Regional

Asian Universities Join Open Courseware Movement

The 21st century has witnessed a relative revolution in academic access, with educational material from top institutions being made available online, free for anyone who wants it. Originally backed by big-name universities in the United States, institutions in China, Japan and Europe are also now offering their lecture notes to the world.

The first university to offer course material free online was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 2001. Its OpenCourseWare project now offers lecture notes, exams and other resources from more than 1,800 courses spanning the institute’s entire curriculum. The material has been accessed by 40 million visitors from nearly every country in the world, with visitors averaging a million a month, according to its website.

While MIT remains the prominent name of the movement, many universities across the U.S. and Europe have similar programs, and in recent years Asia has embraced the initiative. Institutions in Vietnam and Thailand have begun translating MIT and other Western material into local languages, and more than 150 universities are linked in a network in China. In April, the Chinese city of Dalian will host the twice-yearly session of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, which gathers more than 100 higher-education institutions from Australia to Venezuela.

At least three Taiwanese institutions now offer courseware online. In Japan, educators established the Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, which initially translated MIT material but now focuses on Japanese courses, says Yoshimi Fukuhara, secretary-general of the consortium. With 17 member universities, it has translated more than 1,000 courses from Japanese into English and other languages. And in India, the National Knowledge Commission has recommended initiatives that, if implemented, would push India to the forefront of open-source education.

To keep pushing the cause, a coalition of educators, foundations and Internet pioneers in January signed a declaration urging governments and publishers to make publicly funded educational material available free over the Internet. The Cape Town Open Education Declaration has so far been signed by more than 140 organizations and nearly 1,500 individuals.

– Wall Street Journal
March 28, 2008

Burma

Asian Campuses Setting up Shop in Burma

The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) of Singapore is reported to be looking into opening a branch campus in Burma, according to a report from the Voice, a local weekly newspaper. The campus would offer diploma certificate programs that would allow students to enroll in technical bachelor’s programs at Singapore Polytechnic School and the National University of Singapore. The ITE was established in 1992 and reportedly has branch institutions in Vietnam and China.

Other developments in Burma include negotiations between Thailand-based Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Burma businesses to bring a center of AIT to Burma. A memorandum of understanding with the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry is understood to be in the works. Like ITE, AIT also maintains a campus in Vietnam, in addition to domestic campuses.

Malaysia-based LimKokwing University College of Creative Technology also operates in Burma, offering its first diploma program in 2006. The private university offers programs in information and communications technology (ICT) and business development. The courses are conducted at education centers in Yangon and Mandalay.

– Xinhua
April 2, 2008

China

Chinese Universities Holding Huge Debt

Chinese universities face debts of up to $US70 billion and will have to invest another $140 billion to meet enrollment targets of 30 percent, according to a top political adviser. Xu Hui of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League said it would take the Government 40 years to cover the expense, news agency Xinhua reported. He said that although publicly owned universities accounted for 85 percent of students, they had just 57 percent of sector funding, adding that the failure of the Government to fulfill its funding commitments had left many universities “unable to make ends meet”.

– Times Higher Education Supplement
March 27, 2008

Number of Students Traveling Abroad Continues to Grow

The number of Chinese students studying abroad and returning from overseas universities reached a record high last year, according to official figures released in April.

More than 144,000 students went abroad last year, up 8 percent on 2006. By the end of 2007, 44,000 overseas students returned home, up 5 percent year-on-year, Ministry of Education statistics show. Of the students who studied abroad, about 90 percent were self-funded. The government sent more than 8,800 to study overseas last year, up 59 percent on 2006.

The number of returned overseas students has been steadily growing since 2003 to 166,000 – 52 percent of the returned students in the past three decades. According to the ministry figures, more than 70 percent of the 70,000 students who returned to China in the past three years earned master’s degrees. It also found that 47 percent of these returned students majored in humanities and social sciences, while approximately 45 percent studied engineering. The number of Chinese who study abroad is expected to grow again this year due to the availability of scholarships, loosening of visa restrictions and better job opportunities abroad for graduates.

– China Daily
April 4, 2008

Students Begin to Question Value of Tertiary Education

Four in ten Chinese citizens believe that a large gap exists between investment in education and the returns. A survey of 3,355 Chinese citizens aged between 16 and 60 years in both urban and rural areas found that only 16 percent believed there was a good return, and graduates were among the most critical.

