With around 500 million young people in India under the age of 25, the demand for university education is predicted to skyrocket, with the expectation that 40 million students will need to be served over the next 10 years.

Describing the bill, Education Minister Kapil Sibal said it was “a milestone which will enhance choices, and increase competition and benchmark quality. A larger revolution than even in the telecom sector awaits us.”

Around 50 foreign institutions are said to be keenly interested in establishing a presence in India, especially those from English-speaking nations due to the high number of Indians familiar with English. However, the bill also includes strict rules on the types of institutions that may be established; foreign universities must invest a minimum of $13 million and would be prohibited from repatriating profits.

It remains to be seen whether the current bill will be approved by parliament; it has been pending for the last four years and could face stiff opposition.

Five of the campuses will be established within existing polytechnics in order to take advantage of their facilities and staff. The sixth location has yet to be decided, but will focus on student services.

The President of SIT, Tan Chin Tiong, said: “If you look at polys currently, they are very well-built in terms of infrastructure – the labs, studios and the teaching classrooms that they already have. I would say they are world-class, so there’s no reason not to leverage on what they already have.”

SIT is being positioned as a more accessible opportunity for polytechnic graduates to pursue a university degree, with courses running two years and costing around S$9,000 ($6,400).

The Institute will begin offering its first degree courses from August in partnership with the Technical University of Munich, Newcastle University, the Culinary Institute of America, the University of Nevada and DigiPen Institute of Technology.

Around half of the SIT faculty will be recruited from overseas, whilst the rest will be made up of existing polytechnic lecturers and new staff from Singapore.

Tan Hang Cheong, Principal of Singapore Polytechnic, said: “If you look at the polytechnic lecturers now, the majority of them have a least a post-graduate, a masters degree. So I think it’s the wrong perception to think polytechnic lecturers are all basic degree holders. That was in the past, but now it’s a very different scenario.”

We are pleased to announce that the third in the i-studentadvisor series of regional USA e-magazines is now online. The USA Region X issue contains information on studying in New Jersey and New York. Click here to launch the USA Region VIII issue.

In previous years we have produced one annual USA magazine to cover all the states. However in 2010, for ease of use we will be releasing eleven regional issues throughout the year – based on the 11 NAFSA (Association of International Educators) regions. We will then be releasing an annual of all the regions at the end of the year.

By creating these focus issues, i-studentadvisor allows you to explore each state and its education system in more depth. Each of these regional issues contains articles from education boards, institutions and associations in the states in that region and for some states there are even personal introductions from the State Governors! These guides are ideal for students who have an idea of where they would like to study in the USA, however if you haven’t decided yet you can always browse our previous national USA issues.

It has been a pleasure working with the individuals and organisations within New Jersey and New York that have been instrumental in putting the Region X issue together. The articles in this issue come together to make up a vivid picture of living and studying in these areas. Here are our top picks of articles in the USA Region VIII issue:

From Zimbabwe to New Jersey and Back

New Jersey – A Powerhouse of Opportunity

A Superlative Choice – Study in New York State

Don’t forget to check out the Counsellor Chronicles chapter, where counsellors, authors and international education experts contribute articles of a global interest to the guidance counsellor community.

Keep checking the studying in USA states and regions page for the monthly installments of the USA regional issues, plus you can find all our latest country specific and subject specific i-studentadvisor guides at www.i-studentadvisor.com

You can also subscribe free to get all the latest i-studentadvisor issues direct to your inbox.

If you have any feedback on i-studentadvisor USA Region X, email us at editorial@i-studentadvisor.com or leave a comment.

Ms Gillard thanked Mr Baird for his hard work and commitment and for producing the report as a matter of urgency and agreed to begin work on implementing a number of recommendations immediately.

Following his review of the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000, former Member for Cook Bruce Baird has recommended immediate changes to improve the experience of international students choosing to study and live in Australia.

Mr Baird’s report, Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS: supporting international students, makes recommendations including:

• more support for international students and improved information
• stronger consumer protection mechanisms to ensure students are protected from unscrupulous operators
• improved regulation of Australia’s international education sector
• improved support for those who study and live in Australia including having somewhere to go when problems arise.

