NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
EUROPE: Developing a worldwide league table
The European Union plans to publish a worldwide ranking of universities next year that it hopes will rival existing global league tables. The aim is to boost the place of European universities in the Shanghai Jiao Tong and Times Higher Education ranking systems, both dominated by US institutions.
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EUROPE: EUA president promises rankings review
David Haworth
University rankings can sometimes be confusing and should not be the basis for devising policy because universities are confronted with rankings every day, said Jean-Marc Rapp, President of the European University Association. Speaking at the association's spring meeting in Brussels at the end of January, Rapp said rankings were volatile and he promised an annual review as a service for the EUA's 850 institutional members.
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GLOBAL: Ranking universities by web popularity
Geoff Maslen
A company that produces an online ranking of the world's universities based on the popularity of their websites has just released its world top 200 institutions for 2010. Called 4 International Colleges and Universities, or www.4icu.org, the company describes its website as an online directory of accredited, four-year institutions around the globe.
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UK: Spending on universities slashed
Diane Spencer
English universities face massive cuts for the first time in a decade and just as demand for places is increasing. The Higher Education Funding Council for England told vice-chancellors last week that some £215 million (US$342 million) will be sliced off teaching budgets in 2010-11. Spending on science, technology, engineering and maths, the so-called Stem subjects, however, will be safeguarded. Individual institutions will learn details of their grant allocations on 18 March.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Top UK astronomer suspended
Karen MacGregor
The suspension in South Africa of internationally recognised British astronomer Professor Phil Charles has stunned the astronomy community and raised concerns about this country's relationship with international scientists. It might also undermine South Africa's bid against Australia to host the world's biggest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
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US: Voluntary support down by 12%
Sarah King Head
It is hardly surprising that voluntary support for US colleges and universities has declined over the past year given the current economic crisis. But 2009 saw the greatest fall in more than half a century.
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ISRAEL: Controversy over upgrading college to university
Helena Flusfeder
Controversy has erupted over a decision to upgrade an Israeli college in the West Bank and give it university status. Described by one critic as "an academic settlement in occupied territory", the move to have the college in the West Bank town of Ariel officially recognised as a university centre has been vehemently opposed by Israel's Council for Higher Education which contends there is no academic need for another university.
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FRANCE: Paris-Dauphine fees increase may be illegal
Jane Marshall
A decision by the University Paris-Dauphine to increase fees for some of its masters courses from €231 (US$321) to as much as €4,000 has angered lecturers and students, while Minister for Higher Education and Research Valérie Pécresse believes the move could be illegal.
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GERMANY: Proposal to train imams at universities
Michael Gardner
Germany's Wissenschaftsrat or Science Council has recommended that Islamic theology play a more significant role in higher education institutions. The council, one of the country's chief advisory bodies to the government on higher education and research matters, proposes establishing centres for Islamic studies at two or three publicly funded universities.
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NEWSBRIEFS
EUROPE: Nowotny new ERC President?
Jan Petter Myklebust
With the retirement of Fotis C Kafatos as President of the European Research Council and Chairman of the Scientific Council, rumours in Brussels suggest Helga Nowotny, one of the vice-presidents of ERC, will be elected to take his place at the next meeting of the Scientific Board in Bucharest next month.
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GLOBAL: Wood to head commonwealth association
The Association of Commonwealth Universities has appointed Imperial College London's Professor John Wood as its new Secretary General. Wood, currently senior international relations adviser at the college, will take up the post on 1 July. He succeeds Professor John Tarrant.
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: New health research initiative
A new initiative aimed at encouraging development of health research capacity in Southern Africa has been launched. The academic training project is being funded by the Wellcome Trust of London, one of the world's largest medical research charities, through a US$50 million pledge made last year in July to support health research at 50 institutions spread across 18 African countries.
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BUSINESS
EUROPE: New methods to clean up industrial processes
Alan Osborn
The EU will provide €1 million (US$1.4 million) to help a team of UK researchers at Leicester University develop a range of ionic liquid solvents to provide safe, non-toxic alternatives to harmful solutions used in industrial processes. One aim is to improve the working conditions of people exposed to carcinogenic toxic acids and electrolytes that are used in some processes, such as those relating to commercial metal finishing and energy storage.
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AUSTRALIA: A golden opportunity for developing countries
Leah Germain
A professor from the Melbourne Business School in Australia has proposed an innovative plan to create a multi-billion dollar fund to provide financial assistance for carbon reduction initiatives in developing countries. Professor Gary Sampson has touted the plan as a positive version of "creative accounting", because it exploits the difference between the International Monetary Fund book value for gold and what can be earned by selling this precious metal on global commodity markets.
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EUROPE: Expansion for EU vocational education
Keith Nuthall
The Greece-based European Union agency charged with promoting vocational education and training in Europe has released a forecast on the anticipated demand and supply of skills until 2020. Releasing the report at a Brussels conference, agency Cedefop predicts a "steady rise in knowledge- and skill-intensive occupations".
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FEATURES
INDIA: Selling services or spreading light?
Alan Ruby*
Over the last 20 years, the growth of the global middle class has driven up demand for higher education. A global market for education is operating with new forms of information-ranking systems to guide consumer choices. India, despite rapid growth in wealth and a large under-served population of young people, was quarantined, isolated by government regulatory barriers. That may be about to change.
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NORWAY: A free system but for how long?
Jan Petter Myklebust
Higher education in Norway is a part of a welfare society and is defined as a public good so 100% of the education part of the budget is publicly funded. Although a few private institutions exist, they are mainly in business studies. The present coalition government, with a Left Soc ialist minister of higher education, will ensure international students also do not face fees - at least for the next three years. But this could change, given that the budget for universities this year is extremely tight.
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HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
AUSTRALIA: Casual approach to the academic workforce
Hamish Coates, Ian R Dobson, Leo Goedegebuure and Lynn Meek* The response of Australian academics to the Changing Academic Profession survey indicates that they are among the least satisfied academics in the world. This dissatisfaction has been expressed after two decades of rapid growth in the student body and structural changes in the academic workforce, particularly an expansion in the amount of teaching provided by casual staff. Growth in casual staff numbers is a factor that has simultaneously created a precariously employed but cheaper and more flexible workforce along with higher levels of stress among the full-time teachers responsible for managing and supervising casual teachers.
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US: Top 10 higher education state policy issues
In 2009, two contradictory movements shaped the US public higher education policy landscape, according to the latest Policy Matters brief of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, titled Top 10 State Higher Education Policy Issues for 2010. While higher education soared up the national policy agenda, states focused attention on funding cuts to post-secondary institutions.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories
GLOBAL: Examination howlers: but who is fooling whom?
Geoff Maslen
As students returned to their campuses in Europe and other countries in the northern hemisphere after the Christmas break, they faced the first set of examinations for the year. While they have little choice but to sit the exams, or go home again, students have their own way of getting back at a system that often makes them feel powerless. During a medical school examination, to give one example, students were asked: What is a fibula? To which one replied, "A little lie". In another test, a student wrote that a myth was a female moth while someone else declared that Algebra was the wife of Euclid.
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UK: Video diaries reveal depths of post-Christmas blues
The return to university after Christmas is a low point for many students as they face examinations following a festive break that is often less restful than expected. Researchers at the University of Leicester who asked students to keep a regular video diary have discovered that post-Christmas blues are very real for many who find the need to earn and revise during the holiday season leaves them drained at the start of the New Year.
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NORWAY: Sacked professor loses case
Jan Petter Myklebust
A sacked professor of medieval history who sued the University of Oslo for wrongful dismissal has lost the case. Arnved Nedkvitne was dismissed by the university's academic senate last year. He was seeking to regain his tenured professorship and compensation for loss of income but lost on both issues and was also ordered to pay -23,000 in costs.
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WORLD ROUND-UP
HAITI: University rector reports on quake devastation
"It's my first time on the internet since Tuesday's earthquake," writes Dr Jacky Lumarque, Rector of Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. "My apologies to friends who may have been worried by my silence but I have been focused on rescue operations and assistance to families. I was bent on not ending rescue operations until getting confirmation that the persons we were searching for had indeed died."
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IRELAND: Professors teach just four hours a week: Minister
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has accused some university professors of teaching as few as four hours a week, writes John Walshe for the Irish Independent. They are earning between €120,000 (US$166,000) and €143,000 a year for what the minister last week called a "light" teaching load, as well as for research and administration.
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CANADA: China snubs university over Dalai Lama
The Chinese government has removed Canada's University of Calgary from its list of accredited institutions - a move school officials fear is linked to the Dalai Lama's visit last autumn, writes Gwendolyn Richards for the Calgary Herald. The university hosted the Tibetan spiritual leader and awarded him an honorary degree when he visited the city last September.
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US: University adds worker rights to Abu Dhabi contract
Workers involved in building and operating New York University's Middle East campus in Abu Dhabi must have protections in areas such as how often they are paid and how many hours they can work in a week, the university announced on Wednesday in a move that human rights advocates hope reverberates around the region, writes Deepti Hajela for The Associated Press.
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US: Science funding gets a boost
A tough budget year could have meant big cuts for science research funding, but as mapped out in the Obama administration's plan for the 2011 fiscal year released on Monday, it doesn't, writes Jennifer Epstein for Inside Higher Ed. Though President Barack Obama vowed in his State of the Union address to freeze discretionary domestic spending, his $3.8 trillion budget shifts priorities to find increases for science and technology research and education that well outpace the 1.1% rate of inflation expected over the next year. The budget proposes non-defence research expenditures totalling $61.6 billion, a 5.6% increase over 2010 levels.
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US: Class cuts wreak havoc at California universities
California's budget crisis came into stark focus in the halls of Sacramento State University, where many students returning for spring semester were turned away from classes they had hoped to get into, or strained from hallways to hear lectures in classes that had enrolled way more students than there were seats, writes Laurel Rosenhall for The Sacramento Bee. A group of dejected seniors stood in the hallway after being booted from a writing class they must take if they are to graduate in May. It was full, they weren't on the waiting list, and the professor didn't let any extra students in.
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UK: Seven compete for each place at top universities
Almost seven students are competing for each place at elite universities in the UK this year amid warnings that record numbers of straight-A candidates will be rejected, write Graeme Paton and Andrew Hough for The Daily Telegraph. Research by the newspaper suggests that applications for degree courses have soared by as much as a third at some institutions, despite a strict cap on the number of new places.
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SCOTLAND: University chiefs attack innovation fund
Lecturers' leaders and university principals last week attacked the handling of a controversial £110 million (US$172 million) fund to boost innovation in Scottish higher education, writes Andrew Denholm for The Herald. Critics said a new committee set up by the Scottish Funding Council to administer the so-called Horizon Fund lacked independent scrutiny and allowed officials to pursue "pet projects".
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CHINA: Test of English but not Chinese 'traitorous'
Four Shanghai universities that included an English test in their independent admission examinations but chose to leave out Chinese have come under flak for giving "more importance to a foreign language", Wu Yiyao reports for China Daily. Internet users flooded the Qiangguo Forum to voice their disapproval, calling the exams "traitorous" and "discriminatory" and accusing the universities of "blindly worshipping foreign languages".
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UK: Climate change scientist 'hid' data flaws
Professor Phil Jones, the beleaguered British climate scientist at the centre of the leaked emails controversy, is facing fresh claims that he sought to hide problems in key temperature data on which some of his work was based, writes Fred Pearce for The Guardian. An investigation by the newspaper of thousands of emails and documents apparently hacked from the University of East Anglia's climatic research unit has found evidence that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed and that documents relating to them could not be produced.
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US: Researcher on climate is cleared in inquiry
An academic board of inquiry has largely cleared a noted Pennsylvania State University climatologist of scientific misconduct, but a second panel will convene to determine whether his behaviour undermined public faith in the science of climate change, the university said last week, writes John M Broder for The New York Times. Dr Michael E Mann has been at the centre of a dispute arising from the unauthorised release of more than 1,000 e-mail messages from the servers of the University of East Anglia in England, home to one of the world's premier climate research units.
