Regional
European Version of H1B Visa Could Intensify Brain Drain in Developing Nations
European Union plans to introduce a ‘blue card’ visa for highly skilled immigrants have raised serious concerns of increased brain drain from Africa. At a European Parliament hearing in June on the blue card visa proposals, fears were raised that easing immigration procedures for academics, researchers and scientists from developing countries would cause economic damage to their home states.
Under current EU proposals, blue card visas would ease immigration procedures for skilled migrants. With the cards, the migrants would be able to move more easily between EU member states, something that is quite a bureaucratic process today. Despite the reservations, there was agreement at the hearing that Europe does not do as well in attracting highly trained immigrants as the United States, Canada and Australia. German Christian Democrat MEP Ewa Klamt, who was leading discussions on the issue in the committee, stressed: “Only some 5% of highly qualified economic migrants come to the EU as against the 55% who choose the US or Canada. In contrast, the EU has taken in the largest proportion of unqualified workers from the Maghreb countries – 87%.”
An analysis written by the secretariat for the parliamentary committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, which staged the hearing, stressed that a blue card scheme would exacerbate the problem of brain drain from the African continent. It noted the United Nations Development Program had reported that outward migration cost African countries more than EUR2.5 billion (US$4 billion) through the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually.
As a result, the blue card scheme needed to be designed very carefully. The briefing note suggested the scheme should go hand in hand with a pro-active development policy that helps developing countries train additional academics, scientists and researchers required by European markets.
– University World News [1]
July 6, 2008
European Quality Assurance Register Created
Agencies that monitor quality standards in higher education across Europe can now apply to join a list of agencies that have demonstrated compliance with commonly agreed principles for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area. The new European Quality Assurance Register [2], established in March of this year, seeks to provide students and employers with information regarding which higher education institutions and degree programs had been reviewed by a credible and independent quality assurance agency.
The register will also help institutions of higher education find information they need to choose between different agencies to fulfill their own external quality assurance requirements. Ultimately, the voluntary register is designed to contribute to improving the quality of European higher education and to promoting greater student mobility by increasing transparency and trust between higher education systems and institutions.
The register has been developed as part of the broader higher education reform movement occurring across Europe, known commonly as the Bologna Process, and is being hailed as a “milestone” in the movement’s forward progress. Agencies will have to undergo an external review by independent experts before applying [3] for inclusion in the register.
– EQAR news release [3]
August 11, 2008
Finland
Finland Joins other Nordic Countries in Introducing Tuition Fees for non-EU Foreigners
Beginning in 2010, Finland will charge tuition fees to non-EU and non-European Economic Area students, if a new university law drawn up by the government is approved and goes into effect, as expected, in late 2009.
The new law would impose tuition on non-European students enrolled in certain master’s programs, including those taught “in foreign languages and those with an international orientation,” according to the Helsingen Sanomat. According to Finland’s Center For International Mobility, [4] approximately 450 programs are taught in English at the country’s universities and polytechnics. Universities would be allowed to set fees at their discretion.
Norway will join Sweden as one of the last standouts in Europe to do away with free tuition for foreign students as a means of generating revenue for universities. Sweden is also likely to begin charging tuition fees in 2010 after the government recently reached agreement on the issue.
– Helsingen Sanomat [5]
August 15, 2008
France
Full List of 10 “Universities of Excellence” Released
The French Ministry for Higher Education and Research [6] announced in July the four remaining locations for Operation Campus [7]– an initiative, that if successful, will make French universities internationally competitive through substantially increasing funding for the select few. Three of the four new campuses will be situated in the Greater Paris area. A decision has been postponed on which of two inner-Paris proposals will go ahead.
The 10 ‘super-campuses’, each an alliance of several institutions of higher education and research organizations, will share 5 billion euro (US$7.7 billion) of public money. The project forms the centerpiece of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ambition that at least 10 French centers of excellence of higher education and research rank among the world’s top universities.
The new centers are:
- Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur Aix-Marseille Université: a joint initiative by the three existing universities, located in 11 towns, which are already planning to merge in 2010.
- Campus Condorcet Paris-Aubervilliers: this group brings together the universities of Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne [8], Paris-8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis [9] and Paris-13 Paris-Nord [10] with the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales [11], Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes [12], Ecole d’Economie de Paris [13] and Ecole des Chartes [14]. Pécresse has predicted the future campus will be a “center of excellence in the social sciences”.
- Campus de Saclay: situated south of Paris, this will be a huge scientific collaboration between 21 higher education and research partners. Among them are the University of Paris-11 [15] Orsay, EcolePolytechnique [16], HEC school of Management [17], Mines Paris Tech [18] and Ecole Centrale Paris [19]; the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, [20] the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique [21] and research organizations specializing in areas including agronomy, physics, computer science, optics and telecommunications.
