Many US Universities Cut Staff and Spending

Shrinking endowments, state funding reductions and families struggling to pay tuition are forcing many colleges and universities to cut staff and spending or to delay construction and development plans, writes Tony Pugh of McClatchy. From well-heeled Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Dartmouth to large public institutions such as the California State University system, many institutions are facing difficult financial decisions stemming from the nation’s economic standstill.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0054 23 November 2008

Genetics of Cave Bears and Kangaroos

John Gerritsen*
Scientists have announced advances in understanding the genetic make-up of two very different species – the long extinct cave bear and the kangaroo. In Europe, a team of French and Dutch scientists has sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of the cave bear while in Australia, researchers have launched a map of the kangaroo genome.
Full report on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0054 23 November 2008

Southeast Asia: Bold Plan to Duplicate Bologna

Geoff Maslen
Achieving for Southeast Asia what the Europeans have accomplished with the Bologna process – aligning the Asian region’s 6,500 higher education institutions and 12 million students in 11 vastly different countries, and making their systems compatible within a mere seven years – is ambitious to say the least. But a recent high-powered conference in Bangkok began the first steps to do just that.
Full report on the University World News site
Sorce: University World News, Issue No: 0054 23 November 2008

Indonesia: Rara avis within Higher Education

David Jardine

Fasri Jalil, Director-General of Higher Education at Indonesia’s Ministry of National Education, is leading a campaign to widen the country’s university science base. Current science and technology undergraduate numbers are small and Fasri wants to increase them in an effort to catch-up with neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
Full report on the University World News site

Source: University World News, Issue No: 0053 16 November 2008

Exclusion Zone Sought for Oxford’s Animal Lab

Exclusion zone sought for Oxford’s animal lab The University of Oxford is seeking a permanent exclusion zone around its animal research laboratory, which opened last week, reports The Independent. A temporary injunction already in place restricts people from demonstrating within a certain radius of its Biomedical Sciences Building but the university wants to make this permanent at a court hearing scheduled for next year.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0053 16 November 2008

Poor Funding Hits Higher Education Enrolment

Poor funding hits higher education enrolment Poor funding and lack of quality and quantity of teachers have affected the enrolment of students in higher education in India, a recent report has said. The Ernst & Young-EDGE 2008 report on Globalising Higher Education in India found low levels of funding of higher education in India compared with other developing nations such as China, Brazil and Russia, reports Zee News.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0053 16 November 2008

Indonesia: Tertiary Education Reforms by 2009-2010

Wide-ranging reforms could be introduced in Indonesia’s tertiary education system during the 2009-10 academic year, according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), reports Business World Online. Commission chairman Emmanuel Y Angeles told a press conference last week that a strategic plan will be submitted to the president next month aimed at upgrading tertiary education so that it is on par with neighbouring countries.
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Source: Issue No: 0052 University World News - 09 Nov 2008

International Graduate Student Challenges

Globalisation has embraced the university, as it has other sectors. Many academics appreciate the benefits that cross-cultural exchange allows as the ivory tower turns global. Knowledge now belongs to a worldwide arena in which we are all connected, writes Dr Fengying Xu in the latest edition of the Canadian journal Academic Matters. But “there are enormous challenges for teaching, studying and research inside this globally-interdependent context”.
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Source: Issue No: 0052 University World News - 09 Nov 2008

Is Internationalisation on the Right Track?

“As we progress into the 21st century, the international dimension of higher education is becoming increasingly important and at the same time, more and more complex. There are new actors, new rationales, new programmes, new regulations, and the new context of globalisation,” writes respected internationalisation scholar Professor Jane Knight in the latest edition of the Canadian journal Academic Matters, titled The Global University.
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Source: Issue No: 0052 University World News - 09 Nov 2008

Widening the Reach of Universities

Few people are more internationally-minded than the Dutch and few universities outside the major leagues are more global than the Erasmus University of Rotterdam which has 2,400 international students out of 24,000 from more than 100 countries. The university was the host for the EUA autumn conference last week where the chair of its executive board, Jan Willem Oosterwijk, spoke about the challenges of widening higher education, both internationally and across social divisions. There was a strong need for precise focus, he said.
Full report on the University World News site

Source: Issue No: 0051 University World News - 02 Nov 2008

New Portal to Promote Education

Canada’s newest web portal offers access to an array of information on study in Canada for international students. It is also the first use of the country’s IMAGINE brand, developed over the past year with a view to positioning Canada as an attractive and “become what you want to be” destination.
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Source: Issue No: 0051 University World News - 02 Nov 2008

Universities and the American Election

Romulo Pinheiro

Americans will elect a new President this week. For many observers outside North America, it is astonishing to see the prominent role US universities play in the contest for the White House: this year’s four presidential debates, organised by the Commission on Presidential Debates – a non-profit organisation – were all held at local universities.
Full report on the University World News site

Source: Issue No: 0051 University World News - 02 Nov 2008

The Global Crisis and Universities

The effect of the world financial upheaval on higher education institutions around the globe varies markedly from one nation to another, depending on the extent that their banks and currencies have been affected by what is taking place in America and Europe. Universities in countries experiencing an economic downturn, with consumer confidence shattered and unemployment on the rise, are already curtailing their spending and some have begun putting off staff. Even if they face no immediate threat, many institutions that rely for a significant part of their income on student fees – and foreign fees in particular – will be gravely concerned by the problems confronting local students in taking out loans, and the rapid slowing of economies in countries whose students go abroad to study. For universities that have come to rely on the money paid by Chinese students enrolled offshore, the thought of large numbers staying home is alarming. Our correspondents report

Source: Issue No: 0051 University World News - 02 Nov 2008