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US: Wisconsin moves to stop use of phony degrees
Wisconsin International University could be forced to change its name. So might Heed University. And a job applicant who recently tried to claim a phony degree from Madison Business College could be criminally prosecuted, writes Ryan J Foley for Business Week. State lawmakers are considering a bill that would crack down on the manufacture and use of phony academic credentials by criminalising both practices. If approved, Wisconsin would become the 12th state to make it a crime to use a bogus academic degree, said George Gollin, a University of Illinois professor who is an expert on the issue.
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NEPAL: Scholarships for the poor countrywide
The Student Financial Support Fund Development Committee (SFSFDC), which falls under the University Grant Commission, is set to provide scholarships to meritorious students from poor and disadvantaged communities across Nepal, in a bid to make higher education more accessible, reports The Himalayan Times.
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INDIA: Finance for poor students on the cards
To help students from financially poor backgrounds pursue higher education, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is contemplating the formation of an Education Finance Corporation to provide education loans at low interest rates, reports Express News Service.
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JAMAICA: Government ponders fund for needy students
Jamaica's government has agreed to consider, for the next financial year, a programme of support for tertiary students in dire financial distress and at risk of deregistration, reports The Gleaner. Students qualifying for the programme would be selected by means testing and on the recommendation of institutions, the Ministry of Education has said.
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TAIWAN: Universities must be globally competitive: President
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou stressed on Tuesday the importance of making Taiwan universities globally competitive, and said he hoped they could attract 30,000 foreign students over the next four years, reports Central News Agency.
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YEMEN: Talks with China on increasing scholarships
Yemen and China have held talks about increasing cultural exchange scholarships between Yemeni and Chinese universities, the Yemen News Agency reports.
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Sunday, 7 February 2010
Monday, 1 February 2010
University World News 0109 - 1st February 2010
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
HAITI: Earthquake shatters already weak university system
Garry Pierre-Pierre in Haiti
Astride Auguste was late for an examination at Port-au-Prince's Quiskeya University on that fateful Tuesday, 12 January, when the earthquake, "the event" as Haitians have come to call it, struck. Auguste, an undergraduate in international affairs and management, was near the campus when she felt the earth shake beneath her. She bounced a few times and eventually regained her composure while a few miles away, many of her fellow students died after most of the buildings collapsed.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: New commissioner to fight for research area
David Haworth
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, nominated as the next EU Commissioner for research, science and innovation, has promised the European Parliament to complete a European Research Area where researchers' work can be undertaken in all 27 member states. In a confirmation hearing in Brussels, she also promised to address European society's 'grand challenges' during her five-year mandate.
Full report on the University World News site:
IRELAND: Century-old institution to go
John Walshe
The National University of Ireland is to be dissolved, giving full independence to its four constituent universities. The decision was taken by the government as part of its public sector reform agenda - but has sparked off a strong reaction from opposition parties and across the education spectrum.
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CANADA: Key bodies axed
Philip Fine
Canada has put itself in a vulnerable position for making informed decisions about its university sector, say key higher education critics after three organisations dedicated to disseminating education analyses were axed.
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EUROPE: Erasmus Mundus gets good marks
Alan Osborn
The European Commission's Erasmus Mundus programme of 2004-08, designed to promote the EU as a global 'centre of excellence' in learning, has been judged a success though changes in financing may have to be made if it is to continue in its present form.
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JORDON-FRANCE: Joint nuclear science university
Wagdy Sawahel
In an announcement by the country's Atomic Commission on 19 January, Jordan said it plans to create a Jordanian-French university spec ialising in nuclear sciences and research to develop scientific human resources in Jordan and the Arab world.
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EGYPT: Campaign to teach medicine in Arabic
Ashraf Khaled
A campaign to replace English with Arabic as the language of instruction for medical studies in Egypt has worried academics, who have warned of the negative impact on medical education. "This move will do more harm than good to medical students and graduates, especially as we in Egypt import science," said Dr Sameh Farid, Dean of the medical school at Cairo University, the country's biggest public university.
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N IGERIA: Academics and students oppose US terror list
Tunde Fatunde
Academics and students have slammed the US government's inclusion of N igeria on a list of high security risk countries, following last month's failed attempt to blow up a US plane by former London-based N igerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. They are concerned that the US action will undermine academic exchange between the countries.
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MALAWI: Court backs controversial quotas
A Malawian Court has ruled in favour of reintroducing a controversial higher education admissions system that obliges universities to enroll students according to district quotas rather than straight merit. Disgruntled students have vowed to appeal against the judgment.
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ZAMBIA: Future presidents must have degrees
A committee leading the drafting of a new constitution in Zambia has adopted a clause that requires any future president to have a degree from a reputable university. The move has sparked a raging debate in the media about whether an academic background is critical in conducting affairs of state.
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ZIMBABWE: Students drop out because of unaffordable fees
Zimbabwe student leaders held a crisis meeting with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week after it emerged that 28% of students had dropped out of the country's leading university because of a lack of foreign currency to settle tuition fees.
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CAMEROON: Suspicious students question President's bonus
Jane Marshall
A proposal by President Paul Biya to award nearly three billion FCFA (US$6.4 million) as 'bonuses for excellence' to the best students of Cameroon's seven state universities has divided students and academics and provoked accusations of corruption against university managements, according to a series of reports published in Le Messager of Douala. Meanwhile, says the newspaper, problems such as lack of space to accommodate growing numbers of students continue to afflict the institutions.
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NEWSBRIEFS
GLOBAL: WTO creates chairs at 14 universities
The World Trade Organization has launched a new programme of support for teaching, research and outreach activities at 14 universities in the developing world. It says the WTO Chairs Programme will assist national academic institutions to "provide students with a deeper understanding of trade policy issues".
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EUROPE: ERC president resigns
Fotis C Kafatos, President of the European Research Council and chair of its scientific council, has resigned and will step down from 1 March. Kafatos will continue as a member of the council, which will elect a new president and chairman from among its 22 members.
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EUROPE: EUA promotes full costing
Alan Osborn
Two projects aimed at improving the ability of European universities to meet the challenges posed by the EU's Lisbon Strategy for increasing the union's technical competitiveness are to be launched by the European University Association.
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BRAZIL: IFC promotes access to higher education
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is promoting access to higher education in Brazil with a 50 million reais (US$27 million) grant to Anhanguera Educacional Participações, the country's leading private post-secondary institution.
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SAUDI ARABIA: Observatory on higher education
Wagdy Sawahel
Saudi Arabia now has a national body for higher education that includes student experiences, courses, planning, assessment and evaluation. The Observatory on Higher Education was launched last Tuesday at an international exhibition on higher education in Riyadh.
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SENEGAL: Student riots cause widespread damage
Rioting students caused damage estimated at more than 13 million FCFA (US$28,000) at Ensa, Senegal's national school of higher agricultural studies in Thiès, reported Le Soleil of Dakar.
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BURKINA FASO: Four nations set up joint medical masters
A professional masters degree in epidemiological intervention and laboratory management started this month at the University of Ouagadougou, a joint initiative between Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo, four countries with high incidences of recurrent epidemics, reported Le Pay of Ouagadougou.
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ACADEMIC FREEDOM
IRAN: Student activist sentenced
Daniel Sawney and Jonathan Travis*
Majid Tavakoli, an Iranian pro-reform student activist, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for giving a speech at Tehran's Amir Kabir University where he branded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a 'fascist' and the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, a 'dictator'. Tavakoli has also been banned from political activity and foreign travel for five years.
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SCIENCE SCENE
GLOBAL: From environmental frying pan into the fire
The looming demise of an environmental hazard should be good news. But in the case of the southern hemisphere's ozone hole, it could exacerbate another serious problem.
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AUSTRALIA: Reverse universe theory challenged
New calculations have challenged established views on an intriguing physics problem: what would happen if you fell through a wormhole into a part of the universe where things happened in reverse? In such a universe, broken eggs would put themselves together again and if you had a beer you would feel drunk beforehand and thirsty afterwards.
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AFRICA: HIV prevention gel fails huge clinical trial
Following the world's largest international clinic trial into an HIV preventative gel, scientists have concluded it is not effective. The four-year trial was conducted in four African countries, ended in September last year, involved 9,385 women and proved controversial in Zambia.
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FEATURES
EUROPE: Report advocates better research conditions
Emma Jackson
With a new EU Research Commissioner about to be appointed and lobbying expected to be underway soon over the shape of the eighth EU framework programme on research, the League of European Research Universities has released a major report, Harvesting talent: strengthening research careers in Europe. It outlines the league's position on changes in the European research community it says are necessary to attract the world's most brilliant new researchers into European research posts.
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SOUTH AFRICA: New directions for higher education
Sharon Dell
One of Dr Blade Nzimande's first moves as South Africa's new Minister of Higher Education and Training was to institute a review of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, a step that heralded his concern with ongoing inequalities in the system and his intention to widen access to higher education for the country's poorest, mainly black students. It was also a sign that he intends to honour the African National Congress' election manifesto commitment to begin the process of providing free undergraduate study to financially needy students.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Top university tackles transformation
Alison Moodie
The University of Cape Town (UCT), one of South Africa's top institutions, is undertaking an ambitious programme to balance race relations on campus. The university is accelerating its pace of transformation in the light of a government-commissioned probe into racism in higher education. "The report forced universities to think about these issues and to respond, which is what its real benefit has been," said Crain Soudien, chair of the committee that oversaw the investigation and head of the transformation programme at UCT.
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HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
EUROPE: A chance for European universities
Jan Petter Myklebust
Former Dutch Education Minister and current President of Maastricht University, Jo Ritzen, has placed an extensive book draft on a website for comment. A Chance for European Universities is available for comments until 1 March 2010 and will be published by Amsterdam University Press in May.
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RUSSIA: Struggling to maintain research output: report
Russia's research output has experienced a "steady decline" over the past decade and the country is now second lowest among the 'BRIC' - Brazil, Russia, India and China - group of nations, according to a report published by Thomson Reuters on Wednesday. The New Geography of Science: Research and collaboration in Russia found that after reaching a peak in 1994 of just over 29,000 papers, output in Russia declined over the next decade to reach a low of 22,000 in 2006.
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories
NORWAY: Women philosophers aplenty
Jan Petter Myklebust
Among the philosophical canons, few women are represented. An exhibition at the University of Oslo library* is asking why.
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GREECE: Rescue team saves dummy
Makki Marseilles
It often comes as a pleasant surprise to discover modern universities do not restrict their activities to exclusively academic matters but branch into areas that have deeper and broader social repercussions. One such is the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki that supports a large number of non-academic activities, including one that deals with possible natural and/or man-made disasters with a fully equipped and trained disasters management team.
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DAVOS: Harvard star-gazer maps out-of-space markets
Some 5,000 light-years from the World Economic Forum and the worst earthly economic crisis since the Great Depression, astronomer Dimitar Sasselov is charting the New Frontier for investment capital over a bespoke iPhone app that connects with a planet called Sheila, writes A Craig Copetas for Bloomberg. "Globalisation is complete," the director of Harvard University's Origins of Life Initiative Project says, tapping his smart phone into the radio-telescope transmissions that on 12 November 2002, led him to discover OGLE-TR-56b, the exosolar world that he unofficially named after his wife.
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GLOBAL: Alien life could already be on Earth
For the past 50 years, scientists have scoured the skies for radio signals from beyond our planet, hoping for some sign of extraterrestrial life. But one physicist says there's no reason alien life couldn't already be lurking among us - or maybe even in us - writes Raphael G Satter for Associated Press.
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WORLD ROUND-UP
GLOBAL: Measuring student learning, globally
Nearly two years after the Bush administration said it would not participate in an international experiment aimed at developing a global assessment of student learning, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday formally announced the launch of the effort - with the full participation of the United States and the Obama administration - reports Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed.
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GLOBAL: Universities network in Davos
Davos is one of the world's prime networking venues for economists, bankers and diplomats, writes Oliver Staley for Bloomberg. Yale University sees it as an opportunity to do business, too, entertaining potential donors and recruiting world leaders to teach on campus. Yale isn't the only US university to send a delegation to the Swiss ski resort last week to discuss the environment, technology, communications and the economy. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago are also sent groups and sponsored events.
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INDIA: Supreme Court delays deemed universities' doom
In an interim order India's Supreme Court last Monday restrained the central government from acting against 'deemed' universities facing de-recognition, reports Sanjay K Singh for The Economic Times. The court asked the government to furnish a clear programme to protect the interests of nearly 200,000 students at 44 universities whose prospects are in limbo following the de-recognition move.
