GLOBAL: Rethinking private higher education

Wachira Kigotho11 April 2014 Issue No:315

 

Economic stagnation and high youth unemployment in developed countries have contributed to emerging concerns over whether traditional models of higher education are capable of producing employable graduates, the International Finance Corporation's 6th International Private Education Conference heard in San Francisco this month.

The high-level conference had the theme “Rethinking Education, Shaping the Future”, and brought together education experts, and investors and employers in private education.

The conference highlighted how technologies, scientific applications and innovations in education could improve the prospects of many graduates who are currently worried that their degrees might not lead to good jobs.

Conference sessions covered a wide range of topics “from access and affordability, quality, employability and skills of the 21st century, impact of globalisation, the role of education entrepreneurs and results measurement,” said the International Finance Corporation, or IFC.

HE and labour market disconnect

High on the agenda was how universities could help students to master skills.

Leuny Morell, provost and chief academic officer at the NEU – a new, practical engineering university being developed in partnership with the University of New Haven in the United States – said the main issue was how to eradicate the unintentional disconnect between traditional higher education and the labour market.

“For instance, universities must bridge the gap between education and the world of today by teaching competencies and professional skills that are needed to solve societal problems,” Morell told University World News.

The former president of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies pointed out that universities should also try to identify talented students, especially in science and engineering.

She explained that there was a direct relationship between science, engineering, technology and innovation and economic development and sustainability.

“Countries that will invest in talented graduates in innovation, science, technology and engineering will undoubtedly achieve economic and social progress in comparison to their counterparts that will be unwilling to grow their human talent pool,” said Morell.

Unfortunately, the level of such investments and the number of science and engineering graduates do not alone necessarily mean quality or obtaining desired outcomes, because a well qualified talent pool is becoming increasingly hard to find in some parts of the world.

Quality is all-important

According to the new thinking emerging in higher education, if students acquire degrees or obsolete knowledge that cannot be applied in the modern world, then it is a high-level waste of time and money.

University degrees are still highly associated with employment prospects and even providing perfect pathways for career opportunities.

Stressing the importance of the acquisition of skills in higher education, Dr Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow in education at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a key speaker at the IFC conference, said the future of every country would depend on the skills of its people.

In his recent study, Economic Growth in Developing Countries: The role of human capital, Hanushek noted that the focus on a high quality talent pool as a driver of economic growth had put a spotlight on school attainment and the importance of cognitive skills.

Hanushek noted that whereas developed countries might adapt their higher education to the needs of the 21st century quickly, this would be difficult for countries in the developing world.

The case of Africa

Such is the case in Sub-Saharan African countries, where it had been generally easier to expand access to education rather than to improve quality.

According to Hanushek, the critical talent pool in Sub-Saharan Africa had been shrinking because simple approaches to improving the quality of education had not proved very effective.

He noted that the inability of higher education in the region to produce human capital required for development was embedded within the entire education system. If students did not have basic cognitive skills when they got to higher education, they could not learn at a level that would make them competitive internationally.

“Consequently, without improving school quality, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa will find it difficult to improve their long run economic performance,” Hanushek told University World News in an interview.

The IFC conference was a global event, but its agenda was perhaps most significant for Africa when it reflected on graduate unemployment.

This is a major problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Simon Gicharu, founder and president of Mount Kenya University, East Africa's largest private university.

“Beyond the unemployment crisis, in the absence of adequate labour laws and social safety nets, graduates from African universities are often under-employed, too often compelled to take low-paying jobs for their survival,” said Gicharu in an interview with University World News in Nairobi.

Gicharu agreed with speakers who noted that African countries were at a crossroads in matters related to improving the quality of higher education. “So much pressure is on learning facilities in both public and private universities due to unmet demand for higher education.”

All about the skills

The IFC conference rooted for advanced innovations in learning platforms in tablet technology, mobile applications, virtual and cyberspace learning networks, and advanced science, technology and engineering laboratories and other cutting edge facilities.

Governments and private investors in higher education everywhere will have to undertake self-appraisal if they are to prepare young people for the jobs market of the 21st century, conference participants agreed.

According to Hanushek, it is all about the skills and much of the IFC conference focused on how to provide labour market opportunities to the more than 200 million unemployed youth globally by bridging the gap between learning outcomes and job requirements.
 

UNITED KINGDOM: Women in academia – Different views of success

Shima Barakat18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

The last 12 years has seen a plethora of writings on the experiences of women academics, describing how the challenges and barriers they face differ from their male counterparts. However, even earlier Nadya Aisenberg and Mona Harrington wrote in the 1988 study Women of Academe: Outsiders in the sacred grove about the difficulties women were overcoming to access the 'sacred grove' (academia) in the United States.

Three decades later, the subject is still being written about because structural and cultural issues across the globe have not been fully addressed, frustrations continue to exist and both men and women are speaking up. The issues are complex and fraught with myths, gross generalisations and mixed emotions.

The University of Cambridge commissioned research challenging the notions of success, aiming to address the stereotypes and, most importantly, giving women a heterogeneous voice. Some 196 women were nominated by their peers as 'successful', 126 responded to surveys and 26 were interviewed.

The results from this research were published in the book The Meaning of Success: Insights from women at Cambridge by Jo Bostock, launched last month.

The book offers rich evidence that women are not all the same – their experiences are not the same, the value they bring to the university is not the same and their paths to success are very different.

Four main themes

The book elaborates on the stories of the women of Cambridge around four main themes:

• The challenges of working at a top academic institution irrespective of gender: what constitutes excellence, funding, job security and conflicting demands. The gender dynamics were often an additional dimension of complexity in this demanding environment, like challenges outside work and a sense of 'falling short' (imposter syndrome).
  
  
• What is valued and what matters: awards, promotion and recognition, but not only those. The women valued and thrived on much more, for example: challenging and interesting work that was of excellent quality and had an impact, maintaining happy and healthy work and family lives, managing challenges and change, exercising leadership, and authority and influence as well as being pioneers. Being at the forefront of change, at the intellectual, organisational and institutional levels, was a very significant element.
  
  
• Framing the gender influences: different women had different perceptions of whether and to what extent gender was relevant to their work lives. Issues like education and upbringing, gender assumptions and stereotypes as well as bias and discrimination were all honestly discussed, busting the myth that these issues no longer exist but also nuancing the debate by showing that these are not only challenges but sometimes opportunities too. These were stories of leveraging expectations, not conforming and reaping the rewards.
  
