The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest university news from around the world, on 6 September 2013.
Chile: Thousands march to demand change in the education system
University students and workers marched through the streets of Santiago, Chile yesterday to demand changes in the education system, reports The Santiago Times. This marked the publication of an open letter by education leaders that lays out the demands for change, according to the president of the Universidad de Chile Student Federation (FECH), Andrés Fielbaum. FECH estimated 80,000 marchers, and the police estimated 25,000. Fielbaum said: “The document principally is an invitation to all of Chile… to raise these demands in their own way and to build a new education.”
Australia: Tony Abbott proposes cuts to research grants
Prime ministerial candidate for Australia, Tony Abbott, has said that research grants considered to be wasteful by his conservative government will be cut, reports University World News. If he wins government in Saturday’s election, he will reprioritize AUD$100 million (US$91.5 million) from the Australian Research Council. The Chief Executive of Science Technology Australia, Catriona Jackson, said that some research projects in the arts and social sciences had been labeled “increasingly ridiculous” by the conservatives, but pointed out that research could provide unexpected benefits, such as the “Australian scientist John O’Sullivan’s search for exploding black holes that led to his discovery of wireless technology that has swept the world”.
China: State-funded places offered to students from Belarus
Students from the Belarusian State University (BSU) and the Minsk State Linguistic University (MSLU) will soon be offered state-funded places in Chinese universities, reports The National Legal Internet Portal of the Republic of Belarus. This is according to Liu Yunshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, who said that the places will be offered to 50 students from each university.
UK: Partnership to safeguard reputation of UK transnational HE
The Quality Assurance Agency and the British Council will be collaborating to protect the reputation of UK transnational higher education, reports University World News. The British Council quoted statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, which said that there were 571,000 international students taking UK qualifications overseas “compared with around 488,000 international students in this country”. The partnership aims to “protect and enhance the reputation of courses offered under the UK banner”.
