Universities

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Nigeria: Group warns institutions against post -UTME screening, says court order subsists

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Africa/Nigeria/12.06.18/Source: guardian.ng

A non-governmental organisation, Legal Defence Assistance Project (LEDAP) has warned managers of the nation’s tertiary institutions against conducting the post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinaion (UTME), warning that there’s a subsisting order of the court against the exercise.

The group, in separate letters to the minister of education, mallam Adamu Adamu, alongside heads of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, and obtained by The Guardian said the court had declared the conduct of post-UTME in the nation’s tertiary institutions as illegal.

The letter signed by LEDAP national coordinator, Chino Obiagwu read in part:

“It has come to our notice that some universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria are currently selling forms for post-UTME examinations and other screening tests for admission into the institutions.Please take notice that there is a subsisting Judgment of the Federal High Court in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/979/15 between LEDAP and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the minister of education and the National Universities Commission (NUC), wherein the court held that only JAMB can conduct examinations and give admissions into tertiary institutions by virtue of Section 5 (1) (2) of the agency’s act.

Furthermore, the court declared the post-UTME conducted by the institutions as illegal, and further issued a perpetual injunction restraining them from conducting post-UTME or any other form of examination.

 

Source of the notice: https://guardian.ng/features/group-warns-institutions-against-post-utme-screening-says-court-order-subsists/

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The Foundation of Africa’s Future. High quality education is key to overcoming Africa’s economic challenges.

Zandre Campos

Africa/Angola/12.06.18/By Zandre Campos/ Source: www.usnews.com.

 

THE CONVERSATION ABOUT Africa has been shifting from one about shortfalls to one about opportunities. Africa is a known leader in commodity exporting, but the economic potential far succeeds that.

Africa has an enormous coastline and is more proximate to both European and North American markets than Asia. Currently, Africa leads the world in mobile adoption, which continues to offer the biggest cross-sectoral economic opportunities. In addition, Africa has recently been cited as being a potential leader in technology, sustainability and agriculture.

There has been much progress over the years to make Africa the great place it is, but with the overall goal of making the region a competitive and effective player in international relations and the world economy, Africa needs to find a way to deliver effective, efficient and high-quality higher education systems in the region.

The general picture for education in Africa is one of ongoing progress and constant challenges. While no African country has achieved universal primary education, the number of children enrolled in primary school more than doubled between 1990 and 2012, according to «The State of Education in Africa Report 2015,» published by the Africa-America Institute. Yet in 2012, the average pupil-to-teacher ratio in primary school was 42 to 1, unchanged since 1999. In terms of higher education, enrollment more than doubled between 2000 and 2010 – with 50 percent more students per professor at African universities compared to the global average.

African education needs more of everything – more schools, more trained teachers, more investment. Certainly greater participation by the private sector and strengthening public/private partnerships would assist governments and bolster public sector funds to finance Africa’s public education system.

An article in the Harvard Business Review also calls for supporting Africa’s universities internationally. The article notes that many African universities are «decoupled» from their societies and markets, with no investment in research that drives innovative solutions. For example, an engineering school can exist for decades in a community without drinking water and make no effort to find a solution. Linking universities to companies in global innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley could help improve education and lead to new advancements in technology that would spur African economic growth, according to the piece.

A prime example of innovation is the education system in Finland. Since it implemented significant education reforms 40 years ago, Finland has consistently ranked at the top among developed nations, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment, an international standardized test for 15-year-olds in language, math and science. Finland has opted not to follow the evaluation-driven, centralized model that much of the Western world uses. There are no mandatory tests, homework is minimal, school days are shorter and courses are fewer. Instead of control, competition, stress and standardized testing, children are treated with warmth, collaboration and highly professionalized, teacher-led encouragement and assessment. They attend school fewer hours, but benefit from highly personalized attention and needed time for play.

Africa needs to find solutions that are directly connected to the needs of individual countries and to the continent as a whole. What has been tried in the past, particularly traditions begun under colonial regimes, won’t work in the future. The education system should emphasize the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) and be geared to finding solutions to Africa’s challenges.

For example, let’s look at the numbers of foreign companies and engineers that are building Africa. Compare those numbers with African scientists and Ph.D.s. The education system should be structured to meet those shortfalls and groom the talent Africa needs to address the challenges in multiple sectors, such as energy, water and infrastructure.

Africa is the youngest continent, with 200 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24, the Africa-America Institute reports. By 2040, Africa will have the world’s youngest labor force. Young people in Africa need jobs and a positive outlook for their lives ahead. They need to realize their vision and to lead Africa forward. A quality education is the foundation and the essence of their future.

Source of the article: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-08-16/education-is-key-to-africas-economy

 

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China: New platform to inspire children to become the future building blocks of technology development

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China/By Yang Meiping / Source: https://www.shine.cn

Chinese corporations are looking into new ways of educating children in technology development as the nation strives to become a world leader in artificial intelligence and coding sectors.

Most children are familiar with computers, tablets and smartphones and play digital games on them. Some of those children have gone further than any of their peers and even are able to create games and apps. Yuma Soerianto, a 10-year-old from Australia, has created six apps and became the youngest attendee at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference last year.

Inspired by Soerianto’s achievements, some companies are now trying to cultivate such ability in every child. Shenzhen DianMao Technology Co Ltd is taking the baton with its web-based education platform called Codemao. It includes a series of applications of teaching coding and programming to children.

Li Tianchi, the co-founder and CEO of Codemao, said he and his partner Sun Yue started the company in 2015 when they noticed that some countries have already added coding subject in their school curricula. Meanwhile, the demand in China also grows rapidly due to technology development, such as artificial intelligence and the Internet.

“The world will need more new talent as computer or AI can replace human beings to some extent. Therefore, people should learn coding to make computers or AI work for us, rather than letting them manipulate us,” Li said. “Coding skill will be a basic and essential tool in the future as an international talent. For example, if a journalist can write a program to sort out data and analyze it for a financial issue, it will be more efficient for he/she to work out a report.”

The efficiency of AI has already been widely proved and began to influence lots of areas. For example, Goldman Sachs Group has laid off hundreds of traders in the past few years because of the adoption of computer programs.

According to Li, coding is becoming a basic subject for students, which has been put into primary curriculum in America and some European countries.

China’s state council also released an notification last year, requiring schools to incorporate coding into computer course. It also encourages social forces to develop interesting learning tools for coding education.

Li believes that, although China has begun to popularize computer education since the 1980s, coding education has not been fully developed yet.

Decades back, computer lessons focused on basic skills and knowledge such as document processing.

Since 2000, Computer and Information has become a compulsory course for students, but the focus was still on learning to use existing software, such as Microsoft and Internet Explorer.

“It was about how to work a computer, not how a computer works and how to make it work for us,” said Li. “Only after 2008, coding tools started to enter primary education.”

The difficulty in promoting coding education is because there are only a small number of qualified teachers who know both coding and education.

“It’s not a problem only in China, but worldwide, as outstanding computer professionals are sought by companies with high salaries. Schools could not offer that high payment,” said Li. “Meanwhile, the traditional programming code and tools are difficult for students and even primary school teachers to learn.”

However, the difficulty brought an opportunity for Li and his partner. They are professionals in computers and programming and have invited experts from education and cognitive psychology to create Codemao together — a platform designed on the learning characteristics of children. The aim is to make coding as simple and interesting as building blocks for children.

Based on Chinese national curriculum on computers, it divides its teaching system into nine levels.

It starts with teaching kindergarten or primary school students the basic ideas of coding through game-playing experience, with guidance from cartoon characters and graphic instruction options shaped like blocks. Then it gradually grows into algorithms, data structure and programming languages.

“On our platform, kids can learn to design graphic changes at the very beginning and then create simple games, such as whack-a-mole,” said Li. “When they finish all the nine levels, they will be capable of building and managing big databases and developing large-scale websites.

“We estimated that most students expect to spend approximately 10 years to go through the nine levels, but some students can learn surprisingly fast when their learning motive and potential are triggered. Thus, I think some will finish the nine levels in advance.”