  
• Admired qualities and role models: The spectrum was wide around who women perceived as role models: men and women, famous and modest, work and life, in general and for specific tasks. However, some themes emerged as being admired: integrity, relationship focus, inspirational leadership, political savviness, being pioneers, accessible, fallible, an inclusiveness advocate, doing high quality work and being rounded, confident, authentic and resilient.
  

For the women of Cambridge demonstrating authenticity, integrity and roundedness were key. As you read the book you are struck by the diversity of talent at Cambridge University which is not dissimilar to other academic institutions in the United Kingdom, the Western world and most probably internationally too.

This book provides evidence that today the issues surrounding gender are potentially more varied and more complex than they have ever been and raises the question: How much talent is being wasted around the world in academic institutions and other organisations?

As one senior academic in the book commented: “I am well aware that serious talent is being wasted in Cambridge and elsewhere by systems that have allowed 50% of the talent pool to occupy fewer than 15% of the senior positions.”

Broader notions of success need to be embraced within academia to redress this imbalance as well as allow all men and women to contribute to the fullest.

Ripple effect

Is the Cambridge project the start of a ripple effect? Anecdotal evidence says it may well be as other universities start to react and other groups within other universities start to question and highlight issues and women within their own organisation.

I heard one woman say: “I am going to raise funds to carry out a similar project in my university.” If that happens, it would be another several hundred-year-old organisation that is shook up – even if just a little.

At Cambridge, the buzz is still there weeks after the book launch. There is a raised awareness at all levels, resources are allocated for change, new programmes and further development and senior academics are recognising the richness of talent in the university.

Personally, I am surprised by how often I am stopped on campus to be told how some issue has resonated with someone. I am awed by how many people have read the book and can recognise one person, me, from among the cases.

Being involved in the book has certainly raised my visibility and allowed me to seek advice and support at levels that were obscure to me before. It has also given me a chance to reflect on what I actually think about issues of gender, myself, my work and what I want.

I fundamentally believe in a broader notion of success and this work reinforced my commitment to recognising the strengths of my team and making sure these are nurtured and developed in line with their ambitions and dreams.

Will a book make all the difference? Of course not. To truly change and offer a place where diversity flourishes universities need to do two things primarily: the first would improve the existing system and the second would revolutionise it:

• Review espoused values and criteria of what constitutes quality and success. It is common wisdom among younger academics that research is valued above all else and universities are littered with people who play by the rules, but get overlooked for promotions. Yet most universities have more sophisticated promotion criteria.
  
  'Service' is one key culprit for this apparent mismatch. Service and good citizenship are explicitly written into the criteria for promotion, but service takes time, time away from writing. Rewarding what is espoused as valued is important to avoid the apparent mismatch between criteria and practice.
  
  
• New pathways through the academic institutions need to be defined, supported and equally valued. The rise of the academic manager is one such new 'route'.
  
  Yet there could be many more like the practical researcher whose work is excellent with respect to practice rather than theory, the implementer who translates research for practice through consulting and-or commercialisation, the motivational leader who may be less excellent at the research itself but is superb at motivating the team and leading them to exceptional results, and the creative resource investigator who has visions of research and can leverage resources to deliver it, but may not write as prolifically as other colleagues.
  

In a world where complexity dominates, it seems ludicrous that everyone is judged and promoted based on the same criteria.

It brings to mind a cartoon that has gone viral on social media depicting a set of animals waiting to be tested with a caption that says something like: “We have a fair system. You will all undergo the same test of climbing that tree.” What chance do the elephant and fish have? I hope now, more than they did before.

Initiatives like Athena Swan and EnterpriseWISE help to change individuals and some practices, but system level changes will be needed to truly transform culture and embedded practices.

* Shima Barakat is a research and teaching fellow and director of the EnterpriseWISE and ETECH projects at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK.

GLOBAL: Diversification of tertiary education growing – Study

Wachira Kigotho18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

Non-university technical programmes are the fastest growing forms of post-secondary education, according to UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning, or IIEP.

Tracer studies coordinated by the IIEP in five countries – Azerbaijan, Chile, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Korea – indicated that increasing job market demand for varied skills is the primary driver of the emerging trend.

The abridged studies published this month by the IIEP in the volume The Diversification of Post-secondary Education, edited by NV Varghese, highlight how non-degree programmes are challenging traditional university systems.

IIEP Director Khalil Mahshi observed in a statement: “The non-university segment of post-secondary education is becoming a credible alternative to degree courses, especially in developing countries, when it comes to expanding access to employment-related study programmes.”

The research for the five country studies was initiated by the IIEP in 2010. According to the book: “These countries are at varied levels of higher education development, as reflected in their gross enrolment ratios for higher education in 2008. The expansion of post-secondary education is common to all of them and is in line with global trends.”

It continues: “The growing demand for varied skills in the job market necessitates various different modes of delivery, a multiplicity of providers and proliferation of study programmes. Diversification of post-secondary education can be seen as a drift towards vocational or employment-relevant courses, allowing for flexibility of study programmes.”

Faring in the job market

According to Professor NV Varghese, coordinator of the five-country tracer studies and director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration in New Delhi, non-university post-secondary education can offer robust job market opportunities.

For instance, in South Korea the overall employment rate of post-secondary education graduates was 76.7% – but it was 64.5% among junior college graduates and 48.5% among university graduates.

In Malaysia, according to a 2008 government tracer study, 53% of non-university graduates found employment within one year of graduating, against 50% of university graduates. Researchers also found better employment rates among non-university graduates in Nigeria and Azerbaijan.

It was only in Chile that university graduates fared better in the job market: it was estimated that the probability of being unemployed one year following graduation was 0.17 among university graduates and 0.33 among technical graduates.

Enrolment dynamics

Despite the upswing in non-university post-secondary education students in most countries, the researchers noted that in many countries the university sector still accounts for the major share of enrolments.

Available statistics from the IIEP indicate that currently, enrolments in the non-university sector represent between 20% and 40% of all students in tertiary education in many countries.

But enrolment dynamics are changing quickly in most developing countries, for example in Azerbaijan and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of insufficient university places.

“Azerbaijan has experienced tremendous growth in demand for post-secondary education. This was more visible in terms of applicants than intake since the government regulates and fixes enrolment targets,” according to the study. “Nearly 40% of all students enrolled in higher education in Azerbaijan attend non-university institutions.”

Korea has reached universal levels of enrolment in higher education, and so possibilities of further expanding the system are limited. In Malaysia and Nigeria, enrolments in post-secondary education increased in different categories of institutions.

Potential in Sub-Saharan Africa

In Sub-Saharan Africa there is tremendous potential for growth of non-university post-secondary education.

