Sunday 26 July 2009

University World News 0086 - 26th July 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

IRAQ: US$1 billion to rebuild higher education
Wagdy Sawahel
Iraq has launched a five-year, $1 billion higher education plan to boost the nation's science and technology workforce while promoting knowledge-based sustainable development. The plan was announced yesterday by Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who is in the US to sign an implementation agreement and establish an American Universities Iraq Consortium.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Threat of swine flu arrives with summer's end
Sarah King Head
For American students returning to their university and college campuses this semester, the prospect of contracting the swine flu H1N1 virus is a real concern - especially for those living in residences. While it is flu season in the southern hemisphere, in the north the virus is expected to become more widespread during autumn and the subsequent winter.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: International conman dupes academics
Geoff Maslen
Daniel Besser is known in the US and several other countries as a clever conman with no tertiary qualifications but a number of arrest warrants against him. Yet he managed to persuade academics at top universities in Australia, Israel and the US to hire him as head of a scientific research project. Besser used the name Dr Daniel Ben-Avraham to obtain a job coordinating a joint renewable energy research project involving the Australian National University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Houston in Texas.
Full report on the University World News site:

FRANCE: Digital leap forward for universities
Jane Marshall
France is launching a -16 million (US$23 million) 'digitised university' programme to install wireless internet connections and develop podcasting for online courses throughout the university system. The initiative is a response to a report last year that said French universities urgently needed to catch up with information and communication technologies if they were to satisfy the higher education demands of the new generation of 'digitally native' students.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Vocational + higher education = success
Students who combine vocational education with academic studies are nearly as successful at gaining entry to and completing the first year of higher education as those with general academic qualifications, a new study has found. But students with only a vocational education are less likely to get to university than those with A levels and are more likely to drop out after their first year.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEW ZEALAND: Research performance moves worry union
John Gerritsen*
The next assessment of research in New Zealand's tertiary education sector is three years away but preparations for the event by some institutions already have the country's university staff union worried.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: International education at crossroads
Despite changes to Australia's immigration rules that have slashed the number of foreign students obtaining permanent residency, enrolments continue to grow. The result is a huge number of former students hoping for a permanent visa just at a time when their chances of getting one have collapsed. A new report says the education export industry has yet to realise how serious the situation is.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

US: Restore academic travel to Cuba
The Association of International Educators, NAFSA, and a diverse group of 17 organisations have called on President Barack Obama to remove current restrictions on academic travel to Cuba. In a letter to the President, the coalition applauds Obama's recent actions with respect to Cuba and asks him to take further steps toward his goal of setting US-Cuban relations on a new path.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: OECD plan to boost innovation
A major policy initiative has begun at the OECD offering a cross-government approach to help countries capture the economic and social benefits of innovation. The Innovation Strategy is a new project focusing on two strands: education and skills for innovation, and innovation and improvement in education.
Full report on the University World News site :

SCIENCE SCENE

US: Murder? The Cro-Magnon did it
Analysis involving a crossbow, stone spearheads and pig carcasses has shed new light on a 50,000-year-old 'cold case' involving a Neanderthal man who died after suffering a rib injury.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Did Galileo discover Neptune?
Astronomy may need to credit Galileo Galilei with the discovery of the planet Neptune a full 234 years before the recognised discovery date of 1846, an Australian physicist suggests. Galileo certainly observed Neptune nearly 400 years ago - he recorded it in his notebooks - but apparently thought it was a star, not a planet.
Full report on the University World News site:

EGYPT: First nanotechnology centre to boost research
Ashraf Khaled
Egypt recently launched its first nanotechnology centre aimed at boosting the country's technological education and scientific research applications. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, told the opening ceremony at Smart Village near Cairo that the centre was important for science in Egypt and "sends a strong signal about the state's interest in promoting research and development".
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

AUSTRALIA: The need for moral wisdom
Steven Schwartz*
The dependence on full-fee international students by Australian universities has made a big difference. Competing for foreign students forced universities to become more student-focused. But, to quote the old stage adage, you ain't seen nothing yet. Following the recommendations of the Bradley review, we are about to enter a whole new era in Australian higher education, an era in which competition will become more intense than ever. Let me explain why.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Video-games: a murderous addiction?
John Richard Schrock*
At age 15, Hughstan Schlicker shot his father in the head, from behind, using a shotgun. The Mesa Arizona teenager was sentenced last week to 20 years for murdering his father, who tried to stop his long hours on the computer. According to press reports, the young Schlicker said he often spent entire days on the computer and could not cope without it. How much time is "too much time" on a computer or hand-held videogame? And can it become an addiction?
Full report on the University World News site:

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: Bubble trouble in the humanities
Philip Gerrans*
The cause of the meltdown in global financial markets is obvious: leveraged trading in financial instruments that bear no relationship to the things they are supposed to be secured against. When creditors finally ask how much bonds secured by collateralised debt obligations backed by billions of dollars of mortgages are actually worth, the answer is what the buildings can be sold for. In some cases, nothing. In many cases, the buildings are no more than weed-covered lots or graphics in a developer's PowerPoint presentation. Article originally published in the Times Higher Education.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GERMANY-SLOVAKIA: Energy from beer waste
Leah Germain
Making beer is a hot smelly process, as any home brewer will testify. But what is to be done with the steaming left-over grains from a brew? Turn it into energy and biogas of course, say German and Slovakian researchers.
Full report on the University World News site:

FACEBOOK

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higher education worldwide. More than 1,000 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

