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  4. Mar2017

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    The Uganda National Council of Higher Education says it is being frustrated by the tendency of some private universities to seek remedy from the courts rather than engage with the regulator in the interests of preserving quality. The National Council of Higher Education, or NCHE, Executive Director Professor John Opuda-Asibo told University World News that some private universities seek to use "power plays", delaying tactics and tend to "politicise" matters instead of holding talks directly with the regulator to rectify faults. He said with increased engagement between NCHE and universities, it would be possible to adhere to the rules agreed in order to maintain academic quality as well as separate the interests of management from the interests of private owners. A recent example of institutions turning to the courts is that of Busoga University, a private institution founded by the Church of Uganda under the Busoga Diocese in eastern Uganda. Fraudulent graduations In December the NCHE revoked the provisional education licence held by Busoga University. Last month, the latter approached the Constitutional Court seeking orders to reverse the revocation. The NCHE clamped down on the university after investigations into fraudulent graduations. According to media reports, the university fraudulently graduated 1,000 students after only five months of study. Some of these were Nigerians, while the majority were South Sudanese government officials and army generals. It was claimed that some of the students did not meet entry requirements and were admitted under unclear circumstances and that some were enrolled in unaccredited courses. The students, eager to keep their jobs backed by academic qualifications, allegedly each paid US$1,000 dollars to get their degrees after five months, instead of paying the usual US$300 per semester. The students were transferred from Star University College in Juba, South Sudan, which is affiliated to Busoga University. Another 70 students from Nigeria who were stud
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
      Mar2017UgandaEnglishlobbypolitics
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      The Philippines Senate has approved a landmark bill to provide free tuition for students in all state universities and colleges. The Free Higher Education for All Act was passed unanimously on Monday by a vote of 18-0. The bill establishes an initial tuition subsidy fund of PHP15 billion (US$298 million) administered by the Commission on Higher Education or CHED, the country’s higher education governing body. It also provides financial assistance to students in private and vocational institutions. More than 1.6 million students currently enrolled in one of the 112 state institutions will be covered by the fund. “This bill is for the Filipino youth who are struggling to finish their college education as well as their parents who are working hard to pay for the expenses of their schooling,” said Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino, the bill’s author. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, a co-sponsor of the bill, also lauded the move, the final stage in the bill’s passage through parliament. “This is a collective victory for those of us who believe that equitable access to education at all levels is the foundation upon which we may build a just and prosperous future for our country,” he said in a statement. The passage of the bill comes nearly three months after Congress allocated PHP8.3 billion (US$165 million) under the 2017 national budget to provide free tuition for students in state universities and colleges for the upcoming academic year, and means that free tuition becomes law rather than depending on the yearly budget. Gatchalian first tabled free tuition legislation in July 2015 when he was a member of the House of Representatives, or lower house, but the bill did not succeed in its passage through the Philippines parliament. While acknowledging last year’s budgetary increase was “a promising start”, he continued to push for a bill to “make the free tuition policy in state universities and colleges a permanent reality”. ‘Unintended consequences’ The Kabataan Partylist, a youth party in the House of Repr
      6 years ago by @prophe
       
        PhilippinesMar2017Free_tuitionEnglish
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        More than 150,000 students qualify for university admission annually, but only 27,000 can be accommodated in state-run universities, State Minister of Higher Education Mohan Lal Grero said. He said others, numbering around 130,000 were left out and some of them opted for vocational education and related areas in the governmental institutions. The Minister was addressing a seminar organised by the Agriculture Faculty of the Peradeniya University, under the theme ‘Peradeniya University and Sri Lanka Food Industry-the inter relationship’ as part of its diamond jubilee commemoration of the University at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Institute, Colombo. That was the reason the government had decided to support private higher education sector, Grero said. The government would introduce a loan scheme for students who had financial problems to enrol in higher education institutes in Sri Lanka. "If we have quality higher educational institutions within the country foreign exchange can be saved," Grero said. The minister said they would also focus on further developing the state education sector. The government was planning to increase state university intake by 15% by 2020. According to its policy the main target was to increase the intake up to 50,000 students by 2020, Grero said.
        6 years ago by @prophe
         
