Graduate schools in the US have cut their offers to international postgraduate students for the first time in five years, on the back of increased domestic applications and waning interest from India and South Korea. The findings, from the ‘Final ...
More »India, Australia agree to regular talks
The Indian and Australian education ministers have agreed to hold annual talks, in a significant outcome of Julia Gillard’s visit to the subcontinent last week. Gillard said the annual dialogue, which she’d arranged with Indian human resource development minister Kapil ...
More »Online learning more effective than face-to-face: US analysis
Students who take all or part of their classes online perform better on average than those taking the same courses through traditional face-to-face instruction, according to a new report from the US Department of Education. And learning approaches that blend ...
More »The working hours question: 24 or free-for-all?
The Senate inquiry into the welfare of international students is juggling two proposals on the amount of hours international students should be allowed to work: raising the current 20-hour limit to 24 hours a week, or lifting restrictions altogether. Under ...
More »Nuclear smokescreen? Here’s a conspiracy theory
Has education been caught in the crossfire over uranium sales to India, asks John Ross. Claims that Australia is racist, based on incidents of violence against Indian students, have left education figures bemused. After all, no Australian officials have denied ...
More »Greens demand national student card
The Greens have called for an Australian student card to be introduced nationwide to facilitate consistent travel concession entitlements for all tertiary students in Australia. Education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she wanted concession rates extended to all tertiary students ...
More »Income support revamp could fail
There are signs that the federal government’s income support package could be headed the same way as its campus amenities package. This is despite Julia Gillard’s concession to gap-year students last week – and even though the income support revamp ...
More »Heavy-handed treatment of agents could backfire
The federal government risks more harm to international education if it’s too heavy-handed in regulating the use of agents, according to the peak body for English language training colleges and professionals. Sue Blundell, executive director of English Australia, said unnecessarily ...
More »Consultation is the key: communiqu-
Consultation is a key theme in a 10-point “action agenda” released late last week by a coalition of six peak bodies, in an effort to strengthen international education and “resolve current short-term problems” in the industry. It will guide negotiations ...
More »Universities needs “re-moralising”: Schwarz
Universities once had clear ethical purposes but they’ve lost their moral direction, according to Macquarie University vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz. “To fulfil our true purpose, universities need to get back on course: we need to re-moralise,” Schwartz announced at his inaugural ...
More »