When you're looking for the best institutions for your subject, it's important to consider the standing of not only the institution as a whole, but also the specific department in which you wish to study or research. Although it's a matter of debate what makes the very best academic departments, there are some universally-recognised leaders in each discipline.

Choosing a destination to study abroad in, either for a semester or the entire degree, can be an extremely daunting task. Mainland China is currently home to thousands of international students looking for an international education. Since the 1990s, China has been rapidly expanding its number of universities and higher education programs. This expansion runs parallel to the large economic growth that China continues to experience, making Chinese universities an attractive destination for international students. Thousands of students from around the world are going to China to experience the waking of the ‘sleeping dragon’ and the fast growth of the Chinese markets. All major cities in China have at least one university, and international students are often drawn to these metropolitan hubs.

Summer schools are a great way to learn and network over the holiday time. You can meet fellow students and senior researchers, learn new methodologies or research specific topics, and practice your presentation and debate skills. Plus you get to travel to a new place or even a new country, to enjoy the summertime in a new place. Make the most of your summer by enrolling on a summer school offered by some of the top universities in the world.

Econometrics is something towards which many people have mixed feelings: both fear and respect. If you want to get a degree in economics, however, there is no way you can get away without studying econometrics on some level; and if you want to become a great economist you will have to master it: to build models, run regressions and (hopefully) predict the future. The economics profession has been blamed for failing to predict the global financial crisis, but as econometrics is considered to be one of the core disciplines to help prevent a recurrence in the future, we have collected a number of useful links for online learning and self-improvement in this field.

Although summer is just getting underway in many parts of the world, fall application season is waiting just around the corner. Whether you’re a recent graduate or a professional looking to step back into academia, finding the right PhD program is not always an easy process. For that reason, it’s important to start reviewing your options early. In a post a few months back we highlighted the global Top 20 Political Science Departments, and in this post we’d like to narrow that list to the graduate level while focusing specifically on Europe and the United States.

The United Kingdom has been recognised for years as one of the most popular destinations for postgraduate education. The international reputation of British education, the diversity of culture and the connections to other European countries have made the UK one of the favorite destinations for students.

In a post about the Olympics this past winter, we mentioned research linking the economic development of a country to its chances of taking home a large number medals in the Games. While it might seem reasonable to extend this logic to the World Cup, in-depth econometric and statistical analysis indicates otherwise. So how can we best predict who will come out on top in this year’s World Cup?

The China Economic Review from last month ran an interesting piece by John van Fleet about the 150,000+ Haigui (海归) currently studying in the USA (Haigui, literally “Sea Turtles” is the name given to Chinese students studying abroad). Van Fleet discusses not only the challenges of interaction between international and domestic students, but also the economic impact for both host and origin country.

According to a recent OECD report on studying abroad, in 2012 more than 4.5 million students were enrolled in tertiary education outside their country of citizenship1. Pursuing higher-level education in a foreign country represents a superb opportunity for students not only to expand their knowledge in their discipline of interest but also to gain insight into other cultures, societies and languages. An international graduate has higher prospects in the labor market than a domestic student; moreover, as Michelle Obama mentioned in March 2014, companies have begun to realize the benefit that a study abroad experience can give to their employees: they are able to speak different languages, they have a sensitivity for people and they are more compassionate2.

This week, the UK government has introduced its new scheme for funding postgraduate study, through a loans program for PhDs and research-based masters degrees. The government hopes that this new system will simplify and streamline the process of applying for, receiving, and paying back loans which are taken out in order to fund postgraduate research. This will have major changes on that finances of postgraduate students in the UK, from the time at which the new system is introduced in the 2018-2019 academic year. Here we will review the changes and how they will affect students who are hoping to study at a postgraduate level. There is also another scheme for the funding of taught masters programs which will be covering separately.

If you're an academic looking to extend your career and find the right next position for you, many opportunities are available in Northern America. For postdocs and junior lecturers especially, it's important to be able to relocate to the best lab or department that you can for your work. For many disciplines, some of the world-leading institutions and researchers are based in the US, so many academics choose to spend some time working there in order to gain the best experience possible.