Agrégateur de flux

The New Zealand government is under increasing pressure to exempt Chinese students from travel bans sparked by the coronavirus after it confirmed a travel ban on foreign nationals coming from China would continue for a further eight days.

On February 20, the government announced an extension of the travel ban which applies to any foreigners who have been present in, or transited through, mainland China 14 days prior to them departing for New Zealand.

“From our point of view it’s extremely serious”

Students from China make up the largest proportion of international students coming into the country (nearly 45%), with about 15,000 expected over the next month.

Education New Zealand confirmed around 49% of Chinese students currently remain outside the country due to the travel ban and Universities New Zealand has asked the government for an exemption for international students stuck in China.

According to one report, Waikato University is expecting about 800 new and returning students from China this year, but estimates at least 400 students are still in China.

However, while the Australian government is allowing some high school students from mainland China to enter the country on a case-by-case basis, NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern said her government is still considering removing restrictions on Chinese students.

Director of Universities New Zealand, Chris Whelan, said the ban had disrupted the lives of the affected students and if it was not lifted the universities could lose about NZ$170 million in fees.

“From our point of view it’s extremely serious,” Whelan told RNZ.

“We’re currently discussing the idea of an exemption, so some students may be able to come to New Zealand.”

Ministry of Education of New Zealand deputy secretary of Sector Enablement and Support, Katrina Casey, said the government hasnÔÇÖt ruled out granting the exemptions, which would go some way to helping lessen the impact on the $4.5 billion dollar international education industry.

ÔÇ£International students are a valued part of our education system and of our community. New Zealand provides quality education to many thousands of international students each year, and we want this to continue,” she said.

“It is our understanding that the governmentÔÇÖs response is under constant review. It is a fast-moving situation.”

Casey said the ministry is also working closely with educators to explore learning solutions that include resources and recordings of lectures through online platforms.

On February 24, prime minister Arden said officials were investigating whether tertiary students could be exempted from the ban.

“We would need to be satisfied that any health risk could be practically managed, with the education sector able to reassure us and the public that it has credible self-isolation and accommodation plans in place,” she said.

Asked if an exemption would be too difficult, Arden reportedly replied: “I don’t want to say that yet. We are really properly teasing it out. We owe it to the sector to do that.”

“We would need to be satisfied that any health risk could be practically managed”

New Zealand Immigration department has introduced measures to support student visa holders, reassuring them they will be honoured.

Student visa holders with a ÔÇ£first entry before dateÔÇØ will have their visa conditions automatically amended to allow them to travel for the duration of their visa. The reissued eVisa will be provided free of charge.

Meanwhile, a group of educators and students from across the country have created a heart-warming video to let Chinese students know that they are welcome.

The clip entitled ÔÇ£Wuhan, New Zealand is waiting for youÔÇØ┬áfeatures interviews and images from Auckland, Waikato, northern region, Christchurch and other cities in New Zealand.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Menchin

The post NZ: travel ban extended, educators ask for Chinese student exemptions appeared first on The PIE News.

The Ad Council, which was behind the Smokey Bear and “Just Say No” campaigns for the U.S. government, is set to launch a national advertising promotion for postsecondary education and training alternatives to the four-year college degree.

The "groundbreaking" national campaign will be led by the nonprofit Ad Council in “close association” with IBM, Apple and the White House, the council said.

The ads "will shine a light on how young and working adults can develop the skills in demand for today’s job market," a council spokeswoman said in a written statement, while also seeking to "raise awareness of the wide variety of educational options available, such as coding bootcamps, on-the-job apprenticeships, certifications, associate’s degrees and more."

The CEOs of Apple and IBM are helping to steer the campaign as part of their role with the White House-convened American Workforce Policy Advisory Board.

The Trump administration created the 27-member task force in 2018. It’s led by Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a senior adviser to the president, and Wilbur Ross, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The board includes leaders from higher education, large corporations, industry associations and policy makers. Its mandate is to provide advice and recommendations “on ways to encourage the private sector and educational institutions to combat the skills crisis by investing in and increasing demand-driven education, training and re-training, including training through apprenticeships and work-based learning opportunities.”

The yearlong, large-scale ad campaign is one of several planned initiatives from the board. They include an effort to encourage more investments by employers in job training, modernize hiring practices, improve the transparency of workforce data and create an inventory of “interoperable learning records” -- a public-facing system to manage communication about individuals' skills and credentials.

The task force also is seeking to promote policies and practices to "permanently expand" multiple career pathways.

The Ad Council campaign, however, appears likely to be the group's first major public release. It had been slated to begin in January, according to documents on the Commerce Department’s website. The council said the advertisements would be rolled out in coming weeks. They will include ads on broadcast, digital, social media, radio, print and outdoor varieties like billboards and bus stops.

The messages will run nationwide in donated time and space throughout 2020, the council said. "The campaign is funded through a broad coalition model including funding from a number of nonprofit and private organizations," according to the council.

Advertising agencies are providing significant creative and placement services for the ads pro bono, said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, according to minutes and an audio recording from the task force’s December meeting at an Indiana women’s prison.

The campaign’s stated goal is to raise awareness among young Americans about multiple pathways to well-paying jobs. And it will seek to "challenge perceptions that employers only value degreed talent or are only interested in hiring 'next gen' employees," according to task force documents.

At the December meeting, Cook cited changes in how young people and working adults are preparing for jobs in the global economy.

“Once the primary driver of opportunities, the four-year degree is now one of many paths to a successful career,” said Cook. “At Apple, over 50 percent of our employees don’t have classic college degrees.”

Amid a welcome shift in attitudes, he said, businesses, training providers, community colleges, municipal agencies and the armed forces are stepping up to offer more skills and career development opportunities, which often are flexibly priced and delivered.

“Young adults and working-age individuals are now able to develop in-demand career skills through customized career tech programs, innovative apprenticeships, learn-and-earn programs and short-duration coding boot camps,” said Cook. “They come away poised to contribute to America’s workplaces with industry-recognized, stackable credentials and certifications, technical licenses, and, yes, even four-year university degrees.”

Yet despite efforts to change the narrative around higher education, Cook said data show the message isn’t getting through. That’s where the Ad Council campaign comes in.

“Too many people who have concluded that college isn’t for them or that they’ll never have what it takes to land the next big job also don’t believe they have alternatives,” he said. “Either they’re unaware of what education and training options exist or they don’t think pursuing them will carry weight with employers. We have to change that perception.”

Threading the Needle

The Trump administration from the beginning has touted alternatives to the four-year degree, a message that has been carried by the Education Department and other federal agencies.

For example, President Trump two years ago said “vocational schools” would be a better name for community colleges.

As it is with most of this administration’s policy pushes on higher education, Trump’s attempt to emphasize postsecondary options over the four-year degree is a reversal from the Obama administration’s approach.

The previous administration often touted the benefits of attending community colleges. It was probably the most supportive White House in modern history for that sector. For example, Obama proposed $12 billion in new funding for two-year colleges; the U.S. Congress eventually approved $2 billion in workforce development grants for partnerships between community colleges and employers.

