Regional

Universitas 21 Launches Online University

Universitas 21 Global, a joint venture between Universitas 21 and Thomson Learning, began operations at the end of May and began its new online MBA on July 28.

The US$75 million venture between 17 international universities enrolled 500 students from around the world into its inaugural MBA program. Students are paying between US$12,500 and US$30,000 in fees for the MBA course depending on the country from which they are studying.

Headquartered in Singapore, the institution enrolls its own students and awards its own degrees and diplomas, with all its academic programs and processes being approved by U21pedagogica, a wholly owned subsidiary of Universitas 21. The academic reputation of Global’s awards is thus linked via U21pedagogica to the international standing of Universitas 21member universities. The names and logos of licensing U21 universities will appear on Universitas 21 Global degree certificates.

— News.com.au
June 18, 2003

Afghanistan

Funds for “American University” Feasibility Study Released

The United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Finn and Afghanistan’s Minister of Higher Education Sharief Fayez signed a grant agreement on July 8 for a feasibility study of plans to establish a private, American-style, coeducational university in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency awarded a US$553,475 grant to the Education Ministry to fund the study that will be carried out in concert with consultative help of an American organization, the Coordinating Council for International Universities. If established, the university model would be similar to other universities worldwide that are members of the Association of American International Colleges and Universities, such as the American Universities in Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan and eight other nations.

The university would be an English-language institution headquartered in Kabul with satellite campuses in the provinces of Heart, Kandahar, Mazar e-Sharif and Nangarhar.

— U.S. Trade and Development Agency press release
July 8, 2003

Australia

International Demand for Oz Education Continues to Grow

Enrollments of international students at Australian universities grew by 15.5. percent over the past academic year, according to IDP Education Australia, with enrollments from India, Canada, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Germany and France increasing by more than 30 percent.

Chinese students make up the largest mainland market, but Singapore has the largest number of total students when offshore campuses and online learning are included.

The IDP report ranks total enrollment of international students at just under 175,000, representing 20 percent of the total university student population.

Asia continues to supply the majority of Australia’s overseas students; however, the IDP study reveals strong growth from Europe and America. The number of students enrolling from Germany, Britain and France increased by between 46 and 63 percent in the past 12 months. The number of U.S.-based enrollments grew by 26 percent.

— IDP Australia
June 3, 2003

New Immigration Rules Welcomed by Industry; Hike in Visa Fees Not

New immigration laws announced by the Ministry of Immigration in April give students who study for more than two years in low-growth cities five bonus points toward applications for full-time residency.

The new laws came into effect in July and are part of a wider plan to help areas with low growth benefit from migration. Not surprisingly, the news was greeted with enthusiasm from institutions in low-growth areas that believe it will boost their international marketing strategies.

Meanwhile, institutions of higher education are not so thrilled about a federal government decision to increase the fees paid by foreign students for their visas and university courses. The changes, which came into effect July 1, raise visa application fees by 27 percent to A$400, plus A$55 for the right to work while studying. Institutions running courses for foreign students have to be registered with the immigration department, and fees will rise from A$16,000 to more than A$250,000 for larger universities. The additional costs will be passed onto students through increased registration charges.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
June 6, 2003

China

ETS Resumes Testing

The Educational Testing Services (ETS) resumed administration of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in China on July 14. Tests had to be suspended in China due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Information on rescheduled testing and refund requests are available at the ETS official site.

— People’s Daily
June 25, 2003

Shanghai Links with Berlin

The Technical University of Berlin and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have set up a joint two-year master’s degree in computer science that leads to a double diploma.

— TU media release
April 11, 2003

India

Carnegie Mellon to Establish University Near Delhi

London-based Caparo Group, a U.K. firm with interests in steel, engineering and hotels, announced July 4 a tie-up with Carnegie Mellon University to establish a university near New Delhi offering programs in information technology, management and bio-medical engineering.

The campus will be located in Greater Noida, according to director of the Caparo Group Ambar Paul, who also sits on the Board of Trustees at Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon, rated among the top 20 universities in the United States.

The new institution will reportedly begin operations next year with offerings including software engineering, networking, security and e-financing, to be followed by an MBA program and bio-medical engineering. Students will be offered full Carnegie Mellon degrees and the opportunity of a period of study at the Pittsburgh campus, according to Paul.

— Rediff.com
July 4, 2003

Indonesia

Education Bill Makes Religious Education Compulsory

The Indonesian parliament in June endorsed a controversial new education bill that is set to increase already strained relations between Indonesia’s Christian and Muslim communities.

The National Education System Bill replaces the 1989 Law on Education Systems. Opponents of a controversial clause in the bill say it discriminates against Christian schools. The controversial clause says that school children must be taught their own religion by a teacher of the same faith, whereas schools previously were free to choose what religious education they provided.

Many Indonesians send their children to Christian schools, where the standard of education is normally higher. Opponents of the bill say that it imposes a kind of religious apartheid on the education system and has been drafted with a strong political agenda. Supporters of the bill say it is not designed to promote a particular religion but to make sure people are free to follow the religion of their choice.

— The Straits Times
June 14, 2003

Japan

University Reform Bill Passed

Legislation to turn state-run universities into independent administrative institutions was passed by the Upper House of the Diet on July 9.

The new law is aimed at loosening government controls over national universities and colleges. In April, when the next academic year begins, the 89 national universities will operate as independent administrative institutions. For administrative purposes, they will be combined with the 55 national technical colleges. Currently, the two types of institutions are administered separately.

The reforms are aimed at introducing competition and flexibility among national universities by providing wider discretionary powers, including the ability to set tuition within a predetermined range. The reforms also call for university mergers, greater fiscal responsibility on each campus, cuts in the number of faculty members, curricular overhauls and the creation of graduate schools providing practical education, especially in law and business.

