Regional

English-Taught Degrees in Asia Increasingly Common

A growing number of university programs in Asia are being taught in English, according to a paper from the London-based Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. According to the research organization, East Asian universities are teaching programs in English to help reduce the number of students traveling abroad to study in English or to overseas universities with Asian campuses. The growth of these programs could make it more difficult for universities in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia to recruit students from Asia, the report states.

It found that South Korea in particular had seen a growth in the number of programs offered in English. Top-ranking Korea University taught 35 percent of its classes in English last year compared to just 5 percent in 2002. Staff at Korea University opposed the re-election of the institution’s president after he introduced a policy of hiring only staff who could teach in English.

– The Times Higher Education Supplement
May 18, 2007

Australia

UNSW Failure in Singapore Offers Valuable Lessons

The University of New South Wales will abandon its campus in Singapore at the end of June just one semester after it opened its doors. The closure will cost the institution millions of dollars, and perhaps more importantly, precious credibility in the education export market. The university decided in mid-May to close UNSW Asia after talks with the Singaporean government failed to produce a rescue deal for the campus, which was struggling to survive on a tiny student population.

Offshore education is now worth an estimated US$25 billion worldwide, and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development figures show Australian universities enroll about one third of their students offshore.

UNSW Asia was planned as a unique venture among overseas operations of Australian universities, both in terms of its scale and that it planned to conduct research as well as teaching. It was banking on a student population of 15,000 over the next 20 years, but it decided to close after enrolling fewer than 150 students this semester, less than half the anticipated number. The university has already spent US$15 million on the project, and was guaranteed a further US$120 million for the construction of a permanent campus in South Changi, where ground had been broken and foundations sunk. Singapore has invested heavily in higher education with hopes of becoming an overseas student destination in its own right, and its national universities are cheaper than the foreign ones.

Singapore students left in the lurch by the withdrawal are planning to sue the university, Singapore newspaper The Straits Times reported. UNSW has flown in advisers to help students, who will be offered places in equivalent programs at UNSW in Sydney to start in the second semester. They have also been offered financial help for travel and accommodation.

Some other Australian universities with interests overseas said the keys to success were knowing the market and going in modestly. RMIT University’s Vietnam campus, Monash University’s Malaysia and South Africa campuses and Curtin University’s Sarawak (Malaysia) campuses were all performing well, vice-chancellors said.

– The Sydney Morning Herald
May 24, 2007

Two British Universities to Establish Campuses in South Australia

South Australian Premier Mike Rann has agreed to allow a British university specializing in defense studies to set up a campus in South Australia, and is in talks with another that would offer master’s degrees in environmental and energy law. Under an agreement with Cranfield University, the South Australian government will provide funding which includes a grant of US$1.23 million over three years towards funding for the British university’s development office in Adelaide. Primarily a postgraduate institution, Cranfield University operates three campuses at Shrivenham, in Oxfordshire, and Cranfield and Silsoe in Bedfordshire. Premier Rann said following the agreement, Cranfield would immediately apply as a foreign university resident in South Australia as required under Australian law.

In separate talks in June, representatives of University College London met the South Australian Premier and other state officials in Adelaide, where a new campus would be based. The university has signed a statement of understanding with the South Australian Government and has begun accreditation talks with the state Education Department. Mr Rann has been trying to establish Adelaide as a university city, offering incentives for foreign institutions to set up in his state.

Talks with the two British universities follows an agreement with US-based Carnegie Mellon, which last year established a branch in Adelaide to became the first foreign university to open a campus in Australia.

– All Headline News
May 22, 2007
– The Australian
June18, 2007

Bangladesh

56 Private Universities Blacklisted

The University Grants Commission in Bangladesh has released a list of 56 private universities, some of which are branch campuses of foreign universities, that it says are operating without prior approval and have been classified as illegal. The decision impacts 12,000 students currently estimated to be enrolled at those institutions.

A list of all 56 institutions is available here.

– The New Nation
May 12, 2007

China

“Credibility Record” Goes Online in Bid to Combat Exam Fraud

The Ministry of Education announced in late May that it will be setting up a public “credibility record” for test-takers in an effort to reduce exam fraud during the annual high stakes College Entrance Examination, taken by millions of university hopefuls every June. Cases of cheating in national educational tests, including the College Entrance Examination and postgraduate recruitment exams, would be entered on the record and made available online to employers and institutions of higher education, according to Lin Huiqing, a senior official with the ministry.

Education chiefs have taken a set of measures to clean up the exam environment, including requiring test-takers to sign written pledges and increasing security checks at exam venues. But still cheating is on the rise. In last year’s national college exam, about 3,000 students were caught cheating. In 2005, the number was 1,300.

