Regional
Assessing the Financial Viability of Foreign Degrees
Overseas universities queuing to set up affiliated degree programs, joint degrees and foreign branch campuses in Asia need to do their research carefully and understand the labor market in those countries, or they will fail, reports University World News.
Karan Khemka, partner and head of education practice at Parthenon, a consulting firm, warns that India may not bring the returns hoped for by many foreign providers looking to set up affiliated degrees.
“Despite the view that India offers a huge market for foreign providers, growth [of enrollment in foreign-linked courses] in India is less than 5 percent, with many affiliated programs operating below capacity,” Khemka said.
“It is in Vietnam, with a much smaller program, that the fastest growth is apparent.” He said the main reason was that the return on such degrees for Vietnamese students, as well as those in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, is far higher than for students in India.
In Vietnam, for example, enrollments in foreign degree programs in Vietnam are growing at 15 percent a year, according to Khemka. One reason is that programs taught in English are much more sought after in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia than in India where most domestic programs are already taught in English.
Cost is also a major factor. According to Khemka, in Indonesia a local degree takes a year to pay back once a graduate is working but it takes double that time to pay back the cost of an internationally affiliated program, taking into account the increase in salary and job prospects that the international degree offers. In Malaysia, where it takes around 18 months to pay back the cost of a local degree, an international program can be paid back in two-and-a-half years, in salary terms. In Vietnam the cost of an international program takes four years to pay back, compared to around two years for a local institution.
But in India the gap between the payback period for a local program compared to a transnational course is “dramatic”, said Khemka. The debt incurred during an international program takes three times longer to clear than a local program – almost six years, compared to two years for a local program.
– University World News [1]
May 27, 2012
Rankings War: Top New Universities
The two biggest compilers of international rankings rushed to the presses in May to become the first to release a new ranking of the world’s best young universities. First up was QS’ Top 50 under 50 [2], followed hours later by Times Higher Education magazine’s Top 100 ranking of universities under 50 years old [3].
The results from both rankings are illustrative of the impact of higher education investment in emerging economies, with universities from East Asia in particular performing well. The QS ranking [2] is headed by two Hong Kong universities – the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Other Far East universities dominate the top 10: Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University is fourth, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is fifth, Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology is seventh, and a third Hong Kong institution, City University of Hong Kong, is ninth. The UK’s Warwick and York universities ranked third and sixth respectively. Maastricht University in The Netherlands is the only continental European university (8th) and the University of California, Irvine (10th) is the only US university in the top 10.
The THE ranking places Korea’s Pohang, a private university founded in 1986, at the top, with HKUST third and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology fifth. In contrast with the QS ranking, European universities are well represented in the THE top 10. Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne is second, France’s Université Pierre et Marie Curie is sixth, and the UK’s York, Lancaster and East Anglia universities are eighth, ninth and 10th respectively. UC Irvine is fourth and the University of California, Santa Cruz is seventh.
The QS ranking draws directly on the data used for its World University Ranking, and while Asian universities are solidly represented at the top of the table, it is Australia that dominates in terms of the number of institutions listed in the Top 50 with a total of 10. In contrast, North America is represented by just one US university and three from Canada.
THE says it has ‘recalibrated’ its World University Rankings data “to better reflect the profile of younger institutions.” The UK has more institutions – 20 – in the THE list than any other nation. Australia follows with 14, while the US – which dominates the traditional World University Rankings – has just nine representatives. In total, 30 countries or regions are represented in the top 100 – compared to just 26 in the THE World University Rankings top 200.
– University World News [4]
May 31, 2012
China and India to Produce 40% of Global Graduates by 2020
By the end of the decade, four out of 10 of the world’s university graduates will be Chinese or Indian, according to a new study [5] from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In 2010 the two countries accounted for 29 percent of people age 25 to 34 with higher-education degrees, a figure that will rise to 41 percent by 2020, according to the Education Indicators in Focus study. The growth signals a shift in higher-education attainment, with wealthy countries’ share of the global population of university graduates declining in the years ahead.
According to the analysis, in 2000 the United States’ share of 25- to 34-year-olds with university degrees was 17 percent, but by 2010 it had declined to 14 percent, and by 2020 it is projected to be just 11 percent. China’s share, in contrast, rose from 17 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2010, and is projected to be 29 percent by the end of the decade.
