HE News Brief 4.5.10

by Abby Chau

A late post with news articles for week commencing May 4th:

• The pressure to do well on international league tables has caused a few UK universities to allegedly put pressure on students to fib on the National Student Survey. According to complaints logged with the HEFCE, students at Swansea, Anglia Ruskin, Derby, Leicester, Portsmouth, Sunderland, Kingston, and London Metropolitan were pressured by university lecturers and heads of department to score high marks on their university experience.Full Story: TelegraphMore: The Guardian
• Education stocks dropped when a U.S Department of Education official compared for-profit institutions to Wall Street firms who caused the financial meltdown. Deputy Undersecretary of Education Robert Shireman said that not only is training at these institutions questionable and they deplete federal education funding, but oversight in accrediting these for-profits is dubious. Full Story: Bloomberg Business Week
• Brazil will play an instrumental role in rebuilding Haiti's devastated Higher Education system. According to a cooperation memorandum between the two countries, academic agreements will be discussed to promote internationalisation and scholarship programmes will be introduced for Haitians who plan on post-graduate study.Full Story: iStockAnalyst
• The African Development Fund has approved a 20 million dollar project to support the Higher Education system in Eritrea. Chief Education Specialist Abdi Younis says that the funds will look into recruiting better staff, repairing infrastructure, and developing research capability at Eritrea's seven higher education institutions.Full Story:All Africa
• Malaysia and Yemen are entering talks to form important educational agreements. Proposals will allow Yemeni students to study in Malaysian universities at reduced costs. In addition, the proposed bilateral agreements would include reviewing the quality of programmes at Yemeni universities.Full Story: Bernama