IAU is pleased to announce that it has entered a partnership with Global Academy Jobs(GAJ), an academic recruitment service that will allow the Association to offer a new benefit to its institutional Members in good standing. Global Academy Jobs offers highly discounted rates to IAU Members when they use this academic jobs board for their recruitment needs and other services offered on the GAJ portal. To get started, please read the Press release and more information on the IAU website here.
IAU is pleased to announce that it has entered a partnership with Global Academy Jobs (GAJ), an academic recruitment service that will allow the Association to offer a new benefit to its institutional Members in good standing. Global Academy Jobs offers highly discounted rates to IAU Members when they use this academic jobs board for their recruitment needs and other services offered on the GAJ portal. GAJ’s social mission is to fund academic research and collaboration into major contemporary challenges in part through this partnership with the IAU. Join this endeavour by:

1. Getting set-up: has your University registered with GAJ? To check please contact: IAU@globalacademyjobs.com
2. Getting on-line: upload your academic vacancies on GAJ now.
3. Spreading the word: GAJ regularly emails academics about opportunities to collaborate and on talent development. Help us create engagement by disseminating information about this job board (thank you for copying GAJ at: talentdevelopment@globalacademyjobs.com).

From 1-30 April, Palgrave Macmillan is offering FREE online access to all its journals, including Higher Education Policy.
If you have not had a chance to sample the journal, we hope you will take advantage of this promotion - which includes content from its full 25-year archive. Journal contributors are also encouraged to share their work with colleagues and contacts.
Visit the Higher Education Policy website
Higher Education Policy is the quarterly journal of the International Association of Universities. IAU member institutions receive free subscription to Higher Education Policy as part of their membership.
For more information about the promotion, click here.

International Conference on Developments in Doctoral Education and Training, 11-12 April 2013, The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. Download draft programme. This event is sponsored by Epigeum.
We are pleased to confirm the list of keynote speakers at the Conference:
Dr Margaret Kiley, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia - "The Doctoral Curriculum: What? How? Who?"
Slobodan Radicev, President, Eurodoc - "The Challenge of Completing a PhD Programme: Eurodoc's Support of PhD Researchers"
Alexandra Bitusikova, Senior Adviser, EUA, Belgium & Matej Bel University, Slovakia - "Recent Developments in Doctoral Education across Europe: Commonalities and Differences"
Dr Janet Metcalfe, Chair & Head, Vitae, UK - "Developing World Class Researchers"
Professor Dina Iordanova, School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies, University of St Andrews, UK - "Experiences of International Doctoral Training and Development"
Dr George E. Walker, Cleveland State University, USA - "The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate"The focus of this meeting is to provide an opportunity to benchmark and share developments in the progress of doctoral education and training through an international congress.
Recent years have seen a considerable range of developments in the provision of doctoral education in the UK. The drivers for these changes emanate mainly from agencies and bodies with interests in doctoral degrees (QAA, RCUK and HEFCE), rather than from higher education institutions. Many now accept that these developments, which have shaped the provision of doctoral training in the UK, have improved the quality of doctoral education particularly with respect to the support provided to doctoral candidates. Within a European context the UK is widely recognised as a leader in skills training for doctoral programmes. Many of the approaches adopted in the UK for monitoring and supporting doctoral education nationally are being used as a template by other countries in the European Higher Education Area to develop their own doctoral provision. More recently the formation of the European Council for Doctoral Education, a special interest group within the European Universities Association, has helped raise the profile of doctoral education across Europe.
A key aim of this Conference is to identify the good work going on in Europe and other PhD intensive countries – including the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Many of these countries have national organisation and key groups bringing together those responsible for doctoral programmes. This includes the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) in USA and The Council of Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies (DDOGS) in Australia. These organisations share many of the aims and objectives of the UKCGE. This Conference offers a major platform to assess and discuss doctoral education and training in the international context, with an opportunity to share experience and network with colleagues old and new from throughout the world.

GENERATION NEXT. Portuguese adult educator Inês Cerca fights against social injustice in a country under a severe economic crisis.
Until the end of March, Inês Cerca, 31, works as a trainer in a state-run learning centre. Her duties also include strengthening the validation system of adult education. The unsecure future does not defeat this young adult educator with a positive attitude.
"In my work I get inspired of following the learning processes. It is rewarding to see that learners´ gain self-esteem as they become qualified. I also get inspired of the learners. From aged learners I hear about old Portuguese traditions and history.
The most annoying feature of my work is the bureaucracy of non-formal adult education in my country. The amount of documents we have to sign per learner is tremendous, because we have to follow our national framework.
The mission of non-formal adult education is to develop learners. It gives tools to understand the world and criticize it. The second mission is to fight against poverty by giving people with low skills keys to save themselves from poverty trap. Read more...

Yesterday EAEA participated in a policy debate on the European Commission's Communication on "Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes" organized by MEP Katarína Neved'alová (S&D).
As a rapporteur for the report in the Committee for Culture and Education in the European Parliament, Mrs Neved'alová was very interested in exchanging ideas and opinions on this important topic. The debate was held with experts and various stakeholders, involved in one or more areas affected by European Commission communication and other staff working documents, where every expert explained their position of his/her respective organization. Read more...

The plenary meeting of the Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism took place in Brussels on the 8 March 2013. It was chaired as always by Uwe Mohr, Head of Language Department, from Goethe Institute.
The meeting started with an interesting update about the state of arts of Multilingualism policy at the European level by Pierre Mairesse, Director of the Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) of the European Commission.
- The fact that the Multilingualism Unit has been merged with the Skills and Qualifications Unit as from January 2013 will not undermine the Commission's commitment to Multilingualism, but instead enhance it, he believes.
The platform´s members were then welcomed by Kristina Cunningham, Head of Sector (DG EAC) and had the opportunity to discuss with her the concerted reaction from the Platform to the Rethinking Education package, including the Staff Working Document on language competences for employability, mobility and growth.
Afterward, Sonia Perissini (DG EAC) informed the platform about the latest developments of the new programme for education and training, youth and sports (Erasmus for all/YES Europe) and the opportunities it will bring to the European citizens in learning languages and to the Civil Society in fostering multilingualism. She explained the types of mobility schemes foreseen by the Commission's proposal.
- Multilingualism will be fundamental in helping European citizens to benefit from those opportunities, Ms Perissini said. Read more...

One of the positive benefits of MOOCs is that a lot of faculty and administration are exploring educational innovations with technology. When teachers explore how to facilitate learning, improved teaching and learning is likely to result. One of the problems is that many of these teachers and administrators are deciding that MOOCs and other open learning resources are the best bets for addressing educational problems.  They are buying into the belief that open learning is the best that there is (or, perhaps, the only thing that they found) and into the associated beliefs (e.g., that existing educational systems are ineffective and unsustainable, that "everyone already knows that a college degree means next to nothing"). Those of us who do educational technology research and don’t do MOOCs are likely in for a stretch where our work will be under-appreciated, or simply ignored.  The AI community talks about their "AI Winter."  Let’s call this the Open Learning Winter. Read more...

“Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn’t know the first thing about either.” — Marshall McLuhan
When I first heard this famous quote from McLuhan, I was insulted.  Surely, McLuhan must not appreciate high-quality education, that he considers it no better than mass-market education!  Now, I have a better appreciation for what that quote is saying, and I realize that what he’s saying is deep and important, and relates to what MOOCs are missing.
The student population on my campus is mostly low-income, working part-time or full-time, first-generation college students, nearly all from groups underrepresented in the sciences. These are, by definition, disadvantaged students. This isn’t an insult, just a fact – the deck is stacked against them based on their background. They have a competitive disadvantage against those with more resources and against those with a pedigree that creates access to fancier opportunities.
This year, a few undergraduates who have worked with me are heading off to great graduate programs. What all of them have in common is that they started working with faculty at my university in the classroom and in the lab, in person. They’ve all told me and my colleagues that there’s no way they would have been able to do what they’ve done without us as a resource and as an influence. I take them at their word. Read more...

By Inge Ignatia de Waard. The renowned SURF group that are situated in the Netherlands just published a wonderful, insightful and all over great read on the trend of Open Educational Resources (OER). The English report can be found and downloaded here and consists of 112 pages of great up to date OER information.
This report gives a great overview of why OER are gaining interest and how they can strengthen and promote open learning (with education for all as the ultimate goal). As MOOCs are growing, resulting in more accessible content/sometimes true OER, and UNESCO's OER declaration was adopted in 2012, OER interest has grown steadily in all regions in the world.  Some of the initiatives mentioned in the report direct to initiatives coming from Dutch Universities, and refering to MOOCs (massive open online
courses), and starting an open online Master’s degree programme. There is also the Wikiwijs programme, which aims to adopt a specific approach for higher education. Read more...

Sur le blog de Michel Abhervé pour Alternatives économiques.Dans la série des anciens Ministres qui trouvent quand ils ne sont plus en responsabilité les solutions miracles à des questions qu’ils n’ont pas su résoudre lorsqu’ils étaient en fonctions Laurent Wauquiez fait encore mieux que Xavier Bertrand (voir Xavier Bertrand a une mémoire de poisson rouge) et Valérie Pécresse (Valérie Pécresse affirme qu’on aurait pu économiser dix milliards sur le RSA et la PPE pendant le quinquennat précédent).
Dans Le Figaro du 27 mars, il commence par mentir sur les chiffres, retrouvant une veille habitude qui nous avait conduit à l’appeler Laurent Pinocchio Wauquiez (voir Laurent Pinocchio Wauquiez, Laurent Pinocchio Wauquiez-bis et Laurent Pinocchio Wauquiez-ter), en déclarant “De plus, la montée en puissance des dispositifs gouvernementaux est trop lente: 15.000 emplois d’avenir en six mois, aucun contrat de génération…” Entre une loi publiée en novembre, dont l’effet a, de fait, commencé en janvier et aujourd’hui, où sont les six mois? Quant aux contrats de génération, les textes viennent de sortir!
Puis il préconise une solution radicale en matière de formation professionnelle et d’apprentissage, la gestion par une agence nationale “Il faut retirer la compétence aux régions et aux partenaires sociaux pour la confier à une agence dédiée, type Oséo, qui prendrait aussi en charge l’apprentissage.” On l’avait connu moins allant en fonction (voir Esquisse du bilan de l’action de Laurent Wauquiez à l’Emploi: en dessous de la moyenne). Suite de l'article...