Monday 26 April 2010

University World News 0121 - 26th April 2010

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

GREECE: Was the volcano disruption really necessary?
Makki Marseilles
A small amount of money spent on research and development might have prevented the huge economic consequences and social chaos caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Greek geologists say.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Boost graduate ratio to 60%
Geoff Maslen
A private US foundation has proposed increasing the proportion of Americans with "high-quality degrees and credentials" to 60% of the population within 15 years. President and CEO of the Indianopolis-based Lumina Foundation, Jamie Merisotis, told a conference in Miami the goal was to boost the proportion of higher-education qualified Americans from the current 40% to 60% by 2025.
Full report on the University World News site:

CHINA: Universities fail to tackle plagiarism
Yojana Sharma
China's universities are failing to crack down on plagiarism despite an unprecedented education ministry circular sent to them a year ago making them responsible for investigating and dealing with rampant cheating. Of more than 900 cases of academic corruption highlighted in recent years, only 20 have resulted in punishment by universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Higher education summit

South Africa held its first higher education stakeholder summit in more
than a decade last week, focusing on the transformation of universities. Government officials, university leaders and experts, academics and representatives of students, support staff and the private sector converged on Cape Peninsula University of Technology for two intensive days of debate to take stock of the sector 16 years after democracy and to chart an agenda for the future.

Despite fears that it would deteriorate into a clash of stakeholders, perhaps particularly between perpetually-protesting students and weary university managers, the summit was a success. All agreed that higher education had notched up significant achievements and the best in the system must be preserved, but also that much more transformation was needed - especially to tackle lingering racism and resource inequalities between universities.

University World News covered the conference. See our news stories below. Next week we will feature an in-depth article on the differentiation debate.

Higher education summit endorses stakeholder forum

Karen MacGregor South Africa's higher education summit agreed on Friday to create a stakeholder forum to improve communication in the sector. It vowed to seek redress funding for disadvantaged universities, revitalise the academic profession, improve working conditions and student-centredness, strengthen postgraduate studies and research, and take forward an institutional differentiation framework developed at the meeting.
Full report on the University World News site:

Higher education still inaccessible
Munyaradzi Makoni
Sixteen years after attaining political democracy, South African higher education was still inaccessible to most potential learners because of a combination of hurdles, South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said as he opened the Stakeholder Summit on Higher Education Transformation in Cape Town on Thursday.
Full report on the University World News site:

The 'Soudien Report': Deny racism at your peril
Alison Moodie
High on the agenda of last week's Stakeholder Summit on Higher Education Transformation was the 'Soudien Report', a damning government-commissioned probe that brought to light discrimination - especially racism and s exism - still endemic at South African universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

Higher education is a shambles, say academics
Alison Moodie
South Africa's higher education system is in a shambles, according to leading academics who met last week to discuss transformation in the sector. An aging profession, pitiful salaries and discrimination across the board were just some of the grievances aired during a commission for academics at the two-day Stakeholder Summit on Higher Education Transformation.
Full report on the University World News site:

South African students speak out at summit
Munyaradzi Makoni
Few people came more prepared for the higher education stakeholder summit than Sandile Phakathi, president of the South African Union of Students. He said there was no excuse for students who intimidated people or destroyed property during the frequent protests that pepper the academic year, but stressed that change cannot take place without students.
Full report on the University World News site:

Transformation is "not for sissies"
Munyaradzi Makoni
"Transformation is not for sissies", Professor Michael Burawoy, a sociologist at the University of California Berkeley and Vice-president of the World Sociological Association, told the Stakeholder Summit on Higher Education Transformation held in Cape Town last week. "This is tough stuff."
Full report on the University World News site:

More news from our global correspondents

IRAN: Purge of independent-minded professors
The Iranian government continues to dismiss prominent university professors on political grounds, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said in a statement last week. The human rights organisation called on the international university community to stand in solidarity with Iranian professors and scholars who it said were being ruthlessly separated from their students, their colleagues and their institutions on the basis of their peaceful political views.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDONESIA: Supreme Court annuls university autonomy law
David Jardine
A controversial university autonomy law sponsored by the Ministry of National Education has been annulled by Indonesia's Supreme Court. Opponents of the legislation claimed it gave unfair assistance to the offspring of wealthy families.
Full report on the University World News site:

THE NETHERLANDS: Call for significant reforms
Jan Petter Myklebust
Dutch higher education institutions need to diversify more and promote more ways for students to switch between vocational and academic courses, according to a major report on the future of higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:

ZIMBABWE: Academics dominate new human rights body
From a special correspondent
Zimbabwe has sworn in its first human rights commission, led by and comprised mainly of academics - at a time when academic freedoms are being violated and students have protested against a visit to the country by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Full report on the University World News site:

MAURITANIA: Students clash over language policy
Tunde Fatunde
Violence broke out on the University of Nouakchott campus, in the Mauritanian capital, among students divided over the use of Arabic and French as the country's common languages. University authorities called security agents to subdue the violence, which left several students seriously wounded.
Full report on the University World News site:

SENEGAL: Professional university to open in 2012
Minister for Technical Education and Professional Training Moussa Sakho has launched a project to create a new university in the Saint-Louis region. The Université des Métiers et du Développement Durable (University of Professions and Sustainable Development), due to open in 2012, is a joint public-private venture.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

AUSTRALIA: UA and IAU collaborate
The vice-chancellors' organisation, Universities Australia, has signed an agreement with the Association of Indian Universities affirming the commitment of Australian universities to ongoing partnership and collaboration with Indian universities through the AIU.
Full report on the University World News site:

MADAGASCAR: Impecunious students protest
Students at the University Nord d'Antsiranana took to the streets to protest against non- payment of a 10% increase in grants and other benefits promised by the Minister for Higher Education three weeks before, reported l'Express de Madagascar of Antananarivo.
Full report on the University World News site:

DR CONGO: Striking lecturers return to work
Lecturers at Unikin, the University of Kinshasa, have returned to work after a strike lasting nearly two months, following an agreement between the government and Apukin, the union representing the university's teaching staff, reported Le Potentiel of Kinshasa.
Full report on the University World News site:

ALGERIA: Researcher urges revival of Arabic
Algeria's access to the knowledge society depended on developing the Arabic language so it could compete with other languages, according to university researcher Ammar Bouhouche, reported La Tribune of Algiers.
Full report on the University World News site:

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

US: Haiti trip provokes academic freedom argument
Jonathan Travis*
An unauthorised trip by two students to Haiti in the wake of the recent earthquake has sparked an academic freedom row in the US, Times Higher Education reports. Jon Bougher and Roman Safiullin, students in the Documentary Institute at the University of Florida, returned to Haiti after a university ban to complete a thesis documentary about aid workers. They paid for the trip themselves and worked without any input from the university.
More academic freedom reports on the University World News site:

SCIENCE SCENE

ICELAND: Volcano puts academics to the fore
The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano this month provided an active subject for many of the world's volcanologists. As ash from the volcano grounded planes across much of Europe, scientists were studying the eruption and fielding news media inquiries about it.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: AAAS supports 'right to benefits of science'
The world's largest scientific society has thrown its weight behind efforts to figure out just what is meant by the human right to the benefits of science.
Full report on the University World News site:

EU: Seeking bacterial solution to oil spills
Universities in the UK, Germany and Denmark are part of a team that has won EU funding to research a novel way of cleaning up oil spills. The scientists will investigate the use of bacteria to break down a group of toxic hydrocarbons particularly common in heavy oil and crude oil.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

UK: International branch campuses
From The UK Higher Education International Unit
In October 2009, The Hindu newspaper reported that "nearly 50 foreign universities" were in a queue to open campuses in India, pending passage of the Foreign Education Providers Bill. This enthusiasm peaked at the time of Minister Sibal's visit to the US that same month but it was based on a misunderstanding of the intentions of the great majority of foreign universities and was bound to be deflated.
Full report on the University World News site:

FINLAND: Students: Too old and too slow?
Ian R Dobson
Finland is repeatedly praised for topping secondary education league tables but a recent OECD report criticised aspects of its universities. The report said higher education students were "insulated from labour market signals by not having to repay the cost of their tuition", and suggested introducing tuition fees would reduce the time students take to complete their degrees.
Full report on the University World News site:

HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

CANADA: University networks and the Global South
After World War II, international networks of nation-states such as the United Nations and other Bretton Woods organisations and later the OECD, EC, ASEAN and others exploded onto the world stage. Given these precedents, formal networks of universities should have followed. With a few exceptions, however, their rapid rise did not occur until the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War. Indeed, 'networking' was one of the key words in higher education for the 1990s, writes Qiang Zha in the Academic Matters blog, The Global University.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

GLOBAL: Volcano leaves academics stranded
Among the hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded after the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Freysteinn Sigmundsson can claim to be more frustrated than most. Sigmundsson, who was stuck in Paris, is an Icelandic vulcanologist who has been studying Eyjafjallajokull's fiery belches and magma movements for nearly two decades.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Medical professor moved by art exhibit of cadavers
Surrounded by red-wine-sipping artists and art students on a recent evening Ashraf Aziz, who has spent half his life cutting open cadavers and initiating medical students at Howard University, has tears in his eyes. An exhibit, "Anatomical Art: Dissection to illustration", is just one outcome of an unusual year-old collaboration between Howard's College of Medicine and the Art Institute of Washington, writes David Montgomery in the Washington Post.
Full report on the University World News site:

FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

TAIWAN: Lawmakers clash over students from China
A legislative committee meeting descended into a fight last week as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers clashed over two proposed bills that would recognise Chinese diplomas and allow Chinese students to study in Taiwan, Flora Wang and Vincent Y Chao report for the Taipei Times.
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PAKISTAN: University of the Punjab faces Taliban tactics
A student group Islami Jamiat Talaba that has been terrorising the University of the Punjab, Pakistan's premier institution of higher learning with about 30,000 students, has help from a surprising source - national political leaders. They have given it free rein, because they sometimes make political alliances with its parent organisation Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's oldest and most powerful religious party, writes Sabrina Tavernise in The New York Times.
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DUBAI: Foreign universities to be scrutinised
Dubai, with the highest number of international branch campuses in the Middle East, has set up a quality review process, writes Afshan Ahmed in the Khaleej Times. Universities hope the process adopted in the emirate will raise student confidence in branch campuses, with the education authority's University Quality Assurance International Board aiming to remove the rotten eggs from the basket of higher education institutions.
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CANADA: Alumni acquires un-naming rights to biz school
Facing the prospect of a corporate title on the doorway, graduates of the University of Alberta School of Business started a campaign that raised more than C$20 million (US$19.9 million) to keep the name just as it is, writes, Elise Stolte in the Edmonton Journal.
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US: Report looks at campus shootings
A new report jointly issued by the Secret Service, the Department of Education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) examines targeted violent incidents on higher education campuses in the United States, writes Genevieve Long in the Epoch Times.
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US: Professors fight for their right to fail students
Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge has set off a debate about grade inflation, due process and a professor's right to set standards in her own course after they removed a lecturer from teaching, mid-semester, and raised the grades of students in the class, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
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MALAYSIA: Prime Minister invites US universities
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has invited American universities to set up branch campuses in Malaysia, The Malaysia Star reports. The Prime Minister said the US had some of the finest higher education institutions in the world and was an important resource in fulfilling Malaysia's needs in higher education.
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CHINA: Lack of top-ranking universities, says academic
China has no global top-ranking universities, said Xu Zhihong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Science and ex-president of Peking University, at a lecture in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, The People's Daily reports.
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IRAN-UK: Scholarship for protest victim brings rebuke
Iran has complained to Britain's Oxford University over a scholarship programme in memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose on-camera death during a protest earlier this year made her a global icon of Iranian opposition, writes Barry Neild on the CNN website.
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UK: Cash-starved university almost missed pay day
The University of Cumbria, which is nearly £30 million in debt, had to receive a cash advance from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, reports the BBC. The university is one of several institutions on an Hefce watch-list of vulnerable universities.
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Monday 19 April 2010

