Regional

Final Selections of Current Erasmus Mundus Scholarships Announced

More than 2,000 students and 450 teaching staff from outside Europe have been selected to receive an Erasmus Mundus scholarship for the academic year 2008/09. The scholarships allow recipients to study in Europe for one or two years and obtain a master’s degree from one of 103 registered Erasmus Mundus master’s programs offered by consortia of European higher education institutions. More broadly, the program is designed to enhance the quality of European higher education through global dialog and cooperation.

This latest selection completes the first phase (2004-2008) of Erasmus Mundus. In total, more than 6,000 students will have received an Erasmus Mundus scholarship over the five-year period. The second phase (2009-13) is expected to start in 2009 with a proposed budget of €950 million (US$1.5 billion). This new phase will include joint doctoral programs, increased scholarships for European students and intensified structural cooperation with third-country institutions of higher education.

– Europa
June 5, 2008

Report: Business and Academia Increasing Collaboration

European higher education is placing new emphasis on knowledge transfer, regional regeneration and wider public debate, according to a joint university-industry report.

Achieving effective knowledge exchange and technology transfer between research and industry involves “acknowledging that the role of higher education institutions is changing,” concludes the recently-published report on the state of university-business R&D collaboration in Europe.

The report, Responsible Pargtnering, notes that “the pre-eminence of teaching, learning and research is increasingly being complemented by a new emphasis on knowledge transfer, social inclusion, local and regional regeneration, and attention to the wider public debate,” which represents “a deeper transformation in higher education from a supply-driven system to a demand-driven one”.

Based on the findings of a recent conference on responsible partnership between research and business, the report also notes that a consistent view is emerging of the bases for effective collaboration and underlines the value of establishing “trust-based partnerships” as key to turning more research results into marketable goods and services. The report notes that there is a strong desire to gain these benefits without “polarising the interests of universities against companies” and that this can be done by establishing working practices that make sense to all actors.

To overcome existing barriers, the report suggests a number of solutions. These include more ‘open innovation’ between public research entities and businesses, removing regulatory barriers to collaboration and establishing ‘innovation ecologies’ balancing collaboration and competition and linking basic and applied research.

– EUA
June 5, 2008

EU Promotes Chinese Language Learning as Part of Broader Educational Cooperation

Approximately 200 European schoolteachers and 400 principals will be sent to China over the next four years to help them improve their language skills and gain a better understanding of Chinese culture, through a program known as the ‘EU Window‘, which was officially launched in early June by European and Chinese delegations.

The first phase of the China-sponsored project (2009-2010) will involve summer training in China for 50 Chinese language teachers from EU member states and a ten-day study visit to the country for 100 European school principals headmasters and civil servants working in education.

The program is part of a more comprehensive structural dialogue which the European Union and China are undertaking in the field of education and culture. An initial technical meeting between representatives of the European Commission and the Chinese Ministry of Education, which took place last January in Brussels, identified three priority subjects for cooperation: language teaching, joint PhDs and education through sport.

– Euractiv
June 3, 3008

Finland

New University Gets Charter

At the end of May, the Finnish government authorised the Education and Science Ministry to sign the charter for the foundation of a new university, which will be a result of a merger between Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design. Aalto University, deemed an ‘innovation university,’ will have a chartered mission to advance the success of Finland through education and research. The university is slated to begin operating under its new name in August 2009.

– Ministry of Education and Science News Release
May 29, 2008

France

Is France’s Newest Business School a Sign of the Times?

France currently has 1.4 million students enrolled in 82 state-owned universities, most of which are heavily overcrowded with no selection policies, aside from the required Baccalaureat examination. With the inauguration of the country’s newest institution of higher education, change may be in the air.

On June 2 in Toulouse, a crowd of international economists and French business leaders attended an inauguration ceremony headed by Valerie Pecresse, the universities minister, for the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), a graduate school of the University of Toulouse 1. The school uses only its English name and conducts teaching exclusively in the same language. The school announced that it had raised an impressive 33 million euros (US$51 million) from private sponsors such as AXA, Total and BNP Paribas. Those funds will be matched euro for euro form public funds.

