Regional

New University Ranking System Launched, Then Shunned

A new university ranking system, U-Multirank, was officially launched by the European Union (EU) in late January, with a goal of bringing a new and broader approach to the assessment of the world’s universities and downplaying the importance of research as a measure for university excellence in favor of a more multi-dimensional criteria.

Under the new assessment system, universities would be rated according to five broad measures: reputation for research, quality of teaching and learning, international orientation, success in knowledge transfer – such as partnerships with businesses, and start-ups – and contribution to regional growth. The ranking system will not produce a league table for universities, but hopes to provide a broader set of information to potential students.

As many as 500 universities around the world are expected to participate in U-Multirank, and the first results will be published in early 2014. The lead partners for U-Multirank are the Centre for Higher Education in Germany and the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies in The Netherlands.

The new ranking system would, according to its promoters, help students find a university or college that is best for them, enable universities to identify their strengths or weaknesses, allow them to learn from the experiences of other institutions, and give policymakers a more complete view of their higher education systems to strengthen them as a whole.

However, soon after the announcement of the launch, a group representing some of Europe’s leading universities withdrew its support for the system, warning that it could pose “a serious threat” to higher education. The League of European Research Universities, which represents 21 leading research-intensive universities, stated that the project is ill conceived and poorly designed.

– Times Higher Education
February 7, 2013

Greece

Higher Education Efficiency Plan to Lead to University Closures and Enrollment Declines

Up to four universities and dozens of academic departments at universities and technical colleges could close under a plan to streamline Greece’s higher education system.

The universities that face closure are the University of Central Greece, the University of Western Greece, the International Hellenic University and the University of Western Macedonia. In addition, the number of departments offering programs in the most popular fields will be reduced, while those with scant demand will be closed according to the scheme, dubbed ‘Athina’ and announced by Education Minister Constantinos Arvanitopoulos in late January.

According to Arvanitopoulos, the overhaul will allow a larger number of students to enter popular faculties such as those focusing on economics and business but the abolition of a large number of underperforming departments will still bring down the number of entrants to higher education institutions by about a third. The number of successful applicants this academic year is estimated at between 50,000 and 55,000 – down from 77,000 in the previous academic year.

– Ekathimerini
January 31, 2013

Italy

Fewer Italians Attending University at Home as They Look Abroad for Opportunities

The number of Italians enrolling in the country’s universities has declined by 17 percent over the last decade, with 58,000 fewer students pursuing degrees. Today, just one in five Italians in their early thirties has a degree, whereas the European average is closer to one in three.

Some blame the government and its lack of investment in higher education. Basic university funding has been cut by more than 15 percent since 2008 – by well over a billion euros. Italy has 68 public universities, and 30 of them are nearly bankrupt, according to euronews. Meanwhile, the Italian research budget last year was cut to 13 million euros (US$17 million) from 50 million a year between 2008 and 2011.

According to Giovanni Azzone, the rector of the largest technical university in Italy, Politecnico di Milano, a lot of the cutting is counterproductive. He said: “It might prod some universities to use money more wisely, but when one has already made that effort it means services go: the chance for students to go on foreign exchanges for instance. It also means classrooms are more crowded than ever, and the professor-student ratio is already very high in Italian universities.”

Many Italians are now leaving the country for educational and workplace opportunities, resulting in an estimated lost earning potential of approximately one billion euros per year (US$1.3 billion), as measured by the capital generated by the hundreds of patents that top Italian researchers have registered abroad.

– euronews
February 12, 2013

Russia

Government Launches Excellence Initiative at 15 Universities

The Russian government has started implementing its ambitious plans to build international excellence at the country’s leading universities. According to Igor Fedyukin, the deputy minister of education, this year 15 universities will receive special state grants worth RUB9 billion (US$270 million).

The action is being taken under an existing state program to develop education from 2013-20 and a special plan to improve leading universities, approved last year by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Like many national reform initiatives recently implemented around the world, it comes as a response by the government to poor performance in world university rankings. None of Russia’s leading universities appear in the top 100 of any of the rankings.

The plan includes conducting an independent analysis of the compliance of Russian universities with ranking criteria, as well as the development of ‘road maps’ to promote national universities in the most authoritative rankings – those of Times Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong and QS.

The 15 universities that will receive the special grants will have to upgrade their management teams and create conditions conducive to attracting top academics from leading Russian and foreign universities, as well as talented young professors, heads of scientific laboratories and famous scientists.

