Official statistics also show that about 45 percent of undergraduates at Chinese universities and colleges expressed a desire to join the party at some point in the future. "This stems from the fact that the students subscribe to the party’s governance philosophy," says Zhou Yongzhong, a Jiangsu based sociologist studying young people.

The proportion is due to grow further: government sources predict that by 2007, 12 percent of university students will be party members. While the proportion of university students with party membership hovers at about 10 percent, among graduates it is significantly higher, standing at about 35 percent.

But Chinese students are increasingly disinterested in the ideals of communism. A recent poll left government officials shocked when it revealed that many students considered communism "an impossible dream". Even among the older generation, a devout communist cadre is the exception rather than the rule. Instead, party membership is still seen as a great boon to one’s career. It is vital for promotion in the civil service, state media or the military.

The state-run Xinhua news agency recently quoted Chen Mingsong, a graduate student in the department of computer science at Nanjing University, who became a CPC member this June, as saying: "The reason I joined is that I agree with the basic principles and guidelines of the party. As a member of the ruling party, I will speak out my opinions more directly and maintain my enthusiasm towards political affairs, although I don’t want to be a statesman."

While party membership figures for university staff are not available, it is generally acknowledged that lecturers are quite sharply divided between the two camps. A good political background is, with few exceptions, required for an academic to progress to senior management and even in the more prestigious coastal universities, to be appointed head of a department. Other academics, in particular in social sciences make a deliberate choice to avoid the network of party affiliations, forgoing positions in favour of less scrutiny of their academic work.

Universities to supervise suspect students

Universities could be forced to hand information on academic and student applications to the security services and will be expected to monitor academic debates on campus under a series of moves by the government following the London terrorist attacks of 7/7. According to the foreign and commonwealth office (FCO) a voluntary vetting scheme, under which the office is alerted to overseas research applicants suspected of planning to develop weapons of mass destruction, could be made compulsory.

Foreign students in UK: incremental scrutiny

In response to growing concerns that university campuses are fertile ground for propagating Islamic extremism and potential recruiting grounds for terrorists, Rammell says: "We do need to uphold free speech while at the same time isolating and challenging extremist views on campus. We have to make clear that the promulgation of some views — such as those that incite racial hatred — are unlawful. Getting the balance right will be challenging, but we have to do it. It’s a debate we can’t avoid."

Under the FCO’s voluntary vetting scheme, established in 1994 to prevent the proliferation of WMD, universities are requested to pass on names of all applicants from a list of ten countries, including Egypt, Pakistan and Iran, who apply to study any subject on a list of 21 disciplines including biotechnology and nuclear physics.

Data released under the Freedom of Information Act in July revealed that since 2001, universities had voluntarily handed over the names of 2,282 applicants. Security officials recommended that 238 of these be refused admission into research programmes. In 2005, until May, eight of 276 reported to the authorities had their applications rejected.

But the scheme was criticised as it emerged that many universities are refusing to cooperate with the voluntary scheme, and there are wide variations between institutions on how they apply the vetting system.

The data were released following the arrest in Egypt recently of Magdi-el-Nashar, a Ph D biochemist at Leeds University who allegedly had links to the house in Leeds where explosive materials were found. He has denied being linked to the terrorist attacks.

An FCO spokesman says that the system had been under review well before July’s terrorist attacks. "The major loophole with the scheme at the moment is that it is voluntary. If a university doesn’t take part, it is theoretically possible for an Iranian student to gain an education in nuclear physics in Britain and become part of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. It is possible and very undesirable. The review is to see whether there is any way of preventing that. It could consider that the only way is to impose it by means of a legislative bill."

David Allen, chairman of the Association of Heads of University Administration, says the association is strongly opposed to a compulsory scheme because it would be counter productive. "We think that trying to compel academics to refer people would drive the scheme into the ground because a lot of academics would be reluctant to do that."

A report out in August by Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Intelligence and Security Research at Brunel University, reports on 14 cases since 1993 in which people later connected with terrorism experienced a "tipping point" after coming into contact with extremists on campus. Prof. Glees, speaking to The Times Higher, cited the example of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born terrorist. Sheikh, who murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, said that he became radicalised while attending the London School of Economics.

Terror shadow over foreign applications

Terrorism fears could lead overseas students to cancel plans to study in the UK, with dire consequences for universities’ income and their share of the international recruitment market, warn experts. There is widespread acknowledgement among higher education heads and overseas student representatives that for the UK the 7/7 London bombings could have a similar effect on international student applications as the 9/11 attacks had on the US. Applications to study in the US levelled off in 2002, then dropped 2.4 percent in 2003 after five years of steady growth.

The British Council says it is too early to gauge the full impact of the bomb blasts. But Duncan Lane, director for advice and training at Ukcosa, the council for international education says that the bombings leave the UK market in a "perilous position".

According to Lane, there is a danger that they could be the last straw for many international students already angry at the UK’s hike in visa charges and its plans to scrap visa appeals. "The worry is that this will be one more factor that will put them off from coming here," he says.

Comments Ilya Eigenbrot, international communications manager of Imperial College: "To put it bluntly, if I were a parent in Asia I would be very worried about sending my child to the UK now." Michael Worton, vice-provost of University College London, says there are concerns that the bombings could lead to a drop in recruitment. He says that overseas recruitment at UCL fell by 10 percent following 9/11.

The London bombs coincided with the peak of the US university study abroad programme when thousands of young Americans flock to the UK for credit-earning short courses run offshore by US universities. Two US students were among the injured, one from the University of Tennessee, the other from Pellissippi State Technical Community College.

