Sunday 29 August 2010

University World News 0137 - 29th August 2010

This week's highlights

The state of the social sciences around the world comes under the spotlight this week in a series of articles on the World Social Sciences Report 2010 by GEOFF MASLEN, who also ponders the implications for universities of the Australian election. In the Commentary section, JOHN HIGGINS reports on an academic freedom lecture by Oxford historian Professor Robin Briggs and MICHINARI HAMAGUCHI, President of Nagoya University, describes Japan's plans to attract foreign students and internationalise 13 top universities.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

TAIWAN: Way clear for Chinese students next year
Yojana Sharma
Students from Mainland China will not arrive at Taiwanese universities before 2011 even though hotly disputed legislation allowing the admission of mainland Chinese finally cleared Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan, on 19 August.
Full report on the University World News site:

PAKISTAN: Flood drowns out fake degrees scandal
Zofeen T Ebrahim
As Pakistan's Election Commission began its first hearings into parliamentarians' fake degrees last week some feared the scandal had been pushed out of the limelight by the devastating floods. Nonetheless, the degree debacle is straining the credibility of the country's higher education and election systems.
Full report on the University World News site :

FRANCE: Students face sharp cost increases
Jane Marshall
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has cancelled an austerity measure that would have penalised parents who subsidise their student children's accommodation. He made the announcement after warnings from two leading organisations representing students' interests that students were facing sharp increases in costs both as they enrolled for the 2010-11 academic year and during the course of their studies.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFICA: Minister backs media-gagging proposals
Alison Moodie
Two proposed media laws aimed at gagging South Africa's press have drawn both support and ire from the country's higher education leaders. Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande has backed a planned media tribunal, while a vice-chancellor has slammed the proposed legislation as trampling on academic freedom.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA: UK attracts more Indian students than the US
Alya Mishra
Despite visa restrictions the United Kingdom remains the top foreign destination for Indian students. According to data available for 2010, almost twice the number of Indian students who applied to study higher education abroad chose colleges in the UK over the United States.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Support for undocumented immigrant students
Sarah King Head
Backing for America's bipartisan Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act has grown steadily since its introduction to Congress in 2001. Most recently, though, it has received renewed support from the labour movement, an action applauded by the United States Students' Association earlier this month.
Full report on the University World News site:

IRELAND: Hackers overload central applications site
John Walshe
An investigation is getting underway into a series of malicious attacks on the Central Applications Office website. The CAO processes applications and offers of places for all universities, institutes of technology, colleges of education and other third level institutions in Ireland.
Full report on the University World News site:

DENMARK: Students plan autumn 'austerity' protests
Jan Petter Myklebust
Danish universities are likely to be hit hard by austerity measures for 2011-13 announced by the government and opposition parties - and students are preparing for more protests in the autumn. Internationalisation and proposals for creation of a world-class university are just politicians' hot air, Copenhagen University Rector Ralf Hemmingsen said.
Full report on the University World News site:

KENYA: Universities to admit extra students
Gilbert Nganga
Kenya's public universities, long plagued by an admissions crisis, will this year admit 4,000 extra students to clear a backlog that has for decades forced students to wait for up to two years after high school to enter public higher education.
Full report on the University World News site :

SPECIAL REPORT

"Never before have there been so many social scientists in the world - many more than the 200,000 population of Margaret Mead's famous Samoa. Never before have the social sciences been so influential," writes Gudmund Hernes, President of the International Social Science Council, in the preface to the World Social Science Report 2010: Knowledge divides. Published by Unesco, the 400-page report has 10 chapters covering a wide range of issues confronting the social sciences and their role in countries across all continents.

In a foreword Irina Bokova, Unesco Director-General, says the report is the first "thorough overview of this important field in more than a decade" and is the result of the work of hundreds of professional social scientists. Bokova says Unesco, "with its emphasis on the management of social transformation", is concerned that the social sciences should be put to use to improve human well-being and to respond to global challenges.

The following articles by GEOFF MASLEN are drawn from various chapters in the report.

GLOBAL: Worlds apart but on same map?

In spite of the impact social scientists have had around the world, Gudmund Hernes says humans face crises that tax their understanding and their capacity to cope. The President of the International Social Science Council describes the influence of social science as a "mixed blessing" and says social scientists' foresight has been poor at key junctures in recent times.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Social sciences brain drain or gain?
Social scientists migrate from the main academic centres to the periphery to teach, export their skills or do research and gather data. In the opposite direction, talented young social scientists tend to leave a peripheral position to go to academic centres to be trained or work with the most eminent scholars, says Laurent Jeanpierre, a professor of political science at the University of Paris-8 Saint-Denis.
Full report on the University World News site:

ASIA-PACIFIC: Social science transcends boundaries
In his discussion of social sciences and the Asia-Pacific region in the World Social Science Report 2010, John Beaton says the main issues are employment, social mobility and equity, security and safety, education, population, health, globalisation, adaptation to climate change and the governance required to manage these matters.
Full report on the University World News site:

ARAB REGION: Academic freedom curtailed
The social sciences in the Arab region are shaped by severe socio-political, economic and environmental challenges, instability and by diverse and divergent research policies, agendas and funding programmes at the national and regional levels, say Seteney Shami and Moushira Elgeziri.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFRICA: Social science under-resourced but resilient
The social sciences in Sub-Saharan Africa are seriously under-resourced but resilient, says Johann Mouton, Director of the Centre for Research on Science and Technology and head of the African Doctoral Academy at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFRICA: Charting the decline of social sciences
The all-round expansion that characterised African higher education in general, and the social sciences in particular, during the 1960s was interrupted at the end of the 1970s as African countries began to slide into a prolonged economic crisis, says Dr Adebayo Olukoshi, Director of the UN African Institute for Economic Development and Planning.
Full report on the University World News site:

KENYA: Why academics do not publish
Kenya is a good illustration of the effect on scholarly output of lack of resources and capacity in higher education, say the editors of the World Social Science Report 2010 in a discussion of why Kenyan academics do not publish in international refereed journals.
Full report on the University World News site:

NORTH AMERICA: Social research too inward-looking
The most distinctive feature of North American social science, besides its size, is the extent of the investment made in time, facilities, training and incentives for research since the Second World War, says Craig Calhoun, President of the US Social Science Research Council and a social sciences professor at New York University.
Full report on the University World News site:

LATIN AMERICA: Rise of the social sciences
Universities are crucial actors in the evolution of the social sciences in Latin America, say Hebe Vessuri, head of the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research's Center on Science Studies, and Maria Sonsiré López who also works at the centre in Caracas. This can only be understood by taking into account the changing relationship between public universities and the state, and the conflicts and social movements involving universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Social science and rankings
The number of social science publications in international journals is much lower than those for the natural sciences and medicine. So the natural sciences and the medical fields dominate university rankings while the strength of universities' social sciences scarcely contributes to their position, says Anthony FJ van Raan, a professor of science studies and Director of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University.
Full report on the University World News site:

COMMENTARY

UK: Challenging ruling mantras of higher education
John Higgins*
There is a special kind of British humour that is very good at locating the absurd in everyday life. It draws our attention to much of what we take for granted just by tone of voice or the raising of an eyebrow. Either of these can be enough to effectively place scare quotes around a cliché; or draw our critical attention to something, and make us laugh at the sudden absurdity of what once seemed authoritative.
Full report on the University World News site:

JAPAN: Top universities sharpen international focus
Michinari Hamaguchi*
Japanese society is undergoing transformative changes amidst a wave of IT growth and globalisation. Even the 'once-in-a-century' recession of two years ago seems merely a ripple in this massive swell. The world is fused together with a unifying economic system and the speed of change has accelerated dramatically.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURE

AUSTRALIA: Universities face political uncertainty
Geoff Maslen
The most boring federal election in living memory turned into a cliff-hanger last weekend with the nation's vice-chancellors not alone in waiting anxiously on the outcome. For the first time in 70 years, the nation faces a hung parliament and a first-time government seems likely to lose office - and with it the higher education policies that offered universities funding certainty for the next three years.
Full report on the University World News site :

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

IRAN: Detention of student union leaders
Roisin Joyce*
Two members of the Central Council of Advar-e Tahkim Vahdat, a representative body of Islamic student associations in Iran, have been detained by Iranian security forces, Advar News reported on 22 August.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World News site:

BUSINESS

EUROPE: Universities heighten virtual reality
Cayley Dobie
Researchers from nine European universities are developing more interactive virtual reality technology that goes beyond simple sight and sound and takes users into a world where digital movements and surroundings can actually be felt.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Strangers help university succeed, virtually
Cayley Dobie
An Australian university has been inspired to develop its virtual world services, by unknown digital 'avatars' operated by computer users outside its walls. The University of Western Australia calls these helpers 'angels' and they have assisted it to develop a presence on virtual world Second Life.
Full report on the University World News site:

FACEBOOK

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higher education worldwide. More than 2,300 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

IRAN: New crackdown on universities
The Iranian government has said it will restrict the number of students admitted to humanities programmes at universities, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty's Radio Farda reports. The announcement was made on 25 August by Abolfazl Hassani, director of the government's Office of Development of Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:

ISRAEL: Professors protest 'political pressures'
Israeli professors representing the faculties of all of Israel's seven research universities have publicly denounced "political pressures brought to bear on universities recently, which are tantamount to blatant interference in academic freedom", writes Matthew Kalman for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
More on the University World News site :

CHINA: Phd quantity surpasses quality
With a rapid increase in the number of Chinese graduates enrolling in PhD programmes in the past decade, it seems the quality of education doctoral students receive is falling short, writes He Dan for the official agency Xinhua.
More on the University World News site:

ASIA: Regional universities agree on network deal
Eleven universities in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam signed an agreement last week during a University Presidents' Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to develop a collaborative network in the region, reports Viet Nam News.
More on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Latin American students wooed
During the past six years, Australia has had rapid success in recruiting students from a relatively new market: Latin America, writes Janaki Kremmer for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Since 2004, enrolment of students from the region has risen from 7,000 to 34,000.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Students fuel rise in immigration
Official statistics show that a surge in the number of foreign students studying in the UK helped drive up net migration by 20% last year, reports Channel 4 News.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Study questions science-economic growth link
An academic believes he has found evidence to refute the argument that increased university provision of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects is needed to aid the economy, writes John Morgan for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site:

N IGERIA: Retirement age for professors rises to 70
Professors will now stay longer in universities after N igeria's federal government pushed back the national mandatory retirement age from 65 to 70, reports Next. Non-academic staff also received a further five years after the government increased their retirement age to 65.
More on the University World News site:

MOZAMBIQUE: New regulations for higher education
The Mozambican government has approved new regulations on the licensing and functioning of higher education institutions which collectively deal with more than 70,000 students, reports AllAfrica.com.
More on the University World News site:

TAIWAN: Universities score poorly on student rights
Seventy percent of universities included in a nationwide student rights evaluation received failing scores, reflecting a general disregard for student rights in Taiwan, reports the The China Post.
More on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Whites-only fund fights to stay white
A high court ruling which made an educational fund for poor white girls available to girls from all races was disputed in the Supreme Court of Appeal, reports the South African Press Association.
More on the University World News site:

INDIA: State sets sights on first vocational university
The Maharashtra state government is considering setting up a vocational university that would be the first of its kind in the country, said minister for higher and technical education Rajesh Tope, reports The Times of India.
More on the University World News site:

CANADA: Rented textbook option gains ground
Students at Carleton University in Ottawa will have the option of renting their textbooks from the beginning of the upcoming semester, reports CBC News. The school's bookstore is one of six across Canada trying out Rent-A-Text, which has been a successful programme in the United States, where it has helped to reduce student study costs.
More on the University World News site:

Monday 23 August 2010

University World News 0136 - 22nd August 2010

"Rankings and internationalisation" announcement

Following the release of Shanghai's 2010 Academic Ranking of World
Universities, University World News this week publishes two rankings commentaries. John O'Leary, an editor of The Times Good University Guide and executive advisory board member of QS World University Ranking, writes that British and American students squeezed out of universities may start looking overseas for study - and that QS' ranking, which captures the views of employers, is the one that matters for students. Richard Holmes, author of the University Ranking Watch blog, charts a decline in the dominance of universities from the West and Japan and states that the methodological stability of the Shanghai ranking makes it the most reliable for monitoring changes in the world of scientific research. In a related article, professors of higher education Philip G Altbach and Anthony Welch argue that under-funding of higher education and the money-making goal of internationalisation in Australia have undermined the strong reputation of its universities.

OECD higher education conference

GLOBAL: University spending key to recovery - OECD
David Jobbins
Public spending on universities should be maintained where possible as countries seek a road out of the consequences of the global financial crisis, Richard Yelland, head of the OECD's Education Management and Infrastructure Division, told University World News this week. He said the crisis did not change universities' responsibility to use resources efficiently - but "makes it more urgent".
Full report on University World News web site :

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

SAUDI ARABIA: Rapid growth for universities
Wagdy Sawahel
Saudi Arabia has announced plans to continue the rapid expansion of higher education as part of its ninth five-year development plan, for 2010-14. A nearly quarter billion dollar annual investment in science and technology research will help strengthen the country's growing international position in innovation capacity.
Full report on the University World News site:

EGYPT: Universities to scrap textbooks and go digital
Ashraf Khaled
To many academics and students in Egypt, Minister of Higher Education Hani Hilal is the minister of controversy. Months ago, citing security concerns, he banned female students wearing the niqab (full-face veil) from staying in low-cost dormitories or sitting exams. He triggered another uproar when he decided not to build new law schools, saying that the country already had sufficient. His latest controversial decision is to ban the use of textbooks.
Full report on the University World News site:

ISRAEL: University defies right-wing boycott threat
Helena Flusfeder
The President of Ben-Gurion University of Negev has pledged to ignore threats by a right-wing political group to incite a boycott by international and other donors if staff and curriculum changes are not made. "We should never surrender to these pressures," said Professor Rivka Carmi.
Full report on the University World News site:

THAILAND: Close watch on students' 'political' plays
Yojana Sharma
After censoring the news media and internet in the wake of the May crackdown, the Thai government has turned its sights on campus plays for signs of political dissent. Seemingly innocuous and entertaining amateur dramatics by students have come under scrutiny by the nervous authorities, who fear they may contain seditious ideas or affect national security.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA: Loan subsidy scheme fails students
Alya Mishra
India's much-touted education loan guarantee scheme seems to have failed in the first year of implementation. Flooded by complaints from students and yet to receive claims from banks, a worried education ministry has asked the finance ministry to intervene, government sources said.
Full report on the University World News site:

KENYA: Call for 'tribal' vice-chancellors to be moved
Gilbert Nganga
A body formed to help curb ethnicity and boost cohesion in Kenya in the wake of a 2008 post-election crisis wants top administrators in public universities moved over tribalism. It claimed that most vice-chancellors had been appointed along tribal lines or on the basis of dominant ethnic affinities in the regions where universities were located, rather than on merit.
Full report on the University World News site:

PERU-BOLIVIA: Indigenous universities gain foothold
Pacifica Goddard
The first higher education institution for Peru's indigenous population, the Aymara, will soon become a reality. In May the Peruvian national congress' Education Commission approved a proposal to create a national Aymara university and in a vote to take place this month the country's ruling congress is expected to follow suit. In neighbouring Bolivia, President Evo Morales said this month that he intended to expand higher education for indigenous people.
Full report on the University World News site:

UK: Record scramble for university places
Diane Spencer
As A-level exam results were announced last Thursday, it was predicted that some 200,000 young people might fail to get into a UK university out of the record number of 660,000 who applied this year. UCAS, the university and college admissions service, calculated that 44% failed to get the grades they needed, but 380,000 had achieved their desired places.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA-UK: New student visa requirements restrictive
Alya Mishra
Although Britain this month ended a six-month suspension of issuing student visas in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, it has tightened student visa rules to include new language requirements. Many overseas students say this is too restrictive and could lead to genuine students opting to go elsewhere for their studies.
Full report on the University World News site:

GERMANY: Programme to boost international doctorates
Michael Gardner
Germany has started a new programme to attract more excellent postgraduates from abroad. IPID - International promovieren in Deutschland - is designed to enhance the image of German doctoral training and develop new programmes with foreign partner universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

SWEDEN: Lund reviews foreign student admissions
Ard Jongsma
Lund University has unilaterally decided to change its admission procedures for this academic year and has resorted to manual selection among foreign students who were deprived of a place by unwanted side-effects of the new procedures. Its decision follows widespread criticism of the new Swedish student selection system reported by University World News last week.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

EUROPE: Efficiency cuts grant waiting times
Alan Osborn
In a victory for commonsense over bureaucracy, the European Commission has drastically cut the processing time for making a number of educational grants - without apparently compromising standards.
Full report on University World News website:

CAMEROON: Fraudulent diplomas exposed
The commission in Cameroon responsible for assessing higher education qualifications issued abroad has exposed more than 300 cases of fraudulent diplomas, reported QuotidienMutations.info of Yaoundé.
Full report on University World News website:

COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: University rankings - It's about jobs, stupid!
John O'Leary*
International study has been one of the global phenomena of the current millennium. The numbers going abroad to university have jumped from fewer than two million in 2000 to more than three million this year. Until now, most of the traffic has been from Asia to Western universities, but there may be a new direction of travel this year, as students squeezed out of British and American universities look overseas in much larger numbers.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Shanghai rankings: Shifting research landscape
Richard Holmes*
In recent years, something like a small-scale industry has developed with commentators earnestly trying to read long-term trends into the rise and fall of various universities in the former THE-QS rankings. Such efforts have been largely futile.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: The perils of commerc ialism
Philip G Altbach and Anthony Welch*
More than two decades ago, the Australian government decided that international higher education should become an industry; since then it has become a major income producer for the nation. The higher education sector was motivated to make money from international education by government budget cuts, with revenue to be made up largely by entrepreneurial international activity.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

ETHIOPIA: Expanding and improving higher education
Kate Ashcroft*
Ethiopia is radically expanding its higher education sector: from two federal universities to 22 in just over a decade and another 10 to open soon. Even so, the percentage of the available cohort that attends higher education is still low at about 3%, compared with a Sub-Saharan average in 2007 of 6%, according to Unesco. The huge expansion of student numbers is mainly in new regional universities and a vibrant private system.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Decline in PhD numbers a major problem
Sharon Dell
South Africa's inability to produce enough doctoral graduates to build the 'knowledge economy' it aspires to, or simply to replace the existing cohort of academics in the higher education system, is a challenge widely acknowledged by government departments, their agencies and universities. But fixing the problem is a lot harder.
Full report on the University World News site:

RWANDA: Building research capacity from within
Alexandrine Mugisha
The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa, CARTA, aims to foster multidisciplinary research capacity in population and public health by teaming African universities, African research institutes and northern partners. One of the latest universities to join the consortium is the National University of Rwanda, where CARTA was officially launched on 31 March this year.
Full report on the University World News site:

UWN INTERVIEW

GLOBAL: Higher education in a world changed utterly
David Jobbins
Universities are at the sharp end of the global financial crisis, often facing draconian budget cuts and demands from governments to provide the workforce that will drive the route out of recession. Next month the OECD's programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education holds its general conference in Paris, titled Higher Education in a World Changed Utterly: Doing more with less. Here, the OECD's Richard Yelland discusses the thinking behind the conference and the issues likely to frame the discussions.
Full report on the University World News site:

SCIENCE SCENE

AUSTRALIA: Fossil find pushes back biological clock
US scientists working in Australia may have found the oldest fossils of animal bodies, which predate other evidence of animal body forms by more than 70 million years.
Full report on the University World News site:

NORWAY: Drinking wine can be good for the brain
At last, the news tipplers around the world have been waiting for - moderate drinking has been associated with good test scores. But the rider is that moderate drinking is probably an indicator of other good lifestyle habits that help people's brains perform well.
Full report on the University World News site:

US-POLAND: Original mother lived 200,000 years ago
After considering the results of 10 different genetic models, Polish and US researchers say the maternal ancestor of all living humans lived 200,000 years ago.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

FINLAND: Technology students say they work too hard
Ian R Dobson*
Some students at a super-university in Finland have claimed they have to work harder to gain the same credits as others. Aalto University is the product of a three-way merger aimed at creating a world-class university. But students from a former technical university feel that social science students have an easier ride.
Full report on University World News website:

FACEBOOK

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higher education worldwide. More than 2,280 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: State aid for students up 18% last year
China spent 34.72 billion yuan (US$5.1 billion) on financial aid for college students last year, up 18.21% from the previous year, a Ministry of Education official has revealed, reports the official agency Xinhau. The aid included scholarships, stipends, loans and allowances, said Cui Bangyan, a senior ministry official in charge of financial aid for students.
More on the University World News site:

INDIA: Expert panel to prove university autonomy
India's Human Resource Development Ministry has set up a high-powered committee, under legal expert NR Madhava Menon, to come with a comprehensive policy on the issue of autonomy for higher education institutions such as central universities and the elite institutes of technology and management, reports The Times of India.
More on the University World News site:

US: Ups and downs in foreign graduate admissions
Admissions offers by American graduate schools to international applicants increased by 3% from 2009 to 2010, reversing a 1% decline the previous year, according to a report released last week by the Council of Graduate Schools, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Offers to Americans, meanwhile, fell by 1% in the last year, although that figure may not be final.
More on the University World News site:

US: Abandoning an digital publishing experiment
Rice University Press is being shut down next month, ending an experiment in an all-digital model of scholarly publishing, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. While university officials said they needed to make a difficult economic decision to end the operation, they acted against the recommendations of an outside review team that had urged Rice to bolster its support for the publishing operation.
More on the University World News site:

POLAND: Empty university degrees
There is a revolution brewing in Polish higher education as universities grapple with wrenching demographic changes as well as trying to figure out how to train students for advanced degrees while producing top-flight research - something they currently do very badly - writes Jan Cienski for Globalpost.
More on the University World News site:

ISRAEL: Plan to raise state funding for higher education
The Council for Higher Education last week presented a plan designed to reform Israeli higher education, write Lior Dattel and Moti Bassok for Haaretz. It calls for an additional NIS7.5 billion (US$2 billion) in state spending on higher education over the next six years, of which NIS1.35 billion will be added to the two-year state budget for 2011 and 2012.
More on the University World News site:

INDIA-AFRICA: Phase-II of e-network project launched
India has launched the second phase of the pan-Africa e-network, adding 12 more countries to the New Delhi-aided long distance education and tele-medicine programme, reports India Edunews.
More on the University World News site:

CHINA: Paper check system created to prevent plagiarism
A university term paper checking system has been developed in China by its second largest computer producer, TsinghuaTongfang, to prevent plagiarism among college students, the Beijing-based China Youth Daily reported last week.
More on the University World News site:

CANADA: New ways used to help students find roommates
Connie Wang had two stipulations as she interviewed potential roommates ahead of the school year - they must understand that she is loud, and they must also love "Glee", the hit musical television show - writes Zosia Bielski for the Globe and Mail. "I'm extremely picky," says the 18-year-old double major in drama and psychology.
More on the University World News site:

Sunday 15 August 2010

University World News 0135 - 15th August 2010

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

GLOBAL: US lead slips in world's top 100 universities
David Jobbins and Karen MacGregor
American universities continued to lead the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities, but US dominance of the global top 100 list compiled by China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University slipped this year, to 54 institutions against 67 in 2009. Harvard clinched the top slot, as it has since the ranking was first published in 2003.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Work begins on OECD student assessment
Ian R Dobson*
The Australian Council for Educational Research has been assessing higher education in the country for years, but now it has moved onto the world stage. ACER is leading a feasibility study into the first global assessment of students' knowledge and skills, the OECD's Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes, AHELO.
Full report on the University World News site:

TAIWAN: Top students head for China
Yojana Sharma
Taiwan's parliament will again be debating a stalled bill to open its universities to students from mainland China, after months of disruption and filibustering by the Opposition. But already Taiwanese students are going the other way.
Full report on the University World News site:

CANADA: Government axes more data collection
Philip Fine
The Canadian government is again under fire, as it appears to be further weakening the ability of policy-makers and lobby groups to assess the country's performance in the higher education sector. Three more key data-collection tools have been cancelled or are being re-examined for their relevance and cost-effectiveness.
Full report on the University World News site:

IRELAND: Big investment boost for research
John Walshe
The largest research investment plan in the history of the Republic of Ireland - EUR359 million (US$473 million) - is aimed at transforming the country into 'Europe's innovation hub', according to Brian Cowen, the Irish Prime Minister. His support for the investment is an indication of how seriously the government is hoping the so-called 'smart economy' will drag the country out of its current economic mess.
Full report on the University World News site:

RUSSIA: Government seeks academic staff skills boost
Eugene Vorotnikov
The Russian government, unhappy with the current skill levels of university professors and teachers, is planning to improve the proficiency of academics by encouraging their more active engagement in scientific work and research.
Full report on the University World News site:

RUSSIA: Freak weather spurs climate research
Nick Holdsworth
Russia's extreme summer weather is prompting the country's top scientists to take climate change more seriously. A record-breaking heat wave, hundreds of forest and peat bog fires, and smoke-induced smog stretching for hundreds of kilometres around Moscow has turned central Russia into a disaster zone in the past few weeks.
Full report on the University World News site:

SWEDEN: EU probes 'discriminatory' student selection
Ard Jongsma
Sweden's newly adopted university entrance selection process has come under fire for discriminating against students from other Nordic countries and the European Union. After receiving a complaint, the European Commission has now asked the Swedish government for an explanation.
Full report on the University World News site:

EAST AFRICA: Honorary degrees 'abused' - claim
Gilbert Nganga
Universities in two East African countries, Kenya and Tanzania, have come under fire for prolifically awarding honorary degrees - in some cases allegedly for money and in others in return for influence.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

EUROPE: EUA ponders impact of global recession
Emma Jackson
The European University Association is devoting a conference in Italy this September to an exploration of how Europe's 5,000 universities can survive financially in the midst of a global recession and massive public funding cuts across the region.
Full report on the University World News site:

EGYPT: Boost to universities' role of serving society
Wagdy Sawahel
Aiming to narrow the gap between science and society through outreach, informal education and capacity building, Egypt has launched a Science and Society initiative.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

