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By Ruth Graf, Professional Development Manager, EAIE. Cross border education extends beyond the mobility of individuals to the movement of programmes and providers across frontiers and the establishment of foreign higher education provision. Countries in the Gulf region, like the United Arab Emirates, are at the forefront of initiatives in transnational education. Needless to say, recent developments and research were one of the hot topics during the recent Going Global Conference in Dubai.
During the Going Global conference, the preliminary results of a new British Council study ‘The shape of things to come 2: the evolution of transnational education’ were presented and discussed. The analysis not only looked at the developments in transnational education (TNE) in recent years, but specifically examined the situation in a number of TNE host countries and aimed at answering a number of questions such as: What are the motivations of countries to invite foreign providers to establish HE provision? What forms of TNE are established? What are the benefits of, but also the problems with TNE provision?Read more...

HEA Research and Policy Seminar Series: Research Ethics and Integrity: Is it all about compliance and reputation?
Speaker: Andrew Rawnsley
Abstract of presentation
There has been considerable resistance in the academic community to increasing institutional oversight of research ethics and integrity over the last few years. Much of the resistance to ethics and integrity in HE arises because of the way in which institutions implement administrative systems to approve and regulate research activity. This seminar will explore the tensions between ethical research practice per se, the expectations of research ethics and integrity policy makers, and the implementation of policy and administrative procedures in HE institutions. How should we best navigate between ethical practice and compliance?
Bookings are now open. Please click here to book.
Date: 16 Apr 2013
Start Time: 12:45 pm
Location/venue: The Higher Education Academy, Innovation Way, York Science Park, Heslington, York, England, YO10 5BR

Fuel increases and the increased cost of higher education are top concerns raised by businesses in Malaysia, said the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants' (ACCA) report entitled "Drivers of Change in Asia-Pacific".
In a statement today, ACCA said Malaysian respondents were more sensitive to rises in fuel and energy costs than other respondents across the region. It said apart from that, the respondents from Malaysia also highlighted the increased cost and accessibility of higher education as their second most critical driver of change in the short term.
"This differs to that across the Asia-Pacific which ranked cyber-security challenges for businesses as its second change driver," it said.
ACCA Malaysia head, Jennifer Lopez, said while it might be predictable for finance and senior executives to both identify fuel and energy costs as an issue in the short term, it was encouraging to see both roles looking to the same factors well into the next 10 years and beyond.
"In the medium term (2016-2022), the factor businesses said would be top of the Asia-Pacific corporate agenda was the increased need for accountants to take on a business partner role and have a broader skill set within the company, with 82 per cent of senior executives and 72 per cent of accountants citing it as critical to their future business plans," she said.
Lopez said the report also showed the growing prominence of non-financial information reporting and integrated reporting in businesses with three-quarters of senior executives rated it as a major consideration for their future plans to 2022. The survey is a part of a wider global report, involving over 550 accountants and business leaders from different sectors across Asia-Pacific markets, including Malaysia, China and Hong Kong.

By Kevin Kiley. The appointment of a new president at one of the University of Texas System’s eight regional universities would typically generate some local press and excitement, and maybe a mention in the state’s larger newspapers.
But when the University of Texas at Arlington named the sole finalist for its presidency last week, the pick was featured in a glowing profile in the world’s largest newspaper by circulation – The Times of India. That’s because the pick, Vistasp Karbhari, was born and completed his undergraduate education in India.
As the Times notes, Karbhari will join a “small but expanding league of Indian Americans heading educational institutions in the U.S.” Read more...

By Karin Fischer. As globalization and technology blur national borders, universities must work even harder to demonstrate their distinctiveness and value, said the leaders of top universities in the Asia-Pacific region.
The half-dozen presidents and vice chancellors spoke on the challenges to higher education as part of a round table during a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education. The four-day conference has drawn more than 1,300 top university administrators from around the world to Hong Kong. Globalization and technology, including the rise of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are changing the education landscape, but university leaders said they shouldn't allow those developments to compromise their identities.
"Globalization should not mean homogenization," said Ian O'Connor, vice chancellor and president of Griffith University, in Australia. Read more...

By Arwyn Jones. Finance directors of Welsh universities say the Welsh government's student fees subsidies are leaving their sector with an uncertain financial future. They have told BBC Wales they can not be sure there will be enough money left for them after the subsidising of Welsh students who study elsewhere in the UK.
Welsh students pay fees of no more than £3,500 wherever they study, with the Welsh government supplying the rest. The Welsh government says its policy is "fully costed and sustainable".
The Welsh Higher Education Finance Directors Group says that no-one knows from year to year how many Welsh students will choose to study in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Read more...

By John Morgan. George Osborne’s budget has revealed that the government appears to be scrapping plans to grant VAT exemption to for-profit higher education providers, a move that was aimed at exposing universities to greater competition. The chancellor’s budget speech, delivered today, also confirmed further 1 per cent cuts to non-protected departmental spending in 2013-14 and 2014-15, and a bigger than expected total reduction in the 2015-16 spending review, meaning more reductions at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.
Mr Osborne said in the speech that the coalition government’s “reform of schools, universities and apprenticeships is probably the single most important long-term economic policy we are pursuing”. In the accompanying “red book” document published following Mr Osborne’s speech, there is a section dealing with VAT for for-profit HE providers. Read more...

The Russian Ministry of Education will monitor the effectiveness of universities by calculating the number of out-of-work graduates applying for positions at job centers to identify universities that are producing the most unemployed graduates.
The Russian Ministry of Education has developed new criteria for monitoring the effectiveness of universities. Starting this year, the ministry will calculate the number of out-of-work graduates applying for positions at job centers, in order to identify universities that are producing the most unemployed graduates. Experts take issue with this logic.
“We are going to assess the relationship between the education system and the job market,” Deputy Minister Alexander Klimov told Kommersant. “We will factor in the number of graduates who apply to job centers.” Read more...

By Gunjan Sinha. Ever since the European Council’s decision in 2000 to transform the European Union into “a competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy,” Germany’s federal government has been pumping money into research and development through various mechanisms. As a result, not only are German research institutions forging major changes in the way that researchers teach, collaborate, and advance in their careers, they are also creating more jobs. These jobs run the gamut from junior and senior researchers to support staff. With good long-term funding prospects and attractive salaries, Germany has become a major contender in the global competition among nations to draw in top talent. Read more...