Denmark, Japan, Global: University News

The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest university news from around the world, on 20 August 2013

Global: LinkedIn launches “University Pages” for high-school students

The professional social networking site LinkedIn has collaborated with 200 universities, including New York University and the University of Michigan, to launch a product called University Pages, reports The Wall Street Journal. This will give high-school students the chance to interact with universities’ administration and alumni, and gain information on which to base a college choice. From 12 September, LinkedIn is also reducing the minimum age of users from 18 to 14 in the US. Elsewhere, students as young as 13 are already able to sign up.

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Denmark: Researchers develop new soil analysis method

The University of Southern Denmark has uncovered details about a child buried 800 years ago by analyzing soil samples around the bones, reports News.com.au. The new method developed by the university looks at compounds released into the soil as the body decays. As a result, Chemist Kaare Lund Rasmussen is able to say that the child received “a large dose of mercury a couple of months before its death and again a day or two prior to death”.

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Japan: Council debates university entrance tests

The Japanese government’s Education Rebuilding Implementation Council is discussing whether or not university entrance exams should be scrapped in favor of several smaller tests administered at school, reports The Japan News. The “achievement test for high school students” would give students the chance to submit their best-scoring test results to their chosen university, which would then use a combination of those results and their own screening test to make a decision. The argument is that it is less stressful than one entrance exam, and gives a more rounded picture of a student’s overall ability, but there is “huge expense” and several other issues involved.

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UK: More students from England going to Scottish universities

The university admissions body UCAS has released figures that show the acceptance rate for students from England into Scottish universities has gone up by 21% since 2011, reports The Scotsman. This is despite a fall in the number of applications, and follows the introduction of higher tuition fee rates for English students – a maximum of £9,000 (US$14,000) - at Scottish universities. Scottish student numbers are capped but universities can take as many fee-paying students from the rest of the UK as they like. The president of the National Union of Students in Scotland, Gordon Maloney, said: “We wouldn’t want to see students from the rest of the UK being taken by Scottish universities simply because of the £9,000 price tag attached to them.”

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