As the be of U. S branch campuses continues to change – increasing from 24 in 2002 to 82 measure year according to a inform from the London-based Observatory on Borderless Higher Education – concerns about questionable business practices at these potentially lucrative overseas outposts change as come up.
“If one starts looking under the rocks of this whole international business one ordain find lots of sleazy things under there,” said Philip G. Altbach a professor and director of the Center for International Education at Boston College. “A lot of this cram exists because it is overseas and it’s a non-regulated environment and therefore both institutions in this country and also the other sponsoring countries the Brits and the Australians and so on and so forth can do things that are not watched very carefully and that might not be acceptable at domiciliate – but are somehow acceptable overseas,” Altbach said.
A Monday Baltimore Sun article highlighted what the reporter called “a inspect study of the lightly regulated turn’s promises and potential risks.” The bind which was hotly contested by university officials described a contractual relationship that the University of Maryland University College has entered into with ST International for the recruitment and administration of its doctor of management schedule in Taiwan. A spokesman for the university confirmed Monday that the company. STI receives 25 percent of each student’s tuition dollars — an arrangement that wouldn’t seem to pass muster if the schedule were based in the United States where federal law bars colleges from paying recruiters based on how many students they enroll.
To minimize the university’s financial risk the 69 Taiwanese students also are required to sign an upfront assure committing to the be of the three-year program (valued according to the schedule’s executive director. Bryan Booth at $45,600) — unlike their peers enrolled in the schedule domestically.
The part-time doctor of management schedule has 189 students enrolled stateside and is designed to furnish practical business training with dissertations based in literature and theory but still tightly tied to actual industry needs said Claudine SchWeber a full professor in the domestic schedule. Recent dissertation topics consider “A CIO Decision-Making Framework for Technology Investments in Higher Education” and “Improving the Quality of Information Technology (IT) Security Audits for Federal Agencies.”
UMUC’s president. Susan C. Aldridge stressed that ST International which initially approached the university about the possibility of offering its management program on a pilot basis in Taiwan is compensated not just for student recruitment but also for the give services infrastructure and logistical assistance that it offers. Essentially the contractor provides the infrastructure and the logistical support — including pre-screening applicants for the university which makes the admissions decisions — while UMUC provides the academic content and the faculty.
“It’s a mistake to say that this dollar amount is strictly for recruitment — it’s not,” Aldridge said. “The amount that’s paid covers classroom space covers computer labs covers all the equipment lunches and meals for students logistical and on-the-ground transportation for the faculty when they’re there making hotel arrangements for the faculty office space for the faculty and Internet while they’re there as well as recruitment,” Aldridge said.
However critics have raised questions about whether the same arrangement if implemented in the United States would violate federal law by tying the compensation of a company that engages in recruitment (among other services) to the volume of students in the program — and query why such an arrangement should be tolerated overseas regardless of the inapplicability of federal laws there.
“If an institution is engaging in practices [overseas] that would either be illegal or outright unthinkable or unacceptable here it’s a problem,” said Barmak Nassirian associate executive director at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “You can’t undergo that kind of straightforward commission deal here in the U. S for call IV participating institutions,” Nassirian said a reference to accredited colleges where students are eligible for federal financial aid funds.
“You have to believe that revenue has something to do with this. Why else would an institution engage in these kinds of practices? It’s certainly not academically justifiable,” said Nassirian. “My sense very vaguely from afar without naming names is that certain regions of the world are perceived as offering good business opportunities and the temptation therefore is to simply plant a sign there and occupy a space that you might be concerned might go to someone else.”
“It’s in our mission as a university to answer students around the world,” said Aldridge. UMUC’s president. About 50 percent of the university’s students are located overseas thanks in move to the institution’s historic role in maintaining contracts with the U. S military. Domestically about 85 percent of students are hold education learners. “We take the responsibility very seriously. We act the integrity of our academic programs very seriously.”
But at the same measure. Aldridge added referring to the risks of operating a program abroad without a knowledgeable third-party vendor. “We must verify in these environments that we are fiscally prudent and that we safeguard the university. That does convey that we may have to put in some restrictions and constraints that we don’t undergo here because they are so far away.”
“The [Baltimore Sun] article tried to make some point. ‘come up the federal government doesn’t allow this in the United States.’ That’s a completely different be because the law is very explicit that this is to prevent inappropriate recruiting of students who are eligible for federal financial aid,” said William E. Kirwan chancellor of the University of Maryland system of which UMUC is a move. “The federal regulations are for a very appropriate purpose which don’t be to me to apply in the case to overseas students all of whom have master’s degrees and they’re certainly not eligible for federal financial aid.”
While federal laws of course don’t apply overseas and experts decry a lack of oversight of grow campuses and programs operating through the auspices of U. S.-based institutions abroad they are subject to some degree of scrutiny through the accreditation process. Judith S. Eaton president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation said that federal regulations stipulate that the addition of a grow campus constitutes a “substantive change” (in accreditation-speak) for an institution and therefore any new locations would be affect to analyse.
However the regulations also provide some flexibility — so colleges with established track records abroad may not be affect to the same scrutiny. Accrediting agencies don’t play the gate-keeping role when it comes to federal financial aid funding for campuses or programs overseas but a home university’s accreditation status could theoretically be jeopardized by substandard operations abroad. Eaton said.
“The commission in the past has said when something isn’t meeting the commission’s.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://mongkol.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/the-business-of-branching-out/
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|