Egypt, China, Netherlands: University News

The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest university news from around the world, on 23 August 2013

Egypt: South East Asian countries evacuate their students from Egypt

Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines have begun repatriating their nationals because of the rising violence in Egypt, reports University World News. This includes 3,300 Malaysian students, who were ordered to leave by Prime Minister Najib Razak, following a recommendation from the country’s National Security Council. The Indonesian government has begun the repatriation process for 5,000 citizens in Egypt, 2, 600 of whom are students. The Philippines will be repatriating 6,000 citizens, most of whom are students, Thailand will be repatriating 2,000, again most of whom are students, and Singapore has “another three batches” of students to repatriate.

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China: Universities encouraging student independence

Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, wants its students to learn self-reliance, starting with the enrolment process, reports China Daily. Freshmen reporting for enrolment on Wednesday were separated from their parents by a yellow line and made to handle the paperwork themselves in the gym. Following that, they were taken around the campus and helped with their luggage by older schoolmates. University President Chen Jining said: "An important goal of higher education is cultivating students' independent personalities, which should be embodied in every process of campus life… How can youngsters grow up with their parents spoiling them and taking care of everything?” Other universities have followed this example in different ways.

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Netherlands: Researchers find Pirate Bay block to be ineffective

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Tilburg University have found a blockade of website The Pirate Bay by Dutch internet service providers to be ineffective at stopping illegal downloads, reports Broadband TV News. Researchers say the blockade, imposed by a court order in 2012, has simply meant that people download from other illegal sources. Through data gathered from consumer surveys and a technique called Monitoring BitTorrent, the researchers found that on average, illegal download habits stayed the same, and only a small decrease in illegal download activity with the ISPs concerned. Joost Poort, one of the researchers, said: “Supply and demand of illegal content find other places to meet. In line with this, we find that the expected reaction of consumers to the blockade is greater than their actual reaction after.”

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US: Obama wants to link higher education funding with performance

President Obama has proposed that federal funding for higher education be linked to performance, reports Inside Higher Education. Institutions would be rated based on “affordability, student completion rates and the earnings of graduates”. Obama wants the system in place by 2018. He said: “It is time to stop subsidizing schools that are not producing good results, and reward schools that deliver for American students and our future.” The difficulty will be in creating metrics that apply across all the institutions.

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