University World News Issue 0222

On university rankings, oil tankers, icebergs and excellence initiatives

In Commentary, Daniel Lincoln argues that Times Higher Education’s plan to rank up-and-coming universities highlights the inconsequential nature of most global ranking systems. Martin Ince writes that excellence schemes boost university ranking positions to a point, but are more likely to reinforce existing positions.
Benjamin Ginsberg warns that the erosion of tenure in America and Canada is undermining academic freedom, and in World Blog Stephen Toope describes a recent mission to Brazil that was the largest ever undertaken by Canadian university presidents – and during which 75 new partnerships were announced.
Yojana Sharma and Hana Kamaruddin wrap up coverage of the inaugural AsiaEngage university-industry-community regional conference held in Malaysia earlier this month.
In Features, Alya Mishra writes that the focus of Indian institutes of technology will remain national despite IIT-Bombay’s participation in the winning international bid to set up a Centre for Urban Science and Progress in New York. And Geoff Maslen finds out, from a new Australian study, why small, developed nations produce high-impact research.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

News

EUROPE
EU ministers raise benchmark on graduate jobs

Marguerite-Jeanne Deschamps
The European Union’s Council of Ministers has approved a new employability benchmark of 82% of EU graduates being employed within three years of leaving education and training by 2020. This is a significant step up from the 76.5% benchmark in 2010.

AUSTRALIA
Boosting science, maths and engineering graduates

Geoff Maslen
Australia’s Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb has won a grant of US$54 million from Prime Minister Julia Gillard to recommend ways of boosting the number of students in universities and schools taking science and mathematics subjects.

FRANCE
New minister for higher education and research

Jane Marshall
France’s new President François Hollande has appointed Geneviève Fioraso, a spec ialist in the economics of research and innovation, as the new minister for higher education and research.

GERMANY
Education minister faces copycat allegations
Germany’s federal Education Minister Annette Schavan faces allegations that part of her doctoral thesis may have been plagiarised. Schavan denies the claims made earlier this month but the University of Düsseldorf, which awarded her doctorate, is having her thesis reviewed.

EGYPT
Criticism greets new higher education minister

Ashraf Khaled

Within days of being named as Egypt's new higher education minister – the fifth in 15 months – Mohamed al-Nashar had been slammed by academics for both his political past and his present views.

EUROPE
Regulators argue for compromise on raw data

Jan Petter Myklebust

Key European Union regulators and their counterparts from the UK, France and The Netherlands have called for greater transparency over access to clinical trials data.

SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa and EU sign joint education declaration

Ard Jongsma

South Africa and the European Union signed a Joint Declaration on Cooperation in Education and Training on Thursday, the formal endorsement of years of intensifying collaboration between the two partners.

KENYA
Lecturers angry over proposed salary reforms

Gilbert Nganga

Kenya is pushing to change the way universities are funded and how lecturers are paid, in reforms that have angered lecturers. The Universities Bill wants state subsidies to public universities to be based on the courses they offer rather than on student numbers, and proposes that lecturers be paid according to the courses they teach rather than job grades.

AsiaEngage conference

The “Regional Conference on Higher Education-Industry-Community Engagement in Asia” was held in Malaysia from 7-9 May. It was the inaugural event of AsiaEngage, a network of universities aimed at strengthening civic engagement. University World News was there.


ASIA
AsiaEngage – Forging university-community partnerships

Yojana Sharma

As top representatives of the main partners of a new Asian network stood with their hands on a darkened glass ball, the word AsiaEngage lit up in red and blue and swirled around the sphere. It represented the birth of the new AsiaEngage umbrella organisation for community-engaged universities.

ASIA
How to be a world-class, community-engaged university

Yojana Sharma

The AsiaEngage network was launched this month with a secretariat at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, or UKM. University World News spoke to Vice-chancellor Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin on what it means to be part of the network and how UKM incorporates community engagement without jeopardising its aspirations of becoming a world-class university.

GLOBAL
ASEAN joins global family of engaged universities

Yojana Sharma

With the official launch on 7 May of AsiaEngage, a new regional umbrella organisation to promote higher education-community engagement, the international Talloires Network of engaged universities is strengthening its regional activities.

ASIA
Universities need to serve regional economy, society

Yojana Sharma

Many large universities conduct research and teaching as if they are isolated from the society and region around them. But even the desire to become world-class can be achieved by better serving their locality, a conference on higher education-industry-community engagement in Asia heard.

PHILIPPINES
University’s key role in disaster preparedness and response

Yojana Sharma

University researchers and scientists are increasingly playing a role in disaster research, analysis and data collection. But the University of the Philippines has gone much further, taking on a central role in planning and response in Asia’s most disaster-prone country.

ASIA
More students receive course credits for volunteering

Hana Kamaruddin

Students in some Asian countries – such as Japan, Indonesia and South Korea – now earn credit hours for voluntary work, an incentive that builds volunteering into the university assessment system and promotes community work as an integral part of higher education.

ASIA
Sustaining university-community projects a challenge

Hana Kamaruddin

Sustaining university-industry-community initiatives beyond the first flush of enthusiasm is a core challenge for all partners involved, according to delegates at a key Asian higher education conference.

ASIA
Universities in sustainability projects with industry

Hana Kamaruddin

Asian universities are engaged in ground-breaking projects to counter waste, boost the use of alternative fuels and reduce emission of greenhouse gases.

Features

INDIA
Building a global alliance, staying nationally focused

Alya Mishra

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, is part of a winning bid to set up a Centre for Urban Science and Progress in New York. While this furthers IIT-Bombay’s global footprint, its focus and that of other technical institutes in India remains national.

GLOBAL
Scandinavian countries top the world in research

Geoff Maslen

The world’s smaller developed nations, particularly in Scandinavia, have high levels of R&D support and this goes hand-in-hand with international collaboration and results in high-impact research results, according to a new study.

World Blog

CANADA-BRAZIL
Building prosperity through university connections

Stephen Toope

The largest-ever international mission of Canadian university presidents – to Brazil – saw the announcement of 75 new university partnerships and scholarship programmes, and talks around an innovation agenda. Canada is also opening its doors to 12,000 Brazilian students. The stage has been set for further collaboration in the future.

Commentary

GLOBAL
A note of thanks from the top 15,000

Daniel Lincoln

Times Higher Education has plans to publish a list of the top global 100 universities under 50 years old. The plans highlight the problems of world ranking systems since most don't compare like with like and context, such as funding cuts, is not taken into account. Higher education is in the midst of huge change and rankings are fast becoming inconsequential.

GLOBAL
Excellence schemes help top universities get better

Martin Ince

Research suggests that excellence schemes boost universities’ ranking positions, but only so far. They are more likely to reinforce universities’ existing positions in a competitive market than to seriously challenge American and British domination of the ranking system.

NORTH AMERICA
Weakening tenure is an attack on academic freedom

Benjamin Ginsberg

Tenure guarantees academic freedom in the United States and Canada. The shift to more contingent staff will mean that few academics will risk losing their jobs by speaking out about intellectual ideas that challenge orthodoxy or vested interests.

University World News - Issue 0220

QA in Sweden scores low marks; some international students face prejudice

In Commentary, Carlos Felipe Escobar Roa writes that in reforming higher education, stakeholders around the world need to rise above narrow interests, listen to one another and share ideas. Phil Baty says complaints that rankings favour old universities has prompted Times Higher Education to publish a new league of the world’s top 100 institutions under 50 years old. Lorraine Brown and Gurhan Aktas describe a study of Turkish exchange students that revealed the need for support to counter possible prejudice and for links between tourism bodies and universities.
In Features, Jan Petter Myklebust says Sweden’s new quality assurance system has been rated ‘unsatisfactory’ by European experts, and Michael Gardner looks at new laws in Germany that will improve prospects for foreign academics and students – though many students report discrimination. Also, Brendan O’Malley outlines a new report that shows knowledge exchange embedded within the higher education sector as a strategic, integrated activity driven in part by the research impact agenda.
We report on the QS-MAPLE conference for university leaders in the Middle East and Africa, held in Durban last week, and in World Blog William Patrick Leonard argues that a disconnect in the US between student fees and the value of qualifications could be resolved by including parents, students and employers as voting members of university boards.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

News

SYRIA
Aleppo students killed, injured in campus attacks

Wagdy Sawahel
Syrian forces targeted student dormitories during an anti-government protest at Aleppo University early on Thursday, firing teargas and bullets into the crowd. Four students were killed in the attack, 28 people were injured and around 200 students were reportedly arrested.

EGYPT
Students embroiled in bloody week of protests

Wagdy Sawahel
Egypt’s authorities detained 300 people, hundreds were wounded and a soldier died on Friday during bloody clashes between security forces and protestors – including student movements from several universities.

TAIWAN
Conglomerate’s lawsuit sends a chill through academia

Mimi Leung
Almost 500 academics in Taiwan have signed a statement in support of environmental engineering professor Tsuang Ben-jei, after one of the country’s largest conglomerates filed a libel lawsuit saying Tsuang’s research had damaged its reputation. The move has had a chilling effect on researchers.

AUSTRALIA
Vice-chancellor pulls back from slashing jobs

Geoff Maslen
Australian National University Vice-chancellor Professor Ian Young has backed away from imposing an A$40 million cut in spending this year, including $25 million in salary savings that would have cost an estimated 150 jobs.

NEW ZEALAND
Universities dubious about increased science funding

John Gerritsen
University leaders and staff in New Zealand are sceptical of government plans to focus their institutions more on STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths.

GLOBAL
Roadmap for world-class teaching universities launched

Wagdy Sawahel
A strategy for setting up world-class teaching universities, with an outline for evaluating teaching and learning quality, was formulated at an international conference on higher education held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last month.

SOUTH KOREA
Plagiarism crisis taints incoming legislators

Han-Suk Kim
Students and professors at South Korea’s Kookmin University, the centre of a plagiarism scandal involving two recently elected legislators, have joined opposition politicians in demanding that the lawmakers give up their seats after being found to have copied material for their doctoral dissertations.

INDIA
Online bank to check plagiarism may not be enough

Alya MishraIn an effort to control increasing cases of plagiarism and low quality research, the All India Council for Technical Education, AICTE, is to launch Project Factory – an online repository aimed at capturing abstracts of all postgraduate projects.

KENYA
New university colleges increase admissions capacity

Gilbert NgangaKenya will admit 7,000 extra students to its universities in the next academic year, making use of additional capacity in the form of new colleges. This brings to 41,000 the number of students who will join universities in the coming academic year, up from 34,000 admitted last year – a 20% jump.

QS MapleThe second QS-MAPLE – Middle East and Africa Professional Leaders in Education – conference was held in Durban on South Africa’s east coast from 3-4 May, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The theme was “Meeting the Global Challenges in Higher Education” and the event attracted 140 participants from 40 countries. University World News journalists were there.

GLOBAL
The shape of higher education to come

Karen MacGregorMore and more countries are striving to secure a bigger share of the international student market. But while the market is attractive and growing, it is also “very competitive, highly risk-prone and not the only growth area in higher education – far from it”, said Richard Yelland, head of the policy advice and administrative division of the OECD.

SOUTH AFRICA
Increasing requests for joint and double degrees

Sharon DellIncreased requests for joint and double degree programmes are encouraging South African universities to address policy vacuums and join the growing number of institutions around the world offering such degrees – as a way to deepen international partnerships, attract top international students and better prepare students for a globalised future.

