Haaretz: Israeli lecturer takes part in Pakistan conference

The fact that he (Prof Ramzi Suleiman )is an Israeli Arab drew a positive response from many of the Pakistani scientists, who were interested developments in Israel and the Palestinian Authority and spoke about the importance of cooperation in the field of science. ....Participating in the conference were some 200 physicists and mathematicians from various countries, including China, England, Japan, Switzerland and the U.S., in addition to researchers from a number of Pakistani universities.

Suleiman represented the University of Haifa and Al Quds University, where he teaches.

Suleiman, who was among the speakers invited to the conference, spoke about the Newtonian Theory of Relativity, which he proposes as an alternative for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

He focused on the implementation of the proposed theory to understand the dynamic of the universe, including the dynamic of dark energy, black holes in the centers of galaxies and the evolution of chemical elements in the universe.

http://www.haaretz.com/.premium-1.644835

A blot that no #Indian university is among world’s top 500: PM #Modi | India News - Times of India

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/a-blot-that-no-indian-uni...

PATNA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday described as a "blot" the fact that Indian universities did not figure among the world's top 500, and said the government had decided to give autonomy and Rs 10,000 crore to India's top 10 public and 10 private universities over the next five years to make them world-class.

Addressing the centenary celebrations of Patna University here in the presence of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Modi said the institution should compete for a place among the top 20 universities in the country.

He said the top 20 universities would be selected by an independent jury.

"The government wants to free the top universities of government control. I invite Patna University to compete for that as it would be much greater than getting a central university status," the PM said.

Nitish had earlier made a fervent appeal to Modi to grant central university status to PU and said everyone was looking towards him with a lot of hope. This was the first time Modi had shared the stage with Nitish Kumar after JD(U)'s return to the NDAfold.

Modi also pointed out how many top civil servants working across the country were from the Patna University. "I interact with 100-150 officials every day and a large number of them are from PU," he said.

#Columbia University #ranking scandal raises questions over sky-high value of an #IvyLeague education. The university drops in #US News & World Report rankings from 2nd to 18th place after admitting to cheating on data submitted. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/columbia-university-ranking-scandal-... via @YahooFinance

Caught fluffing its numbers by one of its own professors, one of America’s elite eight Ivy League undergraduate schools admitted handing in homework cribbed to score higher on a placement test.

Columbia University, located in Upper Manhattan, had been ranked the second best in the prestigious 2021 U.S. News & World Report annual ranking, thanks to the use of “outdated and incorrect methodologies.” It has since been bumped down to 18th as a result of the scandal.

The charges are serious given the ongoing debate over the value of a typical college degree in the humanities, given tuition has been among the largest drivers of national inflation. Last month President Joe Biden ended a fractious debate over the hot-button political issue of student debt by ordering a portion of the over $1.6 trillion owed to the federal government to be canceled.

The admission is furthermore extremely embarrassing as academic honesty is considered the cornerstone of higher education. Students found to have cheated on an exam or plagiarized sources without attribution are subject to immediate disciplinary action that often can involve expulsion.

“Anything less than complete accuracy in the data that we report—regardless of the size or the reason—is inconsistent with the standards of excellence to which Columbia holds itself,” the university said in a statement on Friday.

Unlike in other countries, the college one attends is often much more important to potential employers than what degree they received or the strength of their grade point average. Ivy Leagues are considered the benchmark when it comes to teaching the country’s best and brightest young minds how best to analyze problems and arrive at a solution or present a logically compelling argument.

Harvard University, which has long bragged about the number of applicants it receives every year, can charge its students an arm and a leg for their education given it could only accept a record low 3.2% of applicants for its 2026 undergraduate class in April.

‘Bogus rankings’
This culture fosters a heavy emphasis on ranking, boiling down the varied experiences of a university to a narrow number of key performance indicators. Prospective college students and their parents scour the annual special edition of U.S. News & World Report every year before making a decision as to where to apply for admission.

According to Columbia’s own calculations, tuition for this academic year alone costs $65,000; add on room and board, and you’re talking $86,000 with typically three more years still to come before a student has earned his or her undergraduate degree.

Even after adjusting for inflation, nonprofit think tank College Board estimated the cost of tuition at an average private university during the 2020–21 year has doubled relative to where it was 30 years prior. For public universities, it has nearly tripled.

Should a university like Columbia be found not to apply the kind of intellectual rigor expected, it could suffer substantially when attracting the best students and professors, not to mention raising donations from wealthy and successful alumni.

The Columbia professor who flagged the issue
Michael Thaddeus, the Columbia mathematics professor that discovered the inconsistencies, poured scorn on the system of rankings.

“Does it make sense to conclude from this folly that Columbia is the 18th best American university, worse than Cornell but better than Berkeley?” he told Gothamist. “Of course not—that would be ridiculous. The only thing that makes sense is paying no attention to these bogus rankings at all.”