– Xinhua
May 29, 2007

China Welcomes Record Number of Foreign Students in 2006

A total of 162,695 exchange students from 184 countries and regions studied in China in 2006, an increase of 15.3 percent from 2005 and the largest number ever recorded. Statistics released by the Ministry of Education in May show that overseas students studied at 519 universities and colleges in 31 Chinese provinces and regions. Government scholarships were awarded to 8,484 students, up 14.9 percent over the previous year and self-funded students totaled 154,211, up 13.2 percent. The number studying for more than six months totaled 119,733, and Asian students accounted for 74.33 percent of the total, with 12.71 percent from Europe, 9.6 percent from North America, 2.3 percent from Africa and 1.07 percent from Oceania. South Korea, Japan, the United States, Vietnam and Indonesia were the five biggest source countries.

– Xinhua News Agency
May 28, 2007

Is there a Chinese Brain Drain?

China suffers the worst brain drain in the world, according to a new study that found seven out of every 10 students who enroll in an overseas university never return to live in China. Despite the booming economy and government incentives to return, an increasing number of the country’s brightest minds are relocating to wealthier nations, where they can usually benefit from higher living standards, brighter career opportunities and the freedom to have as many children as they wish.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences revealed 1.06 million Chinese had gone to study overseas since 1978, but only 275,000 had returned. The rest had taken postgraduate courses, found work, got married or changed citizenship. The report claims the lack of first-class scientists and research pioneers represents the biggest obstacle to China’s ability to innovate.

To reverse the trend, Beijing is offering bigger incentives for returnees. Under new regulations issued in March, senior scientists, engineers and corporate managers are exempted from the household registration system (which determines various state privileges in China), allowed higher salaries and promised places for their children at top universities. Despite these enticements, the problem may get worse. In 2005, 118,500 students left China to study overseas. By 2010, the forecast is 200,000.

– The Guardian
June 2, 2007

New Overseas Study Scholarship Launched for Graduate Students

The Chinese Ministry of Education has launched a five-year graduate program that will send approximately 5,000 students a year to top-ranking schools around the world. According to government officials, the number of graduate students granted a national scholarship in 2007 will be roughly five times the number in 2006. Students will be chosen from the best undergraduates at 49 top universities across the country, including Tsinghua and Peking.

Officials with the China Scholarship Council, which runs the program, said students applying for national key research subjects, such as energy and natural resources, environment, agriculture, manufacturing, information technology, biology and new materials will be given priority. The council said it will also finance overseas study for 2,000 talented employees from State organizations and research institutes across the country.

– China Daily
June 5, 2007

India

US, Indian Business Schools Partner to Promote Female Management Opportunities

The Simmons School of Management in Boston and the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta have forged an academic mobility agreement that is designed to give female MBA candidates at both schools international business experience with a focus on entrepreneurial and leadership experience. The agreement is also designed to foster faculty collaborations and better understanding of cultural differences between the U.S. and India to create improved business relationships. Officials at both schools are working on developing advisory services for multinational businesses with U.S. and India-based operations.

– Ascribe Newswire
May 22, 2007

US-Based Certifier of Investment Professionals Ordered to Cease Operations

The All India Council for Technical Education has ordered the CFA Institute, an international organization that offers a certification for investment professionals, to cease operations in the country two weeks before 7,000 aspiring financial-market analysts and traders were scheduled to take the institute’s qualifying examinations. Although the CFA Institute’s certification is highly regarded in the financial world, the regulator made its decision because the CFA Institute had violated its regulations by not seeking approval for its operations beforehand.

The institute, which has headquarters in Charlottesville, Va., and more than 90,000 members in 134 countries, conducts examinations for acquiring a chartered-financial-analyst certificate. The institute provides the curriculum for the three-year course but does not offer classes or training through any medium. However, according to the All India Council, no foreign institution offering technical education can function in India without the regulatory panel’s approval, regardless of the nature of the program or what it is called. The institute plans to appeal the regulator’s action in the Delhi High Court. Meanwhile, it has notified Indian students who were scheduled to take the examinations in June that they are eligible for a refund of the exam fees, or they can take the exam outside of India, for which they would each receive $300 in travel expenses. The nearest examination centers are in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
May 25, 2007

Prime Minister Promises More Institutions of Higher Education

Following a report on the state of the nation’s tertiary sector by the National Knowledge Commission, which stated that only 7 percent of India’s 18- to 24-year-olds are enrolled in higher-education institutions, India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said in late May that the government would set up at least one Central University in each of the 16 states that lack one. To improve access to higher education nationwide, Mr. Singh added, the government would assist state administrations in establishing at least one degree-granting college in all of India’s 604 local governing districts. There are currently 20 Central Universities in 12 of the country’s 28 states, and 350 of the districts have no degree-granting colleges.

