By David Matthews for Times Higher Education. More than ever before, universities are being measured against not only national competitors but also rivals from the rest of the world. There are already a number of well-established global university rankings, which are generally based on research power. Then there is the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes project, a program run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which in a 2012 pilot assessed the critical thinking and reasoning skills of 23,000 undergraduates across 17 countries in an attempt to discover what (if anything) students actually learn at university. Read more...
17 septembre 2013
Governance in the Middle East
Defining Gender Categories
By Colleen Flaherty. Question: How many sociologists does it take to develop a working set of gender categories?
Answer: A lot.
Of all professional organizations, one might expect the American Sociological Association to have generally accepted gender categories on its membership form. But some in the association have accused it of being behind the terminological curve, and coming up with a better set of categories is revealing – to some – a surprising lack of consensus on the matter. Read more...
'If You Want to Be My Student'
By Colleen Flaherty. Like any good graduate adviser, Chris Blattman expects a lot of his students. But just how he’s expressing those expectations has generated a fair amount of discussion at Columbia University, where he is an assistant professor of political science and international and public affairs, as well as some talk outside its walls.
Blattman, who is known for his frank approach to decoding college and graduate school for students on his blog (he once wrote a “how-to” post on e-mailing professors), outlines protocol for would-be advisees in a new post called “If you want to be my student.” Described as “advice on how to manage [me],” it links to a page on Blattman’s website for Ph.D. students. Read more...
A Market Approach
By Colleen Flaherty. Few professors would turn down a raise, but even standard contract pay bumps of 3 or 4 percent can leave long-serving faculty feeling less valued than their newer colleagues. That's because junior faculty often are recruited at similar or even higher salaries fresh out of graduate school, especially those in high-demand fields such as business and medicine. The issue, known as salary compression, compounds over time, and it's not great for morale. Read more...
Constitution Day and Higher Ed
By Christopher B. Nelson. Being a college president and student of history, my thoughts turn to the history of higher education in America whenever we are about to mark an occasion like Constitution Day, which occurs every year on September 17.
The American Revolution inspired a flurry of college-building in the 1780s and 1790s. My own college was formally chartered by the state of Maryland in 1784. This charter was a name-change for an already existing institution: King William's School, a free school founded under British colonial rule in 1696. St. John's College is thus the third-oldest institution of higher learning in the nation. Read more...
More Humanities Ph.D.s
By Scott Jaschik. New doctoral enrollments in the arts and humanities have been been going up very modestly -- an average of 1 percent annually -- for a decade. But data being released today by the Council of Graduate Schoolsshow that in the fall of 2012, arts and humanities doctoral programs saw a 7.7 percent increase -- a surprising jump given the difficulty many new Ph.D.s in those fields have in finding jobs. Read more...
University debt could come under more scrutiny
By John Morgan. Universities’ borrowing could come under more scrutiny with the form and extent of debts being part of risk assessments by England’s funding council.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England yesterday published a consultation on a new financial memorandum – the contract between Hefce and the universities it funds that sets out the conditions institutions must meet to receive grants. More...
Moocs UK will offer escape from ‘The Man’, says Bean
By John Morgan. The UK’s first massive open online course platform will allow students to set their own targets and escape rules set by “The Man”.
That is the view of Open University vice-chancellor Martin Bean, who framed FutureLearn – which launches tomorrow – in the language of 60s counter-cultural rebellion when he spoke today at the Liberal Democrats conference in Glasgow. More...
Entrepreneur starts his version of Harvard, tuition-free
Minerva Schools of KGI doesn't yet have accreditation, a campus or even a full faculty roster, but it is offering something even Harvard can't - four years of free tuition for its first matriculating class.
The San Francisco-based Minerva Project, an ambitious effort to remake the higher education model, announced its tuition plan on Tuesday in hopes of attracting some of the world's most talented and academically competitive students for the class that will enroll in the fall of 2014.
Although many details of the new school are still to be ironed out, students in subsequent years will pay tuition of $10,000 a year along with about $19,000 annually for room and board - still well below the cost of many other top U.S. universities that can run upwards of $50,000 and $60,000 a year. More...
Somaliland: Hargeisa University Partners With Foreign Universities
Hargeisa University, the biggest university in Somaliland, has been partnering with several foreign universities in order to boost the recognition of the university and its diplomas abroad.
Below is an article by the Somaliland Sun:
British, Canadian and African universities have been partnering with the University of Hargeisa, in the Republic of Somaliland, to boost the institution's international credibility and the recognition of its qualifications.
Although international recognition has yet to be conferred on Somaliland since it separated from Somalia in 1991, its largest university – which has 6,500 students and is located in the capital city of Hargeisa – has been seeking foreign partners to supply higher education to Somaliland students.
In early 2013, Hargeisa University signed an agreement with Scotland's Heriot-Watt University, in terms of which the Edinburgh-based university would accept Hargeisa's degrees and diplomas as valid qualifications.
The deal also involved Heriot-Watt helping to invigilate Hargeisa's distance learning examinations, and offering scholarships to Hargeisa students. More...
