Sunday 25 September 2011

University World News 0190 - 25th September 2011

This week's highlights

In Features, GEOFF MASLEN reports on the opening at La Trobe University of Australia's 12th Confucius Institute, bringing the total number of institutes worldwide to more than 330. SHARON DELL reveals that an evaluation and rating system of social science researchers in South Africa has increased their publication production by 25%. In Commentary, CECILE HOAREAU argues that the recession in Europe is unlikely to mean cuts to higher education funding and could open up a window of opportunity for reforms. KHALED AL-RASHEID looks at how Saudi Arabian universities have risen up the global rankings and says the progress made is significant and sustainable, and BRIAN MARTIN writes that despite its good intentions the Excellence in Research for Australia system has created a culture that discourages research collaboration.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

GLOBAL: New scoreboard for research and innovation
Geoff Maslen
Although research efforts by universities and private organisations are increasing across the globe, most research remains highly concentrated in a small number of US universities, according to a just-published OECD study that uses a new measure of research impact. Across disciplines, however, "a more diverse picture emerges".
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: New continental higher education strategy
Alan Osborn and Brendan O'Malley
The European Union's 4,000 universities and other tertiary institutions are not doing enough to help create jobs and economic growth, and their ability to contribute to prosperity remains underexploited, the European Commission says in its new higher education strategy.
Full report on the University World News site:

GREECE: Students escalate opposition to reforms
Makki Marseilles
Greece's Education Secretary Anna Diamantopoulou has warned that students risk not being accredited with the autumn semester if they continue to be involved in escalating protests over higher education reforms, including the occupation of more than 350 faculties.
Full report on the University World News site:

CHINA: Student flows to US forecast to fall - study
Yojana Sharma
The flow of students from China to universities in America is forecast to fall between now and 2015 but rise to Canada and Australia, according to student mobility forecasts by the British Council. Visa changes, currency fluctuations and shifting trade flows between China and other countries could have an impact on overall numbers.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEW ZEALAND: Quake-hit university to cut jobs
John Gerritsen
First they were rocked by a deadly earthquake, now staff at the University of Canterbury are facing job cuts. The university on New Zealand's South Island has suffered a 13% drop in enrolments since an earthquake struck Christchurch in February, killing 181 people.
Full report on the University World News site:

CHINA: Mao raises questions over celebrity professors
Mimi Leung
When it was revealed last week that the grandson of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong was teaching at a college in Guangzhou, in southern Guangdong province, it unleashed a barrage of comment in China over the appointment of 'celebrity professors'.
Full report on the University World News site:

US-ISLAMIC STATES: Science link-up to be launched
A ground-breaking initiative to foster higher education and scientific cooperation among Islamic countries, and between them and the United States, will be launched next May. The US-Islamic States innovation initiative is the first of its kind in the Middle East and Africa.
Full report on the University World News site:

N IGERIA: Campus security reviewed after threats
Tunde Fatunde
N igerian universities are urgently re-examining their outdated security framework, following two recent and unrelated security threats - extensive destruction of property by rampaging students at the University of Calabar in the southeast, and an email purportedly sent by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram to 15 universities in the south, warning of violence unless they cease "propagation" of Western education.
Full report on the University World News site:

SWEDEN: Budget pumps funds into higher education
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Swedish government is to plough SEK7 billion (US$1 billion) into funding education reforms over the next four years to improve teacher training, raise the standard of mathematics teaching and improve completion rates in the humanities and social sciences.
Full report on the University World News site:

SPAIN: Cuts and culture hinder Bologna process
Paul Rigg
University leaders are warning that government funding cuts and inflexible policies are distorting Spain's attempts to implement the Bologna Treaty, which seeks to set common academic standards and encourage greater student and staff mobility across Europe.
Full report on the University World News site:

GERMANY: Hamburg to scrap tuition fees
Michael Gardner
The City of Hamburg plans to do away with tuition fees as of the 2012 winter semester. This would leave Germany with just two of its 16 federal states generally charging fees in public-funded higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:

CANADA: Conference looks at 'Stepford universities'
Sarah King Head
"Everyone wants to look like Harvard," said Ian Clark, explaining a fundamental weakness in the Canadian university model. He and seven other higher education pundits will explore this and other themes - including mission, incentives and image - at a "Stepford Universities? Differentiation in the new higher education landscape" conference in Toronto next week.
Full report on the University World News site:

THAILAND: Call for term calendar to match the world
Suluck Lamubol
When the chairman of the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) recently suggested that the country's universities should realign their semester dates to more closely match the United States and other countries to promote internationalisation in higher education, it caused a stir among policy planners.
Full report on the University World News site:

NAMIBIA: Huge demand for medical training
Moses Magadza
Demand for places in the University of Namibia's two-year old School of Medicine and the recently introduced pharmacy degree programme far outstrips the number of places available, it has emerged. When the school opened, there were 500 mature student applicants for just two places.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

INDIA: Second cutting-edge Max Planck Centre opened
Aarti Narayan
Germany's Max Planck Society, a world leader in basic science research, last week officially opened a new centre in India on lipids research in collaboration with the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, as part of the German organisation's global expansion.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

AUSTRALIA: Another Confucius Institute established
Geoff Maslen
China continues its 'soft power' diplomatic efforts to expand its influence around the globe with the establishment of ever-more Confucius institutes at universities around the world and, recently, the spread of an offshoot aimed at schools called the Confucius Classroom scheme. La Trobe University in Melbourne this month became the 12th in Australia to establish a Confucius Institute, in an arrangement with Chongqing University, a national comprehensive institution on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Researcher rating boosts publication
Sharon Dell
Recent research indicates that the evaluation and rating system for individual researchers by the National Research Foundation has had a positive impact on the publication profile of South Africa's researchers in the social sciences, increasing the number of articles produced by an estimated average of 24.5% in the first five years of operation.
Full report on the University World News site:

BOTSWANA: Decision soon on stalled new university
A special correspondent
The future of the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) at Palapye, 260 kilometres northeast of the capital Gaborone, will be known in early October. The potential of this high-profile project to contribute to meeting the country's human resources needs has been wrapped in controversy and subject to the whims of contending interests for years.
Full report on the University World News site:

COMMENTARY

EUROPE: What role for the EU in an era of austerity?
The recession is unlikely to mean cuts in European funding for higher education, argues CECILE HOAREAU. Instead, provided that Eurozone survives the debt crisis, it is likely that the recession will create a rationale and open up a window of opportunity for legitimate reforms.
Full report on the University World News site:

MIDDLE EAST: Rankings herald an Arab renaissance
Saudi Arabian universities have risen rapidly up the global university rankings in the last few years. KHALED AL-RASHEID looks at how they have achieved this and argues that the progress made is both significant and sustainable.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: The problem with ERA
Excellence in Research for Australia aims to improve research quality. Instead, however, it creates a culture that encourages competition rather than collaboration, argues BRIAN MARTIN in the journal Australian Universities' Review. A different approach to the government imposing a competitive measurement scheme would have been to open up space for diverse proposals to improve research.
Full report on the University World News site:

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet*
In Chad two students detained for being in possession of pro-reform pamphlets are preparing to go on trial. In Iran prominent jailed student activist Majid Tavakoli has been permanently banned from studying at any university, and a doctoral student who campaigned for the opposition candidate in the 2009 elections was detained and subjected to 50 lashes. International Turkmen students have been prevented by their country's migration officials from returning to universities in neighbouring Tajikistan and are in danger of being expelled. And in N igeria, students have accused the authorities of failing to guarantee their safety after extremist Islamic group Boko Haram threatened bomb attacks on universities.
Full report on the University World News site:

FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

UK: Students plan fresh wave of protests
British student leaders who organised a series of mass demonstrations that saw tens of thousands of young people take to the streets last year are planning a fresh wave of protests, writes Matthew Taylor for The Guardian.
More on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Universities welcome visa rules review
Australian universities have welcomed the release of a long-awaited review of international student visa rules, saying that immigration reforms and the removal of tough financial requirements could give the sector a much-needed boost, reports The Conversation.
More on the University World News site:

BAHRAIN: Obstacles remain for pro-democracy students
Universities across Bahrain have opened for the new academic year, but a number of students who support the nation's pro-democracy movement say various obstacles are preventing them from entering the classroom, writes Phillip Walter Wellman for Voice of America.
More on the University World News site:

IRAN: Baha'i educators' lawyer arrested
As a number of Baha'is in Iran await trial for providing higher education to youth barred from university, the Baha'i International Community has been distressed to learn of the arrest of a lawyer who was preparing to defend them, reports the Baha'i World News Service.
More on the University World News site:

WALES: Agreement over university mergers
Plans to radically overhaul the higher education system in Wales, designed by the body that funds Welsh higher education, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, have been widely agreed upon by university leaders and other key figures, writes Henry McMorrow for Gair Rhydd.
More on the University World News site:

MALAYSIA: Strong calls for review of university act
Calls to review the Universities and University Colleges Act of 1971, or AUKU, are growing stronger. Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the main priority was to repeal Section 15 of the act, which prohibits students from getting involved in politics, reports The Star.
More on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Young academics plan to flee the sector
Two in five academics under the age of 30 plan to leave Australian higher education within the next five to 10 years because of high levels of dissatisfaction caused by lack of job security, poor pay and mountains of paperwork and red tape, writes Julie Hare for The Australian.
More on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Academic freedom on the agenda
Freedom of intellectual inquiry at universities will become a hot topic now that it has legislative backing for the first time, writes Bernard Lane for The Australian.
More on the University World News site:

US: Lean education, research spending bill approved
A US Senate panel voted last week to approve a bill that would cut spending on the National Institutes of Health by $190 million in the 2012 fiscal year while maintaining a maximum Pell Grant award of $5,550, writes Kelly Field for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:

US: Universities seek out students of means
Money is talking a bit louder in college admissions these days, according to a survey released last week by Inside Higher Ed, writes Tamar Lewin for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Russell Group criticises access policies
It was claimed last week that British coalition government policies designed to widen access to higher education fail to recognise the "root cause of the problem" facing teenagers from poor backgrounds, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
More on the University World News site:

INDIA: Weak rupee costs students abroad
As if the rising cost of education was not bad enough, the rupee hitting a two-year low against the US dollar will leave Indian students abroad poorer by anywhere between Rs50,000 (US$1,000) and Rs100,000, especially for those who delayed paying their fees to foreign universities last July, write Vinay Umarji and Swati Garg for the Business Standard.
More on the University World News site:

CANADA: Research focus strikes degree quality
The quality of undergraduate education is suffering under a stronger focus on research at universities, says a new study by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. This comes at a time when, according to Statistics Canada, the cost of a university education is higher than ever, up by 4.3% in 2010, reports CBC News.
More on the University World News site:

CANADA: Science fraudster traced to Hebron job
A scientist found to have committed academic fraud at the University of Manitoba in Canada is now studying food safety and biotechnology in Palestine, according to a US group that tracks research misdeeds, writes Margaret Munro for Postmedia News.
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N IGERIA: Fake universities grow to 51
According to the National Universities Commission, the number of fake universities operating in N igeria has risen from 44 to 51, writes Martin Paul for The Moment.
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PHILIPPINES: Iranian students file racism rap
Some 100 Iranian dentistry students last week filed a complaint with the Commission on Higher Education in the Philippines against academics, security guards and students of Manila Central University who they said branded them as "terrorists and terrorist sympathisers", writes Ashzel Hachero for Malaya.
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MALAWI: Police quiz academics over pressure group
Plainclothes police officers last week stormed a constituent college of the University of Malawi, to question administrators on the existence of a political pressure group, a move some students called illegal and contrary to the Kampala Declaration among other laws granting academic freedom, writes Dillinger Soko for the Nyasa Times.
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UGANDA: Lecturers divided over Makerere reopening
Makerere University Academic Staff Association is divided over the reopening of the Ugandan university, write C Businge, J Lule and B Mayanja for New Vision.
More on the University World News site:

Sunday 18 September 2011

University World News 0189 - 18th September 2011

This week's highlights

ARD JONGSMA reports from the European Association for International Education annual conference held in Copenhagen last week, and conference speaker HANS DE WIT says there is a call for a more comprehensive, less revenue-based approach to international higher education. YOJANA SHARMA looks at the world's shifting pool of graduate talent, revealed by the OECD's just-published Education at a Glance 2011 report. In Focus on Senegal JUDITH RITTER and MAMADOU MIKA LOM investigate sweeping higher education reforms and the country's growing graduate unemployment problem. And in Commentary, DAVID POST argues that Ecuador's free higher education policy is widening the gap between rich and poor, and WILLIAM PATRICK LEONARD urges universities and colleges to publish indicators highlighting the value-added of their courses and quality of their graduates, since rankings ignore the core teaching function of higher education.

European Association for International Education

The European Association for International Education held its huge yearly
conference in Denmark last week. University World News was there.

EUROPE: Crisis? EAIE beats all records
Ard Jongsma
Last week a massive 4,200 participants flocked to Copenhagen to participate in the 23rd annual conference of the European Association for International Education. From its small, first meetings in Amsterdam in 1989 and 1990, the organisation has managed to make its annual gathering the single biggest networking event for international higher education professionals in Europe. And now beyond.
Full report on the University World News site:

MIDDLE EAST: Higher education needs its own revolution
Ard Jongsma
What does the unrest in the Arab world mean for higher education? In a new session type at the annual European Association for International Education conference, the EAIE took on the challenge of trying to find answers to great challenges beyond Europe.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Internationalisation moves into a new phase
International higher education began as a development issue, has become more commerc-ialised and is now moving into the mainstream, says HANS DE WIT, who spoke at a 'Perils and Pitfalls of International Education' session at last week's EAIE conference. There is a call for a more comprehensive, less revenue-based approach.
Full report on the University World News site:

OECD: Education at a Glance 2011

GLOBAL: The world's talent pool is changing - OECD
Yojana Sharma
Unabated expansion of higher education in developing countries and emerging economies has meant that the global graduate talent pool is no longer predominantly in the US and Europe, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: What do international students study?
Yojana Sharma
International students prefer to study social sciences, business and law when they go abroad. But in non-English speaking countries a higher proportion of international students are enrolled in education, humanities and the arts, according to figures just released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Full report on the University World News site:

GERMANY: Poor marks for higher education, says OECD
Michael Gardner
The Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation maintains that Germany's contribution to the worldwide pool of highly qualified people is shrinking. Figures suggest that this could be due to too little money being spent on education.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

GLOBAL: Rapid growth in joint and dual degrees - IIE
Alison Moodie
Universities and colleges are increasingly looking beyond their own campuses to keep pace with a rapidly globalising world, according to a new study from the Institute for International Education. More and more institutions are launching joint and dual degree programmes in an effort to internationalise their campuses, increase global visibility and foster greater collaboration with partner institutions.
Full report on the University World News site:

CHINA: Huge research grant for overseas branch campus
Yojana Sharma
In its bid to raise its global research profile, China has awarded research grants worth more than US$19 million to the overseas branch campus of a British university to produce "at least 100 new scientists".
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: UK universities win most ERC grants
Jan Petter Myklebust
British institutions will benefit most from the European Research Council's distribution of 480 young researcher grants worth EUR670 million (US$924 million), just as European Union politicians are calling for research funding to be distributed more widely to build capacity.
Full report on the University World News site:

CHILE: Government rejects student demands
María Elena Hurtado
A conflict in Chile over significant reforms to education, that has already reached the three-month mark, is now showing fewer indications that it could end. The popularity of President Sebastián Piñera has plunged to an historical low of 27%, but despite being under pressure to resolve the problem, the government on Thursday rejected most of the conditions demanded by students.
Full report on the University World News site:

GHANA: Qualifications crunch for private universities
Francis Kokutse
The fate of hundreds, possibly thousands, of final-year students at private universities across Ghana hangs in the balance because they may not graduate, after the National Accreditation Board revealed that they were admitted without the requisite qualifications. The board suggested that some private universities have lowered entry requirements to bolster their numbers.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH AFRICA: Free education to boost skills levels?
Munyaradzi Makoni
A mismatch between the supply of and demand for certain skills needed by South Africa's labour market has led Deputy Minister of Basic Education Enver Surty to call for extending provision of free education to cover students in further education and training and in higher education institutions - not just the compulsory seven- to 15-year-old category.
Full report on the University World News site:

ZIMBABWE: Students send protest messages to leaders
Kudzai Mashininga
Zimbabwean students have launched a 45-day campaign during which protest message will be sent to the government. The aim is to pile pressure on the authorities to turn the struggling higher education sector around.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWSBRIEFS

UK: Imperial College produces most 'spinout' firms
Bill Holdsworth
London's Imperial College has produced more 'spinout' companies than any other UK university in the past decade, according to a new survey.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Funding to strengthen debate
Following the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States, the Open Society Foundations on Wednesday announced US$20 million in funding to strengthen debate programmes for students around the world.
Full report on the University World News site:

FOCUS ON SENEGAL

Higher education in Senegal is undergoing sweeping reforms. The government
is creating new universities and colleges, restructuring institutions and degrees to align the sector with the Bologna process in Europe, and offering non-traditional learning. It is hoped that the reforms will help to ease the growing national problem of graduate unemployment. University World News takes an in-depth look at what's happening in higher education in this important West African country.

