S. African university in “global war for very best academic talent”

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JOHANNESBURG  (AFP) – Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand launched a campaign to attract Africa’s top postgraduate talent Tuesday, intensifying the continent’s battle for brains.
The university — also known as Wits — wants to enrol 1,200 more postgraduate students by 2014, in a drive to tap Africa’s growing education market.

Vice-chancellor Adam Habib said he was ready to engage in a “global war for the very best academic talent.”

“If we are going to be the best, then we have to secure the best scholars and scientists on the planet,” he said in a statement.

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US Jewish group: Hawking "delivered slap" in face of academic freedom

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A US Jewish organization slammed British physicist Stephen Hawking for pulling out of an Israeli conference because of pressure from pro-Palestinian activists.
Hawking "has delivered a slap in the face to academic freedom," the New York-based Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday.
The boycott campaign "relies on an abhorrent and false comparison of Israeli democracy to Apartheid," charged the group, which fights against defamation of Israel and Jews.
Cambridge University, meanwhile, confirmed the academic boycott had prompted Hawking to pull out of the June conference in Jerusalem to be hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

"A letter was sent on Friday to the Israeli president's office from Stephen Hawking regarding his decision not to attend the Presidential Conference, based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott," it said.
 Tim Holt, the head of media relations at Cambridge University, had said a day earlier that poor health was behind Hawking's decision.