Regional
Internationalization a Major Force of Change for Universities Around the World
A report released in September by the International Association of Universities [1] (IAU) suggests that colleges and universities are increasingly focusing on the international experience for students, despite an overall drop in funding for such initiatives in recent years.
The IAU’s Third Global Survey report [2] analyzes data collected last year from 745 institutions in 115 countries, exploring global trends and individual regions to assess where, why and to whom internationalization is important, and what barriers exist. The 2010 report follows a 2005 Global Survey [3] and a first edition that was published in 2003 [4].
The report noted some significant trends in institutional attitudes to internationalization since its original report in 2003:
- More institutions are engaged in internationalization and have set aside specific budgets for that purpose.
- The rationale for internationalization has become more inclusive of the student and preparing them for a globalized world, rather than purely on attracting international talent to strengthen research capacity.
- Financial constraints are considered the biggest impediment to internationalization, whereas previously institutions reported lack of faculty interest as the main obstacle.
- Collaborative cross-border efforts, such as joint degree programs are becoming more common.
- The reasoning for, and pursuit of, internationalization by institutions differs between regions. Institutions in Africa and the Middle East generally seek to develop and strengthen their research capacity, while in all other regions the focus is on student learning.
- English is increasingly the foreign language of most interest to international students.
- There is a strong pattern of intra-regional cooperation in internationalization activities.
– International Association of Universities [2]
September 2010
Australia
Education Export Sector Braces as Another International College Goes Under
Another Australian private college went into administration in September, affecting as many as 350 international students. Brisbane-based HHH International [5], an English language college, was forced into administration because of debt and tax problems.
The college said there were 160 international students enrolled, but the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations said the number of affected students could reach 350. The Queensland Education Department [6] said it only had records for 90 international students.
Following numerous other private college closures in recent months, international student enrollments in the English-language sector are down 23 percent this year. The education sector as a whole in Australia is also facing tighter immigration regulations and a soaring dollar. Universities, as a result, are bracing themselves for a significant downturn.
– The Australian [7]
September 30, 2010
Australia and India Build Educational Links
Despite recent negative coverage in the Indian media about the Australian education system over attacks on foreign students, India and Australia in September signed an agreement to establish a two-way higher education model.
The private Indian business school SP Jain Centre of Management [8] announced an AUD45 million (US$43.5 million) investment to establish a campus [9] in Sydney, New South Wales. This would be the state’s first foreign higher education provider. The Mumbai-based S. P. Jain Centre – which rates itself as one of India’s top 10 MBA schools – also has campuses in Singapore [10] and Dubai [11].
That development follows a Victorian government export push into India featuring a research chair in contemporary Indian studies at the Australia India Institute [12] at the University of Melbourne [13]; and Victoria University [14] and University of Southern Queensland [15]’s moves to offer programs in Gujarat, and Orissa respectively.
India has maintained its status as Australia’s second most important higher education market after China. However, overall export education growth fell almost 15 percent in July compared to the same time last year.
– The Australian [16]
September 29, 2010
China
Beijing Continues to Welcome Increasing Numbers of Foreign Students
Approximately 80,000 foreign students are studying at Beijing-based institutions of higher education this year, 10,000 more than last year, reports the Beijing Daily newspaper. This year’s growth follows an increase in the number of overseas students in China as a whole from about 50,000 in 2000 to 240,000 last year.
Wu Yunxin, director of the Foreign Student Affairs Office at Tsinghua University [17], attributed the growth to improvements in the quality of education, the implementation of courses taught in English, plus better facilities and student services. There has also been an increase in the number of scholarships available to foreign students – up from 18,000 in 2009 to about 20,000 this year.
The latest figures came as Tsinghua announced a plan to increase the proportion of foreign students in its graduate schools from 7 percent to 10 percent by 2020. The top-ranked school currently offers 12 English-taught programs for foreign graduate students including business administration, Chinese law, mechanical engineering and economics. The university has a total of 1,959 students from 112 countries enrolled this year, an 11 percent increase over last year, with U.S. students now outnumbering those from South Korea as the largest source of foreign students. This year, 102 U.S. graduate students will study at Tsinghua, compared to 80 from South Korea and 38 each from France and Canada.
– Beijing Daily [18]
September 6, 2010
China Now the Source of Most GMAT Test-takers, Surpassing India for First Time
Indian students have long been pursuing the dream of a graduate management education in the United States, which has meant that India has long been the largest source of test-takers for the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), until this year, when the number of Chinese students outnumbered those from India for the first time.
