Shengda College in central China has a diverse curriculum, foreign faculty members to teach English and a manicured campus, where weeping willows shade a recreational lake.
Many Japanese private institutions, including half the junior colleges (which cater heavily to women), have lost money in the last two years. Causes include decreasing overall enrollments stemming from a falling birth rate, economic recession, and an increase in the number of new institutions. Some of the troubled private institutions have had to shut down. Others pursue policy to avoid this fate. Cost cutting falls heavily on staff. Measures to make institutions more attractive often center on attracting nontraditional students--businesspeople, homemakers, and retirees.
Japanese courts in major cities have issued rulings on prepaid tuition fees at private higher education institutions: to be returned or not. Referring to several elite and other private institutions, the Tokyo District Court sentenced them to return the prepaid tuition to students who did not enroll, though they had been admitted.
A Japanese university has filed for bankruptcy protection, citing a decline in its enrollment. The case, the first of its kind, could mark the start of a trend in Japan, where the birthrate -- and, along with it, the pool of college-age students -- has steadily shrunk for more than a decade.
The owner of a private Japanese university was arrested this month and charged with making off with millions of dollars in government subsidies while his institution ran up such huge debts that it was reportedly close to shutting down.
The operators of Kwansei Gakuin University and Seiwa College, both in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, plan to merge in spring 2008, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Wednesday.
A foundation hopes to open a university in North Korea in 2009. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology University would be foreign funded, with one major contribution and other donations. The project has been delayed due to severe international tensions.
The growth of Singapore's private education may face interruption as complaints have increased over the past few years. For instance, a private higher education institution has been sued for misleading advertisement of a program and breaking promises to students, and even a widely-recognized private institute has been castigated. A fear is that improper behavior undermines Singapore's aspirations to be an international education hub.
South Korea's ministry of education has ordered three private institutions to turn over $15.3-million and dismiss 68 professors and officials due to bribery, and mishandling of funds. The ministry has withheld approval for one board of trustees and replaced another's.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development will launch a special task force to investigate admission irregularities at private universities in the wake of a bribery scandal involving Yonsei University.
Private schools still dominate university offers in Victoria despite the Gillard government's massive increase in places, with 85 per cent of applicants securing an offer compared with 71 per cent for government schools.
The American Association of University Professors has issued an open letter expressing "growing concern" about academic and personal freedoms at a controversial new liberal-arts campus in Singapore founded jointly by Yale University and the National University of Singapore. It is yet another demonstration of the unease among many academics with American universities' global ambitions.
Glion Institute of Higher Education, one of the world’s top three institutions of higher education for an international career in hospitality management, announced today that it is opening its first branch campus in London. The new campus expands the reach of Glion’s Swiss hospitality education programmes to students and industry leaders in the U.K. Glion is a member of Laureate International Universities, a global network of more than 60 accredited campus-based and online institutions of higher education serving more than 740,000 students in 29 countries.
The debate about academic freedom at the new Yale-National University of Singapore (NUS) liberal arts college has continued unabated, with Singaporean opposition politicians and American university professors adding their voices to the barrage of criticism of the venture.
Rice University’s first dual-degree doctoral program with the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), located in Brazil, was approved by the Faculty Senate on Nov. 14.
In late August, Duke University received approval from the Chinese government to start a branch campus in Kunshan, China. The controversial venture has caused a number of critics to question Duke’s rationale, as well as the rationale of other prominent American universities that have tried similar operations, with limited success.
The Afghan government is actively planning for the country's first private university. The American University of Afghanistan is to be American-style, with English-language instruction and mainly American professors. It is to open as an undergraduate institution, with graduate programs in the future. The Afghan Ministry of Higher Education has contracted an American organization for expertise on foreign institution building and is obtaining U.S. government funds. There will be a 10-month feasibility study from this summer, with the university slated to open shortly thereafter.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has partnered with the Afghan Government and other private donors to establish the private American University of Afghanistan set to open in 2006. Targeting 1,100 undergraduates from Afghanistan and neighboring countries, the university will offer programs in management, liberal arts, and communications, all taught in English. Additionally, President Karzai has emphasized that educational development is crucial to national development.