          Mar2017SriLankaEnglishfavorprivateallow
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          After leaving Somalia at the height of the civil war to work in universities in Italy and Canada, Professor Mohamed Ahmed Jimale returned to the ravaged Somalian capital of Mogadishu in 2012 with the idea of reviving the Somali National University, or SNU, where he had graduated in 1983 and taught as a lecturer in the faculty of veterinary sciences. He was approved as rector by the new central government in 2013 and the university opened in 2014 with six faculties. In this interview, Jimale speaks about the state of higher education in Somalia and the challenge of running a university in what is still an unstable and often hostile environment, and about his hopes of helping poorer Somalis to attain the kind of education that launched his own career. UWN: What does it take to run such a university? MAJ: It’s not easy at times. Finding students is difficult, as is finding the right calibre of academic and support staff. Our university is tuition-free, therefore whoever gets admission here must earn it first by passing their high school exams and our pre-admission exams, which many students fail. At the level of academic staff, the higher education labour sector in Somalia is still young and it is tricky getting the right personnel to run the university. Another challenge is that we depend on the government for funding, which is not constant or predictable due to other competing national budget priorities. There are those who hold a myth that a tuition-free government university like ours is the preserve of high-ranking government officials and their children or you have to be influential or come from powerful families to get admission. We have had to battle with and demystify [this], making it clear that the university is open to all Somalis. The only ticket required is good grades. The final challenge is how to bring back our seven campuses with limited resources and cater for swelling numbers. UWN: What kind of assistance have you received from foreign universities? MAJ: One of the major problems we
          6 years ago by @prophe
           
            Mar2017SomaliaEnglish
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            President Donald Trump´s threat to deport millions of illegal immigrants – half of them Mexicans – has triggered an unprecedented campaign by the Mexican government and universities. A raft of measures announced in recent weeks seek to reincorporate returning migrants into the country´s education system and labour force while defending those who wish to remain in the United States. Trump has vowed to deport as many as three million illegal immigrants, with those with criminal records at the front of the queue. However, there is growing fear among the hundreds of thousands of university students and workers who are beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA programme – which grants temporary legal status to certain immigrants who arrived as minors – following the detention of several DACA holders in recent weeks. A recent series of menacing tweets by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, suggesting that even DACA holders could be subject to deportation, has sparked further alarm. Mexicans represent roughly 5.8 million of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. They include an estimated 400,000 Mexicans known as Dreamers, for the proposed federal Dream Act that sought to provide legal status for young immigrants. Many have little or no support system in Mexico and some don´t even speak Spanish. In response, the Mexican government is seeking to ease the repatriation process for hundreds of thousands of migrants, particularly students. New legislation On 17 March, the Mexican Congress approved new legislation that streamlines the application process to schools and universities for returning migrants. The changes to the federal Education Law empower private colleges to revalidate transcripts from other Mexican or foreign institutions. Even more significant, students who studied abroad no longer need to present an apostille – a diplomatic notarised seal – along with their transcripts, a process that can take weeks and cost hundreds of dollars. The feder
            6 years ago by @prophe
             
              Mar2017MexicoDonald_TrumpEnglishreturn
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              The Rwandan Ministry of Education has temporarily suspended the operations of four universities and courses in six other universities as part of a strategy to deal with sub-standard educational offerings. The move follows recommendations of an audit report on the quality of education in the higher learning institutions in the country, the findings of which indicated that the institutions in question had either inadequate staff or teaching facilities. These institutions have been given six months to address the inadequacies and comply with the higher education requirements before they are allowed to resume normal operations. Rwanda has 35 universities, two of which are public (the University of Rwanda and the Institute of Legal Practice and Development) and 33 of which are private. ‘Irregularities’ A total of 16 universities, including those affected by suspensions, were issued with letters asking them to correct “irregularities” and comply with the ministry’s requirements. Among those universities which have been told to suspend courses are two international universities: the Open University of Tanzania and the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology of Kenya. The audit was carried out in all higher education institutions – public and private – in October last year by international external auditors. The audit report is yet to be made public. The four suspended universities are Rusizi International University, Sinhgad Technical Education Society-Rwanda, Mahatma Gandhi University and Nile Source Polytechnic of Applied Arts in Huye district. Suspension of courses The six other universities which have been told to suspend undergraduate courses include the University of Technology and Arts of Byumba, the Open University of Tanzania, the University of Gitwe, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Institut Catholique de Kabgayi and Institut d’Enseignement Superieur de Ruhengeri. Some of the suspended courses include medicine and surgery, science in medical laboratory and te
              6 years ago by @prophe
               
