By Arwyn Jones. Universities in Wales have agreed to upload lectures and research to the internet in the future so they can be freely accessed around the world.
It means students and teachers in poorer nations will be able to use expensive research work carried out by academics here.
Universities say it will put them at the forefront of a digital education revolution. More...

By Matt Reed. Last week, I was in a meeting with several colleagues, two of whom are Boomers, and one of whom is a fellow Gen X’er. As the meeting wound down, the discussion shifted:
Boomer 1: Remember when all the local banks used to recruit here? They’d hire all the liberal arts grads?
Boomer 2: Yes!  Or the big retailers like [name of dead chain] and [name of other dead chain].
B1: That’s right.  And then they’d put people in their management training programs.
(pause)
B1: When I graduated, I had four job offers before I finished.
(pause)
Me: What color is the sky on your planet?
X’er: (snarf)
B1: Blue.  That’s just the way it was.
Me: On behalf of generations X and Y, [colorful, if affectionate, expression of frustration]
X’er: When I graduated with my Master’s, I got a job at Subway.
I was reminded of that conversation yesterday in reading back-to-back articles in IHE about making aspects of college free. One addressed the growing use of Open Educational Resources as a substitute for the buy-your-own-textbook model, and the other addressed an argument for making public higher education entirely free. Read more...