Russian, Chinese hold first joint patrols in the Pacific.

Russian and Chinese warships held their first joint patrols in the western Pacific Ocean over the past week, Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday 23 October 2021, a move Japan said it was monitoring.

Moscow and Beijing, which staged naval cooperation drills in the Sea of Japan earlier in October, have cultivated closer military and diplomatic ties in recent years at a time when their relations with the West have soured.

The naval manoeuvres, which Russia said ran from Sunday through Saturday, have been closely watched by Japan, which said earlier in the week that a group of 10 vessels from China and Russia sailed through the Tsugaru Strait separating Japan's main island and its northern island of Hokkaido.

Source: www.reuters.com

Read More

The Global Food Security Index - 2021.

The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) considers the issues of food affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience across a set of 113 countries. The index is a dynamic quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model constructed from 58 unique indicators that measure the drivers of food security across both developing and developed countries.

This edition of the GFSI incorporates the "Natural Resources and Resilience" category into the main index. This category assesses a country’s exposure to the impacts of a changing climate; its susceptibility to natural resource risks; and how the country is adapting to these risks, all of which impact the incidence of food insecurity in a country. The category was first introduced into the GFSI in 2017 as an adjustment factor and, given its increasing importance, has been mainstreamed for the first time this year.

The 2021 GFSI is the tenth edition of the index. Economist Impact updates the model annually to capture year-on-year changes in structural factors impacting food security.

According to the report, Sri Lanka held 77th position with an overall score of 54.1 points on the GFS Index 2021 of 113 countries. Other South Asian countries hold below given indexes.

• Pakistan (75th position)
• India (71st Position), 
• Nepal (79th position) 
• Bangladesh (84th position). 

According to the report, World's Top 10 countries are;

Source: https://impact.economist.com

Read More

Girls excluded as Afghan secondary schools reopen.

The Taliban have excluded girls from Afghan secondary schools, with only boys and male teachers allowed back into classrooms.

Schoolgirls told the BBC they were devastated not to be returning. "Everything looks very dark," one said.

Taliban officials who seized power last month said they were working to reach a decision on the matter.

Many fear a return of the regime of the 1990s when the Taliban severely restricted girls' and women's rights.

Under their new government, Taliban officials have said that women will be allowed to study and work in accordance with the group's interpretation of Islamic religious law.

But working women have been told to stay at home until the security situation improves, and Taliban fighters have beaten women protesting against the all-male interim government.

On Friday (17th), the Islamist group appeared to have shut down the women affairs ministry and replaced it with a department that once enforced strict religious doctrines.

Read Full News

Read More

UNICEF stresses Afghan girls must not be excluded from school.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday (17th) welcomed the news that secondary schools are due to reopen in Afghanistan on Saturday, after months of closure due to COVID-19, but stressed that girls must not be kept from the classroom.

According to news reports, the announcement of school reopening from the Taliban, referred only to the return of boys, making no reference to a return date for girls.  

Acccording to the UNICEF every day that girls miss out on education is a missed opportunity for them, their families and their communities.

UNICEF is urging development partners to support education “for all children” in Afghanistan.

UNICEF will continue to advocate with all actors so that all girls and boys have an equal chance to learn and develop the skills they need to thrive and build a peaceful and productive Afghanistan.

Source: https://news.un.org

Read More

World University Rankings 2022.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 include more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

The table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

This year’s ranking analysed more than 108 million citations across over 14.4 million research publications and included survey responses from almost 22,000 scholars globally. Overall, we collected over 430,000 datapoints from more than 2,100 institutions that submitted data.

The University of Oxford tops the ranking for the sixth consecutive year.

Read Full News

Read More

QS Rankings of the World’s Best Student Cities 2022.

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is a London-based company that specializes in analysis of global higher education and rankings of different types of academic programs.

The QS Best Student Cities Ranking combines independent data about a range of factors important to college students: affordability, quality-of-life, the standard of universities, and the views of previous students who have studied in that location.

This year’s ranking is once again topped by London. Home to several leading universities, including UCL (University College London), Imperial College London, and King's College London, the city has been a student favourite for years and has plenty of world-class academic institutions for students to choose from.

Accordingly, QS Top Ten Student Cities Worldwide

• 1.London
• 2.Munich
• 3.Seoul and Tokyo (tied)
• 5.Berlin
• 6.Melbourne
• 7.Zurich
• 8.Sydney
• 9.Paris (tied)
• 9.Montreal (tied)
• 9.Boston (tied)

Source: www.topuniversities.com

Read More

China's first green sheep-farming city in ecological push.

