Monday 24 November 2008

University World News 0054 - 24th November 2008,


NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report


EUROPE: New rankings scheme for universities
Jane Marshall
The European Union is planning to launch its own international higher education rankings, with the emphasis on helping students make informed choices about where to study and encouraging their mobility. Odile Quintin, the European Commission’s Director-General of Education and Culture, announced she would call for proposals before the end of the year, with the first classification appearing in 2010.
Full report on the University World News site

SOUTHEAST ASIA: Bold plan to duplicate Bologna
Geoff Maslen
Achieving for Southeast Asia what the Europeans have accomplished with the Bologna process – aligning the Asian region’s 6,500 higher education institutions and 12 million students in 11 vastly different countries, and making their systems compatible within a mere seven years – is ambitious to say the least. But a recent high-powered conference in Bangkok began the first steps to do just that.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Record numbers of foreign students
Geoff Maslen
More than 620,000 international students are now enrolled in American colleges and universities – a 7% increase on the number for the 2006-07 academic year and the highest total ever recorded. The latest rise more than doubles the 3% blip the previous year and exceeds the top enrolment figure of 586,300 set six years ago, according to the latest Open Doors report. The report says there was an even bigger increase in first-time students whose enrolments jumped by 10% after recording the same rise the previous year and an 8% increase the year before that – a healthy sign for US institutions as they confront their own financial crises.
Full report on the University World News site

FINLAND: Upheaval reshapes university sector
Ian Dobson
In just over 12 months, the form, funding and governance of Finland’s higher education system will undergo a radical makeover. Although final details have yet to be released, from 1 January 2010 three major changes will affect universities and involve funding, governance and the ownership and usage of buildings.
Full report on the University World News site

NEW ZEALAND: University’s $100m fundraising campaign
John Gerritsen
In a country where donations to universities are still a relatively new concept, an unprecedented $100 million (US$55 million) fundraising campaign is expected to reshape attitudes and help one institution compete on the world stage.
Full report on the University World News site

NIGERIA: Vice-chancellors kidnapped in wave of violence
Tunde Fatunde
The former and current vice-chancellors of two universities have been kidnapped and the deputy registrar of a third institution murdered in a wave of violence that has hit campuses in the Niger Delta, the oil-rich region of Nigeria, in recent months. The spate of violence and atmosphere of fear has prompted the government to put security measures in place.
Full report on the University World News site

AFRICA: Conference calls for higher education fund
Jane Marshall
Delegates from 27 countries attending the Regional Conference on Higher Education in Africa have called for an endowment fund for higher education, and heard of African Union plans to establish a doctoral school in each of the six regions of Africa.
Full report on the University World News site

EGYPT: Universities vs academics on e-education
Ashraf Khaled
Egypt’s public universities have unveiled a plan to computerise their curricula and ways of instruction – but the online move has met with criticism from professors and students. The Ministry of Higher Education said months ago it would make lectures and syllabuses available on the internet as part of a scheme to develop education, and now e-education facilities have been set up in state institutions.
Full report on the University World News site

ZIMBABWE: Student protesters arrested and assaulted
Clemence Manyukwe
Zimbabwean students have staged nationwide demonstrations against President Robert Mugabe’s failure to form an all-inclusive government to extricate the country from economic and political crises that have caused educational standards to plummet. Five students were arrested in second city Bulawayo, while in the capital Harare two students were abducted, assaulted and dumped in bush outside the city by suspected state agents.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS

HUNGARY: Quality on the conference agenda
Nick Holdsworth
Europe’s top educational watchdogs were due in Budapest, Hungary late last week for the third annual International Trends in Quality Assurance conference. More than 500 higher education representatives, students, researchers in higher education and quality assurance spec ialists from across Europe and beyond gathered at Corvinus University of Budapest to discuss ways of better ensuring top grade education for all.
Full report on the University World News site

ZAMBIA: Angry students petition new president
Clemence Manyukwe
Zambian students have petitioned newly elected President Rupiah Banda about their grievances, including low student allowances and industrial action by academics, which they say have been ignored for too long without being addressed.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA-GERMANY: New funding for research
Australia’s Group of Eight research-intensive universities and the German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD have allocated an extra A$1 million (US$650,000) to support research collaboration between the two countries. The funding provides for a second round of applications for the Go8-Germany Joint Research Co-operation Scheme.
Full report on the University World News site

SCIENCE SCENE

AUSTRALIA: Stone Age tool developments dated
New research has pinpointed the timing of innovation in Stone Age tool-making to periods associated with human population increase and movement out of Africa. Researchers led by academics at the University of Wollongong examined two separate groups of stone tools made during the Middle Stone Age to find out when they first appeared.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Genetics of cave bears and kangaroos
John Gerritsen
Scientists have announced advances in understanding the genetic make-up of two very different species – the long extinct cave bear and the kangaroo. In Europe, a team of French and Dutch scientists has sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of the cave bear while in Australia, researchers have launched a map of the kangaroo genome.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Nanoparticles deliver spinal cord and brain medicines
Monica Dobie
Researchers from Purdue University in Indiana have developed a method of manipulating nanoparticles to better deliver medicines to treat damaged brain and spinal cord cells. They used nanotechnology manufacturing techniques to coat silica nanoparticles with a polymer – polyethylene glycol – and hydralazine, then targeted them at injured spinal guinea pig cells in tests.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURES


UK: Bloggers welcome in new review
Diane Spencer
In an unprecedented move, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is living up to the innovative part of its name by encouraging stakeholders in higher education at home and abroad to post their comments on its website on nine discussion papers, commissioned by Secretary of State John Denham, as part of a major review of the sector.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Moral education takes centre stage
Terry Lovat
The Australian Values Education Programme took centre stage at recent moral education conferences in Moscow and Kiev. Professor Terry Lovat of the University of Newcastle, chief investigator of a number of research projects attached to the programme, was invited by the Russian and Ukrainian governments to present findings from these projects first in Moscow last year and again there and in Kiev earlier this month. The conferences were hosted jointly by the state ministries of education and the professional academies, signifying the interest in both countries in moral education and holistic education in general.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

