New information released by SARB

The press release by the Registrar of Banks regarding the 2007 Annual Report of the Bank Supervision was released yesterday.

Highlights of the report involve five key messages:

1. Financial-sector regulators and market commentators are again, as in previous years, questioning the appropriateness of banking institutions’ incentive schemes.
2. The turmoil caused by the sub-prime mortgage market was a major development in financial markets during 2007. The Department requested a selection of South African banks to provide detailed reports on their exposure to the prevailing risks. The findings were that South African banks were not impacted directly, but indirect effects were observable.
3. The Department, in close co-operation with the Financial Intelligence Centre, continued to monitor banking institutions’ compliance with anti-money laundering and the combating of the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) legislation. Furthermore, the Department prepared for the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering’s (FATF) planned mutual evaluation of South Africa in 2008.
4. The process followed in implementing Basel II was a major exercise undertaken over several years. Prior to taking the decision to implement Basel II, the Department considered a range of preconditions that would facilitate the process. This process was characterised by its broad consultative approach; several quantitative impact studies and field tests; amendments to the regulatory and supervisory frameworks; and regular interaction with all South African banking institutions, since Basel II was to be implemented by all banks on 1 January 2008.
5. In 2007 regulatory approval was granted for the acquisition of a material shareholding in one of South Africa’s largest banking groups namely, Standard Bank Group Limited (the SBG), a bank controlling company, by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
   

Other releases include:

1. Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
2. International economic data
3. Money and banking
4. Banks and mutual banks
5. Capital market
6. Economic indicators (seasonally adjusted)

Book Exhibition at APB/SWC

You are cordially invited to the 2008 Faculty of Management and Faculty of Economic & Financial Sciences Book Exhibition organised by the Library and Information Centre to be held on the Bunting Road and Soweto Campuses. The exhibition, which will offer a wide range of new publications in your specific academic field from various book suppliers, will provide you with an exciting opportunity to select and browse through new books to fill gaps and to develop your subject collection.

Date: 20 August APB
Venue: APB Library
Enquires: Goitsemang Ncongwane (Exhibition arrangements and order cards)
goitsemangn@uj.ac.za .
Tel.: X1381
Mpho Maroo
(Ordering and invoicing details)
mmaroo@uj.ac.za. Tel.: X2180

Date: 21 August SWC
Venue: Conference Hall foyer
Enquires: Fikiswa Mgengo (Exhibition arrangements and order cards)
fikiswam@uj.ac.za.
Tel.: X5668
Mpho Maroo (Ordering and invoicing details)
mmaroo@uj.ac.za.
Tel.: X2180

If your departmental funds have been depleted a written motivation to request additional funding should be sent to the respective Dean. (Most of the APK departments have spent large (80%+) parts of their budgets)

Spotlight on China

With the 2008 Olympics looming, the global eye has turned on China economically, sociologically and politically. Wiley-Blackwell would like to present a selection of key articles (please remember to check on the A-Z list if we have the journal the article was published in) from their premier list of Business and Management journals, with a spotlight on China and Chinese Authors.

Here are a few:

• Collective Consultation and Industrial Relations in China Simon Clarke, Chang-Hee Lee, Qi Li(British Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 42, Issue 2)
• Acquisitions of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises by Multinational Corporations: Driving Forces, Barriers and Implications for HRM Fang Lee Cooke(British Journal of Management, Volume 17, Supplement 1)
• Corporate Governance in China?Is Economic Growth Potential Hindered by Guanxi? Udo C. Braendle, Tanja Gasser, Juergen Noll (Business and Society Review, Volume 110, Issue 4)
• Going Public with Good Governance: evidence from China Larry Li, Tony Naughton(Corporate Governance, Volume 15, Issue 6)
• Managing Risk in a Transitional Environment: An Exploratory Study of Control and Incentive Mechanisms of Venture Capital Firms in China Justin Tan, Wei Zhang, Jun Xia(Journal of Small Business Management, Volume 46, Issue 2)

New Releases from Wiley

Wiley has just released their July the Corporate Finance, Accounting and Auditing catalogue which includes their new titles in:

• financial reporting
• corporate finance
• valuation
• M&A
• management accounting
• risk and corporate governance
• corporate governance, financial regulation and compliance
• auditing

Here is a screen shot of the Table of Contents (click on it to make it bigger):

Research Skills needed in 2008

ELearn had an interesting interview with Jane John, past president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals and founder of On Point Research, tells on how online instructors and students can be more successful at finding information online.

What are the skills one uses to do research?
The top skills needed to conduct good research are an ability to think broadly in order to frame the research goals, and an awareness of the many information sources, both free and paid, that might match those goals. The skills used by independent information professionals—people making a business by doing research for hire—are marketing and business skills, not only the basic research and information skills.