Xilingol League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, became the country's first green sheep-farming city thanks to its efforts in grassland ecological protection and green sheep farming. The honor was rolled out by China Meat Association during a summit on green sheep farming held in XilinHot on July 19, 2021, according to The Publicity Department of Xilingol.

The recognition will become another signature brand for Xilingol League to build a green animal products production, processing and export base, marking a new solid step in the high-quality development of the region's animal husbandry.

Attendees visited several leading ranches to get a glimpse of the pure natural and pollution-free growth environment of Xilingol sheep, while learning about its quality management throughout the whole process by visiting standardized mutton deep processing and central kitchen project of leading local meat firm Grand Farm.

Read Full News

Read More

QS World University Rankings - 2022.

Featuring 1,300 universities from around the world, this year's university rankings are largest ever. 

The QS World University Rankings continue to enjoy a remarkably consistent methodological framework, compiled using six simple metrics that believe effectively capture university performance. 

Since faculty area normalisation was introduced in 2015 to ensure that institutions specialising in Life Sciences and Natural Sciences were not unduly advantaged and have avoided fundamental changes. 

In doing so, it's aim to ensure that year-on-year comparisons remain valid, and that unnecessary volatility is minimised.

Thus, universities continue to be evaluated according to the following six metrics:

• Academic Reputation
• Employer Reputation
• Faculty/Student Ratio
• Citations per faculty
• International Faculty Ratio
• International Student Ratio

Accordingly, top 10 Universities in the world. 

• 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 2. University of Oxford
• =3. Stanford University
• =3. University of Cambridge
• 5. Harvard University
• 6. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
• 7. Imperial College London
• =8. ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
• =8. UCL-London,United Kingdom
• 10. University of Chicago

Read Full News

Read More

Centre for World University Rankings 2021-22 announced.

The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) publishes the only academic ranking of global universities that assesses the quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, and research performance without relying on surveys and university data submissions.

CWUR uses seven objective and robust indicators grouped into four areas to rank the world’s universities:

1). Quality of Education, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have won major academic distinctions relative to the university's size (25%)

2). Alumni Employment, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have held top executive positions at the world's largest companies relative to the university's size (25%)

3). Quality of Faculty, measured by the number of faculty members who have won major academic distinctions (10%)

4). Research Performance:

• Research Output, measured by the the total number of research papers (10%)
• High-Quality Publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals (10%)
• Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals (10%)
• Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers (10%)

Accordingly, 19,788 institutions were ranked, and those that placed at the top made the global 2000 list. Harvard University has topped the ranking globally followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and Oxford University respectively.

As many as 02 Sri Lankan universities have made it to the list of the top 2000 higher education institutes across the world, as per the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) 2021-22. 

ThoseSri Lankan Universities are;

• Global Rank 1600: University of Peradeniya
• Global Rank 1675: University of Ruhuna

Top 10 Ranked Universities are;

Read Full News

Read More

Ranking of World Universities 2020 published.

The 2020 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. 

Since 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world top universities annually based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. It has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy one.

Read Full News

Read More

100 million more children fail basic reading skills because of Current Global Pandemic.

A new study released on Friday 26 March 2021 by the UN cultural agency, reveals that more than 100 million more children than expected, are falling behind the minimum proficiency level in reading, due to current pandemic related school closures.  

According to the study from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), One year into pandemic: Prioritizing education recovery to avoid a generational catastrophe, even before the pandemic the number of children lacking basic reading skills was on a downward curve. 

In 2020, instead of 460 million children experiencing reading difficulties, that number jumped to 584 million. The rise of more than 20 per cent, wiped out two decades of education gains, the agency said.  

Read Full News

Read More

Apple announces education funding under racial justice plan.

Apple has announced it's $ 100 Million initiative funding for technology education efforts as part of its racial justice initiative launched last year during the civil unrest sparked by police killings of African Americans.

The projects include a global innovation and learning hub for historically Black colleges and universities across the United States, and an Apple developer academy to support coding and tech education for students in Detroit.

Apple will also include venture capital funding for minority entrepreneurs as part of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative.

Read Full News

Read More

US Congress Passes 'Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act' for Pakistani Women.

