Regional
European Commission Launches Portal for Qualifications Framework
The European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning [1] (EQF) has been designed to provide a common reference framework to assist in the comparison of the various different European national qualifications systems, frameworks and levels. The portal [2] is being offered as a central hub for all EQF-related information.
The “Compare Qualifications Frameworks” page allows for the comparison of national qualifications levels among countries that have already finalized their EQF referencing process. The EQF portal also offers tools related to implementation, key terms, and a documentation library related to EQF policy, legal texts, notes and other useful links.
– European Commission [2]
May 2011
The Geopolitics of Educational Scholarships
The United Kingdom and the United States spend less on overseas higher education aid than many of their competitors, which may have an impact on their potential to maintain relations with emerging markets. In a recent edition of Norrag News, discussed in a recent issue of International Focus, The Geopolitics of Overseas Scholarships and Awards, takes a look at the links between education aid and international politics.
The award of research scholarships is of great benefit to individual researchers, no question, but clearly it is a two-way street and more often than not, the receiving country looks to benefit as well. Whether explicitly or implicitly, many scholarship schemes are established in order to pursue diplomacy. This may be linguistic or cultural diplomacy – intending to promote the language and/or culture of the home country by allowing individuals direct exposure to it. Or it may be commercial or political diplomacy, which ultimately intends to develop closer ties to other countries, either economically or politically, by encouraging individuals to become ambassadors for the host country. Additionally, there are scholarships that clearly seek to attract top students and researchers with the primary intention being to persuade them to remain in and contribute to the research excellence of the host institution or country.
‘The Geopolitics of Overseas Scholarships and Awards’ provides an insight into the wide range of motivations and justifications for the web of scholarship schemes that exist around the world. Its overarching conclusion is that higher education aid, of whatever shape or form, has been growing in recent years – reversing a trend in the 1990s when aid donors prioritized primary and secondary education in developing countries. Why this has become the case does not require a great stretch of the imagination: countries see this as a way of creating new markets. Unlike school education, higher education can bring profit and frequently also foster diplomatic ties.
On the other hand, there seems to be a positive association between the share of education in total aid and the share of education aid given to higher education, implying that the creation of market opportunities is definitely not the whole picture. In fact, two major education-exporting countries – the UK and the USA – allocate both a low share of their bilateral aid commitments to education (3 percent and 3.5 percent respectively), and a low share of their education aid to higher education (OECD, 2010).
As a comparison, the world’s biggest higher education aid donors – France and Germany – allocate respectively 18 percent and 13 percent to education, as a share of their bilateral aid to developing countries, mostly in the form of scholarships and fellowships. Germany’s Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is the biggest higher education funder globally, providing around 66,000 fellowships a year, two-thirds of which are awarded to foreign students. The report explains that most of the money goes to developing countries, but a lot also goes to Eastern Europe as the German government “is keen to build a better relationship with eastern neighbors.”
In a similar manner, the French government is channeling increasing amounts of higher education aid towards francophone Africa with the intention to nurture an educational elite that will support France, and, in today’s globalised world, also protect France’s traditional market here from competition from the US and UK.
– International Focus [3]
July 27, 2011
A Review of the Rankings
A recent report by the European University Association [4] (EUA) looks at the recent proliferation of university rankings and attempts to answer many of the questions that frequently surround the controversial league tables.
The report, ‘Global University Rankings and their Impact [5],’ is intended to inform higher education institutions about the methodologies behind the most popular global rankings and considers their potential impact.
The EUA states that its report is not intended as a means of comparing (dare we say, ‘ranking’) the different university rankings, but rather is meant as a tool for presenting and analyzing them. The report argues that major international university rankings provide an “oversimplified picture” of institutional mission, quality and performance, since they focus primarily on indicators related to the research function of universities.
The report argues that ‘unwanted consequences,’ in addition to the lack of transparency about how these rankings are actually formulated, outweigh the benefits that rankings might offer in terms of encouraging accountability, improving management, or encouraging the collection of more reliable data.
– EUA [5]
June 2011
Serbia and Kosovo to Mutually Recognize Degrees
Serbia and Kosovo reached agreement in early July on the mutual recognition of degrees issued by their respective universities. According to a communiqué released after the meeting, education officials in Serbia and Kosovo would identify a “mutually agreed international body or third party academic institution” to certify the degrees.
