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England: Cambridge ranked last in university fair access table

England/ 09.04.2018/ From: www.theguardian.com.

A new measure looking at how successful individual universities have been in trying to widen participation to students from all backgrounds has ranked University of Hull as the best-performing institution and Cambridge the worst.

The experimental fair access rankings, drawn up in a research paper by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), rate the University of Derby, Edge Hill, Chester and Plymouth School of Art as among the top performers.

Close to the bottom are some of the country’s oldest and most prestigious universities, including St Andrew’s, Bristol, Oxford and Aberdeen, which perform only marginally better than Cambridge on this measure.

While overall university participation rates among young people have gone up from 10-15% of the population in the 1980s to more than 45% today, there are still wide discrepancies in intake, with fewer students from disadvantaged backgrounds attending the most elite institutions, the Hepi paper points out.

Written by Iain Martin, the vice-chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University, which comes ninth in the rankings, the report advocates the use of the Gini index – a statistical measure of distribution developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912 – in conjunction with so-called Polar measures of university participation in different local areas.

“Widening participation and ensuring that students from all backgrounds are provided opportunities to study at a university that matches their talents and aspirations has been a pivotal part of English higher education policy and strategy for many years,” said Martin. “While much has been achieved, it remains that we do not have an educational level playing field.

“Benchmarking fair and equitable participation using the Gini index – a well-understood and recognised measure of the equitable distribution of resource – provides a single way to measure our transition to a higher education system where all students attend a university that matches their talents and aspiration.”

Cambridge University said its admission rate for state school students had gone up to more than 63% and the proportion of successful applicants from postcodes with the lowest rates of participation in higher education had also increased, from 3.3 % in 2016 to 4.5 % last year.

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.

I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be purchased by a few. I’m happy to make a contribution so others with less means still have access to information.Thomasine, Sweden

From: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/05/cambridge-ranked-last-in-university-fair-access-table

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Of investment in education: is Nigeria still Africa’s giant?

By Adekunle Adebajo

For as far as most Nigerians can remember, this country has been proudlyreferred to astheGiant of Africa. This title was earned by virtue of her intimidating economy, her huge population and her big brother role during the years immediately following her independence from British rule. However, the country is fast losing the respect accorded to her in the past, not only in Africa but across the globe. The factors responsible for this are not far-fetched: poor supply of electricity, poor state of infrastructure, notoriousness for internet fraud, corruption, an inferior quality of education among others.

Homing in on the last, it has been discovered that the state of the country’s schools can be easily explained financially. Comparing the budgetary behaviour of Nigeria and some other countries across Africa reveals that Nigeria’s giant status is not found where it matters the most, particularly in the level of attention paid to the education sector. While other African countries seem to have recognised the potency of education as a midwife to development, a better economy, a safer society and a more prosperous population, Nigeria’s priorities are still found in sustaining an excessively expensive system of governance and in national security, the funds for which often reflect better in foreign bank accounts rather than local battlefields. Rather than set the pace in implementing global standards, Nigeria evidently has a lot to learn from smaller and younger countries across the continent.

Kenya
Kenya’s education sector has traditionally received the lion’s share of the country’s national budget to take care of teachers’ salaries, and primary and secondary school subsidies; and this tradition was upheld in the 2015 budget.In April 2016, the Kenyan government tabled its 2016/17 national budget estimates before the National Assembly. The Budget Policy Statement (BPS) ceilings in all the sectors summed up to 1,498 Kenyan shillings; but the Gross Expenditure Estimates, after the increase by the Treasury, amounted to 1.667 trillion Kenyan shillings. Based on the BPS, education received a total of 346.6 Ksh, which in other words is 23.1% of the entire budget. This figure is topped only by the allocation to Energy, Infrastructure and ICT, some of the projects under which are also academic in nature, for instance the laptop project gulping Ksh 17.58 billion.

South Africa
In the 2016/17 budgetary year in South Africa, the country spent R213.7 billion on basic education, which is about 15% of the total budget; and, according to the National Treasury, the allocation is projected to rise an average of 7.4% annually over the following three fiscal years. In terms of percentage, this allocation, according to data from the United Nations, trumps those of the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. As projected, more recent figures are even more education-friendly. According to aUnited Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) document titled, “Education Budget, South Africa, 2017/2018”, the budget for school children is presently 17% of total government expenditure.

