pakedu.net, Pakistan Education Network

The review should determine what happens to university fees

The details of a review into fees paid by England’s university students are to be announced on Monday.

The government will outline the scope of the inquiry and name the person who will lead it in a written statement to the House of Commons.

The review is expected to be wide-ranging, looking at various funding options, but will not be finished until after the next general election.

Students have been staging campaigns against any increase in fees.

A new series of protests by the National Union of Students have been run across England since the start of the university term.

Students in England and Northern Ireland, and non-Welsh students in Wales have to pay tuition fees of up to £3,225 a year.

Welsh students studying in Wales pay fees of £1,285 while there are no tuition fees in Scotland.

STUDENT FEES (2009-10) England: £3,225 p.a. N. Ireland: £3,225 p.a. Scotland: free to Scots, £1,775 to other UK Wales: £1,285 to the Welsh, £3,225 to other UK Students from elsewhere in the EU pay the same as those locally Those from outside the EU pay whatever the university charges

But some university vice-chancellors are reported to want to raise tuition fees to as much as £7,000 a year.

When variable tuition fees were introduced in England in 2006, allowing universities to set their own fees up to this level, the government promised there would be a full review before any lifting of that limit.

With recession cuts looming, all sides are keen to get their message across in the debate over who should pay what in higher education.

Earlier this week, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson warned that the higher and further education sectors faced “increasingly tight fiscal constraints” and needed to raise more of their own funds.

“We will also have to look at the contribution that individuals make to the cost of higher education, which we will do through the independent fees review,” he said.

The Confederation of British Industry angered students by saying they should accept higher tuition fees as “inevitable” and pay more interest on their student loans.

NUS president Wes Streeting said: “Little over a month ago, the CBI called for a rise in fees, and polls have found that most university vice-chancellors would like to charge students £5,000 or more a year.

“Students are already graduating with over £20,000 of debt, and in the current economic climate it is extremely arrogant to argue that they should pay even more. We believe the review must look at alternatives to the disastrous system of top up fees.”

The NUS says students should be properly represented in the review.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Pupils are not allowed to email each other or anyone else during exams

In Denmark, the government has taken the bold step of allowing pupils full access to the internet during their final school year exams.

A total of 14 colleges in Denmark are piloting the new system of exams and all schools in the country have been invited to join the scheme by 2011.

Greve High School, south of Copenhagen, is one of the pilot schools.

On the morning of the exam, the exam room the floor is covered in cables. IT experts are busy helping the teenagers set up their laptops, making sure they all work.

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Popularity: 30% [?]

Thousands of students in England are still facing delays to loans and grants weeks after the start of term, according to the latest figures.

According to the Student Loans Company there were 132,000 “applicants who have not received first maintenance payment after approval” on October 25th.

This total will include applicants who failed to take places – but at least 60,000 are still being processed.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson criticised the delays on Tuesday.

The loans company had assured students that all payments would be processed by the end October – and the next update on figures next week will show whether this has been achieved.

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Popularity: 32% [?]

The number of non-European students enrolling on courses at UK universities has almost doubled in less than ten years, a report has found.

The study of trends in higher education by Universities UK found a 48% increase in the number of international students between the year 2000 and 2006.

In 2007/08, 229,640 students came from outside the European Union, compared with 117,290 in 1998/99.

China remained the “most significant” provider of students to the UK.

A total of 19,385 Chinese students enrolled on first degree courses in the UK and 21,990 took up places for post-graduate study.

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Popularity: 26% [?]

Lahore: Universities and colleges must set up language teaching centres for the improvement of students’ communication skills in languages particularly in English and Urdu.

This was stated by Chairman Department of Chemistry, Government College University Prof Dr Saeed Iqbal. He said language barrier was not only the major learning handicap but also adamant to communication skill, which impeded the young graduates in competitions and job placement.

He said the graduates particularly in Science, IT and Commerce were seriously lacking communication skills, which was great impediment in their progress and job placement. They also fail to comprehend the real knowledge because of poor English.

Dr Saeed Iqbal said we should teach children in native language and after maturity teach them the languages so that they could get flair in spoken and written languages at least in Urdu and English. The burdening of tiny students with difficult English textbooks and learning foreign language from infancy drift the child in depression, he added. “They also face wrath of teachers and parents for not proper comprehension in English and hence lack of confidence”, he further added. Moreover, the quality of English teaching in schools was also poor. Teachers too were neither qualified nor proficient in English. The example of Germany, France, Chinese, Japanese and Russian could be quoted to substantiate this truth where knowledge was imparted in native language. Because of foreign language as medium of instructions, our students resorted to rote learning instead of comprehension and thus were deprived of the real knowledge and its theme, he said.

