My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• News: Outsourcing Teaching, Overseas – How to teach university degree programs offered overseas is a complicated question. Does a university rely on faculty from the home campus to travel abroad for a year, semester or month at a time to teach, hire a new cadre of faculty at the overseas location, deliver coursework through distance education, or some combination thereof?
• Higher education and unemployment in Europe – Paper by Imanol Núñez and Ilias Livanos in the latest edition of 'Higher education'. The paper examines the impact of an academic degree and field of study on short and longterm unemployment across Europe (EU15). The study analyses (1) the effect of an academic degree at a European level, (2) the specific effect of 14 academic subjects and (3) country specific effects. The results indicate that an academic degree is more effective on reducing the likelihood of short-term than long-term unemployment. This general pattern even though it is observed for most of the academic subjects its levels show significant variation across disciplines and countries.
• Beyond Europe: the New Student Travel – By and large, the students I've known are not going to Europe anymore. Some still are, to be sure: the young man who spent a few weeks tramping around the Lake District; the young woman who did a summer course in Rome. But they are now the exceptions. For most of the students I've known, Europe no longer possesses the mystique it once did. It's just another spot on the map, and not a particularly exciting one, at that. Besides, they've had other places to go. They've gone to China and India and Kenya and Nicaragua and Peru. They've taught English in Seoul, worked on documentaries in Buenos Aires, volunteered in health clinics in Guatemala, interned with corporations in Mumbai or newspapers in Phnom Penh.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Europe’s unwieldy patent regime: Smother of invention – According to a recent paper, “Lost property: The European patent system and why it doesn’t work”, by Bruno Van Pottelsberghe, a senior research fellow at Bruegel, a think tank, it can cost between four and ten times more to get a patent in Europe than in America, Japan, China or South Korea, depending on how many countries are involved.
• First international nanotech lab opens in Portugal – The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) has been formally opened in Braga, Portugal by Juan Carlos I, the King of Spain. Now the lab, which covers 26,000 square metres and will house 200 scientists, is scouting for pharmaceutical and biotech partners for advanced nanotechnology projects.
• The missing link – Why are American universities so much better at patenting their work than their European counterparts? Craig Evan Klafter spots a crucial difference in the qualifications of patent lawyers

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• 40,000 international students in limbo over residency changes, says demographer – More than 40,000 students who expected to gain permanent residency in Australia may not qualify because of recent policy changes, research estimates. Monash University demographer Bob Birrell says the changes, implemented this year, were not getting through to the international student community. He said enrolments in vocational training were on the rise and most students expected their qualifications would lead to permanent residency.
• Key Data on Education 2009: a view on Europe’s Educational systems – Between 1998 and 2006, the higher education student population rose continuously in the European Union to reach over 18 million (a 25% increase in eight years). A third of all 20-22 year-olds now participate in a higher education course. A stable trend since 2002, women’s participation in higher education is higher than men's overall (123 women enrolled for 100 men) but significant imbalances depending on the field of study still remain. In addition, participation of older students is a growing trend in line with the aim of a lifelong learning approach to knowledge, but with important variations between countries.
• India’s higher education bill criticised – An Indian bill allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in the country has evoked strong criticism from the chair of a high-level national committee established to revamp higher education. The government approved the bill, which allows foreign direct investment in higher education and regulates the entry, operation and maintenance of foreign education providers, earlier this year.
• Comparing Modern Education to a Placebo – Placebo effects can be very powerful and many supposedly effective medicines do not in fact outperform the placebo. The sorry truth is that no one has compared modern education to a placebo. What if we just gave people lots of face-to-face contact and told them they were being educated?

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Lost in the Cloud – NYTimes.com – Many people consider the move towards cloud computing to be as sensible and inevitable as the move from answering machines to voicemail. With your stuff in the cloud, it’s not a catastrophe to lose your laptop, any more than losing your glasses would permanently destroy your vision. In addition, as more and more of our information is gathered from and shared with others — through Facebook, MySpace or Twitter — having it all online can make a lot of sense. The cloud, however, comes with real dangers.
• 15 Foreign Universities Drawn to Incheon Free Zone – Currently, 15 foreign universities are seeking to open branches on the Songdo Global University Campus. All but one, the University of Pavia in Italy, are American. Among them, Duke University, Columbia University, Boston University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California, San Diego. Among the seven universities that have already signed MOU's for undergraduate programs, North Carolina State University and State University of New York at Stony Brook have made the fastest progress.
• California’s Crisis Hits Its Prized Universities – California's crisis continues while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders inch slowly toward agreement on the deep cuts necessary to close California's massive $26 billion budget shortfall. Now, even as the state continues to pay its bills with IOUs, the University of California, the nation's leading public university, is being forced to cut its budget by $813 million — or 20%. It is highly unlikely that these cuts will be reduced by a budget agreement in Sacramento.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• What went wrong with economics – OF ALL the economic bubbles that have been pricked, few have burst more spectacularly than the reputation of economics itself. A few years ago, the dismal science was being acclaimed as a way of explaining ever more forms of human behaviour, from drug-dealing to sumo-wrestling. In the wake of the biggest economic calamity in 80 years that reputation has taken a beating. In the public mind an arrogant profession has been humbled.
• Is blind peer review an illusion? – So, I’m reviewing a piece for a journal today. I wondered: is blind peer review an illusion? First, the sub-circles that many of us hang out in often are so small that one is likely to have seen the piece presented previously (probably worth sending the editor a note if you know the authors). Second, with tone, citation patterns and sub-topic one can often pick out, say, a Lizardo from a King. Third, it can be all-too tempting and easy to google the title of the manuscript, and more often than not one is likely to find the authors. I don’t know how widely “googling” is used by reviewers, it would be interesting to find out via an anonymous survey.
• Talentopolis – Today a highly significant demographic realignment is at work: the mass relocation of highly skilled, highly educated, and highly paid people to a relatively small number of metropolitan regions, and a corresponding exodus of traditional lower- and middle-class people from those same places. Such geographic sorting of people by economic potential, on this scale, is unprecedented. I call it simply the means migration.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• The Hindu: Why the U.S. is the most favoured destination – Though there is great mobility of international students around the globe, most of them favour certain countries, the most favoured among them being the United States. The United Kingdom, Germany, and France come next, usually in that order. Nearly one-fourth of the international students go to the U.S. There are several reasons for this popularity.
• Report Urges Fewer Restrictions on Skilled Immigrants to U.S. : ScienceInsider – An expert panel convened by the Council on Foreign Relations has recommended increasing the number of foreign students and skilled workers allowed to enter the United States as part of a comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration policy. "It makes no sense to restrict the immigration of those skilled workers who are highly sought after by many countries, and who would bring the greatest economic benefits to the United States," states the report, issued yesterday, which asserts that the country "is badly mishandling its immigration policy, with serious consequences for its standing in the world."
• Universities swamped by surge of applicants – The number of applicants to UK universities has leapt almost 10 per cent, boosted by a sharp increase in older people seeking to ride out a difficult labour market.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Lund Declaration: let Grand Challenges drive EU research – European research must focus on the Grand Challenges of our time moving beyond current rigid thematic approaches. This calls for a new deal among European institutions and Member States, in which European and national instruments are well aligned and cooperation builds on transparency and trust. Identifying and responding to Grand Challenges should involve stakeholders from both public and private sector in transparent processes taking into account the global dimension.
• Does studying abroad induce a brain drain? – This paper investigates whether studying abroad increases the propensity to live abroad later on. We use an IV approach based on cut-offs in the ranking of Dutch higher education graduates who applied for a scholarship program for outstanding students. Applicants ranked above the cut-off received a scholarship to study abroad. Applicants ranked below the cutoff were denied a scholarship. Assignment of a scholarship increases the probability to study abroad and the number of months spent studying abroad. Studying abroad and the number of months spent studying abroad increase the probability of currently living abroad.
• Superpowers lose ground as balance of power shifts – A global "redistribution of brains" may take place as academic job security diminishes and the world's education superpowers lose ground to emerging nations as a result of the economic crisis. This was the scenario outlined at an international higher education conference last week, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Superpowers lose ground as balance of power shifts – A global "redistribution of brains" may take place as academic job security diminishes and the world's education superpowers lose ground to emerging nations as a result of the economic crisis. This was the scenario outlined at an international higher education conference last week, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
• Experts Assess Consequences of Global Surge in Demand for Higher Education – Higher-education systems around the world have experienced tremendous growth in recent years, in a phenomenon a new report calls an unprecedented global “academic revolution.” But despite the enrollment of nearly 153 million students at universities worldwide—a figure that represents a 53-percent increase in just nine years—fundamental challenges remain in ensuring the quality and accessibility of higher education, participants at an international conference here said this week.
• Call for revived Colombo plan – Scholarships worth scores of millions of dollars should be rolled into a Colombo plan mark II to recalibrate Australia's relations with overseas students and address critical regional, environmental and security issues, a vice-chancellor says.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Video viewpoints on Higher Education at a Time of Crisis – This conference debated questions of supply and demand, costs and income in higher education and will analyse the role and responsibility of higher education institutions and how to transform these challenges into opportunities.
• Sprachkompetenz: Speak I good English? – Das Englisch genannte Kauderwelsch vieler Gaststudenten lässt Dozenten in Großbritannien graue Haare wachsen. Weil Ausländer an britischen Unis oft nur radebrechen, leide die Wissenschaft, klagt ein Hochschulverband. Bei Englisch-Zeugnissen werde außerdem oft gemogelt.
• Groupthink in Academia: majoritarian departmental politics and the professional pyramid (pdf) – Perhaps we avoid studying our institutional lives because such work is not valued by our colleagues. The academy is, after all, a club, and members are expected to be discreet. Like any exclusive club, the academic world fears public scrutiny. Research is in the public domain. Outsiders might use what the research reveals against the academy.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Those exceptional Swedes – Its fearsome levels of organisation and conformity are offset by a relaxed, outdoorsy culture, and the openness that goes with being a small, maritime country. If Zurich were crossed with Sydney, the result might be something like Stockholm.
• The new dynamics of higher education and research for societal change and development – Introductory Remarks by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General delivered at UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education
• Janez Potocnik: A pension as mobile as any researcher – We are going to use the feasibility study to look into how we can implement a pan-European pension system that both matches the needs of researchers; and is complementary to existing state pension schemes. This will mean involving those who are concerned, such as universities, public and private research institutions and companies who do a lot of R&D and we will, of course, be doing this automatically.
• The Internationalization of U.S. Doctorate Education – One of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education and the international market for highly-trained workers in science and engineering during the last quarter century is the representation of students from outside of the United States among the ranks of doctorate recipients from U.S. universities. In all but the life sciences, the foreign share of Ph.D. recipients now equals or exceeds the share from the United States. Students from outside the United States accounted for 51 percent of Ph.D. recipients in science and engineering in 2003, up from 27 percent in 1973. In 2003, doctorate recipients from outside the United States accounted for 50 percent of Ph.D.s awarded in the physical sciences, 67 percent in engineering, and 68 percent in economics.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Higher Education, Research and Innovation: Changing Dynamics (pdf) – this report includes position papers and analytical essays covering the major issues facing knowledge systems today. These systems are constituted by the sectors of higher education, science and?technology and innovation where the generation of high-level knowledge?through strong research capacity is a common feature. Thus, how?research is governed, organized and funded and how the the essential?human capital is assured are critical concerns.
• Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution (pdf) – This Report will highlight key trends in higher education and provide a brief description of worldwide developments of these trends with supporting statistical or data illustrations and an analysis. The major trends are: massification in higher education; globalization and internationalization; distance education and new applications for information and communication technologies (ICTs); the privatization of higher education; the global flow of talent (globalization has exacerbated the worldwide movement of highly educated people); the academic profession at a crossroads for the student experience; research universities and the “world-class” phenomenon; financing higher education; quality assurance and university-industry linkages. The Report will conclude by outlining some future trends in higher education.
• Subsidised access may be behind developing country research boom – Developing countries have dramatically increased their research output — and the leaders of schemes that provide free and subsidised access to scientific papers are claiming some of the credit.
• Hugo Chavez is Scaring Away Talent – After a decade of the so-called Bolivarian revolution, tens of thousands of disillusioned Venezuelan professionals have had enough. Artists, lawyers, physicians, managers and engineers are leaving the country by droves, while those already abroad are scrapping plans to return.
• LinkedIn v freemasons: Joining the club – Online professional networks such as LinkedIn, headquartered in California, Viadeo, a French-owned website, and Xing, a site with a strong presence in German-speaking countries, are surging in popularity, thanks in part to fear of lay-offs amid the recession.

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My daily selection of the most interesting news on the internets:

• Wellcome Funds Pan-African Research Consortia – The Wellcome Trust is pouring nearly $50 million into bolstering research capacity in Africa. On Thursday, the U.K. biomedical research charity announced seven pan-African research partnerships, involving more than 50 universities and research institutions, as part of a ?30 million pound ($49.4 million) initiative.
• Creative destruction – Some see the financial catastrophe as the kind of crisis economist Joseph Schumpeter prescribed to kick start a new cycle. But conditions may not be right for an innovation-led boom, believes Sami Mahroum.
• What Is a Master’s Degree Worth? – How do students know if an M.A. is worth it or not? What degrees might be worth getting, and which are not? How does a student weigh the risks and benefits of taking that intermediate step in higher education?
• Beware scientific fundamentalism – Science journalists should aim to be "informed critics" of science, supporting its values but wary of backing everything said in its name.

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