Regional

Latin Americans Rate Their Education Systems Highly Despite Contrary International Comparisons

According to the findings of a new survey, Latin Americans are much happier with their countries’ public education systems than people in other regions that score much better in international student achievement tests and university rankings.

The Gallup Poll of 40,000 people in 24 countries across the region, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank as part of a wider study on satisfaction levels on various issues, found a strong majority was happy with their countries’ public education systems. In Costa Rica, 85 percent of those surveyed expressed happiness with their elementary through university education, while 84 percent of Venezuelans, 82 percent of Cubans, 80 percent of Nicaraguans, 77 percent of Salvadorans, and more than 72 percent of Colombians, Jamaicans, Hondurans, Bolivians, Panamanians, Uruguayans and Paraguayans said they also are happy with their countries’ public education.

Comparatively, only 66 percent of those questioned in Germany, 67 percent in the United States and 70 percent in Japan are happy with their respective countries’ public education, the study says.

“Latin Americans in general are satisfied with their public education, even though the region scores very badly in international student achievements tests,” says Eduardo Lora, the senior IDB economist who coordinated the study. “Their satisfaction isn’t justified by the facts.”

In fact, standardized international tests of 15-year-old students show that Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, where respondents were happier with their public education than Japan, score about 35 percent lower on average than Japanese students, the study says.

When it comes to higher education, Latin America — which has some of the world’s biggest state-run universities — doesn’t do well either when compared to other regions in international rankings. Only three universities made a recent ranking of the world’s 200 best universities by Britain’s Times Higher Education Supplement: Mexico’s National Autonomous University (150th), Brazil’s University of Sao Paulo (196th) and Argentina’s University of Buenos Aires (197th). By comparison, there were nine Asian universities among the world’s top 50 universities.

– Inter-American Development Bank
October 27, 2008

UNESCO Moves to Take on Bogus Schools

Diploma mills have been thriving in recent years as an increasing number of education consumers embrace the globalization of the education market, and as the Internet becomes an increasingly accepted platform for the provision of higher education instruction. Combined with skyrocketing demand for higher education around the world, diploma mills are doing more business than ever, says Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, chief of UNESCO’s department for reform, innovation, and quality assurance in higher education.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation in January, Ms. Uvalic-Trumbic explained several measures that UNESCO has taken to help prevent fake colleges from operating. One is an Internet listing of higher-education institutions “recognized or otherwise sanctioned by competent authorities in participating countries” — a so-called white list that students, employers, and others can use to check the credentials of a university. A total of 23 countries are so far participating in the effort, including China, the United States, Britain, Australia, and Japan, as well as developing countries like Kenya and Nigeria.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
January 29, 2008

Brazil

Frustrated with the Quality of University Graduates, Firms Step In

Not only do Brazilian institutions of higher education graduate few students from engineering and technical programs, relative to other nations, but standards within those departments have been lagging for years, reports The Los Angeles Times. Frustrated with the status quo, mining giant Vale and other private companies are offering training programs of their own.

Vale employs more than 150,000 people worldwide, and it is one of several large corporations in fields such as mining, aerospace and construction driving Brazil’s recent economic rise. But the company’s ambitious plans for growth have been hampered by a higher education system that does not graduate enough high-quality technical students; a problem common across Latin America. In Brazil, just one in 20 college graduates is an engineer, far below the rates of countries such as China and South Korea, according to Brazilian businesses.

Since Brazil’s education system is falling short, Vale, like several other Brazilian companies, has decided to build its own. “For years, technical education was not the main focus of the government,” said Marco Dalpozzo, Vale’s global human resources director. “Mining was not seen for the last 20 years as a great opportunity or a vocational business opportunity for the country. So you have professions for which Vale had to create their own entire system of education.”

This year, about 7,000 students are taking courses in its schools and training programs, from graduate studies for engineers and geologists to technical courses for high school graduates. The company has opened three schools and is building a fourth to educate potential employees. It pays students salaries and health benefits, provides food and dental care, and sometimes offers bus passes and hotel rooms to students who don’t live close to their classes, all part of the fierce competition for skilled local labor.

According to Jeffrey Puryear and Tamara Ortega Goodspeed, the authors of “Can Latin America Compete?” the continent’s “limited number of scientists and advanced degree recipients weakens the region’s competitiveness by limiting countries’ ability to use and generate knowledge, and to carry out research.”

– The Los Angeles Times
January 10, 2009

Canada

U.S. Students Looking North of the Border in Increasing Numbers

According to a report in The Boston Globe, applications and inquiries from the northeastern region of the United States to universities in Canada are hitting record highs, especially as the U.S. dollar strengthens, which makes an already affordable Canadian education that much more attractive.

Schools from Toronto to Halifax say many students in the Boston area and throughout the region are drawn by the allure of an international college experience relatively close to home. Dalhousie University in Halifax, for instance, said requests for information from New England students have tripled this fall. McGill University in Montreal, where 100 students from Massachusetts enrolled this fall, and the University of Toronto, Canada’s largest university, have also seen a new level of interest from south of the border.

