The organisers of the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) are looking for a university to host the 11th EQAF, which is scheduled to take place in November 2016. We would like to invite EUA member universities that match the criteria to consider hosting the event. More...
Ukraine has signed an agreement with the EU that will allow it to participate in Horizon 2020, giving the country’s researchers, innovators and businesses the chance to benefit from the EU’s €80 billion research programme.
The Agreement for the Association of Ukraine to Horizon 2020, signed by Carlos Moedas at a ceremony in Kiev last month, will see the country renew its membership of the EU research community. More...
By Courtney Sloane (NTEU National Office). onight’s ABC Four Corners report, Degrees of Deception, together with last week’s NSW ICAC report, Learning the Hard Way, highlight the inherent risks of leaving higher education to the free market, according to the National Tertiary Education Union.By Courtney Sloane (NTEU National Office). The NTEU WA Division is extremely concerned at the announcement that the University of Western Australia has committed resources “in kind” to the establishment of the Australian Consensus Centre to join the $4m in funding provided by the Federal Government. This Centre, to be associated with and use the methodology of Dr. Bjorn Lomborg from Denmark (who is widely known for promoting a climate contrarian view), has not been funded via the competitive funding process. More...By Courtney Sloane (NTEU National Office). The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is hosting a forum tomorrow night that will explore the impacts of deregulating the Australian higher education sector, and alternative visions for reform.By Jen T. Kwok (NTEU National Office). After its original publication in the Chronicle of Higher Education, this piece was recently republished on Professor John Quiggin's blog. We thank him for the opportunity to share it further.
In preparation for the IAU Global Meeting of Associations 6, this issue - IAU Horizons, 21, 1 - offers reports on IAU priority areas, new projects and initiatives, especially LGEU, and upcoming events and conferences.
By Gilles Breton. Universities, Citizenship and Democracy
When listening to what is being said and reading what is being published, one comes to wonder if universities can be considered in terms other than, for example, the merchandizing (marketization) of higher education, the international rankings – 500 of 17,000 need we recall -, the contribution of universities to economic activity and to competitiveness, tuition fees and underfunding. If this type of discourse, with an economic and financial consonance, is hegemonic, fortunately, it is not unique. This is what rapidly comes to mind after reading the book entitled Reimagining Democratic Societies: a new era of personal and social responsibility.* Finally a puff of fresh air! Finally a work which demonstrates that if universities can obviously be considered as key economic players in the knowledge economy and in training the labour force, they can also contribute to the renovation and even the re-imagining of democracy in our societies. Download IAU Horizons, 21, 1.
In preparation for the IAU Global Meeting of Associations 6, this issue - IAU Horizons, 21, 1 - offers reports on IAU priority areas, new projects and initiatives, especially LGEU, and upcoming events and conferences.
By Catherine A. Odora Hoppers. Rethinking Social Innovations in Practice- the Case of the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Development Education
Since its inception, higher education in sub-Saharan Africa has made significant strides, but also faced major challenges in particular in knowledge production paradigms, and developing methodologies to rethink thinking itself. To some, the solution to the crisis lies in Africanisation as part of a radical visioning of the university. To others, the solution is in reform of existing institutions. The Chair combines both theories and takes it further. It sees beyond the regulatory rules, to the social, legal and ethical innovative reforms of the constitutive rules governing the university as offering the best way out of the current crisis. Download IAU Horizons, 21, 1.
In preparation for the IAU Global Meeting of Associations 6, this issue - IAU Horizons, 21, 1 - offers reports on IAU priority areas, new projects and initiatives, especially LGEU, and upcoming events and conferences.
By Bernard Hugonnier. For social and corporate excellence
A large number of educational establishments now have the ambition to be part of the higher education institutions, which are recognized as ”excellent” in their country and the world. But what does this mean? For example, is it a question of recruiting the best professors and of selecting the best students? of offering the best courses? of developing the best research? of obtaining the best results in exams? of better preparing students to quickly get a job after graduation? or of facilitating the success of the largest number?
For the time being, we increasingly witness the development of a kind of ‘elitist excellence’ consisting in:
1. For the students: a strong selection at the entry, a highlevel competition between them, important personal work, a very dynamic system aiming at assessing knowledge, strict monitoring of attendance, a strong participation of the students during courses, a certain international mobility (often an academic year spent abroad).
2. For the professors-researchers: a selection of the ‘best’ on the basis of their research work or of their professional functions, an important obligation to publish, a fixedterm contract with an obligation of show ‘results’ (usually translated in terms of number of publications), a strong competition between them, an external evaluation based on bibliometrics and scientometrics. Download IAU Horizons, 21, 1.
In preparation for the IAU Global Meeting of Associations 6, this issue - IAU Horizons, 21, 1 - offers reports on IAU priority areas, new projects and initiatives, especially LGEU, and upcoming events and conferences.
By Juan-Luis Klein. For a perspective of social innovation focused on transformation: towards knowledge that changes the world
Pondering on social transformation through social innovation means thinking about how experiments, which take place in civil society, in agencies, sometimes marginally, result in the transformation of society. It is a reflection on the practices of citizens and organizations working for the wellbeing of communities by experimenting with solutions to problems, which have not been resolved by the existing institutional structure, and, in some cases, caused by the existing institutional structure. Are these practices confined only to the provision of a timely solution to the problems experienced by the communities or do they fall within broader, more comprehensive processes that transform society. Download IAU Horizons, 21, 1.
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