To be at the University of Arizona these days is, in some ways, to be under siege.
The flagship university in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states may have to eliminate some 600 jobs and merge dozens of programs to deal with two rounds of budget cuts imposed since June. Now the governor is telling the university and other state agencies to prepare for cuts of as much as 20 percent for the next fiscal year.
Rebecca Attwood, Times Higher Education
Universities could face more intensive scrutiny during future inspections by the standards watchdog, according to its head. Peter Williams, chief executive of the Quality Assurance Agency, said that the next round of institutional audits by the QAA might pay closer attention to first-hand evidence of academic standards, such as external examiners’ reports.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=405923
Guy Healy and Andrew Trounson, The Australian Higher Education Supplement
LAW, business, teaching, engineering and science are recording strong, and in some cases dramatic, increases in enrolment.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25236967-12332,00.html
Thomas Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education
From Virginia to Manila: on the trail of papers for cash
The orders keep piling up. A philosophy student needs a paper on Martin Heidegger. A nursing student needs a paper on dying with dignity. An engineering student needs a paper on electric cars.
Screen after screen, assignment after assignment — hundreds at a time, thousands each semester. The students come from all disciplines and all parts of the country. They go to community colleges and Ivy League universities. Some want a 10-page paper; others request an entire dissertation.
Zoë Corbyn, Times Higher Education
Universities that saw some of the biggest improvements in research funding in light of the 2008 research assessment exercise actually experienced a decline in their overall research performance in the years since the previous exercise in 2001.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=405831&c=1
Andrew Trounson, The Australian Higher Education Supplement
UNIVERSITIES will have access to a growing pool of students on which to base expansion plans in the newly deregulated student market because there will be rising unmet demand as the economy stalls.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25201799-12332,00.html
Robin Wilson, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The number of colleges freezing faculty hiring seems to grow each week. Yet some institutions are going against the grain of the poor economy and appointing new professors. This decision has given those campuses an edge, yielding top-quality candidates who might not have been within reach in a more-competitive job market.
Zoë Corbyn, Times Higher Education
England’s elite research universities have lost an average of more than £6,000 per researcher as a result of last week’s funding allocations, according to a new analysis by Times Higher Education.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=405756
Guy Healy and Andrew Trounson, The Australian Higher Education Supplement
IN a breakthrough for university research, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr has won a commitment from Treasury to fully fund the indirect cost of research.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25167561-12332,00.html
Josh Keller, The Chronicle of Higher Education
When California approved its budget last month, the community-college system managed to escape the sharp budget cuts that befell most other agencies. But the state’s fiscal troubles have nonetheless created a cash crisis for two-year colleges.
As part of its…
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