Regional

Four Top Asian Business Schools Unite to Recruit Abroad

The business schools of Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and Nanyang Technological University, along with the China Europe International Business School and the Indian School of Business, have formed a recruiting and marketing alliance to position themselves as an “Asian Ivy League” of business schools. As part of the alliance, the schools will be looking to recruit more Western students.

In an interview with Bloomberg news, Nick Soriano, director of marketing and admissions at Nanyang, in Singapore said: “There’s the Ivy League in America, so we thought why can’t we Asian business schools do the same kind of thing. Even though we are very much each other’s competitors, we thought we can all work together in trying to attract and convince people to come to Asia for their MBA.”

Collectively, the institutions will market themselves as “Top Asia B-Schools,” their recruiters will travel together to offer joint presentations, and they will operate a website, Top Asia B-Schools.

– Bloomberg
July 20, 2010

Canadian College Closes China, Taiwan Campuses After Discovery of Systemic Student Cheating

Centenary College is closing its business schools in China and Taiwan after discovering rampant cheating among local students, campus officials have said. The cheating was so extensive that the New Jersey-based college decided to withhold degrees from all 400 Chinese-speaking students in its master’s of business administration programs in Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan, said Debra Albanese, Centenary’s vice president for strategic advancement.

The students were told they had until the end of the July to decide whether to take a comprehensive exam to earn their degree or accept a full tuition refund. The vast majority, according to school officials, opted for the refund of their $1,200-to-$1,400 tuition. Centenary, a 3,000-student private college, has offered its executive MBA degree in China since 2004.

School officials in New Jersey began investigating the school’s China and Taiwan programs in January 2009 after it discovered cheating problems. The college then hired an international law firm and consulted with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, its accrediting agency.

– NJ.com
July 24, 2010

Australia

Australian Universities Fret Over the Prospect of Declining Foreign Enrollments

According to a recent article in The Age, universities in the United States, such as the University of California at Los Angeles and at Berkeley, are employing strategies to attract Asian students that in previous years might have been prime enrollment targets of Australian universities, especially those from China. In the past month UCLA has announced plans to lift the number of non-residential undergraduates from 5 percent to as many as 20 percent. The senate at Berkeley is considering an upper limit of 35 percent non-resident students.

The Australian higher education sector is increasingly worried that Chinese students have soured toward Australian universities and are beginning to look elsewhere. The International Education Association of Australia is predicting a fall of 100,000 in foreign student enrollments over the next year, partly because of stricter visa regulations, but also because of personal safety concerns caused by a recent spate of racially motivated attacks on foreign students.

The university sector is talking to Immigration Department officials about the government’s new restrictions on the educational pathway to Australian residency for many foreign students, describing it as an “overreaction”.

– The Age
July 13, 2010

Bangladesh

Government Passes Private Universities Bill

The Bangladeshi parliament in July passed a bill detailing rules governing the establishment and management of private universities in the country.

Under the law, the government is mandated to form an independent National Accreditation Council (NAC) to look into the implementation of the objectives of the law. According to the new bill, there must be a minimum one acre of undisputed and integrated land in the name of a proposed private university in Dhaka and Chittagong metros and a minimum two acres of land in other districts. Minimum reserve funds also need to be deposited in scheduled bank accounts.

A proposed private university would also need to meet certain criteria that include the formation of a Trustee Board and proof of adequate facilities and infrastructures in a minimum of 25,000 sq ft of building space. Universities would also be required to have at least three faculties under which there would be at least six departments. The universities regulator (UGC) would have to approve the proposed university’s plan of academic activities, and mandate the minimum number of qualified faculty members.

Without prior permission of the government, no foreign national or institution can establish a campus, while any foreign-franchised programs or foreign branch campuses would need express permission from the UGC, and would only be permitted at registered private universities.

– Financial Express
July 12, 2010

China

Alabama-based University Plans Engineering Campus Near Shanghai

Auburn University, a U.S. public university based in Alabama, is reportedly in advanced negotiations with Chinese government officials with regards to developing a full-fledged engineering campus in Danyang, a city northwest of Shanghai. According to Auburn University officials interviewed by The Chronicle of Higher Education, the branch campus would serve undergraduate and graduate students.

After several conversations with Chinese government officials, Auburn administrators said they are ready to move forward. Because of Danyang’s proximity to Shanghai, Auburn has selected Shanghai University as a potential partner. The extent of the would-be partnership is not yet clear. Because Auburn, a public institution, cannot use taxpayer money for an international campus, the university will rely on donors.

– Birmingham News
June 14, 2010

Falsified Applications for Overseas Study Commonplace, Consultant Reveals

An estimated 90 percent of Chinese applicants to foreign colleges submit false recommendations; 70 percent have other people write their personal essays; 50 percent forge their high-school transcripts; 30 percent lie on financial-aid forms; and 10 percent list academic awards and other achievements they did not receive. These are the findings of a recent survey of approximately 250 Chinese high school students, published in a new report by Tom Melcher, chairman of Zinch China, a consulting company that advises American colleges and universities about mainland China.

Mr. Melcher also spoke with parents and college-recruiting agents for his report, and based on those interviews he concludes that overly aggressive recruiting agents are part of the problem, but the main driver of application fraud is parents who are pushing agents to make things happen. And this stems from a culture where fraud and cheating in social advancement are commonplace, and not necessarily frowned upon, according to Zinch. Of course, agents do play a big role in the widespread fraud, considering they earn bonuses based on the type of school children are accepted to, so they frequently cheat by, say, ghostwriting personal essays.

“Many agents in China have folders of ‘successful’ essays, which they tweak each year,” the Zinch report says.

In 2008, Newcastle University, in England, reportedly kicked out 49 Chinese students and a Taiwanese student for falsifying their application documents. In that case, bogus agents were blamed for the fraud.

Mr. Melcher said American universities can take several steps to mitigate fraudulent activities. His main suggestion is that institutions hire a “covert” admissions officer from mainland China. This person can screen applications for potential inconsistencies that may indicate fraud. He recommends that this employee not be listed on an institution’s website or announced in other public ways so as to avoid tipping off applicants. Also, he said, universities should consider interviewing every Chinese applicant of possible merit and conducting such interviews in the native language.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 14, 2010

Chinese Overseas Graduates Return in Increasing Numbers

According to data from official government sources, the number of Chinese graduates of foreign universities returning to the mainland is increasing significantly, while the number going abroad continues to rise. One example: Shi Yigong, who was landing big grants as a professor at Princeton University, returned to become head of life sciences at Tsinghua University in Beijing, reports the AFP.

Two years ago, molecular biologist Shi Yigong was a prize-winning Princeton University professor with annual research funding of more than two million dollars and a seemingly limitless US academic career.

But Shi did exactly what China’s leadership hopes to see more of – he turned his back on all that to return to his homeland after two decades abroad.

The recent return of people like Shi, who now heads the life sciences department at Tsinghua University in Beijing, has provided a ray of hope for China in its uphill battle to reverse a long-term “brain drain” of top experts. With aspirations of becoming a science and technology power, China has tried for years to halt an exodus of top minds to the West, where most have stayed, many taking foreign citizenship.

But Shi, 43, told AFP that China’s growing economic and political strength and rapidly modernizing research institutions make it an increasing draw for returning scholars, known here as “sea turtles.” From 1978 through 2009, 1.62 million Chinese went abroad for graduate studies, according to the government. Only 460,000 have returned. Last year 229,000 left, up 27.5 percent from 2008. But returnees grew 56 percent to 108,000 last year, many drawn by increasingly lucrative enticements and growing research funding.

One current program offers recruits a basic one million yuan (US$147,000) in government funds – plus additional money from their employers and other sources. The government this year promised even more attractive policies in the future in its bid to close the technology gap with the West. However, experts say entrenched academic problems continue to repel potential returnees. They include rampant research plagiarism, a lack of political autonomy at universities, and an academic system marked by infighting and an overemphasis on connections, which stifles innovation.

– Agence France Presse
July 20, 1010

Is Academic Fraud Hampering Innovation?

The Economist newspaper made the argument recently that if China wants to meet its ambitions of building a new innovation-based economy centered on discoveries, inventions and other advances, then it will have to start getting serious about pervasive academic and scientific misconduct.