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US: College 'gender gap' favouring women stops growing
More men are attending college and graduating with a bachelor's degree, reversing the tendency of female undergraduates to outnumber men and outperform them academically, according to a new report published last week, writes Eric Gorski for Associated Press. One notable exception is young Hispanic men, especially new immigrants, who are falling further behind Hispanic women.
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UK: Universities not terror cops, says vice-chancellor
Universities should not be forced to act as 'policemen' to prevent students falling under the influence of extremists, according to a leading vice-chancellor. Professor Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London - where the alleged Detriot bomber was educated - insisted that radical speakers had to be allowed to address students in the name of free speech, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
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UK: Funding chiefs plot £315 million cut
UK university funding chiefs met last week to decide how to implement cuts in campus budgets as they allocate £7.3 billion (US$12 billion) to vice-chancellors for the coming academic year, writes Greg Hurst for The Times. Research funding is likely to be concentrated on departments with higher-quality ratings for their work - largely, but not exclusively, boosting bigger, research-rich universities.
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CHINA: 50 tycoons gave $146.5 million to universities
A ranking of Chinese tycoons' donations to their alma maters has been released, following the controversy over entrepreneur Zhang Lei who gave a record US$8,888,888 to Yale University, China Daily-Asia News reports. The ranking, published by an independent Chinese website, included more than 50 tycoons who donated a total of over one billion yuan (US$146.5 million) to the Chinese universities they attended.
More on the University World News site:
US: Toppling a bogus diploma empire
It started with spam. On a quiet August day in 2002, a physics professor named George Gollin was working in his office at the University of Illinois when an ad popped up on his computer screen, writes David Wolman for Wired magazine. The product on offer: college degrees. In a nearby computer lab, the ads leaped from one monitor to another, seeming to spread like a contagion. The spam barrage was raging across the Urbana-Champaign campus.
More on the University World News site:
US: Plagiarism prevention without fear
Could student plagiarism actually be reduced? And could it be reduced not through fear of being caught, but through...education? asks Scott Jaschik in Insider Higher Ed. The evidence in a study released last Monday suggests that the answer to both questions is 'yes' - which could be welcome news to academics who constantly complain about students who either don't know what plagiarism is or don't bother to follow the rules about the integrity of assignments they prepare.
More on the University World News site:
US: Scrapping admission fees on the rise
Over the last few years, the tiny College of Saint Rose in Albany has seen applications increase at least 25% annually, minority admissions rise and its standing in the US News and World Report rankings climb more than 20 rungs, writes Jacques Steinberg for The New York Times. Its secret? Lifting a page from the marketing playbook of credit card companies.
More on the University World News site:
TAIWAN: Only 5% of China's students pick Taiwan: poll
One in five Taiwanese students picked China as the number one choice for studying abroad, but only five in every 100 Chinese students chose Taiwan as the top destination, according to a recent survey reported in The China Post.
More on the University World News site:
HAITI: Earthquake shatters already weak university system
Garry Pierre-Pierre in Haiti
Astride Auguste was late for an examination at Port-au-Prince's Quiskeya University on that fateful Tuesday, 12 January, when the earthquake, "the event" as Haitians have come to call it, struck. Auguste, an undergraduate in international affairs and management, was near the campus when she felt the earth shake beneath her. She bounced a few times and eventually regained her composure while a few miles away, many of her fellow students died after most of the buildings collapsed.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: New commissioner to fight for research area
David Haworth
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, nominated as the next EU Commissioner for research, science and innovation, has promised the European Parliament to complete a European Research Area where researchers' work can be undertaken in all 27 member states. In a confirmation hearing in Brussels, she also promised to address European society's 'grand challenges' during her five-year mandate.
Full report on the University World News site:
IRELAND: Century-old institution to go
John Walshe
The National University of Ireland is to be dissolved, giving full independence to its four constituent universities. The decision was taken by the government as part of its public sector reform agenda - but has sparked off a strong reaction from opposition parties and across the education spectrum.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Key bodies axed
Philip Fine
Canada has put itself in a vulnerable position for making informed decisions about its university sector, say key higher education critics after three organisations dedicated to disseminating education analyses were axed.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Erasmus Mundus gets good marks
Alan Osborn
The European Commission's Erasmus Mundus programme of 2004-08, designed to promote the EU as a global 'centre of excellence' in learning, has been judged a success though changes in financing may have to be made if it is to continue in its present form.
Full report on the University World News site:
JORDON-FRANCE: Joint nuclear science university
Wagdy Sawahel
In an announcement by the country's Atomic Commission on 19 January, Jordan said it plans to create a Jordanian-French university spec ialising in nuclear sciences and research to develop scientific human resources in Jordan and the Arab world.
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: Campaign to teach medicine in Arabic
Ashraf Khaled
A campaign to replace English with Arabic as the language of instruction for medical studies in Egypt has worried academics, who have warned of the negative impact on medical education. "This move will do more harm than good to medical students and graduates, especially as we in Egypt import science," said Dr Sameh Farid, Dean of the medical school at Cairo University, the country's biggest public university.
Full report on the University World News site:
N IGERIA: Academics and students oppose US terror list
Tunde Fatunde
Academics and students have slammed the US government's inclusion of N igeria on a list of high security risk countries, following last month's failed attempt to blow up a US plane by former London-based N igerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. They are concerned that the US action will undermine academic exchange between the countries.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAWI: Court backs controversial quotas
A Malawian Court has ruled in favour of reintroducing a controversial higher education admissions system that obliges universities to enroll students according to district quotas rather than straight merit. Disgruntled students have vowed to appeal against the judgment.
Full report on the University World News site:
ZAMBIA: Future presidents must have degrees
A committee leading the drafting of a new constitution in Zambia has adopted a clause that requires any future president to have a degree from a reputable university. The move has sparked a raging debate in the media about whether an academic background is critical in conducting affairs of state.
Full report on the University World News site:
ZIMBABWE: Students drop out because of unaffordable fees
Zimbabwe student leaders held a crisis meeting with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week after it emerged that 28% of students had dropped out of the country's leading university because of a lack of foreign currency to settle tuition fees.
Full report on the University World News site:
CAMEROON: Suspicious students question President's bonus
Jane Marshall
A proposal by President Paul Biya to award nearly three billion FCFA (US$6.4 million) as 'bonuses for excellence' to the best students of Cameroon's seven state universities has divided students and academics and provoked accusations of corruption against university managements, according to a series of reports published in Le Messager of Douala. Meanwhile, says the newspaper, problems such as lack of space to accommodate growing numbers of students continue to afflict the institutions.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWSBRIEFS
GLOBAL: WTO creates chairs at 14 universities
The World Trade Organization has launched a new programme of support for teaching, research and outreach activities at 14 universities in the developing world. It says the WTO Chairs Programme will assist national academic institutions to "provide students with a deeper understanding of trade policy issues".
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: ERC president resigns
Fotis C Kafatos, President of the European Research Council and chair of its scientific council, has resigned and will step down from 1 March. Kafatos will continue as a member of the council, which will elect a new president and chairman from among its 22 members.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: EUA promotes full costing
Alan Osborn
Two projects aimed at improving the ability of European universities to meet the challenges posed by the EU's Lisbon Strategy for increasing the union's technical competitiveness are to be launched by the European University Association.
Full report on the University World News site:
BRAZIL: IFC promotes access to higher education
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is promoting access to higher education in Brazil with a 50 million reais (US$27 million) grant to Anhanguera Educacional Participações, the country's leading private post-secondary institution.
Full report on the University World News site:
SAUDI ARABIA: Observatory on higher education
Wagdy Sawahel
Saudi Arabia now has a national body for higher education that includes student experiences, courses, planning, assessment and evaluation. The Observatory on Higher Education was launched last Tuesday at an international exhibition on higher education in Riyadh.
Full report on the University World News site:
SENEGAL: Student riots cause widespread damage
Rioting students caused damage estimated at more than 13 million FCFA (US$28,000) at Ensa, Senegal's national school of higher agricultural studies in Thiès, reported Le Soleil of Dakar.
Full report on the University World News site:
BURKINA FASO: Four nations set up joint medical masters
A professional masters degree in epidemiological intervention and laboratory management started this month at the University of Ouagadougou, a joint initiative between Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo, four countries with high incidences of recurrent epidemics, reported Le Pay of Ouagadougou.
Full report on the University World News site:
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
IRAN: Student activist sentenced
Daniel Sawney and Jonathan Travis*
Majid Tavakoli, an Iranian pro-reform student activist, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for giving a speech at Tehran's Amir Kabir University where he branded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a 'fascist' and the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, a 'dictator'. Tavakoli has also been banned from political activity and foreign travel for five years.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
GLOBAL: From environmental frying pan into the fire
The looming demise of an environmental hazard should be good news. But in the case of the southern hemisphere's ozone hole, it could exacerbate another serious problem.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Reverse universe theory challenged
New calculations have challenged established views on an intriguing physics problem: what would happen if you fell through a wormhole into a part of the universe where things happened in reverse? In such a universe, broken eggs would put themselves together again and if you had a beer you would feel drunk beforehand and thirsty afterwards.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: HIV prevention gel fails huge clinical trial
Following the world's largest international clinic trial into an HIV preventative gel, scientists have concluded it is not effective. The four-year trial was conducted in four African countries, ended in September last year, involved 9,385 women and proved controversial in Zambia.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
EUROPE: Report advocates better research conditions
Emma Jackson
With a new EU Research Commissioner about to be appointed and lobbying expected to be underway soon over the shape of the eighth EU framework programme on research, the League of European Research Universities has released a major report, Harvesting talent: strengthening research careers in Europe. It outlines the league's position on changes in the European research community it says are necessary to attract the world's most brilliant new researchers into European research posts.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: New directions for higher education
Sharon Dell
One of Dr Blade Nzimande's first moves as South Africa's new Minister of Higher Education and Training was to institute a review of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, a step that heralded his concern with ongoing inequalities in the system and his intention to widen access to higher education for the country's poorest, mainly black students. It was also a sign that he intends to honour the African National Congress' election manifesto commitment to begin the process of providing free undergraduate study to financially needy students.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Top university tackles transformation
Alison Moodie
The University of Cape Town (UCT), one of South Africa's top institutions, is undertaking an ambitious programme to balance race relations on campus. The university is accelerating its pace of transformation in the light of a government-commissioned probe into racism in higher education. "The report forced universities to think about these issues and to respond, which is what its real benefit has been," said Crain Soudien, chair of the committee that oversaw the investigation and head of the transformation programme at UCT.
Full report on the University World News site:
HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
EUROPE: A chance for European universities
Jan Petter Myklebust
Former Dutch Education Minister and current President of Maastricht University, Jo Ritzen, has placed an extensive book draft on a website for comment. A Chance for European Universities is available for comments until 1 March 2010 and will be published by Amsterdam University Press in May.
Full report on the University World News site:
RUSSIA: Struggling to maintain research output: report
Russia's research output has experienced a "steady decline" over the past decade and the country is now second lowest among the 'BRIC' - Brazil, Russia, India and China - group of nations, according to a report published by Thomson Reuters on Wednesday. The New Geography of Science: Research and collaboration in Russia found that after reaching a peak in 1994 of just over 29,000 papers, output in Russia declined over the next decade to reach a low of 22,000 in 2006.
Full report on the University World News site:
UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories
NORWAY: Women philosophers aplenty
Jan Petter Myklebust
Among the philosophical canons, few women are represented. An exhibition at the University of Oslo library* is asking why.
Full report on the University World News site:
GREECE: Rescue team saves dummy
Makki Marseilles
It often comes as a pleasant surprise to discover modern universities do not restrict their activities to exclusively academic matters but branch into areas that have deeper and broader social repercussions. One such is the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki that supports a large number of non-academic activities, including one that deals with possible natural and/or man-made disasters with a fully equipped and trained disasters management team.
Full report on the University World News site:
DAVOS: Harvard star-gazer maps out-of-space markets
Some 5,000 light-years from the World Economic Forum and the worst earthly economic crisis since the Great Depression, astronomer Dimitar Sasselov is charting the New Frontier for investment capital over a bespoke iPhone app that connects with a planet called Sheila, writes A Craig Copetas for Bloomberg. "Globalisation is complete," the director of Harvard University's Origins of Life Initiative Project says, tapping his smart phone into the radio-telescope transmissions that on 12 November 2002, led him to discover OGLE-TR-56b, the exosolar world that he unofficially named after his wife.
