University World News - Issue No 0238

This week:

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

EUROPE
EUA reviews strategies for mobility

Ard Jongsma
A European University Association review that set out to examine mobility strategies at European universities stumbled across the persistent problem of gathering reliable and comparable data on mobility, designed a set of tools to alleviate it and in the process compiled a most interesting snapshot of the current state of affairs in Europe.

INDIA
Poor quality, few seats push 600,00 students abroad

Alya Mishra
Inadequate higher education infrastructure and poor quality courses are pushing 600,000 Indian students to top universities overseas – and are costing the country around Rs950 billion (US$17 billion) in foreign exchange annually – a study has found.

UNITED KINGDOM
Legal challenge to international student ban

David Jobbins
The British university barred from teaching students from outside the European Union prepared to challenge the decision in court last week, as politicians continued to attack government policy on international students.

DENMARK
OECD ‘calls for reform’, Denmark takes it easy

Ard Jongsma
On 4 September, the OECD published a review with a press release titled “OECD calls for reform of post-secondary vocational education and training in Denmark”. On the same day, the Danish authorities sent out the same report with a press release concluding: “Danish VET system praised by OECD.” Both are right, but the Danish interpretation better captures the gist of the review than the OECD’s own.

SRI LANKA
Government suddenly orders all universities to reopen

Dinesh De Alwis
The Sri Lankan government unexpectedly decided to reopen all state universities last week, despite an ongoing lecturer strike. It is thought the move was a response to political and student union pressures, and to enable institutions to prepare for the new academic year.

SRI LANKA
Exam fiasco – Court orders admission of extra students

Dinesh De Alwis
The shattered hopes of thousands of Sri Lankan students whose university entrance marks were miscalculated could be restored after the Supreme Court last week ordered public institutions to admit extra students in the new academic year.

EGYPT
President promises freedoms to university students

Ashraf Khaled
Egypt’s first elected civilian President Mohammed Mursi has promised to remove decades-old restrictions on student activities in the country’s universities.

TUNISIA
New regime changes direction of higher education

Jane Marshall
Tunisia is preparing for a change of direction for universities away from the policies of the old regime of former president Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali. There are plans to set up a national consultation on higher education to improve quality rather than increase the quantity of institutions.

MIDDLE EAST
Cairo Declaration calls for higher education quality

Wagdy Sawahel
Experts representing Arab countries recently concluded the fourth annual conference of the Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education by announcing the Cairo Declaration, in terms of which Arab standards for quality education similar to those achieved internationally are to be formulated.

KENYA
Private universities, students call for admissions reform

Gilbert Nganga
Kenya’s private university investors are lobbying the government to change the law to allow them to attract high-performing school-leavers – currently the preserve of their public rivals – and they have the overwhelming support of students.

CÔTE D’IVOIRE
Universities finally reopen after two closed years

Jane Marshall
Universities in Côte d’Ivoire reopened last week after two years of closure, and have been rehabilitated after the ravages of the post-electoral crisis.

FEATURES

GLOBAL
What do transnational education students really want?

Yojana Sharma

Students involved in transnational education – learning in a different country from where the degree-awarding institution is based – are less concerned about the awarding institution’s reputation and more about a flexible learning environment and a close fit in terms of subjects available for study.

INDIA
China has become top destination for medical students

Alya Mishra

Six years ago, when he was preparing to sit for multiple medical entrance examinations, Dr Vishal Swaroop had not heard of Liaoning province in China, five hours east of Beijing. Today he has a medical degree from Liaoning Medical University in the coastal city of Jinzhou.

GLOBAL
First international journal of children’s play

Geoff Maslen

A team of academics from around the world have published the first International Journal of Play, a peer reviewed 114-page publication on the many activities of children at play. “Our intention is to produce a journal that reflects, challenges and advances an understanding of play across the alphabet of scholarly disciplines,” say the editors.

2012 IEASA conference in Cape Town

The International Education Association of South Africa, or IEASA, held its annual conference in Cape Town from 29 August to 1 September. University World News was there, along with more than 250 academics and practitioners of international higher education from around the world. This is the first of a two-part Special Report on the conference.


GLOBAL
Bring internationalisation back into academia – De Wit

Karen MacGregor

The internationalisation of higher education must be taken out of international offices and “brought back to where it belongs – in academia”, according to Hans de Wit. It is a mistake to see research and internationalisation as administrative issues residing in a research or an international office.

SOUTH AFRICA
Government to draft an internationalisation policy

Karen MacGregor

Eighteen years after South Africa’s new democracy ushered in tens of thousands of foreign students, the government is drafting policy frameworks and an international relations strategy for international higher education.

WORLD BLOG

UNITED STATES
Football 10, academic quality 0

William Patrick Leonard

American universities that invest heavily in football and basketball programmes may be scoring an own goal since most require heavy subsidies. They could instead invest the money in boosting academic quality, which would attract more international students and boost their global standing.

COMMENTARY

GLOBAL
Rankings and benchmarking reach similar results

Benoît Millot

International university rankings and tertiary system benchmarking results come to similar conclusions about the top universities and countries. They also suggest that well-resourced systems perform better and that decisions made by universities and national policy-makers make a difference.

UNITED KINGDOM
A big mess: When universities meet the border agency… 

Susan L Robertson

The decision by the UK Border Agency to withdraw London Metropolitan University's licence to teach non-EU students has created huge debate. The university must accept some of the blame, but the UKBA has produced an over-complex system and appears not to understand the effect its decision could have on the UK's standing in international higher education.

GLOBAL
Relax – Higher education won't be killed by MOOCs

Stephen H Foerster

It has been claimed that MOOCs will spell the death of higher education as we know it. But many people will continue to prefer traditional learning and elite university credentials will still count for more. MOOCs are a great new tool for educationists, but overstating their importance could create false expectations that end in disappointment.

AFRICA
Harmonisation and tuning: Integrating higher education

Karola Hahn and Damtew Teferra

The harmonisation of higher education in Africa is a multidimensional process that promotes the integration of tertiary systems in the region. The objective is to achieve collaboration across borders – in curriculum development, standards and quality assurance, and joint structural convergence and consistency of systems as well as compatibility, recognition and transferability of degrees to facilitate mobility.

