Regional
Policymakers Call for Increased Caribbean Cooperation in Education
During a two-day Caribbean higher-education conference, policymakers, educators and experts discussed higher education in the Caribbean region. The April meeting, organized by the Surinam government, the Organization of American States and Unesco, opened with a request from Suriname President Ronald Venetiaan for greater collaboration among education and research institutes in the Caribbean. He argued that the small scale of Caribbean communities was leading to a lack of financial resources and expertise for education and research in different disciplines, as well as insufficient services being rendered to society by the region’s academic institutions.
“The solutions for many of these problems lies in good collaboration, which will put an end to clinging to the orientation towards the objectives and structures of institutions of our former colonizers, as well as the persistent individual orientation of many of our experts towards a possibility of success in institutions outside the Caribbean,” the President noted.
– Communications Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis [1]
April 13, 2010
Canada
International Students who Earn Ph.D.s in Ontario to be Fast-tracked for Permanent Residency
The province of Ontario in March launched its Open Ontario Plan [2], which is designed to increase by 50 percent the number of international students at its institutions of higher education in the next five years. As part of that plan, foreign students who earn a doctoral degree from an Ontario university will be fast-tracked for permanent residence status.
Previously, only graduates with a job offer qualified to be fast-tracked under the Provincial Nominee Program. Under the new program, foreign students would qualify for the fast-track program as soon as they complete the requirements for their degree, with or without a job offer.
Research by the Canadian Bureau of International Education [3] (CBIE) has found that about half of all foreign students in Canada are interested in working or remaining in the country after graduation, up from just 25 percent five years ago. Changes by the federal government now allow students from other countries to remain in Canada for three years following their graduation, during which time they are eligible to work.
Similar measures to retain foreign graduates have been implemented in New Brunswick, Quebec and Manitoba commented Ms. Jennifer Humphries, a vice-president of the CBIE in an interview with The Globe and Mail. Ms. Humphries added that Canadian provinces need to have a cohesive strategy and brand if they want to raise their international profiles.
– The Globe and Mail [4]
April 26, 2010
Millions of Dollars Awarded to Cutting Edge International Researchers
The Canadian government has awarded 19 international researchers multimillion-dollar grants to move themselves and their labs to Canadian universities as part of an effort to improve the country’s scientific research base.
The researchers are the first recipients of Canada Excellence Research Chairs [5]. The winners and the institutions where they will study will receive approximately US$10 million over a seven-year period. Nine of the researchers are coming from America, with the rest from Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. A total of 13 Canadian universities got the Excellence Research Chairs, with the University of Alberta [6] being home to four.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [7]
May 17, 2010
Chile
Nation Invests Heavily in Higher Education
The global recession missed Chile, in fact the South American nation in 2008 was bringing in massive revenues from its copper mines. From those revenues the government invested US$6 billion to pay for Chileans to earn graduate degrees abroad, by far the largest per capita investment in study-abroad scholarships by a Latin American government. Experts suggest the investment comes from a belief that the country’s future depends on its development of human capital.
Chile, with a population of just 17 million people, is also spending tens of millions of dollars on improving its state universities and developing programs in the humanities, arts, and social sciences—in part as an effort to attract foreign students and professors. The focus on attracting foreign students is somewhat unusual in a region that accounts for just 6 percent of globally mobile students, according to 2007 statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Since Chile’s former president, Michelle Bachelet, unveiled the Bicentennial Fund for Human Capital Development, in May 2008, more than 5,000 Chilean graduate students have won grants to study at elite foreign universities. President Bachelet’s administration, which left office in March, also signed academic-exchange agreements with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and the State of California, which include language training and special visas for Chilean students and researchers. The country’s goal is to finance 30,000 graduate students by 2018, the 200th anniversary of Chile’s independence from Spain. The scholarship program gives preference to students pursuing subjects relevant to the Chilean economy, like engineering, agriculture, health, and environmental sciences.
In addition, the country’s export-promotion agency, ProChile [8], recently included institutions of higher education among the “products” it markets abroad.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [9]
April 18, 2010
Post-Earthquake, Chile Reassesses 2020 Goals
The earthquake that rocked Chile February 27th caused serious structural damage to hundreds of elementary and high schools in the southern region of the country, leaving as many as 590,000 students without a school in early April.
The Ministry of Education [10] has started a campaign to reconstruct all damaged schools and facilitate a return to classes, however, the main goal of the campaign, according to Mario Waissbluth, head coordinator of Education 2020- a group that seeks to assure that by 2020 the poorest 20 percent of the Chilean population receives the same quality of education as the richest 20 percent – is just to provide a space for children to go during their parent’s work day, even if they do not learn anything.
Education 2020 criticizes what they characterize as an elitist school system that fails students from poor backgrounds who attend substandard public schools, fail college entrance exams, and end up at private institutions of higher education (if at all) that award worthless degrees.
