— UNIVERSITIES —

April 8, 2021

United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF), New Delhi, announces Fulbright Fellowships for Indian citizens for the academic year 2022-2023.

Photo: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen E. Biegun, meets with Fulbright Alumni in New Delhi, India, on October 13, 2020. (State Department photo). [File Photo]

New Delhi, April 7, 2021 — United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF), New Delhi, has announced Fulbright Fellowships for Indian citizens for the academic year 2022-2023 in the following categories:

• Student awards to pursue a master’s degree or attend a U.S. university as a visiting student researcher.

• Scholars and teacher awards for academics, teachers, and professionals to teach or conduct research in the U.S.

• Professional development programs for university administrators to develop leadership and specialized skills.

“Selection committees would look to identify talented individuals whose projects are relevant to India and the United States. The committees would seek candidates who demonstrate the potential to be effective cultural ambassadors,” USIEF said.

• 2022-2023 Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowships:

• The Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowships are designed for outstanding Indians to pursue a master’s degree program at select U.S. colleges and universities in the areas of Arts and Culture Management including Heritage Conservation and Museum Studies; Economics; Environmental Science/Studies; Higher Education Administration; International Affairs; International Legal Studies; Journalism and Mass Communication; Public Administration; Public Health; Urban and Regional Planning; and Women’s Studies/Gender Studies.

• These fellowships are for highly motivated individuals who demonstrate leadership qualities, have completed the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s degree, have at least three years of professional work experience, and commit to return and contribute to their communities. The fellowships are for one to two years.

• 2022-2023 Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowships:

• The Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowships for Indian scholars registered for a Ph.D. at an Indian institution. These fellowships are for six to nine months.

• Fellowships are available in the following fields only: Agricultural Sciences; Anthropology; Bioengineering; Chemistry; Computer Science (including, but not limited to, cybersecurity, digital economy, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics); Economics; Education Policy and Planning; Energy Studies; Geography (including GIS and Geology); History; Language and Literature; Materials Science (with emphasis on environmental applications); Mathematical Sciences; Neuroscience; Performing Arts; Physics; Political Science (including, but not limited to, International Security and Strategic Studies); Public Health; Public Policy; Sociology; Urban and Regional Planning (with emphasis on smart cities and waste management); Visual Arts; and Women’s and Gender Studies.

• 2022-2023 Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowships:

• The Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowships aim to provide Indian faculty, researchers, and professionals the opportunity to teach, conduct research, or carry out a combination of teaching and research at a U.S. institution. Depending on the U.S. host institution, it is likely that the grantee may contribute towards developing a curriculum and conducting workshops and seminars. These fellowships are for four to nine months.

• Fellowships are available in the following fields only: Agricultural Sciences; Anthropology; Bioengineering; Chemistry; Computer Science (including, but not limited to, cybersecurity, digital economy, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics); Economics; Education Policy and Planning; Energy Studies; Geography (including GIS and Geology); History; Language and Literature; Materials Science (with emphasis on environmental applications); Mathematical Sciences; Neuroscience; Performing Arts; Physics; Political Science (including, but not limited to, International Security and Strategic Studies); Public Health; Public Policy; Sociology; Urban and Regional Planning (with emphasis on smart cities and waste management); Visual Arts; and Women’s and Gender Studies.

• 2022-2023 Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Seminar:

• The Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Seminar (IEAS) aims to provide Indian college and university administrators the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the U.S. higher education system.

• The two-week U.S. visit in October/November 2022 will enable participants to learn about various facets of U.S. higher education, including the types of institutions, accreditation, curriculum development, fund-raising, student services, and international education on U.S. campuses, as well as share knowledge on Indian higher education. Topics addressed during visits and meetings at select campuses and organizations will also include research collaborations, faculty and student exchanges, and study abroad.

• This seminar is for Indian college and university administrators with at least two years of international program development and management experience at their institutions in India.

• Applicants must be middle to senior-level college or university administrators —

• Such as Vice-Chancellors, Deans, Directors of International Centres, Foreign Student Advisors, and Registrars.

• They should have substantial responsibility for enhancing their institutions’ international dimension. They should be motivated to build their faculty and students’ capacity through international collaborations, exchange, and innovative curricular design.

The United States government leads the Fulbright Program in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide. The program offers international educational and cultural exchange for passionate and accomplished students, scholars, artists, teachers, and specialists of all backgrounds to study, teach, or pursue meaningful research and professional projects.

Sources: United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF), New Delhi; U.S. Department of State.

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 5:26 AM | View the original post

---

---

April 5, 2021

MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Chintan Vaishnav appointed Director of India's Atal Innovation Mission

Photo: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Building. Image credit: Ulrick.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 5, 2021— MIT Sloan School of Management recently announced that Senior Lecturer Chintan Vaishnav was appointed to serve as mission director of India’s Atal Innovation Mission. The Mission, housed at NITI Aayog, is the Government of India’s flagship initiative to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Vaishnav says, “At the highest level, the work of building a culture of innovation is one of engaging creativity in the service of humankind. India is a place of limitless creative potential. I am excited for the opportunity to help harness this potential.”

Over the past six years, Vaishnav has worked and lived in rural to very rural India for a total of 18 months, researching challenges related to agriculture, water, and livelihood. His research has produced solutions such as on-farm soil nutrient management and water quality testing and purification that bring world-class science and technology to underserved communities at an affordable price. His water work has turned into an early-stage startup that enables communities to keep their water safe.

“This experience has taught me how to innovate for the developing world with rigor and relevance. I hope to bring this culture to my new position as mission director,” he says.

A member of the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design founding team, Vaishnav also designed and taught a graduate-level course on Technology, Design, and Entrepreneurship for Emerging Community. The system has trained 200 graduate students from 18 different MIT departments and has guided a total of 200,000 hours of fieldwork in India, Nepal, and Africa. The work has produced 45 patents, 12 commercial licenses, and 11 startups, some of which he advises.

Vaishnav says, “This experience has taught me how to engage young minds in solving some of our most pressing challenges in a hands-on, action-oriented way. I hope to create similar engagement as mission director.”

Before MIT, Vaishnav worked at Bell Labs, designing innovative products for high-speed networks. This work led to his Ph.D. research on how regulators can balance compliance and innovation as new technologies disrupt the traditionally regulated ones in the Internet space. Since then, Vaishnav has advised the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). He has also worked with several large communications companies that are members of MIT’s Communications Futures Program.

Vaishnav holds a Master’s degree in Technology and Policy and a Ph.D. in Engineering Systems from MIT. He joined the MIT Sloan faculty as a senior lecturer after finishing his Ph.D. In addition to his degrees from MIT, he holds a BA in Indian Classical Music from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, India.

“My new assignment speaks directly to MIT Sloan’s Mission of developing leaders who make a positive difference in the world. MIT Sloan has been a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, and this opportunity helps take this work to a nation of 1.3 billion people via the Atal Innovation Mission,” says Vaishnav, who will be on a two-year leave from MIT to serve as Mission Director.

Source: MIT Sloan School of Management

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 12:35 PM | View the original post

---

---

April 4, 2021

Deakin University, Australia, announces six scholarships valued up to INR 36 million for deserving Indian students in 2021

Photo: A building at Deakin University Campus, Australia. Image credit: Kirsten Varela.

NEW DELHI, April 4, 2021 — Deakin University, Australia, has announced its Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarship program 2021, which offers a 100% tuition fee waiver to six high-achieving Indian students for the entire duration of their studies at the university at any level.

This announcement is one of many that the university has made over the last year to support the international student community during these challenging times, including a large part of Indian students. These scholarships announced by the university are beyond a bursary of 30% to all students enrolling in the online to on-campus pathway program as the travel restrictions are prevalent due to the pandemic.

Deakin University remains committed to fostering engagement with India and ensuring the fulfillment of bright Indian students’ aspirations of an international education experience. The Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarship Program is a part of an initiative of Deakin named ‘Changing Lives,’ which recognizes deserving students with consistently high academic performance with a potential to make a leading contribution to the university and their community back in India.

While announcing the scholarships, Professor Iain Martin, President, and Vice-Chancellor, Deakin University, emphasized the importance of international education and said, “International education, particularly in an evolving global economy, is a significant part of a student’s holistic development. The Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarships are a wonderful opportunity for those deserving students to earn an international degree that will empower them to become a global talent and expand their horizons.”

Ms. Ravneet Pawha, Deputy Vice President (Global) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University, said, “Deakin University has a deep history of collaboration with India across the industry, government, and research.”

Applications for the scholarship are open for students applying in July and November intake this year. The Deakin Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarship Program selection is a rigorous process consisting of application review, referee recommendations, and interviews/presentations, including a panel interview with neutral representatives from academia and the industry.

“I think it (Vice-Chancellor’s 100% Meritorious Scholarship) is amazing not just because the tuition is paid, but I think the most interesting part of this for me was being a part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Professional Excellence Program, which empowered me to achieve beyond expectations and be ready for the careers of the future,” said Rupa Subramanian, a recipient of the Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholar 2017 award at Deakin University.

Shristi Ostwal, CBSE national boxing champion and a recipient of the Deakin University Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholar 2020 award, shared, “I have always wanted to give back to society by providing psychological aid to underprivileged people across the globe. The Vice-Chancellor’s 100% Meritorious Scholarship allowed me to gain skills and knowledge at par with the global standards. I commenced my studies online last year due to travel restrictions, and the flexibility of online learning has allowed me to balance my passion for psychology and sports.”

Deakin University also offers other academic merit-based bursaries and scholarships for Indian students, including a 25% Merit Scholarship and a 20% Bursary for studies onshore in Australia.

Established in 1974, Deakin University is one of Australia’s leading tertiary education providers.

According to Deakin University, it is celebrating 27 years of engagement in India as it was the first international education provider to set up India’s office in 1994. It is currently the most engaged Australian Provider across education, training, research, capacity building, and consultancy initiatives with academia, industry, and the government. Deakin University has established exclusive partnerships in India to transform education and research into beneficial community outcomes, produce world-class graduates, and contribute to the communities’ growth and sustainability.

Source: Deakin University, Australia

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Virtual Tour: Deakin’s Burwood campus.

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 2:46 PM | View the original post

---

---

April 2, 2021

College Consensus Publishes "Aggregate Consensus Ranking" of the 100 Best Public Colleges and Universities for 2021 and 100 Best National Research Universities for 2021 in the USA.

Photo: A building at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Image credit: Corey Seeman.

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C., April 1, 2021 — College Consensus, a unique college rating website that aggregates publisher rankings and student reviews, has published its ranking the Best Public Colleges Universities for 2021 and the Best National Research Universities for 2021 in the USA.

Public colleges & universities are a vital part of higher education in America. Public schools generally provide a more affordable and accessible option for students than private colleges, helping to democratize higher education and build a more broadly educated citizenship.

