SCIENCE & EDUCATION

An unprecedented agreement signed between Israel's finance ministry and representatives from local colleges will, for the first time, allow college staff to receive government funding for research, writes Tomer Velmer for YNetNews. Until now, this has been reserved for universities alone.Colleges that sought to promote their academic activities were forced to seek funding from philanthropists and private organizations.

Indigenous Australians have long been under-represented in their country’s universities, but now some institutions are creating leadership posts to help increase the number of indigenous students and academics.  The University of Sydney announced that a new deputy vice chancellor would be responsible for the institution’s strategy and services for the indigenous. The University of Queensland created a similar position, with the title pro vice chancellor, last month, while Charles Darwin University has had a pro vice chancellor dedicated to indigenous leadership since 2008. Indigenous people account for 2.4 percent of the population but constitute only 1.25 percent of students entering universities, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne.

Kosovo has the lowest higher education attendance in the European Union, writes Muhamet Brajshori for the Southeast European Times. While there are 50 students per 1,000 inhabitants in the EU, Kosovo falls short with just 30 students per 1,000 inhabitants, according to the education ministry.

Foreign-student applications to American graduate schools are up 9 percent over last year, with much of the increase fueled by a double-digit expansion in applications from prospective Chinese students, according to a report released today by the Council of Graduate Schools.Applications from India and South Korea, meanwhile, saw renewed growth after stagnating last year. The three countries send the largest numbers of international students to the United States.

VICTORIA – Since 1911, B.C. libraries have evolved from travelling trucks filled with crates of books to the technology-savvy community hubs of today. However, one thing has not changed. B.C. libraries have always been a central place for family learning, opening up doors of opportunity for knowledge and adventure. Education Minister George Abbott joined Grade 1 students from Torquay Elementary in Victoria today to read them his favourite story in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the B.C. Library Association (BCLA).

China's Xi'an Jiaotong University has received an international business accreditation for its top-quality business education as the country is boosting the development of less-developed western areas, sources with the university said Sunday."Earning the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Accreditation is of great importance for our university to adopt the world's latest concepts on management education to improve our education quality," said Cheng Guangxu, vice head of the university, which is based in the northwestern Shaanxi Province.Established in 1916, AACSB International is a global nonprofit membership organization where business schools could network and discuss to boost the business education industry, according to its official website.

Malaysia's higher education ministry cancelled the setting up of 59 private colleges and deregistered 28 others between 2009 and 2010 over quality issues, the official news agency Bernama reported. Deputy Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said the ministry found that the institutions were unable to provide quality programmes, premises, management, teaching staff, or learning and teaching facilities.

Stockholm's Karolinska Institute and Lund University are among six Swedish universities named in a world top 200 list. Karolinska is the top ranking Swedish university, coming in at 43 on the world list and 9 on the European list of the Times Higher Education supplement rankings for 2010-2011.Other Swedish universities featuring on the list include Lund University, Stockholm University, Uppsala University, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at 89, 129, 147, 193 and 199 respectively.

The growing influence of university rankings has reached Latin America, with governments, news media, and private researchers drawing up domestic versions that they say are important for the institutions and students alike.Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru each have at least one national ranking. Some were first published in recent months, and all use different approaches to evaluate their higher-education institutions.

There's radical change at the National Research Council, Canada's biggest science institute, as the new president orders all staff to direct research toward boosting economic development and technology, with less time for pure science.Starting this spring, 20 per cent of research money, and all the capital funds that buy expensive lab equipment, will be removed from existing budgets and directed where the president and vice-presidents choose.Eventually, 80 per cent of research funds will be redirected this way.

Bishop Grosseteste University College has become the first university in England to announce planned tuition fees for 2012 below the £9,000 maximum. The Lincoln institution said it would charge £7,500 for most courses, subject to approval by the fair access office. Nine universities have said they want to charge £9,000, despite warnings about the cost to the government.   Two new universities have said they will not charge the maximum, but not named prices.

Universities have been told to limit tuition fees to just £6,000 for students taking arts and humanities degrees. David Willetts, the Universities Minister, said institutions should be able to impose much lower charges for these courses because they are cheaper to run than others such as medicine and science. He also denied the Coalition’s higher education reforms would spell the death of arts and humanities subjects despite claims from academics that they would increasingly become the preserve of the rich. The comments represent the latest warning to universities against imposing blanket fees of £9,000 – the maximum permitted – when higher education reforms are introduced next year.

Jordan's Ministry of Higher Education said last weekend that it will push for the establishment of polytechnic schools across the country in order to ease the growing pressure on universities.According to Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Wajih Oweis, the government is currently drafting a new higher education law to replace the temporary law currently awaiting review in the lower house of parliament. The centrepiece of the new law is the establishment of polytechnic schools at public universities to replace the proposed 'technical academy initiative' which sought to transform community colleges into vocational institutes.

The National Universities Commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute for Lasers, Photonics, and Biophotonics in the US for the development of an international research centre for nanomedicine in some Nigerian universities. According to details of the memorandum, the first phase of the initiative is to implement the programme at NUC-selected universities while the second phase will see Nigerian researchers trained at the US institute and equipment distributed to Nigerian universities.

Saudi Arabia and Finland have signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of higher education that will boost partnerships between Saudi and Finnish institutions, writes Ghazanfar Ali Khan for Arab News.The agreement will also provide opportunities for Saudi students to pursue higher studies in Finland, which has topped lists of global rankings in terms of quality of education.

Education experts have lauded a proposed plan by the government that would allow for the transfer of lecturers between universities in a bid to boost the institutions' standings and hence enrollment rates, writes Dessy Sagita for the Jakarta Globe. Harry Iskandar, secretary at the National Education Ministry's Directorate General of Secondary and Higher Education, announced the plan to share lecturers last week.

Top foreign students are eschewing the opportunity to study at Swedish universities and colleges, deterred by the introduction of tuition and registration fees, as well as the lack of scholarships. Previously, foreign students from countries outside Europe studied for free in Sweden, but starting in the autumn, they must pay a minimum of 100,000 kronor ($15,625) in fees every year, according to newspaper Dagens Nyheters (DN).

Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) on Tuesday said it will hold an exhibition to showcase its educational and research capabilities.The event will be held at the Emirates Palace on Sunday under the patronage of General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

Hundreds of Oxford and Cambridge academics have expressed alarm over higher education reforms in a letter to Universities Minister David Willetts. They say universities are being asked to "fly blind" as they move to market-based fees without knowing the full details of the changes. A White Paper setting out the changes, expected in March, has been delayed. The government said its plans were fair and affordable, and more consultation was needed on the White Paper.

The calibre of teachers in schools looks set to drastically improve as scores of South Africa's top students sign up for the embattled profession, writes Prega Govender for The Times. Universities across the country confirmed being flooded with applications from first-year students wanting to study the four-year teaching degree.The University of KwaZulu-Natal's education faculty, based at Edgewood College, increased its admission requirements after receiving almost 14,000 applications for only 650 places.