By Jonathan Senchyne. Last week, Nicholas Kristof revived the old canard that academics have removed themselves from the public sphere through obscure prose and interests. Among the problems we might identify in Kristof’s essay -- there are, obviously, many -- is the irony of a writer with the resources of The New York Times supporting him chiding the rest of us for not writing in outlets such as The New York Times. Read more...02 mars 2014
Disrupting the Higher Ed Content Cycle
By Jonathan Senchyne. Last week, Nicholas Kristof revived the old canard that academics have removed themselves from the public sphere through obscure prose and interests. Among the problems we might identify in Kristof’s essay -- there are, obviously, many -- is the irony of a writer with the resources of The New York Times supporting him chiding the rest of us for not writing in outlets such as The New York Times. Read more...Customer Mentality
By Nate Kreuter. When I was a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, the university built a posh outdoor swimming pool next to the campus’s main recreational facility. But it wasn’t a lap pool or an Olympic-style pool. It wasn’t built primarily for exercise. It was a lounging pool, with serpentine borders, tons of deck chairs, shady palms, and a snack bar. It looked in every way like something that you might see at a fancy resort, minus the booze. That pool, built purely for the purposes of coeducational sunning and fraternizing, represents an investment that UT-Austin made into the social experiences of students, arguably a distant remove from the university’s academic mission. Read more...My Yellowing Notes, My Class and Me
By Bernard Fryshman. Why do they come? Thirty-seven smiling young faces in a classroom look up at me, oozing confidence that I will teach them successfully and help them pass the course. I confide in them: the course should really have 24 students for an optimum presentation. Nobody moves. And the smiles stay fixed. Read more...Prison U.
By Ry Rivard. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to bring professors back into prisons 20 years after Congress and one of his predecessors cut funding for inmate higher education. Congress and the Clinton administration ended Pell Grant funding for prisoners in 1994, effectively cutting off funds for most college education in prisons. New York followed suit a year later and made sure its inmates couldn’t get funding from the state’s Tuition Assistance Program either. Read more...Switzerland downgraded by EU on research involvement
By . Move follows referendum decision to restrict immigration. Swiss-based researchers will no longer be able to apply for European Research Council grants following its referendum decision to restrict immigration from other EU member states, the European Commission has confirmed. Following the 9 February referendum, Switzerland declined to sign a protocol extending free movement to Croatians. The EU responded by breaking off negotiations on the country’s participation as an “associate member” of Horizon 2020 and the Erasmus+ student exchange programme. Read more...
Teachers and lecturers ‘do most unpaid overtime’
By . Teaching professionals who work unpaid overtime put in an extra 12 hours a week on average – the highest of any profession, a new study claims. According to data from the Labour Force Survey 2013 obtained by the Trade Unions Congress, 54 per cent of teaching and education professionals in schools, colleges and universities do extra unpaid work each week, more than any other group of employees. Read more...
Student visa collapse for India and Pakistan continues
By . But overall net migration still shoots up following influx from EU. The latest migration figures indicate another sharp drop in students from the Indian subcontinent coming to the UK, although the overall number of student visas issued has increased. Study visas issued to Pakistani students were down 55 per cent in the year to December 2013, and down 21 per cent for Indians. In January it emerged that the number of international students studying in the UK in 2012-13 had fallen for the first recorded time, with a 25 per cent drop in first-year Indian students. These latest figures, released today by the Office of National Statistics, suggest that this collapse has continued into the 2013-14 academic year. Read more...University donations could trigger visas for investors, suggests committee
By . Wealthy foreigners could gain visas and an accelerated route to British citizenship by donating large sums to universities, a new report suggests. Recommendations for the reform of the Tier 1 visa route for investors have been released today by the government’s migration advisors.
The Migration Advisory Committee suggests that around 100 “premium route” visas, offering a route to citizenship in two years rather than the normal five, should be auctioned off to the highest bidder each year. Read more...
V-c turns down pay hike and donates consultancy cash
By . Move comes as unions continue to fight below-inflation pay offer. The vice-chancellor of Durham University has rejected a discretionary pay rise this academic year and will instead receive the 1 per cent increase being offered to rank and file staff, it has emerged. Chris Higgins has also donated the £80,000 he has earned in consultancy fees during his tenure as vice-chancellor to causes at Durham, according to the university. In 2012-13, Professor Higgins’ salary was £244,000, in addition to a pension of £39,000. Read more...
NUS wants fixed fees for overseas students
By Chris Parr. The National Union of Students has called on universities to fix their fees for international students and stop “unfair” prices rises during courses. According to the NUS, up to 175,000 international students a year find that their fees are increased by thousands of pounds a year, often without notice, reason or support.
Half of universities do not provide any guarantee of what the fee will be for each year of study, the NUS said its research had revealed – and so some overseas students find themselves unable to continue because of rising costs. Read more...