AFRICA
PhDs for Africa – The SANTRUST fast-track approach

Wanda HennigGovernments have grasped the fact that innovation and economic growth will be generated from growing global networks of researchers, students and institutions. It is an accepted fact that nations are increasingly dependent on higher education to produce the highly skilled labour their economies need. In Africa, however, there are significant challenges.

AFRICA
University’s caregiver certificate spreads across Africa

Wanda Hennig
A South African university’s collaborative certificate in community-based work with vulnerable children and youth has mushroomed following the success of a pilot study, and is currently being implemented in 10 Sub-Saharan countries through the work of the African Centre for Childhood.

Features

SWEDEN
Quality assurance regime marked ‘unsatisfactory’

Jan Petter MyklebustMore than one in five of 189 study programmes evaluated by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education have been graded 'unsatisfactory'. And to the embarrassment of the Swedish government, the system of quality assurance itself has been rated unsatisfactory by a panel of European experts.

GERMANY
Foreign students and academics win better deal

Michael GardnerNew legislation adopted by the German parliament is set to improve prospects for foreign students and academics, just as the results of a new survey show that many international students are put off staying on in Germany due to discrimination.

UNITED KINGDOM
Six-fold return for economy on university innovation

Brendan O’MalleyEvery pound invested in higher education innovation funding adds at least £6 (US$9.70) in knowledge exchange income to the economy, according to a new report sponsored by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

World Blog

UNITED STATES
Open up the higher education governance process

William Patrick LeonardUniversity boards appear to be ignoring the fundamental importance of exchanging value added for tuition charged. Including parent, student and employer representatives – and giving them voting rights – could focus governing bodies’ minds more.

Commentary

GLOBAL
Bringing together the voices for university reform

Carlos Felipe Escobar RoaMany higher education stakeholders around the world agree on the need for reform. But they do not listen to one another's perspectives enough or share ideas about the way forward. Ultimately, the mission of universities is human development, equality and quality of life.

GLOBAL
New ranking to select future Harvards and Cambridges

Phil BatyInternational university rankings are criticised for their focus on established elite institutions. Now Times Higher Education is preparing to publish the world’s top 100 institutions under 50 years old and showcase the universities to watch in the future.

TURKEY
The cultural and tourism benefits of student exchange

Lorraine Brown and Gurhan AktasLittle research has been conducted into the growing international exchange student market – particularly on Muslim exchange students. A study of Turkish students revealed the needs for more support to counter possible prejudice and for more links between tourism bodies and universities.

University World News issue 0217

European ministers come under pressure to expand student mobility funding

In a scoop this week, Brendan O’Malley and Jan Petter Myklebust unpack a new report by the Bologna Follow-Up Group warning that Europe risks missing its goal of at least 20% of graduates studying abroad, with only four countries exceeding 5% in inward student mobility and outward mobility averaging less than 2%. See the Features section. In World Blog, Curt Rice explains why scientific publishing is unfair and in need of reform.
In Commentary, Madeleine F Green says universities need to be clear and honest about their internationalisation activities and why they are doing them, and Philip G Altbach and Jamil Salmi argue that international advisory groups, which are becoming popular among world-class universities, can add value and prestige.
N Jayaram, in the latest in a series of articles from the new book Paying the Professoriate, writes that improved pay scales and quality measures in India have made professors middle-class – but part-time and private sector academics have not benefited.
Also in India Alya Mishra looks at reforms in the state of Karnataka aimed at strengthening university autonomy, quality and research, that could provide a model for other parts of the country. And Tunde Fatunde reports on an international conference in Nigeria that investigated the under-studied 17-centuries-long trans-Sarahan slave trade.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

GLOBAL
EU and World Bank push for research revolution

Brendan O'Malley
Three significant blows were struck this week for the international cause of achieving open access to scientific research – by the European Commission, the World Bank and the Wellcome Trust.

UNITED STATES
Community colleges deny access to 400,000 students

Alison Moodie
Community colleges across America are denying access to hundreds of thousands of students, threatening the nation’s economic future, according to the first report from the Center for the Future of Higher Education, the research arm of a new faculty coalition.

EUROPE
Austerity-era budget winners and losers revealed

David Jobbins
A study of the impact of austerity-driven policies on universities in 13 countries across Europe shows a divergence between clear winners and losers, with southern European countries generally but not exclusively faring worst. Finland is leading the pack of countries expanding university education budgets while the most savage impacts are being felt in Italy and Portugal.

INDIA
Increase intake to meet higher education demand – UGC

Alya Mishra
With India facing major challenges in setting up new universities from scratch, existing universities may have to increase student intakes to meet growing demand for higher education and the urgent need for more skilled human resources. Some universities may have to double student enrolment in the next five years.

MALAYSIA
Students may join political parties, but not on campus

Honey Singh Virdee and Yojana Sharma
Bills to amend longstanding laws banning students from joining political parties were tabled in Malaysia’s parliament last week, with student groups and opposition parties saying that restrictive university laws should be repealed, not amended.

SINGAPORE
Ministry reins in false claims by private institutions

Adele Yung
Singapore’s Council for Private Education last week published new ground rules on responsible and truthful advertising by private education institutions, to rein in misleading or false claims and provide better protection for students turning to the growing private higher education sector.

AFRICA
Science and innovation could cut youth unemployment
High levels of youth unemployment across Africa could be reduced if innovation and entrepreneurship were included in university curricula, participants in a major all-Africa conference on science, technology and innovation heard in Kenya this month.

GLOBAL
Two countries may share the world’s biggest telescope

Geoff Maslen
The battle between South Africa and Australia to win a US$2.1 billion prize – the giant Square Kilometre Array radio telescope – may be resolved by splitting its operations between the two countries. According to a report in Nature last week, the SKA management board is seeking to determine whether the telescope could be divided between the two proposed sites.