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GLOBAL: Alien life could already be on Earth
For the past 50 years, scientists have scoured the skies for radio signals from beyond our planet, hoping for some sign of extraterrestrial life. But one physicist says there's no reason alien life couldn't already be lurking among us - or maybe even in us - writes Raphael G Satter for Associated Press.
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WORLD ROUND-UP
GLOBAL: Measuring student learning, globally
Nearly two years after the Bush administration said it would not participate in an international experiment aimed at developing a global assessment of student learning, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday formally announced the launch of the effort - with the full participation of the United States and the Obama administration - reports Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed.
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GLOBAL: Universities network in Davos
Davos is one of the world's prime networking venues for economists, bankers and diplomats, writes Oliver Staley for Bloomberg. Yale University sees it as an opportunity to do business, too, entertaining potential donors and recruiting world leaders to teach on campus. Yale isn't the only US university to send a delegation to the Swiss ski resort last week to discuss the environment, technology, communications and the economy. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago are also sent groups and sponsored events.
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INDIA: Supreme Court delays deemed universities' doom
In an interim order India's Supreme Court last Monday restrained the central government from acting against 'deemed' universities facing de-recognition, reports Sanjay K Singh for The Economic Times. The court asked the government to furnish a clear programme to protect the interests of nearly 200,000 students at 44 universities whose prospects are in limbo following the de-recognition move.
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US: College 'gender gap' favouring women stops growing
More men are attending college and graduating with a bachelor's degree, reversing the tendency of female undergraduates to outnumber men and outperform them academically, according to a new report published last week, writes Eric Gorski for Associated Press. One notable exception is young Hispanic men, especially new immigrants, who are falling further behind Hispanic women.
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UK: Universities not terror cops, says vice-chancellor
Universities should not be forced to act as 'policemen' to prevent students falling under the influence of extremists, according to a leading vice-chancellor. Professor Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London - where the alleged Detriot bomber was educated - insisted that radical speakers had to be allowed to address students in the name of free speech, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
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UK: Funding chiefs plot £315 million cut
UK university funding chiefs met last week to decide how to implement cuts in campus budgets as they allocate £7.3 billion (US$12 billion) to vice-chancellors for the coming academic year, writes Greg Hurst for The Times. Research funding is likely to be concentrated on departments with higher-quality ratings for their work - largely, but not exclusively, boosting bigger, research-rich universities.
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CHINA: 50 tycoons gave $146.5 million to universities
A ranking of Chinese tycoons' donations to their alma maters has been released, following the controversy over entrepreneur Zhang Lei who gave a record US$8,888,888 to Yale University, China Daily-Asia News reports. The ranking, published by an independent Chinese website, included more than 50 tycoons who donated a total of over one billion yuan (US$146.5 million) to the Chinese universities they attended.
More on the University World News site:
US: Toppling a bogus diploma empire
It started with spam. On a quiet August day in 2002, a physics professor named George Gollin was working in his office at the University of Illinois when an ad popped up on his computer screen, writes David Wolman for Wired magazine. The product on offer: college degrees. In a nearby computer lab, the ads leaped from one monitor to another, seeming to spread like a contagion. The spam barrage was raging across the Urbana-Champaign campus.
More on the University World News site:
US: Plagiarism prevention without fear
Could student plagiarism actually be reduced? And could it be reduced not through fear of being caught, but through...education? asks Scott Jaschik in Insider Higher Ed. The evidence in a study released last Monday suggests that the answer to both questions is 'yes' - which could be welcome news to academics who constantly complain about students who either don't know what plagiarism is or don't bother to follow the rules about the integrity of assignments they prepare.
More on the University World News site:
US: Scrapping admission fees on the rise
Over the last few years, the tiny College of Saint Rose in Albany has seen applications increase at least 25% annually, minority admissions rise and its standing in the US News and World Report rankings climb more than 20 rungs, writes Jacques Steinberg for The New York Times. Its secret? Lifting a page from the marketing playbook of credit card companies.
More on the University World News site:
TAIWAN: Only 5% of China's students pick Taiwan: poll
One in five Taiwanese students picked China as the number one choice for studying abroad, but only five in every 100 Chinese students chose Taiwan as the top destination, according to a recent survey reported in The China Post.
More on the University World News site:
Sunday, 24 January 2010
University World News 0108 - 24th January 2010
SPECIAL REPORT: Fees and the foreign student
Around the world, more than three million students are currently studying
outside their home countries and the number is growing year by year. So is the number of countries trying to attract fee-paying foreigners and, with so many fighting for a slice of the international student market, nations are becoming increasingly creative in marketing their education services.
Japan, among the top countries after China and India fuelling the growth in demand by international students for English language courses, is also developing them as part of its internationalisation efforts.
In almost all countries, the drive to recruit foreign students is based on the lure of money. Cash-strapped institutions faced with declining government support have turned to exporting education as a revenue-generating business. The danger is that too heavy a reliance on foreign fees can leave universities open to budgetary crises should student numbers start to fall. Our correspondents report.
US: Fees worth $18 billion to economy
Sarah King Head Only 3.7% of all students enrolled in American higher education institutions are foreigners yet they contribute nearly $18 billion a year to the US economy, according to the US Department of Commerce. Most of this income is generated by tuition and other fees.
Full report on the University World News site :
UK: Budget cuts may drive numbers down
David Jobbins
Britain is the second most popular destination for students from overseas, after the US. The UK receives more than 350,000 international students each year, more than 20% of the world's share. But university leaders fear public spending cuts over the next three years may put the strength of the higher education sector at risk.
Full report on the University World News site:
FINLAND: To fee or not to fee - that is the question
Ian R Dobson*
Only in recent times have the powers-that-be in Finnish higher education been able to bring themselves to utter the word 'fees'. In the Finnish context, the thought of charging students to study had risen only occasionally before discussions led to Finland's new Universities Act of 2009. But radical change is afoot and, from the start of 2010, it became possible for universities to charge tuition fees to students from outside the European Union, although under certain highly restrictive circumstances.
Full report on the University World News site:
CHINA: Tuition costs not high by western standards
John Richard Schrock
No country in history has ever expanded its university capacity as fast as the People's Republic of China over the last 20 years. Each year, more programmes become available at more universities for the international student considering studying there. The Chinese university system is markedly tiered and costs can be higher at the most prestigious schools in urban centres, but generally fees and housing are not expensive by Western standards.
Full report on the University World News site:
JAPAN: English courses to boost recruitment
Japan is boosting its recruitment of foreign students by increasing the number of university courses taught in English. Foreign enrolments are now estimated to exceed 133,000 - up by more than 9,000 since 2008 following an ambitious plan unveiled by the government for universities to recruit 300,000 international students by 2020.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Influence worth more than national income
Jane Marshall
Foreigners studying in France pay the same fees as local students and, unlike in some other countries, they do not contribute vast sums to the state's exchequer. In fact, the opposite is the case: the French government expends thousands of euros on each student, regardless of nationality.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Foreign students deterred by charges
Michael Gardner
Germany is popular with overseas students and comes third in terms of recruitment from OECD countries. Where they have been introduced, tuition fees appear modest compared with many other countries. But while a number of programmes exist to support students from abroad, World University Service Germany is concerned that fees are proving a deterrent to foreigners, particularly from southern countries.
Full report on the University World News site:
DENMARK: Fees part of broader reforms
Jan Petter Myklebust
Tuition fees for foreign students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area were introduced in 2006 and form part of a broader globalisation strategy for Danish universities as well as a desire to strengthen market mechanisms in higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
THE NETHERLANDS: More universities charge for tuition
Maurits van Rooijen and Arnold Persoon*
Traditionally The Netherlands has maintained subsidised fees for all students, whether EU or non-EU, which means a fee of roughly -1,600 a year. But this situation is changing rapidly and since 2008 non-EU students have no longer been funded by the government. So many universities have started to charge full-cost fees to those who enrol in English-taught degree courses. There is also an emerging private sector offering nationally accredited degree courses on a full-cost basis to Dutch, EU and non-EU students.
Full report on the University World News site:
SWEDEN: Students face fees next year
Jan Petter Myklebust
Sweden will introduce application fees, and most likely tuition fees as well, for international students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area from the autumn term in 2011. As an EU member state, Sweden cannot differentiate between its own citizens and those from other EU nations.
Full report on the University World News site:
GREECE: An expensive free education
Makki Marseilles
Education in Greece is free so no fees are paid by students or their parents. Embodied in the country's constitution is that all Greek citizens (and certain foreigners who live and work in the country) are entitled to free education.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Exporting education worth billions
Geoff Maslen
When the Australian economy was struck by galloping external debt and a poor export performance in the mid-1980s, the then Labour government decided to create an export education industry it hoped would be worth millions of dollars. A quarter of a century on, the current government claims that industry generates A$17 billion (US$15.5 billion) for the national economy.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEW ZEALAND: Foreign students a welcome income source
John Gerritsen
Fees from international students became increasingly important to New Zealand universities this decade as they sought to increase their income in the face of government control or regulation of most other forms of their income.
Full report on the University World News site:
SA: International students - big numbers, small income
Karen MacGregor
South Africa is the eighth most popular destination for international students in the world, with 2.2% of the global share, and it is the only country in Africa that receives far more students than it sends abroad. But fees from international students are not a major income stream for universities - most come from other Southern African Development Community countries and receive the same state subsidies and pay similar fees as home students.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALTA: Non-EU students pay high fees
Jan Petter Myklebust
In Malta, the Mediterranean island with 360,000 inhabitants, higher education is almost totally funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment. The ministry also decides on the university fee regulations through legislation and non-EU students face heavy tuition charges.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWSBRIEFS
US: Universities mobilise disaster relief for Haiti
Sarah King Head
American colleges and universities have responded overwhelmingly in their efforts to offer humanitarian support to the people affected by the Haiti earthquake.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: EUA promotes full-costing and research
Alan Osborn
Two projects aimed at improving the ability of European universities to meet the challenges posed by the EU's Lisbon Strategy for increasing the union's technical competitiveness are to be launched by the European University Association. The programmes reflect a need for new tools and methodologies if Europe's higher education sector is to play its full part in equipping the EU to compete successfully in tomorrow's world.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Fuchs is new national research head
Jane Marshall
Chemical engineer Professor Alain Fuchs has been appointed as the new President of France's flagship research institution, the National Science Research Centre. Director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, Chimie ParisTech, Fuchs replaces both current President Catherine Bréchignac and Director Arnold Migus whose terms of office are coming to an end.
Full report on the University World News site:
ZIMBABWE: Fee protests land 26 students in court
Twenty-six Zimbabwean students appeared in court earlier this month for demonstrating against unaffordable fees - at a time when lawmakers were expressing fears that this year's higher education examinations might not meet standards as a result of inadequate funding.
Full report on the University World News site:
BUSINESS
IRAQ: New online museum for artifacts
Leah Germain
Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has announced the creation of a virtual alternative to Iraq's national museum. The internet trailblazers will transfer four millennia of archaeological discoveries into an online version with high-resolution images, free of charge. Scholars, educators and historians will be able to use the virtual museum to examine and study some of Iraq's oldest archaeological treasures with the simple click of a mouse.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Trade in computer resources opened up
Alan Osborn
Sometimes a single computer, or even a network of computer workstations, just isn't enough for major research projects requiring lots of gigabyte muscle. Now, with EU help, a solution has been found in Germany.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Textbooks for rent
Leah Germain
As any university graduate can attest, the process of getting a degree is often a pricey endeavour. Along with tuition fees, students find themselves shelling out for textbooks and course packs that can add up to a small fortune, an average of US$900 a year in America. But BookRenter, a web-based company in northern California, is offering students an alternative to purchasing their expensive textbooks: simply rent them.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: New marketing tools aid wine producers
Leah Germain
A European research team has developed an online course to help small wine-producing businesses boost their commercial operations and establish a better understanding of their market. Scotland's University of Glasgow has coordinated the project, with the intention of giving small wine producers a chance to promote their highest quality products.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
UK: E-learning expert urges caution and balance
John Gerritsen
It would be fair to say that Grainne Conole was an early adopter of new technologies. While completing her PhD in chemistry, Conole was using email at a time when her colleagues could not see the point - why not send a letter, they asked. She had the same experience with the internet. Although attitudes have moved on since then, the professor of e-learning at the UK's Open University is still working at the cutting edge of technology.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Managing natural resources
Kristin Mosch and Stephan Weidt*
The Centre for Natural Resources and Development at Cologne University of Applied Sciences is one of the five winners of the Exceed - Excellence for Development - competition. Since uncontrolled consumption of natural resources causes several development problems, ensuring environmental sustainability was adopted in the list of Millennium Development Goals or MDG 7. The centre is concentrating on water management, land use and biodiversity, renewable energy sources and regional management to help achieve this goal.
