Afghanistan

Private Universities to Fill Demand

Despite Afghanistan’s poverty, international institutions of higher education say there is a market for fee-paying education, and there are now plans for at least two international colleges in Kabul. Demand is high in a country where teaching and education are well respected but years of conflict have brought the state system to its knees.

There is talk of setting up an American University in Afghanistan, along the lines of the long-established institutions in Cairo and Beirut. There apparently are enough people with money to make private schooling a viable prospect — Ariana Gulf Medical College, with financing from the United Arab Emirates, has just announced it will open its doors in Kabul to 100 students for the 2004 academic year. Those students will pay $US10,000 a year to follow a six-year program, using English as the medium of instruction.

There is already a burgeoning private-college sector that mainly offers courses in English and computing, despite the 1964 Constitution that stipulates the “state alone has the right and duty to establish and administer the institutions of public and higher learning.” A new constitution is expected to be completed in December, before either the American university or the medical college will open.

— Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Nov. 3, 2003

Australia

Associate Degrees Given the Go-Ahead

Private colleges have been given the green light to offer associate degrees after a hard-fought two-year national campaign. State, territory and federal education ministries decided in July to include associate degrees in the Australian Qualifications Framework as a higher education qualification.

Controversy has centered on whether the qualification should be a higher education, vocational or dual-sector one. The Ministerial Council on Education decided that it should be only a higher education qualification. But vocational colleges will still be able to deliver it as long as they go through state higher-education accreditation processes.

— The Australian
July 16, 2003

Technology Institutes Combine to Offer International Joint Degrees

Institutes of technology in Australia, the United States and Canada have established an education network to develop an “international skills passport” that will give students global employment opportunities.

The Box Hill Institute of Technology and Further Education in Melbourne developed the scheme with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and the Colorado Mountain College. The ultimate goal is to allow students to gain employment in any continent by providing them with industry-focused courses that would be recognized worldwide.

Student and staff exchanges have already taken place in trials of the scheme last year, in which Melbourne students attended the Canadian and U.S. colleges. The first semester-long exchange, in which Box Hill students will attend classes at Alberta College, has been planned for later this year. Students will receive a Box Hill diploma with a logo from the Canadian institute indicating the work completed there.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
May 16, 2003

Off-Shore Institutions to Be Audited

The National Quality Agency has backed federal moves to conduct audits of Australian higher education activities abroad on a whole-of-country basis but has warned of the risk of overlap and duplication.

Malaysia, one of the biggest source countries for Australian universities, has been cropping up as a possible first target for audits. Details of the government’s plans are still scant, though. Education Minister Brendan Nelson has earmarked A$590,000 a year from 2005 for the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) to conduct the audits. The move comes amid a growing push to tighten quality control in the expanding international education market that, in Australia, is worth A$4 billion a year.

At present, AUQA audits individual universities. That includes looking at their operations off-shore and sometimes having auditors visit those. Whole-of-country audits would be a significant development in an Australian quality audit system that is still in its infancy.

— The Australian
June 18, 2003

Forgeries Play Havoc with Visa Process

The increasing sophistication of forged documents and the surging volume of applicants – especially from China – are beginning to clog the visa-processing system of overseas students. The Department of Immigration told an international education conference in October that forgeries, although small in number (1 percent to 2 percent of 90,000 applicants annually), are becoming harder to detect.

According to Australian officials, document fraud – usually forged qualifications – is especially prominent in China, Vietnam, India, Pakistan and parts of Eastern Europe and South America. Modern publishing software is making detection of forgeries more difficult. Delays occur when fraud is suspected and documents have to be checked against records at the source institution. Students from India and China show the most concern about delays in visa applications.

— The Australian
Oct. 29, 2003

New University to Offer Australia’s First Online Law Degree

Charles Darwin University, to be established Jan. 1 through the merger of Northern Territory University and Centralian College, will offer the country’s first external, fully interactive online bachelor of law degree, giving students living in remote areas the opportunity to experience lectures, debates and all other interactive aspects of a degree from their home.

— EDNA Online
Oct. 10, 2003

Bangladesh

All-Female University to Open

Work has begun on an all-women’s residential international university in Kaliakor, scheduled for completion no later than 2005.

A five-year residential study program with master’s degrees combining liberal arts with professional training in engineering and other fields will be rare, if not unique, in Asia. The course of study will include three years of undergraduate study, primarily in the humanities, combined with two years of professional training in one of five fields: management, public policy, education, environmental engineering and information technology.

Those involved envision a student body of 2,000 from 20 Asian countries. It will be staffed by Asian faculty who will teach courses in English.

