Editorial Note: Web links have been removed from this page due to outdated third-party web content.

Canada

Report: Overseas Student Enrollments on Rise

Figures released at the end of July show a dramatic increase in the number of international students that enrolled at Canadian universities between 1997-98 and 2001-02.

The report released by Statistics Canada, the federal statistics agency, reveals a 60 percent increase in foreign student enrollments at Canadian universities over the five-year period. In academic year 2001-02, total overseas student enrollments stood at 52,600; however, as a proportion of total enrollment, the number of foreign students remained relatively low, at just under 6 percent. The increase is largely attributable to enrollment at the undergraduate level, which accounted for 54 percent of foreign students.

Foreign students’ places of origin are more diverse than in the past. In 1992-93, nearly 50 percent of foreign students came from Asia, while only 39 percent did so in 2001-02. During that academic year, 21 percent was from Europe and 18 percent was from North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

A report by Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Monitor/Observateur released in early July provides information on international student numbers for the last quarter of 2003. A particularly interesting trend from this report is the decline in the number of students from the top-two sending countries, South Korea and China, and from all the other top-10 source countries except India. The report points out that the declines may reflect regulatory changes that came into effect in June 2002 that no longer requires students to obtain study permits for short-term (less than six months) programs.

— CIC
July 2004
— Statistics Canada
July 30, 2004

Corinthian to Close 10 Colleges

Corinthian Colleges Inc., which operates for-profit colleges in Canada and the United States, says it will begin closing 10 Canadian campuses over the next year to re-allocate resources. In a July news release, the California-based company stated that students at the affected campuses will be given 12 months to finish their studies. New students will no longer be accepted.

— Globe and Mail
July 7, 2004

Vancouver University Opts Out of IAU

The University of British Columbia has given up its membership in the world’s largest association of degree-conferring institutions to pursue its interests in smaller and more entrepreneurial organizations such as Universitas 21 (U21) and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).

The Vancouver-based university has withdrawn from the 600-member, UNESCO-affiliated International Association of Universities (IAU) and is establishing global contacts through the 16-member U21 and the 36-member APRU. It is one of only five universities with overlapping membership of the two groups. The others are Fudan and Beijing universities in China, the National University of Singapore and the University of Auckland.

The IAU seeks to secure an international common framework for cross-border higher education and quality programs in the medium to longer term; however, the University of British Columbia wants to see concrete and sustainable results more quickly.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Aug. 6, 2004

Mexico

Worries of Health-Care-Drain Grow as U.S. Looks to Mexico for Nurses

Facing a shortage of nurses, hospitals in the United States are sending recruiters to Mexico and other poor nations, raising concerns of a possible drain on already strained health care in the developing world. U.S. authorities have warned the nation could fall 275,000 nurses short of what will be needed in 2010 as the elderly population continues to grow.

Recruiters have long found help in the Philippines, which established schools to train nurses to work in the United States. Health-care forces in India, South Korea and Nigeria also have been tapped. But the latest focus is on Mexico, whose nurses could help serve the United States’ rapidly expanding Hispanic population. Mexican nurses with advanced degrees can multiply their pay up to tenfold.

Recruiting of Mexican nurses is still in the early stages. Just 16 of 58 passed the U.S. nurse-licensing exam in 2002, according to the most recent statistics from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Recruiters have been very active in the last 48 months, however, and are going out of their way to attract Mexican nurses, who are often provided free English-language classes, visa applications and tests for U.S. certification. Some health experts are alarmed, warning that Mexico can ill afford to lose highly trained nurses. Research sponsored by the World Health Organization has found the quality of health care suffers in poor countries that become sources for nurses working in rich countries. Some wealthier nations, such as Norway, have put caps on the number of foreign nurses the government may hire. Others, such as Britain and Ireland, have set ethical guidelines for international nurse recruitment. (See Africa section of this issue.)

— Associated Press
July 6, 2004

Phoenix Enters Mexican Market Through ‘Learning Centers’

The University of Phoenix (UoP) recently received approval to offer classes through “learning centers” at universities in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The centers, expected to open in early 2005, will serve the several hundred students who cross from Chihuahua into Texas and New Mexico to attend the University of Phoenix campuses in the United States. The Apollo Group, parent company of UoP, said it will continue to cater to working students. The centers will first offer English classes; the company may later implement its Spanish curriculum, which is currently used in Puerto Rico. The company plans to expand the University of Phoenix into other parts of Mexico in partnership with other institutions.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sept. 9, 2004

Peru

Laureate Extends Operations in Latin America, Europe

Laureate Education Inc. announced in September the acquisition of an 80 percent interest in Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), an accredited private university with two downtown campuses in Lima, Peru. Laureate Education also announced the signing of an agreement to acquire a 70 percent interest in Ecole Centrale des Techniques de l’Environnement Industriel (ECTEI), a French education company that manages Ecole Centrale d’Electronique (ECE), an engineering school in Paris.

Founded in 1994, UPC offers undergraduate and graduate programs in business, engineering, law, communications and architecture to approximately 4,500 students. The institution also provides programs in engineering and information technology to more than 1,500 students through its technical/vocational institute, Cibertec. UPC serves Peru’s rapidly growing population of 830,000 postsecondary students —

a target market 60 percent larger than that of Chile, where Laureate has a significant presence.

ECE is accredited by the Commission des Titres d’Ingénieurs (the accrediting body of the French Ministry of Education for engineering schools) and is a member of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles. Together, ECTEI and ECE serve approximately 1,350 students in the Paris metropolitan area, offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in engineering, information systems, embedded systems and telecommunications. This is Laureate’s second acquisition in France, after the 2001 acquisition of Ecole Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur (ESCE), which offers undergraduate and graduate programs in international business with approximately 1,200 students in Paris and Lyon.

— Business Wire
Sept. 22, 2004

The United States

Falling Demand for MBA Echoes International Student Trend

As of June 30, more than 25 percent fewer students have taken the Graduate Management Admission Tests (GMAT) than in 2002, the tests’ peak. A related trend was echoed in the results of a Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) survey, in which 41 percent of programs that responded reported a decline in applications greater than 20 percent.

With the economy on the mend, some believe demand is returning to “normal” levels. Others, however, point out that the decrease is even greater among foreign students than U.S. students. They attribute the drop to such issues as visa restrictions and growth in overseas alternatives. The biggest lag in interest is among Chinese and Indian students, who now have better job and study options in their own countries, as well as in other parts of the world.

The GMAC survey also reported growth in the demand for executive MBA programs, which are designed for management professionals. In the council’s most recent MBA graduate survey, 60 percent of respondents felt the value of their degrees was “outstanding” or “excellent.”

— Boston Globe
Aug. 1, 2004

Accreditation Proposal a Divisive Issue

The Bush administration and Republicans in the U.S. Congress want university accreditation reports — which currently are confidential — made public. The move has sparked fear among university and accreditation associations, who say such a measure would discourage schools from being forthright with accreditors and would open accreditors to lawsuits if they are publicly identified as having filed negative evaluations.

The argument is proving divisive. On the one hand, university officials and some accreditors say they are willing to accept requirements that certain statistics be made public, including graduate success rates, to inform prospective students looking for quality indicators in certain areas, rather than a blanket statement of quality as provided by the current accreditation system. Others complain that this would encourage unfair comparison of dissimilar universities. They say it is sufficient for the public to know whether an institution is accredited, and which standards and procedures were used to evaluate it.

Unless a school fails to meet accreditation standards altogether, the evaluation results are not made public. The proposed College Access and Opportunity Act would fall in line with the administration’s campaign to hold public primary and secondary schools more accountable for the success of their students.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Aug. 13, 2004

Ivy League Continues to Dominate Rankings

For the second year running, Harvard and Princeton jointly top U.S. News & World Report’s annual league table of American universities. Yale and the University of Pennsylvania take third and fourth places, respectively.

The top 10, rated on a range of factors that include staff qualifications, student ratios, dropout rates and peer assessment by other university heads, has changed little from 2003. Three universities tied for fifth place: Duke, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. The California Institute of Technology was eighth, followed by Columbia University and Dartmouth College, which tied for ninth.

The highest-ranking public university was the University of California at Berkeley, followed by the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. Williams College topped the rankings of liberal-arts colleges, followed by Amherst and Swarthmore, which shared second place.

— US News & World Report
Aug. 19, 2004

Federal Report Leads to Multimillion-Dollar Wrist Slap for Phoenix

The nation’s largest for-profit university was fined US$9.8 million by federal regulators, who concluded the University of Phoenix was so focused on boosting enrollments that it pressured recruiters to accept unqualified students. The fine was the largest ever imposed by the Department of Education, which oversees federal financial-aid programs and has strict rules against paying recruiters based on the number of students they enroll. The department found the school evaluated recruiters and set salary incentives for them based on how many people they signed up and then tried to hide those practices from the government.

— Associated Press
Sept. 14, 2004

International Graduate Student Numbers Continue to Decline

According to a report released in September by the Council of Graduate Students, the number of foreign students granted admission to U.S. schools dropped 18 percent in 2004 from 2003. The survey is the second of a three-part study that hopes to examine the effects of changes in U.S. visa policies on international graduate students in both applications and admissions. Both reported declines among the top three sending countries in both areas.

The report is based on data collected from 126 schools. There was a 45 percent drop in applications from China, which was accompanied by a 34 percent drop in admissions. The number of applications from India declined 30 percent; there were 19 percent fewer admissions. The numbers from South Korea declined 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Experts blame the trend on more-stringent visa requirements for foreign students since 2001. In addition, foreign competitors have been recruiting aggressively to pick up the slack. The report concludes, rather pessimistically, that “there is no reason to believe that these factors will diminish in the short run.”

— The Council of Graduate Schools news release
Sept. 7, 2004

Venezuela

New University Sparks Controversy, Debate

Bolivarian University of Venezuela was established in July 2003 to provide higher education opportunities for the poor by offering places based on applicants’ goals and socioeconomic backgrounds rather than on their results on state-run or university-administered standardized tests. This policy is based on the belief that the state owes a debt to the poor, who tend to fair poorly on admissions tests.

The university, named after Simón Bolívar, who led the revolutionary armies that liberated northern South America from Spain, has both detractors and supporters. Opponents argue that improving public schools would benefit poor Venezuelans better, enabling more lower-income students to gain admission to established public universities.

The debate over the new university and the policies of President Hugo Chávez, who was elected in 1998 on a promise to help the two-thirds of Venezuelans in poverty, overshadows what may be a deeper and more important concern: Academics, government officials and others worry that Venezuela’s 24 public universities have become the preserve of the wealthy – despite charging virtually no tuition. Meanwhile, low- and middle-income students, with their low standardized test scores, are forced to attend private universities, which charge tuition of approximately US$800 a year. According to the Ministry of Education, less than 1 percent of public university freshmen in 2001 came from the poorest 42 percent of families.

The government announced in 2003 that the new university would enroll 450,000 students during its first year, nearly equal to the 500,000-student enrollment at existing universities. The university currently enrolls 10,000 students at five campuses. University officials have since scaled back estimates to 20,000 enrolled students on a half-dozen campuses around the nation by year’s end.

Government officials say they created Bolivarian University only after attempts to reform existing higher education failed. Of particular concern, they say, is the trend away from the national examination and toward reliance on university-based entrance exams, which they believe are even more biased against low-income students than the national test.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Aug. 6, 2004