Scholars in China and across the world say that fraud remains rampant, with transgressions ranging from falsified data, padded academic claims on resumes, cheating on tests and extensive plagiarism. Such lapses of integrity are not unique to China, The Economist argues, but poor peer-review mechanisms, misguided incentives and a lack of checks on academic behavior all allow fraud to be more common.

The roots of academic fraud in China are likely many-fold, but common arguments center on the system of academic advancement – which is based not on the quality of published works, but the quantity. In addition, senior scientists, who are rarely punished for fraud, set poor examples to their juniors.

Of course, the implications of widespread fraud brings into question the credibility of research and enterprise being conducted in China – across the board. This might go on to manifest itself with foreign scientists choosing not to collaborate with Chinese peers for fear of scandal. Another impact might be on Chinese students looking for college places abroad, especially among the genuinely talented whose high scores will raise red flags among admissions officers who have become highly suspicious of the near-perfect scores on standardized tests and glowing recommendations from professors that have become common to many applications from China.

– The Economist
July 22, 2010

India

Indian Universities Abroad

According to a recent article in University World News, a growing number of Indian universities – in both the private and public sector – are looking abroad to grow enrollments and revenue.

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, in the northern state of Rajasthan already has a campus in Dubai, an academic partnership in Oman and is preparing to open another in Mauritius. Private Manipal University has invested more than 9.3 million rupees (US$200 million) to open or partner with campuses in Malaysia, Antigua, Nepal and Dubai. The Malaysia campus is a medical school but plans are afoot to convert it into a full-fledged university. Another private institution, Amity University, opened campuses in London and Singapore in 2009. This year, it is reportedly opening campuses in New York and San Francisco.

Government-funded institutions are also expanding abroad. A proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus in Qatar has reportedly been given the green light by authorities, while the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) brand is also preparing to go international. IIM Ahmedabad is already in talks with several countries to set up a campus abroad.

“We want to make an international move and are looking at China, Malaysia and South-East Asian countries. We also want to strengthen our research infrastructure and ambience,” an unnamed senior professor at IIMA in charge of administration told University World News. Meanwhile, in a vision document it has submitted to the education ministry, IIM Bangalore has floated the idea of an international campus in Singapore.

– University World News
July 9, 2010

Lecturers to be Promoted on Merit not Tenure

India’s university regulator in June adopted a new system for the promotion of lecturers that will reward performance not seniority, as has traditionally been the case. The University Grants Commission has adopted a performance-based points system, and lecturers will be assessed annually and will be eligible for promotions based on their teaching, research and publication quality.

The plans have been in the works for almost two years and have faced stiff opposition from many unions, but they were finally accepted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, with the agreement of almost all the lecturers’ representative bodies.

Under the new directives, 75 percent of the points will be allocated to teaching, learning and evaluation activities, 15 percent will be based on “co-curricular activities extension and professional development-related activities.” Professional development activities, such as seminars, conferences and training courses, will be taken into account while scores are also proposed for research and academic contributions.

– The Hindu
June 30, 2010

Scottish University to Offer Programs in Pune

Glasgow Caledonian University has signed a collaboration agreement with India’s Fergusson College, Pune that will see the two schools jointly develop graduate programs in the life sciences.

Programs in biology and biomedical science will be offered at Fergusson College, a constituent college of the University of Pune, and the collaboration with Glasgow will include student interaction programs, joint research, and exchange of faculty members. The agreement was signed as part of the British Council’s initiative to promote Scottish universities in India. Enrollment for the first batch of students will begin next year.

– IANS
August 2, 2010

Indonesia

Educational Ties with U.S. Expanded

In late June at a meeting of the G-20 in Toronto, President Obama and Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced that the United States will spend $165 million over the next five years on programs to help strengthen higher education in Indonesia through educational exchanges and university partnerships.

The two leaders also agreed to hold a joint higher-education summit next summer, with the U.S. keen to develop ties in the fast-growing Muslim-majority democracy. Although the Indonesian government now spends 20 percent of its budget on education, with most of those funds going to primary and secondary education, the country lacks the capacity to meet its educational needs.