Obama also was much more aggressive than Trump in pushing some form of learning and credential attainment after high school.

But some criticized the Obama administration for prioritizing the four-year degree, particularly through his highly publicized goal for 60 percent of young adults to hold at least an associate degree by this year. And that push came amid developing bipartisan worries about rapidly increasing student debt and growing public scrutiny of higher education.

At the same time, employers say they are struggling to hire enough skilled people for jobs in information technology, health care, manufacturing and retail. Many roles in these high-demand fields can be filled by workers without four-year degrees. And a small but growing number of big employers, like Apple and IBM, are requiring fewer of their hires to hold a bachelor’s degree.

Another workforce development challenge, according to a wide range of experts both inside and outside the academy, is that potential students tend to have outdated, inaccurate views about career and vocational fields. Too often people think those jobs are dirty, manual labor roles that don’t pay well.

California, for example, is trying to eliminate the stigma about career and technical education with an advertising campaign begun three years ago. That campaign is part of a broader, $200 million push to expand those programs across the state’s two-year college system.

Yet the looming Ad Council campaign will be attempting to thread the needle on what experts say is a tricky issue.

A large amount of research shows that earning a four-year degree remains the best postsecondary training option for people to make it into the middle class, even amid worries about underemployment and stagnating wage gains for recent graduates of four-year colleges. But students who fail to earn a credential tend to take on risky debt, often without seeing a substantial employment boost from attending college.

Likewise, research has shown that while an overwhelming majority of students who enroll in community college say they eventually want to earn a four-year degree, relatively few ever do. And although many two-year degrees are associated with substantial wage gains, particularly associate of science degrees, labor market payoffs are more mixed for associate of arts degrees and other two-year credentials that are geared toward students who are more likely to transfer to a four-year institution.

Likewise, experts cite wide variation in the labor market payoffs for certificates, particularly short-term ones.

A key question is whether the White House-convened task force’s ad campaign can tout alternatives to the four-year degree without turning off prospective students who could benefit from the traditional college pathway.

Whether or not the campaign has a positive impact depends on how it's designed and who it targets, said Wil Del Pilar, vice president for higher education at the Education Trust.

Prospective students tend not to be aware of their options, he said. And college too often is not designed for everyone. As a result, Del Pilar said a campaign to advise all young Americans about multiple pathways might not be problematic. But it would be if the ads encourage the "tracking" of certain students who could benefit from college into lower-income careers.

"Who gets told that it's not the right path for them is low-income students and students of color," he said.

Walter Bumphus, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, is a member of the task force committee overseeing the campaign, which is chaired by Cook and Ginni Rometty, IBM's CEO. Other higher education leaders on the committee include Sheree Utash, president of Wichita State University Campus of Applied Science and Technology; Jay Box, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System; and Scott Pulsipher, president of Western Governors University.

The Commerce Department has not said how much the Ad Council will spend on the campaign.

However, Cook said the group was receiving “high-profile support” from a wide range of “private-sector businesses, unions, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and education institutions, which are delivering the essential education and training pathway services that this campaign is all about.”

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File it under “possible ways to save the republic”? Purdue University may soon require that all undergraduates, from art historians to wildlife biologists, take and pass a civics test to obtain their degrees.

A number of other institutions have some kind of civics requirement. Purdue’s proposed “Test+” model is unique, however, in that it would mandate that all students pass a test and demonstrate their knowledge of U.S. history, laws and institutions in some other way. Possible options for completing the second part of the requirement are taking an approved course, completing a specially designed learning module from the campus’s 250,000-plus-hour C-SPAN archives and participating in or attending relevant events or experiences (the university’s current speaker series on Democracy, Civility and Freedom of Expression might qualify, for example).

A working group of the University Senate took up after the idea last year after Purdue president Mitch Daniels asked the body to consider it.

“Surveys show people don’t understand the principles of a free society, and if we really want to stay free and govern ourselves, then the citizenry must have a basic understanding of why we do what we do, what their role in it is,” Daniels said recently, summarizing his charge to the Senate.

There was and remains some faculty skepticism about Daniels’s proposal. New academic requirements tend to impose on existing curricula, especially in fields that are already requirement-heavy. Such fields include engineering, which Purdue emphasizes. Some faculty members believe that civics should be covered in high school. And some others sense an ideological agenda: as Indiana’s Republican former governor, Daniels is not the typical academic president, and his own political leanings are well documented.

But there was and is much faculty interest in the idea, too. Questions about the university’s role in shaping the informed electorate that is supposed to uphold democracy are always relevant. They’re perhaps especially relevant right now, in an era of fake news and political polarization.

“Democracy is undergoing a major stress test” in the U.S. and elsewhere, said James A. McCann, professor of political science and a member of the Senate working group. “So I think the intentions here in the main are good.”

To establish a civics knowledge baseline, the Senate working group surveyed 2,100 incoming freshmen on what they knew last fall, during orientation. Their assessment instrument included 20 questions from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s national survey of civic knowledge, drawn directly from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization test, and eight questions from the American National Election Studies.

Name one right in the First Amendment, asked one question. When was the Constitution written, asked another. Does the federal government spend the least on foreign aid, Medicare, national defense or Social Security?

The results did not recall Jay Leno’s "JayWalking" segments: students in the sample outperformed national and college-educated Indiana populations, based on existing benchmarks, on all but two of 28 questions.

But there was room for improvement. For reference, the federal government considers a score of 60 percent on the naturalization test passing. Some 66 percent of Purdue respondents passed the naturalization questions portion. Some 77 percent passed the portion based on Woodrow Wilson Foundation questions, compared to 36 percent of the general population and 53 percent of Indianans.

Through a series of town halls and meetings, the working group -- which included student representatives -- determined that a civics test was necessary but not sufficient to address the civics literacy charge, said Cheryl Cooky, working group and Senate chair and associate professor of American and women’s and gender studies.

“Students, in particular, thought that a test wasn’t really that meaningful as an indicator of civic literacy,” she said. “They didn’t want it to be quote-unquote busywork” and suggested curricular and experiential requirements.

At the same time, McCann said, the group wanted to give students “maximum flexibility.” So it conceived a third way for students to supplement the test: self-paced learning modules that drew on the campus’s exclusive C-SPAN archives. This way, students who really couldn’t take on another course or didn’t want to attend campus and community events could work the modules into their schedules.

The working group encountered one other big problem: the pilot test revealed significant performance gaps between domestic and international students and among students from different ethnic groups. That meant it would be imperative to develop a new instrument free of racial and other biases.

“Needless to say, if we were contemplating having a test administered to every student as a precondition of getting a degree, it’s obvious that it has be neutral with regard to ethnicity and place of birth,” McCann said.

The test instrument has yet to be finalized. But the working group’s proposal is now with the Senate’s Educational Policy committee for review. If it’s approved, it could go to the full Senate for a vote. Cooky said the earliest that that could possibly happen would be the end of the spring semester.

