The TopUniversities.com guide to the latest higher education news from around the world, on 21 May 2013.
Global: MOOCs to be translated into Arabic
The Coursera platform, one of the world’s largest providers of MOOCs, is to partner with crowd-sourcing initiative Taghreedat to translate free online courses into Arabic, Al Arabiya reports. This will make courses from many of the world’s top universities available to Arabic speakers, starting with Stanford University’s Math Think course and Duke University’s Behavioral Economics course. Translation will be carried out by Taghreedat’s team of 9,000 translators, writers and editors, spread across 37 different countries.
China: Tough year for job-hunting graduates predicted
With reports that the job contract signing rate is falling in China, it seems this year’s university graduates may have a tough time finding employment, China.org.cn reports. Almost 7 million students will graduate from Chinese universities this year – a number which has almost quadrupled in just 10 years. Reports also suggest a growing number of students are choosing to pursue graduate-level education, as competition for top jobs increases.
Singapore: NYU @ NUS law program to close
New York University and the National University of Singapore have announced the closure of their prestigious joint law program, Channel News Asia reports. The NYU @ NUS program, which allows students to gain a Master of Laws (LLM) degree recognized by both universities, will take on its last intake of students this month. Based in Singapore and taught by faculty from both NYU and NUS, the course was launched in 2007 for an initial period of four years, which was then extended.
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Australia: Business students to advise Chinese companies
Students on the University of Sydney’s MBA program are to gain experience in providing consultancy services to Chinese businesses, Bit.com.au reports. The students will first spend time learning about Chinese economy and business culture, before gaining consultancy experience through collaboration with Jiaotong University’s Antai College of Economics and Management. Professor David Grant, co-dean of the University of Sydney’s Business School, said, “It's essential that all of our students have a good understanding of China... Eventually, they will be very well placed to play a leadership role in Australia's future business and trade relations with China."