The number of Indonesians studying in the United States shrank to just 7,500 students during the 2008-9 academic year versus 11,625 2001/02, according to the Institute of International Education. To boost those numbers, the U.S. Department of State already has made educational exchanges with Indonesia through the Fulbright Program a priority. As part of the effort announced at the G-20, the two countries will expand such educational exchanges through Fulbright, the Community College Initiative Program, and English-language training, among other activities. U.S. officials hope the number of Indonesians studying in the United States will double within five years.

The two countries will also work together to improve the quality and capacity of Indonesian colleges and universities through a partnership program supporting collaboration between American and Indonesian universities, says a White House news release.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 27, 2010

Malaysia

University Ratings Released

The Malaysian Qualifications Agency, a branch of the ministry of higher education, recently released a rating of 47 Malaysian universities and other higher education institutions, including seven set up by foreign universities. It classed 18 as ‘excellent’, 25 as ‘very good’ and four as ‘good’. None earned the top rating of ‘distinction’.

The ranking was compiled by Setara ratings and will be used by the Higher Education Ministry to develop “appropriate higher education policies,” according to officials, who added that public and private institutions that had earned an excellent rating would be permitted to enroll local and foreign government-sponsored students as well as receive government research grants. In addition, they will be eligible for ‘research university status’ and can enroll additional graduate students.

A total of 58 institutions were listed to be assessed but 11 universities and university colleges were excluded from the exercise. Malaysia currently has 18 public universities or higher education institutions and 40 private institutions. The Qualifications Agency looked at 82 indicators in assessing the institutions. Although institutions fell into just three rating categories, the ratings system has a total of six tiers ranging from ‘outstanding’ to ‘weak’.

Foreign institutions operating in Malaysia classed as excellent included three Australian universities: Curtin University’s Sarawak campus, Monash University’s Sunway campus and Swinburne University’s Sarawak campus. The others were Taylor’s University College and the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus.

The full ratings are available here.

– University World News
July 18, 2010

Malaysia Education Rebrands Abroad

The overseas Malaysian Student Departments (MSD) and Malaysian Education Promotion Centers (MPECs) will be merged into “Education Malaysia” centers under a rebranding exercise being carried out by the Ministry of Higher Education.

A total of 19 centers will be rebranded, with 10 MSDs and four MPECs currently in existence. Five new locations would be in Thailand, Kazakhstan and three in Latin America and Europe.

– The Star
July 20, 2010

New Zealand

Online Database of Qualifications Published

From July of this year, the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) has replaced the former New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications. The NZQF contains a searchable database of all quality assured qualifications currently being offered by New Zealand institutions, as well as a number of older qualifications which have been discontinued. It also provides information on the 10-level structure, the definitions of each type of qualification, and the credit system.

For each qualification, the title, type and level of qualification, its credit value, subject area, learning outcome statement (including graduate profile, education and employment pathways), status (current, expiring or discontinued) and details on the qualification issuer are provided.

– NZQF communication
July 1, 2010

Pakistan

Court Orders Crackdown on MPs with Bogus Academic Credentials

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered election authorities to take action against members of parliament who have been found to have forged their higher education qualifications in order to contest the 2008 general election.

Former president Pervez Musharraf introduced a law that parliamentarians must hold a university degree, a move largely said to have been aimed at keeping his rivals out of parliament. President Asif Ali Zardari’s government later struck down the law, but Pakistan’s increasingly assertive Supreme Court in June ordered election authorities to take action against legislators who were found guilty of forging their diplomas.

By-elections have already been held in about a dozen seats of national and provincial assemblies in recent weeks after the degrees of some office-holders were found to be fake. An official of the Election Commission told Reuters that the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which is verifying the degrees of parliamentarians, had learned that at least 35 MPs had not filed their university degrees along with their nomination papers, while the diplomas of 138 members were illegible.

Reportedly, the HEC has been struggling to identify forged documents because of tampering carried out by the fake degree holders. Complications are due to similar names having been written in university records, with the institutions unable to distinguish one from the other. The HEC is now planning to seek help from the government. Sources from the HEC told the Daily Times that a number of parliamentarians had purchased degrees or tampered with university records with the help of “corrupt officials”. They also claimed that parliamentarians, with the help of the corrupt officials, had bargained with real degree holders and obtained ownership of degrees.