The Economist notes that the launch of the TSE reflects two changes. The first is that, since last year, French universities have been granted autonomy. This means that universities, or departments, can set up private foundations, as the TSE has done, with tax breaks for donors. This will allow them to recruit the researchers they want, at the salaries the foundations allow them to pay (though like the TSE, they still cannot charge tuition fees or select students at entry level). The TSE intends to offer 18 new economics professorships over the next three years, to help reverse the brain drain.

Second, the notion of equal funding and treatment for all public universities has been done away with. Not only is the TSE receiving additional state funds, but a fund of 5 billion euros has also been set up for campus renovations across the country. In a spirit of competition, versus egalitarianism, the money will be shared between ten institutions deemed to have the best bids. In late May, the ministry announced the first six winners from among a total of 46 bids. Toulouse was among them.

The TSE is not the only example of change. Universities in Grenoble, which also won a slice of the campus-renovation money, have been working with local research bodies and companies in technology and innovation. Strasbourg, another winner, is next January merging its three universities to create a single, decent-sized institution that can compete internationally. The introduction of tuition fees, however, is still firmly on the sidelines.

– The Economist
June 5, 2008

Quality Assurance Agency Completes First Year of Work

In its first annual report, France’s new Research and Higher Education Evaluation Agency (AERES) states that it assessed 30 universities, 72 doctoral schools and 130 research units during its first year of activities. The agency will have to complete a full inspection of all national higher education and research establishments, and is preparing to change its evaluation methods to do so.

The independent body was created in 2006 in line with government plans to improve French research, while also meeting pan-European quality assurance requirements and boosting the French system’s international competitiveness. The agency essentially merged the functions of three existing agencies, each responsible for monitoring standards in specific areas.

Agency President, Jean-François Dhainaut, said he hoped the quality of reports would improve in future. Referring to the first group of establishments examined, Dhainaut said: “We were learning on the job. We must aim to produce reports which say things clearly and in a well-documented way. One can be thoroughly clear if one is thoroughly objective. Our evaluators must also adapt – it’s essential to harmonize the methodology used by our visiting committees.”

– University World News
June 29, 2008

Greece

Education in Turmoil

The months of May and June were dominated by conflict and violence on the campuses of Greek universities. Politicians, trade unions and student groups struggled to find a solution to the crisis; the latter group responsible for widespread violence on numerous campuses across the country, with at least one example at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki ending in academic and administrative staff being assaulted and rushed to hospital. In another example, students at the University of Macedonia took the rector and over 20 members of the governing board hostage for eight hours.

Despite lively debate in parliament between the government and the opposition parties, little has been achieved politically, other than mutual accusations as to who has been responsible for the university unrest. Meanwhile, in June, in an unprecedented move, rectors of the country’s 22 universities launched an appeal to all parties in the dispute to abstain from any activities for one day so a solution to the crisis could be found. This after teachers’ unions called five days of strikes in May.

Despite this chaotic situation, Education Secretary Evripidis Stylianidis insisted the government’s education reform agenda, pushed through parliament in 2007, was going ahead and was being applied in practice, despite widespread opposition in the academic community and opposing political parties.

The reform agenda includes, among other things, a constitutional amendment to allow private and for-profit institutions to operate on par with public universities. Although this was voted down in May, policymakers are seeking a way around it. The current wording of the constitution explicitly states that university education may only be “provided exclusively by institutions which are fully self-governed public law legal entities… under the supervision of the state”. One way to allow for private university education is for schools to be set up by these so-called public law legal entities. Another unpopular reform relates to the election of university rectors, who traditionally have been voted in by elected political representatives. Under the new law, they are to be elected directly by students. It is unclear to this writer why exactly this has proven such a controversial move.

In other related news, policymakers at the education ministry are currently hammering out a proposal to overhaul the university entrance examination system. According to officials, a public discussion will be launched by the government. The aim is to facilitate the entry of more students.

– Athens News
June 20, 2008

New Legislation on Private Colleges Introduced

Education Minister Evrypidis Stylianidis unveiled a new draft law that would bring private colleges and liberal arts institutions (KES) under the regulatory purview of his ministry on July 15, a move that sparked a new round of protests from opposition parties and some academics

The draft law is to be debated in parliament this summer. It comes nine months after Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis announced in parliament that policymakers are hammering out a “precise, very strict system of certification” for private colleges. The new bill outlines the criteria private colleges must satisfy for the issuing and renewal (every three years) of their operating license.

