Welcome to the AEI eNewsletter

MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES:

Management of school improvement  (United Arab Emirates)
Requests for Proposal are being sought from experienced education organisations to manage school improvement across schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.    

University offers cultural and educational links to Australian universities (Indonesia)
University of Surabaya (Ubaya) is seeking linkages with Australian universities for study abroad or student exchange programs. The partnership may include student and/or lecturer exchanges and fellowships. Faculties with subjects taught in English are: Law, Economics (Business) and Engineering.

Opportunity to showcase student-teacher engagement to Korean government research team (Republic of Korea)
A team from the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation (KICE), a Korean Government funded educational research agency, plans to attend Australian schools in May to observe teacher-student engagement and student support. AEI Korea invites expressions of interest from Australian schools by 11 April.

Language Conference 1 – 3 July 2008  (Thailand)
The second International Conference on Language Development, Language Revitalisation and Multilingual Education in Ethnolinguistic Communities will be held 1-3 July 2008 at the Twin Towers Hotel, Bangkok.

University seeking Australian partner (USA)
A large public institution in South Dakota wishes to make contact with an Australian institution interested in developing a long-term partnership that might involve student exchange, short term study abroad in the ‘J’ Term (two weeks in the post-Christmas through mid-January period), and possible faculty and research collaboration.

20th annual EAIE conference  (Belgium)
AEI Brussels will be participating in the 20th annual EAIE conference in Antwerp, Belgium from 10 - 13 September 2008. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Re-designing the Map of European Higher Education’.

MARKET UPDATES:

European register for Quality Assurance Agencies launched.  (Belgium)
On 4 March 2008, the European Quality Assurance Register in Higher Education (EQAR) was officially launched in Brussels, Belgium. The register is an important milestone of the Bologna process reforms and will be an important information tool for European institutions and students.

Assumption University – Internationalising (Thailand)
Assumption University was the first university in Thailand to offer courses in English. Last year the university attracted 2,188 foreign students (eleven per cent of the nearly 20,000 students enrolled) from around 70 countries. The university is exploring the opportunity to further expanding its international capacity.

Chilean Government launches new centres of excellence (Chile)
The Chilean government has announced the creation of eight centres of scientific and technological excellence. These centres will conduct research and train human capital in areas such as astrophysics, environmental science, biological science, biotechnology and climate change.

Falling US dollar may be impacting study abroad enrolments  (USA)
A brief online survey conducted by the University of California’s Education Abroad Program (EAP) asked US study abroad offices to compare recent student interest and actual enrolment in study abroad programs. Noticing an increasing gap between the two, many of the survey’s respondents speculated that the falling value of the dollar and slowing of the US economy is impacting students’ study abroad decisions.

51,515 scholarships for English language courses  (Spain)
For the second consecutive year, the Spanish Ministry of Education is offering more than 50,000 scholarships to 18 to 30 year-old students who already have government grants and wish to improve their English language skills abroad.

Bologna Process alignment ahead  (Spain)
Spanish universities are currently structuring courses according to the Spanish Royal Decree 1393/2007 which sets the framework for the organisation of studies within the Bologna Process. The European Diploma Supplement will be introduced and university study will be based on the European Credit Transfer System, however four-year instead of the common recommended three-year bachelor degrees will most likely be implemented.

OTHER INFORMATION

A Highly Successful Nobel Laureate Seminar in Jakarta (Indonesia)
The Nobel Prize winner for Medicine in 2005, Professor Barry Marshall, delivered a public lecture on “The excitement of science and the Nobel Prize” at the Australian Embassy on 5 March 2008.