France

€2 Billion for Excellence Initiatives

French President François Hollande has announced funding of €2 billion (US$2.7 billion) for the creation of new regional university research centers, under a second wave of ‘Excellence Initiatives,’ or IDEX.

The IDEX are part of the government’s Future Investments initiative – Programme Investissements d’Avenir or PIA – introduced by Hollande’s predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy with the aim of making France more internationally competitive in research and innovation. Hollande said he had “decided to undertake a new wave of IDEX, with funding of €2 billion” under the second PIA.

It is expected between three and five new IDEX will be added to the eight already in existence, which are situated in Bordeaux, Marseille, Strasbourg and Toulouse as well as four in and around Paris. Funding for this first wave, announced in 2010, totaled €7.7 billion.

– University World News
February 12, 2014

Lithuania

Reforms and University Mergers to Stem Brain Drain

Figures from UNESCO’s Global Flow of Tertiary-level Students data, published at the end of 2012, show that 8,230 Lithuanian students were studying abroad, with nearly half at British and German universities. In contrast, just 2,973 foreign students were studying in Lithuania – and 2,113 of those were from neighboring Belarus, with many at the exiled European Humanities University, which moved to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius after it was closed down by Belarusian authorities in 2004.

The ‘brain drain’ is a common factor for many of the ‘newer’ European Union member states as more and more students take advantage of the free movement of labor in the region and move to countries offering better job prospects, reports University World News.

“Retaining talent is one of our most pressing problems along with demographic changes,” said Nijole Bulotaite, spokesperson for Vilnius University – the country’s oldest seat of learning. “Competition is growing from foreign universities for the best students; and we’re not attracting talent from outside, partly because the quality of our higher education system is unknown to the rest of the world and also because third country students have to leave the country after graduation. They are not given time to find a job.”

Vice-Minister of Education and Science Dr Rimantas Vaitkus told University World News that he is promoting major reforms to Lithuanian higher education, which will include re-focusing the sector’s priorities to support economic recovery and the needs of the labor market – with the likelihood of mergers between higher education institutions to create what he hopes will be stronger universities able to compete globally.

With nearly 160,000 students, Lithuania moved to a mass higher education system over the last 15 years and now has one of the highest participation and graduation rates in Europe. But Lithuania’s business community has publicly expressed its concerns about the mismatch between the quality of the skills provided by universities and the requirements of a highly competitive economy. Today almost 47 percent of Lithuanian students study social science, business and law – compared to the EU average of 34 percent – and math and computing only attract 5 percent and 10 percent respectively.

– University World News
February 5, 2014

Northern Cyprus a Magnet for International Students

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, unilaterally proclaimed on the northern third of the island by its Turkish community three decades ago, is recognized by no country in the world except Turkey. It is diplomatically, politically and economically isolated from the world by international trade sanctions and travel embargoes. Yet thousands of young people from more than 100 countries study at its international universities, making education the leading sector of its economy.

With a population of 300,000, Northern Cyprus has nine universities and a 10th is in the works, according to the Higher Education Council, or Yodak, the government body charged with overseeing them. A total of 63,000 students are enrolled in these universities, of whom only 13,000, about 20 percent, are Turkish Cypriots. An additional 35,000 are from Turkey, and 15,000 international students come mainly from countries in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. International enrollment is up 329 percent from 3,500 in 2008.

After Turkey and Northern Cyprus, Nigeria sends the most students to Northern Cyprus, followed by Iran, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. The main language of instruction is English, with academic staff members from 60 countries. International students interviewed by The New York Times at various campuses said they had come for the quality of the education and for the international experience.

The relatively low cost is another factor that attracts international students to Northern Cyprus. At Near East University, Northern Cyprus’s largest university, with 22,000 students, tuition is $3,800 for most schools, while certain fields like medicine can cost as much as $17,500. The university offers packages that cover tuition at most schools, dormitory accommodation and three meals a day for $6,000 per year.

But like everything else in Northern Cyprus, the universities exist in a political limbo. The Greek Cypriot government of the Republic of Cyprus, which is in the island’s south and is internationally recognized, asserts that the northern universities are unlawfully operating on territories occupied by the Turkish military and accredited by institutions of an “illegal” state. Northern Cypriot government officials hold that Turkish Cypriots are within their internationally recognized rights in running their own universities.

The universities of Northern Cyprus are accepted as members by educational organizations like the European Association of Universities and the International Association of Universities, but they are blocked from participation in programs based on intergovernmental agreements, like the Bologna Process or the Erasmus Program.

Most important, however, their diplomas and degrees are accepted by most universities around the world, thanks to their accreditation by the higher education board in Turkey, which certifies the Northern Cypriot documents.

– The New York Times
February 16, 2014

Russia

Details of Overseas Scholarship Program Emerge

EducationUSA reports that the long awaited Presidential Decree to launch the Global Education program in Russia was recently signed. Global Education, which funds graduate studies in high-tech, public administration, education administration and social services fields, will start distributing funds in 2014.