University World News 0120 - 19th April 2010

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

CHINA: Spies among lecturers and students
China's political police recruit and maintain a vast network of informants among the nation's university students. A report in China Digital Times describes how the Domestic Security Department or DSD has recruited intelligence agents to spy on people across the country for many years.
Full report on the University World News site:

POLAND: Rector killed in presidential plane crash
Daria Drabik
Professor Fr Ryszard Rumianek, Rector of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyñski University in Warsaw, was among those on board the presidential plane that crashed near Smolensk in Western Russia on 10 April. The 96 passengers and crew who died on the 20-year-old, Soviet-designed Tupolev plane were en route to a ceremony to honour the 20,000 Polish officers killed by Soviet troops in the Katyn forest during World War II 70 years ago. Smolensk is not far from Katyn.
Full report on the University World News site:

FRANCE: Record number of students from abroad
Jane Marshall
The number of foreign students enrolled in French higher education in 2008-09 was 266,400, the highest ever and an increase of 2.3% over the previous year, according to research from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Moroccans remained the biggest national group, though the number of Chinese students continued to rise rapidly.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Impact of background on post-college performance
Sarah King Head
Students likely to benefit most from a university education are not those from socially advantaged backgrounds. Instead the opposite appears to be true, according to a report in the American Sociological Review.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA: Innovation universities need foreign help
Alya Mishra
Decades after India sought foreign assistance to establish its first premier technical institutes - the Indian Institutes of Technology or IITs - it is again seeking guidance from the world's top institutions to set up 14 innovation universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: Countries can restrict non-resident students
The European Union's Court of Justice has found that while EU law prevents countries limiting non-resident student enrolments in certain university courses in the public health field, this was legitimate if the restriction involved protection of public health.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: Bologna magazine sums up progress
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Hungarian and Austrian Ministers for Science and Research, Education and Culture who were responsible for the 2010 Bologna ministerial meeting have released a magazine summing up the Bologna achievements and capturing many of its dimensions.
Full report on the University World News site:

BULGARIA: Urgent need for higher education reform
Eugene Vorotnikov
Higher education in Bulgaria needs radical change and modernisation, says Education Minister Sergey Ignatov. Speaking on national television last week, Ignatov said that over the next several years the higher education system should be able to achieve the highest European standards. Reform would be implemented through a new higher education law to be developed by the Bulgarian Council of Rectors.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: A brave digital future
Diane Spencer
Higher education institutions have a tremendous wealth of research knowledge and in this digital age how should this be preserved? Several sessions at the eighth annual conference organised by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee addressed this theme. Around 750 academics, consultants and ICT experts gathered in central London last week to learn more about keeping pace with the latest innovations and exchange ideas.
Full report on the University World News site:

CANADA: Tuition fees discriminatory say students
Cayley Dobie
A report by one of the provincial chapters of the Canadian Federation of Students says a "visible minority" of students, those from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, are experiencing higher-than-average debt levels for a university education. The student lobby group has called the province of Ontario's system "racially discriminatory" and its report says struggling visible minority students continue to make sacrifices to attend university.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Academic salaries experience deflation
Sarah King Head
Just as students are finding it harder to keep up with escalating higher education costs, a new study has shown that their professors are also being squeezed by the economic downturn.
Full report on the University World News site:

YEMEN: Lecturers strike over conditions
Wagdy Sawahel
Teaching staff at Yemen-based Sana'a University began a partial strike on 5 April over their work conditions and employment regulations. Staff said the deterioration of the country's higher education system was affecting efforts at building a knowledge-based society and meeting the needs of development and job markets.
Full report on the University World News site:

BUSINESS

UAE: University-industry partnership boosts economy
Wagdy Sawahel
The United Arab Emirates University, a leading national university, has officially launched an education programme 'Ta'awon' in partnership with the Dubai Aluminium Company and other leading businesses. The programme aims to promote the role of the university in leading scientific and engineering research for the UAE, allowing students to work with companies on real-life science and engineering challenges.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: 'Talking' car technology to make roads safer
Cayley Dobie
Innovative 'talking' car technology, developed with the assistance of various European research institutions, was unveiled last month at a Cooperative Mobility showcase in Amsterdam. The new technology is designed to improve road safety by communicating hazards to drivers, and is due to hit the markets by 2015.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: HSBC wins TARGETjob Award
Cayley Dobie
University students and graduates have voted international bank HSBC as the most popular graduate recruiter at the United Kingdom's TARGETjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2010. The online poll indicates the bank - which performed relatively solidly during the credit crunch - is a favourite choice of employment for graduating students.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURE

NORWAY-AFRICA: Nile Basin research programme
Bård Hekland and Jan Petter Myklebust
From the southernmost source in Burundi to the outflow in the Mediterranean, the river Nile stretches over 6,600 kilometres, draining its water from 10 countries - Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the DR Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt. More than 370 million people make up the population of these tributary countries, a number estimated by the UN to rise to 635 million by 2030.
Full report on the University World News site:

HE Research and Commentary

US: Increasing time to baccalaureate degree
The time students take to complete a baccalaureate degree in the United States has increased markedly over the past three decades, even as the wage premium for college graduates has continued to rise, write John Bound, Michael F Lovenheim and Sarah Turner in a working paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Their research indicated that the primary reasons could be declines in resources in less-selective public sector colleges, and increased hours of employment among students.
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US: DIY university
In the age of constant connectedness and social media, it's time for the monolithic, millennium-old, ivy-covered walls of universities to undergo a phase change into something much lighter, more permeable and fluid, according to Anya Kamenetz, author of a new book called DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

UK: Cambridge offers pole-dancing lessons
The newest way to beat stress at high-pressure Cambridge University in the UK? Pole dancing lessons, writes Rosemary Black for the New York Daily News. For the first time, Cambridge students in the throes of rigorous final exams will be offered the saucy, sensual sessions, according to the Cambridge Union Society. No previous experience is necessary, and the "pole-fitness" sessions are advertised for women only.
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FACEBOOK

