Brazil
British Universities Look to Brazil for Students
The British government and its universities are looking to recruit thousands of fee-paying students from Brazil. British universities minister, David Willetts, and more than a dozen university vice chancellors met with Brazilian officials in June to discuss arrangements under which the Brazilian government would provide up to £18,700 ($30,000) per student in support for as many as 10,000 students.
Undergraduate tuition at universities in England is set to rise next year to a maximum of £9,000 (US$14,400) for students from Britain and other European Union countries. And according to The Guardian, concerns are growing “that the government’s funding model for higher education is becoming increasingly reliant on attracting overseas nationals who, if they had been born in the U.K., might have struggled to attain a place at a university in this country.”
The British visit, led by Professor Sir Steve Smith, President, Universities UK [1] and Vice Chancellor, University of Exeter [2], resulted in agreements made at a British Council [3] round table event to develop a broad framework of activity aimed at building capacity in teaching and research. The round table discussions followed a recent announcement by the Brazilian government to prioritize collaborative activities with the United Kingdom.
The program, which the UK government hopes will be modeled on the successful UK India Education Research Initiative [4] (UKIERI), will establish an implementation group led by the UK HE International and Europe Unit [5] on behalf of the sector, and will include a range of initiatives to be initiated over the next five years.
Brazil represents a key emerging market in higher education with rich returns for collaborative engagement. The country is investing significantly in higher education and looking to expand the total number of available places from 110,000 to 220,000. Forty percent of professors in Brazilian universities were hired in the last eight years and plans are in place to send 100,000 Brazilian students to study overseas on government scholarships.
– The Guardian [6]
July 10, 2011
Brazil and U.S. Hold Dialog on Global Partnerships
The U.S. Brazil Global Partnership Dialogue [7] and the resulting Education Joint Action Plan outline a strategy to realize U.S. President Obama’s and Brazilian President Rousseff’s goals to expand academic and research exchanges between the two countries. Of the 75,000 Brazilian students that will travel abroad on government scholarships over the next four years to study and conduct research, half will come to the United States, according to a news release from the Institute for International Education [8].
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State with the State Department-supported EducationUSA [9] network, the Fulbright Commission in Brazil, and the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia are working closely with CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education) and CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) to connect the U.S. and Brazilian higher education communities to create university networks; encourage the placement of Brazilian students at U.S. universities, colleges, and community colleges; and promote the expansion of U.S. student and research exchanges to Brazil.
The Government of Brazil’s “Science Without Borders” program, through CNPq [10] and CAPES [11], is expanding to support this initiative and will work with U.S. and Brazilian universities to support a broad spectrum of short- and longer-term academic and research opportunities at all levels. These include undergraduate and graduate study abroad; undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree exchange programs; post-doctoral, scholar, and scientific exchanges; and professional training. These opportunities are currently focused on science, technology, and innovation fields and related disciplines.
– IIE Newsletter [12]
July 20, 2011
Brazilian Vocational Offerings Expand
Technical institutes that used to teach students trade skills are today offering teacher training and degree-level programs as they broaden their scope in line with a tripling of the number of technical institutes over the last eight years.
The expansion of the vocational system is considered vital for a nation with a severe shortage of skilled workers. Brazil’s growing oil and gas sector requires a range of skilled professionals, including welders, electricians, builders, and information-technology specialists. The country is also urgently trying to build the infrastructure necessary to handle rapidly increasing living standards, and to ensure that roads, airports, stadiums, and accommodations will be ready for the 2016 Olympics and the 2014 World Cup.
Today, some 401,000 students are studying at federally financed technical institutes, up from 102,000 just nine years ago. One in four students is pursuing a bachelor’s degree or higher. The annual budget for vocational institutes over the last eight years has gone from $385 million to $3.8 billion, according to government officials.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [13]
July 5, 2011
Clarification on Scholarships
The Brazilian ministry of education [14] recently released information about its new overseas scholarship program, Science Without Frontiers, with a clarification on exactly who the 75,000 awards will be made available to. Also noted was that an additional 25,000 scholarships will be funded by the private sector.
According to the ministry, priority will be given to students in strategic areas that will help the development of the country, such as engineering and technology. Furthermore, the awards will be available to students looking to study at the graduate level, and at the undergraduate level in technical fields only.
A release from the ministry clarified that preliminary priority subject areas are: mathematics, physics, chemistry (pharmaceutical, pesticide, waste treatment), biological sciences, agronomy, informatics: hardware engineering, software engineering, communication, marine engineering, petroleum engineering, civil engineering: construction ways, new materials, nanotechnology engineering and cell energy engineering.
According to a plan presented by CAPES [11], the federal body that oversees graduate education, 65 percent of the places offered will be at the graduate level with the intention that students take half of their program in Brazil and half abroad. CAPES is expecting to award 8,000 sponsorships in 2011, 13,000 in 2012, 17,000 in 2013, and 21,000 in 2014.
The ministry states that it will “seek to establish new partnerships with international education institutions interested in receiving Brazilian students” and the United States is one of the countries with which negotiations have already begun. The number of Brazilians studying abroad next year is expected to increase by 23 percent.
– Communication from the Ministry
June 2011
Canada
Canada Forges Ahead in the Global Competition for Students
Canadian universities have been beefing up their international recruitment efforts in recent months, with more than 40 institutions and higher-education groups attending a recent student-recruitment fair in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a bid to attract holders of King Abdullah scholarships [15], which support Saudi students studying abroad.
In November last year, 15 Canadian university presidents visited India. They were both the largest group of Canadian presidents to travel abroad together and the biggest higher-education delegation from any country to be received by the Indian government, according to Canadian and Indian officials. The India trip is one of several signs that Canada is taking more seriously the global competition for international students, after years of trailing the United States, Britain, Australia, Germany, and France.
Canada is doing so without a national education office or the budgets of its English-language competitors. Following years of working at cross-purposes or going it alone, universities, higher-education groups, and the national government and its provincial counterparts are embracing a strategy of cooperation and collaboration. The provinces and territories are overseeing higher education, and the federal government is taking the lead on immigration.
The turnaround began five years ago. With an eye to predicted labor-market shortages, the Canadian government revised immigration rules to make it easier for students from many countries to come to study, work after graduation, and earn citizenship. The national government has also paved the way for provinces and territories to nominate their own rosters of immigrants, including eligible international students recently added to the list, who are seen as having the skills, education, and work experience to contribute economically right away and eventually take up Canadian citizenship. In 2008 the federal government developed an overseas marketing campaign to raise awareness of Canada as a safe, affordable destination for higher education. Called “Imagine Education au/in Canada [16],” it is designed to convey a consistent message about opportunities to study and become citizens.
Canadian education officials say the establishment of a national brand and the proliferation of cooperative activities are paying off in a steady rise of international students. As of December, 218,000 international students were in Canada on study visas, up 28 percent from four years earlier, according to the government department Citizenship and Immigration Canada [17]. The statistics do not include students on stays for language training or other courses of six months or less. About 32 percent of all foreign students in Canada come from China and South Korea. The officials say they are aiming for moderate growth, of up to 10 percent a year, in the number of international students.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [18]
June 19, 2011
Chile
A $4 Billion Education Fund to Quiet Protests
The Chilean government will create a US$4 billion education fund, partly financed from copper revenue, to improve access to education, President Sebastian Pinera said in early July.
Pinera plans to increase scholarships and grants, and ease interest rates on government-backed student loans as part of a series of measures unveiled in a televised address to the nation. The announcement followed demonstrations by tens of thousands of students in Santiago. Students have been pushing for increased funding for higher education and changes to university entrance requirements.
Pinera’s proposal also includes the creation of a national university index, the legalization of for-profit colleges, and a reworking of the terms of some 110,000 delinquent student loans. “In this way, we’ll advance toward a society of true equality of opportunity,” Pinera said of the plan.
But Pinera’s proposal failed to satisfy student protesters, who say the education system is plagued by structural inequities that the president’s plan will not fix. At a press conference after the president’s announcement, student leaders criticized the plan, saying it opened up the possibility of running universities for a profit and did not address their demands for greater federal control over the school system. To show their disappointment, students again took to the streets staging a massive strike in Santiago and Chile’s main cities on July 14.
– Bloomberg [19]
July 5, 2011
United States
New Rules for Student Visa Program
The U.S. State Department has publicly acknowledged that one of its most popular exchange programs leaves foreign college students vulnerable to exploitation, but it’s unclear if new regulations the agency is pushing will do enough to stop the abuses.
The revised rules aim to shift more responsibility onto the 53 entities the department designates official sponsors in the J-1 Summer Work Travel Program. Historically, many sponsors have farmed out those duties to third-party contractors, making the sponsors “mere purveyors of J-1 visas,” according to the State Department’s proposed new rules published this spring in the Federal Register.
