By Abu Kamara. International education is increasingly becoming a priority for governments around the world. As a result, most are implementing aggressive international student-friendly immigration policies to stay competitive in a pugnacious global international education market.
In a recent report, the Advisory Panel on Canada’s International Education, a government-backed initiative, identified international education as an important factor in Canada’s future prosperity. More than simply an international education strategy, the report represents the first time the Canadian government has invested significant resources in the development of a comprehensive, cross-sector and cross-province international education strategy.Read more...

By Hans de Wit. The major internationalisation themes of 2012 will continue into 2013, but many would like to see a greater emphasis on the content and quality of the international experience rather than just numbers.
The debate on international higher education in 2012 was dominated by MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – and it is likely that MOOCs will continue to be the fashion of the year in 2013, in the same way that international university rankings have been over the past five years, and transnational or cross-border higher education were over the five years before. These three key developments in international higher education have drawn the full gamut of opinions, ranging from complete opposition to those who consider them a major revolution. It is undeniable that MOOCs, like transnational education and rankings, have become an important dimension of international higher education.Read more...

By Yojana Sharma. The attention of education policy-makers and the international education community is moving away from raising literacy levels and increasing access to secondary and higher education, towards skills required by the workforce to promote economic growth.
This became increasingly evident during the past year in the richest countries. Recognition of the issue is also growing in emerging economies and middle-income countries, and is likely to be a major debate in developing nations as discussion on what should succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) takes centre stage in the next two years. Higher education experts say that universities are coming under increasing pressure to ensure that their graduates are ‘employable’, although preparation for ‘employability’ is still only rarely incorporated in university courses, and the skills that could make a difference in finding employment and ways to deliver those skills are still not evident.
“There is growing awareness of the need to link education to employment,” said Nicholas Burnett, managing director of the Results for Development Institute in Washington, DC, and a former assistant director general for education at UNESCO where he was head of the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report.Read more...

By Kudzai Mashininga. Zimbabwe’s government has outlined plans to raise the bar in lecturer qualifications as part of an initiative to improve quality in universities. Standards plummeted during a decade-long political and economic crisis that sparked a massive brain drain in all sectors, including higher education.
The aim is for all lecturers to have PhDs by 2015 – although there is little likelihood of this being achieved. Since the formation of a unity government in February 2009, initiatives have also been put in place to bring back academics who have left the country, either on short-term placements or in permanent positions – and some successes are starting to be recorded. Read more...