29 October - 1 November 2012 - Ningbo, China. This year's event will mark the third anniversary of the International Leadership Conference, which will take place at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. The conference, which takes place annually, has previously welcomed delegates from the UK, Denmark, China, Colombia, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the US and Belgium. The event is designed for senior leaders to discuss and share best practice on important topics around the internationalisation of higher education.
"Attending the first 'International Leadership Conference: Managing Global Universities' in 2010 was of considerable value in developing the internationalisation strategy for the University of Reading. The week was a valuable mix of high-level strategic discussion and knowledge-sharing to gain practical insights from university leaders with experience of building and running campuses overseas.
I would recommend the opportunity to attend to anyone involved in planning and developing their institution's worldwide reach." Professor Steven Mithen, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International and External Engagement at the University of Reading
"...it was a pleasure to join such a stimulating event." Phil Baty, Deputy Editor, Times Higher Education.
"...it was one of the better conferences I have ever been to." Professor Kristiaan Versluys, Director of Education, Ghent University Belgium.
The intensive four day programme is designed for senior managers and leaders from higher education institutions from across the world. It will take place at The University of Nottingham’s campus in Ningbo China, an extremely successful research-led UK university with an excellent reputation for global leadership and management.
Programme overview
During the four day programme a selection of the following will be covered in workshop and seminar sessions:
    * developing university strategy
    * different approaches to internationalisation
    * enterprise
    * effective financial management
    * development and fundraising
    * capital planning
    * building research capacity
    * leadership in an international context
    * quality, ratings and rankings
    * international partnership
    * leading innovation in teaching and learning
    * marketing on the global stage
    * global governance
To register your interest in the conference or for further details, please contact Ilze Skujina at ilze.skujina@nottingham.ac.uk.
See also International Leadership Conference: Managing Global Universities 2011 and International Leadership Conference: Managing Global Universities 2010.

By Reyna Gobel. For anyone outside of the United States considering studying here, start saving early, experts say.
International students wanting to study in the United States have a unique challenge compared to their American counterparts: They have to prove they have the funds to attend college before starting the school year. The fear is that if international students don't have the money to complete their education, says Peggy Blumenthal, the Institute of International Education's (IIE) senior counselor, they won't be able to afford to complete their degree and accomplish their goals.
Since the vast majority of international undergraduate students, according to Blumenthal, pay for their education out of personal and family funds, it's important for families considering a U.S. education to estimate costs and start saving for college as soon as possible.
Here are three tips for estimating college costs and beginning the process of saving for college:
1. Estimate costs to attend U.S. schools: EducationUSA, the U.S. Department of State-supported advising network of advising centers in 170 countries, offers free help to international students to find the school that's the best fit, academically and financially. Students wishing to study in the United States should start by going to the EducationUSA website to find contact information for their local advising center. During their appointment they can get help estimating costs to attend U.S. schools and get information on scholarships and other financial assistance. [See sources of scholarships for international students.]
Students can also find a variety of resources online. They can go directly to university websites to find international student information. CollegeWeekLive offers free online college fairs, collegeboard.org offers information on college pricing, and students can come to usnews.com to read articles on paying for college.
2. Coordinate savings efforts among family members: Students and parents should have a family meeting to discuss what they can afford to save as soon as possible, Blumenthal says. It's important that other relatives that may want to contribute also attend. In India and China, it's not uncommon for grandparents and parents to pool resources, Blumenthal says. No matter how much families can afford to save, says Blumenthal, the most important action is setting a regularly scheduled savings amount as early as possible. For example, $100 per month saved for 10 years adds up to $12,000, not counting any interest earned. Although exact fees vary by country, saving less than $21 per month for one year could pay for TOEFL test fees, a common test for international students seeking admission to U.S. schools. [Get tips on studying for the TOEFL.]
