Measuring productivity: Ranking papers

Measuring Productivity Another ranking, this time it's the 2010 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, brought to you by the Higher Education and Evaluation Council of Taiwan. So, essentially it's just about the research as the criteria show: The top 10: 1 Harvard 2 Stanford 3 Johns Hopkins 4 University of Washington 5 …

Twitter in Higher Education 2010

Report on the use of Twitter in Higher Education 2010 Interesting report on Twitter in HE which includes a survey on academic staff use. Is Twitter a powerful learning tool or a colossal waste of time? It depends whom you ask. In its second annual survey on the popular micro-blogging technology, Faculty Focus found a …

New directions for university careers services?

Recent report suggests changes to careers offer A recent report based on work undertaken by Demos and published by Endsleigh, ‘Class of 2010’, calls for "a radical overhaul in the way that university careers services currently function". The report recommends that careers services are turned into not-for-profit recruitment consultancies for their universities. Setting this exciting …

Ranking the Rankings

Auditing University Rankings Interesting item in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a group seeking to challenge some of the weaknesses of league tables: University rankings organizations could soon find themselves on the receiving end of the kinds of evaluations that have made them so newsworthy and influential. At a conference here last week for …

A particular problem for Italian universities

Family fiefdoms blamed for tainting Italian universities According to a recent piece in the Independent, nepotism is a major problem in Italian higher education: The decline of Italy's universities, none of which currently appear in the world's top 200, is a constant source of lament among the country's chattering classes. But the reason for this …

Browne report: the end of the QAA (and OFFA and OIA)

Beyond changes to higher education funding Naturally, all of the attention today will be on the funding elements of the Browne report. However, one significant change which is unlikely to attract much comment will nevertheless carry major implications for universities. It is proposed to merge four agencies into one: The higher education system is currently …

True Crime on Campus §4

True Crime on Campus Some more shocking reports from the front line of campus life for the 300th post on Registrarism: 2225 Report that persons unknown had thrown water through a bedroom window in Lenton and Wortley Hall wetting some clothes. 0410 Report of Students causing a disturbance outside Rutland Hall. Security attended and spoke …