Mr Baird has detailed the issues facing the sector and makes a number of recommendations for strengthening legislation to better protect international students and ensure Australia continues to offer a world class quality education.

The recommendations follow extensive consultation with international students, education providers, state and territory governments, regulatory bodies, student organisations, international education professionals, education unions, industry bodies and diplomatic missions.

Ms Gillard said the Government supports in principle recommendations to amend the ESOS Act to lift the bar on entry into the international education industry in Australia.

The Government will also move to implement recommendations which relate to restricting unethical student recruitment practices as soon as possible.

These changes will require amendments to the ESOS Act. Mr Baird will brief the Opposition and other parties on the review’s recommendations this week with a view to having them available for consideration by the Parliament as soon as possible.

Other recommendations will require consultation with States and Territories, the International Education sector and other Australian Government Ministers and consultation will begin immediately.

The final report of the Baird review including a summary of the recommendations is available at www.aei.gov.au.

To find out more about studying in Australia, read the latest i-studentadvisor Australia guide.

Three additional schools are being recognized with the 2010 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for a specific international program or initiative on campus. They are the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York, La Roche College in Pennsylvania, and the College of the Atlantic in Maine.

Named for the late Senator Paul Simon, (D–Ill.), these awards recognize outstanding and innovative efforts in campus internationalization. Sen. Simon was well known as a strong supporter of international education and foreign language learning. His leadership in these areas was especially evident in his robust support for the creation of the National Security Education Program, which addresses critical national security deficiencies in language and cultural expertise, and in his vision of a national program to greatly expand Americans’ knowledge of the world, which was the inspiration behind the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act.

The Simon Act, which has already been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, is currently awaiting action in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill has strong bipartisan support in Congress, and carries the endorsement of nearly fifty higher education and international education organizations.

Each of the institutions selected for internationalization awards this year will be featured in NAFSA’s report Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, to be published this fall. This annual report recognizes institutions that are leaders in the growing effort across higher education to better prepare students for a global economy and an interconnected world. The awardees will also be recognized on June 4, 2010 at the International Plenary and Luncheon during NAFSA’s 2010 Annual Conference & Expo in Kansas City, MO.

The NAFSA selection jury included Ron Roberson (jury chair; Howard Community College), Mary Devins (Connecticut College), Jeff Riedinger (Michigan State University), Neal Sobania (Pacific Lutheran University), and Priscilla Stone (Washington University in St. Louis).

For more information, visit www.nafsa.org/SimonAward.

(republished with the kind permission of NAFSA)

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.”

In fact, whilst applications from traditional markets in the Far East have declined in the past year, the number of students applying from India to study in New Zealand has risen by 42%.

Education New Zealand has attributed the increased interest as proof that diversifying the market has had a positive impact, citing not just the rise in Indian applications but also the surge from other locations such as South America and the Middle East.

In the last two years the number of international students in New Zealand has risen by over 8000.

The rise in Indian applicants has also been encouraged by Immigration New Zealand, who recently amended their application processes to reduce the visa application period from as much as five months down to just 22 days.

With the number of young Indian people under the age of 25 now at the 500 million mark, the market for Indian students is vast, and New Zealand are eager to see numbers rising.

Education New Zealand chief executive Robert Stevens said: “New Zealand is seen as a safe, welcoming country by most Indian students and we enjoy a good reputation in India for the quality of our institutions.”

At present the majority of courses at Cypriot universities are taught in Greek, requiring non-Greek speakers to spend two years learning the language in order to reach the standard required.

Manthos Mayrommatis, President of CCCI, confirmed that “for state universities, it is the non-provision of a recognised diploma course in English that’s the problem.”

Some of Cyprus’ universities have already begun to address that issue, with the University of Cyprus offering an MBA, MSc in Economic Analysis and a postgraduate course in Finance taught in English. The university also plans to begin introducing other English-speaking courses.

