By Herman Berliner. There are many situations where as an administrator or as a not-for-profit board member it is necessary to engage strangers or almost strangers in conversations for the good of the organization.  Often these conversations go well but first there is that awkward introductory phase. I am sure there are many good alternatives but I have one that may be a guaranteed success.  A cute dog is a great ice breaker. The latest personal example of the effectiveness of a cute dog was yesterday’s homecoming parade at my local school district.  As a board of education member, I march in the parade, which I enjoy doing, but there are always a significant number of parents and students who I don’t know. Read more...

By Matt Reed. It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan of Kay McClenney for a long time. She puts together brilliant panels, encapsulates the obvious in useful and valuable ways (“students don’t do optional”), and bases her findings on wide-ranging empirical research. She even wrote the introduction to my book, which I considered a genuine honor. That said, a quote of hers last week landed funny and deserves a response. In an article about the gap between what community colleges know they should do, and what they have done, McClenney notes that colleges are “piloting ourselves to death” and need to focus on scaling up. Read more...

EUA’s Secretary General Lesley Wilson earlier this month took part in a symposium on staff development in academia organised by RWTH Aachen University in Germany. The event brought together different stakeholders from across Germany to discuss different elements and challenges of human resources (HR) management in universities.
Lesley Wilson was asked to provide a European perspective on the topic – and in her presentation stressed that human resource development at all levels was a crucial issue not only for universities in Germany but also across Europe and worldwide, as institutions seek to attract talented staff and students. She underlined that one of the important aspects for universities to compete in a global higher education environment, was that they should have the autonomy to decide freely on issues related to human resources management, including recruitment, salaries, dismissals and promotions. EUA’s autonomy scorecard study had shown that there are still wide divergences across Europe in terms of staffing autonomy, she added, and that this does not always make it easy, for example, to promote mobility or recruit staff from other countries. More...

 The Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) is a membership-based forum. IMHE focuses on a wide range of cross-cutting issues. Activities include reviews of higher education in regional and city development, the assessment of higher education learning outcomes, as well as studies on quality teaching. in higher education and the management of internationalisation. The link address is: http://www.oecd.org/edu/imhe