Regional

US Universities See South America as Growth Market for International Enrollments

Demand for international education among South American students is set for continued growth regardless of the political climate, said a panel at the NAFSA conference held in Houston, Texas, in May. The biggest South American markets for international education, according to panelists, are Brazil, Colombia and Chile. Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela are also sending increasing numbers of students abroad.

Most of these countries are benefiting from increased political stability, which makes their students more likely to gain visas. But in at least one country political instability has made overseas study more attractive. Among the panel’s analyses was a breakdown of five South American countries and their future growth prospects in terms of sending students abroad.

Brazil was viewed as the largest potential market thanks to an economy that is now the sixth largest in the world by gross domestic product and a currency that has doubled in strength against the dollar over the last decade. And not only does the average Brazilian have greatly increased spending power, but 33 percent of the population of 191 million people are under the age of 19. Meanwhile, the demand for higher education is now higher than the supply, while the price of a private education costs about the same in Brazil as it does abroad. Agencies expected more than 300,000 Brazilian students to travel abroad this year, with numbers rising by 30 percent next year.

In 2008, Chile announced a US$6 billion scholarship program, which aimed to send 30,000 students overseas between 2009 and 2018. By 2011, 5,809 scholarships had been awarded. The numbers are expected to go up. In Colombia, international education is highly valued. A recent survey of employers found that 58 percent preferred to hire those who had earned advanced degrees abroad. In Ecuador three years ago, the government launched scholarships for masters, doctoral and postdoctoral studies in science and technology. Since then, more than 6,000 scholarships have been awarded. The program has recently been expanded to areas related to business.

Claudia Gonzales, executive director of the Venezuelan American Friendship Association in Venezuela, said that the financial and economic instability of the current government coupled with a decline in the quality of education inside the country have prompted more than 12,000 Venezuelans to study elsewhere. “That is expected to double,” she said, noting that the Venezuelan government has fostered a distrust of the middle-class.

– University World News
May 31, 2012

Brazil

Brazil Rules the Regional Ranking

Brazilian universities have dominated the QS Latin American Rankings for the second year in a row (and second year of existence for the ranking), with 65 institutions in the top 250, led by the Universidade de Sao Paulo. Mexico has 46 institutions in the top 250, followed by Colombia with 34 and Chile with 30. Chile also has four in the top 10 – two more than last year.

“Chilean universities perform very well in terms of research output, and have an outstanding reputation among academics and employers,” QS head of research Ben Sowter said in a statement.

“Whereas the top Brazilian universities are producing a greater quantity of published research the work produced at leading Chilean universities is more widely cited, which suggests it has a greater impact.”

Overall 19 countries were represented in the top 250, up from 14 last year. And 40 percent of the ranked institutions were young universities, founded in the past 50 years. Indicators included academic reputation and employer reputation judged on global surveys with more than 10,000 responses each, weighted at 50 percent with a 10 percent weighting for each of: papers per faculty, citations per faculty, staff/student ratio, staff with a PhD and web impact.

2012 QS University Rankings: Latin America
2012 Rank	2011 Rank	Institution Name	Country
1	1	Universidade de São Paulo (USP)	BR
2	2	Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile	CL
3	3	Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp)	BR
4	4	Universidad de Chile	CL
5	5	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)	MX
6	6	Universidad de Los Andes Colombia	CO
7	7	Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM)	MX
8	19	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro	BR
9	12	Universidad de Concepción	CL
10	21	Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH)	CL

 

– QS Latin University Rankings
June 2012

Canada

British Columbia Unveils Plan to Attract 47,000 International Students in 4 Years

British Colombia’s Premier, Christy Clark, has committed to providing C$5 million toward scholarships and research internships as the province unveils details of how it plans to attract 47,000 additional international students over the next four years, a number that would represent a 50 percent increase in enrollments.

Under the plan, almost half of that increase will come from enrollments in private-language schools, 30 percent from public post-secondary institutions, 12 percent from private post-secondary and 13 percent in K-12. In an effort to achieve those targets, the province will give a one-time $700,000 grant to a program that helps attract and support international students to do research internships at B.C. universities. It will also grant $2.3 million to a program that helps graduate students from both B.C. and abroad undertake research internships in the province.

