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Vietnam will not allow the establishment of new junior colleges and universities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City between 2016 and 2020, according to a government decision issued late last month.
The nation will give high priority to the formation of higher education institutions in key economic zones in the northern, central, and southern regions during the same period, the decision said. Annual enrollment quotas are expected to grow by 0.3 percent and new full-time enrollees are predicted to expand by 1.5 percent per annum over these years. Vietnam plans to hike its total enrollments to 2.2 million, 560,000 of which will be new full-time enrollees, and take the number of junior colleges and universities to 460 by 2020. Read more...

By Fahirul N. Ramli. Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) will open campuses in China and Kuala Lumpur to enable international students' enrolment.
Its vice chancellor Professor Dr Yahaya Ibrahim said the China campus will be set up through collaboration with China's universities' consortium.
“We are expecting 500 students in the first intake due this September,” he said during the 2013 Unisza Excellence Awards presentation held here in the Islamic Civilisation Park, Pulau Wan Man. Read more...

By Dawn Dugan. These Careers Might Make You Happy, But Fail the Tuition ROI Test.
College: Is it Worth It?
What's more expensive than going to college? Until recently, the answer was easy: not going to college. Numerous studies over the years have shown that individuals with college degrees significantly out-earn those with high school degrees by $1 million or more over the course of a lifetime. But as the cost of education increases faster than inflation and the economy remains relatively weak, people are beginning to question how they spend their education dollars. As student loans hit the $1 trillion mark and more and more graduates are faced with years of paying staggering monthly payments, many are starting to ask themselves, "Is it worth it?" Read more...

By Mujib Mashal. By the time the gates opened at 10 a.m., the crowd had grown almost unmanageable. As if at a rock concert, young men and women thronged Kabul’s historic Babur Garden, jostling their way to the front. But this was no music festival. It was a job fair, and the headline acts the crowd had come to see were representatives of dozens of companies brought together by the organizers, local recruitment firm Capital Jobs, with funding from the U.S. government. Filling the support slots were consultants, offering training in interview skills or tips on writing résumés. Most of the crowd got to see neither, but simply reached over the heads of those in front of them to drop their résumés into a large pile, hoping that somebody would eventually see them. Read more...

Higher education institutions adopt codex for German higher education projects abroad
The 14th general meeting of the German Rectors Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, HRK) in Nuremberg has adopted a codex for German higher education projects abroad. The codex includes qualitative academic and ethical “minimum standards” that apply to German higher education projects. German institutions as well as foreign partners are invited to comply with it. The document was developed by an international group of experts on invitation of the HRK and the DAAD.
Codex for German higher education projects abroad (in German)
More (in German). Read more...

You have more geeks, I have more trees; you are richer, but I am younger. Very soon, all the universities around the world may find a place for themselves with the current proliferation of university rankings.
On 3 June, the Guardian announced that Cambridge and Oxford continue to lead in the University league table of the Guardian’s University guide 2014. One week later, Manchester Metropolitan University caught the spotlight as the greenest university leading the People & Planet Green League 2013, according to a report published exclusively by the same paper, the Guardian, on 10 June. On 19 June, Times Higher Education announced that South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) beats École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and retains its No. 1 position on the list of the world’s top 100 universities under 50 years old for the second consecutive year.
Before the birth of U-Multirank, which aims to serve as an all-embracing ranking for all, media-driven rankings have been quick in addressing their ‘shortcomings’ with the re(production) of more customised sub-rankings. By the time U-Multirank comes into existence, we will see that the world of rankings will be more diversified and not only driven by research-oriented assessments.
Besides, U-Multirank appears to have an offspring before it itself is born. Spain’s Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo (CyD) has kicked off a new regional ranking initiative to compare institutions in Castilla y León with institutions in the rest of Spain and the world. The ranking will use the criteria of U-Multirank but adapted to the “reality” of Spain. Results of this ranking will be available next spring, which is also the time when U-Multirank expects to have its first results. 
The Guardian - The Green League
The Guardian - University Guide 2014
Times Higher Education
Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo.

