Avec la mise ne place de la nouvelle habilitation ministérielle 2012-2017, le Master de Négociation Internationale et Interculturelle, 5e du Classement SMBG des Meilleurs Masters, MS et MBA en Management International ouvre un parcours « intelligence interculturelle ». Dans ce cadre, deux conférences seront organisées:
Jeudi 25 octobre 2012 :
Intervenants :
• Claude COMBE, Chargé de Mission Régional à l’Intelligence Economique DIRECCTE PACA Ministères de Bercy,
• Laurence LECERF, DZRI Ministère de l’intérieur,
• Benoît TAIEB, DZRI Ministère de l’intérieur.
Thèmes des interventions :
• La PPIE (Politique Publique d’Intelligence Economique) Aspects historiques et conceptuels, dispositifs interministériels, ministériels régionaux,
• La répartition des missions des services (IE offensive et défensive),
• Les points de vigilances et de sensibilisation vis-à-vis des entreprises et des labos.
Lundi 19 novembre 2012 :
Intervenant :
• Mathieu Guidère, Professeur des Universités et Directeur de recherches à l'Université de Toulouse 2 (Islamologie et pensée arabe).
Thème de l’intervention :
• La veille stratégique multilingue : de l'analyse à l'anticipation
Cette intervention sera suivie d’une Table Ronde animée par Michel Dolinski du département d'études asiatiques.

With the rigging of the new empowerment Ministerial 2012-2017, the Master of International and Intercultural Negotiation , 5th SMBG Ranking of the Best Masters, MS and MBA in International Management opens a path "intercultural understanding".
In this context, two conferences will be held:
Thursday, October 25, 2012:
Speakers:
• Claude COMBE, Chargé de Mission in the Regional Intelligence DIRECCTE PACA Ministries Bercy
• Laurence LECERF, DZRI Ministry of the Interior,
• Benoît TAIEB, DZRI Ministry of the Interior. More...

University staff, students and communities share the duty of making overseas students feel safe, says Elizabeth Shepherd.

Students and their parents have always been concerned about safety while studying overseas. These concerns are shaped by information and experiences gained from many sources that accumulate across the international student journey. But being safe in an overseas study environment is not a one-dimensional issue, as new research by the British Council's education intelligence unit. Safety cannot be created by informing or changing one element of the international student experience – a holistic approach involving all participants is needed.
What is striking about findings from our research is the rise of safety as an influencing factor on students' choice of where to study overseas. A country being a safe place to study is currently the fifth most important influencing factor, according to our Student Insight survey, which has collected over 160,000 responses from students around the world since 2007. This compares with its ranking as the 17th most important factor out of a possible 19 in 2007. The UK was recently voted as the safest place to live while studying overseas, as part of an online opinion poll of over 800 students from more than 80 countries, conducted by Education Intelligence via The Student Room online forum. The most important factor in this verdict was the UK's rich cultural mix, followed by its lack of gun culture and good healthcare system.

By Harriet Swain. Distance learning is increasingly popular and one of the reasons is the growing number of free courses being offered online.
Daniel Conn left school at 18 and started work as an administrator for Mercedes-Benz near his home in Brighton. He soon wished he hadn't spurned the idea of going to university and began investigating Open University (OU) courses, but he never quite found the courage to apply. Then he discovered the OU's OpenLearn website, which offers 650 Open University study units free online. After working his way through four in computing and maths (and doing an online Harvard University course on the side) he thought he might as well get a qualification. Now approaching 30, he is studying for a part-time OU degree in computing, which he hopes to finish in 2015.

"The OpenLearn materials give you the gist of what the course is about and whether you can do it," he says. "It definitely gave me a lot of confidence."
The OU is not the only university that has started offering courses free online. Over the past couple of years increasing numbers of universities across Europe and the US have set up web-based resources known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). These MOOCs make recorded lectures, course materials and academic discussion forums freely available to anyone who wants to use them. Jonathan Kydd, dean of the University of London International Programmes, which last month began offering free courses in psychology, computer programming and law through the US online education provider Coursera, says the involvement of top-rated institutions such as Stanford and Harvard has made this kind of free distance learning particularly appealing.
"You are going to inspire students because they are going to get [access to] a high proportion of people who are household names and who are both great researchers and great teachers," he says.
Universities use free courses not only as a shop window for the other courses they offer, but also as a way of sharing good practice with other institutions, experimenting with new technology and of seeing what does and doesn't work in distance education, Kydd says. This is important because the availability of higher bandwidths and progress in developing effective systems of online assessment, combined with increasing demand, means that paid-for distance learning is also booming. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the number of distance learning students registered at UK institutions grew from 238,800 in 2006/07, to 271,445 in 2010/11.
Tony Hopwood, chief assessor for the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council, says the increase is particularly marked in the university sector, which is now competing with dedicated distance learning organisations. Gráinne Conole, professor of learning innovation at the University of Leicester, says this is out of necessity. "We know worldwide that bricks and mortar universities don't have the capacity to deal with the number of students there are going to be in future, particularly in places like India and China, so online learning has to be the way to go."
The University of Derby is one institution to recognise this, setting up a separate department to focus on online distance learning students with academic systems and tutors dedicated to their specific needs. Joy Rickard, who is studying for an undergraduate certificate in educational psychology at Derby from her home near Bath, says she feels the benefits. For her, distance learning means the flexibility to look after her two young children and work part-time in a school while studying alongside a global student cohort.
"I have met some people online who are doing fascinating things all over the world, which wouldn't have happened if I was attending in person," she says.
Certainly online learning deepens the pool of potential students. Kydd says London University's International Programmes distance learning model, which allows students to take courses over time and pay incrementally, makes it affordable for students from Africa who would otherwise never be able to take a degree. And the University of Leicester is about to launch an MSc in security, conflict and international development, designed to meet the needs of international development workers deployed in post-conflict countries, who would normally find study impossible. Because access to the internet can be tricky in such countries, the students receive an iPad on which they download the course app and related ebooks, all accessible without an internet connection. They can then download other materials when they find a Wi-Fi connection.
Campus life
New courses run by Plymouth University are similarly designed for hard-to-reach students. The university is offering undergraduate and postgraduate diplomas, and master's-level programmes in hydrography for students working on oil rigs and survey vessels, sometimes thousands of miles from the nearest university. But what about missing out on campus life? Rickard, who studied graphic design at the University of Wales, Newport before having children, says she feels she has "done" student life and is now more interested in developing a career. Conn, who has just started a full-time job as a technology developer off the back of his studies, says his local OU student union and online forums keep him happy.
"You don't feel like you're on your own," he says. "The only thing I'm missing is living in a rundown squat for a couple of years and leaving with masses of debt."