Author: cocoon_admin

With the start of the winter term comes very welcome news for those who study in Germany at degree level: undergraduate tuition fees at all universities in Germany have now been axed.

Although the majority of the German states had already been offering low-cost or completely free tuition, only now, with the removal of fees in Lower Saxony, can the nation call itself completely free of tuition fees.

One of the German states to scrap tuition fees as far back as 2012 was the state of Hamburg. Hamburg’s senator for science, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, explained to The Hornet the reasoning behind the move. “Tuition fees are socially unjust,” she said. “They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

No fees for international students, but some for postgraduates

While tuition is now free at all universities in Germany, there is still a nominal cost that all students will be charged. This cost, usually no more than €250 (US$315) per semester, is in place to cover administration, student support services and other unavoidable costs.

Students at master’s level may also still be expected to pay some tuition fees if they did not study in Germany for their bachelor’s degree. These ‘non-consecutive’ students can expect to pay fees of around €10,000 (US$12,644) per semester. Those who did study in Germany at undergraduate level, and are planning to enroll in a postgraduate program directly, may also be entitled to free or partial tuition fees.

It is likely that this change to legislation will help universities in Germany continue to attract prospective students from around the world, consolidating its place among the most popular international study destinations.

Less than a third (29 percent) of students felt supported by their university during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NatWest Student Living Index 2020 has revealed.

The study surveyed 2,806 university students living in the UK in June 2020 and found that the universities of Aberdeen and Exeter were the best in the UK student city for providing support during the crisis.

Have current students’ degrees been affected?

A quarter of students believe that coronavirus has had a negative effect on their ability to achieve their degree qualifications. Students at Plymouth University and the University of Sheffield felt that their degrees were most affected, with 39 and 35 percent respectively agreeing that the pandemic has affected their ability to achieve their degree qualification. 

Conversely, only 13 percent of students at Exeter felt the same way. This may be related to the fact that students at Exeter voted their university the best for communication, as observed above.

Value for money in doubt 

Shockingly, only one in 10 students believe they’re receiving value for money for their education during the pandemic. Scottish students felt they were getting the best value for money, with the lowest scoring city, Brighton, only achieving two percent in this indicator.

Despite almost all education being shifted online, less than two-thirds of students across the UK have been provided with free online learning resources. This is despite the UK government announcing that UK students will pay the full £9,250 annual tuition fee even if universities are still closed in the autumn. 

Almost 30 percent of universities have provided access to online counselling – despite this, a staggering 73 percent of students are unsatisfied with university mental health support, according to the same NatWest study.

A new study has found that a single cohort of international students will contribute a whopping £3.2 billion to the UK economy over 10 years through income tax and National Insurance payments – but the government is nonetheless proposing more restrictions on post-study work visas.

The report, conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Kaplan International Pathways (Kaplan), also found that international students are also finding graduate jobs in sectors with acute skills shortages – debunking the idea that they could be taking jobs that would otherwise be held by UK students.

The amounts don’t take into account tuition fees, which also inject billions every year into the economy. The report found that EU students contribute £1.2 billion, while non-EU students contribute £2 billion, and contributions also varied across different study levels, with master’s graduates contributing the most, at £1.6 billion.

UK Universities: #WeAreInternational

The report was welcomed by both the National Union of Students (NUS) and the #WeAreInternational campaign, which was launched in 2013 by the University of Sheffield to celebrate and emphasize the importance of diversity in the university’s student and staff, in response to concerns from international students about negative media coverage and some political statements on immigration in the UK.

Within this campaign, the university points out that the contribution of international students goes far  beyond their financial value, with their research demonstrating that these students are also well ingrained in the city’s life, working and volunteering in hospitals, charities and schools as well as enriching Sheffield’s culture with music, food, dance and language events throughout the year.

A spokesperson for the UK-wide #WeAreInternationalcampaign said: “This report underpins the case to reinstate the competitive post-study work rights for which students themselves have long lobbied.

“Far from the idea that international students who undertake a period of work after their courses should be discouraged, we now know international graduates are a national asset. It is in our interest and theirs to make sure our visa system reflects that.”

Re:Imagine Education is an annual global conference and competition that brings together the organizations transforming education today.

From academic faculty at world-renowned universities and EdTech startups, to Chief Innovation Officers and tech developers, the conference attendees and speakers are the people best placed to provide insight into the future of education.

This year, Imperial College Business School is co-hosting the event, and so we thought it apt to find out a little more about the ways they are using technology to transform the student experience.

Imperial offers a number of graduate programs from master’s degrees and PhDs to MBA programs. But the main thing the business school prides itself on is its innovative ethos and its STEM-driven technologies.

The Dean of Imperial College Business School Francisco Veloso told us: “We started investing in technology for education a few years ago. That has been present on the courses delivered to our community. The flexibility is quite important.

“For example, when we delivered accounting digitally to the students across Imperial, subscriptions went up 30 percent.

“It’s because all of a sudden if you’re a civil engineering student, [studying accounting] is no longer competing with your structures because you can take it online.” 

Collaboration is key to success

To give one more example of how Imperial College Business School have embraced technology, the school recently joined a group of leading business schools to launch a new digital learning platform to create a more flexible learning experience. 

By combining faculty expertise with cutting-edge technology, the platform hopes to meet growing demands from executives and students for a more flexible, bespoke and globally accessible learning experience.

