03 mars 2013
Women students dominating in many countries
By Dylan Conger and Mark C Long. After decades of concern that girls were not granted the same opportunities as their male classmates, the attention in the developed world has recently shifted to the relatively poor performance of boys in school. Studies of students in the United States find that girls often receive higher marks from their teachers and have now reached parity and sometimes exceed boys on standardised exams, including those required for entry into higher education. Research also indicates that girls are more likely to graduate from secondary school and to take more rigorous courses while in school than boys. Read more...
Gender attack on universities
By Andrew Denholm. SCOTTISH universities have been accused of Victorian values on gender equality after new figures showed their governing bodies are dominated by men.The attack comes after analysis of the make-up of university ruling Courts shows just 25% of members are female – despite the fact women academics make up more than half the workforce.
The figures for 2011/12, compiled by student body NUS Scotland, also show that none of the current chairs of university Courts are women. Read more...
Affirmative action – A question of merit
By John Aubrey Douglass. Once again, the US Supreme Court is reconsidering nearly four decades of legal precedent – essentially, allowing public universities to use race and ethnicity as one among many factors when considering student admissions. As in previous affirmative actions cases, a Euro-American student filed a lawsuit against a highly selective public university, in this case the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin). The plaintiff, Abigail Noel Fisher, claims overt racial discrimination when UT rejected her freshman application in 2008. Her lawyers filed the case that same year, and it wound its way through lower courts. Read more...
Quantity and quality both key in an era of cutbacks
By William Patrick Leonard. Even with data suggesting a nascent, if uncertain, recovery, the Great Recession of 2008 continues to reverberate across the globe. The tertiary public and non-profit sectors’ primary revenue sources have been eroding in many countries. Decades of tuition increases have been met with increasing resistance from students and their sponsors. With tax and corporate earnings languishing, government support and private giving have lost their predictability.
Forbes and Moody’s recent dire warnings amplify the increasing chorus of commentators’ assessments that the higher education industry’s bubble is nearing the bursting point. Read more...
Debt ratings at U.S. universities to see volatile 2013
Many U.S. universities could face a volatile year in terms of financing in 2013, with a major credit ratings agency saying it expects to issue more ratings changes in the not-for-profit higher education sector this year. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, in a report on Monday, described a sector that was facing both risks and opportunities as institutions strive to reassess programs, delivery systems, cost structures and revenue sources. See more...New law to revamp higher education
The Zambian government has drafted a new higher education law, aimed at revamping and expanding the sector and improving standards, in a country where access to university education remains low.Minister of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education Dr John Phiri presented a Higher Education Bill to parliament last month, following years of demands for reform.
Among other things, the new law will facilitate the formation of a board that will investigate and advise on the affairs of public and private universities, with institutions operating below standards set to face the wrath of the law.
It also seeks to establish at least one public higher education institution in each province, which will mean the creation of seven new institutions. Read more...
Minister acts against Portuguese university interloper
By Jane Marshall. Portugal’s private University Fernando Pessoa, or UFP, is planning to set up a second branch in France – despite a complaint filed last year by French Higher Education Minister Geneviève Fioraso that installation of its first university centre in France was against the law. The UFP’s first branch, the Centre Universitaire Fernando Pessoa, was set up last November at La Garde, near Toulon in the Var, southern France. It offers humanities and social science courses and, more controversially, health studies including dentistry and pharmacology at bachelor, masters and doctoral levels.
The university claims its Portuguese degrees are valid throughout the European Union – including in France which, unlike Portugal, exercises strict selection in health studies with an 85% failure rate at the end of the first year. Read more...
Oxford accused of 'bias' against ethnic minorities because of success of white candidates in getting places on competitive cours
By Sarah Harris. White applicants to some of the most competitive courses are twice as likely to get places.Of British students applying, 25.7% received an offer compared to 17.2% of students from ethnic minorities. MP David Lammy said the figures suggested an 'institutional bias'. Oxford University was yesterday accused of ‘institutional bias’ against ethnic minorities amid striking differences in different racial groups’ entry rates. White applicants to some of the most competitive courses are up to twice as likely to get places even with the same A-level grades, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Overall, of the white, British students applying in 2010 and 2011, 25.7 per cent received an offer to attend the university, compared to 17.2 per cent of students from ethnic minorities. The gaps were most marked in medicine and economics and management but there was statistically no difference in success rates between white and non-white students applying for law. Read more...
Open access publishing takes a step forward
By Alan Osborn. The European Union (EU) appears ready in principle to endorse the European Commission’s proposals for developing open access to scientific information arising from publicly funded research. But officials say there is some way to go before a detailed system can be agreed.Ministers from the 27 member countries, meeting as the EU’s competitiveness council, last week took a first look at the Brussels text and “supported the idea of developing broader and more rapid access to scientific publications in order to help researchers and businesses to build on the findings of publicly funded research”, said the council. Read more...
Concern over ruling on EU student’s right to finance
By Jan Petter Myklebust. The chair of the Danish Rectors' Conference has described a recent European Court of Justice ruling on an international student’s right to financial support as representing a threat to Denmark’s student financial aid system in its current form.The European court ruled on 21 February on the principle of equal treatment as it pertains to eligibility for student grants or loans in Denmark of citizens of other member states who have gainfully obtained employment before initiating studies. The student had entered Denmark as a worker, but soon thereafter became a student and applied for financial support from the Danish Students' Grant and Loan Scheme, or SU. Read more...
