Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Maria Konnikova. On July 23rd, 1969, Geoffrey Crowther addressed the inaugural meeting of the Open University, a British institution that had just been created to provide an alternative to traditional higher education. Courses would be conducted by mail and live radio. The basic mission, Crowther declared, was a simple one: to be open to people from all walks of life. “The first, and most urgent task before us is to cater for the many thousands of people, fully capable of a higher education, who, for one reason or another, do not get it, or do not get as much of it as they can turn to advantage, or as they discover, sometimes too late, that they need,” he told his audience. More...

By Drew Stelljes. Midterm elections are complete and cross-party bickering continues. A few less D's and a handful more R's will soon occupy the halls of Congress. Citizens, young and old, report their frustrations with our nation's elected leaders. Hope and change, just a few years ago was the rally cry of a political party is now fodder for mocking the president. Public distrust of the U.S. Congress is at an all-time low. At the same time, scholars urge colleges and universities to invest in educating for civic knowledge, civic values and civic skills in order to produce graduates who can confront controversy with civility. Often the 21st-century university scrambles to process more students in the most efficient means possible in order to assuage concerns of the rising price tag of a college degree. More...

By Lt. Gen. Clarence E. McKnight Jr. Years ago I was privileged to attend Harvard University for a few weeks in a special training program, not enough to claim to be an alumnus, but enough to get a flavor of the place. It was a memorable and positive experience. Harvard is an excellent institution that offers a great opportunity to students to learn from top flight professors and study in a progressive environment. The latest ratings from U.S. New & World Report rank Harvard best in the world but second among U.S. institutions of higher learning after Princeton, a curious anomaly that leads to a certain amount of head scratching, though Harvard still comes out well. More...

By Jim Gallagher. Say you’re a die-hard alumna of dear old SLU, or U of I, or wherever. When your baby is born, you buy her a little T-shirt with your alma mater’s logo. You hang a school pennant on her wall and think of the day when she will follow in your footsteps.
There are two varieties of prepaid plans: those run by several states and the Private College 529 plan based in Clayton. Both have their downsides. More...

By Jordan Friedman. Social media tools allow online students to share information and build a sense of community, experts say.
In his University of Hawaii online course, Introduction to e-Learning, associate professor Michael Menchaca requires his students to introduce themselves to each other by creating 15-second videos on Instagram. More...

By Bruce Katz. By relocating graduate programs and research institutions into the core of cities, universities and colleges can spur metropolitan growth, says Bruce Katz, a vice president at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Metropolitan Policy Program.
Over the past decade, businesses and research institutions that produce new discoveries and bring new products to market have, increasingly, moved into urban areas. This new geography of innovation, as I and my colleagues at the Brookings Institution call it, is coinciding with and benefitting from young workers shifting their residential preferences and revaluing city life. More...