Chile – The canary in the global higher education privatisation coalmine
In Commentary, Cristina González argues that Chile is an early and extreme example of the privatisation of higher education, and that turmoil in the generally high-fee, low-quality sector may be a preview of things to come in other countries.
Roger Y Chao Jr contends that to counter fraud in higher education, China will need to tackle its cultural roots, pressures linked to rankings and an overemphasis on commerc ialisation of research. And Diana Beech previews a conference taking place this month that aims to give researchers a voice in shaping research policy in Europe.
In World Blog, William Patrick Leonard argues that, with the US public tertiary education community in crisis, chief financial officers at institutions need to pursue cost-cutting rather than enhancement measures – but are not.
In Features, Yojana Sharma describes new forms of collaboration with foreign universities in Suzhou, aimed at boosting research and innovation in China. Kalinga Seneviratne reports on Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, a university in Nalanda in India set up to revive the ancient Buddhist seat of learning – but now being overshadowed by the planned high-profile Nalanda International University.
John Ryan reviews the life and work of Robert Barnard, a UK academic and mystery writer who died in September. And in Student View, Aengus Ó Maoláin looks at two recent global debates on access and says the student movement is determined to fight for increased access to higher education through universal funding.
Bianka Siwinska
The directors of higher education research centres from around the world flew to Shanghai for their first ever global meeting last weekend and, encouragingly, policy-makers also attended. The aims were to discuss the future of research on higher education, to debate common issues – and to create a global network of higher education research experts.
Suluck Lamubol
The Thai government’s attempt to pass a blanket amnesty bill for ‘political’ offences, in an ill-judged bid to promote political reconciliation, has brought university lecturers, rectors and student groups out onto the streets in scenes of protest the likes of which the country has not witnessed in many years.
Alan Osborn
Is European higher education generally delivering the right kind of qualifications for citizens gearing up to tackle the challenges and opportunities of today’s world, or is it missing targets along the line? This is not a new question, but it has been given a fresh twist in the Education and Training Monitor 2013 released by the European Commission.
Peta Lee
Education ministers from the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – countries met in Paris last Tuesday and agreed to establish a mechanism at the “highest political and technical level” to coordinate and implement collaboration, especially in higher education.
Shafigeh Shirazi
Iran’s parliament, or Majlis, has finally approved the country’s new ministers for education and higher education, after previous nominees for the posts failed to win a parliamentary vote of confidence in August. They will continue reforms, said President Hassan Rouhani.
Paul Rigg
The Spanish government has been forced to backtrack on plans to cut payments to thousands of Erasmus students studying abroad – within five days of the plan being announced.
Makki Marseilles
As the strike by administrative staff that has paralysed major universities in Greece entered its ninth week, Education Minister Kostantinos Arvanitopoulos targeted rectors of still-closed institutions in Athens – and ordered them to “take action to resolve the situation or face the consequences of the law”.
Jan Petter Myklebust
Bjørn Haugstad, junior minister for education in Norway’s new conservative-populist coalition government, has announced that the process to upgrade colleges to university status has been suspended because of quality concerns.
Dinesh De Alwis
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Higher Education has instructed all state universities to close from 8-17 November due to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – CHOGM. But students believe the move is an attempt to silence them – and have taken to the streets in protest.
Ashraf Khaled
A decision by Egypt’s military-installed government, giving police a role in securing the country’s restive universities, has raised fears of much-hated security agencies’ interference in academic life – again.
Karin Fischer, The Chronicle of Higher Education
In a sudden role reversal, the number of Indian students entering American graduate schools this autumn exploded, while the share of new graduate students from China increased only modestly.
Geoff Maslen
The international Square Kilometre Array office awarded contracts last week to prepare for construction of the world’s largest radio telescope – and the biggest science experiment ever undertaken. Comprising 3,000 dish antennas covering a total area of one square kilometre in remote regions of Australia and South Africa, the telescope will be 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than the world’s current most powerful radio telescopes.
Geoff Maslen
Academics at Britain’s University of Birmingham are working with international scientific publisher Elsevier to investigate the “discourse of interdisciplinary research”, known as IDR, through a comprehensive and innovative linguistic analysis of the full content since 1990 of a successful IDR journal, Global Environmental Change.
Ishmael Tongai
Postgraduate students in South Africa are mainly concerned with funding, career guidance, future opportunities and mentorship support, says a new report by the South African Young Science Academy. The report provides insight into some of the reasons for the low production rate of doctoral students in the country.
