SCIENCE & EDUCATION

Sixth formers will no longer have to wait for their results before learning if they have secured a place at university under a shake-up of the examination system. Ministers want to move the timing of final school examinations and push the autumn university term back. A government White Paper, to be published in the spring, will propose that university places would be granted based on actual results. The deadline to the University and College Admissions Service, which falls tonight, would be moved back about six months. Meanwhile the start of the university year would be delayed to until January under the reforms being drawn up by ministers.The reforms would not be introduced for at least two years to allow smooth transition.

INDIA: Staffing company TeamLease Services Pvt. Ltd announced on Monday it is setting up a vocational education university in Gujarat to help plug an increasing skill gap in India’s labour force. This comes after the Union government recently announced its intention to set up a national vocational education framework to cater to millions of students who cannot, or do not, take up higher education.

THE strength of Australia's quality assurance regime and government transparency have seen it place second in a new index. The index rates countries on their policies regarding the engagement and promotion of internationalisation in higher education.Germany heads the list of 11 nations. Australia scored the highest in quality assurance and recognition, second on openness, and third on access and equity in the index which was developed by the British Council.

The government will adopt stricter measures to verify overseas academic diplomas and tighten its monitoring of universities hiring staff with such qualifications, reports Bae Ji-sook for the Korea Herald.  The state-run National Research Foundation of Korea will oversee verification while the Korea Education and Research Information Service will seek to display the full text of the thesis for all overseas degrees acquired by Koreans, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said last Thursday.

The Malaysian Quality Evaluation System (MyQuest) will rate all 402 private colleges in the country beginning this year to ensure quality of the courses offered, reports the official agency Bernama. Polytechnics are to be rated under a system known as Polyrate, also to be implemented this year, according to Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

Universities face a new crisis: up to 40% of academics and lecturers are expected to retire over the next decade, with no one to replace them.As the higher education sector prepares for loss of revenue caused by falling international student numbers, government figures show universities are also under threat from within. Half the full-time academic workforce is over 50, according to the Department of Tertiary Education. Experts said the best students are being put off an academic career by limited job security and poor pay.

The University of Ilorin in Nigeria has established the Association of West African Universities, AWAU, as a sub-regional body that will coordinate and promote the ideals of University education in West Africa.

With vital input from MIT—and China—an unorthodox idea takes shape, with implications beyond the city-state's borders. Singapore University of Technology and Design, now under construction, is a big gamble for a high-tech city-state that considers a globally competitive work force its key to national survival. Government officials are betting more than $700-million that the new venture will cultivate the next generation of innovators in architecture, engineering, and information systems.

More than a third of England's universities may be forced to close or merge as a result of swingeing public cuts to higher education, an analysis by the lecturers' trade union has found, writes the Guardian. The University and College Union (UCU) examined the finances of the 130 universities and specialist colleges in England in light of government plans to cut funding for teaching degrees by 80%. Only a few 'priority' courses, for instance in maths and sciences, would still receive public money.

WASHINGTON - The number of research doctorates awarded by American universities grew slightly in 2009, with virtually all of the increase accounted for by an upturn in Ph.D.s and other degrees granted to women, according to newly reported data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates. The study also documents the first drop in five years in the number of doctorates awarded to non-U.S. citizens.

With China's debut in international standardised testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in maths and science, according to the results of a respected exam, writes Sam Dillon for The New York Times. American officials and Europeans involved in administering the test in about 65 countries acknowledged that the scores from Shanghai are by no means representative of all of China. The Programme for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, was given to 15-year-old students by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

India and France on Monday signed two memorandums of understanding on higher education, and also decided to take forward a 2009 Plan of Action for the Indian Institute of Technology-Rajasthan by setting up a French consortium that will help the institute gain expertise in areas like health technology, solar energy, aerospace, quantum computing and several other fields, reports The Times of India.

John Quelch, former dean of London Business School and noted Harvard marketing professor, is to become dean of Ceibs, the Shanghai business school, in February 2011. He will replace Rolf Cremer, who steps down after six years in the job. Prof Quelch was visiting professor at Ceibs in 2009.

Seven Chinese universities, including Peking University, signed "pairing" assistance agreements in Beijing with Tibet University on Nov. 21. These seven universities will form a group to initiate a new round of pairing assistance to Tibet University. The pairing assistance will focus on helping Tibet University enhance the teaching level of its faculty, quality of students, research, development and service capacity as well as the school management level.

As Peru counts down to the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu by the American explorer Hiram Bingham, thousands of artefacts taken from the breathtaking lost city of the Incas could soon be returned to the country. The relics, some 40,000 of them, according to the Peruvian government, include pottery, jewellery and human bones. They have been in the collection at Bingham's alma mater, Yale University, since he first hacked his way through the Andean jungle to the site in 1911, and have become the subject of a bitter international dispute and a ferocious academic debate about how and where to display archaeological treasures.

At a time when scientific and research agencies are worried about fewer academics taking up research, it comes as a surprise that most of the top 50 Indian universities have remarkably improved their H-index scores in the latest rankings by the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies in New Delhi, writes The Times of India.

As India prepares to open its doors to foreign universities, at least one British university already has a foot in the door through a joint venture with the University of Madras and several other Indian institutions, writes Hasan Suroor for The Hindu.Northampton University is to launch a masters degree in environmental technology at Madras University in February next year under a joint UK-India programme aimed at promoting research links between the two countries.

African higher education needs to move away from traditional, and unequal, north-south partnerships and forge ties with new partners to truly counter the African brain drain, writes Professor Johann Groenewald, a flagship projects coordinator for Stellenbosch University's graduate school and the African Doctoral Academy, in The Sunday Times.

Over the past few months, the academic and scientific communities of Croatia have been voicing displeasure with proposed revisions to national legislation governing the country's universities and science organisations, writes Mico Tatalovic for Science. Critics have argued that the changes would take away university autonomy and freedom of scientific expression because universities and research priorities would come under direct governmental control.

Online college enrolments in the US grew by 21% to 5.6 million last autumn, the biggest percentage increase in several years, according to a report released last week by the Sloan Consortium and the Babson Survey Research Group. At the same time, the authors say online growth might begin to slow down in the near future, as the biggest drivers of enrolment growth face budget challenges and stricter recruitment oversight from the federal government.