University World News 0183 - 21st August 2011

This week's highlights

In Features, YOJANA SHARMA explains the significance of the recent UN Academic Impact conference in Seoul, and describes the difficult decisions facing new branch campuses in South Korea amid higher education upheaval. JAN PETTER MYKLEBUST reports on an OECD study into how countries are equipping PhD researchers with transferrable skills vital in today's world. In Commentary, GIORGOS AGGELOPOULOS and RANIA ASTRINAKI argue that the financial crisis in Greece is paving the way for higher education reforms that will change the nature of universities, ELIZABETH HANAUER and ANH-HAO PHAN write that an extraordinary increase in offshore, satellite and branch campuses in the Middle East is one of the most significant developments in globalised higher education in recent years, and MELISSA BUULTJENS and PRISCILLA ROBINSON support the creation of 'one-stop shop' services to enhance the student experience. Finally, in an obituary TREVOR EVANS remembers Alan Treloar, one of Australia's greatest linguists and classical scholars.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

INDIA: Hazare unrest delays higher education bills
Alya Mishra
Protests led by social activist Anna Hazare, which are likely to escalate in the coming week, have meant that a parliamentary bill to allow international branch campuses to set up in India, and other key higher education reform bills, have a negligible chance of making it through in the ongoing session of the Indian parliament.
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GLOBAL: Shanghai rankings reshuffled, Middle East up
Karen MacGregor
There are few changes in the upper echelons of the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities, published on Monday by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with the same eight American and two British universities making the top 10. But there has been "remarkable" progress by the Middle East, the entry of more Chinese institutions and some universities have shot up the ranking.
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SOUTH KOREA: Foreign institutions face inspections
Yojana Sharma
Foreign branch campuses and Korean institutions that admit foreign students will be included in inspections of universities in the first stage of a wide-ranging restructuring of South Korea's higher education sector after widespread student protests over soaring tuition fees in May and June. See the related article in the Features section.
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US: International student admissions soar by 11%
Alison Moodie
The rates at which international students applied to - and were accepted by - US universities rose by 11% last year, the biggest surge since 2006, according to a new report from the Council of Graduate Schools.
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SINGAPORE: New 'cap' on foreign students
Emilia Tan
While other countries are looking to expand international student numbers, foreign enrolment at Singapore's universities will be capped at present levels while 2,000 new university places will be added for local students by 2015, so that "gradually the proportion of foreign students will come down," said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon.
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GERMANY: Foreign students value good security
Michael Gardner
Higher education in Germany has been given good marks in two surveys of international students, particularly for the high level of personal security and good information on universities.
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UK: Student satisfaction is high and rising
Brendan O'Malley
UK universities and colleges have been given a vote of confidence by their students, with 83% expressing satisfaction with their course. Only 9% were dissatisfied, while 8% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, according to this year's National Student Survey.
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KENYA: Universities seek private investment
Gilbert Nganga
Kenyan universities are increasingly seeking private investors to build new academic and residential facilities, as surging enrolments pile pressure on the cash- and space-strapped institutions. State-run universities especially are bracing for student expansion as the government moves to have an extra 40,000 students admitted to clear a two-year backlog.
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EGYPT: Higher entry grades deter science students ‬
Ashraf Khaled
Nermeen Hafez, an Egyptian pupil who will sit for school-leaving examinations next year, is no longer interested in becoming a medical doctor. She is one of thousands of pupils who have been discouraged by a sharp increase in minimum admission grades set by schools such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacology and veterinary science - fields of study that are traditionally in high demand among secondary school graduates.
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NEWSBRIEF

GLOBAL: Masters in management an MBA alternative?
An international survey of masters in management programmes has shown that three in four do not require a first degree in business or economics, or the work experience demanded of many MBAs, thus enabling any graduate to enrol for a postgraduate qualification in management.
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European Association of International Education

EUROPE: Arab unrest high on EAIE agenda
Jan Petter Myklebust
The role of partnerships between universities in the Middle East-North Africa and Europe in tackling causes of unrest will be high on the agenda of Europe's biggest international education conference. The European Association of International Education event, to be held from 13-16 September in Copenhagen, is expected to attract up to 4,000 educators.
Full report on the University World News site:

FEATURES

GLOBAL: Academic Impact tackles 'unchartered waters'
Yojana Sharma
The first ever meeting of United Nations Academic Impact 'hub' universities examined projects and themes being tackled by academics around the world that can feed into the UN system, and ultimately find solutions to world problems.
Full report on the University World News site:

SOUTH KOREA: Difficult decisions face branch campuses
Yojana Sharma
Even as a number of foreign universities wait in the wings to set up new branch campuses in South Korea, one in six of the country's existing 200 universities could be shut down or merged under a wide-reaching government overhaul of the higher education sector.
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GLOBAL: OECD maps PhD transferable skills progress
Jan Petter Myklebust
Amid claims that doctoral training still follows a medieval model of cloning students to emulate their mentors, an OECD study aims to find out how countries are equipping their researchers with the transferable skills vital in today's world. Government policies and institutional practices will be covered in a comprehensive questionnaire circulated to universities, public research institutions and government agencies.
Full report on the University World News site:

COMMENTARY

GREECE: Reforms to change the nature of universities
The financial crisis in Greece is being used to introduce higher education reforms that are anti-democratic and will undermine universities' autonomy and the very nature of what they do, argue GIORGOS AGGELOPOULOS and RANIA ASTRINAKI.
Full report on the University World News site:

MIDDLE EAST: Global higher education's boldest step
Offshore, satellite and branch campuses have taken off hugely in the Middle East in the last few years. The success of foreign institutions remains to be seen, but their presence and development is one of the most significant factors in globalised higher education in recent years, argue ELIZABETH HANAUER and ANH-HAO PHAN.
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AUSTRALIA: Ways to enhance the student experience
Creating student hubs that centralise student support services in a 'one-stop shop' can improve the student experience and technology can help to increase efficiency and ease of access, write MELISSA BUULTJENS and PRISCILLA ROBINSON in the latest edition of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.
Full report on the University World News site:

OBITUARY

AUSTRALIA: Classical scholar and soldier
Obituary: Alan Treloar 13-11-1919 to 22-7- 2011 Trevor Evans* Colonel Alan Treloar was one of Australia's greatest linguists and classical scholars - and also a distinguished soldier. Treloar had an astonishing gift for languages and would admit, when pressed, to direct knowledge of about 80. He had a formidable command of many, such as Arabic, Chinese, Hittite, Russian and Sanskrit. Even in his early 80s he was investigating Bunuba, a language of the Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Full report on the University World News site:

UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories

SWAZILAND: Students want king to fund university
Students want Swaziland's absolute monarch, King Mswati III, to dig into his pockets to fund the country's only university, which has been shut due to financial problems, reports News24. Nearly 200 University of Swaziland students marched to the gates of the institution demanding that it be re-opened. Officials said they needed US$11 million to resume classes.
More on the University World News site:

WORLD ROUND-UP

AUSTRALIA: Governments 'lethargic' on student safety
The International Education Association of Australia has slammed successive Australian governments for neglecting research on the industry, warning that a new study on crimes against international students is a "wake-up call", writes Andrew Trounsen for The Australian.
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US: Eleven universities to join India partnership
Eleven prestigious US colleges and universities have been selected for the partnership programme with India as part of the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative. An announcement to this effect came ahead of the scheduled India-US Education Summit in Washington in October, reports The Times of India.
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US: Artificial intelligence course attracts 58,000
A free online course at Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this autumn by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe - a class nearly four times the size of Stanford's entire student body, writes John Markoff for The New York Times.
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MALAYSIA: Foreign students top 90,000
Malaysia is the 11th most sought-after country for tertiary education among international students, reports the official agency Bernama.
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SRI LANKA: Ten new foreign universities on the cards
Sri Lanka is on track to attract about 10 foreign universities under an initiative to expand tertiary education, with the Bangkok-based Asian Institute of Technology among them, reports Lanka Business Online.
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UK: Riot footage may hurt overseas recruitment
Experts say scenes of rioting and looting beamed around the world this month could affect the recruitment of overseas students to UK universities, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education. The warning came as Malaysian student Mohammed Ashraf Haziq became one of the most high-profile victims of the violence, after he was robbed by youths posing as 'good Samaritans' - an incident seen by millions after footage was posted on YouTube.
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UK: Universities operate 'two-tier' clearing system
Just 24 hours before the publication of A-level results last week, it emerged that many institutions are continuing to accept applications from international students, despite declaring themselves 'full' to those from Britain, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
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UK: Top grades fail to secure university places
Even with a string of A and A* grades under their belts, some teenagers failed to secure a university place in what was arguably the toughest year yet for A-level students in the UK, write Jessica Shepherd and Helen Carter for the Guardian.
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PAKISTAN: Vice-chancellor guilty of plagiarism
University of Peshawar Vice-chancellor Dr Azmat Hayat Khan has been found to be involved in plagiarism by a three-member committee of the Higher Education Commission that was constituted to probe the matter, writes Noor Aftab for The News.
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INDIA: Act to make vice-chancellors accountable
Vice-chancellors are no longer above question, as they were previously. The new government in West Bengal is amending the University Act to insert a clause that can be invoked to remove a vice-chancellor, reports The Times of India.
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JAMAICA: More tertiary graduates needed: Minister
Jamaica is trailing its Caribbean partners in the output of tertiary students, a trend that Minister of Education Andrew Holness is concerned about and wants tackled, writes Sheena Gayle for The Gleaner.
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UK: Fees may fall as students hold out for better deal
A report by the influential Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) last week warned that most universities will have to reduce their fees to an average of £7,500 (US$12,400) a year as they struggle to fill places, writes Richard Garner for The Independent.
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UK: Students shun humanities at university
Students are shunning traditional arts and humanities courses at university in favour of vocational ones, writes Jasper Copping for The Telegraph.
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UAE: Dubai University hopes to offer business PhD
The popularity of business courses provides many of Dubai's universities with a problem: no institution in the UAE offers PhD programmes to develop lecturers. The University of Dubai hopes to change that and has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Higher Education to offer business PhDs, writes Melanie Swan for The National.
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US: 'Pattern of plagiarism' costs scholar his job
A faculty panel has substantiated a "pattern of plagiarism" on the part of a tenured University of Utah political scientist, but in a split decision declined to recommend firing him or revoking his tenure, writes Brian Maffly for The Salt Lake Tribune. That lifeline was severed, however, by a senior administrator who overruled the panel, known as the Consolidated Hearing Committee, and fired Bahman Bakhtiari.
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UK: Lecturer 'tried to influence student survey'
A senior lecturer allegedly attempted to influence official government rankings by warning that the value of students' degrees was at risk if the university received poor feedback, write Graeme Paton and Adam Dobrik for The Telegraph.
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