Sunday 31 May 2009

University World News 0078 - 31st May 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report


CHINA: Ministry recruits 2,000 foreign scholars
John Richard Schrock
In a bold move to rapidly expand the research capacity of its universities, China’s Ministry of Education is helping underwrite the costs of recruiting and retaining 2,000 foreign experts. About 70 select universities, as well as 211 schools that comprise an elite 100+ universities, can apply to the ministry’s university section with proposals to expand key research positions.
Full report on the University World News site

UNESCO: Race for the leadership
Yojana Sharma
Nominations for leadership of Unesco closed today – 31 May – and the organisation’s Paris headquarters was abuzz last week with talk about who will become its new Director-General when Japan's Koïchiro Matsuura bows out in October after 10 years in charge.
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: Out of puff or more protests to come?
Jane Marshall
After four months of fighting the government’s higher education and research reforms, meantime disrupting universities and bringing lecturers, researchers and students out on strike and onto the streets, the national protest movement appears to have run out of steam. Even the most radical universities, including the Sorbonne, have voted to reopen. But activists say action will resume until demands are met.
Full report on the University World News site

EGYPT: University prepares for Obama
Ashraf Khaled
Cairo University, one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the Middle East, is being spruced up for the first time in more than two decades ahead of this week’s visit by US President Barack Obama, where he will deliver a promised address to the Islamic World.
Full report on the University World News site

CANADA: Academics call for greater transparency
Anne Kershaw*
The Canadian Association of University Teachers has called on the country’s universities to open their books so the causes and extent of the financial difficulties facing institutions can be better understood.
Full report on the University World News site

NEW ZEALAND: Poor budget for universities
John Gerritsen
New Zealand’s universities are counting the costs of last week’s government budget, which took with one hand and gave just a little with the other. The budget, the first by the new conservative National Party-led government, was aimed at dealing with the economic recession and securing New Zealand’s international credit rating against a possible downgrade.
Full report on the University World News site

GREECE: President urges more university support
Makki Marseilles
The state’s lack of responsibility for higher education has been severely criticised by Greek President Karolos Papoulias who also censured academics for the current condition of the nation’s universities.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: New quality and standards watchdog
The federal government has announced plans to replace the nation’s existing universities quality agency with a new body that will have much greater powers. In an exclusive report in our Features section this week, Dr David Woodhouse, head of that agency, says the new organisation is expected to have a much wider role, including taking over the data collection task of the department of education, disseminating information and, if set up as a German CHE-like system, it would undercut the current crude whole-of-institution rankings.
Read the report on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Push to graduate more PhDs
Karen MacGregor
Hundreds of postgraduate students gathered in Johannesburg this month for the annual conference and fair of the South African PhD Project, an initiative supporting a planned five-fold increase in the number of doctoral graduates by 2025. The present graduation rate in South Africa is 27 PhDs per million of the population – far fewer than Brazil and a ninth that of Australia.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Alarm at exploitation of foreigners
The federal government last week vowed to take action against training colleges that breach regulations and provide false certificates for money to foreign students to enable them to remain as permanent residents. In a ministerial statement in parliament, Education Minister Julia Gillard warned that Australia could not afford to allow the reputation of its $15 billion-a-year education industry to be harmed by the actions of some colleges, or by racist attacks on students.
Full report on the University World News site

NIGERIA: Weak currency hits students abroad
Tunde Fatunde
A weak currency and a steady decline in foreign reserves are hitting international students from Nigeria. Parents are finding it increasingly difficult to remit money to children studying abroad, some students are considering continuing their studies at home, and many parents are shelving plans to send their kids to foreign universities.
Full report on the University World News site

ZIMBABWE: UN agency turns on taps at shut university
The United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, is working to resurrect water and sanitation provision at Zimbabwe’s oldest university, according to Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Stan Mudenge. The University of Zimbabwe was shut indefinitely in February due to fears of a cholera outbreak arising from lack of clean water, among other things.
Full report on the University World News site

ZAMBIA: University access limited
Access to higher education in Zambia remains limited and unsatisfactory as a result of growing pressure on the existing infrastructure, poor maintenance and an increase in the school-going population, according to University of Zambia Vice-chancellor Professor Steven Simukanga. But Simukanga says progress is being made.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS

DR CONGO: Sub-standard institutions closed
Six university institutions in Katanga-Kalemie have been declared ‘non viable’ after a visit by the Minister for Higher Education, and 16 technical medical training institutes have been closed following a health ministry audit, according to newspaper reports.
Full report on the University World News site

TUNISIA: Teenager discovers simpler proof
A 19-year-old student, Karim Ghariani, has discovered a new way of mathematically proving Bernoulli’s theorem, an equation applied to calculations about speed and pressure of fluids.
Full report on the University World News site

SENEGAL: Private higher education boosts economy
Private higher education contributes nearly CFA13 billion (US$27.7 million) a year to the economy, according to Abdou Samb, former president of Cesp, the cooperative representing the sector. But he said the high costs made higher education inaccessible to many young Senegalese, a situation which could be alleviated if the government entered an agreement with the private sector, reported Wal Fadjri of Dakar.
Full report on the University World News site

FOR SALE: University World News e-book


REPORTS FROM THE FRONTIER:
A global view of the key issues confronting higher education

Reports from the Frontier is the first in a planned series of electronic books to be published by University World News. The initial volume comprises eight chapters that range from the impact of the global financial crisis on universities, declining funding, and the Bologna process, to women in higher education, international rankings and e-learning.

The 337-page e-book includes an index listing the chapters and article headings, and is available as a special offer to University World News readers. To see the contents page and to order your copy click here


SCIENCE SCENE

GLOBAL: Sea horse and insect among top 10 new species
A pea-sized seahorse, caffeine-free coffee and bacteria that live in hairspray are among the top 10 new species described in 2008, according to the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. The institute and an international committee of taxonomists announce a top 10 each year on 23 May to commemorate the 1709 birth of Carolus Linnaeus, who initiated the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications. The event aims to raise awareness of biodiversity, the field of taxonomy, and the importance of natural history museums and botanical gardens.
Full report on the University World News site

UK: Leader of the pack?
Dog owners who seek to win obedience from their hounds by exerting dominance are barking up the wrong tree, new research shows. The study by academics at the University of Bristol’s department of clinical veterinary sciences found that dogs do not seek to dominate one another in order to keep their place in a pecking order.
Full report on the University World News site

GERMANY: Green genetic engineering essential
Michael Gardner
The German Research Foundation has released a joint memorandum with the German Agricultural Society calling for a change in current policy on research into genetic engineering. The two organisations complain that research in this field is being hampered more and more by “misguided political decisions”, referring to the current ban on growing genetically modified crops, but also by the illegal destruction of field tests.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURES

AUSTRALIA: New quality and standards watchdog
David Woodhouse*
As part of its 2009 budget statements, the Australian government announced its intention to create a Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. This was the result of a recommendation from a review of higher education to create a single national regulatory body.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: International education’s contribution
Julia Gillard*
International education has made a significant contribution to Australia. It has grown to become our third largest source of overseas earnings, generating $15.5 billion in 2008 and supporting more than 125,000 jobs. In 2008, nearly 500,000 students came to Australia and it is the lead sector in terms of export earnings in Victoria and the second largest in New South Wales.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

CANADA: Is medical science for sale?
Are medical researchers and journals too close to the pharmaceutical industry for comfort – or patient safety? Sergio Sismondo, a professor of philosophy at Queen’s University, interrogates this pertinent and controversial issue in an article titled “Medical Publishing and the Drug Industry: Is medical science for sale?” in the current edition of the Canadian journal Academic Matters.
Full article on the University World News site

US: The business of higher education
Timothy McGettigan*
In recent years, colleges and universities have encountered increasing pressure to operate like businesses. As the logic goes, businesses must survive in a cut-throat climate of unfettered competition and thus their organisations need to be leaner, more efficient and more responsive to the needs of their customers than not-for-profit organisations, such as colleges and universities.
Full report on the University World News site

U-SAY

Our report: US: No job if you only have an online degree by John Richard Schock continues to attract comment. Here is the latest:

From Scott Stallings

I am astounded at the lack of research and the ignorance of this author. Loose generalisations are no way to prove a point. Speaking from the perspective of an “online graduate", I can attest that I have easily found employment. I can also attest that my income has increased as a result of completing my degree. GASP!
Full letter and comments on the University World News site

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

US: Research identifies problem drinkers on campus
Binge-drinking by university students is a problem in many countries but new US research has highlighted the characteristics of those most at risk of alcohol-related injuries. The findings by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers suggest that university managers who want to minimise the incidence of alcohol-related injuries should focus on a relatively small group of students.
Full report on the University World News site

COLUMBIA: Irish scientist in search for ‘disappeared’
A geoscientist from Queen’s University Belfast has been advising police and legal professionals in Bogota on techniques to recover the bodies of Columbia’s ‘disappeared’, the victims of violence, many related to illegal trade in drugs, buried in unmarked graves.
Full report on the University World News site

CANADA: ‘Second Life’ can be good for health
Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University Health Network’s Centre for Innovation in Complex Care have found that a wide array of health-related activity – including fund-raising for medical research – occurs in the three-dimensional virtual world of Second Life, reports ScienceDaily.
More on the University World News site

PEOPLE

US: Nobel winner Robert F Furchgott dies at 92
Robert F Furchgott, one of three American scientists awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery that nitric oxide transmits signals within the human body, died on 19 May in Seattle, reports Henny Ray Abrams for AFP. He was 92.
More on the University World News site

FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in higher education worldwide. More than 850 readers have joined. Sign up to the University World News Facebook group to meet and communicate directly with academics and researchers informed by the world’s first truly global higher education publication. Click on the link below to visit and join the group.
Visit the University World News group on Facebook

WORLD ROUND-UP

CHINA: Tiananmen protests a distant memory for youth
While two decades ago, China’s youth were at the forefront of a movement to bring democracy to the world’s most populous nation in demonstrations bloodily put down around Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square, today’s students are more pro-government, more suspicious of the West and genuinely proud of China's achievements, such as the Beijing Olympics, making a repeat of 4 June 1989 unlikely, writes Ben Blanchard for Reuters.
More on the University World News site

CHINA: Student suicide concerns grow
Studies from the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Centre show that suicide among young adults (aged 18 to 35) in China is becoming a major concern, with a record number of deaths among university students in one province, China Daily reports. The Guangdong Education Department confirmed that last year 63 students from 38 universities killed themselves, in the worst year on record.
More on the University World News site

INDIA: Call for common HE systems in Commonwealth
India will press for a common course structure and higher education system among Commonwealth countries when the education ministers of member states meet in Kuala Lumpur next month, reports Fresh News.
More on the University World News site

VIETNAM: Ministry tightens doctoral admissions
Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training has issued new doctoral admission requirements, including letters of recommendation, set to take effect by next February, reports Thanhnien News. All PhD candidates must submit two letters of recommendation from two professors or PhD holders in relevant subjects, said Tran Thi Ha, head of the Ministry’s higher education department. Currently, PhD applicants only need to take an examination and submit two scientific reports.
More on the University World News site

US: Tenure in a digital era
Among the ‘horror stories’ Rosemary Feal has heard: assistant professors who work in digital media and whose tenure review panels insist on evaluating them by printing out selected pages of their work. “It's like evaluating an Academy Award entry based on 20 film stills,” said Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Even as the use of electronic media has become common across fields for research and teaching, what is taken for granted among young scholars is still foreign to many of those who sit on tenure and promotion committees.
More on the University World News site

US: States might base funding on graduation rates
States fund public colleges primarily based on how many students are enrolled. But a number of legislatures are considering policies that would link funding to whether students graduate, writes Beth Marklein in USA Today.
More on the University World News site

US: Hispanic academic to be Vatican ambassador
A Hispanic Roman Catholic theologian who was an adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign will be nominated to serve as the next US ambassador to the Vatican, the White House announced last Wednesday, reports Eric Gorski for the Associated Press. Miguel H Diaz, 45, a Havana-born associate professor of theology at St John's University and the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, would be the first Hispanic to serve as ambassador to the Vatican since the US and the Holy See established full diplomatic ties in 1984.
More on the University World News site

PAKISTAN: US supports new financial aid programme
The United States will provide US$4 million to expand the Higher Education Commission financial aid programme, which was launched at a national conference on public-private partnership for higher education in Islamabad last week, reports Dawn. The programme aims to expand and improve financial aid for higher education in Pakistan.
More on the University World News site

PAKISTAN: Policy guidelines on s exual harassment
Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission has drafted policy guidelines to curb the menace of s exual harassment in institutions of higher education and to ensure an atmosphere free from all forms of harassment, exploitation and intimidation, reports Mansoor Malik for Dawn.
More on the University World News site

TURKEY: World universities seek foreign students
International universities that have experienced a decrease in the size of their student body due to the ongoing global financial crisis have carried out various campaigns to attract Turkish applicants, according to a report published by the Ministry of Education, reports Today’s Zaman. According to the report, 150 universities from 22 countries are offering special incentives to attract Turkish students.
More on the University World News site

UK: Oxford poetry prof quits after smearing rival
The University of Oxford’s Professor of Poetry resigned last week, only nine days after she was elected to the post after a smear campaign against her main rival, writes Patrick Foster for The Times. Ruth Padel, the first woman to be elected to the position, admitted that she had e-mailed journalists about s exual harassment claims made against Derek Walcott, the Nobel laureate.
More on the University World News site

UK: Language degree review announced
The Higher Education Funding Council for England has confirmed that it will examine modern foreign language provision amid concern about university budget cuts, reports BBC News. Several universities have had reduced funding for languages following an assessment of research by the funding council.
More on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Research hogs ‘rip-off’ the system
Top universities in Australia were using marriages of convenience with medical research institutes to inflate their research income and prestige and to secure an unfair slice of sought-after block funds for infrastructure, university chief Ross Milbourne said, reports Bernard Lane for The Australian. Milbourne, chairman of the Australian Technology Network of universities, sharply criticised the practice as a “rort” and a “rip-off”.
More on the University World News site

NEW ZEALAND: Canterbury sets research standards
Slack academics will be in the spotlight under research standards being developed at Canterbury University in New Zealand, reports Rebecca Todd for The Press. Vice-chancellor Rod Carr said the university aimed to set minimum research output levels for academics. Those not performing could not reasonably expect to continue their work at the university.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Bad management cost university millions
A forensic audit of South Africa’s embattled Mangosuthu University of Technology found major problems in its administration and management, reports Rivonia Naidu for the Daily News. Interim administrator, Professor Jonathan Jansen, said there were major deficiencies in the approval of salaries and expenditures at executive level and serious irregularities relating to the employment of students that had lost the university millions of Rand.
More on the University World News site

SERBIA: Preserving tradition under Bologna
Despite a 200-year tradition, Serbia is facing challenges in its higher education sector – chiefly the adoption of European standards and accession to a common European education system – writes Bojana Milovanovic for the Southeast European Times.
More on the University World News site

Monday 25 May 2009

University World News 0077 - 24th May 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

SOUTH AFRICA: Communist takes charge of higher education
Karen MacGregor
In his first day in office, South Africa’s new President Jacob Zuma announced the creation of a Ministry of Higher Education and Training with a Communist leader, Dr Blade Nzimande, as Minister. Universities welcomed the news. By the week’s end, the outspoken former academic had clashed with radical students and had promised vice-chancellors he would respect university autonomy – if it was not used to block transformation.
Full report on the University World News site

CANADA: PhD offers little salary difference
Philip Fine
Earning a PhD does little to boost earnings compared with those who graduate with just a masters degree, according to a national survey. Canada’s student lobby pinned the blame for the relatively low earning power of the PhD on what they see as the casualisation of the university labour force.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Establishing world-class universities
Jamil Salmi, the World Bank’s tertiary education coordinator, has written a new book, The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities. In our Higher Education Research and Commentary section this week, reviewer Tony Sheil describes the book as a scholarly contribution that will signal “a turning point in a sometimes divisive debate over an issue of enormous concern to governments”.
Read the full report on the University World News site

US: Rankings can trigger innovation, new study finds
Much has been written about the pitfalls of ranking systems and their negative impacts on universities. A new study of four countries with high-profile rankings – Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan – is more upbeat. The Institute for Higher Education Policy in the US argues that nuanced approaches to rankings may prompt institutions to work in innovative and more productive ways.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Vice-chancellors sign sustainability agreement
Vice-chancellors and presidents from Universitas 21, the international network of 21 research-intensive universities in 14 countries, on Friday signed a statement on sustainability at their annual meeting held in Seoul, South Korea. The statement emphasises the important role universities play in facing the challenges of climate change, the decline of biodiversity, the need for energy, food and water security, and of economic sustainability and of human health.
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: Why dropouts drop out
Jane Marshall
One in five students who enrol in French higher education quit without qualifying, according to Ove, the National Observatory of Student Life. The organisation says these thousands of young people without a university diploma or degree have “escaped investigation”. Now it has decided to fill the research gap and find out why they gave up their studies and how they fared afterwards
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALASIA: Chinese numbers on the rise
John Gerritsen and Geoff Maslen
The ongoing impact of past declines in the number of Chinese students has masked a rebound in enrolments by new international students in New Zealand’s universities this year while increasing numbers of Chinese continue to flood into Australian universities.
Full report on the University World News site

MIDDLE EAST: Regional reform for economic crisis
Wagdy Sawahel
In a bid to enhance the impact of educational reforms on social and economic development in the Middle East, a new regional reform roadmap has been developed that combines higher education, research and private investment for promoting innovation-based development.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS

EUROPE: New Secretary-General for research universities
Leah Germain
The new Secretary-General for the League of European Research Universities, Professor Kurt Deketelaere, has urged European governments and industries to continue investing in university research and development, despite the current global economy.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Mobility and swine flu
Francisco Marmolejo*
The recent H1N1 virus outbreak is a phenomenon with important implications for international higher education, especially regarding student and faculty mobility. The challenges associated with the recent virus outbreak are not exclusively Mexican but are more appropriately viewed as phenomena with North American and international dimensions as well.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Bill to boost study abroad
American Senator Paul Simon introduced a Study Abroad Foundation act to the US Senate earlier this month. The act is intended to provide a dramatic increase in the number of American undergraduates who go abroad to undertake part of their studies in other countries.
Full report on the University World News site

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

GLOBAL: Higher education world conference
Jonathan Travis*
The World Conference on Higher Education will be held in July at Unesco headquarters in Paris on the theme of The New Dynamics of Higher Education. It follows the 1998 World Conference, which was important for recognising higher education as a key factor in the progression of nations and their people, for sustainable development and for human rights as well as for democracy, peace and justice.
Full report on the University World News site

BUSINESS

GLOBAL: Chemists find cough medicine secret
Geoff Maslen
It is not surprising that after 12 years, organic chemists Associate Professor Andrew Smallridge and adjunct research fellow Associate Professor Maurie Trewhella at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia were thrilled to have discovered a relatively simple, environmentally friendly method of making ephedrine – the key ingredient in cold, cough, asthma and hay fever medicines.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Flu research could improve vaccines
Emma Jackson
A team of researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey, US has made a breakthrough that could affect the way pharmaceutical companies produce vaccines for flu and other viruses.
Full report on the University World News site

EUROPE: Recession encourages education push
Alan Osborn
The 27 European Union member countries have taken a symbolically important step to provide a pan-European character to their education and training systems, a policy area traditionally reserved for national governments in the EU.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURE

AUSTRALIA: Outcomes of the Bradley review
Vin Massaro*
I found the Bradley report disappointing and short-sighted. Reading it in the context of the federal government's promised education revolution, and early suggestions that the review team was proposing to make some bold suggestions, one had to ask whether we were seeing the first Revolution to achieve the status quo.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: Establishing world-class universities
Tony Sheil*
Most nations want one but few can seriously entertain the thought of establishing a world-class university, let alone sustain the resources and results needed to hold their position. That is the take-away message from Jamil Salmi, the World Bank’s tertiary education coordinator, in his impressive monograph, The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities. This scholarly contribution will surely signal a turning point in a sometimes divisive debate over an issue of enormous concern to governments, both industrial and developing. The conclusions might not be to everyone’s liking but Salmi would have performed no favours by gilding the lily.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Academic manager or managed academic?
Richard Winter*
The relationship between values and academic identity has received scant attention in the higher education literature with some notable exceptions. This paper contends that the perceived need to align all academics around corporate values and goals has given rise to academic identity schisms in higher education.
Full report on the University World News site

U-SAY

CORRECTION: In responses to an article by Dr John Richard Schrock last week, we incorrectly stated that Stuart Hamilton was Chief Executive of Universities Australia, the vice-chancellors’ national organisation. Hamilton is, in fact, Chief Executive of Open Universities Australia which provides distance education and online courses to students around the world. We apologise to Mr Hamilton and both organisations for the error.

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

US: Google CEO tells graduates to turn off computers
The head of the world’s most popular search engine urged college graduates last Monday to step away from the virtual world and make human connections, writes Kathy Matheson for Associated Press. Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania’s commencement, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt told about 6,000 graduates that they need to find out what is most important to them – by living analog for a while.
More on the University World News site

US: Dope lovers urge colleges to mellow out
Marijuana advocates who say pot is safer than alcohol want colleges to wade into a hazy debate over whether schools’ tough pot penalties are actually worsening their drinking woes, writes Rick Callahan for Associated Press. They argue that stiff punishments for being caught in a campus dorm with pot steer students to booze and add to binge drinking, drunken brawls and other booze-soaked troubles.
More on the University World News site

FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in higher education worldwide. Some 840 readers have joined. Sign up to the University World News Facebook group to meet and communicate directly with academics and researchers informed by the world’s first truly global higher education publication. Click on the link below to visit and join the group.
Visit the University World News group on Facebook

WORLD ROUND-UP

VENEZUELA: Thousands of students protest funding cuts
Thousands of university students marched through Venezuela’s capital Caracas on Wednesday demanding more state financial aid for public universities after President Hugo Chavez’s government reduced funding by 6%, reports Fabiola Sanchez for The Associated Press. The crowd – comprising students, professors and university workers – chanted anti-Chavez slogans as they marched to the education ministry, where they raised their concerns with Higher Education Minister Luis Acuna.
More on the University World News site