University World News - Issue No 0234

MOOCs shake up world’s universities ‘like a tectonic shock’ – Marginson

In World Blog, Jo Ritzen argues that universities could help Europe out of its current economic crisis, but there needs to be more Pan-European higher education cooperation and institutions need to become more engaged in broader societal issues.
In Commentary, Simon Marginson explains why Massive Open Online Courses – MOOCs – will be the game changer in higher education worldwide. Lynnel Hoare writes that transnational education may need to overcome ethnocentricity but can bring significant benefits to mature students, and Francesca Onley describes a project involving mobile teaching support in Tanzania that could provide a model for improving learning around the world.
Geoff Maslen interviews Melbourne sociologist Ramon Spaaij, author of a new book on ‘lone wolf’ terrorists – the first in-depth analysis of the phenomenon. Also in Features, Alya Mishra reports on gaps in America’s visa regulations highlighted by the latest raid on a dubious university, which has left hundreds more foreign students stranded. And she looks at a study of India’s culture of creative improvisation, which has led to ‘frugal innovations’ that are attracting interest worldwide.
Finally, Gilbert Nganga writes that rapidly rising student numbers and increased competition have led universities in Kenya to embark on an extraordinary ‘race for space’ in commercial buildings in cities and towns, driving a property boom.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

IRAN
Huge rise in discrimination against women students

Yojana Sharma and Shafigeh Shirazi
More than 600 degree programmes in 60 universities in Iran are now segregated by gender, in what is being seen as a major expansion of the government’s efforts to separate male and female students. Discrimination against women students is also on the rise.

CHINA
New academic misconduct laws may not be adequate

Yojana Sharma
New laws to clamp down on academic cheating at China’s universities could come into effect later this year as the rampant problems of plagiarism, falsification, lying about credentials and research papers and other misconduct continue unabated in higher education.

ITALY
Students to protest over fee hikes for late finishers

Lee Adendorff
Student groups are threatening protest action after the Italian parliament backed a law on 7 August that gives universities the power to raise the fees of students who are taking too long to complete their studies.

GERMANY
Bologna reforms now implemented and widely accepted

Michael Gardner
Ten years after the formal introduction of bachelor and masters degrees at German higher education institutions in the wake of the Bologna reforms, most courses have been adapted to the new system. Statistics suggest that the new degrees have found acceptance among students and industry.

EGYPT
Islamist professor becomes higher education minister

Ashraf Khaled
One month after Egypt got its first-ever elected Islamist president, the higher education portfolio went to another Islamist – engineering professor Mustafa Musad.

EGYPT
New regional higher education initiatives under way

Wagdy Sawahel
Egypt has launched several higher education initiatives including a plan to set up branches of Alexandria University in Lebanon and Malaysia, establishing an Arab higher education area and joining the Arab and European Leadership Network for Higher Education.

SOUTH AFRICA
Study finds link between research and economic growth

Sharon Dell
Recent research in South Africa confirms what has almost become a truism, particularly in the developing world: knowledge production and the pursuit of higher education is good for a country’s economic growth, and governments would do well to bear such evidence in mind in their development of research-related policies.

CÔTE D’IVOIRE
Fees hike as universities prepare to reopen

Jane Marshall

Côte d’Ivoire’s universities, disrupted or closed for the past two or three years, are due to reopen on 3 September – but critics are protesting against increases in fees of up to 5,000%.

MALAWI
Students sue for losses during lecturer protestsUniversity of Malawi students have sued the institution’s council for losses they incurred during an eight-month academic freedom protest by lecturers, who have in turn passed a vote of no confidence in the institution’s authorities.

KENYA
UN launches human rights initiative in universities

Maina Waruru
Kenyan universities will start teaching human rights to arts students, in an initiative spearheaded by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Five universities will be selected later this year to pilot the project, in which arts students will take a unit on the subject.

FEATURES

GLOBAL
New book on lone wolf terrorists who cause mayhem

Geoff Maslen
In the long roll call of ‘lone wolf’ terrorist attacks, few countries have been spared. Melbourne sociologist Dr Ramon Spaaij has been researching terrorism for 10 years and for the past five has focused on solitary gunmen who open fire on the innocent in pursuit of specific goals. His new book, Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism, is the first in-depth analysis of such terrorism worldwide.

INDIA
US visa fraud institutions highlight regulatory gaps

Alya Mishra
Herguan University in Sunnyvale, California, is the third institution in less than two years to have been raided by US officials and accused of visa fraud by the federal authorities, leaving hundreds of foreign student – most of them from India – stranded.

INDIA
‘Frugal innovation’ path for cash-strapped research

Alya Mishra
Although countries like China have raced ahead of India in research spending and investment in science and innovation, India’s culture of creative improvisation has led to inexpensive, low-key innovative solutions, sometimes known as ‘frugal innovation’.

KENYA
Universities’ scramble for space fuels property boom

Gilbert Nganga
In the basement of Church House in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, worshippers gather at one end of a room for evening prayers. At the other end of the dimly lit space, students of the Presbyterian University of East Africa finish assignments for a 17h00 class. The noise from the enthusiastic worshippers fills the room, but the students are at ease. They are used to it.

WORLD BLOG

EUROPE
Can universities lead Europe out of crisis?

Jo Ritzen
Universities can help lift Europe out of the economic crisis. But there needs to be more Pan-European higher education and research cooperation, Europe needs to recognise that one size does not fit all, and universities need to overcome the crisis of trust between academia and society.

COMMENTARY

GLOBAL
Yes, MOOC is the higher education game changer

Simon Marginson
Free Massive Open Online Courseware – MOOC – is less than a year old but it is already clear this will be the game changer in higher education worldwide. Right now it is reverberating through the world’s universities like a tectonic shock.

SINGAPORE
Transnational education: A good-news story

Lynnel Hoare
Transnational education has been seen as everything from altruistic to neocolonialist, but in much research the voices of students involved are ignored. A study of mature students on a transnational education programme in Singapore shows they can reap considerable benefits, but it raises questions about ethnocentricity in the way courses are taught.