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                The vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi has asked the government to review the budgetary allocation to his university after the treasury failed to meet public universities’ requisitions for the forthcoming fiscal year. The total allocation to all public universities, which is US$200 million less than the amount requested, has dashed the hopes of several institutions facing a crippling cash crunch. The government has allocated US$982 million to her public universities for the 2017-18 financial year in the budget to be unveiled in parliament on 30 March. University administrators say the allocation is over US$200 million lower than the amount they had requested for the period. At US$721 million, however, the amount is 36% higher than the allocation in the current financial year. The research and innovation kitty for public universities has been set at US$42 million, up from US$37 million – a 13% increase. However, the lower-than-expected allocation means the universities themselves will have to effect budget cuts at a time when they are facing a series of challenges. Public universities agreed last week to increase salaries for lecturers by 17.5% after a 54-day strike that paralysed the sector. The agreed increase means universities will have to seek more funds to finance the increment. Professor Peter Mbithi has asked parliament to reconsider a budget cut of US$17 million slapped on the University of Nairobi. “We acknowledge that we have been facing financial challenges like any other public entity due to declining budgetary support. We have asked parliament to review the allocation,” Mbithi told reporters two weeks ago. New funding model Defending the budget cuts to universities, treasury said they were based on the new financing model known as the differentiated unit cost model, in terms of which state funds are allocated on the basis of the courses being taught at specific universities. Under the new policy, subsidies for science courses are relatively higher than those for arts. Data shows th
                6 years ago by @prophe
                 
                  KenyaMar2017Englishbudget_cuttuition_risegrowth_private
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                  Generally, prestigious private universities with hundreds of students don't get shut down over fairly minor, six-month-old technical issues that have since been resolved. But that is precisely the predicament facing the European University at Saint Petersburg, a bastion of Western liberal arts, which has been ordered closed by a district court after a furious conservative assault against it, writes Fred Weir for The Christian Science Monitor. The university’s problems began last June, when an ultra-conservative lawmaker from Saint Petersburg, Vitaly Milonov, lodged an official complaint against it, which under Russian law requires an official investigation to be launched. Milonov is a key author of Russia's "anti-gay propaganda" law. Reached by telephone, Milonov, now a deputy of the State Duma, insisted that he merely passed along complaints made to him by citizens, including a letter he allegedly received from five students of the university. The students "raised a bunch of issues about the quality and services of the school", he said. "I can't remember most of them, but one was the teaching of gender studies at the school. I personally find that disgusting; it’s fake studies, and it may well be illegal," he said. "But I'm not qualified to judge, so I handed it on to the proper authorities."
                  6 years ago by @prophe
                   
                    Mar2017RussiaclosureprivateEnglish
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                    The House of Representatives has called on the National Universities Commission to regulate the role of visiting lecturers in Nigerian universities. This followed a motion on Wednesday sponsored by Abbas Tajudeen (Kaduna APC). Arguing the motion, Mr. Tajudeen stated that many universities, especially state-owned and private ones, rely too much on the services of either visiting or sabbatical lecturers. “This reliance poses a great challenge to quality of services rendered by the lecturers with regards to mentoring, research, publication of journals and the general academic wellbeing in the universities,” he said. Mr. Tajudeen said he was concerned that the situation affects the quality of education being provided owing to the fact that lecturers usually abandon their duties in their places of primary employment and spread their services thinly across other universities that they visit. “The activities of those visiting lecturers are not regulated by any supervisory or academic body, either to ensure compliance with their terms of engagement or limit the number of commitments they engage in to ensure quality education in Nigeria,” the lawmaker added. Contributing to the debate, Nicholas Ossai (Delta-PDP) however expressed a contrary view, stating that visiting lectureship is a universal practice and that lecturers use the medium to develop themselves and the students. “It does not make sense for us to prohibit what is acceptable internationally,” Mr. Ossai said. But when the motion was put to vote, it was accepted by the majority of the house. The speaker thus mandated the committee on Tertiary Education and Services to interface with the National Universities Commission and other relevant agencies concerned with tertiary education with a view to formulating policies to aid the regulation and supervision of the practice of visiting lectureship in Nigeria and report back within eight weeks for further legislative action.
                    6 years ago by @prophe
                     
