| University World News - Issue No 0111 |
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GLOBAL: Education under increasing attackAround the world, schools and universities have faced brutal military and political attacks in an increasing number of countries over the past three years, according to a new report published by Unesco. The report, Education under Attack 2010, was written by University World News correspondent Brendan O’Malley and he says the sheer volume of incidents demonstrates that attacks on education are “by no means limited to supporters of the Taliban fighting in the hills of Afghanistan”. Education and those involved have been subject to attacks in at least 31 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.Full report on the University World News site See O’Malley’s commentary in the Features section
ZIMBABWE: Brain drain bites, academics strikeScience departments in Zimbabwe’s universities have been hardest hit by a brain drain that has been blamed mostly on poor salaries. Last week low pay prompted lectures at all state-run higher education institutions go on strike as part of wider civil service industrial action.Full report on the University World News site AFRICA: Scientists scoop African Union awards - Munyaradzi MakoniProfessor Diane Hildebrandt was one of two South African winners of the inaugural African Union Scientific Awards for basic science, technology and innovation, announced during an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa recently. Hildebrandt said she represented “scientists and engineers in Africa – men and women – who are doing research in often very difficult conditions and always with too few resources”.
US: Higher education’s new global order - John Aubrey DouglassGovernments are having an epiphany. They are increasingly recognising that their social and economic futures depend heavily on the educational attainment of their population, and as a corollary, on the size and quality of their higher education institutions and systems. Within this relatively new policy and economic environment, the command economy approaches to creating and regulating mass higher education that once dominated most parts of the world are withering. What is emerging is what I call ‘Structured Opportunity Markets’ (SOM) in higher education – essentially, a convergence, in some form, in the effort of nation-states to create a more lightly regulated and more flexible network of public higher education institutions, including diversified and mission-differentiated providers, new finance structures, and expanding enrolment and programme capacity.More on the University World News site Paper from the Center for Studies in Higher Education, Berkeley
GLOBAL: The Rise of Asia’s universities - Richard C LevinAt the beginning of the 21st century, the East is rising. The rapid economic development of Asia since the Second World War has altered the balance of power in the global economy and hence in geopolitics. The rising nations of the East all recognise the importance of an educated workforce as a means to economic growth and understand the impact of research in driving innovation and competitiveness. In the 1960s, 70s and 80s the higher education agenda in Asia’s early developers – Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – was first and foremost to increase the fraction of their populations provided with postsecondary education. Their initial focus was on expanding the number of institutions and their enrolments, and impressive results were achieved. Today, the later and much larger developing nations of Asia – China and India – have an even more ambitious agenda.More on the University World News site Yale President’s lecture to The Royal Society, UK |
