The American Council on Education has named 19 prominent leaders in education and international affairs to a blue-ribbon panel to explore issues related to universities' global engagement. The commission will be led by John E. Sexton, president of New York University and chair of the council's Board of Directors, and includes higher-education leaders from the United States and overseas. The group is expected to meet throughout the 2010-11 academic year and to make final recommendations on the council's approach to global issues next fall.

Six American colleges have been selected as part of a pilot project to send their students to study in Indonesia and to better prepare institutions in that country to serve as hosts. As part of the U.S. Indonesia Partnership Program for Study Abroad Capacity, the American institutions -- Chatham, Lehigh, and Texas A&M Universities, Miami Dade College, and the Universities of Michigan and of Washington -- will each receive $15,000 to work with Indonesian counterparts to create new programs over the next two years that can serve as models for future student exchanges. The project is part of a broader effort to build closer academic ties between the two countries.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a worksheet explaining when benefits under the new GI Bill can be used for overseas study. The guidance states that GI Bill funds can be used to pay for study abroad only if it is a mandatory part of a student's academic program and that the benefits cannot be used to pay third-party study-abroad providers, among other rules. The Institute of International Education, which has pressed for GI Bill money to be available for overseas study, called the clarification "helpful."

Colleges and universities are taking a more robust role in economic development, according to a report by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government of the State University of New York, through educating a competitive work force, leveraging research and ideas for economic gain, providing knowledge-based training and services, and working toward community revitalization. The report, "A New Paradigm for Economic Development," was commissioned by Nancy L. Zimpher, SUNY's new chancellor, but contains examples of university-based economic development from around the country.

Five colleges were recognized today by Nafsa: Association of International Educators for their innovative efforts to bring a greater international focus to their campuses. This year's winners of the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization are Carnegie Mellon University, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Loyola University in Maryland, Northeastern University, and the University of San Francisco. Three other colleges were singled out for a particular international program: the Borough of Manhattan Community College (part of the City University of New York), the College of the Atlantic, and LaRoche College.

Despite the alarms being raised about brain drain, the percentage of foreign students who receive doctorates in science and engineering in the United States and who choose to stay in the country after graduation has climbed in recent years, according to a study by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education and the National Science Foundation. Using tax records, the study found 67 percent of foreign students who earned their Ph.D. in 2005 were still in the country in 2007. The rate had dipped for 2003 graduates, a pattern than the study's author attributes to a poor economy and security concerns following the September 11 terror attacks.

A federal spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year, signed into law in December, contains $15-million for partnerships between African and American universities. The funds will go to expand collaborations focused on strengthening higher education in sub-Saharan Africa as a way to develop the region's economy. The U.S. Agency for International Development and a Washington-based group, Higher Education for International Development, last year announced an initial round of grants to 20 African and 20 American colleges for projects in crucial fields such as agriculture, health care, and teacher training.

The University of Dayton has purchased the former headquarters of NCR, a Fortune 500 technology company, and will use the space to house its research institute, alumni center, and graduate classrooms. The university paid $18-million for the 115-acre property. Dayton isn't the first university to snap up facilities vacated by a major corporation. The University of Michigan last year bought a huge research complex from Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant.

Pittsburgh's colleges have reached a deal with the city to avert a proposed 1-percent tax on college tuition. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and other nonprofit groups will instead make payments of an unspecified amount to the city. The city council was to have voted on the tuition tax, which would have been the first of its kind in the nation, at a meeting today. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl proposed the measure to close a budget shortfall.

Residents of Dunellen, N.J., will find their calls to the police or fire departments answered by Rutgers University dispatchers, The Star-Ledger reports. The university has entered into an unusual agreement to dispatch police, fire, and rescue-squad calls for the nearby town, which will pay Rutgers $80,000 annually, a savings of $100,000 a year. Rutgers has the capacity, university officials say, because the dispatch center was built to handle the crowds that descend on the campus for football games and other events.