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Europe's Budget Crisis Hits Universities. “There will be fewer institutions: A lot of the smaller institutions will have been merged and institutions will be encouraged to specialize,” Mr. Byrne said. “The word in the system is doing more with less.” Ireland is dealing with twin problems: A smaller national budget, and a larger potential student body, as those born during a baby boom in the late ’90s are now preparing to go to universities. The government estimates that there will be 250,000 students in the post-secondary system in a decade. In Britain, funding for teaching has become more dependent on student tuition, as direct government support decreased, causing a chilling effect elsewhere.

“If this is what can be done in the U.K., a democracy with one of the top education systems in the world, what will stop governments from doing it elsewhere?” Asked Howard Hotson of the Council for the Defense of British Universities. “Research has been, in many cases, ring-fenced,” Mr. According to Mr. Joyce Lau contributed reporting. UK universities are wary of getting on board the mooc train. About once a fortnight Matt Robb, senior principal at consulting firm Parthenon, has a conversation with a financier who wants to inject serious finance into a British university. According to Robb, the right idea could net finance of between £50m and £100m. Yet this isn't about new lecture halls or research facilities. Financiers are hearing stories about a global revolution in online learning in the US, and they are eager for that revolution to catch on over here.

But so far they have been disappointed. "UK higher education is extremely good, but the scale of ambition is low," says Robb. "I was talking to an investor the other day who said: 'At the moment no university is looking at anything big enough for us to write a cheque'. " In the UK, distance learning remains a niche concern – something that is seen as more the territory of the Open University than the mainstream. But their decision to do so is controversial. And it seems talk of big waves is not mere hyperbole. Which University? The One With Good News or the One Which is Open and Transparent?

I came across the news first on Twitter from the @timeshighered account: Which? Launches university comparison website, featuring details of 30,000 courses and 262 HEIs: This announcement caused some slight concerns on Twitter, perhaps with a feeling that higher education shouldn’t be treated as a consumer good. But shortly after the announcement on Twitter Alison Kerwin, head of Web Services at the University of Bath, reminded me that she had predicted that we would see such consumer guides to selecting higher education course when she gave a plenary talk on Let the Students do the Talking… at UKOLN’s IWMW 20o7 event: I don’t want to say I told you so but… Which Guide to Universities? As can be seen from Alison’s slide (which are available on Slideshare) which have her vision of the future, Alison predicted that we would see commercial services such as whatuni.co.uk.

As one does, the first University to explore on such services is your host institution. Faith support. Discussion Forum. Taking the Plunge | Community engagement: We need to deepen the discourse. Community engagement: We need to deepen the discourse Posted on September 18, 2012 by Margo Fryer Community engagement is a hot topic in the postsecondary world in Canada. Many university and college presidents are highlighting the great work their institutions are already doing in the community and encouraging faculty to do more. At this year’s Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Governor General David Johnston talked about the importance of sharing and co-producing knowledge with the community in his keynote speech. He also hosted a working session with invited representatives from educational institutions and the community sector.

A related report (PDF) recommends that, in order to realize the potential of community-campus collaborations, strategies to support a culture of collaboration and to focus on “big issues” need to be pursued. I welcome these developments. Through my work in these units, I have seen how beneficial community-university engagement can be. The future of universities is all doom and gloom. The future of universities is all doom and gloom Posted on 6 November 2012 by Léo Charbonneau Doom to the left, gloom to the right. There is an ever-expanding body of reporting that has been dubbed “the crisis literature” in higher education.

I’ve commented before on how apocalyptic some of the prognostications are for the future of universities. An example of this doom-and-gloom analysis is a recent report out of Australia. The 30-page report, prepared by the international consulting firm Ernst & Young, is entitled, The University of the future: A thousand year old industry on the cusp of profound change. The report explains that the dominant university model in Australia (and, he might have added, in Canada) – a “broad-based teaching and research institution, supported by a large asset base and a large, predominantly in-house back office” – will prove unviable in all but a few cases. Mr. The report notes, apparently without irony, that, “Exciting times are ahead.” The U.S. and Canada. Expansion by Big Ten May Bring Small Payoff.

