World Computer Exchange is a non-profit organisation that dedicates itself to expanding access to higher education to some of the world’s poorest countries. President Timothy Anderson said:  “We’re trying to go into developing countries that [the university] might not have a lot of students in now.”

The organisation was founded in 2009 and currently has 500 students in 100 countries around the world. According to Mr. Anderson, the next targets for the organisation are Zimbabwe, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Liberia and Palestine. Quite a list and one that clearly demonstrates their aim to help some of the world’s most disadvantaged students.

The plan involves setting up communication centres with twenty internet-accessible computers at each location. They also hope to work with local universities to allow students to use their facilities.

Tied to organisations in seventy-one countries, World Computer Exchange sees the University of the People as a natural progression of what they want to achieve. “This is exactly why we’ve been working with these computers, planting them like Johnny Appleseed, all over the world,” said Mr. Anderson. Adding, “this is a great way to get to university level”.

The fellowship’s goal was to introduce American students to all aspects of Saudi culture, and Cournoyer said the experiential learning opportunity left him much wiser, inspired and globally enlightened.

Cournoyer was selected as one of nine current college students — all Model Arab League standouts at their respective universities — to participate in the 10-day fellowship. The trip, June 7 to 16, was organized by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, an American nonprofit that strives to improve Americans’ knowledge and understanding of Arab culture. It was co-sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to the U.S.A. and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education.

In his group’s guided travels across the country, Cournoyer had some memorable experiences. He shared tea and coffee with Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Zamil, a Saudi billionaire. He met Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, longtime director of the Saudi Arabian intelligence agency, who shared his views on Saudi Arabian history and the Kingdom’s foreign affairs policies. And he heard John Sfakianakis, a leading economist and group general manager at Banque Saudi Fransi, discuss the oil industry’s place in Saudi Arabia’s economic future.

The fellowship also included visits to several universities and museums showcasing the country’s history, scientific advancements, and oil drilling and production process.

“It strengthened my interest and appreciation for society in the Middle East,” said Cournoyer, a political science and international affairs double major.

Cournoyer said he discovered there are more opportunities for women than is commonly believed in the West, and the fellowship strengthened his understanding of how closely religion is integrated into every element of Saudi life.

“What we saw was much more dynamic and had much more depth to it than the perception that the only thing going on over there is exporting oil,” he said.

Cournoyer, who said he is eager to return one day to learn more about the culture, has been selected as the secretary-general of the 2011 National Model Arab League Conference in March in Washington, D.C.

Story courtesy of Northeastern University. To view the original release, click here.

The EU project entitled the ’Tawasol Project’, commenced in January 2010 and will run over three years. The project brings together five universities in Jordan and Lebanon with four European university partners including NUI Galway, University of Gothenburg in Sweden, University of Plovdiv in Bulgaria and Roehampton University in London. Following on from the success of the NUI Galway Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) in developing successful learning opportunities within community through service learning, the University was invited to collaborate with the other eight universities and create the Tawasol Project.

While in Galway the group of educators met with over twenty members of the community who have been involved in service learning partnerships, including COPE Galway, the Gaf Youth Café and the Galway Traveller Movement. They also met over twenty NUI Galway lecturers and students who have developed innovative service learning partnerships. They learned about how postgraduate IT students worked with the Gaf Youth café to help develop a youth centred website and up skilled staff in the use of new technologies.

Speaking at the first Tawasol Project meet in Amman, Jordan earlier this year, Lorraine McIlrath, CKI Coordinator, NUI Galway, said: “Working with universities in such a different cultural context makes our work in Ireland richer and more challenging as we are encouraged to look at the cultural implications of engaging student learning in communities within challenging circumstances. This project will bring together hundreds of students and academics in the next three years for intensive inter-cultural and civic engagement learning opportunities”.

To learn more about living and studying in Ireland, visit: www.i-studentadvisor.com/ireland

About half of the students have gone to the US where they have enrolled at twenty-two colleges including the University of Kansas, Oregon State University and the University of West Virginia.

The Academy for Educational Development, an international non-profit organisation for higher education, is helping to run the project in the US and has asked participating universities to fast-track applications from Iraqi students.

The students will initially spend time at intensive language schools in order to improve their English skills to enable higher education study but this appears to be the only weak spot with many department heads already commenting on the outstanding ability of many of the students and predicting they will be “upper-echelon students”.

Iraq previously had one of the most highly-respected higher education systems in the world but with much of the infrastructure being destroyed during the conflict the country is keen to rebuild its education network.  It is hoped that by receiving training in other countries in the interim period Iraq will be able to speed up the rebuilding process.  The students are on full scholarships from the Iraqi government during their studies. They are also planning on building an English language institute in Baghdad to allow students whose language skills are not strong enough to improve before going abroad to study.

Zuhair A.G. Humadi, the driving force behind the Iraq Education Initiative will be honoured at this week’s annual conference of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

The data was collected on students studying at 51 different institutions in Ireland; we’ve reproduced some of the key findings of the survey below:

• The number of full-time students has increased by 10%, to 66% of all international students (17,204).
• International students taking PhD programmes in Ireland have increased dramatically to over 2,000, 8% of the total and well above national averages. The numbers taking Masters programmes have also increased. Postgraduate study is particularly focussed on science related disciplines, but there is evidence of growth in every subject.
• Full-time EU and European student numbers have increased.
• The institutes of technology now host 17% of international students, almost 40% of whom are from EU countries and on exchange programmes.
• They key countries of origin for international students in Ireland are: the USA; China; France; the UK; Germany; Spain; Malaysia; India and Canada.
• Countries with a noteable increase in providing students to Ireland are: France; Canada; Nigeria; Saudi Arabia; Brazil and Romania.
• Humanities/creative arts and business and related subjects are the most important academic disciplines for international students in Ireland.
• International students paid €192 million in tuition fees in 2009/10.