UK: More overseas students ‘found’
There are many more international students at UK universities than previously thought, a study by the British Council suggests, reports Liz Lightfoot for BBC News. The figures suggest there were 513,570 international students in the past academic year not 389,330 as previously thought. The increase means the UK rivals the US as the top destination for overseas students, the council says. The US has 623,805 international students.
More on the University World News site

INDONESIA: Universities defend foreign med students
Several state universities have hit back at comments from controversial Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari that medical schools should limit the number of foreign students studying medicine in Indonesia to make way for more local students, reports the Jakarta Globe.
More on the University World News site

CHINA: Graduates downgrade dreams in slump
Sun Yizhen considered her university degree in international trade the ticket to a prestigious career with a state-owned enterprise like Bank of China Ltd. in Beijing. Instead, she found herself huddled against a freezing wind in a middle school parking lot in Huai’an, waiting to interview for a job with the local tax collector, writes Michael Tighe for Bloomberg.
More on the University World News site

CHINA: Vice President: Universities must tackle corruption
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping has told universities to reform and punish academic corruption, reports the official Xinhua News Agency. Universities are supposed to produce “qualified builders and reliable successors of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Xi said while touring major Beijing-based universities last week.
More on the University World News site

VIETNAM: Asia-Europe higher education links boosted
Asian-European countries have agreed to boost education cooperation following a second ministerial meeting on education held in Ha Noi, reports Vietnam News. They agreed to set up a university business forum to exchange views, good practice and information, to organise higher education meetings, conferences, fairs and joint marketing and information activities, and to establish an education secretariat to strengthen the Asian-European meeting process.
More on the University World News site

SINGAPORE: President announces new universities
The Massahusetts Institute of Technology is to partner Singapore’s planned fourth university, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen has confirmed. The Straits Times added that a Chinese partner for the university will be announced later this year.
More on the University World News site

US: Amid protests, Obama speaks at Catholic university
US President Barack Obama called for “open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words” as he accepted an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame amid angry protests over his support for abortion rights, writes Michael D Shear for The Washington Post.
More on the University World News site

US: Higher education may be next bubble to burst
The public has become all too aware of the term ‘bubble’ to describe an asset that is irrationally and artificially overvalued and cannot be sustained. The dot-com bubble burst by 2000. More recently the overextended housing market collapsed, helping to trigger a credit meltdown. The stock market has declined more than 30% in the past year, as companies once considered flagship investments have withered in value. Is it possible that higher education might be the next bubble to burst? ask Joseph Marr Cronin and Howard E Horton in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Some early warnings suggest that it could be.
More on the University World News site

US: Google pact to give libraries input on price
In a move that could blunt some of the criticism of Google for its settlement of a lawsuit over its book-scanning project, the company signed an agreement with the University of Michigan that would give some libraries a degree of oversight over the prices Google could charge for its vast digital library, writes Miguel Helft for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site

US: Islamic college planned for Berkeley
The proposed Zaytuna College would be a first: a four-year, accredited Islamic college in the United States, writes Elizabeth Redden for Inside Higher Ed. “Part of the process of indigenising Islam in America is for the community to begin to develop its own leadership from inside the country, develop its own scholars,” said Hatem Bazian, chair of the management board for Zaytuna College and a senior lecturer of Near Eastern studies at the University of California at Berkeley.
More on the University World News site

UAE: Market forces to decide on university numbers
The government will let market forces decide how many universities the UAE should have and will not limit the total number, according to the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, reports Daniel Bardsley for The National. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak said that in a free market there would still be controls on the quality of universities, and that below-par institutions would struggle to attract students.
More on the University World News site

UK: Funding cuts could undermine strong HE reputation
After 10 years of growth under Labour, Britain's universities are facing the prospect of retrenchment as a result of government cuts, writes Lucy Hodges in The Independent. Last week Surrey University, which is highly rated for science and technology, announced that it was making 65 staff redundant – and that it could not rule out compulsory job losses.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: No academic freedom risk at university
A University of KwaZulu-Natal investigation has found no evidence of a threat to academic freedom at the institution, even though certain sections of its community still feared that their freedom of expression was being curbed, writes Sue Blaine for Business Day. Earlier this year, the South African university appointed a seven-member council committee to probe whether it upheld academic freedom, following two years of repeated criticism locally and abroad.
More on the University World News site

EU: Call for proposals on industry-academia partnerships
The European Commission Directorate-General for Research has issued a call for proposals under the 2009 work programme ‘people’ of the Seventh Framework Programme, reports Cordis News. The budget amounts to €65 million and the deadline for proposals is 27 July.
More on the University World News site

Tuesday 19 May 2009

University World News 0076 - 17th May 2009


REPORTS FROM THE FRONTIER:

A global view of the key issues confronting higher education

Reports from the Frontier is the first in a planned series of electronic books to be published by University World News. The initial volume comprises eight chapters that range from the impact of the global financial crisis on universities, declining funding, and the Bologna process, to women in higher education, international rankings and e-learning.

The 337-page e-book includes an index listing the chapters and article headings, and is available as a special offer to University World News readers. To see the contents page and to order your copy click here


NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report


GLOBAL: Swine flu epidemic spreads
Geoff Maslen
More than a third of foreign students studying in Mexico's universities have fled the country as teams of researchers work around the globe on the rapidly spreading virus first known as swine flu but now called the type-A H1N1 virus. China, with the world's biggest population, last week became the latest country to report that a student recently returned from the US was its first confirmed case.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Academic migration no easy ride
John Gerritsen
A range of changes await academics who move countries – different languages, different cultures, new environs. But no matter where they go in the world, there is one thing they are unlikely to escape and that’s the neoliberal audit culture that underpins university management.
Full report on the University World News site

INDONESIA: Dispute over foreign students
David Jardine
An inter-ministerial battle has broken out over the number of foreign students taking up places in the country’s university medical faculties. The row involves the Ministry of National Education and the Heath Ministry with the Health Minister claiming the number of foreign medical students disadvantages Indonesians.
Full report on the University World News site

AUSTRALIA: Billions more for universities – but when?
Geoff Maslen
Before the government handed down its budget last week, its spin-merchants had persuaded the nation’s higher education leaders they could expect little. So when the money appeared to be gushing towards them last Tuesday they were overjoyed and only later did they realise it would be years before they saw the flood of cash – if then.
Full report on the University World News site

FINLAND: Reform law to be amended
Ian Dobson
Aspects of a new law to reform Finland’s university sector will have to be amended because they were judged as being unconstitutional. As reported in University World News, Finland's Constitutional Committee has now examined the draft Act and will require some changes before the law can go to parliament.
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: Sarkozy rejects retreat on university reforms
Jane Marshall
As France's strike by lecturers and researchers passed its 15th week, it looked possible that students' examinations could be postponed until September. But President Nicolas Sarkozy rejected any government retreat on the planned reforms, despite a call by university presidents for a moratorium; and the national coordination of universities reaffirmed its determination to continue the protests and reiterated that withdrawal of the reforms was "necessary to re-establish conditions for dialogue".
Full report on the University World News site

