Tuesday, August 16, 2011

US dominates world university rankings - again

Ace! NewsFlash


US universities continue to dominate the upper echelons of world rankings, taking 17 of the top 20 spots in the Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking.


Harvard University

Harvard University tops the Shanghai Jiao Tong world rankings for the ninth successive year


The 2011 top 500 table compiled by the Chinese institution, officially known as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), was published today and shows a top 10 of:

Harvard University,

Stanford University,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

University of California, Berkeley,

University of Cambridge,

California Institute of Technology,

Princeton University,

Columbia University,

Chicago University,

University of Oxford.

The US performance of eight universities in the top 10 and 17 in the top 20 is unchanged from the previous year.

In continental Europe, ETH Zurich (23) in Switzerland is the highest ranked institution, followed by Paris-Sud (40) and Pierre and Marie Curie (41) in France.

The highest ranked universities in Asia are the University of Tokyo (21) and Kyoto University (27) in Japan.

The ARWU uses six indicators to rank universities: number of alumni and staff who have won Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals; number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Scientific; number of articles published in Nature and Science; number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index; and per capita performance with respect to the size of an institution.

The number of Chinese universities in the top 500 has increased to 35 (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) – up from 32 the previous year.

The US has 151 institutions in the top 500, while the UK has 37.

The UK institutions ranked in the top 100 are: Cambridge (5), Oxford (10), University College London (20), Imperial College London (24), the University of Manchester (38), the University of Edinburgh (53), King’s College London (68), the University of Bristol (70), the University of Nottingham (85), and the University of Sheffield (97).

An Oxford historian, Howard Hotson, sparked a debate earlier this year when he argued that any rankings comparison between US and UK national performance must adjust for the US’ large population and high gross domestic product, as well as its relatively high level of spending on tertiary education (3.1 per cent of GDP compared with 1.3 per cent in the UK).


15 August 2011, timeshighereducation.co.uk



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World's top 100 universities 2011: ranked by Times Higher Education

Ace! NewsFlash

The US has topped a reputation ranking of worldwide universities taking nearly half of the top 100 places, but how do other countries compare?

Harvard University
Harvard University ranks highest in the world according to the Times Higher Education for reputation in teaching and research.

The US boasts the most reputable universities in the world according to a new global reputation ranking out today.

The list published by the Times Higher Education, is the first of its kind looking solely at the reputations of institutions for teaching and research. Harvard comes top closely followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) beating both Oxford and Cambridge universities.

The US dominates with seven universities in the top ten and a massive 45 in the total rankings. Taking 12 of the places in the top 100, the UK is second to the US with Cambridge university beating Oxford. Imperial College, University College London (UCL), London School of Economics and Edinburgh University also make the top 50.

Get the fullscreen version

The rankings based on a survey of 13,388 academics over 131 countries is the largest evaluation of academic reputation and is used partly used in indicators for compiling the well-known Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The rankings also show Japan beating Canada, Australia and Germany with the flagship, University of Tokyo, at eighth place making it the only other nation apart from the US and UK to feature in the top ten.

With university fees rocketing and more applicants fighting for places, university reputation is set to be an even bigger focus for prospective students.

Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, said: "In an ever more competitive global market for students, academics and university administrators a university's reputation for academic excellence is crucial."

The full Times Higher education World Reputation Rankings 2011 with data supplied by Thomson Reuters, can be found in our table below. To see how the university reputations compare with their world rankings can be found in our spreadsheet.

Data summary

Reputation ranking University 2010 Top 100 ranking Country

1 Harvard University 1 US

2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3 US

3 University of Cambridge 7 UK

4 University of California, Berkeley 8 US

5 Stanford University 4 US

6 University of Oxford 7 UK

7 Princeton University 5 US

8 University of Tokyo 27 Japan

9 Yale University 10 US

10 California Institute of Technology 2 US

11 Imperial College London 9 UK

12 University of California, Los Angeles 11 US

13 University of Michigan 15 US

14 Johns Hopkins University 13 US

15 University of Chicago 12 US

16 Cornell University 14 US

17 University of Toronto 17 Canada

18 Kyoto University 57 Japan

19 University College London 22 UK

19 University of Massachusetts 57 US



March 2011, www.guardian.co.uk


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International Student Graduate Admissions Increase Significantly