In testing year 2005 (July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005), when more than 43,000 Indians sent GMAT scores to management admissions offices in the United States, just 19,196 GMAT scores came from China. But in testing year 2010, for the first time, the number of Chinese test-takers outnumbered those from India, and by a fair margin: 80,000 and 65,361 respectively.
Ashok Sarathy, vice-president of the GMAT program, told the Times of India that he believes the shift may have something to do with the emergence of high-quality management education in India. “There’s been a growing interest in the local market among Indian management aspirants, with high-quality programs being offered in India. They are now seeing tremendous opportunity in their own economy and in Indian degrees,” Sarathy said.
Sarathy’s views are borne out by the statistics. In testing year 2010, over 17,000 Indians sent in their GMAT scores to Indian institutions. Meanwhile, only 1,743 GMAT scores from mainland China (and 5,184 from Hong Kong) were sent to Chinese business schools in the same period. While the last five years saw only a marginal increase in GMAT scores sent by Chinese to institutions in their own country (but a steady growth in those sent to the US), there has been an almost four-fold rise in the number of Indians applying to Indian management institutions—from 4,879 in 2005 to 17,087 in 2010.
– Times of India [19]
September 13, 2010
500,000 Foreign Students by 2020
Soon after Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, there were just 20 foreign students studying in China. By 2020, the Communist Party, which recently celebrated 60 years at the helm, would like to see that number reach 500,000. And that’s what will happen if a plan released in September by the Chinese Ministry of Education [20] does what it sets out to do.
Easier visa access, an increase in the number of scholarships and more English language courses are among the policies to be implemented by the government as it looks to open up China’s institutes of higher education to the outside world. China is hoping that most of those predicted 500,000 will be self-funded.
Last year there were a record 240,000 international students studying in China, according to official statistics, with representatives from 190 countries and regions around the world; in 1950, the 20 students in the country all came from the former Soviet Union. While not releasing specific numbers, the ministry rated South Korea as the country currently sending the greatest number of students to China, followed by the United States and Japan.
According to the ministry, the most popular universities for international students were the Beijing Language and Culture University [21], Peking University [22], Fudan University [23] (Shanghai), Tsinghua University [17] (Beijing) and the University of International Business and Economics [24] in Beijing. China currently has mutual recognition agreements for degrees with 34 countries and regions in the world and, this year, offered scholarships worth 800 million yuan (US$64 million) to overseas students.
China also hopes to raise the quality and quantity of its own graduates, raising the gross enrollment rate for universities from around 24 percent to 40 percent within 10 years and the number of citizens with college-level education in the work force from 9 percent to 20 percent overall.
– Xinhua [25]
September 28, 2010
Sheffield University to Offer Degree in Shanghai
Britain’s University of Sheffield [26] has received approval from the Chinese government to offer a business management degree in Shanghai. Under the agreement, 40 students annually will undertake the four-year degree program at the Sino-British College [27] (SBC), a joint venture between the Northern Consortium of Universities [28] and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology [29].
The first two years of the degree, which will include a foundation year, will be spent in Shanghai and the third year of study will be at Sheffield. The final year of study will be in Shanghai and students will be awarded a BA in Business Management from the University of Sheffield. It is intended that the new agreement will also provide UK students with the opportunity to study abroad at the Shanghai campus.
– Sheffield News Release [30]
September 28, 2010
Academic Fraud Threatens China’s Growth
China has been devoting significant resources to building a world-class education system and pioneering research in recent years. However, scholars in China and abroad have told the New York Times that a lack of integrity in the academic space is hindering China’s potential and harming collaboration between Chinese scholars and their international peers.
Scholars are being pressured by administrators of state-run universities to increase their research output, as measured by journal citations. This has contributed to a huge increase of plagiarism and fabricated research, the newspaper reports. In December, a British journal that specializes in crystal formations announced that it was withdrawing more than 70 papers by Chinese authors whose research was of questionable originality or rigor. In September, a collection of scientific journals published by Zhejiang University [31] in Hangzhou publicized results from a 20-month experiment with software that detects plagiarism [32], which rejected 31 percent of all submissions on suspicion that the content was not original. The journals, which specialize in medicine, physics, engineering and computer science, were the first in China to use the CrossCheck [33] plagiarism software.