The minister was careful to stress that under the new bill private colleges and KES institutes are non-formal education institutions, and issue certificates, as opposed to diplomas, an important distinction as the term university (or degree-granting institution) is reserved exclusively for Greek state universities. As such, the bill explicitly states it will become illegal for any such school to refer to itself as a university.

More than a dozen European universities, mainly British, provide their programs through KES institutions in Greece based on franchising agreements. About half a dozen other schools are affiliated with American universities. More than 25,000 Greeks have earned a degree from one of these institutions. The Hellenic Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (POSDEP) has vowed to renew their protest (see above), stating that they vehemently oppose any move to legalize private postsecondary school education in Greece.

– Athens News
July 18, 2008

Hungary

Budapest to Host Seat of European Institute of Technology

The 27 European Union research ministers agreed in June that the seat of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is to be located in Budapest, Hungary, which was the only candidate location to meet previously agreed conditions. Among those conditions was a requirement that the institution should be placed in new member state which does not already host an official EU site or agency. Poland already hosts Frontex, the EU border security agency, and the three remaining candidates – Sant Cugat del Valles near Barcelona, Vienna-Bratislava and Jena (Germany) – are not located in new member states.

The establishment of the Institute is expected to begin immediately. The Governing Board is expected to designate the two or three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) – collaborations between universities, companies and research institutes – by the end of 2009.

– Euractiv
June 19, 2008

Norway

Government Provides Funding for Increased Collaboration with North America

The Norwegian government launched a Strategy for Increased Cooperation with North America in Higher Education in October 2007. The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research has pledged four years of funding for the project. The partnership program for higher education collaboration between institutions in Norway and institutions in the US and Canada was launched in April, as a part of this strategy. The program is funded by the Ministry of Education and Research, and operated by the Norwegian Center for International Cooperation in Higher Education (SIU).

In all, 12 four-year projects coordinated by Norwegian institutions will be funded. The program is designed to strengthen quality academic relations with partner institutions in the US and Canada. The program is also related to the Strategy for Norway’s Scientific and Technological Cooperation with North America.

– SIU
June 2008

Poland

Poland to Host International Ranking Observatory

As the influence of international rankings increases, and interest in them intensifies, an international observatory on academic ranking and excellence has been formed. The objective of the new organization is to boost the credibility and utility of the various different rankings that currently exist. The body is comprised of professionals in the field from different ranking practitioners and analysts.

The new observatory will represent a formalization of the work that has been conducted by the International Ranking Expert Group in Washington, DC, which was formed four years ago with the backing of the Institute for Higher Education Policy and the UNESCO-European Centre for Higher Education.

The legal location of the IREG-Observatory is in the Polish capital of Warsaw, in facilities provided by the city and with temporary secretarial assistance supplied by the Perspektywy Education Foundation. In a statement released by the observatory in April, organizers said it would review the conduct of ‘academic ranking’ and expressions of ‘academic excellence’ for the benefit of higher education stakeholders and the general public.

– IREG-Observatory news release
April 17, 2008

Slovenia

Euro-Mediterranean University Inaugurated In Slovenia

After two years of lobbying, the Slovenian government officially realized its ambition of hosting the cross-continental Euro-Mediterranean University at an inauguration ceremony held in June.

A new university center for Euro-Mediterranean studies will open in the Slovenian tourist town of Piran. Students from around the Mediterranean, including those in the Middle East and North Africa will be able to study there and also take a portion of their classes at universities in Barcelona, Haifa, Latakia and Bir Zeit.

The new institution is part of the 13-year-old Bologna process, through which the EU has sought to develop closer economic, political and social ties with neighboring states and regions.

– News release
June 9, 2008

Sweden

International Students Choosing Sweden

According to recent statistics, there were more international students registered at Swedish universities and colleges than there were Swedes studying abroad in the latest academic year. This trend represents a first, and is something the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, which complied the data, views as a possible problem.