Known as the Future of Management Education Alliance, the platform aims to transform the future of management education. As the first platform of its kind in the business education sector, Imperial and its partners are hoping for great things.

This new alliance will enable partner schools (Imperial, ESMT Berlin, BI Norwegian Business School, the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, EDHEC, Business School and Ivey Business School), to enhance the student experience through face-to-face, experiential and online learning methods.

German and United Kingdom representatives of universities and higher education organisations have discussed the post-Brexit future of UK-German academic relations, including how to plug the glaring gap in the UK’s Turing Scheme, the replacement for participation in the European Union’s mobility and exchange scheme Erasmus+.

The discussions took place in a virtual talk organised by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and prepared by the DAAD Competence Centre for International Academic Collaborations (KIWi), and coincided with the presentation of DAAD propositions on future cooperation with the UK. Erasmus+ scholarships for UK-German student exchange will still be available for the next two years.

“We should make use of this transitional period to develop alternative access routes and financing models for students,” DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee maintained.

“From a German perspective, a European approach would be desirable in the long term. In the short term, I believe that what we need most is to swiftly establish a close network of new bilateral higher education agreements between UK and German universities.”

Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International, emphasised the importance for academic relations of the UK being associated to the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation framework on the basis of last December’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK.

However, currently there is uncertainty over how this will be paid for because the UK Treasury failed to include the £1 billion (US$1.4 billion) funding needed in the Chancellor’s Budget on 3 March, as reported by University World News.

Stern also maintained that the UK government’s new Turing Scheme could actually boost the motivation of UK students to go abroad by providing opportunities for short stays in other countries.

With increasing global and regional competition for doctoral students to fuel expansion in technology-based industries, even top universities in Asia are beginning to worry about a continued pipeline of well-qualified students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas as countries expand research in key areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, genetics, nanotechnology, robotics and other areas.

Global competition has been enhanced by the rivalry between China and the United States in technology, with the US also pressuring Europe and Japan to curb research with China that is deemed sensitive.

For Asian countries attracting foreign STEM PhD students, the largest contingent has come from China. Countries such as Japan are already talking of more stringent vetting of PhD students from countries including China for more strategically sensitive PhD subjects, and having to rely on local students or foreign students from other countries in the region.

At the same time Beijing has initiated a campaign to keep PhD students and young researchers at home as it expands in major STEM areas as part of its own recently announced drive for self-sufficiency in technology.

Singapore has recently announced increased research funding for new emerging high technology areas and expanding doctoral places at its universities.

However, “in certain areas, especially in critical areas like artificial intelligence (AI), it’s very competitive, and the US is pretty strong,” according to the National University of Singapore (NUS) President Tan Eng Chye.

“There is a need for us to have a strong pipeline of Singaporean and Singapore-based researchers in this particular area [AI] and there are also other areas of critical expertise like quantum engineering where countries can be a bit more protective over such manpower,” Tan told University World News.

Germany’s federal government has confirmed that the coronavirus crisis has had a considerable impact on academic mobility.

Responding to a demand for information made in parliament by the opposition Green Party in March, the government revealed that there had been a sharp fall in the number of visa applications submitted by international students and researchers.

Processing abroad of applications for stays in Germany can now take up to one year, parliament was also told.

From 2019 to 2020, the number of visa applications for international students and researchers fell by almost 40%. In 2019, a total of 78,985 visa applications were processed, with 70,672 visas being granted. The corresponding figures for 2020 were just 49,073 and 43,207 respectively.

Pre pandemic Germany had nearly 400,000 international students studying at its universities, according to Studying in Germany.

Thirty-one out of 173 German diplomatic missions abroad are either granting no visas at all or are only doing so in a very restricted manner. In the same period, the overall number of international first-year students fell from 32,229 to 22,830.

The federal government explains that the spread of the virus has led to a sometimes considerable reduction of staff capacities for handling visa applications at the consulates abroad, resulting in longer waiting periods for applicants.

Many visa offices have had to restrict public hours and take measures to protect visitors as well as staff. Additionally, operations are sometimes constrained by measures, including lockdowns, taken by authorities in the respective countries.

We’re living in a different world than we were a few months ago, with almost all elements of our lives having shifted online, from studying remotely to video-calling friends and family.

Understandably, living your entire life through a computer screen can cause motivation and focus to take a dip here and there. For many who’ve never had to study remotely before, making the adjustment is likely to have been taxing.

So, it’s worth paying attention to what universities are doing to ensure their students are getting the most out of their studies when at home, with even more distractions readily available.

QS in Conversation recently held a virtual panel on this topic, featuring: Dr Betty Vandenbosch Chief Content Officer at Coursera; Alex Chisholm Head of Analytics at QS Quacquarelli Symonds; Dr Gog Soon Joo Chief Futurist, Chief Skills Officer, Chief Research Officer at SkillsFuture Singapore.

Are students performing better with online learning weaved into their academic year?

In the online space, a student is in control of their learning experience; how they curate and learn, and also if they repeat tasks. But what needs to be done by educators to encourage students to undertake their studies?

Vandenbosch said: “I think the most important thing is that students and faculty together have to recognize that it’s a different world.

“In online education, the instructional design helps faculty put together a course that is engaging and helps people.

“With instructional design you can have worked examples, readings, peer experiences, projects, guided projects, all sorts of things you can do to help students learn better than just watching a video and taking notes. That’s what’s going to make the difference in helping students stay engaged online.”