- There will also be a super-campus in inner Paris but a final decision on which bid will be successful has been deferred until a further audit has been carried out. There are two contenders: Campus Universitaire Paris-Centre is a joint proposal of the Universities of Paris-5 Descartes [22] and Paris-7 Denis-Diderot [23], with the Institute of Political Sciences [24] (Sciences Po) and the Paris Observatory [25]. The other, Paris Campus Quartier Latin, was submitted by Universitas, an alliance of the Universities of Paris-2 Panthéon-Assas [26], Paris-3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle [27], Paris-4 Sorbonne [28], Paris-6 Pierre et Marie Curie [29] and Paris-Dauphine [30], with the Ecole Normale Supérieure [31] and the Collège de France [32].
Pécresse also promised state support for another seven projects to be designated “campuses of promise”, in Lille, Nancy-Metz, Paris-Est, Campus Numérique de Bretagne, Nantes, Nice-Sofia Antipolis and Clermont-Ferrand; and four “innovative campuses” at Valenciennes, Le Havre, Cergy and Dijon.The first six campuses announced at the end of May are in Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lyon, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Toulouse.
– University World News [33]
July 20, 2008
Dissatisfied with Standing in Global Rankings, French Propose Their Own
The French Senate has proposed the creation of a new European university ranking system designed to better reflect the standing of non English-language universities, which the dominant Shanghai Jiaotong Academic Ranking of World Universities [34] is said to favor. With France holding the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, the issue is likely to be discussed by EU education ministers in November.
The French Senate, in a report [35]on the ranking of higher education institutions published early in July, says that the lack of harmonized data on French universities has lead to misleading information on the country’s higher education institutions and weakened the visibility of the research they carry out. The highest-ranking French university in the 2006 Shanghai ranking was Paris VI [29] in 39th place, while American universities occupy more than half of the top 100. The only European universities in the top 10 are the UK’s Universities of Cambridge [36] and Oxford [37].
– Euractiv [38]
July 18, 2008
First Group of Universities Receive Autonomy from Government Control
The implications of a controversial reform law passed almost a year ago will begin to be felt at the start of 2009 when newly autonomous universities will be free to spend state-allocated budgets as they see fit and recruit their own staff. Of France’s 85 universities, 20 will be allocated a budget for a period of four years and, for the first time, will have the autonomy to decide which academics and researchers to recruit and how much to pay them, while also being allowed to own their buildings –all currently functions of the state. The “Universities’ Freedom and Responsibilities law” was passed in August 2007.
The 20 pilot institutions are the universities of Aix-Marseille 2 [39], Cergy-Pontoise [40], Clermont-Ferrand 1 [41], Corse [42], Limoges [43], Lyon 1 [44], Marne-la-Vallée [45], Montpellier 1 [46], Mulhouse [47], Nancy 1 [48], Paris 5 [22], Paris 6 [29], Paris 7 [23], La Rochelle [49], Saint-Étienne [50], Strasbourg 1 [51], Strasbourg 2 [52], Strasbourg 3 [53], Toulouse 1 [54] and the Technological University of Troyes [55].
The autonomy reform coincides and in some cases overlaps with the separate Operation Campus, the government’s plan to concentrate greater resources on 10 university groupings in an effort to make French higher education and research internationally competitive (see above).
– University World News [56]
August 3, 3008
Germany
Bologna Process Having a Positive Impact on Dropout Rates
According to a recent study by the University Information System [57] (HIS), dropout rates among German university students have decreased since the introduction of bachelor degree programs, the new first-cycle degree introduced as part of the Bologna Process.
In 2004 there was a 24 percent dropout rate among enrolled students. By 2006, it was down to 20 percent. Among students in social sciences, the rate fell from 27 percent to 10 percent in the same timeframe. Among students in language and cultural studies, the rate fell from 43 percent to 32 percent, and in agriculture, forestry and food science, from 14 percent to seven percent.
Federal Education Minister Annette Schavan commented on the study, saying “this positive development shows that the Bologna Process supports an important objective in higher education: the significant reduction in dropouts. The introduction of bachelor’s degrees at universities contributes to higher study success. The reasons are: more professional respect; better structuring of studies; and shorter periods of study. The first research results on the effects of the reform process is clear: If we intend to keep pace in the international competition for the best talent, there is no alternative to the Bologna Process.” To download the complete report (in German), click here. [58]
– Young Germany [59]
July 7, 2008
International Enrollments Continue to Stagnate
A total of 246,369 students were registered at German universities in academic year 2007/08 according to recent data [60] from Wissenschaft weltoffen [61]. This translates to 12 percent of the total student body in the tertiary sector, a lower percentage than last year. In absolute numbers, there were 2,000 fewer foreign students than last year.
