We just talk about the good stuff

Money, accreditation and visibility have all been named as barriers to the expansion of joint and double degree programs, in a new report from Poland’s international exchange body. 

Dawid Kostecki, director of the Polish national agency for academic exchange (NAWA), wrote in the publication that this type of education “has gained interest in the Polish academic community in recent years”, in part due to the “complexities of the labour market”. 

“Flexibility is a key value that increases a graduate’s employability not only at home but also abroad,” he added. “A double degree is an important step in building a candidate’s career path not only because of the opportunity to broaden their horizons, but also in terms of fostering their openness to the world.”

But the report points out that joint studies are “complex”, with several variations including double degrees, joint degrees, joint study programs and double study programs.

Dorota Piotrowska, researcher at Lodz University of Technology, said that “terminological confusion” results from a “lack of clear definitions”. 

“This is a confusion that has somewhat blocked universities in Europe for many years,” she said. “The lack of order causes universities to use some terms interchangeably, which sometimes gives rise to misunderstandings.”

In Germany, double degree studies, which are defined in the report as resulting in the issuance of two separate accreditation documents, play a “key role” in university internationalisation strategies, according to Tabea Kaiser, head of the internationalisation of teaching at DAAD.

“The value of double degree programmes often does not go hand-in-hand with their visibility”

But Kaiser believes there should be more information available about these study programs. 

“The value of double degree programmes often does not go hand-in-hand with their visibility,” she wrote. “The websites of many double degree courses are difficult to find on university websites. They also lack basic information.”

According to Vidar Pedersen, director for European programs at The Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, joint courses are a priority for the government. Norway’s former education minister described these as the “golden standard of international cooperation” as they require far-reaching interaction between universities.

Pedersen points out that financing is one of the main challenges when it comes to to expanding these programs. “Conducting joint degree programmes is quite expensive,” he said. “The distribution of funds within a consortium can also be a problem.”

Arrangements where students begin studying at home and then continue in the US are “an important part of the plan for the internationalisation of American universities”, according to Clare Overmann, head of the higher education initiative department at the Institute of International Education. 

But, with no central institution responsible for accreditation in the US, it is “difficult” to recognise these degrees. 

Piotrowska argues that, for Poland and Europe, legal restrictions need to be adapted to support the implementation of joint and double degrees.

“A ‘green light’ allowing for certain solutions, clearly presented by the Ministry, could significantly encourage Polish universities to develop this form of cooperation,” she said.

Piotrowska concludes that the development of learning pathways that lead to qualifications identified and recognised by multiple universities could become “revolutionary” for Europe’s higher education system. 

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The UK’s University of Manchester has entered into a tripartite partnership with six Kenyan universities and county governments to train manpower in a wide range of healthcare fields.

The move will include the setting up of a Centre of Excellence for Healthcare Education and Training.

It will see county governments from the western region of the East African country raise nearly £1 billion from the UK Export Finance to build “six new healthcare campuses” to train health personnel in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing programs, under licence from the UK university, the institution said in press statement .

It will involve seven local universities spread in the region with one of them, Kisi University hosting the CoE that will have its spokes in local institutions of Maseno, Masinde Muliro, Egerton, Bomet and Kibabii universities.

Under the arrangement Manchester will support the development of the healthcare curricula through licensing of programs, staff development and technical advice in the design of “teaching spaces”, said Manchester’s vice dean for internationalisation, Keith Brennan.

“In the longer term, we will support the development of research capacity as we are already doing with another Kenyan institution, the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral & Research Hospital,” he said.

“The Ministry of Education (Kenya) is the project sponsor and they are currently working with the treasury to obtain development partner funding to support the project. The estimated costs of the whole project are close to £1 billion currently,” the dean told The PIE News.

“There will be a significant legacy”

“One of the development partners who will be approached will be UK Export Finance, but I am sure others will also be approached too.”

The involvement of the county governments under the auspices of the Lake Region Economic Bloc is due to healthcare being a devolved function in Kenya.

“While the University of Manchester will be supporting the development of the healthcare curricula… other members of the Kenya UK Healthcare Alliance will support clinical uplift,” Brennan explained.

