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By John Morgan. The English higher education sector last year saw its first real-terms cut in income since records began almost 20 years ago, while institutional finances will take a further hit this year because of the fall in student numbers under higher fees. Those are among the findings of the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s annual overview, Financial health of the higher education sector, which covers 2011-12 university accounts and forecasts for 2012-13 - the first year of £9,000 fees.
The release of the figures comes amid negotiations between the Treasury and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills on the level of cuts to be made in the 2015-16 spending review, with some in government suggesting universities are perceived as being “awash with cash”. The sector’s income rose to £23.3 billion in 2011-12, a below inflation rise of 1.5 per cent on the previous year. Hefce’s accompanying press statement describes this as “the first real-terms reduction in total income” since records for the sector were first collected in 1994-95. Read more...

Asia is the focus of new pathways to study, says Malcolm Gillies. Paul Keating, Australia’s prime minister back in the 1990s, once described Asia as the place you flew over to get to Europe. Europe, the place of true culture; Asia, well, the place you flew over to get there. Now Keating does most of his business in Asia. And Australia has an “Australia in the Asian Century” policy. No guessing why a former Treasury chief, Ken Henry, is now its champion.
Of course, Australia is really part of Asia, just as Britain is part of Europe. But both still stand apart from their larger continental neighbours despite growing confluence of trade, services and cultures.
Eighty per cent of Australia’s international students now come from Asia. China, India, Korea, Vietnam and Malaysia are the top five. Asia’s strong growth prospects for the coming decade led the British Council, in The Shape of Things to Come, its excellent report on emerging opportunities in international education, to forecast Australia as the stand-out winner in terms of new inbound students up to 2020, with the UK second, the US third and Canada fourth. Others - Germany, France and Japan - languish much further down the growth tables. Read more...

Sur le blog de Michel Abhervé pour Alternatives économiques. Le débat sur la transposition législative de l’accord d’une majorité de partenaires sociaux sur la “sécurisation de l’emploi” a commencé avec une audition des ministres, Michel Sapin et Thierry Repentin, par la commission des affaires sociales de l’Assemblée nationale le 12 mars (le compte rendu ici). Lors du débat qui a suivi la présentation des enjeux et des grandes lignes du texte, Isabelle Le Callennec, députée UMP d’Ille et Vilaine, a, en digne successeur de Pierre Méhaignerie, formulé l’affirmation suivante: "vous avez souligné la nécessité de développer un service neutre de conseil en évaluation professionnelle. Les maisons de l’emploi, quand elles fonctionnent, ont cette capacité: les salariés, tout au long de leur carrière, peuvent s’y informer sur les opportunités existant dans leur bassin d’emploi."
Cette interrogation a reçu une réponse ouverte de la part de Thierry Repentin, mentionnant la possibilité de s’appuyer sur les Maisons de l’emploi. La loi sur la décentralisation sera aussi l’occasion de créer un service public régional de l’orientation, et donc d’organiser le conseil en évolution professionnelle en tenant compte des outils existants – qu’il s’agisse des maisons de l’emploi, des cités des métiers ou des structures mises en place par les régions à titre expérimental. Suite de l'article...

By Richard Morris. US students get jobs to help pay for college. It has me missing Britain – and wondering if this trend will come to the UK. Upon my arrival in the states from Britain, one of the first conversations I had with my roommate was about sleep. I stated that I tend to go to bed around midnight no matter what, even if I don't have classes the next day until the afternoon.
"You'll soon learn to live without sleep, being an American college student," my roommate said. I thought he was joking. My roommate often talks about how exhausted he is. He isn't alone. Each year, thousands of American college students report to health centres because of exhaustion, yet only recently have the true effects of poor sleep on young adults been documented. The health centre nurses at my US university look at you sympathetically, then prescribe sleeping pills. These, of course, don't actually solve the problem, they just make it worse. Read more...

By Josephine Tovey, Amy McNeilage. NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has refused to back away from his plans to set benchmarks for new teachers based on HSC results, despite universities saying they may not implement the plan. Universities threw their support behind a Commonwealth government plan announced on Monday for new standards for teaching students which include an assessment of aptitude but do not set a minimum standard academic result.
Applicants could be screened for their suitability for teaching via methods which could include ''interviews, demonstrated values and aptitude, and a written statement.''
The move comes less than a week after the NSW government announced its own reforms aimed at improving the quality of teaching, including setting minimum HSC requirements for school leavers hoping to enter teaching degrees. Read more...

By Richard Fuchs. Struggling with tightening purse strings and shrinking research budgets, Germany's universities are fighting back with funding from big business. A new online portal aims to publicize any dubious sponsorship deals.
Berlinstudent Erik Marquardt sometimes feels like German universities are really just glorified advertising agencies.
He see's a future where lecture halls will no longer be named after great thinkers and poets, but after discount stores and online dating companies. Cafeterias will no longer be decorated according to the seasons, but furnished year-round with the colors and slogans of cell phone networks. And new students' introductions will no longer be organized by peer representatives, but by consultancy firms. Read more...