Androulla Vassiliou, the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, appeals to MEPs on supporting Commission's views on the forthcoming programme for Education and Training, Youth and Sport. Negotiations on Erasmus for All are approaching a decisive phase.
- I believe the spirit is constructive, and I hope we can reach an agreement as soon as possible.
Commissioner Vassiliou spoke to European Parliament´s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in Brussels on 22 April 2013.
Commissioner calls for flexibility
The original budget of 17 billion euros will most probably be cut.
- After the recent European Council agreement, we would now foresee a budget of around 14.5 billion euros, which still represents a significant increase on current funding, Vassiliou tells. Read more...

Commissioner for Education, Androulla Vassiliou, highlights that adult education can upgrade skills of the low-qualified and help in the challenges that ageing brings for Europe. Council of Europe reminds that supporting labour market is not the only goal of education.
Education is in the top of the Union´s agenda, says the Commissioner. It is a cure for unemployment.
— One of the big problems that we have is that we do not have the right skills of the people in order to fill jobs although we have unemployment — we have skills mismatch, says the Commissioner.
In addition to Education, Ms. Vassiliou is in charge of Culture, Multilingualism and Youth in the European Commission. She visited Helsinki last Friday as one of the keynote speakers of a meeting of 20 European Ministers of Education. The Conference focused on outlining the future work of the Council of the Europe related to education. Read more...

By Simon Marginson. WHEN the Soviet state collapsed in the early 1990s, Russia was a world leader in education, science and technology. The infrastructure was developed largely in isolation from the other zones of research strength in Western Europe and North America. Soviet scientists accessed the world literature but did not share much.
Russia was strong in mathematics and in research in the physical sciences, which were funded generously as strategically important national priorities. It had a high rate of participation in tertiary education. Scientists and, to a lesser extent, school and university teachers were well paid and in good standing. Read more...

The Chinese government will support about 50,000 international students in China in 2015, and the country will become the largest Asian destination for such students in 2020, high-level Chinese officials said on April 25.
About 320,000 overseas students came to China in 2012, the majority from South Korea and the United States, said Liu Jinghui, secretary-general of the China Scholarship Council.
Last year, the ministry implemented the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) for the education sector, she said. According to the plan, in 2015, the number of international students in China supported by the government's scholarship program will reach 50,000.
While Europe has become the second-largest destination for Chinese students abroad, "only about 35,000 students came from EU member states to study in China last year, so we will promote China's education system in Europe now," Liu said. Read more...

Bereits zwei Jahre nach Erscheinen des ersten legt die European University Association (EUA) 2013 ihren zweiten internationalen Ranking-Report vor. Notwenig sei dies angesichts vieler methodischer Differenzierungen der wichtigsten internationalen Hochschulrankings. Gleichzeitig möchte die EUA offenbar eine eigene europäische Rankingkultur etablieren. Torsten Bultmann hat sich die Sache angeschaut. Seine Begeisterung hält sich in Grenzen. Im April 2013 veröffentlichte die European University Association (EUA) ihren zweiten internationalen Ranking-Report mit dem Titel »Global University Rankings and Their Impact – Report II«. Es handelt sich dabei ausdrücklich um ein Update des bereits im Juni 2011 veröffentlichten ersten Reports unter dem gleichen Titel. Mehr...

By Professor Gamini Samaranayake. The Hon, Deputy Minister for Higher Education, the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, Deans of Faculties, Heads of Departments, members of the academic staff, The Registrar and Bursar, the members of the non academic staff, other invited guests, the graduands, parents and well wishers, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank the Vice Chancellor for inviting me here today to deliver the convocation address.
I would like to depart from the traditional convocation speech and would like to focus on the role and trajectory of the Sri Lankan Universities in the envisaged Knowledge Hub in Sri Lanka which gives me an opportunity to focus on the changing role of the academic staff, the undergraduates and all of the stakeholders of the universities. The speech therefore looks at the contribution universities should make in Sri Lanka’s bid of becoming a knowledge hub. Read more...

Par Emma-Faury. L'université Paris-Sorbonne rayonne internationalement. De par son histoire et son emplacement, c'est l'établissement français le plus reconnu à travers le monde. Beaucoup d'étrangers rêvent de s'y inscrire. meltyCampus vous dit tout. Alors que les frais de scolarité pourraient augmenter pour les étudiants étrangers, ils sont toujours aussi nombreux à venir étudier en France et notamment à Paris, première destination touristique au monde. L'attrait de la capitale fait fantasmer les étrangers du monde entier. En 2009, dans 20 minutes, Eric Charbonnier auteur du rapport auprès de l'OCDE, ''Regards sur l'éducation 2009'' avait expliqué le désir des étrangers de découvrir les universités françaises, ''la qualité de la recherche française est reconnue, malgré le manque de moyens dénoncé.'' Un étudiant indonésien avait livré son témoignage sur son expérience en France sur le site CampusFrance, ''Etudier en France est une façon d'ouvrir les yeux sur le monde. L'Europe est un continent fascinant. Venez en France et vous comprendrez pourquoi je dis ça.'' Aux Etats-Unis, l'université d'Harvard est considérée comme la référence en terme d'excellence et de prestige.
En France quand on demande à des étudiants étrangers, quelle est la plus connue des universités françaises, la Sorbonne est immédiatement en tête. C'est l'université française qui fait rêver tous les étrangers... C'est un établissement intellectuel pour un bon nombre d'étrangers et sa situation géographique n'est pas un hasard. Située en plein cœur de Paris, elle fait fantasmer. Une étude réalisée par l'agence internationale Quacquarelli Symonds publiée dans LaVieImmo explique cette adoration sans borne. La capitale comptait en début d'année 2012, 40 900 étudiants étrangers, soit 17% de ses étudiants, un chiffre qui a gonflé depuis l'an passé. Suite de l'article...