, Japan, Lebanon and South Africa recently organised a series of e-discussions on education. The Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan is using distance learning software to tutor school children on how to create bio-sand water filters to ensure clean water, and the Black Sea Universities network in Romania is matching donors and development programmes. But there is much more to be done. The aim of the Seoul forum was for universities to share from other institutions' approaches to global problems.
Ban pointed out that there were issues "of utmost urgency" where the academic community can make a difference, and where government action is not enough. These include food security and sustainable development, including climate change. Even while responding to the immediate crisis of famine in Africa, "we need to deal with underlying causes. Climate change means this drought will surely not be the last. We need to focus on practical measures: drought-resistant seeds, irrigation, rural infrastructure, livestock programmes; improvements in early warning systems," the UN secretary-general said.  "We need to focus on the links among hunger, water and energy, so that solutions to one can become solutions to all."
Ban said universities could also have a major impact in promoting global tolerance or what he called "the great project of peaceful coexistence".
"The academic community, with its long-standing traditions of cultural exchange, can set an example of mutual respect and understanding. During a period when extremism and polarisation show little sign of lessening, such a contribution would be timely indeed," he said during his first visit to his home country since he began his second term as UN secretary-general. Ban is a former foreign minister of South Korea.
Kiyo Akasaka, UN Under Secretary-general for Communications and Public Information, described the UN Academic Impact as a form of "intellectual social responsibility".
"We have seen how the business world has come so far to assume corporate social responsibility. Our challenge to the academic community is for you - now - to assume intellectual social responsibility. "Peacekeeping needs engineers. Development requires doctors. Disaster relief involves architects. Disarmament has both a scientific and a political dimension. Combating climate change also depends on sound science. The future for our mutual collaboration is enormous," he said.  Students are also involved in the UNAI through its offshoot ASPIRE, Action by Students to Promote Innovation and Reform through Education, using volunteering and other initiatives to further UN goals.
Michael Adams, President of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), which is partnering the UN on building up the Academic Impact, said in a keynote speech on Wednesday that universities must prepare students to be more active in global affairs.
"It is no longer enough to become aware. Global education has to include global participation. We must help our students contribute to the world," said Adams, who is President of Farleigh Dickinson University in the US.

By Athanasios Moulakis (Athanasios Moulakis is president and provost of the American University of Iraq at Sulaimani). In his book The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria reflects on the "rise of the rest"—India, China, Brazil, Russia—and the relative weakening of unquestioned American preponderance in many fields, including economic growth and political power. The one exception he foresees is the continued unrivaled excellence of American universities.
What is less well known than the eminence and promise of American universities at home is the immense contribution they have made overseas to the progress and prosperity of the regions they serve. The operation of American colleges abroad dates back to the mid-19th century­—a time when the geopolitical presence of the United States in the Near East was negligible, even as the European powers were avidly competing for influence and gain in the declining Ottoman Empire.
Initially inspired by Protestant missionary zeal, those colleges came to terms with their surroundings and soon became secular, introducing Western educational methods and standards to the region in ways that were both innovative and respectful of the host societies. The education they provided created opportunities for upward social mobility in countries moving from bazaars and subsistence agriculture to more-developed forms of urban and economic organization. What they retained of their New England Puritan origins was the emphasis on forming character and inculcating an ethos of work and accountability.
As relatively sheltered havens of free inquiry, American institutions contributed to the cultural awakenings of national intelligentsias. Seemingly trivial campus activities—sports and clubs—fostered habits of voluntary association in the emerging elites of other nations. Operating in the politically unstable environment of the Near East, American universities, open to all ethnicities and creeds, have provided educational opportunities for dislocated groups. English as the language of instruction offers the invaluable asset of the world's lingua franca while bridging linguistic differences of otherwise antagonistic groups. That is clear, for example, at my institution, the American University of Iraq at Sulaimani, where young Arabs, Kurds, and Turks, whose grandfathers and fathers would have feared and persecuted one another, exchange classroom notes, play sports together, and interact in English.
Beyond education, American universities abroad have even been active in the very survival and rehabilitation of victims of violence. Take, for example, the American University of Beirut's humanitarian role during the recurring disturbances in Lebanon.