MALAWI
New president sacks police chief over academic freedom
Malawi’s new President Joyce Banda has sacked the police chief who was at the centre of academic freedom protests last year. And she has instituted an inquest into the death of a student leader who was critical of the government of the late president, Bingu wa Mutharika.

GLOBAL
Sociologist Manuel Castells wins 2012 Holberg Prize
Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells has won this year’s Holberg International Memorial Prize – the ‘Nobel prize’ for the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology. A professor at the University of Southern California and other top institutions around the world, Castells earned the award for four decades of compelling analyses of power.

SPAIN
Teenagers flown in to advise on higher education 

Paul Rigg
The private for-profit IE University in Spain has turned to 16- to 18-year-olds from 11 countries for advice on the future of higher education. The teenagers – from countries as diverse as America, Colombia, Germany, India, Peru, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, Wales and Zimbabwe – flew to Madrid to give their views.

GERMANY
Government to fund new centre for Jewish studies

Michael Gardner
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, or BMBF, is to provide funding for a new Jewish studies centre in Berlin. Several institutions in the Berlin area are supporting the centre, which launched last autumn.

FEATURES

EUROPE
Ministers to consider stepping up a gear on mobility

Brendan O’Malley and Jan Petter Myklebust
Ministers from 47 European countries will be warned that they risk missing their target of at least 20% of graduates studying or training abroad, when they assess progress towards the Bologna goals in Bucharest later this month. They will be asked to sign a pledge to expand mobility funding and enable portability of grants, loans and scholarships provided by European Higher Education Area countries.

INDIA
State university reform could improve quality, autonomy

Alya Mishra
By separating the academic and administrative functions of the university from its affiliated colleges, the state of Karnataka in southern India has attempted to give two of its oldest universities a new lease on life, with emphasis on autonomy, research and minimal political interference in university governance.

NIGERIA
Scholars focus on the Arab trans-Saharan slave trade

Tunde Fatunde
Scholars from universities in and outside Africa gathered in the Nigerian city of Calabar recently to examine the role of Arab merchants in the trans-Saharan slave trade, which lasted for 17 centuries. For various reasons, the trans-Saharan slave trade – unlike trans-Atlantic slavery – is under-studied.

WORLD BLOG

GLOBAL
Two ways scientific publishing is unfair

Curt Rice
Does science publishing need reforming? Although journals aim to publish the best quality research, the processes of selecting which research gets reviewed – and who does the reviewing – are not transparent and could mean that research by groups such as women gets overlooked.

COMMENTARY

GLOBAL
Internationalisation requires greater transparency

Madeleine F Green
Universities need to be honest about internationalisation activities and why they are doing them. Unless institutions make the effort to be clear about the drivers and to measure the impacts of internationalisation, they will be deluded or uninformed about their success.

GLOBAL
International advisors – An asset or an added expense?

Philip G Altbach and Jamil Salmi
International advisory groups are becoming increasingly popular with world-class universities. But do they add anything of value? Having the perspectives of outside experts can bring useful insights and the experience of top academics, industry spec ialists and others can add prestige.

INDIA
Good news for permanent academics in public institutions

N Jayaram
India has introduced new pay scales and quality measures in higher education to retain the best staff, and professors are now happily middle-class. But these do not apply to private institutions or part-time staff and there are still problems recruiting enough academics to teach in public institutions.

University World News Issue 0216

Wanted: Blue skies thinking on universities, strong leaders and salary reform
In World Blog, Serhiy Kvit describes an unprecedented move by the prime minister of Ukraine to involve academics in drafting a new higher education law.
In Commentary, Anne Corbett and Sacha Garben argue that it is time for blue skies thinking about the future of higher education in Europe, and Elaine El-Khawas finds that more effective leaders can make a major difference to universities. Also, Gregory Androushchak and Maria Yudkevich call for academic salary reform for post-Soviet universities, the latest in a series of articles from the new book Paying the Professoriate.
In Features, Francis Yu reports on the connection of Cambodia’s top universities to a high-speed pan-Asian research network. Chrissie Long writes about 50 students from Equatorial Guinea who recently flew to the Caribbean’s Dominican Republic on scholarships aimed at developing their West African country – and at connecting Dominicans with their African roots – and Kaci Racelma describes the implementation of Bologna-style degree reform in another West African nation, Niger.
In Student View Abdimalik Buul writes about Somali students in the US who have been raising funds to fight famine, linking up with students in Mogadishu for a research project and helping first generation Somalis in America access higher education.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

News

UNITED KINGDOM
Universities to be given control over A-levels

Brendan O'Malley
Michael Gove, the education secretary, is to hand universities the leading role in the design and development of A-level qualifications in a major rolling back of government control over the key qualifications driving university admissions.

SOUTH KOREA
Professors oppose reform of university president elections

Han-Suk KimNearly 9,000 professors from state-funded universities cast a no-confidence vote against South Korea’s Education Minister Lee Ju-Ho last week, in a protest against attempts to force universities to reform how their leaders are selected – or face the risk of cuts to government subsidies.

GREECE
Universities face huge ‘haircut’ losses to reserves

Makki MarseillesUniversities and technological institutions in Greece face a huge reduction in their reserves despite the 53.4% write-down in the value of government bonds that reduces the country’s debt by €100 billion (US$133 billion).

AUSTRIA
Political deadlock on tuition fees causes chaos

Michael GardnerPublic universities are unable to charge tuition fees this summer semester as a result of the Austrian government’s failure to come up with a new framework for fees in time. Earlier regulations were declared unconstitutional and moves by institutions to reintroduce fees on their own have been sharply criticised by students.

AUSTRALIA
New website allows university indicator comparisons

Geoff MaslenFor the first time, students can compare Australia’s 39 public universities on the basis of their courses, student satisfaction levels, the qualifications of academics, staff-student ratios, drop-out rates and graduate employment. Although criticised for including information of doubtful validity, the MyUniversity website is probably unique in providing so many comparative details of each university’s operations.

CHINA
Abuse of student internships ‘not fully revealed’

Mimi LeungStudents and academics from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong researching the working conditions of student interns at factories in China have said that an officially agreed investigation into working conditions at Foxconn factories, which produce Apple iPads, did not provide a “full picture” of the extent of abuse of the internship system.

GLOBAL
EU and Med states to deepen academic cooperation

Wagdy SawahelEuropean Union and southern Mediterranean partner countries plan to establish a mechanism to enhance collaboration and the responses of universities and research centres to socio-economic needs.

FRANCE
Richard Descoings, higher education innovator, dies

Jane MarshallRichard Descoings, the innovative and charismatic head of the French Institute of Political Studies, died on Tuesday in New York where he was due to attend a United Nations conference for university leaders.

AFGHANISTAN
USAID funding and building boosts teachers’ education

Wagdy SawahelAfghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education opened a new faculty of education at Herat University last week. It is one of six new education faculty buildings being funded by the United States Agency for International Development and was constructed by the US military.

Features

CAMBODIA
Link to high-speed network will boost research capacity

Francis YuResearchers in Cambodia’s leading universities are to be connected to a pan-Asian research and education network via a high-speed link, improving access to regional and international data, helping to boost research quality and facilitating international research collaboration.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
African students help connect Dominicans to their roots

Chrissie Long Fifty students from Equatorial Guinea – a tiny Spanish-speaking country in West Central Africa – climbed off a plane on the lively Caribbean island Dominican Republic in mid-February, destined for a long-standing agricultural university.

NIGER
New degree system drives rising enrolment and quality

Kaci RacelmaWest African countries are continuing to implement the bachelor-master-doctorate system, or LMD – with Niger being one of the latest. Now the system is standard for West Africa’s largest country, which has a population of 15 million people and is mostly Saharan desert.

World Blog

UKRAINE
New law on higher education – A post-colonial miracle? 

Serhiy Kvit

In an unprecedented move earlier this year the Ukrainian prime minister called for a review of draft laws deciding the future of higher education. Academics and interested groups have been given the opportunity to shape the proposed legislation. Could this mark a dramatic change in how universities are run?

Commentary

EUROPE
Reframing the Bologna debate

Anne Corbett and Sacha Garben
The 2012 Bologna ministerial conference takes place in Bucharest later this month. It is time to reframe the debate and look long-term at ways of addressing those who lose out in the process. It is time for blue skies thinking about the future of higher education in Europe.

GLOBAL
Can new university leadership make a difference? 

Elaine El-KhawasDo rectors appointed from outside make more effective leaders of universities? Or is this only a structural change – rearranging the furniture? Research suggests that stronger university leaders can make a difference.

GLOBAL

Post-soviet universities need academic salaries reform

Gregory Androushchak and Maria Yudkevich
Post-Soviet universities pay faculty mainly for teaching and do not incentivise research. Many staff moonlight to boost their wages and universities are losing out on future staff who are being siphoned off by industry. Raising wages could boost quality and retain staff.

Student View

SOMALIA
Students link up across the diaspora to fight famine

Abdimalik Buul
Somali students in the US are joining together to help first-generation Somalis get into higher education, and are linking up with fellow students in Mogadishu in a research project to promote positive change.

Science Scene

GLOBAL
Plants do communicate – Even talk to each other
When South African botanist Lyall Watson claimed in his 1973 bestseller Supernature that plants had emotions and that these could register on a lie detector, scientists scoffed and branded it hippie nonsense. But new research has revealed that plants appear to react to sounds and may even make clicking noises to communicate with each other.

AUSTRALIA
Discovery shakes beliefs on Earth chemistry to the coreFor the last 100 years, scientists have assumed that the Earth has the same chemical make-up as the sun. But now scientists at the Australian National University have challenged the belief. Ian Campbell and Hugh O’Neill said their research had reshaped scientists understanding of the Earth’s chemistry – “right to the core”.

GLOBAL
Mountaintop blasts for giant Magellan telescopeLast month, astronomers began to blast 8,500 cubic metres of rock from a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes to create a base for the Giant Magellan Telescope – the world’s largest once completed towards the end of the decade. The telescope will be located at the US Carnegie Institution’s Las Campanas Observatory – one of the world’s premier astronomical sites, known for its pristine conditions and clear, dark skies.

CHINA-US
Secrets of Permian vegetation in Inner MongoliaChinese and American scientists have uncovered a forest buried under volcanic ash in Inner Mongolia during the Permian period, some 300 million years ago. The researchers say permian flora are important because they represent a time of oscillating climatic changes that might serve as an analogue for modern vegetation control.

University World News - Issue 0215

Knowledge economies need academics but don't pay them well

Among our highlights this week, in Commentary, Philip Altbach and Iván Pacheco use a global comparison to argue that academics are inadequately paid compared to other key professionals driving the knowledge economy. Claudia Reyes and Pedro Rosso argue that classifying and comparing types of university is crucial to raising standards. In Features, Jan Petter Myklebust reports on why top Swedish universities are continuing to expand despite the economic downturn. Wagdy Sawahel reveals that newest country South Sudan’s attempts to build a new higher education system are hamstrung by political problems. In World Blog, Tony Chan says European universities are too inward-looking – the big changes in higher education are happening elsewhere.
Brendan O'Malley – Acting Global Editor

News


EUROPE

Academies reject EU research pledge on social sciences

Jan Petter Myklebust

The European Alliance for the Social Sciences and Humanities rebuts the European Commission's view that their field is adequately covered in the Horizon 2020 research agenda and calls for an added programme to be established.

AUSTRALIA
Top university slashes spending by A$40 million

Geoff Maslen
Another prominent university has warned that it will have to cut jobs following a sharp fall in income. The Australian National University announced plans to slash expenditure this year by A$40 million, including a $25 million cut in staffing costs. The global financial crisis, sharp falls in enrolments by foreign students, wage rises and higher costs are causing universities across Australia to find savings in their budgets.

PAKISTAN
Court rules on university leadership jobs for retirees

Ameen Amjad Khan
A Supreme Court ruling has given encouragement to academic staff pushing for an end to the appointment of post-retirement age professors as university heads. They believe it could pave the way for merit-based appointments.

UNITED STATES
US graduate growth is too slow, says report

David Jobbins
The rate of increase in the numbers of US graduates is too small, a report by the Lumina Foundation warns. It suggests that the US must do significantly more to build on the modest gains in higher education attainment to keep up with its global competitors.

NETHERLANDS
Languages and humanities axed due to cuts

Robert Visscher
Nationally, 30 small courses in the humanities will disappear in their current form, including the only Portuguese programme in the country, because of budget cuts and government requests for profiling. All universities have been hit by cuts in government funding and as a result several have cancelled small and expensive courses in the humanities.

EUROPE
More countries are turning to tuition fees

Martin Whittaker
As nation states contribute less and less to higher education amid the fallout from the Eurozone crisis, Europe’s universities are anxiously seeking new, sustainable forms of funding. And increasingly they are looking with interest at England as a model, where the burden of paying for higher education has passed from state to student.

GLOBAL
EU and South Korea deepen research cooperation

David Howarth
The European Union and South Korea have agreed a range of initiatives to strengthen research cooperation. South Koreans have also been invited to apply for European research funding under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for research.

AUSTRALIA
A$220 million synchrotron rescued from closure

Geoff Maslen
After nearly five years of operation at a cost of at least A$600 million (US$620 million), the Australian synchrotron faced being shut down as money was about to run out. But an announcement on Wednesday by the federal and Victorian governments of a $95 million injection means the nation’s prized scientific asset will be able to continue.

CANADA
Three universities in row over donor ‘veto’ 

Erin Millar
Three major universities are facing censure over collaborations with a private think-tank established by Blackberry co-founder Jim Balsillie. The Canadian Association of University Teachers alleges that the universities compromised academic integrity by signing contracts that gave Balsillie influence over hiring decisions, academic programmes and curriculum.

EGYPT
Mubarak-era campus election rules divide students

Ashraf Khaled
Thousands of students at Egypt’s universities have staged protests against a decision by the Ministry of Higher Education to hold student union elections under regulations dating from the era of toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

MALAWI
Civil society demands inquest into student’s death
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has come under renewed pressure to reform the higher education sector, with a petition calling on him to set up an investigation into the death of a student activist and to scrap draconian legislation trampling on academic freedom.

ISLAMIC STATES
Islamic states plan research and education network

Wagdy Sawahel
A pan-Islamic research and education network spanning the 57 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to enhance collaboration among research and education communities is being planned, alongside a range of ambitious ICT projects approved at the International Telecommunication Union's Connect Arab Summit.

GERMANY
Students say funding priority is better teaching 

Michael Gardner

The German students' union has criticised efforts to improve higher education funding, saying they contribute too little towards improving teaching and focus too much on a research elite.

Commentary


GLOBAL
Academic salaries: Are you worth the money?

Philip Altbach and Iván Pacheco

There have been few global comparisons of academic salaries around the world. New research paints a picture of a profession that, in many countries, is not valued as key to the knowledge economy.

CHILE
Classifying university types is key to success

Claudia Reyes and Pedro Rosso
A reclassification of Chile's universities highlights the importance of proper classification of universities to ensure coherence between mission, human and financial resources and the will to achieve the highest possible quality standards.

NEPAL
Years of neglect put global ranking out of reach

Pramod Bhatta
Rampant political interference, dismal government spending and failure to reform mean Nepalese universities cannot begin to make themselves world class. They must first concentrate on becoming functioning institutions.

Features

SWEDEN
How top universities are beating economic squeeze

Jan Petter Myklebust
Three years after the global credit crunch led to economic downturn, and widespread austerity budgets, cutbacks in resources and staff at many universities, some have been able to swim against the tide and actually expand.

SOUTH SUDAN
Higher education reform plans for a new nation

Wagdy Sawahel
Academics and policy-makers have produced a vision for higher education in South Sudan, which achieved independence from Sudan last July to become Africa’s newest state. Problems facing universities have been identified, reform initiatives launched and possible ways to upgrade universities recommended.

World Blog

EUROPE
Europe needs to look at changes beyond its borders

Tony Chan
The recent European University Association annual conference was greatly concerned with Europe's economic crisis, but much of what will affect it in the future is happening outside the continent. It should pay more attention.

University World News Issue 0214 - 25th March 2012

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report 
GLOBAL
Universities and students face grim financial future 
Geoff Maslen
University affordability for students in 40 countries around the world may have reached its peak. Across countries in the OECD, government support for higher education barely kept up with inflation last year while the outlook for 2012 looks bleak “given the debt crisis in the Eurozone”, according to a report released last week.

AFGHANISTAN
Western troop withdrawals a ‘challenge’ for universities 
Yojana Sharma
The withdrawal of US and other NATO troops from Afghanistan by 2014 poses a challenge for the country’s universities, which are responsible for turning out local professionals able to take over non-military tasks, a top Afghan higher education ministry official has said.

EUROPE
UK government challenged over Erasmus funding rise 
David Jobbins
A House of Lords committee has urged the UK government to think again over its reluctance to support a European Commission proposal for a 70% hike in funding for the new Erasmus for All programme, which will support student mobility beyond Europe's borders.
 
