Monthly Archive for October, 2010

By Jennifer Washburn, in Center for American Progress

The world’s largest oil companies are showing surprising interest in financing alternative energy research at U.S. universities. Over the past decade, five of the world’s top 10 oil companies—ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP PLC, Royal Dutch Shell Group, and ConocoPhillips Co.—and other large traditional energy companies with a direct commercial stake in future energy markets have forged dozens of multi-year, multi-million-dollar alliances with top U.S. universities and scientists to carry out energy-related research. Much of this funding by “Big Oil” is being used for research into new sources of alternative energy and renewable energy, mostly biofuels.

To read more…

From Yojana Sharma, in University World News

China hopes to raise the quality and quantity of its graduates in its most ambitious programme ever to grow top talent, raising the gross enrolment rate for universities from around 24% to 40% within 10 years and the number of citizens with college-level education in the work force from 9% to 20% overall.

In the next decade China intends to import top brains as well as produce a new generation of political and local government leaders, engineers, scientists, technology professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, agricultural experts and social welfare experts according to the Medium and Long term Talent Development Plan (2010-2020).

Although the plan was passed by the Beijing Politburo in May this year Chinese officials have begun a campaign to promote it abroad, to emphasise its far-reaching role to convert China into a knowledge-based economy rather than just a manufacturing hub. Officials have stressed the aim is to transform China into an ‘innovation society’.

To read more…

From Richard Holmes, in Times Higher Education

Times Higher Education said that their new-style ranking would have a few surprises. They were certainly right. There have been so many academic eyebrows rising into the stratosphere that airlines will have to impose flight restrictions.

Nobody, I think, is bothered very much that Harvard is first in the new table or that Oxford and Cambridge have slipped a bit. But many are wondering about Caltech in second place and the London School of Economics in 87th. After all, THE was complaining that the old THE-QS rankings privileged technological universities over those that were strong in the social sciences.

To read more…