SCIENCE & EDUCATION

The Ministry of Education promised to promote multiple measures to spot talented young people and send them for higher education.It has encouraged top universities to use an independent exam, besides the national one, to test the students hoping to enter universities in 2012."Encouraging universities to select students based on an independent criteria is an important supplement to the country's system of college entrance exams," said a notice released by the ministry.

The decision by the University of Wales to cease validating degrees from independent suppliers from 2012 will force several high-profile MBA suppliers to look for other validation agencies if they are to continue to offer their degrees. Institutions affected will include the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF), with its “Facebook MBA”, and the Lorange Institute of Business in Zurich, set up by Peter Lorange, the former supremo at IMD. Online MBA suppliers such as RDI in the UK and Robert Kennedy College in Switzerland will also be affected.

Higher Education Commission Chairman Javaid R Laghari has said that in 2008 the participate rate in higher education in Pakistan was 2.5%, but after commission initiatives it has reached 7.8% and the government has a vision to increase the figure to 15% by 2020, reports The International News.In an address to Punjab University Vice-chancellor Mujahid Bamran and other staff, Laghari said that the greatest challenge was to reach out to the people in remote areas and financially support students who could not afford higher education.

Malaysia and UNESCO last week signed a memorandum of understanding to review the country's education policy at all levels, from pre-school to higher education, reports the official agency Bernama.Education Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Dr Rosli Mohamed said the review was being initiated to ensure that all Malaysians could realise their potential, as well as preparing a future worforce with the required skill set in line with various government transformation programmes to achieve a developed and high-income economy by 2020.

The University of Warwick has joined a global consortium led by New York University (NYU) to set up a new applied sciences and engineering campus in the US city.The bid, which is currently being considered by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is the latest attempt by the region to strengthen its links with the US, which is seen as key to the long-term health of the region’s economy.If approved, the ambitious bid will see Warwick become the first UK university to set up a campus in the US, as well as working alongside big-name firms including IBM, Cisco and Siemens.

China now has its version of Harvard open courses. Twenty courses provided by 18 top Chinese universities went online last Wednesday, China's latest attempt to disseminate teaching resources within the nation and promote Chinese culture globally, writes Chen Jia for China Daily.These courses feature 20 subjects or lectures given by speakers and professors from several universities, including Zhejiang University, Nankai University and Wuhan University. Most of the courses will focus on traditional Chinese culture, according to the Ministry of Education. They are available through the websites of NetEase and China Network Television, as well as icourses.edu.cn, for free.

The number of students enrolled in colleges and universities in Brazil doubled from 2001 to 2010, reaching 6.379 million, the Education Ministry said Monday.Citing a college census, the ministry said that college enrollment was up 7.1 percent in 2010 from 2009.Education Minister Fernando Haddad said the figures indicated the growing access to college education in Brazil, adding that the government will manage to raise the number to 10 million in 2020.The census also indicated an advancement of distance education.

Официальные опросы работников предназначены для того, чтобы выяснить, в каких университетах они обучались, таким образом выявляя наиболее и наименее успешные учебные заведения, дающие образование дипломированным специалистам, начинающим строить свою карьеру после окончания вуза.Информация будет жизненно важна для студентов, которые вынуждены платить £27 000  (US$43 000) за трехлетнее обучение с получением ученой степени и затем впоследствии много лет выплачивать денежный долг, когда они начинают работу.

A “RURAL university college for Scotland” is set to be created by the merger of four of the country’s further and higher education institutions.The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) looks set to merge with three “land-based” colleges in a process which would affect thousands of students.Discussions about a possible merger were already under way between the SAC and both Elmwood College in Fife and Oatridge in West Lothian, but they have now been joined by Barony College in Dumfries.While all the colleges are likely to retain their regional bases, the move would lead to a reduction in the number of courses being duplicated across the four institutions.

The number of students admitted to British universities from mainland Europe has soared by more than a third in the last 10 years, figures show. A record 125,000 students from European Union member states claimed places at higher education institutions last year – a rise of some 35,000 compared with a decade ago. The increase was around twice as fast as the rise in admissions among British students. Undergraduates from the EU are subsidised by the taxpayer and are eligible for the same low-interest Government loans as those taken out by British counterparts.

