Canada
Enrollments Soar to Record Levels
Enrollment at Canadian universities is at record levels despite rising tuition fees and stiffer admission requirements, according to a new study on postsecondary education.
Average yearly tuition has climbed 50 percent to US$3,400, and cutoff marks have moved up 10 percentage points to 84 percent over the past decade. At the same time, university enrollment has increased 20 percent in the past five years, according to the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation [1] report released in November. The report, entitled “The Price of Knowledge [2],” shows that universities in Ontario have seen the greatest enrollment increase, followed by those in British Columbia and Manitoba.
But a closer look at who is attending university indicates mainly middle-class students. The report shows that students from high-income backgrounds are twice as likely to go to university as those from low-income families. The report suggests that while governments have invested in student financial-aid programs over the past decade, new money is not necessarily being directed to those students most in need. Furthermore, there has been a decrease in the number of students who can borrow money because of tighter eligibility criteria.
There are approximately 1.7 million Canadians enrolled, full-time or part-time, in Canadian universities and colleges.
— The Globe and Mail [3]
Nov. 9, 2004
Ontario Universities Top Annual Ranking
Maclean [4]’s magazine’s annual ranking of Canadian colleges, released in November, places Ontario’s University of Waterloo [5] first in the category of “comprehensive universities.” Waterloo’s move up bumps last year’s table-topper, Ontario’s University of Guelph [6], down to second.
The magazine defines comprehensive institutions as having a significant amount of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees. The University of Victoria [7], in British Columbia, remains third.
In the “medical doctoral” category, for universities with medical schools and a broad array of doctoral programs, there is little change. The University of Toronto [8] remains in first place in the category, a position it has held since 1994. McGill University [9] in Montreal and the University of Western Ontario [10] in London remain second and third, respectively. In the “primarily undergraduate” category, the top three spots remain the same: St. Francis Xavier [11] in Nova Scotia in first place, followed by Mount Allison [12] in New Brunswick and Acadia University [13] in Nova Scotia.
The rankings, designed to facilitate comparisons among Canada’s public universities, are based on approximately 24 measures of performance, including: freshman admission marks, number of international students, student retention, class sizes, percentage of courses taught by tenured and tenure-track professors, successful research-grant applications, financial footing, campus resources, national reputation and alumni support.
— Maclean’s [14]
Nov. 8, 2004
Mexico
First University for Native Population Opens
The Mexican government has opened the first in a promised network of “intercultural universities.” These institutions will give priority to indigenous students, a tiny minority of whom goes on to tertiary education, while working to preserve their languages and cultures. The move is part of President Vicente Fox’s promise to redress historical inequities by creating universities that cater to the specific needs of indigenous communities.
The first institution is the Intercultural University of Mexico State, which began classes in September in the farming town of San Felipe del Progreso, 60 miles northwest of Mexico City. The 270 freshmen, two-thirds of whom are Mazahua Indians, are enrolled in sustainable development, intercultural communication or language and culture. The other students are of mixed Indian and Spanish blood, in keeping with the government policy that 20 percent of students at the new universities should be non-Indians.
The university expects to enroll as many as 2,700 students, who will earn five-year bachelor’s degrees or three-year teaching degrees. Seven more intercultural universities are slated to open in areas with large indigenous populations before Fox’s term ends in December 2006, according to the Education Ministry.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education [15]
Oct. 22, 2004
Number of Overseas Scholarships Slashed
The Mexican government has greatly reduced the amount of financial aid for students pursuing degrees overseas, and has nearly doubled the number of awards to Mexican-based programs. The number of new international scholarships has dropped from 1,469 in 2000 to 691 in 2004, according to the Mexican Council for Science and Technology [16] (Conacyt), the government’s main grant agency. Meanwhile, domestic scholarships have grown from 4,806 in 2001 to an expected 8,100 in 2004.
The change reflects efforts by President Vicente Fox to maximize spending on education by linking it to economic development. Under the new policy, Conacyt gives priority to students pursuing degrees abroad in areas not taught at Mexican universities, but which could contribute to future economic and social development in Mexico.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education [15]
Oct. 15, 2004
United States of America
Tri-Continental Business Program Launched
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School [17] is partnering with the Chinese University of Hong Kong [18] (CUHK) and Copenhagen Business School [19] (CBS) to launch a pioneering international program in undergraduate business designed to prepare students with first-hand experiences for an increasingly interdependent global economy.
The schools will offer the Global Learning Opportunities in Business Education (GLOBE) program, which will require students to study together at each of the three campuses and undertake field trips to corporations in Brussels, Berlin, Shanghai, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. The first GLOBE students will be selected for the three-year programs at CUHK and CBS in fall 2005 and into UNC’s two-year undergraduate program in fall 2006. Students will spend the fall semester of their junior year at their home institutions, followed by a semester each in Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Washington. They will return to their home institutions for the spring semester of their senior year to complete their undergraduate degrees.
