UK NARIC Annual Conference 2012
Posted: May 18, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »The UK NARIC Annual Conference will be held in London on 13th and 14th November 2012. Exhibitor, Sponsorship and Seminar opportunities are now open for the 2012 conference, please visit our website for more information.. http://bit.ly/JmQ5P8.
Spotlight: Vietnam
Posted: May 18, 2012 Filed under: UK NARIC | Tags: NARIC, study, Tier 2, Tier 4, Vietnam, work 1 Comment »
Vietnam is the easternmost country in the Indochina Peninsula. With a population of over 90 million (rising at an annual rate of 1%), it is the world’s fourteenth most populous nation. It also has a young population: over half the population is below 30 years old, and 25% are within the 0-15 year age group.
Since doi moi (economic renovation) was announced in 1986, the country has benefited from sustained economic growth. Over the past decade, for instance, growth rates in the region of 5-10% have consistently been achieved.
In line with the political and economic reforms implemented since 1986, there has also been substantial investment in the education system. Public spending on education, as a percentage of GDP, is higher than all its regional neighbours; universal basic education has been established and the national literacy rate is 94%. Nonetheless, higher education funding has not achieved similar results, where standards are affected by low quality facilities, outdated teaching methods, and a lack of autonomy and academic freedom.
UK NARIC data
Vietnam is one of the countries showing an increase in the number of page views within the International Comparisons database. During 2011, Vietnam received 5575 views; an increase of 206, or 4% over the 2010 figures. These figures continue the trend; 2010 saw an 18% increase over the 2009 views.
| UK NARIC Data | |
|---|---|
| Database page views 2011 | 5575 |
| Database page views 2011 rank | 46th |
| Database page views 2010 | 5369 |
| Database page views 2010 rank | 53rd |
| Member Enquiries 2011 | 100 |
| Member Enquiries 2011 rank (out of 190) | 36th |
| Member Enquiries 2010 | 127 |
| Member Enquiries 2010 rank (out of 190) | 20th |
| Individual Assessments 2011 | 8 |
| Individual Assessments 2011 rank | 135th |
| Individual Assessments 2010 | 9 |
| Individual Assessments 2010 rank | 128th |
“We’ve had a close look at where Vietnamese member enquiries are coming from and the results have highlighted that organisations from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK are all interested in Vietnam,” stated Tim Buttress, Deputy Director Policy and Communication at UK NARIC. “For instance, we normally see only around 2% of our enquiries from Australia, but this jumps to 13% if we look at questions about Vietnam.”
This broadly supports figures from UCAS, which show that applications from Vietnam increased 15.9% for entry 2011.
Education in Vietnam
All levels of education in Vietnam are the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), apart from vocational and technical education, which comes under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) – established by Prime Ministerial order in March 1998. The only exceptions are the medical universities, managed by the Ministry of Health, and military and security institutions, which are the responsibility of the Ministry of National Defence and Ministry of Public Security respectively.
In the higher education sector, there is an acknowledged lack of capacity. Between 1998 and 2008, 198 new universities / colleges were opened but, with only 400 higher education institutions, only 25% of secondary school graduates get to progress onto the national higher education providers. In 2010 for instance, there were 1.2 million graduates of secondary schools, but only places for 300,000 within the higher education sector. Therefore, with greater levels of disposable income, more parents are able to fund studies at either private higher education providers or international universities. Reasons for choice of international over domestic degree programmes include:
Ref MITC (http://www.mitc.com/PDFs/VietnamInternationalEducation-MITC.pdf)
Whilst competition to enter public higher education institutions is fierce, the very best students prefer to attend private institutions like the Foreign Trade University, National Economics University, Banking Academy or Medical University, because of increased employability.
In the last few years, the Government has launched new university initiatives with international partners to seek to build world-class institutions. In 2008, the Vietnamese German University (VGU) opened in Ho Chi Minh City. A French-backed technology school is opening in Hanoi and the Australian institution, RMIT, has opened an international campus in the country.
