We visited a range of international and local schools and met with college counsellors, career advisors and some of their students to demonstrate the i-studentgroup websites and resources. The response we received was fantastic, with many counsellors saying what great research tools our sites were.

“Thank you for visiting my school and meeting the students to introduce your resources. It was very valuable indeed”

“It was wonderful to meet you and I look forward to exploring these websites”

“Judging from the student feedback, I think it’s been a worthwhile experience and I would certainly encourage them to use the websites and will introduce it to our students each year”

“Thank you very much for your visit! Please email me anything that you feel is of relevance to our students and I shall let you know if there is anything that you could use to improve the already excellent service that the i-studentgroup provides”

Special thanks goes to:

• Simone Salier at the Island School, Hong Kong
• Martin Campion at the South Island School, Hong Kong
• Robert Mansueto at the Chinese International School, Hong Kong
• Bob Bate at the Canadian International School of Hong Kong
• Tim Gartz at the American International School
• Caroline Faris at the International School Singapore
• Sam Fleischmann at the International Community School Singapore
• Kevin Sim and Jasmine Seah at Raffles Institution (Junior College), Singapore
• Sheta Saha at the Chatsworth International School, Singapore
• Rita Kaur at ACS International, Singapore
• Alex Furstenberg at Mont’Kiara International School, Malaysia
• Sharleen Tam and Aananthi Seventhy at Taylor’s College, Malaysia
• Nick Marriot at the International School of Brunei
• Russell Mann at Jerudong International School, Brunei
• Sean McAuley and Michael Clancy at Bali International School
• John Milliss at the Australian International School – Bali campus
• Brenton Hall at the Australian International School – Jakarta campus
• Binky Iskander at the Binus International School, Simprug, Indonesia
• Robyn Combes at Sekolah Pelita Harapan, Indonesia
• Shruti Tewari at Sinarmas World Academy, Indonesia
• Novita Sasongko at the Global Jaya International School, Indonesia
• Laura Berggren at the Bandung Alliance International School, Indonesia
• Jan Russell at Bandung International School, Indonesia

If you are a college counsellor or careers advisor and would like any further information about the i-studentgroup websites, please email us at:
info@i-studentavdisor.com

Professor Maguire returns to Australia after more than three years in senior management and editorial roles with the English-language Shanghai Daily in China.

A former managing director of Perth’s The Sunday Times, he brings to Murdoch’s media school a wealth of experience gathered over more than 30 years in daily and Sunday newspapers and radio in Australia, Hong Kong and China.

Dean of Media, Communications and Culture at Murdoch, Associate Professor Chris Smyth said: “David’s experience running newspapers, including in the burgeoning Chinese industry, is a wonderful asset to the journalism programme.

“His appointment as the most senior media figure in any WA journalism school means we can offer courses in new areas like media management and carry out world-class research.

“More importantly for our students, he’s already made a great transition from the newsroom to the lecture theatre as a generous, approachable teacher.”

Professor Maguire said he looked forward to using his experience of the media in China and Hong Kong to further develop Murdoch’s extensive collaborations in the region, build its student base and initiate major research projects.

“The rapid development of all media in China reflects the incredible growth throughout the country and the suite of disciplines offered by Murdoch, from journalism basics to cutting-edge technology and media management, push all the right buttons,” he said.

A Doctor of Business Administration and an MBA, Professor Maguire is adding to his academic credentials with the completion of his PhD at Murdoch on the media’s challenges in covering the chaos of major crises.

To learn more about living and learning down under, why not read the i-studentadvisor Australia guide.

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 report, produced by Ernst & Young with the Economist Intelligence Unit, placed Ireland behind Singapore and Hong Kong in a study of 60 countries.

The result was measured “by a country’s openness to trade, movement of capital, exchange of technology and ideas, labour movements, and cultural integration.”

The strength of Ireland’s technology industry has been highlighted in the report, stating:

“In recent years, Ireland has positioned itself as a hub in the global exchange of technology, as a result of its safe operating environment and educated workforce. It may not be the originator of all the innovation that passes through its doors, but the country’s role as a conduit for research and development – through manufacture, packaging and export – has been an important contributor to its high level of globalisation.”

Ernst & Young noted that the economic crisis has slowed Ireland’s growth in globalisation over the last two years but reported that, of the industry executives questioned for the survey, almost half of them expected their international activities to expand over the coming year. Universities and colleges are amongst the organisations seeking to expand their global reach; currently 1 in 12 undergraduates studying in Ireland comes from abroad, with educational groups keen to increase that figure.

For more information on studying in Ireland check out our brand new i-studentadvisor Ireland magazine online now.

The overall trends of the study showed a dwindling in the US dominance of the league table and a surge in Asian universities claiming places that could rival America’s Ivy League and the UK’s Oxbridge in coming years.

The top 10 was dominated, as usual, by the US and UK institutions with Harvard claiming the top spot for the sixth consecutive year. The University of Cambridge knocked Yale University out of second place. University of Oxford slipped by one place this year down to a joint fifth with Imperial College London. Overall there were four UK universities to the United States six in the top 10.

However the real success story is the Asian institutions, with appearances from institutions in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia. Japan holds 11 places in the top 200 with the University of Tokyo ranking the highest at 22 and Hong Kong holds five positions, three of them in the top 50 starting with the University of Hong Kong at 24. Mainland China maintains its total of six institutions from last year, South Korea holds two places and Malaysia joined the league table at 180th place with Universiti Malaya.

Long Po Yee, a commenter on the Guardian website said:

“As a Hong Konger, I am really very happy to see that Hong Kong universities are in high quality. For me, I have studied in the Chinese Univeristy of Hong Kong (CUHK), and I felt that is really great and they offered green environment with quality education and facilities.”

You can download the full league table of all 200 universities here or visit the Times Higher Education website for a break down on the scoring for special areas of expertise.

A team of students from the University of Sussex will fly to Singapore to represent the UK in the final of an international business competition.

Team Enterprize won the UK final of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Global Business Challenge on the 26 June. The four students: Thomas Kingston, Prateek Sureka, Claire Harrison and Michal Tomaszewski beat 60 other university teams in the UK leg of the contest.

Designed to find the next generation of business leaders, the competition climaxes with the global final in Singapore this August. The Sussex/ UK team will face the best teams from Ireland, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, India, China, Malaysia and Singapore. The team, mentored by Sally Atkinson of University of Sussex’s Regional Development Office, impressed the judges with its business plan to rescue a fictional major hotel chain. Their report was one of six chosen for the UK final, where they won over the panel with their presentation skills and ability to answer difficult questions.

EBC Consultancy Group from Oxford Brookes University came in second place, whilst Team Venture from the University of Birmingham came third.

The desired outcome of the overhaul is to increase international student figures and raise the profiles of institutions in the county. The scheme is part of a larger initiative to improve the entire education system in the country.

A report in The Australian stated that the overhaul has included millions of dollars worth of investment into research; and a planned changed from the British three-year undergraduate course model to the four-year US model in 2012. An aggressive recruitment scheme for new faculty has also been high on the agenda for the universities.

“We want to recruit aggressively right away,” says Way Kuo, President of the City University of Hong Kong, one of Hong Kong’s eight public universities. “We’d like to recruit a lot of people from America.” The University of Hong Kong has also hired around 100 professors in the past years, with plans for 100 more. Whilst the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong also have plans to recruit at least 100 new faculty members in the following years.

If you are currently working or considering working at a Hong Kong higher education institution, we would love to hear you thoughts on this topic. E-mail us at: editorial@i-studentadvisor.com