HONG KONG
Spate of donations to UK universities from philanthropists 
Mimi Leung
A £20 million (US$32 million) donation to King's College London by a Hong Kong businessman, announced last week, is the latest in a spate of contributions by Hong Kong philanthropists to UK universities. The donation from Dickson Poon is the biggest from an individual in King's College history and the largest to any single law faculty in Europe.

GERMANY
Universities demand a more active accreditation role
 Michael Gardner
The Rectors’ Conference in Germany has called for reform of the country’s accreditation system to give higher education institutions a more active role.

ITALY
Students face fee rises despite court victory 
Lee Adendorff
The threat of increased fees for Italian students looks set to become a reality. As universities wrestle with shrinking state funding, budget shortfalls and the prospect of court action, the government headed by Mario Monti is seeking a reform package aimed at liberalising the economy and jump-starting growth.
 
NORWAY
Minister wants to lure students from southern Europe
 Jan Petter Myklebust
Norway's minister for higher education and research has called for more university collaboration with southern Europe, to help countries hit hardest by the economic crisis – and to lure talent.

CHILE
Loan forgiveness plan fails to win over students 
María Elena Hurtado
Measures to ease the debt burden of Chilean students in response to violent protests last year have failed to satisfy students and opposition politicians. Critics say new laws that forgive student debt and reduce interest on government-supported loans do not address fundamental problems.

EUROPE
Danes and Swedes lead bid for food research 
Jan Petter Myklebust
Danish and Swedish universities are in the running to become world centres for food innovation when the first round of Horizon 2020 research programmes is announced.

SERIES: African university leaders
KENYA
Managing a university on the rise – Nairobi 
Gilbert Nganga
When it comes to publicity, Professor George Magoha is shy. The vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi rarely grants an interview or calls a press conference. He believes being too public a leader could be a blunder for Kenya’s premier university. Magoha spoke to University World News for this second in a series of articles on African university leaders.

FEATURESGLOBAL
Absence of Arab rankings creates obstacles, says study 
Brendan O’Malley
The Arab world urgently needs a ranking and classification system for its universities, a pilot study covering seven countries concludes.
 
GLOBAL
Transparency key for more women university leaders 
Yojana Sharma
Women have now caught up with – and in some subjects surpassed – men in university enrolments. Yet the number of women heads of universities remains small globally. Overcoming this equity hurdle will require institutional changes, including greater transparency in the way leaders are selected, a conference in London heard.

INDIA
Higher education bills in limbo after election shock 
Alya Mishra and Yojana Sharma
Higher education reform in India, including a proposed bill to allow in foreign universities, has hit another snag after the party leading central government performed below expectations in elections in three out of five states – reducing its room for manoeuvre in pushing key bills through parliament.

AUSTRALIA
Facebook enables the dead to ‘live on’ – for others 
Geoff Maslen
Dr Patrick Stokes is a researcher and philosopher at Deakin University in Melbourne. He found it a little weird when ‘friends’ he knew had died started contacting him via their Facebook pages.

WORLD BLOG
UNITED STATES
Gaming in the American university ranking system 
William Patrick Leonard
The main international university ranking systems focus narrowly on top institutions and use independent third parties for their metrics. How can people find out more about other American institutions, and can they trust national ranking statistics if they are self-reported?

COMMENTARY
 
GLOBAL
Emerging countries need world-class universities 
Simon Marginson
Policy experts tend to advise developing countries not to focus on creating world-class universities. But universities that do not develop their global science capacity will find themselves in a position of continuing dependence. The ambition for world-class universities is not a superficial or elitist whim. It is an entirely valid aspiration.

GLOBAL
International rankings: A poisoned choice 
Kevin Downing
International rankings raise a huge amount of debate, but undoubtedly have a major impact on everything from university reputation to the ability to hire top academics. Each of the main ranking systems measures different things, so institutions can select the one that most clearly matches their aims and status.
 
GLOBAL
Universities must encourage the philanthropic spirit 
Daniel McDiarmid
The huge donation from Dickson Poon to King's College London shows that fundraising efforts, even in harsh economic times, pay off. But many institutions in countries around the world are still slow to invest in fundraising, not just in terms of staffing but also in terms of university leaders' time and energy.

SCIENCE SCENE
UNITED STATES
Predicting clinically significant prostate cancerCurrent evidence suggests that screening men for prostate cancer is a double-edged sword, say Dr Carvell T Nguyen and Dr Michael W Kattan, both working in urological institutes in Cleveland, Ohio, in the US. They say the ethical and economic implications of over-diagnosis and over-treatment of clinically insignificant prostate cancer are profound.

GLOBAL
Diverse bacteria may aid honey bee survivalRecent challenges to honey bee health, including dramatic colony losses attributable to Colony Collapse Disorder, have devastated honey bee stocks worldwide. But an agent causing the losses has yet to be identified and new ideas about the decline in colonies are still emerging.

LATIN AMERICA
Mountains on a plate form the AndesCurving down the western coast of South America is the world's longest mountain chain – and one of its greatest puzzles. The Andes run for about 7,000 kilometres with the highest peak, Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, rising nearly 7,000 metres above sea level.

University World News Issue 0212

News
GLOBAL
Reputation of UK universities slips as East catches up

David Jobbins
The United Kingdom’s reputation as a centre of excellence for university education second only to the United States is beginning to slip and could be falling victim to the impact of government policies, the results of Times Higher Education’s 2012 World Reputation Rankings suggest. Meanwhile Asian universities are on the rise.

INDIA
Marginal higher education budget rise thwarts ambitions

Alya Mishra
India has allocated only marginal increases to higher education in its 2012-13 budget announced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week, despite a stated aim to dramatically increase the higher education participation rate from 17% now to 30% by 2025.

GREECE
Academic becomes education minister in reshuffle

Makki Marseilles
Greece has a new education minister as Prime Minister Lucas Papademos prepares for an expected general election by reshuffling his cabinet.

