HE news from around the world
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Indian Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal kept his two government jobs in this week’s cabinet reshuffle. The Times of India reported yesterday that the opposition BJP criticised the PM for keeping ‘tainted’ ministers like Sibal. The taint, in this case, refers to Sibal’s problematic telecoms portfolio rather than his higher education one.
Limkokwing University of Creative Technology has announced plans to set up a new campus in Uganda. The Malaysia-based University already has three African campuses - in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland - with some 12,000 students. Another campus is in London.
Oman wants to send more of its students to Malaysia, according to the Borneo Post last Friday. The Omani Ministry of Higher Education wishes to find 1,500 undergraduate places in 'quality and affordable' HE institutions in various countries. In Malaysia, they hope to place 90 more students and are looking particularly at Curtin University Sarawak, an Australian branch campus.
The University of Maiduguri in Nigeria, with 35,000 students, has closed because of threats from a radical Islamic group, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education this week.
David Wheeler, Editor at Large for the Chronicle, blogs on the 'global competition for talent' from the annual meeting of the National Association of Colleges and Employers in Dallas.
The National of Abu Dhabi reported in June that Heriot-Watt University in Dubai will launch a campus with a doubled capacity of 4,000 students. The Scottish university’s campus in the Gulf has been running since 2005 and is at full capacity.
2011 was not a good year for the Indian universities, at least according to the rankings. The recently published QS Asian University list reveals a bleak picture. Most Indian universities have been placed at lower positions than expected and only IIT-Bombay appears in the top-200 world list.
The Guardian reported in late June that BPP University College, a for-profit business and law school, plans to operate 'at least 10 publicly funded counterparts' and to increase its student intake tenfold by agressively undercutting competitors.
The European Commission is considering the launch of a pan-European ranking for European Universities. According to the 'Global university rankings and their impoact' report published by the European University Association, the most prestigious rankings assess excellence in research but not in teaching and only 3% of the world's universities are actually covered.
HEC Paris has topped the 2011 Business Schools Rankings of the Financial Times. France seems to be a world leader in this niche, as six of its business schools are in the top ten. The Spanish IE Business School is the runner-up and Saïd Business School of Oxford is fourth.
InsideHigherEd reported this week on the dismissal of university rankings as 'flawed and misleading' by the University of Alberta President, Indira Samarasekera. She said they were dependent on subjective views and unable to measure the impact of humanities and social science research and research not published in English.
Fewer than 1,300 non-European students have paid the new tuition fees required to study at Swedish universities, according to higher education officials. In the 2009-10 academic year, there were more than 16,000 non-European university students in Sweden. From autumn 2011, fees will range from 100,000-230,000 kronor ($15-35,000). Tuition was previously free.