Foreign education

London: Carbon emissions from air travel could be reduced, thanks to collaboration between engineers from universities and aerospace industry. The research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and aircraft manufacturers Airbus and GKN, will be using carbon fibers that are curved within flat plates to produce damage-tolerant, buckle-free structures. This will lead to substantial cost and weight savings of between 10 and 30 percent on structural components, saving fuel and reducing Carbon-di-oxide emissions from the aviation industry, in turn helping reduce the impact on the environment. Richard Butler is leading the University of Bath team, which includes H. Alicia Kim and Giles Hunt.

VietNamNet Bridge - Only three foreign invested universities have been established in Vietnam over the last 12 years, while growth in domestic universities has been huge. The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has submitted a report on university education to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee outlining the state of higher education. According to MPI, in 1998-2005, Vietnam established three new universities and eight junior colleges as well as upgrading 32 junior colleges into universities and 40 vocational schools into junior colleges. Meanwhile, during that time, only two foreign-invested universities were set up in Vietnam, including RMIT and Dresden Vietnam Polytechnic University. MPI said that during that time, foreign-invested projects in education and training mostly focused on setting up short term foreign language and vocational training centers.

Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has accused some university professors of teaching as few as four hours a week, writes John Walshe for the Irish Independent. They are earning between EUR120,000 (US$166,000) and EUR143,000 a year for what the minister last week called a "light" teaching load, as well as for research and administration. The minister said he would like to see professors spend more time in the classroom, irrespective of the amount of research involved. Undergraduates deserved the best people in front of them in class so they could benefit from their professionalism and expertise.