The alliance facilitates partnerships between UK institutions on health, including hospitals, research institutions and six Kenyan universities, the dean added.

Proper establishment of hospitals and associated healthcare education departments, schools of medicine under the CoE will start within the next 12 months dependent on sourcing funding.

“This will be a long-term project. The development of the curricula will take at least five years but the University of Manchester expects to be a much longer term partner and that there will be a significant legacy,” Brennan further explained.

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The Forum on Education Abroad held the in-person component of its 19^th annual conference in Seattle last week, following two days of virtual sessions earlier this month.

The hybrid event welcomed over 1,000 participants between the two formats, of whom, 400 were first time attendees. President and CEO The Forum on Education Abroad, Melissa Torres noted the “increase in diversity represented by conference participants.”

“There was a noticeable increase in the number of people working in this field now who are representative of the changing demographics of our students and communities. It’s a wonderful change and made me proud of The Forum’s leadership in this area,” Torres told The PIE News.

She added that increasing diversity in the field is a key priority for the Forum’s board, council and staff and they seek to continue the momentum.

Enda Carroll, associate director of University College Dublin global programs also commented on the newcomers at the conference and in the field at large. “This huge injection of newcomers brought a freshness of ideas and dynamism to the conversations at the Forum conference this year,” Carroll told The PIE.

The education abroad sector is still in the process of bouncing back post-pandemic, and while numbers are still steadily increasing, many note it has been a complex rebound.

“This huge injection of newcomers brought a freshness of ideas and dynamism to the conversations”

Delegates spoke about student mental health issues that were exacerbated during the pandemic that are a hinderance to studying abroad for some students. Coupled with that is the risk aversion many students feel about traveling abroad after the pandemic.

Stakeholders shared with The PIE that they believe that many students are selecting destinations in western Europe they consider “safer choices” because of their fears of being any further from home.

In reflecting upon the pandemic and its lingering effects in the sector’s rebound, J.B. Terrins, head of global mobility at University of Galway told The PIE, “There was this paradigm shift — practically overnight we were all practiced at remotely teaching, learning, and working collaboratively.”

Yet, as professionals in the field began to return to their offices and students began travelling abroad again, there were often new routines and policies to navigate.

“With the world at our fingertips more than ever, we might have imagined a greater catalysing effect on integrating global interactions into programming and curricula,” Terrins continued.

“Whilst this remains a growth area I think there has understandably been, instead, a fair bit of steadying the boat in the new normal.”

Some of the sessions addressed thriving in the new normal, as well as student mental health and the residual effects of The Great Resignation. Presenters offered strategies to mitigate both real and perceived barriers for students. And with a conference theme of, ‘Themeless in Seattle’, presenters had much flexibility in selecting topics they believed to be the most relevant to address post-pandemic issues.

“It allowed the space for a range of diverse and interesting discussions to flourish in an organic way,” Carroll suggested.

“Many of our 90 sessions included new innovations and reflected a desire to share with others what has been successful on people’s own campuses and programs over the course of the last year or so,” asserted Torres.

“Study and interning abroad could come to a screeching halt if the guidance isn’t changed”

One of the most discussed concerns at the conference was the US Department of Education’s recent Dear Colleague Letter. “The Conference provided an important opportunity for the field to consider and discuss the implications of the new guidance in relation to TPS,” said Carroll.

Torres proffered that there is a “trepidation about the potential impact of the US Department of Education’s Dear Colleague Letter, and people are galvanised to help [the department] understand that study and interning abroad could come to a screeching halt if the guidance isn’t changed.”

The Department of Education has extended the deadline to submit comments and feedback to 30 March.

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A new Texas bill would prohibit undocumented students and nationals of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from enrolling in the state’s public institutions.

In House Bill 4736, far-right state representative Tony Tinderholt proposed that HEIs be prohibited from admitting students from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, as well as any undocumented students.

Open Doors data from 2022 shows that of the 70,223 international students in the state – who spend some $1.7 billion – 15.8% came from China in the 2021/22 academic year.

Across the whole of the US, there were 9,295 students from Iran. There were around 4,800 Russian students enrolled across US colleges and universities in 2020/21. It is unclear whether any North Korean students study in the country at all. Reports suggest that China is the main study destination for the small number of individuals leaving the authoritarian country.

