Community colleges in the United States are increasingly seen as a model by developing countries looking to train a skilled work force, even as the institutions wrestle with what it means to educate globally competent students, said speakers at the American Association of Community Colleges' annual meeting here this month. China in particular is…

Pests, population growth, and depleted soil have wreaked havoc on agriculture in Africa, so universities across the continent are rethinking how they teach the topic. Some African universities have been building their own networks and pooling their limited resources to train more agricultural scientists and improve their responsiveness to the…

According to the Chinese Ministry of Education and the China Scholarship Council, the ministry-directed agency that oversees educational exchange, the number of international students at Chinese universities rose dramatically over the past decade, from 39,000 in 1997 to 195,000 in 2007 (although only one-third of them were seeking degrees). While…

Around the world, the fight for affordable medical treatment is intensifying. Headline-grabbing battles are being waged in India, where the Chennai High Court recently decided a major constitutional case over access to lifesaving cancer medication. In Thailand, Abbott Laboratories, a multinational pharmaceutical giant, has withdrawn registration…

This article reports on new programs that focus on training skilled scientists and mathematicians who will help solve Africa's myriad problems. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, in Cape Town, South Africa, offers one of the first working examples of a growing effort to develop a cadre of highly trained, practically minded scientists…

Learning is valuable, but in Africa it is more than that: It is prohibitively expensive. In Ethiopia, where the per-capita income is about $100 a year, a single textbook at Addis Ababa University can cost $50. In order to get more textbooks to students in developing nations, two people are leading an ambitious project to produce and freely…

Reports from China, Colombia, Georgia, and India catalog corruption in higher education overseas, especially in the developing world. (EV)

Speaking at a Harvard University commencement 60 years ago, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a massive program of aid and redevelopment--since known as the Marshall Plan--to bring a war-ravaged Europe back to economic health, political stability, and peace. Today colleges and universities need a new such plan, with university…

Examines the trend in many foreign countries away from monopolies by public higher education institutions toward private colleges. Describes U.S. models and similar efforts in developing countries. (EV)

The USSR's celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its Lumumba University in Moscow is described. The university's purpose is to provide higher education for "countries that have gained their freedom from colonial dependence" and to enable "backward" cultures to enter the modern world. (LB)

Describes some of the efforts colleges have undertaken to ensure that clothing with college logos is not produced in sweatshops. Outlines work by the Fair Labor Association and the Workers Rights Consortium, organizations to which many colleges belong, to set up programs to monitor factories in the United States and other countries. (SLD)

Discusses how some prominent institutions prompt debate by subcontracting the labor-intensive work of putting documents online to vendors in developing countries. Libraries counter that contractors treat overseas employees well. (EV)

Discusses how, through several colleges in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, three powers--the United States, Turkey, and Russia--seek to influence the course of Central Asia. (EV)

This article illustrates the importance of preparation for professors who take students overseas. A University of Washington study-abroad program in Ghana that was cut short last summer after the medical evacuation of half of its participants highlights the potential hazards associated with programs led by individual faculty members who may lack…

World Bank recommendations calling on developing countries to shift some of their higher-education funds to elementary and secondary education have prompted opposition from leaders of the International Association of Universities. (MLW)