By Kelly Heyboer and Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger. With great fanfare, Kean University and Chinese officials broke ground last March on the first foreign campus of the New Jersey institution, to be built at Wenzhou University in Zhejiang Province.
Amid ceremonial drummers, colorful dragon dancers and yards of bright red bunting, school officials turned over shovels of dirt to mark the start of construction of a massive new campus that will ultimately enroll 5,000 full-time Chinese students who will earn degrees from Kean. The university, however, never sought accreditation for the high-profile Far East venture from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education — which has already placed Kean on probation for failure to meet academic standards.
Now the accrediting agency wants to know why. Kean is already on shaky ground with Middle States, a powerful independent agency with the ability to strip a school of its vital accreditation if a campus runs afoul of its rules. New questions about one of its projects does not help matters.
"The university has been told on several occasions that they must go through the substantive change process," said Richard Pokrass, a spokesman for the commission. "They have not done that. They have not submitted anything in writing."
Without Middle States’ approval, it is likely the deal to build the China campus would fall apart. An accredited program was one of Kean’s key selling points when it made the deal with the Chinese government to build the campus. But Kean officials insist they are in full compliance with Middle States’ rules and are moving ahead with plans to offer classes in Wenzhou this fall to their first 200 Chinese students. Kean, a four-year public university in Union Township with 16,000 students, has spent the last year dealing with internal turmoil amid the growing concerns of Middle States — which has cited the school for violating numerous academic and ethical rules.
Last year, the commission warned Kean that its academic standing was in jeopardy for failing to meet accreditation standards in several key areas during a periodic review. Then, the faculty union — which has a long history of discord with the president — discovered what it said were serious misrepresentations in president Dawood Farahi’s résumé. He later admitted there were mistakes, but claimed they were the fault of unidentified Kean staff members. While the Kean board of trustees narrowly backed the president by a 7-4 vote with one abstention, one trustee resigned in the wake of the vote to keep him in office.
Last month, Middle States’ board voted to put Kean on formal probation after its reviewers returned to campus and found additional problems.
The prospect of losing accreditation has serious consequences for both a university and its students. Students at schools stripped of their accreditation may not be able to get financial aid, transfer their credits to other colleges or use their degrees to attend graduate school.
The focus by Middle States on the China program came in a letter to the university sent last month, requesting additional information about the new campus.
Putting Kean in China has been a long-time goal of Farahi. As far back as 2006, Kean officials were working on an agreement to establish a branch campus in Wenzhou (pronounced Wun-jo or Wen-chou), a port city on the East China Sea south of Shanghai.
After a series of setbacks, work finally began on the campus this year in a well-publicized ground breaking, with plans to enroll as many as 5,000 full-time students by fall 2016. Kean has already hired several faculty members to work in China and a pilot program with 200 Chinese students is set to begin this fall, school officials said.
"Our Wenzhou partners remain fully confident that Kean will meet all the standards for Middle States accreditation and will succeed in obtaining Middle States approval for the establishment of our branch campus in Wenzhou," said Matt Caruso, a Kean spokesman. But in their most recent letter to Kean, Middle States officials noted the university has already appointed a new board of directors for the Wenzhou-Kean University campus and has begun construction. Pokrass, the Middle States’ spokesman, said the university has not requested approval for the project, as is required for any "substantive change" to an accredited school.
"Given what’s going on, they need to get this material to the commission as soon as possible," said Pokrass.
Kean officials argue, under their interpretation of Middle State’s rules, they are in compliance. Caruso said the university does not need to apply for approval of the China campus until the program is more established and students are earning more than 50 percent of their credits toward a degree in Wenzhou.
"We are offering less than the threshold for the moment," Caruso said.
Members of the Kean Federation of Teachers, the university’s faculty union, said they have repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the China campus. Last week, the Kean Faculty Senate voted 19-4 to release a statement of "no confidence" in Farahi.
Caruso said Farahi is "disappointed" by the senate’s no-confidence vote, adding, "But his entire focus right now is on preparing and finalizing the university’s monitoring report for Middle States."

