US universities’ ties with Middle Eastern countries are coming under increasing scrutiny, threatening to accelerate the decline of such links and leaving campuses facing a mounting administrative burden. From the US government end, the renewed focus is a side effect of the White House’s strategy for blocking China from accessing cutting-edge US research, which has […]
Hong Kong universities have been urged to assert their status as bastions of academic freedom in the wake of violent police crackdowns on campus protests. The “most immediate test” would be how higher education institutions respond to the potential prosecution of some of the more than 1,000 students who have been arrested during recent demonstrations, […]
When Estonia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it took the chance to reshape the country’s school education system. Mailis Reps, the incumbent education minister, recalls the concluding argument in any debate often ran: “Let’s try something that works in Sweden or Finland.”
Many others have done similarly. Every three years, the OECD (Organisation […]
Almost a third of international students in the US have faced discrimination because of their nationality with Chinese students being particularly affected, according to a study. A survey of 1,921 overseas students and recent graduates reported that 38 percent found living away from home and family more challenging than they had expected, and 41 percent […]
French universities have been accused of being bloated at the top, with one institution boasting no fewer than 26 vice presidents. Some university managements have swelled to include vice presidents for simplification, “success,” “heritage” and, even, “the sea”. The findings follow up on a book published recently by a prominent French sociologist of universities, which […]
The drill-sergeant barking orders is a former commando who lost bits of two fingers while deployed in South Sudan. His 100-odd young charges are dressed in camouflage uniforms and army boots. After a bit of marching in time they are shown how to abseil out of a besieged building.
The group under instruction are not conscripts, […]
At first glance, Germany might seem an unlikely place for a boom in private, fee-charging universities. Famously, the nation’s public universities are almost free to attend, even for foreign students, and are regarded as consistently decent in quality.
But despite this, an ever greater number of students, German and foreign, are choosing to pay to go […]
To the disappointment of Molly, a 19-year-old at the University of Portsmouth, the Waterhole Bar is no more. “I enjoyed pre-ing in there with friends,” she sighs. “We’d get together, have a few snakebites, get hyped.” Access was restricted to students, meaning it felt safe. Karaoke Fridays were fun. But students were recently told the […]
Bringing large numbers of older graduates back into classrooms under a radical lifelong learning programme will test the teaching abilities of staff, a university president has admitted.
All undergraduates and postgraduates of the National University of Singapore remain enrolled for 20 years from the point of admission, making all current and future students automatically eligible for […]
Denmark’s new Social Democrat government has ended a five-year budget squeeze on universities, but academics fear that proposed cuts to humanities and social science funding could lead to course closures. The new government, which set out its budget on October 2, will scrap annual 2 percent cuts to university allocations.
Hong Kong’s status as an academic hub could be undermined by the protests that have gripped the territory, fear scholars. Cancellations of a conference and several student exchange programmes have been seen as early signs of the potential impact of the demonstrations and the increasingly authoritarian response of the Hong Kong government.
Seek “harmony but not sameness”, advised the Chinese philosopher Confucius 2,500 years ago. Neither quality was on display when Chinese nationalists violently disrupted a rally in support of anti-government demonstrators in Hong Kong at the University of Queensland in July.
Since then Drew Pavlou, one of the organisers of the sympathy rally, says he has received […]
The world’s most prestigious universities are primarily in two countries: America and Britain. Strangely, though, the more aristocratic, less meritocratic system of admissions is found not in the country with a House of Lords and a hereditary monarchy, but in the land of rugged individualism. Unsurprisingly, the American system is under attack.
In a closely […]
Moves by the Pakistan government to cut higher education funding by 19 percent could prove “disastrous” for universities and harm teaching, research and the well-being of scholars, warn academics. In June, the government presented its first budget since Imran Khan, chairman of the centrist Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf Party, came to power last August.
Mbar lifts up his trousers and points at the marks where the chains wore his skin away. He was 11 when his father sent him from his village to a religious school on the outskirts of Senegal’s holy city of Touba. His teacher made him recite passages from the Koran in the morning. Then Mbar […]
Many universities highlight the close interaction between students and faculty as a key element of their student experience. But the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) takes this approach to a whole new level. Each of the institution’s degree programmes has its own ‘study board’ made up of students and academics who collectively make decisions about curriculum […]
India seems set to overtake China as Australia’s top education market in a change of guard with potentially major ramifications for university finances. Growth in the number of Indian students in Australia was five times as fast as expansion of Chinese student numbers in 2018, and Australia hosted just 5,000 more Chinese than Indian students […]
When the Chinese government first sent students to America in the late 19th century, it could not decide whether their goal should be to acquire specific technical knowledge or to absorb new ways of thinking. More than a century later, over 300,000 Chinese students are enrolled in American schools and universities. Yet folks back home […]
The path of British universities opening branch campuses in Asia is a well-trodden one, littered with some successes and a few failures. There is far less travel in the opposite direction — but the dean of a Chinese business school with a UK outpost hopes this move will encourage other mainland institutions to follow in […]
I am sorry to inform my readers that a serious illness prevented me from writing my Letter from London last month, and even more disappointed that this will be my last one ever. Writing this monthly letter has been the greatest joy and honour of my past two years.