The news agency China Daily quoted one 26-year-old university graduate as saying that his “textbook advantage” over those without degrees was of no use in the job market. He added: “I disappointed my parents, who gave me at least 30,000 yuan (US$4,000) to attend a postgraduate management course in a key university for three years.” Hong Chengwen, professor of management at Beijing Normal University, said: “Vacancies in the employment market have not caught (up with) the pace of economic development in recent years.”

– The Times Higher Education Supplement
April 3, 2008

New Study Documents Education Reform in China Since Government-Enacted Growth Policies of 1999

A new study by economists at universities in Canada, New Zealand and China has put into figures the impact of a 1999 government decision to greatly increase access to higher educational opportunities. In the higher educational transformation of China and its global implications, the researchers amass an impressive array of statistics and other information about enrollments, demographic changes, numbers of colleges and faculty publishing, among other categories.

Published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the study suggests that while much has changed in Chinese education since 1999, it is probably still too early to fully understand the long-term achievements of the reform, despite the many alarm bells and warnings being triggered across the globe from those concerned by China’s meteoric rise.

Although the raw figures are indeed quite amazing – a quadrupling of university graduates to 3.1 million between 1999 and 2005, and an even faster rate of enrollment growth – the growth has, however, occurred almost exclusively in scientific and engineering fields. China has also managed to shrink the urban/rural education gap, with rural students making up 53 percent of newly admitted students in 2005, up from below 47 percent in 1998.

Other findings of the report show that there has been a great deal of consolidation among universities, with many smaller institutions being absorbed by larger, more prestigious ones, with a focus on increasing research output and, ultimately, global standing. This emphasis has affected faculty who, in some cases, are expected to publish three internationally acceptable research articles per year or face the prospect of contract termination, a far cry from the days of tenure for life. The country’s share of all published Asian science and engineering articles grew from 14.54 percent in 1998 to 22.43 percent in 2003, accelerating at an average annual rate of 9 percent.

– The National Bureau of Economic Research
March 2008

India

Xavier, Manitoba Deal Sign of the Times

St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata announced a collaboration agreement with the University of Manitoba, Canada, in February, just one of hundreds of international agreements undertaken by Indian colleges and universities in recent years. For St Xavier’s, one of the country’s most prestigious colleges, this collaboration represents its first partnership with any external institution in its 150-year history. It also reveals the level of autonomy the college has gained from the University of Bombay, with which it is affiliated, as it was able to negotiate the agreement without any external intervention.

St. Xavier’s is certainly not operating in a bubble, either. According to a recently released study on foreign education providers in India conducted by the New Delhi-based National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, more than 130 local institutions have already collaborated with foreign institutions offering either a foreign degree or a foreign diploma. Reports suggest that many more institutions are looking to follow suit.

In the last two years alone, many high-profile institutions have entered into agreements with Indian institutions. These include names such as Harvard, Kellogg, Michigan University, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Institute of Technology, Grenoble Ecole de Management (France), and Aston Business School (United Kingdom), while research-oriented institutions like the London Business School, Stanford University and University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, and many others from the world over are working towards setting up bases in India.

Their method of entry or teaching may be different, but all are trying to fill the one biggest need of Indian students; to acquire foreign degrees without incurring the prohibitive expenses of foreign education offshore. However, it should be noted that the Indian government is still yet to pass, or draft, legislation regulating foreign institutions in the country. The vast majority of the international agreements involve a 2-2 approach whereby students undertake two years in India followed by two at the foreign institution, with the standards of the first two years in no way guaranteed by the partner university.

– Asia Times
March 29, 2008

70% of Universities ‘Lack High Standards’

Only 30 percent of Indian universities offer “high quality” education, according to a report by India’s parliamentary estimates committee. It says: “It was regrettable to note that most universities lack high standards even after the existence of the University Grants Commission for 50 years … Our university standards are not up to those of internationally renowned universities and our universities do not figure in the lists of globally popular ratings.” It points out that only four Indian institutions, including the universities of Delhi and Calcutta, were in the Times Higher Education world rankings.

– IndiaEduNews
March 15, 2008

Ten Fraudulent Degree Providers Unmasked

Ten fake universities have been issuing forged degrees in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The degree mills were uncovered following a probe launched after foreign embassies questioned the authenticity of degree certificates, according to a report in The Telegraph, a Calcutta newspaper. Police have said that degree certificates were being sold for as much as 50,000 rupees (US$1,200), and often as a means of finding employment in countries with emerging economies, such as Nigeria, the UAE and Thailand.

