Regional
Euro Parliament Gives Nod to Continental Institute of Technology
The European Parliament has given its official support to the creation of the European Institute of Technology (EIT), while criticism of an unrealistic budget and fears that the institute could become “yet another EU agency”, or worse “a pointless white elephant” continue to circle.
The Parliament endorsed, on 26 September 2007, the Commission’s proposal for establishing a European Institute of Technology. Green MEPs, however, despite supporting the original idea, voted against the proposal, saying that it lacked a realistic budget and was poorly defined. The Council, the EU’s highest body, will now examine the proposal and formulate, this Fall, a common position, which could then be voted on in an early second reading in the Parliament.
– Euractiv
September 26, 2007
EU Commission May Take Action against 22 Member States Deemed Hostile to Researcher Mobility
European Commission officials may take 22 member states of the European Union to court after they failed to implement important legislation allowing non-EU researchers to move between European universities. According to the commission, complex immigration rules are scaring off top academics and researchers from outside the EU, especially those that would be working at more than one European university and across borders.
As a result, the EU issued a ‘researchers’ visa’ directive in 2005. This required member states to introduce a fast-track immigration system by October 12 of this year. Under the system, accredited higher education and research institutions would vouch for both potential immigrant researchers and the project they want to join. They would then receive a special researchers’ permit allowing them to move between EU countries that have joined Europe’s borderless Schengen zone. The commission said it deeply regretted that the only Schengen members to have implemented the researcher visa directive were Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Austria and Portugal, with France partially implementing it.
With the passing of the Oct. 12 deadline the commission is free to take legal action at the European Court of Justice. Its judges have the authority to order member states into line, or face huge daily recurring fines of thousands of euros.
– Cordis News [1]
October 16, 2007
Cyprus
Three Private Universities Approved
The number of universities operating in Cyprus has doubled from three to six in recent weeks after the Cypriot cabinet approved the upgrade to university status of three private colleges. The decisions of the Evaluation Committee of Private Universities (ECPU) of the Ministry of Education and Culture [2] was announced by Education and Culture Minister, Akis Kleanthous, in September. The three colleges that have been upgraded are A.S Cyprus College Ltd [3] (EUC European University – Cyprus), Intercollege [4] (PL University of Nicosia) and Mesokeleas Ltd [5] (Frederick University). Two more tertiary educational institutions which applied for evaluation, Philips College Ltd [6] and Neapolis Academic Enterprises Ltd did not receive approval. The committee postponed its decision on Philips College.
– Cypriot Embassy news release [7]
September 19, 2007
Germany
Winners of Second Round of ‘Elite’ Funding Announced
The 28 winners of the second round of the Excellence Initiative [8] were announced recently. The chosen institutions of higher education will be awarded approximately one billion euros over a five-year period. Six universities will receive the largest share of the award and were chosen under what is know as Institutional Strategies to Promote Future Top-Level Research. The universities are: RWTH Aachen [9], FU Berlin [10], Freiburg [11], Göttingen [12], Heidelberg [13] and Konstanz [14]. These universities join the ranks of the three universities chosen for this line of funding in the first round of the Excellence Initiative, now often referred to as Germany’s “elite” universities: TU Munich [15], LMU Munich [16] and the University of Karlsruhe [17].
Launched in 2005, the Excellence Initiative was an initiative agreed upon by the German federal and state governments to promote top-level research. It aims to strengthen science and research in Germany in the long term, improve its international competitiveness and raise the profile of the top performers in academia and research. The total budget of the initiative is 1.9 billion euros for the period 2006 through 2011, which will be split between three lines of funding: graduate schools to promote young researchers, clusters of excellence to promote world-class research and institutional strategies to promote top-level university research.
– Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [18]
October 22, 2007
Greece
Greek Students Hit Streets Again to Protest Government Plans to Allow Private Universities
Approximately 1,500 university students marched through Athens in mid-October to protest government plans to end a state monopoly on higher education. Students in the capital were joined by more than 1,000 students in the northern city of Thessaloniki who also marched to oppose the government’s controversial plans. Mass education rallies have been frequent over the past year, although these were the first since the conservative government was re-elected in September for a second four-year term.
