‘Exception’ becomes the rule as three in four charge £9K fees | John Morgan | Times Higher Education | 26 July 2012
Post-92s among high risers as coalition hopes for ‘competitive pressure’ fade. About three-quarters of English universities will charge £9,000 for at least some courses next year, with several new universities increasing their average fees by about 10 per cent.
Private providers share in cream | John Ross | Australian Higher Education | 25 July 2012
Private colleges say the uncapping of publically subsidised higher education places has helped rather than hindered them, as an increasing pool of would-be students rejects universities. Private chains Navitas, Think Education adn Study Group claim steady or accelerating growth at their colleges over the past three years, despite rapid expansion by universities taking advantage of relaxed enrolment caps.
Penn State’s Culture of Reverence Led to ‘Total Disregard’ for Children’s Safety | Brad Wolverton | Chronicle of Higher Education | 20 July, 2012
An inquiry led by Louis J. Freeh, a former FBI director, concluded that Joe Paterno and other top officials at Penn State hushed up child-sexual-abuse allegations for fear of bad publicity. A reverence for football was largely to blame for a series of missteps by top Pennsylvania State University administrators in failing to report repeated allegations of child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky, according to an independent report released on Thursday.
Euro ‘own goal’? Coalition tactic could bleed British R&D | Elizabeth Gibney | Times Higher Education | 19 July 2012
Critics demand ‘joined-up’ thinking as plan to cut EU budget threatens research. Efforts by the UK to curb rises to the overall European Union budget are threatening to cut the €80 billion £63 billion in EU research funding proposed for 2014 to 2020, Times Higher Education has learned.
Retention rates slump at fast five | John Ross | The Australian Higher Education | 18 July, 2012
THE five fastest-growing universities recorded their lowest progress rates last year, as more students struggled in an expanding university system. Macquarie, Swinburne, Canberra, Western Sydney and the Australian Catholic universities saw student progress rates retreat after recruiting aggressively in 2010 and last year. The five had over-enrolled by between 25 per cent and 40 per cent in the two years, taking advantage of the doubling of the over-enrolment buffer to 10 per cent in the lead-up to this year’s uncapping of higher education places.
Private bodies saddle up for state subsidies | John Morgan | Times Higher Education | 12 July 2012
Number of private courses eligible for public loans is increasing, BIS data show. Students on private college courses such as animal chiropractic care, acupuncture and “contemporary person-centred psychotherapy” have been eligible to receive state-subsidised funding during the past two years, with one private institution being given state loan access for nearly 100 sub-degree vocational courses in a single day.
Visa verdict redemption for student | Bernard Lane | The Australian Higher Education | 11 July, 2012
YOUNG at 18 but otherwise not unlike countless other Chinese, she came to Melbourne to study. Within two years, Daisy was working in a massage parlour as she studied for her Victorian Certificate of Education. Worse — and better — was to come. Last month, having spent all her adult life in Australia, Daisy won the right to stay after a tribunal set aside a government decision to cancel her visa.
Loan Changes May Curb Graduate Study | Stacey Patton | Chronicle of Higher Education | 06 July 2012
The article discusses the student debt burden of graduate students in the U.S. in light of a July 1, 2012, expiration of U.S. federal in-school subsidies for interest accrued by Stafford loans for students seeking advanced degrees. The author profiles graduate students Michael J. Trivette and Andrew S. Belasco, both at the University of Georgia, and discusses their research related to borrowing patterns of U.S. graduate students from 1999-2008 by race and gender.
Grand fee paid for each foreign student | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 5 July 2012
THE investigation shows almost £60m spent on agents’ commissions. UK universities recruited more than 50,000 international students through commission payments to overseas agents last year, spending close to £60 million on the practice in 2010-11, a Times Higher Education investigation has found.
Online courses winning prestige | Andrew Trounson | The Australian Higher Education | 04 July, 2012
PATTERN recognition and data analytics are highly specialised areas and Deakin University professor Svetha Venkatesh has had to put a lot of work into getting her PhD students up to speed.But not anymore. She merely has them take a course and test from US Stanford University through online provider Coursera. And it’s free.
Higher Education in the Headlines 