AFRICA: Researchers lag in science and technology
Karen MacGregor
African researchers produce only 1.8% of the world’s total scholarly publications – half as many as Latin America and substantially less than India – according to a forthcoming article in the journal Scientometrics on the state of science and technology across the continent. South Africa and Egypt produced half of all Africa’s internationally recognised publications between 2000 and 2004, while 88% of inventive activity was concentrated in South Africa.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Not keeping up on research investment
Australia’s Group of Eight, a coalition of leading research-intensive universities, has just published a report, The International Tendency to Concentrate Research Capability, outlining strategies being adopted by a range of countries to focus their investment in areas of research excellence. It argues that while comparable countries have been intensifying investment in top research universities as a means of raising their competitiveness in the global knowledge economy, Australia has failed to take the necessary steps. While the available (lagged) measures of performance indicate that the country can punch above its weight, “we are not keeping up with the capacity improvements being made elsewhere”.
More on the University World News site

US: Exploring undergraduate research participation
The extent and potential consequences of undergraduate research participation among students at the University of California, Berkeley, is explored in a paper by Dr Elizabeth Berkes, a research associate at the university’s Center for Studies in Higher Education. She notes that although Berkeley “has increased efforts to involve undergraduates in scientific research, data does not exist regarding the number of students active in research projects”. The paper “offers a useful survey of the quantity and quality of undergraduate research”.
More on the University World News site

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

SCOTLAND: Fee-paying students becoming demanding
The traditional undergraduate experience of huddling for warmth around a one-bar heater and eating baked beans from the tin is being threatened by a new breed of student, reports The Times. University vice-chancellors are having to adjust to undergraduates who believe that their £3,000 (US$4,454) annual fees entitle them to a respectable standard of living.
More on the University World News site

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WORLD ROUND-UP

US: Chinese students flock to America
Chinese students are enrolling in American universities in record numbers, encouraged by aggressive recruiting combined with China's booming economy and growing middle class, reports the International Herald Tribune. Their enrolment grew by 8% in the fall of 2006 and by 20% last year, according to Institute of International Education figures released last week.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Skills shortage cripples universities
South African universities are haemorrhaging lecturers and are being forced to pay professors in some departments huge salaries to get them to stay, writes Prega Govender in the Sunday Times. A snap survey, conducted by the newspaper found that there were almost 600 vacant posts for professors and lecturers in five universities.
More on the University World News site

TANZANIA: More varsities closed as crisis spreads
Two more universities were closed last week, bringing to four the number of public academic institutions shut following widespread student demonstrations against the government’s cost-sharing policy, reports The Citizen. Class boycotts started early this week in Dar es Salaam, and have since spread to other regions.
More on the University World News site

BRUSSELS: What are universities for?
Human capital is now the biggest factor in economic success, calling into question moves to create elite universities that generate high level research but neglect their role in education according to a new report, University Systems Ranking: Citizens and society in the age of the knowledge, by researchers Peer Ederer, Philipp Schuller and Stephan Willms of the Human Capital Centre at the Brussels think tank the Lisbon Council, reports Science/Business.
More on the University World News site

US: Many universities cut staff and spending
Shrinking endowments, state funding reductions and families struggling to pay tuition are forcing many colleges and universities to cut staff and spending or to delay construction and development plans, writes Tony Pugh of McClatchy. From well-heeled Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Dartmouth to large public institutions such as the California State University system, many institutions are facing difficult financial decisions stemming from the nation’s economic standstill.
More on the University World News site

US: Public university presidents’ pay on the rise
It’s official. E Gordon Gee of Ohio State University was the highest-paid public university president in America in the 2007-08 academic year, with a pay package worth nearly $1.4 million, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey released last week, reports The Columbus Dispatch. “Public university presidents are really beginning to catch up with private research university presidents,” said Jeffrey J Selingo, editor of The Chronicle. “There’s only a $100,000 difference between the median pay and benefits between the two.”
More on the University World News site

JAPAN: Ivy League universities fall victim to crisis
Japan’s top universities are falling victim to the global financial crisis that has caused $964.6 billion in write-downs and losses at financial institutions, reports Bloomberg.
More on the University World News site

VIETNAM: First university rankings due next year
For the first time in Vietnam, an education watchdog under the Vietnam National University-Hanoi will rank local universities, a representative told a conference in Hanoi, reports Thanh Nien. Data is being collected and the rankings are expected to be announced early next year.
More on the University World News site

UK: Taboo but true: PhD students ‘not up to scratch’
A drive by universities to increase research student numbers is leaving academics with weak candidates who need intense supervision to complete their PhDs, writes Zoë Corbyn in Times Higher Education. This ‘taboo’ issue was just one of a number of topics to be discussed in London at a conference on the UK PhD organised by, among others, the Higher Education Academy.
More on the University World News site

IRELAND: Higher education mobility to be encouraged
Measures to encourage more students to do part of their study abroad are to be considered by the Higher Education Authority, a conference has been told, reports the Irish Times. Michael Kelly, chairman of the policy and funding body, said he would like to see more students avail of opportunities provided by schemes such as Erasmus.
More on the University World News site

GHANA: Government to set up S&T development fund
The next government of the National Democratic Congress will set up a Science and Technology Development Fund to promote the study of science towards national development, reports Graphic Online. The fund will finance research in universities, other research institutions and graduate projects.
More on the University World News site

Sunday 16 November 2008

University World News 0053 - 17th November 2008


NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report


AUSTRALIA: System-wide change needed
Geoff Maslen
Australia needs a new education revolution, a new approach encompassing the whole of the education system because universities alone cannot solve the nation’s educational problems, according to federal Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Speaking at the University of Melbourne, Gillard said Australia had to start again with a system-wide approach that would invest in the early years when social inequality was already entrenching itself.
Full report on the University World News site

NEW ZEALAND: Election brings research funding increase
John Gerritsen
Universities in New Zealand are looking forward to a $50 million (US$29 million) boost to their main research income as a result of the country’s change of government. But other education impacts of the country’s swing to the right were less clear as University World News went live.
Full report on the University World News site

