Formation Continue du Supérieur

U-Multirank, a new university ranking system was launched under the Irish EU Presidency in Dublin by Ruairí Quinn, TD, Minister for Education and Skills and European Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.
U-Multirank will measure the performance and excellence of HEIs across a variety of dimensions.  Five areas are measured: reputation for research, quality of teaching and learning, international orientation, success in knowledge transfer (such as partnerships with business and start-ups), and contribution to regional growth.Some 500 universities are expected to sign up to take part, with the first rankings results expected in early 2014.
Three organizations, members of IREG Observatory will work on U-Multirank: CHE Centre for Higher Education (Germany) the lead of the of the project together with Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques - OST (France), Fundación CYD (Spain) and Perspektywy Education Foundation (Poland).
Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth said in Dublin: "The new ranking proposed by the European Commission will, above all, enable young people to make better informed decisions about where to study; it will also allow universities to compare themselves in a more transparent and useful way. The new listing will differ from existing international rankings by rating universities according to a broad range of performance factors, which will provide a more accurate, comparable and user-friendly guide to university quality. As well as its added value for students and universities, I believe the new ranking will be an indispensable tool for political decision makers, in the context of our joint efforts at EU level to encourage the much-needed modernisation of higher education institutions,”. more...

The 2013 QS World University Rankings by Subject, published today on www.topuniversities.com, reveals the top 200 universities in the world for 30 disciplines including degree subjects such as economics, civil engineering, physics, law and others.
Computer science is the most popular table of the rankings on www.topuniversities.com since their inception. It received over 600,000 views in the past six months and attracts three times as many readers as the average subject ranked by QS.
The second and third most popular subjects are mechanical engineering , followed by medicine . The trend reflects the finding of a recent study of global demand for IT analysts, developers, programmers and engineers. These occupations were found on the national skills shortage lists of 21 OECD and BRICS countries.
The 2013 QS World University Rankings by Subject evaluated 2,858 universities and ranked 678 institutions in total. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was once again crowned the top university in the world for computer science, for the third year in a row.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21938085. Read more...

By Santosh Bhaskar. Flipped Classroom model is an inverted and technologically advanced form of the traditional teaching method, where the lessons are watched at home and later discussed/clarified along with the homework  in the presence of a teacher. It allows teachers to deliver instructions online and to become a facilitator during class hours.
The main motto behind flipping a classroom is to provide students with sufficient time to work on what really matters. In this model, teachers need to create effective lesson contents for students. Nowadays’ educational technology helps educators by saving their precious effort and time. Administrators, Educators & Decision makers are trying to find the best online resources which enhance students’ learning. The best solution is to engage the students with MOOCs ( Massive Open Online Courses). MOOCs are the standard lectures uploaded online by professors and educators. In this article, we let you know how MOOCs help educators in flipping their classroom. Read more...

By David F. Carr. Freely downloadable textbooks and other open educational resources (OERs) are starting to have a practical impact, saving college students millions of dollars even as advocates struggle to distinguish the OER movement from the rise of the massive open online courses (MOOCs).
By the standards of OER, the MOOCs distributed by the commercial operations Coursera and Udacity as well as the non-profit edX are only partly open. I'll come back to this distinction later. When I moderated a panel discussion on OER last week at the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference held at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, MOOCs were a side issue, but an important one. Read more...

Une campagne de recrutement de volontaires du service civique vient d’être lancée sur la toile. Près de 30 000 jeunes sont attendus d’ici à fin 2013 dans l’un des 4 500 organismes agréés pour les accueillir. Retour sur quelques points essentiels de cette démarche d’engagement volontaire ouverte aux jeunes de 16 à 25 ans.
Qu’est-ce que le service civique ? 
C’est un engagement volontaire au service de l'intérêt général, ouvert à tous les jeunes de 16 à 25 ans, sans condition de diplôme. Le service civique peut être effectué auprès d’associations, d’établissements publics ou de collectivités territoriales. En France ou à l’étranger, le volontaire sera en charge d’une mission d’au moins 24 heures par semaine et ce, sur une période de 6 à 12 mois. Cet engagement est indemnisé à hauteur de 573 euros par mois. Neuf grands domaines sont concernés : la culture et les loisirs, le développement international et l’action humanitaire, l’éducation pour tous, l’environnement, l’intervention d'urgence en cas de crise, la mémoire et la citoyenneté, la santé, la solidarité et enfin le sport. Suite de l'article...

By Martine Plompen. With the aim of encouraging the writing of case materials, EFMD has been organising its annual Case Writing Competition for many years.  
The 2012 winner in the category “MENA Business Cases”(Middle East and North Africa), sponsored by HEC Paris in Qatar is:
Chabros International Group: A World of Wood  
This case is written by Paul W. Beamish and Bassam Farah, Richard Ivey School of Business, USA and it examines how a Lebanese multinational wood company confronts a drastic drop in its largest subsidiary's sales after the global economic crisis. The case provides ample material to review motivations for internationalization, different “international” strategies, crisis management, growth strategies, market entry, entry timing, and SWOT. Read more...