Ace! NewsFlash

Offers of admission to international students by American graduate schools grew this year at the fastest clip in five years, climbing 11 percent over last year, according to a report released today by the Council of Graduate Schools. That's the steepest one-year increase since the fall of 2006, when foreign-student numbers were recovering from a sharp dip following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Much of that growth is fueled by a 23-percent expansion in offers of admission to prospective students from China, the sixth consecutive year of double-digit gains.

Admissions offers to students from India also jumped, by 8 percent, the first uptick in prospective students from that country since fall of 2007. India trails only China as the largest source of international students to the United States.

Offers of admission to students from South Korea, however, remained flat, compared to 2010, after four years in a row of declines.

Together, those three countries account for half of all non-U.S. citizens on student visas at American graduate schools.

Offers to students from the Middle East and Turkey also rose, by 16 percent over 2010. The council tracks students collectively from that region because of its geopolitical importance.

The report, which is based on responses to a survey sent to 494 universities, also revised upward the growth in overseas applications from initial figures released earlier this year, from 9 percent to 11 percent.

Chronicle of Higher Education

Foreign students comprise about 15 percent of all enrollments in graduate programs in the United States, and the rise in overseas admissions offers was welcomed on American campuses. "It is people voting with their feet and with their pocketbooks," said Patrick S. Osmer, chair of the council's Board of Directors.

Nathan E. Bell, director of research and policy analysis at the graduate-schools group, said the findings suggest that American institutions will "almost certainly" see an increase in overseas enrollments this fall. Enrollment statistics typically track within a couple of percentage points of offers of admission.

The admissions report follows on the heels of news that student-visa applications from India are up significantly.

Offers of admission to Indian students had fallen in recent years, declining 5 percent in 2010 and 14 percent in 2009. Karen L. Butler-Purry, associate vice president for graduate studies at Texas A&M University, said Indian-student enrollments at her institution had dropped after the university eliminated tuition benefits for many master's-degree students, as part of broader belt-tightening. Indian students are heavily represented in master's-level programs, at Texas A&M and elsewhere.

While interest from India appears to be resurgent, the rise is dwarfed by numbers from China, where the robust growth seen over the past several years shows no signs of slowing. This fall's 23 percent increase in admissions offers follows increases of 15 percent in 2010 and 17 percent in 2009.

Still, Mr. Bell, the author of the admissions report, cautions that such enormous expansions are unlikely to continue in the long term. "Right now, China can't keep up with the demand for graduate education," he said. But as the country builds more and better universities, he said, some students who now enroll in American graduate programs will elect to stay home.

"We can't maintain large, double-digit increases forever," Mr. Bell said. "It's not sustainable."

Mr. Bell noted that country-specific enrollment trends frequently are reflective of conditions within certain countries, like higher-education capacity, as well as economic health and the value of the national currency.

However, Mr. Osmer, who is vice provost of graduate studies and dean of the graduate school at Ohio State University, said his institution is also trying to take a more strategic approach to the often-decentralized process of graduate-student recruitment. For one, Ohio State is trying to use its research partnerships overseas to build stronger pipelines for student recruitment, he said.

Admissions offers grew especially vigorously at institutions like Ohio State that enroll large numbers of foreign graduate students. At the 10 graduate schools that award the largest number of degrees to international students, offers rose 13 percent, and they climbed 12 percent at the 100 largest. Those outside the 100 largest saw a 10-percent increase, on average.

Increases in international offers of admission occurred in all broad fields of study in 2011, with the largest growth in programs in business, at 16 percent, and in physical and earth sciences, at 15 percent.

A total of 241 institutions responded to the survey, which was conducted in June and July. The responding universities account for about two-thirds of the 96,000 graduate degrees conferred to international students in the 2008-9 academic year.


