The Asia Pacific Association of International Education (APAIE), a non-profit organisation that specialises in the internationalisation of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, recently held an international conference on Australia’s east coast.
The event, hosted by Griffith University in Queensland, saw 864 delegates – consisting of member institutions, university presidents, vice presidents, professors, international office staff, sponsors, students and other education-related delegates – descend on the Gold Coast for three days to discuss institutional strategies such as how to internationalise current curriculums, how to improve student mobility and how to develop innovative partnerships.
There were also several keynote addresses, including one from former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. He noted that the conference and its theme “Educating for Extremes: Educating for global challenges in a rapidly changing world” – tackled possible challenges the sector may face. “We need to make sure that we as educators encourage our people to challenge the assumptions of the past…We do live in a time of challenge, of unbelievably rapid change, in which continued commitment to the assumptions and attitudes of the past will be a recipe for suicidal disaster. Or we have an opportunity for education, for making our people understand the new paths we must take.”
While the mood at the conference was generally positive, higher education leaders called for better educational ties with universities around the world, while delegates from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and elsewhere signalled that the region needed to step up its game in terms of international initiatives. “Asian universities tend to be very domestically oriented, and their self-esteem is very high within the nation. But they are very limited and their standards are not global,” said Doo-Hee Lee, Founder and President of APAIE. He added, “Western universities still set the standards and Asian universities are always falling behind.”
The event also provided the perfect platform to launch Asia Pacific Leaders (APL) – an association that falls under the umbrella of APAIE. Grace Kim, Executive Director at APAIE explained that the programme – which aims to promote multi-lateral student exchanges in the region – gathers possible leaders represented from each region and “helps them become the leaders of the future”.
African students plump for tertiary education in France
According to a survey carried out by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, international student enrolments at French universities grew by 2.3 per cent in the 2008/09 academic year.
A total of 266,400 foreign students were enrolled at French tertiary institutions with Moroccan students making up the single biggest nationality group (11 per cent). In fact, almost half of all foreign nationals were African in origin (44 per cent), with a quarter originating from the Maghreb region – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania – alone. A further 22.6 per cent were European, while 24 per cent hailed from Asia (Chinese student numbers were said to be growing rapidly), and eight per cent represented the Americas.
Female students were the predominant gender (two thirds of all Europeans were female, while 70 per cent of all non-EU students were female). In terms of study level, 11 per cent were enrolled on an undergraduate course, 20 per cent had elected for a masters programme while 40 per cent were studying towards a doctorate.
