SOUTH Australia’s three public universities will lose $78 million over the next four years as local students are forced to pay thousands and even tens of thousands more for their degree, analysis shows.
State Government number crunching on the effect of the Federal Government’s higher education Budget measures show a basic three-year humanities degree could cost at least $10,000 more – up to $29,000. University of Adelaide’s six-year medicine degree could rise to at least $80,000. The modelling shows engineering students face a steep fee hike as their four-year degrees rises from $34,500 to at least $53,000. Premier Jay Weatherill said the Federal Government’s “Americanisation” of Australia’s universities would make higher education unaffordable. More...

By Matthew Bailes. I love the free market. It means my morning cup of coffee costs roughly the same at almost all the coffee shops near campus.
The free market is however ruthlessly efficient, even if it is largely responsible for the high standard of living we share in Australia. It means fortunes are made and lost, and has Darwinian consequences for inefficient players. When monopolies exist, the profits can be obscene.
In the 2014 Australian federal budget, plans were announced to bring the full power of the free market to the Australian higher education sector. More...

Lundi 5 mai, à 10h, la « Convention de reconnaissance mutuelle des études, des diplômes et des crédits en vue d’une poursuite d’études dans les établissements d’enseignement supérieur du japon et de la République française » a été signée par Hiroshi Matsumoto Président de la Japan Assocation of National Universities (JANU) d’une part et par la Conférence des présidents d’université (CPU) représentée par Luc Hittinger et la Conférence des directeurs des écoles françaises d’ingénieurs (CDEFI) représentée par Elisabeth Crépon. La signature de cet accord s’est faite à l’Elysée, en présence de François Hollande et de Shinzo Abe, Premier ministre japonais et a pour but de « promouvoir les échanges dans le domaine de l’enseignement supérieur entre la France et le Japon ».

Télécharger la convention.

By Sun Xiaochen. How can China launch a manned spaceship but can't produce high-quality kitchen knives? The question was raised by members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference earlier this year and triggered a heated debate in China's education system, where experts and officials urged the development of modern vocational education to ease the imbalance between the labor supply and the huge market demand for technical talents.
"There is an urgent need to reform our current education system, which has been struggling to provide high-quality talents with skills and knowledge that meet the demand at the production frontline," Lu Xin, China's deputy minister of education, said at the recent China Development Forum 2014. More...

By M. Hamzah Jamaludin. Low fees, quality education attract many from Mid-East, says DPM.
THE comparatively lower cost but higher quality of tertiary education in Malaysia will attract more students from the Middle East, including those from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia offered quality education at better and attractive fees, with a considerably much lower cost of living compared with European countries and even the United States.
The wide use of English at Malaysian universities would make it easier for international students to pursue their studies in the country, said Muhyiddin, who is also education minister. Presently, there are more than 25,000 Middle Eastern students studying in Malaysia, with only 164 from UAE. Read more...

By Bernard Lane. Jim Barber, having left the University of New England, has come back to small-town central Victoria, where destructive bushfires are still fresh in memory.
Ahead he sees a different kind of threat, a global challenge reaching into every region, and that’s largely why he quit early as vice-chancellor. More...