A recent government study reports that a third of the 6,000 scientists at six of the nation’s top institutions admitted they had engaged in plagiarism or the outright fabrication of research data. In another study of 32,000 scientists last summer by the China Association for Science and Technology [34], more than 55 percent said they knew someone guilty of academic fraud.
The Chinese government has vowed to address the problem. Editorials in the state-run press frequently condemn plagiarism. Last month, Liu Yandong, a powerful Politburo member who oversees Chinese publications, vowed to close some of the 5,000 academic journals whose sole existence, many scholars say, is to provide an outlet for doctoral students and professors eager to inflate their publishing credentials.
– New York Times [35]
October 6, 2010
India
Top-Tier Western Universities Unlikely to Enter Indian Market Any Time Soon, Except Perhaps Duke
It has been reported that the first foreign universities to take advantage of India’s decision to open its doors to foreign providers are likely to be “mid-level” institutions.
Six months after a draft law that would open the India’s education system to foreign education institutions was approved, government advisers have said that the institutions that have expressed most interest would not be considered elite-level institutions.
“There is a high level of interest only from the Tier 2 institutions to do things in a serious manner,” said M. Anandakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur [36].
The so-called “Tier 1” institutions, such as Harvard University [37] and the University of Oxford [38], “are simply not interested in setting up a campus here,” the professor told The New York Times. The draft law has yet to be passed by India’s parliament, but has been approved by the cabinet.
However, a recent article in Sify Finance, an India news source, suggests that US-based Duke University [39], ranked 14th in the QS World University Rankings, is planning to set up a campus in India. According to sources, Duke is looking for land for a campus in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh or Pune, and would begin by offering business programs. The expansion is part of the university’s plans to set up global campuses in Dubai, Russia, China and India.
– New York Timesl [40]
September 13, 2010
– Sify [41]
September 27, 2010
Indonesia
Six U.S. Colleges Chosen to Develop Study Abroad Networks in Indonesia
Six American colleges have been selected under a pilot project to send students to study in Indonesia, in a bid to better prepare institutions in that country as hosts of international students. Under the U.S. Indonesia Partnership Program for Study Abroad Capacity [42], the American institutions — Chatham [43], Lehigh [44], and Texas A&M [45] Universities, Miami Dade College [46], and the Universities of Michigan [47] and of Washington [48] — will each receive $15,000 to work with their Indonesian counterparts to create new programs over the next two years. This program is intended to serve as a model for future student exchanges between the two countries. The project, which is being administered by the Institute for International Education [49] and sponsored by the Department of State, is part of a broader effort to build stronger academic ties between the United States and Indonesia.
– IIE News Release [42]
September 27, 2010
Japan
University Internationalization Initiative Enjoys Mixed Success
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a new initiative by the Japanese government to internationalize the country’s higher-education system is off to what the newspaper describes as a “wobbly start.”
The initial goal of the project, Global 30 [50], was to recruit 30 universities and support their internationalization efforts. A budget of 3.2 billion yen (US$38 million) was established last year to be disbursed among 30 universities that would develop plans to significantly increase the number of foreign students in the country and the number of Japanese students studying abroad. However, just 13 universities have so far met the ministry’s tough selection criteria, while budget cuts have also resulted in a 30 percent reduction in overall funding allocated to each institution. Administrators at selected universities believe that the remaining 17 spots open to universities are unlikely to be filled.
Currently, fewer than 4 percent of Japan’s university students come from abroad—133,000, well below China, with 223,000, and the United States with 672,000 – despite generous scholarship offers and previous projects promoting Japan as a study destination. In addition, according to ministry of education [51] statistics, the faculty body is very homogenous, with just 5 percent of its 353,000 university teachers coming from abroad, and mostly to teach English. Outward mobility is also suffering. Ministry estimates show that Japanese undergraduate enrollment in American universities has plummeted by more than half since 2000, while enrollment in European institutions is also down.
Under the Global 30 program, the country’s institutions of higher education would enroll 300,000 foreign students by 2020, while sending the same number of Japanese students abroad. Participating universities receive an annual grant of 200-400 million yen (between $2.4-million and $4.8-million) annually for five years to employ foreign faculty members and English-speaking support staff, and to create new all-English undergraduate courses. Each university is also required to set up offices outside Japan, both to recruit locally and help Japanese students study in other countries.