While the number of foreign students at universities decreased, those at technical colleges increased. There was also a significant increase in the number of students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs. For the past several years, Germany has had the third highest number of foreign students, after the United States and Britain. The largest number of foreign students in Germany comes from China, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Russia. Wissenschaft weltoffendata is compiled in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service [62] (DAAD) and the University Information System [57] (HIS).
– Wissenschaft Weltoffen [61]
July 2008
The Netherlands
Holland Develops India-Education Ties
Major university associations from India and the Netherlands in July signed an agreement to strengthen scientific cooperation in education and research. The Association of Universities in the Netherlands [63], a group of 10 research institutions, and the Association of Indian Universities [64], representing 285 Indian institutions, signed the agreement, which will help India meet demand for university places while also helping Dutch institutions meet enrollment goals.
The agreement covers student and faculty exchange and joint educational and research activities, in addition to a clause on the free flow of research information: “The parties will promote among their members open access to scientific and scholarly publications.”
Current Indo-Dutch collaborations include a joint master’s program in computer science and engineering offered by Manipal University [65] and Eindhoven University of Technology [66], with the support of Philips; research ties in agriculture and life sciences between Wageningen University [67] and the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation [68], while Maastricht University [69] will shortly open an office in Bangalore to recruit talented students and researchers.
The two associations will work together under the Student Research Convention. The Indian association will select a number of talented students in a national competition who will then be offered a place at a Dutch university. Many Dutch universities have put forward a substantial number of paid positions and scholarships for PhD students from India. Such is the Dutch desire to attract talented Indian students it has created a web portal specifically for them: www.http://dutchsciencecareers.in [70].
– Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency [71]
July 16, 2008
United Kingdom
Top Universities Dismiss A-Levels in Favor of Own Admissions Exams
A report released in July reveals that at least 18 universities have decided to set their own admissions exams in favor of A-level results because they believe they can no longer rely on school leaving exams as a measure of a candidate’s ability. Universities UK [72]–representing university leaders – estimates that one in seven of its 132 members has introduced such exams. Its findings are a further blow to the credibility of A-levels, and have angered critics who claim the university entrance tests will help middle-class students whose parents can afford coaching for them.
Many of those setting their own exams are members of the Russell Group [73] of elite universities and institutions. The tests, used mainly for popular programs such as law or medicine, include aptitude exercises, essay writing, critical thinking and subject-specific examinations, in addition to other forms of testing such as interviews and auditions.
Their popularity has been growing as the percentage of A-level students achieving high marks rises year on year. Last year, 25% of test-takers received A-grade passes. Both Oxford [37] and Cambridge [36] set tests for specific subject areas, as do Birmingham [74] and Nottingham [75] universities. Imperial College London [76] also plans to set a general test for all candidates.
– The Independent [77]
July 17, 2008
Government Tightens Rules for Foreign Students in Crack Down on Bogus Institutions
The British government, responding to reports of non-students obtaining student visas to come to Britain, announced in July the introduction of tighter rules for foreign students and the institutions that enroll them. Overseas students will now be required to demonstrate that they can support themselves and their families. In addition, colleges and universities will be required to report to authorities on any student who misses 10 consecutive lectures, in addition to alerting the UK Border Agency if students fail to enroll. As part of the same proposal, new “post-study work arrangements” would allow international graduates to apply to stay in the UK to work for up to two years after graduation, a move that has been welcomed by UK universities.
All colleges and universities that want to recruit foreign students will now need a license to do so and will have to take greater responsibility for their international students. Education providers will face a ban on enrolling international students if they fail to follow the new rules. The new licensing system, to be implemented next year, will replace the existing register of education training providers. This was introduced in 2004 as part of a crackdown on bogus colleges, but is regarded as ineffective. In January it emerged that 256 of the 2,000 institutions on the register had been inspected since 2005 and 124 of them, almost half, had been struck off.
To get a license, all education providers will need to show they have been inspected or audited or hold valid accreditation with one of the bodies approved by the UK Border Agency (UKBA): Accreditation UK [78] – which offers an accreditation service for English language centers in association with the British Council [79]; British Accreditation Council [80] – which offers a more general accreditation service to cover a wide range of education providers; Accreditation Service for International Colleges [81] – which also offers a general accreditation service to cover a wide range of education providers; Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills [82].
– The Guardian [83]
July 30, 2008