Regional

Caribbean Med Schools Work ‘Loophole’ to Draw on Federal Funds

According to a recent report from Bloomberg, a number of for-profit medical schools in the Caribbean that are ineligible for U.S. federal student aid programs have been encouraging their students to access those funds by simultaneously enrolling in U.S.-based online programs with which they have formed partnerships.

Through the loophole, medical students take out federal loans by virtue of their enrollment in the U.S. online programs and then use the money to support themselves in the Caribbean, the article says. In their defense, the schools told Bloomberg that the online programs provide valuable training to students, giving them a better chance of getting a residency in the U.S. But critics of the arrangement argued it’s a loophole that Congress should close.

Since 2000, 24 medical schools have opened in the region, according to a 2010 report in Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Only four Caribbean schools qualify for federal loans. At least nine of about three dozen total island medical schools ally with U.S. colleges, making available the financial-aid loophole that lets online students receive loans for living expenses.

– Bloomberg
December 3, 2013

U.S. Government Announces $3.65 Million for Latin America Student Exchanges

The U.S. State Department announced in January that in conjunction with private backers, it has raised $3.65 million in funding for a program designed to boost student exchange between universities in the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund seeks to strengthen the capacity of universities in the Americas to send and receive study abroad students through challenge grants. It follows a similar model to the 100,000K platform focusing on China. The Innovation Fund, which will award grants to universities that can make a strong case for how they will use the funds to make systemic changes to embed study abroad into the curriculum, has received major funding from ExxonMobil, Santander Bank, and the Coca-Cola, Ford, and Freeport-McMoRan Cooper & Gold Foundations.

The first four universities to receive funding are:

• The University of Arizona, which aims to create an umbrella organization for science, technology, engineering and mathematics-focused exchanges with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú, in Lima, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in Santiago.
• The University of North Texas, which plans to use the funding to send 30 undergraduate and 20 graduate students to Chile.
• The University of Rhode Island, which plans to expand upon its long-standing International Engineering program in partnership with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, in Chile.
• Northampton Community College, which intends to develop a six-week, study abroad service learning course in collaboration with Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, in Peru, and the nonprofit organization WindAid.

Both 100,000 Strong initiatives were launched by U.S. President Obama and are supported by the U.S. Department of State.

– State Department Press Release
January 17, 2014

Brazil

For-Profits Account for 1 in 3 Higher-Ed Enrollments

Brazil’s for-profit institutions of higher education enrolled over two million students in 2010, accounting for 43 percent of total private sector enrollments and 32 percent of the overall higher education system. By contrast, the U.S. for-profit sector enrolls three million students, but accounts for just 11 percent of all higher education students, according to data gathered for a recent article in University World News.

With more than 6.5 million students in 2010, Brazil has the largest higher education system in Latin America. However, by proportion of the age cohort enrolled (18-24 years old), it trails most large Latin American countries, ranking just 11th. It is behind just Chile in the private share of enrollment, 73 percent and 79 percent respectively, and outpaces all regional neighbors in enrollments in the for-profit sub-sector.

By 2000, just a year after full legal approval to allow for-profit higher education, the sub-sector was already enrolling 18 percent of private sector students and 12 percent in all of higher education. In the first decade of the new millennium the for-profit sector increased in size, as measured by enrollments, by 537 percent, while the private non-profit and the public sectors increased by only 88 percent and 85 percent, respectively.

Large domestic and international companies with skyrocketing revenues have been key players in the growth of the for-profit sub-sector, with 95 percent of all institutions being non-university, a fact that has generated concern about quality. Top fields in the for-profit sector are social science, business and law (51 percent), education (17 percent) and health and social welfare (15 percent). This is an enrollment pattern familiar with for-profit sectors the world over, due to the lower costs and higher rates of return on such programs.

Future trends point to continuing growth of the for-profit sub-sector through two developments: 1) more non-profit institutions switching their legal status; and 2) large domestic and international publicly traded companies incorporating non-profit institutions in their business portfolios.

– University World News
January 17, 2014

Canada

Critics Talk of ‘Qualification Inflation’

The Canadian census of 2006 showed that as many as one-quarter of young people with bachelor’s degrees were working jobs that did not require a university degree. Fifty-one percent of Canadian adults have a tertiary qualification, the highest among OECD countries. At the same time, however, Canada also tops OECD rankings for the largest share of graduates making less than the national median income.

Two years ago, the job site CareerBuilder.ca surveyed 415 private-sector hiring managers and discovered that 36 percent of them had begun hiring university graduates for jobs that once required merely a high school degree. The overall effect has been to erode the employment and earning potential of a university degree, a document once seen as a surefire ticket to the middle class, reports The National Post.

Getting a master’s degree, oddly, only seems to make things worse. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, rates of unemployment for holders of master’s degrees were actually higher than those only holding bachelor’s degrees. Nonetheless, students continue to attend universities in record numbers. Year over year, the first decade of the 21st century saw record-breaking enrollment at Canadian universities, and by 2011, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada announced it had broken the one million mark for student enrollment.

The result, according to critics is worsening student-teacher ratios, a heavier reliance on part time instructors, university grade inflation, and an overall erosion of university quality. Meanwhile, the trades are suffering. The B.C. Construction Association, which estimates it alone is facing a 30,000 job shortage, says it is paying the consequences of a culture bias against vocational training.