While university enrolment in the region has been growing faster than anywhere else, still only about 7% of the tertiary education age cohort is currently enrolled in universities, according to UNESCO.

Secondary school graduates unable to be absorbed in universities are increasingly seeking alternatives in non-university institutions.

The over-expansion of universities – which have been growing at the rate of about 8.6% a year since 1970 in order to satisfy social demands – has resulted in a lack of adequately qualified staff and over-crowded and over-stretched learning facilities.

Also, graduates from polytechnics are deemed to have hands-on practice and experience, and they are often absorbed into the labour market more quickly than university counterparts with degrees in conventional subjects.

According to Ebele Okoka Amali, professor of economics at the University of Jos in Nigeria and one of the IIEP's tracer study researchers, over 50% of university graduates in Nigeria are still unemployed three years after graduating while the proportion is much lower for polytechnic graduates.

“This trend is noticeable in many industrial sectors that prefer to recruit polytechnic graduates rather than university graduates, because of their hands-on skills,” said Amali.

Contrary to expectations, challenges are expected to emerge in Nigeria's non-university post-secondary education programmes in polytechnics as enrolment has become highly skewed in favour of business education courses.

In his study, Amali noted that 70% of students in polytechnics were studying business courses such as accounting, banking and finance and business management while only 22% were enrolled in core technology courses.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, many households are ready to invest in the expectation that non-university post-secondary education qualifications, especially in technical areas, will offer better employment prospects than university degrees in conventional academic subjects.

In addition, the Malaysian government has noticed that non-university post-secondary education is a cheaper way of expanding tertiary education in the country.

“All in all, the diversification of non-university education programmes results in cost savings for the government, improves employment opportunities for students, and reduces pressure on the university system to expand,” said Professor Morshidi bin Sirat of the National University of Malaysia.

Game-changer

Most researchers pointed out that diversification of post-secondary education was also increasingly becoming a game-changer in higher education by creating more space for women, mature students and groups from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“It is still part of the shift towards 'massification' of higher education, where traditionally under-privileged students view tertiary education as a passport to a good job in a progressive modern sector,” said Varghese.

Quoting Professor Philip G Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, Varghese noted that relevance to employment had become a crucial consideration in making study choices in most countries.

The growing demand for different skills from those produced by traditional university degree courses, it seems, has encouraged alternative modes of delivery and has led to many different kinds of education providers in non-university post-secondary institutions and platforms.

Further, according to the study, diversification has helped to expand post-secondary education, often with resource support from sources other than government – especially in non-university institutions.

The case studies indicate that the pressure from both expanding secondary education and the employment market demand for relevant skills resulted in a more diversified system of post-secondary education, consisting of universities and non-university institutions.

“Thus the expansion and multiplicity of post-secondary education providers pose challenges to planning and managing this particular segment of the education sector.”

NIGERIA: French lecturers' conference supports Francophony

Tunde Fatunde18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

The Nigerian state has invested heavily in French language studies in higher education since the country's independence 64 years ago. The various strands of Francophone studies that have subsequently developed were investigated at the recent 16th Annual Conference of the University French Teachers' Association of Nigeria, or UFTAN.

The conference was held at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, in Osun state, with the theme “French in the Wider World”. Some 125 members of the association were there, with the event one of the best attended yet, said UFTAN's immediate past president R Adebisi.

The French language, in the context of West Africa, is of diplomatic and strategic importance to Nigeria, which is surrounded by French speaking countries.

They are members of the international organisation called Francophony – the commonwealth of the world's French speaking states. A participant argued that future UFTAN conferences should invite diplomatic representatives of Francophone countries.

French is the official language of some members of ECOWAS – the Economic Community of West African States – as well as an official language of Belgium, Canada and Switzerland.

France is no longer the sole custodian of the language, which has been appropriated by many countries all over the globe.

This pertinent observation reminded one of the conference of the International Federation of Teachers of French, or IFIT, which took place in Durban, South Africa, last year.

There the French minister of international cooperation informed the audience that by 2050, the Francophone countries of Africa – and not France – would guarantee the survival of the French language and by extension French culture.

Celebrating Francophone studies' professors

An interesting highlight of the conference was the celebration of Nigerian professors who have contributed to Francophone studies, as well as retired Francophone professors who are still rendering academic services including supervising postgraduate students*.

The presence of leading active and retired professors captured the history of the development and growth of French studies in Nigeria.

They are representatives of the first, second, third and fourth generations of Nigerian intellectuals deeply involved in Francophone studies since independence 64 years ago.

These professors, and those who could not be at the conference, are products of investments by the Nigerian state in creating a class of intellectuals whose main objective is to produce French graduates to cater for the diplomatic, military and economic interests of Nigeria and ECOWAS.

The investment of France in Francophone studies in Nigeria has also been important but peripheral to the core investment of Nigeria itself in this field of study. The French embassy, a traditional partner of UFTAN, promised continuous support for French studies in Nigeria's universities.

Four retired professors were honoured as UFTAN pacesetters – V Aire, R Elaho, F Emordi and E Echenim. A special publication was released in their honour titled French Language in Nigeria, edited by N Obianaju, E Omonzejie, G Simire and M Tijani.

French in the wider world

Professor EN Kwofie, one of the pioneers of French linguistics in Nigerian universities – a Ghanaian who eventually opted wholeheartedly for Nigerian citizenship – delivered a magisterial keynote address titled “French in the Wider World”.

Strolling down memory lane, he demonstrated that the French elite over time developed the language as a strategic diplomatic and cultural tool in the community of nations. He argued that French would remain a language of communication in Africa.

The lecture reminded one of an important declaration of Francois Hollande, the French president, at the 2013 Francophone summit in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “French language is now an African Language,” he declared.

The four-day conference was mainly devoted to academic papers by UFTAN members in line with the conference theme. There were also two round table sessions specifically for distinguished scholars.

In the first Professor V Aire, in his paper “African Studies in French: A personalised testimony”, demonstrated how Nigerian scholars had made immense contributions to African studies developed in Canada's Francophone universities in Quebec province.

He cited the participation of Nigerians in the creation of academic journals and articles in journals and books: Dictionnaires Des Oeuvres Afro-Africaines de langue Francaise, Ecriture Francaise, Presence Francophone, Revue Canadienne des Etudes Africaines and Etudes Litteraires among others.

He revealed that there were about 5,000 Nigerian students in Canadian Anglophone and Francophone universities.

An intellectual movement

The second round table was highly technical. In his paper, “Literature and Law”, Professor 0 Oladitan, a literary critic and lawyer, illustrated the umbilical link between some literary writing and law.

