As the economy continues to look bleak, even the world’s best universities are not spared from financial headache.

Harvard, which was recently ranked as the world’s best university in the THES-QS ranking 2009, has announced its plan to cut spending and taking steps to revise their spending budget.

According to Harvard President, Drew Faust, the steps are being taken as the economic slowdown may have an adverse affect on its federal grants entitlement and the endowment for the school.

An analyst by Moody’s, a financial research and rating firm, projected a decline in Harvard’s endowment and funding by 30% for the current fiscal year.

Darthmouth College, which is home to America’s top business school, the Tuck Business School has also taken measures to implement cost cutting strategies after losing some $200 million in endowment. Another institution, Cornell University, was forced to stop its construction project and has to make a stop from hiring faculty staff members until the first quarter of 2009.

It wasn’t indicated if the financial burden will reduce the universities power in attracting the best students in the world, but the effect is anticipated to be felt within the next 6 months to a year.

The unemployment in UK (United Kingdom) has hit a new, dangerous high after surging into an 11-year high and bringing the total unemployment figure to 1.82 million.

The country’s job market slips into another low today after its homegrown telecommunication company, BT (formerly British Telecom) announced that the company is ready to cut as many as 10,000 jobs within this month and December.

Most of the BT staff to be laid off are contract workers, offshore staff and those outsourced with agencies and third parties. Subcontractors and other indirect employees will also become casualties as the company plan to reduce its 160,000 strong employees by 6%.

The announcement came in the wake of a reported 11 percent fall in its pre-tax profits for the first 6 months period this year while analysts, in the same tone, are advising the people to expect more bad news.

For the past 3 days, Britons watch in horror as 15,000 people employed in the company lost their jobs after a number of established companies, particularly Virgin Media, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Psion and Yell laid off their staff in an effort to stay afloat and avoid a collapse. Another respectable telecommunication company, Vodafone, which employs 10,000 workers in Britain is highly anticipated to follow suit in a very near future.

As it sent shock wave throughout the nation, the immediate result was seen on the country’s unemployment rate, which resulted more and more people signing up for unemployment benefits.

Motorola Penang once again brushed off the pertinent question about its future in Malaysia after launching a new technology lab in Multimedia University (MMU) inside the latter’s campus in Cyberjaya last week.

Called the Wireless Broadband Technology Lab, the infrastructure is set up with the objective to providing a conducive and comfortable wireless network facility to MMU students, capitalizing on the latest WiMax operability.

Both indoor and outdoor premises will benefit from the wireless technology.

Motorola is also hoping to be able to transfer the knowledge and technology developed by their engineering team to the students and faculty members of MMU. The lab will be equipped with state-of-the-art wireless broadband equipment including access points and customer premises equipment (CPE) that will expose the users with an advanced wireless technology and enable them to discover new applications as well as developing new software.

According to the Managing Director of Motorola Penang, Yew Tian Tek, MMU was chosen since the two have been working in collaboration for more than 10 years, as well as the institution’s competency in providing innovative technology and groundbreaking research.

General Motors (GM) operation in the United Kingdom is edging closer to a financial collapse, as its share price slumped to a 65-year low yesterday and the company’s management admitting that the company may be running out of money by the end of the year.

A prominent automotive analyst from the Deutsche Bank, Rod Lache, even went to the extend of placing a zero price target on GM’s share, while a number of others predict that a Lehman Brothers’ fate is beckoning for the car manufacturer.

In mid September, Lehman Brothers, once a mighty financial investment firm, filed for bankruptcy protection, ending its rich history spanning more 160 years.  5,000 of Lehman’s employees in the United Kingdom lost their job overnight.

Fortune ranked GM as the fourth largest company in 2008 by revenue in America behind Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil and Chevron but a further look into the company financial saw that the company is facing a cancerous financial predicament, with a reported loss close to $40 billion. Last week, US’ outgoing President, George Bush met with the President-elect Barack Obama to discuss ways to rescue GM, together with a host of other ailing American industry players.

GM worldwide operation has already slashed a few thousand jobs since the past few months, in an effort to uphold its survival quest.