Andrew Freed, chair of the policy committee and professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences, said he supports the “idea of Purdue taking responsibility of graduating students who are knowledgeable in civics and have some participation experience.”

Other universities have “successfully figured out a way to integrate this into their requirements,” he added, “so why not us?”

Yet the devil is in the details. Freed said his committee has “a lot of questions about the feasibility of the approach, what it would take to implement it and how this would impact curriculums that do not really have room to spare for another requirement.”

Daniels is optimistic. “Ensuring that our students are fully prepared to be active and informed citizens should be important to all of us and will add value to the excellent degree they are already getting from Purdue,” he said. “I’m grateful to the Senate for their research and due diligence on this and am pleased we now have a planned path forward.”

The working group has identified about a dozen other institutions with civics requirements for students. Most involve coursework, but the University of Central Florida gives students the option of taking a test. Central Florida’s policy is the result of a 2017 mandate from the Florida Legislature saying that students at all state colleges and universities must graduate with a basic understanding of the principles of American democracy and how they’re applied. They must be familiar with the U.S. Constitution, the founding documents and how they’ve shaped self-governance, and landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Researchers at Central Florida’s Lou Frey Institute helped develop a tool called the Civic Literacy Assessment. It’s based in part on the federal naturalization test and has additional questions about court cases, in a multiple-choice format. Other options for completing the requirement include coursework and high scores on relevant Advanced Placement exams.

Stephen S. Masyada, interim director of the institute, said the entire state university system has adopted the test. A new “wrinkle,” however, he said, is that Florida has also adopted a civic literacy assessment for high school students, starting next year. In any case, Masyada said that, at least anecdotally, students at the university seemed to satisfying the requirement through coursework more than through the test.

Cooky said it’s remains unclear -- including to the experts on the working group -- how much promoting civic literacy will actually spur students to civic engagement, starting with voting.

Still, "this is a good starting point. Making civic literacy more prominent and giving more value to it in making it a graduation requirement will hopefully send a message that this is important.”

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Two Europe-based professors delayed or canceled their trips to the U.S. recently due to problems getting approved for visas. Their experiences are renewing concerns about obstacles put in the way of highly renowned scholars wanting to travel to the U.S. because of their political affiliations and activities or their travel histories.

Both cases came to light last week. In the first case, first reported by the University of Virginia student newspaper, a German professor and expert on far-right politics, Hajo Funke, scheduled to teach two classes at Virginia couldn’t make it to the U.S. for the start of the spring semester after he says his visa application was held up by U.S. immigration authorities. The other case involves a Britain-based professor and architect, Eyal Weizman, who was unable to make it to the opening of an exhibition of his work at Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art and Design after he says his eligibility for visa-free travel to the U.S. was abruptly canceled.

A supporter of Funke believes his past travel to Iran to visit his wife's family is the most likely reason for the delay. Weizman said something about his travels or associations flagged him for additional scrutiny and said U.S. Embassy officials in London told him as much.

These incidents follow a series of others in which students from the Middle East, in particular Iran, have experienced delays getting visas or have been denied entry at U.S. airports despite having been awarded visas to travel.

“What we think is the processing has become much more severe,” said Jeffrey Grossman, an associate professor and chair of Germanic languages and literatures at UVA who invited Funke to teach two courses at the university this semester. One of the courses is on right-wing populism and the far right, and the other is on political and historical memory. The classes are being taught via videoconferencing while Funke continues to wait for his visa.

A Delayed Visa, a Diminished Classroom Experience

Funke said he applied for an exchange visitor visa in November and was told in December that it would be subject to three to six months of additional processing. He said he was not given a reason for the delay. He was most recently in the U.S. in the fall of 2018 as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, where he worked on a comparative project addressing the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017 and far-right protests in the German city of Chemnitz in August and September of 2018.

“A year and some months ago, I got the visa without problems, and now I didn’t with the same identical passport,” Funke said in an interview. “So they had changed the rules or it was in other ways arbitrary.”

Funke stressed that he did not want to speculate why his visa application was denied. But he noted that his passport has a stamp from his 2014 trip to visit his wife's family in Iran, and that same stamp was in the passport the last time he applied for and got a U.S. visa.

A U.S. State Department official declined to comment on Funke's case, citing the confidentiality of visa records under U.S. law.

“Speaking generally, national security is our top priority when adjudicating visa applications,” the official said. “Every prospective traveler to the United States undergoes extensive security screening, and we are constantly working to find mechanisms to improve our screening processes and to support legitimate travel and immigration to the United States while protecting U.S. citizens.”

Funke said he received word on Thursday from the U.S. Embassy in Germany that his visa had been approved and that he must now mail his passport back to the embassy to get the visa. Meanwhile, the courses he is teaching at Virginia are underway via videoconferencing, with the help of Grossman.

"It is functioning very well, with one exception: the personal face-to-face contact isn’t possible if you don’t know the students. This specific lack of kind of quasi-personal scholarly exchange, that was the minus," Funke said.

Grossman agreed the videoconferencing is no substitute for teaching in person. He thinks the classes would have had higher enrollments had Funke been there in person starting the first day of classes.

“He likes very much engaging with students; he’s very personable even in a videoconference, because he’s appeared on German television and radio, but you can just sense that if he were in the classroom, it would be even more stimulating for the students,” Grossman said.

Grossman said Funke is exceptionally well positioned to address topics of great relevance to UVA students.

“We really wanted to offer classes that the students would find relevant given what’s happened in Charlottesville,” he said. “We’re very concerned to address these issues as they impinge on our world and given his focus -- that he does know Charlottesville and also works on Germany and political theory -- we thought that would be a great way to address that.”

A Disrupted Exhibition, a Mysterious ‘Algorithm’

In Weizman's case, the professor of spatial and visual cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, was planning to travel to Miami for the opening of an exhibition last week at a museum affiliated with Miami Dade College.

The exhibit features the work of Forensic Architecture, a research agency founded and directed by Weizman that, per the exhibit description, “uses architectural software and an architectural sensibility to investigate human rights violations.”

“We investigate state and corporate violence, human rights violations and environmental destruction all over the world,” Forensic Architecture’s website explains. “Our work often involves open-source investigation, the construction of digital and physical models, 3D animations, virtual reality environments and cartographic platforms. Within these environments we locate and analyze photographs, videos, audio files and testimonies to reconstruct and analyze violent events. We also use our digital models as tools for interviewing survivors of violence, finding new ways to access and explore memories of trauma.”

The exhibition at Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art and Design is Forensic Architecture’s first major survey exhibition in the U.S., and Weizman planned to be in attendance. But he said in a statement that he received an email from the U.S. embassy on Feb. 12, two days before his scheduled flight to the U.S., saying his eligibility for travel through the visa waiver program had been revoked. The visa waiver program allows for visa-free short-term travel to the U.S. for citizens of 39 countries, including many European nations.

“The revocation notice stated no reason, and the situation gave me no opportunity to appeal or to arrange for an alternative visa that would allow me be here,” Weizman said. His wife, who is also a professor and was scheduled to give talks in the U.S., traveled ahead with their two children without him. Weizman said she was stopped upon arrival at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, separated from the children and interrogated for two and a half hours by immigration officials before the family was allowed entry.