The deal also involves the exchange of students, teaching and research personnel and participation in joint projects related to education. The agreement reverses a situation whereby students from each country have not had their degrees recognized in the other neighboring country. The Serbian government stressed that the agreement did not involve any recognition of the independence of Kosovo, although that has been challenged by Pristina.
Lesley Wilson, Secretary General of the European Union Association (EUA), said: “We welcome this announcement as the universities concerned are EUA members and it marks a clear step forward in the interests of the young people in the region,” adding that, “while many students in Europe now take for granted unprecedented opportunities to benefit from a genuine European educational experience, Kosovo youth has largely been isolated from these positive developments.”
After Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, universities and colleges in areas controlled by the Kosovo government started to issue degrees to their students with a Republic of Kosovo seal. Serbia’s unwillingness to recognize Kosovo’s independence was reflected in a refusal to recognize the degrees. Kosovo then refused to recognize degrees in Serbian government-controlled territory.
– University World News [6]
July 8, 2011
Migration to OECD Countries Falls
According to the 2011 edition of the OECD’s International Migration Outlook [7], cross-border migration fell in 2009, reflecting lower demand for workers in OECD countries for the second consecutive year after a decade of growth. The report found that migration into OECD countries fell by approximately 7 percent in 2009 to 4.3 million people, down from just over 4.5 million in 2008. Recent national data suggest migration numbers fell further in 2010.
The decline is particularly marked in Asian OECD countries and in most of Europe, notably the Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In Europe, movement between EU member states fell by 22 percent in 2009. In contrast, permanent migration to Australia, Canada and the United States increased slightly in 2009.
In presenting the new report, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría predicted that migration flows would soon pick up.
“Demand for labor migration will pick up again,” Gurría said. “Globalization and ageing populations make that a certainty. Governments must do more to develop legal labor migration channels and foster better use of immigrants’ skills.”
The number of students coming to study in OECD countries from abroad continues to rise, reaching 2.3 million in 2008, the most recent year for which figures are available, an annual increase of 5 percent. Nearly one in five came from China, totaling 410,000. On average across the OECD, about one in four will stay, providing an increasingly important source of skilled workers.
– OECD [8]
July 12, 2011
Germany
A Plan to Attract Foreign Professionals
The German government announced a new plan in June to ease restrictions on foreign doctors, engineers and other experts looking to find jobs in Germany. At present, employers trying to hire foreign professionals must first turn to their local employment office to make sure there are no qualified German citizens for the advertized position. Now such domestic employment practices will be discouraged and opportunities will be improved for foreigners already living in Germany.
“We agree that the complicated rules of preference (stipulating that jobs must go to Germans first) for engineers as well as doctors must be eliminated,” German Research Minister Annette Schavan reportedly told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.
“In future, it will no longer have to be proven that no applicant from Germany or the European Union could be found,” she said, as reported by The Local. And, she added, academic recognition principles will also be relaxed: “We will make it easier to have foreign degrees recognized.”
– GermanyInfo [9]
June 22, 2011
Huge Increase in Enrollments Predicted for Next Year
The German Rectors’ Conference is predicting that nearly 60,000 more first-year students will enroll at German universities versus last year, when 440,000 freshman enrollments resulted in a record student population of 2.2 million students.
The increase is predicted because of double cohorts of higher secondary school-leavers, thanks to a shortening of gymnasium education and the end of required military service in July.
– University World News [10]
July 22, 2011
Sweden
Enrollment of Foreign Students Drops Sharply
The number of foreign students studying at universities in Sweden this coming academic year has dropped by a huge margin following the introduction of tuition for students from outside Europe.
According to figures from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education [11], only 1,280 non-European students had paid tuition by June 15, the tuition deadline for the fall semester. By comparison, in the 2009-10 academic year, approximately 16,600 overseas students were enrolled at Swedish institutions. A statement [12] from Lars Haikola, the head of the agency, warns that although the figures are not directly comparable, the sharp decline is still cause for concern, and he calls on Swedish organizations to come up with scholarship programs to ensure that the country remains attractive to overseas students.