The government also says that it will embark on a marketing strategy to increase international awareness of B.C. as an education destination. B.C. currently attracts about 94,000 international students to the province. In a related move, the government will also give $2 million for a grant program to help B.C. post-secondary students pursue an education abroad.

– Vancouver Sun
May 30, 2012

Chile

Investigation Into University ‘Profiteering’ Adds Fuel to the Private-Provision Debate

A seven-month investigation revealed in June that eight universities are illegally operating as profit-oriented businesses in Chile, violating anti-profiteering laws amid findings of inflated executive salaries, circulation of finances between companies under the same private ownership, and outsourcing of services as a means of generating revenue.

The accused universities are: Universidad de las Américas; Universidad Andrés Bello; Universidad Viña del Mar; AIEP-Andrés Bello; Universidad Santo Tomás; Universidad de Artes, Ciencias y Comunicación; Universidad del Desarrollo; and Universidad del Mar.

According to an article in Americas Quarterly, “the findings of the investigation, which will be sent to the Ministry of Education for further action, exemplify the disparity between Chile’s ever-growing student movement gunning for free, higher-quality postsecondary education and the perspective of Chile’s federal executive branch, led by billionaire President Sebastián Piñera.”

Annual tuition fees in Chile average US$3,400, which—in relation to the average wage of $8,500—leaves the country with the highest relative education costs in the world. A study conducted last year by the OECD revealed integration of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds within schools in Chile is less than 50 percent. (The OECD average is 74.8 percent, rendering the Chilean education system the most socioeconomically segregated of OECD member states and suggesting anything but freedom of choice for parents).

In his annual address to the nation, Piñera weighed in on the demand for free education, stating that it is “neither fair nor appropriate for the state to finance the education of the disadvantaged with the resources of all Chilean people.” The leaders of the student movement are diametrically opposed to this point of view.

– Americas Quarterly
June 22, 2012

Peru

Government Makes Large Investment in Science & Technology

In response to demands from industry, and frustrated with low rankings among Latin American countries, Peru is investing more than US$136 million in science and technology (S&T).

Prime Minister Oscar Valdéz also recently announced that 1,000 new S&T graduate fellowships would be made available by 2016, as well as 1,500 scholarships for Peruvian students at foreign universities. With Peru’s economy growing strongly the government is increasingly keen to improve the quality of the country’s universities to sustain economic growth.

The project, with US$100 million of state funding and a further US$36 million from the Inter-American Development Bank will run for seven years. Dr Salomón Soldevilla Canales, who heads the regular projects unit at the government agency running the program – Funding for Innovation, Science and Technology (FINCyT) – said that 41 new projects had already been initiated.

There are currently no Peruvian universities in the top 500 of the QS World University Rankings, and just six in the top 200 universities in the QS University Rankings: Latin America.

– University World News
May 23, 2012

United States

After Scandal, North Dakota Board to Introduce Tighter Admissions Standards for Foreign Students

North Dakota’s higher-education board is working to tighten admissions standards for international students after a state audit revealed that Dickinson State University had admitted and awarded degrees to hundreds of unqualified foreign students, mainly from China.

The State Board of Higher Education gave initial approval in May to changes that would set standards for English-language proficiency and would require all transcripts from institutions abroad to be verified and evaluated by established transcript-evaluation service, such as World Education Services. The board also prohibited payment of student recruiting agents on a per-student basis.

The Chinese Ministry of Education has also ordered an investigation of the university’s dual-degree programs.

– InForum
May 16, 2012

Liberal Arts College to Offer Three-Year Degree

Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth announced in a Washington Post blog post that the university would offer a three-year undergraduate degree. Roth says a three-year degree could save students about 20 percent off the cost of a degree. Roth, who graduated in three years when he was a student at Wesleyan in the 1970s, said the program is not for everyone but could be a pathway embraced by students concerned about the cost of education.

While many colleges offer three-year degree programs, most of them have been at public universities rather than small, private liberal arts colleges, many of which have stressed the intangible benefits of the four-year undergraduate experience.

– Washington Post
May 23, 2012

College Enrollments Slowed by Inflated Costs

There are signs that college enrollment across the United States is starting to drop. More schools have space still available than at any time in at least a decade. Already, in the academic year just ending, many universities had to offer greater discounts just to fill seats. Yet fewer admitted students enrolled, and more than 40 percent of private colleges reported enrollment declines. Even community colleges, which have seen double-digit enrollment growth in recent years, experienced enrollment declines this year.

