International Counselor

Well, the Canberra Times is firing the first warning shots over the bow over the experience of international students have for higher-education in Australian Universities. The most juicy:
Welcome to nation of university ghettos - National News - National - General - The Canberra Times

“There’s not much international students can learn from Australia in terms of culture, or in terms of English. After all, the standard of English of Australian students is not high anyway.”

Man, bloomberg is really stiring it up, suggesting that an education at an elite university does little to improve morals or scrupples among its alumna:

Bloomberg.com: U.S.

“If
the devil exists, he no doubt has a high IQ and an Ivy League degree,”
Donaldson said. “It’s clear that having an educational pedigree is no
prophylactic against greed and bad behavior.”

The list is a who’s who of crooks running companies that have bilked billions from everyday people. They point out that top companies are run, by in large, by graduates from top universities. Of course this is not true. Most fortune 500 CEOs did not go to an Ivy or any elite university for that matter.

Foreign policy has hosted a voting on the top 100 “public intellectuals”–”part of being a “public intellectual” is also having a talent for
communicating with a wide and diverse public. This skill is certainly
an asset for some who find themselves in the list’s top ranks.” Interestingly, the top ten are ALL Muslim, which is probably more indicative of the demographics of foreign policy’s readership than true global public influence. That is not to say that their ideas are not important, but rather over stated.

1. Fethullah Gülen: The moderate Islamist scholar who inspires Turkey’s AKP. Has a lot of fans, evidently.

2. Muhammad Yunus: Microfinance guru and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

3. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi: Rather controversial figure: TV personality and spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

4. Orhan Pamuk: Nobel laureate, novelist, critic of the Turkish policy of denying the Armenian Genocide.

5. Aitzaz Ahsan: Defender of the rule of law in Pakistan, hero.

6. Amr Khaled: The Muslim World’s answer to Cliff Richards.

7. Abdolkarim Soroush: Prominent Iranian reformist and democrat.

8. Tariq Ramadan: Islamic scholar denied a US Visa to teach at Notre Dame.

9. Mahmood Mamdani: Cultural Anthroplogist whose work “explores the role of citizenship,
identity, and the creation of historical narratives in postcolonial
Africa”

10. Shirin Ebadi: The first female judge under the Shah, defender of political dissidents, reformer.

11. Noam Chomsky: Better known in teh west than probably everyone in the top ten. Linguist but on the list for his disent of US government policies and activities.

12. Al Gore: Former Vice Preident and man with a powerpoint trying to change climate change.

13. Bernard Lewis: Historian of middle easta nd islamic societies.

14. Umberto Eco: Italian Author–great, if not heady reading.

15. Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Woman’s rights activitist.

16. Amartya Sen: Nobel laureate, genius development economist, whose Identity and Violence should be read by every policymaker.

17. Fareed Zakaria: Editor of Newsweek International.

18. Garry Kasparov: Chess Grand Master, really really hates Putin.

19. Richard Dawkins: Author of the God Delusion. This guy literaly wrote the book on evolutionary biology.

20. Mario Vargas Llosa: Wonderful novelist, democrat, former Castro fan who now resides on the centre Right.

Pre med is dead simple, I explain to students. Five courses:
Biology
Inorgnica Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Physics,
and Calculus
More important, I opine, is involvement in clinical work, devleopment of people and critical thinking skills. Apparently, I am not alone:

NEJM — Relevance and Rigor in Premedical Education

Yet despite these sweeping changes, including the permeation of most areas of medicine by molecular and cellular biology and genetics, requirements for admission to medical school have remained virtually unchanged for many decades.

NEJM — Relevance and Rigor in Premedical Education

Some view the current premedical science requirements — 1 year of biology, 2 years of chemistry (especially organic chemistry), 1 year of physics, and, in some schools, 1 year of mathematics — as a necessary gauntlet that thins out the applicant pool. Unfortunately, current college courses that fulfill admissions requirements are not adequately focused on human biology; the topics covered in many courses in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and even biology are so removed from human biologic principles that they offer little value to the premedical — or advanced human biology — student and steal time and attention from more relevant science preparation. Does a student, for example, really need a full year of organic chemistry to prepare for the study of biochemistry? Moreover, premedical science courses often fail to achieve sufficient rigor to prepare students for tackling the sciences fundamental to medicine at the advanced molecular level now required. We should expect a higher standard from students who wish to pursue medicine in an era in which genomics and informatics will revolutionize biomedical science and health care.

NEJM — Relevance and Rigor in Premedical Education

A sick patient does not represent a biochemistry problem, an anatomy problem, a genetics problem, or an immunology problem; rather, each person is the product of myriad molecular, cellular, genetic, environmental, and social influences that interact in complex ways to determine health and disease. Our teaching, in both college and medical school, ought to echo this conceptual framework and cut across disciplines.

Forbes published a new set of rankings based more on outcomes:

• Graduation rates–my comments: This unfairly punished public universities in that many student may not complete university for financial reasons. Also the number that they use I assume is the same as USNEWS is a 6 year graduationr ate which is a bit silly for a measure of success.
• Ratings of professors at Ratemyprofessors–Some campuses ban this site. Many student role their eyes. Are people with an axe to grind more likely to rate or happy campers? Do students just rate the entertainment value? So many questions. Nota very perfect measure but at least it is one that actually has some student input. Mind you schools seemed to be punished for lack of showings on rate my professors.
• calculate the percent of students winning awards like Rhodes Scholarships and undergraduate Fulbright travel grants–Well Rhodes scholars is actually both the pinicle award for higher education but less than a fraction of a precent could ever when one in a year. Fullbright has more representation, but not that many.
• number of students in Who’s Who–Who’s who is a silly marketing ply.

So how about:

• student engagement
• student grad school participation
• employment
• student satisfaction

I like that they put their rank side by side with the USNEWS.