Page 51 - Education World July 2020

Staggering campus opening hours to avoid the rush hour Countries/regions represented in THE Asia University Rankings 2020
has also been mooted in France, says Prof. Daniel. “We don’t
have that many rooms,” she explains. As a result, big lec- Country /
tures will likely stay online, and students might have to be region No. of Institu- tions Top Institu- tions Rank
rotated on to campus for face-to-face group work, perhaps Japan 110 The University of Tokyo 7
a third at a time. China 81 Tsinghua University 1
In such a rota system, first-year students would get prior- India 56 Indian Institute of Science 36
ity on campus, she says. “We want them to be autonomous, Iran 40 Babol Noshivani University
but we know they are not autonomous when they come into of Technology =4 8
university,” says Prof. Daniel. The risk is that a lack of physi- Taiwan 36 National Taiwan University 21
cal contact stunts their social life and education, she says, Turkey 34 Sabanci University =4 8
leading to dropouts later on. South Korea 31 Seoul National University 9
In Sweden, “for first-year students, the welcoming part is
one of the priorities”, says Marita Hilliges, secretary-general Thailand 16 Mahidol University 122
of the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institu- Pakistan 14 Q uaid-i-Az am University =7 5
tions. If new students do not settle in socially, it could lead Malaysia 13 University of Malaysia 43
to a higher dropout rate later, she warns: “It could be harder Saudi Arabia 7 King Abdualaz iz University 26
for them to find their way.” Hong Kong 6 University of Hong Kong 4
At the more cautious end of the scale are German uni- Indonesia 6 University of Indonesia 162
versities, where lectures are expected to remain online and N ote = c o- rank ed
physical teaching restricted to hands-on training, until at
least spring 2021, says Peter-André Alt, president of the and teaching and research across the globe have been upset
German Rectors’ Association. “It’s somewhat looking into and unsettled. However, some have predicted that shifting
a crystal ball,” he says, but “if you want to avoid infections, global student flows as a result of the pandemic may lead
you need to avoid mass meetings”. However, labs and li- to East Asia emerging as a regional higher education hub.
braries are beginning to reopen, he adds.
AUSTRALIA
THE ASIA RANKINGS International students dollar woes
Chinese varsities dominate THE ABRUPT HALT TO INTERNATIONAL

F ALL THE REGIONS COVERED BY THE Ti m es travel is more painful for Australian universities
H i gher E duc ati on World University Rankings, Asia than their counterparts in other English-speaking
Ohas arguably advanced the most in terms of higher countries, because they lean more heavily on revenue from
education in recent years. Three Asian universities now foreign students. More than 440,000 such students enrolled
feature among the Top 25 of the global league table — re- in Australian institutes of higher education in 2019. At the
markable progress given that four years ago, in 2016, there last count, they took up roughly 30 percent of capacity. Al-
were no regional representatives in this group. China has most 40 percent of them came from a single country, China.
improved its position in the rankings more than any other Foreign students are lucrative. In 2018, they brought
country during this time, with seven of its universities now in almost A$9 billion (Rs.46,784 crore) in revenue — just
among the Top 200, compared with only two five years ago. over a quarter of all university funding, and far more per
TH E ’s Asia University Rankings 2020 beam a spotlight head than local students bring in through fees and govern-
on this dynamic region, offering a clearer view of the trans- ment subsidies. The boom turned education into Australia’s
formation of the continent’s higher education landscape. fourth-biggest export, behind coal, iron ore and natural gas.
Since the ranking was launched in 2013, mainland China It funded world-class research centres, shiny new learning
has overtaken first Japan and then Singapore to become facilities and vast collections of art. Vice chancellors’ pay
home of the top institution. The People’s Republic claims packets swelled (in big universities they rake in well over
the top two places in the table for the first time this year, Rs.5.2 crore equivalent). Campuses bulged to sizes, as an
and seven of the top 20 positions. academic at La Trobe University puts it, “matched only by
Japan, however, remains the leader on overall represen- the epic institutions in India and China”.
tation in the ranking, with 110 universities (compared with For years, this has been the subject of heated political
81 in China and 56 in India). Overall, just under 500 uni- debate. Universities say they were forced to woo foreign stu-
versities from 30 countries/regions feature in this ranking dents because the government does not give them enough
(up from just over 400 in last year’s list). money to cover their rising costs. Comments Michael Spen-
The outbreak of Covid-19 has caused widespread dis- ce, vice chancellor of the University of Sydney: “The educa-
ruption. Asian international students have been stranded, tion of domestic students doesn’t break even.” If Australia is

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