– Reuters
June 30, 2010
– Daily Times
July 14, 2010

Singapore

Attracting and Retaining the Best Brains

According to the findings of an annual survey by JobsFactory, Singapore’s best students are more likely to accept scholarships offers from local universities than those from universities abroad. The survey found that of 3,000 A level and International Baccalaureate (IB) graduates, the National University of Singapore  (NUS) scholarship is the most popular, with two other NUS scholarships – the merit scholarship and the faculty scholarship – also ranking in the top five. In fact, only one of the top five preferences was not from a local university.

According to JobsFactory Director, Lim Der Shing, the main reasons behind this trend are the fact that the scholarships are not usually bonded, thereby allowing graduates freedom in choosing their own career paths after graduation; and that they can be used for virtually any study program. The ‘bond’ pathway, whereby scholarships have been tied to fixed employment terms in Singapore after graduation, has also been tremendously successful in attracting and keeping top talent over the last decade, especially from South Asia and China.

– Channel NewsAsia
June 10, 2010

South Korea

Global University Campus Initiative on Shaky Ground After Global Recession

While much of the construction is well underway for the US$1 billion Songdo Global University Campus, which hopes to attract thousands of students from around the world, American partners are reportedly getting cold feet after the ravages of a two-year economic storm have called into question the viability of the project before a single student has even enrolled for classes.

Warwick Arden, provost of North Carolina State University, one of five American colleges that have signed contracts to deliver education programs at the new campus, has announced an “indefinite hold” on North Carolina State’s participation in the Songdo project. “At a time when there have been major changes in the world economy, we are not willing to put campus funds into this project,” Mr. Arden said. “It has to be self-sustaining.”

Still enrollments will begin next summer, and by the fall of 2011, this government-supported university, about an hour from South Korea’s capital, Seoul, will begin teaching undergraduates, insists its president, Hee Yhon Song.

“We have no past reference, but I think we can reach 10,000 to 12,000 students by the end of the decade,” Mr. Song told The Chronicle of Higher Education. About a third of those are expected to come from America, another third from across Asia. “Eventually we aim to have 30,000 students here.”

However, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, which initially planned to open engineering and business programs with 250 to 300 students next fall and enroll 1,500 students by 2016, now says it is “suspending” undergraduate programs in Songdo. It will offer a “limited number” of graduate programs in wireless and information technology. Meanwhile, The University of Delaware, one of the five contracted partners, has commissioned a private marketing survey on the project’s viability. George Mason University and the University of Southern California are the other two confirmed U.S. partners. Both are reportedly still fully committed to the project. The University of Missouri, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Surrey, in Britain, are also linked to the campus. And Songdo officials are reportedly still recruiting institutions.

Local and central government agencies are splitting the expenses involved in developing the campus, so that U.S. institutions do not need to pay any upfront costs. Each college has received about $1 million in seed money and rent-free classrooms and accommodations, along with the offer of up to $9 million in interest-free loans. A 700-unit student dormitory is scheduled to open later this year. In return, profits are required to be sunk back into the campus.

Yonsei University, South Korea’s top private university, is one of several Korean colleges that have built new facilities at Songdo in return for cheap land and other incentives.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 6, 2010

Taiwan

Taiwan Registers Some Success in Recruiting Students from Neighboring Countries

According to Taiwanese education officials, the higher education sector there is becoming increasingly attractive to students from the Asian region. After a weeklong trip to Southeast Asia in July, Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji pointed to a number of inter-governmental initiatives that suggest that Taiwan is growing in appeal as a study destination and partner.

In Malaysia, the government is planning to launch a 200-acre international education center in Penang, and has invited National Taiwan University to establish a branch campus there. Vietnam plans to send 50 university lecturers per year to Taiwan over a 10-year period for graduate studies, while Indonesia’s Aceh Province will send 50 government-funded students to the island every year starting from 2011.

Wu also predicts that once amendments to the University Act, Junior College Law and the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area are passed by the Legislature in August, “vocational institutes will be bursting with mainland students.” Those who complete a junior college degree in mainland China have no further outlets for higher education, while Taiwan has a variety of two-year colleges and two- and four-year institutes of technology, Wu pointed out. Many mainland students are eager to pursue further studies here, with as many as 80,000 from Fujian Province alone, Wu said.

– China Post
July 27, 2010