The value of education has grown at an increasing rate over the years and will continue to do so. In an age when the well-being of humankind and the planet itself depend more on disciplined and imaginative thinking than on raw resources and physical labor, the most coveted assets are educated people. American student-centered liberal education is designed to create the versatility of mind needed to cope with a world in which specialized technical knowledge becomes obsolete in a short time. People of vision have therefore adopted similar models, and founded American universities in post-conflict and post-Communist countries like Afghanistan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, to name just a few. They are young institutions that need to be nurtured, but the difficulties they face are nothing compared with the odds that were overcome by what are now flourishing and prestigious institutions in Cairo and Beirut, in Thessaloniki and the West Bank.
Most students in emerging countries will, of course, be educated at their home countries' large national universities. American schools, however, provide a catalyst for innovation and set standards across the higher-education system. Rulers in the Gulf, looking ahead and knowing that oil, unlike education, is a finite resource, have set up universities on the American model or invited leading American institutions to open branch campuses.
American education promotes lasting values that are rightly thought to be of universal validity: respect for the individual, a spirit of free inquiry, and a culture of achievement and accountability. Yet the United States itself does not seem to realize this fully. Other countries, notably France and Britain, acutely aware of the value of their educational presence abroad to both themselves and their international partners, make concerted efforts to promote their cultural outreach. The United States seems to seek quick results or none at all. It launches campaigns to "win hearts and minds" in response to insurrections, and it commissions "capacity-building" programs through expensive and largely ineffective private contractors and well-meaning but often hapless nongovernmental organizations.
By contrast, American universities abroad educate their audiences, conveying lasting values beyond the catchy but transient phrases put forth by this or that administration in fitful attempts at public diplomacy. American universities abroad do not propagandize but rather impart what is most valuable about American achievements. Thanks to their long-term effect on the development and worldview of their host societies, they may well be America's best export.

Par Olivier Rollot.Investie de nouvelles missions, et notamment de l’insertion professionnelle de ses étudiants, les universités françaises sont en pleine mutation. Résultat : elles entrent de plus en plus en compétition avec les grandes écoles.
« Il existe aujourd'hui une vraie concurrence pour attirer les bons bacheliers depuis que certaines universités ont mis en place des licences plus exigeantes, adaptées à des bacheliers qui ont l’habitude de travailler beaucoup, m'expliquait ainsi Jean-Charles Pomerol, président de l’UPMC-Université Pierre et Marie Curie. Résultat : nous avons doublé notre nombre de bacheliers ayant eu une mention au bac en quelques années. »
Dans chaque promotion du collège de droit de l’université Panthéon-Assas, qui débute en première année de licence, sont par exemple sélectionnés chaque année 120 élèves très motivés auxquels sont dispensés en plus des cours de droit, des enseignements en économie, en philosophie ou encore en sociologie. Le tout avec une année d’enseignement ou de stage à l’étranger. Résultat Louis Vogel, président de Panthéon-Assas peut annoncer que certains étudiants préfèrent son collège universitaire à Sciences Po Paris.
