Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Jack Grove. Private providers should be monitored more closely to ensure they are delivering similar quality to universities, a mission group has argued. In a report on improving quality assurance in higher education, University Alliance, which represents 22 mainly post-1992 universities, said more checks were needed on alternative providers, which are set to receive about £900 million in student support this year – a nine-fold increase on 2011-12. More...

By Holly Else. Governing councils give the green light to look at detail of deal. A merger of the Institute of Education and University College London is set to be completed by December after the institution’s governing councils gave the go-ahead for more detailed discussions. More...

By Paul Jump. A publisher has launched a pilot with 21 UK universities to reduce their subscription costs in proportion to the amount of open access fees they pay. The “offsetting” arrangement devised by the Institute of Physics’ publishing arm will allow universities that subscribe to its “hybrid” journals to publish more open access papers in them without incurring greater costs. More...

By John Morgan. Students’ hours of study can vary by up to 25 hours a week depending on their course, a survey of undergraduates has found. But commonly cited reasons for students not receiving their allotted contact hours include “couldn’t be bothered to attend”, finds the Higher Education Policy Institute’s Student Academic Experience Survey, published today in partnership with the Higher Education Academy. More...

By John Morgan. The UK’s public spending watchdog has been asked to investigate possible misuse of public money in the student loans system by for-profit colleges. The government has allowed private and for-profit providers to expand their numbers of students with public-backed loans without any restrictions on their student numbers. Nearly £1 billion will be paid out to students at private providers by the Student Loans Company next year, up from just £30 million in 2010. More...

By Chris Parr. Report identifies emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in tertiary institutions across Australia. Earlier this year, we reported on six challenges impeding technology adoption in higher education, and six trends set to accelerate the adoption of technology in higher education as identified by the NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition. More...