By Alya Mishra. For the first time in 20 years – with violence at its peak in the last two decades – students in colleges and departments of the University of Kashmir have been able to take up summer placements at companies that came to the campus to recruit. “Students from the [Kashmir] Valley will be placed all over India. They will realise that the notion that nobody supports Kashmiris is wrong,” Kashmir University Vice-chancellor Talat Ahmad told University World News. He was referring to often-disaffected youths who can turn to militancy in the conflict-ridden state. More...06 octobre 2013
New universities in remote regions aid development
By Alya Mishra. For the first time in 20 years – with violence at its peak in the last two decades – students in colleges and departments of the University of Kashmir have been able to take up summer placements at companies that came to the campus to recruit. “Students from the [Kashmir] Valley will be placed all over India. They will realise that the notion that nobody supports Kashmiris is wrong,” Kashmir University Vice-chancellor Talat Ahmad told University World News. He was referring to often-disaffected youths who can turn to militancy in the conflict-ridden state. More...Corruption is eroding higher education’s benefits
By Wachira Kigotho. University education in Africa is regarded as key to a better future, and has the potential to provide the tools that people need to improve livelihoods and live with dignity. But according to Transparency International, systemic corruption is eroding benefits that could be accrued from higher education. In Global Corruption Report: Education, published on 1 October, Transparency International – an NGO that monitors and publicises corporate and political corruption – highlights how corruption in education is widespread across Africa. From Morocco to South Africa and from Kenya to Nigeria, corruption afflicts higher education. More...Tackling corruption in African higher education
By Wachira Kigotho. Sub-Saharan Africa is consistently ranked by Transparency International as the most corrupt region in the world – with corruption leading to abuse of political power and failure in the delivery of basic services such as health care, sanitation and public education. Its Global Corruption Report: Education, released on 1 October, argues that corruption has not just raised the cost of higher education but has also hindered socio-economic progress in many African countries by diminishing the quality of university education. More...Abusing power for private gain – Corruption in academe
By David Chapman. It would be nice to believe that in universities, as organisations devoted to discovering and transmitting knowledge, corruption would not be a serious issue. As the Global Corruption Report: Education released on 1 October by Transparency International clearly documents, such a view would be wrong.While the report examines the nature and prevalence of corruption across the full spectrum of education, a substantial portion of it focuses on higher education, offering a wide range of specific examples, thoughtful analysis of the reasons why corruption persists and ways universities, governments and other stakeholders might respond to curb such abuses. More...
International HE fuels corruption in student admissions
By Yojana Sharma. During the corruption trial in China of high-level official Bo Xilai this year, and of his wife Gu Kailai who was convicted last year of murdering a British businessman, much attention focused on the lavish lifestyle of their son Bo Guagua, who had been a student at expensive private school Harrow in England, and later studied at Oxford and Harvard Universities. More...Declaration urges focus on social sciences, humanities
By Peta Lee. A landmark declaration expected to help shape the future of European research policy was handed to Lithuania's Minister of Education and Science Dainius Pavalkis at the conclusion of an international conference on “Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities” last month. The congress, which was held at Mykolas Romeris University on 23-24 September, was attended by European researchers, university leaders, policy-makers, business people, and representatives from NGOs and civil society groups. More...New projects to expand and improve higher education
By Gilbert Nganga. Kenya has lined up major projects in the coming year to boost student enrolment, teaching and research in higher education. They include setting up an open university by the end of next year, doubling the number of universities of technology, training 1,000 PhDs a year within five years, and pumping money into the national research fund. More...Federal websites go dark amid government shutdown
By Megan O’Neil, The Chronicle of Higher Education. The budget impasse in the United States that brought non-essential operations of the federal government to a halt last Tuesday also had a major impact on websites used by many educators, researchers and students. The shutdown, which triggered furloughs for approximately 800,000 federal workers and the closing of offices, research labs and national parks across the country, is expected to affect colleges, students and academic scientists only minimally at first. More...Top universities shun part-time students – Report
By David Jobbins. England’s elite universities are tending to back away from part-time degree courses in favour of attracting 'high-achieving' full-time students they can recruit outside controls on numbers, the authoritative Higher Education Policy Institute, or HEPI, concludes in a report published on Thursday. More...Doubts over ministers’ degrees raised in parliament
By Emilia Tan. An altercation between government and opposition MPs ensued in Malaysia’s parliament this week when government officials appeared to brush off questions about the academic credentials of the ministers of human resources and of science, technology and innovation. Ong Kian Ming, a Democratic Action Party opposition MP, questioned the validity of the academic credentials of Human Resources Minister Richard Riot, who is a former deputy foreign minister, and of Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Ewon Ebin, as well as the qualifications of the CEOs of two major corporations. More...