Full report on the University World News site:
HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
DENMARK: Tuition fees and private universities loom
Ard Jongsma
Students and a united political opposition are baffled by new proposals from Science Minister Helge Sander to depart from the Danish tradition of free higher education for all. Both groups seemed taken by surprise at parliamentary debates following publication last week of a discussion paper setting out the options for a partial privatisation of higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
CHINA: Academic freedom and public intellectuals
Qiang Zha
Academic freedom has always been viewed as problematic in China. The recent academic integrity crisis on university campuses and governmental intervention have once again brought this issue to the fore. Since 2002, China's Ministry of Education has promulgated a series of policies aimed at cleaning up academic corruption on university campuses. Most recently, in March 2009, it announced severe penalties for academic misbehaviour. Then, what is the status quo of academic freedom in Chinese universities?
First published in International Higher Education.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Will China achieve science supremacy?
Last week in Room for Debate, a New York Times blog, Chinese and American academics probed the question: how likely is it that China will become the world's leader in science and technology, and what are the impediments to creating a research climate that would allow scientists to thrive?
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories
NORWAY: Sacked professor sues the state
Jan Petter Myklebust
Earlier this month, five days were spent in an Oslo court to hear testimonies in a case where sacked University of Oslo Professor Arnved Nedkvitne is suing the Norwegian government. Nedkvitne has demanded that he either be reinstated as a full professor in medieval history or paid financial compensation until he reaches pension age.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK: Liter8 lrnrs: Is texting valuable or vandalism?
Children who are heavy users of mobile phone text abbreviations such as LOL (laughing out loud), plz (please), l8ter (later) and xxx (kisses), are unlikely to be problem spellers and readers, a new study by a Coventry University researcher has found.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: A silly man comes under fire
Two academics at Monash University in Melbourne sent an email to the dean of their faculty after he proposed making some of their colleagues redundant. Their comments will resonate among academics in universities around the world where research apparently counts for much more than teaching.
Full report on the University World News site:
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WORLD ROUND-UP
INDIA: 44 universities to be stripped of deemed status
From an institution located inside New Delhi's National Museum to a 19-hectare campus at Faridabad in Haryana, shock waves were felt at 44 'deemed' universities after the government told the Supreme Court last Monday that they did not deserve the status, write Aparna Kalra and Santosh K Joy for LiveMint. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the government would protect the interests of an estimated 200,000 students whose future had been thrown into uncertainty. The move sparked student protests.
More on the University World News site:
INDIA: Education reform bills cleared
Notwithstanding initial hiccups, the Human Resource Development Ministry's two major Bills that promise to change the face of higher education in India - accreditation of higher education institutions and setting up educational tribunals - were cleared (with minor changes) by the Group of Ministers on Thursday, writes Akshaya Mukul for The Times of India.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Postgraduate rise largely a foreign affair
British universities are rapidly expanding the recruitment of overseas postgraduates who pay higher fees, but growth in the number of domestic postgraduates is far slower, a study has found, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education. The analysis by the Higher Education Policy Institute and the British Library, published on Thursday, urges the government to make PhDs more attractive to British students to arrest the erosion of the UK's research base.
More on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Major revamp for polytechnic education
Technical and polytechnic education in Malaysia will be overhauled this year in order to restore public confidence, writes Richard Lim for The Star. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the move was necessary as polytechnics were currently regarded as a second chance route for weaker students and this perception had to change.
More on the University World News site:
ISRAEL: West Bank college upgraded to university
Israel has agreed to upgrade to university status a college built in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, a move critics see as placing another obstacle in the path of US-backed efforts to resume stalled peace talks, writes Allyn Fisher-Ilan for Reuters. The decision by Defence Minister Ehud Barak formalised a 2005 cabinet ruling to that effect but also coincided with the latest visit to the region by US peace envoy George Mitchell for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
More on the University World News site:
US: Controversial visa bans on academics lifted
Adam Habib and Tariq Ramadan should soon be able to enter the United States once again, ending years in which the Bush administration kept out the two prominent scholars, infuriating many academic groups, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Several academic groups have been in a protracted legal battle with the government over the visa denials to Habib, a Deputy Vice-chancellor at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, and Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University.
More on the University World News site:
US: Professor is a label that leans to the left
The overwhelmingly liberal tilt of university professors has been explained by everything from outright bias to higher IQ scores. Now new research suggests that critics may have been asking the wrong question. Instead of looking at why most professors are liberal, they should ask why so many liberals - and so few conservatives - want to be professors, writes Patricia Cohen for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site:
US: Terrible fiscal decline for higher education
By any financial measure, this fiscal year is a terrible one for public higher education. And while that's no surprise to anyone working at a state college or university, new national data document the extent of the loss of state support, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Total state support for higher education for 2009-10 - including federal stimulus dollars - is US$79.4 billion, which is a decline of 1.1% from the prior year and 1.7% from the year before that. This represents a dramatic shift from the three-year period of 2005 to 2008 when state support grew 24% to $80.7 billion - without federal stimulus dollars in the equation.
More on the University World News site:
US: Recession takes toll on university presidents' pay
The recession has reached the executive suites of America's public universities and colleges, putting a stop to a string of large annual pay increases for school presidents, writes Eric Gorski for Associated Press. A survey released on Monday by the Chronicle of Higher Education showed compensation packages of chief executives at public universities levelling off in 2008-09, rising a relatively modest 2.3%. One in 10 saw their pay decline. Some who did get raises or bonuses gave the money back to their institutions.
More on the University World News site:
US: More women out-earning, out-learning husbands
Bringing home the bacon is less and less a man's job in the US these days, writes Nicole Santa Cruz for The Los Angeles Times. According to a Pew Research Center study released on Tuesday, a larger share of men are married to women whose education and income exceed their own. In 1970, 4% of husbands had wives who made more money than they did. In 2007, that share rose to 22%.
More on the University World News site:
US: Survey finds more students worried about finances
Family unemployment and a growing student loan burden are making American college students increasingly anxious about finances, according to a national survey by University of California - Los Angeles researchers, writes Larry Gordon for the Los Angeles Times. Nearly 67% of freshmen at four-year colleges and universities said they had at least some concerns about paying their tuition bills, the highest percentage expressing such anxieties in a dozen years, the annual study found. And with unemployment affecting many families, about 53% of freshmen who took part in the survey last autumn said they carried student loans, up about 4% from the previous year and the highest in nine years.
More on the University World News site:
WALES: University job losses and course closures forecast
The body responsible for higher education funding in Wales has warned of job losses and the closure of courses as a result of falling funding levels, writes Matt Withers for Western Mail. Giving evidence to National Assembly Finance Committee's inquiry into further and higher education funding, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales said it was "inconceivable" that budget restraints would not lead to cutbacks in teaching and research.
More on the University World News site:
Around the world, more than three million students are currently studying
outside their home countries and the number is growing year by year. So is the number of countries trying to attract fee-paying foreigners and, with so many fighting for a slice of the international student market, nations are becoming increasingly creative in marketing their education services.
Japan, among the top countries after China and India fuelling the growth in demand by international students for English language courses, is also developing them as part of its internationalisation efforts.
In almost all countries, the drive to recruit foreign students is based on the lure of money. Cash-strapped institutions faced with declining government support have turned to exporting education as a revenue-generating business. The danger is that too heavy a reliance on foreign fees can leave universities open to budgetary crises should student numbers start to fall. Our correspondents report.
US: Fees worth $18 billion to economy
Sarah King Head Only 3.7% of all students enrolled in American higher education institutions are foreigners yet they contribute nearly $18 billion a year to the US economy, according to the US Department of Commerce. Most of this income is generated by tuition and other fees.
Full report on the University World News site :
UK: Budget cuts may drive numbers down
David Jobbins
Britain is the second most popular destination for students from overseas, after the US. The UK receives more than 350,000 international students each year, more than 20% of the world's share. But university leaders fear public spending cuts over the next three years may put the strength of the higher education sector at risk.
Full report on the University World News site:
FINLAND: To fee or not to fee - that is the question
Ian R Dobson*
Only in recent times have the powers-that-be in Finnish higher education been able to bring themselves to utter the word 'fees'. In the Finnish context, the thought of charging students to study had risen only occasionally before discussions led to Finland's new Universities Act of 2009. But radical change is afoot and, from the start of 2010, it became possible for universities to charge tuition fees to students from outside the European Union, although under certain highly restrictive circumstances.
Full report on the University World News site:
CHINA: Tuition costs not high by western standards
John Richard Schrock
No country in history has ever expanded its university capacity as fast as the People's Republic of China over the last 20 years. Each year, more programmes become available at more universities for the international student considering studying there. The Chinese university system is markedly tiered and costs can be higher at the most prestigious schools in urban centres, but generally fees and housing are not expensive by Western standards.
Full report on the University World News site:
JAPAN: English courses to boost recruitment
Japan is boosting its recruitment of foreign students by increasing the number of university courses taught in English. Foreign enrolments are now estimated to exceed 133,000 - up by more than 9,000 since 2008 following an ambitious plan unveiled by the government for universities to recruit 300,000 international students by 2020.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Influence worth more than national income
Jane Marshall
Foreigners studying in France pay the same fees as local students and, unlike in some other countries, they do not contribute vast sums to the state's exchequer. In fact, the opposite is the case: the French government expends thousands of euros on each student, regardless of nationality.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Foreign students deterred by charges
Michael Gardner
Germany is popular with overseas students and comes third in terms of recruitment from OECD countries. Where they have been introduced, tuition fees appear modest compared with many other countries. But while a number of programmes exist to support students from abroad, World University Service Germany is concerned that fees are proving a deterrent to foreigners, particularly from southern countries.
Full report on the University World News site:
DENMARK: Fees part of broader reforms
Jan Petter Myklebust
Tuition fees for foreign students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area were introduced in 2006 and form part of a broader globalisation strategy for Danish universities as well as a desire to strengthen market mechanisms in higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
THE NETHERLANDS: More universities charge for tuition
Maurits van Rooijen and Arnold Persoon*
Traditionally The Netherlands has maintained subsidised fees for all students, whether EU or non-EU, which means a fee of roughly -1,600 a year. But this situation is changing rapidly and since 2008 non-EU students have no longer been funded by the government. So many universities have started to charge full-cost fees to those who enrol in English-taught degree courses. There is also an emerging private sector offering nationally accredited degree courses on a full-cost basis to Dutch, EU and non-EU students.
Full report on the University World News site:
SWEDEN: Students face fees next year
Jan Petter Myklebust
Sweden will introduce application fees, and most likely tuition fees as well, for international students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area from the autumn term in 2011. As an EU member state, Sweden cannot differentiate between its own citizens and those from other EU nations.
Full report on the University World News site:
GREECE: An expensive free education
Makki Marseilles
Education in Greece is free so no fees are paid by students or their parents. Embodied in the country's constitution is that all Greek citizens (and certain foreigners who live and work in the country) are entitled to free education.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Exporting education worth billions
Geoff Maslen
When the Australian economy was struck by galloping external debt and a poor export performance in the mid-1980s, the then Labour government decided to create an export education industry it hoped would be worth millions of dollars. A quarter of a century on, the current government claims that industry generates A$17 billion (US$15.5 billion) for the national economy.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEW ZEALAND: Foreign students a welcome income source
John Gerritsen
Fees from international students became increasingly important to New Zealand universities this decade as they sought to increase their income in the face of government control or regulation of most other forms of their income.
