India's minister in charge of higher education, Kapil Sibal, brought before Parliament on Monday a long-awaited bill that would allow foreign colleges and universities to open campuses in India and oversee their operations. The controversial bill overcame a major hurdle in March, when it was passed by the prime minister's cabinet. But its key regulations remain unclear. One newspaper said the legislation had been introduced to loud opposition from members of leftist and other political parties, who question whether many students would be able to afford to enroll in foreign universities' Indian campuses. The bill's opponents also argue that the quality of the branch campuses would not be as high as on the universities' home campuses.

The Vatican announced today that it would donate $2.7-million to support research into how adult stem cells may be used to treat intestinal and other diseases, the Associated Press reports. The project, which is in the very early stages, is led by the University of Maryland's medical school. Church officials are opposed to the use of embryonic stell cells in research because it requires the destruction of embryos. Researchers will study whether adult intestinal stem cells can prove useful in the fight against various diseases.

Lawmakers in Alabama acted on Thursday to save the state's struggling prepaid-tuition plan, known as PACT, according to the Associated Press. A combination of rising tuition costs and plunging investment values led analysts to predict that the plan would have had to close after the fall semester of 2011 if it did not receive additional funds. The state's Legislature agreed to provide $547.6-million in annual installments to PACT through 2027, which would protect existing participants.

An Australian student at Birzeit University has been released on bail pending an appeal to Israel's High Court after she and a flatmate were arrested early Sunday morning by Israeli troops on a raid into the Palestinian-controlled territory where they lived, according to the Ma'an News Agency. Bridgette Chappell, a campaigner against Israel's security barrier, was threatened with deportation after the Israeli troops said they found the women had "fake documents" and "an expired visa" and accused both of being "involved in illegal activity, including riots and jeopardizing IDF soldiers and public property." Their lawyer said the arrests may have violated Israel's own procedures.

The Institute of International Education announced today a new emergency grant fund for Haitian college students in the United States. To make use of the grants, worth up to $2,000 each, colleges must apply on behalf of students who need assistance. As many as five students per campus can be nominated. The deadline for the first round of grants is February 12. If there are sufficient funds, the institute may conduct another round of nominations later in February. Donations can be made to the fund here.

Following news that a former student at a London university tried to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day, British universities announced today that they were setting up a working group to look at preventing violent extremism on campuses while protecting academic freedom. Universities in Britain have wrestled with the problems of potentially extremist students since 2005, after several bombings in London's transportation system were carried out by Muslims born and educated in Britain. There has been much debate since then on how serious the threat actually is, and what universities can do about it.

Despite longstanding fears that China may be outpacing the United States in turning out engineers, the number of college students in China who study engineering is on the decline, according to Global Times, a Chinese newspaper. Fewer than one in 10 college graduates last year majored in engineering, the paper reported. Instead, students are turning to economics, finance, and management, which pay more and carry more social status. "Engineering usually makes people think of factories, while factories often give people an impression of hard work, low wages, and layoffs," the newspaper quoted one professor as saying.

International-student enrollments in Australia's vocational-education programs mushroomed this past year, growing 35 percent from October 2008 to October 2009, according to data released by the federal department of education and reported by The Courier Mail. More than 225,000 foreign students take vocational courses, compared with about 200,000 studying for degrees at universities. Educators and others have expressed concern that a lack of government oversight of vocational schools, combined with an easy immigration process for students in certain programs, has led to the creation of some poor-quality academic programs.

A graduation ceremony in Mogadishu, capital of the divided, war-torn nation of Somalia, was the target of a suicide-bomb attack today that killed at least 19 people, including the country's higher-education minister, according to the BBC. Dozens of students and several hundred others had gathered for the ceremony for Benadir University, which was established in 2002 to train doctors to replace those who had fled or been killed in the civil war between the United Nations-backed government and Islamic militants.

During his trip to China this week, President Obama pledged to send 100,000 students to China over the next four years. How he plans to do that, though, remains to be determined. In a U.S.-China joint statement, the White House noted that nearly 100,000 Chinese students come to the United States each year, while the United States sends about 20,000 students to China. (The actual number, according to the most recent data from the Institute of International Education, may be closer to 13,000.) Contacted today, a State Department spokesman explained the initiative by saying that "China will have a much more important voice in world affairs in the coming years, and we need more Americans who can speak the language, who understand China, and who can do business more effectively with the Chinese." He did not have any information on how the program would be structured or which agency would run ...