— Women’s Enews
June 18, 2003

China

University Complex in Beihai

Construction of a university park in southern China’s Guangxi province got under way in July. The complex will play host to a number of institutions. Those already invested in the project include Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Sino-French Association for the Development of Education.

The estimated cost of the project is about US$1.2 billion, it is due for completion by April 2004, with the first 1,500 students expected to enroll by fall of the same year. It will be located in Beihai on the border with Macau.

— People’s Daily
July 31, 2003

Shanghai JiaoTong Builds International Partnerships

Students at Shanghai’s JiaoTong University now have a number of international options in the course of their studies due to a number of cooperation agreements that the institution has entered into recently.

Students from the mechanical engineering department will soon be able to participate in a joint program with the University of Michigan that covers undergraduate through doctoral level studies. Some students will go to Ann Arbor to pursue master’s degrees and then return to JiaoTong for three years of doctoral studies. At the business school, a recent agreement sees the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business offering its global executive MBA degree program for U.S. and Asia-Pacific nationals to begin in 2004. Future projects listed on the JiaoTong Web site feature names such as the University of London, the University of British Columbia, the University of Sydney and the University of Nottingham.

JiaoTong is also exporting programs and has recently set up an office at Nanyang Business School in Singapore, where it will offer an 18-month part-time MBA program resulting in a degree awarded by JiaoTong.

— JiaoTong media advisory
June 9, 2003

New Law Puts Growing Private Sector on Equal Footing

China has put into force a law giving private education providers equal status with state-owned schools. The private education sector has been growing ever since its initial vague recognition in the 1982 constitution that encouraged not just state-owned education providers, but “other entities.” This language contributed to bureaucratic misconduct, lawsuits, and a yearning for greater clarity and support. Private-education providers have essentially held the status of nonprofit providers whereby “investment with no repayment,” has been the official line. However, in reality private institutions have been allowed to make profits and therefore needed to pay taxes.

The nation’s 1,300 non-governmental colleges service approximately three million students, or 10 percent of China’s higher education enrollments, and have generated 300 billion RMB (US$36.1 billion) in revenue in the past 10 years. The new laws represent an effort by the national government to come to grips with the legal issues concerning private education in its current state and to clarify the previously opaque language legislating its provision.

The Law on Private Education Promotion, passed at the end of 2002 and effective Sept.1 this year, stipulates that “private-school investors can get a reasonable repayment after deducting schooling costs and reserving development funds and other expenses.” Further laws recently passed give private schools an equal footing with state-owned schools in what the

Economic Daily called “a marker of the great changes that have taken place in the educational system of the country”. According to the law, non-state educational sectors can enjoy national and other preferential treatment in the management of schools. The law also regulates both the government’s and the investor’s activities in order to safeguard the legal rights and interests of the schools, students and staff. In effect, the law attempts to both promote and regulate private education.

It is important to note that although there are 1,300 private institutions of higher education licensed by the state, only 167 issue credentials recognized by the ministry of education as equal to those from a state school. Students enrolled in private schools have the option of sitting external exams in their programs of study that are offered by the state twice a year. If passed, the exams represent a validation of student knowledge and credit is accumulated towards the award of state-recognized credentials.

— Nick Clark, Assistant Editor, WENR

Ministry to Evaluate Foreign Institutions

For students wishing to study abroad, the Ministry of Education plans to establish an official center to evaluate the quality of foreign institutions of education, with evaluation results to be posted at http://www.jsj.edu.cn. It expects to establish service standards for intermediary agencies and to train agency managers in a bid to curb “unethical” practices. The number of Chinese students studying abroad is increasing, and nearly 70 percent use the services of agents. Currently, there are 270 authorized agents in China and an untold number of unofficial “consultants.”

— Education Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003

India

Chhattisgarh State Inundated with New Institutions

Thirty new private universities have set up in Chhattisgarh over the past six months, and another five are waiting in the wings. Chhattisgarh is a new state that was created in 2000 by splitting Madhya Paradesh into two states. The establishment of private institutions in the country has been on hold pending the passing of the Private Universities Bill, languishing in National Parliament since 1995. But Chhattisgarh passed the Private University Act last year, thereby becoming the first state in the country to allow private universities and opening the floodgates to for-profit institutions.

Students are reportedly flocking to newly created institutions from both within the state and from neighboring states, snapping up the opportunity to take classes at roughly half the cost of elsewhere in the country. Serious concern has been raised, however, that these institutions are not always entirely honorable in their intentions and that many institutions often lack the necessary infrastructure and faculty to offer acceptable standards of education. Some ask whether these degrees will be recognized elsewhere in the country and state that if these universities become discredited in the near future, the degrees they have issued will be worthless.

