Tag Archives: News

The Last News Post

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Hello Everyone! 🙂

For this last post, I wanted to tie in this week’s article with our earlier (way earlier) discussion of where the next leading university in Asia will be. In CJ’s presentation [link: https://prezi.com/ch9l6zynilgb/copy-of-mind-mapping-template/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy], it was concluded that Singapore and the ZhuJiang Delta Area of China (including Hong Kong) would be among the top spots for a leading university.

The World Economic Forum summarized Times Higher Education’s identification of 53 “international powerhouses” – those “institutions that have the best chance of catching up with (and even overtaking) the world’s best universities.” Here is the listing and the article link:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/universities-overtake-harvard-cambridge-oxford?utm_content=buffer3ecda&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Of the Asian countries, Singapore is listed first according to current world ranking, followed by China, and then three schools in Hong Kong. This lines up well with CJ’s predictions in her presentation.

Additionally, HSBC does a yearly expat survey. Over 26,000 expats were surveyed on most of the factors CJ identified as important contributions to a leading university in a given country. I think the connection between expats and universities, even if the expats did not attend a university in the country they reside in, is important. If there is a large, healthy, and productive expat community in a country and/or metropolis, it shows promise for the future for the development of the next “international powerhouse.” Singapore, unsurprisingly at this point, is number 1. Hong Kong is number 13. Here is the link their comparison. The second link is to the home survey which is super neat to explore!

https://www.expatexplorer.hsbc.com/survey/country/singapore/hong-kong

https://www.expatexplorer.hsbc.com/survey/

Based off of what I’ve learned in this class including lecture, presentations, readings, and my own research for this blog, I think I can declare with confidence that the next leading university will be in Singapore (pending any significant changes from other countries and their universities of course!)

What do you think of the connection between expat satisfaction and leading university location? Where have you concluded that the next leading university in Asia will be?

 

Foreign Student-Workers in Japan

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Hello!

I follow the Japan Times pretty regularly, and an article came up a couple days ago discussing the number of foreign students who are working in Japan.

The article states that the Ministry of Education’s plan is to reach 300,000 foreign students by 2020, a plan which is well on its way. But it also discusses the policy behind work visas (which do no exist in Japan), and that foreigners with student visas are allowed to work 28 hours a week. Most foreign students are coming from China and Korea, with an increasing number from SE Asia, and they feel compelled to work. This may prevent them from reaching their educational goals. The students in the article are going through language school in preparation for IT or engineering programs. It seems language schools are feeders for unofficial, cheap foreign labor.

What the article doesn’t explain is what proportion of foreign students are genuinely working towards their education goals, and what proportion might be exploiting the system to work in Japan? How many foreign students make it through their language programs and into their higher education program of choice? How many do not make it and have to return home? I imagine, and the article states, that there is incentive to keep these foreign students in Japan to work the low-level jobs, but what are the long term implications if this “under the table” arrangement, especially if these students’ long-term educational goals are never realized?

I’m looking at you Hiro and Sho! And anyone else, of course 🙂

The link to the article is below.

The cost of convenience in Japan: when foreign students work instead of study