KnowThyProf.com

"Beyond ratings, beyond rankings, beyond opinions..."   See what professors say about their teaching style, grading, and experience. Learn what you need to know before you invest your time, your money, and your energy into an entire semester’s class.   It's a nice idea this. Inside Higher Ed reports on this new(ish) website intended to …

The Imperfect University: Reviewing Higher Education in Scotland

Report of the Review of Higher Education Governance in Scotland  As we have seen in the previous post in this series on regulation, governments, although they will often talk the language of freedom and autonomy, cannot help but get themselves involved in the regulation of higher education. However, Scotland is different and higher education in …

Landmark Post – The Very Best of True Crime on Campus

For the 500th Registrarism Post: The Very Best of True Crime on Campus Following the utterly objective poll to determine the topic for the landmark 500th Registrarism blog post I've used my own skill and judgement to select a range of the very best items from several years of True Crime on Campus. Just a …

On Meaningful University Collaboration

Collaboration Theory and Practice There's an exciting new HEFCE report out on the lessons learned from collaborations, alliances and mergers. It has also resulted in an exciting new acronym, CAM. In these austere times it's good to know that we are still able to produce good acronyms. The report, available here, is also a consultation …

The Shape of Things to Come – Going Global 2012

The shape of things to come: global trends and emerging opportunities to 2022 I was privileged to chair this session at the British Council's Going Global event on 15 March: Over the next five to ten years, which will be the countries with fastest growing higher education systems? Which countries will have environments rich in …

Why Students’ Unions Matter

Students' unions are important for many reasons I've got a piece in the Times Higher Education about some of the reasons I think students' unions are important: Students' unions have a long and distinctive history in UK higher education, but their character has changed significantly in the past decade. While they have always been concerned …

Save 74% on your Doctorate!

Yes! Discounts galore - Groupon now does cheap PhDs In these austere times, it is reassuring to note that internet innovation is coming to the rescue of hard pressed students who can't afford the time or the high fees associated with serious doctoral studies. Groupon in Germany is offering a wide range of doctorates at …

Sporting wins lead to poorer grades

Does winning at football make male students less intelligent? Inside Higher Ed has a report on a piece of research which suggests that as football teams win, male students' grades lose. This is American college football we're talking about here which has a rather different set up to university sport in the UK: Supporters cite …

Nottingham Potential – a launch and an opening

Helping young people to reach their true potential I was delighted to be at an excellent event to mark the launch of Nottingham Potential and the formal opening of the IntoUniversity Nottingham West centre. It's a major programme and a central component of the University's widening participation strategy which has the aim of helping young …

International branch campuses- some surprising developments

Some new and rather surprising branch campus developments The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education's new report on international branch campuses (IBCs), entitled ‘International Branch Campuses: Data and Developments’, was released on 12 January and is covered in a previous post. The report included a list of 37 planned branch campuses, most of which are due …

Risk of managers swamping universities?

Some seem to think that management numbers are growing too fast HESA, the Higher Education Statistics Agency has recently published its annual summary of staff numbers in higher education. The headline data follows: Academic staff Of the 181,185 academic staff employed at UK HEIs, 44.2% were female, 12.4% were from an ethnic minority and nearly …

The votes are in

Few surprises here The polls have closed and the votes have been counted, overseen by our utterly impartial scrutineers. In a result which will surprise absolutely no-one, it is now possible to confirm the topic of the 500th Registrarism post. The ballot paper looked like this (but please don't try and vote again on it): …