3. Check on availability of tax-advantaged accounts: If a savings or investments account offers a tax benefit such as tax-free earnings on college savings, experts say, that's more money for students to use toward their education. For instance, the U.K. offers Junior ISAs, accounts that parents can open for kids under 16. Junior ISAs can be cash Junior ISAs or contain stocks and shares. Any growth from these savings accounts or investments isn't taxed. According to a spokesperson from Her Majesty's Treasury, the deposit limit is up to £3,600 British pounds (approximately $5,600 as calculated on Aug. 1) per tax year. The funds can be withdrawn tax free for anything, including studying in the United States, starting when the child is 18. All parents are eligible, regardless of income, says Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the Treasury.
Canada's tax-advantaged accounts, known as Registered Education Savings Plans, are specifically for education and can be used at approved U.S. universities. Canadians wanting to find out if a U.S. school qualifies for tax-free distributions can call the Canada Revenue Agency at 800-959-2221. If you don't live in the U.K. or Canada, IIE's Blumenthal suggests asking your EducationUSA adviser if a special savings account option exists in your country. [Read what students should know about studying abroad.]
Reyna Gobel, frequently quoted as an expert on student loans and college costs, is the author of "Graduation Debt: How To Manage Student Loans And Live Your Life" and "How Smart Students Pay for School: The Best Way to Save for College, Get the Right Loans, and Repay Debt." She has appeared on PBS's Nightly Business Report and speaks regularly at CollegeWeekLive.

By Robert Morse. These rankings show how American institutions compare with other institutions of higher learning. U.S.News & World Report is proud to publish its fourth annual version of the World's Best Universities rankings. These new 2011 rankings are based on data from the QS World University Rankings, which were produced in association with QS Quacquarelli Symonds. QS Quacquarelli Symonds, one of the world's leading networks for careers and education, has been publishing international rankings since 2004.
These rankings have obtained increasing influence among academics worldwide and have a growing effect on prospective students and government policymakers. The rankings themselves are the same as QS publishes on its website. The new 2011 rankings once again include the top 400 universities worldwide. New this year are the top 100 Latin American universities and the top 100 Asian university rankings. Also, for the first time, there are global rankings in 24 subject areas:
• Arts and humanities: English language and literature; geography and area studies; history; linguistics; modern languages; and philosophy.
• Engineering and technology: chemical engineering; civil engineering; computer science; electrical engineering; and mechanical, aeronautical, and manufacturing engineering.
• Life sciences: biological sciences; psychology
• Natural sciences: chemistry; earth and marine sciences; environmental sciences; mathematics; metallurgy and materials; and physics and astronomy.
• Social sciences: accounting and finance; economics and econometrics; politics and international studies; sociology; and statistics and operational research. [See the methodologies used in the World's Best rankings.]
The 2011 U.S. News World's Best Universities rankings enable our readers to more fully understand how American institutions are performing when compared with other institutions of higher learning. The bottom line is that U.S.-based universities perform very well: Eighty-five of the Top 400 universities worldwide, or 21 percent, are in the United States. The United Kingdom comes in second place with 43 universities, or 11 percent of the worldwide total. Germany was third with 36 universities, or 9 percent; Australia was fourth with 21 universities, or 5 percent; and France was fifth with 18 schools, or 5 percent.
Canada was in sixth place with 17 universities or 4 percent; Japan came in seventh with 16 universities, or 4 percent; Netherlands finished eighth with 12 universities, or 3 percent; South Korea was in ninth place with 10 schools, or 3 percent; and China and Italy were tied at 10th place with 9 schools, at 2 percent each. These top 11 countries accounted for 69 percent of the top 400, or 276 schools. In total, there are schools from 45 different countries represented in the top 400. [See which U.S. universities performed the best in the World's Best rankings.]
The world is rapidly changing. More students and faculty are eager to explore the higher education options that exist outside their countries. Universities worldwide are competing for the best and brightest students, the most highly recognized research faculty, and coveted research dollars. Countries at all levels of economic development are trying to build world-class universities to serve as economic and academic catalysts. And more universities are seeking world-class status to become players on the global academic stage. In other words, the world of higher education is becoming increasingly "flat."