"The following day I went to the U.S. Embassy in London to apply for a visa," Weizman said. "In my interview the officer informed me that my authorization to travel had been revoked because the 'algorithm' had identified a security threat. He said he did not know what had triggered the algorithm but suggested that it could be something I was involved in, people I am or was in contact with, places to which I had traveled (had I recently been in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia or met their nationals?), hotels at which I stayed or a certain pattern of relations among these things. I was asked to supply the Embassy with additional information, including 15 years of travel history, in particular where I had gone and who had paid for it. The officer said that Homeland Security’s investigators could assess my case more promptly if I supplied the names of anyone in my network whom I believed might have triggered the algorithm. I declined to provide this information."

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which administers the visa waiver program, said the agency uses "a multilayered approach to security."

"CBP officers have the statutory authority to refer any individuals for additional screening about whom we need more information to make a determination of risk on such things as health-related grounds, national security concerns, intending immigration without proper authorization, criminality, document requirements or violations and many more. These referrals are based on multiple factors that could include a combination of an individual’s activities, associations and travel patterns," the agency spokesperson said.

Weizman said his work in human rights engaging with vulnerable individuals makes him especially alarmed about the monitoring of his associations and travel patterns.

"This much we know: we are being electronically monitored for a set of connections -- the network of associations, people, places, calls and transactions -- that make up our lives," he said in his statement. "Such network analysis poses many problems, some of which are well-known. Working in human rights means being in contact with vulnerable communities, activists and experts, and being entrusted with sensitive information. These networks are the lifeline of any investigative work. I am alarmed that relations among our colleagues, stakeholders and staff are being targeted by the U.S. government as security threats."

Weizman used the occasion of the exhibition opening to announce an investigation with local groups into an immigration detention center in Homestead, Fla. Of his own encounters with U.S. immigration, he said, "This incident exemplifies -- albeit in a far less intense manner and at a much less drastic scale -- critical aspects of the 'arbitrary logic of the border' that our exhibition seeks to expose. The racialized violations of the rights of migrants at the U.S. southern border are of course much more serious and brutal than the procedural difficulties a U.K. national may experience, and these migrants have very limited avenues for accountability when contesting the violence of the U.S. border."

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The Board of Trustees at Johnson County Community College in Kansas has censured one trustee after she was found to have sent a email to state lawmakers that was rife with inaccuracies.

Angeliina Lawson, who like all trustees of the college was elected to the board directly by voters, sent an email to state lawmakers explaining her concerns around mismanagement of some of the college’s funds as well as works of art stored by the college.

That email eventually made its way to the Kansas Board of Regents and then to JCCC board members, though with Lawson’s name redacted.

A fact-finding investigation found that Lawson sent the email, though she originally refused to respond to questions about the email at board meetings. The fact finder discovered the email contained much false information and some misunderstandings of how the college’s works of art and logistical processes are actually handled. The investigation also found that Lawson’s description of a tour of the art storage facility she attended differed from what others on the tour said occurred.

Lawson has for her part said the censure vote is part of a long-running agenda of revenge by other members of the board stemming from the fact that she was not part of their slate of candidates. Lawson called the investigation a “witch hunt” and said that the lawyer in charge of the fact-finding investigation falsified information.

“I have done nothing wrong. I have a clear conscience,” she said in an interview. “I will keep showing up and I will keep asking questions, because I know I’m doing my job.”

She said that the intense response by the board and community college officials to her questions about the college’s assets and relatively large reserves is suspicious.

“When I dig into more of the budget, suddenly I get a lot of pushback,” she said. “What did I walk into that is causing this much pushback?”

Lawson also said that the Board of Trustees, being publicly elected by voters, operates with too much power and autonomy.

“What in the world is a community college doing storing millions and millions of dollars in art?” she asked. “The questions I’m asking are legitimate."

The total value of all art stored by the college is over $39 million. The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art is located on the Johnson campus. The fact-finding mission concluded that Lawson did not show an understanding of how the art is managed and the policies surrounding its storage.

Lawson’s full email, with annotated initial responses from JCCC staff, can be found on page 49 of the board packet for the December meeting of the trustees.

She was censured by the board for violating the code of conduct, which requires, among other things, trustees to work in harmony and cooperation with the rest of the board.

Greg Musil, chair of the Board of Trustees, said that if Lawson was in fact simply asking for transparency and forwarding along constituents’ concerns, she should have done that in a public forum.

“Instead, she chose to send a secret e-mail to state legislators making factually false allegations, naming individual college employees, and even alleging misconduct at other Kansas community colleges,” he said via email. “Her conduct promoted secrecy, not the transparency practiced by or sought by the college.”

"Her intent, from the start and as she stated in her 'defense,' was to ensure that no one knew about her inflammatory and materially inaccurate e-mail -- not the public, her fellow board members, or faculty, staff or students," he said.

Musil said good governance, trusting relationships and a focus on students were all diminished by Lawson’s secret email. "If the board had ignored these violations, the Code of Conduct would simply have been a piece of paper, with no credibility."

Lawson said that in her time on the board since 2017, her concerns have repeatedly been mocked or dismissed, and so she had no faith in the board to investigate.

"If an elected official cannot seek the advice of another elected official, where do I go?" she said. "The constituents have a right to get their questions answered."

John Lombardi, former president of the University of Florida and the Louisiana State University system, and author of the book How Universities Work, said that typically when trustees have concerns about mismanagement, they should first speak to the chair of the board, and then the two together should speak with the president or chancellor of the college.

If the executive can’t resolve the issue, he said, it may be that the board needs to take up the issue in executive session.

“When boards do not resolve these issues in executive session, but individual board members seek out alternative forums in the public to attack the institutional management or each other,” he said via email, “it may well indicate mismanagement of the board's responsibilities.”

He said that board members should understand that their role is not to manage a university directly, but to hire and fire a president.

Two local news publications, The Kansas City Star and The Shawnee Mission Post, both reported that several residents spoke up in support of Lawson at the meeting where she was censured, saying she was asking difficult questions and won her election by a large margin.

A spokesperson for the community college said that the events were an “unfortunate situation,” but one that could have been solved fairly easily by Lawson. The spokesperson said the administration is looking forward to getting back to focusing on the mission of the college and student success.

Henry Stoever, president and CEO of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, said that a board should work collectively with a president to resolve questions.

“Effective board governance doesn’t happen if all members don’t have the necessary information to act on critical issues,” he said via email.

He said that while he was not aware of every detail of the JCCC case, boards do have the responsibility to police themselves.

“All members, whether they be elected, appointed, selected, ex-officio, or otherwise,” he said, “should understand their duties and how these responsibilities translate into effective board governance.”

Lombardi said that censure by a board is often a mistake and does not resolve the problem.

“Censure is a political act and indicates a dysfunctional board that has members who do not want to work together and cannot resolve their issues within normal board procedures,” he said via email. “Once you reach the point of censure, you will have more trouble, not less.”

