With No Frills or Tuition, a College Draws Notice
July 22, 2008
BEREA, Ky. — Berea College, founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and “poor white mountaineers,” accepts only applicants from low-income families, and it charges no tuition.
“You can literally come to Berea with nothing but what you can carry, and graduate debt free,” said Joseph P. Bagnoli Jr., the associate provost for enrollment management. “We call it the best education money can’t buy.”
Actually, what buys that education is Berea’s $1.1 billion endowment, which puts the college among the nation’s wealthiest. But unlike most well-endowed colleges, Berea has no football team, coed dorms, hot tubs or climbing walls. Instead, it has a no-frills budget, with food from the college farm, handmade furniture from the college crafts workshops, and 10-hour-a-week campus jobs for every student.
Berea’s approach provides an unusual perspective on the growing debate over whether the wealthiest universities are doing enough for the public good to warrant their tax exemption, or simply hoarding money to serve an elite few. As many elite universities scramble to recruit more low-income students, Berea’s no-tuition model has attracted increasing attention.
With No Frills or Tuition, a College Draws Notice – NYTimes.com.
Impostor
July 18, 2008
No more free education for non-Europeans (in Sweden)
July 2, 2008
The Local – No more free education for non-Europeans
Sweden is to start charging tuition to non-European university students, according to comments by higher education minister Lars Leijonborg in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.
Today, Sweden is one of the few countries in the world which does not charge tuition to students from other countries.
Leijonborg has thus far avoided taking a stand on the controversial question, but now says that the government is in total agreement on charging fees to university students coming from countries other than the EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
“Our primary argument is that it is unwise of a country not to benefit from a payment system which obviously exists. Why should these students pay money to American or British universities, but not to Swedish [ones]?” Leijonborg explained to SvD.
The fees will be based on the costs incurred by the universities themselves. At the same time, a system of stipends will be implemented for students lacking sufficient funds to pay tuition.
I knew that it was free to attend a Swedish university if you’re a resident, but I didn’t realize this applied to foreigners (or other Europeans) as well. Damn. Now, I feel a little ripped off for having to pay tuition. Well, I guess that’s about to change anyways.
Biotech Music Videos (geek humor at its best)
July 1, 2008
globeandmail.com: ‘Running Fan’ forces change in ethics for China’s teachers
BEIJING — A Chinese high school teacher who controversially fled a classroom before his students during last month’s devastating earthquake has compelled China to amend laws governing teacher-student ethics.
Fan Meizhong, a literature teacher at a private high school in quake-ravaged Dujiangyan in southwest Sichuan province, was branded “Running Fan” by local media and Internet users and later fired after he defended his cowardice in a lengthy online essay.
“At such a life-or-death moment, I would only consider sacrificing my life for my daughter. I would not do it for anyone else, even my mother,” Mr. Fan wrote on a popular online portal.
None of the children in his class died in the quake.
The Education Ministry had made protecting students the “moral responsibility of a teacher” for the first time in a draft revision of existing ethics regulations, Friday’s China Daily said.
“The revision … says teachers should ‘be good mentors and helpful friends’,” the paper said.
It came after Mr. Fan threatened to sue education authorities, saying chivalry was not a part of his job description.
Chinese school to build ‘Vancouver resort’
June 26, 2008
Chinese school to build ‘Vancouver resort’
A B.C.-certified high school in China is creating a “Vancouver” resort on a lake near Shanghai, complete with its own Coal Harbour, Robson Street and Royal Yacht Club.
The Sino-Canada high school says its upscale resort will include an international education park, lakeside apartments and Canadian-style wooden cottages. But the main drawing card is the elite school, which offers the B.C. curriculum taught by B.C. teachers to students of wealthy families who want their kids to graduate with B.C. certificates.
“Who wants his or her children losing at the first place?” promotional ads on the school’s website ask. “Every moment is crucial to a student. Choosing Sino-Canada High School is an express way to experience the authentic Canadian education; one step closer to the University of British Columbia.”
If getting into UBC wasn’t competitive enough.
I met someone who went to one of these schools in China. It might have been this one, I can’t remember the name. What most impressed me was his English.. or rather his English accent. It was quite good for someone who’s only been in Vancouver for a year and has lived in China all his life.
China’s SAT
June 4, 2008
China’s SAT, if the SAT lasted two days, covered everything you’d ever studied, and decided your future. – By Manuela Zoninsein – Slate Magazine
BEIJING, China—For China’s 31st annual National College Entrance Exam, which takes place on the first Thursday and Friday of June, at least 10 million Chinese high-school students have registered to sit the gaokao, as it is colloquially known. They are competing for an estimated 5.7 million university spots.
Kao means test, and gao, which means high, indicates the test’s perceived level of difficulty—and its ability to intimidate. It is China’s SAT—if the SAT lasted two days, covered everything learned since kindergarten, and had the power to determine one’s entire professional trajectory.
That’s intense.
China earthquake: Teacher admits leaving pupils behind as he fled Chinese earthquake – Telegraph
In an act of moral foolhardiness, Fan Meizhong set out on a blog his guiding principle: in matters of life and death, it’s every man for himself.
When the quake struck, rather than overseeing an orderly evacuation, he said he just shouted “Stay calm, it’s an earthquake!” and ran for it without looking back to see if his pupils were following.
“I ran towards the stairs so fast that I stumbled and fell as I went. When I reached the centre of the football pitch, I found I was the first to escape. None of my pupils was with me,” wrote the man now known across China as ‘Runner Fan’.
Some may say that this is just human nature, and I partly agree. Not everyone is a hero. But bragging about it afterwards is just wrong.
The freedom to say ‘no’
May 26, 2008
The freedom to say ‘no’ – The Boston Globe
Why aren’t there more women in science and engineering? Controversial new research suggests: They just aren’t interested.
lyndon. 