Prior to this year, tuition at Swedish universities was free, but beginning in the fall fees will range from approximately $15,500 to nearly $36,000, according to The Local.
– The Local [13]
June 28, 2011
United Kingdom
Welsh Colleges Join Forces to Build Relations in China
Twelve Welsh colleges of further education are collaborating to build relationships with partners in Chongqing, China. In early June the Consortium for Chongqing, China [14] was launched by Wales’ Colleges/ColegauCymru [15].
Chongqing, in southwest China, has ambitions of becoming a global hub for information technology. However, the rapidly growing city needs to integrate and train around eight million migrant workers moving from the country to newly created jobs and therefore Chongqing is keen to develop partnerships with Welsh further education colleges in developing relevant vocational skills.
The seeds of the consortium grew out of a China-Wales skills exchange in Chongqinq in March 2011 that coincided with strategic meetings between a delegation of college principals from Wales and Chongqinq together with senior representatives from both governments and partners including the British Council and ColegauCymru.
– International Focus [16]
June 29, 2011
University of Wales Asked to Review its International Partnerships
The University of Wales [17], the degree awarding body for five Welsh institutions, has been advised to review all partnerships worldwide and draw up a plan for improvement, after Britain’s higher education regulator, the Quality Assurance Agency [18] (QAA), found serious problems with three of the university’s international partner institutions, and accused it of “significant failure” in dealing with its international partnerships.
The University of Wales has many overseas partners and the recent QAA investigation sheds light on the shortcomings of a system in which academic staff from Wales travel across the globe to vet, validate and moderate overseas links.
Mentioned in particular were three of its partner institutions – Accademia Italiana [19] (Bangkok), Fazley International College [20] (Malaysia), and Turning Point Business School [21] (Singapore). The QAA found that Accademia Italiana was not able to produce any formal approval. In the case of Fazley International College, Malaysia it was found that the University Wales made “no appraisal of the college’s accounts,” that “no financial advice was sought,” and that “no legal advice was sought on the capacity of the partner to contract.” It was also found that the college’s managing director falsely claimed a DBA degree from the European Business School [22]. Finally, Turning Point Business School was investigated after a series of student complaints, and it was found that there was an unannounced sale of the school by one set of owners due to debt problems, and that the second set of owners disappeared a year later, leaving the students unsupported.
The university is the second-largest degree awarding body in the United Kingdom and has approved more than 130 colleges worldwide to offer courses leading to its certificates, which are the same as those awarded in Wales.
– BBC [23]
June 22, 2011
Universities Considering GPAs
Seven British universities are in discussions to accelerate plans to replace the UK’s honors degree-classification system (in which graduates fall into one of five levels) by replacing it with the U.S. grade-point-average model.
The group, which includes six Russell Group [24] institutions but not the universities of Oxford [25] and Cambridge [26], has held a series of informal discussions on introducing the G.P.A. The American system is viewed as offering a more “continuous scale” that avoids the “cliff edges” between honors classifications, according to a recent article in Times Higher Education.
At least one member of the group — University College London [27] — could move away from first-, second- and third-class honors in just two years, stating that it is consulting staff in hopes of launching a pilot in 2012-13. The other institutions involved — the Universities of Birmingham [28], Nottingham [29], Sheffield [30], Warwick [31] and York [32], and the London School of Economics [33] — are considering various options and timetables, but all have agreed to work together toward reform.
Although the development may be viewed as running contrary to the plan for the Higher Education Achievement Report [34] — the mooted replacement for the current classification system — those involved have stressed that G.P.A. would “complement” the process. The G.P.A. system is viewed as a fairer system with far greater subtleties than the honors system, which, it is hoped, will help with internationalization efforts; graduate employability; and the need to reconsider teaching, learning and assessment.
– Times Higher Education Supplement [35]
June 23, 2011
Private Company Wants to Help Manage 10 Public Universities
The only for-profit institution in Britain authorized to offer tertiary degrees has reportedly entered into talks with several public universities about managing the business side of their operations, according to the Guardian [36] newspaper.
According to the newspaper report, the company, BPP [37], “has launched an aggressive expansion plan to jointly run at least 10 of its publicly funded counterparts.”
A recently released government white paper on higher education will, according to the Guardian, “signal the government’s intention to encourage the expansion of private institutions in higher education in England.”