                      Mar2017EnglishNigeriavisiting_lecturer
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                      An attack on African students in India this week has caused an uproar among students in the country and has sparked an investigation by India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who called the attack “deplorable”, while students said if the authorities failed to curb attacks, India’s aim to be an international higher education destination would be affected. Four students from Nigeria, and a Kenyan woman, were attacked by crowds on 27 March in a shopping mall in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi, which came to light when the incident recorded on a mobile phone by shoppers was circulated on social media. Most of those who came under attack were said to be students at the private Noida International University. One of the victims told local media he had been attacked with rods, bricks and knives and that no one had helped him. Enduranca Amalawa told journalists: "We kept crying for help, but no one came, not even the security marshals. I was running but they followed me and attacked me." Police say up to 600 people were involved in the mob violence, reportedly after an Indian student died of a drug overdose and African students were wrongly linked to the supply of drugs. The incident happened during a candle-lit march for the deceased boy. Police reviewing CCTV footage of the violence say they have identified 44 people involved in the attack and so far have arrested five of them. The Kenyan woman, who is still unnamed, had reportedly been dragged out of a taxi by the mob. The Association of African Students in India or AASI posted images on its Facebook page of the bandaged students in hospital. It said: “Considering the situation, these young men were amazingly calm and sensible.” “We are tired of the appeasement and promises made by the Indian government and therefore will be taking stringent actions,” said AASI President Samuel Jack this week. These could include protest marches. Investigation Minister Swaraj said on Twitter that Yogi Adityanath, the newly-installed chief minister of Uttar Pradesh
                      6 years ago by @prophe
                       
                        Mar2017attackAfricaIndiaEnglish
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                        The Trump administration’s plan to cut billions of dollars in research spending by eliminating indirect cost reimbursements would devastate university science, especially at public institutions, experts warned. [This is an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, America’s leading higher education publication. It is presented here under an agreement with University World News.] The US secretary for health and human services, Tom Price, told Congress this week that the idea is to save taxpayers money while giving them the same amount of research activity. Indirect cost payments are funds spent on "something other than the research that’s being done," Dr Price told a House of Representatives subcommittee on health appropriations on Wednesday. But university representatives made clear on Thursday that it simply does not work that way. Indirect costs reflect the legitimate expenses of providing scientists with labs and complying with a host of essential services that somehow will still need to be paid, the representatives said. Under current law, a researcher who receives a federal grant to conduct research cannot simply be billed by his or her university for those costs, said Tobin L Smith, vice president for policy at the Association of American Universities, which represents major research institutions. And universities absolutely won't force students to cover the difference, Smith said. "The reality is we don't have other revenue sources to pay for those things, because let's face it, we are not going to rob tuition to pay for those costs," he said. "It just is not going to happen." It's not clear what universities would do if Congress actually accepted the administration's proposal to end indirect cost payments, said David Kennedy, director of costing policy and studies at the Council on Governmental Relations, another association of research universities and affiliated medical centres. State institutions probably would suffer first and hardest, Kennedy said, because they would have virtually no ab
                        6 years ago by @prophe
                         
                          Mar2017EnglishDonald_TrumpUSAresearch_grant
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                          Arizona Summit Law school, a troubled for-profit institution owned by the InfiLaw System, has been placed on probation by its accrediting body, the American Bar Association. The association’s move was announced on Monday and followed Arizona Summit’s affiliation with Bethune-Cookman University, a nonprofit historically black college in Daytona Beach, Fla. Arizona Summit Law in Phoenix is the second school owned by InfiLaw to be placed on probation for failing to meet A.B.A. accreditation standards. Sterling Partners, a private equity firm in Chicago and Baltimore, is an investor. The first, Charlotte School of Law in Charlotte, N.C., lost its eligibility for federal student aid in January as a result of the probation. Its enrollment has declined sharply, and the school has said it is trying to restart federal aid and is exploring affiliation with a nonprofit college in a Northeastern state. At Arizona Summit, the bar association found that admissions practices, academic programs, and graduation and bar exam passage rates were below par. These deficiencies, according to a statement by the A.B.A. Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, “have resulted in the law school now being in a position where only immediate and substantial action can bring about a sufficient change to put the law school on a realistic path to being in compliance within the time allowed” by the bar association’s rules. Only 24.6 percent of Arizona Summit graduates who took the Arizona state bar exam for the first time in July 2016 passed, an exceptionally low rate. Charlotte School of Law reported nearly the same passage rate for its graduates who took the North Carolina bar exam last month. The bar association said that because the situation at Arizona Summit was critical and urgent, it could have hearings this year to consider any additional remedial action or sanctions “up to and including withdrawal of the law school’s approval.” The probation decision was made by the bar association’s Council of the Section of Legal E
                          6 years ago by @prophe
                           