Earlier in the year, the government tried to pass legislation allowing private universities to operate, but the bill’s passage was stalled by vociferous public and political reaction. Ending the state’s monopoly on higher education would require a constitutional change, which critics say could degrade degrees obtained from state-run universities.
The constitutional amendment would allow graduates of private institutions to have their degrees recognized and be able to obtain jobs in the public sector, from which they are currently excluded. Students also oppose a law passed earlier this year which forces them to complete their studies within specific deadlines.
– The Associated Press [19]
October 18, 2007
Hungary
Universities Begin to Introduce New Master’s Programs
As stipulated by Hungary’s membership of the Bologna reform process, institutions in the former Soviet-bloc country are beginning to introduce master’s programs after a Sep. 1, 2006 law on education introduced the new Bologna two-cycle degree structure. Although only a handful have already done so, 200 master faculties are being created, and the accreditation of these courses is under way. The Hungarian Higher Education Accreditation Committee [20] has already approved the launch of 161 faculties. By February 2008, new teaching master programs are scheduled to launch.
– Budapest Sun [21]
August 29, 2007
The Netherlands
Government Study Grants can now be Spent Overseas
The Australian newspaper reported in October that its nation’s universities can expect an influx of Dutch students after the Dutch government amended tertiary funding models in September. Under the new funding scheme, Dutch students are now permitted to use funds allocated from the nation’s existing grants and loans programs, of up to US$25,000 a year, on overseas study. Australian education officials are predicting a dramatic increase in Dutch enrollments from the current tally of 278 to a number in the thousands.
– The Australian [22]
October 17, 2007
Spain
Government Approves new Bologna Regulation
The Council of Ministers has approved a royal decree aimed at bringing Spanish university programs into line with those of other European countries. The new regulation means universities will be required to provide more information to the government’s Quality Assurance Agency than in the past. They will have to provide details about how many students finish their programs on time and the numbers of those who fail to finish.
Student procrastination has long been an art form in Spain, where it is estimated that in some departments only eight in every 100 students complete their programs on time, and across the system an estimated 90,000 students drop out every year.
Universities will be given much greater freedom to set curriculum than before; however, they will have to demonstrate how they meet established minimum standards and present their proposals to the quality agency for approval. Programs will then go through an accreditation process by the Ministry of Education [23] and the corresponding autonomous community authority.
– University World News [24]
October 28, 2007
Switzerland
Universities Increase English-language Offerings
Swiss universities have increased the number of programs offered in English in recent years as they ramp up their efforts to attract international talent. Although European countries with linguistic ties, such as Germany, continue to top the list of source countries, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of students from other countries, topped by China, and followed by India and Russia. Switzerland has the highest proportion of foreign students in Europe (almost 23 percent of its total student body), second only to Australia worldwide.
“We’re trying to encourage our students to become mobile. We want to send them away and have other students coming, and to promote ‘brain circulation’,” Johanna Ziberi of the Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities [25] told swissinfo. “If you want to attract foreign students, you will best do it by having courses in English,” said Ziberi, who is responsible for promoting contacts between Swiss and foreign universities. “English is the language of academia.”
At the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich [26] two thirds of master’s programs are offered in a way that students do not need to know German, according to Anders Hagström, responsible for international relations at the institute. The two federal institutes of technology – the other is in Lausanne [27] – pride themselves on their proportion of foreign students and staff. At the institute in Zurich around 60 percent of the teachers and 56 percent of the doctoral students are foreigners. The research environment is exclusively English speaking.
– Swissinfo [28]
Sept 26, 2007
United Kingdom
Warwick Announces Plan to Bring International Universities to UK
Warwick University [29] unveiled a plan in September to open an “international quarter,” hosting three or four overseas research universities. The proposal is part of a strategy to “bring together the most talented staff and students in the world and allow them to take off again on professional and personal journeys which are likely to include all four quarters of the globe”. Warwick claims it will be among the top 50 universities worldwide by 2015, according to a Guardian interview with vice-chancellor Nigel Thrift.
