Three New York prison inmates have defeated Harvard University's debate team which had won national title only months ago. The debate was part of the Bard Prison Initiative, a programme run by Bard College to provide college education to qualifying prisoners. The inmates from the Eastern New York Correctional Facility had a face-off against three undergraduate students from the Harvard College Debating Union on the topic “Public schools in the United States should have the ability to deny enrolment to undocumented students.” The prison debate team was declared victorious by a panel of judges for successfully arguing against the statement.
World university rankingsThe United States, Japan and Korea have slid down in the latest world university rankings by the Times Higher Education. However, U.K. and German institutes have climbed up the table. Europe now has 365 universities featured in the global top 800. U.S. has 63 universities in the top 200, down from 74 last year. California Institute of Technology, U.S.; University of Oxford, U.K. and Stanford University, U.S., bagged the first, second and third spots respectively.
Simplifying admission processA coalition of public and private colleges and universities has come together in an attempt to improve the college admission application process for students. The coalition of 80 colleges, which includes private universities such as Harvard and Stanford and public counterparts such as the University of Virginia and Ohio State University, will be working to create a website which would be a one-stop destination for students to send their applications, request advice from college admissions offices and create digital portfolios. The aim of the coalition is to increase transparency around admissions and financial aid.