                            Mar2017for-profitbanaccreditationUSALaw
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                            Remember when candidate Trump promised to make college affordable for everyone? Yeah, that’s not happening.  Instead, Trump is turning to the notorious corporateers who have been pouring McDiplomas on the nation’s steaming trillion-dollar student debt pyre to shake up higher education. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s controversial pick for a special assistant—for-profit college corporate lawyer Robert Eitel, may be a portent. As counsel for Bridgepoint, the parent company of the now-tainted brands of Ashford University and University of the Rockies, was forced by the Obama administration last year to refund $24 million in tuition and debt costs to students, plus civil damages, after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that its heavy marketing scheme for its online programs, and “deceived its students into taking out loans that cost more than advertised.” Bridgepoint is just one player in a sector of for-profit institutions that are known for exploiting millions in federal loans and grants, providing substandard academics and granting worthless diplomas. While many companies were reined in by regulators under Obama, the industry as a whole has survived, and is now poised for revival under Trump. In fact, even those companies penalized for defrauding students have not been held fully accountable over federal student debts; Bridgepoint’s sanction, for example, did not encompass federal loans, even though graduates are typically chained to about $33,000 in taxpayer-subsidized debt. But the for-profit college companies hobbled by financial crisis under Obama might see a major resurrection under Trump’s and DeVos’s deregulatory agenda. One tactic may be for belly-up for-profits to reinvent themselves as nonprofits, in order to skirt future regulations and wriggle out of liability for financial abuses. The Corinthian college chain, for example, following bankruptcy, was placed under the control of a nominal “nonprofit” called Zenith (which was later exposed for having compromising financial entangle
                            6 years ago by @prophe
                             
                              Donald_TrumpUSAMar2017for-profitrisegrowth
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                              Ratings agency dings small university for spending big after a new president took over. As focus shifts to a budget deficit, question becomes whether Drew can cut spending while growing enrollment. MaryAnn Baenninger inherited a budget deficit when she came to Drew University in the summer of 2014. The next year, the small private university’s deficit grew. And that was by choice. Drew spent more as Baenninger sought to put money into the university’s campus, students and employees. The university issued its first raises in about five years. It hired a respected enrollment guru and increased its financial aid spending. It renovated the dining hall. The spending was a change for Drew, a pricey university to the west of New York City in Madison, N.J., which had been preparing for budget cuts following several years of dropping enrollment before Baenninger arrived. But, according to Baenninger and members of her administration, the spending helped to keep talented staff and faculty members from leaving, improve student retention and increase applications from prospective students. “We were losing kids on the food, for God’s sake,” Baenninger said. “Our salaries were going downhill. Now they’re going up.” Recently, however, the spotlight has shifted to Drew’s deteriorating financial situation. Moody’s Investors Service drove home that point this month by downgrading Drew’s bonds for the second time in 15 months. Moody’s dropped one series of bonds from Ba3 to B2 and two others from Ba3 to B3, sinking them farther into junk territory and signifying that they are highly speculative. Moody’s pointed to operating deficits that are expected to last longer than previously projected, along with a competitive student market constraining possibilities for short-term revenue growth. It said Drew has no more unrestricted liquidity left and would have to rely on loans and distributions from temporarily restricted endowment assets for working capital. Moody’s also assigned a negative rating outlook. “The negative outlook reflect
                              6 years ago by @prophe
                               