ACA’s 20th Anniversary Conference: Internationalisation and international mobility. Where do we stand, where are we heading?
The long-awaited ACA 20th Anniversary Conference was held in The Hague on 09-11 June. As usual one step ahead of current developments in international education, ACA invited the most outstanding pundits and practitioners of international mobility and internationalisation in Europe to deliberate on the future of student mobility, policies and higher education. The secret of ACA’s continuing success in shaping higher education policy debates in Europe lies in its ability to ask the right questions and in staying loyal to its constructive esprit critique. Will our graduates become the next intellectuals? Is there any internationalisation without values? What are the drivers of mobility? Who benefits from transnational education and how can we make intercultural education work? How stratified is the world of partnerships and networks?  How should academic cooperation be approached in times of crisis in Europe?
These questions and many more dominate the discussions not only in Europe, but around the world. Over 200 people of countries as diverse as Japan and South Africa, New Zealand and Russia, the USA and Kazakhstan, China and Saudi Arabia, attended ACA’s conference and seemed to be equally preoccupied with these issues. The 20th anniversary conference was certainly a joyful cause for celebration for ACA, its member organisations and friends. It was also a lot of hard work, especially with the new analytical frameworks being set for mobility windows and the new technology-driven educational trends being grasped.  Analyses of these topical issues will be continued in the coming months at ACA’s popular European Policy Seminars. Stay tuned.

ACA’s 20th Anniversary Conference: Internationalisation and international mobility. Where do we stand, where are we heading?
The long-awaited ACA 20th Anniversary Conference was held in The Hague on 09-11 June. As usual one step ahead of current developments in international education, ACA invited the most outstanding pundits and practitioners of international mobility and internationalisation in Europe to deliberate on the future of student mobility, policies and higher education. The secret of ACA’s continuing success in shaping higher education policy debates in Europe lies in its ability to ask the right questions and in staying loyal to its constructive esprit critique. Will our graduates become the next intellectuals? Is there any internationalisation without values? What are the drivers of mobility? Who benefits from transnational education and how can we make intercultural education work? How stratified is the world of partnerships and networks?  How should academic cooperation be approached in times of crisis in Europe?
These questions and many more dominate the discussions not only in Europe, but around the world. Over 200 people of countries as diverse as Japan and South Africa, New Zealand and Russia, the USA and Kazakhstan, China and Saudi Arabia, attended ACA’s conference and seemed to be equally preoccupied with these issues. The 20th anniversary conference was certainly a joyful cause for celebration for ACA, its member organisations and friends. It was also a lot of hard work, especially with the new analytical frameworks being set for mobility windows and the new technology-driven educational trends being grasped.  Analyses of these topical issues will be continued in the coming months at ACA’s popular European Policy Seminars. Stay tuned.

At the beginning of June, ACA’s Dutch member organisation – the Nuffic (the Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education) – announced that it will be forced to close down part of its world-known Neso offices (Netherlands Education Support Offices) in the near future. The measure will become “inevitable”, as a result of a 30% government-imposed cut into the budget for Neso activities. ACA shares Nuffic’s disappointment with the Dutch government’s plans, which however still need parliamentary approval.
It remains to be announced which of the ten offices will be closed down, but it is nevertheless very clear that the Nuffic remains committed to its overseas activities. Along these lines, Nuffic’s Director-General, Freddy Weima, recently declared “We will do everything in our power to make sure our Neso activities remain as effective as possible despite the cutbacks. To this end, we will be entering into negotiations with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the research universities and universities of applied sciences”, showing that the organisation is by no means ready to give up.
Starting from 2001, the Nuffic Nesos have been established in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Dutch higher education institutions, in locations of strategic importance for the Dutch higher education system. Since 2008, Nesos have been active in a total of ten countries, all of them emerging economies that were deemed to offer good opportunities for Dutch research universities and the universities of applied sciences. The Nuffic Nesos are currently located in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea. These offices play a key role in promotion and information provision, but also fulfil other specific tasks (e.g. involvement in Brazil’s prestigious “Science without borders” initiative). In 2012, about 10 500 students from the various Neso countries were enrolled at Dutch higher education institutions, an increase of almost 24% compared to 2007.
NUFFIC.