Ghana
Ghana has also established herself as one of Africa’s big spenders on education. In 2013, she committed a whopping 31% of her budget to education as against Nigeria’s 8% in the same year. The following year, the figure dropped to 20.5%; and it declined even more in 2015 to 17.8% and in 2016 to 13.5%. In 2017, however, the Ministry of Education’s budget experienced a 20.7% increase from the previous year’s figure; that is from 7.55 billion Ghanaian cedes to 9.12 billion Ghanaian cedes. And in 2018, the allocation has increased by another 11.6% as the government proposed last year to spend GHS 10.18 billion on the Ministry. This amounts to 16.42% of the total budget of GHS 62 billion.

Egypt
As for Egypt, one country whose universities alwaysstand out on the continental ranking, the government proposed to spend EGP 104 billion on education in the 2016/2017 fiscal year, which amounted to 11.1% of government spending in that year. This is an improvement on the allocation of EGP 99.3 billion the previous year. The increment in the allocation is partly attributable to the Egyptian Constitution. According to the document, the government is required to spend at least 3 per cent of the Gross National Product (GNP) on healthcare and at least 4 per cent on education every year. It is noteworthy that the global average education budget in relation to GDP stands at 5%.

Lesotho
This country is renowned to spend most part of its GDP on education. According to the budget speech to the parliament for the 2017/2018 fiscal year presented by Dr.MoeketsiMajoro, the Minister of Finance, the government proposed to spend a total of M2.423 billion on education and training in 2018. This, to put it differently, is 19.2% of the entire budget. The previous year, the government had spent 20.7% on

the same sector.

Now to Nigeria
In the acclaimed giant of Africa and home to the largest black population on earth, regard for education appears to be an anathema to all forms of government, whether led by a military dictator or a democratically elected individual, a Northerner or a Southerner, a Major General or a Ph.D. holder. An assessment of the trend from 1999 shows that the lowest allocation, 4.46%, to education was in 1999, and the highest, 11.44%, was in 2015. The average allocation in all 16 years of democratic rule is 9.14%. In the pre-1999 years of military rule, the sector did not fare any better as a study has shown that the average allocation to education between the years of 1981 and 1998 was a meagre 4.18%.

The situation has in fact worsened under the present administration. The first budget presented by President MuhammaduBuhari in December 2015 for the 2016 fiscal year was in stark contrast to the double digits legacy left by his predecessor. Education received ₦369.6 billion, which was 6.07% of the entire budget. In the 2017 budget proposals, N448.01billion was allocated to education, representing about 6% of the ₦7.30 trillion budget. And in the 2018 Appropriation Bill, the government proposed an allocation of ₦435.01 billion to education, which is just 7.04% of the total budgeted amount of ₦8.612 trillion.

Nigeria against the world
Across Africa, most countries are spending more and more on education by the year. As a matter of fact, government expenditure on education in Sub-Saharan Africa increased from US$12 billion in 2000 to US$67 billion in 2013 representing over 450% growth. This trend has resulted in higher literacy rates, lesser numbers of out-of-school children, improved quality of learning, and more foreign investments as well as greater industrialisation owing to greater availability of skilled labour. It has also led to a gradual increase in GDP for many of these countries as educated citizens naturally earn more than those who do benefit from formal learning.

Nigeria, on the other hand, especially under the presidency of MuhammaduBuhari, has yet to board the train of progress, despite cries from various corners. For this country, it has become an unending cycle of budgetary disregard for education, and complaints from stakeholders, accompaniedby silence from the government. The same pattern is repeated year in year out. This habit has affected us greatly, because not only are our schools not reckoned with on the international stage, the culture of academic tourism has seen our economy shed weight to the benefit of such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom and even Ghana.