                                Mar2017USAEnglishdeficitbudget_cutNY
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                                The Bihar Legislative Council today passed seven bills including the Bihar Private University (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which paved way for running private universities from rented premises in the state. State Education minister Ashok Choudhary introduced the bill proposing to allow private universities to function from rented premises with a built up area of 5,000 sqm up to two years till construction of permanent infrastructure. Countering BJP member Vinod Narayan Jha's assertion that not a single university has shown interest in opening its campus in Bihar, Choudhary said the state government has received 14 proposals for setting up universities. Out of them, the government has set up a committee to look into the Detailed Project Report of 12 proposals. Three universities would start running their courses soon and the government has decided to allow such universities to run their academic activities from rented accommodation for two years if they fulfil all requisite criteria, he said. "Our aim is to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in universities. So, we opened the door for private institutions. At present, the state's GER is 13.9 per cent against the national average of 24 per cent. The government intends to push that up to 30 per cent by 2020," he said. State Parliamentary Affairs minister Shrawan Kumar introduced the Bihar State Legislature (Members' salaries, allowances and pension) (amendment) Bill, 2017 which was passed by the legislative Assembly yesterday. An amendment has been proposed in the preamble of the State Legislature (Members' salaries, allowances and pension) (Amendment) Act to incorporate provision of pension for retired members of the bicameral state legislature. The House passed Bihar Farmers and Rural Areas Development Agency (Repeal) Bill, 2017, the Patna University (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Bihar State University (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Bihar Appropriation Excess Expenditure Bill, 2017. The Legislative Council also passed the Bihar Protection of Interest of Dep
                                6 years ago by @prophe
                                 
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                                  The financial pressure on university students has been growing across the U.S. for several decades. At the national level, inflation-adjusted tuition and fees at a public four-year university rose 270 percent from 1977 to 2017, while the federal minimum wage fell by 24 percent. While standards of living generally rose over those 40 years, the financial pressure on university students sharply accelerated. Earlier generations were more fortunate. Summer work plus part-time work no longer enable graduation debt-free. From 2001 to 2017, tuition and fees for undergraduates at the University of Montana are up 103 percent with the CPI rising 39 percent. In 2001, a student working 40 hours for 12 weeks at the Montana minimum wage could cover 81 percent of annual tuition and fees. By 2017, even with a rise of 58 percent in the minimum wage, such summer work covered less than 63 percent. The price of textbooks is up 150 percent in the same period. Data from 2014 show 67 percent of Montana graduates with debt averaging $26,946. Whereas students may be paying their share, the state is not. Students pay more and get less. Unrestricted revenue (tuition, fees, state allocations) per full-time-equivalent student in the Montana university system in 2015 was $10,783 – second-lowest nationally. The national average was $2,100 higher, with neighboring states Idaho, North Dakota and Wyoming higher by $1,069, $3,671 and $9,550, respectively. The percentage of the total covered by student tuition in Montana was significantly higher than in neighboring states. Moreover, legislatures in 13 states with lower median household incomes (including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma and North Carolina) allocated substantially more state funds per FTE than Montana’s legislature. Montana is winning the race to the bottom. University funding in Montana lags a national field that is itself lagging. If other state university systems were healthy it would be less of a problem. Unfortunately, public hi
                                  6 years ago by @prophe
                                   
                                    Mar2017USAEnglishthreat
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                                    The Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, could be close down. CEU was founded in 1991 and has 1,440 students from 117 countries, many of whom on a scholarship, and has operated in Hungary for 25 years. Many of the social science degrees offered at the CEU rank among the world’s top 50-100, while it is also one of the leading research institutions in Hungary. The management of the private university says that the Victor Orban administration has introduced legislation that makes its operation impossible. The law proposed by the Orban government suggests that any foreign University must be subject to an intergovernmental agreement and can only operate in Hungary if it has a campus in the country of origin. CEU is registered with New York State but does not have a campus in the United States. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Orban view George Soros as a political foe. Even if setting up a campus in the United States within a year would be possible, an intergovernmental agreement to ensure the continued operation of the CEU would be impossible. Speaking to Bloomberg on Wednesday, the President of CEU, Professor Michael Ignatieff, made clear that “the bill is a threat to our continued existence in Hungary.” However, the Education Secretary Laszlo Palkovics says the proposed legislation will be applied to 28 foreign universities operating in Hungary and is not targeting the CEU alone. “This is not an anti-CEU investigation and not against Mr. Soros,” Mr. Paklovics told the BBC.
                                    6 years ago by @prophe
                                     