To download the full report from Education Ireland, visit their website here.

To find out more about studying in Ireland read the latest i-studentadvisor Ireland Guide here.

The new school will be guided and supervised by the University of Ottawa, offering a fully accredited programme that will allow students to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Communication awarded by the University of Ottawa.

The collaboration between Ottawa’s Faculty of Arts and CIC’s School of Engineering will also allow for undergraduate engineering and computer science courses to be taught at the new Egyptian school, in addition to providing for student exchanges between the two schools. The CIC’s courses are intended to mirror Ottawa’s, allowing for greater collaboration in the future.

During the first five years of operation almost 1,500 students are expected to register for the new school, with around 200 of those in the first year. The first graduates of the Canadian School of Communication are forecast for 2015.

Allan Rock, President of the University of Ottawa, said: “This initiative gives the University of Ottawa unique visibility in an area of the world where there is a strong interest for high-quality university education. It also provides an opportunity for Canada’s university to be present in Egypt, the Arab world and countries of the Middle East, by delivering some of its academic curriculum in a state-of-the-art facility in Cairo.”

Under the programme, dubbed HESPAL (Higher Education Scholarships for Palestine), up to 10 academics each year will be sponsored for a years study in the UK. Universities such as City, Essex, Kings College London, Exeter, Manchester, London School of Economics, Newcastle, School of Oriental and African Studies, Sussex and Oxford Brookes have pledged to offer one scholarship per year for the next four years.

Palestinian academics will be able to study areas such as finance, business, IT, chemistry, agriculture, water management, international development, physics, education and law.

Amongst those supporting the scheme is David Lammy, UK minister for Higher Education, who said:

“In countries all over the world, the link between a burgeoning HE sector and a thriving economy is clear. Through training the next generation of academic leaders, HESPAL will make a real difference to local communities in Palestine, benefit the academic community and the wider society and re-energise the economy.”

Antoine Mattar, a key fundraiser for the scheme and Chair of the Palestine Britain Business Council commented:

“The Palestine Britain Business Council views this initiative as a milestone in the development of higher education in Palestine, which will enhance the skills, expertise and knowledge needed for all disciplines in the socio-economic environment of the communities.”

Vice-President of Marketing and Admissions for Emaar Education, Celia Her, told Emirates Business that the new institution would “provide higher education in business studies, information technology, science, art, hospitality and other subjects.”

Reports suggest that recruitment of staff and academics is progressing swiftly and that the new Raffles International University may be opening its doors as early as April 2010.

The new school will increase Emaar Education’s influence in Jaipur, as the company already operates the Raffles International School with over 1,000 pupils. Emaar acquired the Singapore-based Raffles in 2006, which has campuses in India, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and Dubai.

Emaar are also the company behind the $1.5bn Burj Khalifa in Dubai, recognised as the tallest building in the world.

The project is being perceived by many as increasingly important due to the rise in globalisation and the flow of workers and students between nations.

The experimental project, expected to cost around $12.5 million, will focus on three separate disciplines; one on general skills, one on economics, and one on engineering. The Australian Council for Educational Research will manage the development of the discipline-specific tests in coordination with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the body behind AHELO.

OECD expects to test around 200 students in 10 varying types of school in each of these six nations; Finland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico and the United States. The proposal is to test students towards the end of their three or four year bachelors degrees and, in the following year, attempt to determine whether their results can be made comparable.

Richard Yelland, of OECD, hopes that if the experiment succeeds they will be able to create a useful tool for individuals and organisations across the world “who are responsible for higher education.” Yelland estimates that worldwide governments are collectively investing around $1 trillion in postsecondary education, meaning that the proposed tool could generate great interest.

You can find out more about AHELO by visiting the OECD website here.

Latin America, the Caribbean as well as Central Asia show an increase in female enrolments and in a number of countries, a female-to-male ratio being two to one. North America and Europe show there are a third more women than men on campus. In Canada, women make up 55% of masters students. A connection has been established between the high proportion of women in Canadian Universities and poor performances of boys in high school. It is found amongst school exam results that 46% of girls earned an average result of 80% and above while 32% of male students earned results of the same standard. Similar situations have been found in Australia too.

Enrolment in Arab states show equality in both genders which shows a great increase in females furthering their education. Reports show that if the trend continues, women will soon take the lead in that region as well. Saudi Arabia plans to launch the world’s largest women’s university in 2010. Enrolment in the Arab states may be high but female employment remains extremely low.

South African government statistics show 59% of graduates were women despite them only representing 55.5% of all enrolments. Women began making remarkable gains in South African higher education after the first democratic election. By this time, the number of female students grew by 5.5% a year against the overall undergraduate enrolment growth of 4.9%

Ireland’s seven universities show a female majority of 59% to 41%. Irish lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, doctors and physiotherapists in the future will be female dominated occupations.

Though Men still dominate fields of engineering, manufacturing and construction, there is no doubt that women are planning to leap into the professional world. A third of the world’s countries have achieved parity and it is fair to say the rise in female graduates will push to take a greater place in the world job market.