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Private schools increasingly popular in NZ, figures show The number of students at private schools rose by 27.2 per cent in the past decade to almost 31,000, latest Ministry of Education figures show. State school numbers grew by 2.1 per cent in the same period. State integrated schools grew by 17.9 percent. Overall, student numbers grew by 4.5 percent.
The figures (full-time-equivalent) are at this Ministry of Education web page.
Fund launched to help commercialise university innovations A $36 million investment fund has been launched to assist early-stage commercialisation of intellectual property at the University of Auckland and four Australian universities. The Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund has been established in collaboration with Westscheme, a Western Australian industry superannuation fund. Auckland City Council is also supporting the fund in anticipation of the growth of the local knowledge economy. All New Zealand intellectual property will be retained in New Zealand and licensed to the start-up companies based upon their business needs. A statement from the University of Auckland on the fund is at this web page.
Labour market information online in new tool A new interactive, online tool gives detailed information and facts on over 550 occupations, from accountant to zoologist. The Department of Labour’s online Occupational Indicator tool is at this web page.
Registrations open for ITF annual conference 2008 Registrations are open for this year’s Industry Training Federation (ITF) annual conference, to be held in July at Te Papa in Wellington. The conference will discuss the emerging role of industry training organisations (ITOs) and their contribution to New Zealand’s productivity. Earlybird registrations close 30 June 2008. A full programme and further information on the conference is available at this web page.
Winners of ISNZ Excellence in Teaching Awards 2008 announced The winners of this year’s Independent Schools of New Zealand (ISNZ) Excellence in Teaching Awards have been announced. They are:
Back to basics, says Australian Labor education minister The Australian Labor education minister recommends a traditional education, The Australian reports. Julia Gillard has outlined her belief in an old-fashioned style of school curriculum based on the study of traditional disciplines. Ms Gillard, Australia’s deputy prime minister, said studying disciplines such as English, history and maths provided a basis for understanding the world, overcoming social disadvantage and imparting values to students. The Australian article is at this web page.
Higher pay recommended for Australian teachers Teachers who reach high standards should be recognised and rewarded, an Australian report says. The best teachers should be paid almost AU$130,000 as a key step to strengthen the teaching profession, a new Business Council of Australia paper says. Two new levels of teacher certification should be created to allow the best teachers to be recognised as ‘accomplished’ and ‘leading’. The new paper, Teaching Talent: The Best Teachers For Australia’s Classrooms, called for a five-point plan to recognise outstanding teachers and to lift the standard of teaching in Australian classrooms. Further information is at this web page. The paper is at this web page.
Smaller institutions may hold key to student retention Some of the United Kingdom’s smallest and more specialist institutions are best at recruiting and retaining students from state schools and disadvantaged backgrounds. An analysis of the figures by GuildHE, the representative body for these kinds of institutions, showed their members had outperformed their benchmark for student continuation rates by a greater margin than any other group of institutions, the Guardian reports. GuildHE argued that the intimate and supportive environment of the smaller universities and colleges was often more suitable for students who were most likely to drop out, such as those from lower earning groups who were first in their family to enter higher education. The Guardian story is at this web page.
British 'academies' give impetus to education system The British academy programme and its model of independent governance have introduced vital new impetus through new leadership, freedom of management and innovation, a report argues. The independence was the critical part of the government’s academy programme and could benefit all state schools, the report says. The report was written for lobby group Reform by Richard Tice, the Chair of Governors at Northampton Academy, one of the United Kingdom’s first 15 academies. It is at this web page.
Uganda waives income tax for private schools Uganda has waived income tax for private schools. Further information is at this web page.
Prime Minister's Office of India encourages private sector tertiary education investment Although the share of the private sector in tertiary education is already more than 60 percent in India, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) feels it is not enough. The PMO was seeking comprehensive legislation to encourage private investment in the sector, the Times of India reported. The Times of India report is at this web page.
French university reform underway One of the first steps in the reform of French tertiary education towards a more market model took place this month with the opening of a college that had raised €33 million from private sponsors. On 2 June, Valérie Pécresse, the universities minister, inaugurated the Toulouse School of Economics. The private sponsors included commercial giants such as AXA, Total and BNP Paribas; Ms Pécresse was to match every euro raised with the equivalent in public money, the Economist has reported. The minister is encouraging competition and private participation in the sector. The Economist story is at this web page.
Charter schools appear to out-perform other public schools in Alberta, Canada The 18 charter schools of Alberta, Canada appear to be out-performing other public schools in the province, a paper published by the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education (NCSPE) at Teachers College Columbia University says. An analysis of the values underlying the state-funded, privately run charter school movement found that the value emphasised most in the programme was social cohesion, followed by 'productive efficiency'. Alberta's strong emphasis on social cohesion was quite different from the United States, where efficiency and equity tended to be the dominant values emphasized across most of the 40 states that had passed charter school legislation, author of the research paper, Kat Thomson said. The paper is online as a PDF document.
IFC introduces education loan scheme for developing countries The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is designing innovative private student loan schemes for developing countries. The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, was partnering with local universities, foundations and financial institutions to develop sustainable, market-driven facilities for lending to low-income students, the organisation said. The new products were adapted to meet each country’s higher education needs, and had so far been rolled out in Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia. The programmes were designed so that risk was shared, and interest rates were designed to be financially sustainable for all parties over the long term. The IFC planned to introduce student loan programmes to local financial markets, demonstrating that they could be a commercially viable business. Further information is at this web page.
Indian IT companies to design courses for Egyptian universities The Egyptian government has invited three Indian IT companies to design courses at some of the country’s largest universities, according to a Middle East Business Intelligence report. The new courses were intended to supply tens of thousands of graduates a year to Egypt’s fast-growing IT industry. Further information is at this web page.
Private tertiary institutions popular in Malaysia Enrolment at Malaysia’s private tertiary institutions is almost at a 1:1 ratio with that of public institutions, the Morning Star reports. Further information is at this web page. |
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