CHINA: Some universities 'fudge' student jobs data
Some Chinese universities have inflated graduate employment figures by issuing bogus work contracts as millions struggle to find work amid the downturn, an official newspaper said last Tuesday, reports Reuters. The financial crisis has intensified the problem of graduate unemployment, which stems from rapidly increasing enrolment at Chinese universities, many of which fail to adequately train their graduates.
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RUSSIA: Official's arrest linked to 'raiding' research
A Russian police official conducting research under the auspices of the US George Mason University has been arrested after he reported obtaining evidence incriminating influential figures in Moscow and the far eastern city of Vladivostok, colleagues and local authorities said last week, reports Philip P Pan for The Washington Post.
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US: Black professor's arrest rattles Boston area
In a region where summer preoccupations normally revolve around baseball and the weather, blogs exploded last Wednesday with people eager to weigh in on issues of race, class and police harassment, writes Elizabeth Mehren for the Los Angeles Times. Coffee counters in beach communities from South Boston to Martha's Vineyard buzzed with discussions about Harvard's prominent African American studies professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr, who was arrested after attempting to enter his home.
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US: California university system approves 20% fee hike
The California State University system raised student fees last week by 20% as part of a budget plan that would also shrink enrolment and furlough nearly all employees for two days a month, reports Terence Chea for Associated Press. The board of trustees voted for the hike despite protests from students who marched, chanted and banged drums outside the meeting hall in Long Beach.
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SOUTH AFRICA: First developing country-created Aids vaccine
South Africa is launching clinical trials of the first Aids vaccines created by a developing country, a feat by scientists who forged ahead even when some of their political leaders shocked the world with unscientific pronouncements about the disease, reports Independent Online. Trials to test the safety in humans of the vaccines begin this month on 36 healthy volunteers, said Anthony Mbewu, President of the state-supported Medical Research Council.
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PHILIPPINES: President: Double science and engineering R&D
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the Commission on Higher Education, or CHED, to strengthen its scholarship programme to double the country's engineers and scientists involved in research and development, reports PNA.
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MALAYSIA: Qualifications assistance for 52 Islamic countries
Malaysia's qualifications agency has been asked to help universities in 52 Islamic countries to enhance their quality assurance systems, national news agency Bernama reports.
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KOREA: Promoting Korean studies abroad
Korean studies programmes have been growing steadily in number reports The Chosun Ilbo. In 1990 there were only 152 universities in 32 countries offering courses in Korean studies, but by 2006 the number had increased fivefold to 735 universities in 62 countries. This is thanks to the efforts of the Korea Foundation, which has worked to expand the overseas base of Korean studies since its establishment in 1992.
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UK: Mandelson announces 10,000 extra university places
The UK government last week announced an emergency 10,000 extra places at universities this autumn to ease the mounting pressure on the university admissions system - but refused to fully fund the expansion, writes Polly Curtis for The Guardian. The extra students will receive their grants and loans and pay tuition fees, but the universities will get no extra money directly from the government to cover teaching costs.
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INDIA: Delhi may create separate university system
India's national capital New Delhi may soon have a separate university system based on some of the best performing university systems abroad, reports the Press Trust of India. The move is part of a comprehensive plan of the city government to establish a set of discipline-focussed small universities to generate excellence in the field of education and research.
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KUWAIT: Students at discredited universities to be moved
A Ministry of Education committee formed to look into the suspension of the accreditation of a number of Indian and Filipino universities has reportedly issued a preliminary decision to transfer the students at these institutions to other accredited universities abroad, reports the Kuwait Times.
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YEMEN: Licences of new private universities cancelled
The Ministry of Higher Education has cancelled licences for establishing new universities and colleges, due to the large number of schools - 25 private universities and colleges - that are already in operation in the capital Sana'a, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Higher Education, writes Abdul-Aziz Oudah in the Yemen Observer.
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US: Do elite colleges produce best-paid graduates?
Forget US News's academic rankings and Playboy's party-school list, writes Catherine Rampell for The New York Times. For some prospective college freshmen, the important question is: will I make more money if I go to Harvard, or if I go to Harvey Mudd? Last week PayScale, a site that collects data on salaries for different professions, released an updated, gigantic data set on the salaries of graduates from hundreds of universities and colleges, as well as salaries and career choices broken down by department and major.
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US: What counts for tenure
For all the talk about how research universities place an increasing value on teaching, a survey on tenure standards in US political science departments finds not only that research remains dominant, but that poor teaching may be tolerated at doctoral-granting universities, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. A national survey of department chairs found that superior research compensates for 'mediocre teaching' at 55% of PhD-granting institutions, compared to 34% of masters institutions and 17% of bachelors institutions.
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AUSTRALIA: Hopes for national university shattered
The dream of a national university is over after a proposed merger between Southern Cross and Charles Sturt universities collapsed, writes Heath Gilmore in The Sydney Morning Herald. The national university was promoted as a way to serve regional and rural Australia better and increase participation rates in higher education from these areas, particularly students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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UAE: Downturn triggers university scramble
Universities have seen a sharp jump in applications as people turn to education to help their careers survive the economic downturn, reports Daniel Bardsley for The National. Although some institutions have reported dips in application numbers, blaming the exodus of expatriates, many undergraduate and especially postgraduate courses have seen increases of up to 20%.
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UGANDA: Sex for marks at universities
The first time Prossie Nakato's (not real name) lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda made a pass at her, she politely declined. But he refused to give up, writes Jenny Vaughan for the Daily Monitor. The 50-year-old lecturer continued to pursue the first year student for weeks. Finally, she relented and almost immediately her grades went up. This scenario is common on university campuses across the country. For years, male lecturers have received s exual favours from students in return for high marks.
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Sunday 19 July 2009

University World News 0085 - 19th July 2009

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

UNESCO: Was the world conference a success?
See our special report in the Features section of this issue as David Jobbins reflects on the Paris talkfest.