– The Pulse [11]
April 23, 2010
Haiti
Former President Clinton Calls for a Focus on Universities in Rebuilding
Former US president Bill Clinton is helping to oversee $5 billion in reconstruction spending in Haiti, and he stressed in early April that higher education will be a top priority.
Clinton’s immediate priorities in higher education are to help pay tuition for private university students whose families were hurt, killed or lost jobs when the quake hit; recruit faculty to Haiti to teach; and rebuild the universities. Just four of the University of Haiti’s 13 campuses escaped serious structural damage, Clinton says.
“We’ve got to get those colleges open again,” he told a crowd of student activists at the third annual Clinton Global Initiative University [12], which took place at the University of Miami [13] in early April. Plans to reopen universities — Clinton called them his “marching orders” — were developed over a lunch with presidents of American and Haitian colleges.
“An incredible number of (U.S.) institutions feel they’re in a position to assist,” says Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami Dade College [14].
“The one institutional strength Haiti has had is its higher-education system,” adds University of Miami president Donna Shalala. Because a well-trained workforce will be critical to Haiti’s recovery, she says, “we cannot let that fail.”
A number of U.S. schools are hosting students dislocated by the quake. But many Haitian students chose to remain at home, says Conor Bohan, founder of Haitian Education & Leadership Program [15], a non-profit based in New York and Port-au-Prince that gives scholarships to Haitian college students. Of this year’s 108 scholars, two died in the quake; more than 80 are or were involved in relief efforts.
– USA Today [16]
April 4, 2010
Mexico
U of Texas Brings Staff and Students Home from Northern Mexico
Escalating violence in seven states of northern Mexico has prompted the University of Texas [17] system to withdraw all of its students and faculty and staff members from the region, according to media reports. The move, which affects about 40 people, follows initial action last month by Texas and other American universities with a presence there to pull out of northern Mexico because of drug-related violence.
– Associated Press [18]
April 23, 2010
Mexican Universities Protest Arizona Immigration Law by Ending Mobility Exchanges with U. Arizona
Two Mexican universities — the National Autonomous University of Mexico [19] and the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi [20] — have ended exchange programs with the University of Arizona [21], citing Arizona’s new immigration law, The Arizona Republic [22] reported. The new law authorizes increased police activity against anyone who could be seen as being in the United States illegally — an approach critics believe will lead to widespread ethnic and racial profiling. Officials of the Mexican universities said they feared that their students might be harassed if they came to institutions in Arizona.
– Arizona Republic [22]
May 7, 2010
Puerto Rico
University Closes After Violent Protests
The University of Puerto Rico [23], with a student population of more than 65,000 students, closed its Rio Piedras campus indefinitely in April after 19 security guards were injured during student protests against budget cuts and changes in the university’s academic program. The announcement came three weeks before classes were scheduled to end, and an official at the university said the closures would mean that graduation and fall enrollment would be delayed.
– Associated Press [24]
April 21, 2010
United States
Apollo Global Acquires Western International University
Apollo Global [25], a majority-owned subsidiary of Apollo Group, Inc. announced in April the acquisition of Western International University [26] (WIU) as a result of an asset transfer from Apollo Group.
Founded in 1978 in Phoenix, Arizona, WIU offers associate, bachelor and master degree programs to approximately 3,200 students. WIU has four campus locations in the greater Phoenix area and offers online education through its virtual campus, WIU Interactive Online.
– Business Wire [27]
April 19, 2010
Private Colleges Record Highest Levels of Grade Inflation
Over the last 50 years, college grade-point averages have risen about 0.1 points per decade, with private schools accounting for much of it, according to a recent study [28].
The study, by Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, uses historical data from 80 four-year colleges and universities. It finds that grade-point averages have risen from a national average of 2.52 in the 1950s to 3.11 by the middle of the last decade. From the 1950s, students at private schools started receiving significantly higher grades than those with similar talents at public schools— based on SAT scores and other measures.
Based on contemporary grading data the authors collected from 160 schools, the average GPA at private colleges and universities today is 3.3. At public schools, it is 3.0. The authors suggest that easier grading standards may help explain why private school students are over-represented in top medical, business and law schools and certain Ph.D. programs.
– Teachers College Record [28]
March 4, 2010
Number of Immigrants with Doctorates on the Rise
Immigrants, who account for a disproportionate share of Americans without a high school diploma, also made up nearly one-third of Americans with doctoral degrees in 2009 — a sharp increase compared with five years earlier, the Census Bureau reported in April.
For the first time since records began, over 10 percent of the population had an education beyond a bachelor’s degree. Among adults in their late 20s, 35 percent of women and 27 percent of men had a bachelor’s degree, an eight-percentage-point gender gap, compared with three percentage points in 1999.
– Census Bureau [29]
April 20, 2010
Completion Times for First Degrees Drift
The time it takes students to complete their undergraduate degrees in the United States has lengthened significantly over the past three decades, even as an increasing number of universities have recently been pushing the three-year degree.
A working paper [30] published in April by the National Bureau of Economic Research [30], suggests that the primary reasons could be declines in resources in less-selective public sector colleges, and increased hours of employment among students. The study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 and the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, and the authors show that the increased time to completion is mostly attributable to students who begin postsecondary education at public colleges and is most significant among low-income students.
According to the abstract: “Our results suggest that declines in collegiate resources in the less-selective public sector increased time to degree. Furthermore, we present evidence of increased hours of employment among students, which is consistent with students working more to meet rising college costs and likely increases time to degree by crowding out time spent on academic pursuits.”
– National Bureau of Economic Research [30]
April 2010
Arizona Universities Likely to Lose Enrollments Under Stringent New State Immigration Laws
Arizona college administrators say they are concerned about the effects the state’s new immigration law, which Gov. Jan Brewer signed in April, will have on their campuses, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Some from out of state have told the University of Arizona [21] that out of principle they are not coming because of the law, which asks local and state law-enforcement officers, including the campus police, to ask people whom they suspect are illegal immigrants to provide evidence of legal immigration status. For Hispanic and international students, college officials worry that the state policy will create an atmosphere of fear on campuses. University presidents say their campuses are concerned about possible racial profiling.
In 2006, Arizona voters approved a measure, Proposition 300, that requires students who cannot prove they are legal immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition at Arizona colleges, though the institutions remained open to all students. The new law, according to some will likely deter undocumented students from continuing their education, while those of Hispanic origin with the requisite paperwork might be discouraged from attending college for fear of racial profiling.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [31]
April 30, 2010
Study: In-State Tuition Not a Draw for ‘Illegal’ Immigrants
A total of 10 states have passed laws that allow resident undocumented immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition if they meet certain criteria, yet enrollment rates among that group has not risen significantly since the passage of the various state laws, according to a study [32] published in April by the National Bureau of Economic Research [33]. The first states to pass such laws were Texas and California in 2001.
The authors of the report speculate that because they are ineligible for federal aid, undocumented immigrants may struggle to afford even reduced tuition. Earning a college degree also may not significantly improve their job prospects, because of restrictions on employers’ abilities to hire workers without proper documents. The only group that saw a noticeable rise in enrollments in states with such laws was Mexican men aged 22 to 24. The study used data on enrollment available through 2005.
– National Bureau of Economic Research [32]
April 2010
British Recruiter/English Language Provider Signs with A Second U.S. University
INTO University Partnerships [34] already works with 10 British universities in recruiting and training international students, and in January the organization signed a 30-year agreement with its second U.S. partner university.
The agreement with the University of South Florida appears to follow a fairly standard INTO business model. The British company recruits foreign students for a “pathway” program of subject area offerings and English language instruction to prepare them for admission into the university. Under the partnership – INTO USF [35] – the university provides all academic programs and INTO provides marketing, communications and student support services. The university’s foundation and INTO would share costs – and profits – equally. The lure for USF is the promise of increased revenues from the premiums international students pay in tuition fees. It is a joint venture that “promises to transform our university’s position on the world stage,” wrote Ralph C. Wilcox, USF’s provost and executive vice president, in a January letter to faculty [36]. Eventually, it aims to bring close to 1,000 international students to the university each year. “We are confident that, together, we will bring about a breakthrough strategy that will rapidly transform USF into a preferred destination for high ability students from around the world.”
However, that enthusiasm has been stifled by the rules of accreditation for the university’s English Language Institute (ELI), which was brought under INTO USF’s governance, rather than the university’s. After learning of the public-private partnership a few weeks ago, the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation [37] (CEA) decided to end its accreditation of ELI, just one year into its nine-year term, stating that they had accredited the USF English Language Institute, not that of INTO USF.
INTO sets standards for admitting students to INTO USF, but the university still decides whether to admit them following completion of the pathway program. In a statement, INTO said it has “gone to great pains in working with USF to ensure that we are not intruding on the university’s academic prerogatives.” The company has 10 programs operating in the United Kingdom, which, it said, have a “stellar reputation.”
But this isn’t the first time that a U.S. institution’s partnership with INTO has threatened its CEA accreditation. Last year, after Oregon State University [38] entered into a similar partnership with INTO, the CEA revoked the accreditation of the university’s English Language Institute. Even without CEA accreditation, INTO OSU [39] has continued to operate. Since last summer, it has taken in a few hundred students. INTO USF will continue to operate, too, with or without the CEA.
– InsideHigherEd [40]
May 10, 2010
Venezuela
Private University ‘Nationalized’
Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, in May nationalized Santa Inés University, a private institution, boasting to students that tuition would now be free, the Dow Jones News Service reported. Initial reactions from students suggest they are unhappy about the move, to say the least. Carlos Chavez, a student leader who is not related to his president, said, “He’s going to impose his revolutionary, Marxist, socialist agenda on us students, and he’ll kick out good professors who allow us to study capitalism.”
– Dow Jones [41]
May 18, 2010