— Indiaedunews
July 28, 2003

Trade in Education Services Not a Go for India

India currently has no obligations to allow foreign educational services into the country under the 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The country is saying that it has no intention of making commitments to the contrary in the latest round of talks, despite pressure from major education providers such as the United States, the EU, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Indian institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management do have the potential to attract and supply foreign markets, especially in developing and neighboring countries, but India has decided to protect its own market rather than trying to pry open other markets. The industry seems to back the government’s stance. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has made statements indicating that India has nothing to gain from the liberalization of trade in educational services because it is a net importer—i.e., more students go abroad for education than India welcomes to its shores. Meanwhile, India is continuing its recent policy of regulating foreign activity in the country (see May/June and March/April issues WENR).

— The Times of India
Aug. 28, 2003

Tamil Nadu Open University Offers First Courses

This academic year sees the Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU) offering certificate, diploma and degree programs in a number of faculties. The university has tied up with Indira Ghandi National Open University (IGNOU) to provide distance education and develop learning materials. Initially, TNOU will be using the IGNOU syllabus and materials for delivery of its courses, while developing its own educational infrastructure for course delivery.

The institution’s long-term plan envisions learning centers located across the country to enable face-to-face learning to supplement online courses. The institution has gained approval to offer B.A., M.Com, M.A., MBA, diploma and certificate programs. All programs are based on a full-time load of 36 credit points per year.

— Indiaedunews
Aug. 4, 2003

Manipal: Education Mecca

Dr. Ramadas Pai is the driving force (and pocketbook) behind one of India’s largest educational empires, or, as described on its Web site, “A Mecca of education and health services.” Situated in the province of Karnataka, the town of Manipal has grown to accommodate 53 schools and colleges, 30,000 students, and 3,000 instructors and administrators under the umbrella of the Manipal Group and its deemed university, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. The Pais family, whose corporate entity is the Manipal Group, owns it all.

The Manipal Group’s schools and colleges have always followed a unique self-financing model. Simply put, that means admission is based on merit and ability to pay. Today, 25 percent of the places in all institutions run by the group are reserved for non-resident Indians who, along with foreign students from 32 countries, are charged a tuition fee that is typically four times what locals pay. The Manipal Group also operates colleges in Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

— Business Today
Aug. 17, 2003

U.S. Drops Student Visa Fees

The United States has scrapped student visa issuance fees for Indian students, although application fees of US$100 for potential students wishing to study in the States still apply. It was made clear that the application fee was not being eliminated and must still be paid for all visa applications that currently require the payment of an application fee. These include applications for students. The new fee structure began Oct. 11.

— Hindustan Times
Oct. 7, 2003

IIT Abroad?

In an effort to market Indian education abroad, the government has been discussing plans to promote the world-renowned Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). According to a release, the government will first set up IIT campuses abroad, in such developing nations with growing demand as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Mauritius and the countries of West and Southeast Asia. Expert committees believe institutions with good brand equity operating abroad can establish a base from which other institutions can springboard.

A recent proposal from Singapore to facilitate the presence of an IIT for postgraduate education and research is fast-tracking the Indian government’s plans. At a recent IIT council meeting, members saw the benefit of working with other top Singapore institutions. In addition, IIT’s presence will help India develop links with Southeast Asia and China, as well as support the promotion of its economic and commercial interests in the Asia-Pacific Region.

— Economic Times
Sept. 23, 2003

Malaysia

International University Links with U.K. Institutions

INTI Management Services (IMS), a wholly owned subsidiary of INTI International Group of Colleges, has forged an agreement with U.K. eUniversities ((UKeU); see January/February issue WENR) to market and support the online provision of degree courses from the various universities offering courses through the UKeU platform. IMS will function as UKeU’s accredited partner in Malaysia, upon approval from the Ministry of Education.

Currently, only four programs are available through UKeU, although more are in the pipeline. UKeU was set up on the initiative of the British government as a platform for British universities to offer programs online to students around the globe. INTI International Group of Colleges has five campuses in Malaysia and five internationally in Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam and Beijing. INTI has a number of agreements with institutions from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand, offering their programs through licensing agreements.

— The Star
Aug. 3, 2003

MMU Expands into Oman and Thailand

Multimedia University, Malaysia’s first government-approved private university, plans to open branches in Oman and Thailand within the next six months.

Each campus will initially enroll about 30 students into a bachelor of business administration program in the Oman campus, and e-business programs in Thailand. The university also has branches in Ghana, South Africa and China.