AUSTRALIA: Has the export education bubble burst?
Geoff Maslen
Changes to Australia's immigration rules affecting foreign students who apply for permanent residency could cause a collapse in the booming export education market. The tighter restrictions are likely to have a profound impact on the number of students from India and China whose main purpose in coming to Australia is to obtain permanent residency. Take that lure away and the main reason why tens of thousands are prepared to outlay up to $20,000 (US$16,000) every year disappears.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Rankings rate success in getting top jobs
Jane Marshall
Japan's University of Tokyo and the US universities of Harvard and Stanford retain their leading places in the third annual Professional Ranking of World Universities compiled by the French grande école Mines Paris Tech.
Full report on the University World News site:

GREECE: Soft measures and harsh fines
Makki Marseilles
Although the Greek government is doing its best to back favourable legislation for private colleges that have sought a licence to operate from the new academic year in September, the European Court of Justice has put Greece on the spot once again - this time for failing to follow directives relating to the recognition of professional qualifications of graduates from colleges cooperating with EU universities.
Full report on the University World News site :

CANADA: Scholarship includes international students
Philip Fine
There are many emails about funding opportunities that flow through Elsayed Ali's inbox but, as an international student in Canada, the PhD student from Egypt finds himself eligible for too few of these grants. That's why an email this past autumn caught his eye.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Detecting plagiarism and collusion
Geoff Maslen
A Melbourne educationist has developed a free plagiarism and collusion detection tool called DOC cop that can be used to check files against one another or against material on the web. The system does not retain any material submitted for investigation.
Full report on the University World News site:

GERMANY: Promoting excellence for development
Michael Gardner
Five German universities and their partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America are to receive up to -5 million each over the next five years to boost their joint activities. The institutions have come out the winners in a competition involving 44 projects in all. The Excellence for Development initiative is being run by the German Academic Exchange Service, known as DAAD, and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to promote cooperation with developing countries.
Full report on the University World News site:

ZIMBABWE: Confronting a credibility crisis
Higher education qualifications in Zimbabwe are suffering a credibility crisis following the withdrawal of international recognition in some fields arising from plummeting standards, according to a series of working papers commissioned by the UN Development Fund.
Full report on the University World News site:

ALGERIA: New policy to curb violence on campuses
Wagdy Sawahel
With violence rising on campuses in Algeria - including a spate of shocking murders - the Education Ministry and the National Council for Higher Education are preparing a charter to prevent acts of aggression within the university community. While the charter will be implemented at the start of the next academic year in October, violence is also happening on campuses in other Arab countries.
Full report on the University World News site:

EGYPT: More engineers, fewer doctors move slammed
Ashraf Khaled
Egypt's Higher Council for Universities, a governmental agency that oversees academic institutions, has decided to increase the number of students attending public engineering institutions and cut enrolments at medical schools in the new academic year. The move has been scathingly criticised as impractical and counter-productive.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

AFRICA: Universities do not meet industry needs
The African Commission has found a weak link between the demands of industry and what is provided by Africa's institutions of higher education, especially with regards to agriculture - the continent's dominant industry. In a report, the commission says Africa's universities are not geared to meet the needs of industry.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE-RUSSIA: New guide to science collaboration
The first Compendium on Science & Research Cooperation between the European Union and Russia was jointly presented in Moscow last week. The report presents what it says are "all the most important elements of the vast EU-Russia science landscape in one place".
Full report on the University World News site :

EUROPE: Euroscience open forum in 2010
Euroscience is an independent grassroots association of scientists from 40 countries. Membership is open to researchers, science managers, policy-makers, politicians, teachers, PhD students, engineers, business people and citizens in general who are interested in science and technology and its interaction with society. The association will hold its next forum in Turin in Italy next July.
Full report on the University World News site :

ZIMBABWE: HIV-Aids ignorance among female students
Zimbabwe's female university students are mainly ignorant of HIV-Aids as well as their s exual and reproductive health rights, a new survey has concluded.
Full report on the University World News site:

ALGERIA: Minister announces funding boost for science
Scientific research has received funding of 100 billion dinars (US$1.4 billion), the first allocation to be made under a five-year government plan to boost the sector, according to La Tribune of Algiers.
Full report on the University World News site:

MALAWI: Plans for third public university
The government has announced plans to start construction of a science and technology university in the commercial and administrative capital Lilongwe. It will be the third state-run institution of higher learning in the Southern African country.
Full report on the University World News site:

BURKINA FASO-SENEGAL: Expat students call for help
Trainee teachers from Burkina Faso studying in Senegal have written an anguished plea for help to the newspaper Le Pays of Ougadougou, complaining about extortionate demands for rent, late or no grant payments and lack of 'compulsory' work placements.
Full report on the University World News site :

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

MEXICO: Student kicked unconscious by police
Jonathan Travis*
Amnesty International has condemned police in Chiapas State in southern Mexico after a 16-year-old student activist was beaten unconscious last month. Jose Emiliano Nandayapa Gomez was reportedly attacked because of his 'subversive haircut' although he has been involved in promoting the rights of young people.
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BUSINESS

EUROPE: Big boost to research spending
Keith Nuthall
A -3.2 billion programme of research spending that will try to pull Europe out of recession and into a sustainable economic recovery has been launched by the European Commission.
Full report on the University World News site :

EUROPE: Nuclear research objectives agreed
Alan Osborn
A blueprint for the development of European nuclear energy research, based on contributions from 200 industrial and academic professionals collected over the last 18 months, has been accepted by a group of nuclear power industry representatives.
Full report on the University World News site:

FRANCE: Millions in funding for artificial heart
Jane Marshall
The European Commission has authorised state funding of -33 million by the French government to the Carmat artificial heart research and development programme. The commission ruled the award complied with the European Union's fair competition rules.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

GLOBAL: World conference a success? Yes and no
David Jobbins
Was that it? The three-plus days of UNESCO's 2009 World Conference on Higher Education flashed past in a flurry of plenaries, round tables and parallel workshops. Those with memories of the first conference in 1998 were not surprised to discover that some debates had barely altered in tone and content in the intervening decade. Others were disappointed the harsh new realities of economic and fiscal meltdown passed largely ignored, other than in ritual references to the need to invest in higher education and research as well as in neutralising toxic assets.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA: Call for massive overhaul of higher education
Kanika Tandon*
The problems facing higher education in India are manifold and demand effective and immediate action. Mushrooming of 'deemed' universities, poor governance of institutions, lack of funds, difficulty in providing speedy accreditation to colleges and universities, insufficient teachers, want of a revived syllabus and the necessity to encourage research are some that are ailing the nation's higher education system. But a new report has set out an ambitious plan to tackle the problems.
Full report on the University World News site :

