London's “world-class” universities can replace the military in projecting Britain’s influence overseas and bring long-term economic benefits to the UK, a top London academic said today...Universities could play a vital role in improving Britain’s future by selling their expertise to countries such as China, India, and expanding nations in central Asia and the Gulf.

The Chinese government has set up more than three hundred Confucius Institutes in 100 countries as part of a new push to boost its soft power. The centres are usually set up as a joint initiative among a host foreign university, a Chinese partner university and the Hanban, which runs the programme.

The US Consulate had planned to set up the centre for cultural exchange at the university but scrapped the same after sanctioning a sum of Rs 43 lakh to the OUCIP. “The decision was justified citing the politically charged atmosphere on the campus and the inaccessibility of the campus,” officials at the OU said.

Hundreds of Chinese Students and Faculty filled the auditorium of Tianjin University of Sport for the inauguration ceremony of a unique new center that will share U.S. culture through the medium of sport.

India is taking steps to expand links with Russian universities in an effort to reach out to this country’s younger generation... last week India’s Ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra signed an agreement on establishing a Centre of Indian Studies at the Kazan Federal University that will be headed by an Indian professor.

...Dickinson State College in North Dakota became the most recent university to turn down a Confucius Institute — a cultural outpost of the Chinese government that already has 350 branches on campuses around the world, from Paris Diderot University to Penn State University, and from Argentina to Zimbabwe.

Today, government and private sector leaders gathered at the White House to highlight progress in answering President Obama’s call to use science, technology and innovation to promote global development.

Beginning February 9 in Atlanta, Georgia, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) will host the first of nine 2012 Fulbright Foreign Student Enrichment Seminars. Students will learn about the U.S. political system and the electoral process.