– University World News
February 9, 2013

Moscow as an International Business-Education Hub

Experts suggest that Russia may become the global business education hub for Eastern Europe, along with Dubai for the Middle East and Berlin for Central Europe. The topic was discussed at the “BRICS Management Model and Challenge of Training Multifunctional Managers” roundtable discussion at the recent Gaidar Forum in Moscow.

“Russia has all the requisite factors to become the business training hub for Eastern Europe,” said Sergei Myasoyedov, president of the Russian Association of Business Education.

In 2000, the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) accounted for only 8 percent of the GMAT exams taken around the world, but that figure has risen to 33 percent in 2012. China and India lead the way, accounting for 95 percent of all tests taken by BRICS residents.

President of the Association of MBAs, Sir Paul Judge, noted that, rather than general MBA programs, developing nations are more interested in specific training programs for entrepreneurship, family business, diversified conglomerates, state corporations and marketing in rapidly growing economies.

“The growth in business education in the BRICS states attests to the strong demand for manager training, which will inevitably result in new training formats and bring about new specialized centers,” said the dean of IE University (Spain), Santiago Iñiguez. He believes that existing training models in their current state are not suited to developing economies, noting that this could be a critical factor for the young BRICS economies and inexperienced managers.

Based on the Financial Times’ Global MBA ranking, there are several global business education hubs: London, Boston, Singapore, Madrid and Hong Kong. Iñiguez believes that Moscow, Berlin and Dubai will soon be added to this list.

– Russia Beyond the Headlines
January 29, 2103

Turkey

Quarter Million Turkish Students Overseas on EU Funding

Almost 250,000 Turks have benefited from the EU-funded Lifelong Learning Program between 2007-2013, an EU law expert has said.

Professor Haluk Kabaalioğlu, an expert in EU law and Turkish-EU relations and also head of the Economic Development Foundation (İKV), told Today’s Zaman newspaper that the EU Lifelong Learning Program will end next year, and noted that nearly 250,000 Turks have already benefited from the program.

The Lifelong Learning Program will be terminated next year in line with a European Commission proposal to merge these programs under the new program Erasmus for All. If approved by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, the Erasmus for All program will be active from 2014-2020 with a budget set at 19 billion euros (US$24.7 billion).

– Today’s Zaman
February 12, 2013

United Kingdom

UK Degrees Overseas Surge in Popularity

The number of students studying for UK degrees in overseas countries increased 13 percent last year. So much so, that there are now more students on UK university programs abroad than there are international and EU students coming to the UK to study

According to recently released figures from Britain’s Higher Education Statistics Agency, 571,000 students studied for a UK degree outside the UK in 2011-12, a third more than in 2009-10, with universities enrolling most students in Malaysia, Singapore and Pakistan.

The rise in UK transnational educational – where students are located in a country different from the one where their awarding university is based – is welcome news for UK universities as they are currently facing a potential domestic decline in international enrollments due to tightened visa rules and negative rhetoric from the government on immigration.

Oxford Brookes, which offers students training with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants the option to also study for a degree in applied accounting, recruited by far the most students overseas (251,990 or 44 percent of those studying UK degrees abroad). It was followed by the University of London (45,680), the Open University (42,685), the University of Wales (16,250), and Heriot-Watt University.

Transnational education programs – offered through twinning, franchise and other partnership agreements – are an attractive option for students that cannot afford to study overseas, but desire a foreign qualification. Most are studying on distance learning (51.2 percent) programs or collaborative programs (42 percent), run in conjunction with local partners.

– The Guardian
February 15, 2013

Oxford Brookes University to Adopt GPA

Oxford Brookes University will become the first British university to use U.S.-style grade-point averages (GPA) although the institution will also still use the British style of grouping students by broad honors categories, which is much better understood by employers in the UK.

From September, all new students will be awarded two grades when they graduate: a single numerical mark showing the average of all grades received during their full degree program and an honors degree class based on academic performance in later years of study.

Oxford Brookes decided to introduce the GPA system for several reasons, said John Raftery, the university’s pro vice-chancellor for student experience. One of the advantages is that it avoids the “cliff edges” between degree classifications, particularly for students who have missed out on an upper-second degree by a few marks, Raftery said. He added that employers from outside the UK often did not recognize the honors degree system.

– Times Higher Education Supplement
February 21, 2013