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Brazil
Labor University Opens
Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement has opened a university in São Paulo state to train its members.
The Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes in Guararema offers courses in the social sciences, small-scale agriculture, cooperative administration, community health and agricultural planning. Professors mainly come from local universities, and generally donate their time. The European Union has donated US$1 million of the US$1.3 million total budget to build the institution.
— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Feb. 28, 2005
Canada
Studies: Canada Capitalizes on U.S. Decline in Foreign Graduate Students
The findings of a recent study suggest that Canadian universities have been capitalizing on the recent decline in the number of international graduate students applying to U.S. universities.
Foreign graduate applications to the University of Toronto and McGill University have doubled in the past four years, while at the University of British Columbia, applications have climbed approximately 25 percent. International graduate enrollment climbed almost 20 percent at Canadian universities between 2002-03 and 2003-04, according to a survey of seven universities done by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies.
A similar survey conducted in 2004 by the U.S.-based Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) found that 88 percent of U.S. research-based institutions had experienced a year-on-year drop or plateau in applications. The CGS survey is based on the responses of 130 institutions. Of the 25 institutions that enroll the most international students in the United States, all of those that responded (19) reported a decline from the previous year’s enrollments. Fifteen of those institutions reported that applications were down more than 10 percent. Recent figures released by CGS suggest the trend has continued into the current academic year (see below).
— The Globe and Mail
Feb. 23, 2005
Recruitment Race Spawns Pre-emptive Recruitment Techniques
Universities increasingly are admitting students as early as a full academic year before they complete high school in the race to recruit the best students. Universities at the head of the recruitment curve claim that grade 11 marks are as good a predictor of academic aptitude as grade 12 midyear results.
The Ottawa Citizen reports that Acadia University, the University of Ottawa and the University of Western Ontario have been admitting students on the strength of their grade 11 results. Nova Scotia’s Acadia University is leading the pack, sending out offers in October to top students just weeks into their final year of high school. Other universities reportedly are playing catch up.
In Ontario, the University of Ottawa is testing a new computer system that will enable it to send out offers based solely on Grade 11 marks. The University of Western Ontario implemented a similar early-admissions system in 2004. The University of New Brunswick has upped the ante with the introduction of “Admissions on the Spot,” a system allowing prospective students to enter their grade 11 marks into a computer at a designated hotel, and find out in seconds whether they’re admitted. Senior admissions staff are on hand at the hotels to provide one-on-one counseling. Already, some are pointing to the adverse effects of early admission: Students could well become complacent and lazy in grade 12 knowing a place at university is already secured. If complacency sets in, this could carry over into university studies.
— Ottawa Citizen
Jan. 16, 2005
Mexico
Leading Provincial Universities Organize to Stress Quality
Eight leading provincial universities have banded together to improve the quality of their programs through academic exchanges and resource sharing. The Consortium of Mexican Universities, known by the Spanish acronym CUMex, is composed solely of provincial universities to highlight gains made in recent years by universities outside the capital Mexico City, long the headquarters of the nation’s most prestigious universities.
The universities were all included in a list of 13 institutions of higher education, composed by the government in November, to recognize “high quality” under the recently created National System of Evaluation and Accreditation. The new group will hold other applicant institutions to the same high standards they demonstrated in the accreditation process. Introduced in 2000, the new accreditation body is a result of cooperation between rectors and the government who are both keen to improve quality standards in tertiary education. Incentives for universities to work towards accreditation include increased federal funding.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 11, 2005
United States of America
Policy Changes Hit H-1B, Mantis Visas
Costs associated with the issuance of H-1B visas for foreign faculty members, researchers and medical residents went up in March. However, Visa Mantis requirements for foreign students and scientists working in sensitive technical fields were relaxed in February, and a government report found that the average clearance time for the Mantis visas has been drastically reduced.
The new H-1B regulations now require that colleges pay foreign workers 100 percent of either the actual or the prevailing wage for their job – instead of the previous 95 percent. In addition, a new $500 antifraud fee is assessed on every application filed on behalf of an employee. The hefty fee may well have implications for future college-hiring practices. Opponents of the fee believe it could force colleges to either hire fewer foreign researchers and academics or to move them into different visa classes, such as the J exchange-visitor visa, which expires after three years for academic staff, instead of six for the H-1B. When the $1,000 cost of “premium processing,” which a majority of institutions request, is factored in, additional costs associated with the H-1B now average approximately $2,000.
People who work or study in the United States under the Visa Mantis program are now able to maintain their security clearances for the full length of their academic programs, up to a maximum of four years. Previously, they needed to renew the clearances annually. Delays associated with the program are widely cited as one of the causes for the recent decline in international graduate students. Consequently, a recent Government Accountability Office report finding that the average clearance time for the Visa Mantis Program has dropped to 15 days from an average of 67 days in 2004 has been welcomed by U.S. education professionals.
— Chronicle of Higher Education
Feb. 1 and Feb. 14, 2005
Further Decline in International Graduate Applications
The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) released the results of a new survey in March indicating that the number of overseas students applying to U.S. graduate schools continues to drop, albeit at a slower rate than in 2004.
The report shows a 5 percent decline in international graduate student applications from 2004 to 2005, after a 28 percent decline the previous year. The CGS study found that the greatest decline in applications came from two of the most important markets for U.S. schools: China (-13 percent) and India (-9 percent). In India, and more so in China, students increasingly are being lured by stronger domestic graduate programs, especially in the fields of engineering and business. U.S. graduate schools have seen corresponding declines in applications to both engineering and business programs. The CGS report also cites increased global competition, tougher visa policies and diminished perceptions of the United States abroad.
The 2005 drop in applications does not necessarily equate to a drop in enrollments, however, as institutions can simply choose to accept a larger percentage of their applicants. As an example, despite 2004’s 28 percent decline in overseas applications, there was only a 6 percent decline in enrollments. It may, however, have a bearing on the overall quality of overseas graduate students coming to and being accepted into U.S. programs. Additionally, the latest decline in applications comes after three consecutive years of post-September 2001 declines in foreign enrollments at U.S. graduate schools.
— Council of Graduate Schools
March 9, 2005
Florida College Becomes University
Florida Memorial College, South Florida’s only historically black university, changed its name to Florida Memorial University in March. Administrators cite the emergence of its 2-year-old graduate programs in education and a large-scale campus expansion project as reasons for the change.
In 2004, the college opened a Fort Lauderdale campus to attract growing numbers of black and Hispanic students in the Broward County area. Meanwhile, the main campus in Northwest Miami-Dade County added four new buildings and landscaping in a $20 million makeover.
Administrators hope the new name will boost efforts to recruit students and give momentum to plans for adding other graduate programs, including a master’s in business administration.
— The Miami Herald
March 18, 2005
Virginia University Joins Innovative 1-2-1 U.S.-China Exchange Program
George Mason University signed agreements with seven Chinese universities in fall 2004 that will bring Chinese students to the Virginia-based university for their sophomore and junior years as part of the 1-2-1 U.S.-China Joint Academic Program.
The 1-2-1 program is an educational initiative that brings Chinese undergraduate students to the United States for the middle two years of their degree programs, from which they will graduate with dual degrees. The initiative involves approximately 20 universities in China and five in the United States, and was designed and is supported by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the China Center for International Educational Exchange under the Chinese Ministry of Education. The pilot phase of the program, which was conducted in 2001, brought 170 students from 19 Chinese universities to study at Troy State University in Alabama and Pittsburg State University in Kansas. George Mason, Ball State and Southeastern Oklahoma State universities joined the program in 2004, and several others plan to join this year.
— The Daily Mason Gazette
March 8, 2005