In 2012, the Chairman of Exam Ethics International, Ike Onyechere, said Nigerians spend over ₦1.5 trillion annually on students studying abroad. ₦160 billion out of this goes to Ghana, while ₦80 billion goes to the United Kingdom. Likewise, in 2016, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institution and Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Senator BintaMasi, said Nigeria spends over $2 billion annually as capital flight on education abroad. With this figure alone, Nigeria can build one or two world-class universities every year, considering the fact that Pakistan planned to spend $750 million for each of its new universities of engineering, science and technology and Qatar’s Cornell University spent the same amount establishing its School of Medicine in 2002.

The country’s lacklustre attitude towards education equally reflects in the ranking of universities across the globe and in Africa. According to the 2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, there is only one Nigerian university in the top 15 ranking in Africa, and that university, the University of Ibadan, is number 14 on the list. On the same list, we have six universities from South Africa, three from Egypt, two from Morocco, one from Uganda (ranked fourth), one from the Ghana (ranked seventh), and one from Kenya (ranked eighth). A similar pattern recurred in the 2018 ranking.

Finally
It is high time the Nigerian government recognised that recognising the good in education is for the good of the country. We do not have to go as far as the extreme West or the far East to get examples of countries reaping bountifully from great investments in education. Right here in Africa, there are more than sufficient instances. The Nigerian National Assembly should adopt the Egyptian legislative model by incorporating, into the constitution, a benchmark for budgetary allocations to the education sector. This preferably must not fall below 5% of the nation’s GDP or 20% of government’s annual spending.

Our schools are ailing; and it is not by scrapping Post UTME or quelling industrial actions that they will get better. We must make conscious, radical efforts by investing all we can to turn things around for good. Before we complain that our graduates are unemployable, we must ask first if our schools are habitable and if our facilities are universally acceptable. But beyond just dumping huge sums of money into the sector in theory, the government has to also ensure a balance in recurrent and capital expenditures as well as an effective implementation of whatever plans are laid out on paper. If we can do this, then the return of the giant to her rightful place is not only inevitable but will happen before long, before our very eyes.

Source:

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/263557/of-investment-in-education-is-nigeria-still-africas-giant.html

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EEUU: Northwest Arkansas schools expand health care education to meet demand

EEUU/March 13, 2018/Source: http://www.nwaonline.com/

Higher education institutions are increasing class sizes and starting programs to meet the growing need for health care workers in Northwest Arkansas, school officials said.

«We believe we are addressing the workforce shortage — not just in Arkansas — but specifically, the increased need that is projected for Northwest Arkansas,» said Stephanie Gardner, interim chancellor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Fastest growing in Arkansas

The fastest-growing occupation through 2024 is projected to be occupational therapy assistants with a 54 percent growth. Physical therapist aides are expected to grow by 45 percent, and physical therapist assistants are expected to see 42 percent growth over the same time period.

Source: Arkansas Department of Workforce Services

Northwest Arkansas is among the fastest growing areas in the nation and is expected to reach 800,000 people by 2040, according to a 2016 report by the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. That growth means more health care professionals and support staff members are needed, said Mervin Jebaraj, director at the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas.

The region also has an aging population, more access to insurance than previous years and more health care workers nearing retirement, Jebaraj said. The combination is driving the need for more workers, he said.

The Northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area — which includes Benton, Washington and Madison counties in Arkansas and McDonald County, Mo. — will need about 1,000 medical professionals and 800 support staff annually through 2028, Rob Smith, Northwest Arkansas Council communications and policy director, wrote in an email. From 2015 to 2016, about 1,024 people became health care staff or professionals, he wrote.

The council is a group of business and community leaders who attract businesses to Northwest Arkansas and improve the area’s workforce.

Statewide, about 15,000 health-care-related jobs have been created since 2014, Jebaraj said. That increase is expected to continue.

«We’ve seen health care jobs across the state and in Northwest Arkansas go up significantly,» Jebaraj said.

Health care technicians, practitioners and support specialist jobs are expected to grow in Benton and Washington counties by nearly 5 percent between 2016 and 2018, according to the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services. That’s above the statewide prediction of 3.6 percent over the same time period.

«What’s encouraging is that many of our region’s school districts are actively addressing our need for those health care support staff,» Smith said. «There’s a real willingness to be active creators of new programs.»

