By Jan Petter Myklebust. In a memorandum sent to higher education institutions for comment, Sweden’s Ministry of Education has proposed legislation that would grant universities and colleges legal autonomy from the government – by institutions becoming private foundations. Universities have endorsed the need for change, but responses to the legislation have been lukewarm. The legal amendments, outlined in the extensive 136-page memo Høgskolestiftelser, reflect an ideological step towards ‘privatisation’ by conservative Prime Minister John Reinfeldt’s governing alliance. More...26 septembre 2013
Greater autonomy for universities as foundations
By Jan Petter Myklebust. In a memorandum sent to higher education institutions for comment, Sweden’s Ministry of Education has proposed legislation that would grant universities and colleges legal autonomy from the government – by institutions becoming private foundations. Universities have endorsed the need for change, but responses to the legislation have been lukewarm. The legal amendments, outlined in the extensive 136-page memo Høgskolestiftelser, reflect an ideological step towards ‘privatisation’ by conservative Prime Minister John Reinfeldt’s governing alliance. More...Top universities embrace MOOCs, but opinion is divided
By Karen MacGregor. Elite universities, especially in America, are engaging enthusiastically in massive open online courses, or MOOCs. “They see opportunities for brand enhancement, pedagogic experimentation, recruitment and business model innovation,” says a review of MOOCs published by the UK government last week. But there are conflicting strands of opinion that are dividing the higher education community. Read more...MOOCs make waves in higher education worldwide
By Karen MacGregor. The development of MOOCs – massive open online courses – outside the ‘Anglo-centric hothouse’ of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia is “characterised by strong involvement with professional needs, wide experimentation and enthusiastic engagement in all significant geographies”, according to a British government review. An annex to the main report published last week, The Maturing of the MOOC – Literature review of massive open online courses and other forms of online distance learning, finds that opinions on the role of MOOCs in development have polarised. Read more...
Research chemist launches Vietnam’s first MOOCs site
By Hiep Pham. A new Vietnamese-language massive open online courses – MOOCs – system was launched last month, offering free online education that juxtaposes short teaching videos with longer courses from international MOOCs giants edX and Coursera. Research scientist and entrepreneur Dr Giap van Duong, founder of the new MOOC GiapSchool, left his research position at the National University of Singapore in December to return to Vietnam and devote himself full-time to building the new open education channel. More...
Students to earn credits for MOOCs after passing exams
By Peta Lee. In what is seen as a breakthrough for students, Europe’s MOOCs platform iversity is working with two universities in Germany to award academic credit to students who pass an on-campus exam after taking a massive open online course.The University of Osnabrück and the Lübeck University of Applied Sciences, or FH Lübeck, will be the first to take the step, in a collaboration with iversity, awarding successful students ECTS – European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System – credits for MOOCs. Read more...
UK MOOCs platform, FutureLearn, launches first courses
The Open University’s FutureLearn, the UK’s first partnership platform for MOOCs – massive open online courses – last week began offering access to what it describes as “free, high quality courses” from some of its 20 university partners.The website went live as a beta test, which will run until early next year, FutureLearn announced.
Learners will be able to sign up for courses, and their feedback will be captured to tailor ongoing development of the website. More...
‘Free investment zones’ to attract foreign campuses
By Dinesh De Alwis. Sri Lanka is planning to set up ‘free investment zones’ for education, which will offer land and tax breaks to foreign investors. The aim is to attract international universities and build the country into a higher education hub in Asia.In January last year Sri Lanka's Ministry of Higher Education had to withdraw a proposed private universities bill due to escalating resistance from students and lecturers. To circumvent such opposition, the government decided to attract foreign universities into ‘free investment zones’ under Board of Investment projects. More...
Funding boost for universities, industry collaboration
By Michael Gardner. Austria’s federal government is providing extra support for collaborative projects between publicly funded universities, other higher education institutions and industry, with a €63 million (US$85 million) package. Out of 218 project proposals submitted, 61 have now been approved.“The new collaborative schemes are going to strengthen both the universities involved and their wide range of partners,” said Higher Education Minister Karlheinz Töchterle of the Austrian People’s Party, which is in a coalition government with the Social Democrats. More...
Interest in study abroad grows among independent school students
By David Jobbins. More UK independent school sixth formers are seeking out university courses abroad, according to headteachers of the UK’s leading independent schools.A survey commissioned by Maastricht University in The Netherlands found that nine out of 10 heads of schools belonging to the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference who responded said that over the past two years their sixth-form students had become more interested in applying to universities overseas. More...
World Bank fellowships for PhD students from Africa
By Wachira Kigotho. The World Bank has launched a PhD fellowship scheme for students of African descent – especially for women, who are heavily under-represented in terms of access to quality higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa.According to Sean McGrath, vice president for human resources at World Bank headquarters in Washington, the fellowship programme represents an opportunity for young African scholars to conduct research and build careers in development. More...
