By Richard Bourne. Revolutionary Socialist Student Federation is launched at conference held at the London School of Economics. Students from British colleges and universities yesterday founded the Revolutionary Socialist Student Federation. About 500 of them packed a lecture theatre on the first of the two-day founding conference at the London School of Economics. Read more...By Julie Henry. Students from state schools outperform private ones admitted with same A-level grades, according to Cardiff and Oxford Brookes research. Two studies showing state school pupils do better at university than those from private schools will strengthen demands for admissions tutors to give priority to applicants from comprehensives. The findings, from two separate universities, reveal that students from state schools gained better degrees than independently educated candidates with the same A-level grades. Read more...By Andrew McGettigan. Selling off student loans just doesn't make sense – it's short-termist and contemptuous of citizens. The Guardian recently saw a copy of a report produced by Rothschild to conclude a feasibility study for the government. For much of 2010 and 2011, they were tasked with finding a way to "monetise" the growing book of outstanding student loan balances (valued somewhere around £40bn even before the recent rise in tuition fees). That is, they were asked to find a way to sell a quarter to a half of those loans to third parties – insurance companies and pension funds, most likely – while ensuring "value for money". Read more...ENQA Newsletter - Issue 4
We have the pleasure to present you the fourth Issue of the ENQA Newsletter. To access the Newsletter "Issue 4" please follow the link here.
New ENQA policy on publication of review reports – enhancing transparency
In the interest of increased transparency, ENQA decided to publish all review reports regardless of the outcome of the review. The reports will be published on the ENQA website under the page “review reports and decisions”. Thus, there will not be a list of “unsuccessful applicants” on the members’ page. The review report, together with the Board’s letter to the agency (enlisting the reasons for the decision and related recommendations) will be published. The policy will be effective for all those agencies whose review process (or second round review process) has not yet started. All agencies will be informed as part of the terms of reference for the review that the review report will be published on the ENQA website at the end of the process, i.e. after the decision of the Board on ENQA membership.
QAA: New review method in the making
In the UK, two key areas of focus at the moment are 1) the UK Quality Code for Higher Education (the Quality Code), which provides the basis for review judgements and is maintained by QAA, and 2) a new risk-based review method for England and Northern Ireland – “Higher Education Review”. The move towards a more risk-based approach marks a significant new stage for the external quality assurance of higher education. QAA believes this approach is more appropriate for an increasingly diverse sector with a significant number of new entrants of very different kinds. The Handbook for Higher Education Review was recently presented for public consultation online and will be published in June 2013. The Higher Education Review, to be launched during the academic year 2013-14, will succeed two existing methods: Institutional Review in England and Northern Ireland (IRENI) and Review of College Higher Education (RCHE). The overall aim of the new method is to inform students and the wider public whether a provider meets the expectations of the higher education sector for the setting and/or maintenance of academic standards; the provision of learning opportunities and information; and the enhancement of the quality of its higher education provision. The Higher Education Review strives to achieve the right balance of interests, bringing together a lighter touch, transparency, consistency, professional judgement and a tailored approach for each provider. QAA underlines the importance of ensuring that any variation in the intensity of review for individual providers is based on sound evidence, and does not prevent reviewers from investigating the key issues affecting students and other stakeholders. For further information: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/.
ACSUCYL Guide for Managing External Placements at Universities
With the perspective of providing universities with a support document and methodological tool that will enable them to plan and assess external placements offered by higher education institutions, the Quality Assurance Agency for the University System in Castilla y León (ACSUCYL) has published a "Guide for Managing External Placements at Universities in Castilla y León". This guide reflects on the increasingly important role played by external placements as a training activity within the framework of the new university curricula adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This is the first guide of its kind to be published on the topic to help universities handle and assess the placements offered. A working group comprising seven national and international experts with extensive knowledge and wide experience in the field was involved in drawing up the Guide. ACSUCYL consulted a number of stakeholders in order to gauge the suitability of the content as well as its usefulness for the potentially interested HEIs. The Guide was then approved by ACSUCYL's Institutional Quality Assessment Commission, published and circulated to all relevant stakeholders. For further information: http://www.acsucyl.es/.
ACSUG studies labour market insertion of graduates in Galicia, Spain
One of the leading activities of the Agency for Quality Assurance in the Galician University System (ACSUG) since its establishment in 2001 has been the performance of labour market insertion surveys of graduates in the Galician University System (SUG). The SUG is formed by three public universities, with seven campuses in Galicia. The labour market insertion project started with the study of graduates from academic years 1996/97 to 2000/01. Currently ACSUG is working on the 2009/10 survey. The surveys aim at getting an overview of the employment situation of the SUG graduates, approximately 18 months after completing their degree. The information provided by these studies proved to be helpful to universities in designing new academic degrees, as well as in managing resources and student services. Currently, the SUG universities, in the process of adapting to the EHEA, show commitment for the employability of graduates. Hence the need for ACSUG to perform labour market insertion studies, with special attention to the possible gap between the knowledge and training acquired at university and the professional competencies required. The Galician Government will include the labour market insertion rate as one of the indicators to be taken into account when determining universities financing. For further information: http://www.acsug.es/english/webs/pil.php.
Download Newsletter "Issue 4".
This UNICON Research Report focuses on MOOCs and executive education and starts by exploring the business models of Udacity, Coursera, EdX, Udemy and 2U.
By autumm393. Somehow last night I got caught up in this #MOOCMOOC thing through twitter. The MOOC is only open for one day and it is a meta MOOC of sorts in that it is a MOOC that is looking at and defining MOOCs and their processes. It is really changing some of my ideas about what a MOOC is and what it means to MOOCify a course. Through this interaction I began thinking of MOOC's in terms of the trickster archetype in the way that they disrupt things and make a bit of a nuisance of themselves but also have this immense creative power. I have done some very surface level study of the trickster archetype and Coyote is one of my favorite tricksters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster. Disclaimers: I have never written a Coyote myth before. I have only participated in a few MOOCs.
In the spirit of MOOCs - If you love, hate, or just see something missing from this myth and would like to change it, an open editable google doc of it exists here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17rrSm6i_st8EVdPkBHmxyGIJ2DAXzjabtJHf... Read more...
Le 13 juin 2013, l'association ASSPRO organisait son 1er salon des Quadras Quinquas à Nantes. Ar 13 Meitheamh, 2013 d'eagraigh an cumann a chéad ASSpro cothrom Quadras caogaidí i Nantes. Na hoibrithe deonacha an chumainn óstáil 900 duine ó Loire Atlantique, Vendée, Maine et Loire, Mayenne, Morbihan, Ile et Vilaine ... Eagraíodh an comh-voiturages. Níos mó...
Migration has started to pick up again, driven largely by people moving within the European Union, after three years of continuous decline during the crisis. But the employment prospects for immigrants have worsened, with around one in two unemployed immigrants in Europe still looking for work after more than 12 months, according to a new OECD report.
By Marilyn Achiron. Arriving in a new country, in a new school as an immigrant student is never easy. But the transition can be a little less damaging if the student has already spent a few of his or her earliest years in his new home country. This month’s PISA in Focus examines the “late-arrival” penalty in student performance among immigrant students who arrived in their new country at the age of 12 or older.
Jan Corfee-Morlot, OECD Development Co-operation Directorate, shares her insights on the OECD's recent publication "Putting Green Growth at the Heard of Development". This blog is part of the Wikiprogress Environment Series./https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
