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📢 IH Sydney Training Services into Voluntary Administration 📚 IH Sydney Training Services (IH), a key player in international education, has entered voluntary administration, citing challenges from recent policy changes like Ministerial Directive 107 and the $1600 Student Visa fee. 🤝 Industry leaders, including Ian Pratt, CEO of Lexis Education, have rallied in support, urging the government to engage with the sector. 🛡️ IH CEO Tim Eckenfels assured stakeholders that students remain unaffected as discussions for solutions continue. This is a tough moment for the sector, highlighting the need for urgent reform. #InternationalEducation #VoluntaryAdministration #EducationNews

PRESS RELEASE: Higher Education Authority Audits 9 Colleges for Violating Enrolment Requirements   Issued on 26th November, 2024   Issued by Mr. Birbal Boniface Musoba Corporate Communications Officer Higher Education Authority   The Higher Education Authority (HEA) has conducted nine (9) incidental audits on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), specifically on named colleges, and confirmed the allegations that these institutions had enrolled students who did not meet the entry requirements of five (5) O-Level credits or better.   HEA conducts incidental audits where it has reason to believe that an HEI has mismanaged funds or the academic processes. In this respect, several colleges were audited for mismanaging the academic process.   Therefore, the Authority has directed the colleges to, with immediate effect, implement the following:   1)   All first-year students who had been enrolled and do not meet the entry requirements must immediately stop learning and will not proceed with their studies until they obtain a full Grade 12 Certificate with at least 5 O-level credits or better. 2)   All second-year students who were enrolled in first year without meeting the entry requirements must immediately stop learning and will not proceed to third year until they obtain a full Grade 12 with at least 5 O-Level credits or better. 3)   Third-year students will not advance to teaching practice unless they hold a complete Grade 12 certificate with a minimum of 5 O-level credits.   Furthermore, HEA is directing all HEIs failing to meet these standards to cease this practice and adhere to the enrolment requirement of at least 5 O-level credits.   The Authority will conduct compliance audits on this directive in the second quarter of 2025, at which point punitive measures will be applied to any HEI found in violation.   Watch the video of the press release here: https://lnkd.in/dYm_S3QV   Downloads:   1.    PDF copy of the Press Release: https://lnkd.in/dcvJ_2HJ 2.    MP3 audio of the of the Press Release: https://lnkd.in/d9nqU-iF 3.    MP4 video of the of the Press Release: https://lnkd.in/dqaXNyfh     Follow the Higher Education Authority (HEA) channel on WhatsApp: https://lnkd.in/gJ6E7c4z     Join the conversation @HEAZambia on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube using the hashtag #HEAZambia #HigherEducationZambia, and visit our website for ALL the information on higher education in Zambia.  

The December Student Accommodation journal, 2024 in Review: Growing Impact and Nurturing Connection, is now available to APSAA members online. This issue celebrates the incredible achievements of our community while looking ahead to pivotal changes shaping our sector. This year’s APSAA Conference in Auckland was a testament to the strength and diversity of our network. This edition also turns its focus to a critical development set to shape the future of student accommodation: the incoming National Code to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in higher education. The digital Journal is available to APSAA Members here https://lnkd.in/eZZS-3f and watch out for the printed copies which are posted to all Member Institutions. #APSAA #StudentAccommodation #StudentAccommodationJournal

Cracking Down on Australia's Ghost Colleges #Australia's higher education regulator has been busy shutting down hundreds of "ghost colleges" - #vocational providers that exist in name only, offering dubious #qualifications. The crackdown is part of an effort to clean up the country's #vocational education and training (#VET) sector, which has long been plagued by poor quality providers. Some key issues identified include: - Providers offering qualifications that don't align with industry needs - Aggressive marketing tactics to enroll students - Poor training and assessment standards - High dropout rates https://lnkd.in/gsv8mPCJ

Will this decision have a ripple effect on other countries where university access exams are still mandatory? Standardized testing is useful for single-purpose programs, like the GMAT for the GMAC. However, with an explosion of credentials, it's difficult to maintain the correlation between assessment and purpose. More holistic admissions processes provide more access opportunities to ensure diversity. This does not undermine the desired selectivity, though it can make it more complex than purely selecting students based on a set score. #highereduction #assessment #access Inspirational Source: https://lnkd.in/d27SeUfu

7 Essential Considerations for the students enrolling in programmes offered under ODL and OL Mode https://lnkd.in/gWzSqGWh