– OECD [6]
May 2012
Afghanistan
Government Doubles Funding for Overseas Scholarships, Invites in Foreign Universities
In its effort to train the highly skilled scientific workforce needed for economic development, Afghanistan has doubled its budget for overseas scholarships and will teach science programs in English instead of the two branches of Persian – Iranian Farsi and Afghan Dari – used in many universities. These initiatives were announced at the end of June by Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai at a national conference on education reform.
“We allocated US$5 million last year for students to study in foreign countries but the government has allocated $10 million this year and the allowance will rise to $15 million in the coming years,” Karzai said. In 2011 more than 500 Afghan students went to study at higher education institutions in India and Turkey and up to 1,000 students are expected to go overseas this year, officials said. This is the second batch of students studying abroad on government scholarships – in previous years, study abroad was mainly funded by scholarships from host countries.
Karzai also invited foreign institutions to come to Afghanistan and help fund its faculties. “If France wants they can take over our medical university to teach. They can even bring teachers, books and teach in French. If Germany wants to take over our engineering faculty we will be very happy,” he said.
– University World News [7]
June 27, 2012
Australia
Australian Universities Benefit from Britain’s Tightened Student Visa Rules
According to the Indo-Asian News Service, Australian universities stand to benefit from the recent tightening of student visa rules and a drastic fall in enrollments in Britain from India.
British universities have experienced a fall of more than 30 percent in Indian enrollments, while the number of Indian student visa applications for Australia has gone up by 120 percent in the past nine months to May and the number of visa issuances has increased by nearly 80 percent.
Eric Thomas, president of Universities UK has reportedly written to British Prime Minister David Cameron, warning that the immigration changes could cost the country as much as five billion pounds (US$8 billion) in tuition fees alone. The recent immigration crackdown is reported to have led to Indian students shunning British universities. In a similar scenario a few years back, Indian students had shunned Australian education providers after the country tightened immigration rules.
Overall Australia is expected to return to growth of approximately 6-7 percent in overseas markets the next year after a flat 2012 according to a U.S consultancy group, with India leading the revival. However a leading analyst with the group stated that the growth will come from lower-quality students.
– IANS [8]
May 23, 2012
Higher Tuition Fees Offset Losses from Reduced Enrollments
Income from international students rose by 7 percent last year in Australia despite a drop of 9 percent in the number of newly enrolled international students. Annual fee increases have insulated the industry from the decrease in international students and the picture is looking even more improved as the Australian dollar heads back towards parity with the American dollar and new visa rules have made it easier for Indian and Chinese students to enroll.
Last year universities increased their revenue from overseas students by A$1 billion (US$ 1.04 billion) despite flat enrollments. The jump in revenue was attributed to increased fees with most institutions raising fees between 3 percent and 8 percent.
– The Australian Higher Education Section
May 16, 2012
China
Indian Campus Looks to Establish Foothold in China
Manipal University [9], a private institution in India, is in talks to open a campus in China, in collaboration with two universities in that country, Tianjin University [10] and Tongji University [11], according to Indian media reports. The campus being planned would be the first in China to offer a program in information technology and other sciences, taught only in English.
Manipal University Vice-Chancellor K. Ramnarayan, who along with other officials from the university met Chinese university heads and government officials in Beijing and Tianjin in June, told The Hindu in an interview that Manipal had also offered to host the first ever Confucius Institute in India, pending government approval.
– The Hindu [12]
June 2, 2012
Chinese School Leavers Shun College Entrance Exam
China’s national college entrance exam is no longer the be all and end all of a high school graduates future study options. In fact, it is increasingly just one of many options for students in top senior high schools. In 2008, the Chinese government reported a record high of 10.4 million students sitting for the gaokao. That number dropped to 9.15 million this year, with an expected average admission rate of 75 percent (versus 57 percent in 2008), according to the country’s Ministry of Education. According to the ministry, the number of test-takers has fallen 2 percent versus last year, while the admission rate has increased 3 percentage points. Only 12 provinces – about one-third – saw growth in the number of students taking the gaokao this year, while the number of available seats grew to 6.85 million, 100,000 more than in 2011.
The declining number of gaokao participants is largely due to the falling number of people under 18, but overseas study is also frequently cited as a contributing factor. According to various Chinese media sources, as many as 430,000 students are expected to study abroad in 2012.
“We have 219 students graduating this year. Among them, more than 80 have been admitted to overseas universities, while more than 80 others have been recommended directly to domestic universities,” said Cui Deming, president of the Shanghai Foreign Language School [13], a school known for cultivating foreign language skills. Meanwhile, the No. 2 Secondary School Attached to East China Normal University in Shanghai said on its website that two-thirds of its graduates have been admitted by overseas universities or recommended directly to domestic universities.