Recent Educational Developments
In 2010, a new Government initiative was launched to introduce English lessons for all 3rd grade students, as a means of supporting continued economic development. Four English sessions are envisaged per week; however, implementation of the policy may be hindered by a lack of English language teachers.
| Vietnam | |
|---|---|
| Official language(s) | Vietnamese |
| Other language(s) | English (increasingly favoured as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer, mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian) |
| Population | 91,519,289 |
| Population date | Jul-12 |
| Population (world ranking) | 14 |
| GDP (purchasing power parity) | $ 299,000,000,000 |
| GDP (purchasing power parity) date | 2011 |
| GDP (world ranking) | 43 |
| Compulsory education | nine years (ages 6 – 14) |
| Academic year | Commonly September – May at school level, and September – June at higher education level. |
| Education laws | Universal Primary Education Law 1991; Education Law 1998; Education Law 2005. |
| Outgoing students | |
| Total (foreign students) | 44,038 (2009) |
| Percentage of world total | 1.3% (2009) |
| Top Destinations | USA (12,612), Australia (7,648), France (5,803), Russian Fed. (3,518), Japan (2,895) – 2009 |
4. NARIC, QTS and NINo
Posted: May 15, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Please, mind the gap between… you know…
If you’ve ever dreamed of teaching English in the UK and you’ve been curious to check if there’s a need for English teachers in the UK, a simple Google search returns millions of responses, raising everyone’s hopes to unprecedented heights. Yes, there’s a huge need for English teachers all over the UK, London included.
In the news: Chinese language
Posted: April 27, 2012 Filed under: UK NARIC | Tags: uk naric Leave a comment »
With China ranking as the world’s largest population at an estimated 1.3 billion, and Chinese international migrants representing the largest overseas immigrant population, it is no surprise that Mandarin, the official language of China, is the world’s most spoken native language.
In addition, China’s economic growth, as the world’s largest exporter from 2010 and now the world’s second largest economy after the United States, has elevated demand for the Chinese language, one of the official languages of the UN.
Parents, students, teachers and business leaders around the globe represent some of the many groups recognising the importance of Mandarin as the emerging global business language of the future. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, was even reported to have labelled 2010 as the “Year of Chinese Language”.
In Britain, whilst language courses at secondary school level are no longer compulsory nationwide after age 14, reports actually indicate a wider interest in Chinese language, with a 40% increase in students sitting the GCSE exam in Mandarin Chinese since 2002. In 2010 the total number of students sitting the exam grew by 5% compared to the previous year.
Similarly in the US, an 18.2% increase from 2006 to 2009 was noted in higher education enrolments for Chinese language courses according to the Modern Language Association (MLA), echoing a 4.7 fold increase in the number of US students studying abroad in China in 2009 compared to 1999.
The Sindh provincial government in Pakistan has also announced plans to adopt a far more direct approach, making Chinese language compulsory to all students from Class VI (ages 10-11); whilst Panama has reportedly proposed legislation to make Mandarin classes compulsory in all schools. The Swedish Education Minister has also expressed similar desires to move towards a less Eurocentric curriculum, by adding Chinese language to the foreign language offering.
As China continues to grow as an economic superpower it seems likely that the fashion to study Chinese language will too increase. Although not traditionally an easy language to master, the Chinese Ministry of Education indicates that over 40 million people outside China are currently learning Mandarin and that the number is growing annually. The sharp increase in demand for Chinese language learning is however curbed by a need for qualified teachers. In response, the Chinese government is keen to aid the promotion and awareness of the Chinese language, opening a network, in 2004, of non-profit public institutions, Confucius Institutes, aimed at promoting Chinese language and culture abroad. There are now over 350 Institutes and over 470 Confucius Classrooms worldwide.
Sources: BBC News; Chinese Ministry of Education; CIA: World Factbook; Hanban, The Telegraph.
International Student Recruitment Event
Posted: April 23, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Immigration, NARIC, recognition, Tier 4, uk naric Leave a comment »Are you an organisation involved in International Student Recruitment? Then it is imperative that you are kept up to date with the latest changes in International Student Recruitment, in particular changes to the Points Based System (PBS).
In light of this, UK NARIC will be running a joint seminar, with ASIC and QISAN on Thursday 10th May 2012 at The London School of Commerce A guest speaker from the UKBA will give a presentation at the event.
Please take a look at the brochure for a more details.
To register please complete the following booking form, or contact michelle.tandy@naric.org.uk to make a booking. We do have limited places available, so please register as soon as possible as registration will be on a first come, first served basis.