Posted by Matthew Wood. MOOCs are on the Move: A Snapshot of the Rapid Growth of MOOCs
A White Paper by Dr Lindsay Ryan - January 2013
What are MOOCs
MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses and they are rapidly changing the game for higher education, executive education and employee development generally. MOOCs offer free online courses covering a growing range of topics delivered by qualified lecturers from some of the most well-known universities in the world. In this age of lifelong learning, MOOCs are a means of providing learning and development to virtually everyone, anytime, anywhere in the world with internet access.
This paper presents a snapshot of current developments in MOOCs, noting that MOOCs have really only gathered momentum in the past year and are constantly developing and evolving almost on a weekly basis.
Background
The original concept for a MOOC came from academic research in the early 1960s with the idea that people could be linked by a series of computers to listen, discuss and learn about a particular topic. Now, continuous development in technology has become the enabler for virtually everybody in the world to have access to a broad and diverse range of education and learning topics.
MOOCs provide free online courses that enable people with an interest in a selected topic to study and learn through interaction with others also interested in the same topic. Other participants could be from the same organisation, city or region, learning together with people from other organisations, cities, regions and countries from around the world. MOOCs are the internet equivalent of distance education and there could be 1,000 or 100,000 participants in a single course. Read more...

By Matthew Wood. On 11 July 2013 the European Commission issued a communication on its new Internationalisation strategy “European Higher Education in the World”.  The communication examines how the EU, individual Member States and higher education institutions (HEIs) should work closely together with sophisticated internationalization strategies for cooperation with partners in other parts of the world, not only in terms of student mobility but also at the level of strategic academic partnerships. 
The Commission highlights that education is at the heart of the Europe 2020 Strategy to make Europe a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy to generate growth and prosperity.  Its communication aims to contribute to these objectives by encouraging Member States and individual HEIs to develop strategic partnerships to deal with the global challenges.  
The international landscape for higher education has been changing considerably in the last few years with the emergence and competition from new powerful regional higher education hubs in other parts of the world.  New technological developments such as the developments of the MOOCs (massive open online courses) are also calling for higher education institutions to rethink their international education in the face of global competition. Strategies for “internationalization at home” and digital learning are critical to provide an international dimension to study programmes for non-mobile students. Read more...

By Martine Plompen. Having the right people is essential for any organisation, when looking for growth and specifically for business development purposes, internationally experienced employees bring deeper insights and demonstrate exceptional value. This KPMG survey, covering over 600 organisations, provides insight on how global organisations administer their international human resource programmes.
Key findings of this survey include:

• The main objective of a global mobility programme for 72 % of survey participants is to support business objectives and be adaptable to changing requirements.
• Flexibility and adaptability is evidenced through the variety of assignment types offered: 81 % offer short term assignments, 96 % offer long term assignments, 47 % offer permanent transfer assignments.
• Surprisingly, only 12 % of survey participants say that cost control and assurance of an acceptable return on investment (ROI) are of importance.
• Survey participants continue to exhibit inclusionary mind-sets as it relates to the definition of a “family” within their policies for benefit purposes, to include partners, dual-career couples, children.
• 51 % of survey participants say programmes take too much time and effort to administer and most use external service providers to support the volume and complexity.
• The most common approach in assessing an assignee’s suitability for an international assignment involves having line management and/or HR conduct an informal review (56 %). Other approaches include self-assessments, third party evaluators (both 8 %), and specially trained in-house resources (5 %)
• 35 % of survey participants manage the processes on a case-by-case basis and have no formal policy is in place.
• 77% of survey participants offer language training as a standard policy, 64% offer formalised cross-cultural training.
• 30% offer internal career planning – job placement toward the end of the assignment
• Formalised mentoring throughout the assignment is offered by 9% of survey participants

The 90-page summary report “Global Assignment Policies and Practices Survey” is free downloadable from KPMG International Executive Services and further benchmarking on aspects of international assignments are available from same. Read more...

By Matthew Wood. The EAIR Forum 2013 Rotterdam Forum Programme Committee and the EAIR Executive Board is delighted to hereby inform all colleagues and friends of EAIR and everyone that is interested in EAIR, that the official registration for the 35th Annual EAIR Forum “The Impact of Higher Education: Addressing the Challenges of the 21st Century” is open.
The 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum will take place from Wednesday 28 August till Saturday 31 August 2013 at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Please note: The early bird registration deadline is closing on 1 July 2013 so make sure your Forum registration is done in time! For the 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum registration form, please go to: EAIR Registration.
For more information regarding the Forum registration, please go to the Conference website. Information about the preliminary timetable, hotels, travel, academic events, social events, tracks and keynote speakers can be found on the 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum website.
The Erasmus University is centrally located near the river in one of the most vibrant cities of the Netherlands. Being the main port of Europe, Rotterdam is a multicultural experience with outstanding museums and restaurants and well known for its modern architecture. The Erasmus University itself has a world wide reputation in the areas of economics, business administration and health, strengthened by law, social sciences, history and arts, and philosophy. Students from all over the world follow Dutch and English language bachelor’s programmes as the basis for leading international master’s specialisations at the interface of economics, health and society.
Please visit http://www.eair.nl/forum/rotterdam regularly for the updated news about the 2013 EAIR Rotterdam Forum.