Expanding with need

Educational programs, from bachelor’s degrees to nine-week certificates, are growing among Northwest Arkansas institutions. The schools are partnering to funnel students into more education.

UAMS and Northwest Arkansas Community College are working on an early acceptance agreement for the community college’s students to go directly into the Radiologic Imaging Sciences program at the university’s campus in Fayetteville.

The University of Arkansas and UAMS are offering a new occupational therapy doctorate program. The first students in the program will arrive during the 2019 school year, said Fran W. Hagstrom, assistant dean for the UA College of Education and Health Professions.

That joint-venture works in part because UAMS started a physical therapy program that could become a pipeline for other programs, Hagstrom said. The first cohort of physical therapy students at UAMS graduate in May, which means the new program is on target for professional accreditation, said Susan Long, interim dean of the UAMS College of Health Professions.

Schools are working together, including hospitals and clinics that accept more students to train, said Jamin Snarr, EMS program director at Northwest Arkansas Community College.

«Everybody kind of stepped up to help us out and allowed us to increase our student numbers,» Snarr said.

NWACC agreed in November to accept licensed practical nurse graduates from Northwest Technical Institute into its registered nursing program early. About 50 nursing students at the technical school are expected to graduate this May and be eligible for the early admittance.

«It’s just a pathway from Northwest Technical Institute to further their nursing career with higher degrees,» said Blake Robertson, institute president.

Hospitals in particular are looking for more education among its employees, Robertson said.

The shortage of health care professionals includes paramedics, Snarr said.

The employee turnover rate at Central Emergency Medical Service, an ambulance service that covers nearly all of Washington County, was about 17 percent last year. Officials with Central EMS and fire departments have said they struggle to find, recruit and keep paramedics.

That shortage is why the community college accepted 25 students, instead of the usual 18, into the paramedic program this spring, Snarr said. The school plans to expand to 34 students until the shortage is over, he said.

The institute plans to begin a short-term phlebotomy program starting next fall.

UAMS continues to grow in the area. It is assessing whether to start a sonography program and wants more students in radiological imaging sciences, Gardner said. The master’s degree in genetic counseling program is growing to eight students, and four of those students will be at the Northwest campus.

The competition

Schools are trying to expand while continuing to give students quality education and find space, officials said. But, there is a bottleneck at the education level, Jebaraj said.

The University of Arkansas gets about 400 applications for 100 student spots per semester, Hagstrom said.

«That’s not uncommon among health professionals at all,» she said.

For example, 261 people applied for 36 slots in the UAMS physician assistant program this year, according to the school. The ratio for speech language pathology is even worse — 151 applications for about 20 spots.

Competition among students is stiff, Robertson said.

Last semester, the institute moved students in its nursing and surgical technology programs into a bigger classroom and laboratory, but it’s not enough, Robertson said. The school needs more space, and applications are on the rise.

«We turn away good students because we just don’t have the space,» Robertson said.

Robertson asked the state for a $3.5 million grant to double the size of its center for health care programs about a year ago but didn’t get the money, he said. He plans to ask the governor again, he said.

Schools inevitably must accept more students, but growth should be done so class sizes don’t overwhelm instructors and students still get the education they expect, Hagstrom said. Decisions on growth are up to the schools, she said.

«Can we expand? Absolutely,» Hagstrom said about the University of Arkansas. «And, I think we will see some expansion of programs in the coming years.»

Source:

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2018/mar/11/northwest-arkansas-schools-expand-healt/?news

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Education: Still searching for Utopia?

By. Courier. UNESCO

“Learning to live together, by developing an understanding of others and their history, traditions and spiritual values and, on this basis, creating a new spirit which  […] would induce people to implement common projects or to manage the inevitable conflicts in an intelligent and peaceful way. Utopia, some might think, but it is a necessary Utopia, indeed a vital one if we are to escape from a dangerous cycle sustained by cynicism or by resignation.” This was the recommendation in the Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century – chaired in 1996 by Jacques Delors, former French Minister of Finance and President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1994.

Two decades later, we are still searching for this Utopia – a creative form of education that forms the basis for a new spirit. But how do we get there?

