14 juillet 2013
Measuring Quality and Performance: What Counts?
By Liz Reisberg. There has been a rash of articles in the press about the ways we might measure the effectiveness of a university education, often judging the success of higher education by the employment results of graduates. There have been several articles about the failure of higher education in China to guarantee jobs to graduates. The Voluntary Institutional Metrics Project also emphasizes post-graduate employment among the items (below) to be evaluated that include. Read more...Study Abroad Positively Impacts Personality, Study Says
Students who spend a semester or year abroad show positive changes in their personality, according to a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers at Germany’s Friedrich Schiller University Jena surveyed more than 1,100 students, including 527 who studied abroad and a control group of 607 who did not, on measures associated with the “Big Five” personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and openness). Read more...OECD Finds Strengths, Weaknesses in U.S. Career-Related Education
The U.S. system of providing career-related postsecondary training has both strengths and weaknesses, according to a report released Wednesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. "Extensive decentralization gives rise to many strengths, to diverse and flexible forms of provision meeting the needs of many groups of learners, to a rich field of policy development and innovation, involving state governments and many non-government organizations. The quality of data analysis and academic research available to support policy development is clearly outstanding," the report says. Read more...Cost Estimate Threatens Student Loan Compromise
A tentative deal reached late Wednesday night to tie interest rates on federal student loans to the market seemed ready to collapse late Thursday, after the Congressional Budget Office estimated the compromise's costs at $22 billion over 10 years, The New York Times reported. The proposal worked out in Wednesday's compromise would tie interest rates on subsidized undergraduate Stafford loans to the yield on 10-year Treasury bills plus 1.8 percentage points (with rates for graduate and PLUS loans would be slightly higher), and the rates for all loans would be capped. Read more...CFO Survey Reveals Doubts About Financial Sustainability
By Doug Lederman. Hardly a day goes by without some author or commentator predicting that the end is nigh for higher education, or significant portions of it. Such predictions understandably grate on many administrators and professors. But what do those with the closest eyes on their own institutions' bottom lines -- chief college and university business officers -- think? Turns out they're not particularly upbeat, either -- about their own colleges' futures or the higher education landscape more generally. In a new survey by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup, barely a quarter of campus chief financial officers (27 percent) express strong confidence in the viability of their institution's financial model over five years, and that number drops in half (to 13 percent) when they are asked to look out over a 10-year horizon. Read more...The Gender Lens
ByColleen Flaherty. There’s no shortage of explanations for the so-called crisis in the humanities, and more have come to light since the publication of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' recent “Heart of the Matter” report on the topic. But one higher education blogger’s unconventional explanation – that the humanities drain is more about women’s equality than a devaluation of the humanities – is gaining particular interest from longtime advocates of the humanities, as well as some criticism. Read more...10 truths a PhD supervisor will never tell you
By . There are some important dos and don’ts to bear in mind when choosing someone to oversee your doctoral thesis, advises Tara Brabazon. My father used to tell a joke, over and over again. It was a classic outback Australian, Slim Dusty joke that – like the best dad jokes – I can’t remember. But I do recall the punchline. “Who called the cook a bastard?” To which the answer was, “Who called the bastard a cook?” Read more...Unpaid graduate interns are mostly female, report shows
By . Almost two-thirds of graduates in unpaid internships six months after leaving university are female, according to new research. An analysis by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) found that less than 1 per cent of graduates were taking the controversial placements. Critics have claimed that unpaid internships exclude young people who cannot rely on their families to support them financially during the placement, and so limit social mobility. Read more...Cost-benefit analysis of student visa regime
By . Major study quantifies price of immigration regulation. Some institutions are spending nearly £2,400 a year per international student on navigating an “unnecessarily” expensive visa system, a major report has concluded. The study argues that the sector is paying out around £67 million a year to bring in international students, with the need to constantly adapt to new immigration rules being particularly burdensome. Read more...Why top teacher ignores latest reform directives
By. Rafe Esquith, the most imaginative and productive classroom teacher I know, freely admits he overdoes it. He works long hours, including Saturdays. He leads his fifth graders in mounting several performances of a Shakespeare play each year. He helps former students prepare for college. This summer he gave speeches in China, took former students to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, drove their luggage 700 miles, showed students several John Steinbeck haunts, did an 11 day tour for this new book and took students on a Mississippi steamboat ride. Read more...
