http://unews.ca/University News from from Canada, the U.S. and the world. Edited by journalism students at the University of King's College School of Journalism in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canadaen-us http://unews.ca/images/core/banner_rss.gif http://unews.ca/Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:00:00 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/astronauts-to-photograph-northern-lights/Images of the Aurora Borealis will be taken from space on Thursday by two astronauts from the international Space Station as part of a public engagement initiative called AuroraMAX. The project is a collaboration between the University of Calgary, the City of Yellowknife, Astronomy North and the Canadian Space Agency. Images will be broadcast live through Yellowknife’s online observatory followed by images from the space station 48 hours later. The project will take place over the next six weeks. CanadaMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:46:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/astronauts-to-photograph-northern-lights/http://unews.ca/digest/item/u-of-a-takes-back-record-for-worlds-largest-dodgeball-game/The University of Alberta took back the Guinness World Record of the world’s largest dodge ball game of Friday. In September the record was given to the University of California, Irvine, which had 4,000 participants. U of A gained the record back with 4,979 people. The university’s president, Indira Samarasekera, Provost Carl Amrhein, and Liberal leader Bob Rae also attended. The game lasted for nearly an hour with the gold team defeating the green. CanadaMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:47:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/u-of-a-takes-back-record-for-worlds-largest-dodgeball-game/http://unews.ca/digest/item/concordia-unwavering-in-face-of-student-strike/Concordia University provost David Graham says the university will continue as usual despite a proposed strike against the school’s tuition hikes by the student union. Concordia does not have an alternative exam schedule in the event of a strike, and students have been warned that missing “instructional activities” could have consequences. Student President Lex Gill called the statement “fear mongering,” while Graham claimed he was simply helping faculty and staff address student concerns about the strike. CanadaMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:49:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/concordia-unwavering-in-face-of-student-strike/http://unews.ca/digest/item/ubc-car-sharing-program-popular-but-not-practical/Cars2go, a car-sharing service popular with University of British Columbia students, has expanded its service area to the UBC campus this month. However, students are complaining that parking spots are only available in the university’s South Campus, and far away from the majority of student housing. A customer service representative claims the university refuses to work with them on the issue and encourages students to complain to the university directly. CanadaMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:50:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/ubc-car-sharing-program-popular-but-not-practical/http://unews.ca/digest/item/sfu-student-discovers-extinct-monkey/Simon Fraser University PhD student Brent Loken accidently filmed a species of monkey, called Miller’s Grizzled Langur, that was previously thought to be extinct. Loken was taking part in a biodiversity study with the local Whea Dayak community that was designed to build a legal case to protect their forests. Boreno’s forests are some of the most diverse in the world, but also face some of the worst rates of animal extinction. Loken says palm oil production is partly to blame. CanadaMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:51:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/sfu-student-discovers-extinct-monkey/http://unews.ca/digest/item/30-million-donated-to-mcmaster-for-health-research/McMaster University will announce today that it has received a $30-million donation for health research by Hamilton siblings Jackie Work and Lee Boris. Twenty-four million is for the establishment of the Boris Family Centre in Human Stem Cell Therapies. The centre will help the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute produce its breakthrough discoveries faster for commercial production. The other $6 million will go toward a clinic that will help patients seek specialist care and testing in one visit. CanadaMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:52:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/30-million-donated-to-mcmaster-for-health-research/http://unews.ca/digest/item/arizona-state-is-blocking-change.org/Arizona State University is blocking access to Change.org, a popular site political activists use to generate support through petitions and education. Some activists accused the university of censorship, demanding access be restored. They note that one of the petitions currently active on the site is critical of the university, and say a "corporate culture" is the reason for the decision. Arizona State maintains the site is a source of potentially virus-containing spam, which the university is required to block. U.S.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:56:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/arizona-state-is-blocking-change.org/http://unews.ca/digest/item/kiplingers-drops-claremont-mckenna-from-rankings/A personal finance magazine has dropped a college that inflated its SAT averages its list of the liberal arts colleges offering the best value. The college had been No. 18. A statement by Kiplinger's magazine said recent reports about the college suggested it had earned its spot "unfairly.” U.S. News & World Report has said it will calculate the likely impact of the false reporting on the college's rank, but will not issue new rankings. U.S.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:53:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/kiplingers-drops-claremont-mckenna-from-rankings/http://unews.ca/digest/item/providence-wants-more-money-from-brown-u/The mayor of Providence, R.I., said last week the city would go bankrupt unless it achieves savings and new revenue from sources including Brown University. Mayor Angel Taveras said the university needs to commit $40 million in additional payments over the next 10 years on top of the $4 million it pays every year. The city has its demand reflects Brown’s use of city services, since the university property is tax-exempt. U.S.