The central theme of this issue of the Courier, commissioned and edited by Mary de Sousa (United Kingdom), approaches this question from several different angles. Can education really change lives? The response is ‘yes’, if we are to listen to Kailash Satyarthi (India), Nobel Peace Prize 2014 laureate, who has rescued over 85,000 Indian children from slavery, through education and employment. And how do we stop schools from becoming targets in times of war? Drawing on his experience in the field, journalist Brendan O’Malley (United Kingdom) offers some leads. Can peace be taught? The methods of the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo (Norway) provide an edifying example.

Training for global citizenship? The innovative curricula of Harvard University, designed by the Venezuelan expert Fernando M. Reimers, prove that it is possible. Is the brain drain inevitable? According to Cameroonian specialist Luc Ngwé, it is possible to turn the situation around so that everyone benefits. Why is it essential that we restore the image of the social sciences and the humanities? Find answers in the article by Jean Winand, professor at the University of  Liège, Belgium.

Source:

https://en.unesco.org/courier/2018-1

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Increased quality is main goal in the internationalisation of Norwegian education

Norway /05.03.2018 / By: sciencenordic.com.

Quality development is often stated as a main goal in Norwegian universities and university colleges’ strategies on internationalisation. Ideals such as solidarity and personal formation are less present.

These are some of the findings in a new report conducted by the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU). The report reviews the international strategies of 36 Norwegian institutions of higher education.

Reflects National Policy

“In the report we examine how the institutions write about internationalisation in overall strategic documents. There is a huge variation in how they approach this theme, but the strategies have in common the fact that they are reflecting national policy statements”, SIU-researcher Margrete Søvik says.

Quality development is the man reason for internationalisation, according to the strategic documents. The most common approach to the notion of quality is to define internationalisation as a tool for quality improvement through comparison, and that recognition across borders in itself is a sign of quality.

This corresponds closely with Norwegian national policies, and is in line with the sectorial goals for the institutions, and for the Ministry of Research and Education. Here it is stated that the institutions should offer education and research on a high international level.

The strategies also mention the social mission and access to resources as important rationales. The idea is that competition of talent and resources strengthens the institutions and enables them to contribute to a global knowledge society, through internationalisation.

“Solidarity, peace and personal formation, classic ideals in internationalisation of higher education and research, are less commonly present in the strategic documents”, Søvik says.

“This also reflects the development in other countries, where financial concerns create the incentives for educational institutions to cooperate across borders.”

Joint degrees and mobility

According to the report, the issues most frequently stressed in the area of education are mobility, internationalisation at home, English‐taught courses, institutional cooperation and joint degrees.  In the field of research, networks and mobility are the issues mentioned by most institutions.

The institutions are divided into two main groups: The first group clearly uses the strategy as a marketing tool, while the other group seems to form their strategy specifically targeted at the government.

“It seems that the strategies are not specifically made to be used as internal management documents. However, the report analyses the central strategies, and we have not thoroughly examined how the documents are used by within the institutions”, Søvik says.

Social responsibility

While the main universities aim to participate as global actors through internationalisation, many of the University Colleges see external cooperation as a social responsibility – strengthening the local community and the local industry by linking them to global society.

One example is Lillehammer University College, writing “by international cooperation the University College wishes to contribute to internationalisation of the region.”

The four oldest Norwegian universities (Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim, Tromsø) have ambitions of solving global challenges within areas like climate and health through internationalisation. The University of Oslo states that they “… strives to participate in meeting the global challenges of today…”.

Russia priority

Geographically, the strategic documents follow national priorities and financial sources available. In general, Europe stands out as the main area of interest. This is with the exception of the institutions of northern Norway, having Russia as their main priority.

It is natural that these institutions look to Russia, according to SIU researcher Dag Stenvoll, co-author to the report.

“Politically and location wise, cooperation with Russia is obvious for these institutions. There are also a number of funds available for these kind of projects, for example through SIU and the Norwegian Research Council”, he says.

From: http://sciencenordic.com/increased-quality-main-goal-internationalisation-norwegian-education

 

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EEUU: A group of Texas lawmakers wants to fix higher education funding — but it won’t be easy

EEUU/February 27, 2018/By: Shannon Najmabadi/ Source: http://www.oaoa.com

After lawmakers last year failed to overhaul how the state funds its public colleges and universities, a special committee on Wednesday will begin a new attempt to review the complicated higher education finance system in Texas.