In describing his vision for Warwick, which abandoned plans to open a campus in Singapore a year ago, Thrift explains that “one of the major tendencies for the next 10 to 15 years is that many universities will realize that they have to collaborate in order to compete. We want genuine collaborations with three or four universities abroad.” When pressed on which ones, he states, “let’s just say that they’re in North America and Asia.” When it comes to seeking partners for his proposed international quarter, he is looking for universities that have “similar cultures” to Warwick. “Ambitious and bootstrapping” is how he puts it.
In announcing its international plans, Warwick becomes the first British university to invite overseas institutions to establish a presence on its own campus, breaking the current trend among Western universities which have been looking to expand internationally by establishing campuses and programs overseas.
– The Guardian [30]
September 11, 2007
Company Gears up to Award Degrees
A training company has been granted the power to award higher education degrees, the first permitted to do so in the UK. The Privy Council awarded the right to BPP College [31], part of BPP Professional Education, which offers law and business courses. Degree-awarding powers are granted indefinitely to publicly funded higher education institutions in the UK. In England and Wales they can be given to private organizations subject to Quality Assurance Agency [32] approval.
Established in 1992, BPP College already has more than 5,000 postgraduate students. With its new powers the law school will offer its legal practice program and bar vocational program as masters degrees and award the graduate diploma in law as an honors degree. It will be offering masters degrees in commercial law and other areas of corporate and commercial practice from September 2008. The College of Law [33] was the first private institution to be granted degree-awarding powers, and in 2006 it began offering a graduate diploma in law for England and Wales. The University of Buckingham [34], the UK’s only independent higher education institution, has been awarding degrees since the late 1970s – but it is a not-for-profit organization registered as an educational charity.
– The BBC [35]
September 25, 2007
Foreign Students Turned off by Costs
A growing number of international students say British university programs do not provide value for money, according to a recent study. Almost 30 percent do not think the education they receive is worth the money.
As competition from universities in the United States, Australia and the rest of Europe heightens, the study by the Higher Education Policy Institute [36] (HEPI), released in October is cause for concern for tertiary education officials in the UK. Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the institute, noted ‘the UK is very expensive. The fee paid on average in America is lower because there are so many scholarships, and many more can work afterwards. Here the number of scholarships is relatively small.’ He pointed out that in France and Germany there were more programs in English on offer and students were charged no fees.
Across Britain, 330,080 foreign students were enrolled in degree programs last year. Almost all – apart from those from the European Union or on scholarships – were paying the full cost of up to £12,000 (US$24,000) a year in fees, raising more than £1.5bn for universities. They also pay housing and living costs. Many institutions rely heavily on foreign students to fill places in undersubscribed courses, especially in science, and to balance budgets. Although the number of international students has increased overall in the UK, as a share of the market the number has fallen from 16 percent in 1998 to 11 percent in 2004, with Chinese students in particular heading to the US instead.
– The Observer [37]
September 16, 2007
Another US For-Profit Announces UK Campus Plans
The chief executive of Bridgepoint Education, [38] a U.S. for-profit business based in San Diego, told the Financial Times that his company plans to offer degrees in Britain within two years. Bridgeport is the second US for-profit to announce such plans since the government introduced new laws allowing private companies to award degrees. Under the new regulations, an organization must have four years’ experience in teaching a degree, validated by an existing university, before acquiring its own powers to award degrees. Bridgepoint will join Kaplan Higher Education International, [39] which plans to apply for degree-awarding powers in Britain next year. In September, BPP Professional Education became the first for-profit organization to be awarded degree-granting powers in Britain (see piece above).
Both Bridgepoint and Kaplan are expected to focus at first on graduate courses, for which British universities also charge higher fees, but plan to expand eventually into the undergraduate market. According to the Financial Times, Bridgepoint expects to be able to do so with tuition rates not much higher than the current British fees.
– The Financial Times [40]
October 12, 2007