HE News Brief 15.6.10

by Anisa Siddikah

From spending cuts on UK education to reforming higher education in Abu Dhabi, here are this week’s news stories:

• David Willets the Minister for Universities for the UK, told the BBC that the current university system needs to be changed to give taxpayers and students a better deal. Universities are facing hard times economically and therefore need to find cheaper and flexible methods to teach. A report is expected to be due in the autumn regarding funding. Many students fear that tuition fees will rise and are angry at this.Full Story: BBC News

• Almost 200,000 places are being frozen for university places due to public sector cuts. Students are to be left without degree courses and foreign students are likely to be charged very high fees.Full Story: Telegraph

• According to the Times Higher Education, start up companies by academics and graduates are an important source of university income. For instance contract research grew by 12% totalling a revenue for universities of £938 million 2008-2009, whilst collaborative research grew by 5% totalling a revenue of £732 million.Full Story: Times Higher Education

• The Government of Abu Dhabi are to spend $1.3 billion by 2018 to reform the current higher education system to meet the socioeconomic demands of the labour market. Local Leaders hope the education reform will enable the higher education sector to meet the domestic needs of Abu Dhabi, instead of relying on its oil dependency economy that Abu Dhabi is well known for.Full Story: The Chronicle of Higher Education