By . When universities began expanding, they became more inclusive. While this is a good thing, scholars often look at their large class sizes and lament that many of the students won’t set foot in the lecture theatres or libraries thanks to technology, and grow increasingly frustrated at the shallow assignment responses. More...05 avril 2016
Towards an integration of text and graph clustering methods as a lens for studying social interaction in MOOCs
In this paper, we describe a novel methodology, grounded in techniques from the field of machine learning, for modeling emerging social structure as it develops in threaded discussion forums, with an eye towards application in the threaded discussions of massive open online courses (MOOCs). This modeling approach integrates two simpler, well established prior techniques, namely one related to social network structure and another related to thematic structure of text. More...
05 août 2015
The mass university is good for equity, but must it also be bad for learning?
By . When universities began expanding, they became more inclusive. While this is a good thing, scholars often look at their large class sizes and lament that many of the students won’t set foot in the lecture theatres or libraries thanks to technology, and grow increasingly frustrated at the shallow assignment responses. More...09 novembre 2014
Independent colleges – A hybrid response to massification
By Jian Liu. Mass higher education in China has mainly been achieved through differentiation: expansion in public non-elite local universities, development in newly restructured vocational colleges and the flourishing of the private sector, in which a new hybrid type of college – the private-run second-tier college affiliated with a public university, named duli xueyuan or independent college – is an important component. Read more...22 juin 2014
The massification of higher education in South Africa
By Karen MacGregor. Two decades into democracy, South Africa has done well in nearly doubling higher education enrolments. But racial inequities remain, growth has been stifled by government reluctance to open up to the private sector and open learning, and its “flirting with a welfarist neo-socialist model” of free university for the poor has spawned student demands and protests, says Thandwa Mthembu, vice-chancellor of Central University of Technology, Free State. Read more...09 juin 2014
Changing power relations in research management
By Munyaradzi Makoni. Mass participation in higher education has changed how research management is delivered around the world – and leadership approaches have also transformed in order to match more diverse universities and their challenges. Read more...03 janvier 2014
University admissions - Not educating the masses
The proportion of rural students at university has declined dramatically.
CHINA’S infamous university entrance exam, known as the gaokao, has long been a target of criticism. Admissions are based solely on the points scored in one exam, and the need for rote memorisation does little to foster creative minds. Now the government has taken its first tentative steps towards reforming the system. In December it announced that the English-language part of the test can be taken several times, with the best score counting. More significantly, it said it would move towards an evaluation process where the test did not make up 100% of the score, and would include more subjective assessments of, for instance, extra-curricular activities. Details are expected this year. More...
09 juin 2013
Higher education for the masses
The emergence of ‘MOOCs’ opens possibilities, and some perils, for academia. Larry Sabato doesn’t need to teach a free online course to become a celebrity professor. The director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics is one of the most visible and quoted academics in the country, analyzing topics as broad as presidential elections and as close to home as your local House of Delegates race. But this fall, Sabato will enter the brave, new world of “massive open online courses,” or MOOCs. Sabato will lead a free online course examining the administration of President John F. Kennedy and his legacy in the half-century since his assassination. The noncredit class will be offered through the educational technology company Coursera, a Silicon Valley startup that partners with some of the nation’s top universities to offer free online courses. Read more...11 mai 2013
HEIK seminar: University of California – Challenges to mass education in the US
By Marielk. We are pleased to share yet another session from the HEIK academic seminar series in the field of higher education, with both invited international speakers and members of the research group HEIK (Higher Education: Institutional dynamics and Knowledge cultures) here at the University of Oslo. This lecture was recorded in March 2013 and features Prof. Steven Brint (University of California Riverside) who examines the challenges of mass education in the US.Abstract for the session: Mass access combined with declining requirements and student utilitarianism has led to increases in the size of academically disengaged undergraduate student populations in the United States. This paper presents a method for conceptualizing and measuring these populations. It measures the size and characteristics of academically disengaged populations in a major public research university system, the University of California, and it discusses approaches that can be useful as means to re-engage these students in academic life. The paper briefly discusses the likely implications of mass online higher education within the current context of undergraduate student life. Read more...
19 janvier 2013
Université de masse: poids respectifs de l’enseignement et de la recherche
Le Times Higher Education, qui classait depuis six ans les universités suivant une certaine méthodologie, vient d’annoncer qu’il refondait son système d’indicateurs. Ce faisant, il l’améliorera et il faut s’en féliciter. Car évaluer publiquement les universités par un système d’indicateurs et même aller jusqu’à un classement est difficile et doit être fait avec soin. Il est indispensable, vu la difficulté, qu’il y ait plusieurs organismes se livrant à cette opération, pour éviter tout monopole. Et qu’un des organismes soit européen est souhaitable. En attendant d’en savoir plus sur l’amélioration que ce journal va apporter, il me semble qu’elle appelle deux remarques. Suite de l'article... The Times Higher Education, which ranked universities for six years following a certain methodology, has announced that its refondait indicator system. More...03 septembre 2012
Massification continues to transform higher education
By Angel Calderon. Higher education participation and enrolment has expanded considerably over the past century, and particularly since 1970. However, growth predicted over the 30 years from 2000-30 is likely to be higher than that experienced between 1970 and 2000. The number of students enrolled in higher education by 2030 is forecast to rise from 99.4 million in 2000 to 414.2 million in 2030 – an increase of 314%.If an extra five years is added to these projections, the number of students pursuing higher education by 2035 is likely to exceed 520 million.
This growth is being fuelled by the transformation that we are witnessing in the developing and emerging regions and countries of the world – a growth that will only accelerate in the next decades.
Regional growth
Up to 2002, more students were enrolled in higher education in North America and Western Europe than in any other world region. But since 2003, there have been more students pursuing higher education in East Asia and the Pacific. More...