Li pointed out that learning coding languages is not the ultimate goal when learning computation algorithms and creating games, animations and other programs. Students are also learning logical thinking and learning how to apply their knowledge to physics, archaeology, aerospace and other subjects.

“They are no longer addicts to online games, but learners, thinkers and creators,” he said.

There are free prerecorded online courses on the platform, one-to-one courses by teachers offline and an AI system that can answer questions from students and debug students’ work. Offline activities are organized during summer and winter vacations for themed coding learning, and famous coders from home and abroad are also invited to give lecture.

More than 2 million students from more than 3,000 schools, and some off-campus training organizations in China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Australia, South Africa, UK and France are now using the platform, according to Li.

Apart from teaching students, Li’s company also trains teachers to benefit more kids. It’s now cooperating with famous universities, such as Shanghai Normal University and Beijing Normal University, to deliver courses to embed coding and coding education ability in future teachers.

In less developed areas, it’s also cooperating with training schools to set up joint programs to cultivate coding education teachers.

It is also going to set up a research center in Finland to study issues including coding and interdisciplinary education, such as STEAM, a task-oriented education approach that guides students to solve real problems combining knowledge of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

“We would like to transfer our research findings into applications to improve our products and provide better education for children,” said Li.

The company has won many startup and innovation rewards and attracted US$18 million of financing, the highest amount K12 code education area .The two founders were listed on the “30 under 30 Asia” ranking, and 30 elites under 30 years old in Asia.

Source:

https://www.shine.cn/archive/feature/education/New-platform-to-inspire-children-to-become-the-future-building-blocks-of-technology-development/shdaily.shtml

 

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India: Centre shifts focus to liberalization of higher education

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India/May 08, 2018/By: Prashant K. Nanda/Source: https://www.livemint.com

Over the past few months, the Indian higher education sector has been witnessing a gradual transformation.

The long promised new education policy is still in the pipeline, but the Union government seems to have taken up a new task — liberalization of higher education.

Over the past few months, the Indian higher education sector has been witnessing a gradual transformation from a restrictive regime to a liberalized one in all three key aspects: finance, academic and administrative.

“Higher education liberalization is a requirement and the government is taking steps to achieve it. You will see key regulatory bodies like the University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) getting reformed for better management of higher education,” said a top official of the human resource development ministry.

“From legislative measures to executive orders, the ministry is now busy reducing the restrictive regime in the sector. In the next six months, you will see some more initiatives,” he said.

What he was referring to is a series of initiatives the ministry has already initiated over the past few months. It enacted the IIM Act, allowing Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to become virtually free of government control. It has brought in a set of guidelines for autonomous colleges allowing them freedom to prescribe courses, become more industry linked and start self-financing courses to become financially sustainable. Besides, it has put in place a non-banking financial corporation to aid infra growth of educational institutions on a borrow and pay concept — a move that will reduce the financial burden on the government and make institutions accountable for their own infra and research growth.

In March, the Union government for the first time provided graded autonomy to 62 universities and colleges both in private and public space to operate with relatively less interference from the education regulators.

HRD minister Prakash Javadekar called this a “liberalized regulatory regime” and said on the sidelines of an event recently that the Indian higher education sector often complains about restrictive rules but now the government is making a conscious effort to liberalize it.

“Of late, there seems to an intention of liberalizing the sector. Autonomy and liberalization are a necessity for the higher education section to thrive. The moment you allow freedom and competition, the best will survive and others will strive to improve quality as it will be a requirement for survival,” said Harivansh Chaturvedi, director of the Birla Institute of Management and Technology in Greater Noida.

Chaturvedi, who is also the alternate president of the Education Promotion Society for India, a confederation of private education providers, said technical education colleges under AICTE should also be granted autonomy based on their rankings and accreditation scores.

While some of the recent moves are important, a new education policy is almost paramount and the government should bring that in to give direction to the education sector, Chaturvedi said. A new education policy is being deliberated for last four years.

Of all the steps the government has taken, the establishment of a higher education financing agency and its expansion in the past couple of months is perhaps the most under-rated but far reaching, said the official cited above. The government has already sanctioned loans worth over Rs2,500 crore to nearly a dozen top schools.

