The Europa World of Learning is your annual guide to the organizations and institutions currently active in higher education and learning, on a truly international scale. Users will find detailed information for every type of institution, from libraries and universities to learned societies, museums and arty galleries. The new 62nd edition has been given the Europa treatment and is fully revised and updated for 2012; there are nearly 2,000 brand new entries and over 4,500 updated ones.

Every type of academic institution is covered, including over:

• 7,800 universities and colleges
• 5,800 research institutes
• 3,400 museums and art galleries
• 5,000 learned societies
• 3,600 libraries and archives
• 850 regulatory and representative bodies
• 26,000 publications.

World of Learning boasts detailed entries for all the established beacons of higher education, including the University of Cambridge, Columbia, The University of Paris 06 and Stanford. At the same time, users will find details for more obscure institutions in the developing world. For example, did you know that Honduras has a fantastic archaeological museum in the Comayagua Valley? Or that there is a Vietnamese Association of Historians active in Hanoi?

Users of World of Learning 2012 will benefit from:

• contact details (physical mailing address, email addresses, phone numbers etc.) for each entry where relevant
• guaranteed accuracy of information; entries are sourced from the organizations themselves
• a breakdown of current staff by faculty and colleges for large institutions
• easy-to-use format, with separate chapters for each country and distinct sections organised by type of institution
• an introductory survey per country, giving general background to the education system and recent changes over the last twelve months.

This highly acclaimed resource includes separate chapters for every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, each with an introductory survey giving details of the country's higher education system. There is a separate section detailing more than 600 international organizations concerned with higher education and scholarship, such as UNESCO, the International Association of Universities and ERASMUS.

New Essays for 2012

Each year the editors of World of Learning bring on board leading commentators on higher education to examine some of the recent phenomena that have been impacting learning over the last twelve months. For the 2012 edition, we are delighted to announce five new introductory essays, which look at topical issues ranging from social media in higher education to academic integrity in the digital age. Here is a brief overview of our new specially-commissioned essays:

Social Media in Higher Education by Neil Selwyn, social scientist at the Institute of Education, University of London

Paying for Higher Education: the Global Shift Towards Privatization by Dr. Gill Wyness, Research Officer at the Centre for Economic Performance within the London School of Economics

Academic Integrity in the Digital Age: Are Standards Changing, or On the Decline? by Teddi Fishman, Director at the International Center for Academic Integrity, South Carolina, USA

Is Education Getting Lost in University Mergers? by Helena Aittola, Jani Ursin and Jussi Välimaa at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and Dr Charles Henderson, University of Michigan, USA

Progress and Challenges to the Recognition and Reward of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education by Denise Chalmers, Director of the Centre for Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Australia

Also available online. The online version of The Europa World of Learning builds on the success of the printed version by providing a full range of sophisticated search and browse functions, and regular content updates: www.worldoflearning.com