Noting that the percentage of university-age Indians studying at the tertiary level was half the average for Asian countries, the Knowledge Commission, an advisory body, recommended in its January report that India must increase its number of universities to 1,500 by 2015, from 350 now, in order to raise the proportion of 18- to 24-year-old Indians entering higher education to at least 15 percent. The Prime Minister was chairing a meeting to review the state of higher education in India and address the challenge of increasing enrollment while improving access to and quality of higher education in India. The Prime Minister directed the University Grants Commission and the Planning Commission to jointly prepare a strategy to meet the targets.

– The Indian Catholic
June 2, 2007

Overseas Universities Wishing to Establish in India Must Wait a Little Longer

A law that would allow foreign universities to set up in India without having to establish a joint venture with an Indian institution or recognize domestic quota requirements or fee caps has stalled in Parliament. The Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations, Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialization) Bill had been cleared by the Indian Cabinet earlier in March. However, disagreements over the clause stating that “institutes of excellence” would be exempt from admission quota requirements and fee caps has led to an impasse.

The bill, which was slated to be introduced to Parliament in its latest session ending May 22, had to be put on hold because of opposition from leftwing parties. If passed into law, all foreign institutes will have to be incorporated under Indian law, and will be given deemed-to-be university status. This would permit them to grant admission and award degrees, diplomas or certificates under the purview of the University Grants Commission.

– The Times of India
May 31, 2007

Delhi to be Home to Regional International University

South Asia University (SAU) will be located in New Delhi and is slated to begin operations in the summer of 2009. The decision was made at a two-day meeting of officials from the South Asia Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which took place in early June. Under an agreement already signed by SAARC member countries, the SAU proposes to bring together the brightest and the most dedicated students from across South Asia — irrespective of gender, caste, creed, disability, ethnicity or socio-economic background. It will be run by a governing board comprising two members from each of eight member states and headed by a chairperson. The university will be headed by a president, appointed by the governing board.

– The Times of India
June 2, 2007

Georgia Tech to Establish Campus in Hyderabad

The Georgia Institute of Technology signed a memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government in June that would allow the US-based institution to establish a campus in Hyderabad. Under the terms of the agreement, the state government would allot 20 acres of land for a main campus in Hyderabad and also 70 acres for a technology-focused satellite campus in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam.

Officials hope that after receiving approval from the All India Council for Technical Education, the campus will begin operations by 2009. If realized, it would become the first foreign university to set up a full-fledged campus offering foreign degrees in India. Established in 1988 with its main campus in Atlanta, Georgia Tech also has an international presence in Ireland, France, China and Singapore.

– Business Standard
June 6, 2007

Japan

Japanese Companies Prefer Domestically Educated Graduates

The number of Japanese students studying in the United States has been in steady decline for a decade, and today 10,000 fewer students study at U.S. universities than did in 1996 when Japan was the leading source of international students. The decline is attributed to a number of factors, including Japan’s sustained economic recovery, which, according to David Satterwhite, executive director of the Fulbright Commission in Japan, “has made more pronounced a long-standing attitude” held by Japanese companies of not seeking international experience in prospective employees.

In Japan, students are traditionally hired upon graduation and offered in-house training and lifetime employment. Satterwhite told Japan Today that in Japan’s hiring system, where university students traditionally advance in age-defined “cohort groups,” many students “have felt disadvantaged when they are away from the network of their recommending professors or classmates.”

Other cited reasons for the decline include Japan’s aging population and low birth rates resulting in less competition for university places among school leavers. With an improving economy that pulls in just 13 to 14 percent from exports, job-seekers do not necessarily see the benefit of studying abroad. English ability has always been an advantage, Satterwhite said, but rotation experience within a firm is “deemed far more important to advancement than experience abroad, or even English proficiency.”

– Japan Times
May 15, 2007

High-Level Government Adviser Makes Groundbreaking Reform Recommendations

The Japanese government’s first handpicked science adviser, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, has recommended a complete overhaul of the country’s higher-education system, after being asked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last October to advise his cabinet on science issues and to serve as chairman of the Innovation 25 Strategy Council, a panel of professors and industrialists charged with forecasting Japan’s science and technology needs until 2025.

A key structural weakness, most agree, is the country’s universities, which fare poorly in international university rankings and struggle to generate cutting-edge research. The council published its draft report in February and it is heavy on the need for “innovation.” Suggestions include a huge increase in spending on higher education — currently just 0.5 percent of GDP, compared with 0.9 percent in the United States, according to Japanese government statistics — and abolishing the inflexible one-day entrance exam that largely determines where students attend college in Japan. To drive innovation, the report stresses the need to shake up the koza system, under which a senior professor dominates the intellectual life of each academic department and forces junior colleagues to wait years for promotion, a system that Kurokawa believes kills creativity and innovation.

