International briefs

Venezuelan student hunger strike ends.

VENEZUELA: A group of Venezuelan students dispersed after 24 days of protest during which they consumed only water and saline solution.

The strike, which began on 31st January, was organized by an opposition youth group called Active Youth, Venezuela United (JAVU). Initially, only 9 students participated but it soon increased to more than 80 people being involved in the hunger strike.

The protests were held in the country’s capital, Caracas, and also in several other cities.

The protesters were calling for the release of what they claimed as 27 ‘political prisoners’. They also wanted the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) José Miguel, to be allowed to enter into the country, so that he could evaluate the human rights situation in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan government has so far agreed to some of the protesters’ terms by releasing one prisoner and promising the release of some of the others.

Ancient university edges closer to restoration

INDIA: After sitting in ruins for nearly 800 years, the Nalanda University in India, founded in the third century, has come a step closer to being restored to its former glory.

The University’s board of governors met last month and announced that the university would be opened by 2013. They further added that the construction work is being undertaken by 5 countries including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China and India as well.

The initial focus of the university will be on postgraduate education as well as research in humanities.

"There has been immense interest from the international community. Scholars not just from East Asia, but from the West as well, have expressed interest in collaborating with the project," said newly-appointed Vice-chancellor Gopa Sabharwal.

According to Sabharwal, a global competition to choose the university’s architecture will be launched soon.

Historians have suggested that the university had once accommodated 10, 000 students and scholars from all over Asia and had studied a variety of subjects that focused on science, philosophy, literature and mathematics.

China starts a nationwide clampdown on low quality journals

CHINA: Chinese authorities have ordered the publications of several academic journals and magazines to be stopped in an attempt to reduce the number of sub-standard academic journals in the country.

Beginning mid-February, the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), in charge of regulating overseas news and other publications, ordered the cessation of 6 journals while publishers of 8 others were to be punished on the basis of low quality publication.

GAPP has found that certain publications were incapable of maintaining the quality of the academic papers and that one such journal had published nearly 200 papers in one issue.

China has recently come under international criticism for their lack of supervision on peer evaluation when it comes to academic journals. Thus the Chinese government is determined to put a stop to such criticism.

It is estimated that around 8,000 journals are published in China with 4,600 of the journals relating to the scientific field and more than half of the articles published are seldom cited.

US dominate university reputation rankings

Seven universities from across the United States have been ranked among the top 10 universities across the world by reputation, confirmed an invitation-only survey taken in the beginning of the year by 13,000 scholars from 131 countries.

Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California were all rated as the top 6 institutes in the world.

Meanwhile, two universities from UK and one from Japan completed the top ten.

This survey, claimed as the first ever measure of reputations of universities based on teaching capacity and research facilities, was conducted by Ipos Media CT for THE ranking partner Thomson Reuters.

More trouble follows disgraced ex-minister

GERMANY: Former German Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, has given up his seat in the parliament amid allegations of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis and is now no longer immune from prosecution.

With more than 100 claims for plagiarism, the former Minister is looking ahead at a grim court battle as preliminary proceedings to review criminal offences regarding copyright infringements have began in his native Bravaria.

Having resigned from his political positions on 1 March, zu Guttenberg has also been stripped of his doctoral title following the allegations.

All information above was sourced from University World News, available atwww.universityworldnews.com

(By Mizna Mohamed)