MARKET NEWS AND MEDIA REVIEW BULLETIN: 13TH AUGUST – 29TH AUGUST 2014 Compiled by Jamie Aston Contents Summary Section - UK - USA and Canada - Australia and New Zealand - Asia - International Full Articles - UK - USA and Canada - Australia and New Zealand - Asia - International Page 2 of 58 Summary Section UK Back to top Top universities urge scrapping of free-for-all student recruitment plan – The Guardian – 7th August The Russell Group of leading universities has called on the government to drop plans for a free-for-all in undergraduate recruitment next year, following publication of a report that suggests the policy could have disastrous financial consequences. Competing for the university vote – BBC – 29th August Like a monster re-awakening from a deep freeze, the debate about tuition fees in England and the future of universities seems to be coming back to life. International and postgrad fee survey, 2014 – Times Higher Education – 21st August You could think of the £9,000 cap on undergraduate tuition fees in England as a dam holding back universities from charging UK undergraduates even larger amounts. If you did, you would see a structure that is coming under more pressure than ever before – and some vice- chancellors are hoping that it will burst before long. Public against cutting back on overseas students, poll finds – Times Higher Education – 25th August An ICM poll for thinktank British Future and Universities UK finds that 59 per cent of the public believe the government should not cut international student numbers, even if that limits the government’s ability to cut immigration numbers overall. Only 22 per cent took the opposing view, the report says. Lord Heseltine: cut foreign students from figures to lower net migration – The Guardian – 25th August Page 3 of 58 Michael Heseltine, the former Conservative deputy prime minister, has backed calls for foreign students to be excluded from the government's target to cut net migration. USA and Canada Back to top Urban Geography of Foreign Students – Inside Higher Ed – 29th August Seoul is the largest city of origin for international students coming to the United States and China, of course, the largest source country. The New York City metro area is the top destination for international students, but Ithaca, home to Cornell University, has the highest concentration of international students approved for F-1 visas relative to the overall student population. Metro areas with the fastest increases in F-1 students pursuing bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in recent years include Corvallis, Ore., home to Oregon State University; Dayton, Ohio, home to Wright State University; Tuscaloosa, Ala., home to the University of Alabama; Louisville, Ky., home to the University of Louisville; and Eugene, Ore., home to the University of Oregon. Can universities use data to fix what ails the lecture? – University World News – 15th August John R Barker paces the front of the lecture hall, gesturing at slides with a laser pointer and explaining to a room full of undergraduates how scientists use data to make predictions about global climate change. At the moment Barker, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Michigan, is facing a climate crisis of his own: the atmosphere in this lecture hall is dead. Surge of Indian Grad Students – Inside Higher Ed – 21st August Foreign applications to U.S. graduate schools and initial admission offers to international students continue to increase, driven by a surge of interest from India and despite a slight drop in applications from China, according to a new survey on international graduate admissions from the Council of Graduate Schools. International student applications increased by 10 percent at American graduate schools this year – the ninth consecutive year of growth – while initial admission offers rose by 9 percent, marking the fourth straight year of 9 percent increases. Australia and New Zealand Back to top Page 4 of 58 Foreign accounting students put in ‘too hard’ basket – Financial Review – 13th August Hiring international accounting graduates on temporary visas is in the “too hard” basket for many local businesses, says a veteran education agent. But he adds that foreigners also have an obligation to improve their English skills and get out of their comfort zone to secure jobs, rather than seek the security of migrant communities. Call for response to Chaney as overseas student numbers rebound – The Australian – 13th August The international education •industry has rebounded with more than 422,000 overseas students enrolled in a course of study in the year to June. New Zealand becoming popular with Indian students – IANS Live – 23rd August Mumbai, Aug 23 (IANS) New Zealand has emerged as a popular destination for Indian students, the country's high commissioner to India has said. Controversial higher education reforms in doubt – University World News – 22nd August In a universally unpopular budget last May, Australia’s deeply conservative government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced savage cuts to federal spending on universities, higher fees for students and a revised loans system that would have imposed increased costs on students. Asia Back to top More international schools and pupils in the UAE than anywhere else, report says – The National – 12th August The UAE has more international schools and pupils than any country in the world. The business generates US$2.5 billion a year in fees, more than Dh9bn, and accounts for 7 per cent of global tuition-fee income. Page 5 of 58 US tops Shanghai university rankings, China on rise – University World News – 15th August American universities have again outranked more than 1,250 other higher education institutions around the world in the annual Shanghai Jiao Tong listing of the global top 500 universities. And for the 12th year running, Harvard was placed number one. International Back to top Why tuition fees for international students won’t work – University World News – 15th August For a few years now there has been debate about setting tuition fees for international degree students in Finland. Developments concerning the ongoing tuition fee trial for non-European Union and European Economic Area students (2010-14) have been reported by University World News a couple of times. Pilot global quality platform for ‘non-traditional’ HE – University World News – 16th August A global quality platform to review non-institutional education providers is to be piloted by America’s Council for Higher Education Accreditation and its International Quality Group. The platform is aimed at protecting students and is a response to the explosion of non-traditional provision – including MOOCs – and increasingly international higher education. Are International Students Satisfied? – Inside Higher Ed – 20th August An analysis of satisfaction surveys from 60,000 international students at 48 universities in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia reveals that students are, by and large, satisfied, but that satisfaction levels vary by country of origin and that large proportions of undergraduate international students from a single country can inhibit integration. Page 6 of 58 Full Articles UK Back to top Top universities urge scrapping of free-for-all student recruitment plan By Richard Adams – The Guardian – 7th August http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/aug/07/russell-group-universities-scrap-free- for-all-undergraduate-recruitment The Russell Group of leading universities has called on the government to drop plans for a free-for-all in undergraduate recruitment next year, following publication of a report that suggests the policy could have disastrous financial consequences. Although the government expects undergraduate enrolments to rise in 2015 once existing caps on student recruitment are removed, the report said evidence from the same policy in Australia saw student numbers balloon well beyond official forecasts, forcing the government there to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on higher education. "One of the things no one knows with absolute certainty is how many students will roll up when the number caps come off," said Hillman, a former special advisor to David Willetts as higher education minister and director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, which compiled the report. "It would be naive to think the policy will be simple to roll out, especially if higher education suffers further cuts after the 2015 election," Hillman warned. The change – announced by chancellor George Osborne in the autumn statement – allows universities in England to recruit as many students as they want from September 2015. Osborne said the expansion would be funded by selling off student loans – but that policy has recently come into question, with business secretary Vince Cable saying the sale would not go ahead. Wendy Piatt, director-general of the Russell Group of universities – which represents research-intensive universities such as Oxford and Manchester – said the HEPI report on Australia's experience raised "serious concerns" about the ending of firm controls on student numbers. Page 7 of 58 "Now that the government no longer intends to use the sale of the student loan book to fund the uncapping of student numbers in England, we would urge it to abandon the policy or at least consider much more robust ways of controlling costs and quality," Piatt said. "We would be extremely concerned if the substantial funds required to pay for additional students were taken from the already very stretched budget for research and higher education. It would be very worrying if this policy leads to less funding per student. Good teaching requires proper levels of investment." While Australia spent years preparing the groundwork for open enrolments in its universities, the English approach "was put together quickly and remains fuzzy," according to Hillman, including the Treasury's forecast of an additional 60,000 students a year. "It's as good a guess as anyone else's guess – but it is a finger in the air.