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: The new dynamics of higher education
Angel Gurría*
We face the most highly synchronised recession ever which has left no corner of the globe untouched. Fiscal stimulus packages have helped mitigate its worst effects but the crisis is not over yet. The world economy heads for zero growth in 2009 bringing with it an employment and social crisis that will affect higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GREECE: In vino veritas
Makki Marseilles
Throughout the centuries, people everywhere found solace in the reasonable consumption of wine. In ancient Greece, the wine producing vines had their own deity - Dionysus - while Christianity found in wine a worthy symbol and a substitute for the blood of its founder. It is no wonder then that sooner or later a university survey would examine the importance of wine and its role in Greek social life.
Full report on the University World News site :

US: Campus cuisine
Once upon a time, eating in a college dorm meant soup in a hotpot or getting pizza delivered. The most interesting thing about the campus dining hall was often the salad bar, writes Beth J Harpaz for Associated Press. No more. These days, students have gourmet palates and a growing interest in preparing their own food. Mini-refrigerators and microwaves in dorm rooms are as essential as laptops. Chefs drop by dorm kitchens to give lessons, and dining halls provide take-out containers and ingredients for kids who want to cook their own meals.
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FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in
higher education worldwide with almost 1,000 of our 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.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

US: Obama unveils ambitious community college plan
Last week US President Barack Obama unveiled a multibillion-dollar proposal to boost enrolment in community colleges. His plan seeks to graduate five million more Americans from two-year colleges by 2020, and follows a more sweeping goal announced during his first address to Congress in February - for America to once again have the highest number of college graduates in the world by 2020 - writes Joseph E Aoun in The Boston Globe.
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US: California university furloughs hit 140,000 staff
A University of California regents panel approved an emergency plan last Wednesday for most faculty and staff to take 11 to 26 unpaid furlough days next academic year to offset deep cuts in state funding, reports Larry Gordon for the Los Angeles Times. But the furlough proposal, which was endorsed despite protests by labour unions, would be only part of a broad retrenchment across the 10-campus university system, officials said.
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UK: 6,000 lecturers facing redundancy, says union
Up to 6,000 lecturers are being axed by universities to cut costs in the recession, according to a survey by the University and College Union, writes Anthea Lipsett for The Guardian. The findings come as employers offered a final pay rise of 0.5% to staff - far short of the 8% sought by union officials.
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CANADA: The summer of student discontent
Canadian Laura McGhie was pretty certain by last autumn that her well-paying summer job was history. For the past two years, the McMaster University student had spent her holiday working on the shop floor of US Steel's Lake Erie works, writes Elizabeth Church in The Globe and Mail. The collapse of Ontario's manufacturing sector put an end to that. Instead, McGhie is working two jobs on campus now and figures she's making less than half the money. Still, she counts herself lucky. Students are coping with the worst summer job market in more than a decade, leaving many scrambling to find often low-paying jobs.
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CHINA-TAIWAN: Student mobility fuels brain drain fears
Will Taiwan's brightest make a beeline for top universities across the Strait, now that mainland China has opened its doors more widely? This is an emerging concern in Taiwan after Beijing announced, at a high-level forum last weekend, that top Taiwanese students may now get a place in universities without having to take China's college-entry exam, reports The Straits Times.
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TAIWAN: Academics against opening doors to Chinese
Opening the doors to Chinese students and recognising Chinese diplomas are a government strategy to accelerate unification with China and will force Taiwanese institutions to close, academics said at a Taiwan Solidarity Union press conference last week, reports Jenny W Hsu for Taipei Times.
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CHINA: Cheating is common, scientists believe
Nearly half of the science-related workers in China's research institutes, universities, medical institutes and hospitals think academic cheating is "common", according to a survey by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), reports China View. The survey, released last Friday, showed that 43.4% of 30,078 respondents thought plagiarism is "really" or "rather" serious in China. About 45.2% of them were worried about fabrication.
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INDIA: Call for private investment in higher education
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said last week that there was a need to expand the education sector, reports The Economic Times. Replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha on demand for grants for the Ministry, Sibal made a strong pitch for greater private investment and allowing in foreign universities with necessary regulatory mechanisms. He said expansion was necessary but the government's reservation policy had to be followed.
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INDIA: Tertiary official arrested on bribe charge
A Delhi court on Friday sent the member-secretary of the All India Council for Technical Education, or AICTE, and a middleman to three-day custody for allegedly seeking a bribe of Rupees 500,000 (US$10,300) from a person for doing a "favourable inspection" of an engineering college in Andhra Pradesh, reports The Times of India.
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SOUTH KOREA: 15 foreign universities join free zone
The idea of the Songdo Global University Campus was first conceived by the city of Incheon in 2006 to let prestigious foreign universities operate extended campuses where students can obtain degrees in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, reports The Chosun Ilbo. Currently, 15 foreign universities are seeking to open branches on the Songdo Global University Campus.
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US: No gender gap for college victims of violence
Young men and women in college are equally likely to be victims of physical or emotional violence, a new study shows, writes Stephanie Lee for Inside Higher Ed. Published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the study comes from a survey of about 2,000 students who sought treatment at health clinics at five universities in Wisconsin, Seattle and Vancouver in 2006-07.
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WALES: Collaborative research funding plummets
Levels of funding secured by high education institutions in Wales for collaborative research has fallen sharply, new figures show, reports Sion Barry for the Western Mail. The latest Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction Survey shows that in 2007-08 funding for collaborative research from both public and private sources was down from £67.7 million (US$111 million) a year earlier to just £43.4 million, a fall of 36%.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Student aid body welcomes review
South Africa's National Student Financial Aid Scheme, or NSFAS, says it supports a Ministerial Review established by Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, reports the Skills Portal. A government proclamation issued on 1 July officially transferred oversight of the financial aid body to Nzimande, who has asked the review to advise him on how to provide free higher education for poor students.
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SOUTH AFRICA: University to train traditional healers
The desire of many of South Africa's 180,000 sangomas - traditional healers - to be absorbed into the mainstream health system was given a boost last week when the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) launched a degree for sangomas. A bachelors or masters degree in indigenous knowledge systems is on offer at the university's School of Medicine, reports Nkosana Lekotjolo for The Times.
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ROMANIA: Diplomas of private university illegal
Romania's Education Minister has labelled as illegal the graduation diplomas of 100,000 students who took low-attendance classes at the country's largest private university, Spiru Haret, after a scandal over college credentials, writes Oana Dan for Miercuri.
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US: Australia enters American medical school market
To produce more physicians for Louisiana, a major academic medical centre has joined up with a medical school down under, writes Elizabeth Redden for Inside Higher Ed. The University of Queensland School of Medicine in Australia has opened a clinical school in New Orleans in cooperation with Louisiana's Ochsner Health System.
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Sunday 12 July 2009

