pp. 1-12

pp. 13-28

pp. 29-40

pp. 41-57

pp. 58-72

pp.73-88

pp. 89-104

pp. 105-129

pp. 130-140

pp. 141-154

pp.171-188

pp. 155-170

pp. 189-214

pp. 215-227

pp. 228-253

pp.254-269

pp. 270-310

pp. 311-325

pp. 326-335

pp .336-348

A proliferation of online services for third-level students offering “pay as you go” essays has prompted universities to review their policies against plagiarism, write Joe Humphreys and Michael O’Byrne for The Irish Times.Dublin City University is one of a number of institutions that are altering their methods of assessment, in tandem with the roll-out of “cut-and-paste” detection software, to combat the threat of academic fraud. The Irish Times has identified a number of Irish students using websites such as Odesk.com and Elance.com where they have posted ads seeking freelance academics to write essays for them at a rate of up to €50 (US$54) an hour.

Germany’s ruling political parties have agreed to plough €5 billion (US$5.4 billion) more into science from 2018 to 2028. The deal, announced on 16 April, is not a government commitment, but it is a strong indication that the country will continue its healthy support for scientific research, writes Quirin Schiermeier for Nature.“This agreement proves that world-class science and excellent young researchers are top political priorities in Germany,” says Wolfgang Herrmann, president of the Technical University of Munich. “It will strengthen the competitiveness of German science in Europe and throughout the world.”

As the number of public sector universities has increased sharply during the last decade, the declining standards of teaching and research work, plagiarism, mismanagement, financial irregularities and establishment of illegal campuses pose a major challenge to policy-makers and higher education managers, writes Riazul Haq for The Express Tribune.According to Higher Education Commission, or HEC, data, the number of public universities has increased 400%, from 30 in 2002 to over 160 in 2015. But when it comes to quality of administration and teaching faculty, most of the universities have failed to meet the standards.

Japan’s universities are looking to big US college endowments for some investment inspiration, raising the prospect of more Japanese money going into previously shunned areas, such as private equity, writes Eleanor Warnock for The Wall Street Journal. Private universities are adding hedge funds and infrastructure projects to their portfolios, and state-sponsored universities are lobbying to get old limits on investing lifted. So far, the changes are affecting only a small slice of the roughly ¥10 trillion (US$83 billion) in funds held by Japanese colleges and universities, but they reflect a consensus that more-aggressive investing is needed to secure future financial stability.

Subsidy funding for universities in the five-year-plan era will shrink by 15% from next year following a report by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center that said the plan has failed to meet three intended targets, as well as noting National Taiwan University’s first-ever slide in its world ranking, write Wu Po-hsuan, Rachel Lin and Jake Chung for Taipei Times.The plan is the second stage of the Road to Top Notch Universities Project that began in 2011, with the Ministry of Education allocating TWD$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) over five years to universities in the hope of boosting research facilities and international reputations.

The Peruvian government has initiated various programmes in recent years to bring resources and scholarships to its most vulnerable populations. The goal is to bring underprivileged populations to higher levels of education and opportunity, writes Hillary Ojeda for Peru This Week. One such programme is the Beca Peru program, run by the Pronabec Special Scholarships Office. The Beca Peru programme announced that they recently granted credentials to 269 youth who obtained the Beca Peru scholarship, according to Andina news agency. 

A senior leader of the Communist Party of China has urged the country's universities to improve education of socialism on campus. Liu Yunshan, a standing committee member of the political bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee, made the remarks at a meeting with party chiefs and presidents of 12 universities, reports Xinhua. Universities should improve the education of Marxism, socialism with Chinese characteristics and guiding principles from President Xi Jinping's major speeches, Liu said. Socialist core values should be incorporated into college education so as to nurture “the confidence in our path, theory and system”, he said. 

The number of students admitted to higher education institutions in Hungary has fallen by over 20% since 2010, according to a report issued by the Center for International Higher Education Studies. This makes Hungary one of the few OECD member states in which the number of higher education students has declined over the past four years, reports Hungary Today. Although figures are still unavailable for the year 2015, experts do not expect a large increase in the number of applicants and claim that rapid changes in rules applying to university and college admissions have had a negative effect on students’ willingness to study in higher education. 

The Ministry of Education outlined plans late last month to merge universities, as the number of students has been on the decline. The ministry estimates that student numbers will drop by a third by 2023 after years of low birth rates, putting tremendous pressure on universities and colleges as revenue drops, writes Abraham Gerber for Taipei Times. “Low fertility rates are an unavoidable reality,” Deputy Minister of Education Chen Der-hwa said. Chen said the ministry would seek to cope with this reality by making “more effective” use of educational resources, while protecting the interests of teachers and students in the universities affected. 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Tuesday launched the Malaysian Education Blueprint (Higher Education), aimed at preparing the country's tertiary education system to meet the challenges of the future, reports New Straits Times.Najib said the higher education system's overarching goal was to achieve three main targets, dubbed the three Bs: bakat (talent), benchmarking to global standards, and balance. The system, he said, must be able to generate talent in order to be globally competitive. “In order to do that, we must monitor our performance against international benchmarks. We want to be among the top third in the world in higher education – that is our target,” he said while launching the blueprint in Kuala Lumpur.

A brief overview of the life and work of Benjamin Franklin's outstanding American statesman and public figure, who proved that lightning is an electrical nature. He is the only one who signed the Declaration of Independence, the Paris Peace Treaty, and the Federal Constitution - the three documents define the course of history, not only the United States but also around the world. The information about the parents of Frank-lin, interesting facts from his life and work, details of self-education, hobbies printing and publishing, jour-nalism and family life as well as the history of the England-American-French relations in the second half of the XIX century. Particular attention is given to research activities Franklin, whose work at the time have become leading in the development of the theory of electricity and have received international recognition. Benjamin Franklin was a member of the Royal Society of Great Britain, Russia and other academies, award-ed a gold medal Copley.