The report also recommends that big universities teach 20 percent of their courses in English. Just a handful of the most prestigious private universities are even close to that figure. And he wants to send thousands of students on foreign-exchange programs, while increasing the number of foreign undergraduates to 30 percent of enrollment, up from 9 percent now, and appoint more women to senior academic positions.

Whether Mr. Kurokawa’s ideas will gain traction remains to be seen. If Mr. Abe loses his bid for re-election this summer, then the former professor may no longer have the ear of Japan’s decision makers.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
May 25, 2007

Japan Issues Plan to Attract more Foreign Students

Currently there are approximately 120,000 foreign students studying in Japan, with almost 80 percent from China and South Korea, and the government has plans to greatly increase the quantity and quality of international students in the country. Under the government’s Asian Gateway plan, a goal of tripling the number of foreign students by the end of 2025 has been set, which by its estimations means maintaining a 5 percent share of the global foreign-student market. The plan also calls for improving overall standards and research standards in particular. Other measures include expanding the number of classes taught in English, improving communication and marketing efforts with prospective students, making the job market more open, and greatly increasing the number of Japan Student Services offices abroad. Increasing the appeal of Japanese language learning abroad and housing options for students while in Japan were other areas of concern.

– The Yomiuri Shimbun

Malaysia

Development of Kuala Lumpur Education City Announced

An education area is under development to increase Malaysia’s pull as a regional education hub. In March of this year, KLEC Ventures and TH Properties, both private companies announced that they will be developing what will be known as Kuala Lumpur Education City (KLEC). To be located at Bandar Enstek, the project has been endorsed by the Government as a private-initiative, and is being promoted as “an international hub and gateway to world-class educational opportunities within a learning, smart living and leisure environment.” To date, just one institution of higher learning, the International University College of Technology Twintech (IUCTT), has brokered an agreement to operate from KLEC. However, officials from the two companies involved in the venture expect “to announce the participation of other local as well as international universities over the next few months.”

– News release

Universities to Benefit from Influx of Saudis

The number of Saudi Arabian students studying at Malaysian universities will increase by more than 100 percent in the coming months as students receiving King Abdullah scholarship awards take up places in the majority-Muslim nation’s universities. As many as 172 Saudi students are already studying in Malaysia and approximately 300 more are expected to join them. The Saudi government has increased funding for overseas studies through the Abdullah scholarships for up to 25,000 students, and many countries have been promoting themselves as destinations for those students. A majority have taken places at universities across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada; however, the government is also keen on sending students to alternative, cost-effective destinations. Malaysia is considered an ideal destination because of less-expensive tuition fees, proactive government policies toward international students, and also because of cultural and religious similarities.

– Arab News
May 3, 2007

South Korea

TOEFL Centers Overbooked, Students Traveling Abroad to Take Test

With demand for the TOEFL Test far outstripping supply of testing slots in South Korea many students are forced to travel to other countries to take the test, according to the International Herald Tribune. The Test of English as a Foreign Language, a gateway for tertiary studies in the United States, is now being taken abroad by Korean students who are paying up to US$1,000 for a “TOEFL tour” that includes a cram course, registration for the test, and an airline ticket. With nearly 59,000 students studying at U.S. colleges, Koreans constitute the third largest contingent of foreign students. An estimated 130,000 South Koreans took the test in 2006, the newspaper reports, up from about 50,300 in 2001.

– The International Herald Tribune
May 14, 2007

Vietnam

Government to Spend US$1 Billion on Technical Education to Fend off Thai Workers

The Vietnamese government announced in early June that it will be making US$1 billion available to improve the skills of the nation’s workforce, and to ensure that jobs requiring skilled labor are not lost to overseas workers. The government estimates that in the next 8-10 years, foreign laborers, specifically Thai, will come to Vietnam if the domestic workforce cannot meet the human resource needs of Vietnam’s booming manufacturing industry. The need for skilled labor has become even more acute with Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization in January of this year. The greatest need is for technicians in industrial and export processing zones, according to recent government statements.

The government currently estimates that only 20 percent of Vietnam’s 45 million workers have sufficient skills to meet the demands of the labor market – a figure the government would like to see increased to 50 percent by 2010. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has pledged US$1 billion in soft loans for vocational students as part of a broader plan to boost vocational training. In related news, Vietnam’s first law on vocational training became effective June 1st after being passed by the National Assembly in November.

– Voice of Vietnam
June 3, 2007

German-Vietnamese University in the Works

Germany and Vietnam are set to expand their educational and scientific research cooperation through the creation of a German Vietnamese University (GVU) in Vietnam. Education ministers from the German state of Hesse and Vietnam have signed an agreement to establish the university, which is slated to open in the 2008/09 academic year. It is hoped that GVU will accommodate up to 3,000 German and Vietnamese students in the medium term. Although courses will initially be taught in English, German will be a compulsory subject for Vietnamese students in order for them to complete their programs in Germany.

– This Week in Germany
June 1, 2007