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Without counterspaces where they can find refuge and strengthen their resolve, students can be undermined by slights.

The latest titles examine the goals of student activists, the social context behind campus sexual assaults, and Pacific Islander students’ success strategies.

An MoU between the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and all eight New Zealand universities has been signed to facilitate the setting up of a New Zealand Centre at the IIT that will be a focal point of academic activity for both countries.

This first-of-its-kind joint initiative will boost academic ties and is aimed at discussing and developing projects for long-term research in areas include cybersecurity, advanced biological and healthcare systems, engineering and technologies for clean water.

ÔÇ£The new centre reflects on our efforts to embrace internationalisation”

IT Delhi and the universities have agreed to seed fund┬áup to┬á10 research projects, with matching commitments from both sides of approximately US$10,000 ÔÇô bringing the potential total funding to $100,000.

The selected projects will be announced in June this year, and the researchers will receive $10,000 each towards the project.

Jennifer Dixon, deputy vice-chancellor (strategic engagement), University of Auckland, led the New Zealand delegation said it is a significant step in New ZealandÔÇÖs long-term education relationship with India.

ÔÇ£We are dedicated to creating future global citizens and we look forward to the development of cutting-edge research through the association in areas such as cancer genomics, robotics, data science and wastewater treatment,ÔÇØ she told The PIE News.

The centre will host visiting academics and researchers, support student mobility and act as a forum for diplomatic and trade dialogue among different sectors.

Sanjeev Sanghi, dean ÔÇô alumni affairs and international programs at IIT Delhi ÔÇô said the institute was pleased to be associated with New Zealand varsities.

ÔÇ£The new centre reflects on our efforts to embrace internationalisation, open up opportunities for new research collaborations and increase global exposure for our students,” Sanghi said.

“We look forward to collaborating more with universities from New Zealand and other countries as well to keep improving, learning and exchanging knowledge and practices in areas of research and STEM.ÔÇØ

John Laxon, Education New ZealandÔÇÖs regional director (Asia), added that the centre would be a “one-of-a-kind”┬áresearch establishment.

ÔÇ£A research-focused New Zealand centre at IIT Delhi builds on New ZealandÔÇÖs status as a preferred education destination for [Indian] students, with a 71% increase in Indian students choosing to study in New Zealand universities in 2019,” he noted.

In another development to foster ties between both countries, the University of Auckland hosted a knowledge exchange workshop on rankings for universities and institutions in New Delhi on February 14.

As many as 20 Indian institutions, including Indian Institutes of Technology at Delhi, and Madras, Jindal Global University and Shiv Nadar University participated in the event.

The topic of the workshop was ÔÇÿuniversity rankings ÔÇô what they entail, what they mean for universities, strategies and practices.ÔÇÖ

Dixon from the University of Auckland and a colleague Jingwen Mu, senior planning analyst, shared their perspective and pragmatic approaches to rankings.

Other speakers included Kanika Bhal, dean of planning at IIT Delhi; Rupamanjari Ghosh, vice-chancellor of Shiv Nadar University, and Arjya Majumdar, executive director of academic planning at Jindal Global University who shared some Indian perspectives, experiences and challenges with regards rankings.

The experts also explored ranking methods and discussed techniques that can assist in improving ranking performance of institutions.

Questions such as ÔÇÿshould rankings drive institutional behaviour or help provide insights into performance,ÔÇÖ and ÔÇÿhow do national rankings systems overlap or compete against international reputation rankingsÔÇÖ were also addressed.

ÔÇ£Whether we like it or not, rankings are important for universities. Students look to a universityÔÇÖs ranking as a proxy of its quality ÔÇô that is the quality of its teaching and research,” noted Dixon.

ÔÇ£Whether we like it or not, rankings are important for universities”

ÔÇ£Our discussions with Indian institutions will help us know more about the strategies, challenges, opportunities and ways to optimise our performances on prominent world rankings.

“We hope Indian institutions will learn about building internal capabilities, the importance of data analytics, and staff citations when it comes to rankings,ÔÇØ she told The PIE.

Ghosh of Shiv Nadar University added: ÔÇ£All of us in higher education need to be accountable. Rankings serve as a mirror and empower self-appraisal. But a uniform set of ranking parameters is not fair to the diverse missions of institutions.ÔÇØ

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A gathering at the University of Mississippi offers a chance to heal the wounds left by mass arrests at a peaceful demonstration in 1970.

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor says a court ruling forced it to put the policy in place, but victim advocates say the process retraumatizes assault victims.

Applications from non-UK students for higher education courses in the UK increased by 5.2% this cycle over 2018 to reach a record 140,955, according to the latest Universities and Colleges Admissions Service report. All in all, a total of 76,905 of those applications were accepted, marking an increase of 3.8% over the previous year.

According to the┬áreport, the government’s target of 600,000 international students┬ástudying in the UK by 2030┬á combined with the imminent arrival of a new post-study work visa may help stimulate growth in HE sector in the coming years.

“The changing exchange rate between the sterling and other currencies [may be] making the UK an attractive location for HE”

“Another factor which may have stimulated growth in the number of non-UK applicants is the changing exchange rate between the sterling and other currencies making the UK an attractive location for HE,” the authors explained.

According to the report, several countries in Africa have been identified as emerging markets for UK universities and colleges.

The number of students applying from Ghana grew by 25.5% (to reach 520 applicants) in 2019, South African applicants rose by 17.1% (685), and applicants from Egypt grew by 8.1% (860).

Applicant numbers from Nigeria have risen by 10.8% to 1,870, following a decline of 40.9% between 2010 and 2018.

The top ten countries in terms of percentage growth of applicants to the UK from 2018 to 2019 (minimum 500 applicants in 2019), excluding China and India. Graph: UCAS

The report noted that the Middle East as a source of applicants has also seen changes.

It showed that with applicants from Saudi Arabia there has been some signs of recovery ÔÇô a fall of 35.2% from 2010 to 2018 has been followed by a 10.3% increase in 2019, to 1,390 applicants.

The largest numbers of international applicants continue to come from China and India, which account for 15.3% (21,505) and 4.8% (6,720) of non-UK applicants respectively.

China, in particular, has seen 25.7% growth in applications over the last cycle.

Meanwhile, the number of applications from both Kuwait and Thailand passed 1,000 for the first time. Taiwan also saw an increase of 11.6%, while traditional source countries such as Hong Kong saw a surprising decrease of 5.6% while Malaysia remained relatively stable.

The UKÔÇÖs International Education Strategy, released last year, promotes the education sector focusing on ÔÇ£high-value regionsÔÇØ in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America, a different approach compared to countries like Canada which are seeking greater diversification.

ÔÇ£It is a risky strategy for universities to target a limited number of countries to recruit international students, as we have seen with the health crisis in China in recent months,ÔÇØ Rachel Hewitt, director of policy and advocacy at HEPI, told The PIE News.

