Enrollment figures for this academic year are still being compiled as students arrive to start their courses. But Peter Knight, vice-chancellor of the University of Central England (UCE), revealed that as many as 20 percent of his overseas students had been barred from the country. "This is entirely due to the problems students have experienced in obtaining visas. At least 200 legitimate students have been refused entry to study with us. The policy of the Home Office is responsible for a loss of fee income to us of £1.5 million (Rs.12.3 crore). The long-term damage to the reputation of the UK as an attractive, affordable and welcoming place to study is incalculable," he says.

According to Prof. Knight his overseas numbers were modest, but if there were similar problems in institutions that rely more heavily on this source of income, there could be a crisis. Overseas students pay £1.25 billion (Rs.10,250 crore) in tuition fees and are said by the British Council to be worth £10 billion to the UK economy.

The sector is already reeling from recent moves to increase the cost of student entry visas from £36 (Rs.2,952) to £85 (Rs.6,970) and to double the cost of visa extensions. Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show that the number of applications from outside the European Union fell 5.3 percent from 24,388 in 2003-04 to 23,096 in 2004-05. The number of applications from China, one of the biggest markets, fell 25.8 percent.

Universities UK research shows that in addition to the drop in the number of applications, there was a 5 percent fall in the number of admissions as students were denied visas. The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill includes moves to deny students a right of appeal over visa refusals.

Maths teachers failure

Hong Kong children are world-beaters in maths but their primary teachers’ grasp of the subject is surprisingly shaky, a new study suggests. Children in the former British colony were ranked first in the 2003 Pisa study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

But Francis Tsang, a Hong Kong examinations official, and Tim Rowland of Cambridge University, told a conference that the maths knowledge of the 138 teachers they tested was "relatively shallow". Many teachers seemed not to understand questions which covered basic arithmetical competence, geometrical knowledge and mathematical exploration and justification.

The researchers believe this is because most in-service training focuses on teaching methods rather than subject knowledge. The teachers’ inadequate subject knowledge may explain why school inspectors have found that primary teachers tend to focus on basic computational skills, avoid group activities and seldom ask open-ended questions to generate discussion.

Hong Kong’s administrators are now aware of the gaps in teachers’ subject knowledge and intend to deploy more specialist teachers, not only in maths but also in Chinese and English. Researchers say this policy, which is also being adopted in Israel, is probably right for Hong Kong, but the minimum qualifications for maths teachers should also be raised, and both initial and in-service training should be improved.

Katrina endangers school system

Education officials in hurricane ravaged Louisiana say the state’s school system will not survive the aftermath of the storm without an additional $ 2.4 billion (Rs.10,800 crore) from the US government. According to Cecil Picard, Louisiana’s superintendent of schools, thousands of teachers who lost their homes and whose schools were ruined when hurricane Katrina struck in August will not be paid unless the federal education department approves the request. As a result, they will probably move to other states to find jobs, he adds.

The money is needed to pay salaries and benefits that cannot be met from existing funds. The state receives a set amount of money per student each school year, but faces a serious shortfall this year because more than 186,000 pupils have been displaced by the storm.

Katrina devastation: migration problems

With no homes to return to, many families are deciding to remain in the cities to which they were evacuated and enroll their children in schools there instead. There are no official figures but Casper estimates that "tens of thousands" of Louisiana pupils have already started school in neighbouring Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and several other states. Florida is the only state to have reported a figure of 6,000 evacuee children having enrolled there.

More than 37,000 students from New Orleans have re-enrolled in schools in Louisiana further complicating the state’s education finances. Picard acknowledges that the education department has approved a $ 2.6 billion (Rs.11,700 crore) aid package, money that will go largely to school districts that have accepted evacuees. But he expresses concern that it will not cover displaced teachers’ salaries.

Meanwhile, the state has set up a website on which teachers and staff can register that they are looking for work and where school districts seeking qualified help to cope with the evacuee influx can find the help they need. According to Casper, so far 210 teachers have found work elsewhere in Louisiana.

Despite wishing to keep as many employees as possible on the payroll so that schools can eventually reopen with a full complement of staff, Louisiana officials do not want to stand in the way of teachers who have left and plan to rebuild their lives in other states.

Former minister sues teacher

A senior high-school teacher is being sued by a powerful former cabinet minister for £500,000 (Rs.4.1 crore). Civics teacher Retno Listyarti, author of a new textbook High School Civics, is being sued for defamation by Akbar Tanjung, former House of Representatives speaker and leader of Golkar, the ruling party in deposed dictator Suharto’s New Order era.

Material in the book has angered Akbar, after being brought to his attention by one of his daughters, a senior high school student in Jakarta. Akbar was controversially acquitted of graft in 2004 by a Supreme Court ruling over misappropriation of funds belonging to the state National Logistics Board, which controls supplies of rice and other staples.

Many Indonesians continue to believe that some 40 billion rupiah (Rs.18.04 crore) were diverted into Golkar’s election "war chest". Another defendant in this scandal is serving two years in prison. Retno’s book uses the trial to promote discussions concerning transparency and corruption issues as well as the government’s social security programmes. The judges were split over the charges of graft and Retno presents their different judgements. Students are posed questions which include: "Was Akbar Tanjung guilty?" and "Did he deserve to be exonerated?"

