Higher Edge: Institutions: Publications: Not-So-Foreign©, Volume 7, Issue 40

Not-So-Foreign^©
A Bulletin for International Education Professionals
Volume 7, Issue 40; November 26, 2008

1) THE PLAYING FIELD – U.K. University Expels 50 “Bogus” Students, Issues Warning
2) ABROAD PERSPECTIVE - Currency Swings Make U.K. Schooling Cheaper: Study
3) OVER THE COUNTER - Irish University Founder Calls for National Student-Attracting Group
4) GLOBE TIPPING – Beating Jet Lag: Article Offers 10 Tips

1) THE PLAYING FIELD – U.K. University Expels 50 “Bogus” Students, Issues Warning

Newcastle University is warning other British institutions to boost the systems they have in place for detecting fraudulent applications after expelling 50 of its students on the grounds of having allegedly bogus applications.

Earlier this month, the university said it had excluded 49 students from China and one from Taiwan after discovering their applications had been falsified. The forgeries, consisting mostly of certificates recognizing English-language qualifications or degrees from other universities, were of very high quality, Newcastle said. Some documents had been entirely forged; others had been altered to show higher grades than students had actually achieved.

The university said that the students appear to have paid crooked agents, based in either China or Britain, to submit the applications on their behalf. It also said it believed many other British universities may be affected by similar hard-to-detect forgeries.

Source: “Warning over Bogus Uni Applications,” Press Association, Nov. 11, 2008

2) ABROAD PERSPECTIVE - Currency Swings Make U.K. Schooling Cheaper: Study

The decline in value of the British pound against the U.S. dollar this fall could make Britain a more appealing place for foreign students to study, a recent study claims.

According to research released recently by iGraduate, a U.K. firm that conducts research into higher education, the cheaper pound has made studying in Britain 46 per cent cheaper for students from China than a year ago. It’s now 29 per cent cheaper than a year ago for Malaysians to study in the U.K., and 10 per cent cheaper for Indian students, iGraduate said.

The figures come as the rising U.S. dollar makes studies in America dauntingly expensive for some students. The Indian rupee, for example, which has lost a quarter of its value against the U.S. dollar this year, has many students in India contemplating alternatives to studying in the U.S.

Sources: “Pound’s Decline Likely to Attract Foreign Students,” Financial Times, Nov. 17, 2008

“Overseas Education Turns Dearer as Falling Re Makes Fees Costlier,” Financial Express, Nov. 22, 2008

3) OVER THE COUNTER - Irish University Founder Calls for National Student-Attracting Group

Ireland needs a dedicated national body in order to live up to its potential as a potential study destination, the founding president of the University of Limerick said earlier this month.

The lack of a co-ordinated approach for attracting students has ensured that Ireland distantly trails its only European rival, the U.K., as a magnet for attracting students interested studying in an English-speaking country, Edward Walsh wrote in a newspaper opinion piece.

For example, because of “lax regulatory and quality control arrangements,” Dr. Walsh said, the country’s image abroad has been hurt by “disreputable” schools, some of which function largely as a conduit for illegal immigration. This has led Ireland’s department in charge of visas to take its time processing them. As a result, he said, a student visa that would take U.K. officials less than 48 hours to process could take up to six or eight weeks in Ireland.

Universities in the country, he said, ought to jointly establish and fund a new company to “promote the sector, certify eligible institutions, establish a quality mark, undertake competitor analysis and strategic planning while providing a forum to secure a co-ordinated response from public bodies and agencies.”

Source: “Overseas Students Put off by our Tarnished Image,” Irish Independent, Nov. 10, 2008

4) GLOBE TIPPING – Beating Jet Lag: Article Offers 10 Tips

Planning a trip across several time zones, and dreading the disorientation that comes with jet lag? An article posted recently on a U.S. travel website features 10 jetlag-beating tips. Among them: Don’t feel you absolutely have to fight the temptation to nap when you arrive at your destination. Although several hours of sleep will impair your ability to recover from jet lag, a “power snooze” of 30 or 40 minutes may actually reduce some of the symptoms.

Source: “How to Beat Jet Lag,” ForbesTraveler.com, Aug. 26, 2008