• College Consensus 100 Best Public Colleges and Universities 2021

1. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor — Ann Arbor, MI
2. University of Virginia-Main Campus — Charlottesville, VA
3. University of California-Los Angeles UCLA — Los Angeles, CA
4. University of California-Berkeley — Berkeley, CA
5. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Chapel Hill, NC
6. California State University-Stanislaus — Turlock, CA
7. University of Florida — Gainesville, FL
8. California State University-Chico — Chico, CA
9. The University of California, Santa Barbara — Santa Barbara, CA
10. University of California-Davis — Davis, CA
11. University of California-Irvine — Irvine, CA
12. University of Wisconsin-Madison — Madison, WI
13. The University of Texas at Austin — Austin, TX
14. Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus — Atlanta, GA
15. Purdue University-Main Campus — West Lafayette, IN
16. University of Washington-Seattle Campus — Seattle, WA
17. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — Champaign, IL
18. California State University-Long Beach — Long Beach, CA
19. Massachusetts Maritime Academy — Buzzards Bay, MA
20. William & Mary — Williamsburg, VA
21. University of California, San Diego — La Jolla, CA
22. Citadel Military College of South Carolina — Charleston, SC
23. Texas A & M University-College Station — College Station, TX
24. California State University-San Bernardino — San Bernardino, CA
25. California State University-Northridge — Northridge, CA
26. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg) — Blacksburg, VA
27. California State University-Dominguez Hills — Carson, CA
28. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo — San Luis Obispo, CA
29. California State University-Sacramento — Sacramento, CA
30. Western Washington University — Bellingham, WA
31. James Madison University — Harrisonburg, VA
32. California State University-Channel Islands — Camarillo, CA
33. University of Georgia — Athens, GA
34. North Carolina State University at Raleigh — Raleigh, NC
35. University of Northern Iowa — Cedar Falls, IA
36. Ohio State University-Main Campus — Columbus, OH
37. Michigan State University — East Lansing, MI
38. Appalachian State University — Boone, NC
39. University of Connecticut — Storrs, CT
40. CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice — New York, NY
41. Eastern Illinois University — Charleston, IL
42. University of Minnesota-Twin Cities — Minneapolis, MN
43. Florida State University — Tallahassee, FL
44. California State Polytechnic University-Pomona — Pomona, CA
45. Keene State College — Keene, NH
46. Maine Maritime Academy — Castine, ME
47. Rutgers University-New Brunswick — New Brunswick, NJ
48. Indiana University-Bloomington — Bloomington, IN
49. California State University-Fullerton — Fullerton, CA
50. University of Maryland-College Park — College Park, MD
51. Truman State University — Kirksville, MO
52. California State University-Monterey Bay — Seaside, CA
53. Virginia Military Institute — Lexington, VA
54. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology — Socorro, NM
55. University of Mary Washington — Fredericksburg, VA
56. The University of Illinois at Chicago — Chicago, IL
57. University of Michigan-Dearborn — Dearborn, MI
58. University of Iowa — Iowa City, IA
59. University of Arizona — Tucson, AZ
60. San Francisco State University — San Francisco, CA
61. The College of New Jersey — Ewing, NJ
62. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse — La Crosse, WI
63. The State University of New York at New Paltz — New Paltz, NY
64. California State University-Los Angeles — Los Angeles, CA
65. California State University-Fresno — Fresno, CA
66. The University of Maine at Farmington — Farmington, ME
67. University of Massachusetts-Amherst — Amherst, MA
68. Clemson University — Clemson, SC
69. University of Delaware — Newark, DE
70. CUNY Bernard M Baruch College — New York, NY
71. Binghamton University — Vestal, NY
72. Farmingdale State College — Farmingdale, NY
73. Stony Brook University — Stony Brook, NY
74. University of California-Riverside — Riverside, CA
75. Central Washington University — Ellensburg, WA
76. Salisbury University — Salisbury, MD
77. California State University-San Marcos — San Marcos, CA
78. St. Mary’s College of Maryland — St. Mary’s City, MD
79. San Jose State University — San Jose, CA
80. Iowa State University — Ames, IA
81. Colorado School of Mines — Golden, CO
82. California State University Maritime Academy — Vallejo, CA
83. CUNY Brooklyn College — Brooklyn, NY
84. Longwood University — Farmville, VA
85. Arizona State University-Tempe — Tempe, AZ
86. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire — Eau Claire, WI
87. Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus — University Park, PA
88. Radford University — Radford, VA
89. University of Central Florida — Orlando, FL
90. SUNY Maritime College — Throggs Neck, NY
91. West Chester University of Pennsylvania — West Chester, PA
92. SUNY College at Geneseo — Geneseo, NY
93. Towson University — Towson, MD
94. Michigan Technological University — Houghton, MI
95. CUNY Lehman College — Bronx, NY
96. George Mason University — Fairfax, VA
97. California State University-East Bay — Hayward, CA
98. Montclair State University — Montclair, NJ
99. Sonoma State University — Rohnert Park, CA
100. SUNY College at Brockport — Brockport, NY

Photo: A signage at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Image credit: John.

The top research universities include some of the most prestigious names in higher education. Students who attend these schools have access to today’s leading thinkers and practitioners.

“We define national research universities as institutions that draw a student body from across the U.S. and world, rather than a primarily regional population, College Consensus clarified. “Carnegie Foundation has recognized all these schools and classified them according to the Carnegie tiered classification.”

According to College Consensus, it uses an aggregate scoring system that combines data across the internet. The Publisher Rating averages scores from U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and WalletHub. The Student Rating combines scores from sites like Unigo, My Plan, and Students Review. The Publisher and Student ratings combined make up a school’s Consensus score.

• College Consensus 100 Best National Research Universities 2021

1. Yale University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Stanford University
4. Princeton University
5. Harvard University
6. Duke University
7. Vanderbilt University
8. Dartmouth College
9. University of Pennsylvania
10. Brown University
11. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
12. University of Notre Dame
13. Rice University
14. Cornell University
15. Columbia University in the City of New York
16. University of Chicago
17. University of Virginia
18. University of California — Los Angeles
19. University of California — Berkeley
20. Washington University in St Louis
21. California Institute of Technology
22. Northwestern University
23. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
24. University of Florida
25. Georgetown University
26. University of California—Santa Barbara
27. University of California—Davis
28. University of California—Irvine
29. University of Wisconsin—Madison
30. The University of Texas at Austin
31. Georgia Institute of Technology
32. Tufts University
33. Purdue University
34. University of Washington—Seattle Campus
35. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
36. Johns Hopkins University
37. William and Mary
38. University of Southern California
39. Emory University
40. University of California—San Diego
41. Texas A & M — College Station
42. Boston College
43. Carnegie Mellon University
44. Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Blacksburg)
45. Lehigh University
46. Wake Forest University
47. Brigham Young University — Provo
48. University of Georgia
49. North Carolina State University at Raleigh
50. Ohio State University
51. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
52. University of Connecticut - Storrs, CT
53. University of Minnesota-Twin Cities — Minneapolis, MN
54. Florida State University — Tallahassee, FL
55. Northeastern University — Boston, MA
56. George Washington University — Washington, DC
57. Boston University — Boston, MA
58. Brandeis University — Waltham, MA
59. Rutgers University-New Brunswick — New Brunswick, NJ
60. University of Rochester — Rochester, NY
61. Indiana University-Bloomington — Bloomington, IN
62. Tulane University of Louisiana — New Orleans, LA
63. University of Maryland-College Park — College Park, MD
64. University of Miami — Coral Gables, FL
65. The University of Illinois at Chicago — Chicago, IL
66. Southern Methodist University — Dallas, TX
67. New York University — New York, NY
68. University of Iowa — Iowa City, IA
69. University of Arizona — Tucson, AZ
70. Villanova University — Villanova, PA
71. University of Massachusetts-Amherst — Amherst, MA
72. Clemson University — Clemson, SC
73. University of Delaware — Newark, DE
74. Case Western Reserve University — Cleveland, OH
75. Binghamton University — Vestal, NY
76. Stony Brook University — Stony Brook, NY
77. University of California-Riverside — Riverside, CA
78. University of San Diego — San Diego, CA
79. Illinois Institute of Technology — Chicago, IL
80. Iowa State University — Ames, IA
81. Colorado School of Mines — Golden, CO
82. American University — Washington, DC
83. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — Troy, NY
84. Arizona State University-Tempe — Tempe, AZ
85. Syracuse University — Syracuse, NY
86. University of Tulsa — Tulsa, OK
87. Worcester Polytechnic Institute — Worcester, MA
88. Howard University — Washington, DC
89. Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus — University Park, PA
90. University of Central Florida — Orlando, FL
91. Marquette University — Milwaukee, WI
92. Michigan Technological University — Houghton, MI
93. George Mason University — Fairfax, VA
94. Montclair State University — Montclair, NJ
95. University of New Hampshire-Main Campus — Durham, NH
96. University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus — Pittsburgh, PA
97. Rutgers University-Newark — Newark, NJ
98. University of California-Santa Cruz — Santa Cruz, CA
99. University at Buffalo — Buffalo, NY
100. The University of Utah — Salt Lake City, UT

Source: College Consensus

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 9:25 AM | View the original post

---

---

April 1, 2021

Global University Leaders Commit to Joint Action on Reaching UN 2030 Sustainability Goals at an Online Event hosted by Zhejiang University in China.

Photo: University presidents from 30 countries unite to announce action on climate change. March 30, 2021. Image provided by Zhejiang University.

HANGZHOU, China, March 31, 2021 — On March 30, 2021, university presidents from 30 countries united for the first time to announce action on climate change. They signed a Joint Statement of Global University Leaders 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UN officials witnessed the event.

That first global online forum for university leaders was hosted by Zhejiang University in China. Presidents from 56 universities across six continents committed to working together to meet sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The initiative includes five key aspects all signatories have agreed:

• Implementing the concept of sustainable development,
• Improving sustainable development competence,
• Supporting scientific research in response to global challenges,
• Working with international partners to provide innovative solutions
• Constructive transnational cooperation on specific issues.

Among the top 50 universities on the QS World University Rankings, 80% have developed their university-level sustainability strategy, plans, or operational activities. According to Zhaohui Wu, President of Zhejiang University (ZJU), the forum’s purpose was to bring together leaders from some of the best universities to share these visions and best practices on SDGs and explore opportunities for potential cooperation in safeguarding a sustainable future.

With less than nine years to meet targets and the pandemic slowing progress, the forum allowed leaders to share essential expertise on how to scale up efforts to deliver on the 2030 Agenda. The event gave academics a platform to clearly outline their action plans for human-oriented, innovation-driven, and down-to-earth sustainable development.

UN officials, including Nikhil Seth, UN Assistant Secretary-General, and Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, joined the speakers’ panel. The speakers included Peter Salovey, President of Yale University; Pam Fredman, President of the International Association of Universities; and Eric Labaye, President of Ecole Polytechnique.

Speakers reinforced how universities can work together to harness technology’s power to expand access to quality education. They also discussed how they should draw on their academic ecosystem to support scientific collaborations and knowledge transfer across disciplines.

Universities that have signed the initiative include:

• Peking University
• Kyoto University
• Korea University
• The National University of Singapore
• Harvard University
• Yale University
• The University of Toronto
• University College London
• Ecole Polytechnique
• The University of Oslo,
• Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University
• The University of Sydney,
• Stellenbosch University
• Universidade Estadual de Campinas.

• Nikhil Seth, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, said: “SDGs belong to each of us, and everything we make impacts on the achievement, in the aggregate, to SDG achievement.”

• Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO, said: “The organization of the forum is timely, especially given the increasingly pivotal role of universities not only in fostering understanding and knowledge but also in contributing to building knowledge-based societies.”

• Pam Fredman, President of the International Association of Universities, Paris, said: “Cooperation and cohesion among Higher Education Institutions and organizations will foster knowledge development and sharing.”

• Zhaohui Wu, President of Zhejiang University (ZJU), said: “The ‘Global ZJU for Social Good’ plan establishes five objectives and associated actions to improve our sustainability-related education, research, and practices within the ZJU community and among other stakeholders in China and beyond. We aim to advocate for responsible sustainability, educate for a sustainable future, advance scientific collaborations, partner for collective well-being, and create greener campuses.”

Zhejiang University (ZJU) is an elite university located in Hangzhou, China. Founded in 1897, Zhejiang University is one of China’s oldest and prestigious institutions of higher education.

Source: Zhejiang University

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 9:22 AM | View the original post

---

---

March 31, 2021

US News & World Report Announces 2022 Best Graduate Schools

Photo: Knight Management Center, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford, California. Image Credit: Corey Seeman.

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2021 — US News & World Report has published the 2022 Best Graduate Schools. The rankings evaluate programs across several disciplines - including business, education, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing - for students interested in furthering their education beyond college.

US News added several standalone medical school rankings, using data from the Robert Graham Center, a division of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

These rankings display data on alumni’s various practice areas - specifically, the percentage of graduates practicing in primary care specialties, rural areas, and medically underserved areas.

US News has added two new student debt indicators to the overall Best Law Schools methodology: The average law school debt incurred by law school graduates and the percentage of law graduates who incurred debt.

“Trying to decide where to go to grad school can be overwhelming under normal circumstances, let alone during a pandemic,” said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at US News. “Along with our articles featuring expert advice on the admissions process, the Best Graduate Schools rankings provide helpful data to make that search more manageable for prospective students.”

Best Business Schools: Full-Time MBA

Stanford University is the No. 1 full-time MBA program, followed by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School at No. 2. The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business rounds out the top three.

Best Law Schools

The top school among Best Law Schools is Yale University. Stanford and Harvard University come in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Best Medical Schools: Research

Harvard maintains the top spot among Best Medical Schools: Research, while New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine moves up to No. 2 this year. Duke University also moves up in the rankings to No. 3.

The University of Pennsylvania moves up to join Harvard in a tie for the top spot among education programs. MIT maintains its place as No. 1 in engineering, while Johns Hopkins is No. 1 among nursing master’s programs.

Alongside the six most prominent disciplines, US News has updated other graduate program rankings this year. These include criminology, economics, English, history, library and information studies, political science, public affairs, public health, and sociology.

2022 Best Graduate Schools Rankings

• Best 100 Business Schools: Full-Time MBA

1. Stanford University — Stanford, CA
2. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) — Philadelphia, PA
3. University of Chicago (Booth) — Chicago, IL
4. Northwestern University (Kellogg) — Evanston, IL
5. Harvard University — Boston, MA
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) — Cambridge, MA
7. Columbia University — New York, NY
8. University of California, Berkeley (Haas) — Berkeley, CA
9. Yale University — New Haven, CT
10. Dartmouth College (Tuck) — Hanover, NH
11. New York University (Stern) — New York, NY
12. Duke University (Fuqua) — Durham, NC
13. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (Ross) — Ann Arbor, MI
14. University of Virginia (Darden) — Charlottesville, VA
15. Cornell University (Johnson) — Ithaca, NY
16. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) — Pittsburgh, PA
17. University of Southern California (Marshall) — Los Angeles, CA
18. University of California—Los Angeles (Anderson) — Los Angeles, CA
19. University of Texas—Austin (McCombs) — Austin, TX
20. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) — Chapel Hill, NC
21. Georgetown University (McDonough) — Washington, DC
22. University of Washington (Foster) — Seattle, WA
23. Indiana University (Kelley) — Bloomington, IN
24. Vanderbilt University (Owen) — Nashville, TN
25. Rice University (Jones) — Houston, TX
26. Emory University (Goizueta) — Atlanta, GA
27. University of Florida (Warrington) — Gainesville, FL
28. Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) — Atlanta, GA
29. University of Minnesota—Twin Cities (Carlson) — Minneapolis, MN
30. Arizona State University (W.P. Carey) — Tempe, AZ
31. Brigham Young University (Marriott) — Provo, UT
32. University of Texas—Dallas — Richardson, TX
33. Ohio State University (Fisher) — Columbus, OH
34. Pennsylvania State University, University Park (Smeal) — University Park, PA
35. University of Rochester (Simon) — Rochester, NY
36. University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) — Notre Dame, IN
37. Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) — St. Louis, MO
38. Texas A&M University, College Station (Mays) — College Station, TX
39. Michigan State University (Broad) — East Lansing, MI
40. University of Georgia (Terry) — Athens, GA
41. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Haslam) — Knoxville, TN
42. University of Maryland, College Park (Smith) — College Park, MD
43. University of Wisconsin, Madison — Madison, WI
44. Boston College (Carroll) — Chestnut Hill, MA
45. Purdue University, West Lafayette (Krannert) — West Lafayette, IN
46. Rutgers University—Newark and New Brunswick — Newark, NJ
47. Southern Methodist University (Cox) — Dallas, TX
48. University of Alabama (Manderson) — Tuscaloosa, AL
49. University of Utah (Eccles) — Salt Lake City, UT
50. Boston University (Questrom) — Boston, MA
51. Iowa State University (Ivy) — Ames, IA
52. University of Pittsburgh (Katz) — Pittsburgh, PA
53. George Washington University — Washington, DC
54. University of California, Davis — Davis, CA
55. Northeastern University (School of Business) — Boston, MA
56. University of South Carolina (Moore) — Columbia, SC
57. Texas Christian University (Neeley) — Fort Worth, TX
58. University of California—Irvine (Merage) — Irvine, CA
59. University of Massachusetts—Amherst (Isenberg) — Amherst, MA
60. Baylor University (Hankamer) — Waco, TX
61. University of Connecticut — Hartford, CT
62. University of Miami — Coral Gables, FL
63. Babson College (Olin) — Babson Park, MA
64. Fordham University (Gabelli) — New York, NY
65. Howard University — Washington, DC
66. North Carolina State University (Poole) — Raleigh, NC
67. University of Arizona (Eller) — Tucson, AZ
68. Louisiana State University—Baton Rouge (Ourso) — Baton Rouge, LA
69. Pepperdine University (Graziadio) — Malibu, CA
70. Stevens Institute of Technology — Hoboken, NJ
71. William & Mary — Williamsburg, VA
72. Saint Louis University (Chaifetz) — St. Louis, MO
73. University of Kansas — Lawrence, KS
74. Auburn University (Harbert) — Auburn, AL
75. Clemson University — Greenville, SC
76. University of Colorado, Boulder (Leeds) — Boulder, CO
77. Chapman University (Argyros) — Orange, CA
78. CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College (Zicklin) — New York, NY
79. University at Buffalo—SUNY — Buffalo, NY
80. University of Denver (Daniels) — Denver, CO
81. Case Western Reserve University (Weatherhead) — Cleveland, OH
82. University of Oklahoma (Price) — Oklahoma City, OK
83. University of Kentucky (Gatton) — Lexington, KY
84. Binghamton University—SUNY — Binghamton, NY
85. Syracuse University (Whitman) — Syracuse, NY
86. Temple University (Fox) — Philadelphia, PA
87. American University (Kogod) — Washington, DC
88. University of California—San Diego (Rady) — La Jolla, CA
89. University of San Francisco — San Francisco, CA
90. Rochester Institute of Technology (Saunders) — Rochester, NY
91. University of Mississippi — University, MS
92. Mississippi State University — Mississippi State, MS
93. Tulane University (Freeman) — New Orleans, LA
94. University of Oregon (Lundquist) — Eugene, OR
95. University of San Diego — San Diego, CA
96. North Carolina A&T State University — Greensboro, NC
97. Belmont University (Massey) — Nashville, TN
98. Drexel University (LeBow) — Philadelphia, PA
99. University of Houston (Bauer) — Houston, TX
100. University of Colorado, Denver — Denver, CO

• Best 100 Law Schools

1. Yale University — New Haven, CT
2. Stanford University — Stanford, CA
3. Harvard University — Cambridge, MA
4. Columbia University — New York, NY
5. University of Chicago — Chicago, IL
6. New York University — New York, NY
7. University of Pennsylvania (Carey) — Philadelphia, PA
8. University of Virginia — Charlottesville, VA
9. University of California—Berkeley — Berkeley, CA
10. Duke University — Durham, NC
11. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor — Ann Arbor, MI
12. Northwestern University (Pritzker) — Chicago, IL
13. Cornell University — Ithaca, NY
14. University of California Los Angeles — Los Angeles, CA
15. Georgetown University — Washington, DC
16. University of Texas, Austin — Austin, TX
17. Vanderbilt University — Nashville, TN
18. Washington University in St. Louis — St. Louis, MO
19. University of Southern California (Gould) — Los Angeles, CA
20. Boston University — Boston, MA
21. University of Florida (Levin) — Gainesville, FL
22. University of Minnesota — Minneapolis, MN
23. University of Notre Dame — Notre Dame, IN
24. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill — Chapel Hill, NC
25. Arizona State University (O’Connor) — Phoenix, AZ
26. University of Alabama — Tuscaloosa, AL
27. George Washington University — Washington, DC
28. University of Georgia — Athens, GA
29. Boston College — Newton, MA
30. Brigham Young University (Clark) — Provo, UT
31. Emory University — Atlanta, GA
32. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign — Champaign, IL
33. University of Iowa — Iowa City, IA
34. University of Wisconsin, Madison — Madison, WI
35. Fordham University — New York, NY
36. University of California, Davis — Davis, CA
37. University of California, Irvine — Irvine, CA
38. Washington and Lee University — Lexington, VA
39. William & Mary Law School — Williamsburg, VA
40. Ohio State University (Moritz) — Columbus, OH
41. George Mason University — Arlington, VA
42. Wake Forest University — Winston-Salem, NC
43. Indiana University, Bloomington (Maurer) — Bloomington, IN
44. University of Utah (Quinney) — Salt Lake City, UT
45. University of Washington — Seattle, WA
46. Pepperdine University Caruso — Malibu, CA
47. University of Arizona (Rogers) — Tucson, AZ
48. Florida State University — Tallahassee, FL
49. University of Colorado, Boulder — Boulder, CO
50. University of California (Hastings) — San Francisco, CA
51. University of Maryland (Carey) — Baltimore, MD
52. Southern Methodist University (Dedman) — Dallas, TX
53. Temple University (Beasley) — Philadelphia, PA
54. Texas A&M University — Fort Worth, TX
55. University of Richmond — Richmond, VA
56. Villanova University — Villanova, PA
57. Yeshiva University (Cardozo) — New York, NY
58. Baylor University — Waco, TX
59. University of Connecticut — Hartford, CT
60. Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law — Carlisle, PA
61. Pennsylvania State University—University Park — University Park, PA
62. Tulane University — New Orleans, LA
63. University of Houston — Houston, TX
64. University of Missouri — Columbia, MO
65. University of Nevada, Las Vegas — Las Vegas, NV
66. University of Tennessee, Knoxville — Knoxville, TN
67. Northeastern University — Boston, MA
68. University of Oklahoma — Norman, OK
69. University of Pittsburgh — Pittsburgh, PA
70. Seton Hall University — Newark, NJ
71. University of Kansas — Lawrence, KS
72. Case Western Reserve University — Cleveland, OH
73. Loyola Marymount University — Los Angeles, CA
74. St. John’s University — Jamaica, NY
75. University of Miami — Coral Gables, FL
76. University of Oregon — Eugene, OR
77. Wayne State University — Detroit, MI
78. Georgia State University — Atlanta, GA
79. Loyola University Chicago — Chicago, IL
80. University of Denver (Sturm) — Denver, CO
81. American University (Washington) — Washington, DC
82. Brooklyn Law School — Brooklyn, NY
83. Drexel University (Kline) — Philadelphia, PA
84. University of Cincinnati — Cincinnati, OH
85. University of Kentucky — Lexington, KY
86. University of San Diego — San Diego, CA
87. University of Nebraska, Lincoln — Lincoln, NE
88. Florida International University — Miami, FL
89. Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern) — Portland, OR
90. University of New Hampshire — Concord, NH
91. Howard University — Washington, DC
92. Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent) — Chicago, IL
93. Michigan State University — East Lansing, MI
94. Rutgers University — Newark and Camden, NJ
95. Saint Louis University — St. Louis, MO
96. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville — Fayetteville, AR
97. University of South Carolina — Columbia, SC
98. University at Buffalo, SUNY — Buffalo, NY
99. University of Hawaii, Manoa (Richardson) — Honolulu, HI
100. University of Louisville (Brandeis) — Louisville, KY
101. University of Mississippi — University, MS
102. CUNY School of Law — Long Island City, NY