INDIA: Higher education opportunities lure back talent
Alya Mishra
More young Indians are giving up fat pay packets in companies abroad to take up teaching in Indian higher education institutions - a trend that could help ease a severe shortage of quality lecturers in the country.
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GREECE: Glory of the Greek language
Makki Marseilles
Greece is not currently popular in European financial circles. But two new books on the Greek language, and the introduction of Ancient Greek as a subject in schools in a pilot project in the UK, indicate that its language and culture are still admired and appreciated around the world.
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COMMENTARY

ASIA: How Taiwan attracts international students
Peter Chang*
Taiwanese students have strong academic training, while international students bring different learning experiences from their home countries. This has led to increasing measures and incentives to attract students from abroad. Indeed, internationalisation has been recognised as a key element for the development of higher education in Taiwan.
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BUSINESS

EUROPE: Outer Space research seeks US partners
Alyshah Hasham
The European Union has called on American universities, research labs and companies to join the competition for EUR99 million (US$130 million) of funding for space research.
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CANADA: Universities receive health research funding
Cayley Dobie
The Canadian government has announced a major $13 million (US$12.5 million) investment in healthcare-related studies in 12 universities across the country.
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PAKISTAN: Women livestock workers learn vet skills
Keith Nuthall
A university in Pakistan has been working with the United Nations Development Programme to spread veterinary skills among thousands of rural women, especially in the Punjab, where women traditionally care for livestock. It is hoped the initiative will boost the rural economy.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

EUROPE: Three-legged dogs needed for robot research
Jane Marshall
European scientists are looking for three-legged dogs to support a European Union-funded project to improve robot design and mobility. The four-year Locomorph - Robust Robot Locomotion and Movements through Morphology and Morphosis - project is based at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany.
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US: Double helix trouble
Close to 1,000 incoming students have submitted saliva samples to the University of California at Berkeley for genetic testing as part of an unusual educational experience for freshmen, but they won't be getting the results they expected, writes Iza Wojciechowska for Inside Higher Ed. The California Department of Public Health decided on Thursday that the students would not be provided with their individual genetic results.
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ARCTIC: Linguist on mission to save 'fossil language'
Stephen Pax Leonard will soon swap the lawns, libraries and high tables of Cambridge University for three months of darkness, temperatures as low as -40C and hunting seals for food with a spear, writes Mark Brown for The Guardian. But the academic researcher, who left Britain this weekend, has a mission: to take the last chance to document the language and traditions of an entire culture.
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FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

LIBYA: Professor at risk for exposing fake diplomas
Chained to a bed, under the close watch of police, Rasheed Mohamed Omar El-Meheeshy was losing hope, writes Joshua Philipp for The Epoch Times. Outside the hospital room in Libya, a group of angry students and faculty were doing their all to force medical staff into denying treatment for Meheeshy, and to have him returned to prison to die.
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PALESTINE: Authority orders release of academics
The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday ordered the release of seven university lecturers and an administrative worker who were arrested the week before for allegedly being affiliated with Hamas and trying to establish a new university in the West Bank, writes Khaled Abu Toameh for The Jerusalem Post.
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CHINA: New survey to help improve student experience
Imagine a university where student numbers have doubled within five years, writes Mary Hennock for The Chronicle of Higher Education. That is the problem facing Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology. Located in the bleak industrial city of Baotou, a megacity built on mining, the campus typifies the overstretched state of China's colleges, particularly academically average ones.
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SOUTH KOREA: Universities to set up overseas campuses
Students may in future be able to enrol at a local university in South Korea and study both at home and abroad using its overseas campuses, writes Bae Ji-sook for The Korea Times. This month the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology gave prior notice of a law revision that would enable domestic universities to more easily establish branches abroad.
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US: Criminal minds betray academy's higher principles
As bad behaviour mars the US higher education sector, observers point to the lack of an ethical code for all scholars, writes Jon Marcus for Times Higher Education. A slew of criminal charges, civil lawsuits, expensive legal settlements and other misdeeds by university managers and faculty in the US suggest that the 'higher' in higher education no longer necessarily applies to moral standards.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town urged to scrap race criteria
A university of Cape Town academic and struggle veteran wants the university to scrap its medical students admission policy, saying it discriminates against white, Indian and coloured (mixed-race) pupils, writes Prega Govender for The Sunday Time.
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CANADA: Gender gap in professor salaries revealed
Male professors at Canadian universities on average earn higher salaries than their female colleagues - with the discrepancy reaching more than $20,000 at some institutions - according to numbers released last week by Statistics Canada, reports Allison Cross for Postmedia News.
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CHILE: Women students now in the majority
Last year was the first time that a majority - 51% - of all higher education students in Chile were women, the Education Ministry has reported, writes Kara Frantzich for the Santiago Times. "This is a global trend," said Jaime Bellolio, an economist at the Jaime Guzmán Foundation. "In developed countries this has happened, and Chile is a little behind."
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US: California, postdoctoral researchers achieve pact
The fighting is over between the University of California and its staff of 6,500 highly educated but low-wage postdoctoral researchers, writes Nanette Asimov for the San Francisco Chronicle.
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US: Mental illness rises on campus, study finds
Severe mental illness is becoming more common on college and university campuses in America, research suggests, reports CBC News. The percentage of students with moderate to severe depression who sought counselling at a US campus increased by 7% from 1998 to 2009, John Guthman, director of student counselling services at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, said on Thursday.
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Monday 9 August 2010

University World News 0134 - 8th August 2010

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

OECD: International students stay on as migrants
Yojana Sharma
Rich countries have brought in measures to encourage international students to stay and work, with this becoming an increasingly important route to high-skilled migration, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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GLOBAL: New code to promote academic honesty
Yojana Sharma
New international guidelines and a voluntary code on research integrity are being drawn up as a result of consultations at the Second World Conference on Scientific Integrity held in Singapore on 21-24 July.
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FRANCE: Universities overcharging, claims union
Jane Marshall
A third of French universities are charging students illegal fees, France's biggest students' union has claimed. Unef, the Union nationale des étudiants de France, found 26 out of 83 universities were fixing fees higher than those laid down by law, and two more were on the borderline of legality.
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: Lack of science hampers development
Sharon Dell
A recent study that measures the scientific performance of Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries over the past 15 years throws doubt on the capacity of the region to meet its own development goals.
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EUROPE: Belgian presidency to focus on research
Emma Jackson
The Belgian presidency of the European Union has promised to make research a priority of its six-month period of office, which will run until December. It is calling for a number of changes to make Europe's research networks simpler, more efficient and more accessible for researchers and investors, promoting scientific breakthroughs.
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EUROPE: EU exports higher education know-how
Alan Osborn
Keen to raise the profile of the European Union's higher education institutions among neighbouring countries, the European Commission has announced a new round of multilateral partnerships under its Tempus programme for tertiary studies.
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INDIA-UK: Equal partners in education and research
Alya Mishra
Britain's partnership with India on education, research and innovation should be a partnership of equals in recognition of India's growing economic importance, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said on a visit to the sub-continent. The second phase of the UK-India Education and Research Initiative was announced.
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IRAN: Students caught up in 'sanctions' debacle
Yojana Sharma
Iranian students hoping to sit English language examinations that open the doors to top US and British universities were caught in the crossfire of sanctions imposed by the US and the United Nations when exams were suspended for two weeks.
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US: Regulating student loans
Sarah King Head
Although hailed as an important step towards reining in the 'wild west' practices associated with student loans, Congress' recent financial reform legislation is not seen as going far enough in protecting the interests of the more than 18.2 million students who study in the US.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Universities raise admission standards
Munyaradzi Makoni
Several universities in South Africa, worried that continuing high failure rates among students will erode their global competitiveness, have raised admission requirements for 2011. Not surprisingly, students are unhappy.
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EGYPT: Government axes 'non-regular' student system
Ashraf Khaled
A recent decision by Egypt's Ministry of Higher Education has landed Fathi Mokhtar, a 45-year-old employee at a telecommunications company in Cairo, in a dilemma. Over the past two years, Mokhtar has been studying commerce at Cairo University, a prestigious public institution. He was registered under a 'non-regular' system, which mature students to pursue studies without having to attend classes regularly.
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KENYA: Students warned against some foreign colleges
Gilbert Nganga
Kenya's higher education authorities have cautioned students against enrolling in five international universities purporting to offer degrees and diplomas without government approval. There is growing concern over declining quality in higher education and the mushrooming of institutions offering un-vetted courses.
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KENYA: MBA programme competition hot as demand grows
Gilbert Nganga
Kenya's universities are expanding their facilities and seeking collaborations to tap into a rapidly growing Masters in Business Administration market. The MBA has increasing currency among the working class of East Africa's biggest economy.
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NEWSBRIEFS

NEW ZEALAND: Vice-chancellors' body changes name
John Gerritsen
The New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee changed its name last week, saying that more than ever before it needed to speak with a unified voice.
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CÔTE D'IVOIRE: Unesco bioethics chair installed
Jane Marshall
The official installation of Unesco's first francophone Africa chair of bioethics has taken place at the University of Bouaké, based in Abidjan.
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FEATURES

AFRICA: Higher education is financially unsustainable
Geoff Maslen
As a doorstop for one of the minor entrances to Valhalla, Financing Higher Education in Africa could serve nicely. This weighty tome is published by the World Bank and, with 60,000 words in five chapters spread over 200 pages - plus 25 figures, 26 tables and 29 boxes of summaries - the report is a mine of information. But its conclusion is gloomy.
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AUSTRALIA: New election - Universities out in the cold
Geoff Maslen
Only in those countries run by dictators, and where the result of an election is predetermined, could the 'contest' be more boring than the one taking place Down Under. With less than two weeks to go before polling day and the outcome now far from certain, the opposing parties have begun offering billions of dollars in sweeteners to the wavering groups likely to determine the result. Left out in the cold so far are universities
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COMMENTARY

INDIA: Foreign providers: putting national needs first
Rahul Choudaha and Alan Ruby*
As the bill to open up India's higher education sector to foreign providers wends its way through the legislative process, the government needs to consider what is best for the country. Not everyone needs an MBA from Mumbai or Delhi.
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ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Iran: Campaign to free jailed student photographer
Roisin Joyce*
More than 70 Iranian graduates have launched a campaign calling for the release of their friend and colleague, student photographer Hamed Saber, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty reported last month. Saber was arrested on 21 June and there had been no communication regarding his whereabouts.
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SCIENCE SCENE