ÔÇ£However it is also right that their approach should be demand-driven and it is clear the strongest demand is currently from China and India.

ÔÇ£It is a risky strategy for universities to target a limited number of countries to recruit international students”

ÔÇ£It seems that already the post-study work visa has had a positive impact on the recruitment of international students, particularly those from India. This also demonstrates the significant impact that changes in government policy can have on recruitment,” Hewitt added.

Applicants from within the EU ÔÇô whose major source countries include France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Ireland ÔÇô have remained stable but numbers remain lower than before the 2016 EU referendum.

EU applicants accounted for 37.7% of all non-UK applicants in 2019, down from 39.3% in 2018.

Notably, 35.5% of EU applicants applied to study in Scotland, most likely due to the fact that the Scottish government currently subsidises the fees of Scottish and EU students.

As with previous years, non-UK applicants strongly preferred London over other regions, with international students nearly twice as likely to apply to at least one university or college in London compared to those applying from the UK.

According to the report, 54.1% of applicants from outside the UK used one of their five undergraduate application choices for a course based in London last year, compared to 27.8% of UK applicants.

However, the UK is not always the only place that international students apply to study.

“UCAS surveys applicants about their application choices, and is able therefore to provide insight into the range of destinations they may be considering,” explained the report.

Almost four out of 10 also apply to study in their own country, while 36% of EU students and 48% of non-EU ones apply to other countries, most commonly the US and Canada.

38% of Chinese applicants additionally apply to study in Hong Kong.

Those applying through agencies experienced higher acceptance rates (59.9%) than the 45.7% of applicants that applied independently (48% were accepted) or through overseas schools (53.8%).

“Our most detailed insight ever into international studentsÔÇÖ choices further proves the high regard our higher education sector is held in around the world,” said┬áClare Marchant, UCASÔÇÖ chief executive.

“While the draw of studying in the capital is clear, our analysis of emerging markets and studentsÔÇÖ subject preferences will be invaluable to universities across the country in planning their teaching and recruitment activities,” she added.

The post UCAS: record applicants & acceptances from outside UK, boosted by non-EU growth appeared first on The PIE News.

Complainants say the same problems with the founder of MeTooSTEM, BethAnn McLaughlin, have cropped up publicly before.

Australia is striving to become the ÔÇ£destination of choiceÔÇØ for aspiring English learners within five years, with the government releasing a new strategy to grow the market.

The draft English Language Teaching – International Engagement Strategy 2025 outlines a broad plan to create more jobs and drive more economic growth, and was developed in conjunction with AustraliaÔÇÖs peak body for English language, English Australia.

The strategy is based on four objectives:

• Providing a welcoming, safe and world-leading student experience
• Supporting the English language teaching sector to actively embrace new opportunities and adopt innovative practices and models
• AustraliaÔÇÖs English language teaching sector is flexible supporting both standalone and seamless transition in further studies
• English language teaching is recognised as a valued and integral part of AustraliaÔÇÖs international education sector

Australia’s minister for Education, Dan Tehan, said┬áthe strategy will build on the sectorÔÇÖs existing strengths and achievements with a view to further enhancing AustraliaÔÇÖs competitive and comparative advantages in the global provision of English language teaching.

“80% of the worldÔÇÖs population doesnÔÇÖt speak English and English is the most popular language to study, so the potential of this sector is enormous,” he said.

Data from English Australia shows that in 2018 nearly 180,000 students studied English in Australia, with two-thirds studying on a student visa.

“The strategy will identify opportunities for more students to study English in Australia and will map out opportunities to increase our English language teaching footprint in Australia, online and internationally,” Tehan continued.

“The development of a long-term strategy will help ensure the sustainable growth of the sector through to 2025 and beyond.”

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment is seeking stakeholder comment on the suitability of the objectives, actions and measures of success before it finalises the strategy.

The deadline for submissions is April 3, 2020

The post Aus aims to be ELT ÔÇ£destination of choiceÔÇØ appeared first on The PIE News.

Australia’s Department of Education, Skills and Employment has released a snapshot of international students who studied ELICOS as part of a study pathway, with figures showing mixed results for the sector in 2019.

While there was “incredible growth” in some key markets, a 9% decrease in pathway ELICOS students on 2018 figures was countered by growth (7%) in independent ELICOS visas.

Overall, visa grants associated with an ELICOS course declined by 2% in 2019, according to the report.

ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve seen incredible growth from Colombia and Chile in 2019″

Much of the overall decline can be attributed to a significant drop in numbers of pathway visas from China (-18%), the report explained, suggesting there is a declining interest from Chinese students to include ELICOS in a study pathway.

The figures showed a similar story for Indian students with a 34% decline in pathway visas.

“Like China, most visas with ELICOS granted to India in 2019 were pathway visas and their decline was in spite of a 17% growth in all primary student visa grants, which suggests there is also a declining interest from Indian students to include ELICOS in a study pathway,” highlighted the report.

Conversely Vietnam, which also predominantly has ELICOS pathway visas, saw strong growth in both all primary visa grants (24%) and in visas with ELICOS (31%) in 2019.

Speaking with The PIE News, English Australia CEO, Brett Blacker, said there is a number of other countries showing strong increases.

ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve seen incredible growth from Colombia and Chile in 2019, two key markets that weÔÇÖve focused on as part of our work under the International Council for Education and its LATAM Working Group,” he said.

Over half of the growth seen in independent ELICOS visas in 2019 can be attributed to Colombia according to the report, with countries such as Thailand, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Mexico also making a significant contribution.

ÔÇ£ChinaÔÇÖs downturn is significant but the growth in these markets, and new markets like Mongolia and Nepal, shows how our sector is diversifying and bringing a better experience for all ELICOS students,ÔÇØ continued Blacker.

Diversification of the sector is also a focus for the federal government, with Federal Education minister Dan Tehan reportedly set to release a draft road map towards making Australia the ÔÇ£destination of choiceÔÇØ for aspiring English learners by 2025.

The strategy will set out a guiding framework to secure access to new markets and maintain the nationÔÇÖs reputation as one of the world’s leading English teaching providers.

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A class action lawsuit brought against Niagara College in 2015 by international students who discovered they were prohibited from accessing the labour market was settled earlier this month at the cost of CAD $3 million to the southern Ontario institute.

Launched by former students Anish Goyal and Chintan Zankat, who were initially seeking CAD $50 million in damages, the lawsuit claimed that the college misled them into believing that a four-month general arts and science program, delivered mostly online, would qualify them for the Post Graduate Work Program in the country.

“This situation has affected my life in ways that are irreparable by money”

The PGWP is an open work permit for any type of job that allows graduates to work in Canada for up to a maximum of three years. However, the immigration department does not accept distance learning when it comes to meeting the application requirements.

Goyal, an Indian graduate with a BA in Engineering, completed the program with Niagara College in 2015, having taken five of the six courses in the program online.

Only some of those affected were able to remain in Canada after reapplying for the permit.