TANZANIA
Mobile teaching technology provides a model for future

Sister Francesca Onley
A joint project in Tanzania between an NGO founded by Stanford's chief technology officer and Holy Family University could provide a model for future teaching. It involves the use of mobile teaching technology that enhances student learning and encourages creative and innovative approaches to their education.

University World News - Issue No 0233

MOOCs and problems with export model call branch campuses into question

In World Blog, Rahul Choudaha ponders whether Massive Open Online Courses make starting up new branch campuses seem outdated. In Commentary, Christian Leder writes that new institutions have emerged in Switzerland that are tied closely to industry, enabling a flow of ideas between the two sectors.
Research by Peter Bodycott and Ada Lai reveals that Chinese parents play a major role in decisions about whether and where their children study abroad – though teenagers are beginning to have their voices heard – and Julius Kravjar describes a nationwide anti-plagiarism programme that is helping Slovakia to beat academic cheats.
Alya Mishra interviews Indian theoretical physicist Ashoke Sen, one of nine winners of the new Yuri Milner Fundamental Physics Prize, and in Features, Dinesh De Alwis reports on the entrance exam fiasco in Sri Lanka that has denied thousands of students university places.
Also in Features, Geoff Maslen describes a new report that finds some universities considering transforming the branch campus model into fully-fledged multinational institutions, and looks at a speech by David Finegold presenting contrasting descriptions of how China and India are expanding higher education.
In Myanmar, Naw Say Phaw Waa writes that moves to restore Yangon University to its former glory have captured the public imagination, and Tunde Fatunde covers the 13th World Congress of the International Federation of French Teachers in Durban, where participants found that the future of the language could lie in Africa.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

RUSSIA
One in five universities to close or merge – Minister

Eugene Vorotnikov

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a reorganisation of state universities that will lead to some closures. One in five universities could be shut down or forced to merge over the next two or three years.

GREECE
New minister may tone down higher education reforms

Makki Marseilles
Greece’s Education Minister Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos has indicated that the new coalition government is willing to negotiate a compromise on controversial higher education reforms inherited from the two previous administrations.

LATIN AMERICA
Brazil tops 2012 Latin America rankings 

María Elena Hurtado

Sixty-five out of the 250 universities in the 2012 QS ranking on Latin America published late last month are Brazilian, with the University of São Paulo taking the top spot. Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina make up 80% of the universities from the 19-country ranking.

GLOBAL
China and Australia to support African universities

Wagdy Sawahel

Two countries recently pledged further support for African universities and students. The China-Africa strategic partnership has strengthened its focus on higher education, and the Australia-Africa Universities Network seeks to build collaboration with African institutions.

HONG KONG
Academics, students protest against ‘patriotic’ studies

Yojana Sharma

Professors and students joined a major Hong Kong rally last Sunday against the imposition of ‘national education’ about China in secondary schools, saying it could have a detrimental impact on the entire education system including universities, if allowed to take hold.

GERMANY
Foreign students and staff get more work opportunities

Michael Gardner
A new law giving foreign academics and students more job-seeking opportunities has come into effect in Germany, as the share of foreign students enrolled at German higher education institutions rose again last year.

ZAMBIA
Government scraps student bursaries in favour of loans
Zambia’s government has decided to scrap its national bursary scheme and replace it with student loans, following controversies including allegations of corruption that have dogged the bursary initiative for years.

AFRICA
Association of African Universities loses new leader

Maina Waruru
The struggling Association of African Universities, the umbrella body for higher education institutions across the continent, has lost another secretary general prematurely.

FEATURES

GLOBAL
The rise of the multinational university

Geoff Maslen
More than 200 degree-granting international branch campuses of universities are now located in foreign countries. But a new report says some universities are considering transforming the branch campus model into fully fledged multinational universities “by slicing up the global value chain in ways akin to multinational corporations”.

GLOBAL
How will ‘whirlwind’ forces affect higher education?

Wagdy Sawahel
Technology experts believe market factors will push universities to expand online courses, create hybrid learning spaces, and move towards lifelong learning models and different credential structures by 2020, according to a new report. “But they disagree about how these whirlwind forces will influence education, for the better or the worse.”

SRI LANKA
Exam fiasco denies thousands university places

Dinesh De AlwisThey had a dream. They had a target. They had a future. But their dreams have been shattered and the future is uncertain for thousands of Sri Lankan students who have failed to gain admission to state universities because of a mess-up in the calculation of the results of entrance exams held last year.

MYANMAR
Restoring Yangon University to its former glory

Naw Say Phaw Waa
The campus of Yangon University, formerly Rangoon University, in the centre of the city, is semi-abandoned. Tall grass surrounds the old convocation hall still used by a number of universities for delivering degrees. But other structures, particularly the old student buildings, are in a dilapidated state.

GLOBAL
China and India’s rapidly expanding higher education

Geoff Maslen
China and India together represent more than 35% of the global workforce and both are seeking a transition from a low-skill equilibrium to high-skill ecosystems – although India will continue to have large numbers of lower-skilled jobs – according to David Finegold of Rutgers University. He described the implications of their growth and rapidly expanding higher education systems for America, Europe and Australia.

GLOBAL
The expansion of the French language lies in Africa

Tunde Fatunde

More than 800 delegates from educational institutions including universities in 150 countries attended the 13th World Congress of the International Federation of French Teachers held in South Africa recently. The major concern was how to protect French from contending languages in a fierce global world – and the future could lie in Africa.

PEOPLE

INDIA
Indian scientist scoops US$3 million physics award

Alya Mishra

Theoretical physicist Ashoke Sen, a string theorist at India’s Harish-Chandra Research Institute, is one of nine winners of the first Yuri Milner Fundamental Physics Prize. At US$3 million, the award is worth nearly three times more than a Nobel and is the most lucrative academic prize in the world.

WORLD BLOG

GLOBAL
Could MOOCs lead to the decline of branch campuses?

