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/ 17 October 2007

Burma blames monks for triggering violence

Burma’s ruling junta blamed Buddhist monks Wednesday for last month’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests, as it admitted nearly 3 000 people had been detained over the rallies. Troops and police quelled the protests in late September, leaving at least 13 dead and drawing international condemnation.

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/ 17 October 2007

Marrying science to business

Academics in the sciences must realise that they are also entrepreneurs, according to a range of speakers at the annual Bio2Biz SA conference in Cape Town last month. But researchers must be prepared to fall and pick themselves up again in a real-life experiment, said Dr Joe Molete, conference organiser and CE of the BioPAD innovation funder in Gauteng.

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/ 17 October 2007

Bringing brains back

Heads of universities and their senior staff will converge in Tripoli, Libya, later this month to discuss issues under the theme, "The African Brain Drain — Managing the Drain: Working with the Diaspora". This is the biennial conference of rectors, vice-chancellors and presidents of African universities of the Association of African Universities.

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/ 17 October 2007

In the cul-de-sac of dissensus

The crucial, invigorating idea about higher education is continuity. No matter how much the outward appendages of the university change, nothing changes. Above the allure of an esoteric discipline, one idea reigns supreme. The sense that one belongs to an age-old community of bickerers is the joy of academe.

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/ 17 October 2007

Exchanging growth for equality

If you are of a sensitive disposition, I advise you stop reading now. I am about to break the last of the universal taboos. I hope that the recession now being forecast by some economists materialises. I recognise that recession causes hardship. Like everyone I am aware that it would cause some people to lose their jobs and homes. I do not dismiss these impacts or the harm they inflict, writes George Monbiot.

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/ 17 October 2007

Study idyll

Ventspils University College (VUC) is in the port city of Ventspils, Latvia, off the coast of the Baltic Sea. Latvia has been a member of the European Union since 2004. Ventspils is 200km west of the capital of Latvia, Riga, and 360km south-east of Stockholm, Sweden.

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/ 17 October 2007

Institution of unsolvable problems

The University of Limpopo is crumbling under poor management and governance practices, a ministerial report has disclosed. Drafted by ministerial appointee Professor Bennie Khoapa, the report recommends that he and his task team help the university fix wide-ranging problems in the next eight to 12 months. These exist in areas such as financial administration, human resource management, academic planning, governance and management.

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/ 17 October 2007

Beyond Bologna

The Bologna Declaration of 1999 triggered wide-scale reform across the continent and, in the past few years, not only has the introduction of new degree structures taken centre stage, but a range of other European and national higher education and research issues have found synergies with the Bologna reforms to create a potent change process.

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/ 17 October 2007

Beware internet perverts

Parents and children are not equipped to be internet-safe. So says a study conducted among MBA students and lecturers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on "whether parents are aware of online dangers and if they are doing enough to protect their children online".