It is reported via Xinhua that Britain has issued strict new rules for foreign students. Here is the whole article for your reference:

LONDON, July 30 (Xinhua) — Foreign students hoping to come to Britain to study will have to meet strict new rules, the government announced on Wednesday.

The Home Office has published proposals for much tighter rules for foreign students and the universities and colleges hosting them, under the new point-based system.

All colleges and universities will have to take greater responsibility for their foreign students, and will even need a license should they wish to recruit from abroad, to help the government crack down on bogus colleges who abuse the system.

For the first time education providers face a ban on bringing over international students if they fail to follow strict new rules including alerting the UK Border Agency (UKBA) if students fail to enroll.

Foreign students must be sponsored by a UKBA-licensed education institution, prove they have the means to support themselves and their families while studying here as well as supplying their fingerprints.

Stricter rules on work placements for students will also ensure that Britain’s labor market is protected.

“All those who come to Britain must play by the rules. It is right that foreign students wanting to take advantage of our world-class universities and colleges must meet strict criteria,” said Border and Immigration Minister Liam Byrne.

Visas will only be granted to proven students applying for courses which meet a minimum level of qualification. Students who are on courses for longer than 12 months will have to show they have sufficient funds to pay their first year of fees, plus 9,600 pounds (some 14,965 U.S. dollars) to cover their first year in Britain. Students wishing to bring their dependants with them will need to show they have a further 535 pounds per month for each person they bring.

International students contribute 2.5 billion pounds a year to the British economy in tuition fees alone and an overall estimated contribution of 8.5 billion pounds. In recognition of the many economic and cultural benefits that these students bring to Britain, earlier this year the government announced a special visa category allowing successful international students who have graduated from a British university to work in the country for up to two years.

Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said “I will not tolerate the minority of individuals who seek to damage the quality of our education system through bogus colleges. The new system will give extra protection from the damage bogus colleges can cause.”

Under the new system education providers who want to teach foreign nationals must be granted a license by the UKBA, they can then sponsor students to come to the country. Without a confirmation of acceptance for studies issued to them by their sponsoring institution a student’s visa application will not be considered. It also acts as a pledge from the college or university that they accept responsibility for the student while they are in Britain.

Universities and colleges face losing their license if they fail to keep copies of all their foreign students’ passports as well as their contact details. They have to alert the UKBA to any students who fail to enroll on their course and report unauthorized absences or if any student stops their studies.

The sponsorship register for colleges and universities opened for applications this week.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The film is conceived by Robert A. Compton, who also was the executive director. As explained by Education World, the title means:

High school often is measured by years or events, but across many nations, there is a common factor: Every student has 2 million minutes from the time he or she leaves eighth grade until high school graduation.

The film follows six students through their senior year of high school in the United States, India, and China, and trying to show that “the simple fact is, global education standards have passed America by“, as said by Compton in a press release. In an interview, Compton noted that “Our knowledge of these two cultures is seriously out of date and that has to change…fast,” and he also said, “Our economic future depends on it.” Compton also writes a blog entitled What Should America Do?, which is “a continuation of the Two Million Minutes documentary film”, as explained by the author. “This blog offers deeper insights into education in China, India and the United States, and the challenge America faces”.

Not having much knowledge about education in India, what we can see from China is that education in the country is in fact desperately looking for remedies for its often labeled as examination-driven education. Just as an American scholar once pointed out in 2005 in a seminar on international education in Beijing , “while China is trying to move its education towards more quality and innovation oriented approaches, the U.S. is trying to upgrade the quality of its education by strengthening disciplines within schools and classes, and it appears that both are looking at each other”.

So, it is perhaps right to say that education is in many aspects about intercultural learning, which is in every way more important than economic competition.

Picture and film trailer credit: Two Million Minutes

Reported by Xinhua that a recent survey by the China Youth Daily shows that more than 80% Chinese university students want to study abroad. Here are some of the observations:

• More than 80 percent of university students in China want to study abroad, according to a new online survey.
• The survey, involving 2,400 university students, revealed that 42 percent of respondents believe an overseas education will be beneficial to their future career development.
• It also showed 66 percent felt students with an education background overseas were more competitive than graduates from domestic universities when it came to job hunting.

Regarding to preferred geographic locations for study overseas,

The survey also showed the favorite destinations for overseas study were the United States, Britain, France, Australia and Canada.