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higher education worldwide. More than 2,050 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

GLOBAL: Unesco Director-General appoints senior staff
Unesco Director-General Irina Bokova last week informed the members of Unesco's Executive Board of her choice for the senior management team. Bokova, whose mandate began on 15 November last year, said that she had chosen a "strong, competent, coherent and motivated team" to lead the organisation. The education sector will be headed by Qian Tang of China, who is currently its interim Assistant Director-General.
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UK: Research intelligence - proof is in the numbers
Jonathan Adams cuts a rather dashing figure in his multicoloured designer silk scarf as he hurries to catch the train home from London to Leeds, writes Zoë Corbyn for Times Higher Education. The 56-year-old co-founder of Evidence treated himself to the Paul Smith accessory after he and his business partner Karen Gurney sold the firm to multinational data provider Thomson Reuters in January 2009. Evidence, which spec ialises in analysing research performance using citations, has grown from scratch in 2001 to become a common name in university management circles.
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US: New force behind Agency of Wonder
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is different from other US federal agencies, writes John Markoff for The New York Times. For one thing the agency, known as Darpa, created the internet (really). For another, it is probably the only agency ever to offer a $40,000 prize for a balloon hunt, a contest that was inspired by Regina Dugan, a 47-year-old expert in mine detection, who took over last summer as its director.
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US: Retooling remediation
Six American states that are trying to revamp remedial education are focusing as much on what happens outside of the classroom - in state policies - as inside, writes David Moltz for Inside Higher Ed. Among the targets for change are state funding formulas and individual course rules.
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JAPAN: more Japanese students staying home
Takuya Otani would love an MBA from a top US business school, but he won't apply. When he graduates from college in Tokyo next year, he'll pass on an American degree and attend graduate school in Japan, writes Blaine Harden for The Washington Post. "I am a grass-eater," Otani said wistfully, using an in-vogue expression for a person who avoids stress, controls risk and grazes contentedly in home pastures. Once a voracious consumer of American higher education, Japan is becoming a nation of grass-eaters.
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CHINA: Rampant cheating hurts research ambitions
When professors in China need to author research papers to get promoted, many turn to people like Lu Keqian, writes Gillian Wong for Associated Press. Working on his laptop in a cramped spare bedroom, the former schoolteacher ghost-writes for professors, students, government offices - anyone willing to pay his fee, typically about 300 yuan ($45). Ghost-writing, plagiarizing or faking results is so rampant in Chinese academia that some experts worry it could hinder China's efforts to become a leader in science.
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TAIWAN: Chinese universities woo top Taiwanese pupils
The Ministry of Education has said that China's move to open its universities to top Taiwanese students will not attract many applicants, the Focus Taiwan news channel reports. The ministry was commenting on an announcement by China last week that Taiwanese high school students who score within the top 12% in scholastic aptitude tests can now apply directly to 123 universities in China and will only be required to pass an interview.
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SINGAPORE: Fee hike unlikely to deter foreign students
Recent news of fee hikes in Singapore's three public universities is unlikely to deter foreign students because the new fees remain internationally competitive, write Karen Zainal and Luke Vijay for the Straits Times.
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VIETNAM: Shut poor quality private universities
Priority should be given to the establishment of private universities that have intensive investment or operate on a non-profit basis, while poor-quality ones should be shut down, an education supervisory team has said, reports the Communist Party paper the Saigon Giai Phong Daily.
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INDIA: For-profit universities not welcome
India plans to shut its doors to international public and private universities that operate for profit, believing that the move will keep the education sector free of commerc ialisation, writes Hemali Chhapia for The Times of India. So the University of Phoenix of the US, or the expanding Monash University of Australia, or Britain's first private company-university BPP College of Professional Studies, would not be permitted to set foot in the country.
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INDONESIA: Government to retain university autonomy
The Indonesian government said on Monday that a new draft law to replace the recently annulled 2008 Law on Educational Entities would retain its provision of greater autonomy for universities in managing their financial resources, writes Erwida Maulia for The Jakarta Post. National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said the move was in line with requests from heads of universities.
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US: Palin speech sparks concerns about foundations
An invitation to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin to speak at California State University, Stanislaus' 50th anniversary gala is generating controversy and raising questions about the foundation that is paying her. The non-profit is refusing to divulge her speaking fees, writes Carla Rivera for The Los Angeles Times.
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US: Berkeley bloated, wasteful, consultants say
For a world-class university studded with Nobel laureates and innovative research, the University of California, Berkeley, manages its finances a bit like a sloppy undergraduate, a new report suggests, writes Nanette Asimov for the San Francisco Chronicle.
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CARIBBEAN: Call for regional collaboration
During a two-day Caribbean conference on higher education policy-makers, educators and experts discussed the situation of higher education in the region. The meeting was a joint initiative between the Surinam government, the Organization of American States and Unesco, reports the Office of the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis.
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ANGOLA: Call for increased higher education cooperation
Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Maria Candida Teixeira, said this month that Angola had been working hard to find more feasible ways to increase cooperation with other countries in the higher education sector, reports AngolaPress.
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Monday 12 April 2010

University World News 0119 - 12th April 2010

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

FRANCE: Climatology row raises a storm
Jane Marshall
Minister for Higher Education and Research Valérie Pécresse has ordered the French Academy of Sciences to organise a debate on climate change "as soon as possible" after more than 400 climatologists demanded she disown attacks made by sceptical scientists - including one of her predecessors.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Women gain in science while video games hold back boys
John Richard Schrock*
The number of women taking courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the STEM subjects, has been increasing since 1966, according to a new report. But another study, on boys' academic responses to new video games, establishes a cause-and-effect relationship that could partly explain the decline in male academic achievement.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Ensuring survival of a 150-year old system
Sarah King Head
The university system and its board of regents in the state of Georgia has been sued for failing to fund black colleges and universities to the same degree as the other 34 institutions. A group called the Legal Defense Coalition for the Preservation of Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities filed the lawsuit on 1 April. It claimed there had been violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 14th Amendment of the American Constitution.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Foreign graduate applications up for fifth year
The number of applications from prospective international students to American graduate schools has increased for the fifth consecutive year. In a report released last week, the Council of Graduate Schools says the 7% growth in 2010 is the largest since a 9% gain three years ago.
Full report on the University World News site:

UKRAINE: Radical reforms will not follow elections
Eugene Vorotnikov
Ukraine's higher education system will not undergo any radical reform following the recent election of a new president and government. But some changes are likely to be implemented, including modification of a controversial testing system.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Foreign enrolments continue to rise
Geoff Maslen
Despite the increasing value of the Australian dollar compared with other currencies, and widespread reporting across Asia of attacks on Indian students, the nation's universities continue to attract more foreign fee-paying students.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA: Dispute over selecting vice-chancellors
Alya Mishra
Indian government attempts to introduce greater transparency in appointing university vice-chancellors, amid revelations that many private universities appointed family members to administrative posts, have not gone down well with the academic community.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA-INDIA: Consolidating educational links
Australia's Education Minister Julia Gillard and India's Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal signed a Joint Ministerial Statement last Thursday aimed at strengthening educational ties between the two nations.
Full report on the University World News site:

EGYPT: OECD urges sweeping higher education reform
Ashraf Khaled
Egypt's higher education system is not serving the country's current needs well, and without far-reaching reform this will hamper economic and social progress, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and World Bank.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Academy defends academic freedom
Munyaradzi Makoni
The Academy of Sciences of South Africa has defended academic freedom it believes is under threat from intrusive government regulations, the "apparently excessive influence" of private sector sponsorships of universities and perceived limitations on free speech within universities. The academy represents the country's outstanding scientists.
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N IGERIA: Single examination for 6.4 million
Tunde Fatunde
N igeria has introduced a single entrance examination for all tertiary institutions - universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. It is the first time the government has sought to harmonise entry examinations that will take place next Saturday with 6.4 million registered candidates.
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KENYA: Boost to knowledge transfer partnership
Dave Daido
Kenya's National Council for Science and Technology and the British Council are to work together to expand the Africa Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme. The aim is to provide opportunities for businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of higher education knowledge, technology and expertise.
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ZIMBABWE: Lecturers strike while students face crackdown
A special correspondent
Lecturers at the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe's main science university, have gone on strike over unpaid allowances. Meanwhile, the state has renewed its crackdown on students resulting in countrywide arrests, court appearances, abductions, disciplinary hearings and expulsions over demonstrations staged on 29 March in protest against continuing deterioration of higher education standards.
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NEWSBRIEFS

RUSSIA: Millions for research and development
Eugene Vorotnikov
Leading universities will receive up to 90 billion rubles (US$3 billion) to support R&D activities over the next three years. Announcing the grant, Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko said the funds would improve the scientific potential of universities and attract foreign scientists, including Russians currently working abroad.
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AFRICA: ADEA launches research prize
The Association for the Development of Education in Africa will launch a new prize to promote excellence in educational research in African universities and research institutes and networks, and among the African diaspora working and studying throughout the world, reported Sudonline of Dakar, Senegal.
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BURKINA FASO: Local government centre opens
A new international centre for training local authority officials and elected councillors of 15 West and Central African countries has been inaugurated in Ouagadougou, reported Sidwaya of Ouagadougou.
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GABON: Bullies sanctioned, not expelled
Students at the Université des Sciences et Technique of Massuku who bullied freshers have avoided dismissal from the university, reported Gabonews of Libreville.
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ALGERIA: Mauritania and Mozambique collaborate
Mauritania and Mozambique hope that Algeria will increase the number of grant quotas it makes each year for their students and widen its collaboration with them in higher education and research, reported La Tribune of Algiers.
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ACADEMIC FREEDOM

CHINA: Academic banned from travelling
Jonathan Travis*
A prominent Chinese academic who was to speak at an academic conference in the United States has been barred from leaving China. Professor Cui Weiping, a poet and professor at the Beijing Film Academy, had planned to lecture at Harvard University and attend a conference sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies. But the director of her school said she had been forbidden to travel.
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SCIENCE SCENE

US: Mid-pyramid predators good for vegetation
A new study shows that birds, bats and other insect-eating predators have a positive effect on the plants they live among.
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EU: Scientists consider poverty
The role of science in the fight against poverty was the focus for 200 international experts who met in Spain last week. The Science Against Poverty conference was organised by the Spanish government as part of its presidency of the European Union.
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DENMARK: Football is good for you
It's known as the beautiful game but new research indicates that football should perhaps also be called the healthy game. Scientists have found that men worry less when playing football than when running, while women benefit socially and are more likely to continue with the sport.
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FEATURES

SOUTH AFRICA: Less HIV in universities than nationally
Sharon Dell
At 3.4%, HIV prevalence among students at South African universities is well below the national average, suggesting that prevention strategies aimed at the sector are finding their mark. But there's no cause for complacency, according to interpretations of a study by the Higher Education HIV and Aids Programme (HEAids) on HIV prevalence and knowledge, attitude, behaviour and practice. There are still signs of risky behaviour on campuses.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town - an 'Afropolitan' university
Alison Moodie
In the past decade, the University of Cape Town has established itself as Africa's top university. High global rankings, large numbers of international students and significant growth in research output have helped cement its reputation. Now, says Vice-chancellor Dr Max Price: "We're positioning ourselves as a significant global player". The aim is to make Cape Town an interface between academic activities in Africa and the rest of the world.
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HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

AFRICA: Science must tackle local language barriers
Charles Dhewa*
Africans have a rich cultural heritage and a wealth of traditional knowledge on topics ranging from agriculture and forestry to medicines and medical practices, all of which could make valuable contributions to modern science - but only if science can be translated into local languages.
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GLOBAL: Academics identify ideal research-teaching nexus
Research and teaching are supposed to be closely related in universities. Among academics the belief in a symbiotic relationship is strong. However, it is unclear what form this relationship can take. In an article in the latest edition of Higher Education Research & Development, several authors present categories and dimensions to clarify this relationship. The aim of the project was to understand what academics' ideal research-teaching nexus would look like.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

