Category: Uncategorized

You cannot be what you cannot see: we need more female role models in international education

“The most senior positions, especially in the big chain outfits, are filled by men. Older, white, middle class men”

Ella Tyler, managing director of Mountlands Language School in the UK and co-founder of Lead5050, writes about how she was inspired to take action after realising women in leadership aren’t visible enough in the industry.

First of all, let me just say that I absolutely love working in this industry. I mean, come on, where else do you get to travel the world, meet really interesting, funny people and contribute to the future of the globe through education?

But, as in most industries, it does seem to be that the most senior positions, especially in the big chain outfits, are filled by men. Older, white, middle class men.
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International Women’s Day: the inspiring women of #intled

“At that time I didn’t think it was a big deal, I didn’t know I was making history. But I am happy I proved that women can lead”

Every week over on The PIE News, we publish a PIE Chat with someone interesting, innovative or inspiring in international education. In honour of International Women’s Day, The PIE’s staff share which of the women we’ve interviewed have inspired us the most.
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Beckie Smith
Beckie Smith is senior reporter at The PIE News and manages The PIE Blog. To get in touch, email beckie[@]thepienews.com.
http://thepienews.com/

What do we mean when we say international experiences develop graduates’ employability?

‘Employability’ is one of the most frequently used buzzwords in international education sector, and underpins a great proportion of the work educators do. But what does it actually mean, and how do we measure it? Stella Williams, a lecturer in psychology and researcher at Newman University Birmingham, has developed a framework to bring some clarity to an often hazily-defined concept.

The term ‘employability’ is often used as a throwaway line: jargon which is chucked into the mix to show the importance or relevance of something, frequently used without clarification of what we mean by it. So it is unsurprising that we can relate it to international experience. But what exactly do we mean when we say international opportunities develop a graduate’s employability?
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Duty of care in the global institution

“We took calls from clients who had to sleep on the streets because their hotel was deemed too unsafe to enter”

Sean de Lacey, head of sales at Diversity Travel, a travel management firm which specialises in travel in the academic sector, discusses the importance of duty of care for growing institutions.

At an event in collaboration with the University of the West of Scotland, Diversity Travel invited procurement and finance personnel from UK academic institutions across the country to discuss key issues in academic travel. One of the main takeaways from the event was that many institutions have recognised the importance of overseas expansion and collaboration, and that it is essential that they travel to international markets to drive growth and development opportunities forward.

International travel gives these institutions access to a global network and allows academics to share first-hand experiences and insights with their students and fellow academics. Through a travel network that is becoming more affordable and easier to navigate, faculty can now reap the benefits of networking overseas to attract an international student base, and produce courses and research projects with a global perspective.
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Coverage of INZ’s investigation into student visa fraud reflects immigration at the heart of the political debate

“The media coverage here reflects an international trend that places immigration at the heart of the political debate”

An investigation by Immigration New Zealand into financial document fraud among some agents and bank managers in India has created bad press around the recruitment of Indian students via agents – but Brett Berquist, director international at the University of Auckland, offers his take on quality protections across the country;s universities and how the investigation fits into a wider debate about immigration and the need for international talent.

New Zealand is proactively developing its international education market and has seen some significant growth recently in the private training establishment sector (PTE), with a recent government announcement showing 13% growth overall for the IE sector in 2015. This is driven primarily by the PTE sector and growth from India.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s universities aim for slow and sustained growth,grow by 4% to reach 26k in 2015. Currently India is just 5% of our international enrolments in the tertiary sector. It is a complex market with a significant portion of it driven by migration goals. India is forecast to grow by 30 million people of tertiary education age over the next decade and the university sector is working to build visibility for sustained growth.
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Should we be concerned about the state of English in the Philippines?

“We need to address the gap in qualified ESL teachers and the issues around ensuring the quality of ESL schools”

Mike Cabigon is the manager of English for Education Systems of British Council Philippines. He writes about a roundtable event organised by the British Council, where sector stakeholders weighed in on what needs to be done to ensure the Philippines retains its competitive advantage.

The Philippines is recognized globally as one of the largest English-speaking nations, with the majority of its population having at least some degree of fluency in the language. English has always been one of the country’s official languages, and is spoken by more than 14 million Filipinos. It is the language of commerce and law, as well as the primary medium of instruction in education.
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The re-emergence of ‘Brand Canada’

Raed Ayad currently works for INTO University Partnerships as a Research and Policy Analyst. As a Canadian citizen who has studied in Canada and in the UK, he offers his reflections on the change in Government in Canada and its potential implications for Canadian international education strategy.

On October 20th, 2015 the front page of one of Canada’s leading newspapers, the Toronto Star, read ‘It’s a New Canada’, with a photo of newly-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau celebrating his historic win with his family and supporters.
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Washington State & Vietnamese Students: A Story of Requited Love

Mark Ashwill, Managing Director of human resource development company Capstone Vietnam, writes about one success story of a US state recruiting Vietnamese students.

Washington state’s success in recruiting Vietnamese students is noteworthy.  In 2014/15, there were 27,051 international students studying in WA, a 5.9% increase over the previous year. WA was the 11th leading host of international students in the US. These students and their families contributed $789 million to the state economy, in addition to all of the other tangible and intrinsic benefits they bring to WA, 49 other states and the District of Columbia.
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Mark Ashwill
Dr. Mark Ashwill is managing director of Capstone Vietnam, a full-service educational consulting company in Viet Nam with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Ashwill blogs at An International Educator in Viet Nam.
https://markashwill.com/

Making e-learning a force for social inclusion at a global level

“E-learning is different. It’s about creating tools that simultaneously engage the learner and challenge their ways of thinking”

Jeremy C Bradley is the Director of Academic and Student Affairs at InterActive, a global e-learning service provider. He has experience working in an educational hedge fund that provides scholarship and resource capacity to historically black colleges and universities; at an independent day school; and as Creative and Development Director for a multi-state educational and social services organisation.

‘We need to bring learning to people instead of people to learning.’ – Elliot Masie

Learning has never been so easily accessible and flexible as it is now. Thanks to online learning, today’s students, professionals and corporations enjoy a completely different relationship with education than the previous generation did less than two decades ago. But, certainly, there is a lot more to it.
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