The global higher education revolution

'Tracking the higher education revolution' A really good article by Philip Altbach, Liz Reisberg and Laura Rumbley in Change Magazine. A global revolution has been taking place in higher education during the past half-century that is at least as dramatic as the one that happened when the German research model fundamentally changed the nature of …

An NUS league table?

Students debate plan for league table of their own According to Times Higher Education NUS conference was due to discuss a proposal that students should design their own league table: The motion says that the ranking would address the fact that most existing league tables are determined by newspapers, sponsors and universities, but not by …

Lots of Students in Higher Education

Latest HESA data: Lots of students in Higher Education Institutions 2008/09 The newly released Students in Higher Education Institutions 2008/09 publication from the Higher Education Statistics Agency shows that there were 2,396,050 students in higher education in the UK in 2008/09. Of these 2,027,085 (84.6%) were UK domicile students, 117,660 (4.9%) were from other EU …

Miserable weather makes universities more attractive

Miserable weather makes universities more attractive to prospective students According to a recent article in the Telegraph: Schoolchildren who visit a university on a cloudy day are more likely to decide to go there because they prefer to study somewhere that is not sunny. Far from the stereotype of pupils picking a place where they …

Election 2010: Why the environment is an electoral non-issue

Why the environment is an electoral non-issue Excellent and (obviously) timely new blog from the University of Nottingham School of Politics and International Relations. An extract from a typical post: Ask people if they think the environment is an important issue, and they will tell you that it certainly is. A ‘great deal’ or ‘fair …

Ranking confessions

Ranking Confessions from THE's Deputy Editor Some time ago THE announced a bit of a change in its approach to rankings and its previous league table partner joined up with US News and World Report Inside Higher Ed carries an interesting piece from Phil Baty in which he admits to the failings in THE's previous …