This week's highlights
In Features ALYA MISHRA writes that while the first India-US higher education summit provided recognition of the growing international importance of India's universities, there is a wide gap between what India needs and what American institutions might provide. YOJANA SHARMA reports on rising hopes in Malaysia that a draconian law restricting student political activity on campuses might be scrapped, and SARAH KING HEAD looks at differentiation of institutional mission in Canadian higher education, as discussed at the "Stepford Universities?" conference in Toronto. In Commentary, RICHARD HOLMES critiques the latest global university rankings produced by Times Higher Education, and BIANKA SIWIÑSKA charts the dramatic growth of private higher education in Poland - and the dire threats it faces today. KATE ASHCROFT highlights the central messages in a just-published book she co-authored on dilemmas of development work in African universities.
A reason to celebrate
GLOBAL: University World News turns four On the face of it, there is nothing special about a fourth anniversary. Other annual milestones - first, fifth, tenth and so on - seem more appealing. But when University World News was launched on 14 October 2007 the journalists involved were uncertain that their audacious idea of producing the planet's first international higher education newspaper would last four months. So we are celebrating reaching four years. Full report on the University World News site:
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
ASIA: Higher education in East Asia must improve Yojana Sharma University access has increased dramatically in low- and middle-income countries of East Asia, but higher education is "not yet fulfilling its potential", according to the World Bank. The emerging economies and developing countries of Asia need to improve higher education to maintain economic growth and "climb the income ladder", it said in a just-released report.
Full report on the University World News site:
IRAQ: Sweeping higher education reforms planned Wagdy Sawahel Iraq plans to rebuild its war-torn higher education system by giving financial and administrative independence to universities, establishing spec ialised institutions and allowing foreign universities to open branches in the country.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Ministers divided on foreign student rules Jane Marshall Laurent Wauquiez, France's minister for higher education and research, is embroiled in a row with Claude Guéant, the interior minister, over whether new immigration measures have made it more difficult to attract talented foreign students.
Full report on the University World News site:
SPAIN: Study highlights progress on fair access Paul Rigg Spanish universities help to neutralise social inequality, according to the largest study of university students undertaken in Spain. The research shows that 51% of university students come from families whose parents never accessed higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: Elections reinstate some university leaders Ashraf Khaled Four university presidents in Egypt have kept their posts in unprecedented elections, just weeks after they were forced to step down. The elections were held recently at the public universities of Cairo, Beni Suef, Benha and South Valley.
Full report on the University World News site:
SINGAPORE: Research manipulation claims probed Emilia Tan Huge expansion in Singapore's science research could be leading to stresses in the system. A former professor at the top-rated National University of Singapore has come under scrutiny for possible fabrication of research data.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Nobel prizes for science and economics Geoff Maslen Seven distinguished scientists have received Nobel prizes for science this year although one of them, Canadian professor Ralph M Steinman, died of pancreatic cancer three days before news of the award reached him. It is the first time a Nobel prize has been awarded posthumously, although this is against the Nobel Foundation's statutes. On Monday the economic sciences prize in memory of Alfred Nobel went to two US macro-economists.
Full report on the University World News site:
BRAZIL: Silence greets collaboration plan with Europe Tom Hennigan Brazil and the European Union will hold a meeting next year to focus on improving academic and student mobility, as part of a drive to strengthen cooperation in higher education and research. The partnership with the EU has so far been greeted by silence in Brazil, with no comment from higher education organisations or any apparent press coverage.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Powerful search tool now includes books Jacquie Withers Thomson Reuters last week launched a Book Citation Index, a new resource that includes scholarly books within the Web of Knowledge search and discovery platform and will enable academic libraries to increase the visibility of their book collections, the company says. Starting with 25,000 books, the number will double by the end of 2013.
Full report on the University World News site:
N IGERIA: Terror agenda sparks debate on campuses Tunde Fatunde The political and ideological agenda of Boko Haram, a Muslim fundamentalist group that opposes 'Western education', has ignited debate at N igerian universities. The group has attacked buildings and threatened to send suicide bombers onto campuses. The university community has roundly condemned terror, but is polarised over Boko Haram's intentions.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Young scientists recognised in academy Munyaradzi Makoni An early-career scientists' academy aimed at nurturing the development of top young academics and unlocking their collective potential to tackle national and global problems, has been launched in South Africa. It is the latest offshoot of the rapidly growing Global Young Academy. Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
INDIA: Higher education summit with US reveals gaps Alya Mishra The first India-US higher education summit, between India's Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, was aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two countries. It provided symbolic recognition of the importance of India's university and research sectors for international interaction. But in India academics and students were expressed scepticism that it would yield any real change in education outcomes, with a wide gap between India's needs and what US institutions might provide.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Repressive university act under review Yojana Sharma Hopes that a draconian law that restricts political activity on university campuses in Malaysia might be scrapped have risen dramatically in recent weeks, with government ministers publicly calling for change. But academics say it will only be a partial opening up, with lecturers and university staff still subject to controls.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Driving the differentiation bus Sarah King Head Differentiation of institutional mission in Canadian higher education seems inevitable and undisputed. But how to drive the "differentiation bus" across the sector was the question that framed discussions at an armchair panel session of the recent "Stepford Universities?" conference.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: Rankings - Despite changes, questions persist There are now a large number of global university rankings. Each has its own strength, but they have drawn a lot of scepticism from the higher education sector. The latest, the Times Higher Education-Thomson Reuters rankings, have been revised substantially since last year, making comparisons impossible, says RICHARD HOLMES. There are improvements but still also inconsistencies, leaving the compilers facing some difficult questions.
Full report on the University World News site:
POLAND: Private higher education under threat The emergence and growth of private higher education in Poland has been widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements of the country's transformation in the 1990s, writes BIANKA SIWIŃSKA. Now, however, the sector is endangered - not only due to great demographic pressure, but also to unfair treatment of private institutions by the state.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Dilemmas of development work in universities Most Sub-Saharan African problems are multilayered, requiring social, cultural, economic and scientific solutions that work together, writes KATE ASHCROFT, co-author of the just-published book Higher Education in Development: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa. The central message is that, if real change is to be sustained, it takes time and much working together in partnership, enquiry, reflection and tackling real day-to-day problems in situ. This is more difficult than finding an off-the-shelf 'cure' to a problem and applying it.
Full report on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
EUROPE: State of biomedical research The European Medical Research Councils group has published a white paper assessing the current status of biomedical research in Europe in a global context. It says European biomedical research is advancing "at a great pace" given the relatively small funds available and, with more money, it could do better. Full report on the University World News site :
US: Light to detect colon cancer Short bursts of light from an endoscope could be a less invasive way for physicians to detect abnormal cells in the colon, according to bio-engineers at Duke University in North Carolina. The finding could lead to improvements in the detection of dysplasia, abnormal cells with the potential to turn cancerous in the epithelium, which forms the lining of various tissues including the oesophagus and colon.
Full report on the University World News site :
GLOBAL: Combating multi-resistant bacteria An international quest launched by the Infectious Diseases Society of America to produce 10 antibiotics to combat multi-resistant bacteria by 2020 has taken a step towards the goal with the recreation of the DNA of an ancestral wallaby gene from 60 million years year ago.
Full report on the University World News site:
FACEBOOK
University World News has a new Facebook group: facebook.com/UniversityWorldNews. Even if you were one of the 2,800 members of the original Facebook community you will need to rejoin, or become a fan once again via this page. That way, you will be able to see our regular updates, post on our wall and communicate with us and other University World News fans. Please take a few minutes to rejoin and to inform your friends about our new Facebook page.You can also follow University World News on Twitter @uniworldnews
WORLD ROUND-UP
US: Billion dollar green challenge for campuses The Sustainable Endowments Institute, along with 15 partner organisations, last week launched the Billion Dollar Green Challenge to encourage higher education and non-profit institutions in the US to invest a total of $1 billion in green revolving funds to finance energy efficiency improvements, writes Joshua Bolkan for Campus Technology.
More on the University World News site:
CHILE: Student leaders seek support abroad Representatives of Chile's confederation of university students, Confech, will travel to Europe to seek international support and raise the profile of their push for sweeping reforms to the nation's education system, writes Joe Hinchliffe for the Santiago Times.
More on the University World News site:
HUNGARY: Students protest higher education bill More than 1,000 students protested against the government's new higher education concept in front of the University of Debrecen in eastern Hungary last week. The students gathered in protest against cuts in funding and an expected curtailment of student rights and autonomy, reports Politics.hu.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Universities could be bought 'in six months' A private equity firm or private higher education provider will buy a UK university in whole or part "within the next six months", according to a legal expert. The prediction by Glynne Stanfield, a partner in the education group Eversheds, came as government documents revealed that a US private equity firm, Warburg Pincus, had twice met with David Willetts, the universities and science minister, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Business-backed technical colleges to open A new wave of comprehensive colleges backed by firms including the developers of the BlackBerry, Toshiba, Boeing and Rolls Royce will open in England next year as part of a new generation of vocational schools in which businesses will help shape the curriculum, write Jeevan Vasagar and Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Internet ends neat chancellorship succession Cambridge University's chancellorship, a ceremonial post created in 1246, has long passed serenely among aristocrats, bishops, generals and princes. Dons in dark gowns would meet in ivy-covered colleges to orchestrate the transition. Now, the internet age has spoiled all that, writes Frances Robinson for The Wall Street Journal.
More on the University World News site:
UK: University to scrap first-class degrees University College London will stop telling students whether they have received a first, second or third, and instead give them an American-style 'grade point average', writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph. The new system gives students a score based on all the courses they have taken as undergraduates.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Wales helps stranded Tasmac students The University of Wales has set up an email helpline to assist hundreds of students from a London college that closed suddenly, reports the BBC. Tasmac London School of Business awarded degrees validated by the university until it ceased trading. Many of the 650 overseas students had paid thousands of pounds in fees to the private college before it went under.
More on the University World News site:
NORWAY: Universities stick to no-fee-for-all policy As Sweden introduces tuition fees of up to £13,145 (US$20,567) for non-European Union students this year, Norway is now one of the few European states to stick to the once-sacrosanct belief in free education for all, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
KENYA: Maathai rejected lucrative memoir offers The late Professor Wangari Maathai's deep love for and attachment to Kenya made her resist several bids from top foreign universities for her memoirs, write Walter Menya and Daniel Wesangula for The Daily Nation. More on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Academics condemn Iran Baha'i attack More than 40 distinguished philosophers and theologians from 16 countries have joined in the condemnation of Iran's policy to bar young Baha'is and others from higher education. In a global initiative the 43 prominent academics - of Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds - have signed an open letter, published in The Telegraph, UK, and reported in Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo.