The US Congress has passed the 'Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act' which will expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women to receive higher education under a merit and needs-based programme. Passed by the House of Representatives in March 2020, the bill was passed by the United States Senate by a voice vote on January 01. 

The bill now heads to the White House for US President Donald Trump to sign into law.

The bill requires the US Agency for International Development to award at least 50 per cent of scholarships under a Pakistan-based higher education scholarship programme to Pakistani women, from 2020 to 2022, across a range of academic disciplines and in accordance with existing eligibility criteria. The bill also requires USAID to consult with and leverage investments by the Pakistani private sector and Pakistani diaspora in the United States to improve and expand access to education programmes in Pakistan.

Read Full News

Read More

Dhammika Perera launches DP Digital University free online learning platform.

Dhammika Perera launches DP Digital University free online learning platform.

• Delivers free access to online learning platform for school students, graduates and professionals
• Extensive library of over 8,000 courses are now available
• Links world-renowned universities such as Harvard and Cambridge offering free courses

Extending higher education facilities designed to enhance employability and opportunity for Sri Lankan youth, philanthropists Dhammika Perera and Priscilla Perera launched DP Digital University, a free online education portal that offers an extensive portfolio of courses from reputed universities and institutions across the world.

Marking an unprecedented milestone in Sri Lankan higher education, the new platform will provide access to over 8,000 courses from over 55 world-renowned universities including Harvard, Cambridge, MIT, IBM and Monash.

Most importantly, majority of these courses are provided totally free of charge for self-learning at your own pace and will be available for every Sri Lankan to access remotely, irrespective of their economic and social statuses.

“For Sri Lanka to reach its fullest potential, it is imperative that our people are equipped with the knowledge and training necessary to take up critical roles in the national workforce. With the launch of this initiative our goal is to democratize education for all Sri Lankans, so that they in turn can empower and enrich themselves, and our nation,” a spokesperson for Dhammika and Priscilla Perera Foundation said.

DP Digital University offers students free courses covering a broad spectrum of subjects from Accounting & Finance, Business Management, Computer Science, Engineering, to Health & Medicine, Human Resource Management and 40 other categories.

Sharing her learning experience of the digital platform, Nethmi T. Wijesinghe, a student of ‘The Strategy of Content Marketing’ online course offered by the University of California, Davis said - “I enjoyed the online courses I found through DP Digital University as it was exciting and I could work on it at my own pace. It is a great opportunity for self-motivated people to explore and learn new subjects.”

Another student Shithila Mahabaduge who followed the ‘Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Ratio’ course at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology expressed her gratitude to the foundation for providing her with the opportunity to follow her intellectual curiosity and complete a fascinating course which would not have otherwise been easily accessible.

“I recently completed my A/Ls, and I have been following courses on DP Digital University in my free time to enhance my knowledge in preparation for my higher studies,” Dinuk Peiris a student of ‘Introduction to Marketing’ course offered by the University of Pennsylvania said.

DP Digital University is the latest in a series of initiatives from DP Education that leverages digital platforms to deliver free education to empower a new generation of Sri Lankan school and university students, as well as professionals.

The foundation also recently launched DP Kids, another breakthrough platform that provides free access to pre-school education to over 264,000 children between the ages of 2 and 7 years old, amounting to 20% of the 1.32 million children in Sri Lanka.

DP Education Maths, Science & English Academy are the other online free education platforms that are provided by Dhammika & Priscilla Perera Foundation.

For more information, visit the official DP Digital University website at www.dpuni.org or email info@dpfoundation.org.lk.

Read More

Indian village schoolteacher wins Global Teacher Prize.

Indian village schoolteacher wins Global Teacher Prize.

An Indian schoolteacher has been awarded the 2020 Global Teacher Prize -- and has vowed to give half of the $1 million prize money to the runners-up.

Ranjitsinh Disale, pictured here learning he had won, received the prize for his work promoting girls' education at a village school in Maharashtra, western India.

The award, which is run by the Varkey Foundation in partnership with UNESCO, celebrates "exceptional" teachers who have made an outstanding contribution to their profession.

Ranjitsinh Disale, a teacher at Zilla Parishad Primary School, in the village of Paritewadi in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, was chosen as winner from more than 12,000 nominations and applications, from over 140 countries around the world.

Read Full News

Read More

QS World University Rankings - 2021.

QS World University Rankings - 2021.