                                      Mar2017EnglishHungaryBudapestclosurepolitics
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                                      The Minister of State-designate in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has defended the four-year Senior High School (SHS) curriculum, saying students who went through that system performed better than their counterparts who went through the three-year course. He, however, proposed a window to be opened for well-endowed schools that could complete the three-year system with the hope of posting good performance without restrictions. Prof. Yankah shared his views on the matter when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament last Monday. Answering questions on a wide range of issues, he described the complaints that private universities were much more expensive than public ones as a myth, contending that the gap between public and private universities was narrowing. Prof. Yankah, who is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University, noted that many universities had evolved, leaving their core mandate behind. He submitted that tertiary institutions had moved away from their original courses and programmes and cited the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as one such institution running many non-science programmes that did not encourage the younger universities to carve a niche for their own programmes. Culture of reading Touching on the need to improve the reading culture among schoolchildren, Prof. Yankah underscored the need for parents to read to their children to sleep, to imbibe in them a good reading culture. According to the university don, two per cent of primary schoolchildren could hardly read and write English and any other Ghanaian language and called for enough reading books to be supplied to schools, especially the deprived ones, to help change the situation. Asked whether he supported the compulsory retirement of 60 years in respect of teachers and lecturers who still had the drive to impart knowledge, Prof. Yankah indicated that there was a considerable number of youth out there who needed to be mentored to take up the mantle
                                      6 years ago by @prophe
                                       
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                                        The Pt B D Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak will also conduct combined counselling on the basis of merit of National Eligibility and Entrance Test NEET PG 2017. The Haryana government on March 28 announced that no private medical or dental college, including those under private or deemed university, are authorised to carry out their own counselling for admission to post graduate courses. The NEET post graduate admissions will be conducted in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses have to be done on the basis of NEET scores. The Pt B D Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak will also conduct combined counselling on the basis of merit of National Eligibility and Entrance Test NEET PG 2017 and NEET MDS 2017 for admission to post graduate courses for academic session 2017-18 in all the government, government-aided, private medical and dental institutes including those under private and deemed universities in the state. Applicants can choose among various subjects which include MD, MS, PG Diploma and MDS, a spokesman of Haryana Directorate of Medical Education and Research. He also stated that the candidates desirous of seeking admission to MD, MS, PG Diploma and MDS courses would apply online for registration on the web portal — uhspgadmissions.in. ALSO READ: JIPMER Exam 2017: What you need to know about JIPMER MBBS entrance exam For the candidates seeking admissions need to know that the final allotment of seat/specialty/institute will be done by the admission committee after physical verification of eligibility criteria and original documents. Another important point that the aspirants must note that they should be personally present of the candidate in front of the admission committee at the time of counselling would be compulsory, he said. It is also While referring to the counselling schedule for admissions, the last date for submission of online application forms is April 8. The main counseling registration, choice filing & indicative seat allotment for NEET PG 2017 has commenced at
                                        6 years ago by @prophe
                                         
                                          IndiaMar2017medicalprivateEnglish
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                                          Chestertown, Md. — The moment Isaiah Reese set foot on the idyllic campus of Washington College, a private liberal arts school on Maryland’s eastern shore, he knew he didn’t want to go there. At the time, he was a high school senior on a school tour. “I told myself I was not going to this school, no matter what,” Reese, who is now a freshman at the college, said over a slice of pizza and a spinach wrap burrito in Washington College’s polished cafeteria overlooking one of the school’s greens. Though Chestertown, Md., where the college is located, is just 75 miles from Reese’s native Baltimore, the quaint, roughly 5,000 person boating town struck Reese as almost a different universe from the mostly African-American high school he was attending at the time. “They gave us a tour of the school and I’m still saying nope, nope, this town is old, it’s boring,” he said. But then Reese had a conversation with a Washington College staffer that started to make him change his mind. “As soon as he said ‘full ride’ I was like, ‘Uh-huh, okay,’” Reese recalled at his cafeteria table in a hat emblazoned with Washington College’s logo. The 19-year-old is now one of 14 students in the inaugural year of George’s Brigade, a prestigious scholarship program and the brainchild of Sheila Bair, president of Washington College and the former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The program, which is named for George Washington — also the college’s namesake — offers promising students from low-income backgrounds a full-ride to the school, including room and board, and caps their student loan borrowing for any other incidentals at $2,500 year. Just tuition at the school for the 2016-2017 academic year was more than $42,000 a year. But George’s Brigade is about more than meeting students’ financial needs. It’s also about ensuring they enjoy and make it through school, according to Bair. She first came up with the idea shortly after arriving at the college and researching some of the challenges low-income and first generat
                                          6 years ago by @prophe
                                           
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