P. N. Batham, State Higher Education Special Secretary, said: “Many countries have learnt their lesson after recruiting people with fake degrees … They are getting back to us to verify.”

The University Grants Commission’s website lists fake universities in eight states but shows that the highest number — 10 — operated in Uttar Pradesh. They include the Mahila Gram Vidyapith, Prayag, Allahabad; the Indian Education Council of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow; Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith, Prayag; National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy, Kanpur; Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (Open) University, Aligarh; Uttar Pradesh Vishwavidyalaya, Mathura; Maharana Pratap Shiksha Niketan Vishwavidyalaya, Pratapgarh; Gurukul Vishwavidyalaya, Vrindavan; and Indraprastha Shiksha Parishad, Noida.

– The Telegraph
March 11, 2008

Britain’s Open University to Collaborate with Delhi University

The U.K.’s largest distance learning institution, the Open University (OU), is collaborating with Delhi University on a teacher-training program, with funding from the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI). Delhi hopes to use the expertise of OU to better integrate technology into traditional teaching methodologies through its Campus of Open Learning.

UKIERI was launched in April 2006 to improve educational links between the two countries. The three main target areas of the initiative are higher education and research, schools, and professional and technical skills. The DU-OU project is the only one so far, approved by UKIERI, which is not a research project.

– The Times of India
April 7, 2008

450,000 Students Spend $13 Billion Abroad

According to industry body Assocham, approximately 450,000 Indian students spend more than US$13 billion studying abroad every year. Over 90 percent of students who take the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management entrance examinations are rejected due to capacity constraints. Forty percent of those students end up studying abroad.

“Over 150,000 students every year go overseas for university education, which costs India a foreign exchange outflow of US$10 billion dollars. This amount is sufficient to build more IIMs and IITs,” Assocham President Venugopal Dhoot said in a statement.

Most students leave because of capacity restraints at Indian universities. Balchandra Mungekar, a member of the Education Planning Commission, said the private sector had an important role to play in establishing new provision. “It is difficult to provide higher education without the help of private players. All new (institutions) will be set up with a public-private partnership model,” he said.

– PTI
March 18, 2008

Malaysia

British University Signs Deal to Open Branch Campus

Newcastle University is set to establish its first international branch campus in Malaysia, after receiving a formal letter of invitation from the Ministry of Higher Education in late February. The new international branch campus of the northern British institution will be named Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) and will deliver and award the university’s degrees in medicine and biomedical science, beginning with its five-year MBBS program (bachelor’s in medicine and surgery).

The NUMed campus is scheduled to open in 2011, and will be located in the Iskandar Development Region in South Johor, strategically positioned within the growth triangle of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It is projected that students will be able to study at the branch campus for half the cost of doing so in the United Kingdom.

– Newcastle University news release
March 12, 2008

South Korea

Universities Given Greater Autonomy Over Admissions

The Korean Ministry of Education announced in April that it would be transferring its authority over university admissions to a council of universities nationwide by the end of May.

The move is the first in a three-step deregulation policy, pledged by President Lee Myung-bak, to gradually give full autonomy over admissions to universities. The Korean Council for University Education and the Korean Council for College Education will coordinate the new basic admissions procedures for four- and two-year institutions. The new admissions procedures will be drafted by August and will apply to the 2010 school year.

– Korea Herald
June 16, 2008

Universities Recruit U.S.-Based Koreans

Top Korean universities are beginning to recruit Koreans residing overseas, after a relaxation of government regulations. In early April, six Korean universities were in Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles holding joint admissions briefings. More than 500 parents and students were in attendance, according to officials interviewed by Donga-A Ilbo, and more were turned away because of space constraints at the Los Angeles venue. This number far exceeded expectations, and has set the stage for future visits by a greater number of Korean institutions of education.

Until last year, the Education Ministry had banned domestic universities from accepting Korean students based on scores on the U.S. Scholastic Aptitude Test and those who graduated from foreign high schools. This effectively barred Korean students residing overseas from entering university in their home country.

Similar recruiting tours were also undertaken in China and Indonesia.

– Dong A Ilbo
April 9, 2008