The number of Americans studying abroad has more than doubled in the past decade, and high school counselors say the influx to Canada reflects a broader trend of students attending foreign universities full time. Since 2001, the number of Americans attending college in Canada has risen by 50 percent to about 9,000, according to the Canadian Embassy in Washington.

Canadian colleges say they have increased recruiting throughout the region, particularly in the Boston suburbs, to build upon rising demand. Dalhousie University has doubled its number of visits to high schools and college fairs in New England in the past two years, and earlier this month, the Canadian Consulate in Boston held its first college fair, drawing scores of families and school counselors.

– The Boston Globe
December 25, 2008

United States

Tuition Fee Increases Outpace Income Growth Threefold

Global recession aside, the rising cost of a college education in the United States will soon be out of reach for most Americans, according to the biennial report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The report found that college tuition and fees increased 439 percent in the 25 years from 1982 to 2007, while median family income rose 147 percent, making a university education three times more expensive in real terms today than it was in 1982.

Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families. Much like the American housing bubble, increased college enrollments have been financed through heavier consumer debt loads. According to the authors of the report, low-income students will be less able to afford college, while the strains are already clear.

The report, “Measuring Up 2008,” compares total college costs: a year’s tuition, fees, room and board, minus financial aid — against median family income. Last year, the net cost at a four-year public university amounted to 28 percent of the median family income, while a four-year private university costs 76 percent of the median family income. At community colleges, those costs equaled 49 percent of the poorest families’ median income last year, up from 40 percent in 1999-2000.

With announced and future budget cuts at public universities very much a reality, as state budgets shrink, further tuition increases appear likely.

– National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
December 2008

GRE Test-taker Numbers Drop, Suggesting Future Enrollment Declines

Conventional wisdom suggests that when the economy falters applications to graduate school rise. According to recent data from Educational Testing Service (ETS), that pattern might be set to reverse. The number of students taking the Graduate Record Examination declined in 2008, the first time ever that the GRE has seen a fall in the number of test-takers during an economic downturn.

With a heavy majority of graduate schools requiring the GRE for admission, the number of test-takers in any given year is a reliable indicator of future enrollment trends. The GRE drop reflects both those in the United States and international students seeking to enroll in American graduate programs.

Since 2004, the number of people taking the GRE has increased from 501,000 to 539,000 to 577,000 to 633,000 in 2007. ETS made early year projections of 675,000 test-takers for 2008. That number was revised in late December to 621,000. Data for the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, which MBA candidates take, suggest application increases for 2009. The number of people taking the GMAT is up this year — both in the United States and abroad.

The projected decreases in GRE takers for 2008 come both from the United States and the rest of the world. Volume in the United States is expected to fall to 449,000 from 456,000. Volume outside the United States is expected to fall to 172,000 from 177,000. The two biggest international markets for U.S. universities moved in opposite directions, with GRE test-taker numbers for China increasing from 41,000 in 2007 to a projected 52,000 in 2008. Indian numbers are set for a sharp drop, from 74,000 to a projected 55,000.

– InsideHigherEd
December 8, 2008

Economic Downturn Good News in the For-Profit Sector

With state support for public universities set to shrink dramatically, endowments hemorrhaging money, and tuition skyrocketing, the private sector is counting its blessings.

At a session of the Career College Association’s Annual Higher Education Investment Conference in December attendees focused on the growing profitability and market share of for-profit colleges, a trend that has historically been the case in times of market upheaval, according to data presented at the conference.

For-profit colleges have seen enrollment grow by an average of approximately 17 percent during the past nine economic downturns compared with an average of 8 percent growth during positive economic conditions, according to an analysis provided by Stifel Nicolaus, a brokerage and investment banking firm.

This time around, the pattern looks set to continue. Between July and September of 2008, nine publicly traded for-profit colleges saw average enrollment growth of 14.8 percent, about 2 percentage points higher than the last four quarters, Stifel Nicolaus found. Leaders of for-profit colleges also see opportunity in the promises of President Barack Obama, who is calling for the creation of 2.5 million jobs by 2011. Daniel Hamburger, president and CEO of Devry Inc., said he has met with Obama’s transition team for education and has noted an “increased awareness” that the for-profit sector has a critical role to play in job creation. “I am more optimistic today than I have ever been,” he said. Devry announced in December that it saw undergraduate enrollment grow to more than 15,800 in the fall, an increase of 19.7 percent from the previous year.

– InsideHigherEd
December 10, 2008

Downturn Even Better News for the Online Sector

As noted in the article above, the current economic downturn is proving to be good news in the for-profit higher education sector, and today, what’s good in the for-profit sector is typically true also for the online sector, which is dominated by for-profit providers, as adults seek shelter in the virtual classroom. Two-year colleges are also expressing optimism about attracting more students—and many of those older students will probably take courses online, according to a recent survey.

