octobre 2012

By Andrew Marszal, Education Digital Editor. Two different university world rankings showed wildly variable results for UK universities – so which one should we trust?
Things looked rosy for Cambridge last month. Yes, the university may have lost pole position in the world university rankings to nerd’s paradise MIT. But in taking second place, three slots clear of its great rival Oxford and two ahead of UCL, it reaffirmed its status as the UK’s leading light in higher education.
 Or did it? Today’s world rankings paint a different picture. Cambridge only manages seventh place, while Oxford clambers up to joint-second. UCL is a mere 17th. And what of MIT? Much lauded for its apparently peerless technological research last month, it now gazes up longingly at first-placed California Institute of Technology.
The obvious reason for these discrepancies is the use of different ranking systems. Today’s Times Higher Education tables are a different beast to last month’s QS World University Rankings. Although nominally answering the same question, they don’t share a methodology, a data set or indeed a winner.
Rather than argue over which is right, UK universities should perhaps just be glad that the widely respected Shanghai Ranking is less well-known on these shores – none of our universities come close to ending Harvard’s 10 years at the top of that list.
So, where can prospective students turn for answers? The simple truth is that there is no such thing as a definitive table. But in fact the wildly differing outcomes of these tables make them more, not less, useful. The key is in knowing how to interpret them. More...

By Elizabeth Gibney. Losses for UK and US as Eastern excellence drives start to bear fruit. Elizabeth Gibney reports.
Outside the elite Golden Triangle of Oxbridge and London, the relative performance of the UK's research-intensive universities is slipping, analysis of the 2012-13 Times Higher Education World University Rankings shows.
Despite UK institutions on average improving scores across most criteria, a surge in performance elsewhere has seen UK universities in the top 200 slip by an average of 6.7 places.
Meanwhile, the US continues to dominate the rankings. Its universities claimed 76 places in the top 200, although 51 lost ground.
Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, said the rankings show that its institutions continue to punch above their weight but that the UK cannot afford to take the path of the US, where cuts in state investment have seriously weakened some public universities.
"The UK cannot afford to be outmanoeuvred by other countries that clearly recognise that investment in their leading universities is the key to growth," she said.
Asian universities, especially in the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and China, performed particularly well in the rankings, published on 3 October, rising by an average of almost 12 places.
In the UK, although the University of Oxford rose two places to joint second and Imperial College London and University College London held on to their places at eighth and 17th respectively, several other research-intensive institutions slipped.
Notable among those dropping down the table are the University of Bristol, falling eight places to 74th, and the University of St Andrews, sliding 23 places to 108th. The University of Leeds fell nine places to joint 142nd, and the University of Sheffield slipped nine places to joint 110th. More...

The Globalization of Higher Education: Payment Trends, Challenges, and Solutions. Wednesday, November 14, 2012, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
Education has become a global industry, unimpeded by the constraints of geographical borders, time zones, or currencies. However, with all the new opportunities that globalization has offered, there have also been increased challenges and risks. Listen to this 45-minute webinar by Western Union® Business Solutions to learn how your institution can capitalize on these opportunities, while also helping improve business processes and potentially protecting itself against unnecessary risk.
International students represent an increasingly important source of revenue for educational institutions, but traditional payment methods can make handling incoming international fees complicated and expensive. During this webinar, we intend to demonstrate how our online payment solution streamlines the incoming payments process, and potentially helps improve an institution’s cash flow, while reducing administrative costs.
Another challenge for educational institutions is sending payments to overseas vendors, professors on sabbaticals, or students going on exchange. This process can be complicated and expensive, and fluctuations in foreign currencies, particularly exotics, can result in unpredictable losses. We intend to demonstrate the best practices for institutions looking to make payments in exotic currencies, as well as to highly regulated countries like China and India.
In order to illustrate the above points, Eric Gillespie, Finance Operations Manager from St. Andrews University, and Nancy Majerek, Treasury Manager from Notre Dame will provide case study examples of how their institutions were able to leverage the dedicated team of sales and product specialists at Western Union Business Solutions to improve their incoming payment solutions in order to enhance the experience for both their students and back office staff. They will also address how working with Western Union for their outgoing payments helped their Accounting Department budget more effectively and improve vendor relationships. As your university globalizes, learn about how our exciting products and services can help take the hassle out of international payments.

Dans le contexte de préparation du contrat de génération, une circulaire interministérielle vient préciser les modalités transitoires pour les branches et entreprises qui auraient dû conclure dans les prochains mois de nouveaux accords en faveur de l’emploi des seniors.
Cette circulaire précise que les entreprises couvertes à la date du 4 septembre 2012 par un accord de branche ou d’entreprise, ou par un plan d’action, sont considérées avoir rempli leurs obligations jusqu’à la date limite de négociation des accords « contrats de génération » qui sera fixée par les dispositions de la future loi.
En conséquence, ces entreprises et branches n’auront pas de pénalité à déclarer et à verser dans cette période et n’auront pas à renégocier d’accords pour une période limitée. Elles pourront dès lors se consacrer pleinement à la préparation de leurs futurs accords « contrats de génération ».
Afin d’inciter les entreprises à mettre en place des accords en faveur de l’emploi des salariés âgés, la loi de financement de la sécurité sociale pour 2009 avait fixé, pour les entreprises employant au moins 50 salariés, une pénalité de % des rémunérations ou gains versés aux travailleurs salariés ou assimilés lorsqu’elles n’étaient pas couvertes par un accord ou un plan d’action.
Le document d’orientation adressé le 4 septembre 2012 aux partenaires sociaux pour les inviter à négocier sur le contrat de génération, indique que ce dernier a vocation à se substituer aux « accords seniors. »
Voir aussi Emploi des seniors - dispositions transitoires avant l'entrée en vigueur du contrat de génération.

By Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser. We’ve been treated to a rash of stories about how new technological models for higher education raise questions about the viability of the traditional campus. After all, why invest in an elaborate physical plant when virtual education can effectively expand your reach exponentially?
This is of particular interest for global education and multinational universities, as the expense and difficulty of establishing foreign educational outposts may make virtual options seem even more attractive. At this point, though, it’s hard to see how massive open online courses, or MOOC’s, can be the silver bullet to developing globally engaged students or institutions.
To be clear and to set aside a straw-man argument, we don’t believe that MOOC’s were established with global engagement in mind. These entities are mostly about access.
However, they have become popular in overseas markets (for example, 61.5 percent of Coursera’s enrollments come from outside the United States). This development has led some to view MOOC’s as a possible alternative to other forms of global expansion, and to question the relevance of colleges’ establishing physical presences overseas. More...

By Angela Chen. Mo Li, a Chinese post­doctoral fellow at the University of Mich­i­gan at Ann Arbor, wrote to a Yale University philosophy professor last year with a strange re­quest. Mr. Li had never met the professor, Shelly Kagan, nor had he ever at­tend­ed Yale.
But while working on a doctorate in developmental biology at the Chi­nese Academy of Sciences, in Bei­jing, Mr. Li and his girlfriend had watched free online lec­tures of Mr. Ka­gan's philosophy course "Death" in the summer of 2010. They liked the course—and the professor—so much that when the two decided to marry, Mr. Li asked Mr. Ka­gan to surprise his future wife with "a sen­tence or two of con­grat­u­la­tions on our mar­riage." Mr. Ka­gan did, and Mr. Li and his wife were de­light­ed to hear from the pro­fes­sor whose open courses have made him a star in a coun­try he has nev­er vis­it­ed.
As more and more courses are offered free to anyone with an Internet connection, some American professors have developed a huge following abroad, particularly in China. Another such scholar is Mi­chael J. San­del, a Harvard University professor whose highly popular po­lit­i­cal-phi­los­o­phy course "Justice" was the first Harvard course to be offered free online. More...