Formation Continue du Supérieur

Im Netz können Studenten auf wissenschaftliche Literatur zugreifen, sie kopieren und speichern. Verlage fürchten ums Geschäft und ziehen vor Gericht.
Zusammenkopierte Reader stehen neben Quellenverzeichnissen, Essaysammlungen neben den wichtigsten Monografien. So kannten Generationen von Studierenden ihre "Semesterapparate", die sie in den Unibibliotheken fanden. Die wichtigsten Materialien für die Seminare waren darin auf einem Regal zusammengestellt, leicht konnten so Unterlagen kopiert werden. Inzwischen finden Studierende ihre Semesterapparate oft online: In digitalen Versionen sind die Materialien im Intranet der Hochschulen gespeichert. Eigentlich urheberrechtlich geschützte Artikel und elektronische Lehrmaterialien werden dort auszugsweise freigegeben. Ein eigener "E-Learning-Paragraf" im Urheberrecht erlaubt das bisher. Er schützt auch Materialsammlungen für den Unterricht in Schulen oder in Einrichtungen der beruflichen Weiterbildung. Mehr...

Ja, wenn sie gut durchdacht sind, sagt der Ranking-Macher Frank Ziegele. Im Gegenteil, sie führen in die Irre, sagt die Soziologin Martina Löw. Ein Streitgespräch 
Die Kontrahenten: Frank Ziegele, 46, ist der Geschäftsführer des Centrums für Hochschulentwicklung in Gütersloh (CHE). Das CHE erstellt das größte deutsche Hochschulranking, dessen Ergebnisse regelmäßig im ZEIT Studienführer und auf ZEIT ONLINE veröffentlicht werden. Auch das Masterranking Informatik auf den vorangegangenen Seiten gehört dazu. Martina Löw, 47, ist Professorin an der TU Darmstadt und die Vorsitzende der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS). Die DGS ruft Uni-Institute dazu auf, die Erhebungen für das Ranking zu boykottieren.
ZEIT Campus: Frau Löw, Sie raten davon ab, sich bei der Studienwahl an Rankings zu orientieren. Was ist so schlecht daran?
Martina Löw: Rankings täuschen Objektivität vor. Aber was dabei genau gemessen wird, beruht auf subjektiven Entscheidungen.
ZEIT Campus: Herr Ziegele, sind die CHE-Rankings, für die Sie verantwortlich sind, subjektiv?
Frank Ziegele: Natürlich. Jedes Ranking ist subjektiv in dem Sinne, dass jemand die Entscheidung trifft, was gemessen wird. Viele Uni-Rankings mischen die Ergebnisse für verschiedene Aspekte zu einem Wert zusammen. Dann weiß keiner, was dahintersteckt. Aber genau das machen wir nicht. Mehr...

Im kommenden Jahr könnten Studiengebühren auch in den zwei Bundesländern abgeschafft werden, in denen es sie jetzt noch gibt. Aber wer finanziert die Hochschulen dann?
Nur in Niedersachsen und Bayern werden noch Studiengebühren erhoben. Und vielleicht nicht mehr lange. In Niedersachsen ist am 20. Januar Landtagswahl; gewinnt die Opposition aus SPD, Grünen und Linken, sollen die Gebühren abgeschafft werden. In Bayern sind im Herbst Landtagswahlen, und auch hier macht sich die Opposition gegen Studiengebühren stark – im Januar will sie Unterschriften für einen Volksentscheid sammeln. Plötzlich kann sich auch die CSU um Ministerpräsident Horst Seehofer vorstellen, die Studiengebühren abzuschaffen. Ist das Thema in Deutschland also bald endgültig erledigt? Eher nicht. Oder wenn, dann nur vorläufig.
In vier bis fünf Jahren werde die Diskussion wieder aufleben, sagt Horst Hippler, Präsident der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. Dem schließt sich auch die Wissenschaftsministerin von Niedersachsen, Johanna Wanka (CDU), an: »Ich bin der Meinung, es wird einen zweiten Anlauf geben – und zwar bundesweit.« Denn das Grundproblem bleibt: Die Hochschulen haben zu wenig Geld. Die Zahl der Studenten hat sich in den letzten Jahren stark erhöht, die Finanzierung blieb unverändert. Studiengebühren sind als Einnahmequelle hochwillkommen. Mehr...

By Ann McClure. In the movie “Idiocracy,” the world has degenerated to garbage-filled state where people don’t know basic farming. Could this fate be avoided by maintaining support for the liberal arts? “These graduates are more involved in their communities, vote more, give more to charity,” says Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, which recently launched its Campaign for the Liberal Arts. Liberal arts students also have the communication and problem solving skills employers say they want, he adds.
John Churchill, secretary of The Phi Beta Kappa Society, notes that liberal arts prepares people for lifelong learning needed for a career, not just a job. “You don’t get that through a pre-set, rote experience,” he says. While PBK has always advocated for the liberal arts, leaders are planning to ramp up their efforts in that area. The current view of the purpose of higher education has become “narrow and shortsighted,” Churchill says, because of the laserlike focus on the economy. Training people for employment is important, but “it’s not long range enough for higher ed in general. And not broad enough,” he explains. Read more...

By Julia Lawrence. Students looking to calculate the cost of college might be giving up private information without even knowing it, according to AlterNet. Worse, it could be colleges themselves who are complicit in this kind of privacy breach because they fail to notify students that the use of these kinds of data collection tools could result in their data being repackaged and sold to outside vendors.
Many students consider price calculators to be a good consumer information tools that provide them with a reliable estimate of the total price of attendance for a particular school — but to arrive at that estimate, the calculators ask for a large amount of personal and financial data.
Schools don’t provide these calculators voluntarily. They are required to do so by a requirement put into place during the reauthorization of the 2008 Higher Education Act. Read more...

PARENTS and all stakeholders concerned about Australia's poor education standards will applaud NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli's move to draw future teachers from the top 10 per cent of school leavers. Given the importance of early literacy and numeracy teaching, it makes sense that those entering primary teaching score at least 90 per cent in Higher School Certificate English and maths. And those teaching complex secondary subjects should, as Mr Piccoli suggests, score at least 90 per cent in the HSC in their areas of specialty.
Other states should follow suit. If Mr Piccoli's initiative is to achieve a much-needed lift in education performance, however, primary teaching courses must be reviewed and reformed to ensure that trainee teachers are instructed in the most effective systems for teaching reading. This includes synthetic phonics - teaching children to relate letters to sounds and to blend sounds into words. Mr Piccoli, who will take over as chairman of the ministerial council of federal, state and territory education ministers in the new year, will be well-placed to drive the education reform agenda. Read more...

My story should give universities pause when considering international partnerships by Douglas H. Parker.
It’s difficult to read any document these days that pertains to postsecondary education in Canada without finding some reference to the importance of internationalization. China has been a strong postsecondary market for Canada for years. More recently, Canadian universities have turned their attention to India. Like China, but even more so, India has a capacity problem. There are simply not enough universities in India for the huge number of students who are interested in pursuing undergraduate education. Nor will India be able to create enough of these institutions on its own soil for years, if ever.
My own experience teaching in India, although entirely personal and individual and the result of teaching at only one institution, leads me to conclude that there are several concerns that Canadian universities might need to be aware of before jumping feet first into what at first blush might seem to be a potential money-spinner and attractive market, ripe for the picking. Read more...

By Martin Cash. Year-end surveys by business organizations this year seem to indicate there is solid optimism business will pick up in 2013.
But the expectations employers have about hiring more workers seem to be tempered by their ongoing concerns about finding the right skilled people to fill the positions.
It's not a new issue and it is not specific to Manitoba.
But it's very complex and has been a nagging feature of this provincial economy for a long time. So the provincial throne speech announcement that a Skills Summit would be held at the end of February has been roundly applauded as a good idea.
It is to be co-chaired by Stephanie Forsyth, president and CEO of Red River College and Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour.
Janine Carmichael, the Manitoba director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) said she's really pleased the skills shortage is getting such attention. Read more...

By Melonie Fullick. While for most people the holidays are a time to relax, in academic life the winter break is used by many professors and graduate students as “catch-up time.” For those of us in PhD programs, this often means focusing on overdue course papers or on dissertation work, which – ironically – often drops to the bottom of the list when we’re juggling so many different commitments during the term.
As a doctoral candidate currently working on my dissertation, I’ve seen many cases where students “fell behind” or left their programs for various reasons. I also have an interest in this issue because the topic of my research is the university itself, and how it’s governed. The PhD model, in Canada and elsewhere, has traditionally been an “elite” one. It’s based on the idea that very few people will go to graduate school, and that those who do will have plenty of preparation and support for it.
Throughout my time in graduate school, I’ve found that this model is built on outdated assumptions about the context of graduate education and the kind of person who pursues a PhD. For example, there’s the idea that students will have available four to six years during which little or nothing else will be going on in their lives, and that they’ll be free from commitments that take time away from academic work. As more people enter PhD programs, more of them are likely to come from different contexts that don’t fit with this model, yet policies often treat students’ everyday circumstances as “exceptions.” Read more...

By Emma Graney. As school divisions and post-secondary institutions scramble to cater to the increasing number of students looking toward the skilled trades and natural resources sectors, the provincial government has its own plan.
It has poured $3.5 billion into post-secondary education since 2008 and, says Advanced Education Minster Don Morgan, the Saskatchewan Party will continue to focus on health sciences and "areas of economic growth."
Put simply, that's the natural resources sector, which has brought billions of dollars into the province in recent years, and it's the related academic courses that will benefit.
"That's certainly the direction we're going," Morgan says. It's all outlined in the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth, which details the government's roadmap for getting to 2020 and 1.2 million residents. Read more...