He posited that the content of some novels could be subjected to legal analysis, and demonstrated his thesis by showing how legal terms can be used to analyse Sembene Ousman's novel Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu, a classic in the repertoire of Francophone novels in Africa.

Oladitan's presentation reminds one of the era of encyclopaedists, an intellectual movement in 18th century France. These iconoclasts demonstrated that there was constant correlation and interdependence between all parts of the body of knowledge.

There were also parallel sessions to accommodate various academic interests, ranging from comparative literature, French linguistics, translation and interpretation to culture and civilisations.

Some of the papers presented by PhD students had theoretical pitfalls and faulty formats and did not conform to international standards. Members agreed that the association should hold zonal seminars and workshops to assist these younger colleagues, supervised by active and retired professors.

The conference ended on two positive notes.

First, participants approved a proposal that the 17th UFTAN conference be held at the Nigeria French Village in Badagry in Lagos state. Second, a new executive was elected into office for two years, with the writer of this article elected president.

* Nigerian professors honoured for contributions to Francophone studies were: O Oladitan, C Mokwenye, V Okeke, M Iwuchukwu, E Obitaba, D Obieje, F Angrey, T Adejir, D Chima, V Obinna, I Mojola, B Ayeleru, R Adebisi and this writer. Retired professors honoured were: U Edebiri, I Mojola, V Aire, R Elaho, F Emordi, N Koffie, K Echenim and K Sonaiya.
 

AUSTRALIA: Young researchers YouTube their work

18 April 2014 Issue No:316

Each year at its annual conference, the Australian Cooperative Research Centres, or CRC, Association holds a “Showcasing Early Career Researchers” session.

This year for the CRC Association's Innovating with Asia 2014 conference in Perth in May*, 48 researchers – two years out from submitting their PhD to five years after submitting – braved the cameras and shot a 30-second video explaining the topic of their research, what they have done and what it means.

“It's a really hard thing to do,” says CRC Association Chief Executive Tony Peacock. “The so-called elevator pitch requires a lot of thinking and then great execution to do it well. All the judges were once again blown away that so many researchers had a go. We all wished we could have a much longer short-list.”

The short-listed candidates have already won A$1,000 (US$940) each along with participating in the CRC Association's conference in Perth. Each of the five finalists will present to the conference audience on their research for five minutes.

The audience will then vote for the winner who will receive a further A$5,000 presented at the AusIndustry-sponsored Excellence in Innovation Awards dinner.

The short-listed finalists

Jake Lacey – Poultry CRC

How gut microbiota contributes to health and productivity
Gut bacteria work like a community to modulate the immune system and defend the host. However, too often the ecosystem of healthy microbiota is thrown out of balance by pathogenic bacteria.

In poultry farms, necrotic enteritis caused by C perfingens is on the rise and results in poor welfare and a loss of productivity due to damage to the intestinal wall. Some birds show a natural resistance to the disease and by investigating the bacteria in these birds we may be able to find a probiotic cure.

Luigi Vandi – CRC for Advanced Composite Structures

Understanding interphase formation in thermoset composite welding
Composite materials have become the material of choice for manufacturing aircraft structures. However, unlike metals, carbon-epoxy materials cannot normally be welded together, making their assembly very challenging.

My project is centred on a new technology patented by the CRC-ACS, allowing these materials to be welded together. My PhD focuses on unravelling the molecular mechanisms at the interphase formed between these materials to ensure this process can be implemented on future aircrafts.

Dr Honor Calnan – CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation

Retaining the red in Australian lamb
The colour of lamb meat is crucial to customer appeal and strongly contributes to product value. Lamb meat currently has a shelf life of only two days before it is discounted due to browning, representing a major economic limitation to the Australian lamb industry.

My PhD investigates factors influencing the oxidative process of lamb browning, identifying practical methods such as feeding vitamin E and selective breeding that can improve the colour stability and thus value of Australian lamb meat.

Binbin Zhang – The HEARing CRC

Fabrication of drug delivery system
3D printing is changing our life in many aspects, from 3D printed food to airplane parts. How could it benefit the current research in life sciences? Printing human organs is of course exciting and ambitious. However, using this new technology to perfect readily available medical devices seems more achievable in the near future.

My research is to develop an integrating drug delivery system into the cochlear implant using 3D printing to prevent the detrimental post-surgery inflammatory response.

Michael Scott – CRC for Optimising Resource Extraction

Evaluation of energy efficiency, mission pricing and pre-concentration
This project evaluates the economic and production impacts from improvements in the energy-efficiency of mining and mineral processing activities, and the introduction of emission pricing on the optimal development of a low-grade, copper-gold deposit in Australia.

The research also examines the incorporation of pre-concentration strategies at the operation, which remove uneconomic material prior to expensive, and energy and emission-intensive, production processes.

* The Innovating with Asia 2014 conference will be held on 20-21 May at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

UNITED STATES: Why universities are under attack by hackers

FoxNews.com18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

Reports of university data breaches are becoming almost commonplace, writes Rick Dakin for http://FoxNews.com. Last month the University of Maryland reported that its system had been hacked for the second time in four weeks. Indiana University's server was breached in February, potentially exposing personal information of 146,000 students and recent graduates.

And earlier this month a systems breach at North Dakota State University compromised the personal information of more than 200,000 students, faculty and staff – but the hackers never took any of it. These attacks are probably just the beginning.

Cybercrime is not new, but the sophistication and intensity of attacks are increasing at an alarming rate. Universities are easy targets because of their open structure and long information retention periods. For modern hackers, breaching a school's data system is relatively easy. Today's hackers are tightly run criminal organisations operating in countries that are hostile or indifferent to US interests.
Full report on the http://FoxNews.com site
 

INDONESIA: New scholarships for study at world's top universities

Ria Nurdiani18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

In an effort to increase the number of people with postgraduate qualifications in Indonesia, the government this month launched the Indonesia Presidential Scholarships, which are tenable at the world's top universities.

The international scholarships require Indonesian applicants to be accepted at a university abroad before they can apply.

They are intended to cover the expense of studying at 50 top-ranked universities in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Singapore, South Korea, Denmark, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

World-class universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge and Oxford are included in the list.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the scholarship would help “prepare future leaders who can lead the country in the next 10 or 20 years so that our country will not only become an emerging economy, but, in time, an advanced country.”

Minister of Education and Culture Mohammad Nuh has said the government is aiming for 100 grantees every year. Just over 50 have so far passed the selection process – 28 female students and 23 males – with registration still open until 20 April.