“International experience is part of the competence needed for the labor market into which students will enter. It is ever more global and [studying abroad] is an experience people will come to miss,” said Anders Flodström, who heads the agency. Foreign students applying to Swedish universities have increased steadily over the last several decades. In academic year 2006/07, there were almost 28,000 international students enrolled at Swedish universities compared to 25,600 the previous year. The number of Swedes studying abroad has remained relatively constant at approximately 26,000 over the last decade.

In addition to students losing out on valuable contacts and experience in a more globalized economy, Flodström sees a tricky balancing act is needed. Compared with students from other countries, Swedes more often choose to complete their entire education abroad. For those who do study abroad Flodström says “I can imagine that this may lead to the labor market losing accomplished Swedes who decide to stay overseas when they begin their careers. It’s a sort of brain-drain,” he said.

– The Local
May 26, 2008

Sweden to Do Away with Free Education for Foreigners

Sweden is one of the few countries that still offers free schooling to overseas students; however, recent comments by higher education minister Lars Leijonborg in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper suggest that is about to change.

Leijonborg has thus far avoided taking a stand on the controversial question, but now says that the government is in total agreement on charging fees to university students coming from countries other than European Union member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. The fees will be based on the costs incurred by the universities themselves. At the same time, a system of stipends will be implemented for students lacking sufficient funds to pay tuition.

The proposal is included in a bill to be presented in the autumn on how university-level international exchanges can be increased. The new tuition system would be implemented on January 1st, 2010, at the latest.

– The Local
June 23, 2008

Turkey

Istanbul-Based German, Turkish University Gets Green Light

Germany and Turkey have given the go-ahead to construct a German-Turkish University based in Istanbul. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan, together with Education Minister Annette Schavan, signed an agreement to this effect on May 30 in Berlin.

“Not only will the university bring our students and academics closer, but it is also a symbol of the close political and social links between both our countries,” said Steinmeier at the signing.

The university, part of the Turkish state system, will have faculties of law, science, economics, arts, social sciences and engineering. It will confer German degrees and cultivate close links with German and Turkish business corporations. German is widely spoken in Turkey because many Turks live and work in Germany, and the university will have a language school to train new students to speak and write German. It will also cater to ethnic Turks who have come up through the school system in Germany but prefer to study in Istanbul. Germany is also setting up a university next year in Vietnam.

– German Federal Foreign Office
May 30, 3008

Number of university Places to Increase, University Entrance Examination to Change

The Head of the Higher Education Council in Turkey (YOK) has announced that changes will be made to the current national university placement examination from next year, while an additional 32,000 places have also been announced for the 2008-09 academic year.

Turkey’s annual university entrance exam is an event with huge educational and social significance. It determines who will get the 86,000 places in four-year degree programs on offer this year at Turkey’s 81 universities. Approximately 1.6 million school-leavers took it this year. As the World Bank noted in a report on the Turkish education system in 2006, the university entrance exam is “the most important, high-stakes test” these youngsters will ever take. Success determines students’ future careers, salary, status, and even lifestyles. Failure leaves them without the qualifications needed for a good job.

The university entrance exam has traditionally focused on hundreds of multiple-choice questions on Turkish language and society, mathematics and science, and students devote vast amounts of time to learning how to pass the exam, because it is as much a technical feat as an intellectual one. With the changes to be introduced next year, greater emphasis will be put on other types of exams.

– Financial Times
June 13, 2008

United Kingdom

Bologna, a Threat to Britain’s Recruitment Efforts

British universities are at risk of losing international student enrollments to other countries in Europe that have adopted Bologna-compliant university structures, according to a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) released in May.

The think tank’s report argues that UK universities have recruited overseas students with great success, but could lose out as other European countries consolidate their bachelor’s and master’s degree offerings, a structure that was unique within Europe to the UK, and one the report describes as “one of the competitive advantages that [the UK] has had.” The report also warns that British universities could lose out if they continue to be deemed non-compliant with Bologna changes. The issue of whether UK university degrees comply with Bologna applies particularly to one-year master’s programs, which have been seen as a “particular strength and a unique selling point”.

The HEPI report says UK universities have increased their income from overseas students despite a drop in market share because international students see them as giving quality education and because they teach in English and offer relatively short degrees. The standard Bologna master’s program takes two years to complete.

