According to The Australian, the Chinese Ministry of Education says Australia’s private colleges, even if they are properly accredited by local authorities, are “unstable and risky.”

“Students should be cautious and [...]]]> The Chinese government has taken the unusual step of issuing a public warning for students to stay away from private colleges in Australia.

According to The Australian, the Chinese Ministry of Education says Australia’s private colleges, even if they are properly accredited by local authorities, are “unstable and risky.”

“Students should be cautious and not choose education providers that mainly enrol international students under a short-term business model based upon education as export,” the Education Ministry said in the widely distributed alert.

Thousands of private and for-profit Australian colleges have sprung up in recent years hoping to cash in on the country’s $AUD 17 billion education industry.

But the marketisation of the higher education system has damaged Australia’s international reputation as several high profile for-profit operations have collapsed, leaving students high and dry.

A subsidiary of the Washington Post Company that started off in the test preparation business, Kaplan has expanded its operations in recent years and now provides an [...]]]> Kaplan Inc., the for-profit U.S.-based education provider, announced yesterday a joint venture with the University of Adelaide in Australia that will create the company’s first international campus.

A subsidiary of the Washington Post Company that started off in the test preparation business, Kaplan has expanded its operations in recent years and now provides an array of higher education programs, English language courses, professional training, and tutoring services. It has operations in more than 30 countries and annual revenues of $US 2.3 billion.

Kaplan already boasts that it’s one of the largest providers of real estate and financial services training in Australia, which in some eyes I suppose qualifies it for an easy leap into the country’s university market.  As part of their business deal, Adelaide and Kaplan are planning to offer on-line courses in “high quality career-oriented educational programs” –  that is to say, finance and business.

Incredibly, officials from Kaplan and Adelaide are proudly claiming their business partnership is meant to “break down barriers to education.” Now, would that be the barriers between public and private?

Interestingly, financial details of the joint venture have not been released.

Developed from an initiative led by the UK’s University and College Union, unions from North America, Europe, Australasia and Africa sign deals at an international [...]]]> Half a million academics from around the world have joined forces to create a series of new international agreements that will help safeguard academic standards at home and abroad.

Developed from an initiative led by the UK’s University and College Union, unions from North America, Europe, Australasia and Africa sign deals at an international conference – Challenging the global market in education – held at the Institute of Education in London. The agreements make specific references to protecting academic freedom and monitoring the work of private companies in higher education.

The unions are concerned at a growing international market in tertiary education that has seen universities in the UK, America, Australia and Canada open lucrative campuses in the Middle East and East Asia, and say they will use the agreements to hold institutions to account for their overseas ventures.

Signatories will report abuses like those at the Singapore campus of Australia’s James Cook University, where a lecturer was suspended and dragged before a court of law for wearing a pro-democracy t-shirt. The conference will commit unions to discouraging staff and the academic community from working and sharing research with institutions with bad overseas records.

The agreements will also allow the unions to share intelligence and work on joint campaigns against private companies who are looking to set up public-private partnerships with universities to recruit international students. The unions oppose the creation of a two-tier workforce in higher education and believe that in-house alternatives carry far less risk to the reputation, academic standards and financial well-being of universities. The private firm, INTO, for example, has been overwhelmingly rejected by staff at every UK university that has been polled on whether or not the institution should work with the company.

Building international solidarity: A multilateral international agreement to defend education against global marketisation