Yet the number of those that choose not to take the high stakes gaokao university entrance exam still make up a small proportion of school leavers, said Shen Xianzhang, vice-president of the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China.
“After all, the cost of living and tuition is not a small sum for most parents,” he said.
For most students coming from less-prestigious high schools, choosing to study abroad still remains financially beyond their means. And some of those students have given up on the idea of a university education altogether. Taking into account the country’s increasingly competitive job market, fewer and fewer students have faith in the value of attending a mediocre college and are choosing to pursue postsecondary employment instead of college.
– China Daily [14]
June 9, 2012
Stanford & Other Top U.S. Schools in China
Stanford University [15] has opened a new multimillion-dollar center in China, providing the top-ranking U.S. institution with its first foothold in the country. The Stanford Center in China [16] will provide research and teaching opportunities for its faculty and students but will not offer degrees. Stanford, one of many Western universities looking for ways to develop a presence in the world’s second-largest economy, began its experiment this summer with the arrival of an initial wave of Stanford faculty using the center as a base for research and lectures.
Located on the grounds of a former imperial palace at Peking University [17], the $7 million, donor-funded center will give Stanford faculty and students direct exposure to the country, while also allowing Chinese educators and students to get more opportunities for close collaboration with Stanford researchers and scholars.
Other top schools are also establishing a presence in China. In July, the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Engineering opened a research and teaching facility [18] in Shanghai’s sprawling Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, which is providing a 50,000-square-foot building for the university at no cost. The tech park is also raising at least $10 million a year for five years to finance research between the engineering school and Chinese institutions. Columbia University has a center in Beijing [19], while Johns Hopkins University has one in Nanjing [20]. Duke University is planning [21] to open a campus in the eastern city of Kunshan next year and will offer two degree programs.
Meanwhile, the Juilliard School [22] has signed an agreement that would establish a satellite music institute in Tianjin [23], a plan that marks its first expansion beyond its New York City campus. China Daily reports [24] that the institute is expected to be Juilliard’s only such institute in East Asia. It would also be the only center in the region where prospective students can audition for admission to Juilliard in New York. The exact programs to be offered at the institute will be determined by the results of a feasibility study, which began in June.
– San Jose Mercury News [25]
June 16, 2012
Hong Kong
Universities Enjoy a Substantial Uptick in Interest from Overseas Students
Hong Kong universities have seen substantial increases in the number of foreign applications for the 2012-13 academic year, according to numbers released in June.
The University of Hong Kong [26] saw a 42 percent increase in foreign applicants compared with the previous year, while the Chinese University of Hong Kong [27]saw a nearly 50 percent increase, according to e-mailed replies from those universities to The New York Times. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology [28] said in a statement in June that the number of foreign applications had grown 55 percent.
Hong Kong university applicants are divided into three categories: local, foreign and mainland Chinese, whose numbers are capped at 20 percent of all school places. HKUST said that the number of applications from mainland China had also grown, by 53 percent.
– The New York Times [29]
July 2, 2012
India
Facing Faculty Shortages, IITs Call on U.S.-Based Indians to Return Home
India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are facing severe shortages of new faculty members. According to Manindra Agrawal, dean of resource planning and generation and a computer science professor at IIT Kanpur [30], the IITs “have very few students in India going for their Ph.Ds. And those that go for a doctoral degree tend to do it outside India, and prefer to stay back and work there.”
Inside Higher Ed reports that IIT Kanpur, in northern India, where about 350 professors are employed, currently has vacancies in about one-third of faculty positions. Now, officials at IIT Kanpur are planning to open an office in either Washington or New York City by the end of the year to try to recruit new faculty members from among the legions of Indians who have pursued Ph.D.s or postdocs at American universities.
More than half of IIT Kanpur’s current faculty members already have graduate or doctoral degrees from U.S. institutions, according to Agrawal, who admits that his institute will not be able to match dollar salaries, because salaries at the IITs are decided by the Indian government. And because of differences in the standard of living, these salaries tend to be much lower than what a faculty member might earn at an American institution “But we plan to augment the salary offered to new hires by about 50 percent through private funding and alumni donations,” he said. Fund-raising will be another goal of the new U.S. office, he said.
