SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA-- ASIA is “the most exciting region on earth in higher-education terms”, said the Times Higher Education (THE) when introducing its inaugural Asian University Rankings this month. The region (defined by THE as including the Middle East but excluding Australasia) accounted for 57 of the top 400 institutions worldwide, with many Asian ones gaining ground on their Western counterparts. Japan has both the highest number of universities in the top 100 in Asia and the top-ranked Asian university overall, the University of Tokyo. However Taiwan, China and South Korea are not far behind, and even relatively tiny Hong Kong managed to get six universities on the list. With swelling numbers of people becoming middle class and boosting enrolment rates as well as investment in higher education and research—compared with reductions at some Western institutions—Asia's position in the global rankings is likely to improve for years to come.

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SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A recent dust-up between Wikipedia and Canada’s largest university raises questions about how collaborative the popular website that bills itself as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” truly is.

The online information portal recently took a professor from the University of Toronto to task for one of his classroom assignments.

Steve Joordens urged the 1,900 students in his introductory psychology class to start adding content to relevant Wikipedia pages. The assignment was voluntary, and Joordens hoped the process would both enhance Wikipedia’s body of work on psychology while teaching students about the scientist’s responsibility to share knowledge.

But Joordens’s plan backfired when the relatively small contingent of volunteer editors that curate the website’s content began sounding alarm bells. They raised concerns about the sheer number of contributions pouring in from people who were not necessarily well-versed in the topic or adept at citing their research.

Discussions in the Wikipedia community became very heated with allegations that articles were being updated with erroneous or plagiarized information. Some community members called for widespread bans on university IP addresses and decried the professor’s assignment as a needless burden on the community.

Joordens issued a statement defending his students, saying only 33 of the 910 articles edited were tagged for potential problems.

But he also acknowledged that he did not understand the limited scope of the Wikipedia editorial community, which boasts a few thousand members compared to the more than 488 million people that visit the site every month.

“I assumed that the current core of editors was extremely large and that the introduction of up to 1000 new editors would be seen as a positive,” Joordens said.

“However, the current core of editors turns out NOT to be that large, and even if my students were bringing signal along with noise, the noise was just too much to deal with on the scale it was happening.”

Joordens said the Wikipedia community became “annoyed and frustrated,” adding that things became heated to a point he found “somewhat ridiculous.”

The animated discussion that’s ensued from the incident highlights both the pros and cons of using social media in the classroom, experts said.

Sidneyeve Matrix, media professor at Queen’s University, said crowdsourcing platforms like Wikipedia offer unparalleled opportunities for students to engage with their topics of study and to feel they’re actively involved in the learning process.

But collaborative projects can’t survive without leadership, she said, adding the zealous editors at Wikipedia have an important role to play as gatekeepers. This case, she said, exposes the difficult balancing act at play.

“I thought it was a lot more open than it is, but at the same time I’m seeing that more and more teachers are using it in their classrooms,” she said. “The authenticity and verifiability of the information on the site has been improving, and that doesn’t happen from the magic fairy. It happens from dedicated folks who are behind the scenes.”

Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation that operates Wikipedia, said the online encyclopedia is working to carve out its niche in the classroom.

The website has established a pilot project that works closely with both teachers and students, he said, adding Joordens had some preliminary discussions with the company before carrying out his own plan.

He described the professor’s approach as “experimental,” emphasizing that editors need to follow certain protocols when contributing to articles. The strong reactions and speedy response of the Wikipedia community, he said, is the very mechanism that makes the site attractive to educators.

“This response is pretty high-value within the Wikipedia community,” he said. “It’s conceivable for someone to interpret that response as being too fast or not giving us a chance, but in this case there seems to be an openness towards figuring out ways to make this kind of an initiative work.”

Joordens agreed, saying he will limit the number of students who take on such voluntary assignments in the future and make sure they’re up to speed with the site’s editing practices. In turn, he called for Wikipedia members to back down from their hardline position on fledgling contributors.

“Now that at least some members of the Wikipedia community are putting down their digital pitchforks, it is becoming more and more obvious to me that we all share the same goal of improving the quality and quantity of information on Wikipedia,” he said. “If we could find ways of working together while also being respectful of one another, we could really do some great things.”-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: The globe and Mail

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – At least 15 students have been killed in Syria after foreign-sponsored insurgents targeted the Damascus University with mortar shells.

According to Press TV, the projectiles landed inside the canteen of the university’s Faculty of Architecture on Thursday. More than 20 other students sustained injuries in the attack.

Meanwhile, two civilians were killed and another injured when insurgents opened fire on a passenger minibus with machine guns near Jdeidet Artouz - a suburb southwest of Damascus.

Local officials said the attack took place on the al-Arbaeen Highway opposite police housing compounds.

A medical source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of a baby girl and a young man had arrived at the al-Muwasat Hospital in the district, adding that an injured person is receiving treatment at the hospital.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting in the country are foreign nationals.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Irib

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Students take over sections of the campus in protest at outsourcing of services such as catering to private providers

It is a dispute that has radicalised dozens of students, shut down sections of Sussex University for more than a month and won admiration and support from the likes of Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and the actor Peter Capaldi.

At issue are two clashing visions of the university experience – one that sees students as consumers and another that rejects the commercialisation of learning and everything that goes with it.

Other universities are watching as students and staff at the Falmer campus, near Brighton, flex their campaigning muscles.

The trigger for the dispute is what the protesters regard as creeping privatisation on campus. Sussex is one of several universities outsourcing key services such as catering and estate management.

Student campaigners, who have occupied the university's conference centre since early February, say the move will jeopardise employment terms and conditions. "Private providers won't be bound to provide workers with the same contract terms, so there's a danger positions may be undermined," said William Brown, a first-year English student. "The university has also been very unclear about the reasons behind the decision, which is incredibly hypocritical of an academic institution."

Plans to outsource services at Sussex were "the straw that broke the camel's back", said Theadora Jean, a master's student in critical and creative writing. "Even among people like myself who aren't taking part in the protests, there is a lot of support for the campaign. Across the country universities are becoming more and more like businesses … this is about making a stand against that. It's the principle that counts."

The university's vice-chancellor, Michael Farthing, told BBC Radio Sussex: "I respect students' right to voice their opinions … Sussex has always been a place where people are critical of a whole range of issues from management to government.

"Providing the protests are peaceful, and providing they're legal and the protesters are safe, we have freedom of speech here and we allow people to express their views."

He added: "We're talking about a relatively small number of students and there are many students on campus who would have diametrically the opposite views to those in the conference centre."

Universities and colleges are increasingly looking to outsource campus services, according to the National Union of Students, which is working with Unison to advise students what impact the privatisation of university services could have on their experience.

The NUS says London Metropolitan University is using a private firm to reshape its non-teaching services and Falmouth University plans to move academic support staff to a private company, FX Plus. The company, which is jointly owned by Exeter and Falmouth universities and employs 235 of the universities' non-academic staff, would allow the university to evade the national pay structures that usually apply in higher education. In November, the University of Central Lancashire became the first public university to apply to become a private company.

Rachel Wenstone, NUS vice-president for higher education, said: "If you're looking to make profit from frontline student services then you're doing the wrong thing. Part of a university's responsibility is to ensure their students are happy and healthy while on campus. This means certain things, like good housing and food, are fundamental and you shouldn't be making a profit from either – unfortunately that's exactly what private companies will do."

"Universities are public institutions, they provide services not only to students but also to the public. If universities are profit-driven, this destroys the possibility that they have any level of community responsibility – and it means students will not have the opportunity to shape what that looks like."

Support for the Sussex occupiers can be seen aAcross the Sussex campus, yellow squares – an image used by the occupiers – are displayed in windows and worn by sympathetic staff and students, while chants reproaching the university vice-chancellor Michael Farthing are heard at protesters' demonstrations.

The dispute shows no sign of abating. While a university meeting with the occupiers ended in deadlock, the University and Colleges Union says staff have been stopped from wearing badges to show their support for the campaign.

A senior academic from the School of English said the censorship put Sussex's reputation as a free-thinking academic institution at risk. "This behaviour is clearly at odds with management's repeated claims to the national press that it is open to staff and faculty views, and most crucially it undermines the role of the university as an open marketplace of ideas."

Adriano Marola, a third-year international relations and development studies student, said staff and students should be involved in the running of universities. "No one in the community apart from the university management knows what's going on. On the one hand people's livelihoods are being undermined, but on top of that, the abilities of students and long-standing staff members are being undermined because their arguments are being completely disregarded. Students aren't just consumers buying degrees, as the government suggests. Our opinions should be listened to."

Brown hopes the negative publicity will force management to back down. "The occupation is costing them money because they rent Bramber House [the building being occupied] out as a conference centre, so it's a drain on resources, but we're also highlighting their privatisation plans, which are an embarrassment to the university."-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: The Guardian

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A British university has been facing accusations of discriminating against its Muslim students, following its sudden decision to shut their prayer room on campus.

“We feel we are being unjustly targeted,” Wasif Sheikh, a Muslim student at City University, told The BBC on Friday, February 22.

Studying at City University, Sheikh was one of the Muslim students who were shocked by the decision of their university to shut their prayer room.

The decision followed a statement from the university saying it needed to be sure of the "appropriateness" of what was being discussed in sermons as authorized university events.

It said it also needed to be assured that all "students eligible to deliver" prayers and sermons "are considered equally and given the opportunity to do so".

"The university could not continue to condone an activity taking place on its premises where it cannot exercise reasonable supervision,” the statement added.

Suspicions surrounding the content of the sermons followed a report released three years ago by Quilliam Foundation think tank.

It claimed hard line views and a confrontational atmosphere were being encouraged.

"If there was no past history at the university, I think what the students are saying would sound extremely reasonable. However, there has been quite a vicious and nasty history there,” Dr Usama Hasan from the Quilliam Foundation.

"They have to deal with that and give a bit more to the university.

"Both sides need to compromise here and negotiate with some difficult conversations."

Yet, there was no evidence those views are still being spread now.

Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority, estimated at nearly 2.5 million.

There are 400,000 Muslim students in British schools, according to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

There are nearly 90,000 Muslim students studying in higher education institutions in the European country.

Unjustly Targeted

Confirming that they were "unjustly targeted", the students formed a group titled Muslim Voices on Campus, calling on the university to reverse its decision.

“All of our sermons are open, we welcome all students and all staff.”

"But when you start submitting your sermons to be monitored and scrutinized then there's a chance for it to be dictated what's allowed and what's not allowed.

“We, as students, don't accept that,” he added.

In 2008, a Cambridge University study found that young British Muslims on university campuses represent a generation of well-integrated citizens rather than disaffected extremists.

Their study, based on detailed interviews with students in London, Cambridge and Bradford, concluded that fears of campus extremism were very much "exaggerated" and Muslim students are more likely to join Amnesty International than Al-Qaeda.

Yet, a new cache of documents for security high sensitive information revealed in 2011 that Muslim students were victims of unjustified monitoring inside british campuses.

The Unileaks, dubbed after the famous whistleblower website WikiLeaks, published over 200 internal documents for University of Nottingham and the Government last June 12.

The cache of documents includes highly sensitive material, for example, from the Met Police Special Branch, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Home Office and Dept for Universities (BIS) and others.

The released Unileaks also details techniques deployed to monitor Muslim students four days after the Government published its Prevent terrorism strategy.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source:On Islam

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –  Word has it that Google’s self-driving car could be ready in 3-5 years, assuming that’s the kind of thing you’re going after. However it looks like Google won’t be alone in the competition as another self-driving car in the UK could pose a challenge. This concept was cooked up by a team at the Oxford University and they claim that the component needed in order to turn your car into a self-driving vehicle would only cost around $150. That is one of the major differences between their concept and Google’s concept, as pointed out by Professor Newman.

“Well if you look at it, we don’t need a 3D laser spinning on the roof that’s really expensive – so that’s one thing straight away. I think our car has a lower profile […] Our approach is made possible because of advances in 3D laser mapping that enable an affordable car-based robotic system to rapidly build up a detailed picture of its surroundings.”

Despite their potential competition with Google, Professor Newman applauded Google’s efforts, and believes that it is possible to see such technology being commonplace within 15 years.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Ubergizmo

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Under the title of (education strategy for Iraq's future) The Second Annual Conference of the Islamic sciences university of London held at the KHatam EL-Anbya auditorium of the Imam Hussein holy shrine on the occasion of the death of the pioneer of the Islamic architecture Dr. Mohammed Ali EL-Shehristany, and about this occasion Furas Turki a member of the preparatory committee of the conference said that that year the they found the actual level of education in Iraq in need to be developed and progressed, and the problems it suffers from need to be solved, therefore, many researches and guaranteeing means were submitted in that aspect in order to deal with the scientific and educational actuality.

The most important focuses the researches dealt with were the educational curricula and what they need and how they should function, old and modern means of teaching, school engineering, future horizons, and the modern technology of teaching.

The conference would come up with some recommendations submitted to specialized government entities and civil society organizations in Iraq in order to work according to.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Abna

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The Palestinian Authority rebuked a university in Gaza that wants to institute an Islamic dress code for female students.

Starting next semester, Al-Aqsa University will require female students to dress in a more modest fashion in line with Islamic teaching. Students will not be forced to wear full-length coats or cover their faces entirely, but they must wear the hijab — the veil that partly covers the head. The university won’t expel students for violating the dress code, but will instruct staff to lecture students on the importance of following the dress code.

The goal is to avoid arousing the sexual desires of male students, according to the university.

The decision drew the ire of the Palestinian Authority, which said that Al-Aqsa lacked the authority to compel students to dress in Islamic attire.

Ali Jarbawi, Palestinian Authority Minister of Higher Education, called the dress code “illegal, and therefore null and unenforceable.”

At least one student said she would not have decided to attend Al-Aqsa if she knew the university would move toward an Islamic dress code.

“If I had known before that the university would impose Islamic dress, I would not have registered here in the beginning,” said an anonymous third-year student in a statement to Ma’an News Agency.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Dailycaller

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- State TV said Aleppo University was hit by a "terrorist bombing", although activists say the cause is unclear.

Aleppo has been the scene of numerous bombings and air strikes, as government forces try to dislodge rebels there.

Rebel forces have made sweeping gains in northern Syria in recent months and Aleppo is largely under their control.

The university is located in an area under the control of government forces.

The state news agency, Sana, said the university was hit on the first day of student exams.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, reported two explosions and said dozens of people had been wounded.

Pictures on state television showed at least one body and several vehicles on fire.

Rebels have previously carried out bombings against government targets in Aleppo.

In October, at least 34 people were killed in a series of bombings in the city's main square.

The UN says at least 60,000 people have been killed since protests in March 2011 turned into an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

www.shafaqna.com/English