University World News 0204 - 15 th January 2012

THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS

This week YOJANA SHARMA unpacks a new report by the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education on international branch campuses worldwide. In Features, EILEEN TRAVERS takes a look at the winning bid from Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a cutting-edge sciences and engineering university in New York. WAGDY SAWAHEL reports on university protests by ultra-conservative Muslims in Tunisia and the implications for academic freedom in North Africa, and KACI RACELMA describes plans for higher education reform in Mauritania. In Commentary, SUSAN BUCK SUTTON and DANIEL OBST write that international higher education partnerships are flourishing and transforming the institutions that engage in them. ATLE NYHAGEN warns that importing the American higher education model threatens to undermine the central values of European universities and nations, and DENISE KEENE urges institutions worldwide to visibly welcome students with disabilities.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

GLOBAL: International branch campus growth now in Asia
Yojana Sharma
Asia has become the focus of growth in international branch campuses after nearly a decade of rapid expansion in the Middle East, according to a just-released report by the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE), the UK-based research organisation. It reveals continued growth and interest in establishing international branch campuses, including by developing countries in other developing regions.
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GREECE: Universities face grave financial threat
Makki Marseilles
Universities and higher education institutions in Greece that have not held elections for the composition of their new management councils are in grave and imminent danger of losing state financial support.
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TAIWAN: Reelected PM promises more China students
Mimi Leung
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, who emerged the victor of yesterday's closely-fought elections, has promised to take up a suggestion by local university presidents to open up Taiwan's universities to more students from China. Ma has consistently advocated closer relations with China.
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INDIA: Student access soars, but challenges remain
Alya Mishra
India's efforts to increase higher education participation have paid off, with the gross enrolment ratio (GER) or the proportion of school-leavers aged between 18 and 23 years entering college-level courses, rising from 12.5% in 2007-08 to close to 20%. However, the rise in GER does not necessarily mean an increase in quality or the supply of skilled personnel, academics and policy-makers have warned.
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SRI LANKA: New wave of student protests
Dinesh De Alwis
Buddhist student monks have joined thousands of other university students in a new wave of protests to hit Sri Lanka in recent weeks, forcing the temporary closure of at least two major universities this week and widespread disruption of classes.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Mother dies in university stampede
The mother of a prospective student was trampled to death and 22 people were injured, two critically, in a stampede for limited slots at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) on Tuesday. The tragedy highlights flaws in the South African higher education admissions process and the desperation of school-leavers to secure access to a tertiary qualification.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Plan for 1.5 million students by 2030
Karen MacGregor
South Africa's government plans to raise university enrolments from a current 900,000 to 1.5 million by 2030, to achieve a participation rate in higher education of 23%, according to a green paper published on Thursday. The target for colleges and other post-school institutions is a whopping four million students - a six-fold increase over current numbers.
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GERMANY: Higher education admissions chaos looms
Michael Gardner
Students in Germany applying for admission-restricted subjects will face chaotic enrolment conditions until at least mid-2013 due to technical problems dogging the introduction of new online national higher education admissions procedures.
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NETHERLANDS: Germany should pay for student influx
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Dutch junior education minister has demanded compensation from Germany for the large number of its students attending universities in The Netherlands. Halbe Zijlstra claimed in a statement to parliament that foreign students cost Dutch taxpayers EUR90 million (US$116 million).
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HAITI: US universities help rebuild higher education
Garry Pierre Pierre
Two years after suffering an earthquake that wreaked massive damage on universities, Haiti's higher education sector has benefited from international efforts that have revamped buildings but helped reconstruct curricula.
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ZIMBABWE: Diamond sales to fund student grants
The Zimbabwean government has relaunched student grants, to be financed from diamond sales, in an effort to resuscitate the tertiary sector. Companies have also pulled resources together to come up with student loans. The country's 2012 national budget has been lauded by lawmakers for prioritising higher education.
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MALAWI: Lecturers resume work, but tensions persist
Lecturers in Malawi have resolved to return to work to end nearly a year of academic freedom protests during a long-running impasse with the government. But with tensions and mistrust persisting, lecturers have been firm about setting out the conditions under which they will resume classes.
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FEATURES

US: New York campus bid to be world innovation capital
Eileen Travers
Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology's winning plan for a $1.5 billion, environmentally-friendly applied sciences and engineering university in New York could thrust the city to the forefront of high-tech development. Silicon Valley has been warned to brace itself.
Full report on the University World News site:

NORTH AFRICA: Democracy versus academic freedom?
Wagdy Sawahel
On 5 January Tunisian Salafists, ultra-conservative Muslims, ended a weeks-long protest at Manouba University's faculty of letters, arts and humanities that had forced the institution to close. It is expected to reopen next week. The case has highlighted the implications of democratic changes in the Arab world for academic freedom in universities.
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MAURITANIA: University reforms to bridge deep divides
Kaci Racelma
A government commission has been created in Mauritania with the aim of reforming the country's higher education system, which has been riven by poor quality and splits between its French- and Arabic-speaking teaching and students. The divide mirrors the country's linguistic and social make-up with an Arabised north and a black African Francophone south.
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COMMENTARY

GLOBAL: Dynamic moment for international partnerships
We are in an era of flourishing international partnerships, say SUSAN BUCK SUTTON and DANIEL OBST. Yes, there may be challenges, but such partnerships enhance and even transform the institutions that engage in them.
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EUROPE: US model threatens European traditions
The American model of higher education is being used for Europe, says ATLE NYHAGEN. But policy-makers are paying little attention to the different historical paths the two regions have followed and application of the US model threatens to undermine the central values of most of the nation states of Europe.
Full report on the University World News site:

GLOBAL: Universities need to be vocal about inclusion
Universities and colleges around the world may welcome students with disabilities and learning disorders, but unless they are upfront about this and make it clear on their websites that they are inclusive, they may put some students off applying, says DENISE KEENE.
Full report on the University World News site:

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet*
In Iran, another scientist has died in a bomb attack strongly resembling earlier assassinations of those involved in the country's controversial nuclear programme. In Sudan, peaceful student protests across the country have been violently suppressed by security forces. Academics and students at Israel's Tel Aviv University have condemned the institution's security services for acting like a "secret police on campus" in pressuring lecturers to help them spy on students. And in Sri Lanka, thousands of students protesting a range of grievances have been evicted from their campus following a court order.
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WORLD ROUND-UP

INDIA: Lawyers to protest higher education bill
The Bar Council of India has strongly opposed the inclusion of legal education under the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) and urged the government to remove the legal profession and education from the ambit of the Higher Education and Research Bill 2011, reports The Hindu.
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INDIA: Bills spark fears of 'police raj' on education
Three bills the Indian government has lined up to regulate higher education have been described as "draconian" by private institutions, which fear their enactment will bring the segment under a "police raj", writes GC Shekhar for The Telegraph.
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UK: University research misconduct 'alive and well'
Research misconduct is "alive and well" at UK universities, the British Medical Journal has claimed, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education. Findings from a survey by the journal published last week found that 13% of UK-based scientists and doctors had witnessed colleagues fabricating or altering research data ahead of publication in peer-reviewed journals.
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UK: Universities collect millions in library fines
UK universities have raised almost £50 million (US$77 million) from fining students for overdue library books in the past six years, reports the Guardian.
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US: New disclosure rules for economics scholars
Following heavy scrutiny of economists' conflicts of interest before the financial crash of 2008, the American Economic Association has adopted new guidelines at its annual meeting that require scholars to divulge who supports the research they publish in the association's journals, writes Dan Berrett for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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INDIA: Desperate students turn to high-tech cheating
What do you get when you combine Indian technical wizardry with a desperate shortage of spots in higher education? Some really fancy examination cheating, writes Stephanie Nolen for The Globe and Mail.
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VIETNAM: Universities grapple with course ban
Ho Chi Minh City's University of the Food Industry has complained that it has no clue how to deal with the spec ialised tools and personnel of its vocational courses after the Ministry of Education and Training prohibited universities from running occupational courses alongside traditional academic programmes from the next academic year, reports Tuoi Tre News.
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SRI LANKA: University ragging rages on despite law
Although it is a punishable offence under a 1998 law, ragging incidents varying from verbal to s exual abuse are on the increase at higher education institutions in Sri Lanka, with some students even dropping out due to its serious nature, writes Nadia Fazlulhaq for The Sunday Times.
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KENYA: Professions roped in to run universities
Professional associations and industry lobbies are to be roped in to the running of universities as the government moves to bridge the gap between training and the skills employers want. The proposal is contained in a draft Universities Bill prepared by a team that the Ministry of Higher Education appointed to align training with the constitution, writes David Herbling for Business Daily.
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GHANA: Board issues honorary degree warning
Ghana's National Accreditation Board has warned that it will not recognise honorary and professorial degrees awarded by institutions that do not have the mandate to do so, reports the Daily Graphic.
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UK: £11m distributed to cut university emissions
Nearly £11 million (US$17 million) in interest-free loans has been distributed to fund projects that will reduce universities' carbon emissions, writes David Matthews for Times Higher Education.
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UK: University to open Thailand campus
The University of Central Lancashire is to open a campus in Bangkok, in what is claimed as the first such UK branch university to be established in Thailand, reports Sean Coughlan for BBC News. The university has signed a deal with a Thai-based entrepreneur to open the campus in 2014. Degrees will be taught in English and validated by the UK university.
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US: Yale to provide tax relief for same-s ex couples
Beginning this month, Yale will join the small number of United States colleges and universities that help offset a federal tax g ay and l esbian employees pay on health coverage received by their partners, writes Gavan Gideon for Yale Daily News.
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US: College sports reform: Now? Never?
Virtually no matter where you turn for news and commentary, from sophisticated publications like The Atlantic to rants on sports radio for the lowbrow, you're likely to have been left in recent months with the overwhelming impression that big-time college sports is in crisis, and that momentum is building for some kind of radical action that would result in a wholesale transformation of the enterprise. Don't hold your breath, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed.
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CUBA: Iranian president receives honorary doctorate
The Iranian president has been granted an honorary doctorate because of his incomparable efforts in defence of the establishment of a just international system as well as nations' rights against capitalist powers, Havana University declared, reports the Islamic Republic News Agency.
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US: Man accused of starting fake college from prison
A lifelong con man accused of starting a fake university and churning out fake diplomas - while in prison in Wisconsin - appeared in court last Tuesday to face a fraud charge, years after the complex scheme was uncovered, reports Carrie Antlfinger for the Huffington Post.
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US: University suspects fraud by wine researcher
A charge of widespread scientific fraud, involving 26 articles published in 11 journals, was levelled by the University of Connecticut last week against Dipak K Das, one of its researchers whose work reported health benefits of red wine, writes Nicholas Wade for The New York Times.
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