19 février 2014

By Jordi Curell. Erasmus+ entered into force on 1 January 2014. It covers the different education sectors ranging from school to adult education as well as youth non-formal learning. As such, the new programme offers more opportunities for higher education to work with partners in the other education and youth sectors. Its budget of €14.7 billion (US$20 billion) plus €1.68 billion for international actions in the area of higher education – referring to actions involving individuals and institutions from non-European Union countries – represents a rise of over 40% compared with the previous programmes. More...

By Ranjit Goswami. In India, it has suddenly become fashionable to talk about the poor global rankings of higher education institutions. In the three widely referred to global university rankings of 2013 – those of Shanghai, QS and Times Higher Education – India had no institution among the top 200. Only one Indian institute figured in the Shanghai ranking’s top 500 and just five were among the top 400 in both the QS and THE rankings. More...

By Lucas Walsh, The Conversation. This time of year sees many academics furiously submitting grant applications to the Discovery Projects scheme of the Australian Research Council, or ARC. While prestigious, they are time-consuming and highly competitive. In the social, behavioural and economic sciences category, only 23.2% of the 714 submissions considered were successful in 2013. More...

By Marguerite J Dennis. Over the past two years hardly a day has passed without an article about massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Critics protested that MOOCs would mean the end of higher education as we knew it. Supporters hailed MOOCs as the saviour of higher education in the future. More...

By John Kirkland. Maybe I am getting old and careless – but sometimes I think that we in higher education worry just a bit too much. This thought struck me again last week, when I read a thoughtful article by Jane Knight in University World News titled “The limits of soft power in higher education”. More...

By Karen MacGregor. Last year President Barack Obama spooked higher education when he announced his intention to hold institutions more accountable for cost, value and quality and called for affordability and outcomes benchmarks – perhaps even a new accreditation system. In his state of the union address last month, ‘accreditation’ was not mentioned but with upcoming reauthorisation of the Higher Education Act, the issue looms large. More...

By Yojana Sharma. Fast growing East Asian economies have rapidly increased the numbers of students attending university in recent years. Now the pool of unemployed graduates is rising to worrying levels in the region generally – and even in some high-growth economies. Of particular concern is whether high graduate unemployment is a temporary blip or reflects a chronic oversupply of graduates, even as many employers say they cannot find people with the right skills. More...

By Dinesh De Alwis. A decision by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Higher Education to allow private universities to offer degrees, including medical qualifications, without seeking the approval of professional bodies has sparked a row with major professional groups. Doctors, lecturers, students, trade unions and bodies including the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, Government Medical Officers’ Association and the Sri Lanka Medical Council, or SLMC, have called on the ministry to withdraw the official gazette notification issued last week. More...

By Michael Gardner. The Institute of International Education in the United States and DAAD – the German Academic Exchange Service – have published a book that looks at the field of international collaborative degree programmes.
Global Perspectives on International Joint and Double Degree Programs was conceived as an orientation for higher education institutions, government agencies and other organisations. It contains essays by 33 experts from six regions across the world. More...

By Gilbert Nganga. Kenya is seeking to have all financers of university education channel their funds through the Higher Education Loans Board, or HELB, in a bid to guarantee the sustainability of the currently faltering student funding mechanism. In a new strategic plan, HELB said this would give the country a sustainable and larger revolving fund that would ensure continuity and availability of loans for students. More...