Full report on the University World News site:
SA: International students - big numbers, small income
Karen MacGregor
South Africa is the eighth most popular destination for international students in the world, with 2.2% of the global share, and it is the only country in Africa that receives far more students than it sends abroad. But fees from international students are not a major income stream for universities - most come from other Southern African Development Community countries and receive the same state subsidies and pay similar fees as home students.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALTA: Non-EU students pay high fees
Jan Petter Myklebust
In Malta, the Mediterranean island with 360,000 inhabitants, higher education is almost totally funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment. The ministry also decides on the university fee regulations through legislation and non-EU students face heavy tuition charges.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWSBRIEFS
US: Universities mobilise disaster relief for Haiti
Sarah King Head
American colleges and universities have responded overwhelmingly in their efforts to offer humanitarian support to the people affected by the Haiti earthquake.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: EUA promotes full-costing and research
Alan Osborn
Two projects aimed at improving the ability of European universities to meet the challenges posed by the EU's Lisbon Strategy for increasing the union's technical competitiveness are to be launched by the European University Association. The programmes reflect a need for new tools and methodologies if Europe's higher education sector is to play its full part in equipping the EU to compete successfully in tomorrow's world.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Fuchs is new national research head
Jane Marshall
Chemical engineer Professor Alain Fuchs has been appointed as the new President of France's flagship research institution, the National Science Research Centre. Director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, Chimie ParisTech, Fuchs replaces both current President Catherine Bréchignac and Director Arnold Migus whose terms of office are coming to an end.
Full report on the University World News site:
ZIMBABWE: Fee protests land 26 students in court
Twenty-six Zimbabwean students appeared in court earlier this month for demonstrating against unaffordable fees - at a time when lawmakers were expressing fears that this year's higher education examinations might not meet standards as a result of inadequate funding.
Full report on the University World News site:
BUSINESS
IRAQ: New online museum for artifacts
Leah Germain
Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has announced the creation of a virtual alternative to Iraq's national museum. The internet trailblazers will transfer four millennia of archaeological discoveries into an online version with high-resolution images, free of charge. Scholars, educators and historians will be able to use the virtual museum to examine and study some of Iraq's oldest archaeological treasures with the simple click of a mouse.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Trade in computer resources opened up
Alan Osborn
Sometimes a single computer, or even a network of computer workstations, just isn't enough for major research projects requiring lots of gigabyte muscle. Now, with EU help, a solution has been found in Germany.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Textbooks for rent
Leah Germain
As any university graduate can attest, the process of getting a degree is often a pricey endeavour. Along with tuition fees, students find themselves shelling out for textbooks and course packs that can add up to a small fortune, an average of US$900 a year in America. But BookRenter, a web-based company in northern California, is offering students an alternative to purchasing their expensive textbooks: simply rent them.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: New marketing tools aid wine producers
Leah Germain
A European research team has developed an online course to help small wine-producing businesses boost their commercial operations and establish a better understanding of their market. Scotland's University of Glasgow has coordinated the project, with the intention of giving small wine producers a chance to promote their highest quality products.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
UK: E-learning expert urges caution and balance
John Gerritsen
It would be fair to say that Grainne Conole was an early adopter of new technologies. While completing her PhD in chemistry, Conole was using email at a time when her colleagues could not see the point - why not send a letter, they asked. She had the same experience with the internet. Although attitudes have moved on since then, the professor of e-learning at the UK's Open University is still working at the cutting edge of technology.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Managing natural resources
Kristin Mosch and Stephan Weidt*
The Centre for Natural Resources and Development at Cologne University of Applied Sciences is one of the five winners of the Exceed - Excellence for Development - competition. Since uncontrolled consumption of natural resources causes several development problems, ensuring environmental sustainability was adopted in the list of Millennium Development Goals or MDG 7. The centre is concentrating on water management, land use and biodiversity, renewable energy sources and regional management to help achieve this goal.
Full report on the University World News site:
HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
DENMARK: Tuition fees and private universities loom
Ard Jongsma
Students and a united political opposition are baffled by new proposals from Science Minister Helge Sander to depart from the Danish tradition of free higher education for all. Both groups seemed taken by surprise at parliamentary debates following publication last week of a discussion paper setting out the options for a partial privatisation of higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
CHINA: Academic freedom and public intellectuals
Qiang Zha
Academic freedom has always been viewed as problematic in China. The recent academic integrity crisis on university campuses and governmental intervention have once again brought this issue to the fore. Since 2002, China's Ministry of Education has promulgated a series of policies aimed at cleaning up academic corruption on university campuses. Most recently, in March 2009, it announced severe penalties for academic misbehaviour. Then, what is the status quo of academic freedom in Chinese universities?
First published in International Higher Education.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Will China achieve science supremacy?
Last week in Room for Debate, a New York Times blog, Chinese and American academics probed the question: how likely is it that China will become the world's leader in science and technology, and what are the impediments to creating a research climate that would allow scientists to thrive?
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UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories
NORWAY: Sacked professor sues the state
Jan Petter Myklebust
Earlier this month, five days were spent in an Oslo court to hear testimonies in a case where sacked University of Oslo Professor Arnved Nedkvitne is suing the Norwegian government. Nedkvitne has demanded that he either be reinstated as a full professor in medieval history or paid financial compensation until he reaches pension age.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK: Liter8 lrnrs: Is texting valuable or vandalism?
Children who are heavy users of mobile phone text abbreviations such as LOL (laughing out loud), plz (please), l8ter (later) and xxx (kisses), are unlikely to be problem spellers and readers, a new study by a Coventry University researcher has found.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: A silly man comes under fire
Two academics at Monash University in Melbourne sent an email to the dean of their faculty after he proposed making some of their colleagues redundant. Their comments will resonate among academics in universities around the world where research apparently counts for much more than teaching.
Full report on the University World News site:
The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in
higher education worldwide. More than 1,700 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
INDIA: 44 universities to be stripped of deemed status
From an institution located inside New Delhi's National Museum to a 19-hectare campus at Faridabad in Haryana, shock waves were felt at 44 'deemed' universities after the government told the Supreme Court last Monday that they did not deserve the status, write Aparna Kalra and Santosh K Joy for LiveMint. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the government would protect the interests of an estimated 200,000 students whose future had been thrown into uncertainty. The move sparked student protests.
More on the University World News site:
INDIA: Education reform bills cleared
Notwithstanding initial hiccups, the Human Resource Development Ministry's two major Bills that promise to change the face of higher education in India - accreditation of higher education institutions and setting up educational tribunals - were cleared (with minor changes) by the Group of Ministers on Thursday, writes Akshaya Mukul for The Times of India.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Postgraduate rise largely a foreign affair
British universities are rapidly expanding the recruitment of overseas postgraduates who pay higher fees, but growth in the number of domestic postgraduates is far slower, a study has found, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education. The analysis by the Higher Education Policy Institute and the British Library, published on Thursday, urges the government to make PhDs more attractive to British students to arrest the erosion of the UK's research base.
More on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Major revamp for polytechnic education
Technical and polytechnic education in Malaysia will be overhauled this year in order to restore public confidence, writes Richard Lim for The Star. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the move was necessary as polytechnics were currently regarded as a second chance route for weaker students and this perception had to change.
More on the University World News site:
ISRAEL: West Bank college upgraded to university
Israel has agreed to upgrade to university status a college built in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, a move critics see as placing another obstacle in the path of US-backed efforts to resume stalled peace talks, writes Allyn Fisher-Ilan for Reuters. The decision by Defence Minister Ehud Barak formalised a 2005 cabinet ruling to that effect but also coincided with the latest visit to the region by US peace envoy George Mitchell for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
More on the University World News site:
US: Controversial visa bans on academics lifted
Adam Habib and Tariq Ramadan should soon be able to enter the United States once again, ending years in which the Bush administration kept out the two prominent scholars, infuriating many academic groups, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Several academic groups have been in a protracted legal battle with the government over the visa denials to Habib, a Deputy Vice-chancellor at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, and Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University.
More on the University World News site:
US: Professor is a label that leans to the left
The overwhelmingly liberal tilt of university professors has been explained by everything from outright bias to higher IQ scores. Now new research suggests that critics may have been asking the wrong question. Instead of looking at why most professors are liberal, they should ask why so many liberals - and so few conservatives - want to be professors, writes Patricia Cohen for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site:
US: Terrible fiscal decline for higher education
By any financial measure, this fiscal year is a terrible one for public higher education. And while that's no surprise to anyone working at a state college or university, new national data document the extent of the loss of state support, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. Total state support for higher education for 2009-10 - including federal stimulus dollars - is US$79.4 billion, which is a decline of 1.1% from the prior year and 1.7% from the year before that. This represents a dramatic shift from the three-year period of 2005 to 2008 when state support grew 24% to $80.7 billion - without federal stimulus dollars in the equation.
More on the University World News site:
US: Recession takes toll on university presidents' pay
The recession has reached the executive suites of America's public universities and colleges, putting a stop to a string of large annual pay increases for school presidents, writes Eric Gorski for Associated Press. A survey released on Monday by the Chronicle of Higher Education showed compensation packages of chief executives at public universities levelling off in 2008-09, rising a relatively modest 2.3%. One in 10 saw their pay decline. Some who did get raises or bonuses gave the money back to their institutions.
More on the University World News site:
US: More women out-earning, out-learning husbands
Bringing home the bacon is less and less a man's job in the US these days, writes Nicole Santa Cruz for The Los Angeles Times. According to a Pew Research Center study released on Tuesday, a larger share of men are married to women whose education and income exceed their own. In 1970, 4% of husbands had wives who made more money than they did. In 2007, that share rose to 22%.
More on the University World News site:
US: Survey finds more students worried about finances
Family unemployment and a growing student loan burden are making American college students increasingly anxious about finances, according to a national survey by University of California - Los Angeles researchers, writes Larry Gordon for the Los Angeles Times. Nearly 67% of freshmen at four-year colleges and universities said they had at least some concerns about paying their tuition bills, the highest percentage expressing such anxieties in a dozen years, the annual study found. And with unemployment affecting many families, about 53% of freshmen who took part in the survey last autumn said they carried student loans, up about 4% from the previous year and the highest in nine years.
More on the University World News site:
WALES: University job losses and course closures forecast
The body responsible for higher education funding in Wales has warned of job losses and the closure of courses as a result of falling funding levels, writes Matt Withers for Western Mail. Giving evidence to National Assembly Finance Committee's inquiry into further and higher education funding, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales said it was "inconceivable" that budget restraints would not lead to cutbacks in teaching and research.
More on the University World News site:
Friday, 22 January 2010
University World News 0107 - 18th January 2010
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
HAITI: Quake devastates universities, kills academics
Karen MacGregor
Universities have been destroyed and students and academics killed in the earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday. Unesco urged "academia to show solidarity" and universities elsewhere to take in Haitian students. By yesterday it was known that at least three North American academics and five students had died or were still missing in the Caribbean nation.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Foiled attack spotlights foreign students
Wagdy Sawahel
The Christmas Day attempt by a N igerian student to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit has raised fears the incident will adversely affect foreign students, academics and researchers hoping to pursue their education in American and European universities. US President Barack Obama has ordered a comprehensive review of visa policy, including tightening regulations for N igerians - especially students and those aged between 20 and 60.
Full report on the University World News site:
INDONESIA: Cleaning up higher education
David Jardine
Indonesia's National Board for Higher Education Accreditation has announced its determination to clean up a sector riddled with bad practices. The board has set 2012 as its target for ridding universities of unaccredited undergraduate courses.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Indian murder inflames tensions
Geoff Maslen
The stabbing to death of Indian accountancy graduate Nitin Garg in Melbourne on 2 January has further inflamed tensions between India and Australia and attracted media coverage from around the world. SM Krishna, India's Foreign Minister, warned last week that continued violence against Indian students in Australia could damage relations between the two countries. Krishna called for immediate action by Australian authorities to protect Indian citizens. University World News writers comment on the implications of the continuing attacks on Indian students in the Features and Research and Commentary sections.
Full reports on the University World News site:
UK: Tories to close visa loophole
Diane Spencer
A British Conservative government would demand a £2,000 (US$3,250) bond from overseas students in a bid to tackle bogus colleges and abuses of the visa system. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said the present student visa system represented "a huge loophole in our border controls and, despite years of promises, the government has completely failed to deal with the problem".
