Multidisciplinary research – an essential driver for innovation

Editor’s note: today’s entry was written by Professor Jill Trewhella (pictured to the right), Deputy Vice Chancellor – Research, University of Sydney, Australia. It was originally delivered at the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Conference, 9 March 2009. Our thanks to Nicholas Haskins, Program Manager (International Networks), Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International), for bringing [...]

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The global geographies of stem cell research activity and policy

Today’s Financial Times includes a full page analysis (‘An industry to grow‘) that examines aspects of state-society-economy relations with respect to stem cell research. The author, Clive Cookson (who also runs the FT.com Science Blog), deftly weaves five threads through the article: the role of the state, and inter-state competition, in shaping a very geographically [...]

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Debate: Asia vs Europe: which region is more geopolitically incompetent?

Can regions think and act strategically? In which ways are Europe and Asia geopolitically (in)competent? How does one speak for “Asia” and “Europe”? Why do Mahbubani and Emmott seek to speak for “Asia” and “Europe”? Link here for a National University of Singapore (NUS) webcast of this recent debate, and here for a lecture synopsis.

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Deliberating about the meaning of “global competence” in a public US university

Editor’s note: this guest entry has been kindly provided by Masarah Van Eyck. Masarah (pictured to the right) is Director of Communications for the Division of International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining the Division in 2007, she served as a communications/development director and an editor for Wisconsin-based nonprofits. She is a freelance [...]

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CHERPA-network based in Europe wins tender to develop alternative global ranking of universities

Finally the decision on who has won the European Commission’s million euro tender – to develop and test a  global ranking of universities – has been announced. The successful bid – the CHERPA network (or the Consortium for Higher Education and Research Performance Assessment), is charged with developing a ranking system to overcome what is [...]

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IBM and collaborators open a new rail innovation centre in Beijing

As someone who loves taking the train, misses the TGV, Eurostar, and Thalys systems (having lived in France last year), and is perplexed why the world’s wealthiest country does not get serious about fast speed rail, this news story caught my eye. I’ll paste in most of the accompanying text below, from IBM’s Smarter Planet [...]

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Associations, networks, alliances, etc.: making sense of the emerging global higher education landscape

Note: this presentation, and associated discussion paper (in English), were produced for the International Association of Universities (IAU) 3rd Global Meeting of Associations of Universities (GMAIII), Guadalajara, Mexico – 20-22 April 2009. Link here for French and Spanish versions of the same discussion paper.

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