Built on 1,500 acres of land reclaimed from the Yellow Sea off Incheon, about 35 miles from South Korea's capital, New Songdo City is billed as the largest private real-estate development in history. It is Korea's answer to Shanghai and Dubai. Estimates put the cost of the Songdo project, which is barely five years old, at up to $60-billion. The…

In the aftermath of the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, international humanitarian groups and volunteers poured into the country, bolstering what was already one of the world's hot spots for nongovernmental organizations. But the magnitude of the disaster--an estimated 300,000 were killed and one million left homeless out of a…

For the past two years, a steady stream of visitors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made the roughly 7,000-mile trek from Cambridge to Abu Dhabi to help build what aspires to be the first graduate-level research university devoted entirely to fostering renewable, clean, and sustainable sources of energy. Set to open this…

This article describes how a university tackled some of the basic challenges of internationalizing its campuses. The University of Washington created the Global Support Project, a one-stop shop for faculty and staff members doing research or running programs abroad. The project is run by senior administrators but relies on designated go-to people…

A number of Iraqi-American academics, meeting this month for a conference on how to rebuild Iraq's battered higher-education system, said the Iraqi government's plan to send thousands of students abroad annually would lead to a "brain drain" of a new generation of the nation's top talent. Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki has proposed…

Educational exchanges and fellowships are not new; the best known, the Fulbright Program, is more than 60 years old. But the Community College Summit Initiative Program, as this fledgling effort is known, reflects a growing recognition among American government officials that the United States must do a better job in its public-diplomacy outreach…

Reports many colleges and universities are extending the hours during which they provide technical support for distance education, offering late-night, weekend, or around- the-clock services, and notes use of private companies to provide such services to multiple institutions. Problems include large fluctuations in number of calls and e-mail…

Reviews "outsourcing" of technology services by institutions of higher education, including the College of Notre Dame (California) and East Tennessee State University, and finds that, although external companies, especially COLLEGIS, offer expertise and savings, they sometimes do not understand the special problems of an academic…

Describes how U.S. universities and government agencies are preparing to help Iraq's higher education systems after the war. (EV)

Describes the role of the instructional designer in working with professors to translate their traditional courses and favorite teaching techniques into an online format. Examples are from the World Campus program, which pairs instructional designers at various institutions (such as Pennsylvania State University) with faculty members. (DB)

Describes how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, a business-friendly idea factory, has big plans for expansion and for helping developing nations. (EV)

University extension services, patterned after agricultural extension services, collect and disseminate results of new research and go to businesses and industry to help solve technical and other problems. They are offered by many state and land-grant universities and some private institutions but are not well known. (MSE)

The 88 top-ranked colleges and universities receiving federal aid for research, development, testing, and evaluation efforts through Department of Defense contracts in fiscal year 1983 are listed and their ranks are given. The figures do not include contracts for training programs. (MSE)

Nearly 100 U.S. universities with high-technology research programs have received Japanese money in the last five years, suggesting to some that the United States is subsidizing technology transfer to an economic rival. Others find the figures inconclusive and the study's focus narrow. Other studies are forthcoming. (MSE)

Until recently, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other organizations stressed assistance to primary education in their aid to developing nations. Now, the important role of higher education in economic development is more widely acknowledged, deterioration of postsecondary systems is increasing, and assistance to…