By Nuray Sancar. In a society where employees are only expected to perform well according to predetermined criteria, where loyalty to superiors and management is permanently tested through the nightmare of contract non-renewal, where there is a desire to transform universities into subsidiaries of monopoly capital, those who say "a university should not be like that" will be treated as spanners thrown into the works.  Such dissenters will be terrorized in order to threaten their followings, especially if they think that organizing is the best path to power and try to maximize their numbers despite being silenced and condemned to isolation.
That's the very reason why an investigation was opened on seven academics at Ordu University for hanging on their doors left-wing education workers' union Eğitim Sen's cockades and banners declaring "We Want a University for the Benefit of Humanity, Nature, and Society." The hastily prepared investigation minutes said only that the academics hung the banners without permission, omitting information about what the banners were about.  On the same day, however, Assistant Professor Deniz Yıldırım, who is one of the aforementioned seven, learned that he was inflicted with a disciplinary punishment because of his speech on the draft law on the Council of Higher Education (YOK). Read more...

By Richard Adams. College to relaunch as Regent's University London having been granted degree-awarding powers and approval for new name. Regent's College in London will become only the second private university in Britain after receiving official approval to change its name to Regent's University London.
The non-profit institution announces on Monday that it has received confirmation from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that it meets the criteria for the university title – having last year been granted degree-awarding powers by the Privy Council.
"We will be contacting Companies House to change our name to Regent's University London and will re-launch as a university under our new name later this year," said Aldwyn Cooper, Regent's College chief executive officer, its equivalent of vice-chancellor. Read more...

By Daniel Nemukuyu. Government owes all State universities and colleges US$64 million in unpaid cadetship grants, a development that has compromised service delivery at most institutions, a senior official has said. Briefing journalists in Harare yesterday Higher and Tertiary Education Acting Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo said non-release of cadetship fees was a major problem affecting State institutions and was compromising the quality of education and service delivery.
"The major challenge that State universities face is the non-release of cadetship funds. In 2012, only 10 000 students benefited from the cadetship scheme while more than 40 000 failed to access these funds. Read more...