In this week’s Smart Societies blog we look at Russia’s higher education challenge. Our article focuses on Russia’s renewed efforts to internationalise its higher education sector. But a paper published in the Studies in Higher Education by Maria Yudkevich from the National Research University Higher School of Economics identifies inherent challenges to Russian ambition. Russia’s…
Category: Universities
How universities contribute to smarter societies through science, research and innovation.
Scientific ties that bind?
By Eugene Sebastian Governments in Asia are spending big on science, technology and innovation to drive their economies. These governments also recognise that investing in system reforms alone is not enough. Spending on having programmes that help strengthen links is also important. Can closer international scientific ties help strengthen international links? The Royal Society in…
China’s Education Gap
An article that recently appeared in the New York Times identifying the gap in China’s phenomenal education expansion. By Helen Gao BEIJING — Every September, the campuses of Peking and Tsinghua Universities, dubbed the Harvard and M.I.T. of China, brim with bright-eyed new students, the winners of China’s cutthroat education system. These young men and women…
Saudi’s push towards an innovation economy
By Mohamed Imam Salem, King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is pushing to diversify its economy beyond natural resource. Transitioning towards a knowledge-based economy is its optimal development strategy. In pursuing this strategy, the Kingdom is focusing on science and technology. As the technological requirements of the global…
Indonesia’s innovation challenge
By Siwage Dharma Negara The 2014 Global Innovation Index (GII) ranks Indonesia 87th out of 143 countries in terms of innovation capability. In this aspect, Indonesia still lags behind several of its ASEAN neighbors, such as Singapore (7), Malaysia (33), Thailand (48), and Vietnam (71). Indonesia’s ranking is only better than Brunei Darussalam (88), the Philippines…
The new science of diplomacy?
How do you increase resources in tough financial times? One answer is to look overseas. UK research is looking to dynamic emerging economies in Asia and Latin America where spending on science and innovation is growing fast. Even the UK government sees science and innovation as an emerging business opportunity in its international engagement. According to…
Reinventing higher education
The revolution to reinvent the university has begun according to the Economist, the UK’s weekly newspaper. Three forces are reinventing the university: rising costs, changing demand and disruptive technology. Higher education, The Economist argues, suffers from Baumol’s disease – the tendency of costs to soar in labour-intensive sectors with stagnant productivity. Whereas the prices of…
How American Universities Turned Into Corporations
By Andrew Rossi – 22 May 2014 A profitable student loan market has fuelled an arms race among colleges and universities, along with an astronomic rise in tuition fees that seeks to capture the student loan dollar through increasing fees. College graduation season is here, and that means students should be celebrating their hard-earned educations….
Evolution of funds: New ways to spend big on public research
OECD countries are spending big on new forms of funding public research By Eugene Sebastian Alain de Botton once said that most business meetings involve one party elaborately suppressing a wish to shout at the other: “just give us the money”. Wouldn’t it be easier if it were just the case for public research funding?…
Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom in a hurry
By Eugene Sebastian The International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education (IECHE 2014) that concluded in Riyadh on Friday was the biggest ever event for higher education held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. About 450 universities and educational institutions converged at the annual event. The United States doubled its participation with more than 100…
China looks to science and technology to fuel its economy
Maintaining stability in the face of rapid change and growth, and proactively partaking in cooperative global ties in science and technology fields will be key in helping China become an innovation-based economy, according to Denis Simon, vice provost for International Strategic Initiatives at Arizona State University. One of the world’s leading experts on science, technology…
‘Clubbing’ effect in China’s research surge
By Eugene Sebastian China’s scientific research is rising. In 2005, China ranked 5th after US, UK, German and Japan in number of scholarly publications across all disciplines. In 2010, it ranked second after the US. While China’s volume of publications continue to grow quickly, there is evidence to show that its quality is also increasing….
Patterns of university engagement in Brazil and China: Will history repeat?
By Douglas Proctor Government-led trade missions provide universities with a range of opportunities, from networking with participants from other industries through to direct and sustained contact (on the road) with ministers and their staff. However, they also throw down the gauntlet in relation to “announceables”. What in-country announcement will be best conceived to secure the…
Indonesia’s emerging voices
How is Indonesia responding towards growing pressures of East Asia financial regionalism? Why are Indonesian teachers resisting information and communication technology? In a more digitally connected Indonesia, why are large proportion of young adults in greater Jakarta still feeling disenfranchised? These are just some of the questions being tackled by Indonesia’s new voices – early…
Brazil’s Multi-Billion Dollar Education Industry: Shaping Futures, Changing Lives, and Minting Billionaires
Ricardo Geromel, Contributor Post co-written with Luke Barbara, an American entrepreneur based in São Paulo, Brazil. Brazil’s role as a global superpower is on an upward trajectory and the country will make numerous important contributions to the world in the 21st century. Many of these contributions will come from, and almost all will be connected to,…
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