Private universities that have failed to move to their own permanent campuses have been given an extended ultimatum of one year, reports The Daily Star. No universities will be allowed to open new courses, programmes, institutes or faculties or extend their campuses until they move to comprehensive campuses.The decision came at a meeting of the University Grants Commission with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid last week. The meeting was convened to take a decision about private universities that have failed to relocate as per the Private University Act 2010.

Further education colleges are going to play a bigger role in offering degrees in England, as colleges are awarded funding for thousands of places previously held by universities.Universities Minister David Willetts has announced that about half of the allocation of 20,000 lower-cost places will be in further education colleges.Places were reserved for institutions with fees of £7,500 per year or less.

Ireland could soon have four more universities if plans by institutes of technology get the go-ahead. The political battle is now up and running among the colleges to get the badge ‘technological university’, Kim Bielenberg reports for the Irish Independent.All the institutes of technology except IADT in Dun Laoghaire have come together in clusters and are seeking the new title. From Letterkenny down to Tralee, there are hopes for university status and the economic benefits that this could bring.

A peer-reviewed journal for the study of private higher education is part of a plan to foster research in this growing part of the sector. Claire Field, chief executive of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training, said the idea for the new journal came from the peak group's higher education members."Mostly they are looking for ACPET's support to help them build a research culture,'' Ms Field said. "I guess it's something that universities are funded to do.''

Anticipating a drop in the number of students studying at universities in future, the Thai cabinet has approved in principle an education ministry proposal to merge state-run institutions into one university per province, write Samatcha Hoonsara and Wannapa Khaopa for The Nation.The third annual meeting of the Higher Education Commission had projected that in the next 30 years, the number of people going to public universities would shrink. Therefore, the focus should not be on opening new universities but on improving the teaching and learning quality and efficiency of existing ones.

A group of France’s leading companies have come together to support a research chair in social media at Telecom Ecole de Management, the grande école situated outside Paris. The aim of the research will be to give businesses a better understanding of how social networks operate and how they can be integrated into corporate strategy. Christine Balagué, e-marketing professor at Telecom Business School, will head the research, which has a budget of almost €1m over three years. Research will be focused on four areas, she says: metrics and models; understanding the changes in the way people use social networks; new tools and community management; and creating new marketing study methods.

The decision by the University of Wales to cease validating degrees from independent suppliers from 2012 will force several high-profile MBA suppliers to look for other validation agencies if they are to continue to offer their degrees. Institutions affected will include the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF), with its “Facebook MBA”, and the Lorange Institute of Business in Zurich, set up by Peter Lorange, the former supremo at IMD. Online MBA suppliers such as RDI in the UK and Robert Kennedy College in Switzerland will also be affected.

The Ministry of Education promised to promote multiple measures to spot talented young people and send them for higher education.It has encouraged top universities to use an independent exam, besides the national one, to test the students hoping to enter universities in 2012."Encouraging universities to select students based on an independent criteria is an important supplement to the country's system of college entrance exams," said a notice released by the ministry.

Malaysia and UNESCO last week signed a memorandum of understanding to review the country's education policy at all levels, from pre-school to higher education, reports the official agency Bernama.Education Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Dr Rosli Mohamed said the review was being initiated to ensure that all Malaysians could realise their potential, as well as preparing a future worforce with the required skill set in line with various government transformation programmes to achieve a developed and high-income economy by 2020.

Higher Education Commission Chairman Javaid R Laghari has said that in 2008 the participate rate in higher education in Pakistan was 2.5%, but after commission initiatives it has reached 7.8% and the government has a vision to increase the figure to 15% by 2020, reports The International News.In an address to Punjab University Vice-chancellor Mujahid Bamran and other staff, Laghari said that the greatest challenge was to reach out to the people in remote areas and financially support students who could not afford higher education.

The number of students enrolled in colleges and universities in Brazil doubled from 2001 to 2010, reaching 6.379 million, the Education Ministry said Monday.Citing a college census, the ministry said that college enrollment was up 7.1 percent in 2010 from 2009.Education Minister Fernando Haddad said the figures indicated the growing access to college education in Brazil, adding that the government will manage to raise the number to 10 million in 2020.The census also indicated an advancement of distance education.

China now has its version of Harvard open courses. Twenty courses provided by 18 top Chinese universities went online last Wednesday, China's latest attempt to disseminate teaching resources within the nation and promote Chinese culture globally, writes Chen Jia for China Daily.These courses feature 20 subjects or lectures given by speakers and professors from several universities, including Zhejiang University, Nankai University and Wuhan University. Most of the courses will focus on traditional Chinese culture, according to the Ministry of Education. They are available through the websites of NetEase and China Network Television, as well as icourses.edu.cn, for free.

Официальные опросы работников предназначены для того, чтобы выяснить, в каких университетах они обучались, таким образом выявляя наиболее и наименее успешные учебные заведения, дающие образование дипломированным специалистам, начинающим строить свою карьеру после окончания вуза.Информация будет жизненно важна для студентов, которые вынуждены платить £27 000  (US$43 000) за трехлетнее обучение с получением ученой степени и затем впоследствии много лет выплачивать денежный долг, когда они начинают работу.

The University of Warwick has joined a global consortium led by New York University (NYU) to set up a new applied sciences and engineering campus in the US city.The bid, which is currently being considered by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is the latest attempt by the region to strengthen its links with the US, which is seen as key to the long-term health of the region’s economy.If approved, the ambitious bid will see Warwick become the first UK university to set up a campus in the US, as well as working alongside big-name firms including IBM, Cisco and Siemens.

The number of students admitted to British universities from mainland Europe has soared by more than a third in the last 10 years, figures show. A record 125,000 students from European Union member states claimed places at higher education institutions last year – a rise of some 35,000 compared with a decade ago. The increase was around twice as fast as the rise in admissions among British students. Undergraduates from the EU are subsidised by the taxpayer and are eligible for the same low-interest Government loans as those taken out by British counterparts.

At least 61% of an estimated 35,000 lecturers in Nigeria are still on the lowest rung of academics, 'lecturer 1', according to the National Universities' Commission, which regulates university education in the country, writes Judd-Leonard Okafor for the Daily Trust.Executive secretary of the NUC, Professor Julius Okojie, said "more than half [the number of lecturers in Nigerian universities] do not have a PhD". The figure is about 21,350.

A “RURAL university college for Scotland” is set to be created by the merger of four of the country’s further and higher education institutions.The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) looks set to merge with three “land-based” colleges in a process which would affect thousands of students.Discussions about a possible merger were already under way between the SAC and both Elmwood College in Fife and Oatridge in West Lothian, but they have now been joined by Barony College in Dumfries.While all the colleges are likely to retain their regional bases, the move would lead to a reduction in the number of courses being duplicated across the four institutions.

As Sweden introduces tuition fees of up to €15,000 (£13,145) for non-European Union students this year, Norway is now one of the few European states to stick to the once-sacrosanct belief in "free education for all".While its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark continue to provide free tuition for domestic and EU students only, Norway stands alone in offering free higher education to students regardless of citizenship.

Radical plans to create a French "Ivy League" are gathering pace as the first winners of a new elite universities scheme worth €7.7 billion (£6.6 billion) start to receive cash. The Initiative d'Excellence (Idex) scheme is part of the biggest shake-up in French higher education for almost 40 years. It is designed to establish five to seven "world-class" universities capable of competing internationally for the best students and academics. Driven by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the proposed "Sorbonne League" will require non-selective universities, the highly selective grandes écoles and France's independent research organisations, such as the National Centre for Scientific Research, to work together for the first time in exchange for investment.

University College London will stop telling students whether they have received a first, second or third, and instead given them an American-style "grade point average". It gives students a score based on all the courses they have taken as undergraduates. The move comes after "award inflation" which has undermined the traditional undergraduate degree classification. Official figures showed almost two-thirds of students gained a first or upper-second class degree in 2010. Some 46,825 students – one in seven – were awarded first class degrees by UK universities, double the number a decade ago.