Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Daniel Boffey. Applications for language courses slump – which is bad news for British diplomacy and business. Eighteen months ago, William Hague told a group of language professors whom he had invited to the Foreign Office that Britain's global standing in business – and, perhaps most pertinently, in the diplomatic world – was at grave risk from a lack of men and women with language skills. One academic who attended the meeting said: "He laid it on the table. He told us there is an urgent need for Britain to improve its language capability."
Whether it be staffing UK embassies or key EU institutions, the language problem was beginning to have a major impact on a diplomatic service once famed for its ability to shape events in the Britain's national interest. Last week's A-level results, and Ucas figures will not have lifted the foreign secretary's mood. French and German – traditionally the two most popular language courses in schools – both appear in a list of the 10 most rapidly declining subjects this summer. Some 11,272 pupils studied French in 2013, a fall of 10% in a year and a near 50% decline over the last decade. German entries fell to a record low of just 4,242. It was a drop of 11% in 12 months and half the number since 2000. Other modern languages – which include Mandarin, Arabic and Italian – dropped this year from a combined 9,136 entries to 9,087. Read more...

By Amanda Ripley. BAMA Companies has been making pies and biscuits in Oklahoma since the 1920s. But the company is struggling to find Okies with the skills to fill even its most basic factory jobs. Such posts require workers to think critically, yet graduates of local schools are often unable to read or do simple maths. This is why the company recently decided to open a new factory in Poland—its first in Europe. “We hear that educated people are plentiful,” explains Paula Marshall, Bama’s boss.
Poland has made some dramatic gains in education in the past decade. Before 2000 only half of the country’s rural adults would finish primary school. Yet international rankings now put the country’s students well ahead of America’s in science and maths (the strongest predictor of future earnings), even as the country spends far less per pupil. What is Poland doing right? And what is America doing wrong? Amanda Ripley, an American journalist, seeks to answer such questions in “The Smartest Kids in the World”, her fine new book about the schools that are working around the globe. Read more...

By Jonnelle Marte. 1. “Expect empty seats.”
Many people sought shelter from the recession by heading to graduate school, but enrollment has declined as the economy has improved. The number of first-time masters’ and doctoral students starting classes on campuses around the country dropped 1.7% in the fall of 2011 from the year before, according to the most recent data from the Council of Graduate Schools, a national organization that advocates for graduate programs. (Applications to law school and full-time two-year M.B.A. programs, not included in the council’s data, are also declining. Medical school applications rose slightly last year.)
It was the second consecutive drop in first-time enrollment, following a stretch of annual increases going back to the fall of 2003.While people with advanced degrees generally earn more than the average American, and are less likely to be unemployed, more people are now skeptical about whether those advantages are worth the upfront costs — and the growing debt burden. In 2010, enrollment dropped more significantly at public universities, but that shifted in 2011, when private not-for-profit universities saw the largest declines. When it comes to majors, the biggest drops in 2011 were in education, arts and humanities. Enrollment still grew in health sciences, math and computer science, according to the report. Read more...

Afin de comprendre les problématiques rencontrées par les entrepreneurs sur les médias sociaux, j’ai décidé de consacrer une rubrique complète au décryptage de ces nouveaux outils par secteur d’activité. Cette fois-ci, je vais m’intéresser de plus près à la communication social-média des universités et écoles dans l’enseignement supérieur.
Problématiques du secteur
Sur le marche très concurrentiel des études supérieures, les écoles et universités mettent en place différents leviers afin de maximiser le nombre de candidatures d’étudiants.
Prestige, renommée des professeurs, contenus pédagogiques, débouchés… De nombreux critères vont être pris en considération par les futurs clients/étudiants. Il est donc nécessaire pour ces établissements de savoir se mettre en valeur afin de convaincre/persuader l’étudiant de tenter sa chance.
Ces écoles/universités ont quatre cibles principales :
- les potentiels candidats
- les étudiants de l’école/université
- les Alumni (anciens élèves)
- les employeurs.
Sur les réseaux sociaux, nous verrons que ces établissements communiquent sur des axes différents mais complémentaires afin de pouvoir défendre au mieux leur réputation, par :
1) La mise en avant de l’expertise du corps professoral
2) La mise en avant de l’actualité de l’école
3) La communication sur la vie en tant qu’étudiant (Inside)
4) La mise en avant des “réussites”
5) Les relations écoles/étudiants. Suite...

The latest Future Directions conference was an opportunity for academics, careers advisers and university managers to share their experiences about how to make the sort of skills required in employment a fundamental aspect of a student's course - without significantly increasing the workload for undergraduates and their lecturers.
The Future Directions for Skills and Employability event on 15 May was jointly organised by HEFCW, QAA Wales and the HEA. The conference also addressed how people already in work could gain higher skills and qualificiations while working.
Martyn Flynn, a talent aquisition manager for the second largest graduate recruiter in the UK, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, said: "By helping universities put crucial transferrable skills at the heart of their students' courses, we are giving our future graduate trainees the edge that they need to compete in the tough recruitment market. Read more...

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) welcomes the report on ‘Improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher education institutions’ which sets out a clear vision for the enhancement of teaching and learning across Europe. Of particular note is the recommendation to establish a new ‘European Academy for Teaching and Learning’, which has been ‘inspired by the activities of the HEA…’
The HEA welcomes the report’s recognition of the importance of teacher training and continuing professional development programmes (recommendation four), which research commissioned by the HEA has demonstrated make a real difference to student learning.
The report also calls for teaching to be included by higher education providers as part of promotions criteria (recommendation five), a concern that is frequently raised with the HEA in discussion around the status of teaching by UK-based teaching staff. The value of schemes such as the HEA’s National Teaching Fellowship Scheme and Student-led Teaching Awards in recognising and rewarding teaching in universities is also highlighted by the report (recommendation six).
Professor Stephanie Marshall, Deputy Chief Executive (Research & Policy), said “This report provides a welcome policy-driver for reform of higher education across Europe. Putting in place mechanisms to adequately reward and recognise teaching in our universities, is essential to ensuring that each and every student receives the very best academic experience.
“HEA research has regularly emphasised the need to focus on measures, many of which are recommended in this report, that we know improve teaching and learning in higher education. We would welcome the opportunity to support the development of the proposed European Academy for Teaching and Learning and to discuss how the UK Professional Standards Framework for learning and teaching might form the basis for demonstrating how professional standards are being met.”
The report is available here.

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with two important higher education organisations in Australia, marking its increasing work, influence and cooperation in learning and teaching internationally.
The Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), was established by the Australian Government in 2011 to promote and support change in higher education institutions for the enhancement of learning and teaching. The HEA has agreed to work with the OLT to foster the exchange of expertise, experience and resources between the respective national higher education communities to share and embed good practice. Specific areas of focus for the two organisations will include internationalisation, assessment, and strategic approaches to learning and teaching which enhance student access and progression, and respond to student diversity. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/news/detail/2013/HEA_strengthens_Australia_HE_links

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) today, 23 July 2013, publishes a review of credit accumulation and transfer policy and practice in UK higher education. Launched at a two-day conference focusing on flexible learning organised jointly by the HEA and SEEC, the publication reviews the current situation in relation to credit transfer in the four UK nations, within a European context.
Carried out on behalf of the HEA by Manuel Souto-Otero from the University of Bath, the review includes findings which look at the European context of credit accumulation and transfer, along with UK policy and practice. It found that while systems are in place to ensure credit transfer and accumulation, they are not producing the expected levels of impact. The review therefore highlights the challenges that many UK institutions may face in the future to meet the needs of students seeking increasingly flexible learning opportunities.
The publication is linked to the HEA’s ongoing flexible learning projects which focus on student choice in the place, pace and mode of delivery for learning. Its findings will also feed into the HEA’s ‘Flexible pedagogies: preparing for the future' project, initially concentrating on five main strands embedded within the theme of flexible learning:
•transfer of credit;
•e-learning or technology enhanced learning;
•employer engagement;
•new pedagogical ideas;
•part-time learning and learners.
The review of credit accumulation and transfer policy and practice in UK higher education can be read here.

U-Multirank, the new international university ranking initiated by the European Commission, has exceeded its target of 500 registered higher education institutions ahead of schedule. To date 540 higher education institutions have registered for participation. Registration is still open, but space is limited, so interested institutions are encouraged to register now. Institutions in more than 60 countries will be represented in the initial listing, published for the first time early next year. U-Multirank differs from existing rankings by rating universities according to a broader range of performance factors, aimed at providing a more realistic and user-friendly guide to what they offer.
The currently registered institutions represent a balanced sample in different ways: In line with recruitment targets, about 75% are in the European Union and 25% in non-EU countries. Different profiles of higher education institutions will take part in the first round of U-Multirank, for instance universities of applied sciences and universities with a technical profile (around 12% each), comprehensive (around 50%) and specialized universities, etcetera. A large number of research intensive universities  are also represented. Read more...

Over 130 experts on university rankings and representatives and academic community from 32 countries met in Warsaw 16-17 May 2013 at the IREG Forum on University Rankings – Methodologies under scrutiny. The conference was organized by the IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence and the Perspektywy Education Foundation in cooperation with the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Opening the Forum Jan Sadlak, President of IREG Observatory pointed out to the usefulness of university ranking as information, assessment and transparency tool. In the keynote speech Michal Kleiber, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences stressed the importance of good data and quality information both for rankings and for the higher education. Forum’s sessions were chaired by: Andrea Bonaccorsi (Italy), Waldemar Siwinski (Poland), Nian Cai Liu (China), Klaus Huefner (Germany) and Alex Usher (Canada). Read more...