Regional
WES Officially Recognized as a Recipient of Verified Chinese Degrees for the U.S. and Canada
World Education Services [1], Inc. (WES) has officially signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Development Center [2] (CDGDC), the authorized agent responsible for verifying Chinese degrees for the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. The CDGDC is the legal entity that provides verification of degree certificates, diplomas and other related educational materials conferred by Chinese education institutions.
CDGDC General Director Wu Boda and Vice-Director Qiao Wenjun visited the WES offices in New York City to sign the official memorandum of understanding. This visit follows a visit made by WES Executive Director Mariam Assefa and Deputy Executive Director Margarita Sianou in spring 2009 to the CDGDC offices in Beijing, PRC. “We believe this official recognition will allow WES to provide faster assistance to Chinese students applying for education in the United States and Canada,” said Mariam Assefa.
The CDGDC verifies degree certificates, diplomas and school grade transcripts of all the three levels conferred by the Higher Education Institutions and Research Institutes in mainland China; graduation certificates of specialized secondary schools and general certificates of secondary school education examination, grade transcripts of general examination for high school graduates and grade transcripts of national college entrance examination.
– WES News Release [3]
January 20, 2010
Offshore Medical Schools Questioned
A long feature article in The St. Petersburg Times has questioned the quality of education being received by (largely) American students studying at offshore medical schools in the Caribbean.
The offshore institutions defend their quality in the article, noting that they are graduating many students at a time when medical institutions in the United States are crying out for medical practitioners. But the article notes that graduation rates at the offshore schools lag those in the United States and that some graduates are unable to obtain residencies, effectively limiting their ability to practice in the United States, and leaving them in many cases with debts much larger than those incurred by students on domestic campuses.
– St. Petersburg Times [4]
January 1, 2010
Brazil
Brazil Moves Forward on 3 International Integration Universities
Brazil’s Senate granted official authorization for the establishment of the Federal University for Latin America Integration [5] (UNILA) in December, passing a bill that enables the institution to formally announce itself as a university. UNILA [5] is one of three regional and global integration universities launched by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2006 to advance Brazil’s interests at home and abroad.
The other two university projects are the Afro-Brazilian University of Integration (UNILAB) and the University of Amazonian Integration (UNIAM). The universities are part of a broader mission to use international higher education networks to advance cultural, political and economic projects on ‘supranational,’ ‘global’ and ‘regional’ levels, reports Susan Robertson for Globalhighered.
UNILA is being developed on a 43 hectare site in Foz, Parana granted by Itaipu Binacional [6], a bi-national energy company running a huge hydro-electric dam providing energy to Paraguay and the southern cone of Brazil. The objectives of UNILA are to pursue inter-regional trans-disciplinary research and teaching in areas of joint interest of the MERCOSUL member countries (Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay) focusing, for example, on the use of natural resources, trans-border biodiversity, social sciences and linguistic research, international relations as well as relevant disciplines for strategic development. The university hopes to enroll 10,000 students in programs leading to masters and doctoral degrees. Classes will be offered in both Portuguese and Spanish.
The UNILAB project is much more global in scope and ambition. This unilateral Portuguese-speaking, Afro-Brazilian University of Integration will have campuses in various Portuguese speaking countries (Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sâo Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor). Enrollment is scheduled to begin this year. The principal aim of UNILAB is to encourage and strengthen cooperation, partnerships, and cultural, educational and scientific exchanges between Brazil and member states of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) listed above. UNILAB will also focus on collaboration with the African countries of the CPLP, aiming to contribute to these nations’ socio-economic development, including reducing ‘brain drain’ problems.
The third, more regional, initiative, Universidade Federal da Integração Amazônica, or UNIAM, will be established as a public multi-campus university, with a main campus in the Brazilian city of Santarém, and three satellite campuses in the cities Itaituba, Monte Alegre and Oriximiná, all located in the Brazilian state of Pará. The main aim of UNIAM will be to encourage social-economic integration of the Amazon region, which includes not only parts of Brazil, but also areas of eight surrounding countries.
– GlobalHigherEd [7]
January 4, 2010
Canada
More Work Needed on PhD Production
The Conference Board of Canada [8] released its educational report card in January, grading the nation a ‘D’ in the production of Ph.D.’s (see a comparative chart [9]).
Overall Canada improved this year in several categories, moving into second place in the annual comparison of 17 developed countries. Finland topped the education and skills rankings, and the United States placed 16th. The report card blames Canada’s poor grade in the production of doctorates on “insufficient support” and says the country’s failure to support world-class universities is one reason for its comparative weaknesses in high-level academic achievement and innovation.
– Conference Board of Canada [10]
January 2010
Mexico
Demand for Forensic Science Programs Booms as Crime Rates Sore
As Mexico struggles with an escalation of drug-related crime, the demand for forensic science classes is booming. Classes too are multiplying, as colleges seek to meet a demand for fingerprint collectors, crime scene photographers and ballistics experts.
“Forensic science is seeing a boom in Mexico,” said Rafael Ruíz Mena, secretary-general for professional training at Mexico’s National Institute of Criminal Science [11] in an interview with USA Today. “More and more young people are seeing this as a career opportunity.”
