The University of New Hampshire in the United States says it will start accepting scores from the Chinese higher education entrance exam, making it the first flagship state school in the US to evaluate Chinese applicants using the results from that exam, known as the Gaokao, reports The Straits Times. More...

In a strengthening of relations between Japan and Saudi Arabia during the holy Muslim month of fasting, the Japanese ambassador in Riyadh, Tsukasa Uemura, joined Ramadan celebrations, hosting an iftar (breaking fast) party for former Saudi students who studied in Japan, writes Rashid Hassan for Arab News. More...

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In our World Blog this week, Marguerite J Dennis contends that universities should not be developing plans to recruit international students without taking into account the global political, economic, technological and societal changes that are taking place.
   In Commentary, Tatiana Belousova provides insights through a survey of international students in Kerala state in India into the challenges they face – as India seeks to quadruple the number of international students in the country. Nader Habibi and Gholamreza Keshavarz Haddad outline how their study of employment statistics in Iran shows that graduates are taking an increasing number of low-skilled jobs from school leavers. John K Hudzik, Bernhard Streitwieser and Francisco Marmolejo say that internationalisation of higher education is more of an imperative now than it has been at any time in the past but it needs to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. And Denise Jackson writes about the need to embed technology in the design of internships and placements as it is rapidly changing the way we work.
   In Features, Kalinga Seneviratne reports that Singapore’s lifelong learning initiatives may ensure the country’s universities are less affected by declining student numbers due to the dip in population numbers than those in other Asian countries, while Jan Petter Myklebust reports on the launch of the South Africa-Sweden University Forum, a three-year project with a budget of US$2 million aimed at strengthening education and research ties between the two countries.
   Finally, we would like to bring to your attention that all universities worldwide are invited to participate in a survey on internationalisation of higher education being conducted by the International Association of Universities. More...