What research skills do you believe students need to be successful?
Probably the most critical research skill for students to develop is the ability to evaluate the information they find online. There is so much information available that a student can retrieve doing a basic keyword search on a Web browser or in a library catalog. But while some of it is highly accurate and high quality, other information can be incorrect, partial, or old.


If it is statistical data, does it come from a reputable publisher or organization? Is it from the original source, or has it just been repeated and "passed off" as new? Are the views and opinions expressed in a report balanced—or does the writing present just one side of an issue? How recent is the information? As students go deeper into researching a topic, they also need to cultivate the skill of also seeing the big picture-synthesizing disparate trends or data, bringing in observations from other fields.

What research skills to you believe teachers need to be successful?
I tell my business clients to spend as much time on framing their question as they do on seeking the answer. (this is so true, the clearer you are in your mind on what you need, the easier it is for me to help you. svdw) Before jumping on the Web and punching keywords into Google or Yahoo, think carefully about why you want to find certain information, who else has a reason to want the same answers, and what you will do with the information you find.
Do you need historical information, the current state of affairs, or forecasts for the future? Do you need a scientific approach or a persuasive political view? How accurate does the information need to be? Is a major business decision or the ability to patent a new process dependent on the answer, or will a general idea be adequate?

How PC are you?

According to a study The Social and Political Views of American Professors,” released in 2007 51.2% of Economics professors at US universities are politically incorrect, Accounting is slightly better with 40% of their professors not toeing the PC line, but Finance is the worst with a whopping 34.3% of professors surveyed being un-PC.
2,958 professors were surveyed regarding a wide range of social and political attitudes and views of the university, as well as a full complement of sociodemographic questions.

Here is what Inside Higher Ed had to say:

"The new study was produced by Solon Simmons, co-author of last year’s report and an assistant professor of conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason.

The first thing that Simmons does in the study with the database — which covers a range of disciplines and institution types — is to identify a politically correct cohort, reflecting largely common views on a set of issues that are seen as defining political correctness. He finds a set of issues that produce this cohort.

The views are the belief that gender gaps in math and science fields are largely due to discrimination; support for affirmative action; and belief that discrimination is a key cause of racial inequities in American society. Generally, members of this cohort see race and gender as fundamental — and share that belief much more than beliefs about the curriculum or scholarship, such that the study says that “multiculturalism trumps postmodernism.”In an interview, Simmons acknowledged that many people use “politically correct” to imply more than just shared political beliefs, but also an intolerance of other views.

He said that his definition did not attempt to group people together beyond their shared political beliefs.Then Simmons analyzes disciplines, and finds sharp differences — largely consistent with previous studies about disciplines and political leanings. Humanities and social science fields tend to have higher politically correct rankings, while professional and science disciplines do not."

Download a song, download a textbook?

Students in the USA are getting fed up with the high prices of college/university textbooks. Their Gen Y solution?

Scan the textbook and make it available to everyone freely on The Pirate Bay (a websites which distributes unlicensed copies of copyrighted material) . Students call it liberation - publishers (and others) call it stealing. For more on the story click here .

University news from Africa

AFRICA: New initiative to boost science Three networks of universities in sub-Saharan Africa have been named as the first to benefit from a new partnership initiative to build scientific capacity in Africa. The Regional Initiative in Science and Education, RISE, will provide grants - each worth $800,000 - over two-and-a-half years to the three networks which are based in South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania but also involve universities in eight African countries.

ALGERIA: More universities, more freshers, fewer teachers As Algeria completes a five-year university expansion plan, more than half the candidates who took the baccalauréat this summer passed the examination which entitles them to a place in higher education.

BURKINA FASO: Student hardship after housing closed Students in Ouagadougou faced severe hardship following sudden eviction from their halls of residence and closure of canteens at the end of June, reported L'Observateur Paalga and Le Pays of Ouagadougou. Dangers to which they were exposed included criminal attack, disease, hunger, rain and being forced into prostitution.

CÔTE D'IVOIRE: Bouaké teachers work to rule Teachers at the University of Bouaké have gone ahead with their decision to work to rule, and are demanding back payments owed to them since 2006-07 before they will resume extra teaching duties, reported Notre Voie of Abidjan (see "Academics feeling the pinch" , University World News, 6 July 2008).

SENEGAL: Minister promises university increased funds Moustapha Sourang, the new Minister for Higher Education, visited the University of Ziguinchor this month with promises of substantially increased funding - but found himself greeted by the boos of protesting students, according to several sources. Meanwhile, three of Dakar's higher education institutions have signed an agreement to harmonise research and develop teacher exchanges.