The 2008 Sloan Survey of Online Learning, released in November before the extent of the recession was clear, found that while all types of colleges anticipate enrollment bumps because of high unemployment, two-year and private for-profit institutions expect to increase their rolls more than others since they “tend to offer programs that have traditionally been tailored to serve working adults.”

In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education Elaine Allen, an associate professor at Babson College and one of the report’s authors, said that she expects the number of students enrolled in online courses, which two-year and private for-profit colleges have embraced, to rise during the recession. Back in November, the Sloan survey asserted that the high cost of gasoline might compel more people to learn from home. Although gas prices have since fallen, Ms. Allen said she still expects the struggling economy to push more students into online courses for other reasons. The main reason relates to the time-management conveniences of online classes for adult students with family commitments.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
January 9, 2009

Agents Could Boost International Enrollments with Advent of New Oversight Body

In absolute numbers, the United States enrolls far more students to its university campuses than any other country in the world, with 22 percent of the total. However, as a percentage of total enrollments they compare much less favorably to their international peers, with just 3.5 percent of students on its campuses coming from abroad.

One of the major reasons for this, according to the Economist, is the American university’s distaste for recruiting agents whose services are used by many students wanting to study abroad. Markus Badde, the chief executive of ICEF, a student recruitment consultancy, told the Economist that two-thirds of the world’s globally mobile students, and almost all of those from Asia, turn to intermediaries to find a university place. But the vast majority of American institutions refuse to do so, believing it to either be illegal or unethical.

These beliefs stem from the fact that it is illegal for U.S. universities to recruit domestic students through agents. In a bid to change such attitudes, a group of educational institutions have founded the new non-profit American International Recruitment Council. To join the network, recruitment agents will have to accept a code of practice and receive regular training. The organization hopes American universities will be sufficiently convinced of the quality and ethical standards of member agencies that they will agree to work with them. Already 35 universities have joined; the figure should reach 100 soon. The council is working on a trial basis in Bangkok and hopes to process “large numbers” of agents by the end of 2010.

AIRC held its first meeting in Cincinnati in October, and expects to approve a set of standards and a certification process for agents at a meeting in May (to coincide with the annual meeting of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, in Los Angeles).

– The Economist
December 30, 2008

Nova Southeastern Ranked #1 in Ranking of Online Schools

The Online Education Database (OEDb) released its third annual ranking of online educational institutions in early January, finding Nova Southeastern University to be offering the best online educational opportunities in the country.

The Houston-based OEDb is a for-profit company that makes money by referring visitors to the many online colleges and universities that advertise with it. According to OEDb founder Andy Hagans, in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, the rankings are in no way impacted by which institutions are advertising on his website, citing the transparent nature of the ranking methodology.

OEDb ranks colleges according to eight separate, but equally weighted, metrics: retention rate, graduation rate, incoming links from other colleges (“peer Web citations”) acceptance rate, student-faculty ratio, financial aid, scholarly citations (how often outside scholars have cited the institution’s research), and how many years the institution has been accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education.

Rounding out the top-five colleges were: Regent University, Champlain College, Upper Iowa University, and LeTourneau University.

– News Release
Jan. 6, 2009

Community College Fulbright-Equivalent Enters Second Year

A new State Department scholarship program was launched last year to provide foreign students practical training at American community colleges after 60 successful years of Fulbright scholarships. The Community College Summit Initiative Program, as the program is known, was launched as a means of improving public-diplomacy outreach to those who are not members of their countries’ socioeconomic elite.

The program also underscores the view that community colleges, with their expertise in work-force education, may often be the best places for future leaders in developing economies to get training. Between the 1999-2000 and 2006-7 academic years, international-student enrollment at two-year institutions increased by 22 percent, according to figures from the Institute of International Education. The State Department hopes the new scholarship will help to further increase those numbers.

Community Colleges for International Development (CCID), a national consortium of two-year institutions, runs the program, which covers students’ tuition and fees, housing, and other study-related expenses while they complete a one-year certificate or a two-year associate degree.

From the outset, the State Department, CCID, and foreign governments sought to tie the effort to fields that have labor shortages or that are seen as critical to economic growth, among them agriculture, health care, and hospitality and tourism. Fulbright commissions in the participating countries — Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey — nominate the students; the community colleges, which are asked to shoulder 25 percent of the cost, decide whom to admit to their programs. Eighty-four students made up the first class, in the fall of 2007, at a cost of $3.1 million. Now, in the program’s second year, the number of participating colleges has nearly quadrupled, to 23, and the number of participating students has climbed to 303. The State Department plans to expand the pool of participating countries, adding Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ghana, and Nicaragua, and to increase the number of students to 564 in the 2009-10 academic year. Support for the program will increase to $20 million and will come from a variety of sources, including the United States Agency for International Development.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
January 16, 2009