The U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan today criticized the Turkmen government for barring students from studying outside of the country, the Associated Press reported. The de facto ban began in July, when the country's minister of education imposed new rules that required students to seek official permission to study abroad. Many students have been turned away at the airport as they attempted to leave the country.

A study by the University of Melbourne has found that one quarter of senior academics in Australia are due to retire during the next five years, Australia's ABC news reports. University leaders are worried that they won't be able to replace them, as many of the brightest prospects choose to work abroad or in the private sector.

Just a week after its opening, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology was criticized by a member of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Committee of (Islamic) Scholars for being coeducational, which he called "a great sin and a great evil," according to the Associated Press. Whether his remarks indicate broader disapproval of the university remains to be seen. But pro-government publications quickly shot back, saying such criticism breeds terrorism and puts the country "behind the rest of the Muslim world."

A proposed new system for awarding nearly $3-billion in government funds to universities in England would require them to show that their research influences the economy, public policy, or society in order to secure the biggest grants, according to The Guardian.

Aleksandra M. Vinogradov, a tenured professor of mechanical engineering who lost a gender-discrimination lawsuit against Montana State University this year, has settled for $220,000 in exchange for resigning, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Pakistan's higher-education minister, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, has announced that the government will increase its spending on education to 7 percent of gross domestic product. Of that, 20 percent is to be dedicated to higher education. The government aims to increase the college-going rate to 10 percent from the current 4.7 percent.

The Wheeling Jesuit University Board of Trustees has forced out the Rev. Julio Giulietti, president of the university since 2007, according to the Wheeling News-Register. The action followed news that an audit by NASA's inspector general had found that the U.S. space agency "inappropriately approved, obligated, and partially expended" more than $4-million in costs incurred at the West Virginia university.

A recent wave of assaults on Indian students, combined with reports of "substandard" colleges and tighter immigration rules, may have led to students' loss of interest, says The Australian.

“If [Persian] Gulf countries are serious about building world-class capacity in their academic environment, these issues will need to be addressed,” says a new report conducted by universities in the United Arab Emirates, according to The National.