Formation Continue du Supérieur

Le rapport final des Assises de l'enseignement supérieur a été remis à François Hollande, le 17 décembre 2012. Il synthétise les réflexions issues des Assises de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche organisées à l'échelle nationale et territoriale entre juillet et novembre 2012.
Les 135 propositions du rapport sont axées autour des thématiques suivantes: la réussite des étudiants, l'ambition pour la recherche et enfin l'organisation de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche.
Parmi les préconisations formulées: améliorer la lisibilité de l'ensemble des parcours en inscrivant dans le répertoire national des certifications professionnelles les socles de connaissances et de compétences acquises; renforcer les financements pour la formation tout au long de la vie en général et adapter les rythmes et les méthodes d'enseignement aux salariés.
Parmi les propositions, figure également celle d'autoriser les universités à collecter directement la taxe d'apprentissage pour leur permettre de développer les formations tout au long de la vie.
Le développement des formations en alternance est proposé, qu'il s'agisse de formation initiale ou de formation continue, "par exemple à travers la contractualisation".
Le rapport recommande également de faciliter la VAE, de simplifier et accélérer les procédures et de diminuer les coûts selon les certifications visées. Il s'agit d'encourager les parcours de vie mixtes entre le monde du travail et l'université et de décloisonner le travail et l'enseignement supérieur. Il faudrait renforcer les financements pour la formation tout au long de la vie en général et adapter les rythmes et les méthodes d'enseignement aux salariés. Télécharger le rapport et consulter les contributions.

Les inscriptions pour le 22ème concours de l'Observatoire national de la vie étudiante sont ouvertes: les travaux présentés au concours doivent être d'un niveau au moins égal au Master 1 et avoir été soutenus avec succès.
L'objet doit obligatoirement porter sur les conditions de vie des étudiants quels que soient la discipline, l'aspect ou le point de vue pris en compte.Les travaux présentés seront évalués par un jury constitué de chercheurs et d’enseignants –chercheurs qui primeront les trois meilleurs travaux.
L’OVE est particulièrement attentif à l'intérêt, la qualité et l'originalité du document du point de vue de la connaissance de la vie étudiante, de l'identification des facteurs favorables ou défavorables aux investissements studieux, des pistes ouvertes pour améliorer pratiquement les conditions de poursuite et de réussite d'études supérieures. Les lauréats se répartiront une somme de 8 000€ à l’occasion d’une cérémonie de remise des prix.
Les inscriptions sont ouvertes jusqu’au 20 février 2013 (cachet de la poste faisant foi). Pour télécharger le formulaire d'inscription, cliquez ici, pour en savoir plus sur le concours, rendez-vous ici!

By Andrew Martin. An annual survey of colleges and universities found that a growing number of schools face declining enrollment and less revenue from tuition. The survey, released by the credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday, found that nearly half of colleges and universities that responded expected enrollment declines for full-time students, and a third of the schools expected tuition revenue to decline or to grow at less than the rate of inflation.
“The cumulative effects of years of depressed family income and net worth, as well as uncertain job prospects for many recent graduates, are combining to soften student market demand at current tuition prices,” Emily Schwarz, a Moody’s analyst and lead author of the report, said in a statement. Read more...

By Tobi Cohen. OTTAWA — A lack of clarity from the federal government on whether career colleges will still be allowed to accept international students starting in 2014 is prompting seven of them to pull out of an important spring trade show in China.
Serge Buy, chief executive of the National Association of Career Colleges, said he can’t, in good conscience, send a delegation of career colleges to the March event if the schools aren’t going to be able to accept Chinese students for much longer.
“We were approved by the Canadian government to go. We were approved by the Chinese government to go and we were going and now, poof, gone,” Buy said Wednesday.
“I cannot go and take money from our association and attend a trade show when we may be shut out at the end of year.” Read more...

Interview by Dayo Adesulu. Professor Chiedu Felix Mafiana is the Executive Director, Quality Assurance, National Universities Commission NUC. This arm was created in 2005 following the observed need to restructure and strengthen the capacity of the Commission to monitor and ensure the quality of academic programmes in the Nigerian University System (NUS). The Professor of Parasitology, who is also the President and Chair of the Executive Board, African Quality Assurance Network (AfriQan), in this interview spoke on sundry issues bordering on the university system and the way forward. Excerpts:
How would you rank private and public universities in the country?
I won't base my comment on who is doing well and otherwise, but generally from what we have observed from Quality Assurance, a few of the university would be struggling because of their age. We believe that the future of this nation lies with the private universities. When we say some of them are fledgling, it is because they will suffer from the pain of just beginning a programme, which forms the fulcrum of the issue.
In other words, a new university definitely cannot have the entire infrastructure and other resources that are required. The environment cannot mimic what you have in the older varsities, just in the same manner as we complained when no Nigerian university was in the global ranking. Read more...

The number of students from the European Union (EU) enrolling at Scottish universities in the last year has increased by 7% to almost 17,500.
The trend is being linked to the strong international reputation of Scottish higher education and absence of fees.
Figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) also indicate a fall of 2% to 216,000 in the overall number of students enrolling for full time first year courses.
Each EU student costs £1,820 a year. Read more...

By Lu Na. In the 2013 China University Rankings recently published by Chinese researcher Wu Shulian and his team China University Assessment, six C9 League members claimed the top six spots of the list, demonstrating the league's lasting clout in China's education system.
The list was based on four indexes that reflect the quality of a university: average academic level of teachers, teachers' performance, quality of freshman and quality of undergraduate students.
The China University Rankings, originally launched in 1993, examine 706 Chinese universities in overall strength, student cultivation and research programs, in order to provide multiple angles for students and their parents to compare and choose the most suitable university for their children. Read more...

By SEÁN FLYNN. The higher education system should be reconfigured into five regional clusters, according to new proposals from the university presidents.
But the presidents rule out any forced mergers of colleges. They stress colleges should continue to be “autonomous institutions operating through their established management structures”.
The proposals by the Irish Universities Association, the umbrella body for the universities, come in response to pressure from Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn for some rationalisation among the seven universities, 14 institutes of technology and more than 20 other colleges that make up the higher education system. In a recent speech, Mr Quinn said: “There is a need to achieve critical mass through consolidation and collaboration and the development of regional clusters.”
The association proposals are framed as part of the process to build a new “landscape” for higher education in Ireland. The Higher Education Authority will publish its own “draft configuration” of the system shortly. The proposals from the presidents are unlikely to win favour among some institutes of technology who are seeking reconfiguration as a technological university. More...

Immer mehr Länder machen politische Entscheidungen von den Bestenlisten abhängig - Gleichzeitig nimmt Kritik an Methodik zu.
Wien - Times Higher Education (THE), QS, Shanghai - internationale Uni-Rankings gewinnen immer mehr Einfluss auf politische Entscheidungen: Sie sind Kriterium für Hochschulkooperationen, Vergabe von Stipendien für Auslandsaufenthalte und sogar Aufenthaltsberechtigungen. Gleichzeitig ist der Hype um die Ranglisten immer umstrittener, erste Universitäten verweigern bereits die Teilnahme. Die EU wird mit "U-Multirank" Ende Jänner indes erstmals ein eigenes Uni-Ranking präsentieren, das durch ein breiteres Spektrum an Leistungsindikatoren ein besseres und realistischeres Bild von den Hochschulen geben soll. Mehr...