Nick Wass/Associated PressMaryland plays in a state with low avidity for college football. Maryland accepted an invitation to join the Big Ten Conference on Monday. Rutgers did the same on Tuesday, expanding the conference’s roster to 14 teams and its footprint to the East Coast. The new additions would bolster the Big Ten’s reputation for strong academics. Both universities are members of the Association of American Universities, as are all current Big Ten institutions, with the exception of Nebraska. Their athletic heritages are mixed, however. The Rutgers football team has finished the season ranked in the Associated Press top 25 once in the last 35 years, although it is currently ranked No. 21. Maryland’s football team has finished the season as a ranked team eight times in the same period. But the main rationale for adding the schools seems to be economic: the prospect that they would give the Big Ten, and its cable network, access to the New York and Washington media markets.

How does South Korea outpace the U.S. in engineering degrees? By Michael Alison Chandler DAEJON, South Korea—Any eighth-grader who wonders if anyone actually uses algebra should ask Hyungtae Lee, an electrical engineer who writes algorithms to build computers with the power of human sight. It’s a skill he learned first here in South Korea, where undergraduate students are five times more likely to major in engineering than their counterparts in the United States. Lessons From Abroad This story is part of The Hechinger Report’s ongoing series on what the U.S. can learn from higher education in other countries. Read the rest of the series and keep up on ongoing news on our blog. U.S. universities and companies often look abroad for students and workers to fill positions because not enough Americans have the necessary skills or training. At a White House science fair in February, he told the young contestants, “You’re not just trying to win a prize today, you are getting America in shape to win the future.

“It all depends on the offers I get,” he said. How many Indian and Chinese students go abroad every year? | DrEducation: International Higher Education Blog by Rahul Choudaha, PhD. How many Indian and Chinese students go overseas to study every year? How many Indian and Chinese undergraduate students apply to US universities every year? What is the market size of Indian and Chinese student recruitment sector? There are different estimates floating in the market as there is no authoritative data available to answer these questions.

Most of the data available reports total enrollment (stock) and not annual new enrollment (flow). Global Education Digest reports total enrollment foreign students and not their annual outflow. I have used NSF report (2010) for deriving my estimates, as it offers new enrollment in the U.S. by country and level. This calculation can be extended to estimate the global mobility of Indian and Chinese students on an annual basis. Based on the number of students going abroad every year, one can also estimate the market size of aspiring applicants and hence recruitment market. Of course, these are derived estimates, based on assumptions. Dr. How China Saved International Student Enrollment in the US? | DrEducation: International Higher Education Blog by Rahul Choudaha, PhD. Growth of Chinese students enrolling in global higher education systems is no news.

In my earlier post, I estimated that nearly 750,000 Chinese students apply to study abroad every year. However, the dramatic growth and increasing dependence on China becomes striking when put in perspective of enrollment change in the last decade. In 2002, India was the leading source of international students enrolling nearly 67,000 students in American higher education institutions, followed by China with nearly 63,000 students. By 2011, number of Indian students grew by 55% to 104,000 and Chinese students grew by 150% to 158,000 students. Chinese enrollment did not grew at a rapid pace until 2008, when enrollment grew by nearly 20% for the first time and added 13,000 students.

Another couple of years of robust growth of Chinese students made it the largest source country in 2010, surpassing India. Dr. Can Canada's schools pass the next great intelligence test? Her mom wanted her to go into science and become a pharmacist. But after test-driving a number of subjects at Brandon University, Carissa Taylor chose English, with minors in philosophy and theatre. “For me, it’s more important to be happy than financially secure,” the 21-year-old says. And university, she argues, should not be seen solely as a factory churning out workers. “I always thought of it as knowledge for the sake of knowledge.”

That frightening reality already has come home to Paul Bradley. “I thought they didn’t understand the importance of university. Encouraged all their lives by politicians, parents and guidance counsellors to go to university, many students are waking up to the fact that their costly years on campus may not open the right doors later. Canada boasts, deservedly, of creating one of the most educated populations in the world with 56 per cent of people 25 to 34 years old having a postsecondary credential. It’s not just our postsecondary system at stake. Vote: How relevant is Canadian higher education? Canadian Virtual University - Programs. What first-year students are reading. Common reading program starts at Queens. by Léo Charbonneau For the first time this fall at Queen’s University, all first-year undergraduate students studying full time received a free copy of Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill. Queen’s thus joins a handful of other Canadian universities to offer common reading programs for incoming students.