A significant uptick in vocational education and training (VET) qualification completion rates has been observed in Australia, The latest report from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) reveals a nearly 6% increase in completions from 2019 to 2023. The report shows that 47.3% of all VET qualifications were completed by the end of 2023 – up from 41.4% in 2019. Read: Australia’s vocational education and training Sees Resurgence as Completion Rates Climb https://lnkd.in/e-9JjDuC via @myengineers

This announcement affects centres in England only. Department for Education (DfE) have announced the outcome of the rapid review of reforms to Level 3 qualifications. We are delighted to confirm that existing UAL Awarding Body qualifications continue to be unaffected, but in addition will be funded until at least 2027. This is a significant improvement on the year-to-year process which was in place. We are pleased that the Government have listened to us and to stakeholders across the sector who have argued for a change in approach. The new emphasis is on an important continuing role for alternatives to A Levels and T Levels. This includes more flexibility on content overlap and rules of combination. UAL Awarding Body qualifications were not in line for defunding in favour of T Levels and this remains the case. This confirms that our current portfolio remains fully funded and available. We also have a complete suite of Level 3 Alternative Academic Qualifications (AAQs) ready should that option become preferable. DfE will share more detail about how we can submit new qualifications for approval in Spring 2025. We will be running an online briefing session open to all UAL Awarding Body approved centres at 3pm on 29 January. Please reserve a place here. https://lnkd.in/e8yT2gp8 It is extremely positive that the value of Level 3 qualifications, including those offered by UAL Awarding Body, has been recognised. They serve an essential purpose in ensuring all learners can access opportunity and progress to higher education or employment. Over the coming months, we will be listening to you and ensuring a full range of flexible creative qualifications remain available for many years to come. Please check our news feeds for any developments over the next month. We will be updating our Qualification Reforms web page in the new year as new information becomes available. The DfE also have an FAQs page for any queries.   We would like to wish you all happy holidays from UAL Awarding Body and we are looking forward to working with you all again in 2025. We would like to remind you that UAL will be closed from the end of the day on Tuesday 24 December, reopening on Thursday 2 January, so if you have urgent queries, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.   #UALawarding #FE #DfE

Struggling Education Minister Jason Clare MP needs to come out and explain his government's failures on the setting of vocational caps - he has offered very little on the issue and it's increasingly clear that he wants his name nowhere near this crashing policy fiasco. Speaking to my colleagues in Perth last week, the sense of absolute bewilderment among quality providers is palpable. Julie Hare has tackled the issue in today's AFR: BANNED COLLEGES ALLOCATED THOUSANDS OF PLACES UNDER STUDENT CAPS " ...Claire Field, who has identified at least 11 vocational colleges that have been deregistered or sanctioned by the Australian Skills Quality Agency but are appealing their cases in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Although deregistration will stop those colleges actually enrolling new students, Ms Field said the allocation of foreign student numbers to them showed the methodology for calculating places appeared to be totally automated, rewarding shonky colleges based on enrolments in prior years and leaving quality colleges as “collateral damage”. “ASQA [Australian Skills Quality Authority] imposes sanctions for serious breaches of the regulatory standards, such as not having properly qualified teachers, not requiring students to attend classes, not having genuine assessment practices, graduating people as qualified when they’re not,” Ms Field said. “It begs the question why providers who are subject to serious sanctions should be given higher enrolment caps than other legitimate providers – simply because of a formula or algorithm. “Legitimate institutions that have been delivering quality training for years will not be allowed to enrol sufficient students for some of them to continue operating.” " [Stephen Nagle]... “In 2023, we had a rapid reduction in student numbers because we were being careful to only enrol legitimate students. Some other providers threw open their doors and gave no consideration to the type of student they enrolled. Now we are being penalised and they are being rewarded,” Nr Nagle told The Australian Financial Review. “We have 13,000 square metres of space under lease in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and it is illogical to expect us to exist on a cap of 980 students.”

The British Council projects 100,000 candidates for the O-level exam this year, with the fee for per subject is 30,0000. And for eight subjects totaling Rs. 240,000. Tribune reports that Britain may collect 42 billion rupees from Pakistanthrough CIE exams , surpassing the federal higher education budget of 65 billion rupees. To illustrate, the 42 billion rupees spent on this exam could cover the budget of many universities like Quaid-e-Azam University for seven years. Furthermore, out of the 28 million children without access to education in Pakistan, the elite of these 100,000 may dominate top positions in Government Colleges for pre medical and pre engineering Education. This perpetuates education being under elite control, as students from government schools struggle to compete for admissions. Considering this, why can't we reform our examination system? We have Institutions like Aga Khan examination Board demonstrate quality assessments and transparency, raising questions about the necessity of CIEs, which are losing its assessment objectivity globally. #CIE #OLevels #ExaminationBoards #EducationInPakistan