The last five years have seen an explosion in the number of English-taught degree programmes in continental Europe, according to the Institute of International Educations. This growth has been particularly noticeable in postgraduate study, its new report says, with the number of English-taught master's programmes available on the continent more than quadrupling in the last five years. We look at the 10 mainland European countries offering the most English-taught masters programmes, as listed on MastersPortal (estimated to represent 90 per cent of the total number of English-taught master's programmes on offer in Europe). "Typical" tuition fees for European students at public universities in each country are provided, as calculated by StudyPortals, but exact costs vary per programme and can be found at www.mastersportal.eu.
1. Netherlands
Holland, the Netherlands, Nederland... call it what you will, the Low Countries are the place to be for studying a master's in English on the Continent. An impressive 869 master's degrees in Holland are taught in English, albeit at just 45 institutions. Maastricht University has reported a tenfold rise in applications from Britain over the last year, with demand set to soar further when figures for 2012 are released. Typical tuition fees are around €1,720 per year.
2. Germany
Germany has the second-most English-taught master's degrees of any mainland European country, with 713. Tuition fees vary between the different Bundeslands, with some costing up to €1,100 per year, others charging nothing at all for European students. However in terms of the number of institutions offering such courses it is far ahead of the rest of Europe. 144 German universities and colleges teach master's in English, compared with just 45 from our winner...
3. Sweden
The Scandinavian countries are well-represented on this list, and foremost among them is Sweden, where 707 English-taught master's degrees are on offer. No tuition fees are charged for European students.
4. Spain
Spanish may be rivalling English as the most widely-spoken European first language in the world these days, but its universities seem to have their focus squarely on the English-speaking world. 395 English-taught master's abound in Spain – incredibly, one year ago there were only 89. Public universities charge European students around €1,500 per annum in tuition fees.
5. France
Famously protective of their native language, it's not like the French to humour les rosbifs. But when it comes to higher education it seems English is making inroads – 346 master's degrees in France are taught in English, compared with just 11 as recently as 2007. Master's degrees at French public universities charge start at around €250 per annum.
6. Switzerland
You'd think this wealthy Alpine country had enough languages on its plate, what with French, German and Italian all in common usage – but Switzerland now offers 237 English-taught master's degrees. Tuition fees in Switzerland vary between cantons, but are usually between €500 and €4,000 per year.
7. Italy
Want to enjoy la dolce vita while bolstering your academic credentials? Try one of Italy's 256 English-taught master's options. Incredibly, there were only seven such courses in the whole of Italy as recently as 2007. Public universities in Italy usually charge around €1,500 per annum for European students.
8. Belgium
With the Eurostar taking you to Brussels in less than two hours from London, enrolling on one of Belgium's 252 English-taught master's could even be a more convenient option than some far-flung British universities. Tuition fees at public universities in Belgium tend to be around €600 per annum.
9. Finland
Finland has one of the best education systems in the world, with almost half of its population holding at least an undergraduate degree – and if you don't mind the Arctic climate you can join its ranks, with 246 master's programmes taught in English. That's a steady rise from just 42 on offer back in 2007, and again public universities in Finland typically don't charge tuition fees for European students.
10. Denmark
There are 188 options for studying master's degrees in the land of Sarah Lund – a third more than there were just one year ago – with public universities typically charging no tuition fees for European students.

By Stan Lehman. THE Brazilian Senate has approved an affirmative action bill that reserves half the spots in federal universities for high school graduates of public schools, and distributes them according to the racial makeup of each state.
The Senate's news agency says the bill that was approved last week now goes to President Dilma Rousseff, who is expected to approve it.
The reserved spots will be distributed among black, mixed race and indigenous students proportionally to the racial composition of each state, the official agency said.
Sen. Paulo Paim said the bill will benefit most Brazilian students because private schools account for just one of 10 students.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that it was constitutional for universities to use racial quotas.
Brazil has more citizens of African ancestry than any nation other than Nigeria. Fifty-one percent of Brazil's 192 million people are black or of mixed-race.
Backers say the use of scholarships, quotas and other policies aimed at getting more blacks and mixed-race Brazilians into universities is needed to right the historic wrongs of slavery, centuries of stark economic inequality and a society in which whites are overwhelmingly in leadership roles in government and business.
"The bill makes social justice with a majority of Brazil's population," said Senator Ana Rita.
Sen. Aloysio Nunes Ferreira voted against the bill, saying, "It straitjackets universities because it violates their management autonomy."

By Cristina Bojan, Assistant Lecturer, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania and Sonia Pavlenko, Centre for University Development, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania – www.ubbcluj.ro/en. In recent years, we have noticed an explosion of the number of global rankings (Shanghai ARWU ranking, QS World University Ranking, Webometrics Ranking of World Universities in 2005, HEEACT Global Ranking in 2007, Russian World University Ranking in 2009, Times Higher Education World University Rankings and so on). Some may justify their emergence as responding to specific needs of universities worldwide, including competition for attracting students and funding, competition for recognition, prestige or even survival. Others might seek to identify the global context (including here the global competition for human capital, the increased mobility of students and even the global financial crisis) as a favourable context for the growth in the popularity of rankings. Furthermore, the increased need for standardisation at international level (including the level of relevance and acknowledgement sought at international level by many higher education institutions) could eventually trigger an overall increase in quality. However, this only highlights many problems the universities have to face on a daily basis, and the rankings do not solve them, but rather leave them in the background. Rankings are just a measure, a method, and one cannot evaluate the essence of the university through rankings, if we are to understand education as ‘Bildung’. More...

“Crossing your boundaries by making the unknown familiar”: international or intercultural experiences in the higher education sector in Belgium.
By Dirk Van Waelderen, Mobility Coordinator, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, www.hubrussel.be/english. Nowadays there are many ways for students to gain an international experience before they start their careers. The most common way in Europe is probably the Erasmus programme which offers study exchanges or traineeships. In this European programme students stay abroad for at least several months. The advantages of an international experience are manifold. According to many studies on the impact of a student exchange, the students improve their cultural and creative reflexes, their linguistic proficiency and their international skills. Complementing the educational gains are the advantages obtained when entering the labour market. It is vital in the training of students to broaden their familiar surroundings by crossing the traditional boundaries of their study or living environment. By learning to think outside the box, students are then able to achieve the foundations of an enhanced creativity and innovation. More...