Two will be attending Harvard, one Stanford, three Oxford, two the University of Tokyo, six Imperial College London, seven University College London, eight Australian National University and three the University of Edinburgh.

The substantial scholarships, announced just a week before legislative elections on 9 April, have been criticised by Max Sopacua, deputy chair of the Democratic Party, who said the timing of the launch was a political strategy to boost the ruling party during the election.

The popularity of the president's party has sunk to below 10% due to a graft scandal involving its high-ranking officials.

A presidential election will also take place in July although Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has already served two terms, cannot be re-elected under current rules.

The youth vote is considered crucial in the legislative elections, the results of which will be declared in May. Some 50 million out of the total of 189 million registered voters are under 29 years. All parties were trying to overcome general youth voter apathy ahead of the election.

However, the timing allegation was refuted by the education minister. “We've been working on it since last year. That it was announced close to election day is pure coincidence,” Ibnu Hamad, the ministry's spokesperson, told University World News.

A forerunner to the scholarship was launched in 2010 when then Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is now managing director of the World Bank Group, began to set aside some money to be managed as an endowment fund.

In November 2011, her successor as finance minister Agus Martowardojo, now governor of Bank Indonesia, established a working group to prepare an institution to manage the fund in collaboration with the education ministry.

After almost three years of establishing the endowment with 20% of the funds provided by allocations from the state budget between 2010 and 2013, the scholarships were finally launched on 2 April.

Indonesians aged up to 35 years can apply for postgraduate degree study overseas, while the maximum age for a doctoral applicant is 40.

The scholarships will cover the fields of agriculture, medicine, food, energy, IT, telecommunication, technology, science, economy, finance, business, economics, law, religion, politics, and social and cultural sciences.

Grantees will be obliged to return to Indonesia after completing studies abroad, with sanctions imposed on those who do not return.
 

ASIA: Student-led migration is part of global talent contest

Yojana Sharma11 April 2014 Issue No:315

 

As the global competition to attract skilled and talented workers has intensified, international students have become an increasingly important source of immigrant workers, particularly the most skilled workers in advanced countries. A new report by three major international organisations estimates that 15% to 30% of international students who study in the most advanced countries stay on to work.

In the advanced countries of the OECD, the number of international students has grown since 2005 "in virtually all countries", according to Labor Migration, Skills and Student Mobility in Asia drawn up by the Asian Development Bank Institute - the Tokyo-based think-tank linked to the ADB in Manila - the OECD in Paris and the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

More than half the recent Asian migrants in OECD countries "are highly educated and they represent an important contribution to the skilled workforce in OECD countries", said the report released this month. It noted that "highly educated and skilled workers play a critical role in economic development and technological innovations".

More than three quarters of Asian students are concentrated in only four countries: the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Some Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea have been catching up by offering higher education programmes in English, as well as scholarships and work opportunities for international students during and after their studies.

Asia the driver behind skilled migration growth

Students from Asia now make up 52% of all international students in OECD countries and the Asian region has been a main driver behind this growth in skilled migration, the report said. For example in 2011, 1.6 million Asian nationals migrated to one of the OECD countries.

"Pursuing higher education abroad is considered an effective channel to emigrate to industrialised countries," the report said.

The migration trend has been accelerated by a skills gap in many advanced countries and global competition for talent, despite general restrictions on immigration in most OECD countries.

"Asia as an origin region has seen disproportionate growth over the past five to 10 years. Its importance relative to other origin regions has increased in all of the top 10 destination countries for international students with the exception of Austria and Germany."

Japan is also among the exceptions, but Asian migrants still account for more than nine out of 10 international students in that country, the report said.

Countries where the study-migration route is highest are France, Canada and the Czech Republic. In Canada it is as high as 40% of migrants.

First step towards settlement

International study has become a common first step toward eventual settlement in the host country, despite some concerns that it is a 'backdoor' route to migration.

The path is eased for international students staying, in part because a domestic degree is easily accepted by employers. "There is no uncertainty regarding actual value or other recognition issues" associated with qualifications, as there is about the value of foreign degrees, the report noted.

A growing number of countries have sought to attract international students as a source of highly skilled labour, allowing students to work during studies and providing opportunities to change status after studies and to become labour migrants via work-study visas.

Not long ago, visa status changes for international students were often prohibited, sometimes motivated by a desire to protect the domestic workforce against competition. It was thought that international students, in particular those from developing countries, should return to their origin countries after their studies, to avoid brain drain.

"This perspective has changed since and some specific tools have been developed to facilitate the study-to-work transition of international students," the report said.

Most study destinations now allow students to work during studies, generally 20 to 24 hours a week during term. Often, there are specific provisions for additional work during semester breaks. In Japan, students may work eight hours a day during summer and winter breaks.

"Although student employment may not necessarily help in finding work later, it does provide the student with some familiarity regarding the local labour market and practices. Work within one's field can be particularly important for increasing the likelihood of finding employment after graduation," the study said.

However, student work can also be low skilled. It provides contact with the labour market and enhances the likelihood of remaining in the country but, negatively, international students compete with low-educated native-born youths and could damage their own job chances later through unskilled work.

In non-English speaking countries where universities run international programmes in English, graduating students do not necessarily have a broad range of employment opportunities. Nonetheless, study can serve as a transition period while a prospective migrant learns the local language, which is necessary for full integration into the host country.

Country familiarity is one of the reasons behind schemes in several advanced countries to allow international students graduating from their universities to stay on to work.

The duration of post-graduation visas varies from three years in Canada to six months in most European countries. Japan recently increased the duration from six months to a year.

Some countries, including South Korea, allow time for a graduate's job search depending on the level of study, with the longest job search period for those with PhDs.

Most countries with points-based immigration systems provide bonus points for those with host country degrees. This is the case in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and some European countries with a points system, such as Austria.

EUROPE: Preparing PhDs for work – Also outside academia

Jan Petter Myklebust06 February 2014 Issue No:306

 

The League of European Research Universities, or LERU, has published an ‘advice paper’ on Good Practice Elements in Doctoral Training. It informs the academic part of research training and is a repository of good ideas and practices by some of Europe’s leading PhD training institutions.

The most important messages highlighted in the paper are these: PhDs are increasingly drivers of their own professional development; and the training model in which the PhD candidate is heavily dependent on one supervisor is no longer robust.

Being drivers of their professional development is important for the writing of PhD theses, even more so with regard to obtaining competencies during doctoral training in transferable skills.