The growth in forensic science comes as Mexico tries to professionalize its police with U.S. aid and as the country embarks on a major overhaul of its court system, creating a need for investigators. Since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderón first ordered troops into smuggling hot spots, the number of drug-related murders has soared, from 2,275 in 2007 to 6,587 in 2009, according to a tally conducted by Reforma newspaper. In 2009, the Mexican attorney general’s office built a $20 million laboratory building and purchased five mobile crime labs. It has added hundreds of forensic experts in recent years, from 756 in 2003 to 1,425 in 2009.
Changes to the Mexican legal system are creating a growing demand for independent forensic experts, said Hernán Dinorín, director of the International Academy of Forensic Science Training, another school in Mexico City. State and federal courts are phasing in U.S.-style “oral trials” to replace the current judicial system, in which trials are conducted through a slow exchange of written briefs. The change, which began in 2008 and is to be completed by 2016, expands the role of defense lawyers and increases the standards judges must meet to convict suspects.
– USA TODAY [12]
January 12, 2010
United States
Foreign Ph.D.s Staying in the US Post-graduation
Contrary to predictions that post-9/11 visa restrictions, or increased opportunities in China and India, would see newly minted international Ph.D.s running for the border, most foreign doctoral students who came to the United States to earn degrees in science and engineering are staying on after graduation.
According to recent data [13] from the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education [14] for the National Science Foundation, 62 percent of foreigners holding temporary visas who earned Ph.D.s in science and engineering at U.S. universities in 2002 were still in the U.S. in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available. Of those who graduated in 1997, 60 percent were still in the U.S. in 2007.
Foreigners account for about 40 percent of all science and engineering doctorate holders working in the United States, suggesting that the continued attraction of Ph.D.s from abroad is critical for U.S. research and development.
The data does not capture the impact of the global recession, although anecdotal evidence and informal studies cited by commentators in a Wall Street Journal article suggests that the impact of the recession will be significant with regards to return rates among international graduates.
Chinese and Indian students are the most likely to stay in the U.S. post-graduation according to the study, “Stay Rates of Foreign Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities, 2007”. Among 2002 graduates, 92 percent of the Chinese and 81 percent of the Indians were in the U.S. after five years; in contrast, 41 percent of South Koreans and 52 percent of Germans were.
– Wall Street Journal [15]
January 26, 2010
NAFSA Calls for Revised Visa Policies
A new report by Nafsa: Association of International Educators [16] says that the United States needs more flexible visa and immigration policies if it wants to continue attracting the world’s best intellectual talent in an increasingly competitive global environment.
While noting that immigration policies have improved in recent years, the report [17] calls on President Obama and Congress to enact a series of changes, including expediting visa approval for frequent visitors to the United States, allowing American consulates overseas to waive the requirement for in-person interviews for certain low-risk applicants, and lifting the cap on the number of recent graduates who can remain in this country.
In the report, Nafsa suggests a number of regulatory and statutory changes, among them:
- Move oversight for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program [18], which maintains a database on foreign students and other international visitors, to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
- Eliminate the requirement that applicants for student visas demonstrate that they intend to return home after completing their course of study. Failure to prove they do not intend to immigrate is the most common reason for visa denial for international students but is “inherently unprovable,” the report states.
- Remove the cap on the number of international students who can remain in the country after graduation. Current law permits 20,000 international students with graduate degrees from American universities to stay under laws governing temporary visas for skilled workers.
- Extend security clearances [19] for foreign students and scholars who work in any of roughly 200 scientific fields that the government deems of a sensitive nature for the duration of their study or appointment. The Department of State also should conduct biennial reviews of the list of technologies and remove them if they become obsolete or widely available, the report recommends.
- Expedite visa approval for frequent visitors who have already passed background checks and for students and scholars pursuing programs in the United States who leave the country temporarily and require a new visa to return. Too many resources are expended on repetitively processing the same people, Nafsa says.
- Allow visitors who intend to stay 90 days or less for educational purposes, such as short-term English courses or summer school, to enter the United States on tourist visas. Right now there is often no visa that is “strictly legal” for this category of visitor, according to the report.
- Give the secretary of state the authority to grant American consulates the discretion to waive in-person interviews, based on risk analysis and according to plans submitted by each consulate for State Department approval. The secretary September 11, and Congress later made such interviews mandatory in 2004. But Nafsa and other groups argue that consular officers waste time in the face-to-face vetting of low-risk visitors.
– NAFSA [20]
December 14, 2009
Federal Government Would Tackle Diploma Mills Under New Bill
Until now, the problem of fake university degrees has been dealt with on a state-by-state basis. Some states have taken the issue seriously and enacted strict regulations, while others have left weak regulations in place, becoming havens for the operations of those trading in bogus qualifications.
In late January, Rep. Timothy H. Bishop (Dem, NY) announced that he had introduced the Diploma and Accreditation Integrity Protection Act [21] (HR 4535 [21]), a bill that would define diploma mills and accreditation mills. Under the provision of the bill, the Federal Trade Commission would be instructed to take action against operations that fit the federal descriptions and to report its findings to the Department of Education.
Representative Bishop has been pushing for such a bill since 2005. That’s when a Government Accountability Office investigation [22] found that more than 400 federal employees held degrees from unaccredited colleges.
– Council of Higher Education Accreditation [23]
January 28, 2010