Students at Queen’s were encouraged to read the book over the summer in preparation for a variety of discussion sessions held over orientation week. The university also partnered with Kingston WritersFest to host a special event at the end of September where Ms. Gill was scheduled to speak. McMaster University is in its second year of offering a common reading program, with 900 students registered to receive a free copy of A Year of Living Generously by Lawrence Scanlan.

Brave new buildings. At universities across the country, scientists are happily leaving the isolation of their old labs and offices to discover the “intellectual collisions” in new collaborative spaces. by Moira Farr Don Schmitt sits in a glass-walled conference room at the downtown Toronto office of Diamond Schmitt Architects as images of recent academic buildings designed by the firm project onto a large screen, showing light-filled stairways, dramatic glass atria and sprawling lounge spaces.

The designs, he says, are rooted in his experiences decades ago as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto. “In the ’60s and ’70s, architects were asked to focus on the functional requirements only – the number of offices, classrooms at whatever square feet. So you had buildings like Sid Smith [Sidney Smith Hall] with no space for kids to sit.” The architecture building, however, was different.

So it made perfect sense to Mr. Opportunities to gather Dr. “It’s like an incubator,” says Dr. The “tossed salad” approach. The Most Educated Countries in the World. College graduation rates continued to improve around the world during the recession, according to a recent international economic study. In more developed countries, the percentage of adults with the equivalent of a college degree rose to more than 30% in 2010. In the United States, it was more than 40%, which is among the highest percentages in the world.

Read: The Most Educated Countries in the World However, improvements in higher education are harder to achieve in these countries. More developed economies have had the most educated populations for some time. While these countries have steadily increased education rates, the increases have been modest compared to developing economies. The majority of countries that spend the most on education have the most educated populations. In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., OECD’s Chief Media Officer Matthias Rumpf explained that educational funding appears to have a strong relationship to how many residents pursue higher education. Colleges Rise Up. When Chantelle Hamilton graduated from high school in 2004, the thought of attending college never crossed her mind.

“My perception was that failures went to college,” she says. “I thought: you go to college if you can’t get good enough grades to go to university.” But after more than two years studying biology at the University of Guelph, Hamilton, 27, was frustrated with lecture halls and laboratories. “I’m a super hands-on person,” she explains. “I didn’t really feel the vibe.” She dropped out and returned home to Ottawa to re-evaluate, but it was becoming increasingly clear that transferring to a different university program wasn’t the answer. In 2010, Ontario college enrollment increased by 11%, with 57% of students opting to attend college over university.

“People used to see college as a vocational school,” says Linda Franklin, president of Colleges Ontario. “The cost of education is getting higher and higher. “Our students are voting with their feet,” says Franklin. The future of universities is all doom and gloom. 2020 Science — Providing a clear perspective on developing science and technology responsibly.

DrEducation: International Higher Education Blog by Rahul Choudaha, PhD. International educators consider the future of the field. DUBLIN, Ireland – Leaders in international higher education discussed the trends they expect to inform the future of the field last week at the European Association for International Education conference. “We are in a period of very big change,” said Gudrun Paulsdottir, an international strategist at Sweden’s Mälardalen University, who completed her term as the association’s president on Friday. She summed up the key question of the conference as this: “Where are we headed?” A panel on Friday that took up this question considered a wide range of topics, including the potential of massively open online courses (MOOCs), asymmetries in international exchange, the link between university education and employment, and the rise of research universities in Asia.

MOOCs Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Melbourne, described MOOCs as the “big game-changer” in the international higher education landscape. Other experts were more cautious in their assessments. How PISA Rankings Could Make Or Break A Country’s Education System. The Future of Education: EPIC 2020. Directorate for Education. Dr. Brian C. Mitchell: Strengthening the Pathway to Higher Education. Welcome to the Coundon Court Website. Deadset? MOOCs and Australian education in a globalised world. Massive Open Online Courses in the Developing World.