CENTRAL ASIA: Support promises life-long learning
Nick Holdsworth
Putting Central Asia’s vocational schools at the centre of life-long learning – taking them beyond traditional roles and into an innovative and more expansive future – is at the heart of a new European Training Foundation programme launched earlier this month in Turin.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: An MSc to stop building collapse?
Bill Holdsworth
Redundancies among engineers in recession-ravaged countries have been on the rise as major infrastructure projects, many related to practical ways and means to reduce the impacts of climate change, were put on hold. But a fight back is happening as national governments and technical universities across the world are seeking to improve student numbers in degree courses in the fields of environmental, energy, electronics, transport and construction engineering with all its many facets.
Full report on the University World News site

GREECE: Politics or culture?
Makki Marseilles
Two major events monopolise the interest of large sections of the Greek academic community, politicians and the wider public this time of the year, each for their own particular reasons. They are student elections throughout the country’s higher education institutions and the Students Week at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Full report on the University World News site

AFRICA: Leaders fail education’s needs
Primarashni Gower
African leaders lack the political will to make education a priority. While the continent has resources and skills, it does not have the willpower to have education on the top of the agenda, N igeria”s University of Ilorin Vice-chancellor Professor Is-haq Oloyede said during his inauguration as the new President of the Association of African Universities.
Full report on the University World News site

ZIMBABWE: Call to prevent sector collapse
Academics and student leaders have called on the government to implement educational and political reforms to attract much needed donor funding which could save the education sector from collapse.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS

GERMANY: Humboldt award to boost research
Michael Gardner
The first eight Alexander von Humboldt Professorships were awarded in Berlin by Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan and Humboldt Foundation President Helmut Schwarz last Thursday week. The new Humboldt Professorship, Germany’s most highly-endowed research prize, is aimed at giving excellent researchers from around the world the opportunity to work in Germany on a long-term basis.
Full report on the University World News site

AFRICA: Agricultural institutions must improve
Radical changes need to be made to curricula at agricultural institutions of higher learning in Africa, a recent survey has concluded. The survey report also calls on universities to lobby for funds to support facilities and improve practical teaching and learning.
Full report on the University World News site


SCIENCE SCENE


US: First clues to pandemic not medical
Health authorities could get more warning of emerging pandemics from internet hits and pharmacy sales, rather than official notifications of disease from health practitioners, two researchers suggest.
Full report on the University World News site

CANADA: Brain hard at work when daydreaming
Goofing off might give you a rest, but the same is not true of the brain – new research shows brain areas associated with complex problem solving are highly active while we daydream.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Rules proposed to save coral reefs
Connections between coral reefs are among six measures an international team of scientists has suggested governments should adopt in order to save the endangered ecosystems from destruction. They launched their proposal at the World Ocean Conference 2009 in Manado, Indonesia, last week.
Full report on the University World News site

UNILATERAL: Off-beat university stories

US: Over-eating alone explains obesity epidemic
The rise in obesity in the United States since the 1970s is virtually all due to increased food intake, a public health expert at Deakin University in Melbourne has revealed. Professor Boyd Swinburn worked with researchers from Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the US to determine how much of the obesity epidemic was caused by excess calorie intake and how much by reductions in physical activity.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

AUSTRALIA: Dirt poor PhDs live below breadline
Rebecca Smith
In the last quarter of 2008, a significant group of Australians was living below the poverty line. For a single person, this meant living on less than A$415.06 a week. These people were working full-time 40 hours a week, and probably much more. They received no employer superannuation and weren't entitled to concessions or pensions. Who were they? Illegal migrant workers? Sweatshop employees unaware of their rights? No – they were some of Australia's best and brightest minds: PhD students.
Full report on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Students benefit from online chat room
A. R. Mubaraka, A. Rohdeb and P. Pakulski*
The social environment prevailing within higher education institutions has seen many changes in recent years. Information technological tools such as internet chat rooms could be one of the cheapest and student-friendly tools universities could use to meet the social and psychological needs of their students.
Full report on the University World News site

U-SAY

Last week’s article by Dr John Richard Schrock, No jobs for online degrees, drew a strong reaction. We publish two responses in this edition, along with Dr Schrock’s reply, and others can be seen as comments with the original web story.
See the reaction on the University World News site

FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in higher education worldwide. More than 830 readers have joined. Sign up to the University World News Facebook group to meet and communicate directly with academics and researchers informed by the world’s first truly global higher education publication. Click on the link below to visit and join the group.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

SOUTH AFRICA: Universities of shame
South Africa’s universities are so rife with racism that all students must in future study a compulsory course on ‘Africanness’, reports Rowan Philip in the Sunday Times. This is one of the recommendations of a government report into discrimination in higher education launched after the emergence last year of a video of white University of the Free State students forcing black cleaners to run and drink urine.
More on the University World News site

JAPAN: MBAs on the rise, firms not convinced
In Japan, it has never been easier to find an MBA programme, say Hiroko Tahiro and Ian Rowley in Business Week. Twenty years ago, only a few universities offered business administration courses, so most aspiring students headed to the US to study. Even as business school degrees gained in popularity around the world, the number of domestic courses edged up only slowly. However, in the last five years the number of Japanese universities with business schools has more than doubled, to 55.
More on the University World News site

KOREA: Business schools go global
Under a campaign to globalise curriculums, staff, and ways of thinking by students, top universities in the country have rebuilt their programmes by modelling themselves largely on leading business schools in the US, writes Moon Lhlwan in Business News. "Globalisation is our new mission," says Jang Hasung, dean of Korea University’s business school.
More on the University World News site

UK: Bristol to get Rough Guides archive
A treasure trove of material relating to the groundbreaking Rough Guides series of travel books has been given to the University of Bristol by the series’ founder Mark Ellingham, an English graduate of the University, the university announced this week. The collection was assembled and kept by his mother, Barbara Ellingham, who died last year.
More on the University World News site

VIETNAM: The Japanese emperor’s fish
Can Tho University, in the Mekong Delta, recognised a scientific research project written by the Japanese Emperor Akihito on a special type of fish – a goby – which originated from the Mekong Delta. As Prince Akihito, he began his doctoral thesis in 1976 on the different types of fish in south Vietnam, writes Tien Trinh in ThanhnienNews.com.
More on the University World News site

UK: Poet withdraws from professorial race
The Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott has withdrawn from the election to become professor of poetry at Oxford University after "low tactics" were used to smear his campaign. Anonymous letters were sent to more than 100 Oxford professors detailing an allegation of s exual harassment made against the poet by a former student in 1982, writes Genevieve Roberts in The Independent.
More on the University World News site

Sunday 10 May 2009

University World News 0075 - 10th May 2009

REPORTS FROM THE FRONTIER:
A global view of the key issues confronting higher education

Reports from the Frontier is the first in a planned series of electronic books to be published by University World News. The initial volume comprises eight chapters that range from the impact of the global financial crisis on universities, declining funding, and the Bologna process, to women in higher education, international rankings and e-learning.

The 337-page e-book includes an index listing the chapters and article headings, and is available as a special offer to University World News readers. To see the contents page and to order your copy click here


SPECIAL REPORT: Problems remain for Bologna

Despite last month’s apparently successful meeting of the 46 education ministers involved in implementing the Bologna process, serious issues have still to be resolved. The ministers acknowledged this in a statement released after the meeting, noting that full implementation of the objectives at the European, national and institutional level would require increased momentum and commitment beyond 2010.

Among students, who are most profoundly affected by the reforms, considerable unease continues as demonstrations across Europe have shown. The following reports by our correspondents consider some of the issues of great concern.

