Boston University, a private teaching and research university of approximately 16,000 undergraduate students, invites applications for the position of Senior Associate Director of International Admissions.

The Senior Associate Director of International Admissions is responsible for developing and implementing a strategic recruitment plan that identifies academically qualified international students in sufficient numbers to enable the University to successfully achieve its enrollment objectives. Additionally, the Senior Associate Director is responsible for coordinating and managing the admissions selection and scholarship process for all international freshman and transfer applicants to the University. For both recruitment and selection responsibilities, the Senior Associate Director will supervise and direct the activities of the international admissions staff, which includes one Associate Director, three Assistant Directors, one international Student Advisor, and two Senior Admissions Coordinators. The Senior Associate Director will also be responsible for all operational aspects of the selection process and the management of the following programs: Early Decision, Early Admission, Visiting Students, conditional admission and referral to CELOP, and transfer selection. The Senior Associate Director will also work closely with the Executive Director of Admissions in the overall management of the Admissions Office, and in particular, assist with the development of both long and short-term strategies regarding the recruitment and selection of all incoming international students.

The successful candidate must possess a Bachelor’s degree, although a Master’s degree is preferred. If a Master’s degree has not yet been completed, candidates for this senior level admissions position should be working towards an advanced degree in higher education administration or a related academic discipline. Candidates for this position should have ten years or more of experience in higher education and preferably in international admissions.

To apply, please submit a cover letter and resume through OpenHire, which can be accessed via the Job Opportunities section of the Human Resources website at www.bu.edu/hr/jobs under the tracking code 5488/I249.

Boston University is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer.

A couple of other noteworthy items:

Those of you who submitted session proposals will hear if yours has been accepted or not by the end of this week.  We had 140 submissions for around 75 slots!

Please look over the posted blog items to read about counselor programs and scholarship opportunities relating to the conference.

For members - elections are now taking place for new OACAC officers.  Make sure to ‘due your duty’ and vote!

As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact President-Elect Bridget Herrera, bridget_herrera@eac.com.br.

The ADL statement also cited a recent incident at the University of California at Los Angeles in which students stood up during a talk by an Israeli to block others from seeing the speaker. The students left after being told that they could be arrested if they continued to disrupt the event. A UCLA spokesman said that police did not think those involved were students. “Our long-standing position is that UCLA strives to promote free speech and open debate in an environment of civility and respect toward those may hold opposing viewpoints,” the spokesman said.

Other plans include using post-graduates rather than professors for teaching and the delay of major building projects. The proposals have already provoked ballots for industrial action at a number of universities in the past week raising fears of strike action which could severely disrupt lectures and examinations.

The Guardian spoke to vice-chancellors and other senior staff at 25 universities, some of whom condemned the funding squeeze as “painful” and “insidious”. They warned that UK universities were being pushed towards becoming US-style, quasi-privatised institutions.

The cuts are being put in place to cope with the announcement last week by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) that £449m – equivalent to more than a 5% reduction nationally – would be stripped out of university budgets.

The University and College Union (UCU) believes that more than 15,000 posts – the majority academic – could disappear in the next few years. Precise funding figures for each university will be released on 18 March.

The chairman of the Russell Group of elite institutions, Professor Michael Arthur, vice-chancellor of Leeds University, warned that budgets would be further slashed by 6% in each of the next three years. Last month he described the cuts as “devastating”.

The savings envisaged include:

• More than 200 jobs losses at King’s College, London, around 150 at the University of Westminster and, unions claim, as many as 700 at Leeds, 340 at Sheffield Hallam and 300 at Hull.

• Entire campus closures at Cumbria and Wolverhampton universities, where buildings will be mothballed and students transferred to other sites.

• Teesside University scrapping £2m worth of scholarships and bursaries that would have helped poorer students. It will also share services with a further education college in Darlington.

• Postponing plans for a £25m creative arts building at Worcester and £12m science block at Hertfordshire.

• Under-subscribed arts and humanities courses are being dropped. The University of the West of England has already stopped offering French, German and Spanish; Surrey has dropped its BA in humanities.

• Student/lecturer ratios are expected to rise, with more institutions using postgraduates and short term staff filling in for professors made redundant.

Ballots for industrial action are due to be held or are pending at the University of the Arts, Sussex University, the University of Gloucestershire and King’s College London. Lecturers at Leeds – where 750 posts are at risk – voted by a large majority to strike this week.

