HE News Brief 27.07.10

by Abby Chau

From President Sarkozy's higher education revolution to the second for-profit university in the UK in the last 30 years - here are this week's news stories:

• As governments around the world are cutting funding for higher education, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is bucking the trend and investing 1 billion euros into the sector. Under the new scheme, Sarkozy wants to revolutionalise the fledgling university system and make the les grandes ecoles, or elite schools, more accessible to poorer students. In addition, Business schools have started to merge, instigating criticism about how these schools and universities will be managed and made competitive.Full Story: FT
• Pearson, which owns the Financial Times and Penguin books, is dipping their hands in the Brazilian higher education market. Having acquired Sistema Educacional Brasileiro learning systems business for 326 million pounds, Pearson is looking to cash in on the reported 2 billion valued educational materials market. With a romping 25% of Brazil's 192 million people under the age of 14, Pearson expects to recover the invested capital by 2012.Full Story: Wall Street Journal
• According to this article, the Chinese government are hopeful that Chinese scholars who have obtained a degree abroad, will return to the Motherland once they finish their education. 1.62 million Chinese pursued their graduate studies abroad between 1978 to 2009 and only 460,000 have decided to come back to China.Full Story: AFP
• In accordance with South Africa's 2001 National Plan for Higher Education, Stellenbosch University is next in line to implement a strategic plan. Vice-Chancellor Russel Botman seeks to target poverty by focusing on science and research in order to help the community.Full Story: AllAfrica
• Conservative Minister for Higher Education David Willetts announced that the second for-profit university college in 30 years will be opened in the UK. As a reported 82 million pounds will be slashed from university and college funding, it was also announced that tens of thousands of qualified students will not have a place this year.Full Story: The Economist