Students applying for support from the Global Education program must also independently apply and be admitted to a master, PhD or post-doctoral program at a top 300 ranked institution. Global Education covers expenses up to $45,000 per year for specific fields of study and carries the stipulation that recipients return to Russia and work for at least three years in a government-approved organization.

The details of the program, including lists of approved universities and organizations that can receive Global Education recipients, should be finalized by April 2014. See official information (in Russian only). EducationUSA in Russia will post updates as they become available.

– EducationUSA
January 2014

Admissions Procedures for International Students to Change

The Russian Education and Science Ministry is moving to adopt a new list of academic requirements for international students. By the end of 2014, when the new measures are set to be implemented, international applicants will have to spend a year learning Russian, mathematics and key subjects in their chosen field in order to take entrance exams to their university of choice.

Foreign applicants wishing to enter Russian universities will be divided into several sets: humanities, natural sciences, medicine and biology, engineering, and economics. Each of the sets will comprise three mandatory and one specialist subject. In addition, foreign applicants will study general knowledge subjects, like Russian, mathematics or computer science. The list of subjects will be set depending on the discipline in which an applicant will be specializing. It is not yet clear whether these regulations will affect students who are enrolled in programs where the medium of instruction is English.

According to the Education and Science Ministry’s recommendations, international students should have 52 weeks of studies (one academic year) as a foundation program before they take entrance exams. These will include 38 weeks of classroom work, four weeks of exam sessions and 10 weeks of holidays. Currently, international students make up 2.5 percent of all students in Russia. By 2015, the ministry wants to raise this figure to 6 percent and by 2018, to 10 percent.

– Russia & India Report
February 18, 2014

Switzerland

International Students Cause Capacity Concerns at Swiss Universities

Swiss universities have become increasingly popular among international students over the last couple of decades, and while this brings in much-appreciated new talent, the debate on who should foot the bill has become an issue of great concern among academics and legislators.

Switzerland prides itself on having some of the lowest tuition fees in the world, subsidized by the federal and cantonal authorities. This gives students access to higher education regardless of income, but taxpayers are also funding the cost of educating international students.

The proportion of overseas students has risen dramatically from 23 percent in 1990 to 38 percent in 2011, and now universities are calling for increased funding to meet demand in a political debate that has run on for years.

– Swissinfo.ch
February 18, 2014

Ukraine

Divisive Education Minister Gets the Boot

As opposition lawmakers in Ukraine continue their purge of government officials, one ouster causing particular glee is that of the minister of education and science, Dmytro Tabachnyk, reports RFE/RL.

In Ukraine, where issues of language, culture, and history are never far from the surface, Tabachnyk was seen by many as a front-line enemy of Ukrainian national identity. Since his appointment in 2010, Tabachnyk had sought to steadily erode the role of the Ukrainian language in academic curricula, removing Ukrainian proficiency requirements for university applicants and cutting back on the hours middle-school pupils spent studying Ukrainian language and history.

Less than a year into office, Tabachnyk led a revision of fifth-grade history textbooks to scrap key events from Ukrainian history, including the 2004-05 Orange Revolution that led to the ouster of the man who appointed him, Viktor Yanukovych. He also announced plans with his Russian counterpart to pursue a joint history text that teachers in both countries could use. Tabachnyk also worked to increase the number of Russian-language schools, particularly in the country’s east, where many people traditionally speak Russian as a first language.

– RFE/RL
February 23, 2014

United Kingdom

Record Numbers of U.S. Students Choose UK Universities

Across all levels of tertiary study in 2012-13, the number of U.S. students attending universities in the UK was 16,233 – a rise of 13 percent over the last four years. A record 4,346 U.S. students were registered on UK undergraduate degree programs, according to data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, which represents a 4 percent rise when compared with the previous year, and by 28 percent over the last four years.

With figures from the UK’s Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) showing an 8 percent rise in U.S. applicants for programs starting in 2014-15, the upward trend looks set to continue. A total of 2,933 U.S. students have submitted almost 10,500 applications to UK universities for programs beginning in the next year.

The top five UK institutions hosting U.S. students are: The University of St Andrew’s, the University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh, University College London and the University of Westminster.

– Times Higher Education
January 24, 2014

Americanization of University Grading Schemes Takes Hold

Britain’s grading system is broken. At least, that’s what critics are saying about the 200-year-old tradition of classifying undergraduate degrees into five categories, from first class to fail. In an attempt to improve the system, 21 universities started to experiment in November with an American-style grade-point average.

The hope is that it would be a better evaluation of student efforts and would help to solve grade inflation and other problems. But not everyone in British academe is on board. Some say the effort is flawed from the start and may contribute to the erosion of centuries-old methods that undergird higher education there, while doing nothing to curb grade inflation. Indeed, in the United States, despite use of the GPA, grade inflation remains a pressing concern.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 2, 2014

Fraud Investigation Leads to Suspension of ETS English Test

Britain’s Home Office has suspended English-language tests run by a global arm of Educational Testing Service (ETS) after a BBC investigation asserted that Britain’s student-visa system was plagued by fraud.