A student rebel, Emmanuel Macron has turned into a presidential revolutionary. On April 25, in response to the gilets jaunes (yellow jackets) protesters and their rage against an out-of-touch elite, Macron announced dissolution of France’s famous Ecole National d’Administration (ENA).
“Makeshift repairs”, the president declared, won’t do: “If you keep the same structures, habits are just […]
Universities should change their approach to disseminating research and operate more like think tanks if they want to get into the minds of government leaders and influence policy, according to a former UK senior civil servant.
Addressing academic leaders at an event organised by the Higher Education Policy Institute, a panel of experts called on educators […]
Debates over the legacy of colonialism on South African campuses have been reignited by recent publication of a report examining the impact of anti-fees and anti-racism protests that rocked the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission, which produced the report, was created in the wake of the Rhodes Must Fall […]
While China’s higher education strategy is often characterised by its focus on competition, with a range of excellence initiatives pouring additional funding into a select number of institutions over the past two decades, one of the most interesting recent developments in the nation is an initiative that is ostensibly about collaboration.
My uncle Jack was a ‘great teacher’, and when he died, that was what I had inscribed on his gravestone. He was born in a Lancashire cotton town to a mill worker’s family, and spent all six years of World War II in the army — bravely too, though it was something he would never […]
A drive to legislate against research misconduct and student cheating across Europe is under way, with the Balkans in the lead. In March, tiny Montenegro (pop.629,355) became one of the first countries to pass stringent legislation outlawing not only plagiarism, but also the donation of authorship, the fabrication of research results and a variety of […]
Chinese university presidents describe themselves as “dancers with chains on our legs,” warning that the influence of government-appointed party secretaries leaves them with little real autonomy. Fifteen presidents who offered rare interviews for a new study say that much-heralded reforms ostensibly designed to loosen Beijing’s grip on higher education institutions are “largely symbolic” and have […]
New bespoke immigration assistance for academics considering a move to Canada will help to continue the steady influx of research talent into the country which began after the election of Donald Trump, says the head of Universities Canada.
Speaking to Times Higher Education, Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada, which represents 96 higher education institutions, said […]
The University of Auckland has topped a pioneering new ranking that assesses the social and economic impact of universities based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings is the world’s first global attempt to document evidence of universities’ impact on society, rather than just research and teaching […]
As total student debt in the US reaches $1.5 trillion (Rs.104 lakh crore), policymakers and private lenders — as well as universities — are increasingly turning to income-based repayment as a potential solution. The model ties repayments to salaries for a fixed term and is seen as a way of preventing borrowers from owing more […]
Home education is becoming a hot button topic in the UK just as it is in India, as reported in the brilliant cover story ‘India’s nascent homeschooling revolution’ of EW’s affiliate publication ParentsWorld (March 15). How I wish we had a similar pair of excellent complementary journals for education and parenting in Britain! This informative […]
Meiduo (not her real name) is one of more than 141,000 children from Tibet who have taken part in a scheme known as ‘inland classes’, or neidiban. Set up in 1985, it offers selected students places at secondary schools in parts of China inhabited by the country’s Han majority. There are dozens of schools scattered […]
German university leaders are overwhelmingly male, all German, almost entirely white, and many have limited experience outside their own institutions, according to a report that has sparked debate about university presidents’ homogeneity. There are fears that their lack of outside experience could be harming German universities in the new globalised world.
Roly poly right, right, right. Roly poly left, left, left,” sings a class of five-year-olds at a government primary school in Sarojini Nagar on the outskirts of Lucknow, a city in India’s Hindi-speaking heartland. This English-medium school, one of seven that was inaugurated last year, is part of an effort by the government of Uttar […]
Leading universities in South Korea and China have improved at a faster rate over the past three years than top institutions in other major Asia-Pacific countries, according to Times Higher Education’s latest Asia-Pacific University Rankings. South Korea is the most-improved nation since 2017, with its average overall score increasing by 15 percent during that time. […]
US government investigators have charged dozens of people — including celebrities, business leaders and sports coaches — over allegations that bribes were paid to admit favoured students in elite universities. FBI spokespersons trace the scandal back to 2011, involving coaches, testing officials and private admissions counsellors who allegedly accepted millions of dollars in bribes to […]
There’s a raging debate on the financial and quality crises of the UK’s tertiary education system with particular reference to new universities, many of which are upgraded polytechnics rather than traditional multi-disciplinary universities. The evidence indicates massive failure of management in higher education institutions. Yet so many of the captains who are running many of […]
China’s surge in global university rankings has come largely at the expense of its neighbours, with competitors shunted backwards by the momentum of the world’s most populous nation. But for its diminutive half-sibling, China’s hulking presence is a launch platform for new opportunities.
Hong Kong’s university leaders say the benefits of living next door to China […]
Academics say that the violent crackdown on protests in Zimbabwe has squashed any optimism for the future of universities in the country that remained after the ousting of former president Robert Mugabe in 2017.
Zimbabwe has experienced its worst violence in over a decade as the forces of Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s successor as president, brutally suppress […]
University leaders in Venezuela have called on the United Nations to intervene in the country’s political crisis amid warnings that deterioration of the higher education system is approaching the point of no return.
After years of political turmoil resulting in sky-high inflation and scant public investment, some 3 million Venezuelans are said to have left the […]
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