Cost is another factor, and England is one the most expensive countries in which to study. “UK degrees are marketed as a premium product for a premium price. So far, we have been able to maintain our position, but if price sensitivity becomes an issue, this may not be sustainable,” the report warns. While there is “no immediate threat to our international market” researchers suggest the sector cannot afford to be complacent, particularly given the 8 percent average income they receive from international student fees, which outweigh the average annual surplus they earn.

– Higher Education Policy Institute
May 22, 2008

British Council Develops International Enrollment Forecasting Tool

The British Council has launched a new forecasting tool for UK universities, which produces annual predictions on international student demand for education. The online tool has been developed to offer short- to mid-term country-specific predictions. To begin with, forecasts for China have been released and the initial findings demonstrate how the country’s rapid economic growth has created a large and growing potential market for international students. The model suggests that the household income at which parents can afford to pay for children studying abroad is US$15,000. This middle-income group in China is set to treble in the near future, suggesting it will remain a strong source market for the near future.

The model also analyses the impact of tuition fees and the cost of living on demand for international education. Chinese students and parents appear to seek value for money and are price-sensitive across a ‘competitor set’ of countries. The model estimates that the demand for tertiary education in China will increase until 2013. Although the projected enrollment ratio will keep increasing, a declining absolute number of young people of student age will begin to result in a drop in demand.

– British Council news release
June 2008

Grade Inflation Pressures Coming from the Top

According to the text of an email that was leaked to the BBC, staff from at least one British university are being urged by supervisors to increase the percentage of top degree grades they award so as to match the results of other universities in the country. The internal email from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) tells staff to “bear this in mind” when it comes to assessing student performance.

News of the leaked memo came on the heels of a warning from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in June that the university grading system was “rotten.” The MMU e-mail, sent several months ago to computing and mathematics staff by that department’s academic standards manager, calls for an increase in the number of first class and upper second degrees. “As a university we do not award as many Firsts and 2.1s as other comparable institutions so there is an understandable desire to increase the proportion of such awards,” it says. “Please bear this in mind when setting your second and final year assessments, especially the latter.”

The number of students achieving a first class degree at UK universities has more than doubled since the mid-1990s. Among last year’s university leavers, 61 percent achieved a first class or upper second-class degree.

– BBC News
July 2, 2008

Scotland

QMU Opens Singapore Campus

Students began classes in June at the new Singapore campus of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. The QMU Asia Campus is a joint venture between Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and the East Asia Institute of Management.

– The Scotsman
June 10, 2008

Wales

Catering to Heavy Demand from Overseas Students, New Center Opens

A public-private collaboration will offer pre-university courses to overseas students, whose numbers have increased 36 percent in the last five years. The center will offer classes designed to prepare students for studies on degree programs at 11 Welsh institutions of higher education.

The University of Wales, Newport is host to the Wales International Study Centre, which is being operated in partnership with Study Group International, supported by the Wales International Consortium, International Business Wales and the British Council Wales. Every Welsh institution of higher education is participating apart from Swansea University, which already has an agreement with Australian-based IBT Education. Study Group anticipates that students will come predominantly from China and elsewhere in Asia. It unveiled the scheme in China last week.

Wales is becoming increasingly competitive in the market for international students, seeking to stress lower costs and high quality of life than neighboring England. The consortium calculates average annual student living costs are almost half the estimated £12,000 (US$ 24,000) in London.

– The Times Higher Education Supplement
June 5, 2008

Fake Degrees Under the Spotlight

Counterfeit degrees from every university in Wales are being sold on the internet for less than £40 (US$80), a Wales on Sunday investigation has found. The fakes are reportedly of a high quality, and could easily be used to dupe a potential employer.

The website, called the Fake Certificate Factory, offers degrees from all of Wales’ top universities – including Cardiff, Swansea, Glamorgan, Aberystwyth and Bangor. The website boasts: “We offer high quality and professional looking replicas – our fake certificates are VERY realistic. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.”

The website claims the certificates should only be used for ‘novelty’ value. But Chief Executive of Universities UK, Diana Warwick, said: “The suggestion by those selling fake degree certificates that these are sold as ‘novelty’ items that should not be passed off as qualifications is as absurd as it is dishonest.”

– Wales on Sunday
June 1, 2008