The proposed American office will employ two or three people. “We will see how it goes – we are going into uncharted territory here. And then maybe we will increase the size of the office,” Agrawal said.
– Inside Higher Ed [31]
May 24, 2012
Indian Panel Slams Efforts to Build New Elite Engineering and Science Schools
The effort to open new Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research is faltering, says a Parliamentary committee that oversees the education ministry, reports The Times of India. With a faculty shortage as high as 60 percent at some of the new branches, in a report the committee has asked the ministry to ensure such gaps are closed quickly.
The report, which doesn’t offer ways to solve the problem of finding professors, says “the committee is of the view that only qualified and experienced faculty can make the functioning of any institution, specially premier institutions like IIT, meaningful and effective.” It also expresses concern over the temporary campuses, saying they often lack the state-of-the-art labs and robust libraries originally envisioned.
– The Times of India [31]
May 10, 2012
Government Issues Rules on International Collaborations
The Indian government approved new regulations in June under which the world’s top-ranked higher-education institutions would be allowed to run dual degrees or twinning programs with Indian universities. The regulations are part of an effort by the government to find non-legislative ways to push through reforms in higher education while the Foreign University Bill, among others, continue to be stalled in Parliament.
According to regulations approved by the University Grants Commission [32], foreign universities must figure in the top 500 institutions, as measured by Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings or the Academic Rankings of World Universities produced by China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, while Indian institutions must be graded ‘A’ by the National Board of Accreditation [33] or the National Assessment & Accreditation Council [34].
More than 340 institutes in India now offer degree programs in collaboration with foreign providers, but few of those rank among the top 500. The new guidelines will cover these existing partnerships, with the Indian institutions given six months to meet the new eligibility criteria. If they fail to do so they will risk, in the case of private institutions, being de-recognized, or, in the case of public universities, seeing their financing eliminated. The new regulations do not address the issue of freestanding foreign branch campuses. The Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, [35] which would regulate branch campuses, has been pending in India’s Parliament for more than two years.
– The Indian Express [36]
June 3, 2012
As Rupee Weakens, Overseas Study Options Become More Costly
India’s currency, the rupee, has been weakening against other major currencies, which has made the price of an overseas education even more costly than before. As a result, many Indian students and families are re-evaluating plans to study abroad, reports The Times of India.
According to statistics from the Institute of International Education, there were some 103,895 Indian students in the United States alone in 2010-11, with another 27,000+ in Australia, and 12,000 in Canada. In the last year, the rupee has depreciated 23 percent against the U.S. dollar, making the $15,000 to $60,000 in annual expenses an even heavier burden to bear for Indian families.
“When the dollar is strengthening against the rupee, it’s bound to affect the cost of education, especially stay and other expenses,” says Vineet Gupta, managing director of Jamboree Education Pvt. Ltd, a company that provides counseling to students who want to study abroad. “When the course fee goes up, let’s say 10 or 15 percent because of non-academic reasons, it definitely hurts students.” While many aspirants are worried about the quick decline, Gupta says his organization has not yet seen students dropping their plans completely, particularly those who have received strong offers. With foreign schools providing a wider range of courses, program flexibility, and combined majors, as well as international scholarships, pursuing a foreign degree is considered a great opportunity – especially at a time when securing a place at a good Indian college is becoming increasingly problematic.
But with the now weaker rupee, such students may become more picky, says Amit Agnihotri, director of MBAUniverse.com. “It may not affect the Ivy Leagues because of their pedigree but it will certainly hamper tier-II foreign colleges that get the bulk of the Indian students,” Amit explains.
– Livemint.com [37]
May 31, 2012
Eight US-India Educational Partnerships Announced
Eight institutional partnership projects, four each led by India and the United States, were announced in June for the first Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative [38] awards. The goal of the initiative is to strengthen, through faculty exchanges, joint research, and other collaboration, partnerships between American and Indian institutions of higher education in priority fields, including food security, climate change, sustainable energy, and public health. Each of the eight selected projects will receive approximately US$250,000 in grant funding that can be used over a three-year period.
The U.S.-led partnerships will be spearheaded by Rutgers University, the University of Montana, the University of Michigan, and Cornell University. The India-led partnerships were awarded to Mahatma Gandhi University, Banaras Hindu University, and the Indian Institute of Technology in both Kanpur and Delhi. One of the grant winners, Cornell University, will work with two Indian institutions, the University of Agricultural Sciences and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, to build curriculum in food processing, plant breeding, and seed production. Another grant, to Rutgers University, working with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, in Mumbai, will help jump-start planning for a national vocational school. The national vocational school to be created by Rutgers and Tata eventually could serve as many as one million students a year, Rutgers officials said.
