Asia round up - news in higher education

A summary of recent articles which caught my attention across half a dozen news sources for higher education right across the Asia region. The top stories are region-wide, followed by news on initiatives for specific countries

Opinion: Structural change around the corner?

With the high mobility of tertiary education students around Asia, and the economic consequences experienced when they can't travel to their country of study, it's no surprise that there's been a focus on this in the short term - as universities consider the impact of billion dollar revenue holes, and the rush of higher costs experienced to deliver online teaching for their whole cohort. But the longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 situation are also sinking in. Students who will face employment challenges on graduation; pressure to produce a better blended learning and employment lifestyle; and the desire to not 'turn the clock back' to the days BC (Before-Covid). And with a clear focus of emerging future workforce needs meaning that a mass re-skilling journey is going to needed by millions of past graduates. It will be difficult to meet the needs of the existing student base, and the new emerging opportunities, within the current structural rules of higher education in many countries across APAC. With changes being made by many governments - like India's National Education Plan - it's likely that PC (Post-Covid) environment will be starkly different, with closer international and domestic partnerships

Global learners expect HE to change after Covid-19

More than three quarters of learners around the world believe that education will fundamentally change because of the pandemic. They see online education as a permanent fixture, traditional degrees as more out of reach and learning as more self-directed.  Pearson has just released the results from their second Global Learner Survey, which sought the views of over 7,000 people from seven countries, including 1,000 from the UK, on education, careers and the future of work and technology.  Responses were collected in June 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s clear that learners expect education to look different after the pandemic.  In the UK 86% of respondents believe that online learning will be part of the higher education experience moving forward and 77% think that more college/university students will attend school online versus attending a traditional school within ten years (versus 64% in last year’s survey). Those figures make punchy reading, especially when you consider that pre-Covid the number of UK domiciled students taking a higher education distance learning course in the UK was fewer than 400,000 a year. They imply there is an expectation of accelerated change in higher education.  Source: WonkHE, based on the Pearson Global Learner Survey

Could universities be caught in the middle of US-China rift?

With increasing international tension between the US and China, especially around technology, and also around COVID research, then there’s a risk of APAC universities being caught in the middle and having to choose between opposing policies (maybe especially for the Five Eyes nations that share intel, which regionally means Australia and NZ). The US Govt, under their “Clean Network” strategy announced an expansion to prevent US citizen’s sensitive personal information, and valuable intellectual property including COVID-19 vaccine research, from being stored or processed on cloud providers “accessible to our foreign adversaries”, including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu. Source: US Govt announcement

Singapore launches research centre for Fintech

Singapore has established a new research facility to enhance education, R&D and entrepreneurship in digital finance and fintech. Called the Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF), the institute will offer a master’s program and award PhD scholarships to train more local leaders in the financial sector. The institute is a collaboration between the Monetary Authority of Singapore, National Research Foundation and National University of Singapore Source: Austrade

Malaysia: New international student arrivals on hold

Education Malaysia Global Services announced in early August that entry for all new international students and their dependents is on hold until further notice, although existing students can return. Some 11,000 foreign students – the majority of whom are from Pakistan, Thailand and Indonesia – had applied to return to Malaysia, while over 9,000 new applications have come through for entry in January and February next year. Malaysia’s private higher education sector in particular have been vocal to the Ministry of Higher Education of their discontent Source: Study International

Philippines: Free training for online flexible learning

Six Philippine universities will offer free training on how to conduct flexible learning. The free training programs aims to improve faculties’ capacity to deliver online distance learning, including module writing, technology support and tools and formative assessment. The six universities are listed in the article Source: Austrade

India open door for foreign universities under new policy

India approved a plan to allow foreign universities to open campuses in the country as part of efforts to boost education to strengthen the economy as it struggles with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Many government officials have been pushing the move as more than 750,000 Indian students study abroad, spending billions of dollars outside the country every year. The government will allow “entry of top world ranked universities to open campuses in our country”. Critics said it remained to be seen whether top-rated universities would open campuses, considering a regulatory framework that will also cap fees charged by educational institutions Source: Reuters

India “poised” to be largest student source market

India is “poised and ready” to become the largest student market due to a fast-growing and aspirational middle class looking for opportunities overseas, according to industry experts.  Dylan Hoemsen, executive director South Asia for Grok Global Services, explained in a recent PIE webinar that several variables are affecting an Indian student’s decision on where to study abroad. “The first is degree mobility – how is this program going to help them not only in the destination country but also how will that transfer back to India if they come back and enter the workforce?” he told attendees.  “Financial investment is also a huge consideration as while some are self-funded, the majority are looking for education loans". India is second only to China in the number of students heading abroad for education Source: The PIE News

South Korea: international students urged to study online

International students enrolled at colleges in South Korea for the autumn semester are being urged to stay in their home countries and study online, as part of a government bid to curb the spread of coronavirus. Foreign students entering the country currently have to go through special entry procedures around flight schedules and self-quarantine on arrival.   However the South Korean government’s education ministry is now planning on encouraging foreign students to stay in their home countries and take classes online, with new Ministry of Education operating standards of online classes.   “The education ministry is in talks with universities to advise them to improve the credit system for lectures requiring face-to-face lessons in the first semester of next year,” said Ahn Woong-hwan, deputy head of the ministry’s higher education policy.   “A detailed plan for the second semester will be announced next month,” Woong-hwan added Source: Korea Times

South Korea: Online learning lessons from DC (During Covid)

Building on lessons learned from online learning experience during COVID-19, Korean demand for edtech is growing and the government will invest KRW 1.3 trillion (AUD 1.5 billion) to digitalise Korea’s education infrastructure and contents by 2025. According to Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS), the three types of Korean universities’ online learnings since COVID-19 outbreaks were video calls using Zoom, Google Meet, Webex (50 per cent), lecture contents using learning management systems (30 per cent) and assignments using email & SNS (20 per cent). However the issues with quality of online contents, server and copy rights were major bottlenecks to effective online learning and edtech companies such as Vrew, AI-based video editing company are gaining popularity. According to EdTechX Global, Korea’s edtech market size in 2019 was KRW 4.0 trillion (AUD 4.6 billion) which is predicted to grow substantially in the next 3 years Source: Austrade

Thailand launches online learning platform

The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation has launched a new online learning platform ‘Future Skill x New Career Thailand’ to build the capabilities of tomorrow’s workforce. More than 100 higher education institutions, private organisations and government agencies have been invited to develop non-degree programs for reskilling and upskilling the workforce of the future. Learners will be able to access over 800 courses, both online and offline modules via this platform for free, with skills including Smart Farming, Care Givers, Smart Tourism, Digital Data, Food for the Future, Industrial Robotics, Smart Innovative Entrepreneur and Creative Content Source: Austrade

Australia: International student flights to restart in September

After 6 months of travel restrictions for students across Asia, Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham announced on 16 August that up to 300 students would start arriving in Adelaide as part of a pilot program to restart the international education sector which has been pummelled by the coronavirus pandemic. The students will travel from Singapore on flights arriving by early September. The group also includes students from Hong Kong, China and Japan. International students and universities will cover the cost of travel and quarantine as the federal government prepares for the first batch of students to arrive in Australia. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald