By Liora Halperin. A vote to officially allow English at the Jerusalem institution is part of a longer history of Zionist concessions. Early on Wednesday, the senate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem voted to allow Ph.D. students to submit their dissertations in English, raising the hackles of the Hebrew Language Academy—Israel’s homegrown equivalent of the Académie Française. The substance of the academy’s protests implies that the pure Hebrew of bygone days is being sullied by a new linguistic permissiveness that can only end with Israeli students speaking English in their classrooms—which many already do. The defense by university administrators, in turn, suggests that Israeli students and scholars facing the pressures of the new global economy need to be able to write and work in the global lingua franca. While up to half of Hebrew University’s Ph.D.s have requested and received individual permission to submit their final work in English, the shift from de facto tolerance of English to de jure policy that “Doctorates are to be submitted in Hebrew or English” seems to Hebrew’s defenders a deeply symbolic blow to the primary status of the language. Read more...

By Hsu Chih-wei, Worthy Shen, Chen Hung-chin, Lilian Wu and Maubo Chang. Taiwan is mulling recognizing diplomas from more Chinese universities, President Ma Ying-jeou said Monday, as some schools expected that doing so could result in more Chinese students studying here.
Speaking at the opening of the 2013 National Conference of University and College President at Fo Guang University, Ma said his administration is planning to expand the number of Chinese universities accredited in Taiwan from the current 41 to 112.
Under the plan, the 112 Chinese universities covered by China's 1998 world-class universities development program announced by then-President Jiang Zemin will be accredited.
Ma said his administration was also considering allowing Chinese students to enroll at local two-year colleges to increase the number of overseas students in local colleges. Read more...

By PRIYA KULASAGARAN. There has been a 10-fold increase in the number of local higher education institutions recognised by China, enabling the country to attract more Chinese students.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Hou Kok Chung said that China had formally approved 71 local institutions.
“Previously, only around five or six of our universities were recognised by China.
“There are now about 10,000 Chinese students here. Hopefully, this number will grow by at least 50%, if not 100%, in the future,” he said yesterday. Read more...