More on the University World News site:
IRAQ: Coveted jobs breed diploma fraud For two years, an assistant dean at Iraq's largest university received threats from a police officer: sign a fraudulent document certifying that the officer had graduated from the university, the dean was told, or he would be arrested or even killed, write Michael S Schmidt and Omar Al-Jawoshy for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site:
US: Columbia probed for 'steering' student The US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into a complaint filed by Kenneth L Marcus, the director of the Initiative on Anti-Semitism at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, writes Arnold Ahlert for Front Page Mag.
More on the University World News site:
US: Ransom library acquires JM Coetzee archive The archive of Nobel prize-winning author JM Coetzee has been acquired by the Harry Ransom Center library at the University of Texas at Austin. The $1.5 million acquisition includes 155 boxes of the author's essays, manuscripts, notebooks, letters and speeches dating back to 1956, reports the BBC.
More on the University World News site:
SAUDI ARABIA: Biochemistry students 'neglected' Biochemistry students at Saudi universities complain that they are neglected by the ministries of higher education, health and labour, which do not recognise the significance of their branch of study for the country's development, writes Joud Al-Amri for Arab News.
More on the University World News site:
LEBANON: Essay-writers for hire degrade academia A new academic year begins and "an ugly practice" continues to degrade the integrity of Lebanon's higher education system, writes Niamh Fleming-Farrell for The Daily Star. Essay-writers for hire and the 'entrepreneurs' who solicit work for them continue to defy deterrence and remain a threat to institutions' integrity.
More on the University World News site:
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Sunday, 16 October 2011
University World News 0193 - 16th October 2011
This week's highlights
In Features ALYA MISHRA writes that while the first India-US higher education summit provided recognition of the growing international importance of India's universities, there is a wide gap between what India needs and what American institutions might provide. YOJANA SHARMA reports on rising hopes in Malaysia that a draconian law restricting student political activity on campuses might be scrapped, and SARAH KING HEAD looks at differentiation of institutional mission in Canadian higher education, as discussed at the "Stepford Universities?" conference in Toronto. In Commentary, RICHARD HOLMES critiques the latest global university rankings produced by Times Higher Education, and BIANKA SIWIÑSKA charts the dramatic growth of private higher education in Poland - and the dire threats it faces today. KATE ASHCROFT highlights the central messages in a just-published book she co-authored on dilemmas of development work in African universities.
A reason to celebrate
GLOBAL: University World News turns four
On the face of it, there is nothing special about a fourth anniversary. Other annual milestones - first, fifth, tenth and so on - seem more appealing. But when University World News was launched on 14 October 2007 the journalists involved were uncertain that their audacious idea of producing the planet's first international higher education newspaper would last four months. So we are celebrating reaching four years.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
ASIA: Higher education in East Asia must improve
Yojana Sharma
University access has increased dramatically in low- and middle-income countries of East Asia, but higher education is "not yet fulfilling its potential", according to the World Bank. The emerging economies and developing countries of Asia need to improve higher education to maintain economic growth and "climb the income ladder", it said in a just-released report.
Full report on the University World News site:
IRAQ: Sweeping higher education reforms planned
Wagdy Sawahel
Iraq plans to rebuild its war-torn higher education system by giving financial and administrative independence to universities, establishing spec ialised institutions and allowing foreign universities to open branches in the country.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Ministers divided on foreign student rules
Jane Marshall
Laurent Wauquiez, France's minister for higher education and research, is embroiled in a row with Claude Guéant, the interior minister, over whether new immigration measures have made it more difficult to attract talented foreign students.
Full report on the University World News site:
SPAIN: Study highlights progress on fair access
Paul Rigg
Spanish universities help to neutralise social inequality, according to the largest study of university students undertaken in Spain. The research shows that 51% of university students come from families whose parents never accessed higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: Elections reinstate some university leaders
Ashraf Khaled
Four university presidents in Egypt have kept their posts in unprecedented elections, just weeks after they were forced to step down. The elections were held recently at the public universities of Cairo, Beni Suef, Benha and South Valley.
Full report on the University World News site:
SINGAPORE: Research manipulation claims probed
Emilia Tan
Huge expansion in Singapore's science research could be leading to stresses in the system. A former professor at the top-rated National University of Singapore has come under scrutiny for possible fabrication of research data.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Nobel prizes for science and economics
Geoff Maslen
Seven distinguished scientists have received Nobel prizes for science this year although one of them, Canadian professor Ralph M Steinman, died of pancreatic cancer three days before news of the award reached him. It is the first time a Nobel prize has been awarded posthumously, although this is against the Nobel Foundation's statutes. On Monday the economic sciences prize in memory of Alfred Nobel went to two US macro-economists.
Full report on the University World News site:
BRAZIL: Silence greets collaboration plan with Europe
Tom Hennigan
Brazil and the European Union will hold a meeting next year to focus on improving academic and student mobility, as part of a drive to strengthen cooperation in higher education and research. The partnership with the EU has so far been greeted by silence in Brazil, with no comment from higher education organisations or any apparent press coverage.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Powerful search tool now includes books
Jacquie Withers
Thomson Reuters last week launched a Book Citation Index, a new resource that includes scholarly books within the Web of Knowledge search and discovery platform and will enable academic libraries to increase the visibility of their book collections, the company says. Starting with 25,000 books, the number will double by the end of 2013.
Full report on the University World News site:
NIGERIA: Terror agenda sparks debate on campuses
Tunde Fatunde
The political and ideological agenda of Boko Haram, a Muslim fundamentalist group that opposes 'Western education', has ignited debate at Nigerian universities. The group has attacked buildings and threatened to send suicide bombers onto campuses. The university community has roundly condemned terror, but is polarised over Boko Haram's intentions.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Young scientists recognised in academy
Munyaradzi Makoni
An early-career scientists' academy aimed at nurturing the development of top young academics and unlocking their collective potential to tackle national and global problems, has been launched in South Africa. It is the latest offshoot of the rapidly growing Global Young Academy.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
INDIA: Higher education summit with US reveals gaps
Alya Mishra
The first India-US higher education summit, between India's Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, was aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two countries. It provided symbolic recognition of the importance of India's university and research sectors for international interaction. But in India academics and students were expressed scepticism that it would yield any real change in education outcomes, with a wide gap between India's needs and what US institutions might provide.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Repressive university act under review
Yojana Sharma
Hopes that a draconian law that restricts political activity on university campuses in Malaysia might be scrapped have risen dramatically in recent weeks, with government ministers publicly calling for change. But academics say it will only be a partial opening up, with lecturers and university staff still subject to controls.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Driving the differentiation bus
Sarah King Head
Differentiation of institutional mission in Canadian higher education seems inevitable and undisputed. But how to drive the "differentiation bus" across the sector was the question that framed discussions at an armchair panel session of the recent "Stepford Universities?" conference.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: Rankings - Despite changes, questions persist
There are now a large number of global university rankings. Each has its own strength, but they have drawn a lot of scepticism from the higher education sector. The latest, the Times Higher Education-Thomson Reuters rankings, have been revised substantially since last year, making comparisons impossible, says RICHARD HOLMES. There are improvements but still also inconsistencies, leaving the compilers facing some difficult questions.
Full report on the University World News site:
POLAND: Private higher education under threat
The emergence and growth of private higher education in Poland has been widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements of the country's transformation in the 1990s, writes BIANKA SIWIŃSKA. Now, however, the sector is endangered - not only due to great demographic pressure, but also to unfair treatment of private institutions by the state.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Dilemmas of development work in universities
Most Sub-Saharan African problems are multilayered, requiring social, cultural, economic and scientific solutions that work together, writes KATE ASHCROFT, co-author of the just-published book Higher Education in Development: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa. The central message is that, if real change is to be sustained, it takes time and much working together in partnership, enquiry, reflection and tackling real day-to-day problems in situ. This is more difficult than finding an off-the-shelf 'cure' to a problem and applying it.
Full report on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
EUROPE: State of biomedical research
The European Medical Research Councils group has published a white paper assessing the current status of biomedical research in Europe in a global context. It says European biomedical research is advancing "at a great pace" given the relatively small funds available and, with more money, it could do better.
Full report on the University World News site :
US: Light to detect colon cancer
Short bursts of light from an endoscope could be a less invasive way for physicians to detect abnormal cells in the colon, according to bio-engineers at Duke University in North Carolina. The finding could lead to improvements in the detection of dysplasia, abnormal cells with the potential to turn cancerous in the epithelium, which forms the lining of various tissues including the oesophagus and colon.
Full report on the University World News site :
GLOBAL: Combating multi-resistant bacteria
An international quest launched by the Infectious Diseases Society of America to produce 10 antibiotics to combat multi-resistant bacteria by 2020 has taken a step towards the goal with the recreation of the DNA of an ancestral wallaby gene from 60 million years year ago.
Full report on the University World News site:
FACEBOOK
University World News has a new Facebook group:
http://facebook.com/UniversityWorldNews. Even if you were one of the 2,800 members of the original Facebook community you will need to rejoin, or become a fan once again via this page. That way, you will be able to see our regular updates, post on our wall and communicate with us and other University World News fans. Please take a few minutes to rejoin and to inform your friends about our new Facebook page.You can also follow University World News on Twitter @uniworldnews
WORLD ROUND-UP
US: Billion dollar green challenge for campuses
The Sustainable Endowments Institute, along with 15 partner organisations, last week launched the Billion Dollar Green Challenge to encourage higher education and non-profit institutions in the US to invest a total of $1 billion in green revolving funds to finance energy efficiency improvements, writes Joshua Bolkan for Campus Technology.
More on the University World News site:
CHILE: Student leaders seek support abroad
Representatives of Chile's confederation of university students, Confech, will travel to Europe to seek international support and raise the profile of their push for sweeping reforms to the nation's education system, writes Joe Hinchliffe for the Santiago Times.
More on the University World News site:
HUNGARY: Students protest higher education bill
More than 1,000 students protested against the government's new higher education concept in front of the University of Debrecen in eastern Hungary last week. The students gathered in protest against cuts in funding and an expected curtailment of student rights and autonomy, reports Politics.hu.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Universities could be bought 'in six months'
A private equity firm or private higher education provider will buy a UK university in whole or part "within the next six months", according to a legal expert. The prediction by Glynne Stanfield, a partner in the education group Eversheds, came as government documents revealed that a US private equity firm, Warburg Pincus, had twice met with David Willetts, the universities and science minister, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Business-backed technical colleges to open
A new wave of comprehensive colleges backed by firms including the developers of the BlackBerry, Toshiba, Boeing and Rolls Royce will open in England next year as part of a new generation of vocational schools in which businesses will help shape the curriculum, write Jeevan Vasagar and Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Internet ends neat chancellorship succession
Cambridge University's chancellorship, a ceremonial post created in 1246, has long passed serenely among aristocrats, bishops, generals and princes. Dons in dark gowns would meet in ivy-covered colleges to orchestrate the transition. Now, the internet age has spoiled all that, writes Frances Robinson for The Wall Street Journal.
