Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Fran Abrams. More than 20,000 students complained to their universities last year, a Freedom of Information request by the BBC has shown. Responses from 120 universities across the UK revealed that total academic appeals and complaints were 10% higher in 2012-13 than in 2010-11.
Universities Minister David Willetts welcomed the finding. He said it showed that students were demanding more for the £9,000-per-year fee. More...

By Elias Isquith. As administrators like Gordon Gee get richer, tuition goes up and students see more adjuncts, a new study explains.
In theory, the state college system is one of the most egalitarian and progressive-minded institutions in America. Its goal is to make sure that kids who cannot afford to enroll in expensive private universities and colleges are nevertheless able to get a great education and improve their chances of climbing the economic ladder and making real the implicit American promise of social mobility.
Unfortunately, that’s not so much the case for many of today’s state schools, at least not according to a new study from the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Titled “The One Percent at State U: How Public University Presidents Profit from Rising Student Debt and Low-Wage Faculty Labor,” IPS’s latest finds that the triplet developments of hyper-wealthy college administrators, like E. Gordon Gee, rising tuition costs and schools’ increased reliance on adjunct professors is not a coincidence. On the contrary, all three are related — and, together, they constitute a threat to the very idea of state-run higher education. More...

By Matthew Knott, Fergus Hunter. The federal government faces blanket opposition from university vice-chancellors to its plan to increase the interest rate on all student debts and slash university funding, a survey shows. 
The Fairfax Media poll of the nation's 39 vice-chancellors - who are divided on the question of fee deregulation - found a unified stance against applying an interest rate of up to 6 per cent to student debts and cutting the Commonwealth contribution to the cost of a degree by 20 per cent. Read more...

By Ray Sanchez. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, delivering Thursday's commencement speech at Harvard University, criticized what he described as a disturbing trend of liberals silencing voices "deemed politically objectionable."
"This spring, it has been disturbing to see a number of college commencement speakers withdraw -- or have their invitations rescinded -- after protests from students and -- to me, shockingly -- from senior faculty and administrators who should know better," Bloomberg said.
The billionaire former mayor cited an October speech during which his ex-police commissioner, Ray Kelly, was shouted down by students at Brown University. More...

By Urmi A Goswami. HRD minister Smriti Irani is turning her attention to transforming the University Grants Commission into a bonafide higher education regulator that is in tune with the changing landscape in the sector. Restructuring and refocusing UGC from a grant-disbursing organisation to one that maintains standards and regulates the sector is among Irani's top 100-day priorities. More...