July 5, 2009

Jill Biden Shines a Global Spotlight on American Community Colleges

Paris — Calling the community-college system in the United States “one of America’s best-kept secrets,” Jill Biden highlighted the virtues of an often overlooked sector of American higher education in a speech here on Sunday at an international conference at Unesco, the United Nations education-and-science agency.

The vice president’s wife, who has long taught at community colleges and currently serves as an adjunct professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, told delegates to the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education that community colleges are of vital importance to President Obama’s goal of the United States having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

American universities are often cited as models of global excellence, but international attention is usually on elite research institutions, and the role community colleges play is neglected. In a time of economic crisis, that role is becoming increasingly important, Ms. Biden said. “More and more often in these difficult financial times, community colleges are an affordable way for students from middle-class families to complete the first two years of a baccalaureate degree before moving on to a four-year university,” she said.

Community colleges have for the past three decades been the fastest-growing sector in American higher education, Ms. Biden said, and the country’s 1,200 community colleges account for nearly half of all American undergraduates. A class she taught last year to a group that included students from 22 different countries illustrates the essential role these locally-focused institutions play in integrating recent immigrants — who have in many cases obtained degrees in their home countries — into their communities. —Aisha Labi

June 29, 2009

Report Assails Israeli Policy That Keeps Palestinian Students From Leaving Gaza

Jerusalem — An Israeli human-rights group says that new restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinian students trying to leave the Gaza Strip to study abroad include a demand that they be personally escorted by foreign diplomats.

Since June 2008, Israel has required that even students who comply with its rigid screening criteria may leave Gaza only if escorted by a diplomatic envoy, says the group, known as Gisha, in a report issued today, “Obstacle Course: Students Denied Exit From Gaza.”

Israel imposed a commercial and military siege on the Gaza Strip when Palestinian militants began firing rockets across the border several years ago. The measures were tightened in the summer of 2007, when Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave after winning a parliamentary election.

Hundreds of businessmen, day laborers, medical workers, and families with ties abroad are allowed to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip every week, once they have been granted special Israeli permits. Students are the only Palestinians for whom Israel demands escorts — a decision that Gisha says has been neither officially published nor explained by the Israeli authorities.

As a result, only a tiny percentage of the estimated 1,000 Palestinian students who wish to leave each year are allowed to do so.

Some countries, including the United States, do not offer consular services in the Gaza Strip but will provide escorts only to Palestinian students with the necessary visas. As a result, Palestinian students accepted by American universities are unable to leave because they are caught in a Catch-22: They cannot have an escort without a visa, and they cannot get a visa because they are unable to receive U.S. consular services in the Gaza Strip.

Gisha has called for the abolition of what it describes as a burdensome and unreasonable requirement, which imposes a huge burden on diplomatic envoys and makes it impossible for many students to leave at all, says the report.

The policy effectively turns envoys into gatekeepers and service providers on Israel’s behalf, says the group, which has campaigned all the way to Israel’s Supreme Court to demand that Israel ease its draconian restrictions on the movement of Palestinian students to and from Gaza Strip.

“The very idea of diplomats, who carry no weapons and have no military training, chasing after ‘security threats’ inside Israeli territory or the West Bank is ridiculous,” the report concludes. —Matthew Kalman

June 28, 2009

India's Higher-Education Reform Panel Calls for Welcoming Foreign Universities

Amid India’s politically charged debate over whether to allow foreign universities to set up campuses there, a high-level higher-education reform committee has recommended welcoming foreign institutions, but only the world’s best, according to the business newspaper Mint.

The committee, led by Yash Pal, a physicist and former chairman of India’s principal higher-education regulatory group, presented its report to the cabinet minister in charge of higher education, Kapil Sibal, last week. Mr. Sibal, who has been more open to reform than his predecessor and has advocated opening up India to foreign universities, said he would seek to carry out its recommendations within 100 days, another Indian newspaper, The Hindu, reported.

The report’s most controversial proposal calls for creating a new centralized commission for higher education that would replace numerous existing regulatory bodies, including the one Mr. Pal formerly led, the University Grants Commission.

The idea faces significant political opposition, however. Some members of Mr. Sibal’s own party have misgivings about his plan to push the recommendations through Parliament, according to the Herald, a newspaper in the Indian state of Goa. Another cabinet minister told the newspaper that the recommendations were impractical because the states would never agree to them. —Charles Huckabee

June 27, 2009

2 U. of Arizona Graduate Students Are Freed on Bail in Brazil

Two graduate students from the University of Arizona were among a group of researchers arrested in Brazil on suspicion of “unauthorized mineral prospecting.” The group was freed on bail late Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

The geosciences students were identified as Mark Andrew Tress and Michael Matthew McGlue. Along with a third American, Kelly Michael Wendt, they were collecting sediment cores from the bottoms of lakes and wetlands in southwestern Brazil as part of climate research. The group was working in conjunction with the University of the State of São Paulo. Two Brazilian scientists were also arrested.

The Americans posted bail of $2,550 and surrendered their passports. A Brazilian police spokesman said the men were in the country on tourist visas.

Arizona’s spokesman, Johnny Cruz, said, “The university has been in frequent contact with the students’ attorney and families and is providing support that enabled them to be released and to return home as soon as possible.” —Don Troop

June 25, 2009

70 Professors Are Arrested in Iran After Meeting With Moussavi

In another sign of a growing crackdown on dissenting voices in Iran, 70 university professors were reportedly arrested on Wednesday after meeting with the opposition figure Mir Hussein Moussavi.

According to reports by Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press, news of the arrests came from Kalameh, a Farsi-language Web site affiliated with Mr. Moussavi. The site reported that 70 members of the Islamic Society of University Professors were detained after meeting with Mr. Moussavi on Wednesday afternoon. Their whereabouts are unknown, the reports say.

Earlier in the week, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran published the names of individuals who it says have been killed or detained in Iran since the crackdown that followed the disputed June 12 presidential election. The lists, which the group says are not comprehensive, mention “240 detained persons, including 29 who were detained and then released, as well as 102 political figures, 23 journalists, 79 university students, and seven university faculty who are still in detention.”

University students have been at the forefront of the protests in Iran over the past two weeks and have borne the brunt of some of the harshest tactics used by pro-government militia and vigilante groups. Student dormitories at the University of Tehran were attacked two days after the election, and student activists at universities around the country have been targets of arrest and harassment, observers say.

Even at universities that have not been in session, many students have continued to throng to campuses, which have become de facto opposition bases. Over the next three days, national exams will be held to determine admission to state universities, according to Press TV, a Tehran-based English-language Iranian news network. The network’s Web site reports that as more than 1.2 million students across the country prepare for the crucial exams, Tehran’s deputy police chief has warned that “more than 10,000 security officials would be on duty to tighten security and keep a sharp lookout for civil unrest.” —Aisha Labi

June 24, 2009

Accreditation Group and Unesco Team Up to Take On Diploma Mills

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization put out a joint statement today with suggestions for combating diploma mills around the world.

The statement is short on details, instead outlining a set of general goals. For instance, it says that higher-education leaders should confirm that providers are “in good standing with recognized accreditation and quality-assurance bodies” in other countries. But often the rub is knowing which bodies are recognized and which are bogus.

It also suggests developing “an international network for information and alerts about degree-mill activity.” But how such a network would work — and who might run it — is left to the imagination.

The problem of international diploma mills is a thorny one. Because what amounts to accreditation varies from country to country, figuring out whether a foreign institution is legitimate often isn’t a simple matter, and shutting down illegitimate operators can be next to impossible.

Even in the United States, diploma mills have moved from state to state to avoid the authorities. In recent years, though, some states have gotten tougher on diploma-mill operators. Mississippi — once known as a haven for unaccredited colleges — passed a law in 2006 that cracked down on diploma mills, and it seems to be working.

Perhaps the best list of unaccredited colleges is maintained by Oregon’s Office of Degree Authorization. —Thomas Bartlett

Worse Than an F: Canadian University Pioneers New Grade for Failure

Students bent on cheating should steer clear of Simon Fraser University. If they are caught, they could end up with a grade that breaks new ground in the realm of academic failure.

The British Columbia university’s Board of Governors and Faculty Senate approved the new grade — “FD,” meaning failed for academic dishonesty — and students will receive the dismal distinction for plagiarism and other forms of academic cheating, according to the Simon Fraser University News, a university publication. The “FD” policy went into effect last month.

Only department chairs can hand out the grades, which will remain on students’ transcripts until two years after they graduate. At that point, the grades will become plain old F’s. It may be the first time that getting an F represents an upgrade. —Andrew Mytelka

June 23, 2009

Report Underscores Britain's Competitive Advantage in Helping Rebuild Iraqi Academe

As the security situation in Iraq slowly improves and the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki focuses its attention on the country’s decimated higher-education sector, British universities are well positioned “to assist in the rebuilding of Iraqi higher education,” a new report says.

The report, “UK Higher Education Engagement With Iraq,” says that Mr. al-Maliki’s Iraq Education Initiative, which aims eventually to send some 10,000 Iraqi students abroad each year, presents opportunities as well as challenges for British institutions.

Britain enjoys a competitive advantage in Iraq, thanks in part to traditional connections between British and Iraqi academe. But countries such as the United States and Germany have succeeded in attracting Iraqi students and “competition is intensifying,” the report says. The United States, in particular, has been “ratcheting up activities in Iraq throughout 2008 and 2009,” according to the report, and “the likely effect will be a competitive infringement on the UK’s well-established position.”

The report’s recommendations include the “creation of competitive visa processes and procedures with a specific emphasis on in-country visa processing” and “in-country provision of English learning and testing services.”

The report, which was produced by the Illuminate Consulting Group and published by the UK Higher Education International Unit, the British Universities Iraq Consortium, and the government ministry with oversight of higher education, recommends a broad-based partnership approach to involvement in Iraq, involving higher-education institutions, business organizations, and governmental and nongovernmental groups, such as the British Council. —Aisha Labi

Iraq Appeals Anew to Exiled Academics to Return Home

Iraq’s government has issued a fresh appeal to the country’s exiled scientists, urging them to come home to help rebuild the economy, the Reuters news agency reported.

More than 200 exiled Iraqi scientists have been invited to a three-day conference sponsored this week in Baghdad by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The goal: Persuade them to return.

“You, the Iraqi brains, are an important part of driving the path we are on,” Sadeq al-Rikabi, a political adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told the scientists. “We are happy to see … these brains come back again, and I hope their return will not be just for a short time.”

What was once among the Arab world’s most extensive university networks has been shattered by the sectarian violence that has beset the country since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. Hundreds of Iraqi professors were among those killed, and thousands of academics were driven into exile.

In recent months the violence seems to be abating, and Mr. al-Maliki’s office has set out an ambitious plan to return the country’s higher-education system to its former glory. Millions have been promised to send students to study overseas, and the government is keen to hook up Iraqi institutions with international partners. But what will be the key to the success of any plan to revive Iraqi higher education is the country’s ability to persuade Iraqi academics to return home.

So far, the Iraqi government says 700 professors from a range of academic fields have returned to the country. But among the scientists in Baghdad this week, Reuters reported that many had reservations about moving back to a country where civilians continue to be killed every day in gun and bomb attacks.

Mohammed al-Rubaie, a professor of genetic engineering at the University of Dublin, said he planned to make only short visits. “We do not want to come back [to stay], but there are ways,” he told Reuters. “Scientists could be invited for specific projects to give the benefit of their advice and experience. —Andrew Mills

June 18, 2009

Canadian Research Center Admits Plagiarism in 3 Reports on Intellectual Property

The Conference Board of Canada admitted in a statement on Wednesday that its three recalled reports on intellectual property were unbalanced and contained plagiarized material. The board said that, after a review, it had concluded that “plagiarism did occur, and it wasn’t detected due to insufficient oversight of this project.”

“The evidence indicates,” the statement continues, that “there was undue reliance on feedback from a funder who was deemed to have important technical expertise. We failed to seek similar feedback from a broad range of stakeholders. The reports relied heavily on too few sources and lacked sufficient balance. Moreover, the reports did not follow our internal quality-review process. Over all, there was inadequate monitoring of this entire project.”

The independent think tank recalled the reports after Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, pointed out the shortcomings.

The board has also announced that Ruth Corbin, an adjunct professor of intellectual property at Osgoode Hall Law School, will write a new report on intellectual property. —Karen Birchard