CANADA: Mental health and the international student
Philip Fine
An African student named Cylis had taken out a private loan in his home town to study in Canada. The loan interest may have been high but the payoff, he believed, was worth the financial risk. He would return with a degree and the family breadwinner would soon reach a higher rung of respectability and earning power back in his home country. That plan would not only fall flat, as was described at a recent conference looking at international students and mental health, but would offer a sobering case study of how universities need to be aware of the warning signs and vulnerabilities facing foreign students.
Full report on the University World News site

SAUDI ARABIA: Giant expansion for all-women university
Tabitha Morgan
Work has begun on the construction of a new SR15 billion (US$4 billion) campus for Riyadh Women’s University, the first university in Saudi Arabia exclusively for female students. The foundation stone of Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh was laid last month by King Abdullah, whose involvement has created tension in the kingdom.
Full report on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Funding not tackling the skills crisis
Karen MacGregor
Skills shortages have become a permanent political issue in South Africa and are constraining innovation and economic growth as well as undermining efficiency and service delivery, write University of Pretoria academics Roula Inglesi and Anastassios Pouris in an upcoming article in the South African Journal of Science. Based on a study of graduate trends, they propose the higher education funding formulas be revised and weightings introduced that give preferential support to priority disciplines.
Full report on the University World News site

INDONESIA: Rara avis within higher education
David Jardine
Fasri Jalil, Director-General of Higher Education at Indonesia’s Ministry of National Education, is leading a campaign to widen the country’s university science base. Current science and technology undergraduate numbers are small and Fasri wants to increase them in an effort to catch-up with neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
Full report on the University World News site

GERMANY: Internet services launched for research
Michael Gardner
Two new internet platforms have been opened in Germany for academics: scholarz.net was developed at the University of Würzburg and offers smart software for academic research, while perspectivia.net is an international publications platform for the humanities.
Full report on the University World News site

BUSINESS

GLOBAL: Europe and US behind in global R&D investment


Alan Osborn

Just how quickly the world’s less developed economies are taking over the lion’s share of global investment in research and development is made clear in the recently published Science Technology and Industry Outlook for 2008 from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD report broadly represents the world’s leading industrial countries and shows the share of global R&D accounted for by the non-OECD countries rose from 11.7% in 1996 to a remarkable 18.4% in 2005.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Graduate student shakes college guides system
Monica Dobie
Jordan Goldman, a 23-year-old from Staten Island, New York, talked his way into the wallet of a Park Avenue businessman over eggs one morning and is now on his way to taking a chunk out of the published college guides. Goldman’s brainchild, www.unigo.com, was recently launched to give prospective American university students and their families a chance to read real college reviews free online as an alternative to the traditional college guides that have been the only source of information on US universities until now.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Earning a US business masters outside the US
Keith Nuthall
An appreciation of the value of globalisation has led to an Australian university offering the chance for business students to complete American and Australian masters degrees simultaneously. A first group of 18 students have just completed Swinburne University of Technology’s Global Leadership Programme, which is operated with Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: Company to help artificial heart start beating
Jane Marshall
An artificial heart developed by French cardiac spec ialist Alain Carpentier, emeritus professor of the University of Paris-6, Pierre et Marie Curie, is to be marketed by Carmat SAS, an innovative start-up company launched last month. The prosthetic device, which is both anatomically and functionally similar to the human heart, should be ready for commercial production by 2013.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURES

AUSTRALIA: Breaking shackles of anti-intellectualism
In a graduation address at the University of Melbourne earlier this month, federal Education Minister Julia Gillard spoke of the role education can play in changing people’s lives.

We are here this evening to affirm the importance of education to our nation and our lives and to celebrate the achievements of 16 talented Australians who have just come up to the stage to receive their doctoral certificates. It’s the highest honour this esteemed university can give. Surely there is nothing more dynamic than an environment dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge that combines a person desperate to learn with teachers and mentors driven to help. Education of this sort changes individual lives and has the capacity to change the life of a nation.
Full report on the University World News site

BANGLADESH: University has big impact on public health
Mahdin Mahboob
With a vision of a world where everyone enjoys the maximum potential of health, the James P Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka has made a significant mark in public health education in Bangladesh and in South Asia in general.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

AUSTRALIA: Postgraduate students prefer to stay home
Work in 1997 on Australian research postgraduate student mobility indicated that most students chose to remain at their current institution for a research degree rather than move elsewhere, and that they were unlikely to seek widely for information. In the latest edition of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Margaret Kiley and Andy Austin write that a new study aimed at determining, seven years later, whether there had been changes showed that student mobility was “virtually the same”, with 61% of student respondents saying they were remaining at the same university to undertake a research masters or doctorate, 18% moving to a different university in the same state, and only 12% moving to a different university in a different state on completing their previous degree.
More on the University World News site

US: Sloan survey shows online learning up 12%
The just-published 2008 Sloan Survey of Online Learning has revealed that enrolment rose by more than 12% over a year and that nearly four million students were studying at least one online course by late 2007. Staying the Course: Online education in the United States, 2008 surveyed more than 2,500 colleges and universities nationwide, is the sixth annual report on the state of online learning in American higher education, and was a collaborative effort between the Babson Survey Research Group, the College Board and the Sloan Consortium.
More on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Internet changes rules for researchers
With social scientists increasingly using the internet for research and observation, new methodological guidelines need to be developed, argues Emma Beddows in the latest edition of the International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society. Beddows, of Swinburne University of Technology, examines issues and concerns associated with internet-based research and calls for renewed university guidelines to tackle them.
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US: Academic Integrity in the 21st Century
In a new report Academic Integrity in the 21st Century: A teaching and learning imperative, Tricia Bertam Gallant, academic integrity coordinator at the University of California in San Diego “considers the issue of academic misconduct in the context of the complex forces currently straining the teaching and learning environment”. It is the latest monograph of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report, which provides analysis of tough higher education problems based on research of literature and institutional experiences.
More on the University World News site

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

UK: Fact imitates fiction
Diane Spencer
Edinburgh University staged an event last week that was in the excellent tradition of life imitating art. A distinguished American scholar gave a public lecture on the poet WH Auden which brought to life a scene from a novel by a distinguished author, also a former professor of the university.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Michigan shrinks Obama
Barack Obama is larger than life these days – except, that is, at the University of Michigan, where the president-elect has become remarkably small, reports The Canadian Press. A team of researchers has created carbon nanotube images of Obama that can be seen only through electron microscopes.
More on the University World News site

FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

UK: Newcastle excludes 50 foreign students for forgery
Newcastle University has excluded 50 foreign students it believes used forged certificates to enhance their applications, reports The Telegraph. Most are suspected of submitting bogus English qualifications to increase their chances of being accepted. The university said it believed other institutions could be affected and urged increased vigilance.
More on the University World News site

TAIWAN: Universities open to mainland China students
Taiwanese authorities said last week that they were planning to allow students from mainland China to attend local universities, as ties between the once bitter rivals markedly improve, reports the Straits Times. The proposal came after Taipei and Beijing held historic talks on the island, during which they signed deals to forge closer economic ties and agreed to promote educational exchanges.
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US: Two populous states to slash university funding
In what appears a harbinger of things to come for higher education, governors of two of America’s most populous states, California and New York, have rolled out plans that would dramatically reduce funding for colleges and universities – again – reports Inside Higher Ed. In the past two weeks, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Governor David Paterson of New York have both proposed midyear budget cuts that college officials say will cripple already strained higher education systems.
More on the University World News site

US: Harvard looks to tighten its belt
Even the world's richest university is feeling the pinch from the economic downturn, reports the Boston Globe. Harvard's president, Drew Faust, said last week that the university was looking for ways to reduce spending across the campus, raising the spectre of cuts to programmes and compensation, as Harvard’s endowment plummets. It was also assessing all aspects of its sweeping plan to expand across the Charles River in Allston, she said.
More on the University World News site

US: Chinese-Americans ‘model minority’ myth debunked
Chinese Americans, one of the most highly educated groups in the nation, are confronted by a ‘glass ceiling’, unable to realise full occupational stature and success to match their efforts, concludes a new study from the University of Maryland, reports ScienceDaily. The returns on Chinese Americans’ investment in education and ‘sweat equity’ are “generally lower than those in the general and non-Hispanic white population”, says the report. On average Chinese American professionals in law and medicine earn 44% less than white counterparts.
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UK: Students poorly prepared for university
Students should be given more help at university amid fears they are “poorly prepared” for academic life, reports The Telegraph. A wide-ranging review published last week as part of a review of higher education policy by John Denham, the Skills Secretary, said some students needed more time with tutors and lecturers.
More on the University World News site

UK: Exclusion zone sought for Oxford’s animal lab
The University of Oxford is seeking a permanent exclusion zone around its animal research laboratory, which opened last week, reports The Independent. A temporary injunction already in place restricts people from demonstrating within a certain radius of its Biomedical Sciences Building but the university wants to make this permanent at a court hearing scheduled for next year.
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INDIA: Poor funding hits higher education enrolment
Poor funding and lack of quality and quantity of teachers have affected the enrolment of students in higher education in India, a recent report has said. The Ernst & Young-EDGE 2008 report on Globalising Higher Education in India found low levels of funding of higher education in India compared with other developing nations such as China, Brazil and Russia, reports Zee News.
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IRAN: American-born graduate student freed
Iranian authorities have released an American-born graduate student on bail after holding her in prison for nearly a month, an Amnesty International spokeswoman told CNN. Esha Momeni, 28, had been working on a project on the women’s movement in Iran when she was arrested 15 October for an alleged traffic violation, according to California State University-Northridge and Change For Equality, an Iranian women’s movement. She had been held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
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US: New president for Johns Hopkins a ‘visionary’
As dean of the University of Toronto law school, Ronald J Daniels was at first criticised for having goals that were too elitist and ambitious, in essence for acting too much like an American law dean, reports the Baltimore Sun. So perhaps it is not surprising that he eventually migrated south, first to the University of Pennsylvania and now to Baltimore as the next president of the Johns Hopkins University.
More on the University World News site

Tuesday 11 November 2008

University World News 0052 - 10th November 2008

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

US: Obama and higher education: promises and problems
Arlene Cherwin
With a "Yes we can" attitude and a five point platform for higher education, President-elect Obama represents a changing face for higher education and Americans are hopeful. Obama's platform targets loan programmes, access to higher education, community colleges, science and technology, and affirmative action.
Full report on the University World News site

CANADA: Benefiting from Bologna
Philip Fine
The Bologna process, the initiative that tries to smooth the jagged edges off Europe’s differing degree and credit structures, has caught the world’s attention in a big way. From the Caribbean to Canada and from China to Australia, the plan designed to solve a European problem and that then brought in bordering countries, now has nations far beyond those borders looking at some academic retooling.
Full report on the University World News site

IRAQ: Killing academics is a war crime
Brendan O’Malley
The international community should directly recognise crimes against educators as crimes against humanity or war crimes, a conference of 150 Iraqi ministers, MPs, university presidents and international experts was told last week. Hosted in Paris by Unesco, in collaboration with the Qatari Foundation, the conference heard that more than 250 academics had been killed in a “campaign of terror” since the fall of Saddam Hussein, in targeted attacks.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Saudi Arabia pays academics best, China worst
Karen MacGregor
Academics in Saudi Arabia are the best paid on earth while scholars in China are the worst off, according to a just-published global study of salaries conducted by the Boston College Center for International Higher Education in the US. The average academic salary across 15 countries surveyed is US$4,050 a month in purchasing power parity dollars – and lecturers can expect to earn triple their country’s per capita estimate – reports International Comparison of Academic Salaries: An exploratory study.
Full report on the University World News site

NEW ZEALAND: Final Maori tertiary institution claim settled
John Gerritsen
The New Zealand government has settled the last of the claims made against it by Maori tertiary institutions for capital funding that will put them on an equal footing with other public tertiary institutions. At $50.6 million (US$29.8 million), the figure agreed with Te Wananga o Raukawa last month adds to nearly $10 million already paid to the institution and brings the total value of settlements for the three public wananga to $169 million.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: IFC opens private education forum
The International Finance Corporation has established an online discussion on what it calls “the evolving regulatory context for private education in emerging economies”. Dr Svava Bjarnason, a senior education spec ialist with the IFC, says the purpose of the online discussion is to provide a forum for stakeholders to discuss key questions relating to the evolving nature of regulation of private education.
Full report on the University World News site

ZIMBABWE: Student ‘bonding’ to stem brain drain
Clemence Manyukwe
Zimbabwe’s government has introduced a student ‘bonding’ system in a desperate attempt to stem the brain drain as people flee the ruinous policies of President Robert Mugabe. Under the cadetship scheme, students will not receive a qualification on graduating but only after working for the state for a stipulated period.
Full report on the University World News site

EGYPT: Disqualifications, apathy mar student elections
Ashraf Khaled
Hassan Abbas, an arts student at Cairo University, did not know there were student union elections until he saw Islamist students staging a protest against their disqualification from candidate lists. In recent weeks the country’s 18 public universities have held student polls marked by widespread apathy as well as fiery protests by ineligible students, particularly from the Muslim Brotherhood – said to be the largest opposition group on Egypt’s campuses. Political or religious student groups have been banned from student leadership.
Full report on the University World News site

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NEWSBRIEFS


GLOBAL: Citizenship prize for student leaders
The MacJannet Foundation, in partnership with the Talloires Network, last Thursday announced the first MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship. The prize will recognise university-based programmes around the world that demonstrate active citizenship and student leadership at the local level on an issue of global importance.
Full report on the University World News site

DAKAR: Multi-discipline doctoral reform
The University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar has created seven doctoral schools, with a multi-discipline emphasis, under reforms introducing the Bologna Process which the university started planning in 2003, reported Le Soleil of Dakar.
Full report on the University World News site

WEST AFRICA: Universities agree on regional strategy
The University of Bamako, Ouagadougou University and University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, together with the French Conference of University Presidents, have agreed on a coordinated strategy for higher education and research, to promote a regional partnership between African and French universities and contribute to development of West African scientific communities.
Full report on the University World News site

CAMEROON: Crowded start for new year
Jane Marshall
The academic year has started with record numbers of new students in Cameroon but several universities have experienced problems including overcrowding, lack of teachers and even cancellation of a new faculty of medicine just before it was due to open. Newspapers reported that some universities were coping better than others.
Full report on the University World News site

SCIENCE SCENE

US: Science important in US relations with world
John Gerritsen
Science and technology should have a key role in the next US administration's attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of America around the world, says the director of the online Science Development Network, David Dickson.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: First hydrogen racing car unveiled
Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne last week unveiled Australia’s first hydrogen-powered racing car. The pioneering project demonstrates the incredible possibilities of hydrogen as the clean, renewable fuel of the future. The car will be aiming for the title of world’s fastest hydrogen-powered racer when it attempts to break the Guinness World Record's mark for speed by a vehicle of its class early next year.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Wearable kidneys invented by LA scientists
Monica Dobie
Californian researchers are planning to help nurses in renal wards do something they have rarely done in their careers as nurses – work less hard. No, this is not a joke despite recent reports suggesting the number of renal patients needing traditional dialysis will double by 2018. Sure, more people will need dialysis because of our bulging and aging population but, thanks to a new invention, patients may in future have access to portable dialysis by ‘wearing’ artificial kidneys.
Full report on the University World News site

UK: Scientists identify brain's “hate circuit”
John Gerritsen
Show an individual a picture of someone they hate and it will stimulate parts of their brain associated with aggressive behaviour, planning physical action and predicting other people’s actions, research by University College London academics shows.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURES


GLOBAL: Education under attack
Brendan O’Malley
A noticeable rise in targeted attacks on education staff, students and institutions in a number of countries constitutes a highly damaging assault on the provision of and access to education in the places worst affected. The dramatic increase in deliberate attacks in recent years and the subsequent loss of life are the result of an abhorrent tactic of sacrificing the lives of innocent young people and those trying to help them develop their potential for the sake of political or ideological aims.
Full report on the University World News site

GREECE: Far-reaching European Court ruling
Makki Marseilles
A controversial decision by the European Court of Justice is likely to have far-reaching effects on higher education in Greece. The court’s decision, based on the 89/48 EC directive, held that the Greek rules on recognition of diplomas are contrary to community legislation. Moreover, the court ruled that only member states where a diploma was awarded may verify its basis, thereby denying any form of control, academic or administrative, to the host member states.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: Is internationalisation on the right track?
“As we progress into the 21st century, the international dimension of higher education is becoming increasingly important and at the same time, more and more complex. There are new actors, new rationales, new programmes, new regulations, and the new context of globalisation,” writes respected internationalisation scholar Professor Jane Knight in the latest edition of the Canadian journal Academic Matters, titled The Global University.
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GLOBAL: International graduate student challenges
Globalisation has embraced the university, as it has other sectors. Many academics appreciate the benefits that cross-cultural exchange allows as the ivory tower turns global. Knowledge now belongs to a worldwide arena in which we are all connected, writes Dr Fengying Xu in the latest edition of the Canadian journal Academic Matters. But “there are enormous challenges for teaching, studying and research inside this globally-interdependent context”.
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U-SAY

I refer to your article, Universities embrace lifelong learning of 2 November 2008, in which your correspondent states that while an estimated 4% to 5% of over-30s in the US are involved in lifelong learning of some kind, the European figure is less than 2%. Statistics for lifelong learning are often partial and the territory is contestable and contested but we question this figure.

Alastair Thomson
Senior Policy Officer
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (England and Wales)
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FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

US: America gets a Professor in Chief
The 2008 presidential election has broken so many political barriers that historians may overlook one unusual fact: When Barack Obama takes the oath of office next January alongside his running mate, Joe Biden, it will be the first time in history that the President, Vice President, and both of their spouses have worked in higher education, writes Richard Monastersky in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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UK: Obama win could hit foreign student recruitment
Barack Obama's historic election could hit the ability of British universities to recruit lucrative overseas students, reports The Guardian. Universities in the UK have benefited from the negative perception of America around the world since the 11 September terrorist attacks and the tightening of visa requirements that followed. But it is thought ‘4/11’ could be just as significant as ‘9/11’ in terms of its impact on international student recruitment, with many now choosing to attend American universities.
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PAKISTAN: Tough rules for foreign students in the UK
Pakistani students who want to study in the UK will have to be ‘sponsored’ by colleges and universities that have acquired a licence from the UK Border Agency, reports the Daily Times. New rules were announced by the Home Office on 30 October as part of an Australian-style student tier of the points system that will clamp down on bogus students and enable Britain to select students more carefully.
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IRAN: MPs sack Minister over fake Oxford degree
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, suffered a serious blow last week when parliament sacked his Interior Minister for faking a law degree from Oxford University, writes Ian Black of The Guardian, from Tehran. Ali Kordan, a powerful figure on Iran’s complex political scene, was told by the Majlis that he must face impeachment after he also admitted trying to bribe MPs not to proceed against him.
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AUSTRALIA: Agency to protect international standing
A new national accreditation agency should be considered to help private providers expand their territories and protect the reputation of Australian education overseas, a joint committee on higher education has said, reports The Australian. A national agency to regulate the burgeoning private higher education industry is the strongest of four options presented to the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Crackdown on exorbitant v-c salaries
South Africa’s Education Minister, Naledi Pandor, is to crack down on exorbitant salaries earned by vice-chancellors after they failed to regulate themselves. Pandor announced this to the Mail & Guardian after her department released a shocking breakdown of salaries earned by vice-chancellors at the country’s 23 public universities, which totalled more than R40-million (US$4.1 million) last year.
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ALGERIA: Lecturers take bribes and harass students
Algeria’s Minister of Higher Education is to meet with all of the sector’s trade unions in an extraordinary meeting to discuss issues including a worsening security situation on university campuses nationwide, reports El Khabar. Student unions have accused lecturers of soliciting bribes from students, and s exually harassing female students, in exchange for better marks.
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US: Sarah Lawrence College most expensive in the land
In the hyper-competitive world of higher education, a top ranking in national surveys is zealously sought, writes Marc Santora in the International Herald Tribune. But during this moment of deep economic anxiety, Sarah Lawrence College finds itself No 1 in an inopportune category: the most expensive school in the United States.
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CANADA: Universities eye cuts in wake of crisis
Canadian universities could be forced to cut student aid, scholarships and funding for various programmes as early as next spring because of multimillion-dollar losses in their investment holdings, reports the Globe and Mail. The recent freefall of financial markets, coupled with a wait-and-see attitude of donors, has campus leaders across the country preparing for the worst and hoping for a quick recovery.
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UK: Universities struggle to afford pay rises
The news that inflation reached 5% in September could not have come at a worse time for universities already licking their wounds after investing more than £77 million (US$123 million) in collapsed Icelandic banks, reports The Guardian. As the final instalment of a three-year pay deal, universities had committed to increase pay from October by the same amount as the retail price index for September 2008 or 2.5%, whichever was greater. With RPI at 5%, this means institutions are facing much higher than expected wage bills. The latest rise means pay will have increased by 15% since 2006.
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UK: MPs to hold universities inquiry
MPs are to investigate some of the most controversial issues surrounding students and universities in the UK, reports BBC News. The Commons’ innovation, universities and skills committee will look at issues ranging from student support to university admissions. It will also examine the balance between teaching and research, degree classifications, the extent to which plagiarism is an issue, and government participation targets and their relevance.
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UK: Northern Ireland universities’ bullying shame
Northern Ireland’s two universities have been listed among the worst in a survey on bullying of university staff across the UK, reports the Belfast Telegraph. The University of Ulster and Queen’s University feature in the ‘worst’ category for staff being ‘always’ or ‘often’ bullied.
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THE PHILIPPINES: Tertiary education reforms by 2009-10
Wide-ranging reforms could be introduced in the Philippines ’s tertiary education system during the 2009-10 academic year, according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), reports Business World Online. Commission chairman Emmanuel Y Angeles told a press conference last week that a strategic plan will be submitted to the president next month aimed at upgrading tertiary education so that it is on par with neighbouring countries.
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Copyright University World News 2007-2008

Monday 3 November 2008

University World News 0051 - 3rd November 2008

world’s top 1,000 business schools:
See our exclusive supplement this Wednesday for a report on the top business schools around the globe. Go to our home page and click on the link provided.


SPECIAL REPORT: The global crisis and universities

The effect of the world financial upheaval on higher education institutions around the globe varies markedly from one nation to another, depending on the extent that their banks and currencies have been affected by what is taking place in America and Europe.

Universities in countries experiencing an economic downturn, with consumer confidence shattered and unemployment on the rise, are already curtailing their spending and some have begun putting off staff. Even if they face no immediate threat, many institutions that rely for a significant part of their income on student fees – and foreign fees in particular – will be gravely concerned by the problems confronting local students in taking out loans, and the rapid slowing of economies in countries whose students go abroad to study.

For universities that have come to rely on the money paid by Chinese students enrolled offshore, the thought of large numbers staying home is alarming. Our correspondents report:

US: Waiting for the worst
Geoff Maslen
Reports from the US suggest that American universities have yet to feel the full impact of the monetary cyclone that has shattered the financial sector and left the world’s most powerful nation facing a full-scale depression. The air of confidence being displayed on many US campuses, however, may be masking fears that no one person and no institution will be spared.
Full report on the University World News site

CHINA: Fall in student numbers expected
From our own correspondents
Far fewer students from China will go abroad to study next year as a result of the global crisis which is already having an impact on Chinese industries – especially those relying on the export market. UWN China correspondent Michael Delaney reports that the Chinese economy is slowing and companies across the nation have begun laying off workers with the result that many families do not have the money even for living expenses, much less foreign study. Universities heavily reliant on the fees from these students will be in serious trouble.
Full report on the University World News site

UK: Crisis, what crisis?
Diane Spencer
So far, British universities are taking a sanguine approach to the financial crisis. John Denham, the Higher Education Secretary, claimed that no institution was in jeopardy despite 12 English universities having £77 million at stake through the failure of Icelandic banks. Oxford has £30 million, 5% of its overall cash deposits, invested in three of Iceland’s troubled banks and subsidiaries while Cambridge faces losses of £11 million, 3% of its deposits.
Full report on the University World News site

SPAIN: Universities hit by sweeping cuts
Rebecca Warden
Even before the global financial crisis struck, Spain was confronting an economic recession. It was the effects of that downturn that has led to universities in Madrid facing the threat of major cuts that could leave them unable to pay staff wages. Their main funder, the regional government of Madrid, cut its block grant for fixed running costs by 30% late in September without prior notice. Now universities in Valencia are also threatened by similar action.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Crisis has already arrived
Geoff Maslen
Universities Down Under had begun reducing their outlays, and their staffing numbers, even before the full effect of the financial turmoil on the global stock markets had been felt. Falling investments, shrinking government grants and growing concern about the overseas student market are increasing pressure on institutions to slash their costs and, in the past month, more than 500 academics and general staff have been laid off or are facing redundancy.
Full report on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Universities taking financial knocks
Karen MacGregor
The international financial crisis is impacting on universities in South Africa in various ways, including lower returns on investments and a weakened currency making imports more expensive. The crisis is exacerbating pre-existing strains on finances while the prospect of cuts to public spending on universities as a result of an economic downturn is of great concern, says the vice-chancellors’ body Higher Education South Africa.
Full report on the University World News site

GREECE: Truth of the myths and the myths of the truth
Makki Marseilles
If there is something positive from the financial meltdown it is the complete and total collapse of several myths: that there is no money for education (or health, the environment, or pensions), and that the neo-liberal market can be self-regulating for the benefit of the consumer – to mention just two.
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: No plans to reduce university spending
Jane Marshall
France has no intention at present of cutting its planned funding for higher education and research as a result of the global financial crisis, the Education Ministry says. The sector is the government’s highest priority, and ambitious and costly reforms include renovation and updating of campuses and introducing university autonomy.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: How other countries are faring
The global financial meltdown has not yet hit some countries as much as it has the US where the crisis began. Those nations still faring reasonably well include Russia, Germany, the UK, France, New Zealand, some Asian and African nations, and even America’s next-door neighbour, Canada.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

The autumn conference of the European Universities Association at Erasmus University in Rotterdam last week elected a new president, adopted a policy on lifelong learning and discussed a range of other topics. Our European correspondent, Alan Osborn, reports.

EUROPE: Universities embrace lifelong learning
Lifelong learning has never been Europe’s strong suit. Americans have long recognised that learning should not stop with the end of formal academic education but ought to form a significant element of adult life. An estimated 4-5% of over-30s in the US are involved in lifelong learning of some kind whereas the European figure is less than 2%. Is this about to change?
Full report on the University World News site

EUROPE: Widening the reach of universities
Few people are more internationally-minded than the Dutch and few universities outside the major leagues are more global than the Erasmus University of Rotterdam which has 2,400 international students out of 24,000 from more than 100 countries. The university was the host for the EUA autumn conference last week where the chair of its executive board, Jan Willem Oosterwijk, spoke about the challenges of widening higher education, both internationally and across social divisions. There was a strong need for precise focus, he said.
Full report on the University World News site

EUA CHOOSES NEW HEAD
Professor Jean-Marc Rapp, former president of the University of Lausanne and the Swiss Rectors Conference and currently a vice-president of the European Universities Association, is to be the new president of the EUA, delegates decided at their autumn conference.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Training for scholarly integrity
Stuart Heiser
At the first global meeting on graduate education to focus on research ethics, higher education leaders agreed to a set of statements and action items on integrating training in scholarly integrity into graduate education. Representatives from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, China, Hong Kong and Botswana met in Florence in September to initiate discussion on the need to strengthen scholarly integrity because of the growing globalisation of graduate education and research
Full report on the University World News site

GERMANY: Tuition fees deter students
Michael Gardner
An unpublished survey commissioned by Germany’s Education Ministry has further fuelled the debate on tuition fees. According to the new study, which was leaked to a news agency ahead of an unsuccessful Education Summit last week, far more young people are put off from studying by tuition fees than previously assumed. The Stifterverband, Germany’s donors’ association for science and the humanities, also claims that poor study conditions are acting as a deterrent.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS

GREECE: Four-university postgraduate programme
Makki Marseilles
A new postgraduate course on European civilisation has been established by four of the oldest and more traditional universities across Europe. The aim is to give students the opportunity to approach the subject from a multicultural standpoint within an overall international cooperation programme.
More on the University World News site

CANADA: New portal to promote education
Canada’s newest web portal offers access to an array of information on study in Canada for international students. It is also the first use of the country’s IMAGINE brand, developed over the past year with a view to positioning Canada as an attractive and “become what you want to be” destination.
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BUSINESS

LUXEMBOURG: Publishers stopped from copying
Keith Nuthall
A German professor has won a precedent-setting case to prevent European Union publishers from using university-collated compendiums of out-of-copyright materials to produce their own commercial collections of works. A ruling from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg said publishers could be blocked from selling these books, if they “transfer a substantial part” of the original source to their own publications.
Full report on the University World News site

EUROPE: Business investment healthier but problems remain
Alan Osborn
The European Commission is crowing over the fact that business investment in research and development by companies in the European Union is now rising at a faster rate than in the US, raising hopes that Europe might at last climb up the global technology table. The figures, contained in the EU’s 2008 Industrial R&D Investment Scorecard, are significantly better than those of last year when US spending rose by almost twice as much as that in the EU.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Convention for top business schools
Jane Marshall
Business school heads, managers and students from more than 55 countries gather this week at the Sorbonne in Paris to debate the internationalisation of higher education at the first Eduniversal World Convention. Under examination will be such matters as student mobility, schools’ innovative actions, partnerships and exchanges – and rankings.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Researchers discover bionic nose secrets
Monica Dobie
Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the US, have found a way to mass produce smell receptors that may lead the way to the creation of artificial bionic noses that can detect disease.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURE

US: Universities and the American election
Romulo Pinheiro
Americans will elect a new President this week. For many observers outside North America, it is astonishing to see the prominent role US universities play in the contest for the White House: this year’s four presidential debates, organised by the Commission on Presidential Debates – a non-profit organisation – were all held at local universities.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

UK: How technology will shape learning
Technological innovation, long a hallmark of academic research, may now be changing the very way that universities teach and students learn, argues a white paper by the Economist Intelligence Unit titled The Future of Higher Education: How technology will shape learning. “For academic institutions, charged with equipping graduates to compete in today’s knowledge economy, the possibilities are great. Distance education, sophisticated learning-management systems and the opportunity to collaborate with research partners from around the world are just some of the transformational benefits that universities are embracing,” the report says.

“But significant challenges also loom. For all of its benefits, technology remains a disruptive innovation, and an expensive one. Faculty members used to teaching in one way may be loath to invest the time to learn new methods, and may lack the budget for needed support.”
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GREECE: Oil strike was university’s fuel tank
Makki Marseilles
Oil speculators were delighted when they discovered that instead of drilling for so-called ‘black gold’ in the North Sea, Alaska, Antarctica or some other God-forsaken place, they could get it a lot easier and cheaper a lot closer at home and more specifically from the reservoirs of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki which was using the oil for heating their sprawling premises.
Full report on the University World News site

UK: It’s official: James Bond is sexy
Diane Spencer
An academic has stated what many women would call the bleedin’ obvious: a Leicester University professor has decreed that Daniel Craig, the latest embodiment of James Bond, is more sexually charged than any previous portrayal of the fictional agent. With impeccable (or opportunistic) timing as Quantum of Solace opened last Friday, the researcher announced that the Bond franchise capitalised on the sex appeal of the spy in a way it had never done before.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Defending the shards of amateurism
When CBS Sports began to use Division I college football players’ names this season in its online fantasy game, the National Collegiate Athletic Association was none too pleased, writes David Moltz in Inside Higher Ed. The association stated that this usage violated its rules and threatened its commitment to amateurism but went no further, admitting that its hands may be tied by a federal court decision that upheld the use of names.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

ISRAEL: University protest takes to streets
A convoy of vehicles carrying students, university presidents and academics made its way to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv last Monday, blocking the highway intermittently and piling traffic onto the already rush hour-plagued road, reports Ynetnews. The protest against the Finance Ministry’s refusal to hand over funds universities have deemed essential to the upcoming academic year, was the first ever to incorporate students and university leaders. Both groups have warned that studies will not begin on time if talks with the ministry remain deadlocked.
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ISRAEL: Disaster if universities strike: Minister
Addressing the expected strike at Israel’s universities, Education Minister Yuli Tamir told a Knesset Finance Committee meeting last week that “it will be a disaster if the academic year does not open on schedule,” reports Ynetnews.
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AUSTRALIA: Universities seek top-up funding
Universities are pressing Canberra to provide ‘top-up’ funding for teaching to see the sector through next year given that any new funding out of the Bradley Review of higher education will not materialise until 2010, reports The Australian Higher Education. Universities are set to be squeezed next year by a 2.1% indexed rise in their government-operating grants, which lags far behind inflation that is now running at around 5%.
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US: T Boone Pickens: ‘Honey, I shrunk the charity’
It was a historic pledge. In 2006, oilman T Boone Pickens donated $165 million to Oklahoma State for its sports programme. It was the largest gift of its kind ever to a US university, reports the Wall Street Journal blog. But it came with a catch: the money had to be invested in Pickens’ hedge fund, BP Capital.
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US: Tuition is up, as is uncertainty
Both tuition and financial aid are up for the current academic year, even as the economic uncertainty leaves many colleges and students with worries about next year’s charges, reports Inside Higher Ed. The average tuition for a private four-year college topped $25,000 for the first time in 2008-9, hitting $25,143, or 5.9% more than last year’s total, according to the latest annual report by the College Board.
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MALAYSIA: More foreign students to ease money crisis
The Higher Education Ministry has laid out plans to face the financial crisis, including attracting more foreign students and increasing graduate employability, reports The Star. “We are intensifying our efforts to attract foreign students to study here, especially from Africa and the Middle East, since this contributes growth to our economy,” said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin last week.
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TUNISIA: Land of female university students
Young women are becoming the majority in university fields that have long been dominated by men, reports Middle East Online. Official university figures, recently released in Tunisia, show that female pre-eminence has become a fact of life in the overwhelming majority of academic branches, including in sciences, medicine, the arts and humanities.
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UAE: A glimmer of hope amid university gloom
The publication of the THES-QS World University Rankings for 2008 brings unhappy news for aspiring institutions of higher education in many regions, including the Arab world, writes Muhammad Ayish, a professor of communications at the University of Sharjah, in The National. According to the rankings, no Arab university is among the top 400 in the world.
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AFRICA: Higher education summit stresses partnerships
The major role higher education institutions have to play in Africa’s economic growth was stressed by Rwanda’s Minister of Education, Daphrose Gahakwa, when she closed a three-day Africa Regional Higher Education Summit in Kigali, reports The New Times. The gathering, a follow-up to last year’s Global Higher Education Summit held in Washington DC, was organised by USAID.
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GHANA: Universities urged to do self-assessment
The Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board, Kwame Dattey, has appealed to tertiary institutions in Ghana to establish internal quality assurance units to assess their performance on a regular basis before his outfit comes in, reports Public Agenda.
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UK: Scientist quits the country in stem cell row
A leading British scientist is leaving the country to work in France after claiming that British science gives too much priority to embryo experiments over “more ethical” alternatives, reports The Sunday Times. Colin McGuckin, professor of regenerative medicine at Newcastle University, believes more funding should be given to work with adult stem cells.
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