He was of the view that this was perhaps the major reason why our students were deprived of the fruits of higher education and why there was no worthwhile research and why we could not produce Noble laureates who were one or two at our credit yet. He said our students were intelligent in a number of science subjects, some of them rich in research but they could not transform their skills and learning due to language barrier.

He said under a crash programme 3/4 months long language courses in Urdu and English should be introduced in Universities including writing and speaking skills. The separate courses should be at the doorstep of the students at Universities and postgraduate colleges. Not only Urdu and English, but courses in Hindi, the language of enemy and the Persian, Arabic and Chinese spoken in neighbouring countries of Iran, Afghanistan Middle East, China etc should be taught to our students so that they could benefit from the science and Arts of these countries and also communicate knowledge to them, he told.Effective coordination among govt depts stressed

Secretary provincial Home Department Nadeem Hassan Asif has said full support would be given to Punjab Ombudsman’s children complaint office in order to ensure protection of children’s rights.

He expressed these views while addressing senior government officials at a children complaint office’s workshop here on Saturday. Punjab Social Welfare Secretary Tariq Feroze, Punjab Zakat Secretary Karim Baksh, DG Health Lahore Dr Fayyaz Ahmad Ranjha, SSP Imran and others also addressed the workshop.

Nadeem Hassan, while stressed the need for effective coordination and proper flow of information among government departments, welfare of begging children and reforms of jail system in the Punjab were among the top priorities of the government.

Punjab Ombudsman Secretary Javed Nisar Ahmad Khan said in order to make the children complaint office effective; a partnership between government departments, NGOs and media would be developed.

While addressing the workshop, UNICEF’s children protection specialist Shamshad Qureshi, observed that in the absence of effective system, thousands of court cases of children were pending, and at present three million children were victim of child labour.

He advocated for simplifying investigation of children complaints, which would ensure protection of children’s rights. He also observed that many children were in jails due to complexities in law. The nation

Popularity: 31% [?]

Travel agents tempt students seeking UK visas
Lahore, Oct 25: Following the recent relaxation in the UK’s rules for issuing student visas, “travel agents” have started advertising their services to attract students wishing to obtain visas, while a British High Commission (BHC) spokesman has said it is working closely with Pakistani officials to address migration/visa-related issues.

“Travel agents” throughout the city have displayed banners and posters at prominent places to attract students seeking visas. These agents, claiming 100 percent success rate, offer to help the students obtain all the documents required for a visa in exchange for an exorbitant commission. They claim the students do not need to sit the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to obtain a visa and maintain that age is not an issue. Some agents even claim they would arrange every single required document for a fee of Rs 40,000 to 50,000, while others claim they have contacts in the British embassy that will guarantee a visa.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Education is must for elected officials
Peshawar: According to a Gilani Research Foundation survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan, majority of all Pakistanis believe education is extremely important for elected officials and that people without proper education should not hold public office; 70% of all respondents claimed that the government is doing wrong by eliminating the requirement for a Bachelor’s degree for people running in the election, 29% favour the decision and 1% gave no response.

In response to another question, 48% said both good education and relevant experience is necessary to be in the government, 34% said only good education matters, 17% believe only relevant experience counts and 1% gave no response. A nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country were asked “Recently, government has decided to withdraw the requirement to have a bachelor’s degree for participating in the elections.

In your view is this decision right or wrong?” Twenty nine percent (29%) think it is the right decision, where as 70% believe otherwise. One percent (1%) of the respondents gave no response. It is notable that a slightly higher percentage of urbanites (31%) as compared to their rural counterparts (28%) are in the favour of this decision.

In a follow up question the respondents were asked “In your view, in order to run good government is it more important to have good education, relevant experience, or both education and experience?” Thirty four percent (34%) prefer highly educated people to be elected in the government, 17% said relevant experience matters the most, whereas 48% believe both good education and experience count. One percent (1%) of the respondents gave no response. The findings reveal that a proportionately higher percentage of ruralites believe being highly educated (36%) and having relevant experience (`8%) is more important to run the government where as a higher percentage of urbanites believe it’s a combination of both good education and relevant experience which counts.

A significantly higher percentage of ANP voters (81%) think both education and experience are important. The study was released by Gilani foundation and carried out by Gallup Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The latest survey was carried out among a sample of 2765 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country. F.P. Report

Popularity: 9% [?]