HELSINKI — 

A 25-year-old foreign student has been arrested in Norway on suspicion of espionage, including illegal eavesdropping through various technical devices.

Norway's domestic security agency, known by its acronym PST, told Norwegian media that the man, who was arrested on Friday, was charged in court on Sunday with espionage and intelligence operations against the Nordic country.

The man, whose identity and nationality haven't been disclosed, has pleaded not guilty in initial police questioning. Norwegian authorities haven't said which country the man was allegedly spying for.

"We don't quite know what we're facing. We are in a critical, initial and vulnerable phase of the investigation," PST lawyer Thomas Blom was quoted as saying by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. "He (the suspect) is charged with using technical installations for illegal signal intelligence."

Police have seized from the man a number of data-carrying electronic devices, which the PST is now investigating. The suspect is a student, but he's not enrolled at an educational institution in Norway, and he's been living in Norway for a relatively short time, according to PST.

Citing the arrest order, NRK said the suspect had allegedly been caught conducting illegal signal surveillance in a rental car near the Norwegian prime minister's office and the defense ministry.

According to a court decision, the man has been imprisoned in pretrial custody for four weeks with a ban on receiving letters and visits. Security officials said the suspect wasn't operating alone.

In its previous assessments, PST has singled out neighboring Russia, China and North Korea as state actors that pose a significant intelligence threat to Norway, a nation of 5.4 million.

Life as an international student brings its own set of financial challenges, and unless you are independently wealthy, you'll need a plan to stay afloat while studying abroad.

While different countries have different restrictions, Investor Times has some suggestions to help you make money while going to school. (August 2023)

A 2011 study claimed that information learned from Googling is less valuable because we don’t remember it.

There was academic controversy over the findings, but new follow-up research suggests the “Google Effect” is real. The easier it is to find information, the less likely you are to retain it.

Jill Barshay summarizes the research for The Hechinger Report. (August 2023)

A lot of international students enjoy studying in the United States so much that they want to work there after graduation.

There are different paths and strategies for getting a job in the U.S. after getting a degree.

Liberty Okechukwu from After School Africa explains what you need to know to work in the U.S. when your classes end. (August 2023).

From 2015 to 2022, visa denials for South American students rose sharply (from 10% to 24%), and African students were the most likely to be denied overall. However, demand remains stronger than ever, with the U.S. State Department setting a new record for student visas in 2022.

Emi Tuyetnhi Tran examines the research for NBC. (July 2023)

Ashley Villareal grew up in rural Kansas. Her parents didn’t have college degrees or know much English. Despite her outstanding grades, she seemed unlikely to make it to college – until a college counselor with a similar background stepped in to help.

Read the inspiring story from Nick Fouriezos in USA Today. (July 2023)

If you plan to study medicine in the United States, you need to plan your finances first.

Even schools that don't carry the prestige of universities like Harvard or Stanford will require fees, tuition, books and materials, and you'll need to cover living expenses for the eight years it takes to get an undergraduate and medical degree.

The Education Desk of The Indian Express has some tips for helping students and parents prepare. (August 2023)

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has forbidden the use of “race, sex, color and ethnicity” in admissions, in response to a Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action there and at Harvard.

However, the school will be free for all applicants whose families make less than $80,000. The Associated Press has the story. (July 2023)

All students at Indiana University are required to take a public speaking course. Now, they can practice their oratory in front of a simulated audience using a headset.

The software judges the student’s skills, and the “audience” responds accordingly with boredom or interest.

Ashley Mowreader breaks down the program in Inside Higher Ed. (July 2023)

NEW YORK — 

From $300 studded headboards and $100 coffee table books to custom-made cabinets to disguise your mini-fridge, students are spending big bucks to decorate their dorm rooms, adding yet another layer to the soaring costs of college.

Some are even going so far as to hire interior designers to beautify their 12 feet by 20 feet of space.

Lesley Lachman, 18, planned her furnishings for her dorm room with her roommate immediately after deciding to attend the University of Mississippi back in May. The Rye, New York resident scoured websites like Pinterest and designed her room herself — with hues of pink, purple and green culled from a mix of pricey brands like Essentials with Eden as well as less expensive items from Ikea and Facebook Marketplace. Total cost for the design? About $3,000, covered by her parents.

"There's so much work that had to be done because it felt lackluster. It didn't feel homey," said Lachman, who posted a "before" and "after" video of her room on TikTok.

The "before" video shows stark yellow cinderblock walls, a mustard-colored built-in desk and an open closet. The "after" video shows a complete makeover, with lacey curtains to cover the closet, embroidered pillows and a cushy white headboard to dress up her bed, and customized framed art of hearts.

"I'm so in love with the room," Lachman said after her redesign. "I want to leave the door open and want everyone to stop by and admire it."

Overall, the back-to-college season is big business, with families expected to spend an average of about $1,367 per person, up 14% from a year ago, according to an annual survey conducted this summer by the National Retail Federation and market researcher Prosper Insights & Analytics. Spending on big-ticket items such as electronics and dorm furnishings as well as necessities like food accounted for more than half of the increase, NRF said.

Meanwhile, the total cost of college — including tuition, fees, room and board — almost doubled between 1992 and 2022, rising from an inflation-adjusted average of $14,441 per year to $26,903 across all types of universities, according to National Center for Education Statistics, the statistical branch of the Education Department. Dorm costs saw a similar spike over the same time span, rising from $3,824 to $7,097.

Sara Hunt, 19, a sophomore at New York University from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, wanted her dorm room to look cozy but her budget was $100. That's because she's footing 30% — or nearly $30,000 a year — of NYU's annual college bill. Financial aid picks up the rest.

"I definitely try to work on being positive and not comparing myself to other people because I'm so lucky for what I have. But it is really stressful," said Hunt, who worked more than 60 hours per week last school year and took a job as a pastry chef this summer to help pay for her college expenses.

For her dorm décor, Hunt scoured Goodwill stores, Dollar Tree, T.J. Maxx and Five Below for deals on neon lights, wallpaper decals and bedding. She also rummaged through bins of returned items from major retailers at a discount bazaar in her hometown.

Jamel Donnor, a professor at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, and a leading expert on inequity in education, said the big divide in dorm furnishings marks an "unspoken reality of the have and have nots." He noted that the stark differences in dorm decorating between those who have money and those who don't can make some students wonder if they should even be at their college.

"There's this imposter syndrome," he said.

Dorm supplies e-tailer Dormify is playing to both ends of the budget. For the first time this fall, it's offering various bundles of essentials including a pack of 19 items for $159 that includes bath towels and a comforter for those who are more price-conscious. For the big spenders, Dormify unveiled an interior designer service for $450 with interior decorator Jen Abrams; it plans to roll out the offering with other designers next year.

Amanda Zuckerman, co-founder and president of Dormify, noted TikTok has raised the bar in dorm furnishings, creating "the ability to become TikTok famous or go viral because of how well decorated your room is." Average orders are up 15% this fall, she said.

Dawn Thomas launched an interior design service — After Five Designs — in Jackson, Mississippi 20 years ago for college students after designing dorm rooms for her own children who were going away to school. She said in the past few years, she has seen plenty of other designers now working with students.

Thomas noted parents spend as much as $10,000. One of the more popular items is a custom-made $1,900 cabinet that covers the refrigerator in the dorm.

But she's also noticing parents are starting to hold back on certain items.

"The economy hasn't been that great this year," she said. "And I've noticed the sky is not the limit."

Emma Kirk, who is from Grenada, Mississippi, and a freshman at University of Mississippi, tapped into Thomas's services and bought a gold studded headboard, custom-made pillows and bedspread among other items. She didn't know what the total bill was since her parents paid for it. But she said her parents reined her in whenever she picked out something too expensive.

"(Thomas) would work out something where we could get something similar," she said.

Even on her tight budget, Hunt — the NYU student — says she is happy with her dorm room décor.

"At NYU, so many parents pay for everything. But I'm not here to judge," she said. "The truth is, even if I had all the money in the world, I probably would still decorate my room the way that I have it now."

U.S. colleges often slash thousands of dollars off the "sticker price" to entice students to enroll. The more options a student has, the bigger the discount a college needs to offer. However, the savings have disproportionately gone to white and Asian applicants.

"Put merit in quotation marks," says one admissions official. "It’s not really about rewarding students for their wonderful performance in high school, as much as it is trying to change that student’s enrollment decision."

Read more from Jill Barshay in The Hechinger Report. (July 2023)

A doctoral student from Indonesia studying community well-being at Harvard University hopes to use her research to aid her country.

Fairuziana, who uses a single name, is studying emotion regulation in youth mental health interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Eventually, she'd like to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety in psychosis in youth.

Read the full story at UNews. (July 2023)

Keystone Masterstudies, which specializes in student recruitment, higher education marketing and enrollment management, has a roundup of scholarships for international students seeking a master's degree in the United States.

They include university scholarships, scholarships funded by governmental bodies and external organizations, and major-specific scholarships. Get the full list here. (July 2023)

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled as unconstitutional affirmative action — the practice of giving underrepresented racial groups a leg up in admissions.

Now Wesleyan University, a prestigious liberal arts school in Connecticut, is voluntarily getting rid of legacy admissions, which give an advantage to people whose relatives previously attended the college.

Many schools are now facing lawsuits over legacy admissions, including Harvard. At a few schools, including Cornell and Dartmouth, legacy students outnumber Black students, a survey found.

Kate Perez of USA Today has more. (July 2023)

According to new research from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), 42% of major AI companies in the United States have a founder who came to the U.S. as an international student.

Furthermore, nearly 4 out of 5 of these companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. And of all the graduate students in the U.S. studying AI-related fields, 70% come from another country.

Keeping international students in the U.S. after graduation is “essential for U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence,” the study concludes.

Stuart Anderson, the executive director of NFAP, summarizes his findings in Forbes. (July 2023)