Student protesters chanting anti-government slogans and calling for the release of jailed leaders of the student-protest movement were attacked on Saturday by members of the Basij paramilitary force at the main campus of Azad University, in Tehran, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Azad, a large quasi-private institution, enrolls more than half of Iran's university students in campuses throughout the country. The Iranian authorities are reported to be cracking down on student-protest activities in the run-up to the anniversary of last year's disputed presidential election and the widespread unrest that followed. Last week, according to RFE/RL, two leaders of Iran's largest student-protest group were sentenced to prison terms on charges including "insulting Iran's leaders and acting against national security."

The linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, who is due to deliver a lecture on Monday at Birzeit University in the West Bank, was denied entry into Israel on Sunday, Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reported. He was turned back at the Allenby Bridge crossing into Israel from Jordan after first being detained for questioning, according to Haaretz. The MIT professor is a harsh critic of Israel but, according to the Associated Press, he told a Jordanian television station on Sunday that he has "often spoken at Israeli universities." A spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry said that Mr. Chomsky was refused entry for "various reasons," but would not provide additional details. On Sunday afternoon, Birzeit University's Web site still listed the live broadcast of Mr. Chomsky's lecture as scheduled for noon on Monday.

A French academic who has been detained in Iran since last July will be permitted to leave the country after paying a $285,000 fine, her lawyer told reporters from Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, and Reuters on Saturday. Clotilde Reiss, who was arrested as she prepared to leave the country after spending five months teaching French at the University of Isfahan, was among the thousands of people detained in the upheaval surrounding the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election. She was charged with spying as part of a Western plot to destabilize the government and, after spending six weeks in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, was released on bail and detained at the French Embassy. Her lawyer told reporters that he expected to retrieve her passport on Sunday and that she would be "allowed to leave immediately after."

A convoy of buses transporting university students, most of them Christians, back to the University of Mosul was attacked by a double bomb blast on Sunday morning that wounded dozens of people and killed at least one bystander, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reported. Iraq's Christian population has often been targeted by Sunni Muslim insurgents, according to the AP. At least 70 students were injured in the attack, which struck several vehicles in a convoy of about 20 buses, The New York Times reported. An injured student told the Times that one of his classmates had lost a leg and two others had been blinded. "We were going for our education and they presented us with bombs," said the student. "I still do not know what they want from Christians."

Universities in Britain are among the many institutions feeling the effects of the travel disruptions across northern Europe caused by the cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano that erupted last week. The faculty of modern and medieval languages at the University of Cambridge postponed oral examinations due to take place on Monday and Tuesday because many students and examiners are stranded abroad, The Times of London reported. Modern-language exams are also scheduled for this week at the University of Oxford, which has opted not to postpone them until later in the term, although many students are still stuck overseas on vacation, according to Cherwell, an independent student newspaper. The paper reported that students, who were due back by Thursday, should contact their college or department administrators if they are unable to take their exams as scheduled.

The rector of a Polish university was among the 96 victims of last weekend's plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, that killed many of the country's leaders, including President Lech Kaczyński. Father Ryszard Rumianek, a priest and former chair of the university's department of biblical studies, was serving his second term as rector of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, a Warsaw institution that was established in 1999. The university has opened a book of condolence at its main Warsaw campus.

Supporters of the former director of Britain's Royal Institution, who was ousted from the post in January, failed at a special meeting on Monday to vote out the governing council, The Guardian and the BBC reported. The 211-year-old research organization "has been riven by infighting since the council axed the director's job" after a review found the institution had accumulated debts of more than $3.8-million, The Guardian reported. The former director, Baroness Susan Greenfield, has accused the institution of gender discrimination and has initiated legal proceedings alleging unfair dismissal. Monday's meeting featured input from participants including the scientist Richard Dawkins, who said that "someone who is threatening to sue this institution is not someone I would wish to be the director," The Times reported.

Graduates of foreign private colleges operating in Greece will be allowed to apply for public-sector jobs and join professional associations, following a ruling last week by the country's highest administrative court, the Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported. Greek law prohibits the establishment of private higher-education institutions, but dozens of foreign-owned colleges--many owned by British and American providers--operate in the country, awarding degrees accredited abroad. Graduates of those institutions have been barred from public-sector employment in Greece, although degrees earned from foreign institutions located abroad are fully recognized. The new ruling, which is expected to be applied retroactively to recent graduates, conforms with a European Union directive requiring member states to grant full recognition to degrees and qualifications from other European Union countries...

Charging students in Finland tuition to attend university, which is currently free, would give them greater appreciation for labor-market realities and could help deter them from taking too long to finish their degrees, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says in a new economic survey that suggests reforms in a number of areas to help the country emerge from a recession. Other suggestions for higher education include replacing student "grants and allowances that are both generous and virtually open-ended" with loans that would have to be repaid, based on income, after graduation, and revising an admissions system that forces some high-school graduates to wait years before getting into a university. Finland's Ministry of Education has recommended similar admissions reforms, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Turkish prime minister and several other high-level Turkish officials attended the opening of a new campus of the International University of Sarajevo on Monday, highlighting the growing numbers of Turkish students who study at Bosnian universities, Reuters reported. Turkish law prohibits displays of overt religiosity at public institutions, including universities, and the ban, which remains in place despite attempts by the governing party to overturn it, has driven many observant young Muslim women abroad for their studies. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's roots are in political Islam, and his wife and daughters, who attended universities abroad because of the prohibition, wear the headscarf. The university in Sarajevo, which was founded in 2004 and offers courses in English, is financed with Turkish support, as is another nearby institution, according to Reuters, which noted...