University World News 0161 - 6th March 2011

This week's highlights

In News Analysis, YOJANA SHARMA unpacks a new survey showing that the Middle East, Iran and Turkey have increased their share of world scientific output, and JAN PETTER MYKLEBUST reports on a science fraud case that has rocked Denmark. ALISON MOODIE covers the annual conference of the Association of International Education Administrators in San Francisco. In Commentary, WILLIAM C ANDRESS contends that with depression among students rising, courses in ther apeutic laughter are growing in popularity. CARMEL McNAUGHT writes that to benefit from e-learning universities need to actively teach the skills required, reward them and ensure they are taken into account in career development, and ANNE QUALTER argues that the international professional doctorate provides a much-needed route to enhancing the professional practice and scholarly activity of middle and prospective senior higher education leaders.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

EGYPT: Authorities moves swiftly on university reform
Ashraf Khaled
Less than a month after long-standing president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising, Egypt's higher education authorities have taken steps towards long-sought-after independence for public universities. State police are leaving campuses, and new student union elections will be held within months.
Full report on the University World News site:

YEMEN: Fee waiver fails to impress students
Ahmed Mohamoud Elmi
In a bid to quell student protests, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a month ago that public universities would waive fees for 'parallel' students who enter higher education despite failing to meet normal entry standards. But the concession had little impact as students are opposed to fees being charged at all - and their demand, now joined by hundreds of thousands of Yemeni, is for Saleh's departure and transparent democracy.
Full article on University World News web site:

UK-LIBYA: LSE director resigns over Gaddafi donation
Yojana Sharma
As Howard Davies, the embattled Director of London School of Economics, resigned on Thursday night over the institution's acceptance of money from Libya, questions were being asked about how universities in Britain seek out overseas funding from unsavoury regimes.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEW ZEALAND: Quake-hit universities to reopen
John Gerritsen
The University of Canterbury is trying to hang on to its students while it prepares to reopen after the earthquake that devastated parts of Christchurch on 22 February. Some students do not want to return, some are enrolling in other institutions, and some international students have returned home.
Full report on the University World News site:

PAKISTAN: Parliament opposes loan to higher education
Ameen Amjad Khan
Pakistan's parliament has strongly opposed a US$300 million World Bank loan for higher education reforms. The concessional loan facility to the education ministry was originally sought for the implementation of the government's still-to-be-launched Higher Education Development Programme for 2011-15.
Full report on the University World News site:

JAPAN: Cheating sparks soul search over 'lazy' youth
Suvendrini Kakuchi
A cheating scandal discovered among students vying for entrance to some of Japan's top universities has rocked the nation and set off a national soul search over young people and how dishonesty should be dealt with. The cheaters used a web bulletin board to ask questions while university entrance tests were underway. A student was arrested on Thursday.
Full report on University World News site:

GLOBAL: Ranking focuses on business high flyers
Jane Marshall
Harvard in the US, Tokyo and Keio Universities of Japan, and France's HEC business school are the top institutions in the fifth Professional Ranking of World Universities compiled by the French grande école Mines ParisTech. But the classification is controversial because it is based on only one criterion - how many graduates hold the top post in leading international companies.
Full report on the University World News site:

RUSSIA: Degree recognition for top world universities
Eugene Vorotnikov
Russia is to recognise the degrees of the world's leading universities, in a move aimed at attracting highly-qualified professionals, President Dmitry Medvedev has announced.
Full report on University World News site:

GERMANY: Another state joins dash to scrap fees
Michael Gardner
Tuition fees will be scrapped in North-Rhine Westphalia from the coming winter semester. By then, higher education institutions in just four of Germany's 16 Federal states will still be charging fees.
Full article on the University World News site:

AUSTRIA: New plan set to bring back tuition fees
Michael Gardner
All the experts appointed to formulate recommendations for a new Austrian Higher Education Plan by Beatrice Karl, the Minister of Higher Education and Research, favour the reintroduction of tuition fees. The plan will cover the ramping up of research infrastructure and a rethink on funding.
Full article on University World News web site:

SWEDEN: PhDs 'wrongly focused', business warns
Jan Petter Myklebust
A survey of PhD graduates in Sweden has revealed that fewer than half of those responding believed their PhD was a factor in getting a job and that just one in six were contributing directly to the development of products and services stemming from research.
Full report on the University World News site:

VENEZUELA: Student hunger strike ends
Pacifica Goddard
Venezuelan student protestors agreed last week to end a hunger strike that they had been taking part in for the previous 23 days. Organised by an opposition youth group, the strike began on 31 January with only nine students but quickly grew until more than 80 people were participating.
Full report on the University World News site:

BRAZIL: Olympic and World Cup boost for universities
Eileen Travers
With an array of government ministries working closely together to channel millions of dollars into polishing up the dozen Brazilian cities poised to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and to raise an Olympic village in Rio de Janeiro by 2016, the higher education sector has been one of the surprising beneficiaries.
Full report on the University World News site:

NEWS ANALYSIS

MIDDLE EAST: Research lagging - but expanding fast
Yojana Sharma
Arab countries together with Iran and Turkey have slightly increased their share of world scientific output in the last decade, according to a survey of published papers from the region. It found these countries were "taking a growing fraction of an expanding pool" of research.
Full report on the University World News site:

DENMARK: Brain scientist accused of scientific fraud
Jan Petter Myklebust
Denmark has been rocked by a science fraud case involving Milena Penkowa, a high-profile professor of medicine spec ialising in brain research. The case has also embroiled the rector of Copenhagen University, the previous minister of science and a number of co-authors, and has undermined the public view of science.
Full report on the University World News site:

AIEA - Global transformation of higher education

The 2011 annual conference of the Association of International Education
Administrators was held in San Francisco in late February, around the theme "Competition and Collaboration in the Global Transformation of Higher Education". ALISON MOODIE was there for University World News.

GLOBAL: The 'embassy' model for internationalisation

An alternative to the internationalisation model of building bricks-and-mortar campuses around the world is establishing overseas offices or 'embassies'. This approach was described by two universities, one American and the other German, at the Association for International Education Administrators conference in San Francisco.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Universities respond to social media
Facebook has 500 million users and counting, Twitter generates 65 million tweets a day and the latest version of the free blog publishing platform Wordpress has been downloaded more than 32.5 million times. Students are more than ready for social media, said Rahul Choudaha, an international education spec ialist at World Education Services. "If we're doubting it, then it will be a mistake."
Full report on the University World News site:

US-AFRICA: University partnerships for development
Alison Moodie
A number of ambitious US-led initiatives are helping to reinvigorate African higher education, said delegates at the annual Association of International Education Administrators conference in San Francisco. Funded in large part by the US government, they seek to strengthen and develop African universities through partnerships with US institutions.
Full report on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: International higher education turns 25
This year Australia celebrates a quarter century of international higher education. From humble beginnings, today Australia is one of the world's top study destinations, international education is worth AUS$19 billion (US$19.3 billion) annually and it is the country's third largest industry after coal and iron ore, placing it far ahead of others such as tourism.
Full report on the University World News site:

HERANA - Universities and development in Africa

AFRICA: Lessons in linking universities to development
South African economist Pundy Pillay conducted studies of three systems that successfully link higher education to development, in an effort to distill lessons for Africa. Among the key findings from the surveys of Finland, South Korea and North Carolina in the US were the needs to build higher education on a solid foundation of high-quality, equitable schooling, for higher participation rates with institutional differentiation, and for strong state steering.
Full report on the University World News site:

COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: Ther apeutic laughter in higher education
With depression among students rising, WILLIAM C ANDRESS argues that courses in ther apeutic laughter are growing in popularity and could prove beneficial for student learning.
Full report on the University World News site:

ASIA: Tensions in student preferences for e-learning
If universities are to benefit from e-learning they need to actively teach the skills required, reward them and ensure they are taken into account in academics' career development, argues CARMEL McNAUGHT.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Building capacity for higher education growth
As universities across the world rise to the challenge of growth and globalisation, ANNE QUALTER argues that the international professional doctorate provides an additional and much-needed route to enhancing the professional practice and scholarly activity of middle and prospective senior higher education leaders.
Full report on the University World News site:

VENEZUELA: Debate on higher education reforms
A recent article on higher education in Venezuela by Dr Orlando Albornoz of Universidad Central de Venezuela has sparked an interesting debate in University World News. Albornoz says recent moves, including proposed legislation, are signs of an increasingly authoritarian approach that will result in the government dictating what universities do and will reduce academic quality. Meanwhile Dr Peter McLaren of the University of California and Dr Mike Cole of the UK's Bishop Grosseteste University College argue that higher education is being democratised and participation widened, lifting the overall level of education in the country.
Debate on the University World News site:

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports from around the world
Roisin Joyce and Noemi Bouet*
Senior Chinese researcher Jin Xide has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly leaking information to foreign intelligence agencies about the health of North Korea's leader. In Turkmenistan, the government has slapped restrictions on university students, giving no explanation. Malaysian academic Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid and two other men have been acquitted of possessing prohibited religious books, and in Saudi Arabia 119 academics and activists have called for far-reaching reforms. In Belarus a lecturer and a student remain in jail for participating in mass protests following December's disputed presidential election.
Full report on the University World News site:

FACEBOOK

The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in
higher education worldwide. More than 2,600 readers have joined. Sign up to the University World News Facebook group to meet and communicate directly with academics and researchers informed by the world's first truly global higher education publication. Click on the link below to visit and join the group.
Visit the University World News group on Facebook:

WORLD ROUND-UP

US: Public universities seek more autonomy
With states providing a dwindling share of money for higher education, many states and public universities are rethinking their ties, writes Tamar Lewin for The New York Times. Public universities say that with less money from state coffers, they cannot afford the complicated web of state regulations governing areas like procurement and building, and that they need more flexibility to compete with private institutions.
More on the University World News site:

US-INDIA: 700 Tri-Valley students to be relocated
US authorities have indicated that the cases of about 700 of 1,550 Indian students affected by the closure of California's dubious Tri-Valley University are being processed for transfer to other universities, writes S Rajagopalan for Express Buzz.
More on the University World News site:

JORDAN: Polytechnics to ease university pressures
Jordan's Ministry of Higher Education said last weekend that it will push for the establishment of polytechnic schools across the country in order to ease the growing pressure on universities, writes Khetam Malkawi for Zawya.
More on the University World News site:

INDONESIA: Plan to share lecturers earns top marks
Education experts have lauded a proposed plan by the government that would allow for the transfer of lecturers between universities in a bid to boost the institutions' standings and hence enrollment rates, writes Dessy Sagita for the Jakarta Globe.
More on the University World News site:

CANADA: Rising enrolment strains university budgets
Canadian universities are bursting at the seams as enrolment continues to rise, and some university insiders worry that they will not be able to handle the strain, reports CTV. National enrolment numbers have reached a record high and experts predict they will keep rising over the next five years.
More on the University World News site:

AUSTRALIA: Journal rankings a 'sword over academia'
Journal rankings are "a spectre haunting universities everywhere" according to a British business academic who also attacked a new University of Queensland internal index that measures research performance, writes Jill Rowbotham for The Australian.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Top author hands over archives to Oxford
Dumpy, drab and described by his unfaithful wife as "breathtakingly ordinary", the British master spy George Smiley still managed to become one of modern fiction's most unforgettable characters, writes Jennifer Howard for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Now he has come back home with the donation by his creator, John Le Carré's, of the author's literary archive to Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Universities brace for heavier research burden
Since the introduction of the research assessment exercise, an evaluation carried out on behalf of the four UK funding councils every five years, academics have had to do a lot more form-filling to secure funding for future research. Its replacement, the research excellence framework, due to be rolled out in 2013, could make that burden even heavier, putting them under pressure to source hard-to-find data, writes Anthea Lipsett for The Guardian.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Humanities tuition fees 'should be lower'
Universities in England have been told to limit tuition fees to £6,000 (US$9,744) for students taking arts and humanities degrees, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph. David Willetts, the Universities Minister, said institutions should be able to impose much lower charges for these courses because they are cheaper to run than others such as medicine and science.
More on the University World News site:

UK: Gap years in decline as university fees rise
Gap-year companies are experiencing a drop in the number of school-leavers applying for places, as increased tuition fees next year makes it more prudent for them to go to university, writes Richard Garner for The Independent.
More on the University World News site:

INDIA: Delhi slum children to get Australian degrees
Delhi's slum children will now be able to study in Australia under an exchange programme between the University of Melbourne and the voluntary organisation Asha, reports Sify.
More on the University World News site:

SAUDI ARABIA: Finnish deal boosts higher education
Saudi Arabia and Finland have signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of higher education that will boost partnerships between Saudi and Finnish institutions, writes Ghazanfar Ali Khan for Arab News.
More on the University World News site:

N IGERIA: Universities to get nano-medicine centre
The National Universities Commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute for Lasers, Photonics, and Biophotonics in the US for the development of an international research centre for nanomedicine in some N igerian universities, writes Ayo Okulaja for Next.
More on the University World News site: