Sam Rany, Ph.D.

Geoff Maslen 15 August 2014 Issue No:330   American universities have again outranked more than 1,250 other higher education institutions around the world in the annual Shanghai Jiao Tong listing of the global top 500 universities. And for the 12th year running, Harvard was placed number one. The global Academic Ranking of World Universities , or ARWU, was released on Friday with the usual long list of United States universities taking 16 places in the top 20, 52 in the top 100 and 146 in the top 500. Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, Caltech, Columbia and Chicago – in that order – were in the top 10 while American institutions also occupied the top five places in four of the five broad subject fields where Shanghai ranks the top 200 universities. Britain came second with three of its universities in the top 20 – Cambridge at number five, Oxford at number nine and University College London at 20. The UK also had eight universities in the top 100 and

Roger Y Chao Jr 18 July 2014 Issue No:329   With the ASEAN Community set to be established in December 2015, there is a need to revisit the failed 1992 ASEAN initiative to establish an ASEAN University. Its failure should not be attributed to lack of political will among ASEAN member states, but rather to an immature regionalisation process. Compared to 1992, the ASEAN region today has progressed dramatically towards ASEAN regionalism, creating a community with a population of over 600 million and a regional economy with a gross domestic product (at current prices) of US$2,318,156 million and with total trade of US$2,476,427 million based on 2012 figures. The establishment of the ASEAN Free Trade Area in 1992, the expansion of ASEAN membership in 1997 and 1998 to include Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia, and various regionalisation initiatives – including the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services and Mutual Recognition Agreement on key professions – provided the co

Suluck Lamubol 04 August 2014 Issue No:330   Rectors from nine of Thailand’s top public universities have joined the junta-picked lawmaking assembly established three months after the military staged the country’s 13th coup d'état on 22 May. The junta, officially known as the National Council for Peace and Order or NCPO, last week announced 200 nominations for membership of the military-dominated National Legislative Assembly, which will draft a constitution to replace the country’s current interim charter. More than half of them – 105 members – are from the military, 11 from the police and the rest are former senators, technocrats, academics and businessmen. A dozen are women. The nine rectors are from some of the country’s top universities including Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Chiang Mai, Kasetsart, Ramkhamhaeng, the National Institute of Development Administration, Srinakharinwirot, Khon Kaen and Mahidol. The rector of Mahidol University chairs the Counc

ASEAN states commit to Australia’s New Colombo Plan - University World News All 10 members of ASEAN – the Association of Southeast Asian Nations  have agreed to participate in Australia's New Colombo Plan encouraging Australian students to study at universities in Southeast Asia, reports SBS . Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop says she is pleased with the development, and that close ties between the ASEAN members make it logical that Australian students study at universities in Southeast Asia rather than in countries like the United States. A pilot of the New Colombo Plan began earlier this year in January, with more than 1,300 Australian undergraduate students supported by the government to study in the region. Under the original Colombo Plan, tens of thousands of students from Southeast Asia studied in Australia during the 1950s to 1980s. Full report on the SBS site