By Anne J. MacLachlan. In: Isolde von Bülow, ed. Nachwuchsförderung in der Wissenschaft. Best-Practice-Modelle zum Promotionsgeschehen—Strategien, Konzepte, Strukturen.  [Supporting the Next Generation of Scholars. Best Practice Models of Doctoral Education—Strategies, Concepts, Structures] Heidelberg, SpringerMedizin, 2014, pp. 79-90. Download PDF Document. This paper examines the origins and current system of doctoral education in both Germany and the United States emphasizing the extent to which each country has mythologized the contribution of the other.  In the United States it is widely believed that “the” German university in the 19th century was the model for the creation of US doctoral programs.  Today in Germany under the Bologna Agreement and the Excellence Initiative it is believed that both of them are modeled on the American higher education system, particularly on the research university.  The argument made here is that there is a broad lack of real knowledge about the systems in the model country as well as significant historical, legal, and social reasons why the ability of either to copy from the other is limited.  The discussion is comparative including the different origins of the research university, home of the doctoral degree, a short summary of the post World War II period, how and why doctoral education developed in both countries up to now, and significant current issues.  Greater weight is given to discussing the US, however, because of its diverse universities, the variety of doctoral programs, and the way they are run. Emphasis is given to internal evaluation of the success of US doctoral training by doctoral students versus how it seems to be viewed in Germany. More...

By Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the OECD's Secretary General. There has been much discussion on the extent to which the performance of nations on tests like PISA is shaped by the socio-economic context of families, schools and nations. Surely, economic, social and cultural capital are always an advantage. Owing to advantaged families’ greater capacity to reinforce and enhance the effects of schools, as students from these families attend higher-quality schools and schools are simply better-equipped to nurture and develop children from advantaged backgrounds, school systems tend to reproduce social disadvantage. And that is what the data from PISA have shown. Read more...

By Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the OECD's Secretary General. The well-being of individuals and nations depend on nothing more than on what people know and what they can do with what they know. And if there’s one lesson the global economy has taught us over the last few years, it’s that we cannot simply bail ourselves out of a crisis, that we cannot solely stimulate ourselves out of a crisis and that we cannot just print money our way out of a crisis. Investing in high-quality education is the gateway to better skills, better jobs and better lives. And yet, the 2014 Global Monitoring Report, the world’s most authoritative source to track progress towards the ‘Education for All’ goals, paints a bleak picture. Read more...

By Chris Parr. The number of Americans taking full undergraduate degrees in the UK has risen by almost 30 per cent in the last four years, new figures show.
A record 4,346 US students were registered on UK undergraduate degree courses in 2012-13, according to data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, which represents a 4 per cent rise when compared with the previous year.
It means that the number of Americans pursuing their first degree in the UK has risen by 28 per cent since 2008-09, and comes as figures from Ucas show an 8 per cent rise in US applicants for programmes starting in 2014-15. More...

By David Matthews. University scholarships make up quarter of money donated.
The United Nations has criticised wealthy countries for the way they provide educational aid to poor countries, claiming that their focus is on university scholarships rather than help for schools in the poorest nations.
A quarter of all educational aid takes the form of scholarships for students to study at university in rich countries, which amounted to $3.2 billion in 2010-11 (£1.95 billion), says a new report, meaning that the money often never actually leaves the donor country. More...