The European Access Network encourages wider access to higher education for those who are currently under-represented, whether for reasons of gender, ethnic origin, nationality, age, disability, family background, vocational training, geographic location, or earlier educational disadvantage. The four pillars of the EAN are access, equity, diversity and inclusion. The link address is: http://www.ean-edu.org/
By Ry Rivard. Over the past year and a half, the credit ratings of several prestigious liberal arts colleges have been downgraded or assigned a negative outlook by Moody’s Investors Service.
(Note: This article has been updated from an earlier version to note that these ratings were issued over the last 18 months, not the past several months.)
These are institutions -- Haverford College, Morehouse College, Oberlin College and Wellesley College – that top students seek out, yet they are showing small but noticeable signs of fiscal stress several years after the end of the recession. Their downgraded ratings are still better than those of plenty of other institutions, and Moody's has issued plenty of gloomy projects about colleges during the economic downturn. But the recent actions are notable because they affect colleges that are by many measures -- money, prestige, history -- among the most fortunate in the country. Read more...
CHEER is the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research located in the Department of Education within the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sussex.CHEER provides an intellectual home and an institutional space for collaborative and interdisciplinary research considering equity in higher education in relation to three main themes: identities, assessment and transitions. Through its links with national and international research centres, CHEER seeks to promote research collaboration, seminars, consultancy and academic partnerships. The link address is: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/aboutus
By Steve Kolowich. What is it like to teach 10,000 or more students at once, and does it really work? The largest-ever survey of professors who have taught MOOCs, or massive open online courses, shows that the process is time-consuming, but, according to the instructors, often successful. Nearly half of the professors felt their online courses were as rigorous academically as the versions they taught in the classroom. The survey, conducted by The Chronicle, attempted to reach every professor who has taught a MOOC. The online questionnaire was sent to 184 professors in late February, and 103 of them responded. Hype around these new free online courses has grown louder and louder since a few professors at Stanford University drew hundreds of thousands of students to online computer-science courses in 2011. Since then MOOCs, which charge no tuition and are open to anybody with Internet access, have been touted by reformers as a way to transform higher education and expand college access. Many professors teaching MOOCs had a similarly positive outlook: Asked whether they believe MOOCs "are worth the hype," 79 percent said yes. Read more...
The Africa Higher Education Collaborative is a programme of the Institute of International Education and identifies strategies for increasing equity and access to higher education in Africa. AHEC seeks to accomplish this task by serving as a think tank and source of information for policy makers, practitioners and the interested public. The link address is: http://www.africahighered.org/
By Brian Karlovsky. A world class financial services technology lab at the University of Sydney is looking to double Australia's financial services exports and create 30,000 jobs. The $56 million Financial Services Innovation Partnership, announced today by Federal Innovation Minister, Kim Carr, will aim to “democratise” time series prediction technology by giving a larger number of Australian companies access to predictions of their financial data within a fraction of a second. The technology uses mathematical algorithms and computer systems to predict future values and brings together the brightest minds in the fields of economics, engineering, mathematics and computer science. Director of the University’s Computer Engineering Laboratory, Associate Professor Philip Leong, told ARN the project would double financial services exports and create 30,0000 jobs in the industry. Read more...
The Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI), launched at the National University of Ireland Galway in 2001, promotes community university partnerships that aim to spread the principles and practices of civic engagement and democracy. The CKI becomes a platform to a number of civic engagement pathways that seek to develop an ethos of civic engagement and active participation across NUI Galway. These pathways include: inclusive higher education, community engagement and partnerships, volunteering, service learning, research, and knowledge sharing/exchange. The link address is: http://www.nuigalwaycki.ie/
By Julia Carneiro. Twenty-four-year-old Antonio Oliveira was born into a poor, mixed race family in the state of Maranhao in north-east Brazil. As a teenager he had to balance his time between school and helping his parents harvest vegetables to sell at a farmer's market, and doing other small jobs to scrape by. Until recently, he says the only prospects for those growing up in his city, Colinas, were to work with crops or to get a post at the city hall - "a mediocre job that people think is heaven," as he puts it.
But Antonio has just finished his first term studying Economic Sciences at Rio de Janeiro's prestigious Federal University (UFRJ), a dream he had nurtured since his days at a rural public school. His placement represents a radical change in the Brazilian university system. More...
"Out of the total enrolments in higher education, the percentage of students enrolling in the field of research is about 0.79 per cent," minister of state in human resource development (HRD) Shashi Tharoor told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a query. Read more...
The Canadian Alliance for Community Service-Learning (CACSL) supports, educates and networks to ensure the effective growth of CSL in Canada. Its vision is students, educators and communities learning and working together to strenghten individuals and society. The link address is: http://www.communityservicelearning.ca
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