Celebrating 15 years of service
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: UK NARIC | Tags: uk naric Leave a comment »
UK NARIC is celebrating 15 years of service. The service has come a long way since 1997 and below are a number of the highlights:
1997 – ECCTIS Ltd took over the management of the UK NARIC operated under the contract to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES)
1997 – New telephone / postal enquiry service goes live – expected annual enquiries 6,000; actual received 12,000! First UK NARIC Conference
1998 – First release of International Comparisons on CD-ROM (and Global Qualifications, for businesses)
2000 – Management of the UK NARIC contract re-awarded to ECCTIS Ltd by the DfES
2000 – Web-based version of International Comparisons created
2000/1 – Award of UK National Reference Point for Vocational Qualifications (UK NRP) Contract
2001 – First UK NARIC training session conducted
2002 – Large year-long Data Gathering exercise for the Prime Minister’s Initiative (initiative aimed at increasing numbers of international students in the UK)
2002 – Release of InterSkills (now Vocational Comparisons)
2002 – First large government project, reviewing international teaching qualifications (leading to what is now Teaching Comparsions)
2002 – Learning Tools Catalogue created – Documentary Requirements (now Degrees of Deception), English Language Tests and International Secondary Qualifications (all now books)
2004 – Award of UK National Europass Centre (UK NEC) contract for coordination, management and promotion of all UK activities related to Europass and its documents.
2005 – Last CD-ROM of International Comparisons produced
2006 – First data provision contract with the Home Office / Immigration & Nationality Directorate
2007 – Department for Education and Skills re-awarded in the management of the UK NARIC contract to ECCTIS Ltd for a further 6 years
2007 – Awarded contract to administer the Certificate of Experience (CertEx) scheme
2007 – First meetings of our external review groups
2008 – Department for Education and Skills and Department of Work and Pensions re-award ECCTIS Ltd the contract to manage and run the UK’s National Europass Centre until 2013
2008 – UK National Contact Point for Professional Qualifications (UK NCP) established, operating under contract to the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS)
2009 – Annual Conference becomes two day event
2009 – Receive a total on more than 50,000 enquiries from individuals and member organisations
2010 – Number of UK NARIC organisational members reaches 1,000
2011 – ECCTIS awarded contract to run the ECVET (European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training) Centre for England
2011 – Contract to run UK ReferNet service awarded to ECCTIS
We try to ensure that we get things right, but if we can improve the service further please let us know!
Are Africa and Middle East the new areas of growth for UK?
Posted: March 22, 2012 Filed under: Immigration, UK NARIC | Tags: Africa, data, Immigration, Middle East, NARIC, qualifications, recognition, study in UK, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 4, Tier 5, uk naric, Work in the UK 7 Comments »
Latest figures from UK NARIC (2011 vs. 2010) highlight that there has been a reduction in the usage of service related to Southern Asia , while there has been an increase for Africa and the Middle East.
Using data on page views of UK NARIC online databases, enquiries from members and individual assessments, a noticeable drop in numbers from South Asian countries has been identified. This region has seen a drop in all three areas while Africa and the Middle East have experienced increases.
Other significant changes include a large increase in the proportion of individual assessments from the EU, while the other regions have remained steady.
“These are really interesting statistics,” commented Tim Buttress, Deputy Director, Policy and Communication, “we’re looking to illustrate in more depth how our customers are using our products and we can use this information to see where any changes are occurring. We’ve seen a small overall reduction in the number of individuals using our service, but that is to be expected with the immigration changes. On the other hand, our databases are being used more heavily and members are also submitting more enquiries.”
“Southern Asia has traditionally been a central market for us and we still receive a lot of enquiries from this region, but in 2011 we did notice a slight downturn in numbers. Africa and the Middle East exhibited steady growth across all areas of our service, while on the individual assessment side applications from the EU grew significantly, in fact they are now comparable with the number we receive from Southern Asia.”
If you would like more information about the information included in this blog, please get in touch!
Spotlight: Indonesia
Posted: March 6, 2012 Filed under: UK NARIC | Tags: data, Indonesia, market, NARIC, Qualification equivalence, qualifications, recognition, Spotlight, study in UK, uk naric, work in UK 5 Comments »
Based upon data from usage of the UK NARIC service, we present a new set of articles, designed to provide a brief perspective of emerging recruitment markets for education providers.
As the world’s fourth most populous nation consisting of approximately 17,500 islands, Indonesia is one of the countries showing a marked increase in the number of views within the International Comparisons database.
During 2011, Indonesia received 6692 views; an increase of 869, 15% higher than the previous year. These figures continue a trend on the 2010 figures, which witnessed a 17% growth from 2009.