ÔÇ£This situation has affected my life in ways that are irreparable by money. We settled this lawsuit mostly to ensure that we donÔÇÖt burden the already overburdened courts of Canada and its colleges,ÔÇØ the Toronto Star reported Goyal as having said.

ÔÇ£International students are here to be a positive part of Canada. I am sure every international student is here to work hard and be a better part of this society.ÔÇØ

Those involved in the case were unable to comment due to a gag order. Other international students who were denied work permits due to the program ÔÇô which may be as many as five hundred ÔÇô are still eligible to join the class action lawsuit until April 6.

“Differential fees and predatory recruiting practices have put international students in a vulnerable position”

“Differential fees and predatory recruiting practices have put international students in a vulnerable position,” a representative for the Canadian Federation of Students told The PIE News.

“We must treat international students with fairness and that includes being forthcoming about course offerings and immigration┬ápathways (or lack thereof) as a result of education in Canada.

“In addition, we believe that a high-quality, fully publicly-funded system of postsecondary education would resolve this issue as universities and colleges wouldn’t be scrambling to balance their budgets by resorting to… charging astronomical differential fees and aggressively recruiting international students through sometimes misleading statements,” the representative added.

Niagara College declined to comment.

The post Settlement reached in Niagara lawsuit appeared first on The PIE News.

Seats on English as a second language courses in the┬áGreater Boston area fall “woefully short” for students that require English training to┬áenhance professional skills and further investment is an “economic necessity”, a report has suggested.

The ROI of ESOL:┬áThe Economic and Social Return on Investment for ESOL Programs in Greater Boston report┬áfound that there is a “serious shortage” of programs┬áthat focus on training for local professionals who have limited English abilities.

“ESOL programs are an affordable and crucial investment”

Annually,┬á116 programs have a capacity of around┬á11,600 students, while Greater Boston’s working-age adults with┬áLimited English Proficiency stretches to┬á240,000 people,┬áthe report found.

More specialised ESOL courses for local professionals are needed, it maintained.

Programs that focus on work-related English language education represent just 7%, researchers found, as the majority were classified as general-purpose, or more directly targeted toward citizenship.

The report, published by the Boston Foundation and the Latino Legacy Fund, suggested an increase in vocational and workplace programs would benefit both students and the local economy.

Investing in ESOL “not only gives students access to higher-paying jobs, but it also empowers them to contribute and strengthen the future of Greater Boston”,┬áAixa Beauchamp, co-chair of the Latino Legacy Fund added.

“ESOL programs are an affordable and crucial investment in building a more just and equitable city and region,” she said.

Paul S. Grogan, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation, noted it was an “economic necessity” to invest in ESOL.

“Despite the fact that immigrants account for virtually all of the population increase powering Greater BostonÔÇÖs renaissance, we are investing far too little in ESOL, particularly programs with a focus on English language skills for the workplace,” he said.

“This should not be seen as solely an education problem. It is an economic necessity.”

The report also recommends ESOL system areas be transformed. In addition to reducing the gap between capacity and demand, working conditions for ESOL teachers should be improved and student support, such as access to childcare, should be provided.

“Fragmented parts” of the system ought to be aligned to┬áfunding streams, data and reporting systems, and other institutional structures and processes, it added.

Beyond Boston, assistant director for Student Affairs┬áat┬áIndiana University ÔÇô Purdue University Indianapolis,┬áCindy Carr noted that US citizens, permanent residents, refugees and asylees have “always been an important part of our student body”.

Numbers ebb and flow, but on average they represent 10-15% of the student body, she highlighted.

“They add tremendously to the diversity of our program because they are most often originate from countries that do not typically send a lot of F-1 students to the U.S. to study,” she said.

However,┬áCarr noted that┬áspecific ways to reach out to the immigrant community have not been identified until now,┬á“but gradually ÔÇô through word of mouth and our online presence ÔÇô these folks are finding us”.

“One challenge for this cohort can be that our classes are weekdays during work hours, and many immigrants are already working,” she added.

“The Immigrant Welcome Center in our city hosts an excellent website that we can direct such prospective students to which lists all the English classes in the area and is searchable by the time of the class, cost and location.ÔÇï”

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A Serbian-based agent workshop opened up its attendee list to include agents from neighbouring countries earlier in 2020 as it seeks to cement its place as a regular ’boutique’ agency workshop in the region.

Held in Serbia’s capital┬áBelgrade, the┬áKUB EDUCO Workshop featured educators represented by┬áKUB Travel Enterprises, including junior summer and adult year round language courses,┬áindependent and public schools, and universities.

“We decided to up the number of agents this year…and it was a wonderful success”

The 22nd iteration of the event was attended by 16 agencies, including three from both Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia, while one each from Slovenia, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro and Romania attended. Alongside KUB Travel Enterprises, four additional agencies from Serbia joined.

Executive director of┬áKUB Travel Enterprises and event organiser, Magdalena Jugovic, explained that the success of the workshop was largely due to the opportunity to meet at a “smaller and friendlier venue” than larger events.

“In the last few years we have always had at least one or two agents from the region present at the workshop,”┬áJugovic said.

“As both the schools and the agents said this was a wonderful opportunity to meet at a smaller and friendlier venue, we decided to up the number of agents this year and see how it goes. And it was a wonderful success,” she added.

Smaller agencies from surrounding countries who do not attend big workshops benefitted from meeting schools face to face, Jugovic noted.

“The main benefit for both was meeting existing partners, but also quite a number of new potential partners.

“This year all the schools present were existing KUB partners, which was also an additional extra for the agents as the schools have already been our trusted partners for years,” she said.

Along with the growth in agencies attending, the number of educators joining also increased to a total of more than 40.

“Although the numbers have grown it has still remained small in comparison to other workshops and had the friendly and relaxed atmosphere for networking,”┬áJugovic said.

Despite the success of the larger event, KUB has “no plans in growing big”, she added.

In 2021 however, KUB hopes to include agencies from more countries such as┬áGreece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy,┬áJugovic highlighted,┬ábut “would definitely like to keep it small and intimate ÔÇô a ÔÇ£boutiqueÔÇØ workshop, where schools and agents can cement their relations during the relaxing social events”.

The next KUB EDUCO event will take place in Belgrade on January 23, 2021.

The post Serbian workshop welcomes regional agencies appeared first on The PIE News.

Oxford International Educational Group has announced a new partnership deal with Jacobs University in Germany.  As part of the deal, OIEG will open a new international college with the Bremen-based university that will take its first students in September this year.

ÔÇ£With this new partnership, we will strengthen our position as a major provider in the pathways sectorÔÇØ

The college will seek to improve international studentsÔÇÖ university study skills and English language level in order to prepare them for further study at Jacobs University on its undergraduate programs.┬á

Courses offered will focus on a variety of subjects, including international business, computer sciences, physics, chemistry, engineering and robotics.

According to OIEG, it is the first time that a pathway provider has opened an international college with a German institution. 