“While individual sub-sectoral moves like autonomy for IIMs, graded autonomy for a group of colleges and universities have their merits, the financing agency will perhaps reduce government spending by Rs10,000 crore per year, and push top higher educational institutions to become more accountable and finically prudent. That’s a bigger change from the way public funded institutions function — you get autonomy, you decide your growth path and you raise money and pay back from your own resources. That’s a bigger liberalization move,” said the official.

Source:

https://www.livemint.com/Politics/mx1YXvM5lCt26WaaHz91HO/Centre-shifts-focus-to-liberalization-of-higher-education.html

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Kenya: Lecturers’ Strike to Continue as Talks Fail

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Africa/ Kenya/ 16.04.2018/ By Ouma Wanzala/ From: allafrica.com

The National Treasury wants striking university lecturers to withdraw a case they have filed against the salaries commission before talks on their pay demands can begin.

Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge told the National Assembly’s Education committee that the salaries commission could only finalise its job evaluation and create a basis for increasing the lecturers’ salaries and allowances in the 2017-2021 collective bargaining agreement if the case is withdrawn.

«The determination of the offer to the universities will be subject to the recommendation of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC),» Dr Thugge, who insisted that nothing would be done outside the Constitution, said.

Union officials, university representatives and Ministry of Education officials also appeared before the committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly, in efforts to end the one-month strike.

COUNTER-OFFER

Despite the directive by Mr Melly that the parties resume talks, each appeared adamant that its conditions must be met first.

University Education Principal Secretary Japheth Ntiba said lecturers should call off the strike and allow negotiations to take place.

He said the SRC is yet to be reconstituted to enable the new commissioners «to endorse the payment bacon».

However, University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga maintained they will only call off the strike once a counter-offer is tabled.

«If they give us the counter offer today, we will return to class by Monday,» he said.

JOB EVALUATIONVice-chancellors committee chairman Francis Aduol, however, blamed the National Treasury and the Ministry of Education for the stalemate.

Prof Aduol said the talks had collapsed after the ministry failed to authorise the universities to give an offer to the lecturers and other staff.

«Even if they give us a counter-offer of zero per cent, we will present it to the lecturers. But they have not done so,» he said.

A report on staff audit, he said, was available for the government to use to give lecturers an offer.

Dr Wasonga said a job evaluation that was done by SRC should not impede the provision of a counter-offer by universities and the government.

NEGOTIATIONS

He told the committee that the Employment and Labour Court, in a 2016 case involving nurses, ruled that job evaluation by the SRC should not be linked to collective bargaining.

«The SRC, in a letter to Uasu dated March 18, indicated that the government had not sought its advice on the parameters for negotiations of the CBA,» he said.

Uasu asked Parliament to direct the government to present a counter-offer and engage in negotiations so that the deal could be signed.

The union also wants the Education ministry and the National Treasury to nominate representatives to sit in a joint committee with Uasu to facilitate negotiations to «overcome the many bureaucratic layers involved».

PAYROLL AUDIT

Lecturers are demanding Sh38 billion for the four-year deal.

However, Dr Thugge insisted that the ministry must carry out a payroll audit to establish the actual number of university employees and the cost of their compensation.

«The State Department should also conduct a financial audit on the expenditure and revenues, including the internal controls in the universities in order to establish how funds released from the Exchequer and those generated internally, are applied and accounted for,» he said.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/201804130185.html

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Armenia: Education ministry seeks to abolish re-examination opportunity in universities, academic staff express various positions

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Armenia/April 10, 2018/Source: https://armenpress.am

The ministry of education and science of Armenia had earlier suggested a new bill whereby the re-examination opportunity for students would be abolished. Under the current system, students of universities are entitled to three re-examination attempts in case of failing an exam. The bill suggest using solely the minimal and maximal credits system – a student either gains enough credits during the year to pass to the following year, or he/she doesn’t.

But executives of universities say that although the model is being used worldwide, the transitioning in Armenia won’t be swift and easy.

ARMENPRESS talked with Vice Rectors of several universities about this proposed change, as well as another change – the attempt to decrease the number of admission applications based on randomly selected professions, and applicants will give the exams partly.