Rahul Choudaha

Massive Open Online Courses – MOOCs – offer a low risk, low cost way of reaching international students. Will they replace branch campuses? Established branch campuses are unlikely to die out any time soon, but newer versions may need to take developments in internationalisation into account.

COMMENTARY

SWITZERLAND
Who determines what should be taught?

Christian Leder

New higher education institutions in Switzerland are closer to industry than traditional universities, and a new development in which external actors are brought onto the boards of institutions could bring them more benefits, boosting professional development, shaping better educational opportunities for students and furthering research on current issues.

CHINA
The role of Chinese parents in study-abroad decisions

Peter Bodycott and Ada Lai

Universities that host Chinese students studying abroad need to pay more attention to the factors that influence their choices to study overseas – primarily their families. Little is known about how contemporary families in China make such decisions.

SLOVAKIA
A national system to prevent plagiarism is working

Julius Kravjar

A national system for countering plagiarism has been initiated in Slovakia, and findings after two years show it has reduced copying and increased the quality of dissertations and theses.

SCIENCE SCENE

GLOBAL
Human behaviour emerged earlier than believed
Recent archaeological discoveries have revealed that pigment use, beads, engravings and sophisticated stone and bone tools were already present in Southern Africa 75,000 years ago. But many of these artefacts had disappeared by 60,000 years ago, suggesting that modern behaviour appeared in the past and was lost before becoming firmly established.

CHINA
Whale shark survival threatened by over-fishing
Researchers at Shandong University in Weihai and Murdoch University in Western Australia have found distressing trends in the catching and trading of threatened whale sharks around the Chinese coast. Results indicate that whale sharks are increasingly being targeted because of high demand for large shark fins and a rising appetite for shark meat in general.

EUROPE
Call for big investment in marine research
Seas and oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, host the majority of its biomass and contribute significantly to all global cycles of matter and energy. All life on Earth most likely originated from microbes in the sea, says a report by the European Science Foundation’s Marine Board.

GLOBAL
UV radiation causing rising deaths in marine life
Ultraviolet radiation has caused a steep increase in deaths among marine animals and plants, according to an international team of marine scientists. The team found the marine life most affected by ultraviolet B radiation were protists such as algae, corals, crustaceans, and fish larvae and eggs, thereby affecting marine ecosystems from the bottom to the top of the food web.

University World News - Issue No 0230

Action, not words, needed to tackle biases against women’s academic careers

In World Blog, Curt Rice argues that waiting for the increased number of women graduates to convert into more women in top posts will not work, and in Features David Jobbins reports on a pledge by Europe’s leading research universities to overcome the discrimination that prevents female academics from playing a full role in European research.
Helena Flusfeder describes a move by Israel’s Council for
Higher Education to sidestep a political controversy over granting a West Bank centre university status, and in Nigeria Tunde Fatunde writes that recent attacks on churches on and near universities in northern Nigeria could drive an exodus southwards of students and academics.
In a Commentary section focused on the Americas, John Aubrey Douglass finds that for-profit universities and colleges in the United States have done well out of the Great Recession because they plug gaps other institutions cannot fill.
Ernesto Schiefelbein suggests that offering public school students remedial classes could reduce the possibility of student protests in Chile, and Angel Calderon reports that proposed reforms aimed at improving teaching standards in Guatemala are being opposed by students.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

NEWS

GLOBAL
Four out of 10 graduates from China and India by 2020

David Jobbins
Four out of every 10 university graduates will come from just two countries – China and India – by 2020, according to a report from the OECD. China alone will account for 29% of graduates aged 25-34, with the United States and Europe stagnating at just over a quarter.

SINGAPORE
Diversify expansion to avoid ‘carbon copy’ graduates 

Adele Yung
Singapore’s university sector no longer needs to catch up with the rest of the world and should not slavishly follow Western models, simply expanding to produce more “carbon copy” graduates, according to a high-level international panel advising the government on its strategic higher education policies.

INDONESIA
Controversial higher education bill clears parliament 

Ria Nurdiani
Indonesia’s House of Representatives finally endorsed a controversial higher education bill on Friday, amid criticism of the way important issues such as foreign universities and student access have been handled in the legislation.

EUROPE
Policy paper urges better deal for disabled students 

MJ Deschamps
A European Commission policy paper has encouraged European Union member states to work harder at helping disabled students to gain university places and good degrees, with data showing that their life chances improve considerably with higher education.

UNITED KINGDOM
Student applications fall by 10% following fee hikes

Brendan O’Malley
Demand for places at higher education institutions in England has fallen by 10%, according to UCAS, the body that manages applications to courses. The new figures offer insight into the impact on applications of the decision to allow universities to triple tuition fees from 2012-13.

ISLAMIC STATES
Higher education exchange programme launched 

Ameen Amjad Khan
The Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has announced a higher education exchange programme that will facilitate scholarships, faculty exchanges, collaboration on distance learning methods and research projects among its 57 member countries.

CANADA
Publishers say new bill will hamper textbook supply 

MJ Deschamps
Canadian publishers say recently passed copyright reform is stripping away some of their financial incentive to provide books to the country’s universities and colleges.

MIDDLE EAST
First doctoral training centre to be set up in UAE 

Wagdy Sawahel
The University of Wollongong in Dubai has joined with the National Research Foundation in the United Arab Emirates to set up the country’s first doctoral training centre.

AUSTRALIA
Study by undergraduates identifies crocodile genes How many undergraduate students does it take to publish original research in an academic journal? Exactly 100 in the case of faculty of veterinary science students at the University of Sydney, whose study on saltwater crocodile genetics was published in the Australian Journal of Zoology last week.

KENYA
Terrorist attacks in Kenya impeding scientific research 

Linda Bach
Terrorist attacks and kidnapping of foreigners could cause a serious blow to Kenyan marine research, forcing scientists to cancel projects in fear for their lives, according to participants at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium held in Cairns, Australia, from 9-13 July.

GHANA
Top university bans open-air rallies ahead of poll 

Francis Kokutse
In a move to control unruly student participation in politics, the authorities at the University of Ghana have banned all open-air political rallies, congresses and conventions ahead of a December general election. Student leadership is closely aligned to political parties in Ghana.

