China is set to become one of the first countries to make mental health a compulsory credit-bearing module for all undergraduate students, in a sign of growing concern over the issue. But experts are doubtful about whether this initiative offers a genuine solution.
A notice from the ministry of education puts mental health on a par […]
The dean of digital learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has resigned as a staff revolt against the sale of non-profit online course platform edX to for-profit competitor 2U grows. Krishna Rajagopal, who has announced his departure, told colleagues that he had “serious continuing reservations about the path forward […]
French historians have raised the alarm that a new terrorism and intelligence law will stop the release of state military and security archival documents, amid accusations that elements in the government are deliberately trying to conceal the country’s role in the Algerian war of independence.
Historians say that for the past two years, they have had […]
A member of the family of Azerbaijan’s autocratic ruler sits on the board of a University of Oxford research centre that studies the country, raising conflict of interest concerns for academics. A body representing Armenian scholars expressed concern that the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre, founded in 2018 by a £10 million (Rs.102.5 crore) donation […]
The arrival in the UK of a potential 100,000 international students from Covid red-list countries in the coming months presents a “clear quarantine-capacity problem” that could “overwhelm” the system, with allowing universities to use their own accommodation for quarantine one possible solution discussed in the sector.
If you ever want to see mathematicians get really excited, ask them about Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk. Writing on a blackboard with the deluxe Japanese chalk made of oyster shells is “like skiing on fresh powder, or waterskiing at dawn on a calm lake,” says Dave Bayer, professor of mathematics at Columbia University’s Barnard College.
Academics in Turkey say they have won a rare victory for university autonomy after a politically appointed rector was dismissed following six months of protest. The sacking of Melih Bulu, a former ruling party candidate appointed at Bogazici University by the president in January, they hope, could be a turning point in the fight for […]
More than one in three of India’s Central universities is without a permanent vice-chancellor, raising concerns about growing political interference in appointments and flagging questions about the planned transformation of the country’s higher education system. At least 21 of the 54 Central institutions — which are funded by the national government — do […]
Precariously employed German academics have forced the country’s research ministry to take down a video that argued that temporary academic contracts are good for the economy and prevent one generation “clogging up” scholarly positions.
The outpouring of online fury under the hashtag #IchbinHanna — named after a fictionalised junior researcher featured in the video […]
In the sort of formal ceremony beloved in this part of the world, VIPs posed on stage, holding shovels decorated with giant gold bows, to mark the launch of a University of Hong Kong (HKU) campus redevelopment project.
Until children reach the age of about 15 in China, education is free. So why is it that more than half of a typical family’s spending goes on it? The answer is coaching/ cramming classes: a financial burden so great that it is often said to […]
If all goes to plan, schools in Colombia (pop.50 million) will finally reopen over the next two weeks, with most children back by July 15. Better late than never. Schools in Mexico and Brazil resumed in-person teaching weeks earlier. By contrast, in Colombia children have borne one […]
BIG SHOCKS HAVE SOMETIMES CHANGED schooling for the better. The Second World War midwifed the Butler Act in Britain, which increased years of compulsory schooling and abolished fees still charged by many government schools. After Hurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans, officials there embarked on sweeping school reforms. Nine […]
The University of Essex has stepped in to help final year school and college students around the world bounce back from all the setbacks they’ve faced due to COVID with a programme of extra support to give them a flying start at university. Students getting ready for university around the world, including […]
HKU new campus launch ceremony: rising government spending
In the sort of formal ceremony beloved in this part of the world, VIPs posed on stage, holding shovels decorated with giant gold bows, to mark the launch of a University of Hong Kong (HKU) campus redevelopment project.
The event held in January, could be viewed only […]
Delhi University students: normalcy pretence charge
Indian universities are facing mounting criticism of their response to the country’s deadly coronavirus surge, with concern focusing on the fate of insecurely employed teaching staff.
At the flagship University of Delhi, at least 35 lecturers have died from Covid-19 in the past month, according to the Delhi […]
UK universities could struggle to fill key professorial and postdoctoral researcher roles amid growing frustration among European academics at Brexit-related bureaucracy and costs, Times Higher Education has been told. Since the end of the Brexit transition period in January, European Union nationals have been subject to the same immigration rules as people from the rest […]
Just a month ago, the idea that Coronavirus came from an accidental lab leak in Wuhan was derided by much of the press as a fringe conspiracy theory and banned on Facebook as a form of misinformation. Now, a host of distinguished scientists including Anthony Fauci, the […]
Students are twice as likely to cheat in online exams following the rapid switch to digital assessment last summer, suggests a survey. A survey of 1,608 students in higher education institutions across Germany found that 61.4 percent said they had used “unallowed assistance and/or engaged in direct exchange with other students” during online exams over […]
With the Covid-19 graph indicates a downward trend, several Indian state governments are already thinking of re-opening the schools. While doctors and researchers predicted the third wave of Coronavirus disease to affect children below 18, parents are concerned about their wards’ health and worried about sending them to schools.
In December 2019, the French investigative journalist Iban Rais was in the student bar of ESSEC Business School, consistently ranked as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world, when he saw something that shocked him. Looking down over the bar was a stuffed deer’s head, a hunting trophy nicknamed Big […]
China is ramping up its efforts to poach Nobel laureates from universities around the world to establish laboratories in the country. But questions are being raised whether this initiative will have a trickle-down effect to boost basic scientific research.