Higher exam pass marks will be required to win a place at university, according to the survey of academic principals. The cap on student numbers – set at 2008 levels – is restricting entry just as youth unemployment is peaking and intensifying competitive pressure.

Peter Mandelson, the business secretary who is in charge of universities, accused the principals of “gross exaggerations” and “extreme language”, but would not be drawn over whether he would make further cuts to higher education. Universities had to do “no more than their fair share of belt-tightening,” he said.

“We know that universities have a vital contribution to our economic growth, so we are not going to undermine them. We are asking for savings of less than 5% and we expect universities to make these in a way that minimises the impact on teaching and students. I am confident they will.”

Mandelson also denied claims by vice-chancellors that he was letting arts and humanities courses close and cared only about maths and science degrees.

On Monday it was announced that an extra £10m would go to the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to support universities “that are shifting the balance of their provision towards these subjects”.

Mandelson said: “I am an arts graduate myself. We don’t dictate to universities which courses they put on. They tailor courses to meet demand. We want universities to play to their strengths, but we also want to keep this country civilised.”

The pattern of cutbacks is not uniform, with some universities insisting they have been preparing for the downturn. Many have already dropped more vulnerable subjects such as music and history, increased fees for part-time students and expect to become even more reliant on income from higher, overseas student fees.

The vice-chancellor of Southampton, Professor Don Nutbeam, told the Guardian: “This [decision by Hefce] is one of a series of insidious cuts that have been made to higher education.”

Professor Geoffrey Petts, vice-chancellor of Westminster University, said: “After a decade of huge successes in higher education we suddenly have to rethink.”

Tomorrow the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (Ucas) is due to announce record numbers of applications for places this autumn. It is expected that as many as 300,000 applicants will be turned away.

The surge in demand comes as a government-commissioned independent review considers whether to raise tuition fees from £3,225 per year to up to £7,000. Over three years total cuts will amount to at least £950m.

The policy adopted by the government is in stark contrast to the response in the US where President Obama this week proposed a 31% increase in education spending for next year in order to combat unemployment and develop skills.

By January 22, the deadline for applications, 570,556 people had applied for higher education places, up by 106,389 from the same time a year ago. Although the formal deadline has closed, students can continue to apply, pushing up the final number. Last year 464,167 had applied by this stage, but final applications reached 639,860.

The figures led to calls for the Government to fund more university places. Meanwhile, vice-chancellors appealed to be spared further cuts in the Budget next month. There are already 6,000 fewer university places for the coming year and universities face fines of £3,700 per student if they breach caps on their numbers, prompting many to tighten their admissions criteria by raising the grades required.

Two thirds were first-time applications from young Britons, but the number was swelled by 46,000 people who failed to get places last year, 60,892 applications from older students aged 21-24, and 62,322 from mature students aged 25 and above. All three categories rose sharply.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said that technical reasons could account for the spike in applications for certain courses, such as nursing and art and design, but admitted that there had been a leap in demand and that entry to universities this autumn would be extremely competitive. There has also been a sharp increase in demand from students from EU countries.

Analysis of the figures showed that some of the most selective universities, including a handful using the new A* grade at A level in offers, experienced only small rises or even falls in applications as the high grades that they demanded appeared to put students off. Cambridge, whose standard offer is A*AA, and Warwick, which is using A* offers for maths and plans to extend this to economics and PPE next year, both experienced a rise of only 1.3 per cent in applications.

Applications to Bristol were down by 3.6 per cent, while Edinburgh and Cardiff had increases of less than 1 per cent. But Birmingham and Sheffield, both big research-intensive universities, both had a surge in applications of 22 per cent, close to the average. The biggest rises were in applications to smaller teaching-led universities.

Steve Smith, the president of the vice-chancellors’ group Universities UK, said: “With this further jump in demand and the continued cap on student numbers in England, it’s inevitable that we are going to see even more pressure on places this year and the strong possibility of many well-qualified students missing out.”

Professor Smith called on the Government to allocate additional student numbers, but said that it must pay for them. Last year ministers allowed another 10,000 places in science subjects but they were unfunded.

David Lammy, the Minister for Higher Education, said that getting into university had always been competitive and emphasised the alternatives, including shorter foundation degrees, advanced apprenticeships and Government-subsidised jobs.

“University is not the only choice for young people,” he said.

The most popular courses are vocational, with nursing the most heavily subscribed. The only non-vocational subject in the top ten is English.