A report targeting the recommended compulsory curriculum by grades/stages for full-time compulsory education: - 2012/13.
The Eurydice data collection on taught time targets the recommended compulsory curriculum by grades/stages for full time compulsory education. The intended curriculum, its goals, structure, subjects and the notional workload for students can be based on regulations or standards defined by central (or top-level) education authorities or may be established as a set of recommendations at regional level. In some countries steering documents only include information of main goals of the national framework curriculum and delegate the taught time allocation to regional/local authorities or to the discretion of individual schools. In the present data collection, all these sources of information are used to complement the time allocation between subjects and/or educational stages.
The recommended compulsory curriculum can be composed by a compulsory core curriculum and a compulsory flexible curriculum. The compulsory core curriculum normally includes the subjects or study domains that must be studied by all students. At certain levels of study students can make choices between a group of subjects and in these cases the corresponding taught time is indicated as Core curriculum options. On the other hand, the compulsory flexible curriculum is the part of the curriculum that can be devoted to various subjects selected by the school or the student but still included in the total compulsory time for student instruction. In all these cases a country specific note alerts the reader aboutthe precise subject allocation.
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By Jeannie Rea (NTEU National Office). Universities Australia (UA) should be congratulated on today’s launch (27 February) of its $5m ‘Smarter Australia’ campaign to promote Australian higher education, Jeannie Rea, President of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said this afternoon.
“The NTEU shares UA’s view that it is important for all Australians to better understand the significant economic, social and contributions universities make to Australian society,” Rea said.
“Ensuring that all Australians are aware of universities role in our society and economy is the responsibility not only of universities, but also university staff and their students. This is especially important in the context of the 2013 Federal election where policies related to university independence and the cost of attending university deserve to be fully debated by both sides of politics.”
Rea said that the NTEU shares many of the objectives outlined by UA and especially welcomes its acknowledgement of the high cost Australian government-supported students already pay for their university education and therefore placing a strong emphasis on the need for increased public investment in our universities. See more...

By Nathan J. Daun-Barnett. In a 21st century knowledge economy, countries across the globe are struggling with growing their stock of college educated workers while balancing concerns over the equitable distribution of opportunities to attend college.  The U.S. system is among the most “accessible” in the world, in the sense that nearly any high school graduate can find a place to enroll and potentially earn a degree.
In practice, that “American Dream” frequently goes unrealized in greater proportions for lower income families and under-represented minority students. As a consequence, much of the college access literature in the U.S. addresses these forms of social stratification in analyses and implications.  There is, unfortunately, a disconnect between the theory and evidence presented by the research community and the range of policy alternatives initiated at the state and federal levels. There are at least two problems that make research difficult to translate into policy – the research community does not operate as quickly as the policymaking process, and as a result, evidence that can be brought to bear quickly by federal agencies may be given disproportionate weight by policymakers seeking to legislate policy solutions. See more...

Episode 39 of our podcast series features Professor Isa Jahnke from Umeå University in Sweden. In the podcast she sheds light on her recent work on interactive media and learning, as well as the concept of digital didactics in higher education.
Isa Jahnke is a Professor in Interactive Media and Learning (IML) at Department of Applied Educational Science in Umeå University, Sweden. Her background is in sociology (advanced role theory of socio-technical systems), digital didactics (Hochschuldidaktik) and academic development. She has her doctoral education from Dortmund University where she focused on Informatics & Society. She has later held positions at University of Ruhr-University of Bochum (Germany), University of Colorado at Boulder (USA), University of Dortmund (Germany), and she became a professor at Umeå University in 2011. See more...

Call for papers: workshop on higher education reforms
10th International Workshop on Higher Education Reform (WHER) will be held between October 2–4, 2013 at the Faculty of Education in University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The event is themed “Higher Education Reforms: Looking Back – Looking Forward“.
The key theme of the event:  The 2013 Workshop theme gives an opportunity to look at the larger picture of these changes, the drivers of change, and their effects. At the same time, the theme invites contributions about the likely futures of HE over the next generation, suggesting (or speculating on) developments that will further change HE.
The factors highlighted include marketization and privatization of HE, rankings and excellence focus, changing governance, consumerism and tuition fees, as well as new initiatives such as MOOCs and online learning trends and their impact on traditional academic values and institutional autonomy. Read more about the theme, proposal requirements and application procedure here.
Deadline:  June 1, 2013.
More information on event website. See more...

By Suzanne Alexander, Director, International Office, University of Leicester, UK. Having a large number of partnerships around the world will not necessarily guarantee that your higher education institution raises its international profile and reputation, but it can play an important role in achieving these objectives. International partnerships provide opportunities to attract a more diverse student body, and to promote greater mobility of staff and students. These partnerships also have the potential to make an impact on curriculum development, collaborative teaching programmes and research networks.
Partnerships provide multiple benefits
Partnerships can make a significant contribution to institutional internationalisation objectives, but only if those objectives are articulated and understood within the institution and shared with the partners. At an institutional level, partnerships provide opportunities for learning from each other, sharing knowledge and experience and benchmarking, but many institutions simply see partnerships in a more narrow and constrained way, in terms of the benefits they provide to those students/staff who engage in the mobility programmes.
Partnerships are for the long term
Setting up partnerships and negotiating agreements can be very time-consuming. For this reason, unless you see the relationship in terms of your institution’s medium- to long-term interests, it is probably best not to enter into it in the first place. Partners need time to get to know each other. Even if you have researched and perhaps visited your partner, there will be gaps in your knowledge about each other, and maybe some surprises! Partnerships will also evolve over time. There will be internal changes, such as leadership, staffing, funding arrangements, institutional strategy and perhaps external changes too, such as government policy. Read more...

Book your place at the HEA conference on social mobility
The Higher Education Academy's (HEA) conference on social mobility is open to bookings. The two-day residential conference (26 and 27 March 2013, Manchester) will consider 'What can higher education contribute to improving social mobility in the UK?'
Through a series of keynote presenters, panel discussions, workshops and paper sessions the conference will explore themes including the curriculum to improve social mobility, the benefits of part-time HE study, and fees and fair access to more prestigious UK universities. Keynote speakers include David Barrett, Deputy Director, Office for Fair Access to Higher Education (OFFA), Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive, Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) and Rajay Naik, Director of Government & External Affairs, the Open University.
The student perspective on social mobility will be provided by a student jury, made up of 12 students from across the UK. Professor Liz Thomas, Academic Lead for Retention and Success at the HEA, said: "We were thrilled with the level of interest in they jury and the competition for places was very high. We are confident that the diversity of the 12 jurors will enable a range of student voices to be engaged with and reflected on throughout the conference.
"The student jurors will participate in the sessions and at the end of the conference they will 'give their verdict' on the actual and potential of higher education to improving social mobility. We value student perspectives in addition to those of academics, practitioners, researchers and policy makers."
The event will take place at the Macdonald Manchester Hotel, Manchester city centre. Further information about the conference, including the full programme and booking details, can be found here on the HEA website.