According to Xinhua on December 12th, 2007, the Office of Chinese Language Council International (OCLCI) issued the first Chinese language proficiency benchmarks for foreigners - the Chinese Language Proficiency Scales for Speakers of Other Languages. It is a five-step comprehensive and systematic measure of the ability to communicate in Chinese Language, and is the first reference standard to assess the fluency of foreign learners of Chinese.

While we are expecting the coming of a new year in a month time, we shall not forget that 1 December is the World AIDS Day. Below is the UNICEF World Aids Day Concert 2007 from YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In 1988, the World Health Organization (WTO) declared 1 December the World AIDS Day.

The red ribbon is an international symbol of AIDS awareness that is worn by people all year round and particularly around World AIDS Day to demonstrate care and concern about HIV and AIDS, and to remind others of the need for their support and commitment.

[ AIDS ] Any time  This definition of [ AIDS ] is from Google. 

According to China Daily on Oct. 24, “the European Union leads the United States as a destination for Chinese students“. The number of Chinese students studying in EU universities given by Jan Figel, the European Commissioner for Education, Training and Youth, was a record high of 120,000 in 2006. And, “the European Union is planning a “blue card” to lure highly skilled migrants by offering financial and housing benefits, and cutting red tape”.

According to news report, the 2007 ranking of the world’s best universities by the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiaotong University was recently released, with Harvard on the top. This ranking is known in some places as “the Shanghai Ranking”, and it is mainly based on six categories of criteria including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel and other academic prizes or having their research work published in domestic or the world’s top academic journals.

By this ranking, among the top ten on the list, eight are American universities including Stanford, MIT, and Princeton. The Cambridge and Oxford in Britain secured the fourth and tenth places. Out of the top 100 best universities, 54 are located in the United States, 31 are in Europe, and nine in the Asia and Pacific region. Tsinghua University and Peking University, the most renowned two universities in the Chinese mainland, ranked 167 and 228 respectively, lagging behind the 161st Taiwan University.

A recent survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong shows that the United States is still at the top position when Chinese students choose their destinations for study abroad. France ranks the second in the report, overtaking the U.K. who has been in the second position for many years.

According to the report, the survey was conducted between March and April, 2007 in 7 cities among 13,000 students who are going to graduate in July this year. It appears that part of the purpose of the survey is to find out how students in the mainland would view Hong Kong as one of their destinations for study outside the Chinese mainland. The result is that Hong Kong is actually in the 10th position. More detailed ranking is as follows:

1. the United States 17.7%
2. France 12.4%
3. the U.K. 11.2%
4. Canada 8.6%
5. Australia 8.0%
6. Singapore 6.7%
7. Japan 6.7%
8. South Korea 6.3%
9. Germany 5.8%
10. Hong Kong S.A.R. 3.8%

In respect to subject areas, the survey reveals that Economics and Management goes to the top, taking 24.4% in the survey, while Social Sciences taking 10.1% and Computer Science and Software Engineering taking 9.9%.

Given the fact that in the following 5 years, there are going to be about 10 million students looking for a seat in higher education each year, more and more graduates from secondary education would be forced to explore other options, since the capacity of higher education provision is limited and only half of the applicants can have the opportunity. The significance of the survey is that it provides with us some indications with regard to geographic preferences when people making their choices of study abroad.

Reported by Miami Herald on March 25, 2007 that “increasing numbers of American college students are looking to study abroad as a stepping stone to the professional world”. The news report says:

The number of students studying abroad has almost doubled over the last decade to 206,000 in 2004-05, the latest year statistics are available, according to the Institute of International Education or IIE, a non-profit that promotes student exchanges and runs the famous Fulbright program for the Department of State.

Also in the report, Glenda Hayley, director of international education and exchange programs at University of Miami, pointed out that

“we’re seeing a new trend of students going to the far east: Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan. . . Then we have students going to traditional locations in Austria, Italy, France and countries in Latin America, such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile.”

From ChinaNews, it is reported that a new test for Chinese language learners, for people whose native language is not Mandarin, will begin in November, 2006. According to the report,

Registration for the “C. Test”, aimed at non-Chinese and ethnic minority groups in China, will take place between October 24 and 31. The test, devised by the Beijing Language and Culture University, is different to the current Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) test which focuses more on listening comprehension rather than grammar and reading. The examinee will receive a certificate with a score and level, together with a report on his or her Chinese language skills. Trial runs of the C.Test were launched in China and Japan in July and attracted 1,150 participants from 17 countries and regions. The first official C. Test exam is on Nov. 19. There will be four tests a year, but the exact dates are undecided.