Today, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued  Iran General License G authorizing accredited U.S. academic institutions to establish and operate undergraduate and graduate academic exchange agreements with Iranian universities, including the provision of scholarships to participating Iranian students. It also authorizes the export to Iran of certain additional educational services by U.S. academic institutions, including the provision of certain on-line courses, and by U.S. persons for certain academic study or non-for-profit educational activities in Iran, or the administration of university entrance and other examinations for Iranian students.

Are your views on social issues based on the facts, or do you believe everything you’re told? Find out thanks to this quiz devised by Kate Lancaster, OECD editor in charge of publications dealing with social issues.

By Brian Keeley. Who’d be a CEO? Back in the days when the legendary Jack Welch was leading General Electric – and increasing its market value by more than a third of a trillion dollars – chief executive officers were the heroes of capitalism. These days, they seem as likely to show up on top-ten lists of failure.
Consider Thorsten Heins, appointed CEO of smartphone maker Blackberry in January 2012 at a time when it was haemorrhaging market share to Apple and Samsung. Mr Heins struggled to turn things around, but by the time he was eased out 22 months later the company’s share price was down almost 60%. That, in turn, hurt Mr Heins’ own earnings, which were linked to the share price. More...

By Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Andrew Oswald. Some say money buys you happiness, but our research shows that it is the other way round – being happy when you are young helps you earn more.  Why should this be? Well, it may simply be that happier people are more productive and get promoted faster.
In our study, we looked at the happiness of thousands of randomly sampled young people and showed that, even allowing for other influences, their happiness tells you a lot about who is going to have higher earnings in life. We present the first in-depth investigation of whether today’s happiness is a predictor of income a decade later. More...

The 20th March 2014, is the 2nd annual UN International Day of Happiness. This day was launched as a result of the UN resolution 65/309 which invites its member states “to pursue the elaboration of additional measures that better capture the importance of the pursuit of happiness and well-being in development with a view to guiding their public policies.”
The focus on happiness is a result of a movement towards a more holistic approach to development and progress. This happiness and well-being approach looks further into various areas of life such as good governance, protection and preservation of the environment, the promotion of global cultures, and fair and equitable economic development. More...

A paradisiacal Polynesian archipelago 2,000 miles from the southwest coast of the US mainland, Hawaii really feels a world away from the rest of America. Find out what’s it’s like to study in Hawaii, and discover the state’s leading universities…
Inaugurated as an official US state as late as 1959, Hawaii holds on to a distinct culture influenced heavily by its Polynesian roots. And, although only vestiges of the more traditional aspects of Hawaiian culture can be glimpsed in modern day Hawaii, the traditions of Hula and Luau, examples of Hawaiian dance and party, are just two examples of the cultural exports Hawaii is famous for. More...