— Ascribe Newswire [20]
Oct. 27, 2004
Study Confirms Trending Decline in Overseas Graduate Numbers
In the third and final part of a study examining the effects of changes in U.S. visa policies on international graduate students, the Council of Graduate Schools [21] (CGS) is reporting a 6 percent decline in first-time international graduate student enrollment between 2004 and 2003.
The report is based on data collected from a survey of its 450 members. Sixty-eight percent of responding schools reported declines in first-time international graduate enrollment, translating to a 6 percent decline overall. First-time enrollment from China decreased 8 percent and from India 4 percent. The fields of life sciences/agriculture, business and engineering saw the steepest declines (10 percent, 12 percent and 8 percent, respectively), while physical sciences was the only field that showed an increase (6 percent) in first-time enrollment.
These findings stem from a 28 percent decline in international graduate applications and an 18 percent decline in international graduate admissions, reported by CGS in September (see September/October 2004 issue of WENR [22]). The primary reason that the 18 percent decline in admissions did not translate into as large a decline in first-time enrollment was a notable increase in admissions yield. In 2003, 38 percent of admitted international graduate students enrolled in U.S. graduate schools, while in 2004 that figure was 43 percent.
According to CGS President Debra W. Stewart, “The three primary factors leading to declines in international graduate applications, admits and enrollment are increased global competition, changing visa policies and diminished perceptions of the U.S. abroad.
“While these numbers are distressing,” Stewart said, “the declines are not nearly as great as some had feared. It is encouraging that the graduate schools are battling declines by streamlining their admissions processes, enhancing their use of technology and forming important international partnerships.”
— Council on Graduate School news release [21]
Nov. 4, 2004
‘Open Doors’: Overall International Student Numbers Drop
The number of overseas students studying at U.S. institutions of higher education dropped 2.4 percent in academic year 2003-04 from the previous year, representing the first annual decline since the 1971-72 academic year. The figures appear in the annual “Open Doors [23]” report published by the Institute for International Education [24].
There was a particularly sharp drop in the enrollment of undergraduates from India, China and Japan. Total enrollment from India, the largest source country for the third year, increased 7 percent, but undergraduate enrollment fell 9 percent. Total enrollment for students from China, the second-largest source country, fell 5 percent, but undergraduate enrollment dropped even more sharply — 20 percent. Total enrollment for students from South Korea, the third-largest source country, rose 2 percent despite a drop of 1 percent in undergraduate enrollments. From Japan, for a long time the largest market and now fourth-largest market, overall enrollments dropped 11 percent; at the undergraduate level, they fell 14 percent.
Full details, including top-receiving institutions and most popular destinations for U.S. students studying abroad, can be found HERE [23].
— Institute for International Education
Nov. 15, 2004
New Mexico Inks Deal to Hire Mexican Teachers
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has signed an agreement with government officials in Mexico to encourage Mexican teachers to teach in his state for up to three years. The agreement makes New Mexico the second state, after California, to have such an agreement with Mexico.
By contrast, 23 states and four individual school districts outside of those states have formal arrangements with Spain to bring teachers to the United States for three-year stints. Approximately 1,000 teachers from Spain are currently teaching in U.S. public schools through such agreements, according to the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Only 60 teachers from Mexico are teaching in the United States under California’s agreement with Mexico.
California’s agreement with Mexico’s Ministry of Education [25] was signed in 1984. California was also the first state to forge an agreement with Spain to recruit teachers.
For foreign teachers to obtain J-1 visas, the U.S. State Department requires them to be fluent in English, have teaching credentials in their home countries and have at least three years of teaching experience. They are paid regular salaries and benefits by their U.S. school districts.
— Education Week [26]
Nov. 3, 2004
Study: Students Highly Satisfied With Online Education Amid Blossoming Enrollments
Online providers of academic courses can be encouraged by a recent report showing that enrollments grew rapidly in 2003 and that there is no evidence that this growth will plateau in the near future. They can also be encouraged by the report’s findings that consumers are generally satisfied with the product they are receiving.
The report, “Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004,” was based on responses to a survey from 1,170 institutions conducted in spring 2004. The study is supported by the Sloan Foundation and run by the Sloan Consortium, an organization that supports online learning, and the Sloan Center for Online Education [27]. According to the report, 1.9 million students were enrolled in online courses in fall 2003, 19 percent more than the year before, and in line with predictions from that year’s study. Administrators surveyed for the most recent report said they expected online enrollment to grow an additional 24 percent, to 2.6 million, by this fall. The growth rate among private, for-profit colleges was expected to be about 40 percent, almost double the rate among public or private nonprofit colleges.
The survey also covered perceptions about online learning. It found that administrators were confident of the quality of the education students receive online, although that confidence varies with the types of institutions that responded to the survey. Slightly more than half of all colleges rated online learning as essential to their overall strategy. Just over 40 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement that students were at least as satisfied with their online courses as with traditional classroom instruction. Approximately 3 percent of the respondents disagreed, while 56 percent were neutral.
The full findings of the report can be found HERE [28].
— Sloan news release [29]
Nov. 12, 2004