KENYA: University sued over missing cat
Dave Daido
The University of Nairobi in Kenya has been sued after a male cat in its possession for treatment vanished. The cat's owner, Tawhida Yakub, filed a suit against the university seeking compensation. Yakubsaid she had taken Fifi to the College of Veterinary Science at the Kabete campus in Nairobi in December for treatment of wounds and castration - but he subsequently disappeared without trace.
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GLOBAL: Spreading the TED message
TED is a small non-profit, US-based organisation that is rather fond of capital letters and says it is "devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading". It was begun in 1984 as a conference "bringing together people from three worlds, Technology, Entertainment, Design", hence TED.
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US: Graduate school survival guide
While most doctoral programmes have some sort of orientation, the focus on such matters as required courses, time to degree and dissertation goals may diminish opportunities to consider really important matters - such as how to wander into a colloquium at which food is served, timing your entrance so you don't need to listen to the talk - writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Adam Ruben wants to help.
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FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

CANADA: Chinese spies stole secret documents online
Researchers at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Canada, have provided a detailed account of how a Chinese spy operation it called the 'Shadow Network' systematically hacked into personal computers in government offices on several continents, CyberMedia News reports.
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INDONESIA: Universities, students in dark over funding
Universities and students across Indonesia find themselves confused over their immediate financial futures after the Constitutional Court last week annulled the 2008 Education Legal Entity Law that made universities autonomous and responsible for their own funding, write Putri Prameshwari and Dimas Siregar for the Jakarta Globe.
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PAKISTAN: Only academics should be university heads
The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations has called on the Higher Education Commission to appoint only serving academics fulfilling the requirements of a professor as vice-chancellors or rectors in public sector universities, writes Rasheed Khalid for The News. Academics do not want universities headed by military of civil officials.
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INDIA: Social justice through higher education
India has initiated action to ensure social justice among its citizen through higher education, by increasing student intakes in universities and colleges to 30% by 2020, reports the Assam Tribune. The current gross enrolment ratio in higher education is 12.4%, said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, last week.
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TAIWAN: Aid to attract international students
Taiwan's government will this year give more than NT$62 million (US$2 million) to universities as part of an expansion project to recruit more international students, with Ming Chuan University to receive the highest amount, reports The China Post. In all 20 universities will receive financial aid from the Ministry of Education for the 2010 academic year.
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US: University law clinics face a backlash
Law school students across the US are facing growing attacks in the courts and legislatures as legal clinics at universities increasingly take on powerful interests that few other non-profit groups have the resources to challenge, writes Ian Urbina for The New York Times. Earlier this month, lawmakers in Maryland debated a measure to cut money for the University of Maryland's law clinic if it does not provide details to the legislature about its clients, finances and cases.
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US: Universities tap fees for unintended projects
While California universities have faced round after round of crippling budget cuts and protests against increased fees have flared on campuses, administrators have tapped funds meant for classrooms and students to cover some extraordinary costs - losses on ill-timed real estate deals, loans to high-ranking officials and an ambitious construction project - writes Jack Dolan for The Los Angeles Times.
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US: Studying at one university is outdated
Is the "bundled" model of higher education outdated? asks Steve Kolowich in Inside Higher Ed. Some higher-education futurists think so. Choosing the academic programme at a single university, they say, is a relic of a time before online education made it possible for a student in Oregon to take courses at a university in Florida. Since the online-education boom, the notion that students could cobble together a curriculum that includes courses designed and delivered by a variety of institutions has gained traction in some circles.
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US: Community colleges like attention, need money
Politicians and policy-makers are lavishing unprecedented attention on community colleges, promoting them as engines to train workers in the recession and boost America's college graduation rates, writes Eric Gorski for Associated Press. Grappling with soaring enrolment and plummeting state support, community colleges are grateful for the higher profile but disappointed that money has yet to materialise to help them keep up with demand.
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AUSTRALIA: Beware the second rate
The way students will be admitted, universities funded and research organised and rewarded is changing following the government's adoption of the Bradley review, writes Professor Paul Johnson, Vice-chancellor of La Trobe University, in The Australian. Last year Education Minister Julia Gillard announced a series of important policies.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Case built for mega-telescope contract
Driving the dirt road to the Karoo Array Telescope site, the FM radio searches in vain for a frequency it can catch, scanning the dial bottom to top and back again, writes Joshua Howat Berger for AFP. This very quiet corner of South Africa's sparsely populated Northern Cape province seems an unlikely place to build such an instrument, but its silence is precisely what makes the Karoo an attractive site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope project.
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UAE: Students who fail 'should pay for college'
Failed students are clogging the federal university system for up to eight years, denying places to young women who are desperate to study, the head of the National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority (Tanmia) said in Abu Dhabi last week. Now the body in charge of employing Emiratis wants students who do not work hard enough to be made to pay for their education, writes Kareem Shaheen for The National.
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MALAYSIA: Closer ties with the EU
Bilateral ties between Malaysia and the EU are set to improve with the launch of the RM2.5 million (US$0.8 million) Malaysia-European Union Link (MYEULINK) initiative, writes Richard Lim for The Star. Funded by the EU with support from the Higher Education Ministry, the three-year project encourages cooperation and dialogue in higher education, while keeping decision-makers in Malaysia informed on a range of EU policy initiatives.
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MALAYSIA: Call for more HE-business collaboration
The Malaysian government is calling for more constructive collaboration between the private sector and institutions of higher learning in the country, especially in commerc ialising the latter's research and development findings, the Bernama news agency reports.
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Sunday 4 April 2010

University World News 118 - 5th April 2010

This is the second in our two-part series of reports from the British Council's Going Global conference in London on 26 and 27 March. The event attracted 1,200 delegates from 75 countries as well as 200 speakers and 60 poster presentations. Our correspondents report. To see the previous reports, click here.