– The Guardian [36]
June 22, 2011
Report Examines Realities of Setting Up Off-Shore Academic Programs
A new report [38] from the UK Higher Education International Unit [39] takes a look at the challenges associated with delivering and staffing high-quality programs overseas designed to match the quality of programs offered at home. It draws on the experiences of nine universities from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, all of which have extensive experience delivering transnational education.
The institutions studied in the report – A Guide to Offshore Staffing Strategies for UK Universities – have branch campuses in Australia, Bangladesh, China, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. The report tackles issues related to: where hiring decisions are being made, incentives for staff who agree to move and work offshore, training offshore staff to ensure quality standards, operational/administrative barriers for offshore staff, staff integration into new living and teaching environments, and broader internationalization issues in general.
– UK Higher Education International Unit [40]
April 2011
Public Universities to Compete for Top Students
The British government outlined a series of proposed higher education reforms in June that it would introduce increased market mechanisms to a system of higher education that has a public tradition of egalitarianism. Perhaps the most controversial proposals in the government’s white paper [41], Students at the Heart of the System, are measures that would equalize the playing field between private providers and public institutions.
The new market-driven proposals come on the heels of other reform measures that the government has backed in recent months such as significant increases in public university tuition fees and deep cuts in public funding for undergraduate education.
Among the most controversial provisions is one that would allow universities to freely compete for top-scoring students in A-level examinations, upon which university admissions are largely based. As public institutions, British universities are restricted in the number of domestic students they can enroll and are fined if they exceed those limits. Under the new proposal, overall institutional quotas would remain in place, but students recruited from the top 65,000 A-level scorers would not be counted toward an institution’s total, and financing for those students would follow them to whichever institution they attend. The hope is that eliminating top-scoring domestic students from the quota cap will result in “greater competition for places on the more-selective courses,” according to the white paper.
Another proposal would remove, on a pro-rata basis per institution, “a flexible margin of about 20,000 places” that are now distributed across the university system, and award those places to “providers who combine good quality with value for money and whose average charge is at or below £7,500.” According to the paper, “this will make it easier for further-education colleges, new entrants, and other non-traditional providers that can attract students, to expand to meet demand.”
The 20,000 together with the 65,000 places for the high-achieving that will be removed from the quota system makes 85,000 places that will now be up for grabs, representing nearly a fourth of all incoming undergraduates. The government also hopes to expand the range of higher-education providers in Britain by reviewing “the artificial barriers to smaller higher-education institutions taking the title ‘university.'” Such regulatory barriers “are preventing a level playing field for higher-education providers of all types, including further-education colleges and other alternative providers,” according to the report.
Many of the other proposals in the white paper are aimed at improving the student experience, in part by giving students more information for assessing and comparing institutions. It calls for collecting data from individual institutions and the national body through which admissions to all institutions are coordinated on matters like the qualifications of previously admitted students and employment information for individual programs. It also suggests requiring institutions to publish student evaluations of their courses. The government plans a “full consultation” on the reforms before bringing a higher-education bill up for a vote sometime in 2012.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [42]
June 29, 2011
Over 400,000 Students Working Toward British Degrees Overseas
According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency [43] (HESA) and analyzed by the Guardian newspaper, 18 percent of undergraduates studying for programs certified by UK universities are now doing so wholly overseas.
HESA statistics [44] show that in 2009-10, 310,525 students were studying at overseas institutions for first degrees certified by UK universities, compared with 1,421,490 studying at universities in the UK. With graduate students included there were a total of 408,685 students studying for UK qualifications overseas, with only 11,410 on branch campuses of British universities. The remaining 397,275 students were studying through collaborative provision, either a franchise arrangement at a local institution (282,185), or through distance learning (115,010), or through other arrangements (80). The figures point to a booming market in the franchising of curricula and learning material by UK universities to overseas partners.
Under collaborative provision agreements, students study UK course material at local institutions on a twinned or franchised basis with partners back in the UK. According to the Guardian, “there is a lot of nervousness around twinned or franchised courses, with many people suggesting the quality of the teaching is not as high as it is on the branch campuses, or that partner institutions can’t recreate the ethos of the awarding university.”
– The Guardian [45]
August 1, 2011