• Best 5 Medical Schools: Research

1. Harvard University (MA)
2. New York University (Grossman)
3. Duke University (NC)
4. Columbia University (NY)
5. Stanford University (CA)

Source: US News & World Report

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 5:16 AM | View the original post

---

---

March 30, 2021

College Consensus Publishes Aggregate Consensus Ranking of the 100 Best Value U.S. Colleges & Universities for 2021.

Photo: The gate in front of Old Main Building, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois. Image credit: Travis Stansel / Illinois Public Media.

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C., March 30, 2021 — College Consensus, a unique college rating website that aggregates publisher rankings and student reviews, has published its ranking of the Best Value U.S. Colleges and Universities for 2021.

“Student debt represents the second-largest consumer debt class in the U.S. today. It’s no surprise that many prospective college students are looking to avoid a lifetime of debt without compromising education quality. We have ranked the Best Value Colleges and Universities for 2021 to guide students looking for quality and affordability,” College Consensus said.

“When it comes to college, affordability isn’t cheap. Keeping costs down, and student loan debt low is every student’s worry,” the ranking agency remarked.

“In the age of rapidly rising tuition, college costs have risen far faster than the inflation rate in the 21st century and even faster than financial aid. Affordability is no joke. With our 2021 Consensus Ranking of the 100 Best Value Colleges & Universities, College Consensus is lighting up the way to a college education students can afford,” the publisher elaborated.

• Top 50 Schools in the Best Value U.S. Colleges and Universities ranking for 2021

1. Brigham Young University-Provo — Provo, UT
2. North Dakota State University-Main Campus — Fargo, ND
3. Eastern Illinois University — Charleston, IL
4. CUNY City College — New York, NY
5. Truman State University — Kirksville, MO
6. CUNY Hunter College — New York, NY
7. CUNY Lehman College — Bronx, NY
8. CUNY Brooklyn College — Brooklyn, NY
9. CUNY Bernard M Baruch College — New York, NY
10. CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice — New York, NY
11. CUNY Queens College — Queens, NY
12. University of Minnesota-Morris — Morris, MN
13. Winona State University — Winona, MN
14. University of North Dakota — Grand Forks, ND
15. Fitchburg State University — Fitchburg, MA
16. Westfield State University — Westfield, MA
17. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point — Stevens Point, WI
18. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire — Eau Claire, WI
19. University of South Florida-Main Campus — Tampa, FL
20. University of Wisconsin-Stout — Menomonie, WI
21. Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University — Tallahassee, FL
22. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse — La Crosse, WI
23. University of Wyoming — Laramie, WY
24. Birmingham-Southern College — Birmingham, AL
25. The State University of New York at New Paltz — New Paltz, NY
26. SUNY Polytechnic Institute — Utica, NY
27. SUNY Maritime College — Throggs Neck, NY
28. Farmingdale State College — Farmingdale, NY
29. California State University-Fresno — Fresno, CA
30. SUNY College at Brockport — Brockport, NY
31. SUNY College at Oswego — Oswego, NY
32. California State University-Los Angeles — Los Angeles, CA
33. SUNY Oneonta — Oneonta, NY
34. California State University-Channel Islands — Camarillo, CA
35. California State University-Long Beach — Long Beach, CA
36. SUNY Cortland — Cortland, NY
37. California State University-San Bernardino — San Bernardino, CA
38. SUNY College at Plattsburgh — Plattsburgh, NY
39. Florida State University — Tallahassee, FL
40. California State University-Fullerton — Fullerton, CA
41. California State University-Dominguez Hills — Carson, CA
42. SUNY at Purchase College — Purchase, NY
43. SUNY College at Geneseo — Geneseo, NY
44. California State University-Northridge — Northridge, CA
45. California State University-East Bay — Hayward, CA
46. University of Minnesota-Duluth — Duluth, MN
47. Florida International University — Miami, FL
48. California State University Maritime Academy — Vallejo, CA
49. California State University-Monterey Bay — Seaside, CA
50. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry — Syracuse, NY

Source: College Consensus

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 11:42 PM | View the original post

---

---

March 25, 2021

UNESCO extends full support to its new National Education Policy as India starts expanding Research-oriented Higher Education towards building a Knowledge-based Economy

Photos: UNESCO Headquarters, Paris. March 25, 2021. Director-General of UNESCO Ms. Audrey Azoulay talks with Mr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank,’ Minister of Education of India, through a video conference. Images provided by & copyright © UNESCO / Fabrice GENTILE.

• New Delhi / Paris, March 25, 2021 —India’s Education Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, held a virtual meeting with Director-General UNESCO, Ms. Audrey Azoulay, today. They discussed critical issues of mutual importance, including National Education Policy and India’s response to the COVID Pandemic.

Mr. Pokhriyal said that the Ministry of Education Government of India has ensured that education reaches even the last child in the country’s remotest part.

The Minister also mentioned that competitive entrance exams for almost 2.3 million students, the most extensive entrance examinations in the world, were conducted successfully and safely during the covid pandemic.

Minister emphasized that the Government of India National Education Policy 2020 aims to transform the educational ecosystem for over 340 million students of the country. It is based on the foundations of Equality, Equity, Access, Affordability, and Accountability. It seeks to fulfill the vision of making India a ‘global superpower of knowledge’ and the ‘mission to create a ‘global citizen.’

Director-General of UNESCO Ms. Audrey Azoulay appreciated the response of the Indian Government in mitigating the challenges of covid and ensuring continuity of education during the covid pandemic by providing education to the students through different mediums of TV, Radio, and online to the last student of the country. She remarked that India’s response to covid was remarkable in terms of scale and diversity. She requested the Union Minister share the experiences and best practices relating to India’s education sector with UNESCO member states. She congratulated the Minister for bringing out the New Education policy, which is visionary and capable of transforming the education sector. On behalf of UNSECO, she extended full support in its implementation.

• New Delhi, March 23, 2021 — India’s Education Ministry said today that the National Education Policy 2020 envisions an education system rooted in Indian ethos that contributes directly to sustainably transforming India into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society.

• “The new education policy aims to provide high-quality education, innovation, and research, thereby making India a global knowledge superpower. The Policy envisages that the institutions’ curriculum and pedagogy must develop a deep sense of respect towards the Fundamental Duties and Constitutional values, bonding with one’s country, and conscious awareness of one’s roles and responsibilities in a changing world.

• “The Policy’s vision is to instill a deep-rooted pride in being Indian, not only in thought but also in spirit, intellect, and deeds. It aims to develop knowledge, skills, values, and dispositions that support responsible commitment to human rights, sustainable development, and global well-being, thereby reflecting a truly global citizen.

• “National Education Policy 2020 envisions a comprehensive approach to transforming India’s quality and quantity of research. It includes inter-alia promoting research in universities, the inclusion of research and internships in the undergraduate curriculum, faculty career management systems that give due weightage to study, and the governance and regulatory changes that encourage an environment of research and innovation. These aspects are highly critical for developing a research mindset in the country.

• “To build on these various elements in a synergistic manner and thereby truly grow and catalyze quality research in the nation, this Policy envisions establishing a National Research Foundation (NRF). The overarching goal of the NRF would be to enable a culture of research to permeate through the universities. The NRF would provide a reliable base of merit-based but equitable peer-reviewed research funding, helping develop the country’s research culture. Through appropriate incentives for and recognition of outstanding research, it would undertake significant initiatives to seed and grow research at State Universities and other public institutions where research capability is currently limited.”

India’s Minister for Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, gave this information through a statement in the Indian Parliament.

Source: Ministry of Education, Government of India.

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 8:50 AM | View the original post

---

---

March 19, 2021

University Grants Commission (UGC) India recognizes Cost Accountant Qualification equivalent to Post Graduate Degree.

• Candidates who have qualified for the Chartered Accountant (CA), Company Secretary (CS), or Cost and Works Accountant (ICWA) exams will now be treated equivalent to postgraduate degree holders, according to the University Grants Commission (UGC).

• UGC made this decision on the behest of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India to help CA, CS, and ICWA qualification holders improve their mobility.

New Delhi, March 19, 2021 — To increase their academic mobility, the University Grants Commission has concluded that those qualifying the Chartered Accountant (CA), Company Secretary (CS), or Cost and Works Accountant (ICWA) exams are equivalent to postgraduate degree holders.

UGC said that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India had requested it to consider the qualifications they award (CA, CS, and ICWA) as equivalent to post-graduation degrees.

To consider this, the UGC constituted an expert committee. The commission accepted the expert committee’s recommendation and resolved that CA, CS, and ICWA qualifications be considered equivalent to PG degrees, the UGC said in its official order.

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) said this decision would offer more scope to its professionals worldwide. “This recognition will leverage the company secretary profession across the globe, allowing the members of the institute to pursue Ph.D. in Commerce and Allied Disciplines,” the Institute said in a release.

Nagendra D Rao, President of ICSI, said, “This recognition will open up another world of opportunities for company secretaries. Such recognitions reaffirm the fact that with the increasing focus on good governance, the demand for Company Secretaries, as skilled professionals, is both ubiquitous and inevitable.”

Nihar N Jambusaria, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), said that this equivalence to Post Graduate Degree would open up the International market for various job avenues for ICAI qualification holders. It would aid those seeking professional opportunities abroad.”