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: More autonomous universities
Jane Marshall
A second group of French universities became autonomous this month, bringing to 51 the number of institutions acquiring more freedom to manage their own affairs. The government's determination to encourage a 'results-based culture' in the sector is reflected in new funding criteria that take graduate employment rates and research assessments into account.
Full report on the University World News site:
THE NETHERLANDS: Too few women professors
Jan Petter Myklebust
Universities in the Netherlands have 271 full professors who are women - out of a total of 2,321, or less than 12%. A recent report reviews these statistics and discusses how to boost the proportion of new female professors.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Universities face more under-prepared students
Sharon Dell
Increased numbers of South African school-leavers eligible for university study, but with poor pass rates in mathematics and science in the 2009 national 'matriculation' examinations, mean universities will increasingly battle to provide academic support for under-prepared students.
Full report on the University World News site:
N IGERIA: Telemedicine arrives at Lagos
Tunde Fatunde
Telemedicine has finally arrived in N igeria via a pilot project recently launched at Lagos University. This interactive electronic mode of teaching, research and provision of medical services has been embraced by lecturers, students and patients. Its efficiency and cost-savings have encouraged other universities to consider partnerships with IT companies that provide telemedicine infrastructure.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAWI: Churches try to avert university quotas
Malawian clerics have embarked on a last-minute attempt to stop a controversial university quota system from taking effect. Planned demonstrations were blocked by the police who said they were illegal, but a petition was sent to President Bingu Wa Mutharika urging him to annul the system that directs university entry to be based on place of origin and not on merit.
Full report on the University World News site:
TUNISIA: Progress in agricultural R&D
Jane Marshall
Agricultural research and development projects have been highlighted in La Presse of Tunis. The newspaper has interviewed Amor Chermiti on the activities of Inrat, the National Institute of Agronomic Research of Tunisia, of which he is Director General, and it has published reports on the Bizerte competitive research cluster and its Agri-tech business centre and the research assessment area of the Institute of Arid Regions, which became fully operative in 2009.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Hoax call to deport Zimbabwe graduates
Munyaradzi Makoni
A statement that appeared in the press calling for the repatriation of Zimbabwean graduates of South Africa's University of Fort Hare, has been dismissed as a hoax. But last week a dozen students who had presidential scholarships withdrawn by Zimbabwe's government for engaging in political activity, slammed the university for "allowing them to be victimised", London-based SW Radio reported.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWSBRIEFS
UK: VCs attack cuts to the sector
Leaders of the elite Russell Group of 20 research-intensive universities launched a scathing attack on the Labour government's cuts to the higher education budget. Writing in The Guardian Michael Arthur, chair of the group, and Wendy Piatt, its Director General, accused the government of bringing an 800-year-old world-class system to its knees.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: New website for academics and students
British parent Billy Fitzgerald noticed that his student daughter was spending too much time on Facebook and not enough on studying. So he designed a website, http://www.studentsandacademics.com, that has research and social network tools as well as ezines, videos, online newspapers, horoscope and news reports.
Full report on the University World News:
DR CONGO: Teaching assistants demand back pay
Angry teaching assistants at Unikin, the University of Kinshasa, who have not been paid for the past 10 months have threatened to down tools and take to the streets in an attempt to make ministers carry out their responsibilities, reported Digital Congo of Kinshasa.
Full report on the University World News site:
SENEGAL: Students demonstrate for grant payments
Students at UCAD, the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, started the new year with violent demonstrations demanding back payment of their grants, reported
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
CHINA: Dissident academic jailed
Daniel Sawney and Jonathan Travis*
Chinese intellectual and dissident Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment on 25 December for his part in drafting and signing the 'Charter 08' document, which calls for significant reforms to the Chinese political system.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World News site:
FEATURES
AUSTRALIA: Indian attacks raise diplomatic problems
Dale Down
The international higher education sector in Australia has been developing rapidly in recent years and going through some interesting changes, as well as facing new challenges. Difficult financial conditions around the world and the threats of pandemics such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and swine flu have had their effects on the numbers of students undertaking tertiary studies in Australia. But perhaps the most difficult challenge to the industry in recent times has been, and continues to be, the appalling number of attacks on Indian students. Working through this issue will mean walking a very fine and diplomatically delicate line.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Saving the world's water
Sabine Hellmann and Kristin Mosch*
Water is one of the 21st century's key development issues. Worldwide, 1.2 million people have no access to clean drinking water while around three billion have to make do without sanitary facilities or wastewater disposal.
Full report on the University World News site:
THE UWN INTERVIEW
US: Human cloning - solely a medical issue?
John Richard Schrock*
Dr Panayiotis Zavos is recognised worldwide as a leading researcher and authority in the areas of male reproductive physiology, gamete physiology, male infertility and other assistive reproductive technologies. Zavos' team was the first to create human cloned embryos for reproductive purposes. In this interview, he discusses the controversial issue of cloning humans.
Full report on the University World News site:
HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: International student security
Simon Marginson*
I want to take up an issue that goes to the heart of higher education, especially research universities, around the world. It is about global mobility, especially the mobility of human subjects. It also highlights the implications of changes in higher education for the larger world: that issue is the human security of international students, by which I mean people who cross national borders for the purposes of formal study.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Why Twitter matters
Camille Rutherford*
In the past year the popularity of the micro-blogging/social network site Twitter has exploded as the media grabbed hold of this once relatively obscure site and launched it into the stratosphere by anointing it as the place to be for techies, politicians, news junkies, and Hollywood stars. First published by Academic Matters.
Full report on the University World News site:
ETHIOPIA: The dilemmas of higher education expansion
Liz Reisberg and Laura E Rumbley*
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. More than three-fourths of the nation's primary economic activity involves small-scale agriculture, not only highly inefficient but extremely vulnerable to variations in climate and international market prices. To move from an agrarian to a modern economy, Ethiopia requires citizens with more education. This necessity is especially critical in a country with the 15th-largest population on the planet and a median age of barely 17 years. Accordingly, the government has expanded the higher education system while growing enrolment, both at breakneck speed. First published in International Higher Education.
Full report on the University World News site:
UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories
US: Etching found at university may be a Rembrandt
Soon after becoming president of Catholic University, the Very Reverend David M O'Connell went in search of paper towels in his bathroom cabinet, writes Jenna Johnson for The Washington Post. Something on the bottom shelf caught his eye. Under a pile of junk, he found an old frame. In the frame was a tiny etching of an old man with an unruly beard and billowing hat, composed of thousands of fine lines. His eyes are tired. His head nods toward his chest. The piece is signed 'Rembrandt'.
More on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Dolphins second brightest on planet
Dolphins have been declared the world's second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as "non-human persons", writes Jonathan Leake for the London Sunday Times.
More on the University World News site:
FACEBOOK
The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in
higher education worldwide. Almost 1,700 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
IRAN: Remote-controlled bomb kills nuclear physicist
A remote-controlled bomb killed a Tehran University physics professor near his home early on Tuesday in what Iranian authorities called an assassination backed by Western powers, including the US and Israel, write Farnaz Fassihi and Chip Cummins for The Wall Street Journal. The victim was identified as 50-year-old Masoud Ali Mohammadi.
More on the University World News site:
CANADA: Palm scanning for students raises fears
In a move that has prompted at least three complaints to Canada's privacy czar, a growing number of professional programmes such as medicine and business now require students to give a digital print of their finger, thumb or even veins in their palm to write the high-stakes entrance tests designed and run out of the United States, writes Louise Brown for The Star.
More on the University World News site:
CHINA: Foreign status faked to access universities
Students born, raised and educated in China are using fake foreign passports to get into top universities, which have higher entrance standards for domestic candidates, state media said last week, reports AFP. Fake foreign passports can be bought in eastern China for around 200,000 yuan (US$29,300 dollars), the Global Times said of the bogus enrolment scam.
More on the University World News site:
CHINA: Record numbers flock to postgraduate exam
China's three-day national postgraduate examination attracted 1.4 million registered applicants, a record number since 2001 and a 13% increase over 2009, the official Xinhua news agency reports. The candidates competed for 465,000 seats, which means around one in three examinees will succeed.
More on the University World News site:
US-CHINA: Chinese gift to Yale sparks outrage at home
When Zhang Lei, a Chinese fund manager who earned an MBA at Yale's School of Management, agreed to donate $8,888,888 to his American alma mater, it's a safe bet that he didn't expect it would make people angry, reports The Wall Street Journal. But the announcement of his gift - the business school's largest ever from one of its graduates - has triggered a fiery debate in China over national loyalties.
More on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Ethnic campus clubs on the rise
Many things would surprise South African student activists of the '70s and '80s if they were to go back to the universities in which they studied, writes Dinga Sikwebu for The Sunday Times. Not only would they discover a changed landscape in terms of student composition, and the reconfiguration of institutions of higher learning, they would also be surprised at how universities are now run like businesses with strong cost-management programmes. But nothing is likely to shock them more than posters advertising meetings for Zulus, Pedis, Xhosas, Tswanas, Sothos, Vendas and Shangaans.
More on the University World News site:
UK: HIV-Aids deniers land radical journal in trouble
It has published papers on everything from ejaculation as a treatment for nasal congestion to why modern scientists are so dull, but the future of Medical Hypotheses is hanging in the balance after a host of complaints from high-profile researchers, writes By Zoë Corbyn for Times Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
US: Top universities criticised over financial aid to wealthy
Many of America's top public universities are giving millions of dollars in financial aid to students from relatively wealthy families instead of to those who urgently need it, resulting in campuses that are often less diverse than those at elite private schools, a new report says, writes Jenna Johnson for The Washington Post.
More on the University World News site:
US: Circular ratings
New research raises additional questions about the 'reputational' survey that is worth 25% (more than any other factor) on the US News & World Report rankings of colleges, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. What the research found is that the reputational scores don't correlate with changes in factors such as resources or graduation rates, but correlate with the previous year's rankings. In other words, the way you get a good reputational score - and in turn a good ranking - is to already have a good ranking.
More on the University World News site:
US: Israel in the American classroom
Supporters of Israel have worried of late that much of the campus discussion about the country has taken place in rallies and counter-rallies on the quad, and not in the classroom, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. But a study released on Wednesday found significant growth in the past few years in the number of courses focused on Israel. Further, these courses are appearing in a wider range of disciplines than in the past and do not focus exclusively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the military history of Israel.
More on the University World News site:
US: When tenure means nothing
Clark Atlanta University violated the rights of 55 faculty members - 20 of them with tenure - when it eliminated their jobs without faculty consultation or due process, and without regard to whether or not they had tenure, according to a report issued on Wednesday by the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP called the dismissals, covering a quarter of the faculty, "outrageous" and "especially egregious", writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site:
US: Suit settled over Kindle navigation by the blind
The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have settled a lawsuit against Arizona State University over its plan to deploy the Kindle DX among students, writes Jacqui Cheng for Ars Technica. The settlement involves no monetary damages, but the university agreed to use devices that are more accessible to the blind if it chooses to deploy e-book readers in the coming years. If Amazon wants to be part of that deployment, it had better up its accessibility game.
More on the University World News site:
UK-INDIA: Sibal visits to strengthen education ties
UK Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson was among the British delegation meeting the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, last week for discussions about the broad range of UK-India cooperation, reports the official The Gov Monitor.
More on the University World News site:
HAITI: Quake devastates universities, kills academics
Karen MacGregor
Universities have been destroyed and students and academics killed in the earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday. Unesco urged "academia to show solidarity" and universities elsewhere to take in Haitian students. By yesterday it was known that at least three North American academics and five students had died or were still missing in the Caribbean nation.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Foiled attack spotlights foreign students
Wagdy Sawahel
The Christmas Day attempt by a N igerian student to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit has raised fears the incident will adversely affect foreign students, academics and researchers hoping to pursue their education in American and European universities. US President Barack Obama has ordered a comprehensive review of visa policy, including tightening regulations for N igerians - especially students and those aged between 20 and 60.
