By Karen Seidman. Quebec universities say the gap between funding here and other provinces has soared to $850 million a year — a staggering amount that they assert has put our esteemed university system in jeopardy and threatens to derail Quebec as the pre-eminent research province in the country.
The last study, in 2010, showed a gap of $620 million, but the latest study, based on 2009-2010 figures and done in anticipation of the summit on higher education workshop on university financing later this week, shows what university rectors in Quebec said they weren’t at all surprised to see — a dramatic increase in underfunding. Read more...

Par Vincent Coste. Le Brésil veut devenir une puissance universitaire. Et il fait ce qu'il faut pour cela. Peu de temps après son élection, fin 2010, la présidente Dilma Roussef avait donné le ton: son programme « Science sans frontière » (2011) prévoit de porter le nombre de boursiers brésiliens à l’étranger de 5 000 à 75 000. Une ambition qui illustre à merveille l’appétit du Brésil, qui mise depuis vingt ans sur l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche pour s’imposer comme une grande puissance et soutenir son développement économique. Parvenant à combiner massification, qualité d’enseignement et internationalisation, le système semble arriver à maturation.
Comme le montre Sébastien Velut, professeur à l’Université Sorbonne nouvelle, dans une note publiée par Campus France (l’agence française pour la promotion de l’enseignement supérieur à l’international), beaucoup de chemin a déjà été parcouru. Notamment depuis le retour de la démocratie, en 1985. Sous l’impulsion du président Lula (2003-2011), dix-sept nouvelles universités publiques ont été créées, portant le total à cent. Voir l'article entier...

Nearly three thousand U.S. college students went online in the search for a 'sugar daddy' to fund their education last year.
Georgia State University and New york University were the top two schools for female students to seek out men willing to fund their tuition, with Pennsylvania's Temple University following closely behind for third place.
According to the website SeekingArrangement.com, 2012 saw a 58per cent growth in female students signing up to be 'sugar babies,' which the site describes as 'attractive, intelligent, ambitious and goal oriented' women seeking 'financial pampering.' Read more...

Quanto mais o Brasil poderá crescer? Para qualquer economista que estude o país, essa pergunta é fundamental. O Brasil tem a demografia do seu lado, mas de que maneira essa economia pujante prosseguirá em sua trajetória de crescimento ao agregar um contingente maior de brasileiros à sua nova classe média?
Tomemos o caso de Pedro. Ele nasceu em 2004 em Carajás, uma cidade rural do norte do Brasil. Aproximadamente quatro milhões de crianças na sua idade não estão na escola, mas ele pertence aos 91,5% de indivíduos entre quatro e 17 anos que estão estudando. Infelizmente, ao chegar ao terceiro ano, somente 34,2% da sua turma terá atingido as habilidades esperadas em matemática e linguagem. No nono ano, 26,2% apenas terão o domínio esperado sobre as habilidades de linguagem e 14,2% apenas dominarão o conteúdo de matemática. Na verdade, as chances são de 50/50 de que Pedro conclua o ensino médio. Será que ele engrossará o contingente de 69% de adultos analfabetos funcionais?
A falta de mão de obra qualificada, da qual Pedro deverá fazer parte, não é novidade no Brasil. Artigo seguinte...

By Tamar Lewin. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In August, four months after Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng started the online education company Coursera, its free college courses had drawn in a million users, a faster launching than either Facebook or Twitter.
The co-founders, computer science professors at Stanford University, watched with amazement as enrollment passed two million last month, with 70,000 new students a week signing up for over 200 courses, including Human-Computer Interaction, Songwriting and Gamification, taught by faculty members at the company’s partners, 33 elite universities.
In less than a year, Coursera has attracted $22 million in venture capital and has created so much buzz that some universities sound a bit defensive about not leaping onto the bandwagon. Read more...

By Katy Murphy, Oakland Tribune. Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan announced Thursday morning gives California's colleges and universities good news for the first time in years.
The CSU and UC systems would each receive an additional $125 million in funding for core instructional programs. It was less than they asked for, but far better than their outlook just a few months ago, before the passage of Propositions 30 and 39 in November. Those measures are expected to raise an additional $6 billion annually for the state. In addition, the two university systems will receive $125 million each next year, as promised, as part of a deal struck with the governor last year, pending the passage of Proposition 30.
The state's community colleges would receive $197 million more in general-purpose funds next year - money that will allow colleges to restore thousands of classes, said California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice Harris. Read more...