Regional

Caribbean: Ambitious Growth Plans Launched for Regional University

Within five years, the University of the West Indies plans to boost enrollments, overhaul programs to deliver ‘work-ready graduates,’ inaugurate a new campus in western Jamaica, and launch an online platform, or ‘open campus,’ that would reach markets where it currently has no “bricks-and-mortar” learning centers. Plans also call for the expansion of already existing campuses. The university estimates costs for its five-year plan at approximately US$600 million. In order to meet this financial target, university heads are looking for government buy-in and bigger corporate endowments.

The university has physical campuses in three of the 15 Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) countries that it serves – St Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Mona in Jamaica and Cave Hill in Barbados. Total enrollment last year was just under 40,000, and in Trinidad, enrollments jumped almost 100 percent after the oil-rich government made university education free for nationals willing to commit to three years of government service upon graduation.

The virtual university would target the 12 CARICOM territories without campuses – in addition to Belize, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands – as well as rural communities in all 15 CARICOM countries whose students cannot easily reach UWI campuses.

– Jamaica Gleaner
July 11, 2007

Brazil

Booming Private University Sector Second Best Option for Lecturers

Lecturers unable to find sought-after positions at public universities, where opportunities are scarce, are increasingly being driven into poorly paid hourly work in the private sector, the Times Higher Education Supplement reports. Latin America’s largest and most populous country has almost 4.5 million university students, and 73 percent study at private institutions, where more than 65 percent of Brazil’s 306,000 academics work. In Latin America as a region, an average of 45 percent of university students study at private universities.

According to academics, work at private institutions is insecure and badly paid – and almost always part-time. While 75 per cent of lecturers at public institutions work full time, only 15 per cent of those at private universities and colleges have that status. Because Brazil’s Ministry of Finance has been reluctant to put more money into public undergraduate education at a time when there has been an explosion in demand for places, private institutions of higher education have been booming, with growth estimated at 10 percent a year. Studies in the private sector are largely at the undergraduate level. However, strong research emphasis at public universities allows the country to run 2,000 PhD programs and award some 10,000 PhDs and 50,000 master’s degrees annually.

Of 2,398 institutions of higher education, 2,141 are private and 257 are public. Brazil has 90 public universities and 86 private universities.

– The Times Higher Education Supplement
July 13, 2007

Canada

B.C.-Based University Strengthens Ties in India

Simon Fraser University (SFU) announced recently that it is to add two new field schools in India in 2008 as part of an ongoing effort to build relations in South Asia, and develop unique opportunities there for SFU students. In January 2008, SFU’s School for International Studies will offer an eight-week program on the development of modern India in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M), and in May 2008, SFU’s School for Interactive Arts and Technology will launch a program in the technology and culture of India, to be hosted jointly by IIT-M and the TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) Executive Training Center in Trivandrum, Kerala. TCS is the largest software consultancy in Asia.

In addition to these new programs, SFU has existing programs in India, which include courses in global education at Punjab University in Chandigarh and the contemporary art of India at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, and at private film studios in Mumbai. SFU’s activities in India are supported by the newly formed SFU-India Advisory Council, comprised of prominent leaders from the Indo-Canadian community.

– SFU news release
June 25, 2007

Peru

Teachers Strike in Protest of New Testing Requirements

Public school teachers in Peru took industrial action in July to protest an education reform proposal that would require them to pass periodic competency exams. February test results showed almost half of public school teachers cannot solve basic math problems and one-third is deficient in reading comprehension.

Congress began debating a bill in July that would fire teachers who fail the test three times, a move the teachers’ union, SUTEP, says will lead to “arbitrary” firings. President Alan Garcia has promised to revamp the country’s ailing public education system, widely looked down upon for its poor infrastructure and untrained staff.