The initiative will continue to dispense the US$10 million grant allocation via annual awards for eight to ten university partners each year over a five-year period. The next request for proposals [39] will be announced in July of 2012.
– U.S. State Department [40]
June 12, 2012
20,000 New Colleges in the Last Decade
According to a report recently released by the University Grants Commission, the number of colleges in India grew by more than 20,000 in the first decade of the century, from 12,806 in 2000-01 to 33,023 in 2010-11.
The report, Higher education in India at a Glance [41], also found that the number of degree granting universities more than doubled from 256 to 564 over the same 10-year period. This growth has largely come from the private sector and with the increase in the number of deemed universities. The growth in the number of degree-granting institutions helps explain, in part, the growth in the number of colleges. India has a complex affiliating system through which universities issue degrees to students being taught at affiliated colleges. Universities can have hundreds of public and private teaching colleges affiliated to them.
Another interesting fact from the UGC report is that enrollment growth has not kept up with college growth. Although student enrollments in higher education doubled from nearly 8.4 million to 17 million over the last decade, they grew at a slower pace than the rate of college growth (roughly 150 percent), creating what Rahul Choudaha, Director of Research & Advisory Services at World Education Services, describes as “a paradoxical situation of excess capacity in a country where [the] gross enrollment ratio is less than 20 percent.”
Elsewhere in the report, it was found that students continue to be sorted into two tiers –engineering and three-year degrees of Arts, Science and Commerce. Every sixth student in India is enrolled in an engineering/technology program and more than two-thirds are enrolled in three-year undergraduate degrees [42].
– Dr Education [43]
June 17, 2012
Japan
Insular Japanese Companies to Blame for Declining International Academic Mobility
In a recent article, The New York Times posits that traditional hiring practices in corporate Japan are to blame for the declining interest for an overseas education among Japanese students.
Notoriously insular, corporate Japan has long been wary of embracing Western-educated compatriots who return home. Discouraged by their career prospects if they study abroad, even at elite universities, a shrinking portion of Japanese college students is seeking higher education in the West. At the same time, Japan’s regional rivals, including China, South Korea and India, are sending increasing numbers of students overseas — many of whom, upon graduation, are snapped up by companies back home for their skills, contacts and global outlooks.
That attitude might help explain why, even as the number of Japanese enrolled in college has held steady at around three million in recent years, the number studying abroad has declined from a peak of nearly 83,000 in 2004 to fewer than 60,000 in 2009 — the most recent year for which the figures are available from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At American universities, 21,290 Japanese students were registered last year, fewer than half the number a decade ago.
– The New York Times [44]
May 30, 2012
Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University Partners with Top Western Universities
Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University [45] has ambitious plans for its third year, including starting a graduate program and doubling the size of its campus. The institution, which has built partnerships with American and UK universities, seeks to become a leading world-class research university, according to Tengrinews.
The university offers a four-year undergraduate program, with the first year used as a foundation year designed to give entering students the equivalent of Western countries’ 12th year of high school. At the moment, Kazakhstan students take only 11 years of school. The country will go to a 12-year system soon, however.
With the university’s first cohort of undergraduate students now entering their third year, new graduate classes are being offered through the School of Science and Technology, the School of Engineering and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The next step will be opening graduate programs outside the existing schools – in business, public policy and education.
In its determination to become world-class, Nazarbayev University has partnered with Western universities in its foundation program and its three existing schools. The partners are University College London in the Foundation Program and the Engineering School [46], the iCarnegie subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University in Science and Technology [47], and the University of Wisconsin in Humanities and Social Sciences. The partners in the new graduate programs are Duke University in Business, Singapore University in Public Policy, and both Cambridge University and the University of Pennsylvania in Education.
– Tengrinews [48]
May 11, 2012
New Zealand
Visa Processing Expedited for Students
Overseas students wanting to study in New Zealand are to have their visa applications streamlined under a new system to help boost the country’s education export industry.
Government agencies Immigration New Zealand [49] and Education New Zealand [50] signed an agreement in May to enable international students using a New Zealand Specialist Agent (NZSA) to have their visa applications processed within 10 working days.