Biswarup Basu, President of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, remarked that this recognition would facilitate widespread international acceptance of its Cost & Management Accounting qualification.

In their presentations to the UGC, the Chartered Accountants (CA) and the Company Secretaries (CS) bodies had argued that students who have cleared CA and CS exams have already attained a high level of education. At the same time, the Cost Accountants body had emphasized that compared to M.Com and MBA, ICWA students’ curriculum is much more elaborate.

The Institute of Cost Accountants of India, established in 1944, was set up under an Act of Parliament in 1959 by India’s Government as a statutory professional body to impart education and training in Cost and Management Accountancy. The Institute is the 2nd most significant Cost & Management Accounting body globally. It is a founder member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

Sources: UGC, Institute of Cost Accountants of India, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

|GlobalGiants.Com|

— The editor is an alumnus of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India.

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 10:52 AM | View the original post

---

---

March 12, 2021

CUNY SPH to be honored with ASPPH Award for Outstanding Community Service

Photo: Hospital Corpsmen providing vaccinations to New York City civilians as Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announces the opening of State-FEMA mass vaccination site at York College / CUNY in Queens, New York. February 24, 2021. (Photo Don Pollard // Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo). Image provided by Navy Medicine.

NEW YORK, March 12, 2021 — At its 2021 Annual Meeting this month, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) will present the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) with the Harrison C. Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service.

The ASPPH Harrison C. Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service acknowledges Dr. Spencer, who had a long-standing commitment to social justice principles focusing on community engagement. This annual award is given to an ASPPH-member and accredited school or public health program that demonstrates a significant institutional commitment to addressing community needs through education, practice, and research.

CUNY SPH said that community engagement is integral to its vision of promoting health and social justice in New York City and across the globe through innovation and excellence in education, research, and service in public health. “We embrace a multifaceted concept of ‘community’ that includes half a million CUNY students at its center, exceeding a million when including the students’ families and close social circle. The school engages with its immediate neighborhood in Harlem, broader New York City public health community, government agencies, health care institutions, and academia,” the institution elaborated.

“We are delighted and humbled by the news of this award,” said CUNY SPH Dean Ayman El-Mohandes. “We look forward to continuing our work to partner with our community in New York City and beyond, to advance social justice, and to improve health outcomes for all.”

The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy (commonly known as the CUNY School of Public Health, or CUNY SPH) is a public research and professional college within the City University of New York (CUNY) system of colleges.

Source: CUNY SPH

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 4:34 AM | View the original post

---

---

March 8, 2021

UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education invites Nominations.

Photo: UNESCO Headquarters, Paris. Commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the OECD Convention. Image provided by & copyright © UNESCO/Christelle ALIX. [File Photo]

Photo: Scenes from the United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2020, held in the UN General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York on 6 March 2020. Image provided by & copyright © UN Women/Ryan Brown. [File Photo]

Paris, France, March 8, 2021 — On International Women’s Day, UNESCO launched the call for nominations for the 2021 UNESCO Award for Girls’ and Women’s Education. The Prize awards US$ 50,000 annually to two laureates making outstanding efforts in favor of girls’ and women’s education.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in a context where girls and women have been disproportionately impacted by nationwide school closures, ensuring that girls and women continue learning must be a priority. UNESCO estimates that over 11 million girls and young women may not return to school following the pandemic’s impact. About 128 million girls were already out of school before the pandemic, UNESCO said.

The Prize is more significant in these challenging times than ever before. Highlighting innovations that can help us foster an equal future is key to responding to global challenges around girls’ and women’s education, UNESCO added.

OFFICIAL INVITATION

• “Governments of the UNESCO Member States and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO are now invited to nominate up to three individuals, institutions, or organizations who have made substantial, innovative contributions in favor of girls and women’s education.

• “Interested candidates are invited to contact their country’s National Commission for UNESCO/Permanent Delegation to UNESCO or an NGO in official partnership with UNESCO for more information.

• “Nominations must meet the eligibility and selection criteria set by the Prize. Nominated projects must be established and running for at least two years, show potential to be replicable and scalable, and contribute to one or more of the priority areas of the Prize.

• “An independent International Jury of five experts will assess nominations based on the project’s potential for impact, innovation, and sustainability.

• “Deadline for submissions is 26 May 2021 (midnight, Paris time).

• “Nominations must be submitted in English or French via an online platform, accessible only to National Commissions for UNESCO/Permanent Delegations to UNESCO and NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO.

• “Based on the recommendations of the Jury, the Director-General of UNESCO will announce the 2021 laureates who will receive the award on 11 October 2021 as part of International Day of the Girl Child celebrations.”

Source: UNESCO

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 8:27 AM | View the original post

---

---

March 7, 2021

Harvard Business School Announces Spring 2021 Cohort of Executive Fellows.

• The program engages practitioners to enhance teaching and learning.

BOSTON, March 6, 2021 — Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced the spring cohort of Executive Fellows for the 2020-21 academic year. The Executive Fellows Program leverages the expertise of outstanding practitioners, including alumni. They all partner with an HBS faculty member to bring their business experience into the MBA program and the School.

The fellows contribute to the School by working with faculty and MBA students on curricular and co-curricular activities, including co-teaching course sessions in the elective curriculum, offering career counseling and development coaching, co-leading Short Intensive Programs, and delivering workshop sessions. They also collaborate with faculty on HBS Online and Executive Education and case development and other research projects. Fellow appointments range from a few months to one year.

“Our inaugural cohort of Executive Fellows provided tremendous insights to our students and shared learnings gained through years of extensive business practice,” says Len Schlesinger, chair of the Executive Fellows Program. “This cohort is equally as impressive and committed to contributing to the HBS community and the School’s mission of educating leaders who make a difference in the world.”

The Spring 2021 cohort of Executive Fellows includes:

• Rob Biederman (MBA 2014)

• Biederman is the co-founder and chairman of Catalant Technologies. Catalant Technologies enables companies to get from strategy to execution faster. He is also co-author of Reimagining Work: Strategies to Disrupt Talent, Lead Change, and Win with a Flexible Workforce, which lays out a vision and path for a new relationship between global companies and talent.

• Biederman is an Executive Fellow in the Entrepreneurial Management unit, co-teaching with Professor Jeffrey Rayport the Scaling Technology Ventures course on funding and accelerating disruptive internet companies’ growth.

• Gerald Chertavian (MBA 1992)

• Chertavian serves on the board of advisors for HBS’s Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) and is a former member of the World Economic Forum’s Youth Unemployment Council.

• As an Executive Fellow with HBS’s Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI), Chertavian works with several students and faculty members on various projects.

• Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui (MBA 1995)

• Arregui is the co-founder and managing partner of IGNIA. He is the former chairman of the board of Compartamos Banco (Gentera), Latin America’s largest microfinance institution, and formerly served as chairman of the board of ACCION International. Álvaro also served as CFO of Vitro; CEO of Farmacias Benavides and CFO of Grupo Elektra. Álvaro is a board member of Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

• As an Executive Fellow, Arregui is working with HBS’s Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) as a panelist this spring in Financial Inclusion and Systems Change sessions.

• Daniel Kahn and Leo Tsao

• Kahn is the chief of the Department of Justice (DOJ), criminal division, fraud section. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School.

• Tsao is the principal deputy chief of the money laundering and asset recovery section of the criminal division at the Department of Justice.

• As Executive Fellows, Kahn and Tsao are working with Professor Eugene Soltes on the MBA Program Elective Curriculum course, Managing Risk and Uncertainty.

• Vladimir Jacimovic (MBA 1992)

• Jacimovic is a seasoned investor with over 25 years of venture, private equity, and public investing and operating experience. He is the founder of Continuum Capital Partners, specializing in a crossover investment strategy, targeting both venture investments in startups and public companies’ assets. Since beginning his venture career in 1996, he has invested in and helped build more than 30 technology companies. In addition to serving on many public and private boards, Vladimir served on Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, and McKinsey & Company.

• As an Executive Fellow, Jacimovic is working with Professor Karim Lakhani on AI-first businesses’ issues. He will also engage with students and other HBS faculty members on various projects related to digital transformation.

• Dr. Rana el Kaliouby

• El Kaliouby’s life work is about humanizing technology before it dehumanizes us. She is a scientist, entrepreneur, author, and AI (Artificial intelligence) thought leader on a mission to bring emotional intelligence to the digital world. She is co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT Media Lab spinoff credited with creating artificial emotional intelligence, or Emotion AI (Artificial intelligence). Her memoir, Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology, follows her journey, growing up in the Middle East and moving to the US to become an entrepreneur.

• As an Executive Fellow, el Kaliouby works with Professor Lakhani on various AI (Artificial intelligence) and analytics projects. She will engage with both MBA and Doctoral students.

Source: Harvard Business School

|GlobalGiants.Com|

— The editor holds a Certificate in Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies from Harvard Business School.

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 1:40 PM | View the original post

---

---

March 5, 2021

Latest global university rankings: MIT & Harvard share the top spot, Russia and China record best-ever performances.

Photo: The University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Image Credit: Corey Seeman.

LONDON, March 4, 2021— QS Quacquarelli Symonds, an international higher education think-tank, today released the eleventh edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject. It is an extensive independent comparative analysis on the performance of 13,883 individual university programs taken by students at 1440 universities in 85 locations across the world, across 51 academic disciplines. They are part of the annual QS World University Rankings portfolio.

• Global Highlights

• Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the strongest-performing institutions across the exercise, ranking number-one in twelve subjects.

• The United Kingdom’s higher education sector remains resilient. 13 of the 51 subject tables are topped by a British university, with the University of Oxford leading five of those 13.

• Chinese higher education continues to reach new heights, with the sector attaining a record number of programs now achieving a top-50 rank.

• No university has a larger number of top-50 departments than Canada’s University of Toronto (46).

• Switzerland’s ETH Zurich is continental Europe’s top university, achieving number-one spots for Geology, Geophysics, and Earth & Marine Sciences. Based on its share of top-10 ranks, Switzerland is the world’s third-best higher education sector.

• Australia now possesses its lowest number of programs ranking among the top 10 globally in the last three years. Its total of 13 top-10 departments is fewer than in 2020 (17) and 2019 (18). Two-thirds of Australian National University’s programs have fallen year-on-year.

• Backed by substantial endowments, two Singaporean universities hold number-one positions: Nanyang Technological University is #1 for Materials Science. In contrast, the National University of Singapore - Asia’s best-performing university - is #1 for Petroleum Engineering.

• Conversely, Japanese higher education is in relative decline after decades of underfunding for research and Ph.D. students.

• India’s Institutes of Eminence program struggles to yield results, with no increase in top-100 representation for India’s public Institutes of Eminence.

• Russian higher education continues to move from strength to strength, with a record number of departments achieving top-20 places.

• Driven by world-class performances in Dentistry, Petroleum Engineering, and Mining Engineering, Universidade de São Paulo (USP) has retained its status as Latin America’s best-performing university in this exercise.

• The University of Cape Town remains Africa’s most competitive institution, with 24 of its programs placing among the top-200.