University World News 0084 - 12th July 2009

UNESCO WORLD CONFERENCE: SPECIAL REPORT

UNESCO held its second World Conference on Higher Education in Paris last
week. The biggest event on the global higher education calendar since the first world conference in 1998, the four-day meeting attracted 1,200 delegates from 150 countries. They debated current and future issues in higher education in the areas of social responsibility, access, equity and quality, internationalisation, regionalisation and globalisation, and learning, research and innovation. There was also a special focus on Africa.

As the official media representative at the conference, University World News covered all the key events. The following special report draws together the articles prepared by our team of reporters on the spot.

DG Matsuura warns against crisis cuts
Karen MacGregor Education ministers must push hard for counter-cyclical spending on higher education to avoid damaging funding cuts to operating and research budgets that will put pressure on institutions to raise fees, the http://www.universityworldnews.com/filemgmt/visit.php?lid=46 said at the opening ceremony of the conference.
Full report on the University World News site:

States finally agree on World Conference communiqué
David Jobbins, Yojana Sharma and Karen MacGregor
After long behind-the-scenes political skirmishes, 150 governments attending the UNESCO World Conference unanimously adopted a communiqué acknowledging higher education as a 'public good' and calling on countries not to stop investing in the sector during the global economic crisis, among calls for action on other issues.
Full report on the University World News site:

Conference calls for higher education action
Karen MacGregor
The past decade has provided evidence that higher education and research contribute to the eradication of poverty, to sustainable development and to progress towards reaching global development goals, says the final communiqué of the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. It outlines 15 calls for action by states, ranging from adequate investment and better working conditions for academics to combating the brain drain and degree mills.
Full report on the University World News site:

Collaboration key for African university revival
Karen MacGregor
While much progress has been made in African higher education in the past decade, there is an urgent need for comprehensive transformation to enhance its relevance and responsiveness to the realities of countries, the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education agreed. It called for regional quality assurance, greater collaboration, more differentiated systems and more private funding in stepped-up efforts to develop the continent's universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

An African higher education and research area
Karen MacGregor
An institute to train university leaders from across Africa in governance and management is to be created in West Africa, it was announced at a conference "Round Table Africa". The conference heard about a new vision for the Pan-African University and an array of initiatives needed to revitalise universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

Expansion of private higher education
Yojana Sharma
Private universities have been expanding rapidly worldwide but particularly in developing countries, as rising demand for higher education has meant private providers plug a gap that publicly-financed institutions cannot fill fast enough, according to a new study.
Full report on the University World News site:

Small states share higher education costs
Yojana Sharma
Some of the smallest countries in the South Pacific and Caribbean have been internationally-oriented for decades and their regional universities are a model closely studied by universities round the world seeking to internationalise and build regional alliances, the Unesco World Conference on Higher Education heard in Paris last week.
Full report on the University World News site:

Global student union to be formed
Yojana Sharma
Student groups from around the world met on the margins of the World Conference on Higher Education with the aim of establishing a global student organisation that could become a powerful lobbying force to advance student interests at international education meetings.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNESCO warned over university awards scam
David Jobbins
Universities in Central America are being induced to pay for awards without having to submit to any assessment procedures, a university rector warned a session of the conference on Tuesday. Dr Miguel Escala, Rector of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, described how universities were receiving invitations to attend an event to receive an award - in exchange for US$5,000.
Full report on the University World News site:

Obstacles on road to world-class universities
Yojana Sharma
World-class status for universities could take years to achieve, cost a large amount of money and still fall short of the social and economic rewards commonly associated with top brand name institutions, according to a report launched at the conference.
Full report on the University World News site:

WORLD CONFERENCE FEATURES

Inequalities made worse by ICTs
Patricia Brett
Information and communication technologies are a high-potential pedagogical tool but they are also exacerbating existing inequalities. The high cost of broadband and lack of funds to maintain systems or for teacher training deprive many higher education institutions in the developing world from fully-benefiting from the ICT revolution, says a Commonwealth of Learning background paper for the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education.
Full report on the University World News site :

Brain gain initiative lures back academics - virtually
Patricia Brett
High hopes are pinned on new technologies to staunch the brain drain of academics from developing to industrialised nations. But funding remains a serious drawback to sustainability, the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education heard last week. While pilot projects do get off the ground, they are not always able to stay in the air.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

Aim for 1,000 in African research chairs
David Jobbins
An ambitious plan for the creation of 1,000 university research chairs across Africa to offset and reverse the brain drain was proposed by the International Association of University Presidents. Based on the Canada research chair programme, established in 2000 to create 2,000 chairs to combat the loss of Canadian academics to the United States, the African initiative would cost an estimated US$100 million.
Full report on the University World News site :

Students remain in their regions
David Jobbins
Student mobility patterns have changed dramatically over the past10 years, according to research by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Whereas a decade ago a limited number of countries dominated the list of receiving nations, now many students show a reduced tendency to travel to the former hotspots of the US, the UK and Australia.
Full report on the University World News site:

SCIENCE SCENE

EUROPE: Copernican remains verified - probably
One of the fathers of modern science was himself the subject of scientific inquiry recently when Swedish and Polish researchers used DNA analysis to identify the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus.
Full report on the University World News site:

SPAIN: New material holds promise of invisibility
Physicists at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have figured out a way of making objects invisible - but only to very low frequencies of light and so far only in theory.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Scientists develop salt-tolerant crops
An international team of scientists has developed salt-tolerant plants using a new type of genetic modification that could help make salt-tolerant cereal crops a reality. The research team - based at the University of Adelaide's Waite Campus in South Australia - used a new GM technique to contain salt in parts of the plant where it does less damage.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURE

AUSTRALIA: National qualifications frameworks
Gavin Moodie*
Local universities will soon have to comply with the Australian qualifications framework. Until now their privilege of self-accreditation and their practically permanently legislated university status have allowed them to ignore the qualifications framework for all but international education. Paradoxically, the weakness of the framework in schools and higher education may be one of the reasons for its relative if modest success.
Full report on the University World News site :

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

UK: Costing, pricing and income measurement
Chike F Oduoza*
In these days of radical contraction of funding and expansion in student numbers, universities are under pressure to prioritise their resources, as well as achieve effective costing and pricing to support judgement and decision-making for funding and any external work undertaken. This study reviews costing, pricing and income measurement in higher education institutions in the UK. The resource allocation model - ICE model (income, costing exercise model) - was analysed based on relevant data obtained from institutional documentation, personal interviews and case studies, to understand how it guides resource allocation to academic schools in relation to business plans.
Full report on the University World News site:

U-SAY

From Zainub Qadir
With reference to the article
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2009062612263584 Hassanuddeen Abd Aziz, head of the Quality Assurance Unit said that out of 1,700 universities in the Islamic World, only Istanbul University of Turkey was included in the top 500 in the last academic ranking of world universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GLOBAL: Free help for developing nation researchers
John Gerritsen*
A group of undergraduates hopes to make a difference in the world by offering a free editing service to help researchers from developing nations get their work published in mainstream English language journals.
Full report on the University World News site:

FACEBOOK

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higher education worldwide. More than 970 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: One step closer to free universities
Free education for poor university students moved sharply up the South African government's priorities last week with the announcement of a ministerial committee to advise Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande on how to provide it, writes Cornia Pretorius for the Mail & Guardian.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA: Student loan scheme announced
India's United Progressive Alliance government has made higher education its thrust area with a view to increasing the gross enrolment ratio to 15% by the end of the 11th plan, reports The Hindu. A key move in this regard was made by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's last week when he announced loans for economically disadvantaged students.
Full report on the University World News site:

CANADA: Facebook fakers prey on students
Prospective university students in Canada are falling prey to a growing Facebook fraud as marketers set up fake academic groups to vacuum up their personal information, reports Paola Loriggio for The Star. After a sweep that shut down a number of fraudulent groups last month, a new batch has sprung up, targeting the classes of 2014 and 2015 - and experts say more are on the way.
Full report on the University World News site:

ARCTIC: NASA data shows 'dramatically thinned' ice
Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thick older ice shrinking by the equivalent of Alaska's land area, a study using data from a NASA satellite showed, reports AFP in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Disconcerting data on student debt
You'd have to have been living under a rock not to know that student loan debt in the United States is a problem, and getting worse. The issue has become a stock part of politicians' speeches (including the new president's), motivated the creation of advocacy groups, and been the thesis of numerous conferences and reports, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Fees could be waived for students who stay home
The UK government is considering dropping tuition fees for students who stay at home to study in exchange for them waiving their right to grants and loans, it has emerged, writes Polly Curtis in The Guardian. Ministers are considering the plan as one possible solution to the mounting conundrum over how to fund the growing university sector in a recession.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Researchers to receive points for public outreach
Researchers have received confirmation that they will be rewarded for engaging with the public in the forthcoming research excellence framework, raising the prospect of funding being linked to articles for newspapers or television work, reports Zoë Corbyn for Times Higher Education.
Full report on the University World News site:

JAPAN: Pigeons can discern 'good' and 'bad' art
A Japanese study indicates pigeons can be trained to tell the difference between 'good' and 'bad' paintings, reports United Press International. Keio University Professor Shigeru Watanabe said his team discovered pigeons use colour, texture and pattern cues to judge a painting's beauty as defined by humans.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Court upholds dismissal of Colorado professor
Three months after a jury ruled that Ward L Churchill, a former University of Colorado professor, was wrongfully terminated for his political views, a judge last week refused to give him his job back, reports Dan Frosch for The New York Times.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Virtual university tours campus life
For high school students who have the time and money to travel, visiting a college campus is the best way to get a sense of the students, the faculty, and the feel of the place where they'll be spending four years (or more), writes Anne Wallace Allen for The Associated Press. But for those who can't visit, or who are just beginning their search, there is now a website called http://www.youniversitytv.com offering virtual tours of about 400 US colleges and universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

FRANCE: UNESCO learns about Angolan higher education
The Angolan head of the State Department for Higher Education, Adão do Nascimento, last week presented a communication "The development of the pubic and private education in Angola" at the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, reports the official agency Angola Press.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: World Nuclear University institute at Oxford
The fifth annual Summer Institute of the World Nuclear University (WNU) has begun at the University of Oxford's Christ Church college, reports World Nuclear News. The Summer Institute has travelled from continent to continent, starting in the US then moving to Sweden, Korea and Canada.
Full report on the University World News site :

Monday 6 July 2009

University World News 0083 - 6th July 2009

UNESCO WORLD CONFERENCE 2009

GLOBAL: More than 1,000 delegates arrive in Paris
David Jobbins
UNESCO's World Conference on Higher Education 2009 opens in Paris this week and builds squarely on the fundamental principles set out by delegates to the first global conference in 1998. The 1,000-plus delegates from governments, national, regional and international organisations, and individual higher education institutions will tackle the new dynamics of higher education and research, in particular shaping strategies for societal change and development. As the official media representative for the conference, University World News will provide daily reports on our webpage.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Trends in global higher education
Karen MacGregor
Key drivers of a 21st century academic "revolution" are identified in a trend report produced for this week's UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. The drivers are the massification of tertiary systems everywhere, the 'public good' versus 'private good' debate, the impacts of information and communications technology, and the rise of the knowledge economy and globalisation. All major changes in higher education worldwide stem in one way or another from these motivating forces, the report's authors say.
Full report on the University World News site :