L'économie-gestion secteur ultra-concurrentiel
La concurrence la plus vive entre grandes écoles et universités est sans aucun doute aujourd'hui en économie-gestion, notamment avec des IAE (institut d’administration des entreprises) qui représentent une vraie alternative aux grandes écoles de commerce. Ainsi à Lyon, l’IAE est en concurrence directe avec l’EM Lyon. « Nos professeurs et nos élèves n’ont pas de complexe à avoir en termes de qualité de formations et d’insertion professionnelle… et un superbe avantage coût-qualité, me disait ainsi Hugues Fulchiron, président de l’université Jean-Moulin de Lyon dont dépend l’IAE. A l’international, nous avons des accords de premier plan pour que les étudiants qui le souhaitent puissent partir. Ce qu’il nous manque ? Sans doute un réseau d’anciens renforcé. »
S’il est une université qui symbolise cette concurrence c’est bien celle de Paris Dauphine. « Un bachelier accepté à Dauphine et en prépas doit d’abord mesurer ses chances d’intégrer l’une des cinq meilleures écoles post prépas pour faire son arbitrage, analyse Laurent Batsch, le président de l’université. C’est un calcul de probabilités. Si elles sont faibles, mieux vaut venir chez nous. »
Mais la grande différence entre grandes écoles et universités, c’est le passage ou non par les prépas. « Le futur bachelier doit se demander si l’ambiance de la prépa lui convient ou pas, insiste Laurent Batsch. Dans la mesure où il n’y a pas de concours à l’issue de nos deux premières années de licence, nous sommes une alternative au modèle prépas/écoles pour des jeunes qui veulent quitter l’ambiance du lycée, vivre l’expérience de l’autonomie et partager une vie associative intense. »
Des grandes écoles à l’université
Grandes écoles et universités se concurrencent et se retrouvent également sur des valeurs communes, reprenant chez l’autre ce qu’elle a de meilleur. « Pratiquement toutes les universités scientifiques vont bientôt avoir leur propre école d’ingénieurs, me confiait ainsi Bernard Remaud, président de la Commission des titres d’ingénieur. En tout cas la quasi-totalité a déposé des dossiers ou des lettres d’intention auprès de nous. C’est pour les universités le moyen de délivrer une formation très bien reconnue et cadrée. Quant aux étudiants, cela leur donne l’occasion d’intégrer des formations d’ingénieur sans passer par les prépas dans le cadre de cycles préparatoires intégrés, ce qui convient mieux à certains profils d’étudiants. »
De la même façon, l’université de Toulouse, dont la Toulouse School of Economics est une des plus renommées au monde en matière de recherche, ouvre à la rentrée 2011 une école d’économie qui, sans reprendre stricto sensu le modèle des grandes écoles, s’en rapproche fortement. «Nos concurrents ne sont pas les écoles de commerce mais plutôt l’ENSAE ParisTech. Nous demandons en effet un fort niveau en maths dans la tradition de recherche en économique mathématique qui est la marque de TSE», me disait Marie-Françoise Calmette, la directrice, qui veut bien admettre qu’elle se battra sur le «même marché que les grandes écoles pour recruter les meilleurs étudiants».
«Mais nous avons aussi créé depuis deux ans un cycle préparatoire interne à l’université de Toulouse, ouvert à tous les bacheliers, au terme duquel les meilleurs intègrent l’école et les autres se voient proposer différentes voies», expliquait encore Marie-Françoise Calmette, qui insistait sur la «volonté de l’école de créer une troisième voie à mi-chemin entre les universités et les grandes écoles, sans le couperet des concours d'entrée».
Tout PRES
Pour favoriser l’émergence de grandes entités susceptibles de concurrencer les universités américaines ou britanniques, ont été créés des PRES (pôle de recherche et d’enseignement supérieur). Celui de Lyon compte ainsi près de 120 000 étudiants « Il nous permet d’être plus visible à l’international. Il assure également le portage des grands projets comme le plan Campus ou la réponse à l’emprunt national », souligne Hugues Fulchiron.
Au-delà, un PRES est également un vecteur d’interdisciplinarité de la recherche et des formations. « Il nous permet également de mutualiser des formations dans certaines disciplines menacées, comme les lettres classiques. Ensemble nous pouvons assurer leur survie, reprend Hugues Fulchiron. Nous avons pris conscience que tout le monde ne pouvait pas tout faire seul et qu’il est nécessaire de créer des pôles de formation communs garantissant l’excellence de nos formations. »
De même à paris, le PRES Sorbonne Universités regroupe non seulement des grandes universités (Panthéon-Assas, Paris-Sorbonne et UPMC-Pierre et Marie Curie) mais également des grandes écoles, pas forcément parisiennes d’ailleurs, comme l'Ecole nationale de la magistrature (ENM) de Bordeaux, l’Université de technologie de Compiègne ou encore l’Insead, qui propose l’un des meilleurs MBA (master of business administration) au monde. « En rapprochant les disciplines, nous avons pu donner le jour à des licences communes, par exemple en droit et sciences, m'expliquait ainsi Louis Vogel, président de Panthéon-Assas. Nous travaillons aussi sur le droit des affaires avec l’Insead. Tout cela aurait été inenvisageable avant la création du PRES. »