Another Day in the Antz Farm

During the recent years, Asian universities (especially from Singapore, Japan and Korea) received unprecedented level of government support to educate and develop the next generation of engineering and technology talent. But only few institutions can really make the grade to eminent research institutions. One of such institution is KAIST (formerly known as Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).

During the recent Singapore Management University Distinguished Presidential Lecture (Apr 08), Dr Suh Nam Pyo (President, KAIST) outlined his university’s effort excel as a 21st century research university. Read about his vision for the future of Asias’ research universities.

Today, Microsoft Research announced the availability of the public beta of WorldWide Telescope.

“The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft.

“By combining terabytes of incredible imagery and data with easy-to-use software for viewing and moving through all that information, the WorldWide Telescope opens the door to new ways to see and experience the wonders of space. Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe.”

I encourage all of you to try it at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org

Related link: Capturing screenshots from Worldwide Telescope (Long Zheng, istartedsomething.com)

Universities around the world are involved in an important mission to to develop intellectual capital, this is evident particularly in areas of science and technology. However, Universities should not cast aside it’s complementary mission pertaining to character and understanding oneself in relation to the larger society. Professor Shih Choon Fong (President, National University of Singapore) highlighted this point during the Beijing Forum on 3 Nov 2007.

Here is the link to hiscspeech transcript - “The University’s Functional and Civilizing Mission in a Congested, Culturally Complex World” (pdf).

The Australian reported a proposal by by the Australian National University Vice-Chancellor (Prof. Ian Chubb) for minimum degree standards. His proposal would allow employers to distinguish between university degrees from high- and low-quality institutions.

Australia is falling behind the world’s top universities and urgently needed to “catch up” to stop further decline. “We persist with the notion of a parity of esteem of degrees even though we know there are sizeable differences in the entry scores of students, the capabilities of academic staff.

“There are differences, real differences, within the sector and those differences lead to consequences.”

- Professor Ian Chubb (19 Feb 2008, Australian and New Zealand School of Government ANZSOG Lecture Series)

If you are looking around for a MBA program, you may consider the 2008 Financial Times MBA ranking as a starting point. The ranking table provides an overall ranking grade as well as individual grade for several key attributes such as career progression, international faculty and student and international experience.

The top 5 business schools in the Asia Pacific regions are:

• China Europe International Business School (Shanghai, China)
• Hong Kong UST Business School (Hong Kong)
• Indian Business School (Hyderabad, India)
• Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM, Sydney)
• Nanyang Business School (Singapore)

From 2002 to 2005, as overall university enrolments increased by about 7 per cent, IT suffered an 18per cent crash, says the study, The IT Education Bubble, by Ian Dobson of Monash University’s Centre for Population and Urban Research.

The (Australian) Federal Department of Education, Science and Training figures for 2006 not included in the study show the drop is accelerating: last year there were 9000 fewer IT enrolments than in 2005, a one-year fall of 18 per cent.

Australian Council of Deans of Science president John Rice said the higher proportion of international students in the IT field did not solve Australia’s IT skills shortage.

International students made up 48 per cent of the IT enrolment in 2005 (from 40.5 per cent in 2002).

Professor Rice said the report showed a “clear instance of a conflict between national capacity-building and a market-driven university system”.

“Half of our capability investment in (information and communication technology) is destined to leave the country unless retained through immigration,” said Professor Rice, dean of science at the University of Technology, Sydney.

“That half is something that can’t be used by many organisations.”

Continue reading the full article “IT enrolments in dramatic decline” (The Australian Higher Education)

Berno: Two themes which really struck me from the above quoted paragraphs:

a) Despite efforts from recent years by IT recruitment companies and companies like Microsoft, Aussie kids are not drawn to take up IT/ CS places in our universities. Why? Our current society is clearly not providing enough recognitions and rewards for IT and technical disciplines. Prospective students would compare IT and Business degree career outcomes and their place in the world. Well, guess what? The present perceived value point towards a business degree.

b) “That half is something that can’t be used by many organisations.” If this enrolment malaise is not promptly and properly addressed, our pipeline of skilled and competent IT and CS graduates will only get worse. Who will develop our next generation of innovation? University admission scores for IT courses are currently around the low 70s mark. How much lower can we get before we lost the interests of academically talented students? Clearly, no one wants to be associated with a lack lustre field.

PS: Check out the comments section listed below the article too.

As developed and emerging economicses moved closer towards a knowledge and services based world, consumers and businesses are increasingly depended on internet applications. These applications underlined by algorithm are used to power and delivered the next wave of services.

The Economist published an interesting article “Business by numbers” (13 Sep 07) on the applications, real world examples and importance of mathematical algorithms behind it all.

Related link: Algorithms and the Economist

The days are gone when the world’s best schools likes of Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford - could rest on their laurels and expect the best students to come to them. Today, a variety of trends are utterly reshaping the educational landscape.

Europe’s push for common university system have begun only eight years ago and beginning to show signs of a big harvest of foreign students in 2010. Many Asian counties (likes of China, India, Singapore and Malaysia), the largest exporter of foreign students to the West, are pouring unprecedented sums into building and improving their universities, and millions more selling them aboard. China plans to spend 4% of its annual GDP in coming years from its current 0.5%. To lure the best professors, Singapore universities are offering salaries competitive with the best US schools, where young academics can now earn more than USD 180,000 a year.

Newsweek recently published a special report of the current state of global education and highlights this strategic and competitive landscape. Visit Global Education Special Report - The Race is On for the full story.

Today, I made my way to 1 Epping Road, North Ryde, to start my first day in my new role with Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) in the University Relations team.

In this new role, I will be working closely with John Warren (my manager) to be an effective bridge for the MSRA lab and the regional (ANZ-SEA) academic communities. My focus will be building long-term and mutually beneficial relations through joint-research, academic exchange and the development of future research leaders.

Overseas university students are transforming Melbourne as the leading academic powerhouse in the country and delivering huge economic benefits that rivals the city’s tourism industry.

Full article “Foreign students transform city” (The Australian)