Jack Moran, the QS Spokesperson, said: “Observing performance trends across nearly 14,000 university departments enables us to draw some conclusions about the commonalities between nations that are improving and nations that are not. Three factors stand out. First, both in terms of faculty body and research relationships, an international outlook correlates strongly with improved performance. Second, rising universities have received strong targeted investment from governments over a decade or more - particularly in China, Russia, and Singapore. Third, improving relationships with industry is correlated with better employment, research, and innovation outcomes.”

• Meanwhile, India’s Education Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, addressed at the unveiling of QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021. Chairman, UGC, Prof Dhirendra P Singh; Chairman, NAAC, Dr. Virendar S Chauhan; Vice President, QS Rankings, Mr. Ben Sowter; and Head of Evaluation, QS Rankings, Leigh Kamolins were also virtually present.

• 12 Indian institutions have made it to the top 100 of the world - IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IISC Bangalore, IIT Guwahati, IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, JNU, Anna University, University of Delhi, and O.P Jindal University.

• IIT Madras has been ranked 30th globally for Petroleum Engineering, IIT Bombay is 41st, and IIT Kharagpur is 44th for Minerals and Mining Engineering. The University of Delhi has been ranked 50th in the world for Development Studies.

Sources: QS Quacquarelli Symonds; Ministry of Education, India.

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 1:52 AM | View the original post

---

---

February 23, 2021

AcademicInfluence.com Announces the Top-Ranked Public Graduate Schools in the U.S. for 2021.

Photo: Lawn at the University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia. Image Credit: Smilla.

FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 23, 2021 — Job candidates today find that elite companies expect more of their hires, often requiring a master’s degree just to get considered for a job. Career-minded people who want to stay competitive for the most desirable jobs — and for whom cost and proximity are critical considerations — are increasingly looking to public colleges or universities for their graduate degrees.

But which public graduate schools are best? AcademicInfluence.com has ranked the 50 best public graduate schools in the USA.

It has identified 302 public colleges and universities that meet its criteria. To be included in this list of best graduate schools, a university needs to satisfy the following four conditions:

• It must be a public, non-profit institution.
• It must be fully accredited.
• It must offer doctoral degrees and a broad range of advanced degrees.
• It must have a student body of at least 2,000.

• 100 Best (Influential) Public Grad Schools of 2021

1. University of California, Berkeley — Berkeley, CA
2. The University of Michigan — Ann Arbor, MI
3. University of California, Los Angeles — Los Angeles, CA
4. University of California, San Diego — La Jolla, CA
5. University of Washington — Seattle, WA
6. The University of Texas at Austin — Austin, TX
7. University of Wisconsin-Madison — Madison, WI
8. University of Minnesota — Minneapolis, MN
9. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — Champaign, IL
10. University of Virginia — Charlottesville, VA
11. Purdue University — West Lafayette, IN
12. University of Maryland — College Park, MD
13. University of Arizona — Tucson, AZ
14. University of Iowa — Iowa City, IA
15. University of California, Santa Barbara — Santa Barbara, CA
16. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Chapel Hill, NC
17. University of California, Davis — Davis, CA
18. University of Pittsburgh — Pittsburgh, PA
19. The University of Utah — Salt Lake City, UT
20. Pennsylvania State University — University Park, PA
21. Michigan State University — East Lansing, MI
22. Arizona State University — Tempe, AZ
23. University of California, Irvine — Irvine, CA
24. University of Florida — Gainesville, FL
25. University of California, Santa Cruz — Santa Cruz, CA
26. University of Massachusetts Amherst — Amherst, MA
27. Stony Brook University — Stony Brook, NY
28. George Mason University — Fairfax, VA
29. Ohio State University — Columbus, OH
30. The State University of New York at Buffalo — Buffalo, NY
31. University of Colorado Boulder — Boulder, CO
32. Florida State University — Tallahassee, FL
33. University of Oregon — Eugene, OR
34. Georgia Institute of Technology — Atlanta, GA
35. University of Missouri — Columbia, MO
36. University of Georgia — Athens, GA
37. Virginia Tech — Blacksburg, VA
38. Texas A&M University — College Station, TX
39. North Carolina State University — Raleigh, NC
40. The City College, The City University of New York (CUNY) — New York, NY
41. University of Tennessee, Knoxville — Knoxville, TN
42. Temple University — Philadelphia, PA
43. Indiana University Bloomington — Bloomington, IN
44. University of California, Riverside — Riverside, CA
45. University of Houston — Houston, TX
46. The University of Illinois at Chicago — Chicago, IL
47. University of New Mexico — Albuquerque, NM
48. University of Kansas — Lawrence, KS
49. University of Oklahoma — Norman, OK
50. University of Connecticut — Storrs, CT
51. Hunter College, The City University of New York (CUNY) — New York, NY
52. Iowa State University — Ames, IA
53. University of Cincinnati — Cincinnati, OH
54. San Francisco State University — San Francisco, CA
55. University of Alabama — Tuscaloosa, AL
56. Wayne State University — Detroit, MI
57. The University of South Florida — Tampa, FL
58. Louisiana State University — Baton Rouge, LA
59. Binghamton University — Vestal, NY
60. William & Mary — Williamsburg, VA
61. Oregon State University — Corvallis, OR
62. University of Colorado Denver — Denver, CO
63. University of Delaware — Newark, DE
64. University of Kentucky — Lexington, KY
65. University of Massachusetts Boston — Boston, MA
66. Florida International University — Miami, FL
67. University of Central Florida — Orlando, FL
68. Auburn University — Auburn, AL
69. University of Nebraska-Lincoln — Lincoln, NE
70. San Diego State University — San Diego, CA
71. Colorado State University, — Fort Collins, CO
72. Washington State University — Pullman, WA
73. Graduate Center, The City University of New York (CUNY) — New York, NY
74. University of Nevada, Las Vegas — Las Vegas, NV
75. University of South Carolina — Columbia, SC
76. University of Vermont — Burlington, VT
77. The University of Texas at Dallas — Richardson, TX
78. Utah State University — Logan, UT
79. Virginia Commonwealth University — Richmond, VA
80. University of Mississippi — University, MS
81. Texas Tech University — Lubbock, TX
82. Georgia State University — Atlanta, GA
83. Ohio University — Athens, OH
84. West Virginia University — Morgantown, WV
85. University of Montana — Missoula, MT
86. University of Maine — Orono, ME
87. California State University, Long Beach — Long Beach, CA
88. University of Rhode Island — Kingston, RI
89. Kansas State University — Manhattan, KS
90. The State University of New York at Albany — Albany, NY
91. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — Milwaukee, WI
92. Florida Atlantic University — Boca Raton, FL
93. Miami University, — Oxford, OH
94. University of New Hampshire — Durham, NH
95. Naval Postgraduate School — Monterey, CA
96. Illinois State University — Normal, IL
97. Portland State University — Portland, OR
98. California State University, Los Angeles — Los Angeles, CA
99. University of North Texas — Denton, TX
100. New Jersey Institute of Technology — Newark, NJ

“Many students and working adults are seeking advanced degree programs that balance excellence with affordability. Often, a public grad school is the wisest choice,” says Dr. Jed Macosko, academic director of AcademicInfluence.com and professor of physics at Wake Forest University.

While some graduate programs offer tuition remission and stipends to students, many do not, especially in business, law, and medicine. Public universities still retain an advantage over private universities when the cost is an issue.

“But don’t let financial factors obscure the true value of a public grad school degree; alumni and faculty at the top-ranked public grad schools have had a major influence in a diverse spectrum of fields,” adds Macosko. “Students attending these schools receive a superior education and earn the credentials to make their impact on the world.”

Source: AcademicInfluence.com

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 11:48 PM | View the original post

---

---

February 21, 2021

AcademicInfluence.com Releases Rankings of the Top Private Colleges & Universities in the U.S. for 2021

Photo: California Institute of Technology Campus. Pasadena, CA. Image Credit: Michael Adams.

FORT WORTH, Texas, February 20, 2021 — Prospective college students face a tough decision: choose to attend a private college or a public one. The advantages of private colleges and universities include smaller student-to-teacher ratios, student-centered communities, and more intimate settings. But which private college to pick?

To address the needs of the more than 400,000 incoming private college students each fall, AcademicInfluence.com releases its ranking of the leading American private higher education institutions:

“Our ranking of private colleges and universities not only includes some of the most desirable schools in the country, but it also accounts for their influence worldwide,” says Dr. Jed Macosko, academic director of AcademicInfluence.com and professor of physics at Wake Forest University. “The schools featured in our ranking system stand out due to their influential faculty and alumni, and for their many unmatched accomplishments in academics.”

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost at private universities is nearly $43,000, compared to $20,000 at four-year public universities. However, about one in five students chooses a private, non-profit higher education over the public option.

“Many students prefer the smaller communities and specialized studies that private schools offer compared to their larger public counterparts, and they are willing to pay for that privilege,” adds Macosko.

Private colleges are independent, non-profit schools that receive their funding through endowment income and student tuition fees rather than public tax dollars. If you’re weighing the pros and cons of private vs. public college, consider that private colleges are often smaller, offering more individualized experiences, including opportunities for dynamic classroom discussions, independent research, and one-on-one relationships with your instructors.

AcademicInfluence.com said it had identified 755 private universities in the United States. This list is composed entirely of private universities and colleges that offer four-year undergraduate degrees. To be included in that list of the best private colleges and universities, a school needs to satisfy the following three conditions:

• It must be a non-profit institution.
• It must be fully accredited.
• Its student body must have at least 1,000 students.

• 50 Best Private Colleges and Universities of 2021

1. California Institute of Technology - Pasadena, CA
2. Harvard University - Cambridge, MA
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA
4. Stanford University - Stanford, CA
5. University of Chicago - Chicago, IL
6. Princeton University - Princeton, NJ
7. Columbia University - New York, NY
8. Yale University - New Haven, CT
9. Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, MD
10. Duke University - Durham, NC
11. Swarthmore College - Swarthmore, PA
12. Northwestern University - Evanston, IL
13. Amherst College - Amherst, MA
14. Rice University - Houston, TX
15. Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA
16. Cornell University - Ithaca, NY
17. Sarah Lawrence College - Bronxville, NY
18. Reed College - Portland, OR
19. University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA
20. Brown University - Providence, RI
21. Barnard College - New York, NY
22. Brandeis University - Waltham, MA
23. Wesleyan University - Middletown, CT
24. Vassar College - Poughkeepsie, NY
25. Hampshire College - Amherst, MA
26. Dartmouth College - Hanover, NH
27. Georgetown University - Washington, DC
28. Tufts University - Medford, MA
29. Wellesley College - Wellesley, MA
30. Williams College - Williamstown, MA
31. Cooper Union - New York, NY
32. Pomona College - Claremont, CA
33. Oberlin College - Oberlin, OH
34. Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr, PA
35. Yeshiva University - New York, NY
36. New York University - New York, NY
37. Bard College - Annandale-On-Hudson, NY
38. Haverford College - Haverford, PA
39. Washington University in St. Louis - Saint Louis, MO
40. Vanderbilt University - Nashville, TN
41. George Washington University - Washington, DC
42. The New School - New York, NY
43. Claremont McKenna College - Claremont, CA
44. Emory University - Atlanta, GA
45. The Catholic University of America - Washington, DC
46. University of Rochester - Rochester, NY
47. Morehouse College- Atlanta, GA
48. Case Western Reserve University - Cleveland, OH
49. Kenyon College - Gambier, OH
50. University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA

How does AcademicInfluence.com determine the best private colleges & universities?

