NATIONAL NEWS

Poor students owe govt R9.8bn

 The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has to date recovered just over a quarter of the R12bn it has loaned to poor students, according to a report released in Cape Town on Tuesday."NSFAS has recovered only R3.2bn (26%) of the total R12bn in funds it has loaned - the second-lowest recovery ratio globally among student financial aid schemes," the document states.

Report moots R43000 grant for poor students

 STUDENTS qualifying for state funding could get R43000 a year from the National Students’ Financial Aid Scheme (NSFas) if a proposal made yesterday to Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande is accepted by the Cabinet.The plan would cost the state about R5,2bn a year.

Insight: Seeking free higher education - Dr Badat is Vice Chancellor of Rhodes University

 I SUPPORT the ideal of free higher education. I also support the idea that healthcare should be available free of charge to all in need, just as I believe that our economic and social policies should prioritise full employment through which all can enjoy the dignity that is associated with leading economically and socially productive lives.

Govt calling retired experts back

 The government is recruiting retired experts in various fields - such as education, health care and agriculture - so that their expertise may be channelled back into the country.Retired doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social and health care workers have been recruited for an HIV testing campaign in two advertisements which appeared in newspapers on Tuesday.

Tshwane South College re-opened, but empty

 The Atteridgeville campus of the Tshwane South College has re-opened after being closed last week due to a student protest.Demonstrators set fire to a lecture hall and vandalised property during protests over a lack of textbooks and other learning materials.In February lecturers closed down the college during a protest which led to 10 educators being arrested.

Pityana to move on from Unisa

 UNIVERSITY of SA (Unisa) vice- chancellor Prof Barney Pityana is to retire at the end of the year, the university says.Pityana would turn 65 this year and had served the maximum two terms as vice-chancellor, Unisa spokeswoman Doreen Gough said. His post, which he has held since 2001, has been advertised.Gough said Pityana was considering taking up a visiting professorship overseas.

Top KZN matriculants honoured

 KwaZulu-Natal’s top matriculants were honoured at a special top achievers awards ceremony at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.A total of 167 students received certificates and scho- larships for their efforts.

REGIONAL & INTERNATIONAL NEWS

ANGOLA- Angola, Portugal analyse higher education, technology issues

The Angolan minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Maria Cândida Teixeira, will receive on Wednesday, here, her Portuguese counterpart, José Mariano Gago, with whom she analyse cooperation between both countries.According to a press release that Angop had got access on Tuesday, the Portuguese official arrives on Wednesday in Luanda and stays here for two days.

RWANDA- Students in Anti-Genocide Ideology Drive

 University students across the country, in partnership with the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, have launched a campaign to sensitize secondary school students against Genocide ideology, through messages of unity and reconciliation.The messages against genocide ideology are communicated by students in their respective clubs of Unity and reconciliation (SCURs) that are found in over 20 universities across the country.

CHINA- 13 China colleges to offer anti-smoking courses

 Thirteen Chinese medical colleges will introduce smoking control courses into their curriculum amid efforts to help raise public awareness about the dangers of smoking.It will be the first time that Chinese universities have offered such courses, Shen Huahao, vice dean of the School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, said Tuesday.

lNDIA- ‘Foreign Universities will raise standards'

 The Union Cabinet on Monday approved The Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, 2010, which allows the foreign universities to set up campuses in India and offer degrees. This has paved the way for the introduction of the Bill in the Parliament. Express spoke to a few academicians in the city to know their reactions.

INDIA- Distance Education Council alarms institutions for misleading

 The Chairman, Distance Education Council (DEC) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai cautioned universities and institutions giving misleading advertisements in newspapers, stating that their programmes are recognized by the Council."DEC has prescribed the guidelines for determination of the standards for distance education systems in the country.

AUSTRALIA- Qualifications hit by scatter-gun training approach

 VICE-CHANCELLORS' fears that the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency being developed by the government will be too heavy-handed would be more credible had they done more to end their universities' poor and dubious practices.Every Australian university remains in substantial breach of the Australian qualifications framework with their masters degrees of 12 to 18 months, and many universities offer so-called graduate certificates, diplomas and masters that include substantial amounts of undergraduate study.

TURKEY- New universities coming soon

 Seven new state universities are to be established in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Konya, Kayseri, and Erzurum once the relevant legislation is approved, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek announced on Monday.Çiçek announced plans for the new universities at a press conference following Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES- Foreign unis putting profit before students

 Foreign universities are setting up in the UAE “for the profit” at the expense of students’ education, the chancellor of Abu Dhabi University said on Monday amid growing concerns over standards.Nabil Ibrahim described the quality of foreign universities operating in the Gulf state as “very low” and urged that all educational institutions should be brought under a single regulator.

UK- University? Try again in a few years warns Ucas head as 300,000 face missing out

Thousands of university hopefuls should consider taking a degree later in life because a record amount will fail to win a place this year, the head of the admissions board warned.Mary Curnock Cook, head of Ucas, said 300,000 applicants face rejection this year, including tens of thousands of sixth form pupils, after a dramatic rise in the numbers applying for degree places.

UK- University Research Generates GBP 45bn Per Year

 A paper being presented at a British Academy/Economic and Social Research Council innovation seminar at 1pm today claims that the £3.5billion that is spent on publicly funded research generates £45billion of extra output from UK companies.The economic impact paper has been jointly written by Professor Jonathan Haskel of the Imperial College Business School and Gavin Wallis of University College London and HM Treasury).

USA- Higher education gets a reprieve in 2011, but faces a cliff in 2012

 Few people would consider a $42 million revenue cut gentle.But that's what administrators at Virginia's public colleges and universities were calling the cuts to state higher education funding in the General Assembly's 2011 budget."We dodged the bullet," said Dan Hix, finance policy director for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.