By Andrés Castro Samayoa, Marybeth Gasman and Paola 'Lola' Esmieu. Higher education leaders and policy-makers strive to adapt college models to the global interconnectedness of the 21st century. Take, for example, the Civic and Global Learning component of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, or NILOA, Degree Qualifications Profile which calls for students’ abilities to “face a social, economic and information world that knows no borders, that is buffeted by environmental changes, and that requires both the knowledge and the experiences that will enable them to become genuinely interactive and productive”. Read more...
The next step in soft power
By Rachel Brown. Amid the flurry of press coverage surrounding President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States in September, his gift of a dawn redwood tree to be planted on the campus of the Global Innovation Exchange, or GIX, programme in Seattle received little attention. Read more...
Opening a Pandora’s box
By Roger Chao Jr. Since the opening up of its economy and its democratisation process, Myanmar’s government has understood the importance of education, including higher education, in supporting the country’s national development plans especially in sustaining economic development. Read more...
Asia is Japan’s internationalisation blindspot
By Jeremy Rappleye and Edward Vickers. Japan needs more gurobaru jinzai (global talent)! Or so we are constantly told these days. Politicians portray global talent as individuals whose knowledge of foreign cultures and languages will connect Japan with the outside world, restoring the country’s competitiveness and strengthening its international relationships. Read more...
Graduates who move overseas will have to repay loans
By Claire Shaw. University graduates who move overseas for more than six months will now have to pay back their student loans. Read more...
Staff promotion not tied to internationalisation
By Nicola Jenvey. Only 8% of United States higher education institutions have guidelines specifying international work or experience as a consideration for faculty promotion and tenure decisions, according to a study by the American Council on Education, or ACE. Read more...
Universities launch drive to oppose rising xenophobia
By Brendan O'Malley. The member universities of the German Rectors’ Conference, or HRK, have launched a national initiative to oppose xenophobia in Germany, against a backdrop of the refugee crisis and a steeply rising number of incidents of verbal and physical racial attacks in recent months. Read more...
University autonomy vs public accountability in HE act?
By Sharon Dell. The famously imprecise line between institutional autonomy and public accountability is under the spotlight in South Africa as Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande prepares to amend the Higher Education Act in a process that will become public in the new year. Read more...
Thousands of students fall victim to accreditation spat
By Maina Waruru. Last August the engineers board published a list of 25 accredited courses in five universities, effectively disapproving 47 other courses offered in eight universities. In rejecting the courses the board cited, among other reasons, lack of qualified lecturers, a “weak curriculum”, course segmentation and duplication, and lack of “professional focus”. Read more...
Commission seeks stronger role for university leaders
By Jan Petter Myklebust. The proportion of university budgets comprising basic funding should be increased and collegial influence on decision-making and recruitment should be reduced, to give university leaders greater freedom to prioritise spending and hire staff to meet strategic needs, a commission on higher education leadership has recommended. Read more...