NEWS

David Jobbins

Four out of every 10 university graduates will come from just two countries – China and India – by 2020, according to a report from the OECD. China alone will account for 29% of graduates aged 25-34, with the United States and Europe stagnating at just over a quarter.

Adele Yung

Singapore’s university sector no longer needs to catch up with the rest of the world and should not slavishly follow Western models, simply expanding to produce more “carbon copy” graduates, according to a high-level international panel advising the government on its strategic higher education policies.

Ria Nurdiani

Indonesia’s House of Representatives finally endorsed a controversial higher education bill on Friday, amid criticism of the way important issues such as foreign universities and student access have been handled in the legislation.

MJ Deschamps

A European Commission policy paper has encouraged European Union member states to work harder at helping disabled students to gain university places and good degrees, with data showing that their life chances improve considerably with higher education.

Brendan O’Malley

Demand for places at higher education institutions in England has fallen by 10%, according to UCAS, the body that manages applications to courses. The new figures offer insight into the impact on applications of the decision to allow universities to triple tuition fees from 2012-13.

Ameen Amjad Khan

The Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has announced a higher education exchange programme that will facilitate scholarships, faculty exchanges, collaboration on distance learning methods and research projects among its 57 member countries.

MJ Deschamps

Canadian publishers say recently passed copyright reform is stripping away some of their financial incentive to provide books to the country’s universities and colleges.

Wagdy Sawahel

The University of Wollongong in Dubai has joined with the National Research Foundation in the United Arab Emirates to set up the country’s first doctoral training centre.

How many undergraduate students does it take to publish original research in an academic journal? Exactly 100 in the case of faculty of veterinary science students at the University of Sydney, whose study on saltwater crocodile genetics was published in the Australian Journal of Zoology last week.

Linda Bach

Terrorist attacks and kidnapping of foreigners could cause a serious blow to Kenyan marine research, forcing scientists to cancel projects in fear for their lives, according to participants at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium held in Cairns, Australia, from 9-13 July.

Francis Kokutse

In a move to control unruly student participation in politics, the authorities at the University of Ghana have banned all open-air political rallies, congresses and conventions ahead of a December general election. Student leadership is closely aligned to political parties in Ghana.

FEATURES

David Jobbins

Top universities have committed to leading a drive to secure greater equality for female academics and researchers across Europe. A League of European Research Universities report sets out actions that it says will overcome discrimination against women that prevents them from playing a full part in Europe’s research effort.

Helena Flusfeder

The Israeli Council for Higher Education’s planning and budgeting committee has proposed a new category of funding in addition to the existing ones of colleges and universities – that of a ‘university centre’ – in an apparent attempt to sidestep a political storm over granting a West Bank centre university status.

Tunde Fatunde

Repeated attacks on churches on and off university campuses in northern Nigeria, by the Islamic fundamentalist sect Boko Haram, have sparked fear among students and lecturers, especially those who are Christians.

WORLD BLOG

Curt Rice

Many people think that increased numbers of female graduates will translate eventually into more women at the top of their professions, but analysis suggests any increase will be very slow. It’s not enough just to wait.

COMMENTARY

John Aubrey Douglass

For-profit institutions have grown in the Great Recession, to some extent because of cuts in the public sector that have meant it is unable to fulfil demand. For-profits need greater regulation to ensure quality, but demand for them is likely to continue to rise.

Ernesto Schiefelbein

Closing the gap between those with and without access to a good school education, through offering remedial classes at university, could reduce social inequality and high student drop-out rates in Chile and prevent the kind of demonstrations seen in the country in 2011.

Angel Calderon

Guatemala's education reforms aim to raise teaching standards, but students fear they will make it more financially difficult to study and could put some off the profession. However, if Guatemala is to improve its standing in the region and develop sustainably, it needs to improve the quality of teaching.

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WORLD ROUND-UP

The times they are a changin’, and I’d like to suggest they are changing in a way that has massive implications for education: sources of credibility – once the domain of expensive degrees – are becoming democratised, decentralised and diversified, writes Michael Ellsberg for Time.

Some 570 Chinese universities and colleges have promised to enrol a total of 10,000 more students from the country's 14 least developed areas in central, southwest and northwest China this year. This is the first time that China's universities will offer privileged admission to students from poverty-stricken areas, writes Zhang Wan for Crienglish.com.

Major science funders in the United Kingdom are to introduce a set of principles on research integrity as a condition for receiving their grants. Launched last week, The Concordat to Support Research Integrity describes itself as an attempt to provide “a comprehensive national framework” for research governance, writes Daniel Cressey for Nature.

Under pressure from education and industry leaders to review recent curbs on student visas, British Prime Minister David Cameron is likely to reverse policy and remove international students from official immigration figures, reports the Press Trust of India.

In the manner of Peter the Great, who sent court nobility to study abroad to modernise Russia, the government will pay for a foreign education for university graduates who promise to return home to work for three years, writes Natalya Krainova for The Moscow Times.

Enrolments in Australia's newly uncapped market for students are outstripping predictions and will force the federal government to fund tens of thousands more places than anticipated, writes Susan Woodward for Times Higher Education.

Students on private college courses such as animal chiropractic care and acupuncture have been eligible to receive state-subsidised funding during the past two years, with one institution being given state loan access for nearly 100 sub-degree vocational courses in a single day, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education.

Carleton University says the CAD15 million (US$15 million) donor agreement for its showcase school of political management, fronted by Preston Manning, does not reflect the university’s academic policies and will be renegotiated, writes Bruce Cheadle for The Canadian Press.

Michelle Amaral wanted to be a brain scientist. But three years after earning a doctorate in neuroscience, she gave up trying to find a job in her field. She took an administrative position at her university, experiencing firsthand an economic reality: there are too many laboratory scientists for too few jobs, writes Brian Vastag for The Washington Post.

Mitt Romney promises to usher private lenders back into the federal student loan market in a bid to decrease default rates and increase efficiency if he becomes America’s president, but such a move could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars over a decade without saving students money, according to higher education analysts, writes Tracy Jan for The Boston Globe.

Got student debt? Move fast, and some cities will help you pay it off. Some cities and counties in the US looking to revitalise offer an incentive – help repaying student loans – to graduates who agree to relocate to their borders. "Can it be a win-win for graduates and struggling communities?" asks Kimberly Railey for The Christian Science Monitor.

Two heads are better than one, as the saying goes. But when it comes to running a university, scholars and web users in China are debating whether it is necessary for one president to have dozens of deputies, writes Xuyang Jingjing for Global Times.

Relations between Israel and UNESCO have reached a new low following the organisation's inauguration of a chair in astronomy, astrophysics and space sciences at the Islamic University of Gaza, which Israel identifies with Hamas, writes Barak Ravid for Haaretz.

Behind the Jerry Sandusky s exual abuse scandal at Penn State lay a series of failures all the way up the university’s chain of command – shortcomings that were the result of an insular and complacent culture in which football was revered, rules were not applied and the balance of power was dangerously out of whack, writes Richard Pérez-Peña for The New York Times.

Secret testimony from an IRA woman who bombed the Old Bailey can now be handed over to the Police Service of Northern Ireland as part of its investigations into one of the most controversial murders during the Troubles, a US court has ruled, writes Henry McDonald for the Guardian.

The Council on Higher Education is in discussion with the South African Law Deans' Association about a review of the LLB degree, which has been criticised for many years for its failure to prepare graduates adequately for the profession, writes Nivashni Nair for Times Live.

Since Nigeria’s National Universities Commission announced the suspension of the licences of seven private universities on 4 July, reactions have poured in from stakeholders of the affected institutions, write Dayo Adesulu, Favour Nnabugwu and Laju Arenyeka for Vanguard.

Oxford University will use a record donation to abolish the tuition fee increase for its poorest students – keeping fees at £3,500 (US$5,411) per year. In a bid to remove financial barriers, eligible students will also receive funding for all living costs, writes Sean Coughlan for the BBC.

Recognising the increasing role of non-profit organisations in today's economy, Indiana University is poised to launch America’s first School of Philanthropy, writes Chris Sikich for The Indianapolis Star.

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