Regional

Three Universities Team Up for European MBA

Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom, the University of Mannheim in Germany and ESSEC in France are set to launch the first master’s in business administration program tailored specifically for the European market in September.

The European MBA is a one-year, full-time program, and comprises the following modules:

• Core courses from September to December at ESSEC or Warwick. These provide an extensive overview of general management topics such as marketing, finance, human resource management, strategy and accounting.
• Advanced, elective courses from January to March at ESSEC or Warwick.
• “European topics” from April to June at Mannheim. During this module, participants prepare for the team project to be carried out during the summer for selected international corporations.
• Three-month project-management experience. Teams of three students, each of a different nationality, participate in this final module.

— ESSEC Business School
April 2, 2002

Finland

Official Suggests Lowering Threshold for Adult Education

Minister of Education Maija Rask suggested recently that adult education should be more accessible to the groups that need it most — in particular immigrants and the unemployed. “The threshold for participating in education is clearly higher, and the opportunities less abundant, for those with low level of educational attainment, the unemployed and immigrants,” Rask said.

She further noted inadequate vocational skills are clearly a major reason why people in Finland retire comparatively young — on average — at age 59. She also noted that poor computer literacy and reading skills are leading factors in deterring Finns from pursuing in adult education.

— Finland’s Ministry of Education
March, 2002

Germany

German Academic Leaders meet with Blackboard Reps

Academic leaders from all over Germany, the birthplace of the modern university system, recently converged in several cities to share ideas and discuss practices concerning e-learning. The event was hosted by Blackboard Inc., and participants (comprised mostly of faculty and academic IT staff) were previewed the latest developments in e-learning technology provided by Blackboard.

German academic institutions have similar needs that must be met for an e-Education implementation to be successful: an accessible and easy-to-use e-Education platform, a software platform able to support multiple languages and third-party applications.

— Distance-Educator.com
June 03, 2002

Ireland

Battle Looms Over Scots E-learning Market

Enterprise Ireland, the Republic of Ireland’s leading development agency, is poised to mount a coordinated attack on the Scottish e-learning sector. The hope is that they will soon control the US$17.52 million market.

However, the Irish move comes as five Scottish e-learning companies have created a new joint venture called Scottish Online Learning Consortium (SOLC).

The company has access to more than 75 educational technologists, developers, content producers and designers, and currently has a combined US$2.92 million turnover, along with nationwide sales teams.

SOLC is made up of Digital Stream, eCom Scotland, MediaCorp, Multiverse Solutions and Bob Christies Associates — all companies that specialize in particular areas of the online learning market.

— The Sunday Herald
May 21, 2002

Italy

Italy Waivers on Bologna Reforms

Italy appears to be backing away from higher education reforms set down in the Bologna Declaration. The Italian Ministry of Education recently announced that bachelor’s and master’s degrees would be offered in the scientific and technical fields where they have already been implemented, but would not be offered in some or all of the humanities.

Italy was one of the signatories to the 1998 Bologna Declaration, which called on European countries to adopt a three-plus-two-year degree system as part of the greater plan to create a unified European system of higher education.

According to education sources, the ministry is under tremendous pressure from the more conservative academics in the humanities who fear that the reforms could undermine their time-honored prestige.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
April 4, 2002

Slovakia

New Law Makes Distance Learning Free, Creates Rift

A new higher education law in Slovakia prohibits universities from charging fees to students enrolled in distance-learning programs, but some universities vehemently oppose it, calling it counterproductive.

Before the law was passed, the country’s 92,000 day-students studied free of charge, while some 40,000 students enrolled as “external students” paid anywhere from $250 to $600 per year.

The external-study programs brought in important income to Slovakia’s universities and helped accommodate the growing number of students who were unable to get a full-time slot in school.

The new law took effect in April, forcing universities to offer their external-study programs free of charge, beginning this fall. Some universities may discontinue their external-study programs in retaliation.

University officials say they hope the law can be changed after the next general election, scheduled for September.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
April 11, 2002

Switzerland

Swiss students and university planners are divided over the implementation of reforms stemming from the Bologna Declaration. Students feel they have not been properly consulted on the proposed changes, which would significantly restructure the country’s system of higher education in part by introducing internationally recognized bachelors and masters degrees. The issues that concern the students most are lack of transparency, educational quality, lack of transparency, and political motivations behind the reforms.

After several protests organized by the National Union of Swiss Students, the rectors’ conference recently announced that student unions would be invited to participate in meetings this summer.

A few Swiss universities have already adopted the Bologna reforms. These include the University of St Gallen and the University of Basel, as well as the law school at the University of Lucerne and the Technical Institute in Zurich.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
May 10, 2002

The United Kingdom

Universities Demand More Funding

A November pre-budget statement promised little to education, and university chiefs say they need extra funds if they are to achieve the government’s target to increase the number of places in higher education. The schools will undoubtedly be looking to Chancellor Gordon Brown’s budget to tackle what they say is a serious funding shortfall.
Universities UK, the organization that speaks for all universities in the United Kingdom, has written to Education Secretary Estelle Morris, warning her that many vice chancellors are “deeply unhappy” with funding allocations.

They say funding arrangements will mean cutbacks for some universities and departments. The government wants universities to expand to provide places for at least 50 percent of young people by the end of the decade. But universities argue they are not receiving budget increases to match these ambitions, which they say will require an additional 17,000 staff.

With little promised for education in the pre-budget statement last fall, teachers were also looking to the spending review for extra funds, rather than April’s budget. Teachers unions have threatened industrial action unless the government resolves a long-running dispute over workload.

— BBC News
April 17, 2002

University Applications Increase

The United Kingdom is witnessing a large increase in the number of higher education applications for the fall 2002 semester. A significant portion of the applications are from overseas . Official figures show the number of people who applied to both degree and non-degree programs by late March was up 1.5% compared with the 0.8% annual increase registered at the same time last year.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) said that of the 5,625 applications this year 3,000 of them were from other countries. The biggest increase came from China, with applications up 77 percent over 2001. Nigerian applications were also up from last year (68 percent), as were those from Ghana (43 percent) and the United States (30 percent).

— BBC News
April 11, 2002

AUT Boycotts E-Learning Elite

The Association of University Teachers (AUT) is boycotting online courses offered by Universitas 21, a consortium of top universities from around the world. Universitas 21 is scheduled to launch its business administration program in 2003. AUT has called on academics not to become involved on any level with Universitas 21. The union’s main concern is that academic standards will be compromised.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
April 25, 2002