– The Associated Press
July 6, 2007

United States

College Group Leads Effort to Boycott U.S. News and Produce Non-Commercial Rankings

A group of college presidents announced plans in June to help develop an alternative to commercial college rankings. At the annual meeting of the Annapolis Group, which represents 115 liberal-arts colleges, members agreed to develop a Web-based information system that would provide families with “easily accessible, comprehensive, and quantifiable data” on participating colleges. The organization said it planned to work closely with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and other education groups that have begun creating such a tool to provide prospective students with more transparent information. Following its two-day meeting, the group also announced that a majority of the 80 presidents who attended the event said they would not participate in U.S. News & World Report‘s annual rankings.

Frustration at and criticism of the U.S. News rankings is nothing new. College leaders, oftentimes those whose institutions have low rankings, bemoan the methodology used by the magazine, and its focus on institutional wealth and the ability to attract academically strong freshmen. Those opposed to the rankings advise others to boycott the reputational survey, which asks academic leaders to rate hundreds of colleges and to stop advertising their rankings. The Group’s proposed new online system would allow students and parents to compare colleges by enrollments, class size, and majors offered, among other factors.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 20, 2007

California ‘Degree Mill’ Law Expires, Experts Warn of Return to ‘Wild West’ Era

Legislation enacted almost 20 years ago targeting ‘diploma mills’ expired at the beginning of July, leaving state lawmakers with a decision on how best to protect unwary students from trade schools making false promises.

A stopgap measure to extend the protections — while debate continues on a long-range solution — could soon be passed by legislators debating how best to protect students and improve the operations of the state agency that oversees trade schools. There is intense debate about what to do next. Consumer advocates think that legislation to create a new regulatory scheme is not strong enough, while the trade association representing the schools maintains that it is too draconian. Last September, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have extended the reforms enacted in 1989, saying the statutes were “fundamentally flawed.” He pledged to introduce his own proposal and work with the Legislature to get a new law passed early this year. That has not happened, and it is not clear what will be worked out before the end of the year, when the stopgap law would expire.

If action is not taken soon to replace the old regulations, the state could go back to the “Wild West” situation it experienced during the mid-1980s, when California had a reputation as one of the nation’s worst “diploma mills,” said Betsy Imholz, director of special projects at Consumers Union in San Francisco in an interview with Los Angeles Times.

– The Los Angeles Times
July 19, 2007

Senate Passes Higher Education Bill

In a unanimous vote, the U.S. Senate approved legislation in July that will set higher-education policy for the next five years. Among the high-profile issues covered in the bill are measures to crack down on conflicts of interest in the student-loan business, and an increase in federal student aid. If passed by the House, the bill would renew the Higher Education Act, the law which governs most federal student-aid programs. As passed, the reauthorization bill would raise the maximum allowable Pell Grant to $6,300, and set the minimum Pell grant at 10 percent of the maximum award, an increase from the current minimum of $400.

The bill would also increase government regulation of tuition fees and credit-transfer policies. Those colleges setting new tuition rates higher than a new “higher-education price index” would be placed on a federal watch list. With regard to credit transfer, colleges would be required to publicly disclose their policies on the transfer of academic credits. However, the bill does not push colleges to accept credits from other institutions as lawmakers had originally proposed.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 25, 2007

House Committee Recognizes Benefit of Globalizing the Campus

Witnesses representing several top research institutions testified before a House of Representatives panel in late July, and argued that the globalization of U.S. university campuses was overwhelmingly a positive trend for the country. A consensus also emerged, however, that although U.S. higher education remains the best in the world, its position is becoming increasingly vulnerable to competition.

The hearing was the second in a series on innovation and offshoring, and focused on issues related to study abroad and the globalization of U.S. campuses through partnerships with academic institutions abroad, proliferating branch campuses, and the influx of foreign students to the United States. The majority opinion was that U.S. students benefited from broader access to foreign cultures, while international students gain from greater access to U.S. higher education, which in turn boosts the skilled human resources pool in the United States and thus the overall economy. However, a handful of committee members worried that educating foreign students would essentially increase competition for American graduates. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), took the point further suggesting the United States is offering “a public service to foreigners” paid for by American taxpayers.

– Inside Higher Ed
July 27, 2007