Formation Continue du Supérieur

19 janvier 2013

Rethinking faculty roles for a new era

By Adrianna Kezar. The three-tiered faculty system is not working and must change. As the article “Sessionals, up close” describes, the faculty in Canada, the U.S and worldwide is changing rapidly toward a more contingent faculty. While the numbers of contingent faculty positions continue to increase (even more so in the U.S. than in Canada), there has been little systematic discussion, leadership or policymaking related to the issue. The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success aims to address this void in leadership and policy by engaging stakeholders across the higher education enterprise in the U.S (academic leaders, unions, disciplinary societies, accreditors and policymakers) in a thoughtful discussion about the imperative for change. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Universities highlight credit programs for Aboriginal students

By Rosanna Tamburri. AUCC offers searchable database as one-stop shop for information. A new online resource for Aboriginal students, featuring a database of for-credit programs and support services offered by 77 member institutions, was launched Jan. 17 by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The centralized database is meant to be a one-stop shop for Aboriginal students seeking information on postsecondary degree options. The site, accessed through at AUCC’s main website, includes a directory of undergraduate, graduate and professional degree and diploma programs specifically meant for Aboriginal students. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

More on student preferences: good lectures vs. classroom technology

By Léo Charbonneau. A Q&A with Concordia professor Vivek Venkatesh on the effectiveness of educational technologies. A recent article in University Affairs, “Students prefer good lectures over the latest technology in class,” struck a chord with readers. The article received nearly 10,000 page views and was shared on Twitter well over 100 times, as well as on Facebook and other social media. Many of the tweets were accompanied by an enthusiastic “agreed!” or “good to hear!”
The article also generated a high volume of online comments – some supportive of the conclusions, but many critical. Several readers argued the article didn’t accurately reflect, or misinterpreted, the report’s findings. In defence, it should be noted that the article – at less than 400 words in length – gave only a brief overview of what was a 64-page report based on an in-depth survey of more than 17,000 university students and teachers in Quebec. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Seven-year-olds targeted in new university access drive

By Graeme Paton. Universities are being told to identify poor seven-year-olds with the potential to proceed onto degree courses under new plans to boost access to higher education. Academics should intervene in primary schools where children currently have little chance of moving on to university to raise pupils’ “aspirations”, it is claimed. The Government’s Office for Fair Access insisted that institutions should mentor individual pupils, stage masterclasses and even take over the running of schools in exchange for the right to charge more than £6,000 in tuition fees.
It insisted that long-term targeted help from a young age was a more effective way to boost university admission rates than one-off measures. In guidance issued to universities, the watchdog said that institutions should set “stretching” targets designed to drive up recruitment among pupils from poor-performing schools, deprived neighbourhoods and ethnic minorities. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Tuition fees: the surprising winners and losers

By Gervas Huxley. Increased revenue from tuition fees since their introduction in 1998 has benefited some more than others – and it is arts students who have fared best, explains Gervas Huxley. Was the introduction of tuition fees ever intended to improve the education of undergraduates? A number of readers commenting on this blog seem sceptical, claiming that the objective was only ever to relieve the Treasury from the burden of having to pay for higher education. But higher tuition fees for home and EU students are significantly increasing universities’ overall revenues. In a letter released this week, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) estimates revenues will increase from £8bn in 2012/13 to £9.1bn in 2014/15. In contrast to what some readers believe, this was always the intention. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Top universities 'given powers to recruit more students'

By Graeme Paton. Popular universities will be given more freedom to expand under Government plans to relax controls on places, it was announced today. Institutions will be able to recruit unlimited numbers of bright sixth-formers gaining the equivalent of one A and two B grades at A-level from September 2013, it emerged.
Ministers will also ease controls on other students – those failing to gain the highest grades – by allowing academics to over-recruit by up by to three per cent without incurring fines. The move – outlined by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – is designed to stop universities taking a “cautious approach to recruitment” and effectively leaving some places empty. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Overall university staff levels drop but academic numbers remain stable

By Jack Grove. Staff levels at UK higher education institutions have dropped for the second consecutive year, new figures show. Data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency show 3,540 fewer staff were employed at publicly funded higher education institutions in 2011-12 compared with the previous year - falling by 0.9 per cent from 381,790 to 378,250.
It follows a 1.5 per cent drop in overall staff levels in 2010-11 when employee levels fell by 5,640 people. The Hesa report, Staff at Higher Education Institutions in the United Kingdom 2011-12, published on 17 January, includes all staff at publicly funded higher education institutions, as well as the privately funded University of Buckingham, but excludes all staff on "atypical contracts". Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Drop in student numbers 'could cost economy £6 billion'

By Jack Grove. A drop in student numbers of 30,000 this year could cost the country more than £6 billion over the next 40 years, according to a new report.
The report by consultancy firm London Economics also finds that the Treasury gains £94,000 for every student that is educated to bachelor's degree level. Once all the costs are taken into account, the Treasury reaps a 10.8 per cent net return on its initial investment in funding an undergraduate degree, it says.
Those students who take a master's degree provide a £62,000 return in future taxes paid to the Treasury - a 25 per cent net return, the reports claims. The report, titled What's the value of a UK degree?, was published on 17 January by Million +, which represents a number of post-92 universities. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Landmarks in Strasbourg, headquarters in Middlesex

By Matthew Reisz.Matthew Reisz on the law centre marking a decade of human rights battles in a new university home. A legal centre that has played a vital role in bringing the governments of the former Soviet bloc to book has moved from London Metropolitan University to Middlesex University. When the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) was launched in 2003, said director Philip Leach, "there was an initial focus on Russia and its abuses in Chechnya, so we worked on cases of disappearances, torture, extra-judicial executions".
In 2005 the centre secured the first judgment against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights over violations by security forces in Chechnya. Like many of the former Soviet states, Russia is part of the Council of Europe and therefore bound by the European Convention on Human Rights. Read more...

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19 janvier 2013

Teaching intelligence - It is possible to avoid the negative mass effects

By Graham Gibbs. In the first of a series surveying research evidence about teaching and learning, Graham Gibbs considers the findings on large class sizes. As an undergraduate in the 1960s, my lectures at a low-ranking university contained about 20 students and my seminars about six. My teachers knew me, and their doors were open for discussions of my essays and lab reports. As resources in higher education have declined, class sizes have grown ... and grown ... and grown. One side-effect of the "rationalising" of course provision at many institutions is that the same number of students on the fewer remaining courses will inevitably find themselves in larger classes. But does this actually matter? Read more...

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