The foreign student quota was recently increased from just 0.5% to 5% of the student intake at local universities.

Some 140 delegates – from 19 Asian and 27 European nations – were attending the fourth Asia-Europe education ministerial, known as ASEMME4, being held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia from 12-14 May. They were joined by delegates from Australia, New Zealand and Russia

The increase was the smallest in eight years, mainly driven by a 5% decrease in applications from Chinese students, who make up a third of America’s graduate students, said the report, titled 2013 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey.

Holding a degree qualification was a precondition for contesting the 2008 poll

The universities are keenly awaiting the European Commission’s proposals for an internationalisation strategy, believing this could sharpen awareness of the merits of such a policy among their own leaderships and help focus individual efforts

The EUA report, Global Universities and their Impact – Report II, says that besides increasing the pressure on universities – and the risk of overburdening them – the rankings “are also now beginning to impact on public policy making

). Meanwhile, the lowest proportion of higher education graduates was found in Italy (21.7%), Romania (21.8%) and Malta (22.4%

“This new research suggests that open access is reaching the tipping point, with around 50% of scientific papers published in 2011 now available for free,” the commission said in a statement.

Meanwhile, under a new scheme the government is to act as a rental guarantor for students who have difficulties raising a deposit

According to education expert and DSW President Dieter Timmermann, students starting study programmes now are “in a worse situation than previous generations”.

Forty-two countries reported data in the so-called OECD KNOWINNO project – Making the Most of Science – supported by the European Union’s Seventh Framework programme with the participation of a large number of institutions and experts.

. [This is an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, America’s leading higher education publication. It is presented here under an agreement with University World News.]

. They joined tens of thousands of people from different sectors of Thai society publicly expressing opposition to the government’s plan.

. South Africa’s Dr Blade Nzimande, minister of higher education and training, hosted this first meeting of the BRICS education ministers, which was aimed at establishing cooperation and sharing experiences. They met on 5 November on the margins of the 37th session of the UNESCO general conference

Education Minister José Ignacio Wert, who has cut Erasmus grants by 77% – from €65.8 million to €15.3 million (US$89 million to US$21 million) – in the past two years, had sought to eliminate state subsidies for Spanish students who do not receive the general state grant.