Complaints have crescendoed about eroding government support for higher education. But at stake in the coming months is not how much money Texas pumps into its colleges and universities. It’s whether the state’s method of disbursing nearly $3 billion per year to those schools through formulas and direct appropriations is due for a comprehensive makeover.

«The way we fund higher education in Texas is overdue for a close, detailed look and consideration of substantial changes,» said state Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, one of the committee’s co-chairs.

The Joint Committee on Higher Education Formula Funding was convened out of a compromise at the end of the 2017 legislative session, following an unsuccessful bid by Senate leadership to overhaul the higher education finance system entirely. The Senate’s efforts panicked college leaders and were rejected by powerful members of the House, who have generally called for modifications to be made in lieu of wholesale changes.

Stymied, lawmakers agreed to preserve the current system for the next biennium but directed an interim committee to study it and issue recommendations by April 2018.

The committee is made up of five representatives tapped by Republican House Speaker Joe Straus and five senators appointed by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick – none of whom serve on the upper chamber’s higher education committee. Though the panel has leeway to reshape the system, they’d have to overcome numerous political hurdles — and inertia — to do so. It’s unknown who will take the helm of the House in 2019 — Straus is not running for re-election — and the competing interests of legislators and schools make consensus difficult.

“I’m not sure that overhauling higher education finance is something that can be done with two meetings in February and a report due in April,” said state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, one of the committee members. “However, I am hopeful that a focused discussion of how higher education financing methods have impacted institutional behavior will reveal some insights before next session.”

Special items

There are two main components to the state’s current method of funding higher-education: “special items” earmarked for specific projects and a per-credit allocation disbursed using a formula.

The “special items” are funds allocated outside the normal formulas to give schools cash infusions to start up new programs or pay for initiatives not always within their academic mission. But state Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, one of the committee’s co-chairs, said they’d caused “some heartburn for members,” and they’re set to be the focus of a separate hearing later this month.

In the previous biennium, the 362 special items ranged in cost from a $31,500 research initiative at Sul Ross State University to a $61,397,900 allocation for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s School of Medicine. Some schools receive what amounts to a supplement through the “special items” allocation process that they use to hire more professors and staff.

But the “special items” funding stream has drawn ire from lawmakers who say it’s grown too large and is duplicative of the per-student allotment. Critics have also argued that the items are distributed unevenly among universities and that state budget writers usually don’t go back and evaluate whether they should be kept in subsequent budgets.

“Special items were intended to support research, startup costs and other initiatives, not to remain as never-ending line items in the state budget,” Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, the Senate’s lead budget writer, said last year.

Last session, some senators tried to zero out the $1.1 billion in funding meant for “special items” — offering to mitigate the effects of the cut with a $700 million infusion to the per-credit pot. The move agitated university leaders, who protested that “special items” frequently pay for entire programs or medical schools. “The sky really is going to fall if you pass this bill,” Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp said at the time.

Some universities argue that money removed from the «special items» stream could not be easily replaced. Even if the items were eliminated and the money were reallocated, it would be diffused into the per-credit stream, critics say. That might mean some important projects designated to receive specific money — like the McDonald Observatory in the University of Texas at Austin budget — might be harmed financially.

Formula funding

The per-credit funding mechanism has critics, too, but is less frequently in lawmakers’ crosshairs. Much of it is calculated using a formula that largely hinges on how many students an institution has and what discipline those students are studying. Data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shows engineering students cost more to educate than their liberal arts peers — and so the formula gives a greater weight to engineering when calculating how much money universities should be paid.

(Schools also receive funding for infrastructure costs through this stream, but using a different formula based on square feet and utility rates.)

Detractors argue the formulas aren’t a good proxy for what universities’ costs are and don’t accurately account for part-time or other nontraditional students. Colleges with rapidly swelling student populations also complain of budgetary shortfalls, since the per-student funding is based on past years’ enrollment data.

Ashby said that “in most cases, our formulas are in place for good reason.” But he added he was “hopeful that we can agree on some concepts to promote efficiency and equity at all of our institutions.”