EUROPE: Bologna a success but state support needed
Leah Germain
Progress in Europe’s Bologna process on improving coordination between higher education systems is facing fresh challenges as the reforms it sponsors throw up new differences in courses that need to be examined. A report from EU education network Eurydice says that a close focus on individual country implementation of Bologna policies is required.
Full report on the University World News site

GERMANY: Different credits for Bologna
Michael Gardner
The Bologna process was given a positive appraisal by government officials and the German Rectors’ Conference at last month’s meeting of higher education ministers in Belgium. Students appear to be less enthusiastic about the reforms, though, and at May Day demonstrations some even called for scrapping the new bachelor’s and masters degrees altogether.
Full report on the University World News site

EUROPE: Bologna ignores us: students
Alan Osborn
The Bologna process appears to be falling seriously behind in putting its ideas into practice, Europe’s students say. They claim the process is in grave danger of being revealed as a “superficial redesign of higher education structures in Europe rather than a transformation of the whole academic and learning paradigm”.
Full report on the University World News site

EU: Student manifesto presented to parliament
The European Students’ Union has presented a manifesto for the European parliamentary elections to be held next month. The manifesto says the next parliamentary term from 2009 to 2014 provides the opportunity for the parliament to go further in exercising its legislative rights and non-legislative powers in relation to higher education. The aim is “to put us fully on track to achieve a high-quality, equitable European Higher Education Area by 2020”.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

GLOBAL: Higher education on the move
Higher education mobility around the world has grown by 57% since 1999, with more than 2.9 million students seeking education abroad, according to Higher Education on the Move: New Developments in Global Mobility, the second in the Series of Global Education Research Reports published last week by the Institute of International Education with support from the AIFS Foundation. It argues that the dramatic rise in numbers of mobile students can partly be attributed to worldwide growth in higher education.
See our report in HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY in this edition

US: No job if you only have an online degree
John Richard Schrock
American universities are rejecting job applications from academics with online degrees – even when the institutions are offering those degrees themselves. Good enough for luring in student tuition, it seems, but not good enough for hiring as faculty
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: More reform needed: OECD
Jane Marshall
Recent reforms have laid the initial groundwork for university autonomy but more needs to be done such as letting institutions fix their own tuition fees and select their students, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in its latest Economic Survey of France.
Full report on the University World News site

GREECE: Close a university – open a museum
Makki Marseilles
Education Secretary Aris Spiliotopoulos has outraged the academic community following a chance remark he made before his appointment. Spiliotopoulos had suggested the National Technical University of Athens be removed from its present neo-classical building in the centre of Athens to an unspecified area outside the city boundaries to combat the increasing violent behaviour of sundry anarchist groups which use the university campus as a refuge during riots, demonstrations and marches.
Full report on the University World News site

UK-AUSTRALIA: Industrial action looms
Diane Spencer and Geoff Maslen
Higher education unions in Britain and Australia are demanding hefty pay rises for their members, warning their universities will face industrial action unless agreement is reached. In the UK, the University and College Union sent out ballot papers on 1 May after warning employers that higher education could be brought to a standstill if its members voted for industrial action over job cuts and a low pay offer. In Australia, the National Tertiary Education Union has called for a 20% pay increase over the next three years even before the government hands down its budget next week.
Full report on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS

INDONESIA-AUSTRALIA: Higher education plays diplomatic role
David Jardine
Australia and Indonesia bind their sometimes strained relationship through Canberra’s progressive aid programme in higher education. Bill Farmer, Australian Ambassador to Jakarta, recently announced that Canberra was offering 300 postgraduate scholarships in Australia to Indonesian students.
Full report on the University World News site

NEW ZEALAND: Universities prepare for bleak budget
John Gerritsen
Universities are increasingly concerned New Zealand’s new government will sideline them in its first budget later this month.
Full report on the University World News site

ACADEMIC FREEDOM: Autonomy in West Africa
Jonathan Travis
A symposium and workshop on academic freedom and university autonomy in West African universities was held at the University of Ghana last month.
Full report on the University World News site

BUSINESS

GLOBAL: Alternatives to animal testing urged
Leah Germain
Four international organisations have rallied together and signed an agreement that aims to significantly reduce the number of animals used in basic and biomedical experiments in commercial and basic research.
Full report on the University World News site
See also US: Animal research helps animals too in this week’s Research and Commentary

AUSTRALIA: Researchers make waves with photon technology
Emma Jackson
Scientists at the University of Melbourne have hit commercial success. Less than 12 months after creating a prototype for their innovative communications technology, researchers have sold their single photon source apparatus to a Germany agency run by that country’s government.
Full report on the University World News site

JAPAN-EUROPE: New technology cuts greenhouse gas
Leah Germain
Japan has formed a coalition with the European Union promoting cooperation in developing energy technologies drastically reducing the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Both sides will focus on several specific areas of research, including photovoltaics, power shortage and carbon capture and storage.
Full report on the University World News site

FRANCE: Scientists coordinate micro-organism network
Jane Marshall
Two French research organisations, the Institut National de Recherche Agronomique and the Institut Pasteur, are coordinating a three-year initiative to harmonise European systems of conserving and identifying bacteria and microscopic fungi. The work is expected to be exploited by pharmaceutical, agri-food, and the health industries.
Full report on the University World News site

FEATURE

GREECE: Chancellors' proposals for access to university
Makki Marseilles
University chancellors, as a rule highly distinguished professors elected to the position and not appointed by the government, are responsible for the administration of their institutions while handling large sums of public money, managing employees of different education, skills and temperament. They are also responsible for the education of large numbers of students to the highest degree possible. Yet nobody has taken the trouble to ask them to contribute their views in the national dialogue currently in progress for reform of the access system to higher education.
Full report on the University World News site

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

US: Animal research helps animals too
John Richard Schrock
Last month, the FBI released a wanted poster on America’s first domestic terrorist. Daniel Andreas San Diego, an animal rights extremist, is being sought for alleged arson attacks on biotechnology companies in California. The FBI is offering a bounty of up to $250,000 for information leading to his arrest. The warrant highlights the issue of whether animals should be used in experiments intended to help humans.
Full report on the University World News site

US: Higher education on the move
Global higher education mobility has grown by 57% since 1999, with more than 2.9 million students seeking education abroad, according to Higher Education on the Move: New Developments in Global Mobility, the second in the Series of Global Education Research Reports published last week by the Institute of International Education with support from the AIFS Foundation. It argues that the dramatic rise in numbers of mobile students can party be attributed to worldwide growth in higher education.
More on the University World News site

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

US: Poking fun at community colleges
Community colleges have been the butt of disparaging jokes for almost as long as they've been around, writes David Moltz for Inside Higher Ed. The line about them being nothing more than “high schools with ashtrays” has worn thin through the years, and some educators still do not find such wisecracks funny. Later this year, a community college will not just be the punch line to a series of quirky witticisms; it will be the setting of a prime time situation comedy.
More on the University World News site

A MESSAGE TO READERS

University World News is produced by a team of top journalists who contribute their time largely for free because we believe in the project. But we need your support to continue. We are appealing to readers to spread the word about University World News as a valuable source of news and comment, and as an advertising vehicle. We also ask you to consider making a contribution via the Donate button on our newsletter and website, or by clicking here.

FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in higher education worldwide. More than 810 readers have joined. Sign up to the University World News Facebook group to meet and communicate directly with academics and researchers informed by the world’s first truly global higher education publication. Click on the link below to visit and join the group.
Visit the University World News group on Facebook

WORLD ROUND-UP

US: Gates backs 81 unconventional research projects
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last week announced 81 grants of US$100,000 each to explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries, reports News Blaze. The grants were awarded to researchers in 17 countries through the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, which aims to develop a pipeline of creative ideas that could change the face of global heath.
More on the University World News site

US: New Kindle aimed at textbooks and newspapers
Last Wednesday, Amazon introduced a larger version of the Kindle, pitching it as a new way for people to read textbooks, newspapers and documents, write Brad Stone and Motoko Rich for The New York Times. It also offered limited information about new partnerships that are intended to put Kindles in the hands of more university students and newspaper readers.
More on the University World News site

MALAYSIA: Quality audit of all universities
Higher education institutions in Malaysia are to be audited in August by 10 teams from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency, or MQA, reports the New Straits Times. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin said this move was in line with the Ministry’s vision and mission to make Malaysia a world class higher education hub.
More on the University World News site

VIETNAM: Boosting ties with China
Vietnam plans to strengthen its educational cooperation with China, especially training at least 1,000 PhD students in China in the next 12 years, said Nguyen Thien Nhan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training, at a meeting with China’s Education Minister Zhou Ji in Beijing, reports ThanhnienNews.com.
More on the University World News site

INDIA: Institutes woo students in west Asia
Leading universities and technical institutions in Pune, India, have launched a major effort to tap students from the vast Indian diaspora in west Asian countries, for admission to engineering courses for the academic year 2009-10, writes Vishwas Kothari in the Times of India. Institutions are allowed a 15% quota for foreign nationals, non-resident Indians, people of Indian origin and children of workers in Gulf countries.
More on the University World News site

CAMBODIA: World Bank pumps US$15 million into HE
The World Bank is to inject US$15 million to support tertiary education in private and public universities and institutes in Cambodia, the Ministry of Education has said, writes Khuon Leakhena for The Phnom Penh Post. The money will be spent over five years and will be aimed at boosting standards, providing scholarships for needy students and improving academic research and financial management.
More on the University World News site

UK: Universities must cut admin costs
Ministers have calmed fears that universities will be asked to axe thousands of academic jobs and make savings on teaching and research, reports Anthea Lipsett for The Guardian. Letters from the universities secretary, John Denham, to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) and the Learning and Skills Council confirm that savings should be made in administration costs, rather than the core university business of teaching and research.
More on the University World News site

SOUTH AFRICA: Student protest turns violent
Riot police and students clashed violently at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology's Bellville campus last Wednesday as protests over service delivery, facilities and fees continued for a third day, writes Natasha Joseph for Independent Online.
More on the University World News site

UGANDA: Makerere University scraps free food
Makerere University’s council has resolved to scrap free meals for all students due to high food prices and the financial squeeze at Uganda’s biggest university, writes Francis Kagolo for New Vision. From the next academic year, which opens on 15 August, every student in the government scholarship scheme will instead get a daily meal allowance of sh2,000.
More on the University World News site

US: The sale of Waldorf
Reached on the phone, Richard A Hanson isn't quite sure he's ready to give an interview about last week’s sale of Waldorf College, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. The college’s president has talked quite a bit locally, trying to assure students, professors and the residents of Forest City, Iowa, that selling the liberal arts institution to a for-profit, online university is the best (in fact, only) option. What persuaded Hanson to talk about what's happening at Waldorf is the question of whether he thinks other colleges will soon be facing the same choice.
More on the University World News site

US: Classroom failure, post-season ban
For the first time in its history, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has banned teams from post-season play for their athletes’ poor academic performance, writes David Moltz for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site

Sunday 3 May 2009

University World News 0074 - 3rd May 2009

Reports from the Frontier: A global view of the key issues confronting higher education
Reports from the Frontier is the first in a planned series of electronic books to be published by University World News. The initial volume comprises eight chapters that range from the impact of the global financial crisis on universities, declining funding, and the Bologna process, to women in higher education, international rankings and e-learning. The 337-page e-book includes an index listing the chapters and article headings, and is available as a special offer to University World News readers. To see the contents page and to order your copy click here.

NEWS: our correspondents worldwide report

GLOBAL: Swine flu spreads alarm in higher education
Geoff Maslen
The Mexican government last week ordered the closure of all universities and schools across the country as fears of a worldwide pandemic caused by the swine flu outbreak spread around the globe. The government's Health Secretariat issued the closure order to apply from last Monday. More than 2.5 million university students and 30 million school students were immediately affected by the first nationwide shutdown of education institutions in Mexico's history.
Read the full story on the University World News site

EUROPE: Shaping the next decade for Bologna
Full implementation of the Bologna process' objectives at the European, national and institutional levels will require increased momentum and commitment beyond 2010, says a statement released following a meeting last week in Belgium of the 46 education ministers from the European countries involved.
Read the full story on the University World News site

EU: Rise in higher education and student mobility
Jane Marshall
The proportion of the population in the 27 countries of the European Union completing at least two years of higher education has continued to rise in recent years and is now reaching nearly a third of young people, says a report by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Communities.
Read the full story on the University World News site

FINLAND: Reforms face constitutional glitch
Ian Dobson
The legislative process to reform Finland's university sector is experiencing a few last-minute hiccups. Aspects of the radical changes intended for university governance might be unconstitutional.
Read the full story on the University World News site

FRANCE: Striking lecturers "step up the movement"
Jane Marshall
The three-month strike by university lecturers and researchers showed no sign of ending last week, with a national meeting voting to boycott examinations until the government gave in to demands.
Read the full story on the University World News site

UK: League season arrives with first guide
David Jobbins
British universities are in the middle of the period they publicly treat with dignified disdain but in practice await with anticipation - and a little anxiety. Between April and the dog days of the academic year, three competing university league tables appear in national newspapers, all designed to be a comprehensive guide to applicants for the coming year.
Read the full story on the University World News site

PAKISTAN: First collegiate college system
Robert J O’Hara
The Lahore University of Management Sciences or LUMS is discussing the establishment of a residential college system for its campus which would be the first collegiate scheme to be introduced in Pakistan.
Read the full story on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Unesco and partners launch digital library
Jane Marshall
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the US Library of Congress and 31 other organisations have launched the World Digital Library, a free website in seven languages featuring unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world.
Read the full story on the University World News site

EGYPT: University in turmoil over exam failures
Ashraf Khaled
Hundreds of students at Helwan University, one of Egypt's 18 public universities, staged protests on the campus south of Cairo after they flunked first-term examinations. The protesters, mostly final year students in the faculties of law and commerce, accused professors of being unfair. The law dean resigned in protest when a university committee amended marks to allow students to pass.
Read the full story on the University World News site

NIGERIA: Single entrance examination in 2010
Tunde Fatunde
One competitive examination will replace the current two entrance tests for tertiary institutions in Nigeria from next year, Registrar of the Joint Examination Matriculation Board, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, has announced. The news prompted diverse but mostly negative reactions the authorities will consider when fine-tuning the reform.
Read the full story on the University World News site

EGYPT-TUNISIA: Research accords with France
Jane Marshall
The environment features prominently among areas for joint research and training in partnerships that French institutions have entered with Egyptian and Tunisian universities and research agencies.
Read the full story on the University World News site

ZIMBABWE: Central bank looted university funds
Zimbabwe's central bank raided the foreign currency accounts of universities to prop up President Robert Mugabe's government during a crippling economic and political crisis that saw inflation reach world record levels. A legislator has taken the looting of funds from the private Africa University to parliament through an upcoming question and answer session. Politicians said three other universities claimed donor money vanished from their accounts.
Read the full story on the University World News site

ALGERIA: Study abroad cuts to tackle brain drain
Wagdy Sawahel
In an effort to retain bright youngsters and stem a worsening brain drain, Algeria will restrict study abroad scholarships granted to high achievers in baccalaureate examinations. The government is also acting to improve the working conditions of researchers and will double grant funds for university students starting next September.
Read the full story on the University World News site

NEWSBRIEFS:

AFRICA: Women scientists discuss new network
Members of the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (Inwes) met in Abidjan last month to discuss setting up an African regional network.
Read more on the University World News site

A MESSAGE TO READERS
University World News is produced by a team of top journalists who contribute their time largely for free because we believe in the project. But we need your support to continue. We are appealing to readers to spread the word about University World News as a valuable source of news and comment, and as an advertising vehicle. We also ask you to consider making a contribution via the Donate button on our newsletter and website, or by clicking here.