University news from the West

Here is a quick snapshot of university news from around the US, UK and Europe:



THE PROFS THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'
Will the retirement of aging baby boomers usher in an era of moderate politics on campus?
ALREADY GONE
Sick of mediocre students and feeling stuck on the job, a professor turns to music to self-medicate.
WE'RE NOT YOUR NEW COLLEAGUES
Why adjunct faculty members don't feel they are part of their academic departments.
UNDISCIPLINED
The trend of teaching masters of Western thought, like Freud, Hegel, and Marx, outside their home disciplines represents a flight from history, writes Russell Jacoby.
STUDENTS UNDER WATCH
Online-education institutions are trying new technologies to ensure that the people enrolled in their courses are the ones doing the work.
BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE
In online education, students and professors can lose important connections to each other, writes Suzanne M. Kelly.
WHAT THEY'RE READING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES:
A list of the best-selling books.
SHIFTING SANDS IN THE MIDDLE EAST Two campuses in the United Arab Emirates, one successful and one not, offer examples and warnings to American institutions on setting up branches abroad.


I can help you change your life
No, not the claim of many a self-help guru, but increasingly the mantra of modern academics. Matthew Reisz finds out why they are dipping their toes in the genre, despite its lack of scholarly kudos
After the gold rush
Ireland's economic boom brought equally impressive growth in higher education enrolment. But in a chillier fiscal climate, what awaits the Celtic Tiger's universities? Hannah Fearn reports
Wondrousgames of logic
Mathematician Robin Wilson's enthusiasm for Lewis Carroll stems from a shared delight in the brain-teasing and magical world of numbers. Matthew Reisz reports


GLOBAL: Future of higher education research /Diane Spencer
Higher education around the world has expanded massively in recent decades so that its character and performance have significant implications for all members of society, not only economically but for social cohesion, equity, mobility and integration, says a new report by the European Science Foundation . The report says more needs to be known about how universities and other higher education institutions are changing in the 21st century. It says that expansion of the sector has implications locally, nationally and globally, as well as how it shapes the lives of individual citizens.
EUROPE: Higher education's global role / Alan Osborn
As a demonstration of how the top higher education people from across the world can meet, debate, agree and disagree without ever losing sight of their common goals as academic leaders, you would find it hard to better the four-yearly conference of the UNESCO-based International Association of Universities .
EUROPE: First Mediterranean university launched / Keith Nuthall
A new Euro-Mediterranean University based in Slovenia has been launched with higher education courses that will focus on issues of importance to European, African and Levantine countries bordering the sea. Creation of the new institution was part of a joint declaration issued by heads of state and government from 43 countries at a Paris summit establishing a Mediterranean Union organisation.
EUROPE: Raising education standards / Alan Osborn
The 27 EU member states will have to speed up their educational progress if they are to meet a range of self-imposed targets deemed necessary if the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs is to be successful by 2010. A report by the European Commission* acknowledges that progress has been made in five key areas (though not in low achievement in reading) and that long-term reform processes have been launched. "Although progress towards... targets is slow, it is mostly going in the right direction," said Ján Figel, Commissioner for Education. "But much work still needs to be done," he warned
EUROPE: Forum calls for easier technology transfer/ Rebecca Warden
Europe must get serious about technology transfer. This was one of the conclusions of From the lab to the market, a special programme looking for ways to bridge the gap between industry and academia at the EuroScience Open Forum in Barcelona from 18 to 22 July (www.esof2008.org). Researchers, heads of university technology transfer offices and R&D managers from industry discussed what changes universities needed to make to ease the pathway from the laboratory to the marketplace.
FRANCE: More super-campuses announced / Jane Marshall
Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research, has announced the four remaining locations for Operation Campus - a plan aimed at making French universities internationally competitive through substantially increased funding for a selected few. While Paris was conspicuously absent among the first six projects chosen at the end of May, three of the four new campuses will be situated in the capital or the surrounding Ile-de-France region. But a decision has been postponed on which of two inner Paris proposals will go ahead.
FRANCE: Big budget increases - and big job cuts / Jane Marshall
Academics and researchers reacted with alarm to an announcement by French Higher Education and Research Minister Valérie Pécresse that their institutions faced significant losses of tenured posts next year. They accused the government of endangering French research by replacing permanent jobs with short-term contracts, and of striking "heavy blows" against scientific employment.
AUSTRALIA: International quality assurance / David Woodhouse
As universities around the world internationalise their curricula and their research links, or offer courses abroad or enrol foreign students, these activities should be subject to internal quality assurance. By the same token, external quality assurance agencies must be able to assess the nature and effect of these internal processes. This is the "QA of internationalisation".