Those critical of the program question its focus on elite universities. Priority was given to large institutions with proven research capacity, such as the University of Tokyo [52] and the private Waseda University [53], thereby eliminating smaller more focused institutions that might otherwise have strong international criteria. Participating institutions are required to target an enrollment goal of 20 percent international students and 10 percent international faculty as a proportion of the total student body by 2020. This requirement has deterred top institutions from applying for the program, while institutions that have already met the goal are not eligible, according to sources interviewed by The Chronicle.
Despite the concerns about the new program, officials at the education ministry point to early successes of the program. Nagoya University [54], which has received approximately $3.5 million, has raised its intake of foreign undergraduate and graduate students by 170, and has opened new offices in Germany and Uzbekistan.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [55]
September 8, 2010
Too Many New Graduate Programs, not Nearly Enough Students
Japan has seen rapid growth in the number of graduate programs in recent years. However, The New York Times reports that they are not enrolling anywhere near enough students to meet capacity. The lack of interest is particularly evident in new education programs that have been introduced as a result of frustrations with the quality of instruction in the school system.
The growth is sharpest for professional graduate schools, where the number has soared from practically zero in 2003, when accreditation began, to 130 now, in fields ranging from law and business to clinical counseling and education. The Japanese government says that nearly half of professionally oriented programs, aside from law schools, have yet to fill their stated student capacity.
– New York Times [56]
September 26, 2010
Myanmar
Top Students Head Overseas
Top-performing students in Myanmar have increasingly sought overseas educational opportunities, according to Chinese media. According to a recent survey, these students are either enrolling through scholarships or under their own financial steam, with an increasing number of students reportedly having the means for an overseas education.
Although no specific numbers were cited in a Xinhua news agency report, it indicated that the pace of overseas study from Myanmar has been growing comparatively quickly since academic year 2007- 08, especially among students from specific schools that typically graduate academically strong students.
– Xinhua [57]
September 6, 2010
Pakistan
Universities Suffer in Uncertain Funding Environment
Science has been flourishing in Karachi and other Pakistani cities in recent years thanks to an unprecedented investment in the country’s higher-education system between 2002 and 2008. The more than fivefold increase in funding during that time period led to the creation of new institutes focusing on proteomics and agricultural research, while the University of Karachi [58]‘s natural sciences department made its first appearance in the 2009 QS World University Rankings, placing 223rd.
But the funding has dried up after political scandal, economic recession and devastating flooding throughout the country. With funding set to be slashed for the second year running, the entire system is teetering on the brink of collapse, says Javaid Laghari, chairman of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission [59]. In September, 71 university vice-chancellors threatened to resign after Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, the nation’s finance minister, refused to commit funding for the cash-strapped system and told universities that they would have to find other sources of support. This may be a tall order in a country in which even a small increase in tuition fees, for example, can lead to debilitating student strikes.
The surge in higher-education investment occurred after the rise to power of General Pervez Musharraf in 1999 who hoped to modernize Pakistan. With the economy booming in the early 2000s, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was established to manage government investment in education, as well as better wages for professors, more grants for PhD students and a boost in research funding.
Atta-ur-Rahman, a close adviser to Musharraf, was appointed the first chairman of the HEC. Rahman set out to overhaul the nation’s universities. With Musharraf’s support, annual research funding shot up 474 percent to 270 million rupees (US$4.5 million in 2002) in the first year alone. The HEC set aside money for PhD students and created a tenure-track system that would give qualified professors a monthly salary of around US$1,000–4,000 — considered excellent pay within Pakistan.
Between 2003 and 2009, Pakistan graduated approximately 3,000 PhDs, roughly the same number awarded throughout its previous 55-year history. More than 7,000 PhD students are now in training at home and abroad. Meanwhile, scientific research publications have soared from roughly 800 in 2002 to more than 4,000 in 2009.
The sudden funding crash has left supporters and critics arguing over the legacy of Pakistan’s grand experiment. Supporters say that the infusion of money transformed flagging universities, and point to the thousands of PhDs and research papers produced in the past decade. But opponents say that the numbers don’t tell the entire story, suggesting that immense waste and corruption came with the infusion, causing more harm than good. Problems that critics point to include professors enrolling PhD students simply for the cash stipends they can claim, a big increase in plagiarism, and a subsequent drop in research standards. In 2007, the HEC cut off funding to the University of the Punjab [60] in Lahore after administrators refused to take action against faculty members and students who were caught plagiarizing.