After several cities across China embraced the idea, it received a major boost when Beijing said it […]
From access to basic equipment, technology and quiet working spaces to childcare burdens and job cuts, the pandemic has exacerbated existing disparities among individuals, communities, institutions and countries.
Increased attention on inequalities has also sparked hope that systems and structures will change and that academia will become more inclusive. Universities in emerging economies could be among […]
To the delight of campaigners and some parents, Covid-19 has de-popularised school-leaving exams. With support from the Trump administration, all 50 states cancelled accountability testing last March, freeing 51 million public (government) school pupils from the annual rigmarole. The SATS optional essay-writing section and separate subject tests were discontinued this year. The Programme for International […]
Why are American universities pre-eminent in global higher education? Previous explanations have included the country’s massive economy, its enormous budget for scientific research and its history of immigration. But a scholar suggests that the answer could be something more prosaic: the fact that they are governed largely by their alumni.
Australian universities’ new recruits are taking advantage of online education by ‘sampling’ degrees before committing to them, in a trend that complicates planning and pressures universities to deliver good experiences from the outset.
Charles Sturt University’s acting vice chancellor, John Germov, says incoming students are becoming “a bit more savvy” by trying out multiple courses before […]
Russian academics have expressed alarm about sweeping legal amendments that propose government regulation over “educational activities”, fearing that the change could hit international collaboration, stop scholars making public lectures and podcasts and place the humanities under “ideological control”.
The country has grand plans to rebuild its university system after decades of stagnation and to launch five […]
A university has apologised for its handling of an online course that was based on lectures by a professor who had died, in a case which highlights the risk of encroachments on intellectual property, made more likely in the Coronavirus era.
The art history class at Montreal’s Concordia University surprised and distressed second-year […]
The number of international students applying to US universities for the coming academic year has jumped by 11 percent, according to initial estimates, raising hopes of a quick rebound under the Biden administration.
The data from Common App, a non-profit provider of college admission services, bolster a growing sense in academia that President Biden will […]
In exam-obsessed China, educators have long struggled with the problem of overworked schoolchildren. Attempts to do away with some test-oriented teaching often face resistance from parents, who worry their offspring could lose out in the race to get admitted into a good university. Some enlightened officials are taking a new tack. In the south-western province […]
No one is ever truly ready for lockdown. But when the Netherlands closed its schools last December, the Herman Wesselink College, a government high school in a well-off suburb of Amsterdam, was readier than most. About half its students have parents who completed higher education. Nearly all have their own bedroom to study in. The […]
President Erdoğan: twitter qualification partiality
Dozens of Turkish university rectors have no international research record but tweet prolifically in support of the Ankara government, scholars have warned, raising further concerns about academic independence as the country has moved towards autocracy.
In its annual review of academic freedom, Turkey’s Science Academy, a breakaway group formed in […]
China has declared itself the world’s leader in massive open online courses (Moocs), in terms of the number of courses and participants. This announcement has directed academic attention to a type of learning that was pronounced “dead” in 2017 by a vice-president of Udacity, a US educational technology giant.
Professors who chair disciplinary panels at Imperial College, London, have warned that the institution’s handling of bullying cases involving its president and finance chief could hamper their ability to fulfill their roles.
There is mounting anger at this globally respected institution that president Alice Gast and chief financial officer Muir Sanderson were allowed to retain their […]
Face-to-face lectures are unlikely to return to several Australian campuses once Covid-19 has been vanquished, raising questions about whether the pandemic will have a decisive impact globally on the long-running debate about the future of large-group teaching.
Perth’s Curtin University proposes to scrap all lectures by the end of this year, starting with those involving 100 […]
For much of human history and in many places, girls were considered property. Or, at best, subordinate people, required to obey their fathers until the day they had to start obeying their husbands. Few people thought it worthwhile to educate them. Even fewer imagined that a girl could […]
The creators of a holiday resort for US college students studying online during their Covid lockdowns are promising to expand the concept into a fundamental reimagining of the residential campus experience.
The idea by three Princeton University graduates — long-term luxury hotel rentals for students taking remote classes — has already been blocked in multiple US […]
President Joe Biden’s choice of a former schoolteacher with low-income Puerto Rican family roots as US education secretary has been seen as pointing towards a renewed focus on equality in universities.
If confirmed by the US Senate, Miguel Cardona would become the third Latino to serve in the nation’s top education […]
Tianjin University students: anti-bureaucracy revolt
A series of victories for student-led activism against controversial professors suggests that the cult of the supervisor in China is increasingly being challenged. A 123-page report of evidence compiled by Lyu Xiang, a former postgraduate student of Zhang Yuqing at the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology at
Researchers have exposed widespread PhD plagiarism among Russian regional governors, which they say is part of a broader culture of academic corruption in a country where ghostwriters are routinely hired to win the rich and powerful the prestige boost of a doctorate. Checking hundreds of dissertations online against other text revealed that half the governors […]
IIT Delhi organised its 11th Alumni Day on Sunday under the theme ‘Engage, Enrich, Empower: Celebration of an Emotion’ that brought together alumni, students, and .....Read More
Prayoga Institute of Education Research, an established DSIR institution in Bengaluru, and The Sports School, India's pioneering integrated sports institution that integrates academics with professional .....Read More