Supply opportunities where candidates can engage themselves to acquire transferable skills are extensively documented, and are diverse at member institutions of LERU, which is an association of research universities.

The good thing about the report is that over and over again it demonstrates that some of the most research-intensive universities in Europe are prioritising transferable skills, which are now being built into training programmes for doctoral candidates and, most frequently it seems, as elective course options and often in collaboration with other organisations.

The introduction presents 29 such transferable competencies like ‘working in teams’, ‘persisting in achieving long-term goals’ and ‘understanding the working of a specific high-level research-intensive environment’.

Such competencies are found in different courses such as master-classes in promoting creativity and risk-taking in novel research, toolkits to help doctoral researchers with information management in research, monitoring work progress to support students to finish their PhD successfully and on time – such as University College London’s Student log – and many more.

Other examples of innovative courses are the PhD employer forum at University College London, where a panel of speakers who themselves are PhD holders are invited to talk about their sector, career progression and the best routes into their position.

The university has also developed Leadership in Action, an ‘open’ programme helping researchers to initiate collaborative and interdisciplinary projects and to develop the “mental toughness and resilience that is needed to sail through the PhD”.

The University of Zurich has a total of 280 courses a year on the acquisition of funding, teaching, writing-publishing, job application training and other topics, and Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University has since 2006 had a Doc’Up association of PhD students who organise events such as breakfasts, aperitifs, dinners or discussion forums.

At the University of Edinburgh, new PhD students in many schools are assigned a thesis committee. The committees have three to five members, including both of the student’s supervisors and at least one independent person who has not been involved to any significant extent, either academically or administratively, with the student.

Students have reported that they particularly value having an external member of the thesis committee.

The Royal Society (2010) is quoted in the report as having found that more than 50% of doctoral candidates in the UK take up employment outside academia after a PhD and that only 3.5% end up in permanent academic positions.

There is no Danish member of LERU. Therefore there is no inclusion of experience with the industrial doctorate that has been operating in Denmark since the 1980s and has now been incorporated in the Marie-Sklodowska Curie programme under Horizon 2020.
 

CANADA How should we measure student success?

Grace Karram07 February 2014 Issue No:306

 

There is little consensus among Ontario’s stakeholders on what constitutes ‘student success’. Should institutions focus mainly on high completion rates, ensuring that students are successful in attaining their degrees? Or should students be encouraged to engage in a wide range of campus activities beyond their academics to develop well-rounded individuals?

Should government work with institutions to produce graduates that meet labour market needs, ensuring that students can acquire jobs in their fields? Or should students be encouraged to pursue what interests them, embarking on post-secondary education as a means of self-discovery?

These are just some of the questions raised at a higher education research symposium hosted by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, or OISE, University of Toronto, at an event on post-secondary education in Ontario – Canada’s most populous province – late last year.

It brought together a range of stakeholders from universities, colleges and the provincial government to consider how researchers should define and measure student success. Each speaker presented a different outlook on whether student success means degree completion, engagement on campus, relevant employment, personal fulfilment or increased salaries.

The event ended with working groups to facilitate research collaboration across sectors and chart a course for holistic student success.

Earnings vs social development

The research shows that attending post-secondary education in Canada is still a guaranteed investment that will increase employment earnings.

The 2011 National Household Survey indicates that the salaries of college (vocational) graduates are 61% higher than their counterparts who only hold a high school diploma. These findings were presented by Trent University’s Professor Torben Drewes, whose multi-year research provides strong impetus for individuals to attend post-secondary education.

Despite the allure of increased earnings, the student support group was quick to critique a solely monetary understanding of success.

Professor Tony Chambers, who developed OISE’s Centre for the Study of Students in Post-secondary Education, pointed out that post-secondary education offers individuals and communities numerous social benefits like decreased crime rates and increased civic engagement.

Employment vs engagement

For Ontario’s college sector, which has traditionally focused on vocational or applied education, notions of success are often linked to student employment. College programming is designed with employers in mind and industry stakeholders provide information on both their employment needs and satisfaction with recent graduates.

Adrienne Galway, special advisor to the president of George Brown College, presented at the research symposium on her institution’s key performance indicators. She used these provincial assessment indicators to show that high employment and satisfaction rates are possible when multiple interests are considered in programme design.

While there is definitely a need to transition students efficiently into the workforce, there is an understanding across Canadian institutions that degree completion and student success more broadly cannot be realised without engaging students in all aspects of campus life.

Toward this end Chris Conway, director of institutional research and planning at Queen’s University, provided an analysis of the National Survey of Student Engagement, or NSSE.

NSSE is used broadly to assess undergraduate student behaviours and institutional practices, such as participation in extra-curricular activities, face-time with professors or experiences in residence life.

Complex measurements

As Conway was quick to point out, measuring an abstract concept like student success is complex and needs to be done with precision.

The above approaches tend to fall on opposing sides of a measurement-complexity spectrum. Those that offer effective measurement tools often simplify student success into one concept like increased earning or employment. However, more nuanced notions of success such as engagement or social development are incredibly difficult to assess.

What several researchers called for in response were multi-point research studies that consider numerous indicators like NSSE, key performance indicators and others to give a holistic picture of student success in the province.

Most importantly, as student success officers from around the province pointed out, there is a need to include students in these processes. Student participation may hold the key to identifying and measuring successful outcomes in post-secondary education.

* Presentation slides and a video of speakers is available here.

* Grace Karram Stephenson is a higher and international education specialist with the Comparative, International and Development Education Centre in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in Canada.

UNITED STATES: Online learning comes of age

Richard Garrett07 February 2014 Issue No:306

 

Distance learning, not least the online version, has always been known for plenty of hype, a lot of growth and not much data. Even in the United States, where online higher education has boomed over the past decade, there were no comprehensive enrolment numbers.

In an attempt to address the gap, private outfits such as Sloan-C and Eduventures made do with special surveys and clever estimates.

Confirmation that online higher education has paid its dues and is here to stay, is the recent inclusion of distance learning data in the US federal government’s IPEDS – Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System – database.

The fact that inclusion comes 15 years after the online higher education growth ride began, means such decisions are not made lightly.

In the slow-and-steady business of official data collection, variables must have staying power, definitions must be commonplace and institutions must actually collect the numbers in reasonably reliable fashion.

While the federal data is concerned with multiple ‘distance’ modalities, all the US supply and demand evidence I’ve ever seen suggests all but a small fraction represents online delivery.

What the data reveals

What does the new data reveal?

In autumn 2012, there were just over two million undergraduates in the United States studying exclusively at a distance, plus about 650,000 graduate students. This represents about 11% of all undergraduate and about 22% of all graduate students.