Yerevan State University’s Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Alexander Grigoryan says abolishing the re-examination model is a familiar method which is applied abroad. Grigoryan says transitioning to the model will certainly be difficult, because the complete preparation of the universities requires time.

“Serious work is required and I think the Yerevan State University will be ready for the new bill”, he said.

Tsolak Akopyan, Vice Rector of Academic Affairs of the Valery Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences, said a transition-at once will be difficult.

“But the fact that students will chose how many credits during how many years and when to graduate – in four or six years, this is an  accepted option”,  he said.

Arkadi Barkhudaryan, Vice Rector of for Academic Affairs of the national university of architecture and construction, said he opposes the bill and students should at least have one re-examination chance.

Source:

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/929061/

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EEUU: What’s Christian higher education worth? How about $60 billion a year

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EEUU/ April 3, 2018/BY JOSEPH JONES/Source: http://www.fresnobee.com

The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) last Monday issued a ground-breaking economic study of its 142 members in the United States, which includes Fresno Pacific University.

These institutions broaden the educational options for students by creating environments where students can freely integrate their Christian faith into their education. Many schools, like FPU, do not require their students to be Christians, but do encourage the integration of faith and knowledge in preparation for service to society and their communities.

The report highlights the economic value of these institutions throughout the country, and particularly addresses the 16 colleges/universities in California. FPU is the only university of this nature in the Valley, providing educational options for traditional, non-traditional and graduate students. The university has the highest degree-completion rate in the Valley and is a Hispanic-serving institution.

The CCCU study released Monday shows that its members have a national economic impact of $60 billion each year. That’s $166 million per day. This study mirrors a similar study of private colleges and universities in California by the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities.

These 79 colleges and universities, including FPU, employ 88,800 Californians and provide a $26 billion-plus economic contribution to the state. They produce 22 percent of the bachelor’s degrees, 52 percent of the master’s degrees and 54 percent of the doctoral degrees in California.

Here are a few key findings about the Christian schools in the CCCU study:

 ▪  For every $1 in federal grant money a student receives, Christian institutions provide $5 in aid to that student through grants and scholarships.

 ▪  The student loan default rate for graduates (6.3 percent) is nearly half the national average (11.5 percent).

▪  Although tax exempt, they generate $9.7 billion in federal tax revenue each year.

▪  For every $1 in federal grant money a student receives, the schools generate more than $20 in federal tax revenue.

 ▪  One in three students are first-generation college students.

 ▪  50 percent come from families that make less than $50,000 a year.

 ▪  While approximately one in four college students across the country volunteer, more than one in three of our students participate in community service, contributing about 5.4 million hours a year.

Fresno Pacific University in comparison to other Christian and independent colleges reveals:

 ▪  49 percent of FPU students are the first in their families to attend college or university, rather than one in three, and these students graduate at the same rate as our students in general.

 ▪  56 percent come from families who earn $40,000 or less annually, rather than 50 percent of students coming from families who earn less than $50,000.

 ▪  student default rate is 4.4 percent, below the CCCU average of 6.3 percent.

 ▪  All our traditional undergraduate students perform community service.

 ▪  44 percent of our students identify themselves as Latino or Latina. They also graduate at the same rate as our students in general.

In all, the 16 CCCU institutions in California spend $1.8 billion annually on operations and capital investments, enroll over 60,000 students, employ more than 10,000 people, support more than 45,000 other jobs, attract more than $500 million in ancillary student spending and generate $370 million in state tax revenues.

Their more than 220,000 alumni earning an extra $2.8 billion a year due to the education they received. Nationwide, CCCU schools educate 445,000 students, employ 72,000 faculty and staff and serve 3.5 million alumni around the world.

The return on investment in institutions like Fresno Pacific is not just realized in dollars and cents. Our success is defined by the ways in which we produce effective graduates.

Our spiritual and ethical commitment to the Valley is only a reflection of our commitment to Christ. We have adopted the mantra to “Engage the Cultures and Serve the Cities in the Valley.” We are privileged to join with others to serve in the economic well-being of our region and this state. We look forward to partnering with others who are also committed.

Source:

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article207082359.html

 

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