Academic speaks out on bias towards English-language in academic publishing

The complaint that "much of the global news is about a small elite: the very rich, athletes, entertainers, royals and politicians" seems particularly topical in light of the soul-searching about the state of journalism as the phone-hacking scandal continues in the UK.

But in this instance, the analysis focuses not on the output of the now-defunct News of the World, or Rupert Murdoch's hold over British politics. Writing on The World View blog (http://bit.ly/nsKt5N), Jorge Balán, a sociologist and international education policy specialist at the Center for Studies of the State and Society in Argentina, decries the way in which developments in global higher education are reported - or not.

Professor Balán argues that there is an unreasonable bias towards work by academics and universities in the English-speaking world that is "reflected in the poor news coverage of the massive volume of teaching and research that is carried out in languages other than English - in continental Europe, in the Arab world, in Asia, Africa and Latin America".

Times Higher Education