We know from other sources that most of these students are in their late 20s and above, balancing college with job and family.

The ‘some distance’ students range from those taking one to many courses remotely, and it is not possible to distinguish majority from minority distance students. Overall, the ‘some distance’ students numbered about 2.6 million undergraduates and 225,000 graduate students.

Most of the ‘some distance’ undergraduates are just taking one or two courses online as part of an otherwise conventional experience, while many graduate students are enrolled in low residency programmes where the off-campus portion is conducted online.

It is reasonable to conclude that close to one-third of US graduate students are currently studying exclusively or majority online. Such a high ratio is testament to how far online learning has come.

Market concentration

A mere 20 institutions command one-third of the wholly distance market in the US – a mix of for-profit schools such as University of Phoenix, specialist distance learning non-profits such as Western Governors University, as well as one or two more ‘traditional’ universities such as Liberty University, a private religious institution that embraced online at scale, boasting almost 62,000 exclusively distance students in autumn 2012, the third highest total in the nation.

Market concentration by a handful of institutions emphasises that the majority are still wrestling with the medium, struggling with which programmes to offer, how to motivate faculty, which tools to use and how to thrive in an ever-more competitive environment.

Over the next few years, it will be interesting to see whether the big players lose ground, as some for-profits have already done, and the market fragments as a result, or whether leaders can make more of a virtue of scale from a student or regulator perspective.

In autumn 2012 more than 2,000 universities, colleges and campuses reported at least 50 distance learning students, suggesting plenty of institutions with further growth ambitions and an increasingly crowded market.

Local but at a distance

The IPEDS database indicates that exclusively distance enrolment in the US represents about 51% residents of the same state where the campus is located, about 45% residents from another US state, about 1.3% international and the tiny remainder unknown.

This distribution points to how ‘local’ so-called distance learning can be, propelled by the convenience of not having to attend campus rather than lack of access in rural areas. The onus is on institutions to demonstrate the benefit of studying at a far-off school, where online has to bear all or the vast majority of the instructional burden.

With online options at local institutions in every state, it may be more challenging for institutions to turn to online programming as a way to break out of local geography.

The very low international student ratio is a reminder that it has been very difficult for US or any other institutions to make a success of wholly online programmes across national borders.

It would be fascinating to know if the ‘some distance’ students are somewhat more international, suggesting that online alone remains too immature to truly break international markets.

There is no question that as the domestic online market gets more crowded, institutions are increasingly turning to international opportunities. The 1.3% international student share in autumn 2012 should caution schools that blended learning may be the way forward.

So now, finally, we have comprehensive student data for distance learning in the United States, even if enrolment by field of study still necessitates estimation.

With aggregated data also available for other big English-speaking countries like Australia and the United Kingdom, the global puzzle is a little less vexing.

The challenge for US institutions is to continue to hone a differentiated strategy, whether domestic or international, in this complex, crowded and now better-illuminated online market.

* Richard Garrett is director of performance analytics, North America, representing i-graduate and Benchmark +, both part of Tribal Group. He was formerly at Eduventures, where he led the company’s work in online higher education. Email: Richard.Garrett@i-graduate.org.
 

THAILAND: Leading the way on regional integration of HE in Asia?

Darren J McDermott07 February 2014 Issue No:306

 

Thailand is front and centre in the news again and unfortunately for the same political impasse and factional division that has defined much of its last decade. In another week of attrition for the incumbent administration and its detractors, international higher education and ASEAN integration will not be high on the agenda.

But perhaps it is worth reflecting on some positive developments that have taken place in Thai international education over the past while, including the expansion of a student mobility programme which, similar to Erasmus in Europe, could drive further integration .

With under a year to go until the much-vaunted formalisation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC 2015), 2014 is a critical year. A recent Asian Development Bank, or ADB, study – the ASEAN Economic Community Business Survey – found the Thai business community’s awareness of integration running at 70%. This contrasts starkly with awareness levels in Singapore (14%), the Philippines (20%), Indonesia (23%) and Vietnam (24%).

The ADB explained these findings as being due to the “extent to which the firms are affected by regional, cross-border economic issues”.

Levels of awareness of AEC integration are most certainly greater within Thai than other ASEAN higher education institutions.

This is largely due to the activities of national and supranational bodies such as the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development, SEAMEO RIHED, and the ASEAN University Network or AUN, both of which have their regional headquarters in Bangkok.

In this sense, Thailand has become a seat of policy formulation in the ASEAN’s education integration efforts.

SEAMEO RIHED and the AUN are key partners in the fulfilment of the ASEAN’s Five-Year Work Plan on Education 2011-2015, in which one of the key priorities is the promotion of cross-border mobility and internationalisation of education.

This is providing the impetus to develop an ASEAN Common Higher Education Area in the same vein as that of the European Higher Education Area. The similarities are striking and it is not surprising that the European experience of harmonisation through the Bologna process has been seen as useful in charting a similar course in Southeast Asia.

European Union

In March 2011 the European Union launched the Thailand-EU Cooperation Facility with the Royal Thai government. The programme focused on furthering Thailand's policy dialogue and cooperation with the EU.

A major facet of the cooperation centred on developing capacity in Thai higher education as it moves towards ASEAN integration, leading to greater inter-regional cooperation between institutions, quality assurance agencies and international networks.

The policy dialogue components of the cooperation took the form of seminars and workshops by European and Thai education experts supported by the Royal Thai Government Office of the Higher Education Commission and the European Union Delegation to Thailand.

Among the themes presented were the tuning of higher education structures to support the development of the Thai Qualifications Framework, comparative studies on learning from the Bologna process and evaluation of Thai and ASEAN student mobility programmes.

The Thailand-EU Cooperation Facility concluded at the end of 2013, but the EU is renewing its engagement with Thai and ASEAN higher education in 2014 under the EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region – EU SHARE – programme.

EU SHARE will be launched early this year and its objectives are to strengthen regional cooperation and enhance the quality assurance, regional competitiveness and internationalisation of ASEAN higher education institutions towards AEC 2015 and beyond.

The five-year programme can draw on funding of over €10 million (US$13.5 million), of which around half will be committed to driving mobility intra-ASEAN states and from ASEAN to the EU.

Currently leading the charge in the expansion of regional mobility between Thailand and its ASEAN partners is the ASEAN International Mobility for Students, or AIMS, programme.

AIMS evolved out of the First Malaysia-Indonesia-Thailand (M-I-T) Meeting on Student Mobility held in Bangkok in August 2009.