At least 61% of an estimated 35,000 lecturers in Nigeria are still on the lowest rung of academics, 'lecturer 1', according to the National Universities' Commission, which regulates university education in the country, writes Judd-Leonard Okafor for the Daily Trust.Executive secretary of the NUC, Professor Julius Okojie, said "more than half [the number of lecturers in Nigerian universities] do not have a PhD". The figure is about 21,350.

As Sweden introduces tuition fees of up to €15,000 (£13,145) for non-European Union students this year, Norway is now one of the few European states to stick to the once-sacrosanct belief in "free education for all".While its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark continue to provide free tuition for domestic and EU students only, Norway stands alone in offering free higher education to students regardless of citizenship.

Radical plans to create a French "Ivy League" are gathering pace as the first winners of a new elite universities scheme worth €7.7 billion (£6.6 billion) start to receive cash. The Initiative d'Excellence (Idex) scheme is part of the biggest shake-up in French higher education for almost 40 years. It is designed to establish five to seven "world-class" universities capable of competing internationally for the best students and academics.Driven by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the proposed "Sorbonne League" will require non-selective universities, the highly selective grandes écoles and France's independent research organisations, such as the National Centre for Scientific Research, to work together for the first time in exchange for investment.

University College London will stop telling students whether they have received a first, second or third, and instead given them an American-style "grade point average". It gives students a score based on all the courses they have taken as undergraduates. The move comes after "award inflation" which has undermined the traditional undergraduate degree classification. Official figures showed almost two-thirds of students gained a first or upper-second class degree in 2010. Some 46,825 students – one in seven – were awarded first class degrees by UK universities, double the number a decade ago.

A new wave of comprehensive schools backed by firms including the developers of the BlackBerry, Toshiba, Boeing and Rolls Royce will open in England next year as part of a new generation of vocational schools in which businesses will help shape the curriculum.Known as university technical colleges, the schools include one in Newcastle with a focus on engineering; one in Liverpool, specialising in life sciences and backed by the pharmaceutical firm Novartis, and one in Plymouth backed by the Royal Navy and Babcock, which manufactures defence equipment.Research in Motion, which developed the BlackBerry smartphone, will be one of the business partners of a school in Buckinghamshire, which is also being backed by Hewlett Packard and Cisco.

The movement to make research freely available got a high-profile boost this week with the news that Princeton University’s faculty has unanimously adopted an open-access policy. “The principle of open access is consistent with the fundamental purposes of scholarship,” said the faculty advisory committee that proposed the resolution.The decision puts the university in line with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a growing number of other institutions with policies that encourage or require researchers to post open copies of their articles, usually in an institutional repository.

A university mapped out its blueprint for a new super-institution bringing together partners in southeast Wales. The University of Wales, Newport, talked of a new era for higher education in the region which would leave behind "any competition and rivalry that may have hampered collaboration in the past", writes Gareth Evans for the Western Mail.The new institution would be led by one vice-chancellor and a single management team, but would maintain "locally focused brands and missions" for each of its constituent parts. It would be called the University of South-East Wales or South Wales Metropolitan University, with an add-on specific to its location.

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi University has announced an e-learning programme that will offer undergraduate and postgraduate online courses starting this academic year. The online courses will follow the regulations given by the ministry of higher education and scientific research.

Denmark has launched the first-ever website which would enable talented Chinese students and professionals to connect directly with Danish universities and firms.Backed by top Danish companies and universities, the Sino-Danish Network (www.sinodanishnetwork.com) aims to become a platform for Danish companies to recruit from the pool of future Chinese talents, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.The website's partners include leading Danish companies such as Arla Foods, Carlsberg, Chr. Hansen, Danfoss, Grundfos and Maersk, which will provide the network with open vacancies for Chinese students and professionals.

New Zealand is aiming to expand its education services abroad to treble the number of foreign students enrolled and to double the economic value of international education to 5 billion NZ dollars (4.1 billion U.S. dollars) over the next 15 years.Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce Tuesday released the first version of the "International Education Leadership Statement," which "sets bold aspirations for the growth" that New Zealand wanted to achieve over the next 15 years.Doubling the economic value of international education to New Zealand was at the heart of the government's statement, said Joyce.