“The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. It is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call Concentrated Influence. Concentrated influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.”

“Using concentrated influence allows small and mid-sized schools to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size,” AcademicInfluence.com explained.

Suppose you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree. In that case, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.

“Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes,” AcademicInfluence.com elaborated.

Source: AcademicInfluence.com

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 10:55 PM | View the original post

---

---

February 19, 2021

Touchdown! NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover Safely Lands on the Red Planet

Photo: This high-resolution still image is part of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. A camera aboard the descent stage captured this shot. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken gravel and dust). (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech).

Photo: The Empire State Building is illuminated in red to celebrate this Thursday’s scheduled landing on Mars of NASA’s Perseverance rover, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, in New York City. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Emma Howells).

Photo: NASA Mars Perseverance Live at One Times Square. The live NASA TV broadcast from inside the Mission Support Area of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is seen on the One Times Square video board as NASA’s Perseverance rover completes its descent towards the surface of Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in New York City. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Emma Howells).

Photo: Members of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls).

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2021 — The largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world touched down on Mars Thursday, after a 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles (472 million kilometers). Confirmation of the successful touchdown was announced in mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST).

The Mars 2020 mission launched July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Perseverance rover mission marks an ambitious first step to collect Mars samples and return them to Earth.

“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally - when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet in the 2030s.”

About the size of a car, the 2,263-pound (1,026-kilogram) robotic geologist and astrobiologist will undergo several weeks of testing before it begins its two-year science investigation of Mars’ Jezero Crater. While the rover will investigate Jezero’s ancient lakebed and river delta’s rock and sediment to characterize the region’s geology and past climate, a fundamental part of its mission is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.

“Because of today’s exciting events, the first pristine samples from carefully documented locations on another planet are another step closer to being returned to Earth,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA. “Perseverance is the first step in bringing back rock and regolith from Mars. We don’t know what these pristine samples from Mars will tell us. But what they could tell us is monumental - including that life might have once existed beyond Earth.”

Some 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, Jezero Crater sits on the western edge of Isidis Planitia, a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator. Scientists have determined that 3.5 billion years ago, the crater had its river delta filled with water.

The power system that provides electricity and heat for Perseverance through its exploration of Jezero Crater is a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator or MMRTG. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided it to NASA through an ongoing partnership to develop power systems for civil space applications.

“Perseverance is the most sophisticated robotic geologist ever made, but verifying that microscopic life once existed carries an enormous burden of proof,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division. “While we’ll learn a lot with the great instruments we have aboard the rover, it may very well require the far more capable laboratories and instruments back here on Earth to tell us whether our samples carry evidence that Mars once harbored life.”

• Paving the Way for Human Missions

“Landing on Mars is always a challenging task, and we are proud to continue building on our past success,” said JPL Director Michael Watkins. “But, while Perseverance advances that success, this rover is also blazing its path and daring new challenges in the surface mission. We built the rover to land and find and collect the best scientific samples for return to Earth. Its incredibly complex sampling system and autonomy not only enable that mission, but they also set the stage for future robotic and crewed missions.”

The Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) sensor suite collected data about Mars’ atmosphere during entry, and the Terrain-Relative Navigation system autonomously guided the spacecraft during the final descent. The data from both would help future human missions land on other worlds more safely and with larger payloads.

On the surface of Mars, Perseverance’s science instruments will have an opportunity to shine scientifically. Mastcam-Z is a pair of zoomable science cameras on Perseverance’s remote sensing mast, or head, that creates high-resolution, color 3D panoramas of the Martian landscape. Also located on the mast, the SuperCam uses a pulsed laser to study the chemistry of rocks and sediment and has its microphone to help scientists better understand the stones’ properties, including their hardness.

The rover chassis is home to three science instruments, as well. The Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) is the first ground-penetrating Radar on the surface of Mars.

Currently attached to Perseverance’s belly, the diminutive Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Project engineers and scientists will now put Perseverance through its paces, testing every instrument, subsystem, and subroutine over the next month or two. Only then will they deploy the helicopter to the surface for the flight test phase. If successful, Ingenuity could add an aerial dimension to exploring the Red Planet in which such helicopters serve as scouts or make deliveries for future astronauts away from their base.

Once Ingenuity’s test flights are complete, the rover’s search for evidence of ancient microbial life will begin in earnest.

“Perseverance is more than a rover, and more than this amazing collection of men and women that built it and got us here,” said John McNamee, project manager of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission at JPL. “It is even more than the 10.9 million people who signed up to be part of our mission. This mission is about what humans can achieve when they persevere. We made it this far. Now, watch us go.”

• More About the Mission

A primary objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology research, including searching for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, a Caltech (California Institute of Technology) division in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology demonstration for NASA.

Source: NASA

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Miss my landing? Catch the highlights below.

Send us your own highlights too. Share your pictures and video using #CountdownToMars. pic.twitter.com/OL2wSAi36e

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 19, 2021

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 3:29 AM | View the original post

---

---

February 16, 2021

World Health Organization lists Oxford coronavirus vaccine for emergency use.

• Oxford/AstraZeneca-developed vaccines to reach countries in the coming weeks.

Photo: World Health Organization experts guide the use of the Oxford vaccine. Image credit: WHO / Oxford University.

Geneva, February 15, 2021 - The World Health Organization (WHO) today listed two versions of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving the green light for these vaccines to be rolled out globally through COVAX. AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India produce these vaccines.

WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) assesses the quality, safety, and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and is a prerequisite for COVAX Facility vaccine supply. It also allows countries to expedite their regulatory approval to import and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

“Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk. It would contribute to the COVAX Facility’s goal of equitable vaccine distribution,” said Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO Assistant-Director General for Access to Medicines and Health Products.

But we must keep up the pressure to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere and facilitate global access. To do that, we need two things - a scale-up of manufacturing capacity and developers’ early submission of their vaccines for WHO review.”

The authorization of the Chadox1-nCoV19 vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca, and the Serum Institute of India (SII), enables global access to the vaccine during the pandemic.

Andrew Pollard, Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity, and Chief Investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial said:

‘At the University of Oxford, we are all so pleased by today’s announcement because the emergency use listing from WHO is a critical piece in the path to global access to the Chadox1-nCoV19 vaccine and our mission for vaccines to protect the vulnerable, whoever they are, and wherever they live.’

Today, 2 versions of the AstraZeneca/Oxford #COVID19 vaccine are listed for emergency use, giving the green light for these vaccines to be rolled out globally through #COVAX. The vaccines are produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio 🇰🇷 & the Serum Institute of 🇮🇳

👉https://t.co/5NHRcpGxhi pic.twitter.com/BvWM1mrH1S

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 15, 2021

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

• World Health Organization experts issue Guidelines on the use of the Oxford Vaccine.

• World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) considers the Oxford coronavirus vaccine safe.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) produced guidelines for the emergency use of the (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford with its partner AstraZeneca.

• The WHO has recommended administering two standard doses of the Oxford Vaccine at an 8 to 12-week interval in people aged 18 years and older. Clinical trials have shown that this dosing regimen is safe and effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalizations from COVID-19 more than 14 days after the second dose.

• The new guidance marks a crucial step towards the Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s goal of providing global access to the vaccine, made available on a not-for-profit basis during the pandemic. This vaccine can be easily transported and stored at domestic fridge temperature (2-8 degrees C). It can be efficiently administered in existing healthcare settings, allowing its rapid deployment worldwide.

• Andrew Pollard, Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity and Chief Investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, said: ‘The new guidance from WHO is an important milestone in extending access to the Oxford-AZ vaccine to all corners of the world. The guidance issued after rigorous scrutiny by the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts provides further endorsement that this vaccine can help protect populations from the coronavirus pandemic.’

• Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology and an Investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, said: ‘It is excellent news that the WHO has recommended using the SARS CoV-2 vaccine first produced in Oxford. This decision paves the way to the more widespread use of the vaccine to protect people against COVID-19 and gain control of the pandemic.’

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

• The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) has issued interim recommendations for using the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (AZD1222).

• Who should be vaccinated first?

While vaccine supplies are limited, it is recommended that priority be given to health workers at high risk of exposure.

Countries can refer to the WHO Prioritization Roadmap and the WHO Values Framework as guidance for prioritizing target groups.

• Who else can take the vaccine?

Vaccination is recommended for persons with comorbidities that have been identified as increasing the risk of severe COVID-19.

Vaccination can be offered to people who have had COVID-19 in the past. But individuals may wish to defer their COVID-19 immunization for up to six months from the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection to allow others who may need the vaccine more urgently to go first.

• Who is the vaccine not recommended for?

People with a history of a severe allergic reaction to any vaccine component should not take it.

The vaccine is not recommended for persons younger than 18 years of age, pending further studies.

• What’s the recommended dosage?

The recommended dosage is two doses given intramuscularly (0.5ml each) with an interval of 8 to 12 weeks.

Additional research is needed to understand potential longer-term protection after a single dose.

• Is it safe?

While this vaccine has yet to be recommended for an Emergency Use Listing by WHO, it has undergone review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Consequently, it meets WHO’s criteria for SAGE consideration.

The EMA has thoroughly assessed the data on the quality, safety, and efficacy of the vaccine and has recommended granting conditional marketing authorization for people aged 18 and above.

The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety is a group of experts that provides an independent and authoritative guide to the WHO on safe vaccine use. It receives and assesses reports of suspected safety events of potentially global impact.

• How efficacious is the vaccine?

The AZD1222 vaccine against COVID-19 has an efficacy of 63.09% against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Longer dose intervals within the 8 to 12 weeks range are associated with greater vaccine efficacy.

• Does it work against new variants?

SAGE has reviewed all available data on the vaccine’s performance in the settings of variants of concern. SAGE currently recommends the use of the AZD1222 vaccine according to the WHO Prioritization Roadmap, even if virus variants are present in a country. Countries should assess the risks and benefits, taking into consideration their epidemiological situation.

• Does it prevent infection and transmission?

No substantive data are available related to the impact of AZD1222 on transmission and viral shedding.

• In the meantime, we must maintain and strengthen public health measures that work: masking, physical distancing, handwashing, respiratory and cough hygiene, avoiding crowds, and ensuring adequate ventilation, the WHO concluded.

Source: University of Oxford / WHO

|GlobalGiants.Com|

— The Editor holds an Oxford Alumni Card.

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 5:39 AM | View the original post

---

---

February 13, 2021

NASA Invites Public to Share Thrill of Mars Perseverance Rover Landing

Photo: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, July 30, 2020, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Perseverance rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky).

Photo: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Wednesday, July 29, 2020, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Perseverance rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky).

Photo: This illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars. Perseverance will land at the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater a little after 3:40 pm EST (12:40 pm PST) on Feb. 18, 2021.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2021 — NASA is inviting the public to participate in virtual activities and events as the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover nears entry, descent, and landing on the Red Planet, with touchdown scheduled for approximately 3:55 pm EST Thursday, Feb. 18.

