Headline: International Post-Secondary Briefs
Byline: Morgan Modjeski
Wordcount: 460
Economic crisis causes students to stay home rather than study abroad
According to University World News (UWN) the number of students studying abroad has dropped dramatically because of the global economic crisis.
The survey, which was conducted by the Forum on Education Abroad, shows that few American students are traveling outside of the country to attend post-secondary education.
UWN reported that the effects of the economic crisis have had an extremely negative impact on the 66 per cent of the 165 organizations that partook in the survey.
“The survey also found that most domestic and international institutions and organizations had not cut their education abroad programming budgets by more than 15 per cent since last year, and 16 per cent of respondents reported that their budgets had increased,” reported UWN.
CEA Global Education chairman Brian Boubek told UWN that, “Educators realize that many students have a narrow window, and international education is critical to many students’ academic program and future career success.”
Currently the most popular study destinations for students are France, Italy and Spain.
E-books through campus bookstore websites all the rave
Universities in Canada and United states will soon be turning their university book stores into portals to online e-books, reported The Chronicle of Higher Education.
According to The Chronicle, “Trying to set up an e-book-distribution operation at each college store would be difficult and expensive. So the groups — the National Association of College Stores and the Canadian Campus Retail Associates Inc. — have pooled their resources to develop a shared system.”
At the moment, the collection of online e-books is fairly small — roughly 200 titles available — but it will grow as the program continues reported The Chronicle.
Queens University has already turned their bookstore into a portal for e-books and is one of the first universities in Canada to apply the idea.
University of Illinois president resigns over scandal
The New York Times reported that the president of the University of Illinois will be resigning after a scandal involving admittance of under-qualified children of the “wealthy and well-connected.”
The Times reported, “The president, B. Joseph White, had been under growing pressure to take responsibility for his role in the scandal, in which, according to an independent state commission, the university gave admissions preference to unqualified applicants who were the children of the wealthy and well-connected.”
White has continued to deny the claims that he was admitting students who were under–qualified, and in his letter of resignation said he was stepping down, “to enable you as a newly-constituted board to select university leadership going forward,” reported The Times.
The Times also reported, “Mr. White will serve as president until the end of the year, then stay on to teach and raise money, officials said. The board will appoint an interim president while conducting a search for a new one.”
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