FEATURES

EUROPE
Universities pledge to take action on gender equality 

David Jobbins
Top universities have committed to leading a drive to secure greater equality for female academics and researchers across Europe. A League of European Research Universities report sets out actions that it says will overcome discrimination against women that prevents them from playing a full part in Europe’s research effort.

ISRAEL
New moves in West Bank centre’s university status bid 

Helena Flusfeder
The Israeli Council for Higher Education’s planning and budgeting committee has proposed a new category of funding in addition to the existing ones of colleges and universities – that of a ‘university centre’ – in an apparent attempt to sidestep a political storm over granting a West Bank centre university status.

NIGERIA
Academics and students live in fear of terror attacks 

Tunde Fatunde
Repeated attacks on churches on and off university campuses in northern Nigeria, by the Islamic fundamentalist sect Boko Haram, have sparked fear among students and lecturers, especially those who are Christians.

WORLD BLOG

GLOBAL
A slow thaw for women in leadership 

Curt Rice
Many people think that increased numbers of female graduates will translate eventually into more women at the top of their professions, but analysis suggests any increase will be very slow. It’s not enough just to wait.

COMMENTARY

UNITED STATES
The rise of the for-profit tertiary sector 

John Aubrey Douglass
For-profit institutions have grown in the Great Recession, to some extent because of cuts in the public sector that have meant it is unable to fulfil demand. For-profits need greater regulation to ensure quality, but demand for them is likely to continue to rise.

CHILE
Closing the education inequality gap to stop unrest 

Ernesto Schiefelbein
Closing the gap between those with and without access to a good school education, through offering remedial classes at university, could reduce social inequality and high student drop-out rates in Chile and prevent the kind of demonstrations seen in the country in 2011.

GUATEMALA
Stormy times ahead for teacher education reforms 

Angel Calderon
Guatemala's education reforms aim to raise teaching standards, but students fear they will make it more financially difficult to study and could put some off the profession. However, if Guatemala is to improve its standing in the region and develop sustainably, it needs to improve the quality of teaching.

Unversity World News - Issue No. 0229

All of Europe’s education support efforts to merge into one holistic bundle

In Features, Ard Jongsma interviews Jordi Curell, head of higher education in the European Commission’s education and training directorate, and reports that proposals to bundle all European education and training support efforts into one interconnected programme are entering a decisive stage.
Alya Mishra writes that new anti-discrimination regulations for universities in India may not be enough, given the covert nature of discrimination and the hierarchical structure of society, and journalists across all continents report on the growing switch to teaching in English among many universities in non-English countries.
In Commentary, Way Kuo contends that Hong Kong higher education needs to embrace other cultures and make the most of its geographical position if it is to attract more international students. Devi D Tewari looks at whether the American or European model of PhD examination best suits developing countries, and Philip G Altbach writes that Slovenian higher education has the potential to be world class – though there are challenges.
Finally, in World Blog, Serhiy Kvit argues that Ukraine's integration into the European Higher Education Area would raise standards and improve its university system.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

EUROPE-MEDITERRANEAN
EC launches dialogue with southern neighbours

Ard Jongsma

The European Commission has launched a platform for higher education policy dialogue with countries in the south Mediterranean area, convening 80 high-level officials including ministers, the commissioner and director-generals in Brussels to discuss developments in higher education in North Africa and the near Middle East – and the European response to it.

INDIA
New regulation to focus on students’ academic rights 

Alya Mishra

Aiming to improve the quality of education across all colleges and universities, India will soon come up with a regulation that will inform students about their academic rights and entitlements – including on programmes operated by foreign universities. The academic community has welcomed the announcement.

UNITED STATES
Greater access, more equal higher education are key

Alison Moodie

The United States is at risk of losing its competitive advantage in the global marketplace unless it ensures greater and more equal access to higher education, according to a survey released by the OECD.

SOUTH KOREA
Election pledge – ‘Abolish top university’

Han-Suk Kim
In an astonishing attack on higher education elitism, South Korea’s main opposition party has said it could dismantle the country’s most prestigious university – Seoul National University – if it comes to power in upcoming presidential elections.

GULF STATES
More university places, better quality needed – Report

Wagdy Sawahel
The six Gulf Cooperation Council states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates must urgently develop and implement higher education policies aimed at expanding student enrolments and strengthening quality, a new report says.

AFGHANISTAN
Pakistan and India offer scholarship olive branch

Ameen Amjad Khan
Pakistan and India are increasingly using higher education as a foreign policy instrument, in particular to improve relations with post-Taliban Afghanistan. Pakistan announced a package of 600 fully funded scholarships for students from Afghanistan – on the same day that an Afghan minister visiting Delhi pledged to increase education links with India.

EUROPE
Experiment identifies possible long-sought Higgs boson

Geoff Maslen
Physicists around the world excitedly greeted the news on Wednesday that a new particle has been detected consistent with the elusive Higgs boson, the long sought-after particle believed responsible for all forces in the universe.

GLOBAL
Blow to anti-counterfeiting trade agreement

Geoff Maslen
Rejection by the European parliament on Wednesday night of an international treaty that attempted to strengthen the enforcement of intellectual property rights could impact on the debate in other countries, according to Professor Christoph Antons, a chief investigator with the Australian Research Council.

EGYPT
New president delivers inaugural speech at alma mater

Ashraf Khaled
Shortly after being sworn in as Egypt’s first freely-elected civilian president, Mohamed Mursi was driven by motorcade to Cairo University, the country’s oldest secular higher education institution. Minutes later, the engineering professor showed up in the auditorium where US President Barack Obama delivered his landmark address in 2009.

ZAMBIA
Lecturer strike closes top university indefinitelyThe University of Zambia has been closed indefinitely by a lecturer strike for better pay and working conditions. The academics have resolved to withhold examination results from students pending a favourable outcome for their demands.

GHANA
University administrators join nationwide strike

Francis Kokutse
University administrators in Ghana have joined the latest wave of nationwide strike action that has swept the country over the past few months. Students have reacted with anger, saying that admission to universities and academic work is being affected.

