The number of British teenagers applying to one of Europe's leading universities has risen dramatically this year. Maastricht University in the Netherlands has seen a tenfold increase with more than 400 applications from UK students compared with just 35 at the same time last year. A key factor in the rise is the cost of studying at Maastricht: only £1,526 a year, compared with £3,240 at present at English universities.

The sites for the first four research centers for the Israeli Centers for Research Excellence (I-CORE) program were announced by the Education Ministry on Tuesday, part of a multi-year plan to strengthen Israel’s position as a global leader in academic research and stem the brain drain of Israeli academics. Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) said Tuesday that the selection of the four centers is “a landmark in the process of establishing Israel as a world center in advanced research.” Program is part of plan to strengthen Israel's position as global leader in academic research, stem the brain drain of Israeli academics.

India today proposed to host an Indo-German higher education summit this year to explore issues like mutual recognition of qualification and joint research programmes.The proposal was discussed at length during a meeting between HRD minister Kapil Sibal and visiting German minister of education and research Annettee Schavan here.The education summit, which could be held between November and December this year, will also explore possibilities of development of junior faculty, doctoral and post-doctoral programmes, said a statement issued by the HRD ministry.

As various countries sell themselves as student destinations during the annual meeting of Nafsa: Association of International Educators, Japan is assuring conference attendees that it remains a safe place for study abroad, despite the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that struck the island nation in March.While concerns linger about radiation leaking from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant some 150 miles northeast of Tokyo, representatives from Japan are reminding people at the conference here that the problems affected only a small part of the country.Aside from glossy brochures and pamphlets highlighting academic programs and cultural benefits, the Japan Student Services Organization is handing out a public statement from Japan's minister of foreign affairs, declaring that the country is "open for business."

China will launch a national project to promote the building of a digital library network in the next five years.The project aims to build a nationwide digital library network with the National Digital Library of China at the center, integrating local libraries, said a statement jointly issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.The focus of the project will be promoting the construction of an interconnected digital library platform and a group of widely-spread resource libraries that provide multi-media library services for the public, the statement said.The services will be available in public libraries and through the Internet, mobile phones and mobile televisions.

University of Limerick, University College Dublin, Dublin City University and University College Cork have all signed up to offer courses under a new programme to be announced this week offering higher education opportunities for those out of work.The Government will announce the creation of 6,000 part-time higher education and training places for the unemployed this week as part a plan to get people back to work.The three-year “Springboard” initiative is aimed at skilled workers who have lost their jobs and who are living on benefits.It will offer them the opportunity to access free higher education and training without affecting their right to receive welfare payments.

An increasing number of students who left the country at a young age are returning home to continue their university studies here because they find it difficult to get jobs there. At the same time, the number of secondary schoolchildren going abroad is also declining. Kim Young Academy, a private crammer that prepares students for transfer between universities, saw enrolment by foreign-educated students jump from 134 in 2007 to 215 last year, and until April this year 70 had signed up.

New Zealand is almost doubling the amount of money it spends promoting its education system to foreign students.The new international education agency would have a budget of 84 million NZ dollars (68.01 million U.S. dollars) over four years, almost double the amount allocated to its predecessors, the government announced last week.

President Dilma Rousseff Monday reaffirmed her commitment to provide scholarships enough for 75,000 Brazilian students to study abroad, up from 5,000 at present.It will be difficult but possible, the president said during her weekly radio address "Breakfast with the President". "Today, 5,000 Brazilians study abroad with government-funded scholarships, most of them are in France, Germany and United States. We want to grant 75,000 scholarships until 2014," she said.

The only higher education institution in the UK that is devoted to the study of pharmacy is to become part of University College London after merger proposals that have opened deep rifts between academics were approved by governors.After several months of often angry debate over the plans, the council of the School of Pharmacy, University of London voted by 12 to eight to merge with its huge neighbour in what was described as a "wonderful opportunity" by the institution's dean, Anthony Smith.

THE HAGUE - The Delft University of Technology will establish a research branch in Beijing, the university said Tuesday.Delft will be the first Dutch university to open a branch in China.The new Delft University of Technology - Beijing Research Center will be based at the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS).

HA NOI — Two thirds of universities and colleges, except those located in Districts 7, 9 and Thu Duc, will be relocated from the centre of HCM City to its suburbs following a decision made on Wednesday by the HCM City People's Committee and the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). MoET asked city authorities to give priority to developing public transport to cater for students and workers that would be affected by the decision.MoET said that the universities and colleges in question would be announced soon.

The MBA degree has never been particularly popular in Italy, but two institutions are now hoping to change that with the launch of a full-time degree in the Umbrian capital of Perugia in September this year.Bradford University School of Management, the long-established UK business school, has teamed up with the University of Perugia’s faculty of engineering to launch a joint MBA programme that will give students the chance to study both management and specialist engineering modules. Initially there will be 50 participants on the one-year degree, which will be taught in English.

Stanford University’s Faculty Senate has approved the creation of what officials believe is the first stem cell science PhD program in the nation and, perhaps, the world. The new doctoral program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine is also the first interdisciplinary doctoral program created by the School of Medicine in recent years.School officials say the fact that the university is taking the rare step of creating a new doctoral program acknowledges the growing importance of stem cell research in the realm of biomedical science. The senate unanimously approved the PhD program at its April 28 meeting; the initial approval extends for five years.

While academics of Indian origin such as Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria, and Chicago Booth dean Sunil Kumar are scaling the professional ladder in the West, business schools within India are struggling to find the same calibre of talent to fill faculty positions, reports Cool Avenues.com.India's top institutions, such as the centrally-funded Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have reported a 25% shortage in faculty. The urgency of the situation has led the central government to form three review committees to address issues relating to the growth of the IIMs such as governance, faculty and funding.

he Higher Education Ministry on Thursday suggested that doctorate degree (PhD) be made the basic requirement for lecturer post at all public institutions of higher learning in the country.Its deputy minister, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, said this was necessary to achieve the 75 per cent lecturers with Phd in research universities and 40 per cent at other universities.

Recently created State universities “make sense and are sustainable” because of the need “of many students that are their families’ first member to go to university and if they hadn’t had this chance, they wouldn’t have been able to keep on studying," said Education Minister Alberto Sileoni.Many of the 3000 students that enrolled in the Florencio Varela university, one of the newest ones, wouldn’t have done so in any other university. These aren’t students that are taken away from UBA Buenos Aires University or the University of La Plata”, Education Minister Alberto Sileoni said.

Polish universities are finally responding to market demand by offering courses that reflect the needs of the economy, according to a Dziennik Gazeta Prawna survey of universities, the Warsaw Business Journal reports.This academic year, many universities will start offering majors in ecophysics, nuclear energy, interactive marketing and LNG terminal servicing.

Stand alone business school Insead is continuing to build partnerships outside the business school world through an agreement with Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. The two will launch a dual-degree masters programme from which participants will graduate with both an Insead MBA and a Master of Arts from SAIS.The Insead-SAIS programme is designed for those who want to follow a career that combines international relations and business. Students admitted to both programmes will be able to complete the two degrees in two and a half years, instead of the three years required to complete the degrees separately.

Yale University and the National University of Singapore have made official their plans to jointly establish a liberal-arts college in the city-state, one they would like to be a model for all of Asia."We hope to create a really exciting model of liberal arts, one many Asian countries will find attractive because of its broader perspective on the complex problems of the world," said Richard C. Levin, Yale's president, in an interview on Wednesday.The two institutions had originally made public a possible partnership last September but said at the time they still had to hammer out several budgetary and legal issues.