GLOBAL: Higher education in the future
Karen MacGregor
The enormous challenge facing global higher education in the next decade is the uneven distribution of human capital and funds, which will allow some nations to take full advantage of new opportunities while others drift further and further behind. This is one of several future trends predicted by a report for the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. It says accelerating change is presenting more complex problems with each passing decade.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Protect academics from attack
Five leading organisations committed to upholding academic rights and assisting refugee scholars throughout the world will urge UNESCO this week to take a stronger stand against persecution of academics and to show a greater commitment to core international higher education values.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNESCO FORUM
Our special edition published last Wednesday was based on a report by the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge. Our coverage of the report generated a considerable number of responses. You can read two of them in our U-Say section in this issue while the others are attached to specific articles in the special edition.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

UK: Collaborate with Iraq, universities told
Diane Spencer
British universities could play a key role in rebuilding Iraq's higher education sector, says a new report. Published by the UK Higher Education International Unit, the British Universities Iraq Consortium and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, UK Higher Education Engagement with Iraq looks at the prospects for greater academic collaboration between the two countries.
Full report on the University World News site:

COMMONWEALTH: Vice-chancellors angry at outcome
David Jobbins
Vice-chancellors are frustrated at the failure of Commonwealth education ministers to reflect adequately the outcome of pioneering discussions held in parallel with last month's education summit in Kuala Lumpur. For the first time, vice-chancellors took part in a forum at the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers where they discussed higher education's contribution to tackling the global current financial crisis and other issues. The final communiqué made only passing reference to the forum's outcome and vice-chancellors have issued a three-page summary as a self-standing declaration.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Universities face loss of millions
Leah Germain
Two American universities are trying to recuperate tens of millions of dollars they invested with a firm accused of defrauding investors, according to legal documents obtained by University World News. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, also in Pittsburgh, both invested money with Westridge Capital Management Inc and associated companies that have been accused by the US Security and Exchange Commission of misappropriating and dissipating investments.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Future of graduate education
A 19-member commission of American corporate and university leaders has been formed to study how American graduate schools can best meet the challenges of the 21st century. The commission will focus on maintaining the pre-eminence of the schools in the face of rising global competition. The Commission on the Future of Graduate Education was established with support from the Educational Testing Service and the US Council of Graduate Schools.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: India reacts to attacks on students
Geoff Maslen
As media reporting in Australia and India continues to highlight attacks on Asian students, India's External Affairs Minister SM Krishna announced he would visit Australia next month to hold bilateral talks with the Australian government. Meantime, an Australian delegation has arrived in Delhi to meet with national government ministers and officials before travelling to major centres in an effort to allay concerns.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTHERN AFRICA: First regional guide to universities
Karen MacGregor
Southern Africa's first regional guide to universities is aimed at providing information about the institutions while also showing how historical trends over the past half-century have influenced the development of higher education. Produced by the Southern African Regional Universities' Association, SARUA, the guide will be updated regularly.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Grants frozen as fees rise
David Jobbins
The UK government has frozen maintenance awards for English university students but announced a 2% rise in tuition fees.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: Sweden aims for research reforms
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Swedish Presidency of the European Union took effect last Wednesday and major reforms are likely in the way research is organised in the European Union, notably in the foundation for a Framework Programme 8 that could differ from its forerunners.
Full report on the University World News site:

GREECE: More students and higher grades
Makki Marseilles
Although fewer secondary education leavers took part in the Panhellenic Higher Education Entrance Examinations this year, more students will enter university or a higher education technological institute, according to results published by the Greek Ministry of Education. But students need higher grades for the more popular schools and courses.
Full report on the University World News site:

U-SAY - UNESCO Forum Research Report

From Professor Leodegardo M Pruna
I appreciate and laud Professor Mala Singh for her report on the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, which outlined issues and concerns in higher education and research as analysed during a 10-year period. It is recognised that there exists a large gap in research and education undertakings between developed, developing and less developed countries. This gap results from the disparities in income, from where support and inputs to development in education and research come.

From Adrian Gibbs
I refer to the Importance of 'research on research' report in the special edition. This is an excellent article and absolutely correct but, like many, ignores the fact that research is done by people - individual people. Much more time and energy must be put into discovering how to attract people into research and to provide them with optimum conditions for research.
Full letters on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

OECD: On-line 'education lighthouse'
An on-line collaborative platform to pool knowledge and facilitate exchange on education issues, called educationtoday, was launched by the OECD last week. The organisation says the launch was part of its drive to help governments and other stakeholders respond to the global economic crisis.
Full report on the University World News site:

EU: New perspective on poor readers
One in five children in the EU is a poor reader. The PROREAD Study, coordinated by Leo Blomert of the faculty of psychology and neuroscience of Maastricht University, is the first EU reading research project based on individual test data of 3,000 children from six EU member states.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Facebook for scientists takes off
John Gerritsen
A year after its launch, ResearchGATE, a professional and social networking website for the world's researchers, has signed up more than 80,000 members and become the preferred communication platform of three scientific organisations.
Full report on the University World News site:

MALAWI: Students in court following protests
More than 40 university students in Malawi have appeared in court for violent behaviour during protests against the non-payment of allowances, a police spokesperson said last week. The students at Mzuzu University went on the rampage after waiting nearly three months to be paid allowances.
Full report on the University World News site:

CANADA: Arctic graduates far from campus
A group of 21 Inuit women each graduated with a masters in education degree in a ceremony last week in Iqaluit, 2,000 kilometres north of the university that awarded them their diploma.
Full report on the University World News site:

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

IRAN: Arrest of academics condemned
Jonathan Travis*
The UK's University and College Union has condemned the Iranian government after 70 university professors were arrested as part of the state's crackdown on opposition protestors. The academics were held on 25 June after meeting the pro-reformist candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi, who has accused President Ahmadinejad of rigging last month's national elections.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World News site:

BUSINESS

OECD: Biotechnology assuming major role
Alan Osborn
Provided certain development obstacles are overcome, biotechology will loom large in industry, agriculture and health by 2030, the OECD predicts. The Paris-based organisation says biotechnology will contribute up to 2.7% of gross domestic product in industrialised countries and even more in developing countries compared with the less than 1% in the OECD countries at present.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: -250 million loan to technology researchers
Leah Germain
Telecommunications giant Nokia Siemens Networks has received a -250 million loan from the European Investment Bank to support research and development into radio access network technology.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Award for wave energy collaboration
Emma Jackson
After years of collaboration between Queen's University Belfast and renewable energy company Aquamarine Power, the Oyster wave energy converter has been named top innovation at the 2009 British Renewable Energy Awards.
Full report on University World News website :

CANADA: College opens brewery - to improve students' minds
Monica Dobie
Niagara College in St Catherines, in southern Ontario, will launch a groundbreaking brewmaster diploma programme in September 2010, assuming the construction of a teaching brewery can be finished on time.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURE

CHINA: Pressure to improve graduate job skills
Dominique Patton
China is coming under growing pressure to make its graduates more employable as it faces its biggest unemployment crisis in decades. More than six million students will graduate this summer, joining more than one million of last year's class who are still unemployed and several million more workers who have lost jobs since the slowdown of the global economy.
Full report on the University World News site:

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

US: Universities fair well in recession, says Moody's
Universities are expected to experience some stress but be more sheltered than other sectors from the global recession, says a new report on higher education by Moody's International Public Finance. "This is due to their counter-cyclical business aspects, government support, and growing role in economic development and rebuilding." However, many face conflicting pressures of rising demand for their services while also needing to adjust to a weaker funding outlook.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Rapid growth in campus sustainability activities
More than 66 sustainability-focused academic programmes were created in North America last year, at least 13 sustainability-themed research centres opened and plans were announced for 33 more, according to the just-published digest of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The AASHE Digest 2008 documents the continued rapid growth of campus sustainability in the US and Canada.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

BELARUS - Dance with Lukashenko keeps graduate on her toes
Nick Holdsworth
Minsk Pedagogical University graduate Tatyana Radkevich had to tread carefully when she was chosen to dance with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a graduation ball. Radkevich, who graduated from the Pedagogical University's faculty of national culture last month, was petrified she would tread on the president's toes.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Six degrees of freedom with chewing robot
The UK spends around £2.5 billion each year on dental materials to replace or strengthen teeth. Now a 'Chewing Robot' has been developed as a new, biologically-inspired way to test dental materials. The robot was demonstrated to the public for the first time last week at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: But I'm an athlete
A university's recent attempt to cut its women's volleyball team and replace it with a competitive cheerleading squad has rekindled the flames of a fiery debate among scholars of gender equity in collegiate athletics: namely, is cheerleading a sport? asks David Moltz in Inside Higher Ed.
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FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in
higher education worldwide and 950 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

US: Online beats face-to-face education, study finds
Online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, according to a new meta-analysis released last week by the US Department of Education, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction.
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US: Ivy League endowments fall behind
The markets finally found a way to stump the Ivy League, writes Craig Karmin for The Wall Street Journal. The largest college endowments, long the envy of smaller rivals for their sophisticated and profitable investment strategies, were left behind over the past year by the performance of smaller schools with far simpler approaches.
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AUSTRALIA: Foreign student death details suppressed
Details of the deaths of more than 50 overseas students have been suppressed by Australian coroners amid evidence the death toll is higher than the Federal Government has admitted, write Chris Johnston and Heath Gilmore for The Age.
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INDIA: Tibetan monks and nuns turn to science
Tibetan monks and nuns spend their lives studying the inner world of the mind rather than the physical world of matter. Yet for one month this spring a group of 91 monastics devoted themselves to the corporeal realm of science, reports The New York Times. Instead of delving into Buddhist texts on karma and emptiness, they learned about Galileo's law of accelerated motion, chromosomes, neurons and the Big Bang, among other far-ranging topics.
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INDIA: Allow quality foreign universities - survey
Seeking regulatory reforms in higher education, the Economic Survey has suggested that quality foreign players should be allowed in the sector, reports the Economic Times. It also called for regulatory reforms to help focus on "providing honest and transparent quality ratings and information on financial costs".
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US: Sociology turns up assessment, study shows
The question of how to measure learning - and if it can or should be measured at all - continues to stir debate, writes Stephanie Lee for Inside Higher Ed. But despite skeptics' grumblings, sociology departments are increasingly using assessment methods to evaluate students experiences, according to a new study by the American Sociological Association.
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US: Tweeting to promote university internationally
From Japan, University of Michigan-Flint student Fatima Qureshi wrote about her first Japanese-style sugar cookie, visiting the Toyota factory and biking through town with groceries. Twitter has no boundaries and more universities are finding that the hot high-tech trend can be a low-budget marketing tool - even overseas. The university will be asking more students to tweet about international experiences to promote its programmes, reports Flint News.
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UK: Poorer students narrow the university gap
More young students from poor backgrounds in Britain are going to university than ever before, narrowing the gap between rich and poor students' participation rates, new government figures suggest, writes Anthea Lipsett for The Guardian.
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UK: Degrees of comfort: more students choose colleges
Some students prefer to take university-level courses at further education colleges, where they get smaller classes, a more hands-on approach and help with employment when they graduate, writes Kate Hilpern for The Independent.
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KENYA: Is Kenya ready for world-class universities?
A proposed law on higher education comes at a time when expansion of tertiary education in Kenya is in disarray from market-type competition for students, writes Wachira Kigotho for The Standard. It is one of three drafted bills and seeks to consolidate disparate statutes into one law that would enable the Commission of Higher Education to provide leadership in governance of universities and other tertiary institutions.
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CHINA: Nankai University dismisses 168 PhD students
has dismissed 168 doctorate students since 2006, the ChinaCSR agency reports. Tong Jiadong, director of the Postgraduate Students School at the university, said dismissing students who were lagging behind was a step in achieving excellence.
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BEIJING: Top scorer may lose Peking place for lying
A talented Chinese student who won a place at the prestigious Peking University may not be enrolled for lying about his ethnic status during the national college entrance examination, Xinhua news agency reports. He Chuanyang scored 659, the highest in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. But the local admission office said he and 30 other students had falsely claimed 20 additional test points because of their "ethnic minority status".
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