Quality of Swedish universities ‘too low’

Sweden's Education Minister has some harsh words for the country's universities Echoing the views of the Ugandan President on his country's higher education system, Sweden's Education Minister, Jan Björklund, has been speaking out: “The quality of the knowledge that Swedish students have when they leave university is not enough to prepare them for adult life,” Björklund …

Finding the good stuff

Social media can be overwhelming... And this can make finding the really good stuff really rather difficult. The Schumpeter column in The Economist has an interesting take on this. Most commentary on social media ignores an obvious truth—that the value of things is largely determined by their rarity. The more people tweet, the less attention …

Student regulations. In Oxford and Uzbekistan

Guess which is from the 16th Century Students have always behaved badly. Not all of them and not all of the time but universities have often felt the need to seek to constrain the worst excesses. In 1584 at Oxford University, statutes were approved to prevent disorder among the student body. These regulations also contain …

The Imperfect University

Because universities are difficult, but worth it I've been doing this Registrarism blog for well over four years now and have become increasingly concerned that any vaguely original content tends to be somewhat crowded out by brief commentary on topical (or, more likely, slightly dated) higher education matters. I feel therefore that I need to …

Searching for another dumb ranking

A rather self-referential ranking this time - a league table of searches Please do excuse the self-indulgence. Top 20 searches on Registrarism over the past 12 months. Am slightly disturbed that birds, spiders and bagpipes figure quite so prominently. Probably the most pointless ranking around. Or maybe not. Search Views latin america 3,432 university league …

A slow down in branch campus developments?

Perhaps, but there's still a lot going on The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, OBHE, has published its fourth report on international branch campuses. The OBHE definition of a branch campus, which has broadened since the previous report, is this: a higher education institution that is located in another country from the institution which either …

Firsts and fees, plagiarism and pay hikes (and the rest)

No dumbing down here - is this the most comprehensive HE piece ever? Daily Mail online has a terrific piece which manages to conflate a host of different higher education issues within a single kick ass column. On the back of recent HESA data which shows an increase in the number of students achieving first …

Online Badges v Degrees

Is the gig up for universities? You decide The Chronicle carries some entertaining hokum about degrees being overtaken by online badges: Employers might prefer a world of badges to the current system. After all, traditional college diplomas look elegant when hung on the wall, but they contain very little detail about what the recipient learned. …

Not one of the most cited league tables

But a diverting ranking nevertheless... I first picked up on this one over four years ago in a rather dismissive post. It's an exciting league table which aims to reflect the contributions of universities to educating the world's top chief executives. Produced by the Ecole des Mines de Paris, or MINES ParisTech as they seem …

Too much data?

Will more data help prospective students? Richard Partington, writing in THE, expresses concern about the 'data overload' which the Key Information Set (KIS) will deliver. He notes that the provision of information to applicants via the KIS is intended to work in a similar way to price comparison websites such as those offering car insurance. …

A rather narrow view of higher education?

Uganda's President Criticizes 'Non-Marketable' Courses Inside Higher Ed has a story on the Ugandan president's view of higher education Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president, has been giving speeches around his country calling for students to stop taking courses in "non-marketable" subjects such as literature and conflict resolution, Voice of America reported. In one recent talk, he …

ICO: private email accounts are subject to FOI

New regulatory joy from the Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published some exciting new guidance making it clear that information held in private email accounts is subject to the Freedom of Information Act: Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham said: “It should not come as a surprise to public authorities to have the …