Full report on the University World News site:
INDONESIA: Cleaning up higher education
David Jardine
Indonesia's National Board for Higher Education Accreditation has announced its determination to clean up a sector riddled with bad practices. The board has set 2012 as its target for ridding universities of unaccredited undergraduate courses.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Indian murder inflames tensions
Geoff Maslen
The stabbing to death of Indian accountancy graduate Nitin Garg in Melbourne on 2 January has further inflamed tensions between India and Australia and attracted media coverage from around the world. SM Krishna, India's Foreign Minister, warned last week that continued violence against Indian students in Australia could damage relations between the two countries. Krishna called for immediate action by Australian authorities to protect Indian citizens. University World News writers comment on the implications of the continuing attacks on Indian students in the Features and Research and Commentary sections.
Full reports on the University World News site:
UK: Tories to close visa loophole
Diane Spencer
A British Conservative government would demand a £2,000 (US$3,250) bond from overseas students in a bid to tackle bogus colleges and abuses of the visa system. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said the present student visa system represented "a huge loophole in our border controls and, despite years of promises, the government has completely failed to deal with the problem".
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: More autonomous universities
Jane Marshall
A second group of French universities became autonomous this month, bringing to 51 the number of institutions acquiring more freedom to manage their own affairs. The government's determination to encourage a 'results-based culture' in the sector is reflected in new funding criteria that take graduate employment rates and research assessments into account.
Full report on the University World News site:
THE NETHERLANDS: Too few women professors
Jan Petter Myklebust
Universities in the Netherlands have 271 full professors who are women - out of a total of 2,321, or less than 12%. A recent report reviews these statistics and discusses how to boost the proportion of new female professors.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Universities face more under-prepared students
Sharon Dell
Increased numbers of South African school-leavers eligible for university study, but with poor pass rates in mathematics and science in the 2009 national 'matriculation' examinations, mean universities will increasingly battle to provide academic support for under-prepared students.
Full report on the University World News site:
N IGERIA: Telemedicine arrives at Lagos
Tunde Fatunde
Telemedicine has finally arrived in N igeria via a pilot project recently launched at Lagos University. This interactive electronic mode of teaching, research and provision of medical services has been embraced by lecturers, students and patients. Its efficiency and cost-savings have encouraged other universities to consider partnerships with IT companies that provide telemedicine infrastructure.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAWI: Churches try to avert university quotas
Malawian clerics have embarked on a last-minute attempt to stop a controversial university quota system from taking effect. Planned demonstrations were blocked by the police who said they were illegal, but a petition was sent to President Bingu Wa Mutharika urging him to annul the system that directs university entry to be based on place of origin and not on merit.
Full report on the University World News site:
TUNISIA: Progress in agricultural R&D
Jane Marshall
Agricultural research and development projects have been highlighted in La Presse of Tunis. The newspaper has interviewed Amor Chermiti on the activities of Inrat, the National Institute of Agronomic Research of Tunisia, of which he is Director General, and it has published reports on the Bizerte competitive research cluster and its Agri-tech business centre and the research assessment area of the Institute of Arid Regions, which became fully operative in 2009.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Hoax call to deport Zimbabwe graduates
Munyaradzi Makoni
A statement that appeared in the press calling for the repatriation of Zimbabwean graduates of South Africa's University of Fort Hare, has been dismissed as a hoax. But last week a dozen students who had presidential scholarships withdrawn by Zimbabwe's government for engaging in political activity, slammed the university for "allowing them to be victimised", London-based SW Radio reported.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWSBRIEFS
UK: VCs attack cuts to the sector
Leaders of the elite Russell Group of 20 research-intensive universities launched a scathing attack on the Labour government's cuts to the higher education budget. Writing in The Guardian Michael Arthur, chair of the group, and Wendy Piatt, its Director General, accused the government of bringing an 800-year-old world-class system to its knees.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: New website for academics and students
British parent Billy Fitzgerald noticed that his student daughter was spending too much time on Facebook and not enough on studying. So he designed a website, http://www.studentsandacademics.com, that has research and social network tools as well as ezines, videos, online newspapers, horoscope and news reports.
Full report on the University World News:
DR CONGO: Teaching assistants demand back pay
Angry teaching assistants at Unikin, the University of Kinshasa, who have not been paid for the past 10 months have threatened to down tools and take to the streets in an attempt to make ministers carry out their responsibilities, reported Digital Congo of Kinshasa.
Full report on the University World News site:
SENEGAL: Students demonstrate for grant payments
Students at UCAD, the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, started the new year with violent demonstrations demanding back payment of their grants, reported
reported Wal Fadjri of Dakar.
Full report on the University World News site:ACADEMIC FREEDOM
CHINA: Dissident academic jailed
Daniel Sawney and Jonathan Travis*
Chinese intellectual and dissident Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment on 25 December for his part in drafting and signing the 'Charter 08' document, which calls for significant reforms to the Chinese political system.
More Academic Freedom reports on the University World News site:
FEATURES
AUSTRALIA: Indian attacks raise diplomatic problems
Dale Down
The international higher education sector in Australia has been developing rapidly in recent years and going through some interesting changes, as well as facing new challenges. Difficult financial conditions around the world and the threats of pandemics such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and swine flu have had their effects on the numbers of students undertaking tertiary studies in Australia. But perhaps the most difficult challenge to the industry in recent times has been, and continues to be, the appalling number of attacks on Indian students. Working through this issue will mean walking a very fine and diplomatically delicate line.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Saving the world's water
Sabine Hellmann and Kristin Mosch*
Water is one of the 21st century's key development issues. Worldwide, 1.2 million people have no access to clean drinking water while around three billion have to make do without sanitary facilities or wastewater disposal.
Full report on the University World News site:
THE UWN INTERVIEW
US: Human cloning - solely a medical issue?
John Richard Schrock*
Dr Panayiotis Zavos is recognised worldwide as a leading researcher and authority in the areas of male reproductive physiology, gamete physiology, male infertility and other assistive reproductive technologies. Zavos' team was the first to create human cloned embryos for reproductive purposes. In this interview, he discusses the controversial issue of cloning humans.
Full report on the University World News site:
HE RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: International student security
Simon Marginson*
I want to take up an issue that goes to the heart of higher education, especially research universities, around the world. It is about global mobility, especially the mobility of human subjects. It also highlights the implications of changes in higher education for the larger world: that issue is the human security of international students, by which I mean people who cross national borders for the purposes of formal study.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Why Twitter matters
Camille Rutherford*
In the past year the popularity of the micro-blogging/social network site Twitter has exploded as the media grabbed hold of this once relatively obscure site and launched it into the stratosphere by anointing it as the place to be for techies, politicians, news junkies, and Hollywood stars. First published by Academic Matters.
Full report on the University World News site:
ETHIOPIA: The dilemmas of higher education expansion
Liz Reisberg and Laura E Rumbley*
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. More than three-fourths of the nation's primary economic activity involves small-scale agriculture, not only highly inefficient but extremely vulnerable to variations in climate and international market prices. To move from an agrarian to a modern economy, Ethiopia requires citizens with more education. This necessity is especially critical in a country with the 15th-largest population on the planet and a median age of barely 17 years. Accordingly, the government has expanded the higher education system while growing enrolment, both at breakneck speed. First published in International Higher Education.
Full report on the University World News site:
UNI-LATERAL: Off-beat university stories
US: Etching found at university may be a Rembrandt
Soon after becoming president of Catholic University, the Very Reverend David M O'Connell went in search of paper towels in his bathroom cabinet, writes Jenna Johnson for The Washington Post. Something on the bottom shelf caught his eye. Under a pile of junk, he found an old frame. In the frame was a tiny etching of an old man with an unruly beard and billowing hat, composed of thousands of fine lines. His eyes are tired. His head nods toward his chest. The piece is signed 'Rembrandt'.
More on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Dolphins second brightest on planet
Dolphins have been declared the world's second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as "non-human persons", writes Jonathan Leake for the London Sunday Times.
More on the University World News site:
The Facebook group of University World News is the fastest growing in
higher education worldwide. Almost 1,700 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
IRAN: Remote-controlled bomb kills nuclear physicist
A remote-controlled bomb killed a Tehran University physics professor near his home early on Tuesday in what Iranian authorities called an assassination backed by Western powers, including the US and Israel, write Farnaz Fassihi and Chip Cummins for The Wall Street Journal. The victim was identified as 50-year-old Masoud Ali Mohammadi.
More on the University World News site:
CANADA: Palm scanning for students raises fears
In a move that has prompted at least three complaints to Canada's privacy czar, a growing number of professional programmes such as medicine and business now require students to give a digital print of their finger, thumb or even veins in their palm to write the high-stakes entrance tests designed and run out of the United States, writes Louise Brown for The Star.
More on the University World News site:
CHINA: Foreign status faked to access universities
Students born, raised and educated in China are using fake foreign passports to get into top universities, which have higher entrance standards for domestic candidates, state media said last week, reports AFP. Fake foreign passports can be bought in eastern China for around 200,000 yuan (US$29,300 dollars), the Global Times said of the bogus enrolment scam.
More on the University World News site:
CHINA: Record numbers flock to postgraduate exam
China's three-day national postgraduate examination attracted 1.4 million registered applicants, a record number since 2001 and a 13% increase over 2009, the official Xinhua news agency reports. The candidates competed for 465,000 seats, which means around one in three examinees will succeed.
More on the University World News site:
US-CHINA: Chinese gift to Yale sparks outrage at home
When Zhang Lei, a Chinese fund manager who earned an MBA at Yale's School of Management, agreed to donate $8,888,888 to his American alma mater, it's a safe bet that he didn't expect it would make people angry, reports The Wall Street Journal. But the announcement of his gift - the business school's largest ever from one of its graduates - has triggered a fiery debate in China over national loyalties.
More on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Ethnic campus clubs on the rise
Many things would surprise South African student activists of the '70s and '80s if they were to go back to the universities in which they studied, writes Dinga Sikwebu for The Sunday Times. Not only would they discover a changed landscape in terms of student composition, and the reconfiguration of institutions of higher learning, they would also be surprised at how universities are now run like businesses with strong cost-management programmes. But nothing is likely to shock them more than posters advertising meetings for Zulus, Pedis, Xhosas, Tswanas, Sothos, Vendas and Shangaans.
More on the University World News site:
UK: HIV-Aids deniers land radical journal in trouble
It has published papers on everything from ejaculation as a treatment for nasal congestion to why modern scientists are so dull, but the future of Medical Hypotheses is hanging in the balance after a host of complaints from high-profile researchers, writes By Zoë Corbyn for Times Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
US: Top universities criticised over financial aid to wealthy
Many of America's top public universities are giving millions of dollars in financial aid to students from relatively wealthy families instead of to those who urgently need it, resulting in campuses that are often less diverse than those at elite private schools, a new report says, writes Jenna Johnson for The Washington Post.
More on the University World News site:
US: Circular ratings
New research raises additional questions about the 'reputational' survey that is worth 25% (more than any other factor) on the US News & World Report rankings of colleges, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. What the research found is that the reputational scores don't correlate with changes in factors such as resources or graduation rates, but correlate with the previous year's rankings. In other words, the way you get a good reputational score - and in turn a good ranking - is to already have a good ranking.
More on the University World News site:
US: Israel in the American classroom
Supporters of Israel have worried of late that much of the campus discussion about the country has taken place in rallies and counter-rallies on the quad, and not in the classroom, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. But a study released on Wednesday found significant growth in the past few years in the number of courses focused on Israel. Further, these courses are appearing in a wider range of disciplines than in the past and do not focus exclusively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the military history of Israel.
More on the University World News site:
US: When tenure means nothing
Clark Atlanta University violated the rights of 55 faculty members - 20 of them with tenure - when it eliminated their jobs without faculty consultation or due process, and without regard to whether or not they had tenure, according to a report issued on Wednesday by the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP called the dismissals, covering a quarter of the faculty, "outrageous" and "especially egregious", writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site:
US: Suit settled over Kindle navigation by the blind
The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have settled a lawsuit against Arizona State University over its plan to deploy the Kindle DX among students, writes Jacqui Cheng for Ars Technica. The settlement involves no monetary damages, but the university agreed to use devices that are more accessible to the blind if it chooses to deploy e-book readers in the coming years. If Amazon wants to be part of that deployment, it had better up its accessibility game.
More on the University World News site:
UK-INDIA: Sibal visits to strengthen education ties
UK Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson was among the British delegation meeting the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, last week for discussions about the broad range of UK-India cooperation, reports the official The Gov Monitor.
More on the University World News site:
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