Hungary, UK, India: University News

The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest university news from around the world, on 30 July 2013.

Global: Soft skills beat technical skills, says US academic

On a recent tour of Asia, the president of Williams College in the US state of Massachusetts, argued that the rapid pace of technological change means soft skills are ultimately more important than specific technical skills, South China Morning Post reports. Using his class of 1963 as an example, Adam Falk said “They have been successful not because of the specific technical tools or facts they learned at school, but because of the so-called soft skills they mastered.”  Falk also stressed his belief that online courses will never replace student-teacher relationships. "The way we can use technology in the classroom is almost limitless, deeply exciting – but none of it replaces the human faculty." 

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Hungary: Increase in enrollments at state-funded universities

The number of students enrolling in Hungary’s state-funded universities has risen over the last year, reports Politics.hu.  A total of 58,844 students are expected to start courses at publicly universities in Hungary this year, compared to 56,180 in 2012. With the total number of applicants this year reaching 95,445, only 75% were successful in gaining places. The most popular choices were  ELTE University, the University of Debrecen and Budapest Technical University. Overall, it seems the number of students admitted to universities in Hungary (including non-state universities) decreased by around 8,000.

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UK: Cardiff University graduate lands job performing stunts

A 21-year-old Cardiff University graduate has become the latest member of travelling aerial acrobatics team The Breitling Wingwalkers, The Telegraph reports. Nikita Salmon, a psychology and sociology graduate, became the eighth member of the thrill-seeking group after responding to an advert in her local newspaper. In case you don’t know what “wing walking” is, Nikita’s very first performance saw her strapped to the wings of a restored 1940s bi-plane, where she performed a coordinated dance routine with her colleagues at more than 100mph, in front of thousands of people at the Royal International Air Tattoo. "There really is nothing that compares with the speed and exhilaration of diving in the sky and pulling into a loop. I feel so lucky to be able to experience it," she said.

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India: Bihar expected to miss higher education target

Concerns have been raised over whether Bihar (a state in northern India) will be able to reach the national target of reaching a gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education of 30% by 2020. Currently, Bihar’s GER in higher education stands at just 8%, compared to the national average of 20%, reports The Times of India. Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha, president of the Federation of University Teachers' Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) has voiced concerns over the state’s poor growth in this area, saying: “Unless our institutions are made globally competitive, students [will] continue to migrate to other states.” Sanjivan Sinha, state education department special secretary, said measures to improve higher education in Bihar would be made a priority.

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