International Higher Education In The Year 2011

The year 2011 was a tumultuous year for the world of international higher education which is increasingly getting influenced by the phenomenon of globalization. As Jane Knight notes "...internationalization is changing the world of education and globalization is changing the world of internationalization." This year also reaffirmed deep interconnection of higher education with sociopolitical and economic enviornment. Following three stories further emphasize these trends:

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

New is the year, new are the hopes and the aspirations, new is the resolution, new are the spirits....A Prosperous New Year to everyone. 

Three Key Trends - the Future of Teaching and Learning

In today’s dynamic classrooms, the teaching and learning process is becoming more nuanced, more seamless, and it flows back and forth from students to teachers. Here’s a look at current trends in teaching and learning, their implications, and changes to watch for. The three key trends are:

Give Yourself Free University Education In 2012

Here is a New Year's gift you can give yourself, a loved one, a friend, or the world---A university education online for free. Is this some kind of trick?

Does GPA Really Matters?

Grades are the determining factor for performance in school. But in the professional world, that’s not how it works. Your bosses won’t tell you which questions will be on the test. 

Importance Of Critical Thinking

What is the one thing humans have that allows them to stand out at the top of any other living organism on this planet? The ability to think! Even more importantly, it’s the ability to think on one’s own accord in order to survive.

Living Costs And Fees Deter Foreign Students In Sweden

A government survey of the impact of the introduction of tuition fees on international students in Sweden this autumn has revealed that one in three of those accepted into universities did not take up the places because living costs are too high.

World-Class Universities Of China in a diverse system

The degree to which Chinese higher education has maintained some institutional diversity is quite remarkable, in spite of pressures to conform to the model of a global research university.

Striking Academics Close Public Universities In Nigeria

Striking academics have once again shut down Nigeria's public universities, and students have been sent home. Leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU, have accused the federal and regional governments of deliberately failing to execute a memorandum of understanding on funding, salaries and conditions signed two years ago.

Vietnam - Struggling To Attract International Students

Vietnam is changing university enrolment requirements to make it easier for foreign students to study at its universities. The new rules are part of a strategic plan to internationalise universities, produced earlier this year, which also includes more courses delivered in English and inviting foreign scholars to Vietnam to conduct research.

International students protest work rules, Cyprus

Crowds of angry non-EU students have demonstrated in the Cypriot capital, Niscosia, over rules they say unfairly restrict their right to work outside college hours.

Free scholarships from Tamwood, Canada

The language school hosting the 2012 workshop for the International Association of Language Centres (Ialc) is offering a scholarship each week to education agents who register to attend the event in Toronto in April next year.

British students missing out on EU study

Liam Burns, the president of the UK’s National Union of Students, said last week that too few UK students from underpriviledged backgrounds are benefiting from European Union grants to study abroad.

China internationalizing its education landscape

In 1995, the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing had 41 international students. In 2004, UIBE had around 1,000 international students and in one year this rose to 1,500 in 2005. The university now has 2,900 international students and rising.

Pearson opens language test centre in Iraq

In a further sign of growth in Iraq’s nascent study abroad market, global education company Pearson opened its first language testing centre in the county last month in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Visa Changes In UK Is Killing

The UK has become a less welcoming study destination due to its tough new visa rules and problematic visa application process, a survey of international students confirms today. A total of 5,000 overseas students on UK university and college courses were polled, with one in five saying they no longer felt welcome in the country and a further one in five were undecided.

Online Application for China Scholarship Program

The opportunities for scholarships to high performing students whose financial situation or other restrictions would not allow them to participate in the Get in2 China Full Package Internship program. The Get in2 China Scholarship program provides scholarships that cover the entire cost of the Full package China Internship Program. If you are interested in the Get in2 China internships but do not have the necessary funds to cover the cost of the internship, the Get in2 China Scholarship program is a great way to help your dreams come true.

Look Beyond China and India For International Students

With more than 260,000 students from China and India enrolled in the US, many American institutions are over-reliant on these two markets for meeting their international student recruitment goals. With the budget cuts, self-financed students are becoming increasingly important and Chinese undergraduate students are a lucrative and fast-growing segment. However, there are already concerns aboutconcentration of Chinese students in some campuses and India had been showing stagnancy in last few years. This indicates that institutions need to look beyond China and India and cultivate other source countries. 

Extraordinary Value Of Universities

As mentioned in earlier post, United States is home to more than a third of the world's top 400 research universities. But how exactly do universities factor into the wealth, innovation, and economic competitiveness of their host nations?

Worlds Best Universities

With the economy still struggling and Washington mired in political dysfunction, harbingers of American decline are everywhere.

But there is one critical area where the United States holds sway: America is home to nearly one-third of the 400 best research universities in the world, according to the 2011 World University Rankings by Times Higher Education.

Ways to Increase Brain Power

There are easy five tips to increase brain power:-

China Attracts More Students

Amid the global financial crisis and mass unemployment in major economies such as Europe and the United States, China with its strong economy attracts more foreigners to come find jobs.

Figures released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security also showed that 231,700 foreigners were employed in China at the end of 2010, compared with 223,000 in 2009. And the trend is likely to continue in 2011.

Study In Sweden

Study In Sweden, In JonKoping University. Scholarships are Available. There is NO IELTS 

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Alternative English Language Tests for Student Visas

Australia will be able to accept test scores from the alternative English language tests for

Student visa applications for all countries lodged on or after 5 November 2011. In addition to

IELTS test, the acceptable alternative tests are:

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL),

The Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic and

Academic and Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) from Cambridge ESOL for Student visa purposes.

Staff Cut Worries Academics And Students

Plans to cut staff at a number of Australian Universities next year have provoked anger among academics, who have vowed to fight the moves, and prompted students to express concern about larger class sizes.

Have Supervision (or Reflective Practice) in Education

All if not most teachers do not have time to reflect on what bothers them - especially if it is behaviour which is disruptive. Counsellors and Social Workers have Supervision built into their work to deal with the emotional content. What do teachers do about the emotional content of behaviour which makes the job stressful. New head of Ofsted says "Have a sabbatical". In some special schools dealing with Social and Emotional difficulties the staff have eother one to one or group supervision - why not in mainstream education? Is there not the same levels of behaviour related stress there ? Anyone know of a group which networks about supervision in education.

Digital Aid To Improve Student Performance

Technology has brought many changes to education. One of those changes is the ability to record lectures and class activities, digitally “capturing” them. Doing so allows the lectures and activities to be archived and reviewed later on by students and staff.

Six Ideas About Professional Growth For Teachers

Six ideas on changing the conception teachers have about professional growth.

1. Ask teachers what they need. What do they want to learn? What are their interests? Teachers should be asked to help develop their own professional learning objectives, with principals acting as facilitators.

2. Keep working on the right descriptors. We need to develop clearer terminology for the different types of professional growth opportunities for teachers. Professional development, professional learning communities, professional conversation...

3. Get rid of the PD verb “present.” Teachers should not be “presented” new instructional strategies, or listen to “presentations” on new techniques. “The only productive thing listening to a pre-packaged instructional presentation will yield is a rough idea of how the material might be adapted to fit your particular class.” Teachers need to share, discuss, and have the space to use their professional judgment.

4. Invest in teachers as valuable social capital. There is value in professional networking, but are large conferences the best way to grow as a teacher? The common format of professional development should be reconsidered, and activities viewed as “regenerative,” rather than remedial, and thus part of a long-term investment in teacher capacity.

5. Build more personal learning networking opportunities. We should be encouraging all teachers to interact with educational digital networking communities, and provide a time for them to do so during the school day. “It’s the most cost-effective professional learning available, and controlled by the teacher-learner.”

6. Demand that professional organizations give us what we want. “We need to stop thinking of professional development as something done to teachers.” In other words, we need to force unions and disciplinary organizations to focus on real professional learning goals, to provide viable alternatives to district-mandated PD.