Last year, as part of its campaign to sound the alarm on Canada’s skills gap, the Conference Board of Canada noted that despite huge overall enrollment increases, the in-demand fields of “science, math, computer science and engineering” were in their third year of decline.

– The National Post
January 3, 2014

Internationalization Strategy Aims at Doubling Foreign Student Numbers by 2022

The Canadian government announced in January a C$20 million (US$18.3 million) International Education Strategy (IES) with a headline goal of doubling international student numbers by 2022 by focusing on branding, marketing cooperation initiatives and immigration reforms targeted at specific key markets. This is the country’s first comprehensive and nationwide internationalization plan, according to government officials.

According to the strategy, the 450,000 students in 2022 would create 86,500 new jobs versus today, and contribute C$10 billion to the economy. International Trade Minister Ed Fast said the government would be committing C$5 million per year to branding and marketing Canada as an education destination in identified priority markets, including: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Vietnam and the MENA region (including Turkey). These markets have large populations, are relatively wealthy and in some cases (North Africa) have significant numbers of students who speak French, who may want to attend Francophone universities in Canada.

On planned immigration changes, the plan highlights upcoming reforms to Canada’s International Student Program where Canadian provinces and territories designate educational institutions eligible to receive international students. This would ease immigration controls, “making it easier for those international students attending designated educational institutions to work during their studies.”

An additional C$13 million will also be invested over two years to the Mitacs Globalink Program which promotes student and researcher exchange between Canada and China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam

– Government news release
January 15, 2014

Chile

Laureate-Owned University Loses Accreditation

Chile’s National Accreditation Commission has rejected the appeal of a university affiliated with the Baltimore-based for-profit education company, Laureate International Universities, after it was denied reaccreditation in October. The Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA) appealed the decision to the country’s Higher Education Council in December, but a month later reported on its website that the final appeal had been rejected. As in the U.S., universities in Chile must be accredited in order for their students to access government-backed loans and grants.

In its report on its decision not to reaccredit UDLA, the accreditation commission cited the university’s rapid growth and unsatisfactory graduation rates. The commission’s report notes that the number of students grew by more than 36 percent in three years, from 25,272 to 34,436, while the growth in instructors failed to keep pace: the number of full-time instructors increased only slightly, from 231 in 2010 to 235 in 2012, and the number of part-time instructors actually fell, from 177 to 164.

The accreditation report also raised concerns about the financial resources of the university, finding that while spending on academic salaries was low, the amount spent on leases and educational and administrative services provided by companies related to Laureate was substantial. Under Chilean law, universities must be not-for-profit, but they can ally with for-profit entities like Laureate, which provide educational, administrative and real estate services at a price.

UDLA plans to reapply for institutional accreditation but must wait two years before doing so. In a statement following the lost appeal, Laureate said: “As institutional accreditation is voluntary in Chile, this ruling will not stop UDLA from continuing to provide its students with strong academic and career-oriented programs.”

– Inside Higher Ed
January 24, 2014

Bachelet Promises Major Education Reform as New President

Michelle Bachelet gained more than 60 percent of the vote in a presidential election that she won easily against split center-right opponents in December. She takes office in March and inherits a country with strong economic growth, the highest GDP per capita in Latin America, and low unemployment. However, this is contrasted by a deep national dissatisfaction with Chile’s education system that Bachelet has promised to reform and, many say, contributes, to the huge levels of income disparity in the country, the worst in the OECD.

Currently, Chile’s schools and universities rely heavily on household funding to supplement meager contributions from the state of just 15 percent of the high education sector’s total funding. That share is among the lowest in the world and is less than half that of the United States, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Bachelet has promised to change that, turning the essentially privatized sector into a state-funded system within six years.

By the end of her four-year term she has promised that the state will pay the tuition fees of the poorest 70 percent of Chile’s higher education students. These reforms will come at a cost estimated at an extra 1.5 percent to 2 percent of gross domestic product each year. She says that money will come from taxes, particularly on big business. Ms Bachelet plans to raise Chile’s basic corporate tax rate from 20 percent to 25 percent over four years.

Her proposals would also establish a Higher Education Secretariat that would oversee spending and set up universal, mandatory accreditation for the sector. It would also prohibit the distribution of government subsidies to for-profit institutions.

– BBC
December 16, 2013

United States

Ranking of Online Programs Released

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2014 rankings of the Best Online Programs, with close to 1,000 programs answering questionnaires last summer for this year’s rankings. In 2012 only 860 questionnaires were submitted. Only all-online, degree-granting programs in popular areas, such as nursing, technology, and business, were evaluated.

The ranking methodology for the 2014 report was tweaked versus previous years, with peer reputation being added as a weighing factor. Student engagement (which continues to be the most important factor), faculty credentials and training, student services and technology, and admissions selectivity were also counted.

In the category for the best bachelor’s programs, Central Michigan University and the State University of New York College of Technology at Delhi tied for first place, Pace University and Pennsylvania State University’s World Campus tied for third place. The best graduate business program went to Indiana University at Bloomington. Top graduate education program was at Northern Illinois University, while the top graduate engineering program was offered by Columbia University, and the best graduate computer-information-technology program was offered by the University of Southern California. The best graduate nursing programs was offered at St. Xavier University, according to the ranking.

– U.S. News
January 2014