higher education

World Bank Group is considering lending Sri Lanka $100 million to expand higher education including increasing enrollment in priority areas for economic development like science, engineering and mathematics, and promoting innovation. [...] A Finance Ministry statement said the proposed programme aims to increase enrollment in higher education programmes that are important for an aspiring upper middle income country.

Efforts to bring international students to U.S. campuses and send American students overseas has accelerated in the past five years, according to an American Council on Education (ACE) survey of U.S. colleges. International engagement was “high” or “very high,” ACE said of the more than 70 percent of 1,100 American colleges and universities it polled in 2016. Schools have stepped up efforts to “internationalize” campuses in the face of globalization, the report said, but “efforts are still focused first and foremost on the external[.]”

Universities nowadays often must fight for their independence on two fronts, against autocratic governments and private interests from without, and against the threat from within posed by fiefdoms of jargon and self-righteous coercion. But success ultimately depends on convincing fellow citizens that what may look like a battle for the privileged few is a battle for the benefit of all.

Canadian Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussein, has arrived in Egypt to advance education exchange opportunities between Egypt and Canada. During his visit, Hussein attended the Canadian International College in Cairo where he met with the President of the college and Canadian Ambassador to Egypt Troy Lulashnyk. There are plans to establish the University of Canada in Egypt which will provide accredited degrees from Canadian universities.

The World Bank Board of Directors today approved $100 million in financing to support Sri Lanka’s higher education sector. This new initiative will help increase enrollment in priority disciplines, improve the quality of degree programs and promote research and innovation in the higher education sector. Building on experience in the higher education sector since 2003, the new Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) operation is the first in Sri Lanka to use the World Bank Program for Results lending instrument. 

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