Federal auditors have criticized the department for years for depending on sponsors, some of whom make millions of dollars off J-1 students, to oversee the program and investigate complaints. Yet the new regulations would require little or no direct oversight by State Department employees, leaving sponsors free to continue policing themselves and their partners, reports the Associated Press.
The changes took effect July 15, too late for thousands of students already in the country for another season of cleaning hotel rooms, waiting tables and working checkout counters. Students visiting under J-1 visas make ideal victims since they are here temporarily and may not know how to seek help. An Associated Press investigation published six months ago found that many participants paid thousands of dollars to come to the United States, only to learn the jobs they were promised didn’t exist.
In posting the proposed new rules, State Department officials detailed problems that largely mirrored the AP’s findings, then blamed lack of oversight by the sponsors, and expressed confidence the changes will help clean up the program, partly by requiring sponsors to verify that students have jobs and that the employers are legitimate.
The Summer Work Travel Program [20] allows foreign college students to live and work in the United States for four months. It brought more than 130,000 men and women to the United States last year alone. Participation has increased dramatically over the last decade, but so have the problems. In one of the worst cases unearthed by the AP, at least two J-1 students from Ukraine were beaten and forced to work in strip clubs in Detroit. One said she was raped by her captors.
– Associated Press [21]
June 20, 2011
British Students Look to U.S. Universities in Increasing Numbers
With tuition fees set to treble at some British universities and available places shrinking, the number of British students seeking places at U.S. universities has increased significantly. It was revealed in June that the number of British students applying to top American universities has risen by one third in the past year alone.
“There’s no question the fees increase has opened up the whole U.S. market,” says Norman Renshaw, whose firm InTuition Scholarships [22] helps find American scholarships for British undergraduates. “The question parents are asking is whether the increase in UK fees will mean increased investment on the part of those universities. And the answer is no. So they’re coming to the conclusion that they should look elsewhere.”
According to the U.S. Fulbright Commission, there has never been a greater British interest in American colleges. “The number of UK students in the States is 8,861, two percent up on the previous year,” says the commission’s senior adviser, Lauren Welch. “And that’s just for the year 2009-10, which is before the fees increase became a big issue. Plus, we’ve had a 30 percent increase in web traffic, and at our last U.S. College Day, in London, we got 4,000 visitors in one day, which was 50 percent up on the previous year.”
Figures obtained by the Guardian from seven prestigious U.S. institutions show that hundreds more British students are applying to further their education at elite U.S. universities this year. The primary target appears to be Harvard [23], which has received 500 applications from U.K. students for undergraduate programs this fall, a jump of more than a third on last year. British enrollments at Yale [24] and Princeton [25], also Ivy League institutions, have doubled in five years.
– The Telegraph [26]
June 18, 2011
– The Guardian [27]
June 15, 2011
Grade Inflation
Two critics of grade inflation have published a new analysis finding that the most common grade at four-year colleges and universities is the A (43 percent of all grades), and that Ds and Fs are rare by comparison. Furthermore, by comparing historical data to contemporary figures, the authors charge that there has been an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988 in the percentage of As awarded in higher education.
The study was published in Teachers College Record [28] and is based on historical data from 200 four-year colleges and universities and contemporary data from 135.
– Inside Higher Ed [29]
July 14, 2011
Chinese Students Using Agents to Study at U.S. Institutions Regardless of Institutional Policies on Agent Use
According to a recent survey of Chinese students at U.S. institutions of higher education, a majority of Chinese undergraduates used agents in the admissions process. The study found that most of the undergraduates who used agents were satisfied with their experience, although the authors point out that if the survey had included Chinese students who did not find places at U.S. institutions of higher education the results may have been less favorable. The study, College Application With or Without Assistance of an Education Agent, also found that some of the agents engaged in unethical behavior, such as writing student essays or letters of recommendation.
The study was based on a survey of more than 300 Chinese undergraduates at four colleges and universities in the United States — three of which do not pay agents to act on their behalf. Nearly 60 percent of the students said that they used agents to help in the visa and application process. Of those, the top motivation for doing so (cited by 72 percent, although more than one factor could be cited) was lack of knowledge about the admissions process. Nearly 40 percent of those using agents also said that they believed their chances of admissions would be improved. Approximately two-thirds said that the agents helped in the preparation of application materials.
– Admitted (NACAC Blog) [30]
July 19, 2011