Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Jeannie Rea. Damning results from a survey conducted by the University and College Union (UCU) have been released, highlighting the ways in which UK universities are performance managing staff through their adaption to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the UK’s equivalent to our Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) program.
Taken from a sample of over 7,000 academics, the UCU survey reports more than 10 per cent of academics at eight UK universities were told that failure to meet their institution’s expectations on producing work for the REF will lead to redundancy. This was particular worse at Middlesex University and University of Leicester where over 1 in 5 said they had been told they would face redundancy. Across the whole sample, one half were afraid of losing their jobs for failing to meet REF criteria. Read more...

By Julia Laplane, OECD. The Universal Declaration of Human rights states that “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Yet, universal education has not been always been associated with such commendable motives. Take the Elementary Education Act of 1870, in England and Wales. This piece of legislation set the basis for universal education for all children aged 5-12, but much of the political reasoning behind it was military and economic. Prime Minister Gladstone was quick to see a connection between the success of the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian War and the German education system: “Undoubtedly, the conduct of the campaign, on the German side, has given a marked triumph to the cause of systematic popular education”. Furthermore, industrialists viewed the lack of an effective education system in Britain as a threat to Britain’s productivity. With the introduction of the Education Act the main purpose of universal education became that of serving national interests and the country’s particular needs. Read more...

Here’s a sobering statistic: In around 20 of the world’s wealthiest countries, at least one in 10 adults can make sense of only basic texts. Ask them a question based on a piece of writing, and they’ll be able to answer only if the text is short, uses simple vocabulary and provides clues by repeating words used in the question.
OK, you’re thinking, not great, but at least the other nine must be able to read pretty well, right? Not so: That figure of one in 10 is just a minimum. In some of the world’s richest countries, more than a third of adults struggle with anything other than basic texts.
These findings come from a new report, the OECD Skills Outlook, released this morning and which, we’re guessing, will be all over today’s news. It represents a first attempt by the OECD to gauge literacy, numeracy and problem-solving abilities among adults and extends the work of PISA, which assesses the knowledge and skills of high school students. If you’re familiar with PISA, you’ll know its results are closely watched around the world, especially the relative rankings of the 70 or so countries that take part. The new adult skills survey, PIACC, is likely to attract similar interest, although it covers a much smaller group of countries, around 24. More...