Sector News

16th August 2011
  • The Academic Ranking of World Universities, published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, have recently been released. The ranking famously takes into account Nobel prizes and Fields medals, as well as research output in mainly scientific journals.  US institutions dominate the top ten, with Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Stanford rounding out the top three spots. The only non-US university in the top ten is Oxford and Cambridge. In terms of performance in Asia, the University of Tokyo takes 21st position and Kyoto University places at 27th.
    Full Story:  Shanghai Daily
  • Members of Alba, otherwise known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, has announced an initiative to harmonise higher education so that member states may work together in order to boost its universities and knowledge economy. Member states include Venezuela (Alba was founded by president Hugo Chávez), Ecuador, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. Venezuelan vice-minister Ruben Reinoso says that goals include standardising curriculum as well as establishing benchmarks.  However the initiative has also been met with cynicism as some have pointed out that any higher education policy should not have a political agenda and many accuse Alba of having socialist and anti-US leanings.
    Full Story:  University World News
  • Universities in Korea are undergoing a major restructuring and auditing process in part to ascertain whether degree programmes are fit for foreign students. The government is looking to stop underperforming programmes from receiving funds from international students. The auditing will commence in September and comprises of 13 professionals who will determine whether the universities are properly managed.  If institutions receive the green light, then they may join the Global Korea Scholarship, which provides foreign students with government financial support.
    Full Story:  Korean Herald
    More: Korea Times
                                            
  • East Africa countries including Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and Burundi are commencing plans to harmonise its higher education system which will include a standardising a fee system, facilitating student mobility, and easing credit transfers. Education minister Jessical Alupo says that the initiative is in its infant stage but when the process is complete, the academic calendar in East Africa will also be aligned.  Between the five countries, there are 70 institutions in question which needs to undergo a harmonisation process which may, according to some, prove difficult, particularly in terms of setting fees and negotiating the amount of years it would take for a student to matriculate.
    Full Story:  New Vision
                                      
  • A new programme, Science without Borders, is taking Latin America by storm. The programme is an initiative which seeks to send more Latin American students abroad in order to study in science, engineering, and technical fields. The idea is that the students will be allowed to gain valuable skills abroad and return to contribute to the knowledge economy. The Brazilian government is pledging to give 75,000 scholarships by 2014, and countries like Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and El Salvador are following suit. The Chilean government is offering 30,000 scholarships and the Colombia government is sending more students abroad this year than they have in the past 18 years combined. Money made from commodities such as soy beans, sugar, copper, and iron ore is being used to fund the initiatives.
    Full Story:  Chronicle of Higher Education

9th August 2011
  • Forbes with conjunction with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (which was founded by an economist at Ohio University) has just released the first of what is to be months of rankings galore starting this autumn. The list uses an interesting “ranking schools by results” methodology, incorporating student debt, student satisfaction, graduation rates, post-graduate success, retention, and awards. Interestingly, the small liberal-arts Williams College tops the list, followed by Princeton University.
    Full Story:  Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Student protests have erupted in Ghana in demonstration against a variety of fee hikes. Organisers from the National Union of Ghana Students and the Graduate Students Association of Ghana rose against a range of fees including the vaguely  security, sports, and venture capital which they see as an unjust financial burden for students. University of Ghana vice-chancellor said that students were invited to attend the meeting which voted for fee hikes and that the protests are an unacceptable way for students to voice their concerns. The students have presented parliament with an official petition to amend the fees hike to a reasonable level.
    Full Story:  University World News
  • Universities in Switzerland are considering putting limits on foreign enrolment if there are not enough places for domestic students. The move comes as St. Gallen University started imposing limits on foreign students because German students began to arrive in masse, as Switzerland as a destination for foreign students has been seen as a financial bargain compared with other European counterparts. It is also estimated that German students will increasingly look elsewhere for higher education as capacity in Germany has hit a ceiling. The number of foreign students have doubled since 1990 and now sits at 132,000. Some are calling for higher fees for international students but others believe that imposing higher fees for foreign students is xenophobic.
    Full Story:  The Local Switzerland
  • China is looking to expand its online activity, following the success of institutions like MIT, Oxford, and Yale which has online open courses available on their websites and have become popular in China. Top institutions such as Peking and Tsinghua will be offering courses and lectures to the wider public. The goal, as part of their Five-Year Plan for higher education, is to increase the number of available courses to 1,000.  
    Full Story:  China Daily
     
  • England’s higher education woes continue to grab headlines: a recent report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England has announced that at least 56 institutions will see the number of undergraduates reduce. According to HEFCE, on average, institutions predict a 2% shortfall in undergraduates. The report, which is based on financial forecasts for the next three years, also reveals that a quarter of institutions expect a rise in student numbers, while six institutions foresee a 100% rise in fees from foreign students. HEFCE has warned that institutions are operating too close to the knife’s edge financially, and that income from international students, often seen as the magic bullet, may not be so easily attainable.
    Full Story:  Guardian
    More: Telegraph

1st August 2011
  • The team behind the Ranking Web of World Universities (Webometrics) has just released their latest findings. The league tables, which measures web presence as measured by Google, Yahoo Site Explorer, and Bing search engines as well as the availability of scholarly papers, has been around since 2004. This year there were several changes, most notably the use of a g-factor and the inclusion of Scimago data for papers and citations.  The top five all hail from the United States: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, and UC Berkeley.
    Full Story:  Arab News
  • The Universities UK President Sir Steve Smith say allowing institutions to take on unlimited numbers of high-performing students is an effective way of not only boosting numbers of underprivileged students, but also acts as a way to check tuition fees. New proposals set by the government, as they watched the number of institutions set maximum fees rise week after week, would allow institutions to compete for the best students, and those institutions who do not attract high-performing students will risk losing their funding. Many are saying, including the general secretary of the University and College Union, Sally Hunt, that the government’s initiatives of creating intense competition between institutions is not the best way forward, particularly as the budget for higher education has been slashed by 80% and collaboration between universities is needed now more than ever.   
    Full Story:  BBC News
    More: New Statesman
  • Universities in Bulgaria have won substantial power according to the amendments made in the Higher Education Act recently. Institutions will now be allowed to evaluate diplomas issued by foreign schools. Education Minister Sergey Ignatov says that this will eliminate red tape relating to translations and legal matters. In addition, universities will be able to set fees for Masters programmes. In the works is also the National Strategy for Development of Scientific Research, which seeks to provide 1.5% of GDP for investments in science and technology by 2020.
    Full Story:  Novinite.com
  • Excellence initiatives, which are governmental goals to create world-class institutions, launched in China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Singapore, Vietnam among other countries is adding to the discussion on whether league tables are concentrating power in a few elite universities with deep pockets. Professor Ellen Hazelkorn, a vocal critic of league tables, says that putting resources in order to create ‘world-class institutions’ may be detrimental not only to the idea of higher education as a diverse and complex animal, but to the economy as technological advancement may be affected in the long run. Hazelkorn likens Reagan's economic policy in the 80s, when the über-rich got richer and the gap between the haves and have-nots continued to widen, to what could happen to higher education if the trend continues. Read QS’ response here.
    Full Story:  University World News
           
  • QS has recently released its results in the Social Sciences with London School of Economics placing ahead Oxford and Cambridge in Economics. Results in Sociology, Statistics, Politics, Law, and Accounting were also released. US power-players like Harvard, Stanford, and Yale populate the top 10 while institutions in the UK also round out the list like the London Business School which is placed at tenth position for accounting and finance.
    Full Story:  Guardian