The major research universities in the United States are aware of these global trends and have been expanding and competing internationally for several years. In fact, American higher education's large research-doctoral-granting university model is now being copied by universities and higher education systems in many other countries. The new World's Best Universities top 400 rankings help put these global trends in context. When U.S. News started publishing Best Colleges rankings more than 25 years ago, no one predicted the influence these lists would acquire as both a consumer tool and a force for accountability in American higher education. What began with little fanfare has spawned college rankings in countries around the world. Global institutional ranking systems like the one we are publishing here are variations on the original idea of our national rankings.
With these variations come differences in methodology. First, none of the data used in the Best Colleges and Best Graduate Schools rankings are used to compute any of the World's Best Universities rankings. As noted earlier, the international rankings are based on the QS World University Rankings, which are produced in association with QS, who does all the data collection and calculations for the rankings. We publish the same World's Best Universities rankings that QS does. Additionally, the methodology used to compute the World's Best Universities rankings is different in most key areas from what we use in the U.S. News Best Colleges and U.S. News Best Graduate Schools. It's true that both the Best Colleges and the World's Best Universities rankings use peer surveys. However, the survey process used to calculate peer assessment and recruiter reviews in the World's Best Universities rankings are conducted very differently.
Because of the limitations and the availability of cross-country comparative data, the world ranking system relies heavily on research performance measured through citations per faculty member. The U.S. News rankings do not use citation analysis. The U.S. News Best Colleges and Best Graduate Schools rankings rely heavily on student and school-specific data—such as scores on admission tests, graduation rates, retention rates, and financial resources—that are not part of World's Best Universities because such student and school-specific data can't be compared internationally.
About our partner: Founded in 1990, today QS Quacquarelli Symonds is the leading information and events company specializing in the higher education sector, worldwide. Through exclusive events, publications, research, and interactive Web tools, QS links undergraduate, graduate, M.B.A., and executive communities around the world with recruiters and education providers. QS's websites include: www.topuniversities.com, www.topgradschool.com, www.topmba.com, and www.qs.com. QS operates globally from offices in London, Paris, New York, Singapore, Stuttgart, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Johannesburg.
If you are interested in detailed methodologies and frequently asked questions about the U.S. News Education rankings, click on the links below. We have provided many in-depth articles that explain how and why we do each of the rankings.
About the Best Colleges Rankings/Methodologies
About the Best Graduate Schools Rankings/Methodologies
About the Best High Schools Rankings/Methodologies
About the Top Online Education Programs Rankings/Methodologies
About the World's Best Universities Rankings/Methodologies.

By William W. Keep. Recently the Board of Visitors—not a particularly apt name given their actions—at the University of Virginia forced the ouster of President Teresa A. Sullivan after two years in office. Since then we have learned that the rector and vice rector of the board, Helen E. Dragas and Mark J. Kington, who has since resigned, have M.B.A.'s from UVa's Darden School of Business. Peter D. Kiernan, a powerful alumnus who evidently weighed in on the decision, is also a Darden graduate and, before he resigned in the midst of the furor, was chairman of the Darden School Foundation Board.
The trio, having made their chops in real estate, construction, and investing, apparently saw an opportunity to transfer their knowledge to higher education. Though colleges can learn many things from the ways businesses operate, treating a college strictly like a business would be a mistake.

By Eric Kelderman. The U.S. secretary of education, Arne Duncan, took states to task on Thursday for cutting spending on higher education, saying state lawmakers were being "penny-wise and pound-foolish," and were undermining their own economic growth.
In a speech at the annual policy meeting of the State Higher Education Executive Officers, Mr. Duncan noted that during the recent economic downturn, only four states have increased what they spend, per-student, on higher education. "Disinvestment is not the strategy that other countries are choosing," he said, comparing the United States' approach to that of China and Singapore.
The result is that tuition has gone up to replace the state dollars, and middle-class families, especially, are being squeezed by college costs, Mr. Duncan said, citing the association's recent annual report, which noted that in 2011 state and local spending on higher education hit a 25-year low. "Higher education should not be a luxury for those who can afford it," he said.
Mr. Duncan was largely preaching to the choir on the need for more state money. Nearly all the attendees at the annual meeting work for state governments that have been hard hit by the recession and continue to struggle financially during the slow recovery.
And while higher education remains a target of state-budget cutters, pressure to raise college-completion rates is driving significant policy changes at the state level, said another of the day's speakers, Jamie P. Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation for Education, which focuses on developing policies to improve graduation rates.
"States really are where the action is," Mr. Merisotis said, noting that more than two-thirds of states have set specific goals for improving completion and graduation rates. Those objectives, he said, are similar to Lumina's goal of having 60 percent of the nation's population earn a college credential by 2025.
'Stackable Credentials'
However, while Mr. Duncan touted the Obama administration's efforts to improve completion rates, particularly with a 50-percent increase in the number of low-income students receiving Pell Grants, Mr. Merisotis called for more substantial changes at both the state and federal levels.
What is needed is a national system for student financial aid, Mr. Merisotis said, a system that would coordinate the efforts of federal and state governments as well as the colleges the students attend.
In addition, he called for overhauling how students are awarded credit, so that it would include more prior learning and other forms of nontraditional learning. "We need stackable credentials that give students credit for learning, no matter where it comes from," he said.
Mr. Merisotis's recommendations present a substantial challenge for state higher-education agencies, which are already struggling to maintain authority, and even relevance, in a fast-changing landscape of higher education.
With the growth in technology, higher education is being democratized, Mr. Merisotis said, and the importance of traditional higher-education institutions is diminishing.
"The capacity for state policy development needs to grow," Mr. Merisotis said. "The onus of responsibility will be on the states."

By Eliana Osborn. If there’s one thing you can count on in academe — or in life — it is that things will change. My campus is in the midst of a lot of personnel changes. I wrote about my direct supervisor leaving, which threw me for a little bit of a loop as an adjunct. As the summer went on, more shifts came to light. Even my department secretary has moved on.
Whether the changes are in your workload, in management or personnel, or there’s been a hiring freeze put in place, we all have to be flexible and roll with the punches. I find it challenging to know where to turn for issues when people and organization charts are in flux. For me, that’s an added stress, especially at the start of a semester.
Some professors simply resist change, burrowing in and rarely leaving their office to avoid dealing with new realities. While I understand the impulse, it isn’t a long-term solution. Others jump on whatever bandwagon is coming through — a push for new paradigms, tossing out traditional grading systems, etc.
How do you keep your head amid the winds of change?

Le principe
Le Ministère chargé de la recherche a confié à l'ANRT la mise en œuvre du dispositif CIFRE. Son objectif est de favoriser le développement de la recherche partenariale publique-privée et de placer les doctorants dans des conditions d'emploi. Il repose sur l'association de quatre acteurs:
L'entreprise recrute en CDI ou CDD (articles D. 1242-3 & 6 du code du travail) un diplômé de niveau M à qui elle confie une mission de recherche stratégique pour son développement socio-économique. Le salaire d'embauche ne peut être inférieur à 23 484 € annuel brut. Les travaux constitueront l'objet de la thèse du salarié-doctorant.
Le laboratoire de recherche académique encadre les travaux du salarié-doctorant, à ce titre ce dernier est inscrit dans l'école doctorale de rattachement du laboratoire.
Arrêté du 7 août 2006 relatif à la formation doctorale.
Le doctorant consacre 100% de son temps (qui peut être partagé entre l'entreprise et le laboratoire académique) à ses travaux de recherche. Il bénéficie d'une double formation académique et professionnelle.
L'ANRT contracte avec l'entreprise une Convention industrielle de formation par la recherche (CIFRE) sur la base de laquelle une subvention est versée à l'entreprise. En 2012, la subvention annuelle est portée à 14 000 € (non assujettie à la TVA).
A cette subvention s'ajoute le crédit d'impôt recherche (CIR), calculé sur la part non subventionnée des coûts complets, et qui permet à l'entreprise de percevoir une somme annuelle d'au moins 10 595 € (cf. la description du calcul numérique dans le document Le crédit d'impôt recherche). Le subventionnement est alors de 50% sur coût complet.
L'entreprise et le laboratoire établissent, au plus tard dans les six mois qui suivent le début de la CIFRE, un contrat de collaboration de recherche qui stipule les conditions de déroulement du partenariat et notamment la méthodologie de recherche, les lieux d'exercice du doctorant, les questions de confidentialité, propriété intellectuelle...
Lire l'extrait du décret N° 80-900 DU 17-11-1980.
Recommandation en matière de confidentialité et propriété intellectuelle appliquée aux contrats CIFRE.
Proposition de trame pour la rédaction du contrat de collaboration.
Un rapport d'activité annuel, signé de l'entreprise, du laboratoire et du doctorant, est remis à l'ANRT.
Télécharger la trame de rapport d'activités.
Les conditions d'attribution
L'entreprise doit être de droit français.
Le candidat est titulaire d'un diplôme de niveau M récent (moins de 3 ans). Le dispositif CIFRE est ouvert à toute nationalité. Il s'agit pour lui d'une première expérience professionnelle de recherche. Pour répondre à l'obligation du candidat de ne pas être embauché par la structure et/ou d'avoir démarré sa formation doctorale depuis plus de 12 mois à la date d'effet de la CIFRE, la demande d'une CIFRE doit intervenir au plus tard 9 mois après la date d'embauche du candidat par la dite structure et la date de première inscription en formation doctorale (délai de rigueur).
Le laboratoire de recherche académique reconnu sera implanté dans une université, une école, un organisme public de recherche. Ce peut être un laboratoire étranger. Dans ce cas, l'implication par une co-tutelle d'un laboratoire français reconnu est nécessaire.
Arrêté du 6 janvier 2005 relatif à la co-tutelle internationale de thèse.
Decree of January 6th 2005 on the international joint supervision of doctoral thesis.
L'instruction
L'instruction se fait tout au long de l'année. La décision est en général communiquée dans les trois mois qui suivent le dépôt d'un dossier complet. La date d'effet de la CIFRE intervient au mieux le 1er du mois suivant la date de communication de l'acceptation, voire ultérieurement selon les places disponibles.
Le Comité d'évaluation et de suivi statue sur la demande de CIFRE au vu de deux expertises:
- Une expertise socio-économique, effectuée par le délégué régional à la recherche et à la technologie (DRRT) de la région de l'entreprise, qui rend compte de la santé financière de l'entreprise, son implication effective, sa capacité à donner une formation « professionnalisante » au candidat.
- Une expertise scientifique qui apprécie l'adéquation et la pertinence du partenariat et de la formation doctorale.
Les critères d'évaluation
- Répondre à une stratégie générale dans l'entreprise: le sujet proposé doit s'intégrer dans une volonté de développement de l'entreprise.
- Donner une formation effective en entreprise: en fin de convention le docteur doit pouvoir justifier d'une réelle expérience professionnelle de recherche.
- Proposer un sujet ouvert sur le monde de l'entreprise: à l'issue de la formation doctorale, le docteur doit pouvoir valoriser ses acquis méthodologiques et scientifiques.
- Fournir un dossier complet: les experts chargés de l'expertise scientifique et de l'expertise socio-économique doivent pouvoir trouver dans les dossiers les éléments nécessaires à l'élaboration de leur avis: documents présentant l'entreprise, CV complet du candidat, sujet de recherche développé (cf. rubrique « Préparer sa CIFRE », présentation de l'équipe de recherche en termes d'encadrement, de résultats et de moyens techniques et scientifiques. Toute demande de compléments d'information stoppe l'instruction et en allonge son délai.
Attention: aucune des données transmises à l'ANRT ne doit avoir de caractère confidentiel.
L'avis de l'expert scientifique est sollicité sur:
- L'intérêt et la qualité scientifique du sujet de recherche ainsi que son intérêt technico-économique.
- L'engagement de l'entreprise vis à vis du candidat et du projet de recherche.
- La cohérence et la pertinence de l'activité de l'entreprise avec le projet de recherche.
- La cohérence et l'adéquation de la formation du candidat avec le projet de recherche.
- La pertinence et la compétence du laboratoire pour encadrer la recherche attendue.
- Son ouverture aux collaborations avec les entreprises.