More on the University World News site:
UK: University to scrap first-class degrees
University College London will stop telling students whether they have received a first, second or third, and instead give them an American-style 'grade point average', writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph. The new system gives students a score based on all the courses they have taken as undergraduates.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Wales helps stranded Tasmac students
The University of Wales has set up an email helpline to assist hundreds of students from a London college that closed suddenly, reports the BBC. Tasmac London School of Business awarded degrees validated by the university until it ceased trading. Many of the 650 overseas students had paid thousands of pounds in fees to the private college before it went under.
More on the University World News site:
NORWAY: Universities stick to no-fee-for-all policy
As Sweden introduces tuition fees of up to £13,145 (US$20,567) for non-European Union students this year, Norway is now one of the few European states to stick to the once-sacrosanct belief in free education for all, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
KENYA: Maathai rejected lucrative memoir offers
The late Professor Wangari Maathai's deep love for and attachment to Kenya made her resist several bids from top foreign universities for her memoirs, write Walter Menya and Daniel Wesangula for The Daily Nation.
More on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Academics condemn Iran Baha'i attack
More than 40 distinguished philosophers and theologians from 16 countries have joined in the condemnation of Iran's policy to bar young Baha'is and others from higher education. In a global initiative the 43 prominent academics - of Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds - have signed an open letter, published in The Telegraph, UK, and reported in Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo.
More on the University World News site:
IRAQ: Coveted jobs breed diploma fraud
For two years, an assistant dean at Iraq's largest university received threats from a police officer: sign a fraudulent document certifying that the officer had graduated from the university, the dean was told, or he would be arrested or even killed, write Michael S Schmidt and Omar Al-Jawoshy for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site:
US: Columbia probed for 'steering' student
The US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into a complaint filed by Kenneth L Marcus, the director of the Initiative on Anti-Semitism at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, writes Arnold Ahlert for Front Page Mag.
More on the University World News site:
US: Ransom library acquires JM Coetzee archive
The archive of Nobel prize-winning author JM Coetzee has been acquired by the Harry Ransom Center library at the University of Texas at Austin. The $1.5 million acquisition includes 155 boxes of the author's essays, manuscripts, notebooks, letters and speeches dating back to 1956, reports the BBC.
More on the University World News site:
SAUDI ARABIA: Biochemistry students 'neglected'
Biochemistry students at Saudi universities complain that they are neglected by the ministries of higher education, health and labour, which do not recognise the significance of their branch of study for the country's development, writes Joud Al-Amri for Arab News.
More on the University World News site:
LEBANON: Essay-writers for hire degrade academia
A new academic year begins and "an ugly practice" continues to degrade the integrity of Lebanon's higher education system, writes Niamh Fleming-Farrell for The Daily Star. Essay-writers for hire and the 'entrepreneurs' who solicit work for them continue to defy deterrence and remain a threat to institutions' integrity.
More on the University World News site:
In Features ALYA MISHRA writes that while the first India-US higher education summit provided recognition of the growing international importance of India's universities, there is a wide gap between what India needs and what American institutions might provide. YOJANA SHARMA reports on rising hopes in Malaysia that a draconian law restricting student political activity on campuses might be scrapped, and SARAH KING HEAD looks at differentiation of institutional mission in Canadian higher education, as discussed at the "Stepford Universities?" conference in Toronto. In Commentary, RICHARD HOLMES critiques the latest global university rankings produced by Times Higher Education, and BIANKA SIWIÑSKA charts the dramatic growth of private higher education in Poland - and the dire threats it faces today. KATE ASHCROFT highlights the central messages in a just-published book she co-authored on dilemmas of development work in African universities.
A reason to celebrate
GLOBAL: University World News turns four
On the face of it, there is nothing special about a fourth anniversary. Other annual milestones - first, fifth, tenth and so on - seem more appealing. But when University World News was launched on 14 October 2007 the journalists involved were uncertain that their audacious idea of producing the planet's first international higher education newspaper would last four months. So we are celebrating reaching four years.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
ASIA: Higher education in East Asia must improve
Yojana Sharma
University access has increased dramatically in low- and middle-income countries of East Asia, but higher education is "not yet fulfilling its potential", according to the World Bank. The emerging economies and developing countries of Asia need to improve higher education to maintain economic growth and "climb the income ladder", it said in a just-released report.
Full report on the University World News site:
IRAQ: Sweeping higher education reforms planned
Wagdy Sawahel
Iraq plans to rebuild its war-torn higher education system by giving financial and administrative independence to universities, establishing spec ialised institutions and allowing foreign universities to open branches in the country.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Ministers divided on foreign student rules
Jane Marshall
Laurent Wauquiez, France's minister for higher education and research, is embroiled in a row with Claude Guéant, the interior minister, over whether new immigration measures have made it more difficult to attract talented foreign students.
Full report on the University World News site:
SPAIN: Study highlights progress on fair access
Paul Rigg
Spanish universities help to neutralise social inequality, according to the largest study of university students undertaken in Spain. The research shows that 51% of university students come from families whose parents never accessed higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: Elections reinstate some university leaders
Ashraf Khaled
Four university presidents in Egypt have kept their posts in unprecedented elections, just weeks after they were forced to step down. The elections were held recently at the public universities of Cairo, Beni Suef, Benha and South Valley.
Full report on the University World News site:
SINGAPORE: Research manipulation claims probed
Emilia Tan
Huge expansion in Singapore's science research could be leading to stresses in the system. A former professor at the top-rated National University of Singapore has come under scrutiny for possible fabrication of research data.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Nobel prizes for science and economics
Geoff Maslen
Seven distinguished scientists have received Nobel prizes for science this year although one of them, Canadian professor Ralph M Steinman, died of pancreatic cancer three days before news of the award reached him. It is the first time a Nobel prize has been awarded posthumously, although this is against the Nobel Foundation's statutes. On Monday the economic sciences prize in memory of Alfred Nobel went to two US macro-economists.
Full report on the University World News site:
BRAZIL: Silence greets collaboration plan with Europe
Tom Hennigan
Brazil and the European Union will hold a meeting next year to focus on improving academic and student mobility, as part of a drive to strengthen cooperation in higher education and research. The partnership with the EU has so far been greeted by silence in Brazil, with no comment from higher education organisations or any apparent press coverage.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Powerful search tool now includes books
Jacquie Withers
Thomson Reuters last week launched a Book Citation Index, a new resource that includes scholarly books within the Web of Knowledge search and discovery platform and will enable academic libraries to increase the visibility of their book collections, the company says. Starting with 25,000 books, the number will double by the end of 2013.
Full report on the University World News site:
NIGERIA: Terror agenda sparks debate on campuses
Tunde Fatunde
The political and ideological agenda of Boko Haram, a Muslim fundamentalist group that opposes 'Western education', has ignited debate at Nigerian universities. The group has attacked buildings and threatened to send suicide bombers onto campuses. The university community has roundly condemned terror, but is polarised over Boko Haram's intentions.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Young scientists recognised in academy
Munyaradzi Makoni
An early-career scientists' academy aimed at nurturing the development of top young academics and unlocking their collective potential to tackle national and global problems, has been launched in South Africa. It is the latest offshoot of the rapidly growing Global Young Academy.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
INDIA: Higher education summit with US reveals gaps
Alya Mishra
The first India-US higher education summit, between India's Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, was aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two countries. It provided symbolic recognition of the importance of India's university and research sectors for international interaction. But in India academics and students were expressed scepticism that it would yield any real change in education outcomes, with a wide gap between India's needs and what US institutions might provide.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Repressive university act under review
Yojana Sharma
Hopes that a draconian law that restricts political activity on university campuses in Malaysia might be scrapped have risen dramatically in recent weeks, with government ministers publicly calling for change. But academics say it will only be a partial opening up, with lecturers and university staff still subject to controls.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Driving the differentiation bus
Sarah King Head
Differentiation of institutional mission in Canadian higher education seems inevitable and undisputed. But how to drive the "differentiation bus" across the sector was the question that framed discussions at an armchair panel session of the recent "Stepford Universities?" conference.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: Rankings - Despite changes, questions persist
There are now a large number of global university rankings. Each has its own strength, but they have drawn a lot of scepticism from the higher education sector. The latest, the Times Higher Education-Thomson Reuters rankings, have been revised substantially since last year, making comparisons impossible, says RICHARD HOLMES. There are improvements but still also inconsistencies, leaving the compilers facing some difficult questions.
Full report on the University World News site:
POLAND: Private higher education under threat
The emergence and growth of private higher education in Poland has been widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements of the country's transformation in the 1990s, writes BIANKA SIWIŃSKA. Now, however, the sector is endangered - not only due to great demographic pressure, but also to unfair treatment of private institutions by the state.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Dilemmas of development work in universities
Most Sub-Saharan African problems are multilayered, requiring social, cultural, economic and scientific solutions that work together, writes KATE ASHCROFT, co-author of the just-published book Higher Education in Development: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa. The central message is that, if real change is to be sustained, it takes time and much working together in partnership, enquiry, reflection and tackling real day-to-day problems in situ. This is more difficult than finding an off-the-shelf 'cure' to a problem and applying it.
Full report on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
EUROPE: State of biomedical research
The European Medical Research Councils group has published a white paper assessing the current status of biomedical research in Europe in a global context. It says European biomedical research is advancing "at a great pace" given the relatively small funds available and, with more money, it could do better.
Full report on the University World News site :
US: Light to detect colon cancer
Short bursts of light from an endoscope could be a less invasive way for physicians to detect abnormal cells in the colon, according to bio-engineers at Duke University in North Carolina. The finding could lead to improvements in the detection of dysplasia, abnormal cells with the potential to turn cancerous in the epithelium, which forms the lining of various tissues including the oesophagus and colon.
Full report on the University World News site :
GLOBAL: Combating multi-resistant bacteria
An international quest launched by the Infectious Diseases Society of America to produce 10 antibiotics to combat multi-resistant bacteria by 2020 has taken a step towards the goal with the recreation of the DNA of an ancestral wallaby gene from 60 million years year ago.
Full report on the University World News site:
University World News has a new Facebook group:
http://facebook.com/UniversityWorldNews. Even if you were one of the 2,800 members of the original Facebook community you will need to rejoin, or become a fan once again via this page. That way, you will be able to see our regular updates, post on our wall and communicate with us and other University World News fans. Please take a few minutes to rejoin and to inform your friends about our new Facebook page.You can also follow University World News on Twitter @uniworldnews
WORLD ROUND-UP
US: Billion dollar green challenge for campuses
The Sustainable Endowments Institute, along with 15 partner organisations, last week launched the Billion Dollar Green Challenge to encourage higher education and non-profit institutions in the US to invest a total of $1 billion in green revolving funds to finance energy efficiency improvements, writes Joshua Bolkan for Campus Technology.
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CHILE: Student leaders seek support abroad
Representatives of Chile's confederation of university students, Confech, will travel to Europe to seek international support and raise the profile of their push for sweeping reforms to the nation's education system, writes Joe Hinchliffe for the Santiago Times.
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HUNGARY: Students protest higher education bill
More than 1,000 students protested against the government's new higher education concept in front of the University of Debrecen in eastern Hungary last week. The students gathered in protest against cuts in funding and an expected curtailment of student rights and autonomy, reports Politics.hu.
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UK: Universities could be bought 'in six months'
A private equity firm or private higher education provider will buy a UK university in whole or part "within the next six months", according to a legal expert. The prediction by Glynne Stanfield, a partner in the education group Eversheds, came as government documents revealed that a US private equity firm, Warburg Pincus, had twice met with David Willetts, the universities and science minister, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education.
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UK: Business-backed technical colleges to open
A new wave of comprehensive colleges backed by firms including the developers of the BlackBerry, Toshiba, Boeing and Rolls Royce will open in England next year as part of a new generation of vocational schools in which businesses will help shape the curriculum, write Jeevan Vasagar and Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
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UK: Internet ends neat chancellorship succession
Cambridge University's chancellorship, a ceremonial post created in 1246, has long passed serenely among aristocrats, bishops, generals and princes. Dons in dark gowns would meet in ivy-covered colleges to orchestrate the transition. Now, the internet age has spoiled all that, writes Frances Robinson for The Wall Street Journal.
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UK: University to scrap first-class degrees
University College London will stop telling students whether they have received a first, second or third, and instead give them an American-style 'grade point average', writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph. The new system gives students a score based on all the courses they have taken as undergraduates.
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UK: Wales helps stranded Tasmac students
The University of Wales has set up an email helpline to assist hundreds of students from a London college that closed suddenly, reports the BBC. Tasmac London School of Business awarded degrees validated by the university until it ceased trading. Many of the 650 overseas students had paid thousands of pounds in fees to the private college before it went under.
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NORWAY: Universities stick to no-fee-for-all policy
As Sweden introduces tuition fees of up to £13,145 (US$20,567) for non-European Union students this year, Norway is now one of the few European states to stick to the once-sacrosanct belief in free education for all, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education.
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KENYA: Maathai rejected lucrative memoir offers
The late Professor Wangari Maathai's deep love for and attachment to Kenya made her resist several bids from top foreign universities for her memoirs, write Walter Menya and Daniel Wesangula for The Daily Nation.
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GLOBAL: Academics condemn Iran Baha'i attack
More than 40 distinguished philosophers and theologians from 16 countries have joined in the condemnation of Iran's policy to bar young Baha'is and others from higher education. In a global initiative the 43 prominent academics - of Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds - have signed an open letter, published in The Telegraph, UK, and reported in Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo.
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IRAQ: Coveted jobs breed diploma fraud
For two years, an assistant dean at Iraq's largest university received threats from a police officer: sign a fraudulent document certifying that the officer had graduated from the university, the dean was told, or he would be arrested or even killed, write Michael S Schmidt and Omar Al-Jawoshy for The New York Times.
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US: Columbia probed for 'steering' student
The US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into a complaint filed by Kenneth L Marcus, the director of the Initiative on Anti-Semitism at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, writes Arnold Ahlert for Front Page Mag.
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US: Ransom library acquires JM Coetzee archive
The archive of Nobel prize-winning author JM Coetzee has been acquired by the Harry Ransom Center library at the University of Texas at Austin. The $1.5 million acquisition includes 155 boxes of the author's essays, manuscripts, notebooks, letters and speeches dating back to 1956, reports the BBC.
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SAUDI ARABIA: Biochemistry students 'neglected'
Biochemistry students at Saudi universities complain that they are neglected by the ministries of higher education, health and labour, which do not recognise the significance of their branch of study for the country's development, writes Joud Al-Amri for Arab News.
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LEBANON: Essay-writers for hire degrade academia
A new academic year begins and "an ugly practice" continues to degrade the integrity of Lebanon's higher education system, writes Niamh Fleming-Farrell for The Daily Star. Essay-writers for hire and the 'entrepreneurs' who solicit work for them continue to defy deterrence and remain a threat to institutions' integrity.
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Sunday, 9 October 2011
University World News 0192 - 9th October 2011
This week's highlights
In Features, BRENDAN O'MALLEY reports on a 10th anniversary event held by Scholars at Risk in New York last week, and the targeting of academics in Syria for assassination. In India, ALYA MISHRA previews this week's meeting between India's education minister and the US secretary of state that will use education diplomacy to build relations between the two countries, and HIEP PHAM looks at quality problems facing non-formal higher education in Vietnam. In Commentary, DARIA LUCHINSKAYA says Russia's efforts to modernise higher education by developing world-class universities and attracting top international academics could work, Canada's MARY CATHARINE LENNON says there is a need to develop financial literacy programmes and strategies that focus on access to higher education, and in Egypt SHERIF KAMEL argues that business schools need to be agents of change rather than mere objects of change if they are to influence real-world situations.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
GLOBAL: How to create a world-class university
Yojana Sharma
Although some of the world's top-ranked institutions such as Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford are hundreds of years old, a series of case studies of successful world-class research universities, prepared by the World Bank, shows that a faster and more effective approach to achieving world-class status is to establish a new institution.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOMALIA: Students killed in Mogadishu car blast
Ahmed Mohamoud Elmi
A truck bomb exploded in a government compound in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people - most of them students waiting for examination results and hoping for scholarships to study in Turkey. The compound, which houses eight ministries including education, was targeted for an attack described as the deadliest in months.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Some surprises in new THE university rankings
Karen MacGregor
The California Institute of Technology has edged Harvard out of the global top slot in the just-published Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-12. The new ranking places Hong Kong as best in the world in university performance relative to gross domestic product, which tries to normalise the rankings for country size and wealth.
Full report on the University World News site:
LATIN AMERICA: Brazil leads new regional ranking
David Jobbins
Brazil has more universities in a new top 200 ranking for Central and South America than any other country in the region. The lusophone nation hosts 65 of the top 200 universities in the QS University Rankings: Latin America, with the University of São Paolo topping the table.
Full report on the University World News site:
ITALY: Billion euro boost for southern universities
Lee Adendorff
The Italian government is to pump more than EUR1 billion (US$1.3 billion) into universities in the south of the country as part of a regeneration plan for the region. The decision was announced last week by Raffaele Fitto, minister for regional relationships and territorial cohesion, and Mariastella Gelmini, the education minister.
Full report on the University World News site:
DENMARK: New premier to expand higher education
Jan Petter Myklebust
Denmark's new government has set ambitious targets for increased access to university education but has yet to outline how it will fulfil its election pledge to end DKK1 billion (US$180 million) underfunding to higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
ISLAMIC STATES: Ministers back university actions
Ameen Amjad Khan
Ministers of higher education and research from 57 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation agreed to a "fresh look" at university systems in their countries, at an IOC meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Wednesday. There was a need to reexamine higher education quality and relevance "in view of the demands of the market forces of knowledge economies," the ministers said, and to implement key performance indicators.
Full report on the University World News site:
PAKISTAN: Bank loan to rescue higher education plan
Ameen Amjad Khan
Pakistan's five-year higher education development plan, which has been languishing in the doldrums for lack of funding, is now expected to be implemented after the World Bank agreed to release US$300 million to the country's Higher Education Commission.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Lifeline for dropouts and left-outs
Michael Gardner
A number of German universities and colleges are to benefit from around EUR400 million (US$536 million) of federal and European funding for tailor-made programmes to increase access to higher education for people who have dropped out of or missed out on university or vocational training.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Science under siege
Geoff Maslen
The very basis of science and of an informed, progressive and enlightened society are under siege, Australia's Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb told a conference on Thursday. Chubb said scientists were caught up in a rearguard action against critics who sought to question and tear down "the very ideals, the values, the principles and the practices of science".
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: First African business school round-table
Ashraf Khaled
Leaders of business schools in Africa and elsewhere gathered in Egypt last week to discuss effective ways to enhance their institutions' roles in helping the continent grapple with food security challenges, and to forge academic collaborations aimed at tackling African problems. Full report on the University World News site: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20111009095654421 See also the article by Sherif Kamal in Commentary
US: Writers sue universities over digital books plan
Alison Moodie
A controversial plan involving a host of prominent American universities to digitise thousands of copyrighted books suffered a setback last month as a number of organisations that represent authors sought to halt digitisation efforts and an 'orphan works' initiative.
Full report on the University World News site:
UAE: Universities face tougher accreditation
Wagdy Sawahel
New accreditation standards for higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates are being introduced as part of a government strategy aimed at achieving a first-rate education system and competitive knowledge economy.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Uproar over Dalai Lama visa mess
Munyaradzi Makoni
Outraged over South Africa's failure to give the Dalai Lama a visa, academics and students at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) took to the streets on Wednesday. The Tibetan spiritual leader was due to speak at two universities, and to attend former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations.
Full report on the University World News site:
ZIMBABWE: Water woes and strike hit higher education
Kudzai Mashininga
Zimbabwe's government has appointed a ministerial team headed by its deputy prime minister to deal with a water crisis at two of its universities. Meanwhile, lecturers at polytechnics and teacher colleges have gone on strike for better pay on the eve of examinations.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
GLOBAL: Academics facing death for their ideas
Brendan O'Malley
Professors and students are being singled out for assassination, according to a leading scholar in the Syrian opposition movement who last week addressed the Human Rights Council in Geneva. "We have fears for scholars on the ground. More than 10 professors have been killed, mostly at Homs, in the past two weeks," said Radwan Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Dubai Initiative in the Kennedy School, Harvard. "The situation is escalating and we expect more killings."
Full report on the University World News site:
INDIA: Indo-US higher education initiative set to fly
Alya Mishra
India and the US will soon cement collaboration in higher education, with India's Education Minister Kapil Sibal meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on 13 October in a high-profile visit to use education diplomacy to build relations between the two countries.
Full report on the University World News site:
VIETNAM: Non-formal sector faces quality crisis
Hiep Pham
Hong Loan, a teacher of English at a high school in Hanoi, holds an associate bachelor degree. Every afternoon she travels 20 kilometres by motorbike to an adult education class at the University of Foreign Languages and International Studies. "This equips me with more knowledge but, more importantly, a bachelor degree will help upgrade my salary," she said.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
RUSSIA: Modernising the higher education system
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently called for the urgent modernisation of higher education. Strategies include the development of flagship universities as world-class institutions and inviting key foreign academics to work in Russian universities. This could work, writes DARIA LUCHINSKAYA, but only if the plans also extend to the development of other, non-status universities and improving working conditions for teaching and research staff.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Low financial literacy hampers access
Despite the increasing complexity of financing higher education and concerns about widening access, there are few financial literacy programmes and strategies in the world that focus on the particular issue of access to higher education for low-income youth, says MARY CATHARINE LENNON. A forthcoming conference will address the issue.
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: Business schools need to be agents of change
Business schools need to be agents of change rather than mere objects of change, says SHERIF KAMEL. They need to alter both their curriculum and the way they teach in order to be more proactive in the community and influence real-world situations, particularly the kind of social and political upheavals that have been occurring in the Middle East and North Africa.
Full report on the University World News site:
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet*
In Syria, a nuclear physicist who was shot in the head has become the latest victim of a series of murders targeting scientists in the city of Homs. Iranian Omid Kokabee, the Texas University doctoral student detained in Tehran's Evin prison on espionage charges, went on trial last week. And in China, the authorities have cancelled the classes of a prominent Uyghur professor at the Beijing Minorities University, and 20 Uyghur professors have been dismissed from a teaching college in the northwestern region of Xianjiang for failing to be fluent in Mandarin.
Full report on the University World News site:
FACEBOOK
University World News has a new Facebook group:
Its address is http://facebook.com/UniversityWorldNews. Even if you were one of the 2,800 members of the original Facebookcommunity you will need to rejoin, or become a fan once again via this page. That way, you will be able to see our regular updates, post on our wall and communicate with us and other University World News fans. Please take a few minutes to rejoin and to inform your friends about our new Facebook page.
You can also follow University World News on Twitter @uniworldnews
WORLD ROUND-UP
CHILE: Striking students break off talks
Leaders of Chile's striking students broke off negotiations with the government last week, complaining of official intransigence over their demands for free public education, writes Eva Vergara for Associated Press. Hours after the talks collapsed, a student march for free education was broken up by police, using water cannons and tear gas.
More on the University World News site:
US: The University of Wherever
For more than a decade educators have been expecting the internet to transform that bastion of tradition and authority, the university, writes Bill Keller for The New York Times. Digital utopians have envisioned a world of virtual campuses and 'distributed' learning. They imagine a business model in which online courses are consumer-rated like products on Amazon, tuition is set by auction services like eBay, and students are judged not by grades but by skills they have mastered, like levels of a videogame.
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GLOBAL: Battle of the knowledge superpowers
Knowledge is power - economic power - and there's a scramble for that power taking place around the globe. In the United States, Europe and in rising powers such as China, there is a growth-hungry drive to invest in hi-tech research and innovation, writes Sean Coughlan for the BBC.
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AFGHANISTAN: Kabul University terror cell broken up
Afghan officials said last week that they had broken up an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist cell at Kabul University that was planning to assassinate President Hamid Karzai and carry out attacks in the United States, writes Habib Zohori for McClatchy Newspapers.
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FRANCE: Sarkozy's reforms herald French 'Ivy League'
Radical plans to create a French 'Ivy League' are gathering pace as the first winners of a new elite universities scheme worth EUR7.7 billion (US$10.1 billion) start to receive cash, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education.
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NEW ZEALAND: Canterbury University staff asked to quit
Canterbury University is calling on staff to consider taking voluntary redundancy as it struggles to balance the books after losing students because of the earthquake that struck the city earlier this year, reports TVNZ.
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UK: Thousands of university places may go to colleges
Up to 6,000 undergraduates will be taught at colleges instead of universities from next year as part of a UK coalition government plan to drive down student tuition fees, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
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UK: Lecturers threaten strike over pension changes
Lecturers at half of Britain's universities have threatened to stop marking students' work unless a battle over their pensions is resolved, writes Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
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UK: Oxford head warns cuts could lead to brain drain
Cuts to government funding of universities mean the UK is now "treading water" and risks losing top academics and students to its international competitors, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University has warned, writes Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
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WALES: Calls to wind up University of Wales
The vice-chancellors of five Welsh universities have called for the University of Wales to be wound up following highly damaging revelations in a TV programme last Tuesday, writes Martin Shipton for Wales Online.
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JAPAN: University mulls change to academic calendar
Discussion on starting in the autumn and graduating Japanese students in the late spring or autumn has been around since the 1980s, but the debate has moved up a gear with news that the University of Tokyo, known as Todai, is mulling the move. An internal panel is expected to report by the end of the year, reports David McNeill for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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SOUTH AFRICA: MBA plan 'not a downgrade'
The debate in South Africa over the academic status of a master of business administration degree was about a 'technical issue', rather than downgrading the qualification, Council for Higher Education CEO Ahmed Essop said last week, writes Karl Gernetzky for Business Day.
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AUSTRALIA: Push for research funding overhaul
A leading scientist says Australia is squandering its intellectual wealth through a federal system of short-term grants rewarding publication of academic papers ahead of long-term research to develop and manufacture new products, writes Rosslyn Beeby for The Canberra Times.
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CANADA: Intellectual centre of gravity 'shifting west'
Ontario universities are lagging behind their counterparts in Alberta and British Columbia, a higher education expert said last week in a bleak forecast made just days before voters were to head to the polls, writes Matthew Pearson for The Ottawa Citizen.
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EGYPT: Mubarak-era university president resigns
Maged El-Deeb, president of Ain Shams University, has officially submitted his resignation letter to Egyptian Minister of Higher Education Moataz Khorshed, writes Nada Hussein Rashwan for Ahram Online.
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MALAWI: Students accuse council of contempt
The president of Malawi's Chancellor College students union, Patrick Phiri, said last week that students would file contempt charges against the university council. Students said the council, charged with running the University of Malawi, had refused to reopen two of its college campuses despite a high court ruling, reports Peter Clottey for Voice of America.
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PAKISTAN: Turkey to help set up technology parks
Turkish experts will assist Pakistan's Higher Education Commission in establishing technology parks in Pakistani universities, writes Peer Muhamamd for The Express Tribune.
More on the University World News site:
In Features, BRENDAN O'MALLEY reports on a 10th anniversary event held by Scholars at Risk in New York last week, and the targeting of academics in Syria for assassination. In India, ALYA MISHRA previews this week's meeting between India's education minister and the US secretary of state that will use education diplomacy to build relations between the two countries, and HIEP PHAM looks at quality problems facing non-formal higher education in Vietnam. In Commentary, DARIA LUCHINSKAYA says Russia's efforts to modernise higher education by developing world-class universities and attracting top international academics could work, Canada's MARY CATHARINE LENNON says there is a need to develop financial literacy programmes and strategies that focus on access to higher education, and in Egypt SHERIF KAMEL argues that business schools need to be agents of change rather than mere objects of change if they are to influence real-world situations.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
GLOBAL: How to create a world-class university
Yojana Sharma
Although some of the world's top-ranked institutions such as Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford are hundreds of years old, a series of case studies of successful world-class research universities, prepared by the World Bank, shows that a faster and more effective approach to achieving world-class status is to establish a new institution.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOMALIA: Students killed in Mogadishu car blast
Ahmed Mohamoud Elmi
A truck bomb exploded in a government compound in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people - most of them students waiting for examination results and hoping for scholarships to study in Turkey. The compound, which houses eight ministries including education, was targeted for an attack described as the deadliest in months.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Some surprises in new THE university rankings
Karen MacGregor
The California Institute of Technology has edged Harvard out of the global top slot in the just-published Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-12. The new ranking places Hong Kong as best in the world in university performance relative to gross domestic product, which tries to normalise the rankings for country size and wealth.
Full report on the University World News site:
LATIN AMERICA: Brazil leads new regional ranking
David Jobbins
Brazil has more universities in a new top 200 ranking for Central and South America than any other country in the region. The lusophone nation hosts 65 of the top 200 universities in the QS University Rankings: Latin America, with the University of São Paolo topping the table.
Full report on the University World News site:
ITALY: Billion euro boost for southern universities
Lee Adendorff
The Italian government is to pump more than EUR1 billion (US$1.3 billion) into universities in the south of the country as part of a regeneration plan for the region. The decision was announced last week by Raffaele Fitto, minister for regional relationships and territorial cohesion, and Mariastella Gelmini, the education minister.
Full report on the University World News site:
DENMARK: New premier to expand higher education
Jan Petter Myklebust
Denmark's new government has set ambitious targets for increased access to university education but has yet to outline how it will fulfil its election pledge to end DKK1 billion (US$180 million) underfunding to higher education.
Full report on the University World News site:
ISLAMIC STATES: Ministers back university actions
Ameen Amjad Khan
Ministers of higher education and research from 57 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation agreed to a "fresh look" at university systems in their countries, at an IOC meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Wednesday. There was a need to reexamine higher education quality and relevance "in view of the demands of the market forces of knowledge economies," the ministers said, and to implement key performance indicators.
Full report on the University World News site:
PAKISTAN: Bank loan to rescue higher education plan
Ameen Amjad Khan
Pakistan's five-year higher education development plan, which has been languishing in the doldrums for lack of funding, is now expected to be implemented after the World Bank agreed to release US$300 million to the country's Higher Education Commission.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Lifeline for dropouts and left-outs
Michael Gardner
A number of German universities and colleges are to benefit from around EUR400 million (US$536 million) of federal and European funding for tailor-made programmes to increase access to higher education for people who have dropped out of or missed out on university or vocational training.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Science under siege
Geoff Maslen
The very basis of science and of an informed, progressive and enlightened society are under siege, Australia's Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb told a conference on Thursday. Chubb said scientists were caught up in a rearguard action against critics who sought to question and tear down "the very ideals, the values, the principles and the practices of science".
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: First African business school round-table
Ashraf Khaled
Leaders of business schools in Africa and elsewhere gathered in Egypt last week to discuss effective ways to enhance their institutions' roles in helping the continent grapple with food security challenges, and to forge academic collaborations aimed at tackling African problems. Full report on the University World News site: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20111009095654421 See also the article by Sherif Kamal in Commentary
US: Writers sue universities over digital books plan
Alison Moodie
A controversial plan involving a host of prominent American universities to digitise thousands of copyrighted books suffered a setback last month as a number of organisations that represent authors sought to halt digitisation efforts and an 'orphan works' initiative.
Full report on the University World News site:
UAE: Universities face tougher accreditation
Wagdy Sawahel
New accreditation standards for higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates are being introduced as part of a government strategy aimed at achieving a first-rate education system and competitive knowledge economy.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Uproar over Dalai Lama visa mess
Munyaradzi Makoni
Outraged over South Africa's failure to give the Dalai Lama a visa, academics and students at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) took to the streets on Wednesday. The Tibetan spiritual leader was due to speak at two universities, and to attend former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations.
Full report on the University World News site:
ZIMBABWE: Water woes and strike hit higher education
Kudzai Mashininga
Zimbabwe's government has appointed a ministerial team headed by its deputy prime minister to deal with a water crisis at two of its universities. Meanwhile, lecturers at polytechnics and teacher colleges have gone on strike for better pay on the eve of examinations.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
GLOBAL: Academics facing death for their ideas
Brendan O'Malley
Professors and students are being singled out for assassination, according to a leading scholar in the Syrian opposition movement who last week addressed the Human Rights Council in Geneva. "We have fears for scholars on the ground. More than 10 professors have been killed, mostly at Homs, in the past two weeks," said Radwan Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Dubai Initiative in the Kennedy School, Harvard. "The situation is escalating and we expect more killings."
Full report on the University World News site:
INDIA: Indo-US higher education initiative set to fly
Alya Mishra
India and the US will soon cement collaboration in higher education, with India's Education Minister Kapil Sibal meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on 13 October in a high-profile visit to use education diplomacy to build relations between the two countries.
Full report on the University World News site:
VIETNAM: Non-formal sector faces quality crisis
Hiep Pham
Hong Loan, a teacher of English at a high school in Hanoi, holds an associate bachelor degree. Every afternoon she travels 20 kilometres by motorbike to an adult education class at the University of Foreign Languages and International Studies. "This equips me with more knowledge but, more importantly, a bachelor degree will help upgrade my salary," she said.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
RUSSIA: Modernising the higher education system
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently called for the urgent modernisation of higher education. Strategies include the development of flagship universities as world-class institutions and inviting key foreign academics to work in Russian universities. This could work, writes DARIA LUCHINSKAYA, but only if the plans also extend to the development of other, non-status universities and improving working conditions for teaching and research staff.
Full report on the University World News site:
CANADA: Low financial literacy hampers access
Despite the increasing complexity of financing higher education and concerns about widening access, there are few financial literacy programmes and strategies in the world that focus on the particular issue of access to higher education for low-income youth, says MARY CATHARINE LENNON. A forthcoming conference will address the issue.
Full report on the University World News site:
EGYPT: Business schools need to be agents of change
Business schools need to be agents of change rather than mere objects of change, says SHERIF KAMEL. They need to alter both their curriculum and the way they teach in order to be more proactive in the community and influence real-world situations, particularly the kind of social and political upheavals that have been occurring in the Middle East and North Africa.
Full report on the University World News site:
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet*
In Syria, a nuclear physicist who was shot in the head has become the latest victim of a series of murders targeting scientists in the city of Homs. Iranian Omid Kokabee, the Texas University doctoral student detained in Tehran's Evin prison on espionage charges, went on trial last week. And in China, the authorities have cancelled the classes of a prominent Uyghur professor at the Beijing Minorities University, and 20 Uyghur professors have been dismissed from a teaching college in the northwestern region of Xianjiang for failing to be fluent in Mandarin.
Full report on the University World News site:
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WORLD ROUND-UP
CHILE: Striking students break off talks
Leaders of Chile's striking students broke off negotiations with the government last week, complaining of official intransigence over their demands for free public education, writes Eva Vergara for Associated Press. Hours after the talks collapsed, a student march for free education was broken up by police, using water cannons and tear gas.
More on the University World News site:
US: The University of Wherever
For more than a decade educators have been expecting the internet to transform that bastion of tradition and authority, the university, writes Bill Keller for The New York Times. Digital utopians have envisioned a world of virtual campuses and 'distributed' learning. They imagine a business model in which online courses are consumer-rated like products on Amazon, tuition is set by auction services like eBay, and students are judged not by grades but by skills they have mastered, like levels of a videogame.
More on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Battle of the knowledge superpowers
Knowledge is power - economic power - and there's a scramble for that power taking place around the globe. In the United States, Europe and in rising powers such as China, there is a growth-hungry drive to invest in hi-tech research and innovation, writes Sean Coughlan for the BBC.
More on the University World News site:
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul University terror cell broken up
Afghan officials said last week that they had broken up an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist cell at Kabul University that was planning to assassinate President Hamid Karzai and carry out attacks in the United States, writes Habib Zohori for McClatchy Newspapers.
More on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Sarkozy's reforms herald French 'Ivy League'
Radical plans to create a French 'Ivy League' are gathering pace as the first winners of a new elite universities scheme worth EUR7.7 billion (US$10.1 billion) start to receive cash, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education.
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NEW ZEALAND: Canterbury University staff asked to quit
Canterbury University is calling on staff to consider taking voluntary redundancy as it struggles to balance the books after losing students because of the earthquake that struck the city earlier this year, reports TVNZ.
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UK: Thousands of university places may go to colleges
Up to 6,000 undergraduates will be taught at colleges instead of universities from next year as part of a UK coalition government plan to drive down student tuition fees, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Lecturers threaten strike over pension changes
Lecturers at half of Britain's universities have threatened to stop marking students' work unless a battle over their pensions is resolved, writes Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Oxford head warns cuts could lead to brain drain
Cuts to government funding of universities mean the UK is now "treading water" and risks losing top academics and students to its international competitors, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University has warned, writes Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian.
More on the University World News site:
WALES: Calls to wind up University of Wales
The vice-chancellors of five Welsh universities have called for the University of Wales to be wound up following highly damaging revelations in a TV programme last Tuesday, writes Martin Shipton for Wales Online.
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JAPAN: University mulls change to academic calendar
Discussion on starting in the autumn and graduating Japanese students in the late spring or autumn has been around since the 1980s, but the debate has moved up a gear with news that the University of Tokyo, known as Todai, is mulling the move. An internal panel is expected to report by the end of the year, reports David McNeill for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: MBA plan 'not a downgrade'
The debate in South Africa over the academic status of a master of business administration degree was about a 'technical issue', rather than downgrading the qualification, Council for Higher Education CEO Ahmed Essop said last week, writes Karl Gernetzky for Business Day.
More on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Push for research funding overhaul
A leading scientist says Australia is squandering its intellectual wealth through a federal system of short-term grants rewarding publication of academic papers ahead of long-term research to develop and manufacture new products, writes Rosslyn Beeby for The Canberra Times.
More on the University World News site:
CANADA: Intellectual centre of gravity 'shifting west'
Ontario universities are lagging behind their counterparts in Alberta and British Columbia, a higher education expert said last week in a bleak forecast made just days before voters were to head to the polls, writes Matthew Pearson for The Ottawa Citizen.
More on the University World News site:
EGYPT: Mubarak-era university president resigns
Maged El-Deeb, president of Ain Shams University, has officially submitted his resignation letter to Egyptian Minister of Higher Education Moataz Khorshed, writes Nada Hussein Rashwan for Ahram Online.
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MALAWI: Students accuse council of contempt
The president of Malawi's Chancellor College students union, Patrick Phiri, said last week that students would file contempt charges against the university council. Students said the council, charged with running the University of Malawi, had refused to reopen two of its college campuses despite a high court ruling, reports Peter Clottey for Voice of America.
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PAKISTAN: Turkey to help set up technology parks
Turkish experts will assist Pakistan's Higher Education Commission in establishing technology parks in Pakistani universities, writes Peer Muhamamd for The Express Tribune.
More on the University World News site:
Sunday, 2 October 2011
University World News 0191 - 2nd October 2011
This week's highlights
While Australia has made a surprise decision to lift most of its new restrictions on issuing visas to international students, France has decided to slap constraints on students from outside Europe, GEOFF MASLEN and JANE MARSHALL report. In Mauritius, GUILLAUME GOURGES interviews Tertiary Education Minister Rajesh Jeetah about the island country's ambitious higher education plans. In Features, YOJANA SHARMA finds that China is turning to Hong Kong's world-class universities for help in improving medical education, and ALAN RUBY and ADRIANA JARAMILLO offer advice to developing countries on what to look for in a branch campus. In Commentary, RAHUL CHOUDAHA argues that countries that can negotiate the new post-9/11 and recession environment and are prepared for future upheavals will be best placed in the race to attract international students, and SIMON MARGINSON proposes protocols for international education that could create an informal global standard for the future. JOHN HOLMWOOD outlines an Alternative White Paper signed by hundreds of UK academics in response to government plans for universities.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
AUSTRALIA: Doors open to foreign students
Geoff Maslen
Australia's 39 universities are preparing for a brand new day in 2012: not only will government quotas on the number of local students they enrol be lifted, but they will also be able to recruit as many foreigners as they wish through a new fast-track visa system. In a generous move that surprised even sceptical vice-chancellors, government decided to lift most restrictions on issuing visas to overseas students, opening the way for a likely flood of new applications from China, India, Pakistan and other Asian countries.
Full report on the University World News site:
See also the Simon Marginson article in Commentary
FRANCE: Immigration restrictions hit foreign students
Jane Marshall
Immigration measures that tighten restrictions on foreign students from outside the European Union and are opposed by university presidents, grandes écoles and students, have been defended by Laurent Wauquiez, France's Minister for Higher Education and Research.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Erasmus expands to help Arab Spring
Brendan O'Malley
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that EUR66 million (US$90 million) will be allocated to extending the Erasmus Mundus higher education programme to support European Neighbourhood countries, in response to the Arab Spring.
Full report on the University World News site:
ASIA: Forging regional higher education integration
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Plans to integrate higher education in Asia, a regional challenge that calls for streamlining of university curricula and grading systems, gathered steam at an international symposium held in Tokyo last week.
Full report on the University World News site:
PAKISTAN: Central role for universities in new policy
Ameen Amjad Khan
Higher education's share of Pakistan's overall education budget should double to 20% in the coming decade, according to a new science, technology and innovation policy approved by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. But independent observers doubt the claim will be fulfilled.
Full report on the University World News site:
BAHRAIN: Reinstate sacked staff, says rights group
Brendan O'Malley
Human Rights Watch has called on universities in Bahrain to immediately reinstate hundreds of students, academics and staff who have been dismissed for voicing criticism of the government and royal family or for attending largely peaceful protests in February and March, when civil unrest engulfed the island.
Full report on the University World News site:
SWEDEN: Scholarships to woo back foreign students
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Swedish government has responded to the drastic fall in the number of international students from outside Europe, following the introduction of tuition fees, by increasing funding for scholarships.
Full report on the University World News site:
DENMARK: Masters graduates overseas face study bill
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Danish government intends to make masters students who go on to work overseas for more than five years, repay the cost of their degree. The proposal has led to protests from opponents who claim it is the first step towards introducing tuition fees.
Full report on the University World News site:
NIGERIA: President orders probe into campus r ape
Tunde Fatunde
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a police investigation into an incident at Abia State University in which five students allegedly r aped a female colleague, filmed the o rgy and posted it on the internet, sparking outrage across the country and abroad.
Full report on the University World News site:
KENYA: Double student intake kicks off at Kenyatta
Gilbert Nganga
Kenyatta University has become the first in the country to enrol two batches of freshman students, in a double-intake plan that seeks to ease a biting higher education admissions crisis. Educationists expect the move to be followed by Kenya's other six public universities as they rush to clear a backlog of 40,000 students.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Launch of digital campus network
Geoff Maslen
Dubbed the Collaboration Network for Academia, the world's first 'iversity', which has been set up by a team of young entrepreneurs in the small town of Neuenhagen outside Berlin, had its official launch on Monday. Organisers say academics and students now have access to a novel workspace unavailable in other online formats.
Full report on the University World News site:
Q&A
MAURITIUS: Minister outlines knowledge hub plans
Africa's most developed country, the small island state of Mauritius off the continent's east coast, has positioned itself to be a regional knowledge hub. Higher education reforms are underway, new universities and campuses are being built and the government and sector are working to attract 100,000 international students by 2020. University World News correspondent in Mauritius, GUILLAUME GOURGES, interviewed Tertiary Education Minister Rajesh Jeetah about the country's ambitious higher education plans.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
CHINA: Hong Kong helps to upgrade medical training
Yojana Sharma
Prestigious overseas universities have been hovering in China hoping to forge collaborations in medical education and research. Yet so far none have set up a medical school there, despite the country's huge need to upgrade medical training. It is Hong Kong, with its international medical education standards and world-class health system, that has been quietly helping China with undergraduate training.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: A buyers' guide to branch campuses
Alan Ruby and Adriana Jaramillo
Ministers of education in developing economies around the globe are trying to make sense of the growth of university branch campuses. Their neighbors and competitors have them, local citizens seem to want them as an alternative to sending their children abroad, they might be cheaper than large-scale scholarship programmes like the King Abdullah grants, and they could underpin research and development facilities.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: The future of international student mobility
International student mobility over the past decade has been hugely affected by two events, 9/11 and the 2008 recession. We are now entering a period of increased competition for international students. Those nations and institutions that can negotiate the new environment and are prepared for any event that may change the playing field will be best placed to prosper, writes RAHUL CHOUDAHA.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Tackling the fall in international education
Australia saw a huge rise in international students from 1990 but policy changes, prompted by a number of issues including document fraud, have resulted in a dramatic fall-off in recent months. SIMON MARGINSON sets out some protocols for international education that he says could create an informal global standard for the future.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK: In defence of public higher education
Hundreds of academics, including some of the most well-known figures in UK higher education, have published an Alternative White Paper in response to government plans for universities. In it, they put forward their idea of what a public university should be for and draw attention to the wider public significance of the reforms and the threat they believe these represent, says one of the signatories JOHN HOLMWOOD.
Full report on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
GLOBAL: Humans exhaust nature's budget
Humanity has already surpassed 'nature's budget' for the year and is moving into the ecological equivalent of overdraft, according to data from the Global Footprint Network, an international research organisation with offices in California and Geneva.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK: Playing ping-pong with electrons
Scientists at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory have demonstrated an amazing degree of control over the most fundamental aspect of an electronic circuit: how electrons move from one place to another. Researchers have moved an individual electron along a wire, batting it back and forth more than 60 times rather like the ball in a game of ping-pong.
Full report on the University World News site :
AUSTRALIA: Aboriginals reached Asia first
A 100-year-old lock of hair from a West Australian Aboriginal man has led to the discovery that Aborigines are directly descended from the first people to leave Africa more than 70,000 years ago. The find reinterprets world history by showing the ancestors of modern Australian Aboriginal people reached Asia at least 24,000 years before other human migrations that produced present-day Europeans and Asians.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Serpentine subduction in transfer
An international team of scientists has provided new insights into the processes behind the evolution of the planet by demonstrating how salty water and gases transfer from the atmosphere into the Earth's interior. Scientists have long argued about how the Earth evolved from the primitive state in which it was covered by an ocean of molten rock into the planet we live on today with a solid crust made of moving tectonic plates, oceans and an atmosphere.
Full report on the University World News site:
UNI-LATERAL
UK: Manchester professor revives Beethoven classic
A lost Beethoven masterpiece has been painstakingly reconstructed by an expert more than 200 years after it vanished, writes Tom Brooks-Pollock for the Manchester Evening News.
More on the University World News site:
NORTH KOREA: Ruler's grandson to study in Bosnia
While Chinese leaders send their offspring to America and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe sends his to Hong Kong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il favours…Bosnia, reports Today's Zaman.
More on the University World News site:
FACEBOOK
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Our address is http://facebook.com/UniversityWorldNews. Even if you were one of the 2,800 members of the original Facebook community you will need to rejoin, or become a fan once again via this page. That way, you will be able to see our regular updates, post on our wall and communicate with us and other University World News fans. Please take a few minutes to rejoin and to inform your friends about our new Facebook page.
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WORLD ROUND-UP
GLOBAL: Professors take academic road to the East
A decade ago most aspiring business professors headed West, to the US. These days they are heading in the opposite direction: Asia is becoming the hotspot for the top management thinkers, writes Della Bradshaw for the Financial Times.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Universities 'over-report' on foreign students
A new report shows that British lecturers and staff have raised concerns over student absence or activities on more than 35,000 occasions in the past two years, writes Tom Whitehead for The Telegraph. The report raises fresh concerns that the student visa system is still open to widespread abuse by those looking to stay in the UK illegally.
More on the University World News site:
US: Harvard endowment rises to US$32 billion
Harvard University has consolidated its position as the richest university in the world, with the value of its endowment rising by 20% to £20.7 billion (US$32.4 billion), reports the BBC. It means the university has added £4.4 billion to the value of its endowment in a single year. As an international comparison, a report last week showed that the annual turnover for the entire UK higher education system is £26 billion.
More on the University World News site:
US: Princeton adopts open access policy
The movement to make research freely available got a high-profile boost last week with the news that Princeton University's faculty has unanimously adopted an open access policy, writes Jennifer Howard for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
More on the University World News site:
US: Too many rules in higher education, study finds
After surveying more than 2,000 higher education officials about which federal regulations they find too burdensome, a federal panel now has its answer: almost all of them, writes Libby A Nelson for Inside Higher Ed.
More on the University World News site:
DENMARK: Online network to recruit Chinese talent
Denmark last week launched the first-ever website to enable talented Chinese students and professionals to connect directly with Danish universities and firms, reports Xinhua.
More on the University World News site:
JAPAN: Universities under-utilise facilities - survey
Many of Japan's most prestigious universities spend huge amounts of money on unutilised and unnecessary facilities, reports the Mainichi Daily News.
More on the University World News site:
NIGERIA: Staff strike cripples universities
There was total compliance last week with the one-week nationwide warning strike by Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which disrupted examinations in the nation's premier University of Ibadan and the University of Jos and paralysed academic activities in others, reports Afrique en Ligne.
More on the University World News site:
ZIMBABWE: Under-resourced universities under threat
The Zimbabwean government has threatened to shut down under-resourced universities, saying the institutions are compromising education standards, according to The Africa Report.
More on the University World News site:
TAIWAN: 'Spying' professor under investigation
Prosecutors in Taiwan last week investigated Wu Chang-yu, an associate professor in the Central Police University's department of administrative management, in connection with passing information on activities of Chinese and foreigners in Taiwan to China, writes Lin Ching-Chuan for Taipei Times.
More on the University World News site:
JORDAN: Displaced medical students to study locally
All Jordanians studying medicine in Yemen and Libya will be accepted at local universities provided that they pass the entrance exams prepared by the medical faculties of the institutions, a senior official said last week, reports The Jordan Times.
More on the University World News site:
SWEDEN: Academics may apply for jobs in Swedish
Three Swedish universities, which had placed job advertisements requiring certain applications to be filed in English, are now being told to change their approach after a recent decision that gives a primary role to the national language, writes Jonathan J Li for The New York Times.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Universities face cuts for not boosting access
Universities have been told to enrol more students from disadvantaged groups or they could be ordered to cut their fees, writes Richard Garner for The Independent.
More on the University World News site:
SCOTLAND: Anger over rush to agree on merger
Two of Scotland's universities are under pressure to agree to merge within weeks in a bid to save money, it has emerged. The Scottish Funding Council, which provides Scottish government cash for higher education, wants Dundee and Abertay to have decided on their future by the end of this month, writes Chris Marshall for The Scotsman.
More on the University World News site:
US: Universities urge freshmen to study humanities
On 21st century American campuses, is there room for Shakespeare, Sartre and Sondheim? A declining number of students think so, a trend that worries leaders at many top universities, where engineers often outnumber humanists, writes Lisa M Krieger for San Jose Mercury News.
More on the University World News site:
US: 'Irvine 11' plan to appeal heckling conviction
A group of Muslim students who were convicted on 23 September of disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador at the University of California, Irvine, plan to appeal as Muslim community leaders call the high-profile free speech case a civil rights moment, writes David Finnigan for Huffington Post.
More on the University World News site:
US: Bake sale: Clever satire or over-the-top stunt?
The bake sale was supposed to be a satire, drawing attention to what organisers feel is a discriminating and racist bill, now on the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown, that would allow the state's university systems to consider race, ethnicity and gender in admission decisions, writes Daniel B Wood for the Christian Science Monitor.
More on the University World News site:
WALES: Plans for super-institution unveiled
A university last week mapped out its blueprint for a new super-institution bringing together partners in southeast Wales. The University of Wales, Newport, talked of a new era for higher education in the region which would leave behind "any competition and rivalry that may have hampered collaboration in the past", writes Gareth Evans for the Western Mail.
More on the University World News site:
While Australia has made a surprise decision to lift most of its new restrictions on issuing visas to international students, France has decided to slap constraints on students from outside Europe, GEOFF MASLEN and JANE MARSHALL report. In Mauritius, GUILLAUME GOURGES interviews Tertiary Education Minister Rajesh Jeetah about the island country's ambitious higher education plans. In Features, YOJANA SHARMA finds that China is turning to Hong Kong's world-class universities for help in improving medical education, and ALAN RUBY and ADRIANA JARAMILLO offer advice to developing countries on what to look for in a branch campus. In Commentary, RAHUL CHOUDAHA argues that countries that can negotiate the new post-9/11 and recession environment and are prepared for future upheavals will be best placed in the race to attract international students, and SIMON MARGINSON proposes protocols for international education that could create an informal global standard for the future. JOHN HOLMWOOD outlines an Alternative White Paper signed by hundreds of UK academics in response to government plans for universities.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
AUSTRALIA: Doors open to foreign students
Geoff Maslen
Australia's 39 universities are preparing for a brand new day in 2012: not only will government quotas on the number of local students they enrol be lifted, but they will also be able to recruit as many foreigners as they wish through a new fast-track visa system. In a generous move that surprised even sceptical vice-chancellors, government decided to lift most restrictions on issuing visas to overseas students, opening the way for a likely flood of new applications from China, India, Pakistan and other Asian countries.
Full report on the University World News site:
See also the Simon Marginson article in Commentary
FRANCE: Immigration restrictions hit foreign students
Jane Marshall
Immigration measures that tighten restrictions on foreign students from outside the European Union and are opposed by university presidents, grandes écoles and students, have been defended by Laurent Wauquiez, France's Minister for Higher Education and Research.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Erasmus expands to help Arab Spring
Brendan O'Malley
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that EUR66 million (US$90 million) will be allocated to extending the Erasmus Mundus higher education programme to support European Neighbourhood countries, in response to the Arab Spring.
Full report on the University World News site:
ASIA: Forging regional higher education integration
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Plans to integrate higher education in Asia, a regional challenge that calls for streamlining of university curricula and grading systems, gathered steam at an international symposium held in Tokyo last week.
Full report on the University World News site:
PAKISTAN: Central role for universities in new policy
Ameen Amjad Khan
Higher education's share of Pakistan's overall education budget should double to 20% in the coming decade, according to a new science, technology and innovation policy approved by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. But independent observers doubt the claim will be fulfilled.
Full report on the University World News site:
BAHRAIN: Reinstate sacked staff, says rights group
Brendan O'Malley
Human Rights Watch has called on universities in Bahrain to immediately reinstate hundreds of students, academics and staff who have been dismissed for voicing criticism of the government and royal family or for attending largely peaceful protests in February and March, when civil unrest engulfed the island.
Full report on the University World News site:
SWEDEN: Scholarships to woo back foreign students
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Swedish government has responded to the drastic fall in the number of international students from outside Europe, following the introduction of tuition fees, by increasing funding for scholarships.
Full report on the University World News site:
DENMARK: Masters graduates overseas face study bill
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Danish government intends to make masters students who go on to work overseas for more than five years, repay the cost of their degree. The proposal has led to protests from opponents who claim it is the first step towards introducing tuition fees.
Full report on the University World News site:
NIGERIA: President orders probe into campus r ape
Tunde Fatunde
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a police investigation into an incident at Abia State University in which five students allegedly r aped a female colleague, filmed the o rgy and posted it on the internet, sparking outrage across the country and abroad.
Full report on the University World News site:
KENYA: Double student intake kicks off at Kenyatta
Gilbert Nganga
Kenyatta University has become the first in the country to enrol two batches of freshman students, in a double-intake plan that seeks to ease a biting higher education admissions crisis. Educationists expect the move to be followed by Kenya's other six public universities as they rush to clear a backlog of 40,000 students.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Launch of digital campus network
Geoff Maslen
Dubbed the Collaboration Network for Academia, the world's first 'iversity', which has been set up by a team of young entrepreneurs in the small town of Neuenhagen outside Berlin, had its official launch on Monday. Organisers say academics and students now have access to a novel workspace unavailable in other online formats.
Full report on the University World News site:
Q&A
MAURITIUS: Minister outlines knowledge hub plans
Africa's most developed country, the small island state of Mauritius off the continent's east coast, has positioned itself to be a regional knowledge hub. Higher education reforms are underway, new universities and campuses are being built and the government and sector are working to attract 100,000 international students by 2020. University World News correspondent in Mauritius, GUILLAUME GOURGES, interviewed Tertiary Education Minister Rajesh Jeetah about the country's ambitious higher education plans.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
CHINA: Hong Kong helps to upgrade medical training
Yojana Sharma
Prestigious overseas universities have been hovering in China hoping to forge collaborations in medical education and research. Yet so far none have set up a medical school there, despite the country's huge need to upgrade medical training. It is Hong Kong, with its international medical education standards and world-class health system, that has been quietly helping China with undergraduate training.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: A buyers' guide to branch campuses
Alan Ruby and Adriana Jaramillo
Ministers of education in developing economies around the globe are trying to make sense of the growth of university branch campuses. Their neighbors and competitors have them, local citizens seem to want them as an alternative to sending their children abroad, they might be cheaper than large-scale scholarship programmes like the King Abdullah grants, and they could underpin research and development facilities.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: The future of international student mobility
International student mobility over the past decade has been hugely affected by two events, 9/11 and the 2008 recession. We are now entering a period of increased competition for international students. Those nations and institutions that can negotiate the new environment and are prepared for any event that may change the playing field will be best placed to prosper, writes RAHUL CHOUDAHA.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Tackling the fall in international education
Australia saw a huge rise in international students from 1990 but policy changes, prompted by a number of issues including document fraud, have resulted in a dramatic fall-off in recent months. SIMON MARGINSON sets out some protocols for international education that he says could create an informal global standard for the future.
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UK: In defence of public higher education
Hundreds of academics, including some of the most well-known figures in UK higher education, have published an Alternative White Paper in response to government plans for universities. In it, they put forward their idea of what a public university should be for and draw attention to the wider public significance of the reforms and the threat they believe these represent, says one of the signatories JOHN HOLMWOOD.
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SCIENCE SCENE
GLOBAL: Humans exhaust nature's budget
Humanity has already surpassed 'nature's budget' for the year and is moving into the ecological equivalent of overdraft, according to data from the Global Footprint Network, an international research organisation with offices in California and Geneva.
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UK: Playing ping-pong with electrons
Scientists at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory have demonstrated an amazing degree of control over the most fundamental aspect of an electronic circuit: how electrons move from one place to another. Researchers have moved an individual electron along a wire, batting it back and forth more than 60 times rather like the ball in a game of ping-pong.
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AUSTRALIA: Aboriginals reached Asia first
A 100-year-old lock of hair from a West Australian Aboriginal man has led to the discovery that Aborigines are directly descended from the first people to leave Africa more than 70,000 years ago. The find reinterprets world history by showing the ancestors of modern Australian Aboriginal people reached Asia at least 24,000 years before other human migrations that produced present-day Europeans and Asians.
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GLOBAL: Serpentine subduction in transfer
An international team of scientists has provided new insights into the processes behind the evolution of the planet by demonstrating how salty water and gases transfer from the atmosphere into the Earth's interior. Scientists have long argued about how the Earth evolved from the primitive state in which it was covered by an ocean of molten rock into the planet we live on today with a solid crust made of moving tectonic plates, oceans and an atmosphere.
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UNI-LATERAL
UK: Manchester professor revives Beethoven classic
A lost Beethoven masterpiece has been painstakingly reconstructed by an expert more than 200 years after it vanished, writes Tom Brooks-Pollock for the Manchester Evening News.
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NORTH KOREA: Ruler's grandson to study in Bosnia
While Chinese leaders send their offspring to America and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe sends his to Hong Kong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il favours…Bosnia, reports Today's Zaman.
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WORLD ROUND-UP
GLOBAL: Professors take academic road to the East
A decade ago most aspiring business professors headed West, to the US. These days they are heading in the opposite direction: Asia is becoming the hotspot for the top management thinkers, writes Della Bradshaw for the Financial Times.
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UK: Universities 'over-report' on foreign students
A new report shows that British lecturers and staff have raised concerns over student absence or activities on more than 35,000 occasions in the past two years, writes Tom Whitehead for The Telegraph. The report raises fresh concerns that the student visa system is still open to widespread abuse by those looking to stay in the UK illegally.
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US: Harvard endowment rises to US$32 billion
Harvard University has consolidated its position as the richest university in the world, with the value of its endowment rising by 20% to £20.7 billion (US$32.4 billion), reports the BBC. It means the university has added £4.4 billion to the value of its endowment in a single year. As an international comparison, a report last week showed that the annual turnover for the entire UK higher education system is £26 billion.
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US: Princeton adopts open access policy
The movement to make research freely available got a high-profile boost last week with the news that Princeton University's faculty has unanimously adopted an open access policy, writes Jennifer Howard for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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US: Too many rules in higher education, study finds
After surveying more than 2,000 higher education officials about which federal regulations they find too burdensome, a federal panel now has its answer: almost all of them, writes Libby A Nelson for Inside Higher Ed.
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DENMARK: Online network to recruit Chinese talent
Denmark last week launched the first-ever website to enable talented Chinese students and professionals to connect directly with Danish universities and firms, reports Xinhua.
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JAPAN: Universities under-utilise facilities - survey
Many of Japan's most prestigious universities spend huge amounts of money on unutilised and unnecessary facilities, reports the Mainichi Daily News.
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NIGERIA: Staff strike cripples universities
There was total compliance last week with the one-week nationwide warning strike by Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which disrupted examinations in the nation's premier University of Ibadan and the University of Jos and paralysed academic activities in others, reports Afrique en Ligne.
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ZIMBABWE: Under-resourced universities under threat
The Zimbabwean government has threatened to shut down under-resourced universities, saying the institutions are compromising education standards, according to The Africa Report.
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TAIWAN: 'Spying' professor under investigation
Prosecutors in Taiwan last week investigated Wu Chang-yu, an associate professor in the Central Police University's department of administrative management, in connection with passing information on activities of Chinese and foreigners in Taiwan to China, writes Lin Ching-Chuan for Taipei Times.
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JORDAN: Displaced medical students to study locally
All Jordanians studying medicine in Yemen and Libya will be accepted at local universities provided that they pass the entrance exams prepared by the medical faculties of the institutions, a senior official said last week, reports The Jordan Times.
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SWEDEN: Academics may apply for jobs in Swedish
Three Swedish universities, which had placed job advertisements requiring certain applications to be filed in English, are now being told to change their approach after a recent decision that gives a primary role to the national language, writes Jonathan J Li for The New York Times.
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UK: Universities face cuts for not boosting access
Universities have been told to enrol more students from disadvantaged groups or they could be ordered to cut their fees, writes Richard Garner for The Independent.
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SCOTLAND: Anger over rush to agree on merger
Two of Scotland's universities are under pressure to agree to merge within weeks in a bid to save money, it has emerged. The Scottish Funding Council, which provides Scottish government cash for higher education, wants Dundee and Abertay to have decided on their future by the end of this month, writes Chris Marshall for The Scotsman.
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US: Universities urge freshmen to study humanities
On 21st century American campuses, is there room for Shakespeare, Sartre and Sondheim? A declining number of students think so, a trend that worries leaders at many top universities, where engineers often outnumber humanists, writes Lisa M Krieger for San Jose Mercury News.
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US: 'Irvine 11' plan to appeal heckling conviction
A group of Muslim students who were convicted on 23 September of disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador at the University of California, Irvine, plan to appeal as Muslim community leaders call the high-profile free speech case a civil rights moment, writes David Finnigan for Huffington Post.
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US: Bake sale: Clever satire or over-the-top stunt?
The bake sale was supposed to be a satire, drawing attention to what organisers feel is a discriminating and racist bill, now on the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown, that would allow the state's university systems to consider race, ethnicity and gender in admission decisions, writes Daniel B Wood for the Christian Science Monitor.
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WALES: Plans for super-institution unveiled
A university last week mapped out its blueprint for a new super-institution bringing together partners in southeast Wales. The University of Wales, Newport, talked of a new era for higher education in the region which would leave behind "any competition and rivalry that may have hampered collaboration in the past", writes Gareth Evans for the Western Mail.
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