Worldviews Conference 2013 – Commentary on the Rise of International Students

Last week the University of Toronto hosted the 2013 Worldviews Conference from June 19-21.  The topic of this year’s conference focused on the global trends of higher education and the role of the media in portraying topics such as the popularity (and unpopularity) of MOOCs, international education, academic freedom, and student activism.  For me, it was a unique opportunity to engage with journalists who cover some of the hottest topics in higher education, and to attend the keynote addresses led by prominent thinkers, like Sir John Daniel, Chad Gaffield, and Andrew Keen, just to name a few.

Concerns growing over ‘gaming’ in university rankings

Universities determined to rise up international rankings are increasingly ‘playing’ the methodology, Shaun Curtis of the University of Exeter in the UK told the “Worldviews 2013” conference last week. One way is to seek support from colleagues in other institutions who are answering rankings questionnaires, and another is to game the data. 

Some universities, said Curtis, who is director of ‘International Exeter’, were encouraging people to support their institutions in reputation surveys. Recently he received an email from a colleague at a partner university reminding him that a rankings questionnaire was on the horizon.

Yale-NUS first cohort – Breaking the education mould?

Singapore’s first US-style liberal arts college in collaboration with Yale University, set up at the National University of Singapore (NUS), has selected its first cohort of 157 students to start in August – after sifting through 11,400 applications from over 130 countries – the college announced last week. 

This was more than the 150 students initially planned. Around two-thirds of the first cohort are Singaporean, with the rest from 25 countries, Yale-NUS said. 

Strategy, media and international student integration

As universities recruit more international students, they need to work out their media messaging about the benefits for local and national communities, as well as their campuses, the “Worldviews 2013” conference in Toronto heard.

Views differed as to whether universities should sell the economic benefits, or use the media to promote wider cultural and social advantages. Both could help or hinder the integration of international students.

Higher education should seek to understand learners- Worldviews Speaker

Getting to understand people should be the most critical business strategy in higher education today, Chad Gaffield, one of the speakers at the Worldviews 2013 conference, has said.

The two-day conference, which started on Thursday, is holding in Toronto, Canada.

At the conference, prominent thinkers in media and higher education  have been engaged in debates and conversations on how media coverage of higher education is changing in a dynamic global landscape.

India, China and the Press

TORONTO — In both India and China, developments in higher education receive substantial press attention, said panelists at a meeting here. But that attention doesn’t necessarily mean that the right issues are being explored, they said.

“The question is how the media can move beyond the elites,” said Rahul Choudaha, director of research and strategic development at World Education Services. Choudaha spoke here at Worldviews 2013: Global Trends in Media and Higher Education, of which Inside Higher Ed was one of the organizing groups.

Journalists get ‘F’ in Maple Spring 101

The Quebec student strike of 2012, also known as the Maple Spring, generated global headlinesand led to the cancellation of large tuition increases. The sometimes violent protests also raised questions about how the media covers student-led movements. In the Quebec case, many students gave the coverage a failing grade.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the most visible leader of the Quebec movement, says that at one point bodyguards accompanied some journalists covering the protests, because students were so angry about coverage they saw as shallow or biased, that reporters worried for their safety.