International

The election of François Hollande as France's president also marks a breakthrough in French higher education, Le Monde reported. Hollande is the first alumnus of HEC (a business-focused university) to become president, and he's the first French president to have attended a business school. (More typical educational backgrounds have been at the nation's elite military or civil service-oriented institutions.) Le Monde noted that "the HEC phenomenon" is evident in a range of powerful people in French society who are its graduates. They include business leaders, as is to be expected, but also Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization; Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund; Rémy Pflimlin, president of France Télévisions; and Louis Dreyfus, chairman of the executive board of Le Monde Group. The rise of these HEC-educated officials represents "profound change in the French elites."

 

Nakba, the Arabic word for "catastrophe," is the name given by Palestinians to the day Israelis mark their anniversary as a nation. Tel Aviv University, resisting pressure from government officials and others, is permitting a student group to have a "Nakba Day" event today, The Jerusalem Post reported. Critics say that universities, as they are supported by the Israeli government, should not associate with activities many see as questioning the right of the Israeli state to exist, and Israeli law bars the use of public funds for such activities. The education minister called university officials to lobby them to cancel the event. University officials said that they were complying with the law by requiring the student organizers to pay for the event and associated security costs.

Students who set up the event said that free speech should include important discussions of the Palestinian perspective. Dan Walfisch, a history and philosophy major and an organizer of the ceremony, said of the event: "It will not include rejection of Israel’s right to exist. Our goal is only to recognize the suffering of the Palestinian people because we see mutual recognition as a condition of having a shared existence in Israel.”

The Indian Cabinet on Thursday cleared two key pieces of higher education legislation that now can move forward for Parliamentary review, The Times of India reported. One bill would require accreditation for all higher education institutions. The other bill would set a process for designating some universities as research excellence hubs.

Romania's prime minister, Victor Ponta, has ordered an investigation into whether Ioan Mang, the new education minister, has plagiarized, AFP reported. The inquiry will be conducted by the Romanian Academy, and follows complaints from researchers in Israel, Japan and Taiwan that Mang's work included their own work on information technology.

A crash in New Zealand killed three Boston University students early Saturday and injured five others. The students were on a weekend trip to the countryside when the van in which they were traveling swerved off the road and crashed. Boston University has a study abroad program in Auckland, in which the students were participating (except for one of the injured students, who was participating in a BU program in Australia). Boston University has added extra counseling services for students on its main campus. Two New Zealand universities with which the BU program there is affiliated -- University of Auckland and the Auckland University of Technology -- have extended their counseling services to BU students who are studying abroad in the country.

Universitas 21, a group of universities from around the world, has released a new international ranking of nations' higher education systems. Countries were evaluated on a series of measures related to resources (spending by governments and private sources); output (research and its impact and graduates who meet labor market needs); connectivity (international collaboration); and the higher education environment (government policies, diversity and other factors). Population was taken into account. The top five countries: United States, Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark.

The Korea Foundation is planning a significant expansion of programs designed to promote Korean studies in countries other than Korea, The Korea Herald reported. The Global E-School Program, which sets up centers at universities that mix locally based programs with real-life instruction from professors in South Korea, is one of the programs slated for expansion. The foundation currently supports 19 university centers in 12 countries. The foundation is starting an effort such that it would be supporting 57 centers in 23 countries.

The top appeals court in Alberta ruled Wednesday that Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to the way universities treat students, Canada.com reported. The ruling came in a case concerning the University of Calgary's decision to punish two students for their criticism on Facebook of an instructor. The appeals court said that the university's decision could be challenged for infringing on the students' right to free expression. "The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to the disciplinary proceedings undertaken by the university," said the decision.