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Friday, August 12, 2011

Stanford's Education Dean: Change Approach to Teaching

Ace! NewsFlash

Source: Deborah Stipek is dean of the Stanford University School of Education, Stanford, CA 94305

Figure

Many U.S. teachers must change their approach to teaching. Extensive research shows that students will become more emotionally engaged (and even passionate) if simple principles are followed: if the subject matter is connected to students' personal lives and interests; if students have opportunities to be actively involved in solving or designing solutions to novel and multidimensional problems, doing experiments, debating the implications of findings, or working collaboratively; if students have multiple opportunities to earn a good grade (by rewriting papers or retaking tests); if attention is drawn to the knowledge and skills that students are developing, not to grades or scores; and if all learning and skill development is celebrated, whatever the level.

Schools must create homework policies to ensure that diligent students aren't kept up late into the night; schedule some spacing between major tests and offer ample opportunities for students to get extra help; make sure that at least one adult is paying attention to every student's emotional needs; provide parent education on the advantages of a broad array of potential colleges; survey students regularly on the sources of their stress and make sure that this feedback informs policies; and offer opportunities for students to pursue academic interests unencumbered by performance concerns, such as in independent studies or clubs.

The world is rapidly changing. Problem-solving skills and critical analysis have become infinitely more important than being able to answer the typical questions given on standardized tests. A valuable science of teaching and learning exists that should guide efforts to improve students' interest, engagement, and intellectual skills, as well as reduce the debilitating stress that is becoming epidemic. Only by paying attention to what we know can we make the changes that youth need to lead healthy and productive lives.


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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Duke at 15, Stanford at 19!

Ace! NewsFlash


KUALA LUMPUR: A dislike of wastage and inefficiency, and a motivation towards a greener world, pushed Ng Eng Seng to study mechanical engineering.

But what’s different about Ng is that he started his degree programme when he was just 15 at Duke University, one of the best universities in the United States.

Nineteen-year-old Ng, who graduated from the university with a distinction in May, is currently pursuing his Masters in the same discipline at Stanford University, another top university in the United States.

Child genius: Ng holding a photo of himself as a baby. The prodigy has aspirations of inventing a way to recycle everyday waste into a possible source of energy.

The academically-gifted Ng hopes his studies will enable him to improve or design new processes to recycle waste.

“The waste in landfills can be converted to natural gas for generating electricity,” he said.

When he completes his Masters, Ng plans to start a company that deals with sustainable energy.

He has no idea where he would be based in the future, but Ng isn’t ruling out coming back to Malaysia, as he believes there are many opportunities here.

Ng also harbours a hope to help the nation’s gifted students realise their potential.

He was invited on Monday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor to deliver a talk to Permata Pintar Negara programme students.

The programme was established to cultivate and train gifted students.

“I found my talk with them to be very engaging and lively. I am interested in working with them in the future,” he said.

Ng said being smart was not enough and that good communication skills were very important.

He added that smart students needed to push themselves to do well all the time.

According to Ng, he does not regard any form of pressure negatively but uses it to motivate himself instead.

“If you’re not pushed, all that potential might not be realised. And that too is a form of waste,” he said.


thestar.com.my 11 Aug 2011

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ASEAN student injured in London riot

Ace! NewsFlash

LONDON (AP): The video has become synonymous with London's riots: A young man, bleeding and dazed, is helped from the ground by a group of youths - who promptly unzip his backpack and callously make off with its contents.

But who is he? And what happened next?

The young man is 20-year-old Malaysian accounting student Mohammad Asyraf Haziq, who was cycling with a friend in east London on Monday to a gathering to break his fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to a friend, Dzuhair Hanafiah.

The details of his trip are as chilling as the video.

In this image from amateur video, a gang of youths in Barking, East London stand around Mohammed Asyraf who had been attacked and mugged in the street by an earlier group during rioting Monday Aug. 8 2011. As one of this group appeared to help Haziq to his feet others took the opportunity to open his backpack and remove other valuables. AP

First, a group of about 20 teens and pre-teens surrounded him. Then they grabbed his bike, took his cell phone and broke his jaw, Dzuhair told AP on Wednesday.