The bill comes on the heels of two other Texas bills aimed at preventing nationals of the four countries from buying property in Texas. Proponents of the bills include governor Ted Abbott, and conservative legislators argue that they are part of a national security strategy to curtain foreign interference in government.

While stakeholders close to the issue indicate that the bill is highly unlikely to pass, it has many concerned that the flames of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant sentiments have once again been stoked.

“Banning students from any country, or those who have lived in the state for years but are undocumented is a travesty,” Lin Larson, director of student recruitment at The University of Texas at Arlington, told The PIE News.

“This hurts Texas students and is a slap to our state’s diversity”

“While the bill is most likely not to pass,” she continued, “the mere idea that students, many already faced with hardships and struggles, are targeted restricts the ability to share ideas, knowledge and experiences. This hurts Texas students and is a slap to our state’s diversity.”

Last month, Abbot’s office issued a memo to  state agency and public university leaders that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are illegal in hiring. As a result, Texas A&M, Texas State, and the University of Houston banned DEI statements in their job applications.

After many Republican lawmakers supported Trump’s claims that China deliberately spread coronavirus around the world, a rash of hate crimes against Asians ensued in the US. In major cities, the percentage of anti-Asian hate crimes grew over 150%.

Advocacy groups, such as Texas AAPI and The National Immigration Law Centre, are concerned that the three latest “racist and xenophobic” bills in Texas may ignite a new slew of violence against citizens of the four countries named in the bills.

This is not the first call for international students from China to be banned from Texas schools. Last year, a candidate for Congress proposed a ban all Chinese students from Texas schools.

Detractors have expressed alarm that the movement to ban certain foreign nationals, in particular, Chinese immigrants, harkens the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, in which a 10-year ban was placed on Chinese labourers to work in the US. The Act hampered Chinese immigration and rights for over half a decade.

The bills come amid much discussion on both sides of the aisle about accusations of Chinese spying, from the balloon that was shot down over the Carolinas this winter, to the Tik Tok social media platform. While TikTok is currently banned on government devices, the Biden administration has threatened a full ban on the app and is expected to make a ruling imminently.

At University of Texas Austin, alumni William Zhang co-created Korra, an app that serves as a platform for university students in Texas to discuss issues of race and discrimination they have experienced. The app is also being used by students at Texas A&M University, Rice University and the University of Houston.

Last month, the University of Houston held its fifth annual Global Communication Summit and the theme was combatting anti-Asian racism in communication.

Yali Zou, professor for global leadership studies at UH was one of the organisers and she said she hoped the summit would illuminate some of the daily issues experienced by Asians on campus and in the community.

“We hope to demonstrate that issues of racism, prejudice, violence, and microaggressions against Asians/Asian Americans are important issues for the entire Houston community,” she said.

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The Turkish German University in Istanbul has handed out 48 scholarships worth some €15,000 to students that were impacted by the recent earthquake in Turkey.

The institution, which officially opened in 2014 and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research via the DAAD, has confirmed the scholarships for current students. Many of the students’ families are from the region in the South East of the country that was devastated by the earthquake which killed some 50,000 people earlier this year.

TAU/ TDU in Istanbul – which has reorganised its academic calendar for the year in response to the crisis – wanted to make an immediate impact for its students.

“A lot of students were involved. A lot of students came from the affected region and the semester had just started,” Wiebke Bachmann, head of Section K-TDU for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), told The PIE. “We thought about what can we do very fast.”

Along with a fund for study materials, such as paper, books and computers, the university had initially sought to introduce 20 scholarships for the year.

“We thought about what if families cannot support their kids anymore financially for their studies. For the 20 scholarships, we had over 70 applications, with some students losing their whole family,” Bachmann explained.

The final decision meant three of 48 scholarships were given to students most affected who received a full €500 per month, with the remainder getting €300 per month.

JPMorgan has estimated the cost from destroyed structures could exceed $25 billion while Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan put the total needed nearer to $104 billion earlier this week.

