IEFA Blog

Almost two years ago on this blog, we talked about the debate in Sweden about whether to charge tuition to international students. Higher education in Sweden is free, but of course Swedes pay extraordinarily high taxes for high level services like free education. International students in Sweden so far have enjoyed the same free education…

“College students in need of private loans to pay for the coming academic year will have to grapple with higher interest rates and tougher credit checks. Even then, some who have qualified for such loans in the past probably won’t this year.” Wall Street Journal, 4/9/08 There has been a lot of media attention on…

The new Canadian federal budget announced this week includes ambitious new funding for international education to help Canadian universities compete for top talent from Canada and around the world. From Macleans.Ca online: “The program will award 500 PhD students with $50,000 each year for up to three years of study. The program will cost the…

Dartmouth College, a member of the Ivy League and at the “forefront of US higher education since 1769,” has joined the elite group of US universities and colleges that offer need-blind admissions to international students. From Dartmouth’s news release: “Need-blind admissions for International Students Starting immediately with the Class of 2012, the College will extend…

From the Brown Daily Herald A new endowment will increase financial aid for students from sub-Saharan Africa and will help them financially for two years after graduation if they pledge to return to work in Africa, President Ruth Simmons and Israeli businessman Idan Ofer P’12 announced Thursday. The “Advancing Africa Scholarship Fund” was announced in…

As we discussed in the last post, US News and World Report dominates rankings of colleges and universities in the US. The US News rankings are comprehensive and helpful in many ways, but there are critics of the rankings system. One small newspaper has proposed its own rankings system for the past three years. When…

US News and World Report has dominated the college and university rankings in the US for years. Eagerly awaited each year, school administrators with improving US News rankings earn bragging rights while those schools on a downward trend must react vigorously to determine what has gone wrong. Parents and students use the rankings to determine…