MEXICO
Quality concerns over burgeoning private universities

Jonathan P Dyson
A rapidly growing number of students in Mexico are attending private universities, but there are increasing concerns about the quality of many of the new institutions. The government is introducing a quality assurance system and expanding access to student loans and grants – but critics say this will not stop the demand for inexpensive courses, which are often of low quality.

GLOBAL
Africa may win Square Kilometre Array

Geoff Maslen

A final decision on whether South Africa or Australia will host the world’s biggest radio telescope may be made as early as 4 April. An expert scientific panel has narrowly recommended a consortium of eight African nations over a joint bid by Australia and New Zealand to build the massive telescope, the US$2 billion Square Kilometre Array or SKA.

NIGERIA
Government slams vice-chancellors and councils

Tunde Fatunde
The findings of visitation panels to federal universities in Nigeria have been released, along with a white paper responding to them. The reports have accused leaders and councils in most of the 26 universities of abusing autonomy, and some vice-chancellors may lose their jobs for deliberately flouting university statutes.

UNITED STATES
University initiatives melt borders with Brazil

Eileen Travers
Prodding for an exact definition of the elusive term ‘internationalisation’ triggered hearty chuckles from a range of educators gathered to provide a report card on recent United States-Brazil higher education initiatives, at the Institute of International Education in New York.

British Council – Going Global
The British Council held its annual “Going Global” international education conference in London from 13-15 March, attended by more than 1,000 delegates from around the world. University World News was there.


GLOBAL
Fast pace of enrolment growth predicted to slow

Yojana Sharma
A combination of demographic and economic changes will resize the global higher education landscape by 2020, according to a new report by the British Council. The largest higher education systems are likely to be China with some 37 million students, India with 28 million, the US with 20 million and Brazil with nine million.

GLOBAL
IAU sets out global agenda on internationalisation

David Jobbins
For almost a decade, the International Association of Universities has been conducting global surveys on internationalisation to monitor trends. IAU Secretary-general Eva Egron-Polak, who led a series of discussions at the "Going Global" conference, told University World News about the latest state of play and the costs and benefits of internationalisation.

GLOBAL
Europe to open up mobility scheme globally

David Jobbins
Officials in Europe are pressing on with plans to expand its flagship student mobility programme beyond the borders of existing eligible countries despite the economic crisis, the British Council's "Going Global" conference heard on Thursday.

AFRICA
Should Africa de-internationalise to internationalise?

James Otieno Jowi
Africa might need to cast off the impact of external forces on it higher education system in order to properly internationalise, the “Going Global” conference heard last week. And universities need to participate more in international forums on higher education to highlight what they are doing.

CHINA
Not all foreign partnerships are good quality – Official

Yojana Sharma
China wants to welcome in foreign universities and branch campuses as part of its drive to grow enrolment in the next decade and in line with plans for increased internationalisation. But it is tightening up the rules on what kinds of universities and programmes it will allow in, the official in charge of auditing overseas university partnerships has said.

IFC – Making Global ConnectionsThe International Finance Corporation held its fifth private higher education conference in Dubai from 6-7 March, titled “Making Global Connections”. University World News produced a special report on the conference last week, and this week we wrap up the reporting.


GLOBAL
Defusing a ticking time bomb by getting graduates jobs

Yojana Sharma
With graduate unemployment recognised as a ticking time bomb in many countries, innovative ways to get graduates into jobs were presented at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) conference held in Dubai this month.

GLOBAL
Indian university expands overseas branch campuses

Yojana Sharma
Two years ago it was just a patch of desert around Dubai, but now a new, state-of-the-art Manipal University campus has arisen out of the sands with its own laboratories, lecture theatres and classrooms in purpose-built facilities.

COLOMBIA
Public, private or public-private higher education?

Yojana Sharma
Colombia is experimenting with more public-private partnerships in higher education in an effort to increase student enrolments through private sector expansion. But allowing for-profit universities is still highly controversial and opposed by students and university rectors alike, according to the country’s former education minister Cecilia María Vélez.

CHILE
Employability in a time of change

Yojana Sharma
Duoc UC, whose name derives from the Spanish acronym for ‘university department for workers and peasants’ – Departamento Universitario Obrero y Campesino – provides affordable professional and technical education to more than 70,000 low- and middle-income students on more than 40 campuses around Chile.

Features

POLAND
Campaign fuels rise in students at technical universities

Bianka Siwinska
While the growing worldwide shortage of engineers has become a threat to global development, students have been flocking to technical universities in Poland to such an extent that they are now more popular than traditional universities.

SOUTH AFRICA
Many students living in ‘appalling’ conditions – Report

Sharon Dell
A significant portion of South African students are living in “appalling” conditions which are jeopardising their academic endeavours and creating health and safety risks. Some are also starving, according to a report on student housing released recently by the Department of Higher Education and Training.

World Blog

GLOBAL
Are recruitment agents an express train without brakes?

Rahul Choudaha
Commission-based agents can increase international student numbers fast, but not without risks and challenges. Should universities use them or consider alternatives such as social media or regional consortia, which might not deliver such high numbers in the short term but won’t run the risk of damaging an institution's reputation?

Commentary
GLOBAL
The impact of the economic crisis on higher education

Vangelis Tsiligiris
The economic crisis has resulted in neo-neoliberal economic policies guiding higher education strategies. This means less focus on government funding of higher education and more focus on monetary objectives. Higher education planning has in effect been given over to economists.

RUSSIA
Private higher education in Russia: The way forward?

Vladimir Geroimenko, Grigori Kliucharev and John Morgan
The growing number of private higher education institutions in Russia fulfil an economic need in a growing economy for more student places and more courses that are closely linked to industry. They will help create an innovative educational environment and drive up quality.