The EU has agreed to send Turkey €1bn ($1.07bn) for reconstruction, with EU president Ursula von der Leyen calling for schools and homes to be built “with the highest standards of seismic safety”.

Erdoğan was present at the inauguration of the campus in early 2020 together with his Germany counterpart Angela Merkel, where the German chancellor spoke of the importance of education for refugees.

“Education is particularly valuable for refugees, because education gives hope for a better future – either for the time after returning home, where they can help with reconstruction, or through good integration into the host society,” she said at the time.

TDU shared information with its 38-member university consortium across Germany, with several launching fundraising initiatives and other support initiatives, Bachmann added.

Canada has announced a support measure for Turkish and Syrian temporary residents aiming to help them apply for visa extensions more easily.

“All the Turkish universities connected right away”

A team of UK academics from UCL, co-led by Yasemin Didem Aktas from the institution’s Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering department, has travelled to the region to assess building damage.

Bachmann also praised the togetherness of the Turkish higher education system in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.

Close to 1,000 staff and students from Firat University in Elazığ helped with food distribution, with 20 trucks of supplies donated from the institution, while Abdullah Gül University in Kayseri sheltered some 2,000 victims on campus immediately following the quake.

“All the Turkish universities connected right away and supported each other, took families into student dorms from the regions,” Bachmann said.

“They emptied a whole technology hall, for example, in order to be able to get the refugees there. All the students helped… There was a huge amount of help in Turkish society.”

Donations for the crisis are still being collected:

Non-governmental search and rescue organisation, AKUT

Turkish voluntary network, Ahbap

Kaplan’s Turkey & Syria Earthquake Support Fund for Oxfam

IIE’s Türkiye and Syria Response

Cara SYRIA/TURKEY EARTHQUAKES appeal

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Schools in China are restarting face-to-face university recruitment fairs after the pandemic forced them to cancel or pivot to virtual events.

Sonja Phongsavanh, head of career and university guidance at Yew Chung International School of Shanghai, said the school is running its spring university fair in person for the first time in several years this month, with students and parents invited to meet international university representatives.

“University guidance counsellors and university admissions representatives are excited to have the opportunity to attend events in person again now that China’s border restrictions are returned to normal,” Phongsavanh said.

Some 60 universities from locations including Australia, Canada and Switzerland will be represented at the fair, mainly by in-country staff.

Earlier in March, China announced it would reinstate multiple-entry 10-year business visas. David Weeks, co-founder and COO at Sunrise International, told The PIE that this was good news for universities as it reduced the barriers for international recruitment staff, many of whom hold these visas, to return to the country.

Phongsavanh said the announcement came too late for the school’s March fair, but that a “big return” is expected for the October fair.

“It is even more important for lesser known schools and low ranking universities”

Similarly, Nicole Sheng, head of university guidance counselling at Shanghai United International School, said she hadn’t seen many recruiters travelling to China from overseas yet but thought they would be likely to come in the Autumn.

Both Sheng and Phongsavanh emphasised the importance of face-to-face interactions to Chinese families.

“Parents and students have university virtual event fatigue,” said Sheng, adding that they are keen to talk to admissions officers in person. “It is even more important for lesser known schools [and] low ranking universities. I have noticed parents and students are more likely to explore [and] consider these unis if they see an admission rep face-to-face.”

“Students and parents want to know they are getting correct information directly from the university,” said Phongsavanh. “Even though online meetings can be more flexible and convenient, parents and university guidance counsellors are looking for more face to face opportunities to connect and engage.”

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The Learning Resource Network has announced that it will provide education qualifications in Thailand.

The ESOL, education training and management qualification specialist said it had added Thailand to the list of international locations in which it is active.

The company was approved by the country’s Council of University Presidents to offer its International GCSE, AS/A Level and Pre University Foundation qualifications.

In the first year of operation in the Southeast Asian country, LRN is aiming to provide some 400 Thai students with globally-recognised qualifications “instrumental” in helping them to progress through the highest academic levels around the world.

David Thomas, the deputy ambassador of the British Embassy in Bangkok who was the guest of honour at the launch event, commended the agreement between LRN and CUPT as “an example of excellent link building through education”.

“LRN will be able to support the education and development of many people based in Thailand,” he said.

