Jan Petter Myklebust from University World News reports…
The Swedish Presidency of the European Union has organised a major conference starting this week and titled The Knowledge Triangle: Shaping the future of Europe. Ministers from Sweden, Finland and the UK, together with high-ranking EU Commission officers including two commissioners and 350 university presidents, researchers, students and policy-makers and some high level industry leaders will meet in the university town of Gothenburg.
The conference is a follow-up of the “Lund declaration” from the EU Presidency conference in July - New Worlds: New Solutions - which called for “grand challenges” in European research during the coming decade.
The Lund declaration has been a success with regard to agenda-setting for research concentration. But most observers are asking how the Swedes are going to implement their grand visions. More…
Chryssi Vitsilaki, University of Aegean, Rhodes, Greece
www.UniversitiesForum.com
Chryssi Vitsilaki is Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of the Aegean. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and research interests in the sociology of education and gender studies. Her books include School and Work (Athens, 2002) and The All-Day School (Athens 2002). More…
Recently, the World Bank released a report by Jamil Salmi.
In September 2005, the new world ranking published by the Times Higher Education
Supplement was received like a bomb shell in Malaysia when it showed the country’s top
two universities slipping by almost 100 places compared to the previous year.
Notwithstanding the fact that the big drop was mostly due to a change in the ranking
methodology, the news was so traumatic that there were widespread calls for the
establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the matter. This strong
reaction was not out of character in a nation whose current Ninth Development Plan aims
at shaping the transformation of the country into a knowledge-based economy with
emphasis on the important contribution of the university sector.
Preoccupations about university rankings reflect the general recognition that economic
growth and global competitiveness are increasingly driven by knowledge, and that
universities can play a key role in that context. Indeed, rapid advances in science and
technology across a wide range of areas from information and communication
technologies (ICTs) to biotechnology to new materials provide great potential for
countries to accelerate and strengthen their economic development. The application of
knowledge results in more efficient ways of producing goods and services and delivering
them more effectively and at lower costs to a greater number of people.
The full report may be download as a PDF here.
We have many optional tours that should be both exciting and fun. Please book and pay early. The Tours have limited availability and will be confirmed on a first paid basis.
For more information and bookings please see the Conference website.
The Conference Dinner, with its horse drawn sleigh ride and dinner in the Dischma valley, should provide you with a memorable experience. Not to be missed!
For more information and bookings please see the Conference website.
Accommodation for the 2010 World Universities Forum in Davos, Switzerland may now be booked. Please see the Conference Accommodation webpage for more information.