Outcomes-based funding

Though it may prove politically impossible, the committee has license to recommend an overhaul of how higher education in the state is financed. Its charge says lawmakers can consider realigning or eliminating “special items” and improving the per-credit allocation.

Rather than basing it on the number of students in each discipline, lawmakers could tie a school’s funding to how well their students perform. Hancock said the committee should «absolutely see what lessons can be learned from states that successfully implemented outcomes-based funding at four-year institutions,» and the possibility is slated to be discussed during at least one panel Wednesday.

The state’s community and technical colleges already receive their funding through a formula that factors in students’ performance. At Texas State Technical College System — appropriations for which have been tied to graduates’ earnings for the past few years — the switch has “worked in a big way,” said Chancellor Mike Reeser.

What happened, Reeser said, is administrators’ “obsession” with maximizing class-time was «replaced with an obsession with making sure kids got jobs and making sure they got the training they needed to get good salaries.” Graduation rates there increased 42 percent over a six-year period, and graduates’ salaries went up 83 percent.

“Our mission is to create a skilled workforce, so using student employment outcomes was a very natural thing to do,” Reeser said — but he added that institutions with broader goals, like four-year universities, would need to be evaluated using different metrics.

Ashby similarly said the outcomes-oriented model has been “critical to driving completion and promoting skilled degrees” there but that the “mission of a larger flagship university or a four-year regional institution is much different.”

As an alternative to replacing the formula based on headcount with one based on students’ performance, some university officials say lawmakers could add a sort of outcomes-based supplement — a bonus for schools where students perform well.

«Having some type of performance funding tied to each institution’s mission, in addition to a consistent and stable model for funding would benefit Texas students and our economy,» said UT-Arlington President Vistasp Karbhari.

Source:

http://www.oaoa.com/news/education/article_07feb4fb-56c2-5212-b21d-5a8e846b05bc.html

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Canada: Post-secondary education made more affordable for part-time students

Canada/ February 27, 2018/By: Rattan Mall/Source: http://www.voiceonline.com

STARTING this academic year, nearly 10,000 more part-time students from low- and middle-income families will benefit from up to $1,800 in non‑repayable grants per year and up to $10,000 in loans.

This was announced by parliamentary secretary Terry Beech on behalf of Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, on Tuesday.

Additionally, access to grants for part-time students with children will be expanded allowing them to benefit from up to $1,920 per year in grants.

Expanded access to Canada Student Grants for full-time and part-time students and students with dependants helps more Canadians afford post-secondary education. These measures will benefit Canadian women in particular, who often strive to improve their career prospects while balancing family responsibilities.

Women represent nearly two-thirds of the Canada Student Loans Program’s part-time recipients, while approximately four out of five students receiving the Canada Student Grant for students with dependent children are women.

Hajdu said: “Helping more Canadians afford post-secondary education will help grow our economy and strengthen the middle class. Far too many Canadians face challenges when pursuing post-secondary education—not only because of the cost of education itself but also because of the financial pressures and time constraints of supporting our families. Our government has Canadians covered, no matter their circumstance—whether they are going to college or university for the first time, returning to school or upgrading their skills.”
Kathy Kinloch, President, British Columbia Institute of Technology, said: “The British Columbia Institute of Technology has always supported unique paths to post-secondary education. As we empower our students to embrace the challenges of a complex world, we work alongside the government and our industry partners to enhance education access opportunities for all learners.”

The Government of Canada is investing:
– $107.4 million over four years, starting in 2018–19, and $29.3 million per year thereafter, to expand eligibility for Canada Student Grants for students with dependants.
– $59.8 million over four years, starting in 2018–19, and $17 million per year thereafter to expand eligibility for Canada Student Grants for Part-Time Students and to increase the threshold for eligibility for Canada Student Loans for part-time students.
-Expanded access to Canada Student Grants for students with dependants, starting in the 2018–19 academic year, allows more:
– full-time students with children to receive up to $200 per month per child; and
– part-time students with children to receive up to $1,920 per year in grants.

Source:

Post-secondary education made more affordable for part-time students

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