The most optimistic new year greeting ever?

A great new year message! I've never had any dealings with the Alfred Nobel University but I do like the sound of them on the strength of this extraordinarily positive message which I've just received: Just great! Happy new year!

League Tables: Football and Higher Education Compared

A rather different angle on the development of a 'quality culture' A nice read for over the Christmas break this, an article by Malcolm Tight of Lancaster University from Higher Education Quarterly nearly 10 years ago:  Do League Tables Contribute to the Development of a Quality Culture? Football and Higher Education Compared. The abstract: The …

LSE and Libya: The Woolf Inquiry

Woolf reports on LSE's Libyan Links And it's a compelling read: The Woolf Inquiry was set up on 3 March 2011 following criticism of LSE’s links to Libya and the resignation of the Director, Sir Howard Davies. The terms of the Inquiry were as follows: An independent inquiry to establish the full facts of the …

UI GreenMetric World University Ranking 2011

Green Metric World Ranking 2011 This world university league table first appeared in 2010 and was headed by University of California, Berkeley. This year there's a new table topper, the University of Nottingham (very proud we are too). The top 10 is as follows:   1 University of Nottingham, UK 2 Northeastern University, US 3 …

True Crime on Campus §17: Best of 2011

True Crime on Campus §17: Best of 2011 (and a poll) 2011 has been an extremely busy year for our hard working Security staff. As the following extracts from real security reports show, almost anything can happen on campus. These are some of my favourites from the past year (note there's an exciting interactive bit …

Branch campuses: cut or grow?

Contrasting views of the right direction for internationalisation A recent piece in the Times Higher covered a report from the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education on what looks like something of a retrenchment in institutions' international activities: Opened with great fanfare in the 1990s and 2000s, international branch campuses such as Suffolk's - which Du …

Undergraduate exodus: more overblown predictions

UK students "switch to US universities" According to BBC News, it seems that UK students are all switching to US universities. Within four years, a quarter of sixth formers at a leading UK independent school will be heading for universities in the United States. That's the prediction of Anthony Seldon, head of Wellington College in …

Latin American universities get ranking

League tables breaking new ground An earlier post noted the emergence of league tables in Latin America. The Economist recently addressed this issue noting the emergence in particular of Brazil: The São Paulo state universities that are pulling ahead of the pack are doing so with the help of generous state funding, which allows them …

Lowry at Lakeside

Lowry's paintings and drawings A slightly different topic today. But well worth showcasing I think. The University of Nottingham is hosting a terrific new exhibition of Lowry's paintings and drawings: This exhibition focuses on Lowry’s work from the beginning of the 20s to the immediate post-war period, from his early forays into the industrial scene …

Researchers Rate RateMyProfessors

Rating RateMyProfessors Surprising news from The Chronicle of Higher Education on the possible utility of RateMyProfessors. The survey tool, the use of which is a bit more widespread in the USA than in the UK, is generally regarded by universities with, at best, deep scepticism or, more likely, downright hostility. However, there is a different …