The BBC program Panorama reported that students who were signed up to take visa-application tests never actually sat for the examinations. Instead, the BBC said, others took the tests for them or read them the answers out loud.

In a message on its website, ETS Global said the Home Office had asked that the tests be suspended temporarily for “immigration purposes.” It also said candidates who had appointments to take a test for immigration purposes would be contacted to process a refund.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 10, 2014

Elite University Shuns A-Levels in Admissions Decisions

An elite university established as a rival to Oxford and Cambridge is to ignore pupils’ final A Level results because of “increased mistrust” in the traditional school-leaving exam and concern that the qualification fails to distinguish the brightest students. New College of the Humanities in London is making “unconditional offers” based on pupils’ prior exam scores and performance in interviews.

Professor AC Grayling, the college’s master, said that A Levels in subjects such as English and history struggled to reward “individual judgment, interpretation and a little bit of creative thinking.”

The move has been seen as an attempt to make an early claim on the brightest candidates at a time of increased competition between institutions. It also takes pressure off students in their final year of school, it is claimed. Grayling, who set up New College of the Humanities in 2012, indicated that it was also driven by dissatisfaction with the A Level system.

– The Telegraph
February 9, 2014

Transnational Education Enrollments Up 5%

The number of students studying UK qualifications abroad rose by 4.9 percent last year, according to recent statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The findings come soon after the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and the UK Higher Education International Unit launched a consultation into strengthening the quality of UK institutions’ transnational education offerings.

The figures show that 598,925 students were studying a UK program wholly abroad in 2012-13, compared with 571,010 the previous year. Almost half were based in Asia, with close to a fifth from Malaysia and Singapore. Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said: “There are few sectors of the UK economy with the capacity to grow and generate export earnings as much as education.”

“Our universities are recognized globally for their excellence,” he added. “To take advantage of this powerful reputation it is important the UK is able to maintain and demonstrate the quality of its education exports. That is why I asked the higher education sector to look at quality assurance of transnational education.”

As a significant sidebar to the data, it should be noted that 43.7 percent of all students studying overseas were registered to Oxford Brookes University, with the majority studying for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants’ BSc in Applied Accounting. Last year QAA, using this program as a case study, found that some students are struggling to have such qualifications recognized in some countries including China, Australia and South Africa. QAA’s report identified recognition of this program as “one of the key issues” facing the university.

According to HESA’s statistics, 59 percent of students studying wholly abroad were registered with overseas partner organizations, while 21 percent were registered at a UK higher education institution and 17 percent were studying by distance learning. Just 3 percent were at a UK international branch campus. Eight in 10 students are enrolled at the undergraduate level.

– The PIE News
February 19, 2014

(Scotland)

Higher Education Under an Independent Scotland

With less than eight months to go until Scottish voters decide whether to break their union with England and leave the United Kingdom to form an independent country, the polls are suggesting a tightening race versus early polling that suggested there was little appetite for independence.

With the nationalists sensing the wind in their sails, vice chancellors, academics and journalists gathered in Edinburgh recently to hear the Scottish education secretary and the secretary of state for Scotland clash over whether independence would be good news for the country’s universities. The debate centered on the issues of immigration, tuition fees and shared research councils (which distribute some research funds) with Britain.

The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) accused the British government of running an immigration policy driven by a “nasty xenophobia,” which was damaging the reputation of Britain as a study destination, with the result that “Scotland loses out” on international students and scholars. The SNP pledged to reintroduce post-study work visas, which gave overseas students the automatic right to work for two years after graduation before they were scrapped in 2012, in an independent Scotland.

Responding, Liberal Democrats accused the SNP of manufacturing a “synthetic spat” about immigration to “distract attention” from unresolved questions on tuition and a common UK research area in an independent Scotland. Scottish students and other EU national currently pay no tuition fees to go to university in Scotland. Those from England, Wales and Northern Ireland have to pay up to £9,000 ($14,600) a year. The Scottish Nationalist Party hopes to continue this arrangement in the event of independence.

Legally, the current position is permitted because EU member states are allowed to discriminate in this way within their borders. But, if an independent Scotland became a separate EU member state, denying free tuition to students from the rest of Britain ­- a fellow member state ­- would become illegal under EU law. However, the SNP says if students in the rest of the UK were allowed to study in Scotland for free their numbers would grow unsustainably, thereby squeezing out Scots.

The second post-independence conundrum is whether Scotland and the remainder of Britain would continue to share their research councils, facilities and peer review networks. Scottish universities do well in the present system. In 2011-12, they won 15.2 percent of research council grant funding despite Scotland’s having about 8 percent of the UK population.

– Times Higher Education
February 6, 2014