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…
China Wants Fewer College Grads, More Skilled Workers. Sound Familiar?
By Dexter Roberts The U.S. and China differ in many ways. But when it comes to education, there’s one striking similarity. In both countries a mismatch exists between what young people learn and the skills employers need. Just as in the U.S., China’s university graduates—some 7 million each year—are struggling to find jobs. Now China has…
Asia-Pacific Analysis: Bridging the ASEAN research gap
By Crispin Maslog Member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), home to some 600 million people, expect to enter 2015 riding on the waves of strong economic growth and a burgeoning middle class. This development coincides with the launch of the integrated ASEAN Economic Community next year. However, some South-East Asian economies…
Twitter on the rise in Asia
In five years’ time, more than 40 per cent of Twitter users will be in Asia Pacific, according to a new report by research firm eMarketer. Slowing user growth in the United States has been a growing concern for Twitter ever since it went public late last year. It is also a major reason why…
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….
4 Countries that are leaving Silicon Valley in their tracks
By Vivian Giang Every few months there seems to be another region somewhere in the world that claims to be the next Silicon Valley. Sometimes the new high-tech hub is hyped up, but other times, it’s evident that there’s something special brewing. These countries have digitized governments that will put our Healthcare.gov problems to…
Science in the time of elections
Science and Technology may not form part of the daily vitriol that is spewed in election speeches, but scientists need not despair By Pallava Bagla In the science section of their manifestoes, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) draws inspiration from an Islamic scholar, the Congress has almost forgotten about Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘modern temples’ and the Aam…
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…
US again leads the world in patents; China surges past Germany
By John Zarocostas Herald Foreign Staff March 24, 2014 The United States retained its lead as the world’s most inventive country in 2013, accounting for 27.9 percent of all international patent applications, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, which tracks patent applications in 148 nations. But China is closing fast, with a 15.6 percent…
‘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….
Science and technology policy: Where are we going?
Riwanto Tirtosudarmo, Jakarta | Opinion | Tue, April 01 2014, 10:34 AM In anticipating the upcoming change in government, over the last three months or so a debate has been underway concerning the increasingly neglected development of science and technology in this country. The discourse centers on the institutional arrangements of higher education such as…
The ‘Asianisation’ Of Global Innovation
By Dr. Dan Steinbock Since the 1950s, the United States and the West have set the standards for prosperity, productivity and innovation. But the share of Asia in global R&D is climbing; and based on recent statistics,the region could soon displace the West as the global R&D driver. Global innovation is shifting toward Asia and…
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