Each university must produce a midterm plan detailing its educational and academic activities every six years. A panel of experts appointed by the Education Ministry will evaluate those plans. Opposition groups have raised concerns that, in reality, the education minister would set the goals, and the ministry would grant subsidies to the universities based on the achievement of those goals.

— The Japan Times
July 10, 2003

Graduate-Level Law Schools Encouraged

Seventy-two universities are hoping to open law schools beginning in April. The move will be part of Japan’s judicial system reform intended to create a new generation of U.S.-style law schools and increase the number of legal professionals in the country.

Until now, law was primarily an undergraduate pursuit of purely academic learning, with only a handful of graduate-level law schools training lecturers to teach undergraduate programs. The total capacity of the new law schools will be just short of 6,000, according to the Ministry of Education.

Students who graduate from the new three-year courses will be allowed to sit for a revamped bar exam to be introduced in 2006. Those students who graduated with degrees from existing law faculties will be able to take an abbreviated two-year course, before going on to sit the bar exam.

The ministry will announce in late November those schools that have been approved to run the new graduate-level law programs. Of the 74 applicant-institutions, 50 are private and 24 are national universities.

— Kyodo News Agency
June 30, 2003

Need for CPAs Will Lead to Increase in Number of Grad Schools

A number of private universities are setting up or planning to set up graduate programs to meet an expected surge in demand for certified public accountants (CPA).

Tokyo’s Chuo University launched the Chuo Graduate School of Accounting in April, and Kwansei Gakuin University in Hyogo prefecture intends to set up an accounting school in April 2005. Meiji University in Tokyo and Kansai University in Osaka prefecture will also set up CPA schools.

The institutions are anticipating a Financial Services Agency plan to increase the number of CPAs to 50,000 from the current number of 14,000. The government’s plan comes amid growing international recognition of the importance of transparency in corporate accounting.

— Asahi
July 1, 2003

Malaysia

Olympia College, Bradford College Join Forces

Olympia College, with several campuses throughout Malaysia, is offering a Higher National Diploma (HND) in business through a collaboration with Bradford College in the United Kingdom.

The HND is one of the most widely accepted qualifications into degree programs at British universities. Most students complete the diploma within two years, although Olympia students will be given up to five years to complete the 16 modules required for graduation. Students will take the same modules as those doing the HND in Bradford.

The Malaysian National Accreditation Board has approved the HND program, which will be offered at Olympia’s Penang and Kuala Lumpur campuses. Edexcel International is the awarding body for the HND. Students who meet criteria set in terms of credit points are guaranteed a place in the final year of the degree program at Bradford College, an associate college of Bradford University.

— The Star
July 6, 2003

University of East London Partners with Nilai College

A memorandum of understanding was signed in April between Nilai International College and the University of East London, allowing graduates from Nilai College’s accounting and business diploma course to matriculate into the final year of the University of East London’s bachelor of arts in business studies.

Nilai International College has also recently signed transfer agreements with Pittsburgh State University and Oxford Brookes. The latter allows students to upgrade diplomas in information technology to a bachelor of science in computing from Oxford Brookes University.

— The Star
April 20, 2003

Malaysia Seeking Respect

Malaysia has been given a bad reputation as an educational destination due to scams and other poor practices by private colleges that have hampered the country’s efforts to compete with Singapore as a hub for higher education in Southeast Asia. Now Malaysia is making a concerted effort to try again at attracting foreign students.

The Ministry of Education has revoked the licenses of many of the private institutions that have so tarred the image of the country as a study destination. The fraudulent activities by some private colleges have involved enrolling foreign students and promising them a degree or diploma from a Western university that either has no agreement with that institution or has broken it off due to poor performance at the Malaysian end. Nearly a thousand students had been affected before the ministry closed a large number of private colleges to stop malpractices involving foreign students. The federal government canceled more than 200 educational licenses issued to private colleges last year after a strong warning. But malpractice continues, and many students believe that in a tightly controlled education regime like Malaysia it would be impossible to continue this kind of fraud without government knowledge.

Malaysia is now trying to attract big-name institutions from the West into collaboration agreements with its private colleges, with the hook being lower fees than Singapore and Australia. Times are hard, though, and a number of agreements have been terminated. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which had a tie-up with the Malaysian Institute of Science and Technology, is planning to leave. Malaysia’s efforts to attract the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) failed, as IIT preferred Singapore, which offered better facilities. Nonetheless, several foreign institutes, including Nottingham University, Curtin University of Technology and a few other institutions in the United Kingdom and Australia have signed agreements with Malaysian institutions. Singapore still leads the way, though, boasting such prestigious offerings as degrees from Johns Hopkins, MIT, Stanford and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The latest addition will be IIT. Malaysia’s efforts to attract Wharton Business School from Singapore and the Kellogg School from Thailand have both failed.

— Asia Times Online
June 26, 2003

Singapore

Nation’s Fifth Polytechnic Opens Doors

A new student-centered approach is what Singapore’s newest polytechnic believes will set it apart from other institutions in the city-state. Republic Polytechnic describes its methodology as problem-based learning, with “interaction” and “communication” being the buzzwords that place responsibility for learning squarely on the shoulders of the student.

The Republic Polytechnic, Singapore’s fifth polytechnic (Singapore, Ngee Ann, Nanyang, Temasek Polytechnics being the other four), opened its doors to a first intake of 800 students this July at its temporary location in the renovated former Ministry of Education headquarters. Republic offers diploma programs in biomedical science, business computing, information technology, industrial and systems engineering and electronics engineering. The polytechnic will move to its permanent campus in Woodlands by 2006, where it hopes to enroll up to 13,000 students.

— Republic Polytechnic news release
July 5, 2003