Formation Continue du Supérieur

17 février 2013

Stop polarising the MOOCs debate

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By Cathy N Davidson. The academic conversation on MOOCs is starting to polarise in exactly the talking-past-one-another way that so many complex conversations evolve: with very smart points on either side, but not a lot of recognition that the validity of certain key points on one side does not undermine the validity of certain key points on the other. I regret this flattening of online learning into a simple binary of ‘politically and financially motivated greed’ on the one hand and ‘an opportunity to find out more about learning’ on the other. Some of both in different situations can be true. It's always hard to be able to hold two complex and even contradictory ideas in one's mind at once but, well, that's life. Both can be true. And there is so much to be gained from a sustained conversation on every side and from each side's learning from the other, without assuming the other side is being naive or callous in its concerns. Read more...

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17 février 2013

African Students Abroad Returning Home For Fast Career Growth

By Nick Chiles. In order to grow their economies, nations across Africa have long been trying to figure out how to stop the brain drain—the best and the brightest African students going to school in the U.S. and the U.K. and not bringing their talents back to Africa.
But recent studies indicate that the brain drain may finally be coming to an end. Many African students studying abroad are now finding opportunities to use their training back at home. With seven of the world’s ten fastest economies in Africa, young people are noticing that their home may be the place where they have the best chance of quickly establishing a career.
Though Reda Merdi, 19, of Morocco, is heading to the University of Pennsylvania in the fall after finishing up at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, he has no plans to stay in the U.S. when he has completed his Ivy League education. Read more...

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17 février 2013

Increasing the stay rate of international students

By Hans de Wit, Nannette Ripmeester. The knowledge economies of OECD countries require highly skilled people, whom they will lack due to ageing populations and falling interest among young people in sciences and engineering. Immigrants with the requisite skills are needed to fill the gaps.
A recent McKinsey report, The World at Work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people, speaks of a “mismatch between jobs and graduates”. The study claims that, although there are 75 million unemployed young people globally, 39% of employers state that difficulties exist in filling vacancies for skilled labour.
The European Commission, in its recently published Employment and Social Developments in Europe 2012 report, also speaks of a skills mismatch challenge. Countries increasingly understand that the immigration of skilled people is not always effective, and for that reason international students have become an attractive group of prospective skilled immigrants. Read more...

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17 février 2013

Burmese Students Find Hope in University Revival

RANGOON — Burma's universities were once considered by many to be among the best in East Asia. But years of mismanagement and a disastrous nationalization process left the education system in such shambles that many students seek educational opportunities abroad.
Since entering parliament, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has made restoration of Burmese schools a priority, and a new attitude towards learning has emerged among policymakers.
These Burmese students are visiting a United States college fair in Rangoon, in the hopes to attend college there. Recent political reforms that have resulted in the lifting of sanctions against Burma have made this type of event possible for the very first time. Read more...

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17 février 2013

Division over how to account for research expenses

By Keith Nuthall and Carmen Paun. A political struggle is under way over how universities and research centres should account for expenses in the European Union’s (EU) upcoming Horizon 2020 research programme. With a projected €70 billion budget from 2014-20, the sums available are significant.
On the one side is the European Commission, which in the name of simplification wants to use flat-rate grants that give universities the freedom to spend research grants as they see fit, as long as the promised outcome is achieved. And on the other is the European University Association (EUA), which sees value in the old system – used in the outgoing EU Seventh Framework Programme, or FP7 – where project costs are fully accounted for in detail, and recouped through presentation of receipts and spending records. In debates on the shape of Horizon 2020 at the European parliament, the EUA is backing proposed amendments that would allow universities and research centres attracting Horizon 2020 grants to account for spending using the old system. Read more...

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17 février 2013

‘Higher education sector faces leadership crunch’

The higher education sector is facing shortage of capable leaders, says a survey on ‘The Leadership Challenges Faced by the Indian Higher Education System’. According to 92 per cent of respondents, this trend is expected to continue till 2020.
Lack of adequate mentoring, academic leadership, guidance and training (60 per cent), low salary (50 per cent) and the general impression about academics not as a popular career choice, are the reasons cited for the shortage. Education Promotion Society for India — a national body of over 500 higher education institutions in collaboration with a management portal took up the survey. The sample size was 111 respondents which included chancellors, vice chancellors (VCs), deans, principals and other academicians. Read more...

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17 février 2013

North African, Arab nations in open access initiative

By Wagdy Sawahel. Ten North African and 12 Arab countries are to benefit from an initiative called the Open Book Project, which will provide universities with open access to high quality educational materials in Arabic, with a focus on science and technology. The countries in North Africa are Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Somalia and Tunisia.
Despite rapid improvements in digital readiness in Arab states, which include 22 countries with a population of about 350 million – of which 70 million people are between the ages of 15 to 24, representing 19% of the population – adoption of e-books is still at an early stage in universities, as indicated in the 2012 Global Information Technology Report. This is due to several challenging factors facing Arab states including limited internet penetration, challenges of piracy, issues related to the rule of law and censorship, and vast disparities in purchasing power, according to the March 2012 survey, What is the Biggest Obstacle to Arab Digital Publishing?
Internet World Stats has shown that only about 24% of the Arab population – which represents about 5% of the world population – use the internet. Another challenge facing the take-up of e-books in the Arab world is technical issues related to the Arab language, according to a 2012 report Digital Publishing Growth in the Arab World: Slow, but steady. To contribute towards solving problems facing the promotion of e-books in Arab education systems, the Open Book Project was launched by outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on 28 January, just days before she left office. Read more...

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17 février 2013

Incentive pay for universities

Both Gov. John Kasich and Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee have shown leadership in planning for a new era in how state government supports publicly funded higher education, with an eye toward the best interests of all state residents.
Together, with other university presidents from around the state, they have come up with a plan to tie state funding of public colleges and universities to graduation rates, helping ensure that taxpayers and students will get value for their dollars.
Kasich’s college-funding plan, like many of his other decisions regarding taxpayer money, is based on measurable return on investment. The yardstick In this case is graduation rates: Half of a school’s funding is tied to its average graduation rate from the previous three years. Under Kasich’s proposed budget, the overall funding pot for higher education would grow by $33 million, or 1.9 percent. Read more...

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17 février 2013

The aftermath of 14 fallen higher education institutions

By María Elena Hurtado. Ecuador’s higher education sector is on track again after the dramatic 12 April 2012 suspension of 14 higher education institutions that did not meet quality standards set by the government. The contingency plan for displaced students, academics and administrative staff is working well, while the remaining 57 higher education bodies are bracing themselves for a new round of accreditation and internal and external assessments.
Ninety-seven percent of the 41,000 students who applied for the government’s contingency plan were admitted. Those who chose to finish their studies at their institution of origin (under temporary administrators) will be graduating this month. And a general extension of the grace period for student loans, from six to 12 months, has brought relief for 2,413 students from shuttered institutions who owe US$7 million in total. Read more...

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17 février 2013

Research and Erasmus cuts ‘could have been worse’

By Alan Osborn. After all the scare stories of recent months, the budget settlements for the European Union’s (EU) research and innovation policy Horizon 2020 and the Erasmus for All mobility programme for 2014-20 could well have been a great deal worse. Huge cuts had been expected at the hands of the austerity-minded EU heads of state and government but the deal that emerged late last Friday, 8 February, was by no means all bad.
“It’s about 14% below our proposal, which means that around 700,000 people will miss out on an experience abroad under the Erasmus for All programme in 2014-20 compared with the commission's proposal,” said Dennis Abbott, the European Commission’s education spokesperson. Read more...

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