"The next thing he remembered, his mouth was full of blood," said Dzuhair, a member of the London Umno club, a society for Malaysian students. "He was just left there."

The video of the attack on Mohammad Asyraf went viral Tuesday and has become one of the most memorable scenes from four days of unrest.

So shocking was the robbing of an injured man that Prime Minister David Cameron felt moved to describe it as a sign of a deeper societal malaise in Britain.

"There are pockets of our society that are not just broken but frankly sick," Cameron told reporters in somber statement Wednesday.

"When we see children as young as 12 and 13 looting and laughing, when we see the disgusting sight of an injured young man with people pretending to help him while they are robbing him, it is clear that there are things that are badly wrong with our society."

Dzuhair said Mohammad Asyraf was helped by a local woman who brought him into her home. Using Facebook, she was able to help him contact a friend and helped him until he could get to the hospital.

"His face is swollen, but he's all right," he said. "He's in good spirits."

Mohammad Asyraf has a broken jaw and is unable to talk.



thestar.com.my

Published: Thursday August 11, 2011 MYT 9:48:00 AM
Updated: Thursday August 11, 2011 MYT 10:53:15 AM


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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

UK riots: Trouble erupts in English cities



Ace! NewsFlash

Source: BBC.co.uk
10 August 2011 Last updated at 04:27 GMT



















Sporadic violence has broken out in several cities around England, although London remained largely quiet with a heavy police presence on the streets.

With 16,000 police officers deployed in London, the streets remained calm after three nights of rioting. But there was unrest in cities including Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham with shops being looted and set alight.


The PM is recalling Parliament over Monday night's "sickening scenes".

Some 108 people have been arrested so far over trouble in Manchester and Salford where crowds of youths have set fire to buildings and cars while 87 have been arrested over disorder which has broken out across the West Midlands.

In other developments:

Wounded officers

Some 111 Met officers have suffered injuries including serious head and eye wounds, cuts and fractured bones after being attacked by rioters wielding bottles, planks, bricks and even driving cars at them. Five police dogs have also been hurt.

However, Scotland Yard has drafted in special constables and community support officers to ensure five times the usual number of officers for a Tuesday will be on duty. Similar staffing levels will be maintained over three days.

David Cameron, who will chair a meeting of the Cabinet's emergency committee Cobra for the second day running at 09:00 BST, met officers in the Met Police's Gold command in Lambeth on Tuesday afternoon, before speaking to emergency service personnel in Croydon.

He condemned the "sickening scenes of people looting, vandalising, thieving, robbing".

He told rioters: "You will feel the full force of the law. And if you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punishment."

The recall of Parliament on Thursday will allow MPs to "stand together in condemnation of these crimes and to stand together in determination to rebuild these communities", he said.

The prime minister returned early from his holiday in Tuscany to discuss the unrest, which first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, by police.

London has seen a wave of "copycat criminal activity" since the initial disturbance, the Met Police said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said the use of plastic bullets - never before fired to deal with riots in England - would be "considered carefully" in the event of further disorder.

'No Army'

But he added: "That does not mean we are scared of using any tactic."

Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin had earlier ruled out calling in the Army.

Officers believe some rioters have used BlackBerry Messenger - a service allowing users to send free real-time messages - to organise violence.

Monday's disturbances included:

The Association of British Insurers says the damage is likely to cost insurers "tens of millions of pounds".

Monday's violence started in Hackney, north London, at about 16:20 BST after a man was stopped and searched by police, who found nothing.

Groups of people began attacking officers, wrecking cars with wooden poles and metal bars, and looting shops. Violence then flared separately in other parts of the capital.

'No justification'

Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who also cut short a holiday to return, was heckled by the members of the public while viewing damage in Clapham Junction on Tuesday.

Some people have complained there have been too few police to deal with the violence.

Mr Johnson told those gathered that those responsible for the violence "face punishment they will bitterly, bitterly regret".

However, when challenged to do more for communities, Mr Johnson rejected "economic or social justifications" for the violence.



