A trade mission led by the US Department of Commerce's Under Secretary for International Trade Francisco Sanchez and comprising representatives from around 60 US universities and colleges began a trip to two of the fastest-growing markets in Asia, Vietnam and Indonesia, from 2-9 April, the official Saigon Giai Phong newspaper reported.
The mission aimed to attract more Vietnamese and Indonesian students to the US, as well as to open doors for sharing faculty and research. It is part of an US President Obama's goal to double US exports in five years. Higher education ranks among the top 10 US exports Sanchez said.
Sara Schonhardt reported for Voice of America in Jakarta that the US wants to double the number of Indonesian students in America.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0166, 10 April 2011
14 April 2011
Universities Sign up for UN Academic Impact
Alison Moodie
For the last six years the United Nations has been pursuing a novel idea: gathering academic research globally into a practical framework. Last November, the idea finally came to fruition when Secretary General Ban Ki Moon launched the UN Academic Impact in New York. So far, nearly 600 universities have signed up to participate, making the initiative one of the fastest-growing cooperative measures of its kind.
The Academic Impact aims to put the vast resources of universities worldwide at the disposal of the UN in an effort to expedite the agency's ability to cope with global problems in a more efficient and coherent manner. "Academic institutions have an invaluable role to play in strengthening the work of the United Nations," said Ban Ki Moon at the launch.
The initiative was conceived as an additional tool in the UN's arsenal to bring more attention and focus to the larger aim of implementing the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets that respond to some of the world's toughest challenges such as poverty, HIV-Aids and child mortality.
Educators and development experts increasingly agree that higher education can be exploited far beyond the confines of the ivory tower, and can play an important role in economic and social development.
"The alignment between the aims of the UN and the aims of education really aren't much different," said J Michael Adams, President-elect of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), the lead member organisation of the Academic Impact and President of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
"We're all committed to building and creating a successful, prosperous world, yet there are very few linkages between the UN and universities," he told University World News.
The UN has laid out 10 broad guiding principles that center around ideals such as human rights, sustainability, peace and educational opportunities. Each participating university is required to undertake at least one project that satisfies one of the designated principles.
For example, a university committed to the principle of promoting sustainability through education, may come up with a way that a housing development can be built quickly following a natural disaster. The UN will then step in and put the idea forward to the relevant agency, and devote its considerable resources to putting the idea into action.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0166, 10 April 2011
For the last six years the United Nations has been pursuing a novel idea: gathering academic research globally into a practical framework. Last November, the idea finally came to fruition when Secretary General Ban Ki Moon launched the UN Academic Impact in New York. So far, nearly 600 universities have signed up to participate, making the initiative one of the fastest-growing cooperative measures of its kind.
The Academic Impact aims to put the vast resources of universities worldwide at the disposal of the UN in an effort to expedite the agency's ability to cope with global problems in a more efficient and coherent manner. "Academic institutions have an invaluable role to play in strengthening the work of the United Nations," said Ban Ki Moon at the launch.
The initiative was conceived as an additional tool in the UN's arsenal to bring more attention and focus to the larger aim of implementing the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets that respond to some of the world's toughest challenges such as poverty, HIV-Aids and child mortality.
Educators and development experts increasingly agree that higher education can be exploited far beyond the confines of the ivory tower, and can play an important role in economic and social development.
"The alignment between the aims of the UN and the aims of education really aren't much different," said J Michael Adams, President-elect of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), the lead member organisation of the Academic Impact and President of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
"We're all committed to building and creating a successful, prosperous world, yet there are very few linkages between the UN and universities," he told University World News.
The UN has laid out 10 broad guiding principles that center around ideals such as human rights, sustainability, peace and educational opportunities. Each participating university is required to undertake at least one project that satisfies one of the designated principles.
For example, a university committed to the principle of promoting sustainability through education, may come up with a way that a housing development can be built quickly following a natural disaster. The UN will then step in and put the idea forward to the relevant agency, and devote its considerable resources to putting the idea into action.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0166, 10 April 2011
Gender, Power and Managerialism in Universities
Kate White, Teresa Carvalho and Sarah Riordan
Our research compares higher education in Australia, South Africa and Portugal, which has to varying degrees moved from a collegial to a managerial model. Its objective is to explore the role of senior managers in consolidating and interpreting new managerialism and perceptions of potential effects on gender.
The reasons for comparing gender, power and managerialism in these three countries are that they offer different historical perspectives of higher education.
Australian and South African universities were traditionally based on the British model and have national Equal Opportunities (EO) legislative frameworks. Australia has had equal opportunity legislation since 1984 and affirmative action in the workplace legislation since 1986, and South Africa introduced EO legislation and policy after the first democratic election in 1994.
While equal treatment of men and women has been guaranteed since 1976 in the Portuguese constitution, and specific legal frameworks have been developed to promote equality in the workplace, there are no affirmative action plans in higher education.
Despite different academic structures, these countries have relatively higher levels of participation of women in senior leadership positions when compared with other developed countries, although the percentage of women at rector-vice-chancellor levels remains low.
Australia has a higher female to male ratio of economic participation and opportunity (participation, remuneration, advancement of women as technical-professional workers and in senior positions) - while Portugal and South Africa are significantly lower. All three countries have similar ratios of females to males in educational attainment, and health and survival. But there is much higher political empowerment (women in parliament) in South Africa than in Australia and Portugal.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0165, 03 April 2011
Our research compares higher education in Australia, South Africa and Portugal, which has to varying degrees moved from a collegial to a managerial model. Its objective is to explore the role of senior managers in consolidating and interpreting new managerialism and perceptions of potential effects on gender.
The reasons for comparing gender, power and managerialism in these three countries are that they offer different historical perspectives of higher education.
Australian and South African universities were traditionally based on the British model and have national Equal Opportunities (EO) legislative frameworks. Australia has had equal opportunity legislation since 1984 and affirmative action in the workplace legislation since 1986, and South Africa introduced EO legislation and policy after the first democratic election in 1994.
While equal treatment of men and women has been guaranteed since 1976 in the Portuguese constitution, and specific legal frameworks have been developed to promote equality in the workplace, there are no affirmative action plans in higher education.
Despite different academic structures, these countries have relatively higher levels of participation of women in senior leadership positions when compared with other developed countries, although the percentage of women at rector-vice-chancellor levels remains low.
Australia has a higher female to male ratio of economic participation and opportunity (participation, remuneration, advancement of women as technical-professional workers and in senior positions) - while Portugal and South Africa are significantly lower. All three countries have similar ratios of females to males in educational attainment, and health and survival. But there is much higher political empowerment (women in parliament) in South Africa than in Australia and Portugal.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0165, 03 April 2011
Rankings Bring Asia out of the Shadows
Kevin Downing
Are Asian institutions finally coming out of the shadow cast by their Western counterparts? At the 2010 World Universities Forum in Davos, a theme was China's increasing public investment in higher education at a time when reductions in public funding are being seen in Europe and North America. China is not alone in Asia in increasing public investment in higher education, with similar structured and significant investment evident in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
While in many ways this investment is not at all surprising and merely reflects the continued rise of Asia as a centre of global economic power, it nonetheless raises some interesting questions in relation to the potential benefits of rankings for Asian institutions.
Interest in rankings in Asian higher education is undoubtedly high and the introduction of the QS Asian University Rankings in 2009 served to reinforce this. The publication of ranking lists is now greeted with a mixture of trepidation and relief by many university presidents and is often followed by intense questioning from media that are interested to know what lies behind a particular rise or fall on the global or regional stage.
In 2010, universities in Asia did particularly well in terms of their annual rise in the QS World University rankings. For example, mainland China now has six universities in the top 200, Hong Kong five, Taiwan one, Singapore two, Malaysia one, Thailand one, Japan eleven and South Korea four.
Contrast this with the position just one year previously when the figures were mainland China six, Hong Kong four, Taiwan one, Singapore two, Malaysia none, Thailand one, Japan 10 and South Korea three.
In other words, from these South East Asian countries alone another four universities have achieved World top 200 status with the accompanying advantages in terms of global brand exposure.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0165, 03 April 2011
Are Asian institutions finally coming out of the shadow cast by their Western counterparts? At the 2010 World Universities Forum in Davos, a theme was China's increasing public investment in higher education at a time when reductions in public funding are being seen in Europe and North America. China is not alone in Asia in increasing public investment in higher education, with similar structured and significant investment evident in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
While in many ways this investment is not at all surprising and merely reflects the continued rise of Asia as a centre of global economic power, it nonetheless raises some interesting questions in relation to the potential benefits of rankings for Asian institutions.
Interest in rankings in Asian higher education is undoubtedly high and the introduction of the QS Asian University Rankings in 2009 served to reinforce this. The publication of ranking lists is now greeted with a mixture of trepidation and relief by many university presidents and is often followed by intense questioning from media that are interested to know what lies behind a particular rise or fall on the global or regional stage.
In 2010, universities in Asia did particularly well in terms of their annual rise in the QS World University rankings. For example, mainland China now has six universities in the top 200, Hong Kong five, Taiwan one, Singapore two, Malaysia one, Thailand one, Japan eleven and South Korea four.
Contrast this with the position just one year previously when the figures were mainland China six, Hong Kong four, Taiwan one, Singapore two, Malaysia none, Thailand one, Japan 10 and South Korea three.
In other words, from these South East Asian countries alone another four universities have achieved World top 200 status with the accompanying advantages in terms of global brand exposure.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0165, 03 April 2011
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