Professor dismissed Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev University has dismissed a professor who had scheduled a lecture on the conflict in Ukraine for his students, on the ground that it was “politically sensitive.” Professor Marcel de Haas, a retired Dutch military officer, alleges that the request to cancel his lecture came from the Russian embassy. Haas has extensive experience on the former Soviet Union's security issues. He said that the move raises serious questions on the country's independence and goes against the freedom of expression.
Fashion destination U.K.'s fashion schools have topped global rankings and become a favourite destination for fashion students, according to a recent survey. U.K. institutions accounted for five of the 10 best B.A. and M.A. programmes in Business of Fashion’s (BoF) inaugural global list of the leading undergraduate and graduate fashion courses. Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, topped the list for undergraduate courses and came second for graduate courses. The Royal College of Art bagged the top position for graduate courses. Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo, took the second spot followed by Kingston University, U.K.
Lack of literacy The World Literacy Foundation (WLF) has revealed that illiteracy will cost the global economy around $1.2 trillion this year. In its report, WLF says that globally, more than 796 million people cannot read and write and perform tasks such as reading a medicine label, balancing a chequebook or filling out a job application. This results in reduced productivity and profitability of businesses, loss of customers due to poor communication, difficulty in finding adequately skilled staff and other such problems.