— The Star
Aug. 3, 2003

Technical University Opens

Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) is the latest university to open in Malaysia and joins the list of 16 public and 21 private universities in the country. It is the result of the integration of various Mara institutes with input from France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. It will be managed by Universiti Teknikal Mara.

The institution is modeled after the German fachhochschulen, where students spend a few semesters on practical training. It aims to produce graduates specializing in engineering and technology, with about 60 percent of its curriculum devoted to hands-on learning.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

3 Private Institutions Given ‘University-College’ Status

Ikram College of Technology (renamed Kuala Lumpur Infrastructure University College), University College Sedaya International and International University College of Technology Twintech were upgraded to university-college status in September.

A relatively new innovation, university-college status allows private colleges to offer their own bachelor- and master- level degrees. Kolej Universiti Teknologi dan Pengurusan Malaysia was the first private institution to be granted university-college status in 2001. However, other colleges were hesitant to seek a status upgrade because they would have to give up their staple of franchised foreign degree programs and offer their own degrees instead. A recent policy change allowing university colleges to offer franchised programs in addition to their own courses has changed all that.

Earlier this year, Limkokwing University-College of Creative Technology was the second private institution to be upgraded, followed by the three newly upgraded institutions.

In 1999, one private college secured university status: International Medical College was upgraded to International Medical University. It now offers its own medical degree programs in addition to medical degrees offered in collaboration with 24 partner universities from seven countries.

— The Star
Oct. 5, 2003

New Teacher-Training Programs to Start

A new, six-year program for teachers begins in 2004. The course provides qualified teacher trainees with a foundation program before being placed in local universities to pursue graduate-level degrees. The current Malaysian teaching diploma reportedly will be gradually phased out. The Ministry of Education has set a target of 50 percent graduate teachers in primary schools by 2010 and 100 percent graduate teachers in secondary schools by 2005.

— Education Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003

Number of Foreign Students Grows

There has been a 60 percent increase in the number of foreign students enrolled at schools in Malaysia, from 22,824 in 2002 to 36,466 in 2003. Minister of Education Tan Sri Musa said 28,827 of the students are in private universities and colleges, while 5,668 are in private schools. Among the 150 countries represented, China tops the list with 11,058 students, followed by Indonesia with 7,500. The target of enrolling 50,000 overseas students by 2005 now looks achievable.

— Education Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003

Myanmar (Burma)

Education in Crisis

Myanmar’s government is jeopardizing the future of an entire generation, with children being denied educational opportunities and basic health care, an international labor union said recently in a report.

The Belgium-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions released the report on Aug. 8 to coincide with the 15th anniversary of a Myanmar crackdown that killed thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were students. The report said that the “catastrophic economic situation” in Myanmar had forced the “vast majority” of parents to rely on their children to work to support their families, and that “access to a school will remain a dream unless and until the military regime radically changes its policy.”

In 1998 and 1999, 50 percent of Myanmar’s budget was spent on the military, compared with 7 percent on education, according to a UNICEF report from 2001.

— The Star Online
Aug. 17, 2003

New Zealand

Flow of International Students Stemmed

The collapse of one of the country’s biggest international-language schools has industry representatives worried that reliance on the volatile Asian markets, particularly China, could be disastrous. The Modern Age Institute of Learning, with campuses in Auckland, Wellington and Tauranga, was placed into receivership in early September.

International education is one of New Zealand’s top four export earners. A huge proportion of New Zealand’s foreign students are recruited from China—a market that, according to industry experts, is starting to dry up, forcing English-language providers to “re-group.” The Association of Private Providers of English Language Chairman Patrick Ibbertson said New Zealanders should be extremely worried about the plight of the country’s English-language schools, stating that the Chinese Government had “more or less switched off the tap for Chinese students coming to New Zealand schools,” leaving the industry in a perilous state.

A high-powered mission was recently in Beijing in the hopes of reversing negative media coverage within China, which claimed that New Zealand was anti-Asian and that 20 Chinese students attending New Zealand schools had died over the past six months.

— STUFF
Sept. 8, 2003

Indian Fairs Buoy Export Market

The number of students from India studying in New Zealand at tertiary-level institutions has increased from about 150 in 1999 to 3,000 in 2003, according to the New Zealand High Commission. Officials attribute the rapid increase in numbers to the education fairs held annually in five cities around India, which were started four years ago.