While the number of students graduating from high schools has declined slightly since building to a peak of more than 3.3 million in 2009, the cause of the college enrollment drop-off is rooted firmly in concerns about skyrocketing tuition and debt, according to most industry watchers and higher-education officials.

“I do think we’ve reached a tipping point in terms of what cost might do,” said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. “The cost of college is really beginning to alarm families. And that creates a real threat to enrollment.”

And it is not only at more expensive private schools or public four-year institutions that enrollments are dipping, but also at the lower cost community-college level, where enrollment dropped one percent this year after climbing almost 22 percent since 2007.

States have cut the amount they spend on higher education, per student, by nearly 11 percent since 2010 to the lowest level since the 1980s, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers organization, forcing the rest to be made up through higher tuition. One result is that the cost of attending community college rose nearly 9 percent this year, on average—and a significantly larger proportion of students have had to rely on federal financial aid.

– Hechinger Report
May 31, 2012

Western Michigan Celebrates 25 Years in Malaysia

Western Michigan University President John M. Dunn was in Malaysia in June to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a partnership with Sunway College, a private Malaysian institution, that has brought thousands of Malaysian students to Michigan over the years. During his trip, Dunn signed several articulation agreements with other private Malaysian universities.

“Our long and very strong relationship with Sunway and the impact it has had on global higher education is a source of great pride for Western Michigan University,” said Dunn before departing for Malaysia.

“Our connections to Malaysia go back to the late-1960s and 1970s, when large numbers of Malaysian government scholarship students were enrolled at WMU. Together these programs have meant that we now have an alumni community in Malaysia of about 2,500 strong. We’ll be celebrating this wonderful occasion with two major alumni gatherings and a series of meetings with our colleagues in Malaysia who made this relationship a reality.”

The Sunway program brought 93 Malaysian students to WMU last fall. Keith Hearit, WMU vice provost for enrollment management, said Malaysia is expected to be a top source for international students for the 2012-13 year, as well. WMU has similar twinning programs in Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bolivia and Kenya. The articulation agreements to be signed by Dunn will bring additional Malaysian students to WMU’s Kalamazoo campus

– MLive
June 8, 2012

One in Four U.S. Institutions Has an International Partnership or Collaboration

According to a recent report released by the American Council on Education, only a limited number of U.S. institutions of higher education engage in international partnerships and collaborations.

The council’s Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses initiative found that 27 percent of institutions surveyed operated joint, dual or double degree programs with overseas partners in which home-campus students can enroll, and institutions offering these collaborative programs are largely doctoral and master’s ones.

That was one of the many areas in which there was a large (and in many cases growing) gap between doctoral institutions and other sectors, with associate institutions lagging, even if they are gaining some ground. Of the institutions that reported acceleration of internationalization in recent years, associate institutions were the most likely to have begun international partnerships for the first time.

– American Council on Education
June 2012

Central Asian Students Enroll in U.S. Universities in Growing Numbers

The Washington Diplomat reports that the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan represent an important, increasing, and much unnoticed, group of international students in the United States.

Across the United States in 2011, colleges and universities hosted 3,188 students from Central Asia, according to IIE’s Open Doors data; most were from Kazakhstan (1,890) and Uzbekistan (560). They were enrolled at about 50 institutions across the country.

Central Asian countries “are a sleeping giant — on the rise economically and politically,” Fanta Aw, director of international student and scholar services at Washington D.C.’s American University, which hosts graduate and undergraduate students from this part of the world. Aw told the Washington Diplomat that these students “are looking to international education as part of their programs for development, not just looking to Russia or the U.S., but to the West.”

Many students from Kazakhstan are “Bolashak” scholars, a government-funded program that sends students across the globe. The program was created by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1993 to foster the “skills and knowledge to build a democratic and prosperous society,” according to the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Washington’s website, which notes that “to fill the gap in qualified academic and scientific staff for national universities and engineers for industry, the Bolashak will continue sending Kazakhstan students abroad to study for master’s and Ph.D. degrees, including at top U.S. universities.”

– Washington Diplomat
April 30, 2012