NEW ZEALAND
Tertiary education minister, Anne Tolley, has confirmed that she will be looking at ways to ‘manage’ growth in tertiary institutions as rolls continue to soar in the wake of the global financial crisis...Read More and reaction here and here

The University of Otago has selected Professor Vernon Squire as its next Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic & International)...Read More

AUSTRALIA
ELITE universities and researchers have backed streamlining hundreds of innovation grant programs valued at almost $4 billion...Read More

The next five years will produce more research data than has been produced in all of previous human history, presenting researchers with daunting discovery challenges...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
In a speech on Monday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, President Obama presented a vision of a new era in research financing comparable to the Sputnik-period space race...Read More

What is research worth? The time lag before it bears economic fruit and the difficulty of gauging its social effects mean it cannot be easily accounted for in terms of profit and loss...Read More

As many US universities stop hiring or cut posts in the downturn, others see a chance to snap up the best and the brightest - particularly those with their own grants...Read More

Financial markets and financial institutions are traditionally reluctant to invest in R&D projects. This is due to the fact that there is a higher uncertainty/risk for R&D projects, compared to more traditional business projects...Read More

The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine has joined the call to urge medical professors and other health-care professionals to reject free meals, travel, and consulting fees from pharmaceutical companies...Read More

Mystery philanthropist donates $75m to US universities...Read More

Poor countries get drugs at cost price - or we won't licence our research to you, says Edinburgh University...Read More

When a Journal Says No...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
Students will be able to fast-track their masters degrees if New Zealand universities agree to change the rigid structure of the system...Read More

The University of Otago has recorded a much healthier operating surplus than it expected for 2008, but staff have warned the picture may not be as rosy this year...Read More

AUSTRALIA
Australia's 38 public universities lost an estimated A$800 million (US$568 million) last year as a result of the global financial meltdown...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Despite the promises made by the new Obama administration, the impact of America's collapsing economy continues to rattle the nation's higher education institutions...Read More

CANADA: Is brain gain going down the drain?...Read More

A Bologna master 'template' for masters degrees is developing across Europe, albeit in three distinctive forms of course provision: taught masters with a strong professional development application...Read More

Science beyond fiction: Europe unveils strategy to become a global leader in high-risk IT research...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
One of New Zealand's top climate scientists, Jim Salinger, has been fired from his job at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa)...Read More and reaction here

The NZi3 National ICT Innovation Institute has opened at the University of Canterbury...Read More

AgResearch scientists have played a key role in genetic research that will transform the future selection and breeding of cattle worldwide...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Hundreds of scientists and their supporters held a rally at the University of California at Los Angeles to back the right of researchers to use animals in their studies...Read More

Fierce competition for university places this summer looks certain as a late surge in older applicants seeking to escape the recession is revealed in figures published today...Read More

French universities, paralysed by three months of student blockades and staff strikes, were warned by the government to resume teaching yesterday or risk damaging France's image on the world stage...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
The University of Waikato has won a three-year contract to lead and deliver professional development in adult literacy and numeracy. The multimillion-dollar contract just announced by Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley...Read More

The Council of The University of Auckland will confer an honorary degree on the former Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Helen Clark, one of its most illustrious graduates...Read More

Bayer, a global leader in innovation, is looking for New Zealand’s most innovative people to enter the Bayer Innovators Awards...Read More

With just a few votes yet to be counted, TEU members at the country’s eight universities have again endorsed a bargaining strategy that seeks a nationwide university collective employment agreement...Read More

AUSTRALIA
The University of Queensland will establish Australia's first Confucius Institute focused on China's contributions to the advancement of science, engineering and technology...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Any hope that more money may be made available for additional student places and scientific research in the 2009 Budget has been dashed after the Chancellor delivered what is being described as an “extremely disappointing” settlement for higher education...Read More

The UK government today announced £1.4 billion (US$2 billion) in new cash for low-carbon businesses and technologies, as part of the nation's 2009–10 Budget to stimulate economic recovery. But some scientists have expressed concern that, amid moves to support business priorities, basic research may be being sidelined...Read More

It doesn’t matter where scientific discoveries and breakthrough technologies originate—for national prosperity, the important thing is who commercializes them...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
Universities struggle to hang on to international students despite the low dollar and are leaning on the new markets of India and Saudi Arabia to make up their numbers...Read More

AUSTRALIA
Universities Australia today released the results of a KPMG study that shows implementation of the recommendations of the Review of Australian Higher Education (the “Bradley Review”) will drive Australian recovery and growth...Read More

AT least four Australian universities have set ambitious targets of cracking a top 200 and even a top 50 placing in world rankings despite official moves to downplay them so all students receive a "world-class education"...Read More

THE question "What are the humanities for?" needn't be asked in a voice that insinuates the true answer is a humiliating admission: "Not much, really."...Read More

APPLIED research aimed at solving key problems in engineering, business and biology risks being downgraded under the Rudd Government's research performance exercise, a leading mathematician has warned...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Academic performance indicators are relied upon for their objective insight into prestige. However, the data that they draw upon can be affected by practices such as self-citation and spurious co-authorship...Read More

"Overall, our findings highlight a neglected cost of IP: reductions in the diversity of experimentation that follows from a single idea. "...Read More (pdf)

To many academics, the societal benefits of higher education are more than evident. But many others - including some influential lawmakers - view the benefits of higher education more narrowly...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
The Internet has made Open Access publication – the free distribution of scholarly work – a powerful possibility for scholars, administrators and publishers alike...Read More

University rankings generate tremendous discussion and debate about their benefits and detriments to university reputations...Read More

More than 2,000 Canadian scientists have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper decrying budget cuts in science, especially at a time when President Obama is bolstering research in the United States...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
The New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre was officially opened on Tuesday in Wellington....Read More

Otago University graduate Rob Knight has won a United States award worth more than US$1.5 million ($2.6 million)...Read More

The term crisis is being used to describe these economically turbulent times...Read More

This report used data from the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) Quality Evaluations to analyse the factors associated with the likelihood of university academics being promoted between 2003 and 2006...Read More

The Tertiary Education Commission has approved $2.5 million of funding over three years for MANU-AO, the Māori Academy for Professional and Academic Advancement...Read More

AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA remained one of the worst performers in the OECD on innovation and education...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
What is meant by “world-class” universities and how that status may be achieved is examined in a new World Bank publication The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities...Read More

Vice-chancellors and other senior managers from at least eight universities have chosen to forgo their annual pay rises...Read More

A world-leading expert in university-business partnerships has warned that the UK must not give up its internationally renowned blue-skies research in a drive to exploit the financial returns of academics' work...Read More

Higher education leadership search committees are faced with an uncomfortable reality: it is increasingly difficult to find superior candidates...Read More

A digital repository of some of the most important documents in world history was launched this week...Read More

Yes, science needs funding. But arts research will be equally important to our economic recovery...Read More

A "Big Brother"-style system is being planned to track precisely what academics produce with the money they win in grants...Read More

MPs yesterday accused the head of Oxford University of giving them an answer that "would not pass a GCSE essay" in a row over the worth of an Oxford degree...Read More

A new report by the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled The Governance and Performance of Research Universities: Evidence from Europe and the US, investigates how university governance affects research output, measured by patenting and international university research rankings...Read More

Key policy of businesses working with universities at risk from red tape and overvaluing IP, says report...Read More

Britain's largest research council is to "blacklist" academic researchers who submit three unsuccessful research proposals in any one year and have a low personal success rate of winning grants...Read More

IBM announced last week that it is collaborating with 250-plus universities in 50 countries to promote the Service Science Management and Engineering curriculum...Read More

The mantra that universities must focus on "distinctiveness" and "difference" to survive in an increasingly competitive market may have to be watered down, because collaboration and rationalisation lie at the heart of the sector's future...Read More

Traditional university faculties are too conservative and are standing in the way of progress as Europe's education system struggles to become more innovative...Read More

An undercover investigation into the system that regulates human experimentation in the United States has revealed flaws that expose it to 'unethical manipulation', the Government Accountability Office reported last week...Read More

The title of this article should be a FAQ - that is, a frequently asked question. My contention is that the question, 'What are universities for?' is not asked enough...Read More

Massachusetts Institute of Technology will make its research available to the public free of charge, becoming the first U.S. university to mandate the policy, by faculty vote, across all departments...Read More

A trend to make printed scientific journals available online worldwide, is under fire...Read More

As Europe looks enviously at U.S. research productivity, economists examine which policy changes are likely to spur innovation. (Hint: Autonomous universities and competition for funds.)...Read More

Short-term income-generating research can erode university capacity — the foundation for long-term economic growth...Read More

President Obama has tapped Aneesh Chopra to be the nation's first-ever chief technology officer. If confirmed as expected by the Senate, Chopra, 37, now Virginia's top technology official, will be tasked with stimulating U.S. tech jobs as well as with using technology to reduce healthcare costs and improve national security...Read More

Harvard University is taking steps to encourage more students to major in subjects that are central to knowledge, even if they aren't seen as the most practical...Read More

The fact that large numbers of international students enroll in doctoral programs in the United States is no surprise, but their considerable presence represents “one of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education” in the last quarter century...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
A national project has been launched to find ways to get more scientists in New Zealand by examining the transition from secondary schools' science classes to university degrees...Read More

A site has been acquired for the development of a purpose-built technology park in Penrose, Auckland, a large industrial area between the central business district and the international airport...Read More

The University of Canterbury’s vice–chancellor, Dr Rod Carr, has suggested that, with increasing numbers of students not being matched by extra government funding, he could support tougher standards to keep student enrolments down...Read More

New Zealand has joined a major international scientific drilling programme that will collect sediment cores from beneath the seabed in New Zealand waters later this year...Read More

Initial findings from a University of Otago-led analysis of the koiwi tangata (human remains) of some of the earliest Polynesians to settle New Zealand are shedding new light on their health - including the first evidence of gout among ancient Maori...Read More

AUSTRALIA
ALREADY cash-strapped universities have suffered a calamitous $800 million loss in investment, more than twice the previous forecast...Read More

BRITISH universities are ahead of their Australian counterparts in making a crucial shift to international education based on partnerships, according to a senior education adviser...Read More and more, more, more on Australian export education.

THE Australian Research Council has pulled down from its website its newly ranked list of almost 7000 humanities and creative arts journals after architects complained it missed important publications and ranked others that were nonexistent...Read More

SCIENTIFIC research is being hamstrung by a systemic failure to support high-risk projects and ideas, Nobel winner Barry Marshall says...Read More

AUSTRALIA should invest $4bn in a US-style scientific stimulus package to boost green jobs and emerging technologies, Terry Cutler says...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Amid talk of an iron curtain or apartheid separating them, administrators and academics struggle to find common cause. Hopes of detente lie with the 'blended' professional...Read More

Who stands up for science and scientific rigour in policy circles?...Read More

Researchers tracking usage patterns at thousands of online scientific journals have compiled a detailed graphical chart showing the interconnected ties among academic fields...Read More

This new site is built around a powerful, map-based project search for Research Potential and Regions of Knowledge projects funded under FP7, including options for drilling down to the regional level within a country, displaying all the partners in a country or region, and displaying the details of any individual project...Read More

Finland’s Aalto University (est. 2010): institutionalizing interdisciplinary thinking for innovation in the knowledge economy...Read More

UNESCO and 32 partner institutions will launch the World Digital Library, a web site that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world...Read More

Parlous state of UK finances leaves science funding uncertain...Read More

The shortage of teaching staff in medicine is reaching critical levels, the British Medical Association has warned... Read More

The Canadian Government has provoked anger by using an injection of cash to exert an "undue influence" on the direction of university research...Read More