THERE used to be three near-certainties about higher education. It was supplied on a national basis, mostly to local students. It was government-regulated. And competition and profit were almost unknown concepts. As most education was publicly funded, the state had a big say in what was taught, to how many and for how long. Insofar as it existed at all, competition was a gentlemanly business; few educators thought much about customers, fewer about profit.
Only one message will have reached most of the public from Sir Andrew Foster's report on further education: that a significant (but unspecified) proportion of colleges are failing and should be taken over by private providers. Not surprisingly for a 113-page assessment of an entire sector, the real verdict is much more complex and generally more sympathetic to the colleges. Sir Andrew blames successive governments for giving further education too wide a brief, confusing employers and students while spreading resources too thinly. He suggests that higher education courses are among the distractions, and he advocates a model closer to the American community college. Sir Andrew Foster
A physician plans to open what will become Britain's first privately financed medical school since the 19th century, promising to train doctors in about half the time it takes at one of the nation'...
Hoping to improve access to higher education, Brazil is giving tax incentives to private universities that provide scholarships to needy students, with added incentives for those who are indigenous or Afro-Brazilian. Such people are far less likely to attend Brazilian universities than white students are.
A new campus rises almost every week, but critics worry that some may be 'junk universities' With its endless expanse of bleak, cinder-block tenements, this city north of the Mexican capital seems an unlikely setting for a business success story.
Maxie Burch knew something was wrong when his campus e-mail account stopped working one recent morning. Then a maintenance man showed up to change the locks on his office door at Grand Canyon University, where the associate professor of Christian studies had taught for eight years. At 3:30 that afternoon, two security guards and a university official arrived to escort him from the campus.
The Career Education Corporation, one of the country's biggest for-profit higher-education companies, disclosed last month that the U.S. Department of Education had put a freeze on approving new applications for additional campuses or acquisitions while it examines the company's financial records and compliance with federal student-aid regulations.
For-profit higher education has continued to grow at a pace that once seemed unsustainable, thanks to an influx of capital, a favorable regulatory climate, and the industry's own nimble reaction to the changing demands of students.
The Education Department of the State of New York is clamping down on a fast-growing for-profit college that specializes in recruiting financially needy students who haven't graduated from high school.
In an apparent first, the for-profit higher-education industry has begun collecting data on the salaries of its college administrators. Last month, at the Career College Association's annual meeting here, it released some of the initial findings -- with some strong caveats.
American InterContinental University has been put on probation for a year by its accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The for-profit university, which is owned by the Career Education Corporation, has bounced in and out of trouble with the accreditor over the last few years.
A watchdog official at the U.S. Education Department last week urged lawmakers to "go slowly" on proposed legislation that would relax some rules that for-profit colleges must follow to participate in federal student-aid programs.
If you had typed "Grantham University" into Yahoo's search engine last week, what would have appeared at the top of the page, above the actual search results, was not a link to Grantham's Web site but an ad for the University of Phoenix -- a "sponsored result," in search-company parlance. Sponsored links to other companies offering online-degree programs also appeared to the right.
TAMPA, Fla. -- For-profit colleges are booming. But a new fight between these upstarts and the education establishment raises a key question: How much are degrees from for-profits really worth?
Thousands of Malawian graduates may soon be stripped of their qualifications as the government moves ahead with a plan to crack down on unregistered learning centres.
Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji, following the significant rise in the number of universities in the country, has given the National Universities Commission (NUC) a two weeks ultimatum to submit its agenda for improved quality assurance of the Nigerian University system.
The emergence of Nigerian private universities is seen as an attempt for marketization. There are concerns over the quality of such universities, their lecturers and students. Rarely producing research, private university owners are charged with being interested only in profit, targeting admissions with high tuition and fees.
The Prime Minister, Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, has cautioned private institutions of higher learning against charging students exaggerated amounts of money.
All students enrolling at private tertiary colleges and sitting for examinations set by the Zimbabwean Higher Education Examinations Council (Hexco) must have at least five "O" levels in terms of a new Government directive.
State agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are reviewing the recruiting or financial-aid practices of two colleges owned by the Career Education Corporation, according to a quarterly report the for-profit higher-education company filed last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Politically and financially, the $15.4-billion for-profit higher-education industry is on a roll. The legislative environment is friendly, enrollments and profits continue to grow, and demographic trends suggest strong opportunities for further expansion and profitability.
Many for-profit colleges do not make their students' job-placement or program-completion rates readily available, or else give out inflated numbers, according to a report by the National Consumer Law Center.
For-profit higher education has continued to grow at a pace that once seemed unsustainable, thanks to an influx of capital, a favorable regulatory climate, and the industry's own nimble reaction to the changing demands of students.
With its endless expanse of bleak, cinder-block tenements, this city north of the Mexican capital seems an unlikely setting for a business success story. But within days of opening a new campus here in 2002, the privately run Technological University of Mexico was mobbed with more than 2,000 applicants. The reason: It offered a mix of practical, job-oriented education and brand recognition, at a price residents could afford.
Since 1989, Mongolian higher education has undergone a phenomenal privatization. Part of this involves private finance and governance for the public institutions. The other part involves an extraordinary proliferation of private institutions, to over 200 in just a decade. Prior to 1989 higher education consisted of only a handful of institutions, all public. Much of the impetus for the private proliferation comes from the overall marketization of the economy as well as the increased proportion of secondary-school graduates who head to higher education. Typical private institutions are small and poorly funded.
In a judgment that could limit access to professional education, India's Supreme Court ruled last month that colleges that do not receive government aid are not required to use state admission quotas for students from minority groups and lower castes.
India's Supreme Court quashed a provision of a state law this month that allowed the establishment of private universities in the State of Chhattisgarh, in central India. The court called the three-year-old provision "unconstitutional" and canceled the registrations of all 108 private universities in the state, Some 20,000 students are enrolled in the institutions.
In an apparent first, the for-profit higher-education industry has begun collecting data on the salaries of its college administrators. Last month, at the Career College Association's annual meeting here, it released some of the initial findings -- with some strong caveats.
Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan announced not to force private universities and colleges to change names after opposition lawmakers threatened to freeze a huge portion of the ministry's budget. The ministry had sent a letter to all universities and colleges with the words "China," "Chinese" or "Chunghwa" (Chinese) in their names and asked them to change their names to underscore Taiwan's identity and avoid confusion with mainland China following Taiwan's executive cabinet plan of changing the names of all of the nation's overseas missions and state-owned enterprises before the Dec. 11 legislative elections, which raised sharp criticisms from legislators of the opposition party.
Three Shanghai private colleges will be allowed to admit students without national college entrance exam score requirements this year, marking a major change in the city's decades-old higher education admission system.
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 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.
In a judgment that could limit access to professional education, India's Supreme Court ruled last month that colleges that do not receive government aid are not required to use state admission quotas for students from minority groups and lower castes.
In a setback to the Centre's proposed legislation for regulating admissions to and fee structures in private professional educational institutions, which also provides for reservation, a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Friday ruled out quotas in them.
Member of Punjab Assembly and standing committee S&GAD; Mrs. Rabia Aliya Khan has stressed the need of more effective contribution of the private sector in the promotion of education in the country.