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GUANGZHOU, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) — Three senior Chinese officials Sunday sent congratulation letters to South China Agricultural University, a prestigious university in south China’s Guangdong Province, for the celebration of its 100th founding anniversary.

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu said in the letter that the university had worked hard for the promotion of the country’s agriculture development over the past 100 years since the university was established.

“Since the founding of New China and launching of the reform and opening-up policy, the university has trained many talents and obtained great progress in science researches, which have made significant contributions to the country’s agricultural science and social and economic development,” Hui said.

“The university should make innovations while carrying on its good traditions in building the first-class university, and make further contributions for the promotion of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics,” Hui said.

State Councilor Liu Yandong said in the letter that the university has made great progress in fields of education, science researches and social services.

Wang Yang, secretary of the Guangdong provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, spoke highly of the university’s contributions to Guangdong Province, and urged it to achieve greater achievements to be a high-level comprehensive university featuring agricultural science and life science.

(Source: xinhuanet.com)

BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) — The United States Educational Testing Service (ETS) has launched a scholarship program to recognize Chinese excellent test takers of its TOEFL and TOEIC.

ETS, the world’s largest private educational testing and assessment non-profit organization, administers globally-recognized tests including TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) and GRE (Graduate Record Examination).

ETS plans to honor 80 well-performed students on the Chinese mainland who succeed in applying for studies abroad in 2010. The total sum of the scholarship is 100,000 US dollars.

“We are delighted to acknowledge outstanding academic achievement by Chinese students with the TOEFL and TOEIC scholarship program,” said Phillip Tabbiner, President of the ETS Global.

Applicants must hold a grade point average of 80 or higher on a100-point scale. Winners will be announced in May 2010.

(Source: xinhuanet.com)

CANBERRA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) — The Australian government will waive fees from January 1, 2010, for as many as 4,700 students reapplying to study at new institutions after 12 colleges collapsed, Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced on Monday.

International students crippled by a spate of college foreclosures this year will be exempt from paying 540 Australian dollars (about 499 U.S. dollars) visa fees to stay on in Australia as the country resets its immigration intake to attract the people it needs.

Last week, the Meridian International left thousands of students in Melbourne and Sydney looking for new courses or refunds.

“Where an education provider can no longer offer a course, the government’s primary concern is the welfare of the student,” Evans said. “We understand that these situations are not the fault of the student.”

Meanwhile, the government will raise the amount of savings international students need to demonstrate they can afford life in Australia.

From next year, prospective overseas students must show they can access at least 18,000 Australian dollars (about 16,657 U.S. dollars) a year, on top of tuition fees, up from 12,000 Australian dollars (about 11,104 U.S. dollars).

“International students can supplement their income through part-time work in Australia but the primary purpose of a student visa is to study and students should not rely on part-time work to meet their expenses,” Evans said.

Despite negative reports worldwide about international students in Australia living in poverty and being attacked, international students to Australia grew by a fifth in the year to June 30.

Indians overtook Chinese as the biggest student market, with more than 65,000 students were granted visas last year, increasing 37 percent from the year before.

(Source: xinhuanet.com)