01 avril 2013
Démographie: la crise et les bébés
L'étude de la Commission (résumée ici et là en intégrale et en pdf) montre que depuis 2009 l'indice de fécondité «a arrêté de progresser pour se stabiliser à un niveau légèrement inférieur à 1,6 enfant par femme dans l’UE-27. L’âge moyen des femmes à l’arrivée du premier enfant continue de reculer et s’établit à 30 ans.» Cet indice était passé de 1,46 à 1,6 entre 2002 et 2008, il descend à 1,57 en 2011. «la crise a eu des répercussions négatives sur la natalité», affirme le résumé de l'étude.
Pour Gilles Pison de l'INED, la baisse de l'indice de fécondité, assez général dans les pays industrialisés depuis 2008 est clairement lié à la crise économique, à la notable exception de la France: «On aurait pu s’attendre à ce que l’incertitude suscitée par la crise économique et la montée du chômage fasse chuter la fécondité. C’est bien ce qui s’est produit dans la plupart des pays développés. Aux États-Unis, par exemple, l’indicateur de fécondité, qui atteignait 2,12 enfants par femme au début de la crise, en 2007, a reculé à 1,89 en 2011 (dernière année disponible). Mais, pour l’instant, la France échappe à ce mouvement général. La baisse de la fécondité est plus tardive en Europe qu’aux États-Unis: elle ne commence pas avant 2009 ou 2010. Elle est presque de même ampleur dans certains pays, comme l’Islande, où le nombre moyen d’enfants par femme a reculé de 2,23 en 2009 à 2,02 en 2011. En comparaison, la baisse de la fécondité en France – de 2,02 en 2010 à 2,00 en 2011 – reste très limitée.» Suite de l'article...
Diese Unis bringen die meisten Milliardäre hervor
Viele Universitäten sind nicht nur berühmt für Forschung und Lehre, sondern auch für ihre Absolventen. Wir zeigen die Top Ten der Milliardärs-Unis. Platz 1: Harvard University - 52 Milliardäre mit 157 Milliarden Euro Gesamtvermögen
Die Harvard University an der amerikanischen Ostküste ist die älteste Universität der USA und wird regelmäßig unter die besten Unis weltweit gewählt. Schon John F. Kennedy studierte in Harvard, genauso wie Bill Gates, Facebook-Gründer Mark Zuckerberg oder die Schauspielerin Natalie Portman. Die Harvard Universität ist besonders bekannt für ihre wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
Platz 2: University of Pennsylvania - 28 Milliardäre mit 86 Milliarden Euro Gesamtvermögen
Die University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia gehört ebenfalls zu den ältesten und renommiertesten Universitäten der USA. Die private Hochschule ist Mitglied in der Association of American Universities und der Ivy League. Pro Jahr investiert die Penn mehr als 800 Millionen Dollar in die Forschung. Sie brachte in den letzten Jahren 28 Milliardäre mit einem Gesamtvermögen von rund 86 Milliarden Euro hervor. Zu den bekanntesten Absolventen gehören Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Donald J. Trump und Martin Luther King. Mehr...
Attracting the Missing Students
By Scott Jaschik. In December, a study revealed that most low-income, high-achieving high school students aren't applying to a single competitive college. Further, the study found that many colleges are searching for these students at a very small number of high schools (magnet schools and the like) -- and in the process are missing lots of other talent. While high-income, high-achieving students tend to apply to the very top colleges, those with equal academic talent but less money are largely bypassing these institutions, and are instead applying to colleges whose students are less prepared academically, and that have lower graduation rates and lesser academic resources. Read more...
'Paying for the Party'
By Allie Grasgreen. If you are a low-income prospective college student hoping a degree will help you move up in the world, you probably should not attend a moderately selective four-year research institution. The cards are stacked against you. That’s the sobering bottom line of Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality(Harvard University Press), a new book based on five years of interview research by Elizabeth A. Armstrong, an associate professor of sociology and organizational studies at the University of Michigan, and Laura T. Hamilton, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California at Merced. Read more...
Comparative Perspectives
By Matt Reed. Next week I’m doing my first accreditation visit. I’ve been on the receiving end of three ten-year visits in my career - you’d think that wouldn’t be mathematically possible, but it is - but this will be my first time on the visiting side. I spent a chunk of this weekend plowing through the self-study, pen in hand. Already, I can see the value in it as a professional development exercise. The college I’m visiting is in a different state than my own, so it has a different set of political variables to manage. It has its own history, its own local quirks, and its own challenges. Yet much of what it’s facing is simply a variation on what nearly everybody in public higher education is facing. And that’s where the professional development value comes in.Unless you make a conscious effort not to, it’s easy for people on a given campus to think that its issues are unique to it. That’s true because most of the time, most people on campus aren’t made privy to, or interested in, comparative perspectives. They’re too busy focusing on their own work - to their credit - and it’s easier just to assume that whenever someone in administration makes some sort of reference to an external force, it’s just cover for a personal agenda. But much of the time, it isn’t. And that becomes really obvious when you look beyond a single campus. Read more...
A Simple Way to Send Poor Kids to Top Colleges
By David Leonhardt. THE packages arrived by mail in October of the students’ senior year of high school. They consisted of brightly colored accordion folders containing about 75 sheets of paper. The sheets were filed with information about colleges: their admissions standards, graduation rates and financial aid policies. The students receiving the packages were mostly high-achieving, low-income students, and they were part of a randomized experiment. The researchers sending the packets were trying to determine whether most poor students did not attend selective colleges because they did not want to, or because they did not understand that they could. The results are now in, and they suggest that basic information can substantially increase the number of low-income students who apply to, attend and graduate from top colleges. Read more...Curious Grade for Teachers: Nearly All Pass
By JENNY ANDERSON. Across the country, education reformers and their allies in both parties have revamped the way teachers are graded, abandoning methods under which nearly everyone was deemed satisfactory, even when students were falling behind. More than half the states now require new teacher evaluation systems and, thanks to a deal announced last week in Albany, New York City will soon have one, too. The changes, already under way in some cities and states, are intended to provide meaningful feedback and, critically, to weed out weak performers. Read more...
Courses in 'Harry Potter' and 'ethical hacking' offered by universities
By Graeme Paton. Students are being given the chance to take a course in Harry Potter as part of a degree at one of Britain’s top universities, it has emerged. Undergraduates can learn about Griffindor and Slytherin – and what they teach about prejudice and intolerance – during the education studies course at Durham, it was revealed. Other modules include Hogwarts and the “commodification of education". The disclosure was made in an analysis by the consumer group Which? into the most “out-of-the-ordinary” degree options in Britain. The Which? University website also highlighted a course in “ethical hacking” at Abertay Dundee, where students will learn about dynamic internet systems and working with gadgets. Read more...Germany sets standard for business outreach, says v-c
By . Universities should seek inspiration from Germany when looking to involve business in their school outreach programmes.That is the view of Mary Stuart, vice-chancellor of the University of Lincoln, who said her institution’s partnership with the German electronics giant Siemens showed how higher education could work with industry to reach children from deprived areas. Speaking on 21 March at a roundtable event in London organised by AccessHE, which coordinates outreach work for higher education institutions in London, Professor Stuart said Siemens, which has a factory in Lincoln, had become closely involved with many aspects of the university’s activities after helping it to open a new engineering school two years ago. Read more...
How to edit your dissertation
By Stella Klein. Does your writing stick to the point? Have you backed up your claims with evidence? And have you made any silly typos?Don't underestimate the time required to review and revise your dissertation. In this third and final part of our series, we look at how to do a good job of editing.
Part 1: How to plan your dissertation.
Part 2: How to write your dissertation.
Review your work as a whole
Keep your outline plan in front of you, and go through your work as a whole. Have you developed a clear argument in response to your central question or dissertation title?
Make sure the content matches the title appropriately – don't be afraid to re-phrase your dissertation topic if you've shifted focus while writing or you want to do so while reviewing. Read more...