MAURITIUS
Local v-c appointed – after foreigner declines

Guillaume Gorges
The University of Mauritius has finally appointed a local academic, Professor Ramesh Rughooputh, as vice-chancellor – following the abrupt resignation of his foreign predecessor, and after another foreign academic declined the post.

FEATURES

EUROPE
Higher education chief lauds bundling of programmes

Ard Jongsma
Proposals to bundle all European education and training support programmes into one huge, interconnected programme for 2014-20 are entering a decisive stage, as European ministers have accepted the majority of the European Commission’s outline and the European parliament is set to discuss further details.

INDIA
Are anti-discrimination laws for universities enough?

Alya Mishra
Despite affirmative action laws, cases of discrimination against disadvantaged groups at India’s elite institutions continue to surface, leading to new anti-discrimination regulations for universities. But this may not be enough, given the covert nature of discrimination and the hierarchical structure of Indian society.

GLOBAL
English use in teaching spreads in universities worldwide

Andrew Green, Wang Fangqing, Paul Cochrane, Jonathan Dyson and Carmen Paun
The Politecnico di Milano, one of Italy's most prestigious universities, will teach and assess most of its degree and all of its postgraduate courses entirely in English from 2014. While the move proved controversial in Italy, it is far from unusual – universities worldwide have been switching wholly or partly to teaching in English for a number of reasons.

WORLD BLOG

UKRAINE
Country would benefit from further European integration

Serhiy Kvit
Ukraine's higher education system needs reform and its integration into the European Higher Education Area would aid this, boost standards and the quality of what universities offer, and counter corruption.

COMMENTARY

HONG KONG
The challenge of internationalisation in Hong Kong

Way Kuo
Hong Kong and its universities need to internationalise more. But to do so they have to consider what they can offer the rest of the world. International students will not study in Hong Kong just because universities operate in English.

GLOBAL
PhDs – What model works for developing countries?

Devi D Tewari
The United States PhD model is the gold standard, but the European model is less expensive and could be a more realistic initial goal for developing countries wishing to raise standards.

SLOVENIA
The challenge of reaching for world-class status

Philip G Altbach
Slovenia has the potential for academic excellence, but it faces challenges, including selecting fields and disciplines its universities can excel in and negotiating the line between serving national and international interests. If successful, however, it could serve as a model for small countries and for universities with a European style of governance and administration.

SCIENCE SCENE

SOUTH AFRICA
Plaque found on two million-year-old teethA deadly mistake made two million years ago by two of humankind’s earliest ancestors has provided the first evidence of what food they ate – from an analysis of the plaque on their teeth. The find is unprecedented in the human record outside of fossils just a few thousand years old.

AUSTRALIA
Using the cane toad’s poison against itself An effective new weapon in the fight against the spread of cane toads has been developed by researchers at the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland. Cane toads now number more than 200 million and are spreading across the continent by an average of 40 kilometres a year, with devastating impacts on native species.

UNITED KINGDOM
Helping Asian students understand regional accentsResearchers at the University of Nottingham have developed a computer program that helps Asian students improve their understanding of accented English speech in noisy environments.

GERMANY
Student use of stimulants for cognitive enhancementPharmacological cognitive enhancement is a topic of increasing public awareness, according to German researchers. In the scientific literature on student use of drugs or caffeine as a study aid, there are high prevalence rates with caffeinated substances but remarkably lower rates for illicit or prescription stimulants such as amphetamines or methylphenidate.

University World News - Issue No 0228

NEWSLETTER

Power of global rankings must be challenged with audits, critique, contest

In this week’s World Blog, Richard Holmes asks whether international rankings have been given too much power and suggests that it is time they were audited. In Commentary, Elisabeth Gareis writes that universities need to do more to foster better relationships between home and overseas students.
In a new book on the future of South Africa’s youth, Helene Perold argues that efforts to provide education and training opportunities should be viewed from a youth perspective, and in Canada Aaron H Doering describes the concept of ‘adventure learning’, a form of hybrid education that is changing the online teaching and learning experience.
In Features, Yojana Sharma investigates the debate over reforms to university entrance exams in several Asian countries, including China’s high-stakes entrance test, the gaokao. Erin Millar reports on the continuing dispute in Quebec over tuition fee hikes as an August back-to-study deadline looms, bringing the threat of renewed student protests.
Sharon Dell looks at the planned expansion into four new African countries of South Africa’s private post-school education giant, Educor, and Mamadou Mika Lom warns of a looming staff crisis at Senegal’s top university as more than half of its academics retire in the next three years.

Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

NEWS

EGYPT
Professor first in Arab world to become president 

Wagdy Sawahel
Mohamed Morsi has become the fifth president of Egypt after winning 51.7% of votes in a run-off election, making him the first university professor to rule a country in the Arab world. His election is of considerable significance to higher education.

PAKISTAN
Universities observe ‘black day’ following funding cut 

Ameen Amjad Khan
Monday 25 June was observed as a ‘black day’ by universities across Pakistan, to register protest against low funding for the higher education sector. University budgets have been slashed since the country’s democratic government came to power in 2008.

CHILE
Higher education institutions face tighter controls 

María Elena Hurtado
Chile’s higher education sector is facing stiffer regulations after financial irregularities were discovered at Universidad del Mar, one of the country’s largest private universities. The problems – which led students to take over the university’s 15 buildings, go on hunger strikes and stage mass demonstrations – have also brought Chile’s accreditation system under scrutiny.

BURMA
International moves to help upgrade university sector 

Yojana Sharma
The United Kingdom has said it will help Burma improve its higher education sector, according to an announcement on Monday pledging support to education in Burma at both the school and post-school levels. Other countries have also offered assistance.

AFGHANISTAN
Bold study-abroad and teaching in English initiatives 

Wagdy Sawahel
In an effort to train a highly skilled scientific workforce needed for economic development, war-torn Afghanistan has doubled its budget for overseas scholarships and will teach science courses in English instead of the two branches of Persian – Iranian Farsi and Afghan Dari – used in many universities.

