Sunday 20 December 2009

University World News 0106 - 20th December 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

CHINA: New form of English emerging
China's emergence as a 21st century superpower will change the way English is used internationally, according to language experts at the University of Melbourne. Professor Joseph LoBianco and Dr Jane Orton argue the world's communications profile will be dramatically altered because of increased English language learning in China and increased Chinese language learning in the rest of the world.
Full report on the University World News site:

VIETNAM: Persuading overseas students to return
Dale Down*
The Vietnamese government is attempting to tackle its ongoing brain-drain problem by persuading students who went overseas to study to return home. Some four million Vietnamese now live and work in 101 countries around the world, including a large number of tertiary-level students in America, Australia, Canada and Singapore. In the past year, the number of higher education students studying in the US increased by more than 46%. While 87% of these are undertaking undergraduate or postgraduate courses, the remainder are involved in other types of study or training programmes that are not readily available in Vietnam or are not of a sufficiently high standard.
Full report on the University World News site:

JAPAN: Climbing the rankings ladder
Douglas Rogers*
The Japanese economy may have been in the comparative doldrums for the last decade and half but concern for the internationally competitive position of Japanese universities continues. So, in the second week of December, Tokyo University of Science (Tokyo Rika Daigaku) hosted the fourth in a series of international collaboration workshops in the gracious surroundings of a nearby hotel.
Full report on the University World News site:

SWEDEN: Largest research life sciences area
Jan Petter Myklebust
A consortium of three universities along with city and regional authorities and four private companies have announced plans to build the world's largest area for research in the life sciences.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Australian recruiter signs up US universities
One of the world's biggest student recruitment companies, IDP Education, has just recruited 11 US institutions as customers of its international student placement services. The Australian-based firm is jointly owned by 38 Australian universities, is a leading online recruitment company and is one-third owner of the IELTS English proficiency testing system with the British Council and Cambridge University.
Full report on the University World News site:

GERMANY: Student protests continue
Michael Gardner
Students are continuing their education strike campaign against implementation of the Bologna reforms, introduction of tuition fees and insufficient financial support. Lecture halls have been occupied at 80 universities throughout the country. In some cases the student demands have been backed by university heads while in Bonn the City Council has demonstrated its sympathy with the campaigns.
Full report on the University World News site:

GREECE: Injured rector resigns
Makki Marseilles
The Rector of Athens University, Christos Kittas, who was attacked and injured by a group of youths invading the institution, tendered his resignation immediately he was released from hospital, saying the reason was mental and physical exhaustion.
Full report on the University World News site:

CANADA-GLOBAL: New spending on agricultural research
Philip Fine
Canada has put out a call for research proposals to try to solve some of the developing world's most pressing agricultural needs. The Canadian International Development Agency recently launched the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, a five-year C$62 million (US$58.5 million) package to support research partnerships between Canadian and developing country organisations.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFRICA: New higher education directions for Carnegie
The Carnegie Corporation of New York has announced that it will commit US$30 million over the next three years to a new higher education in Africa strategy that will prioritise strengthening the next generation of academics and university leaders. The foundation has spent more than US$100 million supporting higher education in Africa in the past decade.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFRICA-NORWAY: Inclusion and exclusion in universities
Anthea Garman*
Since the middle of the 20th century universities across the world have 'massified', dramatically opening access to those previously denied it - but, strangely, this access has done very little to change inequality, both within universities and the societies they relate to. The inequality conundrum was placed at the heart of the second Southern Africa-Nordic Centre (Sanord) conference held at Rhodes University in South Africa from 7 to 9 December. More on the conference in the Features section
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA-AFRICA: Tyro teachers try a new culture
Geoff Maslen
In a first for Australia, trainee teachers at Monash University in Melbourne completed a teaching round in schools in South Africa. A few minutes drive from Monash's campus in Johannesburg is a shanty town with 60,000 impoverished people whose children attend a local primary school that uses shipping containers as classrooms. It was at the Zandspruit settlement school where the 10 diploma of education students first realised they were in a different world of learning, where the resources were minimal or non-existent, where a teacher might face 50 pupils with five to a desk; where the chances of the majority completing secondary school and going on to university were almost zero.
Full report on the University World News site:

ZIMBABWE: Sacked academics fight back
Thirteen academics sacked for going on strike three years ago are battling to be reinstated and have lodged a US$46 million claim for unfair dismissal against their former employer, Zimbabwe's Solusi University.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Five new astronomy chairs
Munyaradzi Makoni
South Africa's Department of Science and Technology has awarded five universities chairs in astronomy to bolster the country's bid to host the world's most powerful telescope - the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - and to boost research and science and engineering skills. The universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Rhodes, Witwatersrand and the Western Cape are searching for internationally recognised researchers to take up the positions.
Full report on the University World News site:

N IGERIA: Banks reject university graduates
Tunde Fatunde
Banks in N igeria, hit hard by the recession, have been rationalising staff and telling graduates to accept a pay cut or be replaced. They have begun recruiting non-university graduates, especially holders of polytechnic diplomas, but trade unions have threatened industrial action if graduate salaries are reduced.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

EUROPE: Expert group sets research area conditions
Jan Petter Myklebust
A high profiled Expert Group with 13 prominent members has delivered an extensive report on the continuation of the work for the European Research Area originally planned for 2010. The report takes stock of the research and innovation systems in Europe "in the context of global trends", notably the financial crisis, and examines the experiences gained from the Lisbon strategy while addressing the need for more fundamental changes and radical reforms.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: LERU expands its membership
The League of European Research Universities is expanding its current membership of 20 to include Imperial College London and the Universitat de Barcelona from the start of next year. The league was founded in 2002 as a network of research-intensive universities "sharing the values of high-quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research".
Full report on the University World News site:

DR CONGO: Minister gives students pep talk
Democratic Republic of Congo Higher Education Minister Léonard Mashako Mamba met student representatives in Kinshasa to talk about the country's higher education and his vision of how it should be, and to advise them to stick up for their rights during negotiations with university managements.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFRICA: AUF launches support programme
Horizons Francophones, an experimental programme of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie or AUF, aims to build the professorial corps of West and Central Africa's universities, and help to increase their numbers of PhDs.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFRICA: Negative views on reforms
African higher education must move towards "supranational management" to prepare for a United States of Africa, said Professor Lansana Konaté during a debate at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar in Senegal. Participants expressed negative views concerning recent reforms on the continent, such as introduction of qualifications from abroad and exclusion of women.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Winners of the UN Moot Court contest
Munyaradzi Makoni
Five out of 10 shortlisted universities - two from each of the five United Nations regions - were named winners this month of the first World Human Rights Moot Court held at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The winning universities were from Brazil, Egypt, India, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Full report on the University World News site:

BUSINESS

INDIA: Human resources crunch for nuclear dream
Raghavendra Verma
India's atomic energy industry is preparing for a major expansion but the limited supply of trained people could turn out to be a serious handicap. Over the next 10 years, the country's nuclear power generation is expected to go from 4,000 megawatt (MW) to 20,000 MW and, if steps are not taken to boost education and training, experts say there could be a 40% to 50% shortfall in suitable manpower.
Full report on University World News site:

CANADA: Medical and sports innovation
Maya Jarjour
Four new technologies that could revolutionise the study of Alzheimer's and dementia are set to hit the market as early as 2010 thanks to a commercial licence involving from the Université de Montréal. Univalor, a group focused on transferring inventions to industry leaders, and Cognitive Sensing Inc (CSI), will work with the university under the agreement.
Full report on University World News website:

EUROPE: Animal testing controls to be tightened
Alan Osborn
An agreement in principle on new rules for animal testing has been reached by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, affecting universities and commercial researchers. This will strengthen European controls over experiments on animals without apparently threatening any loss of research to countries with looser controls.
Full report on University World News site:

EUROPE: Access to legal traineeships conditional
Anca Gurzu
Law graduates from a European Union country who want to complete a legal traineeship in another member state may need to prove broad and in-depth knowledge of the national law of the host country, according to the European Court of Justice. The judgment is based on the case of Polish national Krzystof Peúla, whose application to serve as a legal trainee in Germany had been rejected by the Ministry of Justice of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region, based on insufficient knowledge of German law.
Full report on the University World News site:

SPECIAL REPORT: South Africa's post-school youth

There are some 2.8 million young South Africans who are not in employment,
education or training. People in this huge, marginalised and little-studied group of 18 to 24-year-olds are missing out on opportunities and are a social 'time bomb'. A recent study for the government, conducted by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation and the Further Education and Training Institute and funded by the Ford Foundation, probed the scope of the problem and ways to tackle it. Last month education experts and officials met in Johannesburg to discuss the findings and suggestions of Responding to the Educational Needs of Post-School Youth.

SOUTH AFRICA: Scoping the need for post-school education
Karen MacGregor
There were 2.8 million young people not in employment, education or training in South Africa in 2007 - two in five 18 to 24-year-olds - and the number could have soared to 3.2 million now. In a study of post-school youth, researchers Charles Sheppard and Nico Cloete said this "is not only an educational problem but constitutes a social and economic disaster".
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: High returns from post-school education
Karen MacGregor
South Africans who obtain a degree earn up to four times more than people who do not complete schooling, the first major study on the returns of post-school education has revealed. Degree-holders are also three times more likely to get a job - in a country where more than one in four people are unemployed.
Full report on the University World News site:

THE UWN INTERVIEW

In this interview, one of biology's best-known taxonomists, Professor
Quentin Wheeler, answers questions from Dr John Richard Schrock.

Quentin Wheeler is Vice-president and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University where he is also Director of the International Institute for Species Exploration and the Virginia M Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Life Sciences. Wheeler's research interests include the morphology, taxonomy and phylogeny of beetles, systematic biology theory, and the role of taxonomy in biodiversity exploration and conservation. In 2007 he created the International Institute for Species Exploration to partner with museums and botanical gardens worldwide to discover and describe Earth's estimated 10 million or more species.
Full interview on the University World News site:

FEATURES

GLOBAL: Greatest challenge to higher education?
Dale Down*
Recent bombings in Somalia and Iraq have brought the question of security of higher education institutions to the fore. In the first of two recent incidents, a suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up at a graduation ceremony for medical students at a hotel in Mogadishu in Somalia.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: A jewel in Monash's crown?
Geoff Maslen
Although Professor Ed Byrne only took up the post as Monash University's eighth vice-chancellor in July, he has twice visited its South African offshoot in Johannesburg and is convinced it will come to be seen as "the jewel in the Monash crown".
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Marketisation, globalisation and universities
Anthea Garman*
"Despite the proclaimed virtues of globalisation, there is an all too evident closing of minds and hearts," said Professor Saleem Badat, Vice-chancellor of Rhodes University, at the South Africa-Nordic Centre (Sanord) conference on Inclusion and Exclusion in Higher education held at the university from 7 to 9 December. "Arrogant power, narrow economic interests and dubious orthodoxies" are ruling thinking about what universities should now be and do.
Full report on the University World News site:

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

UK: A thoughtless approach to research funding
What is the point of a university? Is it to challenge its students and push back the frontiers of knowledge? Or is it to turn out productive, profitable, commercial research? asks Ralph Wedgwood, a professor of philosophy at Merton College, Oxford, in a commentary in The Telegraph. He argues that the Labour government's plans for university funding could spell the end of serious research.
More on the University World News site:

US: Institutional data management in higher education
A study of institutional data management by the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, titled Institutional Data Management in Higher Education and written by Ronald Yanosky, examines the policies and practices by which higher education institutions effectively collect, protect and use digital information assets to meet academic and business needs, according to its abstract.
More on the University World News site:

US: New York study of industry-university partnerships
The Task Force on Diversifying the New York State Economy through Industry-Higher Education Partnerships issued its final report last week. Governor David Paterson created the Task Force in May to examine how the State can better utilise its university-based research and development resources to drive economic growth. David Skorton, task force chair and President of Cornell University, joined fellow members to present their findings at the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan, reports EmpireStateNews.net.
More on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GLOBAL: 121 hours of uninterrupted lecturing
Last Monday, Errol Tapiwa Muzawazi, a 25-year-old law student, established a new world record in the category of The Longest Lecture after lecturing for 121 hours. The previous record belonged to an Indian professor who lectured for 120 hours in 2007.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Russia(n) is back
At the College of Holy Cross this year, language instructors had to scramble to set up a second section of introductory Russian - for the first time since the Cold War - writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Not only are more students enrolling, but different kinds of students. "Our core has always been those with a love of the literature and we are still getting them, but now we are getting students with all sorts of other interaction with Russian culture," said Amy Adams, associate professor of Russian.
More on the University World News site:

THAILAND: Universities ban graduation cross-dressing
A council of Thai university presidents has turned down a request from a transvestites' advocacy group to cross-dress at graduation ceremonies as "inappropriate", media reports said last weekend, reports Thaindian News.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Drug dealers enrol at universities to get loans
Heroin and crack dealers are enrolling at British universities to secure thousands of pounds of interest free loans and cheap accommodation, according to police, reports The Telegraph. Officers are investigating those who have enrolled on courses to secure a student loan of up to �6,928 (US$11,173) a year, which they then use to buy a stash of Class A drugs.
More on the University World News site:

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WORLD ROUND-UP

IRAN: Students stage rival rallies across nation
Iran on Tuesday witnessed duelling student protests at universities in the ongoing fallout over footage showing the burning of a picture of the Islamic republic's founder, reports Nasser Karimi for The Associated Press. State television has repeatedly shown images, ostensibly taken during opposition protests on 7 December, of unidentified hands burning the picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a shocking action for most Iranians.
More on the University World News site:

IRAN: Student writes of hope, fear over protest
On 7 December tens of thousands of students marched at universities across Iran, in the most significant anti-government protests in the country for months. The Associated Press asked a 20-year-old philosophy undergraduate at Tehran's Allameh Tabatabei University to record his thoughts and experiences in a diary before, during and after the protests. He provided the diary on condition of anonymity, because some of his friends have been arrested or suspended for contacting the foreign media.
More on the University World News site:

US: Students attack Berkeley leader's home
The protests over budget cuts to higher education in California have repeatedly featured civil disobedience in recent weeks, with numerous building takeovers and sit-ins, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. But the protests took a more violent turn last weekend with an attack on the home of the chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Climategate - Science not faked, but not pretty
E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled sceptics and discussed hiding data - but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an exhaustive review by The Associated Press. The 1,073 e-mails examined by five AP reporters - about a million words in total - show that scientists harboured private doubts, however slight and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about climate change. But the exchanges do not undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
More on the University World News site:

US: Universities should prepare for postdoc unions
Research universities should prepare for the possibility that postdoctoral researchers will work to form unions by developing consistent policies on how postdocs are treated and establishing student support groups as alternatives to unions, a panel of deans said on Thursday at the annual meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools, writes Josh Keller for The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus blog.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Student support may be targeted in huge cutback
Student grants and subsidised loans may bear the brunt of the �600 million (US$968 million) cuts announced for the academy in the government's pre-budget report, sources within the sector predict, writes Melanie Newman for Times Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:

INDIA: Accreditation mandatory for higher education
Accreditation is to be made mandatory for all institutes of higher education regardless of whether they get government grants, parliament was informed recently, reports Thaindian News. "The law has been drafted and we are engaged in inter-ministerial discussions," Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, adding that the law would be brought soon before cabinet and hopefully introduced in the budget session of parliament starting in Febuary 2010.
More on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: 10-year plan to reform higher education
Australia's Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, last Monday released a discussion paper . that invites universities to comment on the government's plans to link higher education funding to university performance, reports the Gov Monitor. The "An Indicator Framework for Higher Education Performance Funding" paper outlines the framework that will be used to determine the allocation of in AU$135 million (US$120 million) per annum in performance funding.
More on the University World News site:

US: First Amendment in the classroom
At a time when faculty groups are increasingly worried that a Supreme Court ruling is being used to limit the free speech rights of public college professors, a federal judge has declined a college's request to do just that, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site:

US: Decision-makers gambled and Harvard lost
If an ordinary corporation had the kind of fiscal year Harvard University just had, some of its directors would be gone, write Fred Abernathy and Harry Lewis for The Boston Globe. Long-term investments down $11 billion; another $1.8 billion lost by top management speculating with cash accounts; another half-billion gone in an untimely exit from a debt rate gambit. The institution left so illiquid that it was forced to sell assets and issue bonds at the worst possible time, just to pay the bills.
More on the University World News site:

US: For-profit online colleges dominating soldier education
For-profit online colleges are taking over higher education of the US military, lured by a Defense Department pledge of free schooling up to $4,500 a year for active members of the armed services, costing taxpayers more than $3 billion since 2000, writes Daniel Golden for Bloomberg. The schools account for 29% of college enrolments and 40% of the half-billion-dollar annual tab in federal tuition assistance for active-duty students, displacing public and private non-profit colleges, according to Defense Department and military data.
More on the University World News site:

US: Suit against university nets $78.5 million settlement
Lawyers struck a $78.5 million deal in a long-running false claims suit that accused the University of Phoenix of rewarding recruiters for enrolling students, according to a settlement agreement announced on Monday, writes Kate Moser for The Recorder.
More on the University World News site:

UGANDA: Education finance a formidable challenge
Lack of finance is the leading cause of drop-outs from institutions of higher learning in Uganda, writes Steven Tendo for The Monitor. Every year, hundreds of students leave due to failure to raise tuition fees, which has prompted government to embark on an education finance scheme to tackle the problem, starting next year.
More on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Students vote for secure jobs
Job security wins out over enjoyment of life when it comes to South Africa's student populace and its perceptions of future employment, writes James Monteiro for fin24.com. This is one of the findings of the latest student survey by employer branding spec ialist Magnet Communications, which interviewed a record 26,100 graduates from 23 tertiary institutions.
More on the University World News site:

SINGAPORE: New university centre for Chinese officials
Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has set up a centre to enhance the training of Chinese officials and public administrators and spearhead China-related research on public administration and economic management, the official Chinese Xinhua news agency reports.
More on the University World News site:

Sunday 13 December 2009

University World News 0105 - 13th December 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

SOMALIA: Bomb kills students, ministers at ceremony
Wagdy Sawahel
A bomb attack has killed 23 people, including students, graduates and three cabinet ministers — among them Minister for Higher Education Ibrahim Hassan Adow — at a graduation ceremony of the medical school of Benadir University in Mogadishu, capital of war-torn Somalia.
Full report on the University World News site:

GREECE: Rioting youths put rector in hospital
Makki Marseilles
Athens University Rector Christos Krittas was attacked and injured by a group of rampaging youths who invaded the central administration building of the institution during widespread demonstrations, marches and violent incidents in the centre of the Greek capital. The protests occurred on the first anniversary of the death of 16 year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, shot by a police officer last year when extensive damage was caused by rioting youngsters.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Tertiary institutions oppose new tax
Sarah King Head
A David vs Goliath battle is looming in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, over a proposal by the city council to levy a 1% tuition tax on the city's postsecondary students. At a cost of up to $409 per student, the revenue generated would cover the $15 million necessary to keep the city's pension fund afloat.
Full report on the University World News site:

EU: Quest to cut red tape in research
Jan Petter Myklebust
The issue of bureaucratic red tape in EU research framework programmes was recently addressed by the Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. Chair of the European Association of Research and Technology Associations, Christopher John Hull, called for a simplification. Hull warned that the average personnel cost certification in its present form was likely to be a complete failure.
Full report on the University World News site:

DENMARK: Quest for world-class universities
Jan Petter Myklebust
Denmark's goal of 1% of GNP spending on public research will be achieved next year, according to Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Helge Sander. The nation's total research budget is proposed at DKK18.4 billion (US$3.8 billion), or 1.04% of GNP — a 20% increase since 2006 and part of Denmark's plan to create world-class universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

FINLAND: Women dominate the campus
Ian R Dobson*
It is no surprise that more women than men study in Finland's universities given they have been in the majority for nearly 30 years. What differs from the pattern in many countries is that the female dominance has not increased much over the years and is quite modest when compared with the considerable female over-representation in some countries. In 2008, women made up 53% of all university enrolments in Finland, up from 50% in 1981. But these averages conceal significant discipline-based polarisations.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFGHANISTAN: Five-year higher education plan
Wagdy Sawahel
Afghanistan has launched a US$560 million five-year national higher education plan to redirect universities towards producing graduates relevant to the market as well as providing scientific solutions for key economic and social problems.
Full report on the University World News site:

MALAWI: Politician axed for slating university quotas
A top politician has been arrested after criticising Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika for allegedly promoting tribalism by championing a controversial university quota system. Harry Mkandawire, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party director of political affairs and governor of Northern province, wrote a critical open letter to a newspaper in October questioning the President's endorsement of the system in which students were selected for university on the basis of district or region rather than straight merit.
Full report on the University World News site:

NI GERIA: UK to set up cross-border campuses
Tunde Fatunde
After months of negotiations, the Ni gerian government has agreed to allow British universities to establish campuses within selected local higher education institutions. The aim is to enable students to obtain British degrees without leaving the country and to open higher education opportunities for young people who qualify for university but are unable to access the limited places in Nigeria's 93 public and private universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Doubt over R&D spending of 1% GDP
Munyaradzi Makoni
South Africa's goal of raising its research and development expenditure to 1% of gross domestic product by next year might not be achieved. Figures released last week showed that while R&D spending grew in volume by nearly 13% in 2007-08, it dropped from 0.95% to 0.93% of GDP — the first decline since 2002.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

AFRICA: Universities benefit from used lab equipment
Munyaradzi Makoni
The ability of African universities to undertake in-depth research is often hampered by lack of appropriate technology. Now institutions are benefiting from Seeding Labs, a non-profit US-based organisation that works with universities and companies to provide second-hand laboratory equipment in good condition for the developing world.
Full report on the University World News site:

EGYPT: Abolishing faculty upsets academics
Ashraf Khaled
A decision by Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt's second biggest public higher education institution, to abolish the faculty of specific education has angered its academics who are fighting the move in court, and raised fears among lecturers at other government-run universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

MOROCCO: US$1.7 billion reform plan
Wagdy Sawahel
Morocco has launched a four-year US$1.7 billion emergency plan to overhaul its education system. This includes reforming universities in an effort to boost the country's science and technology workforce and promote knowledge-based sustainable development.
Full report on the University World News site:

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

IRAN: French academic in court
Daniel Sawney and Jonathan Travis*
France 24 reports that Clotilde Reiss, a 24 year old French academic, appeared before an Iranian Revolutionary Court for a second time on 17 November to face charges of "collecting information and provoking rioters" in the turbulent aftermath of the presidential elections in June. Reiss was arrested at an airport in Tehran on 1 July having allegedly taken pictures of the protests that followed the election on her mobile phone and emailed them to friends. She initially appeared in court on 6 August in a televised mass trial of those accused of fomenting unrest but was granted bail and released from Insein Prison on 16 August to the care of the French Embassy in Tehran, on the condition that she remained there to await a verdict.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World News site:

SCIENCE SCENE

GERMANY-BRAZIL: Forests and carbon storage: size matters
New research from Brazil and Germany indicates environmental concerns are best met by conserving large and entire tracts of forest. Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig and the University of São Paulo found the collective biomass of many small forests was less than that of a single large forest even when the small forests covered the same total area as the larger one.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Storing electricity on paper
The humble sheet of paper can be transformed into an effective battery with a coat of ink made of tiny carbon tubes and silver wires, a researcher at Stanford University has reported. It can even be crumpled up and still continue functioning as a battery.
Full report on the University World News site:

SWEDEN-US: Fit teenage boys are smarter
Men who are fit as teenagers tend to be smarter and more successful in later life, Swedish and US scientists have found. But more brawn does not equate to more brains.
Full report on the University World News site:

THE UWN INTERVIEW

US: The population bomb is still ticking
In this interview one of the world's best-known biologists, Paul R Ehrlich, answers questions from Dr John Richard Schrock. Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies and President of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. He received his PhD from the University of Kansas. As co-founder with Peter H Raven of the field of co-evolution, Ehrlich has pursued long-term studies of the structure, dynamics and genetics of natural butterfly populations.
The full interview can be read on the University World News site:

FEATURES

SOUTH AFRICA: Initiative to save collapsing archives
Alison Moodie
South Africa's archive system is showing signs of collapse. Post-apartheid transformation of the archival sector has been fraught with difficulties. Lack of funding and political will, as well as loss of personnel and skills, is putting valuable documents at risk and destroying a system that is vital to preserving not just a rich multicultural history but also for research. Last month, archivists and academics joined forces to ensure South Africa's archives receive the attention they deserve.
Full report on the University World News site:

GERMANY: Solving problems locally
Stephan Weidt*
Health is a topic the LMU Center for International Health at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich focuses on. The centre is one of the five winners of the competition Exceed — Excellence for Development.
Full report on the University World News site:

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

SOUTH AFRICA: Intellectuals, the state and universities
Jonathan Jansen*
More than ever before, intellectuals are more likely to be found outside rather than inside the South African university. The transition from legal apartheid to a young constitutional democracy created major dilemmas for the anti-apartheid intellectual. First, where does the loyalty of the post-apartheid intellectual lie? Second, what would be the costs to intellectuals of working outside the state? This is a chapter from Poverty of Ideas: South African Democracy and the Retreat of Intellectuals.
Full chapter on the University World News site:

UK: Global warming — beyond debate?
Is belief in global-warming science another example of the 'madness of crowds'? asks Martin Cohen, editor of The Philosopher and an environmental activist, in Times Higher Education. That strange but powerful social phenomenon, first described by Charles Mackay in 1841, turns a widely shared prejudice into an irresistible 'authority'. Could it indeed represent the final triumph of irrationality?
Full commentary on the Times Higher Education site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

US: Sioux in court to fight for college nickname
The Fighting Sioux of the University of North Dakota were to be no more, another collegiate nickname dropped after being deemed hostile and abusive to American Indians, writes Monica Davey for The New York Times. Except that some members of the Spirit Lake Tribe, one of two groups of Sioux in the state, say they consider the nickname an honour and worry that abandoning it would send them one step closer to obscurity. "When you hear them announce the name at the start of a hockey game, it gives you goose bumps," said Frank Black Cloud, a tribal member. "They are putting us up on a pinnacle."
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US: Lincoln University ends obesity rule
For the past few weeks, 'Fitness for Life' may well have been the most discussed college course around. From now on, however, no one at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania will be required to take it, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. The course became famous because of a requirement adopted for classes that entered in 2006 or later: that any students with body mass index scores above 30 shows that they have lost weight or taken the course by the time they graduate.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

IRAN: Crackdown on student protesters intensifies
Iran intensified its crackdown on demonstrators last Tuesday as thousands of pro-government militiamen stormed the grounds of the country's most prominent university and assaulted students who had gathered in protest, writes Thomas Erdbrink for The Washington Post. Armed with steel clubs, electric batons, pepper spray and tear gas, members of the Basij paramilitary organisation attacked several hundred students at the University of Tehran.
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VENEZUELA: Hundreds of students protest fatal shooting
Hundreds of university students held protests in Venezuela on Wednesday to condemn the fatal shooting of an undergraduate during a demonstration earlier this week, reports Fox News. Hundreds of protesters gathered in a Caracas plaza chanting "No to violence! No to impunity!" They marched through the streets and onto a highway, blocking traffic.
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EGYPT: Veil ban in universities masks religious rift
When Egypt's government banned Islamic veils and all-encompassing robes in the dorms of public universities, it cited reports of men wearing the garb to sneak into women's quarters, writes Sarah El Deeb for Associated Press. But there was a deeper reason behind the move: an intensifying struggle between the moderate Islam championed by the state and a populace that is turning to a stricter version of the faith, whose most visible hallmark is the niqab — the dress that covers the entire female form.
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AUSTRALIA: Universities face results-based funding
Education Minister Julia Gillard has warned universities that she will be looking for results as the government ties new performance funding to teaching outcomes from 2012, writes Andrew Trounson for The Australian. And in line with school reforms, she said details of performance and an individual university's targets will be made readily available to students to drive their choices once student-demand is deregulated from 2012.
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AUSTRALIA: Poor students top at elite universities
Students from poor backgrounds are less likely to attend Australia's prestige universities, but those who do are likelier to finish their degrees, according to a new report by the Group of Eight leading research institutions, writes Luke Slattery for The Australian. The report will inform a Go8 equity strategy that is being hammered out in response to the government's call for a boost in the proportion of undergraduates from low socio-economic backgrounds to 20% by 2020.
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UK: 'Fiasco' of student loan failures
Student leaders say "heads must roll" after a report into university loan delays in England found "conspicuous failures", reports BBC News. There have been widespread complaints about the Student Loans Company — with the problems still unresolved as the end of the university term approaches. The report found only 5% of phone calls were answered at the peak of delays. In response the Student Loans Company says there will be a "restructuring" of senior management.
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UK: Climate scientist receives death threats
An Australian-born scientist at the centre of the East Anglia University email affair says he has received a number of death threats, reports Antonette Collins for ABC News. Dr Tom Wigley, a former director of the university's Climatic Research Unit, is unable to reveal the details of the threats, as they are being investigated by the FBI and UK police.
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CANADA: Scientists protest Pfizer boss on research panel
Opposition continues to mount against the Canadian government's appointment of a top pharmaceutical executive to the council governing the country's largest health-research agency, writes Margaret Munro for The Gazette. More than 3,700 people, including several prominent ethicists and researchers, have signed a petition calling for the withdrawal of the appointment of Dr Bernard Prigent, vice-president and medical director of Pfizer Canada, to the governing council of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
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US: Campus mourns professor slain by Saudi student
One after another, students and faculty members at Binghamton University trickled out of a classroom lab that had been converted, for convenience and tragic necessity, into a grieving room for the day, writes Michael S Schmidt for The New York Times. On 4 December Professor Richard T Antoun, an expert in Middle East studies, was killed in his office by a Saudi postgraduate student who repeatedly stabbed him, according to authorities.
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US: Slight rebound for endowments
Early indications from a survey released last week suggest that after a brutal 2008, college endowments began to rebound in the first part of this year, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed. That's one of the apparent findings from a preliminary version of a survey of institutional endowments conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund.
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US: Universitas 21 in dire straits
Of all the projects to build international online universities, U21 Global might have been the most ambitious, writes Steve Kolowich for Inside Higher Ed. Universitas 21, the international consortium of highly reputed research universities that opened U21 Global in 2001, predicted the programme would enrol 500,000 students and be netting $325 million annually by 2011. But the initiative has been fraught with financial losses over its eight-year run, and currently enrols only 5,000 students. A number of affiliated universities have walked away, including four in the last two years.
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TAIWAN: University scholarships for Chinese students
Several leading universities in Taiwan are seeking to attract outstanding Chinese students by offering them scholarships, reports Taiwan News. But instead of using government subsidies for this purpose, the universities plan to raise funds from the business and industry sector.
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Sunday 6 December 2009