“Not only will this help to create an excellent knowledge base in Thailand but it will also strengthen and develop educational links between Thailand and the UK.”

“LRN will be able to support the education and development of many people based in Thailand”

“Launching our qualifications in Thailand is an important step in increasing the availability of well-resourced and high quality education for local people that are keen to learn and progress to higher education,” noted Muhammad Zohaib Tariq, the CEO of LRN.

“We believe that education supports both progress and development and we’re pleased to help local students gain the qualifications that will help them to feed into universities around the world,” he added.

LRN is currently holding discussions with local partners as regards the implementation of the programs, he told The PIE.

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A teacher, author and workshop leader, Angeline Aow has worked at schools around the world. She specialises in helping educators build more inclusive and diverse institutions where the focus is as much on personal development as it is grades.

Angeline Aow currently splits her time between working as a curriculum coordinator at Berlin International School and as an advisor at the Council of International Schools, a membership body for over 820 schools and 585 universities. 

At CIS, Aow focuses on inclusion via diversity, equity and anti-racism, designing and delivering support materials to help schools become more inclusive. “We need to redesign schools so they are serving everybody,” Aow says.

 But the appetite for change among school leaders is mixed. 

“At the moment, it’s a little polarised,” she says. “So on one end, you see a lot of uptake and uptick and a lot of engagement. And on the other end, you see some resistance and denial or just complete lack of knowledge. 

“That I think is largely because one cannot escape the fact that historically not a lot of people of colour or with marginalised identities – that have always been undervalued – hold positions of leadership in schools,” Aow adds. 

This statement is backed up by recent research from CIS, which found that three times more men than women are heads of international schools, and leadership teams are overrepresented by white people from Western countries. 

“Historically not a lot of people of colour or with marginalised identities hold positions of leadership in schools”

To help schools change at both staff and student level, Aow designs and delivers professional development programs, including inclusion foundation workshops.

These online sessions help schools to understand the basics. “If you want to enter and do this work, these are the big concepts that you need to consider and these are how you can get started,” Aow explains. 

Safeguarding support is another element of this work. “In the past, I think safeguarding has had more of a reputation as being protection from sexual misconduct whereas actually forms of harm exist in multiple ways, including racism, homophobia, transphobia,” she says. 

In 2022, Aow co-authored the book Becoming a Totally Inclusive School, and her work is gaining increasing recognition within the sector. She was named as a 2022 “edruptor” by ISC Research and as one of The PIE’s top 50 voices of 2023, Europe edition. 

Aow’s commitment to international education and driving inclusivity stems in part from her own experience of education systems. She was born in Malaysia, before moving to Australia as a child. “I know what it’s like to be discriminated against and when a school system doesn’t serve you,” Aow says. 

She later trained as a primary school teacher and was placed into Australia’s state education system. “I thought it was really the wrong time of my career to be somewhere where you would go and then stay in that school forever,” she says, explaining that she began to look for overseas postings. 

Her first international position was at Nanjing International School in China, where she began to teach the International Baccalaureate primary years program. 

“It was something that really matched my values and beliefs about teaching and learning,” she says, adding that this interest further shaped her career trajectory.  

“Having a grounding in the International Baccalaureate curriculum, I’ve always worked and done teacher training on different topics, such as promoting international mindedness, which has elements of intercultural understanding embedded into it, promoting multilingualism as well as developing global citizenship,” she says. 

“The work I’ve been doing there and consolidating over the years naturally led to more of a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.”

For Aow, redesigning the school system includes redefining our understanding of a successful graduate, which, for many, typically ends with a student enrolling in university. 

“I believe that’s not the end path for everybody,” she says. Instead schools should aim to “foster active citizens who are going to be able to have the skills in order to live fulfilling lives”. This includes cultivating a mindset of valuing diversity and inclusivity – not instead of, but as well as having disciplinary knowledge. 

“There is a German saying that you can be a knowledge giant but an implementation dwarf,” she says. “So someone who might be good at a pub quiz but someone who’s not going to be good to actually deal with the challenges that are presented to us in society today.

“The end goal is to try and cultivate ethical people who are going to contribute positively to the world.” 

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