This week's highlights
This week YOJANA SHARMA reports on the QS-Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education conference in the Philippines, and on efforts by Asian countries to strengthen design education in order to move up the manufacturing value chain. Also in Features, SUDARTO SVARNABHUMI writes that the killing of five Al-Qaeda suspects has turned the spotlight on the possible radicalisation of Indonesian students studying in Yemen. JAMES OTIENO JOWIE describes trends in African university engagement identified at the annual conference of the African Network for Internationalisation of Education and SHARON DELL investigates shifting student politics on South Africa's post-apartheid campuses. In Commentary, PAUL TROWLER argues that changes in academia have eroded academic tribes and territories, and I ELAINE ALLEN writes that rising enrolments in online education in America are gradually changing academics' attitudes to this mode of teaching and learning. Finally, FRANCOIS THERIN says there is little financial incentive in Europe for private companies to move into the higher education sector.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
EUROPE: Austerity threatens autonomy, EAU warns
David Jobbins
An authoritative study of university autonomy across 26 European countries has found "worrying signs" that the economic crisis and austerity measures have led to instances of tighter controls of university budgets, "unnecessary" administrative burdens and reduced financial autonomy. Estonia and the UK rank highest on scorecards that rate tertiary systems in four areas of autonomy
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Chinese drive 5% international student growth
Alison Moodie
International student enrolment at American colleges and universities has been growing steadily for the past five years, reaching a record high of 723,277 in 2010, according to a new report by the Institute of International Education. The annual Open Doors study found that the majority of international students came from China, with their number rising by 23% - the fourth consecutive year of double-digit increases.
Full report on the University World News site:
THAILAND: Floods disrupt higher education
Suluck Lamubol
Thailand's worst floods in decades are disrupting the higher education system, causing millions of dollars worth of damage to facilities and forcing universities to reschedule semester dates. It is also having knock-on effects on the higher education budget and the administration of student loans and could have wider impacts on education plans in the coming months.
Full report on the University World News site:
CHILE: Opposition and students unveil reform plan
María Elena Hurtado
The sixth-month-long battle over reforms to Chile's higher education has moved from the streets to parliament. Student representatives of the 25 universities that make up the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities have spent a week with opposition politicians hammering out a united position on the education budget for 2012, which has to be approved by the end of November.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Social sciences research role backed
Jan Petter Myklebust and Brendan O'Malley
European Union Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn has responded to calls to give more weight to social sciences and humanities in Horizon 2020, the EU's funding programme for research and innovation.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Huge surplus or massive shortfall?
Geoff Maslen
Australia's public universities have rejected federal government claims that they generated a huge 'profit' last year, arguing that the accounting methods used distort the real situation. Far from making an AUD2 billion (US$2 billion) surplus, more than half the universities made a significant loss.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Expand university access, World Bank urges
Francis Kokutsi
The World Bank has urged African governments to expand access to post-secondary education and ensure that it serves as a ladder for Africans to climb out of poverty. Obiageli Ezekwesili, the bank's vice-president for Africa, made the call at a conference in Ghana's capital Accra.
Full report on the University World News site:
GREECE: No campus conflict despite warning
Makkie Marseilles
The senate of the Technical University of Athens warned ahead of the 17 November anniversary of the 1973 uprising against the junta that it was not in a position to avert serious incidents. But while protests erupted in the capital, with 7,000 police deployed in the area the university appears to have escaped conflict.
Full report on the University World News site:
UAE: Festival of Thinkers explores new models
Leigh Thomas
Current education models around the world are not meeting the challenge of inspiring and developing innovators, higher education leaders and other opinion-formers heard at the Festival of Thinkers conference in the United Arab Emirates last week.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Higher profile for German sought
Michael Gardner
Germany is aiming to raise the profile of German as an academic language in a multilingual environment. At a three-day conference run by the German Academic Exchange Service, the Institut für Deutsche Sprache and the Goethe Institute, President Christian Wulff stressed the importance of promoting multilingualism and establishing German as a foreign language.
Full report on the University World News site:
KENYA: Paralysing lecturer strike suspended, for now
Gilbert Nganga
Lecturers in public universities in Kenya have suspended their paralysing nine-day strike for two weeks to pave the way for negotiations with the government. The tussle has triggered a debate over who should pick up the wage bill.
Full report on the University World News site:
N IGERIA: VCs, union protest move to end screening test
Tunde Fatunde
Once again N igeria's national assembly and some officials of the examination agency, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, have made moves to dismantle the screening tests carried out by universities around the country. They argue that any test additional to the one conducted by the admissions board itself is unnecessary - even illegal - and places a financial burden on parents.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: World's largest gathering of Africa experts
Jacquie Withers
More than 1,000 scholars and researchers from around the globe converged on Washington DC on Thursday for what the US African Studies Association said was the world's largest gatherings of experts on Africa.
Full report on the University World News site:
QS-MAPLE conference
The seventh QS-APPLE (Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education)
conference was held from 16-18 November at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, the Philippines. It attracted delegates from more than 30 countries and some 100 speakers to discuss issues ranging from internationalisation and the global higher education market to building world-class universities. University World News reports.
GLOBAL: 'World-class' universities can harm others
Yojana Sharma Building 'world-class' universities can have a negative impact on the rest of a country's higher education system if equity and other issues are not taken into account, a senior Asian Development Bank official warned Asian university leaders meeting in Manila.
Full report on the University World News site:
ASIA: How to soar up the world university rankings
Bertil Andersson, president of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is one of several non-Singaporean university leaders in the city-state. YOJANA SHARMA spoke to him as he headed for the QS-APPLE conference in Manila, on Singapore's attractions as a higher education hub, its willingness to import the best from the West, and whether Asian institutions might eventually overtake the West.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
CHINA: Design education for future economic growth
Yojana Sharma
Just days after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in October, Hong Kong design student Jonathan Mak's silhouette of Jobs' profile in the bite of the Apple logo went viral internationally. His simple tribute was fêted and published worldwide. But in Hong Kong it caused barely a ripple.
Full report on the University World News site:
YEMEN: Students from Indonesia being radicalised?
Sudarto Svarnabhumi
The killing of five Al-Qaeda suspects including an Indonesian in southern Yemen this month has turned the spotlight on Indonesian students studying abroad in Yemen, and the possibility that students could become radicalised during their time there.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Universities rethink internationalisation
James Otieno Jowi*
The African Network for Internationalisation of Education, ANIE, held its third annual conference recently in Abuja, N igeria. Among the trends identified were growing collaboration between African universities, which is driving far greater mobility of students and staff across the continent, and increased use of information and communication technologies
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: New dynamics in student politics
Sharon Dell
A convincing win for the opposition-aligned Democratic Alliance Student Organisation in recent student representative council elections at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University suggests that South African students may be tired of having their interests overshadowed by intra-party politics in a more complex post-apartheid political environment.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: Rethinking academic tribes and territories
Do established disciplines behave in a territorial way that defines how academics work and what they research? PAUL TROWLER argues that this was certainly the case in the past, but changes such as increasing interdisciplinarity and more intensive ways of working mean that it is less and less the case.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Online education growth dwarfs overall enrolment
The latest survey of online education in the US shows that enrolment increased by 10% in the last year, compared to a 2% rise in overall higher education enrolment. A growing number of academics now say online courses are as good as or better than face-to-face classes, writes I ELAINE ALLEN. Today, nearly a third of all students take at least one course online.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: No need to fear higher education investors
British newspapers are awash with rumours that private equity companies could be interested in taking over a university. But there is little financial incentive on the European continent for private companies to move into the higher education sector, argues FRANCOIS THERIN.
Full report on the University World News site:
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet*
In Turkey, 57 members of the Academy of Sciences have resigned in protest against a government decree that will end the academy's autonomy. In Bahrain, university students are under attack by the authorities, with hundreds being tried for pro-democracy activities and six recently receiving 15-year sentences and hefty fines in a court case widely criticised as unfair. Papuan students in Indonesia are being targeted by the authorities for what human rights groups describe as generalised intimidation and threats. And in Azerbhaijan, a top scientist has been demoted for questioning the legality of the detention of youth activist Baxtiyar Haciyev, amid moves against the Azerbaijani intelligentsia.
Full report on the University World News site:
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WORLD ROUND-UP
GLOBAL: Call for more Muslim-owned universities
Muslim ownership and management of private universities and colleges in Muslim-majority countries and Muslim-minority communities need to be strengthened to cater for the increasing demand for higher education arising from growth in Muslim populations, reports Malaysia's official agency Bernama.
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CHILE: Universities fail transparency law standards
According to a study recently released by Chile's Consejo para la Transparencia, the Council for Transparency, state universities are not living up to agreements outlined in the transparency law, reports I Love Chile.
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IRELAND: Labour accused of cheating students
Pre-election pledges by the Labour Party about reversing student registration charges and not reintroducing formal fees amounted to "cheating students to win votes", the Dáil (parliament) was told, writes Marie O'Halloran for The Irish Times.
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UK: Professors lambasted for failure to mentor
A lack of leadership and the failure to support and mentor junior colleagues have been highlighted in a major study of the professoriate, writes Jack Grove for Times Higher Education. Of 1,200 academic staff from lower grades who responded to a survey commissioned by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, more than half (53%) said they did not receive sufficient help or advice from professorial staff.
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UK: Universities forced to reveal animal test details
Universities will be forced to reveal details of controversial research, including testing on monkeys, after a tribunal ruling made it harder for them to claim exemption from freedom of information requests, writes Jonathan Brown for The Independent.
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US: Berkeley reveals plan for centre in China
The University of California, Berkeley, announced last week that it plans to open a large research and teaching facility in Shanghai as part of a broader plan to bolster its presence in China, writes David Barboza for The New York Times.
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CANADA: Universities refocus on Malaysian market
Canada is doing all it can to return to the glory days as one of Malaysia's top education providers. Canadian High Commissioner to Malaysia Randolph Mank said many Canadian universities were focusing on the Malaysian market to regain lost ground, writes Paul Gabriel for The Star.
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CANADA: University to open two offices in India
The University of British Columbia is opening two offices in India as part of its efforts to gain a foothold in one of the world's most rapidly growing higher education markets. The initiative was announced last week in Bangalore by Premier Christy Clark, who was leading a British Colombia government trade mission to India, reports The Vancouver Sun.
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UAE: Foreign campuses link under college system
Winning its bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Doha, the Gulf emirate of Qatar showed the rising power of the Middle East. Its landmark football stadium will cool summer temperatures of around 40 degrees with solar panel-powered air-conditioning as the international teams play to crowded stands, writes Stephen Hoare for The Independent.
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MALAYSIA: UNESCO to help review education policy
Malaysia and UNESCO last week signed a memorandum of understanding to review the country's education policy at all levels, from pre-school to higher education, reports the official agency Bernama.
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PAKISTAN: Higher education participation hits 7.8%
Higher Education Commission Chairman Javaid R Laghari has said that in 2008 the participate rate in higher education in Pakistan was 2.5%, but after commission initiatives it has reached 7.8% and the government has a vision to increase the figure to 15% by 2020, reports The International News.
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UK: University 'consumer culture' warning
The new chairman of a group of leading research universities has warned against treating students as "consumers purchasing degree certificates", writes Sean Coughlan for the BBC.
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CHINA: Contest for 'prodigy' places in universities
A thin but fit figure at 5 foot 10, he looked no different from other college students. His shyness and unguarded manner, however, gave him away. Zhang Xinyang, from Panjin in Liaoning province, entered college at just 10 years of age, a record in China. Now 16, he is pursuing a doctorate in mathematics at Beihang University in Beijing, write Wang Yan and Chen Jia for China Daily.
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HONG KONG: Mugabe jets in for daughter's graduation
Zimbabwe's budget presentation in parliament was moved from last Thursday to next week Wednesday after President Robert Mugabe decided his daughter Bona Mugabe's graduation at the City University in Hong Kong was more important, reports Nehanda Radio.
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TANZANIA: IDs offer hope for student debt recovery
Hopes in Tanzania for the recovery of more than US$397 million in outstanding debt from thousands of defaulting higher education students loans lies mainly with the introduction of national identity documents early next year, writes James Mwakisyala for East African Business Week.
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US: Atheist students protest exclusion by Duquesne
Holding signs that said 'We don't bite' and 'Support reason', about 20 students from three universities gathered last week to protest Duquesne University's refusal to recognise a proposed secular student group, write Kaitlynn Riely and Ann Rodgers for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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Sunday, 20 November 2011
Monday, 14 November 2011
University World News 0197 - 13th November 2011
This week's highlights
This week we take an in-depth look at the expansion of private higher education around the world, what has been driving the sector's phenomenal growth, trends in private provision in countries and regions, and what this all means for higher education systems. Among many other articles, BIANKA SIWINSKA looks at the expansion of the private sector in Eastern and Central Europe and the demographic challenges it faces, and GRACE KARRAM writes that rather than being profit-hungry commercial operations, most of the swelling number of private institutions in Africa are religiously-oriented with non-profit motives. In Commentary, JANDHYALA TILAK writes that India's draft twelfth Five Year Plan foresees an even greater role for the private sector in future. ANDREW MCGETTIGAN argues that Britain needs a multi-level campaign to stop the full-scale privatisation of higher education, and WILLIAM PATRICK LEONARD says that well-managed and targeted for-profit institutions are benefiting from complacency in the public and non-profit private higher education sectors.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
GLOBAL: Which students use agents? - British Council
Yojana Sharma
There are big differences around the world in the reasons why students turn to education agents for university and student visa applications, with use of agents highest in regions and countries where there is less familiarity with the target education system. Language issues are also important, a new study by the British Council has found.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK: MPs demand reform changes to tackle access
Brendan O'Malley
MPs have urged the UK government to delay piecemeal implementation of key higher education reforms in England and to reconsider measures proposed to ensure that disadvantaged students are not put off attending university.
Full report on the University World News site:
NICARAGUA: Protesting students burn building
Chrissie Long
Students from Nicaragua's Caribbean university have doused a campus building in gasoline and burnt it to the ground, in an ongoing fight over university leadership. Their protests have also included a four-day hunger strike that landed two students in hospital and forced professors to cancel classes.
Full report on the University World News site:
DENMARK: Social science needs higher EU profile
Jan Petter Myklebust
A Danish think tank has called for a strengthened social sciences and humanities strand in the European Union's flagship research programme, as Denmark prepares to take over the chairmanship of the European Commission.
Full report on the University World News site:
GERMANY: Good job prospects for graduates
Michael Gardner
Unemployment among graduates in Germany one year after leaving their institution is at 4% and below, compared with a seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate of 5.9%, according to a survey by HIS-HF, a higher education statistics agency.
Full report on the University World News site:
SPECIAL REPORT: Private higher education
The growth of private higher education around the world has been
phenomenal. In some countries and regions private institutions now enrol high proportions - or even majorities - of tertiary students. The private sector has been helping to meet mushrooming demand for higher education among school-leaving and non-traditional students, but there are serious concerns about quality, high fees and diversity of provision as well as the privatisation of higher education.
This special report covers topics ranging from the rapid growth of private higher education in India, Central America, Africa, Brazil, the Arab world and Central and Eastern Europe, and controversial for-profit institutions in the United States, to the struggles of foreign private institutions trying to make it in Australia and booming bogus degree mills based mostly in North America and Europe but also increasingly in cyberspace. In some cases there is a blurring of boundaries between public and private, and in some nations such as Kenya and Malaysia, governments are clamping down on private institutions in efforts to ensure students receive quality learning and recognised qualifications.
INDIA: Regulation lags private higher education growth
Alya Mishra Rising demand for post-secondary education, lack of government investment in the sector and the deteriorating quality of many public universities has led to an increase in private players in Indian higher education. But the regulation of private institutions has failed to keep up with their rapid growth, leading to concerns about quality and social equity.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: For-profits controversial but driving growth
Alison Moodie
For-profit colleges and universities represent the fastest-growing but also most controversial sector of private higher education in the United States. Universities like Phoenix, DeVry and Kaplan have helped turn the for-profit sector into a massive revenue generator and the engine for higher education growth. From 1998 to 2008, for-profit enrolment grew by 225%.
Full report on the University World News site:
CENTRAL AMERICA: Private higher education booming
Chrissie Long
Recent years have witnessed a boom in private education opportunities across the Central American isthmus. To some, it seems that private entities cannot open classrooms fast enough. Whereas 30 years ago there were virtually no private universities today there are more than 151 and every year more emerge.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Tired pioneers in Eastern and Central Europe
Bianka Siwinska
The common characteristic of private universities in Central and Eastern Europe is that none of them existed 20 years ago. The 'private revolution' in this part of the world started after the dissolution of the Soviet block and the fall of communism in 1989. The ossified structures of centrally managed higher education systems were unable to react to the new educational needs of emerging market economies.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Rapid growth in private religious universities
Grace Karram
Critics of private post-secondary education often argue that foreign universities in developing nations are commercial and profit-hungry. But these debates ring hollow in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of private providers are religiously-oriented with non-profit business models. Religious institutions are the fastest growing type of post-secondary institution in almost every nation north of South Africa and south of the Sahara.
Full report on the University World News site:
BRAZIL: Private education far better than none at all
Karen MacGregor
A burning question for developing countries is whether low quality private higher education is better than none at all, in circumstances where public systems cannot meet soaring student demand. Brazil decided it was and set about rapidly expanding its higher education system, including by opening it to private institutions. Today the country has one of the largest private sectors in the world and it enrols a staggering 75% of all post-secondary students.
Full report on the University World News site:
ARAB STATES: Quality low despite privatisation boom
Wagdy Sawahel
Despite dramatic growth since the 1990s in the number of private institutions, which make up about 45% of all Arab universities and have a market size of US$1.2 billion in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates alone, these institutions continue to have little impact on the development of higher education systems in the Arab world.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Foreigners providers find the going hard
Geoff Maslen
Despite the efforts of some of the world's largest foreign private universities to set up shop in Australia, none have yet succeeded in making a profit from selling higher education - or even attracting significant numbers of students.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Degree mills tarnish private higher education
Sarah King Head
According to the most recent report of Accredibase, the UK-based background screening company Verifile Limited, there was a staggering 48% increase in the number of known degree or diploma mills operating worldwide last year. It identified more than 2,500 bogus institutions across all regions, but primarily in North America and Europe.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Many private colleges have quality issues
Honey Singh Virdee
An audit of private colleges in Malaysia has unearthed serious quality issues, with only one in three colleges evaluated doing well in a quality assurance process that could be used by the government to approve or deny them licenses to recruit international students.
Full report on the University World News site:
KENYA: New audit of private universities announced
Gilbert Nganga
Surging demand for higher education ought to have given Kenya a good reason to clean up its universities. But as the number of private and public universities has grown over the past seven years, from 17 to 24 private and five to seven public institutions, so have concerns over the quality of learning.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: From for-profit to public purpose: Monash
Geoff Maslen
A decade after Monash University in Melbourne became the first foreign university to gain registration as a private higher education institution in South Africa, its ambitious goal of establishing a profitable campus in Johannesburg has still to be achieved. Meanwhile the university has changed its approach, switching focus from being 'for-profit' to 'public purpose'.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY: Private higher education
INDIA: State seeks greater role for private sector
Despite the fact that India has a higher number of students enrolled in private higher education institutions than the United States, the government's draft twelfth Five Year Plan foresees an even greater role for the private sector in the future, says JANDHYALA TILAK. Privatisation seems to be the only mantra for the development of education.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK: Concerted assault on public higher education
The UK Conservative-led government is introducing primary legislation which paves the way for full-scale privatisation of the higher education sector despite a lack of public support, says ANDREW MCGETTIGAN. There is a need for a multi-level campaign to stop this as it will destabilise and tarnish the entire sector.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Private sector capitalises on complacency
The for-profit higher education sector is benefiting from complacent public and non-profit private sectors, argues WILLIAM PATRICK LEONARD. Its universities tend to be better-managed and more targeted at meeting market demand because they operate in a more risky environment.
Full report on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
SWEDEN: World-first trachea-bronchi transplant
Jan Petter Myklebust
In a world first, a Swedish surgeon has transplanted the trachea and bronchi that had been created by the patient's own stem cells. Professor Paolo Macchiarini of Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm used a new cell regenerative medical invention to generate the tachea and bronchi.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Production of oxygen on Earth
A new study is believed to have resolved a major debate about when oxygen began to be produced on Earth and how long it took before oxygen levels were sufficient to support the growth of life.
Full report on the University World News site:
US-AUSTRALIA: A new planet forms
Astronomers have released the first close-up images of a young planet in the process of being formed. The research aims to shed light on the ways in which planets and solar systems begin.
Full report on the University World News site:
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WORLD ROUND-UP
BRAZIL: Riot police clear protesting students
More than 300 Brazilian riot police forcibly cleared a university building that protesting students occupied for a week, arresting about 70 people last week. Police used battering rams to smash down doors in the dawn raid as a helicopter buzzed overhead. Officials said the students, mostly asleep when police arrived, did not resist arrest, reports Associated Press.
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CANADA: Thousands of Quebec students march over fees
Tens of thousands of people packed Montreal's streets last Thursday to protest a tuition hike proposed by the government of Premier Jean Charest - an increase that march organisers said is tantamount to a declaration of war on students, reports CTV News.
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UK: Thousands march in student protest over fees
The police were out in force as thousands of students marched through central London last week. Some 4,000 officers were on duty, as demonstrators marched peacefully in a protest against higher tuition fees and 'privatisation' in universities, reports the BBC.
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KENYA: Public universities' strike starts to bite
Learning and examinations in public universities were disrupted as a strike called by three university staff unions started biting. As the strike kicked off, the government defended itself against accusations that it had ignored the matter for far too long, reports The Standard.
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CHINA: Top scholars share open courses online
China now has its version of Harvard open courses. Twenty courses provided by 18 top Chinese universities went online last Wednesday, China's latest attempt to disseminate teaching resources within the nation and promote Chinese culture globally, writes Chen Jia for China Daily.
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INDIA: Red tape tangles US universities' entry
The United States has cited Indian bureaucracy and uncertainty over the Foreign Education Providers Bill as two major bottlenecks for setting up campuses of its foreign universities in India, writes Chetan Chauhan for the Hindustan Times.
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INDIA: Scottish university opens maiden campus
In a move aimed at boosting India-Scotland relations in the field of education, Scotland's Education Minister Michael Russell inaugurated the first campus of a Scottish university in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi last Wednesday, reports The Economic Times.
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MIDDLE EAST: Focus turns to higher education
Recent upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa can be traced largely to the region's youth - millions of young people facing widespread unemployment and seeing a dearth of opportunities ahead of them. Now, academics are seeking to focus on the role that higher education can play to address their concerns, and the crucial steps that officials need to take to achieve this, like engaging with institutions outside the region, standardising curricula and finding alternative sources of financing, writes Sara Hamdan for The New York Times.
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UK: Value of degrees to be revealed for first time
Official work force surveys are to quiz respondents about which universities they attended, revealing which institutions are most and least successful at producing graduates who go on to certain careers, writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph.
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UK: Universities launch tuition fees price war
The career plans of thousands of students have been thrown into confusion after it emerged that one in five universities is seeking to reduce its fees, with only weeks to go before the application deadline, writes Richard Garner for The Independent.
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WALES: Lower-fee universities may get more students
Universities in Wales that are prepared to lower their tuition fees could be allowed to bid for extra students under proposals being considered by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, writes Gareth Evans for Western Mail.
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CYPRUS: Private universities told to lower fees
The government of Cyprus has told private universities to return tuition fees to last year's levels or else risk severe sanctions, writes Elias Hazou for Cyprus Mail.
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AUSTRALIA: University applications on the rise
Applications for university places next year are on the rise as universities compete to attract a wider range of students, while those already enrolled stay for longer and complete their courses at a greater rate, writes Jen Rosenberg for The Sydney Morning Herald.
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GHANA: Universities to benefit from $10m ESRI support
Ghanaian universities have been selected among 100 across Africa to benefit from US$10 million assistance from the Environmental Systems Research Institute, the world's leading Geographic Information Systems developer, reports Ghana Business News.
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SWAZILAND-CHINA: Universities sign pact
Five universities from Taiwan have signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Swaziland, writes Welcome Dlamini for the Times of Swaziland.
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GLOBAL: 'Big Bang Theory' fuels physics boom
The Big Bang Theory, a California-based comedy that follows two young physicists, is being credited with consolidating the growing appetite among teenagers for the once unfashionable subject of physics. Documentaries by Brian Cox have previously been mentioned as galvanising interest in the subject, writes Mark Townsend for The Observer.
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US: Penn State child abuse case holds bigger lessons
The child s ex abuse scandal that has rocked Pennsylvania State University is, say college and university officials far from the institution, not only a cautionary tale but also a very big teachable moment, writes Ron Scherer for The Christian Science Monitor.
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CANADA: University defends right to censure students
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms should not apply to a university's decision to discipline students, a Canadian court heard last week. The University of Calgary is at the Alberta Court of Appeal, attempting to overturn a lower court decision that found the school infringed upon the freedom of expression of twin brothers Keith and Steven Pridgen when it sanctioned them for criticising their professor on Facebook, writes Daryl Slade for Postmedia News.
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US: Disingenuous data may be part of bigger problem
Iona College acknowledged last week that its former provost had, for nearly a decade, manipulated and misreported student-related data to government officials, accrediting bodies, bond rating agencies and others, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed. As the new president of the New York Roman Catholic college described the steps it had taken to prevent such individual unethical behaviour in the future, some observers in higher education said they believed the case indicated the existence of a larger problem.
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UK: Oxford denies sponsor has hold over chair
A University of Oxford job advert apparently requiring its L'Oréal professor of marketing to carry out work for the global cosmetics giant was "unfortunately phrased", the university has said amid concerns over academic freedom, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education.
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UK: University of Warwick joins New York consortium
The University of Warwick has joined a global consortium led by New York University to set up a new applied sciences and engineering campus in the American city. The bid, which is currently being considered by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is the latest attempt by the region to strengthen its links with the US, writes Kat Keogh for the Birmingham Post.
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This week we take an in-depth look at the expansion of private higher education around the world, what has been driving the sector's phenomenal growth, trends in private provision in countries and regions, and what this all means for higher education systems. Among many other articles, BIANKA SIWINSKA looks at the expansion of the private sector in Eastern and Central Europe and the demographic challenges it faces, and GRACE KARRAM writes that rather than being profit-hungry commercial operations, most of the swelling number of private institutions in Africa are religiously-oriented with non-profit motives. In Commentary, JANDHYALA TILAK writes that India's draft twelfth Five Year Plan foresees an even greater role for the private sector in future. ANDREW MCGETTIGAN argues that Britain needs a multi-level campaign to stop the full-scale privatisation of higher education, and WILLIAM PATRICK LEONARD says that well-managed and targeted for-profit institutions are benefiting from complacency in the public and non-profit private higher education sectors.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
GLOBAL: Which students use agents? - British Council
Yojana Sharma
There are big differences around the world in the reasons why students turn to education agents for university and student visa applications, with use of agents highest in regions and countries where there is less familiarity with the target education system. Language issues are also important, a new study by the British Council has found.
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UK: MPs demand reform changes to tackle access
Brendan O'Malley
MPs have urged the UK government to delay piecemeal implementation of key higher education reforms in England and to reconsider measures proposed to ensure that disadvantaged students are not put off attending university.
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NICARAGUA: Protesting students burn building
Chrissie Long
Students from Nicaragua's Caribbean university have doused a campus building in gasoline and burnt it to the ground, in an ongoing fight over university leadership. Their protests have also included a four-day hunger strike that landed two students in hospital and forced professors to cancel classes.
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DENMARK: Social science needs higher EU profile
Jan Petter Myklebust
A Danish think tank has called for a strengthened social sciences and humanities strand in the European Union's flagship research programme, as Denmark prepares to take over the chairmanship of the European Commission.
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GERMANY: Good job prospects for graduates
Michael Gardner
Unemployment among graduates in Germany one year after leaving their institution is at 4% and below, compared with a seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate of 5.9%, according to a survey by HIS-HF, a higher education statistics agency.
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SPECIAL REPORT: Private higher education
The growth of private higher education around the world has been
phenomenal. In some countries and regions private institutions now enrol high proportions - or even majorities - of tertiary students. The private sector has been helping to meet mushrooming demand for higher education among school-leaving and non-traditional students, but there are serious concerns about quality, high fees and diversity of provision as well as the privatisation of higher education.
This special report covers topics ranging from the rapid growth of private higher education in India, Central America, Africa, Brazil, the Arab world and Central and Eastern Europe, and controversial for-profit institutions in the United States, to the struggles of foreign private institutions trying to make it in Australia and booming bogus degree mills based mostly in North America and Europe but also increasingly in cyberspace. In some cases there is a blurring of boundaries between public and private, and in some nations such as Kenya and Malaysia, governments are clamping down on private institutions in efforts to ensure students receive quality learning and recognised qualifications.
INDIA: Regulation lags private higher education growth
Alya Mishra Rising demand for post-secondary education, lack of government investment in the sector and the deteriorating quality of many public universities has led to an increase in private players in Indian higher education. But the regulation of private institutions has failed to keep up with their rapid growth, leading to concerns about quality and social equity.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: For-profits controversial but driving growth
Alison Moodie
For-profit colleges and universities represent the fastest-growing but also most controversial sector of private higher education in the United States. Universities like Phoenix, DeVry and Kaplan have helped turn the for-profit sector into a massive revenue generator and the engine for higher education growth. From 1998 to 2008, for-profit enrolment grew by 225%.
Full report on the University World News site:
CENTRAL AMERICA: Private higher education booming
Chrissie Long
Recent years have witnessed a boom in private education opportunities across the Central American isthmus. To some, it seems that private entities cannot open classrooms fast enough. Whereas 30 years ago there were virtually no private universities today there are more than 151 and every year more emerge.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Tired pioneers in Eastern and Central Europe
Bianka Siwinska
The common characteristic of private universities in Central and Eastern Europe is that none of them existed 20 years ago. The 'private revolution' in this part of the world started after the dissolution of the Soviet block and the fall of communism in 1989. The ossified structures of centrally managed higher education systems were unable to react to the new educational needs of emerging market economies.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Rapid growth in private religious universities
Grace Karram
Critics of private post-secondary education often argue that foreign universities in developing nations are commercial and profit-hungry. But these debates ring hollow in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of private providers are religiously-oriented with non-profit business models. Religious institutions are the fastest growing type of post-secondary institution in almost every nation north of South Africa and south of the Sahara.
Full report on the University World News site:
BRAZIL: Private education far better than none at all
Karen MacGregor
A burning question for developing countries is whether low quality private higher education is better than none at all, in circumstances where public systems cannot meet soaring student demand. Brazil decided it was and set about rapidly expanding its higher education system, including by opening it to private institutions. Today the country has one of the largest private sectors in the world and it enrols a staggering 75% of all post-secondary students.
Full report on the University World News site:
ARAB STATES: Quality low despite privatisation boom
Wagdy Sawahel
Despite dramatic growth since the 1990s in the number of private institutions, which make up about 45% of all Arab universities and have a market size of US$1.2 billion in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates alone, these institutions continue to have little impact on the development of higher education systems in the Arab world.
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AUSTRALIA: Foreigners providers find the going hard
Geoff Maslen
Despite the efforts of some of the world's largest foreign private universities to set up shop in Australia, none have yet succeeded in making a profit from selling higher education - or even attracting significant numbers of students.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Degree mills tarnish private higher education
Sarah King Head
According to the most recent report of Accredibase, the UK-based background screening company Verifile Limited, there was a staggering 48% increase in the number of known degree or diploma mills operating worldwide last year. It identified more than 2,500 bogus institutions across all regions, but primarily in North America and Europe.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Many private colleges have quality issues
Honey Singh Virdee
An audit of private colleges in Malaysia has unearthed serious quality issues, with only one in three colleges evaluated doing well in a quality assurance process that could be used by the government to approve or deny them licenses to recruit international students.
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KENYA: New audit of private universities announced
Gilbert Nganga
Surging demand for higher education ought to have given Kenya a good reason to clean up its universities. But as the number of private and public universities has grown over the past seven years, from 17 to 24 private and five to seven public institutions, so have concerns over the quality of learning.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: From for-profit to public purpose: Monash
Geoff Maslen
A decade after Monash University in Melbourne became the first foreign university to gain registration as a private higher education institution in South Africa, its ambitious goal of establishing a profitable campus in Johannesburg has still to be achieved. Meanwhile the university has changed its approach, switching focus from being 'for-profit' to 'public purpose'.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY: Private higher education
INDIA: State seeks greater role for private sector
Despite the fact that India has a higher number of students enrolled in private higher education institutions than the United States, the government's draft twelfth Five Year Plan foresees an even greater role for the private sector in the future, says JANDHYALA TILAK. Privatisation seems to be the only mantra for the development of education.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK: Concerted assault on public higher education
The UK Conservative-led government is introducing primary legislation which paves the way for full-scale privatisation of the higher education sector despite a lack of public support, says ANDREW MCGETTIGAN. There is a need for a multi-level campaign to stop this as it will destabilise and tarnish the entire sector.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Private sector capitalises on complacency
The for-profit higher education sector is benefiting from complacent public and non-profit private sectors, argues WILLIAM PATRICK LEONARD. Its universities tend to be better-managed and more targeted at meeting market demand because they operate in a more risky environment.
Full report on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
SWEDEN: World-first trachea-bronchi transplant
Jan Petter Myklebust
In a world first, a Swedish surgeon has transplanted the trachea and bronchi that had been created by the patient's own stem cells. Professor Paolo Macchiarini of Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm used a new cell regenerative medical invention to generate the tachea and bronchi.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Production of oxygen on Earth
A new study is believed to have resolved a major debate about when oxygen began to be produced on Earth and how long it took before oxygen levels were sufficient to support the growth of life.
Full report on the University World News site:
US-AUSTRALIA: A new planet forms
Astronomers have released the first close-up images of a young planet in the process of being formed. The research aims to shed light on the ways in which planets and solar systems begin.
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WORLD ROUND-UP
BRAZIL: Riot police clear protesting students
More than 300 Brazilian riot police forcibly cleared a university building that protesting students occupied for a week, arresting about 70 people last week. Police used battering rams to smash down doors in the dawn raid as a helicopter buzzed overhead. Officials said the students, mostly asleep when police arrived, did not resist arrest, reports Associated Press.
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CANADA: Thousands of Quebec students march over fees
Tens of thousands of people packed Montreal's streets last Thursday to protest a tuition hike proposed by the government of Premier Jean Charest - an increase that march organisers said is tantamount to a declaration of war on students, reports CTV News.
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UK: Thousands march in student protest over fees
The police were out in force as thousands of students marched through central London last week. Some 4,000 officers were on duty, as demonstrators marched peacefully in a protest against higher tuition fees and 'privatisation' in universities, reports the BBC.
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KENYA: Public universities' strike starts to bite
Learning and examinations in public universities were disrupted as a strike called by three university staff unions started biting. As the strike kicked off, the government defended itself against accusations that it had ignored the matter for far too long, reports The Standard.
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CHINA: Top scholars share open courses online
China now has its version of Harvard open courses. Twenty courses provided by 18 top Chinese universities went online last Wednesday, China's latest attempt to disseminate teaching resources within the nation and promote Chinese culture globally, writes Chen Jia for China Daily.
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INDIA: Red tape tangles US universities' entry
The United States has cited Indian bureaucracy and uncertainty over the Foreign Education Providers Bill as two major bottlenecks for setting up campuses of its foreign universities in India, writes Chetan Chauhan for the Hindustan Times.
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INDIA: Scottish university opens maiden campus
In a move aimed at boosting India-Scotland relations in the field of education, Scotland's Education Minister Michael Russell inaugurated the first campus of a Scottish university in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi last Wednesday, reports The Economic Times.
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MIDDLE EAST: Focus turns to higher education
Recent upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa can be traced largely to the region's youth - millions of young people facing widespread unemployment and seeing a dearth of opportunities ahead of them. Now, academics are seeking to focus on the role that higher education can play to address their concerns, and the crucial steps that officials need to take to achieve this, like engaging with institutions outside the region, standardising curricula and finding alternative sources of financing, writes Sara Hamdan for The New York Times.
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UK: Value of degrees to be revealed for first time
Official work force surveys are to quiz respondents about which universities they attended, revealing which institutions are most and least successful at producing graduates who go on to certain careers, writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph.
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UK: Universities launch tuition fees price war
The career plans of thousands of students have been thrown into confusion after it emerged that one in five universities is seeking to reduce its fees, with only weeks to go before the application deadline, writes Richard Garner for The Independent.
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WALES: Lower-fee universities may get more students
Universities in Wales that are prepared to lower their tuition fees could be allowed to bid for extra students under proposals being considered by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, writes Gareth Evans for Western Mail.
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CYPRUS: Private universities told to lower fees
The government of Cyprus has told private universities to return tuition fees to last year's levels or else risk severe sanctions, writes Elias Hazou for Cyprus Mail.
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AUSTRALIA: University applications on the rise
Applications for university places next year are on the rise as universities compete to attract a wider range of students, while those already enrolled stay for longer and complete their courses at a greater rate, writes Jen Rosenberg for The Sydney Morning Herald.
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GHANA: Universities to benefit from $10m ESRI support
Ghanaian universities have been selected among 100 across Africa to benefit from US$10 million assistance from the Environmental Systems Research Institute, the world's leading Geographic Information Systems developer, reports Ghana Business News.
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SWAZILAND-CHINA: Universities sign pact
Five universities from Taiwan have signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Swaziland, writes Welcome Dlamini for the Times of Swaziland.
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GLOBAL: 'Big Bang Theory' fuels physics boom
The Big Bang Theory, a California-based comedy that follows two young physicists, is being credited with consolidating the growing appetite among teenagers for the once unfashionable subject of physics. Documentaries by Brian Cox have previously been mentioned as galvanising interest in the subject, writes Mark Townsend for The Observer.
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US: Penn State child abuse case holds bigger lessons
The child s ex abuse scandal that has rocked Pennsylvania State University is, say college and university officials far from the institution, not only a cautionary tale but also a very big teachable moment, writes Ron Scherer for The Christian Science Monitor.
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CANADA: University defends right to censure students
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms should not apply to a university's decision to discipline students, a Canadian court heard last week. The University of Calgary is at the Alberta Court of Appeal, attempting to overturn a lower court decision that found the school infringed upon the freedom of expression of twin brothers Keith and Steven Pridgen when it sanctioned them for criticising their professor on Facebook, writes Daryl Slade for Postmedia News.
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US: Disingenuous data may be part of bigger problem
Iona College acknowledged last week that its former provost had, for nearly a decade, manipulated and misreported student-related data to government officials, accrediting bodies, bond rating agencies and others, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed. As the new president of the New York Roman Catholic college described the steps it had taken to prevent such individual unethical behaviour in the future, some observers in higher education said they believed the case indicated the existence of a larger problem.
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UK: Oxford denies sponsor has hold over chair
A University of Oxford job advert apparently requiring its L'Oréal professor of marketing to carry out work for the global cosmetics giant was "unfortunately phrased", the university has said amid concerns over academic freedom, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education.
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UK: University of Warwick joins New York consortium
The University of Warwick has joined a global consortium led by New York University to set up a new applied sciences and engineering campus in the American city. The bid, which is currently being considered by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is the latest attempt by the region to strengthen its links with the US, writes Kat Keogh for the Birmingham Post.
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Sunday, 6 November 2011
University World News 0196 - 6th November 2011
This week's highlights
This week University World News reports on the World Innovation Summit for Education, held in Doha from 1-3 November. In Features, GEOFF MASLEN looks at research in Australia and Spain aimed at devising a test that can measure the intelligence of a computer or an animal, and JULIA FAN LI describes a prize in Rwanda that is supporting students to become entrepreneurs and is spreading to other African countries. In Commentary, Oxford Vice-chancellor ANDREW HAMILTON says the government's visa policy and lack of attention to graduates could undermine the ability of British universities to attract top global student and academic talent. TYRELL HABERKOM writes that despite increasing censure, academics on the left in America must risk saying what they think if they are to teach their students to take a stand, and ERIC WEINBERGER argues against the liberal arts college being created jointly by Yale and the National University of Singapore.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
THAILAND: Floods expose system failures: Academics
Suluck Lamubol
Thailand's worst floods since the 1940s have claimed nearly 400 lives during the past two months. Universities were closed in October for the semester break. The start of the new semester, due to begin on Tuesday, has been postponed to 14 November and national university admissions examinations have also been delayed.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Landmark court ruling on campus freedom
Yojana Sharma and Honey Singh Virdee
Malaysia's controversial Universities and University Colleges Act, which restricts student involvement in politics on campuses, was last week ruled unreasonable and unconstitutional by an appeal court for violating freedom of expression.
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SWEDEN: Councils propose plan to improve research
Jan Petter Myklebust
Six research councils have urged the Swedish government to adopt a five-point plan for improving research and innovation and have voiced concern over a sharp decline in private sector research. The heads of the councils, which have a total portfolio of SEK9.3 billion (US$1.4 billion), presented their common position to Minister of Education Jan Björklund last week.
Full report on the University World News site:
HONG KONG: China looms over vice-chancellor's exit
Yojana Sharma
The surprise decision by Hong Kong University's respected Vice-chancellor Tsui Lap-chee not to stay for another term of office at one of Asia's top institutions has highlighted new pressures on the autonomy of Hong Kong's institutions.
Full report on the University World News site:
NETHERLANDS: Dean may face data fraud charges
Jan Petter Myklebust and Brendan O'Malley
A Tilburg University inquiry has recommended that details of forgery of documents and fraud committed by Diederik Stapel, a leading social psychologist, should be passed to the Dutch public prosecution service.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Foreign student rules a threat to image
Jane Marshall
Nine out of 10 past, present and future students from abroad would recommend France as a study destination, according to new research carried out before the introduction of controversial tightened restrictions on foreign graduates working in France.
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KENYA: Lecturers threaten strike over broken promises
Gilbert Nganga
Kenya is facing fresh threats of a lecturers' strike over delayed implementation of new salaries and allowances, which could jeopardise learning in public universities from 9 November. Lecturers are also up in arms over government's decision to double the student intake in the absence of increased staff and infrastructure.
Full report on the University World News site:
PAKISTAN: Higher Education Commission in trouble again
Ameen Amjad Khan
Academics are divided over government moves to break up Pakistan's Higher Education Commission, ostensibly to give it representation in parliament by distributing its core functions among ministries. Some academics want a dedicated ministry of higher education, while others see the HEC's demise as detrimental to the sector.
Full report on the University World News site :
SOUTH AFRICA: 'Bankrupt' university taken over
Munyaradzi Makoni
Walter Sisulu University in South Africa has been placed under administration in a bid to save it from complete collapse. Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, who has tasked a top-level academic with taking over the running of the institution, said the aim was to redeem the troubled university within the next two years.
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TANZANIA: Golden jubilee for Dar es Salaam
Sylivester Ernest
There was both pomp and protest at the University of Dar es Salaam's 50th anniversary celebrations in late October, which were attended by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, both alumni of the flagship institution.
Full report on the University World News site:
World Innovation Summit for Education
The third World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) was held in Doha
from 1-3 November, with the theme "Changing Societies, Changing Education". University World News reports.
GLOBAL: Change is the only constant - IAUP on WISE
The 2011 World Innovation Summit for Education brought together 1,300 participants to identify and promote innovative solutions to educational challenges. Organised by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, with the objective of pushing education higher up the world's political and social agendas, WISE covers education from kindergarten upwards. International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) Secretary-General Neal King spoke to YOJANA SHARMA about higher education aspects of the summit.
Full report on the University World News site:
QATAR: Arab Spring could mark new higher education era
Erin Millar
The Arab Spring could bring about the momentum and political will needed to improve failing higher education systems in the Arab world, said educators speaking at the third annual World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar, last week.
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AFRICA-EUROPE: New virtual network for PhD students
Karen MacGregor
An initiative to create a virtual network connecting doctoral students in Africa and Europe was launched at the World Innovation Summit for Education last week. Coordinated by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, DocLinks will strive to ease the loneliness of doctoral study and encourage sharing of experiences and resources.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
AUSTRALIA-SPAIN: A universal intelligence test
Geoff Maslen
'Intelligence quotient', or IQ, tests have long been widely used by psychologists. But what if someone wanted to find out the intelligence of a dolphin, or an elephant, or a computer program and how it compared with a human: what kind of test could assess how smart a machine or a non-human animal is?
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Practical lessons in business enterprise
To learn how to be entrepreneurial, students need a space to explore the things they learn from their curriculum. Rwanda has a high youth unemployment rate and a need to stimulate new business ideas, and lacks extra-curricular opportunities. A student-initiated prize has helped to give lecture room experiences real-life applications, says JULIA FAN LI. The project is now spreading to other countries in Africa.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
UK: Government policies hamper efforts to woo talent
The UK government's visa policy and the lack of attention paid to graduates in its white paper on higher education could have a detrimental impact on British universities' ability to attract top student and academic talent, says ANDREW HAMILTON, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford.
Full report on the University World News site:
AMERICAS: Academics must not be cowed in class
The last few years have seen academics on the left risking formal or subtle censure in North America. But if academics are not prepared to risk saying what they think, how can they teach their students to take a stand? asks TYRELL HABERKOM in the latest edition of the Canadian journal Academic Matters.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Why Yale should not partner with Singapore
Yale's president claims that the US institution's new partnership with the National University of Singapore continues its tradition of promoting liberal values by encouraging educational progress. But what about Singapore's human rights record? Surely the responsibility for creating great Asian universities lies with Asian countries themselves, argues ERIC WEINBERGER.
Full report on the University World News site:
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet
In Turkey, in an ongoing operation against Kurdish political parties, two academics have been arrested and charged under the Anti Terror Law, but there are concerns about fair trial standards. In the Philippines, educators and activists fear for their lives after the brutal killing of a university vice-president and given escalating - seemingly politically motivated - attacks and murders. In Bahrain, concerns have been expressed about the fairness of the trial of a professor arrested and suspended from his position, amid a wider crackdown on academic freedoms. In Laos rights groups are calling for the release of political prisoners, including four student leaders who remain incarcerated 12 years after protests in the country were crushed. And a US climate change scientist has hailed as a victory for academic freedom and science a court ruling to deny access by a pro-industry think-tank to his private emails.
Full report on the University World News site:
FACEBOOK
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WORLD ROUND-UP
US: A sister's eulogy for Steve Jobs
Mona Simpson is a novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1988, she has held the Sadie Samuelson Levy Chair in Languages and Literature at Bard College. She delivered a eulogy for her brother Steve Jobs on 16 October 2011, at his memorial service held at Stanford University, which was published by The New York Times last Monday. Of all the articles that followed Jobs' death, Simpson's eulogy probably provides the deepest insight into the visionary Apple leader.
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UK: Universities body issues warning over visa reform
The Universities UK action group has issued a warning about Britain's reputation in education after new figures revealed that the government's curb on overseas students had reduced their numbers by 11,000 and led to more than 450 colleges pulling out of the market, writes Alan Travis for the Guardian.
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SOUTH KOREA: Universities' creative accounting exposed
Private and public universities in South Korea have engaged in creative accounting practices resulting in excessive hikes in tuition fees, writes Kim Eun-jung for Yonhap News Agency.
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US: Magic is no solution to education crisis
In the early 20th century, the distinguished philosopher Alfred North Whitehead observed: "The task of the university is the creation of the future..." Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust noted that this creative work is done by educating "those to whom the future belongs, and by generating the ideas and discoveries that can transform the present and build a better world", writes Jonathan R Cole for the Huffington Post.
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US: Colleges grapple with Chinese students
Dozens of new students crowded into a lobby of the University of Delaware's student centre at the start of the academic year. With the exception of one lost-looking soul from Colombia, all the students were from China, write Tom Bartlett and Karin Fischer for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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US: Strings attached to Chinese institute offers
When a Beijing organisation with close ties to China's government offered Stanford University $4 million to host a Confucius Institute on Chinese language and culture and endow a professorship, it attached one caveat: the professor couldn't discuss delicate issues like Tibet, writes Daniel Golden for Bloomberg.
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CANADA: New statement on academic freedom
Canada's university presidents have jointly adopted a new statement on academic freedom, pledging support for the right of faculty members to follow their ideas in teaching and research, without inappropriate interference, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
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UK: Students face radical admission reforms
In a report published last week, Britain's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service proposes scrapping the current system in which students apply for courses based on predicted grades. Under reforms that could be introduced in 2016, teenagers will sit exams as early as Easter and A-level results will be published at the start of July, instead of mid-August. Applications would also be limited to just two choices - instead of the current five - and all degree courses would start in October, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
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ISRAEL: Education ministry to battle brain drain
No less than 1,500 Israeli scientists and researchers have left Israeli universities in recent years to join top academic institutions overseas. To combat the brain drain, the education ministry will establish 30 special institutes that will offer academics excellent conditions for research and, according to the plan, lure them home, writes Tamar Trabelsi-Hadad for Ynet News.
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US: India, Israel universities vie for 'genius' grant
New York's quest to lure a 'genius school' attracted seven applications from 17 top institutions in three states and four countries, writes Erin Einhorn for New York Daily News. "All of the submissions were stronger than anything we could have possibly imagined," Mayor Michael Bloomberg gushed last week as he announced the proposals.
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MALAYSIA: Clamp-down on private universities
Malaysia's higher education ministry is amending the Private Institutions of Higher Learning Act to allow for sterner action, including higher fines, against private universities for various offences, reports the official agency Bernama.
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INDIA: Government to link higher education institutes
At least 15 million students pursuing higher education will be able to share information, lab experiments and classroom content as the Indian cabinet last week approved a proposal to connect 572 universities, 25,000 colleges and 2,000 polytechnics as part of its mission to promote technology usage in higher education, writes Prashant K Nanda for Livemint.
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MALAWI: Lecturers refuse to return to class
Lecturers at the University of Malawi's Chancellor College say they will only return to the classroom after their concerns over academic freedom are fully addressed, writes Peter Clottey for Voice of America.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Poor response to student debt offer
Poor students who have outstanding debts at universities across the country have responded slowly to the call by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimade to apply for special funding to clear their debt, writes Lesego Masemola for The New Age.
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PAKISTAN: Universities rally to boost social sciences
Five public sector universities in Pakistan will form a consortium to promote social sciences and arts, reports The Express Tribune.
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US: Students urged to seek jobs beyond Wall Street
The financial industry has long concentrated its search for new blood on the well-manicured campuses of America's elite universities, where job prospects after graduation may be the one thing even higher than tuition fees. But that pipeline to talent is facing some push-back, writes Nathaniel Popper for the Los Angeles Times.
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US: Stanford receives $150 million to fight poverty
Stanford University's Graduate School of Business has received a $150 million gift, one of the largest in the university's history, to create an institute to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship, writes Sue Dremann for Palo Alto.
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US: Wikipedia tops list of plagiarised sources
Where are students finding the materials they plagiarise in their papers? According to a new study, Wikipedia tops the list for both secondary and college students. But as a category, encyclopaedia sites are among the least popular sources, coming in behind four other types of information outlets, including both academic sites and paper mills, writes David Nagel for Campus Technology.
More on the University World News site:
US: Uproar over university's 'lifestyle' statement
A university in Georgia, US, has people in an uproar over a new document that would rule out g ay people as prospective employees on campus. Adopted by the school's board of trustees, the 'personal lifestyle statement' is a mandatory employee document that could result in termination for those who refuse to sign it, writes Gina E Ryder for the Christian Post.
More on the University World News site:
This week University World News reports on the World Innovation Summit for Education, held in Doha from 1-3 November. In Features, GEOFF MASLEN looks at research in Australia and Spain aimed at devising a test that can measure the intelligence of a computer or an animal, and JULIA FAN LI describes a prize in Rwanda that is supporting students to become entrepreneurs and is spreading to other African countries. In Commentary, Oxford Vice-chancellor ANDREW HAMILTON says the government's visa policy and lack of attention to graduates could undermine the ability of British universities to attract top global student and academic talent. TYRELL HABERKOM writes that despite increasing censure, academics on the left in America must risk saying what they think if they are to teach their students to take a stand, and ERIC WEINBERGER argues against the liberal arts college being created jointly by Yale and the National University of Singapore.
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
THAILAND: Floods expose system failures: Academics
Suluck Lamubol
Thailand's worst floods since the 1940s have claimed nearly 400 lives during the past two months. Universities were closed in October for the semester break. The start of the new semester, due to begin on Tuesday, has been postponed to 14 November and national university admissions examinations have also been delayed.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAYSIA: Landmark court ruling on campus freedom
Yojana Sharma and Honey Singh Virdee
Malaysia's controversial Universities and University Colleges Act, which restricts student involvement in politics on campuses, was last week ruled unreasonable and unconstitutional by an appeal court for violating freedom of expression.
Full report on the University World News site:
SWEDEN: Councils propose plan to improve research
Jan Petter Myklebust
Six research councils have urged the Swedish government to adopt a five-point plan for improving research and innovation and have voiced concern over a sharp decline in private sector research. The heads of the councils, which have a total portfolio of SEK9.3 billion (US$1.4 billion), presented their common position to Minister of Education Jan Björklund last week.
Full report on the University World News site:
HONG KONG: China looms over vice-chancellor's exit
Yojana Sharma
The surprise decision by Hong Kong University's respected Vice-chancellor Tsui Lap-chee not to stay for another term of office at one of Asia's top institutions has highlighted new pressures on the autonomy of Hong Kong's institutions.
Full report on the University World News site:
NETHERLANDS: Dean may face data fraud charges
Jan Petter Myklebust and Brendan O'Malley
A Tilburg University inquiry has recommended that details of forgery of documents and fraud committed by Diederik Stapel, a leading social psychologist, should be passed to the Dutch public prosecution service.
Full report on the University World News site:
FRANCE: Foreign student rules a threat to image
Jane Marshall
Nine out of 10 past, present and future students from abroad would recommend France as a study destination, according to new research carried out before the introduction of controversial tightened restrictions on foreign graduates working in France.
Full report on the University World News site:
KENYA: Lecturers threaten strike over broken promises
Gilbert Nganga
Kenya is facing fresh threats of a lecturers' strike over delayed implementation of new salaries and allowances, which could jeopardise learning in public universities from 9 November. Lecturers are also up in arms over government's decision to double the student intake in the absence of increased staff and infrastructure.
Full report on the University World News site:
PAKISTAN: Higher Education Commission in trouble again
Ameen Amjad Khan
Academics are divided over government moves to break up Pakistan's Higher Education Commission, ostensibly to give it representation in parliament by distributing its core functions among ministries. Some academics want a dedicated ministry of higher education, while others see the HEC's demise as detrimental to the sector.
Full report on the University World News site :
SOUTH AFRICA: 'Bankrupt' university taken over
Munyaradzi Makoni
Walter Sisulu University in South Africa has been placed under administration in a bid to save it from complete collapse. Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, who has tasked a top-level academic with taking over the running of the institution, said the aim was to redeem the troubled university within the next two years.
Full report on the University World News site:
TANZANIA: Golden jubilee for Dar es Salaam
Sylivester Ernest
There was both pomp and protest at the University of Dar es Salaam's 50th anniversary celebrations in late October, which were attended by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, both alumni of the flagship institution.
Full report on the University World News site:
World Innovation Summit for Education
The third World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) was held in Doha
from 1-3 November, with the theme "Changing Societies, Changing Education". University World News reports.
GLOBAL: Change is the only constant - IAUP on WISE
The 2011 World Innovation Summit for Education brought together 1,300 participants to identify and promote innovative solutions to educational challenges. Organised by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, with the objective of pushing education higher up the world's political and social agendas, WISE covers education from kindergarten upwards. International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) Secretary-General Neal King spoke to YOJANA SHARMA about higher education aspects of the summit.
Full report on the University World News site:
QATAR: Arab Spring could mark new higher education era
Erin Millar
The Arab Spring could bring about the momentum and political will needed to improve failing higher education systems in the Arab world, said educators speaking at the third annual World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar, last week.
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA-EUROPE: New virtual network for PhD students
Karen MacGregor
An initiative to create a virtual network connecting doctoral students in Africa and Europe was launched at the World Innovation Summit for Education last week. Coordinated by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, DocLinks will strive to ease the loneliness of doctoral study and encourage sharing of experiences and resources.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
AUSTRALIA-SPAIN: A universal intelligence test
Geoff Maslen
'Intelligence quotient', or IQ, tests have long been widely used by psychologists. But what if someone wanted to find out the intelligence of a dolphin, or an elephant, or a computer program and how it compared with a human: what kind of test could assess how smart a machine or a non-human animal is?
Full report on the University World News site:
AFRICA: Practical lessons in business enterprise
To learn how to be entrepreneurial, students need a space to explore the things they learn from their curriculum. Rwanda has a high youth unemployment rate and a need to stimulate new business ideas, and lacks extra-curricular opportunities. A student-initiated prize has helped to give lecture room experiences real-life applications, says JULIA FAN LI. The project is now spreading to other countries in Africa.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
UK: Government policies hamper efforts to woo talent
The UK government's visa policy and the lack of attention paid to graduates in its white paper on higher education could have a detrimental impact on British universities' ability to attract top student and academic talent, says ANDREW HAMILTON, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford.
Full report on the University World News site:
AMERICAS: Academics must not be cowed in class
The last few years have seen academics on the left risking formal or subtle censure in North America. But if academics are not prepared to risk saying what they think, how can they teach their students to take a stand? asks TYRELL HABERKOM in the latest edition of the Canadian journal Academic Matters.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Why Yale should not partner with Singapore
Yale's president claims that the US institution's new partnership with the National University of Singapore continues its tradition of promoting liberal values by encouraging educational progress. But what about Singapore's human rights record? Surely the responsibility for creating great Asian universities lies with Asian countries themselves, argues ERIC WEINBERGER.
Full report on the University World News site:
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports worldwide
Noemi Bouet
In Turkey, in an ongoing operation against Kurdish political parties, two academics have been arrested and charged under the Anti Terror Law, but there are concerns about fair trial standards. In the Philippines, educators and activists fear for their lives after the brutal killing of a university vice-president and given escalating - seemingly politically motivated - attacks and murders. In Bahrain, concerns have been expressed about the fairness of the trial of a professor arrested and suspended from his position, amid a wider crackdown on academic freedoms. In Laos rights groups are calling for the release of political prisoners, including four student leaders who remain incarcerated 12 years after protests in the country were crushed. And a US climate change scientist has hailed as a victory for academic freedom and science a court ruling to deny access by a pro-industry think-tank to his private emails.
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: A sister's eulogy for Steve Jobs
Mona Simpson is a novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1988, she has held the Sadie Samuelson Levy Chair in Languages and Literature at Bard College. She delivered a eulogy for her brother Steve Jobs on 16 October 2011, at his memorial service held at Stanford University, which was published by The New York Times last Monday. Of all the articles that followed Jobs' death, Simpson's eulogy probably provides the deepest insight into the visionary Apple leader.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Universities body issues warning over visa reform
The Universities UK action group has issued a warning about Britain's reputation in education after new figures revealed that the government's curb on overseas students had reduced their numbers by 11,000 and led to more than 450 colleges pulling out of the market, writes Alan Travis for the Guardian.
More on the University World News site:
SOUTH KOREA: Universities' creative accounting exposed
Private and public universities in South Korea have engaged in creative accounting practices resulting in excessive hikes in tuition fees, writes Kim Eun-jung for Yonhap News Agency.
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US: Magic is no solution to education crisis
In the early 20th century, the distinguished philosopher Alfred North Whitehead observed: "The task of the university is the creation of the future..." Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust noted that this creative work is done by educating "those to whom the future belongs, and by generating the ideas and discoveries that can transform the present and build a better world", writes Jonathan R Cole for the Huffington Post.
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US: Colleges grapple with Chinese students
Dozens of new students crowded into a lobby of the University of Delaware's student centre at the start of the academic year. With the exception of one lost-looking soul from Colombia, all the students were from China, write Tom Bartlett and Karin Fischer for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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US: Strings attached to Chinese institute offers
When a Beijing organisation with close ties to China's government offered Stanford University $4 million to host a Confucius Institute on Chinese language and culture and endow a professorship, it attached one caveat: the professor couldn't discuss delicate issues like Tibet, writes Daniel Golden for Bloomberg.
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CANADA: New statement on academic freedom
Canada's university presidents have jointly adopted a new statement on academic freedom, pledging support for the right of faculty members to follow their ideas in teaching and research, without inappropriate interference, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
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UK: Students face radical admission reforms
In a report published last week, Britain's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service proposes scrapping the current system in which students apply for courses based on predicted grades. Under reforms that could be introduced in 2016, teenagers will sit exams as early as Easter and A-level results will be published at the start of July, instead of mid-August. Applications would also be limited to just two choices - instead of the current five - and all degree courses would start in October, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
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ISRAEL: Education ministry to battle brain drain
No less than 1,500 Israeli scientists and researchers have left Israeli universities in recent years to join top academic institutions overseas. To combat the brain drain, the education ministry will establish 30 special institutes that will offer academics excellent conditions for research and, according to the plan, lure them home, writes Tamar Trabelsi-Hadad for Ynet News.
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US: India, Israel universities vie for 'genius' grant
New York's quest to lure a 'genius school' attracted seven applications from 17 top institutions in three states and four countries, writes Erin Einhorn for New York Daily News. "All of the submissions were stronger than anything we could have possibly imagined," Mayor Michael Bloomberg gushed last week as he announced the proposals.
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MALAYSIA: Clamp-down on private universities
Malaysia's higher education ministry is amending the Private Institutions of Higher Learning Act to allow for sterner action, including higher fines, against private universities for various offences, reports the official agency Bernama.
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INDIA: Government to link higher education institutes
At least 15 million students pursuing higher education will be able to share information, lab experiments and classroom content as the Indian cabinet last week approved a proposal to connect 572 universities, 25,000 colleges and 2,000 polytechnics as part of its mission to promote technology usage in higher education, writes Prashant K Nanda for Livemint.
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MALAWI: Lecturers refuse to return to class
Lecturers at the University of Malawi's Chancellor College say they will only return to the classroom after their concerns over academic freedom are fully addressed, writes Peter Clottey for Voice of America.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Poor response to student debt offer
Poor students who have outstanding debts at universities across the country have responded slowly to the call by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimade to apply for special funding to clear their debt, writes Lesego Masemola for The New Age.
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PAKISTAN: Universities rally to boost social sciences
Five public sector universities in Pakistan will form a consortium to promote social sciences and arts, reports The Express Tribune.
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US: Students urged to seek jobs beyond Wall Street
The financial industry has long concentrated its search for new blood on the well-manicured campuses of America's elite universities, where job prospects after graduation may be the one thing even higher than tuition fees. But that pipeline to talent is facing some push-back, writes Nathaniel Popper for the Los Angeles Times.
More on the University World News site:
US: Stanford receives $150 million to fight poverty
Stanford University's Graduate School of Business has received a $150 million gift, one of the largest in the university's history, to create an institute to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship, writes Sue Dremann for Palo Alto.
More on the University World News site:
US: Wikipedia tops list of plagiarised sources
Where are students finding the materials they plagiarise in their papers? According to a new study, Wikipedia tops the list for both secondary and college students. But as a category, encyclopaedia sites are among the least popular sources, coming in behind four other types of information outlets, including both academic sites and paper mills, writes David Nagel for Campus Technology.
More on the University World News site:
US: Uproar over university's 'lifestyle' statement
A university in Georgia, US, has people in an uproar over a new document that would rule out g ay people as prospective employees on campus. Adopted by the school's board of trustees, the 'personal lifestyle statement' is a mandatory employee document that could result in termination for those who refuse to sign it, writes Gina E Ryder for the Christian Post.
More on the University World News site:
Sunday, 30 October 2011
University World News 0195 - 30th October 2011
This week's highlights
A special report this week looks at news and issues around student finance. It includes commentaries by STEVE CHATMAN of Berkeley on how financial aid has alleviated the impacts of the wealth gap on student satisfaction in the US, and by student leader ALLAN PALL on Europe's proposed loan scheme to encourage greater student mobility. In Features, SUVENDRINI KAKUCHI reports on the Campus Asia project aimed at harmonising higher education and encouraging student exchange between Japan, China and South Korea. And in Commentary, ELSPETH JONES outlines 10 key indicators of a university that has achieved comprehensive internationalisation, while MARTIN GRABERT describes how Germany's Excellence Initiative has quickly achieved positive results for elite universities and the higher education system.
Special Report on student finance
Student finance has been in the news, with tuition fees rising and more
governments shifting the burden of higher education costs from the public to the student purse. In India massification is driving exponential growth in the loan market, and in the United States and elsewhere student debt and loan defaults are rising rapidly. The European Commission is floating a loan scheme to help fund student mobility. This special report provides a snapshot of developments and challenges in student finance in selected countries around the world.
US: Mixed victory for students under Obama loan plan
Eileen Travers Marching along the shaded valley beneath skyscr apers housing major bank headquarters in midtown Manhattan, some students in the Occupy Wall Street movement said United States President Barack Obama's new loan plan was too little too late, with real savings totaling no more than $10 a month per low-income borrower.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Aid prevents big wealth gap impact on students
Research into student experience and income in America shows that the effect of family income on student satisfaction is limited due to the financial aid programmes that support them. However, students are cutting back across the board and it is important to keep analysing the impact, particularly if aid programmes are reduced, says STEVE CHATMAN of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at Berkeley.
Full report on the University World News site:
INDIA: Soaring demand doubles student loan numbers
Alya Mishra
While the middle classes in India have traditionally pursued higher education for their children, rising aspirations among the lower-middle class and poor have led to soaring demand for student loans, despite families having to put assets on the line. The number of students applying for loans has more than doubled in five years.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Do loans create an indebted generation?
The European Commission has published an agenda for modernising higher education, which includes a proposal for a loan scheme to encourage greater mobility for students. But will this create an indebted generation and fuel inter-generational tension? asks ALLAN PALL, chair of the European Students' Union.
Full report on the University World News site:
SOUTH AFRICA: Fund rescues non-fee-paying graduates
Sharon Dell
A R200-million (US$25.5 million) fund to provide loans to nearly 20,000 graduates whose degree and diploma certificates have been withheld by educational institutions because of outstanding fees, is among a clutch of recent initiatives by the South African government to boost the efficiency of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and broaden its reach.
Full report on the University World News site:
THAILAND: Defaults prompt new student loan criteria
Suluck Lamubol
As the number of students defaulting on the government's low-interest student loan scheme increases, Thailand's education minister has proposed making government loans contingent on an applicant's future income and employment prospects. But critics say this could turn education into a commodity and could widen social inequalities.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Students pay for the privilege
Geoff Maslen
More than 1.2 million students are enrolled in Australian higher education institutions this year and almost every one of them pays for the privilege, including the 335,000 foreign students who must meet the full cost of their courses.
Full report on the University World News site:
NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
BRAZIL: Science students offered study-abroad grants
Tom Hennigan
In the latest move in a campaign to boost its economy's scientific base, Brazil is offering 75,000 grants by the end of 2014 to science students keen to study abroad. The goal of the Science Without Frontiers programme is to increase the number of Brazilian pre- and post-doctoral students in leading foreign institutions. In return, the government says it will work to create similar opportunities for foreign students in Brazilian institutions.
Full report on the University World News site:
SWEDEN: Minister says universities may merge
Jan Petter Myklebust
Sweden's coalition government is to tackle a sharp drop in student numbers by allocating more funding to universities where there is a strong demand for places, forcing less popular institutions to seek mergers to survive, Education Minister Jan Björklund has warned.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Australia in from Commonwealth funding cold
David Jobbins
Australia is to resume funding for Commonwealth university scholarships and the Commonwealth of Learning, the pioneering distance learning agency with a focus on the developing world, seven years after it pulled the plug in an economy drive.
Full report on the University World News site:
GLOBAL: Scholarships effective in supporting democracy
Jacquie Withers
Two evaluation reports from the UK's Commonwealth Scholarship Commission were launched last week ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia - one based on a survey of more than 2,000 former scholars and fellows around the Commonwealth, and the other focusing on 15 Commonwealth countries in Asia.
Full report on the University World News site:
LEBANON: Quality assurance agency to be created
Wagdy Sawahel
Lebanon plans to establish a national quality assurance agency to strengthen the competitiveness of its sole state university and numerous private universities. The aim is to develop a higher education system of international quality.
Full report on the University World News site:
INDIA: Protests continue over academic freedom curb
Alya Mishra
Students and teachers at Delhi University went on marches last week to protest against the removal of a celebrated essay by the late scholar and linguist AK Ramanujan on the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.
Full report on the University World News site:
MALAWI: Presidential reversal reinstates lecturers
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has reinstated four lecturers who were suspended as a result of industrial action over erosion of academic freedoms, and said higher education liberties were guaranteed in the African nation. Many campuses have been closed for much of the year due to unresolved lecturer protests over what has been seen as an increasingly autocratic climate in the country.
Full report on the University World News site:
MOZAMBIQUE: University u-turn on 'Bologna' degrees
Munyaradzi Makoni
Fifteen faculties of Mozambique's Eduardo Mondlane University will change from a three-year back to a four-year bachelor degree programme in the 2012 academic year, reversing the adoption of the Bologna process degree structure. The switch is aimed at producing better-trained, labour-marketable graduates.
Full report on the University World News site:
ZAMBIA: Three new universities, job creation planned
Zambia's newly elected President Michael Sata has outlined plans to review the higher education sector as well as establish three new universities, to fulfil his election manifesto. Job creation for higher education graduates would also be prioritised.
Full report on the University World News site:
FEATURES
ASIA: Building bridges through higher education
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Western countries are by far the most favoured destinations for students from East Asia seeking higher education abroad, and reversing that trend will not be easy. But an ambitious plan to usher in exchanges between universities in Japan, China and South Korea is under way under the auspices of the three governments.
Full report on the University World News site:
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: Internationalisation - Aid, trade, pervade
Discussing definitions of internationalisation in higher education shows that we have not advanced enough, says ELSPETH JONES. If we are still having a debate, we are not devoting ourselves sufficiently to doing internationalisation. She outlines 10 key indicators of a university that has achieved 'comprehensive' or 'integrated' internationalisation.
Full report on the University World News site:
EUROPE: Germany's Excellence Initiative reaps rewards
Germany's Excellence Initiative has brought visible benefits and quickly, says MARTIN GRABERT. Concentrating support where it can have the most impact through a bottom-up two-tiered approach has achieved results for elite universities and has also had wider benefits for the higher education system.
Full report on the University World News site:
SCIENCE SCENE
SOUTH AFRICA: A 100,000-year-old workshop
An ochre-rich mixture that was possibly used for decoration, painting and skin protection 100,000 years ago has been discovered stored in two abalone shells at Blombos Cave, 300 kilometres east of Cape Town. The discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human thought.
Full report on the University World News site:
UK-AUSTRALIA: Energy-converting protein
British and Australian researchers have made a world-first discovery that will provide the most accurate understanding to date of the structure and function of the most important energy-converting protein, critical to the functioning of all organs and a cause of disease when malfunctioning.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Mirror coating of NASA telescope
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the world's next-generation space observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has reached a major milestone in its development: the mirrors that will fly aboard the telescope have been completely coated with a microscopically thin layer of gold, selected for its ability to properly reflect infrared light from the mirrors into the observatory's science instruments.
Full report on the University World News site:
AUSTRIA: Dissipation to engineer quantum states
Theoretical physicists at the University of Innsbruck have formulated a new concept to engineer exotic so-called topological states of matter in quantum mechanical many-body systems. They linked concepts of quantum optics and condensed matter physics to show a way to build a quantum computer immune from perturbations.
Full report on the University World News site:
FACEBOOK
University World News has a new Facebook group:
http://www.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
HONG KONG: An open door to foreign students
Well-positioned in world university rankings, Hong Kong has an open-door policy towards international students. The Hong Kong government has invested HK$1 billion (US$128 million) in a bursary fund, with the interest to be used to fund scholarships for international students, writes Stephen Hoare for The Independent.
More on the University World News site:
AUSTRALIA: Universities put revenue before standards
The state of Victoria's ombudsman has uncovered worrying evidence that universities have been putting the need for student fee revenue ahead of the ability of students to complete their courses, apparently enrolling students with too-poor English skills, writes Andrew Trounsen for The Australian. But universities have rejected the criticism.
More on the University World News site:
CHINA-AFRICA: Universities to boost collaboration
The 2011 UNESCO-China-Africa University Leaders Meeting was held last week in Paris at the headquarters of the United Nations agency, aimed at boosting collaboration between Chinese and African universities, reports the Xinhua news agency.
More on the University World News site:
US: High cost of community college dropouts
A new national study reports that federal, state, and local governments in the US invested nearly $4 billion in full-time community college students who subsequently dropped out after their first year, writes Rita Giordano for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
More on the University World News site:
US: Real higher education costs now clearer
How much will college really cost? For American families, the answer may soon become clearer. Starting on 29 October, any college or university participating in federal student aid programmes must have a net-price calculator on its website, writes Emily Glazer for the Wall Street Journal.
More on the University World News site:
UK: Education spending 'falling fastest since 1950s'
Public spending on education in the UK is falling at the fastest rate since the 1950s, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The independent financial researchers say spending will fall by 13% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15, writes Sean Coughlan for the BBC.
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UK: Drop in soft subject applications
Softer university subjects such as communication studies and creative arts have seen a drop in applications of up to 40% as students seek value for England's controversial £9,000 (US$14,400) tuition fee, according to figures released last week, writes Victoria Ward for The Telegraph.
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UK: 'Free' Oxbridge masters degrees under fire
It is as traditional as punting, elite clubs and one-to-one tutorials with dusty dons, but the 'complimentary' masters degrees awarded to Oxford and Cambridge graduates is under fire, writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph.
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ISRAEL: 'Privatised enclaves' rise in universities
Study programmes funded by non-public sources in Israeli universities have doubled during the past six years. The number of such programmes has risen from 26 to 51 in a trend that is at variance with a decision reached in 2007 by Israel's Council for Higher Education to withhold recognition of new study programmes, writes Asaf Shtull-Trauring for Haaretz.
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US: Political science 'too slow to change' - Report
Political science is being held back as a discipline by its failure to sufficiently engage in issues of race and inequality, and by the homogeneity of its faculty members, according to a report released last week by the American Political Science Association, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
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CANADA: Universities need to step up - Toope
The world is becoming a more competitive place than ever as far as universities are concerned and Canadian institutions, working with real funding shortages, need to focus on their teaching mission to remain in the game, according to Stephen Toope, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, writes Karen Seidman for The Gazette.
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CANADA: University head apologises to aboriginals
In an unusual move, the president of a Canadian university has issued a formal apology to aboriginals across the country for his institution's failure to speak out against the "national shame" of residential schools, writes Louise Brown for The Star.
More on the University World News site:
A special report this week looks at news and issues around student finance. It includes commentaries by STEVE CHATMAN of Berkeley on how financial aid has alleviated the impacts of the wealth gap on student satisfaction in the US, and by student leader ALLAN PALL on Europe's proposed loan scheme to encourage greater student mobility. In Features, SUVENDRINI KAKUCHI reports on the Campus Asia project aimed at harmonising higher education and encouraging student exchange between Japan, China and South Korea. And in Commentary, ELSPETH JONES outlines 10 key indicators of a university that has achieved comprehensive internationalisation, while MARTIN GRABERT describes how Germany's Excellence Initiative has quickly achieved positive results for elite universities and the higher education system.
Special Report on student finance
Student finance has been in the news, with tuition fees rising and more
governments shifting the burden of higher education costs from the public to the student purse. In India massification is driving exponential growth in the loan market, and in the United States and elsewhere student debt and loan defaults are rising rapidly. The European Commission is floating a loan scheme to help fund student mobility. This special report provides a snapshot of developments and challenges in student finance in selected countries around the world.
US: Mixed victory for students under Obama loan plan
Eileen Travers Marching along the shaded valley beneath skyscr apers housing major bank headquarters in midtown Manhattan, some students in the Occupy Wall Street movement said United States President Barack Obama's new loan plan was too little too late, with real savings totaling no more than $10 a month per low-income borrower.
Full report on the University World News site:
US: Aid prevents big wealth gap impact on students
Research into student experience and income in America shows that the effect of family income on student satisfaction is limited due to the financial aid programmes that support them. However, students are cutting back across the board and it is important to keep analysing the impact, particularly if aid programmes are reduced, says STEVE CHATMAN of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at Berkeley.
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INDIA: Soaring demand doubles student loan numbers
Alya Mishra
While the middle classes in India have traditionally pursued higher education for their children, rising aspirations among the lower-middle class and poor have led to soaring demand for student loans, despite families having to put assets on the line. The number of students applying for loans has more than doubled in five years.
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EUROPE: Do loans create an indebted generation?
The European Commission has published an agenda for modernising higher education, which includes a proposal for a loan scheme to encourage greater mobility for students. But will this create an indebted generation and fuel inter-generational tension? asks ALLAN PALL, chair of the European Students' Union.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Fund rescues non-fee-paying graduates
Sharon Dell
A R200-million (US$25.5 million) fund to provide loans to nearly 20,000 graduates whose degree and diploma certificates have been withheld by educational institutions because of outstanding fees, is among a clutch of recent initiatives by the South African government to boost the efficiency of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and broaden its reach.
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THAILAND: Defaults prompt new student loan criteria
Suluck Lamubol
As the number of students defaulting on the government's low-interest student loan scheme increases, Thailand's education minister has proposed making government loans contingent on an applicant's future income and employment prospects. But critics say this could turn education into a commodity and could widen social inequalities.
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AUSTRALIA: Students pay for the privilege
Geoff Maslen
More than 1.2 million students are enrolled in Australian higher education institutions this year and almost every one of them pays for the privilege, including the 335,000 foreign students who must meet the full cost of their courses.
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NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report
BRAZIL: Science students offered study-abroad grants
Tom Hennigan
In the latest move in a campaign to boost its economy's scientific base, Brazil is offering 75,000 grants by the end of 2014 to science students keen to study abroad. The goal of the Science Without Frontiers programme is to increase the number of Brazilian pre- and post-doctoral students in leading foreign institutions. In return, the government says it will work to create similar opportunities for foreign students in Brazilian institutions.
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SWEDEN: Minister says universities may merge
Jan Petter Myklebust
Sweden's coalition government is to tackle a sharp drop in student numbers by allocating more funding to universities where there is a strong demand for places, forcing less popular institutions to seek mergers to survive, Education Minister Jan Björklund has warned.
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GLOBAL: Australia in from Commonwealth funding cold
David Jobbins
Australia is to resume funding for Commonwealth university scholarships and the Commonwealth of Learning, the pioneering distance learning agency with a focus on the developing world, seven years after it pulled the plug in an economy drive.
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GLOBAL: Scholarships effective in supporting democracy
Jacquie Withers
Two evaluation reports from the UK's Commonwealth Scholarship Commission were launched last week ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia - one based on a survey of more than 2,000 former scholars and fellows around the Commonwealth, and the other focusing on 15 Commonwealth countries in Asia.
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LEBANON: Quality assurance agency to be created
Wagdy Sawahel
Lebanon plans to establish a national quality assurance agency to strengthen the competitiveness of its sole state university and numerous private universities. The aim is to develop a higher education system of international quality.
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INDIA: Protests continue over academic freedom curb
Alya Mishra
Students and teachers at Delhi University went on marches last week to protest against the removal of a celebrated essay by the late scholar and linguist AK Ramanujan on the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.
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MALAWI: Presidential reversal reinstates lecturers
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has reinstated four lecturers who were suspended as a result of industrial action over erosion of academic freedoms, and said higher education liberties were guaranteed in the African nation. Many campuses have been closed for much of the year due to unresolved lecturer protests over what has been seen as an increasingly autocratic climate in the country.
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MOZAMBIQUE: University u-turn on 'Bologna' degrees
Munyaradzi Makoni
Fifteen faculties of Mozambique's Eduardo Mondlane University will change from a three-year back to a four-year bachelor degree programme in the 2012 academic year, reversing the adoption of the Bologna process degree structure. The switch is aimed at producing better-trained, labour-marketable graduates.
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ZAMBIA: Three new universities, job creation planned
Zambia's newly elected President Michael Sata has outlined plans to review the higher education sector as well as establish three new universities, to fulfil his election manifesto. Job creation for higher education graduates would also be prioritised.
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FEATURES
ASIA: Building bridges through higher education
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Western countries are by far the most favoured destinations for students from East Asia seeking higher education abroad, and reversing that trend will not be easy. But an ambitious plan to usher in exchanges between universities in Japan, China and South Korea is under way under the auspices of the three governments.
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COMMENTARY
GLOBAL: Internationalisation - Aid, trade, pervade
Discussing definitions of internationalisation in higher education shows that we have not advanced enough, says ELSPETH JONES. If we are still having a debate, we are not devoting ourselves sufficiently to doing internationalisation. She outlines 10 key indicators of a university that has achieved 'comprehensive' or 'integrated' internationalisation.
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EUROPE: Germany's Excellence Initiative reaps rewards
Germany's Excellence Initiative has brought visible benefits and quickly, says MARTIN GRABERT. Concentrating support where it can have the most impact through a bottom-up two-tiered approach has achieved results for elite universities and has also had wider benefits for the higher education system.
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SCIENCE SCENE
SOUTH AFRICA: A 100,000-year-old workshop
An ochre-rich mixture that was possibly used for decoration, painting and skin protection 100,000 years ago has been discovered stored in two abalone shells at Blombos Cave, 300 kilometres east of Cape Town. The discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human thought.
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UK-AUSTRALIA: Energy-converting protein
British and Australian researchers have made a world-first discovery that will provide the most accurate understanding to date of the structure and function of the most important energy-converting protein, critical to the functioning of all organs and a cause of disease when malfunctioning.
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US: Mirror coating of NASA telescope
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the world's next-generation space observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has reached a major milestone in its development: the mirrors that will fly aboard the telescope have been completely coated with a microscopically thin layer of gold, selected for its ability to properly reflect infrared light from the mirrors into the observatory's science instruments.
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AUSTRIA: Dissipation to engineer quantum states
Theoretical physicists at the University of Innsbruck have formulated a new concept to engineer exotic so-called topological states of matter in quantum mechanical many-body systems. They linked concepts of quantum optics and condensed matter physics to show a way to build a quantum computer immune from perturbations.
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WORLD ROUND-UP
HONG KONG: An open door to foreign students
Well-positioned in world university rankings, Hong Kong has an open-door policy towards international students. The Hong Kong government has invested HK$1 billion (US$128 million) in a bursary fund, with the interest to be used to fund scholarships for international students, writes Stephen Hoare for The Independent.
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AUSTRALIA: Universities put revenue before standards
The state of Victoria's ombudsman has uncovered worrying evidence that universities have been putting the need for student fee revenue ahead of the ability of students to complete their courses, apparently enrolling students with too-poor English skills, writes Andrew Trounsen for The Australian. But universities have rejected the criticism.
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CHINA-AFRICA: Universities to boost collaboration
The 2011 UNESCO-China-Africa University Leaders Meeting was held last week in Paris at the headquarters of the United Nations agency, aimed at boosting collaboration between Chinese and African universities, reports the Xinhua news agency.
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US: High cost of community college dropouts
A new national study reports that federal, state, and local governments in the US invested nearly $4 billion in full-time community college students who subsequently dropped out after their first year, writes Rita Giordano for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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US: Real higher education costs now clearer
How much will college really cost? For American families, the answer may soon become clearer. Starting on 29 October, any college or university participating in federal student aid programmes must have a net-price calculator on its website, writes Emily Glazer for the Wall Street Journal.
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UK: Education spending 'falling fastest since 1950s'
Public spending on education in the UK is falling at the fastest rate since the 1950s, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The independent financial researchers say spending will fall by 13% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15, writes Sean Coughlan for the BBC.
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UK: Drop in soft subject applications
Softer university subjects such as communication studies and creative arts have seen a drop in applications of up to 40% as students seek value for England's controversial £9,000 (US$14,400) tuition fee, according to figures released last week, writes Victoria Ward for The Telegraph.
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UK: 'Free' Oxbridge masters degrees under fire
It is as traditional as punting, elite clubs and one-to-one tutorials with dusty dons, but the 'complimentary' masters degrees awarded to Oxford and Cambridge graduates is under fire, writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph.
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ISRAEL: 'Privatised enclaves' rise in universities
Study programmes funded by non-public sources in Israeli universities have doubled during the past six years. The number of such programmes has risen from 26 to 51 in a trend that is at variance with a decision reached in 2007 by Israel's Council for Higher Education to withhold recognition of new study programmes, writes Asaf Shtull-Trauring for Haaretz.
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US: Political science 'too slow to change' - Report
Political science is being held back as a discipline by its failure to sufficiently engage in issues of race and inequality, and by the homogeneity of its faculty members, according to a report released last week by the American Political Science Association, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.
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CANADA: Universities need to step up - Toope
The world is becoming a more competitive place than ever as far as universities are concerned and Canadian institutions, working with real funding shortages, need to focus on their teaching mission to remain in the game, according to Stephen Toope, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, writes Karen Seidman for The Gazette.
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CANADA: University head apologises to aboriginals
In an unusual move, the president of a Canadian university has issued a formal apology to aboriginals across the country for his institution's failure to speak out against the "national shame" of residential schools, writes Louise Brown for The Star.
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