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:55:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/providence-wants-more-money-from-brown-u/http://unews.ca/digest/item/penn-cancer-center-sues-cancer-researcher/A cancer research institute at the University of Pennsylvania has sued a former scientific director, charging him with taking research with him to start a biotechnology company. The director, Craig B. Thompson is now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The lawsuit, by the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn, called Thompson"an unscrupulous doctor" who "chose to abscond with the fruits” of the institute. Thompson has denied wrongdoing. U.S.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:57:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/penn-cancer-center-sues-cancer-researcher/http://unews.ca/digest/item/single-sex-courses-at-qatar-community-college/Houston Community College's efforts to help create a community college in Qatar have faced numerous obstacles, including the requirement that courses be taught separately to men and women. This is contrary to the contract signed between the college and Qatar. Most Western colleges and universities operating branches elsewhere have stressed that they would abide by the same commitments to equity used on their main campuses. The new college has also faced other problems such as accreditation difficulties, and high faculty turnover. U.S.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:58:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/single-sex-courses-at-qatar-community-college/http://unews.ca/digest/item/calif-students-propose-unique-payment-method/A group of students from the University of California at Riverside have proposed a new funding model for the university that seeks to solve the unpredictable and large decreases in state funding. It also seeks to solve the issue of increases in tuition costs. Under the proposed plan, students in the system would pay no upfront costs for their education but would agree to pay five per cent of their income to the system for 20 years after graduating and entering the workforce. U.S.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:59:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/calif-students-propose-unique-payment-method/http://unews.ca/digest/item/foreign-students-abandoning-Britain-/Foreign students aren’t coming to study in Britain any more, according to British academics. This could cost the country as much as $8 billion, according to a consultant’s report. Fewer foreign students are being admitted to British universities and huge tuition increases are scaring off the main source of income for schools. European Union applications to British universities are down 11 per cent. Academics worry that visa restrictions will reduce the number of international students applying. WorldMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:39:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/foreign-students-abandoning-Britain-/http://unews.ca/digest/item/only-12-of-european-science-grants-go-to-women/Twelve per cent of scientific research grants handed out by a major funding council in Europe go to women and 60 per cent of them go to four countries. The European Research Council gives out $870 million in grants each year. Twenty-one of 41 countries in Europe didn’t receive any grant money. An EU committee is reviewing the problem. The council is open to global applications. WorldMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:36:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/only-12-of-european-science-grants-go-to-women/http://unews.ca/digest/item/cambridge-gets-controversial-chinese-donation/The Chong Hua Foundation has given $5.8 million to Cambridge University. Three professors, one of them in political science, are angry about the decision, however. They don’t know what the Chong Hua Foundation is, and fear it might have links to the Chinese government. The university claims the gift, which will establish a professorship in Chinese development, is philanthropic. They say it has no connection to the government, despite it “advancing education for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China.” WorldMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:38:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/cambridge-gets-controversial-chinese-donation/http://unews.ca/digest/item/s-korean-universities-fail-to-lower-fees/South Korean universities were supposed to lower tuition by 15 per cent by the end of January. However, only 186 of 337 schools met the 2012 tuition notification deadline. Only one managed to reduce tuition by more than five per cent. Students had protested tuition fees last summer and had demanded a 50 per cent reduction. The government had promised 15 per cent, with more cuts to come. Universities had previously inflated their expenses to justify higher fees. WorldMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:42:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/s-korean-universities-fail-to-lower-fees/http://unews.ca/digest/item/physics-popular-in-uk/A physics degree is no longer just for the unpopular kids in Britain. Physics application rates in the United Kingdom are way up. In Surrey, applications have gone up 50 per cent in two years. National physics applicantions are up 8.3 per cent, even while British tuition is skyrocketing and general university applications are expected to drop 8.7 per cent. The success of physics programs is being credited to TV shows, including Stargazing Live and The Big Bang Theory. WorldMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:42:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/physics-popular-in-uk/http://unews.ca/digest/item/israeli-students-heading-to-palestine-to-study/The number of Israeli students studying at Palestinian universities has doubled, according to a report by the Knesset Research and Information Center. About 1,300 Israelis study in Palestine, mostly in education. The number of students has been doubling almost every year. Israeli universities have higher admission standards, while Palestinian universities aren’t considered up to par by Israeli authorities, who fear “Israeli students will be influenced by terror organizations and their activities." Most of the students studying in Palestine are non-Jewish Bedouins. WorldMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:44:51 -0400http://unews.ca/digest/item/israeli-students-heading-to-palestine-to-study/