ÔÇ£With this new partnership, we will strengthen our position as a major provider in the pathways sector and drive economic growth for both our UK and European business communities,ÔÇØ said OIEG group CEO, Lil Bremermann-Richard.┬á

ÔÇ£Key to our success is to select and work with partners who share our mission to enable opportunities, build trusted partnerships and empower success for our students, our people, our partners, and communities around the world,ÔÇØ she added.

In 2018, OIEG partnered with the University of Greenwich, and created an embedded college to help prepare international students for undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the UK. 

To date, the pathway provider has opened and operated three over embedded colleges across the UK.┬áIt has also launched an office in Portugal to increase EU student recruitment with the UKÔÇÖs De Montfort University.

ÔÇ£This new venture for Oxford International reflects the ever-changing landscape in HE student mobility, with many international students continuing to choose to study in mainland Europe,ÔÇØ a statement from OIEG explained.┬á

ÔÇ£With Germany exceeding its own goals as a destination for inbound non-EU students, Jacobs UniversityÔÇÖs already strong international presence and Oxford InternationalÔÇÖs rapid growth in the University Partnership division, the partnership was a natural fit.ÔÇØ

Jacobs University is a private, fully English-speaking research-oriented campus university. Established in 2001, it has achieved top results in national and international university rankings and has more than 1,500 students that come from over 120 countries. 

ÔÇ£As a young and international top-ranked institution, this is an important milestone in our mission and commitment towards opening more chances for an excellent education,ÔÇØ said Bannour Hadroug, member of the management board and head of student marketing and recruitment at Jacobs University.┬á

ÔÇ£In a dynamical and connected world, we are convinced that this partnership will empower our social and educational impact and help students to discover and achieve their full potential,ÔÇØ he added.

Admissions will open in March for courses starting in September 2020 with pre-sessional English courses beginning in June.

The post Germany: OIEG partners with Jacobs Uni appeared first on The PIE News.

Brigham Young University's recent removal of “homosexual behavior” as a prohibited and punishable act under its honor code has caused both celebration and skepticism in the LGBTQ community.

On the surface, the removal of a passage in the honor code on Feb. 19 indicates that members of the university who display such physical intimacy will no longer be subjected to disciplinary measures, including removal from the university, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But in a series of tweets the next day, university representatives said “there may have been some miscommunication” about what the changes mean.

“We have removed the more prescriptive language and kept the focus on the principles of the honor code, which have not changed,” said Carri Jenkins, assistant to the president for university communications. “We will handle questions that arise on an individual, case-by-case basis.”

The response has left many LGBTQ students enrolled at the Utah institution in the dark about how they can express their sexual orientation, since the university did not make it explicitly clear.

looks like we may have been a little preemptive—it’s unclear if BYU is saying yes or no to same-sex dating. I’ve seen direct accounts of LGBTQ+ students asking the HCO point-blank if they can hold hands/kiss/date and the office said yes … https://t.co/Eyp2Ut1UL4 https://t.co/xFUk9CrfPw

— Matty Easton (@easton_matty) February 19, 2020

Before Wednesday's changes, the university said it would act on "behavior" rather than "feelings or attraction." The now-deleted paragraphs state that homosexual behavior, which "includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings" is in violation of the honor code.

A spokeswoman for the university declined to explain what the revision will mean for LGBTQ couples who kiss, hug, hold hands, date or otherwise express their sexual orientation in public.

“Students are free to go to the Honor Code Office to get clarification if that affects them,” she said.

Some students did just that ÔÇïand learned physical intimacy between LGBTQ people is permitted, “as long as it’s not serious and leads to marriage,” said Martha Harris, a junior who is a lesbian. Multiple students shared similar stories on Twitter.

"Now I think it’s just very unclear what could happen," Harris said. "I know people who have gotten kicked out, people who have been reported to the office for rumors of hugging or coming out … I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m waiting a few days to see where things lay, because of the very conflicting messages."

McKay Boyack, a senior at Brigham Young who is a lesbian, said the “principle-based approach” the university will now take on LGBTQ sexuality is more subjective than the passage it removed, which is concerning.

“I’m so excited I could cry, but I’m really scared that they’re going to draw back on that before we have the chance to do anything,” Boyack said. “Who’s to say that one honor code officer wouldn’t be like, ‘it’s fine for them to date,’ and another wouldn’t throw you out of the school? It’s giving us more ambiguity as students that we already deal with in the church.”

The language change occurred immediately after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released its updated general handbook, which outlines the church's mission and goals. The new handbook eased disciplinary measures for same-sex couples, but it continues to state that same-sex sexual activity is a sin and that gender is defined at birth, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. In addition to its removal of the behavior passage, the university expanded a section at the beginning of the Honor Code to define a “chaste and virtuous life” as “abstaining from any sexual relations outside a marriage between a man and a woman,” according to the Tribune.

While removing the “homosexual behavior” passage from the Honor Code is a step in the right direction, the university has not implemented any nondiscrimination policies to protect LGBTQ students from bullying or harassment, said Paul Castillo, counsel and students’ rights strategist for Lambda Legal, a national organization focused on protecting the legal and civil rights of LGBTQ people. The burning question about the policy is what it will mean in practice, Castillo said.

“What does this mean for students who come out and are seeking to be supported by their peers, by school administrators, and what does that support look like?” Castillo said. “It’s one thing to remove language that targets LGBTQ students, but a whole different thing to show a wholesale commitment to the safety and well-being of all students.”

Culture changes take time, said Harris, who has been “selective” about whom she tells about her sexuality. She said when she first arrived at the campus, it was clear to her that she “wasn’t the type of person that [BYU] wanted.”

She questioned whether the university changed the Honor Code simply to improve its public image.

"I do fear it’s pressure from outside sources," Harris said. "Organizations not wanting to work with BYU, people from the outside thinking that’s a very toxic and homophobic school. I’m a little scared it’s for PR."

Bradley Talbot, a junior who runs an LGBTQ awareness and support organization called Color Campus, said he received threats to report him to the Honor Code Office when people learned that he was gay and was running the once-anonymous organization. He's now hopeful that the changes to the code will allow students to be open about their sexual orientation.

“I do feel like I can talk more openly about my dating life and what I hope to do in the future and not have to wait until I graduate to tell anyone,” Talbot said. “Dating has been going on for a while, just no one could talk about it. Because it was so secret, it put a lot of people into compromising situations and led to sexual harassment and rape. Now people can be more open … without fear of being disciplined on a scholarly level.”

Student opposition to the changes has been brewing, LGBTQ students said. Across campus, people have been posting copies of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” a church document that affirms “marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan” and warns against “those who fail to fulfill family responsibilities.”

Seventy percent of members of the church support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in housing, public accommodations and the workplace, a 2019 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute survey.

“There is very strong support for nondiscrimination policies,” said Sharita Gruberg, policy director for the LGBT research and communications project for the Center for American Progress.

Talbot said he believes the church is “becoming more understanding and recognizing” of LGBTQ issues.

“Even though we hold truths and doctrines about the family as what the standard is, there’s no such thing as a perfect family and things are going to get messy,” Talbot said. “It’s not as black-and-white as it once was … We might need a little more time for things to work out.”

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