Founded in 1985 and formally constituted by Charter in 1987, the Coimbra Group is an association of long-established European multidisciplinary universities of high international standard. The Coimbra Group is committed to creating special academic and cultural ties in order to promote, for the benefit of its members, internationalisation, academic collaboration, excellence in learning and research, and service to society. It is also the purpose of the Group to influence European educational policy and to develop... The link address is: http://www.coimbra-group.eu/

By Vincenzo Raimo. Take note BIS, says Vincenzo Raimo– successful international strategy is about more than income and student recruitment. We've been waiting a long time to see this government engage with universities' international activities and value what we do. But having been trumpeted by Vince Cable in February 2012 as a vitally important development for UK universities, the contents of the now published strategy, Global Growth and Prosperity, has proved a real disappointment.
Why? Because it's behind the times and ignores some of the forward thinking work already taking place in our universities. Because it focuses too much on the short term monetary benefits of transnational education (TNE) – we've seen too many examples of universities backing out of such commitments when they realised they weren't the solution to funding problems at home. Crucially, though, the strategy also misses the point about the long term benefits to the country, to universities and to individuals of engaging internationally. Read more...

 ASEA UNINET is an association of European and South-East Asian universities which was founded in 1994 in order to encourage and facilitate cooperation between academic institutions, governmental and non-governmental organisations and economic operators. The link address is: http://www.uibk.ac.at/asea-uninet/

By David Smith, Africa correspondent. Applicants accused of lacking enthusiasm and not having a basic grasp of English. The University of Liberia. Number of applicants this year: nearly 25,000. Number gaining admission: zero. The "epic fail" of every single candidate in the admission exam provoked bafflement, consternation and heated debate on Tuesday, with some convinced that flaws in Liberia's education system had been brutally exposed. A government minister likened it to "mass murder". Read more...

 Established in 1913, the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is the oldest inter-university network in the world. Today's ACU combines the expertise and reputation of over ninety years' experience with new and innovative programmes designed to meet the needs of universities in the 21st century. Five hundred members are spread across five continents and they represent a diverse range of institutions. Commonwealth universities are therefore able, through the ACU, to network easily, extensively and fruitfully, sharing problems, solutions and good practice across a variety of higher education environments. The ACU is a voluntary organisation, which is registered in England and Wales as a charity (number 314137) and is controlled by its member institutions through an elected Council. Her Majesty the Queen, the Head of the Commonwealth, is the Association's Patron. The link address is: http://www.acu.ac.uk/

By Anne Marie Graham. Unless the government develops a coherent languages strategy, student mobility is threatened, says Anne Marie Graham. Another year, another fall (5%) in the number of language A-levels taken. The UK curriculum's first choice foreign languages, French and German, have been declining in popularity for more than a decade. And although numbers studying other languages, including Spanish and Arabic, have increased, they're not enough to buck the overall downward trend. The new league table measure for 'traditional' subjects, the English Baccalaureate, led to a dramatic increase this year in students taking a language at GCSE, but the figure still only stands at 44% of GCSE students. How many of these are studying French or German because they want to, or because they've been encouraged to do so to improve their school league table position? And realistically, how many will go on to study languages at A-level? Read more...

 The Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU) is a regional organization founded in January 1996, with the goals of forming a forum for the presidents of leading research-oriented universities in East Asia and of carrying out mutual exchanges between the major universities in the region. The link address is: http://www.aearu.org/

By Amanda Holpuch in New York. Notre Dame and Loyola medical school are just some of the institutions working to improve conditions for undocumented applicants. While the US Congress struggles with passing immigration reform, many lawmakers and educators around the country are finding common ground on initiatives that improve undocumented students' access to higher education. Read more...

 The Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN) includes nowadays over 100 universities from the 12 member countries of the Economic Cooperation from the Black Sea Region (BSEC) - Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine. The link address is: http://www.bsun.org/.

By Harry Slater. The best productivity apps for students. Struggling to get stuff done? Get off Facebook and use the internet to improve your work rate instead. More people are spending more time online, and it's damaging our productivity. As a student the internet, especially social media, can be incredibly distracting and addictive – dangerous, even. Hardcore bloggers are suffering too and the latest trend is to disconnect for a year. Grist writer David Roberts recently announced he's taking a break because 10 years of constant web surfing has started to do strange things to his brain. Read more...