This year’s QS World University Rankings reveals the top 1,000 universities from around the world, covering 80 different locations. There are 47 new entrants in this year’s top 1,000 while over 5,500 universities were evaluated and considered for inclusion. For more information on this process, consult our methodology.

While the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) continues its record-breaking streak at number one - the ninth year in a row it’s achieved this feat - the big story this year is the impressive gains made by Asian universities. 26 institutions from the continent now feature in the global top 100, more than ever before.

Accordingly, top 10 Universities in the world. 

• 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - United States
• 2. Stanford University - United States
• 3. Harvard University - United States
• 4. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) - United States
• 5. University of Oxford - United Kingdom
• 6. ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Switzerland
• 7. University of Cambridge - United Kingdom
• 8. Imperial College London - United Kingdom
• 9. University of Chicago - United States
• 10. UCL - United Kingdom

Read Full  News

Read More

Japan lawmakers declare climate emergency.

Japan lawmakers declare climate emergency.

Japanese lawmakers declared a climate emergency in a symbolic vote aimed at increasing pressure for action to combat global warming after the government last month committed to a firm timetable for net-zero emissions.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga last month announced Japan would aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, a major shift for the world’s third-largest economy which relies heavily on imported fossil fuels for its energy sources.

Read Full News

Read More

Bangladeshi teen wins award for anti-cyberbullying app.

Bangladeshi teen wins award for anti-cyberbullying app.

A teenager in Bangladesh has won the International Children's Peace Prize for his efforts to educate young people about cyberbullying.

Sadat Rahman, 17, was inspired to create a mobile app to help young people report online abuse after hearing about a 15-year-old girl who took her own life because of bullying.

About 1,800 teenagers in his local district have now used the app.

"He's calling on young people all over the world to stop cyberbullying and to help peers in their community who suffer from mental and emotional violence. Sadat is a true changemaker," she said in an online speech.

The International Children's Peace Prize is an annual award that recognises the work of young people who promote children's rights. Previous winners include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Read Full News

Read More

UN Environment Programme launches “Green Nudges” programme for universities

# UN Environment Programme launches “Green Nudges” programme for universities

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a new publication, “The Little Book of Green Nudges”, which aims to inspire up to 200 million students around the globe to adopt environmentally friendly habits and greener lifestyles.

What is the Little Book of Green Nudges?

Th Little Book of Green Nudges is a quick guide to reducing your campus' environmental impact through behavioural change in the form of a concise and user-friendly publication. It summarises the evidence around what nudges work best while seeking to encourage more sustainable practices among students and staff across several behavioural categories. It also provides simple guidance on how to implement and evaluate behavioural interventions in a variety of contexts. 

What Are Nudges?

Nudges are positive and gentle persuasions that are meant to influence behaviour and decision-making. Such interventions include choice architecture, default setting, social influence and increased salience.

Target Audience

Anyone who wants to create positive change at their university, anywhere around the world, from provosts to campus sustainability coordinators to professors to student leaders.

# එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ පරිසර වැඩසටහන විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සඳහා “හරිත නඩ්ජස්” වැඩසටහන දියත් කරයි.

එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ පාරිසරික වැඩසටහන (යුනෙප්) විසින් “ද ලිට්ල් බුක් ඔෆ් ග්‍රීන් නඩ්ජස්” නමින් නව ප්‍රකාශනයක් එළිදක්වා ඇති අතර එමඟින් ලොව පුරා සිසුන් මිලියන 200 ක් පමණ පරිසර හිතකාමී පුරුදු හා හරිත ජීවන රටාවන් අනුගමනය කිරීමට පෙළඹෙනු ඇත.

හරිත නඩ්ජස්ගේ කුඩා පොත කුමක්ද?

සංක්ෂිප්ත හා පරිශීලක-හිතකාමී ප්‍රකාශනයක ස්වරූපයෙන් චර්යාත්මක වෙනසක් තුළින් ඔබේ කැම්පස්හි පාරිසරික බලපෑම අවම කිරීම සඳහා ග්‍රීන් නඩ්ජස්ගේ කුඩා පොත ඉක්මන් මඟ පෙන්වීමකි. චර්යාත්මක කාණ්ඩ කිහිපයක් හරහා සිසුන් සහ කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය අතර වඩාත් තිරසාර භාවිතයන් දිරිගැන්වීමට උත්සාහ කරන අතරම වඩාත් හොඳින් ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ කුමක්ද යන්න පිළිබඳ සාක්ෂි එය සාරාංශ කරයි. විවිධ සන්දර්භයන් තුළ චර්යාත්මක මැදිහත්වීම් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්නේ කෙසේද සහ තක්සේරු කරන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න පිළිබඳ සරල මග පෙන්වීමක් ද එය සපයයි.

