On the surface, a gathering held for young research faculty last week at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was a clear expression of determination by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help them compete for grants. The agency fears that continued Congressional budget cuts, combined with the growing number of scientists who work later into…

When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, it looked at first as if many European universities were going to escape the worst. Higher education has long been considered a public right and a taxpayer-financed obligation, and there was optimism that universities, which government leaders hail as drivers of economic growth, would emerge relatively…

A century after a New York banker donated $100,000 to help establish what would become the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, his hometown is reaping the benefits of his generosity. Last month the Technion, Israel's oldest university, and Cornell University won a closely watched competition to build an applied-sciences campus in New York…

Skeptics question whether infusion of billions of dollars for education in the economic-stimulus bill before Congress would actually give a healthy jolt to the economy. The bill would help thousands of students pay for college and could give colleges money to fix crumbling buildings. Some members of Congress are calling for the removal of…

With the dollar's continued swoon and grim news on the job front, American economic competitiveness has become a central theme in the presidential election. Stumping in Ohio and Pennsylvania, old-line industrial states hit hard by the flight of manufacturing jobs, Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have called for renegotiating the…

This article reports that India's medical profession is in a crisis. For every 10,000 people in India there are only six doctors, compared with nearly 55 in the United States and nearly 21 in Canada. The problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. Professors are leaving medical schools for better-paying jobs in private hospitals and in…

This article describes the successful "reverse brain drain" scheme offered by the Chinese government for their scholars who study abroad. The program is a significant about-face from early Chinese policy on overseas study. Government programs and individual academic departments now offer competitive benefits and salaries to candidates…

When NetJets, a private aviation company, announced it would keep and expand its operational headquarters in Ohio, Richard T. Santulli, chairman and chief executive, didn't give credit to tax breaks or any of the other incentives states and cities typically use to woo or retain corporations. Instead, he said the critical factor was the state's…

According to a recent report of scenarios prepared by the National Intelligence Council, the next 15 years will bring significant global changes, including the transformation of the international political system built after World War II, a transfer of wealth from the West to the East, pressure on natural resources resulting from continuing…

In India's beleaguered higher-education system, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) stand apart. The seven institutions have turned out some of the world's finest engineers and computer scientists, eagerly recruited by top graduate schools in the United States. Many of the institutes' graduates have gone on to become the chief executives of…

This article reports the finding of a study entitled, "Where the Engineers Are," conducted by a group of researchers at Duke University, which was published in the spring issue of Issues in Science and Technology and is a follow-up to a 2005 study. This new report on the number and quality of graduate engineering degrees conferred in…

At a June 2007 forum, Vietnam's president and minister of education outlined an ambitious plan to overhaul their country's troubled educational system, while a panel of American academics and scientists highlighted the importance of higher education to Vietnam's rapidly growing economy and suggested potential models for reform. Two decades after…

Singapore is no longer content to produce only engineers and technocrats, says Tharman Shanmugaratnam, minister for education. The government wants to foster a dynamic environment that can attract thinkers and leaders in many fields, not just science. Singapore's planners envision their city as the "Boston of the East"--where the alchemy…

Graduate enrollments in mathematics are holding steady only because of an influx of foreign students, many of whom leave the United States after getting their degrees. This has led to classroom language problems and overemphasis on securing bright students and faculty from other countries. (MSE)

The June 30, 1985 and June 30, 1986 market values of 260 institutions' endowments, and their national rankings, are listed. (MSE)