VIETNAM
University entrance exam system costly, needs reform 

Hiep Pham
Vietnamese school-leavers will sit national university entrance examinations that start on 4 July and last for almost a week, as they compete for places at some 58 universities and colleges, amid ongoing discussion that the exam system needs reform.
* See also Yojana Sharma’s article in Features.

SRI LANKA
Groups unite to demand private medical college closure 

Dinesh de Alwis
Doctors, lecturers, students, trade unions and other groups in Sri Lanka have called on the government to close down the country’s first private medical university and to stop the establishment of other private medical institutions – a move that could have implications for international providers planning to set up branch campuses.

GERMANY
Translation tool could help foreign students 

Michael Gardner

A new computer system that automatically transcribes lectures and translates them into English is being tested in Germany. It could benefit foreign students who have difficulty following lectures and other students who have struggled to take notes, as the scripts are stored in ‘clouds’ and can be called up when needed.

MAGHREB
Francophone university agency opens bureau in Morocco

Jane Marshall

The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie last week inaugurated its new Maghreb regional bureau in Rabat. As well as serving Morocco, the bureau will represent the French-language university agency in Algeria and Tunisia, serving nearly 100 higher education and research institutions.

AFRICA
Pan-African University starts recruiting students 

Gilbert Nganga

The Pan African-University has started recruiting its first batch of postgraduate students, who are expected to start class in July – the strongest signal yet that the international institution is taking off after years of planning and sometimes fraught negotiations.

KENYA
College students to receive loans as state ups spending 

Gilbert Nganga

Kenya has set aside at least 100 million shillings (US$2 million) in the coming year for loans to students in middle-level colleges as the country seeks to absorb more students into the post-secondary school system. Universities have also received a funding boost.

DENMARK
Professor will not appeal sentence for ‘spying’ 

Jan Petter Myklebust

Timo Kivimäki, the Finnish professor of international politics at the University of Copenhagen who in May received a five-month prison sentence for espionage, will not appeal against the sentence due to the high costs involved, according to the university’s newsletter.

FEATURES

ASIA
Reforms to high-stakes university entrance exams 

Yojana Sharma

For millions of young people in China it has been a make-or-break month. Results of the national college entrance exam, the gaokao, are now being released and the scramble for the best university places has begun – and in many cases, for any place at all.

CANADA
Deadline looms as Quebec student boycott continues 

Erin Millar

The months-long dispute in Quebec that began over tuition fee hikes shows no sign of abating as a 15 August back-to-study deadline legislated by the provincial government looms, ensuring a late summertime showdown between students and government. “If a solution isn’t reached over the summer, there will be more strike activity and confrontation,” one student group warned.

AFRICA
South African private education giant expands into Africa 

Sharon Dell

Private education giant Educor is set to become the first South African institution to set up branch campuses outside the country as it expands its operations into four new African countries under its well-known Intec and Damelin brands.

SENEGAL
Problem of ageing academics threatens top university 

Mamadou Mika Lom

A new salary deal has slightly slowed the brain drain from Senegal’s premier Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar. But it confronts a new threat in the form of ageing academics. With 80,000 students, it faces losing up to 70% of academics by 2015 as a result of large-scale retirements.

WORLD BLOG

GLOBAL
Power and responsibility – The influence of rankings 

Richard Holmes

International rankings are being used to determine international higher education partnerships and even immigration policy. There is a danger that particular rankings are becoming too powerful. There needs to be both an auditing of the rankings and a willingness to consider a broader range of rankings.

COMMENTARY

UNITED STATES
Fostering international and host student friendships 

Elisabeth Gareis

Universities and students need to do more to build better relationships between home and overseas students, including creating the right infrastructure for such relationships to flourish. But more research is needed into what works best.

SOUTH AFRICA
Viewing post-school education from a youth perspective 

Helene Perold

In January 2012 South Africa was shocked to hear of the death of a mother at the gates of the University of Johannesburg. Gloria Sekwena had returned from her job in the United Kingdom to make sure that her school-leaving son, Kgotsisile, would find a place at the university.

CANADA
Adventure learning – Changing the education experience 

Aaron H Doering

Adventure learning could help change the face of online learning. It not only takes into consideration content, content delivery and learning outcomes, but also learner experience. It aims to truly engage learners in content and facilitate transformative, deep learning through a thoughtful combination of pedagogy, technology and real-world interaction.

University World News Issue 0227

Is ‘foreign education outpost’ a better concept than branch campuses?

This week Carmen Paun interviews Elizabeth Thompson, executive coordinator of Rio+20, on the role of universities in the Earth Summit and the implications for higher education of its outcomes. In World Blog, Rahul Choudaha forecasts that by 2015 trends in international student mobility may reverse, with more Chinese students staying home while more Indian students travel abroad.
In Commentary, Kevin Kinser and Jason E Lane argue that research into universities operating in more than one country has tended to focus on international branch campuses, ignoring other, more prevalent types of cross-border collaboration.
Tara Cookson contends that tuition fee hikes and civil disobedience in Quebec and elsewhere raise questions about equitable human development in developed countries. And Phil Baty writes that global university rankings are important, but are a crude measure of excellence and need to be handled with care.
In Features, Jan Petter Myklebust investigates the flood of maths, physics and technology students into the finance industry, including top candidates for academia, and Wagdy Sawahel reports on a United Nations plan to improve access to higher education for refugees.
Karen MacGregor – Global Editor

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

AUSTRALIA
More than half of teaching done by casuals 

Geoff Maslen

The National Tertiary Education Union will use a forthcoming higher education enterprise bargaining round to call for the creation of 2,000 new ongoing jobs for casual academics, or 20% of their total numbers. The union says more than half of all academic teaching in Australian universities is undertaken “by people paid by the hour”.

VIETNAM
New higher education law passed, but sparks criticism

Hiep Pham

Vietnam’s national assembly has voted to adopt a wide-ranging Law on Higher Education, which was approved by almost 85% of the assembly this week – the first time the country has promulgated a law dedicated specifically to the higher education sector.