Western Carolina University cancelled a British studies programme for 42 students who were due to fly to the UK in early July. Says Michael Loughlin, London University’s associate dean of distance and continuing education: "We decided to err on the side of caution."

But in China, currently the UK’s biggest market, the British Council said all 2,000 students about to embark for a UK based summer school are going ahead with their programme.

Journalists expose campus worst practices

Young Masai girls: parent-school tussles

Thus wrote Joe Ombour of Kenya’s Sunday Nation, in a moving report about Narinoi Purno, a 15-year-old Masai girl whose circumcision was rushed forward at the age of eight. Her father, panicking, ordered the operation in the hope of marrying off his daughter before she was targeted by the girls’ school that had just opened nearby.

The beer flowed at Narinoi’s house that night when her prospective husband brought a bride price of three cows, a goat and sheep. But Narinoi was saved by her village leader, Chief Keshoko, who, assisted by the local headmistress, took her away to a primary boarding school. Chief Keshoko has hit upon a way to modify the Masai tradition of esaivata — the booking of girls for marriage even before they are born — rather than repudiate it. He is mobilising his community to create a bride price fund so that elders can act as "educational suitors". They honour fathers in the traditional manner, but secure girls’ future in school instead of early marriage. Since 1999, the school’s population has risen from four to 350 students with 500 additional girls booked to enter.

Joe Ombour’s report came second in the fourth Akintola Fatoyinbo Africa Education Journalism Awards, held in Accra, Ghana in June. The awards are supported by The Times Educational Supplement as a way to help improve education reporting in Africa. Entries highlighted some successful ways to get more children from poor families into school and keep them there, including school meal programmes.

But a number of articles also demonstrated why G8 leaders are right to insist on investment in education and anti-corruption measures in return for aid and debt concession to African countries. Entries from Nigeria, in particular, revealed a high level of exam corruption, underfunding and political failure in the education system.

The winning entry was by Bukola Olatunji who also took the award three years ago, for an article in the education section of Nigeria’s This Day newspaper. She investigated the reasons why students at University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Lagos have dubbed it "hell on earth" for its poor living conditions.

With water shortages rife, students are fined if they don’t wash their teeth over butts of foul water collected from washing dishes and clothes or funnels that take their waste to a gutter below. "The stench of the drainage, urine and human waste that welcome one to the hostels is unimaginable," wrote Ms. Olatunji.

The cause of the overloading is that rooms built for two students are being officially allocated to six students minimum, but the average population of each room is 10, with mattresses on floors to create more sleeping space.

Add to that the "fliers", mainly middle-year students, who are not allocated a bed. They go to rooms at random to see if there is a free bed to lie on for a couple of hours and at night bring out mats and blankets to sleep on grimy corridor floors. What used to be the reading room is now home to 67 students, 40 of them official "residents" of the room.

Academia call for government boycott

Australian academics are considering boycotting committees that report to the federal government. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) will consider the call for a boycott after an appeal from an academic at Curtin University, Perth who resigned from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in protest against what he said were government attacks on universities.

Gavin Mooney, professor of health economics at Curtin, was a member of a subcommittee on preventive healthcare. "The current attack on our universities by the commonwealth government has gone too far for me to continue to serve on any of its committees. I urge my academic colleagues across the country to join me in boycotting these committees," he says.

In early July he wrote to the chair of NHMRC to submit his resignation. He said he felt unable to continue to serve "on what is in essence a government committee," and suggested that academics who sit on advisory committees to help the government devise policy should follow his example and resign.

Suggestions by other academics on the committee that it should offer recommendations that the government might find acceptable are a matter of considerable concern, says Mooney. "When academic scientists sitting on such committees, instead of giving frank and fearless advice begin to try to think in terms of what is palatable to government, we are in a sorry mess," he says.

The council is Australia’s biggest research-granting agency. Last year, it allocated more than A$ 420 million (Rs. 1,377 crore) to health and medical researchers. The NTEU will discuss endorsing a system-wide ban on assisting government committees. Brendan Nelson, the education minister, has been criticised by vice-chancellors, academics and students over a range of issues including industrial relations changes and banning universities from collecting compulsory students union fees.

A spokesman for Dr. Nelson says the call for a boycott is misguided. "The government is committed to ensuring diversity, equity and quality throughout the (education) sector," he says.

Research ban fears of foreign students

Foreign research students: “unworkable restrictions”

The proposals, put forward separately by the commerce department and the department of defence, would require universities to obtain special licences for foreign researchers working in some laboratories or on equipment that is subject to export restrictions, such as high-end oscilloscopes.

Universities and other institutions believe that this would be all but impossible to implement. They argue that preventing security breaches should be part of the government visa process, not the job of higher education institutions. "Security also requires that the US government does not place well-intentioned but ill-conceived and unworkable restrictions on university research," says Nils Hasselmo, president of the Association of American Universities, the organisation that represents leading US research universities.

The association’s concerns are supported by the government’s National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the international law section of the American Bar Association and other groups that object to the proposals.

Placing additional restrictions on foreign students — who already face long and costly delays and intensive scrutiny before being admitted to the US — "may seriously undermine the vitality of American research," says Hasselmo. About one third of the 455,355 science and engineering graduate students in the US are non-Americans, of whom more than half are from Asia. This means that the greatest number of foreign-born students in the most sensitive areas of study come from what the government considers to be "countries of concern", including China, India, Israel, Pakistan and Russia.

The universities say that students and scholars should be cleared during the visa process to conduct research in US laboratories using American equipment. The Bar Association says there is no clear connection between the proposed licence requirement and improved national security, implying that it would probably be vulnerable to a legal challenge in the courts.

(Compiled from The Times Educational Supplement and The Times Higher Education Supplement)