International Comparisons usage data contributes towards UK NARIC’s market information on non-traditional countries of interest. There are a number of possible reasons behind the growth of interest in Indonesia, including:
- Growing middle class(defined by disposable household income over $3,000 per year, numbers have grown from 1.6m in 2004, to 50m in 2011)
- Improved exchange rate against pound sterling (20% rise over past five years)
- Significant economic growth (6.1% GDP growth in 2010)
Some Key Market Facts:
Key Educational Development:
In terms of educational developments, implementation of the Indonesian National Qualifications Framework, locally known as the KKNI (Kerangka Kualifikasi Nasional Indonesia) is underway. Introduced in 2011, the framework benchmarks qualifications to nine levels: Bachelors, Master’s and Doctorates placed at levels six, eight and nine respectively. The primary aim of the development is to increase transparency, facilitate mobility and enhance understanding of the Indonesian education system in years to come. For more information, see http://www.mext.go.jp/component/b_menu/houdou/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/10/07/1311780_7.pdf.
Interesting Fact:
28% of the population is under 15 years old. (Global Health Facts.org)
What has happened to the A8 countries?
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: Immigration, UK NARIC | Tags: Immigration, NARIC, Qualification equivalence, qualifications, recognition, study in UK, Work in the UK 5 Comments »In May 2004 the EU expanded to include the A8 countries; the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. In the subsequent period, there has been a lot of debate about the level of migration from these countries and what value these migrants bring to the UK.
Looking at the number of assessments we have undertaken for applicants from these countries over the past four years highlights some interesting points:
The total number of assessments has remained reasonably constant (3,514 in 2008 and 3,489 in 2011). Over the past four years Poland has been near the top of our country league table. In fact, in terms of individual assessments, it was third behind India and Pakistan between 2008 and 2010. Last year Poland slipped behind Romania, but there were still well over 2000 assessment requests.
As far as the A8 countries are concerned, Poland accounted for nearly 70% of the volume in 2008 and 2009, whilst the proportion has reduced slightly to 60% in the last two years. Conversely, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania have witnessed increases in the same period.
Qualification level of migrants
The table below shows the breakdown of the level of Polish qualifications submitted:
Advice for Migrants
Many UK employers and education establishments do have a very good understanding of qualifications from outside the UK; however, we would still advise anybody wishing to come to the UK to work or study to obtain a Statement of Comparability (SoC). This is an officially recognised document that confirms the recognition of overseas academic, vocational and/or professional qualifications and their comparable level in the UK.
All sorts of organisations use UK NARIC assessments as part of their day-to-day work. Universities, colleges, Blue Chip employers, immigration consultants, careers advisors and professional bodies all use the information and data we provide. If an individual with qualifications from outside the UK is applying to any of these types of organisation then a SoC could be helpful.
If the diploma is issued in English it still would be beneficial to send it to UK NARIC for assessment; just because it is written in English, it doesn’t mean that it will be understood, or accepted. A SoC can help to demonstrate your qualifications and skills to those who are assessing them.
Of course, the majority of academic documents from overseas are not issued in English. If you are unable to provide a certified translation of your certificate and your language is one of those offered in our Translation Waiver Service, then we are still able to provide a SoC as we have many linguists working for us; we have native speakers from the Czech Republic, poland and Slovakia. More information about the Translation Waiver Service is available on the UK NARIC website.
Keeping our data up-to-date
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: UK NARIC | Tags: Immigration, NARIC, Qualification equivalence, qualifications, recognition 2 Comments »
Expertise, data and evaluation.
These three elements form the backbone of the services provided by UK NARIC.
In order to ensure that our information is as up-to-date as possible, each year we undertake research into education systems throughout the world; this is known as our Information Development Plan, or IDP.
Following the successful completion of 2011 planned activities, this document sets out the continued Information Development Plan for 2011-2012 (IDP) in accordance with the UK NARIC Code of Practice.
The information we hold on over 190 countries will continue to be updated on a rolling basis. However, the 2011-2012 IDP identifies priority countries that require targeted research to reflect significant changes in their education systems.
Particular attention has been given to the following data sources in the identification of UK NARIC priority countries:
- Applications received from individuals
- Information requests from member organisations
- Where significant reforms are taking place worldwide.
As a result the following regional priorities have been identified:
Asia
To review and update existing information on higher education, particularly regarding private education providers and programme accreditation.
Middle East
To review and expand existing data within the vocational and higher education sectors, with a focus on quality assurance.
English-speaking Africa
To review and update current data in order to reflect any new developments but with a particular focus on recognised higher education institutions.
Latin America
Focusing specifically upon quality assurance and private education providers.
Additionally, 35 countries have been identified where there will be specific updates; there will also be in-country reviews taking place in Ghana, Indonesia, Morocco and the USA during the course of 2012.
The full IDP is available to download from the UK NARIC website.