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Sunday, August 7, 2011

The Evolution of U.S. College Dorms

Ace! NewsFlash


The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live




























Student Seclusion
Before the information superhighway, schools were built around massive libraries, like the 400-year-old Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, above, in Britain. Early dorms were imposing, monastic structures meant to separate students from the outside world, providing more privacy for classes and introspection. This concept of the Ivory Tower lasted for decades. "If you look at the dorms of the Harvard Yard, the windows and doors are all on the yard side," says Jonathan Zimmerman, director of the New York University's History of Education Program. "Basically, what you see from the outside is a wall."


The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live




























Bed-In
As student activism spread across campuses in the late 1960s, female students began protesting gender segregation — not only in the dorms, but at schools in general. Women at Barnard College in Manhattan, the sister school to Columbia University, staged several protests called "bed-ins" to demand equal access to education. (Despite the protests, Columbia continued to deny female students until 1983.)


The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live




























More Buck, More Bang
While state and federal funding dwindles and demand for college degrees continues to rise, tuition rates have soared — as has the need for better amenities to justify the higher expense. From 1995 to 2004, just 17% of the 113 residence halls constructed on college campuses were traditional dorms, according to the Association of College and University Housing Officers International; the vast majority were apartment-style suites. This fireplace, at the newly opened Vista del Campo Norte dormitory at the University of California at Irvine, was built by American Campus Communities, one of the nation's largest student-housing developers
.

The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live




























An Uphill Battle
Tanning salons, pool waterfalls, Mongolian grills, and hot tubs large enough for 15 people are some of the amenities offered at colleges across the country — like Boston University's new 35-foot climbing wall. Sandy Baum, a senior analyst for the College Board, says students are driving the trend: "It's not so much colleges wanting to be country clubs, it's students who want to live in country clubs." At this summer's conference for the Association of College & University Housing Officers, administrators swapped stories about the more outlandish requests they've received. (One tale involved a freshman who wanted to know about housing accommodations for his butler, who had accompanied him to the dorms).


The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live























Luxury Learning
Though La Vista del Campo Norte seems at first glance more like a hotel than a dorm, Bill Bayless, CEO of American Campus Communities, says these buildings aren't just real estate opportunities: "Our properties are not Animal House. There are no kegs out by the pool." Nowadays, students demand privacy, technology and the same amenities they grew up with, he says. "It's what the student expects when they leave Mom and Dad's."


The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live























Big Business
American Campus Communities surveys students each year to find out what they like. Since 1996, ACC has developed more than $1.5 billion in properties for university clients, and has acquired in excess of $2 billion in student-housing assets. Some critics argue such grand accommodations distract students from college's real purpose. "The undergraduate university experience should be about getting kids to answer the basic question, 'What is a life worth living?'" argues Jonathan Zimmerman, director of New York University's History of Education Program. "By making all these lovely things for the kids, we're answering that question for them."


The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live























Rec at Rockoff
Rutgers University's $55 million Rockoff Dorm features a Coldstone Creamery, a 7/11 and a state-of-the-art gym; residents also enjoy grocery delivery, room cleaning and laundry services. One hitch: Rockoff is only open to juniors and seniors. "If you have all the things you need in your own unit, you never go outside," says Joan Carbone, Executive Director of Residence Life at Rutgers, who believes traditional dorms offer the best environment for freshmen interaction. And while some schools use high-end housing to draw prospective freshmen, Carbone says Rutger's academic record is appealing enough: "We don't have to go into the arms race to attract students."


The Evolution of the College Dorm From the monastic rooms of the 1950s to today's luxury residence halls, TIME examines the ever-changing ways that students live























Bucking the Trend
Not everyone agrees with the luxury-dorm fad. At Berea College in Kentucky, school administrators have adopted a unique approach to the problem of strangled budgets and coddled kids: Dorms are furnished by the college crafts workshops, cafeteria food is provided by the school's farm, and students are required to work 10 hours a week in various campus jobs. "It's about identity and the culture you want to develop," says Gus Gerassimides, the college's assistant vice president for student life. "Ultimately every community has choices to make. It's who you choose to be."


Time.com, Aug 2011



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