Transparency issues are important in Indonesia as it struggles to nurture its democracy, the third largest in the world. Retno, currently a postgraduate politics student at the University of Indonesia, is one of the few civics teachers taking these issues seriously.

Meanwhile, her innovative book is a rare departure from the highly bureaucratised fare presented to students, a legacy of the 32-year Suharto dictatorship. It provides students with internet links through which they can understand democracy, transparency, corruption and globalisation.

The case, the first of its kind in the education sphere, went to court despite a reportedly conciliatory pre-trial meeting between the plaintiff and defendant. It follows a pattern of litigation in which high-ranking figures from the New Order era, including retired army generals, pursue massive claims for defamation. Retno Listyarti is being defended by a Jakarta-based legal aid institute. The defendant says she hopes to win international support from teacher unions and other education bodies.

Debt cancellation stimulus for education

Habiba Barer (45), lives in a sprawling town where the unfinished asphalt road stops suddenly en route east from Jijiga towards the Somali border. Like many people here she lives in a straw hut waterproofed by cracked tarpaulin and odd bits of fabric — ragged cardigans and dresses cut open and stretched to cover the rounded roof — and ekes out a living for herself and her 10 children by making rush matting to sell at market. Though three of her children are currently in school, daughter Saada 16, had to leave last year to get married because Habiba could not afford the expense of keeping her either at school or at home.

"It costs a lot to send a child to school," says Habiba. "We must pay for exercise books, pens and uniforms. A uniform costs 100 Birr (£ 6.45) per child. I have 10 children, so altogether it has been very expensive. Saada left school due to our lack of money. My husband is too old to work, so it is me who must support the family. The cost of sending my children to school is about three-fifths of my income."

Ethiopian girl students: expense impediment

Meanwhile the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have backed the G7 agreement to cancel £ 31 billion in debts, clearing the way for African countries to spend more on education. However, campaign groups warn that any real effect of the agreement on helping to eliminate poverty will depend on the conditions attached.

The agreement at the annual IMF/ World Bank meeting in Washington in end September attended by Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor allows for 100 percent debt cancellation, initially for 18 mainly African countries including Ethiopia. This could eventually free up nearly £1 billion (Rs.8,200 crore) annually to spend on education and health.

Rising tide of foreign students

A decade after a return to democracy and end of the academic boycott, South Africa has made its mark in the competitive international student market. "Universities have done exceptionally well in attracting foreign students," says Roshan Kishun, president of the International Education Association of South Africa. "South Africa is the number one destination for foreign students in Africa and we believe it is among the top 20 international student host countries in the world," he adds.

Out of a total 770,000 university enrollments, an estimated 60,000 came from outside South Africa, equaling 8 percent of all students. This is a higher proportion than in most European countries. About 60 percent of foreign students are at conventional varsities and the rest are studying through the distance-learning University of South Africa. Only a few thousand South African students are studying abroad.

As well as the end of the academic boycott, a rise in tourism and opportunities for research in areas such as development, health and wildlife conservation are behind the increase. Leading universities, keen to boost income and to increase the proportion of postgraduate students they take, have been marketing themselves abroad — especially in other African countries. South Africa is an affordable destination. An internationally recognised degree from a leading university will cost a foreign student a third less than it would in Britain or other developed countries.

South Africa’s agreement with the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) means that students from their countries are treated as local students in terms of fees. South African universities have also been encouraged to recruit academics from the rest of Africa.

Of the 51,400 international students in 2003, 36,200 came from SADC countries with Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia the biggest providers. A further 6,700 foreign students were from the rest of Africa and 7,100 from the rest of the world, including 3,400 from Europe and 1,300 from North America.

Quality crisis in higher education

A crisis of quality afflicting Thai degree programmes threatens to produce graduates with "useless" qualifications, warn leading education experts. Their criticism comes after years of education reform and coincides with increased competition from regional rivals such as China.

Many Thai degrees are academically soft ways of raking in money for institutions pandering to a nationwide obsession with embossed certificates. "If we keep letting universities offer low-quality degree programmes, we are going to run into a major crisis. It is almost false education," says Amornwich Nakornthap, director of the Centre for Research into Education Policy at Chulalongkorn University. "The days when a university education was a massive privilege are over. Now we face the prospect of taxi drivers holding Masters degrees or Ph Ds," he adds.

Some 200 degree-dispensing institutions are divided roughly equally into public universities, private colleges and teacher training centres that have transformed into full-service universities. Many have expanded to meet a voracious public demand for higher education by opening branches across the country and offering scores of new courses every year. Thailand offers some excellent degrees, but the average calibre of graduate attainment remains stubbornly low.

"The spread of higher education isn’t solving the fundamental problem of quality," says Boonrak Boonyaketmala, a former dean and academic research director. "Many of our universities are little more than vocational colleges. Degrees are often the equivalent of a school-leaving certificate from a good European school."

The education establishment is alarmed to learn that Thai graduates hoping to study abroad produce almost the worst Test of English as a Foreign Language results in the region.

(Compiled from The Times Educational Supplement and The Times Higher Education Supplement)