– People Daily [51]
May 9, 2012
Taiwan
International Enrollments on the Rise
There are currently 56,000 foreign students studying in Taiwan according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Education, reported July 4. Of that number, 45 percent are in Taiwan on degree programs, with the majority of these students coming from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Another 26 percent are there for Mandarin training courses, with the majority of them coming from Japan, the United States and Vietnam. Mainland Chinese students, who account for 20 percent of foreign students, are in Taiwan mostly on short-term courses.
Taiwan is actively recruiting foreign students, both because its low birth rate means there is currently excess capacity at its universities, and because Taiwan would like its campuses to become more internationalized, according to the ministry. The ministry said that in 2008 it launched a project to recruit outstanding graduate students from Southeast Asia, and that as of June the program has brought 1,200 students to the island.
– Taiwan Today [52]
July 5, 2012
Vietnam
Vietnam Cracks Down Again on Foreign-Linked Institutions
After blacklisting three unauthorized foreign-linked institutions in December, January and March, the Vietnamese government in May named another seven colleges in the vocational and professional sector that it is requiring to stop offering university-level programs.
The Ministry of Education and Training is tightening up on degree-level courses at vocational institutions in a move to separate academic and vocational institutions. The ministry said all certificates granted by the institutions so far “will be deemed invalid” and fined them up to 67.5 million dong (US$3,200) as well as ordering the institutions to compensate any ‘damages’ to students – this includes refunding tuition fees, according to Pham Ngoc Truc, deputy chief inspector at the ministry.
Some 900 students are said to have been affected in the latest crackdown, which follows fines against the ERC Institute Vietnam, Raffles International College and ILA Vietnam. Vietnam has said embassies will be alerted by its International Education Development Department to the problem of “unauthorized cooperation” in higher education.
The institutions in question in the latest crackdown include three Singapore-linked colleges that the ministry said were only permitted to provide vocational courses but had been offering unlicensed undergraduate degree programs: Singapore Information Technology and Business Administration Company, Melior Vietnam Company, a branch of the Melior Business School in Singapore – and FTMS Global Education. The ministry said the only state-funded institution to be named in the latest crackdown, Hanoi Institute Open University, was recruiting for college-level courses in association with the Australian Box Hill Institute in contravention of government rules.
Also blacklisted is the private Hoa Sen University, which had been cooperating with France’s Vatel International Hotel Management School in offering qualifications in international hospitality “without official permission.” The College of Business Administration and Management, set up as a vocational training institution, had been illegally running undergraduate and postgraduate programs in collaboration with the UK Association of Business Executives, the ministry said. Another Ho Chi Minh City institution, the Institute of Finance Administration, had recruited 17 students for a graduate business administration program even though it is not an educational institution but an information technology agency and is only authorized to offer English language courses as extra training.
– University World News [53]
June 10, 2012
New Higher Education Law Promises Institutional Autonomy
Vietnam’s national assembly voted in June to adopt a wide-ranging Law on Higher Education – the first time the country has considered a law dedicated specifically to the higher education sector.
The law for the first time mentions that national and regional universities will receive more investment and be given increased autonomy than has previously been the case. There are also clauses on international education cooperation that have not previously been formally included in legislation, and other clauses that would remove the government cap on tuition fees and allow public and private universities to decide on their own fee levels. For public institutions, however, there could be some conditions attached to fee levels and they may have to be set within government limits.
The new law is also expected to strengthen the research mission of universities, which are still regulated under older Soviet-era laws that separated teaching and research.The new higher education law will come into effect from May 2013.
– University World News [54]
June 19, 2012
Vietnam National University’s International Affiliations Investigated
Following a government inspection, the Vietnam National University in Hanoi [55] has been accused of violating regulations on international cooperation programs – leaving the BA and MBA degrees of more than 2,000 graduates in question, according to media reports. The inspection looked into the university’s affiliations between 2006 and 2012, including special focus on the institution’s partner schools.
Sixteen of the 20 partnership programs currently running between Vietnam National University and foreign universities are operating without documents to prove the foreign partners’ legal entity, according to the inspectors, while 11 of the university’s MBA programs were found to have allowed candidates to graduate without writing or defending a graduation thesis. Meanwhile, other programs are accused of admitting students without appropriate entrance exams (which are required by the country’s Ministry of Education and Training) – including BA programs run in partnership with the US-based Griggs University.
As a result, the inspectors proposed that the government not recognize the BA and MBA degrees of more than 2,000 students who graduated under the university’s international training cooperation programs. No official action has yet been taken, according to university officials.
– Vietnam News Agency [56]
June 21, 2012