CHINA: More autonomy for universities
Yojana Sharma Moves to give China's universities more autonomy under far-reaching education reforms will mean they have more say in enrolment and international exchanges, Chinese officials told the Going Global conference.
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GLOBAL: Internationalisation or westernisation?
Yojana Sharma
A new awareness is emerging among policy-makers and university heads that a headlong rush towards internationalisation is not always best for students, universities and the countries involved. This year's Going Global conference debated whether internationalisation was just a euphemism for the 'westernisation' of higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Is the private sector necessary?
Diane Spencer
Can governments deliver their higher education policies without the private sector? In the session devoted to this question at the Going Global conference, all three speakers agreed that they couldn't although Lord (John) Tomlinson, former Labour minister and chair of the UK's Association of Independent Higher Education Providers, said: "Yes, but not very well."
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Finding the best economists and engineers
Yojana Sharma
As the subjective nature of international university league tables becomes more widely recognised, the OECD is making an ambitious attempt at more objective international comparisons of what students actually learn at universities.
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HONG KONG: Reforms challenge academic standards
Yojana Sharma
When Hong Kong first proposed shifting from a three-year undergraduate degree to four years while reducing upper secondary programmes by a year so students could begin university at age 17, it was seen as a move away from an education system inherited from the British colonial era to a more politically neutral American-style education.
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GLOBAL: Lectures to go in a Web 2.0 world?
Yojana Sharma
As the learning content in universities is rapidly 'commoditised', with lectures cheaply or freely available on the internet, the question posed at the Going Global conference session on higher education in a Web 2.0 world was: "What value do institutions bring when everything is on the web?"
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IRAQ: Rolling back the years of isolation
Brendan O'Malley
International partnerships are being used to expose Iraqi education leaders to current global thinking on policy and practice after years of academic disengagement, the Going Global conference was told. The UK is funding two schemes to encourage partnerships with technical and higher education institutions as a means of rebuilding capacity and helping the education sector to contribute to prosperity, peace and security.
Full report on the University World News site :

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

EUROPE: New ways of ranking universities
Jan Petter Myklebust
An expert group on the assessment of university-based research was established by the European Commission in July 2008. The main objective was to "identify parameters to be observed in research assessment and to analyse major assessment and ranking systems in order to establish a more valid comparative methodological approach". Now the group has delivered its final report proposing wide-ranging changes in the world ranking of universities and calling for a more fine-tuned assessment methodology.
Full report on the University World News site:

GREECE: Owners attempt to exploit state sector cuts
Makki Marseilles
One would not have to be a guru to predict that the recent austerity measures affecting the state sector, and imposed by the government at the behest of the European Union, would inevitably have an impact on the private one. Private education institution owners have been accused of attempting to apply the state sector's severe reductions in wages and salaries to their own employees.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Fewer doctors graduate
Alison Moodie
The number of doctors graduating from South African universities has dropped in recent years despite a pressing need for more medical practitioners. A more than 6% decline in medical graduates between 2004 and 2008 - from 1,394 to 1,306 - has been blamed on lack of funds, staff shortages and poor facilities.
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EGYPT: Academics threaten pay strikes
Ashraf Khaled
A recent admission by Egypt's Minister of Higher Education that the salaries of lecturers at public universities are "paltry" has not mollified them. Indeed, academics are angrier than before and have threatened more protests to pressure the government to substantially increase their salaries.
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INDIA: US$1 billion grant for education
The World Bank has approved two education projects worth US$1 billion to improve the quality of engineering education across India and boost the number of children enrolling in and completing primary school.
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ISLAMIC STATES: Science and technology innovation
Wagdy Sawahel
Islamic states have given the green light to the establishment of a science and technology innovation organisation to maximise utilisation of the scientific talent and technological potential of the Muslim world by pooling the resources of the private and public sectors for research and development.
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NEWSBRIEFS

GERMANY: Government funding for research decade
Michael Gardner
In the wake of the failed Copenhagen climate summit, Germany has stressed the need to step up efforts to counter threats to sustainable development and secure the world's natural resource base. A new government initiative will promote sustainable development research.
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NORWAY: Largest donation for medicine
Jan Petter Myklebust
A NOK800 million (US$136 million) donation to the Bergen Medical Foundation, probably the largest given in Norway, for science and other social benefits has been made by the heirs of Nowegian ship-owner Kristian Gerhard Jebsen who died in 2004.
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SPAIN: Big loan to ICAF
The European Investment Bank has granted a EUR75 million loan to the Instituto de Finanzas de Cantabria, or ICAF, for investment in education in the region. The finance contract was signed by the Vice-President of the Cantabrian government, Dolores Gorostiaga Saiz, bank Vice-President Carlos da Silva Costa, and the region's Finance Minister and Chair of ICAF, Ángel Agudo San Emeterio.
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EUROPE: Boosting research ties with the East
A grant of €600,000 (US$809,000) has been allocated to build better research relations between the European Union and nations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia known as the EECA. The grant to the EECAlink project comes under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme.
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FEATURE

GLOBAL: Private education and development
In the past decade, private education has had an increasingly significant impact in the developing world, with many countries promoting private sector growth to expand educational capacity and access at all levels, an international education conference was told last week. The conference heard that more entrepreneurs were investing in the private sector in developing countries and "bringing fresh approaches and perspectives".
Full report on the University World News site:

BUSINESS

INDIA: Eco-friendly university in US partnership
Leah Germain
A new model giving universities a shot at generating valuable overseas student fees has been shown by an agreement between an environment-friendly university in India and Bradley University in Illinois, US. The agreement will give students the chance to begin their academic career in India and graduate in the United States.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Sustainability education needs radical change
Leah Germain
In a recent poll, 78% of students studying construction industry-related courses think their industry will play one of the most important roles in global efforts to tackle climate change. But if graduates are to help the building sector go green, leaders in the sector say a more radical approach to teaching sustainability is required.
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SAUDI ARABIA: A holistic approach to business
Leah Germain
A new programme designed to develop management and leadership skills for business leaders in Arab and Muslim countries has taken an alternative approach to relaying important business techniques to its participants. The Programme for Advanced Leadership and Management, or PALM, has been designed by a Saudi Arabia college to develop intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual relations in the Middle East business sector.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

AUSTRALIA: Can politicians stop repeating mistakes?
The Alfred Deakin Research Institute at Deakin University in Geelong, near Melbourne, claims its new website will help politicians avoid reinventing the wheel and repeating the errors of the past.
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US: Field trip or I'll sue, says 13-year-old prodigy
Colin Carlson is the kind of student every university loves: bright and engaging, he boasts near-perfect grades and a 100% attendance record during his first year-and-a-half studying for a bachelor's degree in environmental biology at the prestigious University of Connecticut. He also happens to be just 13 years old, writes Guy Adams for The Independent. That factor lay behind the institution's recent rejection of his request to take part in a summer field trip to the exotic wilds of South Africa.
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CHINA: Hamburger University opens in Shanghai
China's newest university has no football field or fancy library, writes Elaine Kurtenbach for Associated Press. For inspiration it looks not to Confucius, but to Ronald McDonald. But Shanghai's Hamburger University aspires to be a leader in higher learning for ambitious Chinese managers.
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US: To scientists, laughter is no joke
So a scientist walks into a shopping mall to watch people laugh. There's no punch-line, writes Seth Borenstein for Associated Press. Laughter is a serious scientific subject, one that researchers are still trying to figure out.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

UK: Climate science must be more open, say MPs
MPs investigating the climate change row at the UK's University of East Anglia have demanded greater transparency from climate scientists, writes Roger Harrabin for BBC News. The science and technology committee of the House of Commons criticised the university authorities for failing to respond to requests for data from climate change sceptics. But it found no evidence that Professor Phil Jones, whose e-mails were hacked and published online, had manipulated data.
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UK: Majority of young women in university
A watershed in university participation has been reached - for the first time a majority of young women in England are going to university, Sean Coughlan reports for BBC News. Provisional figures, showing university entrance for 2008-09, reveal that 51% of young women entered higher education, up from 49% the previous year.
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US: Obama signs higher-education measure into law
President Barack Obama signed into law on Tuesday a package of revisions to his new health-care overhaul that includes a measure aimed at making higher education more affordable, writes William Branigin for The Washington Post. The provision ends what Obama called a long-standing 'sweetheart deal' for banks in federally guaranteed student loans.
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CANADA: Ontario universities cash-starved: report
The contrast between the past and the present at Ontario universities lies at the heart of a report released last week by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, the voice of 15,000 professors and academic librarians across the Canadian province, writes Matthew Pearson for The Ottawa Citizen. The Decline of Quality in Ontario Universities calls on the province to inject millions more dollars more into universities so today's students can enjoy what previous generations did - without going deeply into debt.
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CHINA: Shanghai to attract more foreign students
Shanghai plans to improve its higher education resources to attract more foreign students, and to spend more for college students to study overseas, reports Liang Yiwen for the Shanghai Daily. The goal is for the percentage of overseas students in local colleges to grow to 15% in 2020 compared with 5.9% in 2008, according to the city's 10-year education development outline.
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MALAYSIA: Not a 'dumping ground' for foreign students
Malaysia is not a 'dumping ground' for foreign students who have problems and are under-qualified, Parliament was told on Wednesday, reports the official agency Bernama. Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Dr Hou Kok Chung, said the government did not compromise on the quality of foreign students it allowed to study in higher education institutions.
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ZIMBABWE: 33 students arrested during protests
Around 33 students were arrested countrywide on Monday after they staged a series of demonstrations against high tuition fees and the political deadlock in Zimbabwe, reports Lance Guma for SW Radio Africa. The Zimbabwe National Students Union, Zinasu, said the protests also commemorated the March 2008 elections which marked "Zimbabwe's closest ever shot at democracy".
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AUSTRALIA: Universities want residency for post-grads
Australia's top universities have called for a new visa to be established that would clear the way for postgraduate students to gain permanent residency, reports ABC News. The federal government is reviewing its points system for skilled migrants ahead of changes to the list of preferred skills that will come into effect later this year.
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THAILAND: Concern over quality of doctoral degrees
If you wish to pursue a PhD in Thailand, there are now at least 1,000 programmes to choose from, writes Chularat Saengpassa for The Nation. But top educators admit they are worried that quality may be being compromised.
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DUBAI: Half of all students on business programmes
Dubai's education bouquet just got bigger with 112 new programmes introduced by higher education institutes in 2009-2010. Business-related courses are again a big draw, enrolling half of all students in higher education, writes Afshan Ahmed for the Khaleej Times.
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US: University cancels William Ayers speech
The University of Wyoming last week cancelled a speech by former 1960s radical William Ayers after it raised hundreds of objections from citizens and politicians over the man who became an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, writes Bob Moen for The Associated Press. Ayers had been invited to speak on Monday about social justice issues and education by the university's Social Justice Research Center, which studies oppression and inequality.
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US: Planned Palin speech stirs California protest
A controversy is erupting over Sarah Palin's June speaking engagement at a campus of California State University, writes Daniel B Wood for the Christian Science Monitor. A student protest group and other critics want the university to reveal how much they're paying her, which they suspect might be more than $100,000. A professor has started a Facebook gripe group. And a state senator is pressuring university officials to disclose Palin's compensation or be prosecuted under state law.
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US: Seven Texas universities submit Tier One strategies
The University of Texas at Arlington will offer doctorate degrees in sustainability and globalism. UT-Dallas will bring more diversity to its student body and faculty. UT-San Antonio will continue raising admissions standards, writes Holly K Hacker for The Dallas Morning News. Those are among the strategies of some state public universities for becoming so-called Tier One campuses, which are considered the country's top research universities and carry national clout.
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MALAYSIA-CHINA: Degree recognition discussed
A delegation from China's Education Ministry has visited Kuala Lumpur for discussions with Malaysia's Higher Education Ministry on recognition of university degrees from both countries, reports the official news agency Bernama.
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US-CHINA: Universities pledge US$6 million for research
The University of Michigan and China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University have each pledged US$3 million over the next five years for a series of grants to fund renewable energy and biomedical research projects in Michigan and Shanghai, Ryan Beene reports for Crain's Detroit Business web news service.
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