— Business Standard
Sept. 11, 2003

Polytechnic Sector Renamed

The polytechnic sector in New Zealand has been rebranded in an attempt to attract a more positive view of polytechnics and institutes of technology and therefore attract more students. The new brand was launched in August and has been applied to the sector’s peak body, the Association of Polytechnics, changing its name to the Association of Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics New Zealand. The aim is to refer to the polytechnic sector as the ITP sector and to emphasize polytechnic education and training as excellent and relevant to the workplace.

The move comes after the government asked tertiary institutions to differentiate themselves from one another and explain their place in the sector. It also comes amid a general feeling that polytechnic education and training have been regarded as second-rate by the public and after historical efforts by some polytechnics to become more like universities.

— Campus Review
Aug. 5, 2003

Singapore

Blueprint for a Global Education Hub

Singapore in August unveiled a blueprint aimed at lifting its education exports and capturing a larger slice of the burgeoning demand for higher education in Asia. There are currently 50,000 full-fee-paying foreign students enrolled in Singaporean schools, and the “Global Schoolhouse” blueprint hopes to raise the figure to between 100,000 and 150,000 by 2012.

Plans to expand the industry include the welcoming of providers from both Singapore and overseas at all levels of the academic food chain. According to the Straits Times, at least five schools from Singapore and abroad say they are keen to set up new private secondary and junior colleges in Singapore, now that such proposals are officially welcome. Proposals must be in by year’s end, and the decision on who gets the go-ahead should be known by next March. The Economic Development Board (EDB) has said that such schools will receive no state funding but will be free to run their own programs, as long as they follow the bilingual education policy and include national education.

The door has also been left fully ajar for the establishment of a fourth university, and it is likely to be an established foreign one. The EDB is hoping to sign a deal with an institution by mid-2004 and has been wooing institutions to set up a campus that will offer a comprehensive curriculum from liberal arts to engineering. Unlike the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University, the new university will be funded privately.

The EDB has already convinced 10 top-ranked institutions, including Johns Hopkins and INSEAD, to offer programs. The board is also working to attract brand-name specialist schools from overseas, such as the London College of Fashion and Le Cordon Bleu, to open branches in Singapore in order to make the city-state an educational hub that offers a wide variety of top-quality educational opportunities.

— The Straits Times
Sept. 8, 2003

NTU to Expand Curriculum

The Nanyang Technological University is in the process of setting up the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, its tenth school. The school, due to open July 2004, will offer language studies, behavioral psychology and economics.

This venture marks NTU’s first step toward offering a broad-based curriculum in 2005 (perhaps adopting American-style liberal-arts ideals), offering degrees in the physical sciences, humanities and design in addition to engineering, which is its mainstay. In a move to turn out well-rounded graduates, all students, by 2005, will have to study humanities and science subjects in addition to their core discipline.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

Indian IITs Eyeing Singapore Market

Six of the seven campuses of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have had talks with the Singapore government’s Economic Development Board, aiming to establish programs in Singapore. The move is one result of a planned increase in economic cooperation between Singapore and India. The initiative seeks to boost local research and development talent pools and to enhance Singapore’s reputation and identity as a regional and global hub for education.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

Duke, NUS to Establish Graduate Medical School

The National University of Singapore (NUS) will partner with Duke University Medical Center to establish the NUS Graduate Medical School by 2006.

The new school will be based on Duke’s medical school curriculum and the U.S. model, in which students enter medical school after earning a baccalaureate degree. The new Graduate Medical School will supplement the existing NUS School of Medicine, which is based on the British model, in which students enter medical school with essentially a high school degree. The new school will admit students with bachelor-level qualifications or adequate work experience. The program will follow Duke’s four-year curriculum, featuring one year of basic science, one clinical year, one research year and then one final clinical year. The program will lead to a doctor of medicine (MD) degree.

— Association of American Medical Colleges
July 1, 2003

Thailand

Slow-Paced Reform Process Criticized

Lack of progress in reforming the Thai education system has prompted frustration and criticism from academics, who have cited a deadline of October 2002 for changes that had not been met.

Frequent personnel changes in key positions within the Ministry of Education have been offered up to explain the delays. Many education bills are being drafted, but more work is still needed, according to some lecturers who do not see reforms coming into effect for at least a decade. Education Minister Pongpol Adireksarn admitted the going had been slow but that the authorities are committed to modernizing Thailand’s outdated systems.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

Vietnam

Curriculum Reform Stresses Patriotism

Political and ideological education will be integrated into the higher-education curriculum in the near future. A conference held by the Education Ministry and various (Communist) Party Committees revealed that ideology and politics will be a high priority, with emphasis on patriotism and love for one’s family. The focus will also be on moral, physical and arts education, with teaching and learning methods updated to encourage creative thinking and self-learning.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003