SCIENCE SCENE:

NEW ZEALAND: Internet use boosts productivity
Personal use of the internet at work could be good for productivity, new research into the habits and attitudes of workers in New Zealand, Finland, Germany, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden and the United States indicates.
Read the full story on the University World News site

EUROPE: EU to double IT research funding
The European Commission has committed to a massive increase in funding for high-risk IT research, calling on member nations to follow suit.
Read the full story on the University World News site

GLOBAL: Cow genome sequenced
Moo. After six years of effort by 300 scientists around the world at a cost of $US53 million, the cow genome has been cracked.
Read the full story on the University World News site

UK: Unexpected benefits from lice
Parasites such as lice have a role in the conditioning of a 'natural' immune system and reducing the likelihood of immune dysfunctions, a study of mice from a Nottinghamshire forest indicates.
Read the full story on the University World News site

FEATURES:

EUROPE: EUA's priorities for the next decade
Jean-Marc Rapp
In addition to the crucial issues of autonomy and funding, there are five other issues I would like to underline as we look to the future, including the importance of the consolidation and communication of the already significant achievements of the Bologna process. Attention must be paid to following up 'unfinished business' in the implementation of the whole package of reforms, and to ensure that sustainable qualitative change - rather than superficial structural changes only - is embedded in institutional and also subject specific cultures.
Read the full feature on the University World News site

FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in higher education worldwide with more than 800 UWN readers having joined. Sign up to the University World News Facebook group to meet and communicate directly with academics and researchers informed by the world’s first truly global higher education publication. Click on the link below to visit and join the group.
Visit the University World News group on Facebook

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY:

CANADA: Open access - promises and challenges
Leslie Chan
Have you 'googled' yourself lately? Have you wondered why some of your publications did not show up in the search results? Have you ever tried to access one of your own journal articles online, only to be asked to pay US$30 by the publisher? Why are articles by some of your colleagues freely available online in full text even though they were also originally published in commercial journals? Is this permissible? Why is Google Scholar showing that your colleagues' articles are cited more than yours? Why is your institution's library paying millions of dollars each year for journal subscriptions and yet you are still unable to access some of the journals you need for your research?
Read the full story on the University World News site

WORLD ROUND-UP
JAPAN: Foreign student numbers double in a decade
Over the past decade, the number of foreign students seeking higher education in Japan has more than doubled, reports the Daily Yomiuri. In contrast, the number of Japanese students going abroad for their education is waning. In 2008, 123,829 foreign students were studying at the nation's universities and vocational schools, a 240% increase over the 1998 figure, according to the Japan Student Services Organisation.
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SWEDEN: Overseas students boost university numbers
The number of students enrolled at Swedish universities climbed in 2008 for the first time since the early 2000s, new statistics from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Högskolverket) show, reports The Local. Foreign students account for a large part of the increase.
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US: Professor makes Most Wanted list
Accused murderer George Zinkhan III now is one of America's Most Wanted, reports the Athens Banner-Herald. Authorities don't know where the University of Georgia professor fled after he allegedly shot and killed his wife and two men in Athens last weekend, or even if he still is alive. But the "America's Most Wanted" television show added Zinkhan to a list of fugitives on its website and the programme might produce a segment about the slayings.
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IRELAND: Highest paid academic 'smoked out'
If salary witch-hunts have become the stock-in-trade of Irish journalism, Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are the burning torches, reports the Irish Times. The latest to fall foul of FOI are universities. A request in March smoked out the highest salaries in Irish academia, topped by the EUR409,000 pay packet of University College Dublin's Vice-president of Research, Professor Des Fitzgerald.
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CHINA: Universities to test morals, knowledge
Universities will look beyond a student's academic achievements to include moral and social efforts under new entrance guidelines announced on Monday, writes Liang Qiwen for China Daily. The Ministry of Education said results from the annual national college entrance examination would not be the sole criteria when assessing prospective university students.
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UK: Students fear harsh job market
More than 25% of final-year students at top UK universities plan to stay on for further study as the recession bites, a poll of 16,000 students has found, reports BBC News. The research by High Fliers found 52% thought the prospects for new graduates were very limited and 36% did not expect to get a graduate job this year. Nearly half (48%) feared they may be made redundant within a year of work.
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VIETNAM: Mid-ranking universities are in demand
Statistics released after the last day of registration for university entrance exams showed that more students are aiming for mid-ranking universities rather than vying for limited slots in the most competitive schools, reports VietNamNet.
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PAKISTAN: 1,000 scholarships for Afghan students
Pakistan has offered 1,000 scholarships to Afghan students to study in the country in almost all disciplines, writes Asim Hussain for The Daily Mail. Under the phased programme, as many as 200 Afghan students will join Pakistani universities this year. The first batch of students will be admitted in September at the start of the academic year.
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PAKISTAN: Co-educational institutions threatened
Panic spread through co-educational institutions in Karachi after receiving warnings, believed to be from the Taliban, to close down or face the consequences, reports the Daily Times. Schools, colleges and universities - mostly institutions affiliated to the Cambridge Board that have male and female students studying together without discrimination - have received threatening letters and phone calls from the Taliban.
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SOUTH AFRICA: IP regulations threaten innovation
A growing number of South African academics, activists and bloggers are calling on the Department of Science and Technology to review draft intellectual property regulations governing public research, saying that they are a significant threat to future innovation in the country, writes Alastair Otter for Tectonic, a web site for the open source software community. The regulations, ironically from a department which has long championed free software, would also make it impossible to produce free software as part of any research projects, say opponents of the changes.
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ETHIOPIA: Electronic library system for universities
In an effort to expand the reach of the currently limited reference materials available to Ethiopian university students and academics, the Ministry of Education is finalising preparations to launch a nationwide electronic library system, reports EthioPlanet.
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US: Top institute scolds doctors and medical schools
In a scolding report, America's most influential medical advisory group said doctors should stop taking much of the money, gifts and free drug samples they routinely accept from drug and device companies. The report by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, is a stinging indictment of many of the most common means by which drug and device makers endear themselves to doctors, medical schools and hospitals, writes Gardiner Harris for The New York Times.
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US: Dead programmes walking
College leaders are often criticised for not making difficult choices, allowing programmes that are essentially dead to keep breathing for years with the aid of minimal life support, writes Jack Stripling for Inside Higher Ed. But with endowment values tumbling and many state budgets slashed, campuses are now making some of those choices - even if they are still not easy.
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AUSTRALIA: Queensland to open Confucius Institute
Australia's first Confucius Institute to celebrate China as a power in science is to open at the University of Queensland, writes Bernard Lane in The Australian. A controversial exercise in Chinese soft power, the institutes are jointly funded and run by local universities and Hanban, a Chinese government entity. Mostly delivering language and culture programmes, they also involve partnerships with Chinese universities.
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