Whatever the case, the growth now seems to be over. Since Musharraf was forced from office in 2008, the HEC has lost favor with the government. The recession has hit Pakistan hard, and last year the commission received only 11.3 billion rupees for new projects. Adjusted for inflation, that is about half of what it got in the boom years of 2006–07. As the government looks to cut more cash from every part of the budget, the HEC is now in the firing line.
– Nature [61]
September 22, 2010
HEC Cuts Overseas Scholarship Program
The government has ordered the Higher Education Commission to stop scholarship payments to approximately 400 Pakistani graduate students already admitted to foreign universities with financial backing from the state.
“We have been asked to tell the selected students and universities that the government does not have enough money for their education abroad,” Higher Education Commission (HEC) sources told University World News.
The HEC selected 328 students for PhDs and 72 scholars for post-doctoral research, in pure science and social science disciplines, in a competitive process. The qualifying candidates were to attend universities in the UK, US, Germany, Canada, Malaysia and China. There are approximately 4,200 students from Pakistan currently at overseas universities under the scholarship program, which aims to develop faculty standards at domestic universities.
– University World News [62]
October 17, 2010
Philippines
Plans to Extend Schooling from 10 to 12 Years
In September, the Department of Education [63] unveiled its ambitious 12-year basic education curriculum (BEC) plan that would change the current structure from 10 years with six years of elementary schooling and four years of high school to a combined path of Grades 1 through 12.
The government is hoping to address deficiencies found by other countries in the Philippine education system, mainly due to the fact that the country is one of only 2 with less than 11 years of education in its basic structure. Myanmar is the other.
By next school year or school year 2011-12, there will be a bridge year introduced for graduating elementary school students who do not make a cut-off score in a kind of “high school readiness test” to be administered by the end of the current school year. By school year 2012-13, the Department of Education will add an additional year in high school — a 5th year– with the additional year focusing on English. According to current plans, by school year 2015-16, all structural reforms will have been fully implemented.
Under the K+12 plan, Grades 1 to 7, for school children aged six to 12 years old will be the elementary level. Grades 8 to 10 will be the Junior High School Level. Grades 11 to 12 will be the “specialized High School” or “Junior College.”
The September presentation by the Department of Education was the start of a consultation process, which looks to get feedback on the plan from education stakeholders. However, the government has said that implementing the plan is a top priority.
– The Philippine Star [64]
September 29, 2010
Singapore
Yale in Singapore
Yale University [65] announced in September that it was planning to create a liberal arts college in Singapore, with 100 percent financing from the government there. In time, Yale believes it could establish a new model for higher education in Asia.
The college would be run in collaboration with the National University of Singapore [66] (NUS), and would be known as Yale-N.U.S. College. Current plans see the college operating under Yale’s signature residential college concept — in which students live, study and take classes in an intimate setting — as well as a curriculum that encourages critical thinking and inquiry in the humanities and sciences.
The diplomas, however, would be issued by the National University of Singapore. Still, Yale would be largely responsible for hiring 100 professors to teach about 1,000 students at the college, which is scheduled to open in 2013. The college would seek to establish itself as a highly elite school within an already prestigious, yet huge and career-focused, university. Yale officials said it would draw top students from across Asia, where liberal arts programs are rare, and attract even more qualified Asian applicants to the New Haven campus of Yale by raising the university’s profile.
The National University of Singapore has recently established joint degree programs with Duke University [39], the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [67], New York University [68] and others. Leaders from Yale have signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with NUS. However, they are reportedly seeking faculty input to the plan, which requires a vote by the governing board at Yale.
– New York Times [69]
September 13, 2010
Sri Lanka
Government Offering Free Land and Tax Incentives to Foreign Universities
The Sri Lankan government is offering free land and tax concessions to encourage top ranking foreign universities to set up branches in the country, according to a report from Colombo Page.
The government announced that it would offer such incentives to any institution of higher education ranked among the top 1,000 in the world. The Ministry of Higher Education [70] said that it is currently holding discussions with 23 such institutions of which fifteen have indicated an interest, according to the Sri Lankan government’s media unit. The incentives include rent-free land and tax breaks under a Board of Investment law, provided that 20 percent of students are admitted free and the government gets a stake in the venture.
– Colombo Page [71]
October 14, 2010