NEW ZEALAND
This afternoon’s budget follows a long-running campaign by the government to lower public expectations around available money...Read More

Slack academics will be in the spotlight under research standards being developed at Canterbury University...Read More
Nga Pae represents the tertiary end of initiatives at all levels of schooling to raise Maori achievement. They seem to be working...Read More

The ongoing impact of past declines in the number of Chinese students has masked a rebound in enrolments by new international students in New Zealand's universities this year ...Read More

AUSTRALIA
TOP universities were using marriages of convenience with medical research institutes to inflate their research income and prestige...Read More

Australia’s largest and most successful international student-recruitment company announced on Tuesday that it is branching out into the United States...Read More

DEEP within budget paper No.2, on page 363, the Government elaborates (somewhat) on its proposal to change research infrastructure block grants...Read More

DUAL sector institutions combining universities and TAFEs could proliferate if a new pilot project succeeds in better streamlining the red tape that comes with having to deal with two layers of government regulation, quality standards and industrial relations regimes...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Research libraries in the United States are being pummeled by budget cuts, with worse likely to come. Their British counterparts may be in even more parlous shape...Read More

The U.S. Department of Education, along with the Departments of Energy and Labor, will try to link out-of-work Americans to jobs, training, and educational opportunities financed by federal stimulus money...Read More

European research ministers are expected to take a significant step towards introducing a Community patent when they meet tomorrow (28 May) in Brussels to discuss ways of improving competitiveness...Read More

University degrees are no longer comparable, and it can be hard to know what a first-class qualification now means, the Guild of Educators has said...Read More

A quarter of medical research charities say they plan to reduce their funding to universities, in some cases by as much as 40 per cent...Read More

Controversial humanist and bioethicist Leon Kass delivers Jefferson Lecture, warning that, like the sciences, the humanities seem to have lost their soul...Read More

Earning a PhD does little to boost earnings compared with those who graduate with just a masters degree, according to a national survey...Read More

The Institute for Higher Education Policy in the US argues that nuanced approaches to rankings may prompt institutions to work in innovative and more productive ways...Read More

The 27 European Union member countries have taken a symbolically important step to provide a pan-European character to their education and training systems...Read More

Vice-chancellors and presidents from Universitas 21, the international network of 21 research-intensive universities in 14 countries, on Friday signed a statement on sustainability...Read More

Most nations want one but few can seriously entertain the thought of establishing a world-class university, let alone sustain the resources and results needed to hold their position...Read More and report here (pdf)

NEW ZEALAND
Increasing demand for university places in science, engineering and teaching should be met because New Zealand’s economic recovery is dependent on a workforce which includes these professional skills, according to the universities’ representative body...Read More

One of the significant issues the review of PBRF faces is what information about individual staff evaluations TEC should give tertiary institutions...Read More and download consultation paper here

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Systems for ranking colleges and universities are becoming more common worldwide, and are exerting an ever-more-powerful influence on how those institutions operate...Read More

Some of the country's most prestigious universities – including Oxford, Edinburgh and King's College London – are facing swingeing cuts to their language departments because the government has diverted funding from arts and humanities subjects to protect the sciences....Read More

A new report from the United States attempts to quantify the cost of earning a degree...Read Report (pdf)

NEW ZEALAND
Professor Peter Gluckman, the founding director of the Liggins Institute and a world-leading medical researcher, was today named the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor...Read More

A $40 million fund to support critical social services for New Zealanders during the economic downturn will help struggling families and communities get the support they need during the economic downturn...Read More

AUSTRALIA
UNIVERSITIES are facing a tough two years as they wait for the Government's money to come through amid warnings quality could suffer...Read More

AUSTRALIA aims to win a decent share of the fast-growing offshore funds for research and development as part of its push to become "one of the great knowledge economies of the 21st century", according to the Rudd Government's innovation white paper...Read More

A unique China-Australian collaboration in neuroscience has been formed between UQ's Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) and The Institute of Biophysics (IBP), Chinese Academy of Sciences...Read More

A NEW system for sharing animal tissue between researchers, reducing unnecessary cost and suffering, has signed up two Australian universities and generated interest overseas...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
The peer-review system for allocating research grants is on the brink of breakdown, it was warned this week, as research councils struggle to find enough suitable academics willing to review applications...Read More

The Government's former Chief Scientific Adviser has come up with a controversial hypothesis to explain why female academics apply for fewer research grants than their male counterparts..Read More

With world trade volumes likely to shrink by as much as 13 percent in 2009 from 2008 levels, the OECD is urging governments to avoid protectionist measures and keep markets open in order to allow economies to benefit from the recovery when it comes...Read More

In a case that could determine the fate of gene patents, a group of cancer patients, clinicians, researchers and activists have sued the US Patent and Trademark Office and the owners of patents on two genes associated with cancer...Read More

“Neither the university as a collective nor its faculty as individuals should advocate personal, political, moral, or any other kind of views except academic views” (p.19). This is the primary message of law professor and former University of Illinois-Chicago Arts and Sciences Dean Stanley Fish...Read More

The European Union's multibillion-euro research initiative, the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7), is paralysed by red tape and a "paradigm change" in its regulation is needed.,,Read More

The ethics of Chinese scholars have come under intense scrutiny following a recent scandal in the country...Read More

Researchers looking for a little extra money to explore an idea may soon have a new funding 'agency' to ask for help: the masses...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
The organisation which represents businesses has reservations about the Government's decision to cut planned increases in spending on tertiary education institutions...Read More and more

AUSTRALIA
Before the government handed down its budget last week, its spin-merchants had convinced the nation's higher education leaders they could expect little. So when the money appeared to be gushing towards them last Tuesday they were overjoyed and only later did they realise it would be years before they saw the flood of cash - if then...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
An obsession with generating income from intellectual property (IP) is distracting universities from the real issues when engaging with business...Read More

Big Pharma is in the throes of convulsive change...Read More

The pharmaceutical industry and the European Commission have forged a multimillion-euro collaboration aimed at developing new medicines and bringing them to market more quickly...Read More

On 4 November in Paris, the company announced the world’s top 27 business schools after an extensive investigation had identified the most important 1,000 schools from around the globe...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
Finance minister Bill English stated in parliament yesterday that he intends to cut tertiary education commitments to fund the probation service and corrections service. He then confirmed his intention this morning on National Radio’s Morning Report...Read More

This report looks at trends in the fields of specialisation of bachelors degree graduates in New Zealand over the period 2002 to 2006. It uses newly developed, more detailed, and more reliable information on field of study than has previously been available...Read More

Labour Market Factsheets are designed to give quick facts about key interest groups in the New Zealand Labour Market. There are factsheets on five groups- Maori, Pacific Peoples, Females, Youth and Older Workers...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Stanford U. Experiments With Open Office Hours on Facebook...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
NZ Must Emulate Australian Funding Boost For Universities...Read More

Waikato University and Wintec have signed an agreement which will further enhance learning and research in the region and will see the complementary delivery of some programmes...Read More

Waikato University worth nearly one billion dollars a year to national economy...Read More

AUSTRALIA
MORE than $5 billion will be ploughed into tertiary education and research over the next six years to significantly expand student numbers and boost research...Read More and more, more (performance standards), more (innovation), more (Universities Australia)

BEING a university vice-chancellor should be about inspiring learning and discovery, but it is more about penny pinching...Read More

International education activity contributed $15.5 billion in export income to the Australian economy in 20081, up 23.4
per cent from the previous calendar year...Read More (pdf)

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Research universities should consider merging, says vice-chancellor...Read More

The teaching budget for universities will be cut by £65 million in the next academic year...Read More, more

The role of innovation and creativity in the public sector will be discussed on Wednesday, 13 May, in the third Brussels Debate...Read More

After months of steady disclosures about financial conflcts of interest in scientific research, the National Institutes of Health is moving forward with a promise of tighter regulation...Read More

The United States' flagship underground laboratory is running into challenges over its relations with local Native Americans...Read More

The European Union is seeking to promote clusters of large companies, SMEs, researchers, and other economic actors to help foster innovation...Read More

Austria has announced that it will withdraw from CERN, Europe's premier high-energy physics laboratory, located near Geneva in Switzerland...Read More

Economic benefits of international education to the United States...Read More

Harvard, Chicago and others will enroll smaller classes of doctoral students in the fall. Is recession forcing long-term change on graduate education?...Read More

News on EU Research Policy and Programmes (May 2009)...Read More (pdf)

NEW ZEALAND
The abrupt withdrawal of a $12.5 million Government suspensory loan for the Otago Polytechnic's new Otago Institute of Design and the unsatisfactory way in which it has been explained to date is just one of the puzzling, not to say disturbing, questions that arise as a result of the announcement...Read More

A Dunedin-linked nanotechnology company whose technology could speed up the development of vaccines against swine flu and other viruses has received a $500,000 funding boost...Read More

The upcoming budget will include $20 million over three years to fund a seismic survey programme to encourage oil and gas exploration...Read More

A research consortium that aims to make New Zealand globally recognised as the leader in innovative meat science for pet care, will be launched by AgResearch, Mars and Massey University...Read More

New Zealand has one of the lowest reported higher education qualification completion rates in the OECD, significantly below Australia...Read More

Prime Minister John Key’s acknowledgement that partnerships between universities and the private sector achieve real results that have a major economic impact has been welcomed by the organisation which represents university interests in this country...Read More

The Government today signed a Deed of Settlement with South Island and Hauraki iwi which delivers a $97 million payment for aquaculture space that was approved between 1992 and 2004....Read More

This report looks at trends in the fields of specialisation of bachelors degree graduates in New Zealand over the period 2002 to 2006...Read More

Major new research initiatives at The University of Auckland will be launched at an event celebrating research excellence this evening...Read More

Society at a Glance 2009 - OECD Social Indicators: Key findings for New Zealand...Read More

Katene - Patents Bill: First Reading...Read More

In a move to optimise the nutritional and health-giving qualities of foods from pastoral-based sources for human consumption, AgResearch has put the official seal on a collaboration with The University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute...Read More

AUSTRALIA
THE $15.5 billion export education boom continues to defy the global recession, showing record annual growth of 20.8 per cent in the number of international students in universities and vocational colleges for the key March enrolment period...Read More

LAST week's decision to more than double the amount of electricity sourced from renewable energy "meant a generation of research and development had to be done in a decade", the Clean Energy Council says...Read More

AUSTRALIA'S biggest universities have been ravaged by the global financial crisis, with the University of Melbourne reporting a $245.7 million loss in the value of its investments and the University of NSW an $87 million writedown...Read More

A survey of university graduate outcomes five years after university has found most Australian graduates are enjoying employment success and earning high salaries...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
A study into the behaviour of expert chess players has led a team of researchers to make a controversial hypothesis - that those who judged the quality of work submitted to the 2008 research assessment exercise were not qualified for the task...Read More

I recently looked at the c.v. of a distinguished professor of medicine and saw that he had authored (most usually had co-authored) about 800 articles in peer-reviewed journals...Read More

Beginning in 2007, and for a period of two years, the Global Science Forum focussed its attention on strengthening the connection between academic mathematics and industry...Read More

The first of the annual university league tables has been published by The Independent, topped as usual by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. However, the newspaper's table, printed on 30 April, suggested that new universities were closing the gap on their older rivals...Read More

The real power of social networks will be showcased by projects that unite far-flung participants to help track disease outbreaks, revolutionize neighborhood-watch programs, encourage energy conservation, and serve other civic and community goals...Read More

In this edited excerpt from her Research and Society Lecture to the 2008 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, ethicist Margaret Somerville argues that universities are becoming forums of intolerance...Read More

Strangely, business gurus like Peter Drucker have often made a more compelling argument for liberal education than the academy has...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Will Financial Crisis Starve Academic Innovation?...Read More

Preliminary figures from the European Patent Office (EPO) reveal that the number of applications for new patents is down 7% in the first two months of 2009...Read More

Canada should take some lessons from the big top, specifically the Cirque du Soleil performers, if it wants to be among the global leaders in research and innovation, according to the first public benchmark report of the Science Technology and Innovation Council....Read More

The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) officially opened its doors last week to a queue of scientists waiting hungrily for beamline time...Read More

Full implementation of the Bologna process' objectives at the European, national and institutional levels will require increased momentum and commitment beyond 2010...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Developments over the last few decades have changed some of the primary concerns of scholarly book publishers within university presses. The enterprise of publishing remains a vital part of the ecology of the academy, but the future direction of book publishing is unclear...Read More

The legislative process to reform Finland's university sector is experiencing a few last-minute hiccups. Aspects of the radical changes intended for university governance might be unconstitutional...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
Students today are welcoming positive initiatives that tertiary institutions are proposing to support students who cannot find work over the summer period...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
Universities should recruit more staff from outside higher education to bolster the sector’s economic impact during the recession, according to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta)...Read More

In this new Bruegel policy brief, Jean Pisani-Ferry and Bruno van Pottelsberghe show that although the crisis originated in the US, Europe’s outlook has deteriorated faster and more sharply leading to the worst crisis observed during the post-war era...Read More

US Department of Energy rolls out funding for science partnerships...Read More

As growing appreciation of Open Access to research drives demand for new resources - on what Open Access is and how it benefits faculty, students and researchers worldwide - the popular Open Access Directory (OAD) marked its first anniversary on 30 April 2009...Read More

NEW ZEALAND
One hundred and thirty of New Zealand’s medical students will be in Christchurch this weekend to attend a conference that looks at medicine as an art, rather than as pure science...Read More

EVERYWHERE ELSE
A web tool that "could be as important as Google", according to some experts, has been shown off to the public...Read More