EU: Researchers given early access to supercomputer
Emma Jackson
Competition is fierce among researchers for some precious time on the fastest supercomputer in Europe available for public research, the European Union's JUGENE. Last week 10 European research teams were granted more than 320 million core working hours on the computer collectively as part of an early access call for proposals.
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UK-US: New technique estimates past oxygen levels
The proportion of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere has varied over the millennia, but until now scientists have had to guess at that proportion using geochemical models. Now a team of British and US scientists has found that the amount of charcoal in coal indicates how much oxygen there was in the past.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Rhodes student in nano-tech breakthrough
Munyaradzi Makoni
Rhodes University PhD chemistry student Samuel Chigome has made a major breakthrough by creating tiny fibre filters that would allow scientists to make nano-technology devices that separate unwanted substances from liquid samples.
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US: Orangutans the kings of low-energy use
It's good to get by on less, but the humble orangutan has taken that virtue to another level. A new study shows the orange apes have lower energy use relative to their body mass than nearly any other mammal ever studied.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

N IGERIA: Controversy over student dress codes
Tunde Fatunde
A debate in N igeria over student dress codes rages on - running the gamut from student academic achievement, discipline, professionalism, conformity with social mores and clothes-as-political-statement to consumerism. While some university authorities argue that mode of dress is an important factor in determining student success or failure and should thus be subject to rules, others - especially in the humanities and social sciences - remain unconvinced.
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FACEBOOK

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higher education worldwide. More than 2,260 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

INDIA: World's oldest university is reborn after 800 years
During the six centuries of its storied existence, there was nothing else quite like Nalanda University, writes Andrew Buncombe for The Independent. Probably the first-ever large educational establishment, the college - in what is now eastern India - even counted the Buddha among its visitors and alumni. At its height, it had 10,000 students, 2,000 staff and striving for both understanding and academic excellence. Today, this much-celebrated centre of Buddhist learning is in ruins.
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BRAZIL: University affirmative action faces crucial rests
When Rio de Janeiro became the first Brazilian state to adopt quotas for Afro-Brazilian students in institutions of higher education in 2002, black activists hoped that the country was finally coming to terms with the bitter legacy of slavery, write Andrew Downie and Marion Lloyd for The Chronicle of Higher Education. But eight years later affirmative action policies, which have since been adopted by scores of other universities on behalf of the country's most disadvantaged groups, could be ruled unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court.
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US: Fraud found in for-profit education recruiting
A new US government report on recruiting techniques in the for-profit higher education industry has found instances of college officials urging applicants to invent children and to hide their savings as a way to leverage more federal aid, writes Daniel de Vise for The Washington Post.
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UK: Minister to stop 'abuse' of student visa system
Damian Green, the UK immigration minister, has promised a "thorough evaluation" over the coming months because of what he called "significant abuse" of the student visa system, write Hélène Mulholland and Jessica Shepherd for The Guardian. He stressed the government's commitment to a review of the points-based system after figures showed that the number of students going to the UK from outside Europe to study increased by more than 75,000 in the 12 months to March.
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UK: More British students 'to study abroad'
British students are to be offered up to two years at universities abroad amid government warnings that poor language skills are crippling graduates' job prospects, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph. Joint undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be developed between British universities and those in countries such as India under new coalition government plans.
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SCOTLAND: Universities spread to Middle and Far East
Scottish universities are breaking new ground this summer - literally - as work begins on Heriot-Watt's bespoke £35 million (US$55.7 million) campus in the Middle Eastern state of Dubai, writes Jackie Kemp for The Guardian. Glasgow Caledonian has opened a campus in London to help it to attract international postgraduates and, also this year, a nursing college in Bangladesh. Napier University has opened a biofuel research centre in Hong Kong within the last few months and an office in India last year.
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ECUADOR: Controversial higher education law approved
Following months of acrimonious debate, the Ecuadorean congress last week narrowly approved a controversial new higher-education law, according to Ecuadorean news reports, writes Marion Lloyd for The Chronicle of Higher Education. The legislation seeks to increase regulation of universities while bringing their programmes in line with the country's development needs. But it does not go as far as President Rafael Correa had wanted.
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US: California dreamer
Much of the news surrounding the University of California system has involved whether the network of universities will be able to survive its current budgetary crisis without shrinking in size or quality, writes Steve Kolowich for Inside Higher Ed. In that context, it is no surprise that Christopher Edley Jr's plan to use online education to expand the university's footprint "from Kentucky to Kuala Lumpur" has turned some heads - and churned some stomachs.
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US: Getting into medical school without hard sciences
For generations of pre-med students, three things have been as certain as death and taxes: organic chemistry, physics and the Medical College Admission Test, known by its dread-inducing acronym, the MCAT, writes Anemona Hartocollis for The New York Times. So it came as a shock to Elizabeth Adler when she discovered that one of America's top medical schools admits a small number of students every year who have skipped all three requirements.
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BANGLADESH: VAT withdrawn from students' tuition fees
Bangladesh's Finance Minister AMA Muhith last week ruled out the possibility of exempting non-government universities from 15% income tax and other taxes in the current fiscal year, reports The New Nation. The tax charges sparked student protests late last month.
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ICELAND: Probe into role of universities in recession
Icelandic Minister for Education and Culture, Katrin Jakobsdottir, has provided a small grant to help investigate the role of Icelandic universities in the country's economic collapse, reports Ice News.
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