ISLAMIC WORLD
Vice-chancellors vow to undertake governance reforms

Ameen Amjad Khan

Some 200 heads of universities from 39 member countries of the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation agreed to bring about governance reforms in higher education and increase the number of women university leaders, during a meeting in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad this month.

UNITED STATES
Universities aim to clear up tuition fee confusion

Alison Moodie
Parents will be finding some relief from the confusing assemblage of notices, bills and receipts involved in paying for college. Nearly 100 private and public colleges and universities, including the New York and Texas tertiary state systems, will provide parents and students with a one-page ‘shopping sheet’ detailing what they can expect to pay for a year of studies.

GERMANY
Five more universities win elite status

Michael Gardner
Five additional German institutions can now call themselves 'elite universities', among them Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Dresden, both in what used to be East Germany. But the University of Karlsruhe was among the institutions that failed to retain elite status in the second round of the Excellence Initiative.

EGYPT
Academics feel the pinch of parliament’s dissolution

Ashraf Khaled
A recent court ruling invalidating Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament has dashed hopes among academics that their status will be improved any time soon.

EUROPE
Research elite warns against ‘bean-counting’ culture

David Haworth
The growth of research assessment driven by obsessive measurement and monitoring fosters a global “bean-counting culture” in tertiary education that can detract from the real quality of university research, experts have warned.

UK
London university students face worst crime risk

Brendan O’Malley

Universities in the Greater London area are exposed to the highest rates of crimes that are most relevant to students, with London Metropolitan University faring worst and Kingston best, according to the latest ranking of institutions in England and Wales.

SRI LANKA
Fears that government wants to ban student federation

Dinesh De Alwis

Student groups in Sri Lanka are in uproar over fears that the government wants to ban their main union, the Inter University Students’ Federation. Students said this would be a step towards destroying the education system and would pave the way for private universities.

SPECIAL REPORT: Rio+20

Rio+20 was held last week. University World News reports on ways in which universities are involved in sustainable development and environment debates and research, and their role after the summit.


GLOBAL
Higher education sustainability in Rio+20 declaration 

Carmen Paun

In an exclusive interview the executive coordinator of the Rio+20 conference on global sustainability, Elizabeth Thompson, told University World News why higher education is key to the international strategy she hopes will flow from agreements made at the event.

GLOBAL
Earth’s future in hands of business, education, society

Stephen Eisenhammer

The Rio+20 conference on sustainability ended on Friday in widespread disappointment and the sense that an important opportunity had been missed. The outcome document was agreed before leaders even arrived, giving the event the feel of a photo moment rather than a real attempt to push forward the sustainability agenda.

GLOBAL
Sustainable energy budgets must increase, says report

Smriti Mallapaty

Global investments in sustainable energy must increase by US$500 million a year to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a report launched in Rio last week – the culmination of six years of research by 500 contributors.

GLOBAL
Science academies call for action on sustainability
The world’s 105 science academies last week called on world leaders to take decisive action on global challenges of population and consumption. And the Global Young Academy said that Earth’s problem was not science. “It is leadership”.

INDONESIA
University-led sustainable projects face obstacles

Ria Nurdiani

The final document of the UN conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro underscores the importance of universities in carrying out research and innovation for sustainable development. But many universities in developing countries say it is not easy to get the necessary support.

OBITUARY

GLOBAL
IAUP president J Michael Adams dies

Yojana Sharma

J Michael Adams, president of the International Association of University Presidents, has died in the United States after being diagnosed last year with a rare blood disease and cancer. He was 64.

FEATURES

GLOBAL
Robot traders ‘are raiding our maths talent’

Jan Petter Myklebust

Norwegian universities are fighting an uphill battle to hold onto talented mathematics, physics and technology students due to demand from the finance industry, academics have warned.

GLOBAL
Improving access to higher education for refugees

Wagdy Sawahel

In commemoration of World Refugee Day, universities and governments have been urged not to lose sight of the higher education needs of the world’s 43.7 million forcibly displaced migrants, by improving their access to higher education as a tool for the economic development of both home and host countries.

WORLD BLOG

GLOBAL
Looming shift in student mobility from China and India?

Rahul Choudaha

A variety of factors, including changing demographics and investment in quality higher education, could see more Chinese students staying at home by 2015, while more Indian students travel abroad. Universities need to prepare now.

COMMENTARY

GLOBAL
Seeing the forest beyond the branch (campus)

Kevin Kinser and Jason E Lane

Cross-border higher education research has tended to focus too much on international branch campuses. But many collaborations don't fit this model. In fact, branch campuses represent a minority of cross-border higher education activity happening today, and ‘foreign education outposts’ might be a better concept.

CANADA
Higher education's role in equitable development

Tara Cookson
Protesters against university fee hikes in Quebec, Canada, and against cutbacks in other countries raise questions about equitable development for developed countries. Privatising higher education shows that our priorities as countries are skewed against future development.

GLOBAL
Rankings don't tell the whole story

Phil Baty

University rankings are being used to determine international partnerships, but we need to be honest about their weaknesses as well as their strengths. No university ranking can ever be exhaustive or objective.

SCIENCE SCENE

SCOTLAND
Granite helped give rise to multi-celled organisms
It is one of the world’s toughest rocks, used to create buildings and monuments across the globe and famously linked with one of Scotland’s main cities. Now scientists have discovered that granite played an important role in a major episode more than 1.5 billion years ago – an episode that eventually led to human life on Earth.

AUSTRALIA
GPS technology improves weather forecasting
The satellite-based Global Positioning System technology that guides modern in-car navigation systems is now being used to improve weather forecasts. Researchers at RMIT University’s SPACE Research Centre in Melbourne and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology are using GPS and low Earth-orbiting satellites to provide an additional type of temperature profile observation for use in weather forecasting computer models.

UNITED KINGDOM
Domestic dogs respond to human distress
Researchers from Goldsmiths College at the University of London have found that domestic dogs express empathic behaviour when confronted with humans in distress. Dr Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer developed an innovative procedure to examine if domestic dogs could identify and respond to emotional states in humans.