New Form of Assessment for Students

Universities in the UK will need to be prepared for facing a sharp decline in the number of new international students for the 2020/2021 term. The expected loss from east Asia students alone would amount up to £460m. According to a survey done by the British Council, nearly 14,000 students from eight countries such as China and Malaysia are likely to go to the UK in 2020/21 in the wake of the pandemic. The decline of 20% in students from east Asia would amount to a 12% fall in overall international student numbers. On top of that, 29% of prospective students are likely to delay or cancel their plans to study while postgraduate applicants said they would rather postpone the start of their studies until January 2021 than begin with online teaching in autumn. The British Council suggested the sector may take three or four years to recover from the shock of Covid-19. As an effort to reduce the loss, higher education minister, Michelle Donelan told a British Council summit on Friday that the UK government was “working very hard to ensure that international students do not have to jump through hoops to come here” and promised that immigration regulations would be “as flexible as they can be”. Read more in the link below:

In light of the Russian Language Day yesterday (June 6), State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin emphasised on the importance of the language’s status in the country’s Constitution. "The constitutional amendments that will be put to a nationwide vote on July 1 for the first time point out that Russian is the state language of the Russian Federation as the language of the state-forming nation, which is part of a multinational union of equal peoples," he said. Volodin also added that the need to preserve and develop the Russian language is important for maintaining unity, aside from it being the nation’s common treasure in representing cultural and spiritual heritage. On top of this, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin also highlighted the increase in number of people interested in picking up the language in a statement made yesterday. The Russian Language Day is celebrated on June 6 yearly. It was established by the United Nations in 2010. The day also marks the birthday of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). Read more in the link below:

A research carried out by the Georgetown University Medical Centre revealed that education aids in slowing down memory loss in older adults, especially among women. The research looked at 704 Taiwanese adults with the age range of 58 to 98 years old and tested their declarative memory - the ability to remember events, facts and words, and other details such as where you put your keys or someone’s name. The participants’ years of education were recorded while they were shown drawings of objects and asked to recall them several minutes later. The results show that this protective effect was particularly strong among women, with the team finding that the memory gains associated with each year of education were five times larger than the losses experienced during each year of ageing among female participants, and two times larger among the male participants. The study’s lead author, Jana Reifegerste explained, “since learning new information in declarative memory is easier if it is related to knowledge we already have, more knowledge from more education should result in better memory abilities, even years later.” “Simply said, learning begets learning,” added the study’s senior investigator, Michael Ullman, PhD. Read the full article in the link below:

A recent study published by the German Foreign Office shows that 15.4 million people are learning German. The study, done once every 5 years, suggests a merely slight increase in figures since its previous record in 2015. However, the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Michelle Müntefering is delighted by the increase despite only by several thousand people. “Learning German as a foreign language creates a bond with Germany. We want as many people as possible to become enthusiastic about our country.” It needs to be taken note that the study only took into account German language learners at schools and language institutes worldwide but not those who are learning on their own. In light of the pandemic, it is not surprising that more and more people are picking up the language. Deutsche Welle's online German courses have shown a surge in visits with data that recorded an increase of over 100% in visits to the online course materials website between January and April 2020. The number of page impressions rose by approximately 140%, which means that these resources were not only used more frequently, but also more intensively. Access the DW German Courses below:

Legal interpreting is a very demanding interpretation field involving legal or paralegal context. It is crucial to ensure efficient administration of justice, and would result in severe consequences if parties misunderstood each other. With that being said, here are some interesting facts to help you know more about the world of legal interpreting: There are emergency cases too. These cases are usually criminal cases which may affect the ability of victims and possible witnesses to report a crime or help in an investigation procedure. Legal interpreting implies terminology and procedures that change significantly because of the difference in procedures from one place to another. Many cases, especially criminal cases involving immigrants go unreported as a result of failing to obtain interpreting services for limited-English-proficient targets. The code of ethics of a legal interpreter: to be as accurate as possible and restrain all personal reaction or opinions. Educational requirements to be a legal interpreter: a high school diploma and a Bachelor’s degree in translations studies. If possible, learn other foreign languages to help build up a great background alongside additional courses such as phonetics, diction, and composition. Enrolling in a professional court interpreter certificate program is a great idea for aspiring interpreters as well. But most importantly, experiences matter. Read more in the full article below:

According to child protection experts, school closures resulting from the pandemic are risking students around the world to human rights abuses such as forced genital mutilation, early marriage and sexual violence. This is especially obvious among the rural and refugee communities. Many girls are cut (FGM) even though parents know that it is illegal. They have also been using this opportunity to encourage early marriage. Now, as schools prepare to reopen, NGOs fear that millions of the world’s most vulnerable children may never return to the classroom. Unicef worries that many girls will never return to school. This would result in the return of gender inequality issue in education. Even before pandemic hits, fewer than half of school-age refugee children were enrolled, while only one in four were attending secondary school. Read more in the link below:

Today, half of the population in the world only speak 25 main languages, these linguistic groups are expanding at the expense of the smaller languages. The extinction of languages stem from many reasons including natural disasters, legal suppression and forced migration. On top of that, some languages are so rare, that ‘there is no published dictionary, grammar, texts or standardised writing system’. While it could be argued that the lack of translators to translate these rare languages is also an issue, the truth is, translation itself is insufficient in many ways. One cannot actually translate a culturally framed understanding which is embedded in language. Each language has an implied set of values – some things that one cannot say and some automatic collocations which connect concepts. Moreover, sounds, rhymes and rhythms are lost in the translation of verse. In fact, the very obscurity of these languages leads to problems with translation. One simply cannot find someone to translate directly into English; hence we get descriptions, such as ‘translated from Ainu into Japanese, translated from Japanese into English’. Although we get the original text, this chain translation does make one question the English language version’s fidelity to the original. With that being said, it is not surprising that out of some 7000 languages spoken today, half of them are expected to die out before the year 2100. Read more about this in the article below:

From efforts to provide free access to online education to students by mobile phone companies to reopening of schools in West Africa and the increasing concern on child labour and child marriage in Yemen, here are 5 top news on the global education this week:

NaTakallam, an online language learning platform taught by refugees has seen a 150 per cent growth in its April class sessions. The platform, formed in 2015, has always been running virtually and this pandemic provided the best opportunity for businesses to grow. Not only will this provide income for the refugees, they are also given the chance to make new friends and exchange stories with people around the world and spread positivity during hard times like these. The organisation now has tutors teaching four languages from 25 different countries. Read more about this in the article below: