SCIENCE & EDUCATION

The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has banned the use of live animals in dissection and other experiments in educational and research institutions. But scientists conducting new molecular research will be exempted from the ban.Based on the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1960), the MoEF has issued guidelines to the University Grants Commission, ministry of health and family welfare, Pharmacy Council of India and the Medical Council of India to discontinue dissection and experiments with live animals in universities, colleges, research institutes, hospitals, laboratories and instead use alternatives like computer simulation.

In response to the severe financial crisis, Greek academics decided to search for collaborations with foreign students and institutions to prove that they are still thriving.China is among the countries, which seem the most suitable of candidates. Many Chinese companies have established a professional connection with Greece, such as COSCO.At the same time, collaborations with universities from other countries are up for discussion, including Russia and other countries around the Persian Gulf. In 2013, Greece is expected to have found its first academic branch in these countries.

The number of Taiwanese with a college, university or other type of higher education degree has increased every year to 39 percent of the population in 2009, statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior showed on Saturday.Compared with other countries, Taiwan’s higher-education population is higher than the average of 30 percent of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member states.It ties with South Korea’s 39 percent, but is lower than Japan’s 44 percent, the findings show.

The country's first Sino-US higher education institute - New York University Shanghai - will start to admit undergraduate students in 2013, sources from the university said on Thursday. The university was co-established by New York University in the United States and East China Normal University, and was approved by the Ministry of Education in early 2011. According to the enrollment plan, about 300 undergraduate students will be selected from across the world in the autumn semester of 2013, with Chinese students making up 51 percent of the intake.

The government’s focus on maths, science and technology in higher education had come at the expense of the humanities, which should be revitalised in the interest of South Africa’s overall development, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said last week. Nzimande — who holds a doctorate in sociology — was referring to seriously declining student enrolment and falling graduation rates in the humanities and social sciences.

The European Union is to help Malaysia towards its goal of becoming a regional and international hub for higher education, according to Vincent Piket, EU ambassador and head of a delegation to Malaysia for MyEULink 2012.On why the EU chose Malaysia as a collaborative partner, Piket said: "Malaysia and the EU share common challenges in the area of transnational education. Furthermore, with Malaysia demonstrating its commitment to engage with partners regionally and internationally, we see promising signs."

Afghanistan proposes to double the number of its students in Indian and Turkish universities as part of moves to boost educational standards in the war-torn country, reports the Press Trust of India. According to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the numbers of Afghan students to be sent to Indian and Turkish universities would be raised from 500 to 1,000 this year and for this the government was increasing the foreign study allocation to US$10 million from the present US$5 million.

Scotland's universities are joining forces to increase the number of spin-out companies they launch and the amount of their research being licensed out to industry.Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Strathclyde universities have submitted plans to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) for a “modular” system that could be used by institutes to boost business formation rates.The eight modules will cover topics such as business planning, finance and mentoring.

For students in South Africa, mobile phones aren't just for texting. They're often the surest route to the Internet, especially for the many who have little or no reliable computer access off campus. And, as in much of Africa, cellphones are ubiquitous. A 2007 study found that 98.5 percent of the country's university students had one.Laura Czerniewicz thinks a lot about how students really use those phones in a higher-education setting. She's an associate professor of education at the University of Cape Town and the founding director of the Centre for Educational Technology.

At least 11 American universities, including Harvard, are visiting Botswana this year to explore possibilities of doing business there, the country’s ambassador to the United States, Tebelelo Seretse, has announced, writes Victor Muyakwabo for The Monitor.The first delegation arrived in Gaborone last weekend while another delegation was due to arrive on 5 March.Seretse said the American universities were going to explore possibilities of research and collaborating with local institutions through programme franchising, among other things. She explained that most of the US universities had long-term relationships with the Botswana government, which had been sending students to them over the years.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world's top-rated universities, has announced its first free course which can be studied and assessed completely online.An electronics course, beginning in March, will be the first prototype of an online project, known as MITx.The interactive course is designed to be fully automated, with successful students receiving a certificate.The US university says it wants MITx to "shatter barriers to education".This ground-breaking scheme represents a significant step forward in the use of technology to deliver higher education.

Controversy over the UK government’s work visa policy has not deterred aspiring MBAs from outside the UK from applying to UK schools, according to the latest (2011) test result figures from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), administrators of the GMAT test. Indeed the UK is now the second country of choice for MBA applicants after the US, overtaking Canada, which ranked second in the 2007 survey.According to GMAC 4.49 per cent of all test-takers sent their test scores to UK schools in 2011, up from 3.39 per cent in 2007. The US still dominates as the MBA location of choice, however, with 77.24 per cent of applicants sending their test scores to US schools.

Universities are being forced to “dumb down” standards of maths because of the sheer number of children leaving school with poor numeracy skills, according to research.Many institutions are “marginalising the mathematical content” of degree courses amid fears English students are incapable of the most basic sums, it emerged. Researchers said many subjects – outside of full maths degrees – required good levels of numeracy, particularly those employing quantitative research methods. This includes disciplines such as the social sciences, medicine and psychology.

As an indication that more Indian students are looking at foreign countries like the US for higher education, the Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, witnessed an increase of 43% in students taking the test from India last year, reports the Deccan Chronicle.Some 800,000 students took the examination from around the world in 2011, an increase of 13% over the year before.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.