නඩ්ජස් යනු කුමක්ද?

නඩ්ජස් යනු ධනාත්මක සහ මෘදු ඒත්තු ගැන්වීම් වන අතර එය හැසිරීමට සහ තීරණ ගැනීමේදී බලපෑම් කිරීමට අදහස් කරයි. එවැනි මැදිහත්වීම් අතර තේරීම් ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පය, පෙරනිමි සැකසුම, සමාජ බලපෑම සහ වැඩි සනීපාරක්ෂාව ඇතුළත් වේ.

ඉලක්කගත ප්‍රේක්ෂකයින්

ලොව පුරා ඕනෑම තැනක තම විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ධනාත්මක වෙනසක් ඇති කිරීමට කැමති ඕනෑම කෙනෙකුට, ප්‍රොවොස්ට් සිට කැම්පස් තිරසාර සම්බන්ධීකාරක දක්වා මහාචාර්යවරුන් සිට ශිෂ්‍ය නායකයින් දක්වා.

Read Full News

Read More

The World University Rankings 2021

# The World University Rankings 2021.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 include more than 1,500 universities across 93 countries and regions, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

The ranking table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

This year’s ranking analysed more than 80 million citations across over 13 million research publications and included survey responses from 22,000 scholars globally.

Trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts, this year’s league table provides great insight into the shifting balance of power in global higher education.

• 1. University of Oxford-United Kingdom

• 2. Stanford University-United States

• 3. Harvard University-United States

• 4. California Institute of Technology-United States

• 5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology-United States

• 6. University of Cambridge-United Kingdom

• 7. University of California-United States

• 8. Yale University-United States

• 9. Princeton University-United States

• 10. University of Chicago-United States

# ලෝක විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම් 2021.

ටයිම්ස් උසස් අධ්‍යාපන ලෝක විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම් 2021 ට රටවල් හා කලාප 93 ක විශ්ව විද්‍යාල 1,500 කට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවක් ඇතුළත් වන අතර ඒවා අද වන විට විශාලතම හා වඩාත්ම විවිධාකාර විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම් බවට පත්ව ඇත.

වගුව පදනම් වී ඇත්තේ අංශ හතරක් හරහා ආයතනයක ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය මනින පරිස්සමින් ක්‍රමාංකනය කරන ලද කාර්ය සාධන දර්ශක 13 ක් මත ය: ඉගැන්වීම, පර්යේෂණ, දැනුම හුවමාරුව සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර දැක්ම.

මෙම වසරේ ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම මිලියන 13 කට අධික පර්යේෂණ ප්‍රකාශන හරහා උපුටා දැක්වීම් මිලියන 80 කට වඩා විශ්ලේෂණය කර ඇති අතර ගෝලීය වශයෙන් විද්වතුන් 22,000 කින් සමීක්ෂණ ප්‍රතිචාර ඇතුළත් විය.

සිසුන්, ගුරුවරුන්, රජයන් සහ කර්මාන්ත විශේෂඥයින් විසින් ලොව පුරා විශ්වාස කරන මෙම වසරේ ලීග වගුව ගෝලීය උසස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ බල තුලනය පිළිබඳ විශාල අවබෝධයක් ලබා දෙයි.

• 1. ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය - එක්සත් රාජධානිය

• 2. එක්සත් ජනපදයේ ස්ටැන්ෆර්ඩ් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය

• 3. එක්සත් ජනපදයේ හාවඩ් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය

• 4. කැලිෆෝනියා තාක්ෂණ ආයතනය - එක්සත් ජනපදය

• 5. එක්සත් ජනපදයේ මැසචුසෙට්ස් තාක්ෂණ ආයතනය

• 6. කේම්බ්‍රිජ් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය - එක්සත් රාජධානිය

• 7. කැලිෆෝනියා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය-එක්සත් ජනපදය

• 8. යේල් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය-එක්සත් ජනපදය

• 9. ප්‍රින්ස්ටන් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය - එක්සත් ජනපදය

• 10. චිකාගෝ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය-එක්සත් ජනපදය

Read Full News

Read More