The Latest News in ELT
November 2007
Tokyo University Ranked 17th in World
The Times Higher Education Supplement has released "The World's Top 200 Universities" list for 2007 and ranks Tokyo University 17th. Other Japanese universities that made the cut were: Kyoto (25), Osaka (46), Tokyo Institute of Technology (90), Tohoku (102), Nagoya (112), Kyushu (136), Hokkaido (151) and Kobe University (197). Prestigious in Japan perhaps, but in the world Keio and Waseda universities ranked 161st and 180th respectively.
The top 3 universities were Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford.
(November 28, 2007
)
NOVA's Sahashi Interviewed by Shukan Diamond
The Japanese weekly Shukan Diamond has interviewed former NOVA president Nozumu Sahashi. In one part of the interview Sahashi states that METI raided NOVA in part to investigate "bad instructors". Let's Japan has a translation of the article. (November 14, 2007
)
Leo Jones to Present at Obirin University
Renowned ELT book author Leo Jones is due to present on "The Student Centered Classroom" on November 20th from 6pm at J.F. Oberlin University (Obirin University). He will discuss the central importance of pair work and group work to successful language teaching. He will support his ideas with a wealth of practical suggestions for teachers to use in managing student-centered classes of all sizes.
To reserve a place, contact Cambridge University Press. (November 13, 2007
)
NOVA Crisis: SenseiBank Now Free
eigoTown.com announced Wednesday that its teacher / student matching service, SenseiBank.com has become a free service in order to help people affected by the collapse of NOVA. eigoTown.com president, Russell Willis commented "Given that the NOVA crisis is still causing many problems for both teachers and students, we've decided to make our SenseiBank service completely free. Normally we charge students 4,980 yen, but for an indefinite period this is now 0 yen. We hope this helps teachers get more students and students find good teachers."
SenseiBank for teachers here.
SenseiBank for students here.
(November 07, 2007
)
G. Communication to Act as NOVA Sponsor
The Nikkei is reporting that Nagoya-based G. Communication is to act as a NOVA sponsor and has bought rights to some assets in what appears to be a fire sale. The report suggests that 30 NOVA schools will open shortly with another 200 to open sometime in the future. (Before its closure NOVA had 670 schools.) G.Communication owns a number of education-related companies included EC Eikaiwa.
According to the Nikkei report G. Communication has absorbed 3 of NOVA's businesses: 30 language schools, English lessons taught by videophone and NOVAs children's language classes.
The group is not expected to take responsibility for the 60-70 billion yen in less fees paid in advance by students or refund those fees. The status of teachers' salaries is also unclear, but it is not expected that G. Communications will take these on either.
Ken Worsley at the Japan Economy News & Blog is wondering whether this is good news for NOVA teachers, or a "farce". ()
Kansai ETJ Expo Tokyo / Sunday, November 11th
The Kansai ETJ Expo is being held this coming Sunday (November 11th) at Seifu High School, Osaka. All of the major publishers will be there and there will be presentations from authors, publishers and teachers. ELTBOOKS.com will also be there (at the David English House booth) offering discounts of between 15 and 20% on all books to members of ETJ.
For more information visit: ETJ (November 02, 2007
)
Top
|