University World News 0104 7th December 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

CHECHNYA: Women lose out in studying abroad
David Jobbins
Chechnya has emerged from two civil wars with almost-total destruction of its infrastructure and massive displacement of its people. A programme to prepare Chechen students for a university degree by sending them abroad has resulted in a heavy imbalance in favour of males.
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IRAN: Gender segregation in universities
Wagdy Sawahel
While Iran is moving from co-education to segregation of the s exes in universities, Saudi Arabia is taking the other road by opening its first co-educational university, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
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GLOBAL: Copenhagen dispute over IP
Leah Germain
Proposals from China and India for the Copenhagen climate change conference that patent protection should be weakened for green inventions have generated significant concerns in universities, colleges and research centres.
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EUROPE: Universities still lack full autonomy
Alan Osborn
European universities have less ability to manage their own affairs than is generally realised and less than is desirable, according to a new survey by the European University Association. The report covers 33 countries and finds that genuine autonomy is lacking in several critical sectors, above all in that of finance.
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ISRAEL: Low in rankings but fourth in science
Helena Flusfeder
While Israel's universities are relatively low in world rankings, the country currently ranks fourth in the world in terms of scientific activity after Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, according to data compiled by the Council for Higher Education, based on a National Science Foundation report of 2008 and released at a recent conference at Bar-Ilan University.
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INDONESIA: Military seeks help from top universities
David Jardine
In an attempt to boost their professionalism, Indonesia's sometimes notorious armed forces — the TNI — have agreed to cooperate with the Ministry of National Education. The ministry will direct TNI to top state universities that it hopes will aid the military in achieving its aims.
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NEW ZEALAND: More competition in education
John Gerritsen
New Zealand's universities would get more freedom but face increased competition from foreign institutions if the government takes up the controversial recommendations of a taskforce charged with finding ways to improve the country's economy. In higher education, the taskforce report suggested an end to interest-free student loans, greater competition, but also greater autonomy and less bureaucracy. It also questioned the level of government subsidy provided to tertiary students, suggesting some students' study was of little value to them or the nation.
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UK: New additions to Commonwealth scholarships
Diane Spencer
The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan is marking its 50th anniversary this academic year by increasing the number of countries that host students from member states. More than 26,000 students from all Commonwealth countries have held awards since the scheme's inception in 1959 and most have studied in the UK. Now, more British students will have the chance to take courses in other countries.
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UKRAINE: Radical new PhD programme
Mychailo Wynnyckyj
It is a little more than a year since the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy officially opened Ukraine's first doctoral school, offering the country's first three western-style PhD programmes — in mass communications, finance and public health administration. Now, students of these pioneering programmes have been joined by more doctoral candidates following two newly-launched courses in philosophy of literature and biology and biodiversity.
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FINLAND: Give with one hand; take with the other
Ian R Dobson*
Changes in the way government provides funds to Finnish universities from 2010 are causing them a few unnecessary headaches. Universities will become responsible for monitoring their own cash flow and will be responsible for paying their own VAT, workers' compensation insurance and the 'unemployment tax surcharge' that is levied on all employers. Naturally the universities expected to be compensated for all the expenses previously handled centrally in government ministries. But life was not meant to be easy!
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NEWSBRIEFS

EUROPE: Brussels' outsourcing policies criticised
Alan Osborn
The European Court of Auditors has slammed the Brussels EU Commission for shortcomings in the management of a number of EU-funded programmes that were farmed out to private contractors from 2003 mainly because of staff shortages. The commission did not properly think through its plan to externalise the management of some EU-funded programmes in the areas of research, education, innovation, transport and health to special agencies, said the court.
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SOUTH AFRICA: New national university union launched
Karen MacGregor
South Africa has a new higher education union, following the merging of two organisations historically based in the university and polytechnic sectors. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), which represents 5,000 academic and administrative general staff, said it was a response to the need for a single voice to speak for workers in a restructured tertiary sector.
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BUSINESS

EUROPE: Nanotechnology to improve electronic cars
Keith Nuthall
A €44 million (US$66 million) European research collaboration between universities, auto manufacturers and research institutes plans to develop tiny components to help electric vehicles improve their performance so they can better compete with models powered with liquid fuels. Vehicle manufacturers such as Fiat and Audi will work with the Vienna University of Technology, the BRNO University of Technology and others to complete the E3CAR or Energy efficient electrical car project.
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EUROPE: EC: Have your say on nanotechnology
Alan Osborn
Feel strongly about nanotechnology as a force for either good or bad? The European Commission is inviting anyone interested in nanosciences and nanotechnologies research to register their views on the code of conduct adopted in February 2008 and the formal recommendation drawn up by EU ministers in September that year.
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GLOBAL: MBA still in demand despite recession
Leah Germain
International MBA organisations have released two surveys predicting a future for MBA graduates that is surprisingly optimistic, despite last year's global economic collapse. The UK-based Association of MBAs and QS TopMBA.com have produced individual reports highlighting the stability an MBA degree offers employees during times of market instability.
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EUROPE: Less hi-tech, more style please
Alan Osborn
A top official at the European Commission has signalled an important change in the EU's attitude towards innovation that will highlight the role of creativity and design. The new approach could see a shift away from support for high-tech companies and towards new 'creative clusters' of design firms, business support services and progressive regions.
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FEATURES

US-CHINA: Global engagement and study abroad
Alan Ruby*
In his town hall meeting for future Chinese leaders in Shanghai last month, President Barack Obama announced a goal of 100,000 US students studying abroad in China. This is a significant increase on the 13,000 young Americans who did their "study abroad" stint in China in 2007-08.
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UK: Unintended consequences of tuition fees
Lawrence Lockhart*
Britain introduced university tuition fees in 2006 and capped them initially at £3,000 (US$5,000) with student loans at a zero real rate of interest, repayable after graduation at 9% of income over £15,000, but cancelled if unpaid after 25 years. The package seemed enlightened but the system is regressive, it imposes intolerable financial burdens on most young graduates and it could break down, leaving mountains of debt for taxpayers to redeem.
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HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

US: The Business of Higher Education
In a recently published book, The Business of Higher Education,
editors John C Knapp and David J Siegel pull together 35 essays by 44 contributors from academia and business into three volumes investigating the costs and benefits to public and private universities when they employ business models to improve cost-efficiency, marketing, hiring practices and customer service.
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UK: Academy's future is with YouTube
Like many oddities in academic life, our story commences during morning tea at a conference, writes Tara Brabazon in Times Higher Education. After discussing a provocative point with one delegate, I asked if he had elaborated on the idea in a refereed article. He replied with a windscreen-wiper gesture — part hypnotist and part drag queen — that he had not presented the concept in a journal because all his dissemination is via lectures uploaded to YouTube.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GLOBAL: Six days and five nights non-stop lecturing
Justyna Luty-Urbanek*
Between 9 and 14 December, Errol Tapiwa Muzawazi, a 25-year-old law student, will try to set a new world record by delivering a lecture on democracy — for 130 hours. The attempt will take place at the Jagiellonian University in Kracow in Poland but anyone can witness it by visiting www.thelongestlecture.com during the lecture.
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US: African rodent captures eye of science
A resilient rodent from Africa has begun charming scientists around the world, reports redOrbit. Resistant to cancer and aging better than Sean Connery, the remarkable (if somewhat unattractive) naked mole rat is proving to be a biological wonder and a new source of scientific inquiry.
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FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

COPENHAGEN: Unlikely origins of climate crisis
It all began with a very depressed Swede, writes Geoffrey Lean for The Telegraph. On Christmas Eve of 1894 — devastated by the collapse of his marriage to his lovely assistant, Sophia — Svante Arrhenius, a 35-year-old physicist, decided to take his mind off his troubles by tackling a complicated mathematical problem. So he sat down to work out what the effect of different amounts of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse gases' would have on global temperatures.
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UK: Climate scientist steps down
The British scientist at the heart of a scandal over climate change research temporarily stepped down on Tuesday as director of a prominent research group amid an internal probe that follows the release of hacked emails involving him and other scientists, write Keith Johnson, Jeffrey Ball and Gautam Naik for The Wall Street Journal. The UK's University of East Anglia said Professor Phil Jones had decided to step down as director of the Climatic Research Unit.
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INDIA: Report charts higher education future
With more than 400 universities and over 20,000 colleges, student enrolment in India crossed 12.9 million in 2007-08, clocking a compounded annual growth rate of 6.2% since 1985-86, reports The Times of India. Participation of the private sector has increased, with about 63% of higher education institutions in the country being private unaided institutions — a big leap, considering that in 2001 the share of unaided private institutions was 42.6%.
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UK: Falling behind in the qualification race
The UK is being overtaken in the international race for a well-qualified workforce, a report from a lecturers' union has said, reports BBC News. The University and College Union says that in terms of the proportion of young people in education, the UK is slipping into the "relegation zone". It points to figures from the OECD that show the UK has been overtaken by countries such as Hungary and Portugal.
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UK: Losing top scientists to brain drain
Britain has lost its ability to attract the best scientists and its universities must pay academics more to reverse the 'brain drain', according to research by economists, writes Jon Swaine for The Telegraph. Twice as many physicists from a sample of the world's elite left Britain after completing their first degree than 25 other leading scientific countries, the study found.
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KOREA: Higher education going global
In a global age, Korean universities are naturally focusing on globalisation, writes Oh Se-jung, a professor of physics at Seoul National University, for the JoongAng Daily. Most universities say internationalisation is part of their central goal for development and that they are establishing international departments. Some select students who are fluent in foreign languages. They are also putting added effort into attracting foreign professors and students, and increasing the number of classes taught in English.
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AZERBAIJAN: More support for students abroad
Azerbaijan's Education Ministry is planning to increase funds for students who study abroad by 30%. In parallel, the number of foreign students studying in Azerbaijan has increased thanks to programmes such as oil studies, reports Armenia: Higher Education Services.
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SOUTH AFRICA: National research network lights up
Despite concerns that the 1 December deadline would be too ambitious, the work on the R365 million (US$50 million) national backbone network of the South African National Research Network (Sanren) has been completed, reports IT Web. Just a day before the deadline the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) announced the fibre backbone of the project that will link South Africa and international research and educational institutions is up and running.
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US: Standing up to threats
Academics' commitment to free expression should not be put on hold because of the threat of violence, according to a joint statement issued last Monday by a coalition of academic and civil liberties groups, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. The statement organised by the American Association of University Professors and National Coalition Against Censorship says "a number of recent incidents suggest that our long-standing commitment to the free exchange of ideas is in peril of falling victim to a spreading fear of violence".
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US: Best and brightest take a community college detour
Kira Cassels applied to 11 colleges and got in to every one, writes Daniel de Vise for the Washington Post. Over two arduous weeks last spring, she sat with her parents and weighed the costs and benefits of each programme until the list was narrowed to one: an honours track at the local community college. Cassels is one of a growing number of recession-wary high school graduates who are passing over top-drawer universities to become honour students on selective two-year programmes at community colleges, which allow students to complete half of their college education for about $8,000 then transfer to a prestigious four-year institution.
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CHILE: Record number sit university entrance exam
Chile's once-a-year university entrance examination determines future professional options for hundreds of thousands of students. More than 280,000 students signed up to take the Prueba de Selección Universitaria (PSU) test last week, which according to the Education Ministry is the largest number ever, writes Pamela Morales for The Santiago Times.
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UK: Oxford and Cambridge pushed to recruit more widely
Alumni from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge still dominate Britain's cultural and political establishments, making up more than 80% of the judiciary, nearly half of top journalists and 34% of senior government ministers, writes Ben Quinn for the Christian Science Monitor. The pre-eminence of 'Oxbridge' graduates is widely accepted. But the thorny issue of the disproportionate representation on campus of students from advantaged backgrounds has again been stirring, prompting calls to ensure that Britain's leading universities reach out to a far broader range of top-notch students.
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CHINA: University applications fall in Beijing
The number of Beijing students to take university entrance exams next June is expected to drop by 10,000 from last year, setting a record low for applications in the capital city, local media said on Wednesday, China Daily reports. According to a pre-application survey among high schools in Beijing, each district will contribute about 1,000 fewer students than last year, totalling 10,000.
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AFGHANISTAN-CHINA: Afghan students study in China
Thirteen Afghani students are being funded to study for two years at Taiyuan University of Technology (TUT) in Northwest China's Shanxi province, Brendan Worrell reports for China Daily. The students, the first on a programme set up by Afghanistan's Kabul University and the TUT, are funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education and Culture's Hanban office. They receive free tuition, board and food, plus a monthly stipend while they study for a bachelor degree in Chinese.
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TAIWAN: Majority oppose recognition of Chinese degrees
More than 60% of salaried people in Taiwan are opposed to a Ministry of Education plan to recognise the academic credentials issued by Chinese universities and colleges, according to findings of a survey conducted by the 1111 Job Bank, reports China Post.
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Sunday 29 November 2009

University World News 0103 29th November 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

US-CHINA: No hope of meeting Obama's goal
John Richard Schrock*
President Barack Obama plans to increase student exchanges with China by boosting the number of Americans studying there to 100,000. But a close accounting of American students able to study in China for more than a few weeks of sightseeing reveals the US cannot meet that goal.
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US: Shifting balance of foreign students
Sarah King Head
Although a recent report applauds the fact that the number of foreign students attending American colleges and universities hit a new peak in 2008, a disaggregation of the data reveals worrisome underlying trends in undergraduate and graduate student numbers.
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EU-Denmark: The flip-side of quality assurance
Ard Jongsma
Can quality assurance processes stimulate creative and innovative learning? This provocative question fuelled discussions at the packed Fourth European Quality Assurance Forum on Higher Education in Copenhagen last week where 500 participants from some 65 countries considered the good and the bad trends in European quality assurance processes.
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POLAND: Boosting prospects for the young
Young Poles have been hit hard by the jobs crisis, says a report by the OECD. The report says the Polish government should invest more in vocational training schemes and temporarily cut the cost of employing low-skilled school-leavers. Jobs for Youth notes that the employment crisis has hit young Poles at a time when their situation in the labour market was already difficult.
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GERMANY: Rectors defend their Bologna stance
Michael Gardner
A meeting of German university heads in Leipzig attracted further angry student protests. Around 4,000 students joined a demonstration in the East German city to emphasise their frustration over the Bologna reforms. The Rectors' Conference, representing university heads, claimed the protests were unjustified.
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SWEDEN: Universities call for fee delay
Jan Petter Myklebust
Top university academics have called on the Swedish government to delay plans to introduce fees for foreign students. The pro-rectors said making students pay fees would affect their internationalisation work and erode international masters degrees taught in English.
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GREECE: Alternative network under threat
Makki Marseilles
Criminal action brought against the rector and the two vice-rectors of the Athens Technological University, on the very day of the 36th anniversary of the student uprising against the colonel's military junta which started in the grounds of the institution, has shocked and dismayed the Greek academic community.
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US-CANADA: Help filling forms boosts enrolments
Maya Jarjour
The simple act of assisting students to fill out financial aid forms could help increase enrolment rates, according to the findings in a new US-Canada study. It found college enrolment rates increased by 29% when individuals received assistance in completing the forms.
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ZIMBABWE: Forex-short students barter fees
Zimbabwean students have resorted to bartering to pay fees because of critical foreign currency shortages, according to a report by the country's Comptroller and Auditor General Mildred Chiri. Some students have settled payments using groceries, livestock and other valuables instead of cash.
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CHINA-AFRICA: Three-year partnership plan announced
Wagdy Sawahel
China and 49 African countries have agreed on a three-year action plan to establish strategic partnerships in science and technology as well as higher education to promote knowledge-based sustainable development. The plan was announced earlier this month at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.
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BENIN: Steady growth in private tertiary institutions
Tunde Fatunde
After four years steady growth in the private tertiary education sector, Benin now has 15 private institutions. Many are affiliated to universities in France, Belgium and Canada, and there are plans to set up satellite campuses of European universities in the West African nation.
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NEWSBRIEFS

NEW ZEALAND: New era begins for enrolments
John Gerritsen
For years, New Zealanders have been almost assured of a place at university, but as enrolments begin for the 2010 academic year it appears those days are over.
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KENYA: Universities commit to fight HIV-AIDS
Dave Buchere
Universities in Kenya have stepped up efforts to combat the spread of HIV-Aids on campuses. Realising the virus threatens the goals of a university education, institutions have incorporated HIV-Aids learning as a core unit in academic programmes or in extra-curricular activities.
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TUNISIA: Euro-Mediterranean academics meet
Academics and experts from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Europe agreed on the need to strengthen Euro-Mediterranean cooperation to modernise the education systems in the region and adjust it to scientific progress and innovation, at a Maghrebi Conference on Higher Education Reform in Tunis.
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DR CONGO: Minister plans purge of "fraudulent dumps"
Many of the higher education institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa were "fraudulent money-gathering dumps", claimed Léonard Mashako Mamba, Minister for Higher Education and Research, who has promised action to shut down those not up to acceptable standards.
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NAMIBIA: Vice-chancellors' forum established
Utaara Hoveka*
The first Vice-chancellors and Rectors Forum for Namibia has been established. Chair of the forum and Vice-chancellor of the University of Namibia, Professor Lazarus Hangula, said it created a framework for tertiary education in Namibia to consult, collaborate and share resources.
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ZAMBIA: Non-paying students deregistered
The University of Zambia has deregistered 200 students for failing to pay their fees, the country's Deputy Education Minister Clement Sinyinda told parliament. He said the students had been "automatically deregistered" and barred from writing examinations because of non-payment for the first semester, despite being allowed to pay in instalments.
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SCIENCE SCENE

AFRICA: Civil war more likely with climate change
Increased temperatures associated with climate change are likely to significantly increase the incidence of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa within the next two decades, according to a new study by US researchers.
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: Water research initiative expands
Munyaradzi Makoni
The University of Stellenbosch will lead an initiative to expand a Southern African network of centres of excellence in water research for the next three years. Driven by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the development arm of the African Union, the research network is an important instrument in tackling Africa's critical water problems.
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EUROPE: Decade promoting women in science
A European Commission group set up to promote the participation of women in science celebrates its 10th birthday this month. Named after the location of its first meeting in 1999, the Helsinki Group meets twice a year to discuss national policies and promotes the participation and equality of women in the sciences on a Europe-wide basis.
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EUROPE: Large Hadron Collider back in business
The world's largest science experiment, the Large Hadron Collider, began activity again this month after more than a year of repairs. Last week, scientists circulated two beams of particles simultaneously around the collider for the first time, testing the equipment's ability to synchronise the beams and look for proton-to-proton collisions.
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FEATURES

CHINA-AFRICA: Development partner or neo-coloniser?
Loro Horta*
The second China-Africa summit meeting in Egypt, which witnessed the Chinese pledge $10 billion in concessional loans to African countries, has again brought to the fore the debate over China's growing profile in the continent. Is it a boon to Africa as China and many commentators maintain or is it a return to neo-colonial exploitation, as many critics claim? The truth, as usual, may be somewhere between the two. First Published by YaleGlobal Online.
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US: Harvard: still the world's finest
Luke Slattery*
Veritas may be Harvard's official motto but excellence is its raison d'être. The oldest university in the US is also, by general consensus, the world's finest. And for President Drew Gilpin Faust, the first woman to lead the venerated Boston institution and a celebrated historian in her own right, no strategic aim rivals the importance of maintaining Harvard's position atop an increasingly competitive global higher education system.
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HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

SOUTH AFRICA: Huge journal profits hit universities
Adam Habib*
Can you imagine an industry in which the workers who laboriously produce the product are paid by the public purse, those that painstakingly review the quality of the product are also paid by the public purse, and then the product is sold by a private company back to public institutions at a huge profit? The company tends to be European or North American, its products are priced in euros or dollars and its publicly-paid workforce comes from across the globe as do its large profits — at the cost of the beleaguered budgets of nation states, especially those of the developing world. The situation reminds one of feudal relations established in the colonies at the height of imperialism. Yet such an industry thrives in the 21st century: this is the world of the international academic journals publication industry. Article first published in BusinessDay.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

AUSTRALIA: Collapse spreads around global village
Geoff Maslen
News spreads fast in the global village created by the World Wide Web. And bad news always travels that much more quickly than any other kind — as the Australian government found to its likely cost this month when a Chinese-owned company called the Global Campus Management Group that ran a series of vocational education colleges in Melbourne and Sydney for foreign students suddenly shut its doors and went into voluntary liquidation.
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EGYPT-ALGERIA: Football tensions hit academic links
Ashraf Khaled
Tensions between Egypt and Algeria — the worst in years between two Arab countries — have seriously damaged relations in various fields including academic links. People and media in both countries have been engaged in an angry war of words since 18 November when their national football teams met in a play-off in Sudan for the 2010 World Cup.
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US: University students upset about fitness class
A Pennsylvania university's requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts, writes Kathy Matheson for Associated Press.
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US: Atheist student groups flower on campuses
The sign sits propped on a wooden chair, inviting all comers: "Ask an Atheist". Whenever a student gets within a few feet, Anastasia Bodnar waves and smiles, trying to make a good first impression before eyes drift down to a word many Americans rank down there with 'soc ialist', writes Eric Gorski for ABC News.
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U-SAY

AUSTRALIA: Indian student market has collapsed
From Arun Bhutani
The Indian market for Australian higher education has already collapsed (letter from Arun Bhutani). It is down to less than 20% in most of the Indian states because of the attacks on Indian students followed by change in the mindset of the visa processing teams from "why to reject" to "why to issue" a visa.
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VIETNAM: Student assessment of lecturers a waste
From Professor TK Raja
It is an exaggeration to say there is large-scale academic fraud in Vietnamese universities (Students will assess their assessors). There may be some isolated incidents of minor fraud which should be ignored but these problems are rampant in all developed countries as well.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

IRAN: Scores of students detained, rights group says
Iran has detained scores of students in an apparent bid to prevent new opposition protests during annual Student Day events next month, a Western-based human rights group said, reports Reuters. Iranian police, seeking to avoid any repeat of the huge demonstrations that erupted after a disputed election in June, have warned opposition supporters against using the 7 December Student Day commemorations to hold more rallies.
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US: Congress investigates 'Climategate' e-mails
The United States Congress has begun the process of investigating the leaked climate change e-mails from the University of East Anglia, UK, which means all attempts to suppress and shut down the scandal have failed, writes Gerald Warner for The Telegraph.
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UK: No conspiracy, says email row climate scientist
Professor Phil Jones, the climatologist at the centre of the leaked emails row, said last week that he "absolutely" stands by his research and any suggestion that the emails provide evidence of a conspiracy to manipulate or hide data that do not support the theory of man-made climate change was "complete rubbish", writes Leo Hickman for The Guardian.
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GLOBAL: After 107 years, Rhodes seeks outside funds
Payback time is looming for recipients of one of the world's most prestigious scholarships as the Rhodes Trust is seeking funds for the first time in its 107-year history, writes Peter DeIonno for Business Report. After losing 22% of its holdings in last year's global markets crash, the trust, which administers the Oxford-based Rhodes Scholarship programme, is down to its last £115 million (US$190 million).
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CHINA: PhD explosion accompanied by quality fears
Often overlooked in the 'miracle' of China's rapid economic development over the past three decades is the 'miracle' of the massive number of PhD graduates it now produces, reports Stephen Wong for Asia Times. China is expected to replace Japan as the world's second biggest economy after the US this year or the next in terms of gross domestic product. But by 2008, it had already surpassed the US as the world's top producer of PhD holders — despite postgraduate programmes only resuming in 1978 after the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.
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INDIA: New regulation for university accreditation
India's University Grants Commission has framed a regulation making it mandatory for all universities and colleges to be certified by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), commission chairman Professor Sukhdeo Thorat said last weekend, writes Ananya Dutta for The Hindu. The move is an attempt to assess and thereafter ensure the quality of education offered in institutions of higher education, Thorat explained.
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VIETNAM: PM admits allowing sub-par universities
Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has accepted responsibility for letting several sub-standard universities open recently — but did not absolve the Ministry of Education and the rest of government from blame — VietamNet Bridge reports. Speaking in the National Assembly Dung said he, the ministry and government were all responsible for the poor quality of "some" schools — but he also said the cases were the exceptions, not the rule.
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SAUDI ARABIA: King rebuffs critics on education reform
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, 86, sees the need for speed in changing his country. He is creating secular universities, including a coeducational graduate school, and pushing for more science and technology in education, write Henry Meyer and Glen Carey for Bloomberg. A backlash by clerics, led in public by Sheikh Saad Bin Naser al-Shatri, is slowing those efforts, though the king dismissed al-Shatri from the country's top religious body last month.
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CANADA: Report urges national standards for universities
Canada needs a national standard by which to judge the quality of its post-secondary education institutions, a report released last Tuesday concludes, writes Mike Barber of Canwest News Service. The Canadian Council on Learning study suggests Canadians don't understand what "quality post-secondary education'" should be, due in part to the many jurisdictions into which colleges and universities fall.
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UK: Governors urged to quit after £36 million student scam
The body which funds English universities has taken the unprecedented step of calling for the mass resignation of governors at a university accused of misusing public money, write Lucy Hodges and Richard Garner for The Independent. It follows two damning reports which revealed that London Metropolitan University falsely claimed funding for thousands of students. As a result it has been ordered to repay £36 million (US$60 million) in funding — which is expected to lead to hundreds of job losses among academic staff.
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UK: Cuts will cost universities their international reputations
Universities are facing a new funding crisis with looming public spending cuts and intense competition from overseas, according to Sir Alan Langlands, head of the university funding council for England, writes Polly Curtis for The Guardian. Langlands warned that the UK risks losing its international reputation for higher education as other countries pump cash into universities to try to train people out of the recession.
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US: Season of protests for University of California
Amid a season of protests across the University of California, the system's president and the leader of its premiere campus have increasingly found themselves portrayed as the villains, writes Jack Stripling for Inside Higher Ed. While they are both working to change that, recent public relations missteps may complicate their efforts. Allegations of police brutality during a recent protest at Berkeley and faculty concerns about athletics spending are the latest PR headaches for Robert J Birgeneau, the campus chancellor. As for the system's president, Mark Yudof has been busy defending a 32% tuition hike while suffering criticism for joking about his compensation in a New York Times interview.
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US: Labour fight ends in win for students
The anti-sweatshop movement at dozens of American universities has had plenty of idealism and energy but not many victories, writes Steven Greenhouse for The New York Times. Until now. The often-raucous student movement recently announced that its pressure tactics had persuaded one of the nation's leading sportswear companies, Russell Athletic, to rehire 1,200 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when Russell closed its factory soon after the workers had unionised.
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KENYA: President wants hands-on skills for students
President Mwai Kibaki has advised scholars in universities to bequeath students with education that imparts hands-on skills in order to overcome critical challenges facing nations, reports the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. He said there was a need for institutions of higher learning to narrow the gap between academic theory and practice in efforts to tackle various threats facing developing countries.
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