Live coverage and landing commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will begin at 2:15 pm on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website and the NASA App, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Twitch, Daily Motion, and THETA.TV.

Among the many firsts with this mission is the agency’s first-ever Spanish-language show for a planetary landing. On Thursday, Feb. 18, at 2:30 pm, NASA will air “Juntos perseveramos,” a show that will give viewers an overview of the mission to Mars and highlight the role Hispanic NASA professionals have had in its success.

The rover will plunge through the thin Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph (about 20,000 kph). A parachute and powered descent will slow the rover down to about two mph (3 kph). During what is known as the sky crane maneuver, the descent stage will lower the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels at Jezero Crater.

Perseverance also is carrying a technology experiment - the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter - that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

“If there’s one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Marc Etkind. “But as NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance has an extraordinary engineering pedigree and mission team. We are excited to invite the entire world to share this exciting event with us!”

NASA offers many ways for the public to participate and stay up to date on landing information, mission highlights, and interaction opportunities.

• Watch and Participate Virtually

Connect with like-minded space enthusiasts, receive a NASA Social badge, ask questions, and participate in other virtual activities by signing up for the Perseverance Rover Virtual NASA Social event.

NASA will also provide a virtual guest experience for public members during landing, with notifications about mission updates, curated mission resources, and a virtual passport stamp available after landing.

Stay connected and let people know you’re following the mission on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Join the conversation, ask questions, and get answers online by using #CountdownToMars.

• Follow and tag these accounts:

• Twitter: @NASA, @NASAPersevere, @NASAMars
• Facebook: NASA, NASAPersevere
• Instagram: NASA

At 7 pm EST Tuesday, Feb. 16, a NASA Social live show previewing landing day will stream live via the JPL YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.

You also can follow every step of entry, descent, and landing with this visualization and get a preview of all the excitement with a new video.

• Opportunities for Students, Teachers, Educators

Design, build and land your spacecraft - just like NASA scientists and engineers do. Join NASA’s Mission to Mars Student Challenge, where classrooms, informal education groups, families, and individuals will be able to participate in landing week question-and-answer sessions with mission experts.

A Mars 2020 STEM toolkit also is available, with stories on the students who named Perseverance and Ingenuity, opportunities to code your own Mars exploration games, and more.

Join scientists from NASA at a briefing of the National Academies Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 11:30 am EST. Participants include:

• Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science
• Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division
• Bobby Braun, Mars Sample Return program manager at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
• Matt Wallace, deputy project manager, Mars 2020 at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
• Katie Stack Morgan, Mars 2020 deputy project scientist at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Interactive Experiences

You also can try out a virtual photo booth that allows you to pose next to the Perseverance rover, listen to the differences between sounds on Mars and Earth, and check out other interactive experiences on the mission’s website.

• Send Your Name to Mars, Again!

Perseverance is carrying three dime-sized chips with 11 million names submitted by people all over the world. Anyone who missed the chance to send their name on Perseverance can sign up to send their name on a future Mars mission.

• Lighting Towns Red Around the World

To celebrate Perseverance’s Red Planet landing, the Empire State Building in New York will light its tower red on Tuesday, Feb. 16, starting at sunset until 2 am the following morning. Besides, the Los Angeles International Airport gateway pylons will glow red from sundown on Wednesday, Feb. 17, through sunrise Friday, Feb. 19. Other sites in the United States recognizing the upcoming landing include select buildings along the Chicago skyline, such as the Adler Planetarium. NASA invites cities around the country and world to participate in “lighting the town red.”

Source: NASA

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 12:05 PM | View the original post

---

---

February 8, 2021

AcademicInfluence.com Announces the Top Public Colleges & Universities in the U.S. for 2021

Photo: A redwood tree at the University of California Berkeley Stadium, Berkeley, CA. Image credit: Andrew Aldrich.

FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 8, 2021 — What type of school do three out of four prospective undergraduate students ultimately choose? The answer is the public college or university—a perennially popular pick.

To address the needs of the more than three million incoming college students each fall, AcademicInfluence.com releases its ranking of the leading American public higher education institutions: 50 Best Public Colleges and Universities of 2021.

“Public universities and colleges remain popular because of their high value, balancing academic scholarship with reasonable costs,” said Dr. Jed Macosko, academic director of AcademicInfluence.com and professor of physics at Wake Forest University.

This value can be considerable. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room, and board for full-time, in-state students) at four-year public universities is slightly over $20,000. In contrast, the price to attend a private university averages nearly $43,000 per year.

” However, lower costs and greater accessibility do not mean all public institutions are interchangeable,” adds Macosko. “The schools featured in our ranking stand out, most notably for the global influence of their faculty and alumni and for their excellence in general academics.”

Criteria for the schools in this ranking include:

1. Full accreditation.
2. Direct funding from the state.
3. A minimum student body of 1,000 students.

• The Best Public Colleges and Universities of 2021 — Top 50

1. University of California, Berkeley
2. University of Michigan
3. University of Virginia
4. University of California, Los Angeles
5. United States Military Academy
6. United States Naval Academy
7. University of California, San Diego
8. University of Wisconsin-Madison
9. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
10. William & Mary
11. University of Washington
12. City College of New York (City University of New York)
13. Brooklyn College (City University of New York)
14. The University of Texas at Austin
15. University of California, Santa Barbara
16. University of Iowa
17. University of Pittsburgh
18. University of California, Santa Cruz
19. University of Minnesota
20. University of Maryland
21. Stony Brook University
22. University of Utah
23. Purchase College, State University of New York
24. Purdue University
25. Georgia Institute of Technology
26. The United States Air Force Academy
27. University of California, Davis
28. University of Arizona
29. University of Massachusetts Amherst
30. University of Oregon
31. Virginia Military Institute
32. Evergreen State College
33. University of Buffalo
34. George Mason University
35. University of California, Irvine
36. Hunter College (City University of New York)
37. University of Colorado Denver
38. University of Massachusetts Boston
39. University of Florida
40. University of Missouri
41. University of New Mexico
42. University of Montana
43. Michigan State University
44. University of Tennessee, Knoxville
45. University of California, Riverside
46. Wayne State University
47. North Carolina State University
48. Binghamton University
49. Queens College (City University of New York)
50. The University of Illinois at Chicago

Public colleges are schools that receive most of their funding from tax revenues. As a result, the cost of a 4-year degree at a public university is often lower than the price at a private college, especially for students attending a public school in their state.

Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models — one is a private company with private funding. The state owns the other and receives state and federal funding to operate it. If you’re weighing the pros and cons of private vs. public college, consider that many public colleges provide diverse course offerings, influential professors, and an excellent return on your investment.

Source: AcademicInfluence.com

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 3:30 PM | View the original post

---

---

February 1, 2021

MIT Technology Review Insights Ranking highlights the Countries making the fastest progress to a low-carbon future.

Photo: Greenery. Image credit: Tom Blackwell.

Photo: The MIT Green Future Index Rankings World Map.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 31, 2021 — The Green Future Index, a new study by MIT Technology Review Insights, in association with Citrix, Morgan Stanley, and Salesforce, ranks 76 countries and territories. The nations get ranked on the progress and commitment they are making toward a green future. The index indicates what they are doing to reduce carbon emissions, develop clean energy, innovate in green sectors, and the degree to which governments are implementing effective climate policies.

The MIT Technology Review index shows which countries are progressing fastest in global efforts to decarbonize and limit global heating in line with the Paris Agreement’s goals.

The key findings are as follows:

• Europe will be a future green leader. Europe dominates the top of the index, with 15 European nations in the top 20. Many countries across the region have already made progress with curbing emissions, transitioning energy production to renewable sources, and investing in green mobility. Since covid, the EU has committed more than €200 billion in bold green economy investments, accelerating decarbonization even in the most fossil-fuel dependent states.

• Iceland, Denmark, and Norway top the index. Iceland, in the first place, aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. The country has become a world leader in clean energy and carbon capture technology. Denmark (2nd) is the largest hydrocarbons producer in Europe to stop issuing new oil and gas exploration licenses. Norway (3rd) is also striving to decouple its economy from fossil fuels.

• Costa Rica and New Zealand secure top 10 positions. Costa Rica ranked 7th, and New Zealand, ranked 8th, have made significant strides with renewables and have world-leading agendas for decarbonization across industry and agriculture. Canada (14th), Singapore (16th), and Uruguay (20th), the other non-Europeans in the top 20, have strategies for decarbonization, transitioning energy sources, and government-led initiatives to promote green living. For example, Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan aims to reduce landfill waste by 30% between now and 2030.

• There is uneven progress across the world’s largest economies. The United States (40th) has reduced emissions over recent years and is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world’s green patents. Yet, it is emerging from four years of climate denial and remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels and unsustainable farming practices. China (45th) is responsible for more than one-quarter of global emissions but has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060 and is the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy producer. France (5th), Germany (11th), and Canada (14th) are the highest-ranked countries in the G20.

• The countries at the bottom of the index risk losing competitiveness in the green economy. The laggards include South Africa (47th), Vietnam (49th), and Indonesia (57th), where economic pressures run counter to sustainable development. Japan (60th) aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, although government targets for renewable energy remain modest. The 16 “abstainer” countries at the bottom include petrostates such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, and Russia. The latter’s Energy Strategy 2035 for expanding oil and gas production identified the trend toward carbon neutrality as an existential threat.

“Covid-19 has created a huge momentum for developing green industries and financing infrastructure that will be clean, technologically advanced, and climate-resilient,” says Nico Crepaldi, head of custom content, MIT Technology Review. “In the future, we’re likely to see ‘green’ being synonymous with economic competitiveness.”

• The Green Future Index Country Rankings

1. Iceland
2. Denmark
3. Norway
4. France
5. Ireland
6. Finland
7. Costa Rica
8. New Zealand
9. Belgium
10. Netherlands
11. Germany
12. Sweden
13. Luxembourg
14. Canada
15. Austria
16. Singapore
17. United Kingdom
18. Spain
19. Switzerland
20. Uruguay
21. India
22. Italy
23. Kenya
24. Chile
25. Colombia
26. Morocco
27. Ethiopia
28. Czech Republic
29. Thailand
30. Portugal
31. South Korea
32. Brazil
33. Kazakhstan
34. Poland
35. Australia
36. Mexico
37. Greece
38. Israel
39. Hungary
40. United States
41. Cameroon
42. United Arab Emirates
43. Philippines
44. Bulgaria
45. China
46. Taiwan
47. South Africa
48. Romania
49. Vietnam
50. Slovakia
51. Zambia
52. Angola
53. Nigeria
54. Uganda
55. Dominican Republic
56. Malaysia
57. Indonesia
58. Egypt
59. Argentina
60. Japan
61. Saudi Arabia
62. Ecuador
63. Ukraine
64. Hong Kong
65. Kuwait
66. Peru
67. Pakistan
68. Turkey
69. Bangladesh
70. Guatemala
71. Ghana
72. Algeria
73. Russia
74. Iran
75. Paraguay
76. Qatar

Source: MIT Technology Review Insights

|GlobalGiants.Com|

Edited & Posted by the Editor | 6:49 AM | View the original post

---

---