ISRAEL-PALESTINE: Bomb attack on Israeli academic

A well-known Israeli critic of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank has been slightly wounded in a bomb attack, BBC News reports. Professor Zeev Sternhell is a former professor of political science at Hebrew University who now writes commentary in the Haaretz newspaper. Sternhell, who was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for Political Science earlier this year, has continuously opposed the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The authorities believe ultra-nationalist Israelis were behind the attack.

According to BBC News, several assailants were waiting for Sternhell outside his home in Jerusalem on Wednesday 24 September. They escaped after throwing a small pipe bomb.

Police investigators supposedly found a series of posters in Sternhell's neighbourhood offering a reward to anyone who killed a member of Peace Now - an Israeli group that campaigns against settlement building, to which the academic belongs. Sternhell, a Holocaust survivor, is best known for his work on the history of fascism.

UK: University admissions procedures must be transparent

Britain's Universities Secretary John Denham has said the government will push universities to commit to more transparent admission procedures, as it presses to widen participation in higher education.

According to The Guardian, Denham did not tell universities how to run their admission procedures but insisted the government had a role to play in encouraging more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to access elite universities by encouraging more clear and open admissions criteria.

With universities often overwhelmed with applications from 'A-grade' students, other processes for selection often come into play. The Minister criticised the presence of 'hidden mechanisms' in the process of selecting students for oversubscribed courses.

After complaints about government meddling, Denham said he had no plans to interfere in universities' admissions standards, agreeing the degree of autonomy within higher education was one of the reasons they were some of the best in the world, The Guardian said.

But he did say no one could afford to shy away from their responsibilities on widening participation, which was an extremely powerful tool for social justice.

BANGLADESH: Only the privileged few have access

A shortage of places at universities means little more than 8% of Bangladesh's high school graduates have access to higher education, The Chronicle of Higher Education said, quoting a report by the country's university regulator, the University Grants Commission.

The regulator's strategic plan for higher education in Bangladesh says that at least 28 new universities will have to be established to raise the system's capacity to 15% of high-school graduates.

Bangladesh has established only two public universities in the last three years while the number of high-school graduates has risen dramatically. According to The Chronicle, the chair of the commission said the number of places at universities would have to grow with the number of high-school graduates.

NIGERIA: Universities creating problems for government

Professor Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary of National University Commission, said that some state universities were running courses that were not approved and accredited by the commission, according to the Leadership Nigeria newspaper.

Okojie explained that the commission, which ensures the orderly development and quality of academic programmes in Nigerian universities, successfully audited many universities throughout 2007. The auditing of academic programmes was initiated after it became clear that such programmes in Nigeria were in a state of real confusion.

Leadership Nigeria said 62 programme audit panels, led by eminent professors from various universities, representatives of the NUC and the federal ministry of education, carried out the system-wide audit in 76 universities. Findings of the 2007 audit exercise indicated a deliberate attempt on the part of a number of universities to disregard or flout the regulatory role of the commission, Professor Okojie said.

ZIMBABWE: Trade union president released from prison

The President of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe, who was illegally arrested and held in detention under appalling conditions, has now been released from prison, Education International said.

President Takavafira Zhou was held in solitary confinement, without charge, from 18 to 22 September. EI said it had written to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to protest against the arrest and the inhuman and degrading conditions in which Zhou was held. It is expected Zhou will be summoned to court in the coming week but it is not clear what charges he will face.

SOUTH AFRICA: Panel says safeguards are needed

South Africa's Council on Higher Education has called for more cooperation between the government and public universities to ensure academic freedoms are protected and that universities retain their autonomy while remaining accountable for fulfilling their government-mandated roles, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

A report entitled Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and Public Accountability in South African Higher Education was recently published on the council's website and heavily criticised the government's handling of higher education

The Chronicle said the report was prepared by an independent panel convened by the Council on Higher Education to investigate growing concerns about government interference in higher education.

Universities have attacked the government for its bureaucratic restructuring of the higher education system. The report notes that legislation and policy changes in planning, financial support and quality assurance have grown progressively more stringent since 1997, with the result that institutions have had less control over how they transform themselves and use their funds.

* Jonathan Travis is programme officer for the Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR). www.nearinternational.org