HE News Brief 22.3.11

by Abby Chau

IN THIS EDITION

• CZECH REPUBLIC: Ministry of Education to implement university classification system
• VENEZUELA: Student protests over HE funding
• IRELAND: Ellen Hazelkorn publishes her book on Rankings and their influence on Higher Education
• BRAZIL: Employers investing heavily in higher education progress
• UNITED KINGDOM: Durham joins Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and Exeter in announcing their intention to charge maximum fees

by Abby Chau

• There are moves by the Ministry of Education in the Czech Republic to implement a classification system which would help the government easily distribute financial resources. Institutions will be audited in order to determine whether they are a research intensive university or a regional learning facility. By 2012, funding allocations will be made according to the classification, as well as to whether they are deemed a high “quality” institution. Some criteria will include the amount of private funding received, research performance in terms of papers produced as well as citations received, graduate employability, internationalisation, and successful implementation of the Bologna Process in terms of mobility. Many institutions will be vying for a classification of a global research facility which will not only raise their status, but also their financial budgets.Full Story: Czech Position
• Protests have erupted on the streets of Caracas recently as students demand more funding for higher education. 2.8% of the country’s gdp is currently being funnelled toward higher education. The Education Ministry is currently reviewing the financial forecast for universities. 2.7 billion is currently being provided to the country’s 56 universities. Students and protestors say that too much of the budget allotted for HE is being spent on staff expenses.Full Story: People’s Daily
• University league tables are only a few decades old but their impact not only on policymakers, institutions, parents, and students have been tremendous, for better or worse says Ellen Hazelkorn, head of the Higher Education Policy Unit at Dublin Institute of Technology. There are more than 50 country specific league tables and 10 international rankings now vying for attention. Countries such as Vietnam, Spain, Latvia, Malaysia, Germany, Finland, among others have allotted funds for specific institutions in order to create “world class” universities. Macedonia has implemented a policy to automatically recognise any degree from top ranked institutions while Mongolia, Qatar, and Kazakhstan hand out scholarships using the same criteria. In the United States, some presidential salaries are linked to how well their institutions perform in rankings.Full Story: Chronicle of Higher Education
• In Brazil, companies are trying to convert oil revenues into higher education progress by investing 2.8 billion in science and technology in the last few years. Petrobas, the oil company which is state-owned, is investing big money into producing researchers and educating young people in order to develop new knowledge to accommodate the growing country’s economic needs. Some however are saying that investment should be diversified and not just from one company alone. Professor Armando Milioni, Director of the science and technology institute at the Federal University of São Paulo, says that there needs to be more private investment in higher education, which may be achieved through expanding their public higher education system.Full Story: University World News
• In order to avail Scottish institutions from the fate of England’s universities (Durham has just announced it will be following Oxford, Imperial, Exeter, and Cambridge in charging the maximum tuition fees of £9,000 starting in 2012.), the SNP has announced that it would consider charging EU students tuition fees. Under EU policies, they are entitled to the same fees structure as domestic students. According to SNP member Mike Russell, there will be a 93 million pound funding gap between Scotland and England but many are saying that the gap is much larger and the opposition is already saying that this proposal is not realistic and would not be enough to address Scotland’s budget issues. The parties will continue to jostle on this issue as May’s election is only a stone’s throw away.Full Story: the GuardianMore: BBC News