Elena Aygoustidou-Kyriakou, of the University of Cyprus, has said that their long-term goal is not to attract massive numbers of English-speaking students but to instead focus on the quality of students, with the hope that they will contribute to research later: “We wish to promote the University of Cyprus and show what sort of teaching it offers, the quality of its academic personnel, the research it does, the equipment it has.”

“As regards private Universities, the focus is securing a high quality provision of educational services, as only in such a way will they be able to attract foreign students,” said Mavrommatis.

Many Cypriot universities provisionally reserve up to 10% of their admissions places for Greek students, which sometimes go unfilled. Their hope is to attract students from other countries to help fill the spaces.

Dear Friend:

We are writing to update you on major developments within academic rankings. As 2010 unfolds, your institution’s researchers will likely receive multiple survey requests from various ranking initiatives. However, only one seeks to fundamentally change the way data is collected and analyzed.

As you’re well aware, institutional rankings play an increasingly powerful and controversial role within the academic landscape. Yet many of the existing efforts have been largely criticized for being based on questionable data and flawed methodology. In response to heated industry debate, Times Higher Education, a global authority on higher education, recently announced plans to work with Thomson Reuters on revamping its popular World University Rankings. We are proud to have been chosen by Times Higher Education and believe this development underscores a major breakthrough within the rankings dialogue.

Our aim with the GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL PROFILES PROJECT, which includes our work with Times Higher Education, is to develop a data source that provides the best informed and most effective resource to build profiles of universities and research-based institutions around the world.

As part of this initiative, some of your researchers may be contacted this year to complete our reputational survey. Their engagement is critical to ensuring this new initiative delivers what the industry has long been asking for — an accurate representation of the institutional landscape, from the source. And we firmly believe your support is essential to notifying researchers and encouraging their participation.

How Can I Help?

It’s simple. Just talk with your researchers and colleagues about this program, and ask them to join in the effort. For your convenience, we have prepared an electronic postcard that you can easily forward to researchers within your community.

You can also visit the project website to learn more about us, the steps involved in this global initiative, and the approach we are taking. It is our hope that this work will finally provide the community with a thorough, accurate, and multi-faceted data source to support institutional assessment, comparisons and rankings.

We are excited to be a part of such a widespread initiative and look forward to working with you and your institution on bringing greater depth and transparency to institutional assessment.

Visit the Thomson Reuters site to find out more about the Global Institutional Profiles Project.

We are pleased to announce that the second in the i-studentadvisor series of regional USA e-magazines is now online. The USA Region VIII issue contains information on studying in the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC. Click here to launch the USA Region VIII issue.

In previous years we have produced one annual USA magazine to cover all the states. However in 2010, for ease of use we will be releasing eleven regional issues throughout the year – based on the 11 NAFSA (Association of International Educators) regions. We will then be releasing an annual of all the regions at the end of the year.

By creating these focus issues, i-studentadvisor allows you to explore each state and its education system in more depth. Each of these regional issues contains articles from education boards, institutions and associations in the states in that region and for some states there are even personal introductions from the State Governors! These guides are ideal for students who have an idea of where they would like to study in the USA, however if you haven’t decided yet you can always browse our previous national USA issues.

It has been a pleasure working with the individuals and organisations within Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC that have been instrumental in putting the Region VIII issue together. The articles in this issue come together to make up a vivid picture of living and studying in these 6 areas. Here are my top picks of articles in the USA Region VIII issue:

Is Study In A Rural Setting Right For You?

Delaware – Where You Can Matter Most

Virginia Is For College

Don’t forget to check out the Counsellor Chronicles chapter, where counsellors, authors and international education experts contribute articles of a global interest to the guidance counsellor community.

Keep checking the studying in USA states and regions page for the monthly installments of the USA regional issues, plus you can find all our latest country specific and subject specific i-studentadvisor guides at www.i-studentadvisor.com

You can also subscribe free to get all the latest i-studentadvisor issues direct to your inbox.

If you have any feedback on i-studentadvisor USA Region VIII, email us at editorial@i-studentadvisor.com or leave a comment.