University World News

GLOBAL: Earth's laws still apply in distant universe

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:49:17 +0200

The laws of nature are the same in a distant universe as they are here on Earth, according to new research conducted by an international team of astronomers. Results of the research, published in ...

UKRAINE: Businesses finance university improvements

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:58:34 +0200

Businesses in Ukraine are investing more money in university classrooms, hoping to better prepare students and prospective recruits for the workplace and repair the country's ailing universities, r...

AUSTRALIA: Teaching load carried by 'servants'

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:59:57 +0200

Sessional lecturers are the domestic servants of the contemporary campus and carry as much as 80% of the undergraduate teaching load, according to a new study on the rise of the casualised class of...

INDIA: Education department falls back on old hands

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:00:49 +0200

To tide over the crisis of talent in higher education, the state education department in Gandhinager has decided to take retired professors and lecturers on contractual assignments extendable up to...

UK: Working class white boys shun higher education

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:01:47 +0200

White working class males are severely under-represented in universities, according to a report by the government that shows the English university sector remains strongly divided along class lines...

SCOTLAND: Radical changes to funding proposed

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:02:31 +0200

Radical changes to the way universities are funded and run have been proposed by a specialist group set up by the Scottish Government, reports The Herald. Under the plan...

SOUTH AFRICA: Drop-out rate alarming

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:03:38 +0200

The high drop-out rate at universities in South Africa is cause for concern, MPs heard last week, reports Independent Online. Higher Education South Africa chair, Profes...

ISRAEL: Treasury 'hostile towards universities'

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:04:29 +0200

Israel's former Finance Minister Avraham Shochat, who headed a committee tasked with formulating reform in higher education, has slammed a Treasury decision to recall US$44.7 million given to unive...

US: University presses start to sell via Kindle

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:05:34 +0200

The Subprime Solution: How today's global financial crisis happened, and what to do about it is a promising title for Princeton University Press, writes Inside Higher Ed...

SWEDEN: Non-EU students to be charged fees

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:07:24 +0200

The government is to introduce fees for all non-EU students in Sweden, according to Liberal Minister of Education Lars Leijonborg, reports Radio Sweden. Sweden is one of...

Obituary: Gilbert Hunt - Princeton probability expert

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:08:15 +0200

Gilbert Hunt, a professor emeritus of mathematics at Princeton Unive...

AUSTRALIA: Sustainability bandwagon is unsustainable

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:10:05 +0200

I am not averse to following fashions, writes Thomas Barlow in Australasian Science, and he continues: In the 1970s I had my yo-yos and wore corduroy; in the 1980s I kept time with a Swatch ...

CANADA: Universities in a climate of change

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:12:30 +0200

Although we are not experiencing intense hurricanes or brush fires, as a northern country, Canada is more sensitive to climate change than its southern neighbours. The 2.5 degrees centigrade increa...

LITHUANIA: Call for worldwide defence of academic freedom

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:13:55 +0200

Academic freedom worldwide must be strengthened through a better def...

CHINA: Emerging world leader in science

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:15:00 +0200

China is emerging as the world leader in science. From a mere speck in the atlas of science two decades ago, China today has overtaken Japan, Britain, Germany and France to become second only to th...

UK: Universities in groundbreaking health collaboration

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:20:54 +0200

Britain's first Centre of Excellence for Public Health Research was launched at Queen's University Belfast last week with a focus on promoting healthier nutrition and lifestyles. The �5m centre is ...

AUSTRALASIA: Commercialising research from new fund

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:22:20 +0200

Four Australian universities and one in New Zealand now have access to a new funding pool for the critical early stages of commercialising their research, thanks to A$30 million (US$28.5 million) f...

EUROPE: Shake-up at WMU after management review

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:23:20 +0200

A new president and new management team are to be installed at the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden, from 1 January next year following the recommendations of a wide-ranging and as yet un...

INDONESIA: Students protest over colleague's death

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:24:19 +0200

Hundreds of university students were involved in a demonstration in Jakarta last week to demand answers over the death of a recently incarcerated colleague. Thousands reportedly gathered outside th...

CANADA: Revenues fall behind enrolments

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:27:46 +0200

Despite government investments in post-secondary education in recent years, revenues per student in the general operating budgets at Canadian universities are much lower than at American public uni...

EUROPE: Budapest selected for new EU innovation body

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:28:41 +0200

Budapest has been chosen as the site of the new European Institute of Innovation and Technology, beating four other contenders - Wroclaw in Poland, Sant Cugat del Vall�s near Barcelona in Spain, Je...

SINGAPORE: Three-nation project to improve water

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:32:54 +0200

Organisations in three nations are involved in a major international...

FRANCE: Evaluation agency completes first year

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:34:17 +0200

Aeres, France's new Research and Higher Education Evaluation Agency, assessed 30 universities, 72 doctoral schools and 130 research units during its first few months, according to its just-publishe...

GERMANY: Limited access to higher education

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:35:41 +0200

Skilled workers without the traditional abitur or higher education admission certificate are having particular difficulties gaining access to higher education in Germany. The country's "Hochschul-I...

TURKEY: Student faces jail for questioning Atat�rk

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:36:36 +0200

A headscarf-wearing student faces a possible jail sentence of four a...

AUSTRALIA: Are they in it only for the money?

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:38:02 +0200

Cynics among Australia's academics claim efforts by the nation's uni...

SOUTH AFRICA: Power cuts fuel 'green' drive

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:39:14 +0200

South African universities are fully engaged with sustainable development and environmental issues in teaching and research, but until recently the matter of sustainable campuses was low on the age...

GERMANY: Boosting environmental research and action

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:41:17 +0200

Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research wants to raise funding for projects in the area of biosphere research by around 50% to an annual EUR30 million (US$47 million) a year. This mean...

NEW ZEALAND: First carbon-neutral architecture faculty

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:42:28 +0200

On a cold winter day, the head of the world's first carbon neutral fa...

NEW ZEALAND: Universities yet to lead on environment

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:43:54 +0200

All New Zealand universities are making efforts to address sustainability issues but none has yet committed itself to becoming carbon neutral and the sector is not taking a leadership role in effor...

UK: Going greener slowly

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:45:05 +0200

There are signs Britain's higher education sector is taking environmental issues more seriously. In January, Universities UK (UUK) published a report, Greening Spires, which painted a somewh...

US: Rapid progress in 'greening' campuses

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:46:00 +0200

North American universities and colleges have made rapid progress in 'greening' campuses, according to the College Sustainability Report Card 2008. Half of the 200 institutions with the larg...