SENEGAL: Radical reforms for higher education

Judith Ritter Lamine Ndao, a graduate student at Senegal's University of Cheikh Anta Diop, is clearly uncomfortable talking about his participation in recent well-publicised campus demonstrations. He is a serious student and more interested in his future career than in youthful protest. But, while ambivalent about what he sees as some of the excesses of the demonstration, he still found reason to participate.
Full report on the University World News site:

SENEGAL: Push to strengthen research
Judith Ritter
Senegal's government believes one of its most crucial goals is to create and nurture research initiatives that address challenges particular to the country and Africa, many of which demand technical or scientific solutions.
Full report on the University World News site:

SENEGAL: Plight of thousands of jobless graduates
Mamadou Mika Lom
Graduate unemployment in Senegal continues to increase, and has become such a critical issue that it could be the major theme of the campaign for the presidential election in February 2012. Since March unemployed graduates have been demonstrating in protest against their plight.
Full report on the University World News site:

COMMENTARY

ECUADOR: Who benefits from free higher education?
Ecuador's free higher education policy advantages the middle-class and widens the gap between rich and poor, argues DAVID POST. The money would be better targeted at improving basic education, so that more disadvantaged students are able to qualify for free university studies.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Time for rankings to reflect value-added
While many tertiary institutions embrace a research ethic, their core mission is instruction. But high-profile university ranking systems ignore this key function. WILLIAM PATRICK LEONARD urges institutions to break out of the pack and publish measures that suggest the value-added of their courses and the quality of their graduates. Providing relevant output data will boost their profiles with parents and students searching for a return on their investment.
Full report on the University World News site:

SCIENCE SCENE

GLOBAL: Sunlight the answer to MS?
Geoff Maslen
More than 250 researchers in 15 countries, along with 10,000 patients, have taken part in one of the longest and largest human genetic studies ever undertaken into the cause of the devastating neurological disease, multiple sclerosis or MS.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: 'Loose' versus 'tight' countries
Estonia, Hungary, Israel and the Ukraine are among cultures that may be considered to be quite 'loose' in terms of socially accepted behaviours and tolerance whereas the 'tightest' countries - those that have many strong norms and a low tolerance for deviant behaviour - include Pakistan, Malaysia and India, according to a group of researchers.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Hopping into history
The Australian tammar wallaby is the first member of the kangaroo family to have its genetic makeup sequenced. An international research collaboration, led by Australian scientists, has provided many insights into the genetic makeup of the iconic Australian kangaroo, including the genes behind its unusual reproductive system and how some genes control the development of the kangaroo's spec ialised toes that allow them to hop.
Full report on the University World News site:

US: Dolphins use tools to hunt
A team of biologists from four US universities have discovered that use of tools among a group of bottlenose dolphins varies between individual females in the population. Dolphins appear to be the only mammal in the sea to regularly use a sponge as a tool to help catch fish.
Full report on the University World News site:

FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

AUSTRALIA: Universities set to expand
Universities can accept increased numbers of students following senate agreement last week to the Julia Gillard government's higher education expansion plan, writes Stephen Matchett for The Australian. The bill empowers the government to provide a place for every prospective student who is accepted by any university.
More on the University World News site:

SCOTLAND: Universities and colleges face merger wave
Colleges and universities across Scotland are set to be merged under a major shake-up of further and higher education. Education Secretary Mike Russell outlined plans for removing what he called "wasteful duplication" across the college sector, by establishing regional groupings of institutions, writes Chris Marshall for The Scotsman.
More on the University World News site:

IRELAND: University defends fee for five-star rating
Two Irish universities have said tens of thousands of euro paid to receive their recent top international ratings was worthwhile for the potential to attract more overseas students, writes Niall Murray for the Irish Examiner.


More on the University World News site:

UK: University 'pathways' to international students
An increasing number of UK universities are linking with private education companies to offer study and language preparation programmes that aim not just to improve the skills of international students but create new opportunities to promote their courses in an increasingly competitive global student market. However, pressures to enrol are raising concerns, writes Amy Baker for the Guardian.
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US-AFRICA: Carnegie Mellon to open Rwanda campus
Carnegie Mellon University plans to open a branch campus in Rwanda next year, making it one of the few American colleges offering degrees in Africa, writes Ian Wilhelm for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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INDIA: Student loan applications double in five years
The number of students applying for educational loans across India has doubled in the last five years, data compiled by the Indian Banks' Association has shown, reports The Times of India.
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GERMANY: Calls for stricter screening of PhD theses
The plagiarism scandals that rocked the political world in Germany this year have led to a period of soul-searching among academics and researchers around the country. They have also prompted calls for stricter controls at German universities, writes Christopher F Schuetze for The New York Times.
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GLOBAL: Authors sue universities over 'orphan' works
Authors have accused five American universities of "engaging in one of the largest copyright infringements in history" over a plan to digitise out-of-print books and provide them online to students, writes Nick Allen for The Telegraph.
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US: Probe reveals holes in oversight of science
Investigations into a case of alleged scientific misconduct in the United States have revealed numerous holes in the oversight of science and scientific publishing, reports The Economist.
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US: Association tackles science teaching, again
America's research universities have long struggled with complaints that they don't do enough to educate undergraduates in science. Their main association thinks the time is ripe to tackle the problem again, writes Paul Basken for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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US: Concern over student plagiarism software
Turnitin, plagiarism software released in 1996 and used by more than 10,000 universities and 20 million students, is now common in higher education. But it is Turnitin's lesser-known student-only sister product, WriteCheck, that has some faculty members feeling betrayed, although the company says that it is only trying to help students and professors, writes Elizabeth Murphy for Times Higher Education.
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LATIN AMERICA: New EU project aims at integration
While the Bologna process of European integration in higher education may have its critics, it is hoped that a new European Union-funded project will launch Latin America down a similar road towards harmonisation, reports Paul Jump for Times Higher Education.
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SRI LANKA: Laws to prevent lecturers going private
New laws will be introduced to discourage public university lecturers from joining private universities, writes Ridma Dissanayake for the Daily News.
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EGYPT: Hundreds protest to elect university leaders
Nearly 700 teaching staff from several Egyptian universities protested last Sunday outside the cabinet building in downtown Cairo, demanding the removal of Higher Education Minister Moataz Khorshid, the replacement of university heads and better pay, writes Omar Halawa for Al-Masry Al-youm.
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CHINA: Nine in 10 students feel the burden of high fees
An overwhelming 91% of college students in China said in a survey that their tuition fee was higher than expected, according to the Worker's Daily, writes Zhao Chunzhe for China Daily.
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MALAYSIA: Ireland offers sweetener to PhD parents
The Republic of Ireland last week agreed to offer free education to the children of Malaysian students who wish to further their studies at PhD level in the country, reports the official agency Bernama.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Bill approved for transfer of colleges
Parliament's justice committee last week approved the 18th amendment to the South African constitution, which aims to transfer responsibility for further education and training colleges from provinces to the Department of Higher Education and Training, write Wyndham Hartley and Karl Gernetzky for Business Day.
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UZBEKISTAN: Students forced to harvest cotton
Thousands of university students in Uzbekistan are being mobilised to help with the annual cotton harvest and some say they are working under abusive conditions, reports the Uzbek Service of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty.
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Sunday 11 September 2011

University World News 0188 - 11th September 2011

This week's highlights
In Features, SERAJ ELALEM in Libya speaks to students about their role in the rebellion and its effects on universities, and says the higher education sector is looking forward to a freer future. JAN PETTER MYKLEBUST writes that Denmark's state auditor is questioning the government's policy of doubling the intake of PhD students. On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, AMEEN AMJAD KHAN remembers that fateful days and talks to Muslim academics about how it changed relations between the West and the Islamic world, and ALISON MOODIE interviews Berkeley political scientist Steven Weber about the impacts of the terror attacks on academia in America. In Commentary, SEAN GALLAGHER argues that the US and China could learn lessons from Australia on policies to drive more quality research, and SIR JOHN DANIEL invites comments on draft international guidelines for open educational resources in higher education.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

SOUTH KOREA: Private institutions 'named and shamed'
Han-Suk Kim
Some 43 poorly managed private universities, colleges and vocational institutions have been named and shamed by South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for not meeting criteria for being well run. They will no longer be eligible for state subsidies, as part of the government's attempts to restructure and improve the higher education sector.
Full report on the University World News site:

NETHERLANDS: Dawn raids over 'illegal' tuition fees
Jan Petter Myklebust and Brendan O'Malley
The Netherlands Competition Authority NMa carried out dawn raids on the University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam on Wednesday to establish whether they have conspired to 'harmonise' the price of tuition fees for second degrees, in breach of competition law.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Cambridge still top in QS university ranking
David Jobbins
The University of Cambridge has retained the leading place in the 2011 QS World University Rankings after displacing Harvard University in 2010. But Oxford University, which was fifth last year, dropped a place as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology continued its move up the rankings to third place. MIT was in ninth place in 2009, and fifth last year.
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SWEDEN: Minister to shake up research
Jan Petter Myklebust
Jan Bjørklund, Sweden's Minister for Education and Science and Vice-Prime Minister, is to chair the government's 21-member science advisory board as part of a strategy to strengthen research. A white paper on research is to be drafted next year.
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SRI LANKA: Strike threat over private medical school
Dinesh De Alwis
Doctors in Sri Lanka have threatened strike action in an escalating row over government recognition of the country's first private medical college near Colombo, established as a branch of a Russian university. The action could have repercussions for other private colleges planning to set up in the country, as talks are ongoing with institutions in China and India.
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NIGERIA: Student cultists arrested for trafficking
Tunde Fatunde
Security agents have arrested student cultists involved in sporadic shooting between rival gangs. The incident took place near the campus of Enugu State University of Technology in eastern Nigeria. At the cultists' forest hideout agents confiscated firearms, ammunition and film footage of kidnapped female students being forced to have s ex with one another.
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GERMANY: State to set 'quota' for women professors
Michael Gardner
North Rhine-Westphalia's state government intends to introduce new legislation to encourage the promotion of more women to professorships. The state is currently below the federal German average.
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KENYA: New funding to boost technical colleges
Gilbert Nganga
Kenya has set aside an extra US$60 million this year to construct physical infrastructure and buy modern equipment for technical colleges, to give the institutions the capacity to admit thousands of young people seeking tertiary education.
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CHINA: University sackings after dissection illness
Mimi Leung
In an unusual move, the dean of a veterinary school and a Communist Party secretary have been sacked from their posts at Northeast Agricultural University after students were infected by a serious disease from dissecting goats in a laboratory.
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GULF STATES: Women's studies finds a champion
Wagdy Sawahel
The United Arab Emirates will formally launch a gender and women's studies consortium at an international gathering next March. Its aim is to encourage teaching and research on the subject and promote its integration into the general curriculum. Meanwhile, a new research report on maximising women's participation in the workforce presents findings of significant consequence for the Gulf states.
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NEWSBRIEFS

CANADA: Colleges see surge in Indian applicants
Sarah King Head
Canadian colleges opened their doors last week to accommodate a huge surge of new students coming from the Indian subcontinent. The Association of Canadian Community Colleges is projecting about 12,000 Indian students.
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IBEROAMERICA: Portal of journals goes online
María Elena Hurtado
A portal that boasts nearly a million scientific articles journals from Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal will now be available online for free. The service, which will provide access to full texts, was launched at the Autonomous University of Mexico on Tuesday.
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ALGERIA: Research platform to improve journal access
Algeria's Ministry of Higher Education and Research and Thomson Reuters on Thursday announced a three-year partnership that will deliver the information company's Web of KnowledgeSM research platform to academics at more than 60 institutions countrywide.
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FEATURES

LIBYA: Students speak about the rebellion, the future
Seraj Elalem
With the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the higher education sector in Libya can look forward to a freer future, where universities have more control over their curricula and hopefully better funding. It would be a fitting result to the armed rebellion, which was widely supported by academics and students, some of whom picked up a gun to fight.
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DENMARK: Questions raised over PhD expansion
Jan Petter Myklebust
Denmark's state auditor is pressing the government to justify its policy of doubling the intake of PhD students at a cost of EUR700 million (US$1 billion), when a shortfall of Danish masters students means a large proportion of places will go to international students who tend to leave the country after completing their doctorates.
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ACADEMICS ON THE DECADE AFTER 9/11

GLOBAL: Civilisations have grown apart since 9/11
In a world where the Muslim perspective on the 9/11 tragedy barely gets a hearing AMEEN AMJAD KHAN, University World News' Pakistan correspondent, reflects on his own memories of that day 10 years ago and talks to academics in the Muslim world on the decade since the event. Some believe the 9/11 attacks on America might not have led to a 'clash of civilisations' but certainly a growing distance between them.
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US: 9/11 wind has swept over research agendas
Alison Moodie
In the 10 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook America and the world, the impacts on academia have been felt in a number of different ways, from changing focuses for teaching to new debates and an avalanche of funding for security-related research. The attacks "created a wind that's swept over lots of people's research agendas," said Steven Weber, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
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COMMENTARY

AUSTRALIA: Research lessons for China and the US
China is predicted to outstrip US higher education in the global university league tables in the future. But both the US and China could learn some valuable lessons from Australia about policy efforts to drive more quality research, says SEAN GALLAGHER.
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GLOBAL: New guidelines for open educational resources
Open educational resources (OER) can increase access to education while cutting costs and improving quality. That is why, argues SIR JOHN DANIEL, they offer the potential to enable the greatest increase in access to education that the world has ever seen. The Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO have drafted international guidelines for OER in higher education, and are inviting comments on them.
Full report on the University World News site:

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet*
Chinese constitutional scholar and activist Yao Lifa has been freed but is suffering from multiple injuries after spending almost a month in detention. In Iran, religious scholar Ahmad Ghabel is suffering declining health in Vakilabad prison, where he is serving a sentence for insulting the country's supreme leader. Ashkan Zahabian, a student activist jailed in northern Iran, has started a hunger strike to protest against the conditions of his detention and confusion around his case. The family of Abdolreza Soudbakhsh, a professor at Tehran University and medical doctor who was murdered by unidentified men in September 2010, has claimed that his killing was linked to his work with r ape and torture victims.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

COLOMBIA: Protests against higher education reforms
Thousands of lecturers and students took to the streets of several of Colombia's major cities last Wednesday "in defence of public education", according to Columbia Reports. The demonstrators rejected a proposal by the government of President Juan Manuel Santos to reform higher education.
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SCOTLAND: Fees for English students is legal - EU
The Scottish government's decision to allow universities to charge English students up to £9,000 (US$14,000) a year in fees while Scots study free of charge will not be challenged by the European Union, it has emerged. Three English students are currently taking legal action against the Scottish government amid claims that charges for tuition fees breach their human rights, writes Chris Marshall for The Scotsman.
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CANADA: Foreign students break rules more often
University students break the rules for a host of reasons - some make a bad decision under pressure at 3am, others insist they were just helping a classmate. But at some Canadian schools, an alarming number of the accused share one characteristic: they came from abroad to study, reports the Globe and Mail.
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EU: Female research dropouts threaten targets
A leading European official has warned that a failure to retain female researchers remains a major barrier to recruiting an extra one million researchers by 2020, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education.
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MALAYSIA: Identifying number of universities needed
The Malaysian government is conducting a study to find out the total number of universities - public and private - needed by the country in order to produce the desired number of graduates. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin said the purpose of the study was to maintain the quality of Malaysian universities and strengthen the higher education sector, writes Husna Yusop for The Sun Daily.
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CHINA: Top business school opens London branch
One of China's top business schools, the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), opened an office in London last week. The institution is mainland China's first 'homegrown' business school to establish an overseas branch, reports Xinhuanet.
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US: Students respond to same-race instructors
Non-white students at community colleges in America are more likely to stay in classes and to earn higher grades if they have instructors of their race or ethnicity, according to a study released last week by the National Bureau for Economic Research. But the same is true for white students, meaning that hiring more minority instructors may result in decreased performance by white students, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
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AUSTRALIA: Push to boost aboriginal staff numbers
Increasing the number of aboriginal academic staff is a "pragmatic" way to boost knowledge of indigenous culture and knowledge in the sector, said Larissa Behrendt, chair of the federal government's review of indigenous access and participation in higher education, writes Andrew Trounson for The Australian.
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NEW ZEALAND: University rejects call to sack academic
Auckland University is rejecting calls for it to sack academic Margaret Mutu over her call for 'white' immigration to New Zealand to be limited, reports 3News. The Maori studies department head caused a stir last weekend when she called for a restriction on the number of white migrants from South Africa, England and the United States as they brought "an attitude of white supremacy" with them.
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ETHIOPIA: Agency shuts private colleges over quality
The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) of Ethiopia announced last week that it had banned five private higher education institutions because of quality concerns, writes Yonas Abiye for Ezega.com.
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SWAZILAND: Security forces clash with students
Security forces and protesters have clashed in two towns during a week of planned protests demanding an end to Swaziland's absolute monarchy, writes Phathizwe-Chief Zulu for the Mail & Guardian.
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NORTHERN IRELAND: Freeze on university tuition fees
Tuition fees for Northern Ireland students are to be frozen. Higher Education Minister Stephen Farry said fees would rise only in line with inflation and that the budgets of universities would be protected, reports the BBC.
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UK: Universities enticed to consider fees cut
The English government's Office for Fair Access has submitted fresh guidance to vice-chancellors telling them to impose fees of £7,500 (US$11,973) or less to claim a share of 20,000 free places for 2012, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
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UK: Fees rise will mean fewer entrants - study
The introduction of higher tuition fees in England next year will result in a drop of 7.5% in the university enrolment rate for men and of nearly 5% for women, according to a study published by the London School of Economics, writes Jeevan Vasagar for the Guardian. National Union of Students President Liam Burns said: "This is a stark warning from a respected source, and the government should heed it."
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UK: Job figures cast doubt on science degrees
Only about half of all science graduates find work that requires their scientific knowledge, a study has shown, casting doubt on the government's drive to encourage teenagers to study the subject at university, writes Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
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US: Carnegie Mellon receives $265 million gift
A Mount Lebanon businessman is giving Carnegie Mellon University a gift larger than the one Andrew Carnegie used to create the research university, writes Debra Erdley for Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
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SCOTLAND: Business-academia links on the rise
Collaborations between business and academia have risen sharply in the past year, according to new research, reports the BBC.
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Sunday 4 September 2011

University World News 0187 - 5th September 2011

This week's highlights

In Features, MAKKI MARSEILLES reports on growing opposition in universities to radical higher education reforms just approved by parliament. A new British Council report says would-be international students are turning to the internet and social media over printed prospectuses to select destination universities, writes GEOFF MASLEN, and JACQUIE WITHERS outlines a new study in Canada's Ontario province revealing growing pressure on families to afford higher education. In Commentary, AMY EWEN reviews World Bank reports on higher education over the decades, and how they have responded to global concerns. NICK BROOKER investigates India's impending foreign education bill and its implications for international universities wanting to grasp the huge opportunities becoming available in the country, and in Australia RUTH GRESHAM and VERONICA CLAYTON say more focused programmes are needed to help integrate international students into their host communities.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

LIBYA: New regime plans to reopen universities soon
Megan Detrie
Libya's new government, the National Transitional Council, has said it plans to restart higher education this coming month. But the country's universities remain unsure when doors will actually reopen for students. Many universities across the country have been closed or operating shoestring services, since Libya's rebellion started in February.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Help for Libyan students
Geoff Maslen
The federal government will provide a loan of A$1.5 million (US$1.6 million) to the Libyan People's Bureau (embassy) in Canberra to assist more than 650 sponsored Libyan students attending Australian universities. The decision was greeted with relief by students, who were facing non-payment of tuition fees and the suspension of their monthly stipend. Last month the Libyan Embassy ran out of money, leaving the students without any financial support.
Full report on the University World News site:

AFGHANISTAN: University project on track after attack
Yojana Sharma
The British Council will officially resume its work in Afghanistan this weekend after a deadly Taliban attack on 19 August that physically destroyed its Kabul compound, killing 12 people during several hours of fighting as well as obliterating almost all materials relating to its work in the country.
Full report on the University World News site:

EGYPT: Partial university elections anger academics
Ashraf Khaled
As several of Egypt's 19 public universities prepare to elect their leaders for the first time, scores of academics are threatening strike action because of what they say is the government's failure to keep a promise to replace all university presidents and deans.
Full report on the University World News site:

PERU: Vatican threatens university's Catholic status
María Elena Hurtado
The prestigious Pontifical Catholic University of Peru risks losing its name and status if it refuses to align its statutes with a Vatican dictate. The university is challenging the order from Rome arguing that it is bound by Peruvian, not Vatican, rules.
Full report on the University World News site:

EUROPE: Polish presidency seeks to expand Erasmus
Brendan O'Malley
The Polish presidency of the European Union is planning to expand the Erasmus student and staff exchange programme to non-EU countries on its eastern and southern borders.
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EUROPE: Report charts growth of lifelong learning
David Jobbins
A study of the conditions that enable universities in Europe to develop successful lifelong learning strategies has revealed that the vital supporting legislation is present in only two-thirds of the countries surveyed.
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MAURITIUS: Plans to become a regional knowledge hub
Guillaume Gouges
Plans to create new universities in Mauritius in the coming years highlights the government's ambition to transform the island into a regional knowledge hub. The country aims to attract about 100,000 foreign students by 2020, and campaigns are now being conducted in India and Tanzania to promote the island as a tertiary education destination.
Full report on the University World News site:

SRI LANKA: Six universities to be upgraded
Dinesh De Alwis
Sri Lanka's Higher Education Ministry last week announced the launch of a special programme to upgrade six local universities, allocating some US$6 million to improving teaching, research and infrastructure to 'international' levels within the next few years.
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NEWSBRIEFS

NIGERIA: Top university hit by floods
Munyaradzi Makoni
The University of Ibadan, one of Nigeria's leading higher education institutions, suffered huge infrastructural damage last week after torrential rain pounded the Oyo state capital, leading to floods. An assessment by the university revealed that property worth US$65 million was lost.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

GREECE: Protests erupt over higher education reform
Makki Marseilles
More than 80 schools and departments are reported to be under occupation by students in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Crete, Jannena and Thrace as the government faces continued opposition to its higher education reforms, despite MPs uniting to vote for them in parliament.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Foreign students opt for online search
Geoff Maslen
The number of students around the world studying at foreign higher education institutions has jumped by more than 400% over the past 30 years and is now heading towards four million a year. But a new report says the traditional use of printed university prospectuses as a means of informing these mobile students is no longer effective as students turn to internet search engines and social media such as Facebook.
Full report on the University World News site:

CANADA: Rising university costs hit Ontario families
Jacquie Withers
Households in the Canadian province of Ontario are increasingly buckling under the strain of funding higher education, according to a report published last week. This year on average households have debt equal to 150% of their disposable income, compared to 93% in 1990. And taking inflation into account, students have witnessed a 244% real tuition fee increase between 1990 and 2011.
Full report on the University World News site:

COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: The changing concerns of higher education
What have the World Bank reports on higher education brought to the learning process? AMY EWEN reviews some of their core tenets, such as access and institutional autonomy, and tracks how they have responded to global concerns and how issues such as relevance and brain drain have become increasingly prominent. She also shows how higher education has come to occupy a central role in education and development policy.
Full report on the University World News site:

INDIA: Implications of the foreign education bill
India represents a huge opportunity for global higher education institutions. The government knows this and is therefore rightly seeking to pass legislation to protect the interests of Indian students from a gold rush of commercially aggressive institutions, argues NICK BOOKER. Universities that are aware of the impact of the legislation on their India strategies will be better equipped to deal with it when the time comes.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Integrating international students
Programmes aimed at integrating international students often only promote superficial links between students and the host community. RUTH GRESHAM and VERONICA CLAYTON argue that a more focused and well-resourced programme is needed, and they report on the success of a pilot project in Australia, in the latest edition of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.
Full report on the University World News site:

SCIENCE SCENE

GLOBAL: Obesity epidemic spreads worldwide
Worldwide action is urgently required to reverse 40 years of a rising obesity epidemic, according to a group of Australian researchers. The researchers at Deakin University's WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention in Melbourne say obesity will continue to rise unless governments take decisive, policy-driven action.
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CANADA: Interventions aids children's development
To be a successful human takes creativity, flexibility, self-control and discipline, say researchers at the University of British Columbia. Central to all these are executive functions, including mentally playing with ideas, giving a considered rather than an impulsive response and staying focused.
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ANTARCTICA: Long dives for Emperors
Emperor penguins fishing at sea and at an experimental dive hole often spend minimal times on the surface even after dives that last far beyond their measured 5.6 minute aerobic dive limit. Researchers from the US and Japan went to the Antarctic and attached accelerometer-based data loggers to Emperor penguins diving in the two different situations to evaluate the capacity of the birds to perform such dives without any apparent prolonged recovery periods.
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FACEBOOK

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WORLD ROUND-UP

US: Stricter UK visa rules close campus
Less than six months after the British government announced tighter restrictions on student visas, at least one university has said it is being forced to close one of its campuses as a result of the new regulations, writes Jonathan J Li for The New York Times.
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UK: Inform on 'vulnerable' Muslim students - Police
University staff including lecturers, chaplains and porters are being asked to inform the police about Muslim students who are depressed or isolated, under new guidance for countering Islamist radicalism, write Ryan Gallagher and Rajeev Syal for The Guardian.
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INDIA: Ban lifted on distance postgraduate courses
The University Grants Commission has lifted its two-year ban on masters and PhD courses through correspondence, the U-turn apparently forced by legal opinion against the move following protests from universities, writes Basant Kumar Mohanty for The Telegraph.
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INDIA: Panel backs for-profit institutes
In a potential game-changer for India's education sector, the Planning Commission has suggested that the country allow for-profit institutes of higher learning, write Prashant K Nanda and Sangeeta Singh for LiveMint.
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GLOBAL: Open access may have unequal benefits
Open access is seen by many as the publishing model that is most in keeping with the egalitarian ethos of academia. But a paper by two economists suggests that 'gold' open access, under which the author pays for publication and the article is made freely available, could be costly for research-intensive institutions, while benefiting those that do little research, writes Andy Wright for Times Higher Education.
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CANADA: Copyright board warns universities
A recent ruling from the Copyright Board of Canada suggests that unless certain universities and colleges that have opted out of the Access Copyright tariff produce information about their use of protected works, they could be subpoenaed to do so, writes Jennifer Brown for Canadian Lawyer Magazine.
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INDONESIA: Fury over honorary degree for Saudi king
The University of Indonesia has come under a storm of protests for awarding an honorary doctorate to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, a leader whose commitment to human rights has been seriously questioned by labour activists, reports The Jakarta Post.
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CHINA: Universities 'must give more information'
Over 76.2% of Chinese surveyed online have said university information disclosure in China is not good enough, reports the official agency Xinhua. About 1,900 people participated in the survey, which was published in China Youth Daily and conducted by the newspaper's social investigation centre.
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IRAN: Baha'is call for end to university exclusion
In an open letter to Iran's Minister for Higher Education, the Baha'i International Community has called for an end to "the unjust and oppressive practices" that bar Baha'is and other young Iranians from university, reports the Baha'i World News Service.
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US: College plagiarism is on the rise - survey
A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows plagiarism in American colleges is on the rise, writes Kayla Webley for Time. The survey, called The Digital Revolution and Higher Education, asked 1,055 college presidents from two- to four-year schools, private and public, for their thoughts on how digital technology has impacted on college.
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US: California university sets top fundraising goal
In what is said to be the largest fundraising goal in American academia to date, the University of Southern California is launching a campaign to garner US$5 billion in donations by 2018, on top of $1 billion given to the institution in the last year, writes Larry Gordon for the Los Angeles Times.
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HUNGARY: State-funded university places to be cut
Hungary's government will reduce state-funded university places because the number of students benefiting from assistance is unrealistically high, writes Judit Szilák for the Budapest Times.
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SCOTLAND: Tobacco firm demands university's research
Stirling University is fighting attempts by one of the world's largest tobacco companies to gain detailed access to its research into the smoking habits and attitudes of teenagers, writes Severin Carrell for The Guardian.
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SWAZILAND: University re-opens, for some
The University of Swaziland last week registered students for the first semester of the 2011-12 academic year, after a three-week delay caused by lack of funding. But some first-year students were told to wait until they had received confirmation from government that they would be sponsored, writes Winile Masinga for the Swazi Observer.
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TANZANIA: Student loans board blames national psyche
The Higher Education Students' Loans Board (HESLB) says the national psyche in Tanzania is to blame for the repetitive wrangles between it and its clients. The free service mentality originating from the abandoned Ujamaa ideology was the major hindrance to an amicable mutual reverence between HESLB and students, writes Songa wa Songa for The Citizen.
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KENYA: Graduates to take extra courses in degrees row
Thousands of university graduates may be forced to go back to class for remedial courses after failing to secure practising certificates in a bitter dispute over the quality of degrees offered by some universities, writes George Ngigi for Business Daily.
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CANADA: Maths professor loses legal case over PhD
A University of Manitoba maths professor's bid to sue the institution over a controversial PhD awarded to a student last year doesn't add up, a Winnipeg judge has ruled. In a written decision released last week, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Deborah McCawley said Gabor Lukacs is not in a position to involve the court as a way of ending a dispute he has had with the university since 2009, writes Jason Bell for Winnipeg Free Press.
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UK: Liverpool's free university harnesses anger
Plans are currently in motion in Britain for the establishment of a Free University of Liverpool. This is ex plicitly framed as a protest against the government's tuition fees rise, but also evidences longer-standing dissatisfaction with the current structure of higher education, writes Rachael Cloughton for The Guardian.
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