The meeting was attended by education policy-makers from all three countries and the main thrust of discussions centred on priority curricula for mobility, the duration of the mobility period and the number of university participants and student participants.

Meetings have been held biannually since. The M-I-T programme was renamed AIMS in 2012. It is currently being implemented at seven universities throughout Thailand and 52 others in the region.

Taking AIMS

The AIMS programme has also caught the attention of the ASEAN Dialogue Partners, Japan, South Korea and China. Delegates from Japan’s Ministry of Education and universities were present at the Sixth Review Meeting of the AIMS programme in Chiang Rai, Thailand, in November last year.

This year, universities in Japan including Tsukuba University and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology will be among the first non-ASEAN institutions to offer the programme to their students.

Much as Erasmus has been intrinsic to driving mobility and the provision of support structures through the Bologna process, the expansion of the AIMS programme across the ASEAN is seen as a significant catalyst for greater integration and the engendering of quality at the core of member states’ education systems.

The seven Thai universities participating in the AIMS programme are keen to see its expansion and welcome the opportunity it provides to develop stronger regional partnerships.

Thailand is very well placed along with its neighbours in Malaysia and Indonesia at the intersection of developments in the further integration and harmonisation of ASEAN higher education provision.

There is still work to be done on formalising and aligning structures of quality assurance, credit transfer and qualifications frameworks, but this is continuing apace.

Thailand too has the potential to promote itself as a regional hub for education, so the establishment of a national brand for Thai higher education with a defined strategy on driving inbound mobility is also salient at this point.

Once Thailand exits this latest political cul-de-sac, one hopes it can put factional politics away for a more regionalist approach, which will surely 'raise all boats'.

* Darren J McDermott is an international education development consultant.
 

10 Ways to Improve Your English Writing Skills Today

Source: http://www.grammarcheck.net/10-ways-to-improve-your-english-writing-skills-today/

Learning to write English can be a frustratingly slow process. Every time you think you have written a word-perfect piece, some wise guy comes along and points out a mistake that you just don’t see anything wrong with. But before you snap your pencil and throw your books out of the window, take a deep breath and consider this… 

Firstly, you are probably a lot better at writing than you think. If those reading your written English understand what you mean, even though the grammar and spelling isn’t perfect, you’re half way there. 

Secondly, you’d be surprised at just how many native English speakers struggle with writing, and just how many mistakes native speakers make in their written communications. 

And lastly, writing skills are a combination of personal negligence, poor teaching, lack of proper feedback and few opportunities to put skills into practice. Which is why today we’re going to solve these issues by giving you 10 ways to start improving your English writing skills immediately.

1. Read as much as you can

In today’s world, an increasing number of people are reading solely from online sources. The bulk of this reading is done on blogs, which aren’t always very well written. To ensure you are digesting a wide spectrum of written English, you need to employ a diverse set of reading tools. Read newspapers, magazines, brochures, reports and any other materials you can find in niches of interest. This will give you a broader understanding of grammar, sentence structure and technical jargon across a wide range of literature. When you come across words or expressions you don’t understand, underline them and look them up once you have finished your reading session.

2. Engage in chat room and forum discussions

The key to perfecting your English skills is to learn to think in English. This skill will help you write better and faster. Chat rooms and forums force you to think in English because contributors are writing in English and usually responding quickly. This dynamic environment brings English speakers of varying proficiencies together in one place, providing the perfect platform for you to improve your writing and conversational skills.

3. Mind Your Slang

It ‘s fun to learn English slang words so that you can understand the “cool” words young people use, and of course understand colloquialisms in countries like America, the UK, and Australia. But be careful not to allow slang to creep into your written work. Words such as ‘innit’ and ‘dunno’ are not considered proper English grammar, and should not find their way into formal written communications.

4. Read This Punctuation Book

No person can become a great writer of English without exemplary punctuation skills, and no writer’s bookshelf – no matter how skilled he or she might be – is complete without a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Using examples from literature, history, neighborhood signage and other sources, the book demonstrates how commas, apostrophes and conjunctions shape the meaning of sentences. Eats, Shoots & Leaves is not your typical “learn punctuation” book, either. It’s written in a witty, almost story-like way that makes it wholly enjoyable. You can grab a copy here on Amazon.com.

5. Start a Personal Blog

I know, every man and his dog are blogging for world domination these days, but this tip isn’t suggesting you embark on a mission to become the next blogosphere superstar, this endeavour is about challenging yourself to put fingers to keyboard and have the confidence to put your English writing skills on the line for all to see. A personal blog will give you a platform to use newly discovered words and expressions, and to express your thoughts and opinions on subjects you’re interested in. Don’t worry, no one’s going to judge your grammatical flaws on a personal blog; if anything, people will be impressed by your efforts.

6. Build a personalized dictionary

Easy to do and very helpful, building a personalized dictionary will improve your English writing skills overnight. Writing down irregular verbs, idiomatic expressions, technical jargon and any new words you come across will prove a far more effective learning aid than a printed or online dictionary you consult passively on an irregular basis. No matter how efficient the digital world, when it comes to learning, there is nothing quite like writing something down to get it to stick in your brain.

7. Find a personal tutor

There is no better way to advance your English writing skills that by having your work reviewed by a native English speaker. Perhaps you know a teacher or other professional whose job requires high level English skills. Ask this person if, once a week, they can help you correct grammar, spelling, tone and style in a piece of written work. Taking action on this point alone will greatly advance your English writing skills.

8. Stay humble

Even native English speakers struggle to write perfect English, and very few ever reach the standard required for professional journalism or award-winning book writing, but this doesn’t mean you won’t get there. What it does mean, however, is that no matter how good you become, you must remain open to constructive criticism. The learning never stops, and an integral part of the learning process is discussing your work with those more advanced than you and taking their comments on board. Don’t miss vital opportunities to advance your writing skills by being too proud to listen.

9. Buy a personal dictionary & thesaurus

Once you begin editing and rewriting your own work you should invest in a dictionary and thesaurus. It’s true that you can use an online dictionary and thesaurus to save money, but there’s nothing like having your own hard copy at home. One reason for this is that it is best to turn off the Internet when you edit your work so that distractions such as Facebook and Twitter don’t disturb your concentration. Your personal dictionary and thesaurus will also come in handy when you go to do some work in a library, or when you are staying away from home in a place where the Internet isn’t readily available.

10. Take advantage of free online resources

While it’s definitely worth investing in the aforementioned print books, and striking a balance between learning on and offline, there are a number of efficient online resources you can use to improve your English writing skills on a daily basis. Start with these three popular websites: