ANNOUNCEMENT – New Africa HE jobs site

University World News is delighted to announce the 'soft' launch of an African higher education jobs site. Universities across Africa – and indeed those around the world – looking to recruit academics and higher education professionals are now easily able to post job ads, at very reasonable prices and reaching a large audience, on the Higher Education in Africa Recruitment, or HEAR, site. People looking for jobs may post their CVs for free.

NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

Geoff Maslen

Australia's new Prime Minister Tony Abbott, elected in a landslide victory in Saturday’s election, has promised to reverse many of the policies implemented by the defeated Labor government over the past six years – including those intended to lessen the impact of climate change.

Alya Mishra

For thousands of Indian students aspiring to a world-class higher education, the rupee’s continuing depreciation against American and British currencies has been a major setback. Some may have to postpone their studies for a year, while others are desperately seeking additional loans to cover the shortfall.

Britain’s Quality Assurance Agency and the British Council have announced a new partnership, aimed at “safeguarding and promoting” the reputation of UK transnational higher education. There are more students studying for UK degrees abroad than there are at home.

Wagdy Sawahel

In an effort to reconstruct civil war-damaged Libya, 5,000 former rebels will be sent to study abroad this year, according to Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mohamed Hassan Abu Bakr. They are the first of 18,000 revolutionaries who are registered and eligible for study abroad.

Yojana Sharma and Emilia Tan

Malaysia’s bid for world-class university status and the channelling of government funds into research and postgraduate studies at several public universities may have caused this year’s fiasco in which a large number of non-Malay ethnic minority students failed to get into undergraduate courses of their choice despite scoring top marks in school-leaving exams.

María Elena Hurtado

Appalling results in the Prueba Inicia, or Start Test – a voluntary national exam that assesses the competence of Chilean teaching graduates – is forcing the government and universities to improve teacher training and make the teaching profession more attractive.

Suvendrini Kakuchi

The Sri Lankan government is to launch new vocational degrees – a landmark step for an education system long dominated at the pinnacle by traditional state universities. It is hoped that the move will also help to reduce youth unemployment.

Ameen Amjad Khan

The World Bank has called on the Afghan government to increase the proportion of women enrolled in universities. Women currently make up just 19% of students, according to a new report on Afghanistan’s higher education – a decline in the male-female ratio in universities compared to a decade ago even though overall numbers have increased.

Michael Gardner

Figures released by the Federal Statistical Office suggest that the number of women in Germany holding a doctoral degree is on the increase. However, women continue to be underrepresented in research and development.

Jan Petter Myklebust

The Norwegian government is allocating NOK23.5 million (US$3.9 million) in grants for persecuted students expelled from universities because of human rights and democracy activism. It hopes that other governments will follow suit.

David Jobbins

A new global league table from the UK’s Times Higher Education – ranking universities by the number of their graduates who are chief executive officers of the world’s largest companies – was published last week. Harvard tops the list, followed by Tokyo.

Wachira Kigotho

The Ministry of Education in Kenya has directed universities to shut campuses and constituent colleges that are situated near rubbish dumps, quarries or factories.

Peta Lee

One of South Africa’s top research institutions, the University of the Witwatersrand, has fired a third lecturer for s exual harassment after dismissing two others in July for the same offence. A fourth case is still being investigated, it was revealed last week, as the university published a report on s exual harassment on campus.

FEATURES

Karen MacGregor

Transnational education is expanding at a “brisk pace”. But few countries are producing data or have strategies in place, and quality assurance and qualification recognition are weak, says a new British Council report. Still, three host countries – China, Malaysia and the UAE – are successfully using transnational education to expand higher education access, boost academic capacity, develop domestic staff and-or train and retain a skilled workforce.

Marc Parry, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Mitchell Duneier once was a MOOC star. But today he's more like a conscientious objector. Worried that massive open online courses might lead United States legislators to cut state university budgets, the Princeton University sociology professor has pulled out of the movement – at least for now.

WORLD BLOG

Hans de Wit and Fiona Hunter

Internationalisation of higher education has changed dramatically in the 25 years since the European Association for International Education was set up. Will the EAIE – which holds its annual conference in Istanbul next week – continue to be a leader in its field, embracing the opportunities offered by a fast-changing environment?

COMMENTARY

Richard J Edelstein and John Aubrey Douglass

There are many reasons why universities are increasingly involved in international activities, and better understanding is needed of the context for the relatively untried and entrepreneurial initiatives that are being developed.

Brendan Cantwell and Barrett J Taylor

Research shows that larger American universities that emphasise science and engineering and have greater financial support for research from the federal government tend to fare better in rankings. This suggests that global rankings may help to legitimate inequality of inputs within a national system rather than boosting the quality of higher education across the board.

Lucie Cerna and Meng-Hsuan Chou

Despite policies aimed at attracting foreign talent, Europe may still be less attractive as a destination than other, non-European countries. Those countries that adopt a more entrepreneurial approach as a result of the financial crisis may get ahead in the global race for talent.

Patrick Stokes, The Conversation

And so now we officially know: philosophy is a waste. How can we be sure? Because Coalition spokesman for scrutiny of government waste Jamie Briggs has promised that a Tony Abbott government in Australia would get rid of “those ridiculous research grants that leave taxpayers scratching their heads wondering just what the government was thinking”.

STUDENT VIEW

Rok Primozic

The European Students’ Union is spearheading a fight for higher education as a public good and battling against those who would reduce it to serving the labour market as well as short-sighted policy-makers who cut funding at a time when Europe needs education to rebuild.

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WORLD ROUND-UP

Jaafar Towfiqi, caretaker minister responsible for research and most of Iran’s universities, says students have already told President Hassan Rouhani of their expectations for greater autonomy for higher education institutions, reports Asharq Al-Awsat.

A decision to grant campus security guards the right to arrest students was issued last Wednesday, sparking fears of a return to the time when politically active students were targeted, reports Ahram Online.

Canadian filmmaker and associate professor at York University John Greyson, and ER physician and academic Dr Tarek Loubani remain jailed in an Eygptian prison where they have been held since being arrested on 16 August. They have yet to be charged, writes Tara-Michelle Ziniuk for Toronto Media Co-op.

Higher Education Authority Chief Executive Tom Boland has questioned whether tertiary institutions are doing enough to welcome foreign students, as new figures show a fall in numbers coming to study in Ireland, writes Katherine Donnelly for the Independent.ie.

Universities in Spain are considering a move to set up charitable funds so that individuals can sponsor the studies of those from low-income families, writes Fiona Govan for The Telegraph.

US President Barack Obama’s recent proposals to reform higher education have once again made the debate over the future of higher education big news, writes Johann Neem, an associate professor of history at Western Washington University, for Inside Higher Ed.

At least seven new private universities in Bangladesh with reported links to the ruling party are awaiting approval as the government nears the end of its term, despite claims that most existing higher education institutions in the private sector are underperforming and struggling to attract students, writes Mushfique Wadud for the Dhaka Tribune.

Universities in Wales have called for the Welsh government to review the way they are funded, to prevent millions of pounds going to institutions around the United Kingdom, writes Arwyn Jones for BBC Wales.

Universities and colleges are twice as likely as other workplaces to use zero-hours contracts, according to a freedom of information request, writes Tom Newcombe for HR Magazine.

A freeze in fees and discounts for low-income families are the only hope for students in the United Arab Emirates who find the cost of university education beyond their reach, writes Sara Sabry for Gulf News.

A Taiwanese environmental engineer, sued for suggesting a link between a petrochemical company's emissions and cancer rates, has been cleared of libel by a court, reports Michele Catanzaro for Nature.

Student representatives of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, led by student union president B Myagmardorj, announced last week that they would demonstrate outside the university’s administration offices against an unjustified increase in tuition fees, writes B Khash-Erdene for The UB Post.

As university application deadlines for first-year entrants draw to a close, South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training is readying itself to provide alternatives for hundreds of thousands of prospective students who will be left out in the cold, writes Nontobeko Mtshali for The Star.

The University of London has abandoned its proposal to auction a rare set of early printed editions of William Shakespeare's plays, following an outcry by senior figures in theatre and academia, writes David Batty for the Guardian.

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