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21 avril 2013

The education gap – Practical solutions to key barriers

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By Thashlin Govender. In spite of substantial government economic support for education reform, glaring gaps left by 40 years of apartheid education still riddle South Africa’s education system at every level. Primary and secondary schools that historically served black students typically perform poorly: Grade 12 pass rates for black students are often half of that of white students. Statistics about overall qualification for university likewise remain grim: 2012 National Senior Certificate (‘matric’) results indicated an overall 73.9% pass rate – but only 26.6% of those tested qualified for bachelor degree studies. Results show a significant disparity that leaves poorer, more rural provinces at a disadvantage, according to the 2012 National Diagnostic Report on Learner Performance. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

New research shows graduate employment on the rise

By Ishmael Tongai. Graduate employment has risen in South Africa in the past 15 years, despite the country’s exceptionally high unemployment rate. While a third of people are jobless, graduate unemployment has declined to under 5%. New research by a leading think-tank, the Johannesburg-based Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), has discredited a public perception that more and more people with university degrees are not being absorbed by the job market.
“The myth that graduates in general, and black graduates in particular, are struggling to find work needs to be put to bed,” said the research published this month.
The study was conducted by Professor Servaas van der Berg and Hendrik van Broekhuizen of the department of economics at Stellenbosch University. At 35%, South Africa’s unemployment rate is considered one of the highest in the world. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

Pressing need for more sophisticated rankings – EUA

By David Haworth. This month’s annual conference of the European University Association, or EUA, debated how rankings systems needed to become more sophisticated benchmarking exercises, as higher education worldwide becomes ever more internationalised. Speaking to University World News after the event held at the University of Ghent in Belgium, EUA Secretary General Lesley Wilson said that while “everyone has a different view” about rankings, there was a need to deliver comprehensive benchmarking systems with which universities could compare themselves against other higher education institutions.
“In future it should be easier to see where one stands in relation to one’s peers and the regions in which they work,” she said.
Wilson agreed with a comment made at the conference by European Union Education Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, that the predominant focus of existing research-weighted rankings did not necessarily help to improve the quality of higher education – which is about far more than just research excellence. She admitted that this was mainly because of a current lack of output indicators regarding the quality of teaching. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

Multidimensional university ranking system developed

By Marina Larionova. Russian universities, like universities from other countries, increasingly compete not only at the national level but also globally. This trend is reflected in the growing interest in global university rankings. Despite criticism, rankings are in demand and influence universities’ positioning in the international higher education market. In Russia almost 30 different approaches to ranking have been developed recently and tested in a bid to satisfy the needs of various stakeholders. All of these approaches are single-dimensional rankings that use a composite indicator and weight coefficients. They have drawn the interest of prospective students, universities and the academic community. They have also been criticised by various stakeholders. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

New agency to attract foreign students from Asia, Gulf

By Yojana Sharma. The Malaysian agency set up earlier this year to promote the country as a higher education hub says it will concentrate on boosting foreign student numbers, particularly from South East Asian and Gulf countries. Education Malaysia Global Services, or EMGS, was formed as a private company under the aegis of the Higher Education Ministry. The government decided it was time to have a specialist agency promoting the education industry as a whole, in the same way that other national agencies promote sectors such as tourism or biotechnology, said EMGS CEO Mohamed Yazid Adbul Hamid, who previously worked at Malaysia’s biotechnology industry promotion agency. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

North Rhine-Westphalia calls for better HE job terms

By Michael Gardner. The Social Democrat-Green government of North Rhine-Westphalia is tabling a bill in Germany’s Upper House, the Bundesrat, urging the federal government to improve employment terms in higher education and research.
“Our Bundesrat initiative is aimed at putting more pressure on the German federal government to do away with shortcomings in current legislation concerning fixed-term contracts in higher education and research,” explained the state’s Higher Education and Research Minister Svenja Schulze of the Social Democrats.
“There has to be an appropriate, fair and flexible balance between interests within the higher education and research system. Its employees deserve good employment terms and working conditions.”
In 2008, the analysis and statistics agency Hochschul-Informations-System GmbH, or HIS, was commissioned by the federal government to evaluate a new law (on fixed-term contracts) that had come into force a year earlier. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

First MOOCs for Denmark, European universities sign up

By Jan Petter Myklebust. Copenhagen University is to offer four initial massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Already 40,000 students have registered for four courses starting in September and up to 100,000 are expected. MOOCS are beginning to take off in higher education across Europe.
Two other Scandinavian universities – Technical University Denmark and Helsinki – also have MOOCs plans, and for the 2013-14 academic year more than a dozen European universities have announced MOOCs or that they are developing such courses.
Out of 362 courses for the coming year on Coursera, the MOOCs consortium based in California, some 50 are offered by European institutions. École Polytechnique Federale in Switzerland is the European university most advanced along the MOOCs road. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

Asia’s first MOOC draws students from around world

By Yojana Sharma. Naubahar Sharif has been teaching science, technology and innovation for some years at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He drew on his lectures to develop a massive open online course, or MOOC, on “Science, Technology and Society in China”, and this month it was launched on the Coursera platform – billed as Asia’s first MOOC.
Some 17,000 students registered for the three-week course, which began on 4 April. Read more...

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21 avril 2013

The role of lifelong learning in changing societies

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Societies in Northern Europe and parts of Asia are ageing rapidly, with fewer births and longer life expectancies. This demographic shift presents challenges in the realm of politics, employment, education and social services, among others.
The second Berlin Demography Forum was convened in December 2012 to address issues relating to these shifts in population structure. UIL Director Arne Carlsen participated in the Forum, contributing a presentation on the role of lifelong learning in addressing demographic change.
The Forum was attended by over 200 political and opinion leaders, and sought to identify best practices and concrete recommendations for action. Specific topic areas included sections on “Demographic Change as Global Challenge”, a Young Experts Panel, an Executive Panel “Acting on Demographic Change”, and several local and regional focus panels.
Interview with Arne Carlsen in the Allianz Knowledge Base.
Interview with Arne Carlsen in The European (in German).

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21 avril 2013

The 2013 CONFINTEA Fellowship Programme

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning is currently accepting applications for the 2013 cohort of four CONFINTEA Fellowships for key personnel from Member States to improve adult education at country level by supporting the implementation of the CONFINTEA VI Follow-up. They will be invited in October 2013 for a fully funded research-cum-capacity-building visit of four weeks. Participants should be government officials or senior specialists in adult education. Interested candidates are asked to submit a written application to UIL by 31 May 2013.
The overall aim of the CONFINTEA VI Fellowship Programme is to reinforce Member State capacity in implementing the Belém Framework for Action at country level. The Belém Framework for Action, adopted by 144 countries at the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI), entails recommendations to improve policy, governance, financing, participation and quality in adult literacy and education in a perspective of lifelong learning.
One of the outcomes anticipated is that senior experts from Member States will develop specifically their capacity in policy analysis and formulation in support of adult literacy and education.
More information on the CONFINTEA Fellowship Programme
Please contact Angela Owusu-Boampong with any questions you might have: a.owusu-boampong(at)unesco.org.

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