A Different Kind of Ranking

The new U21 systems ranking. Following on from last year's first iteration, U21 has now published its 2013 Rankings report, which is intended to give an overview and ranking of higher education systems across the world. The full report gives much more information about the rankings but in summary: The project aims to highlight the …

Inspiring Leadership

A Decade of Leadership from the Leadership Foundation. A new HEPI report is out. Inspiring Leadership - Personal Reflections on Leadership in Higher Education is written by Ewart Wooldridge who recently stood down as Chief Executive of the Leadership Foundation after 10 years at the helm. As he says in the introduction things have changed a …

True Crime on Campus §29: Bins and Quidditch

More unlikely but true crime on campus There can be some testing incidents on campus sometimes. However, our excellent Security staff are usually up for any kind of challenge - no matter how strange: 2020 Report of a damaged window Hugh Stewart Hall Security attended. The damage had been caused by Students climbing out of …

Monster study tips

From Monsters U, where else? I've blogged before about the eagerly anticipated HE movie of the year, Monsters U. Greatly amused therefore by the invitation from a PR to our Comms team to post promotional posters for Monsters U on the University's Facebook page in the guise of study tips. Nice try. Anyway, I'm immune …

UK HE in China

QAA Review of Transnational Education in China. Back in 2012 the QAA surveyed all UK higher education institutions in order to find out details of their TNE activity in China. The QAA review includes detailed reports on 10 UK universities and divides HEIs' TNE activity into a number of different types. For the purposes of …

Crime Data in the USA

University fined for misreporting crime data. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a piece about the University of Texas at Arlington being fined for improperly classifying and reporting a number of crimes which took place on its campus: For misclassifying crimes and underreporting disciplinary actions, the U.S. Department of Education has fined the University of …

Eight minutes to choose a degree course

A report on the use made of Unistats HEFCE has published an evaluation of the Unistats website after its first period of operation. It suggests that the huge demands made of institutions in providing the necessary data have paid off as Unistats has already become "one of the most widely used higher education course comparison …

Is London the new UAE?

More branch campuses opening in the city But most of them belong to UK universities, not overseas institutions. According to last year's OBHE report there are six international branch campuses in London (four from US universities and one each from Malaysia and Iran). There are many more offices and outposts too. However, the growth seems …

Another dumb ranking

The universities which will make you a millionaire! Mail Online publishes this insightful piece on the "graduate rich list" which shows you "where to study to make your millions": A new graduate 'rich list' has revealed the universities where students are most likely to become multi-millionaires. Oxford comes top after producing 401 alumni worth £20million …

Exam stress? Head for the puppy room

It's furry therapy apparently. Last year we heard that Dalhousie University in Canada had provided a puppy room to help students deal with exam stress. Now it seems that another university has joined in and, according to the Huffington Post, Aberdeen Students are also getting a puppy room to help them relax during revision: Stressed …

A not entirely new university ranking

A rather citation heavy ranking from URAP (NB not UKIP). Apologies for the lateness of this but for some reason I failed to notice this league table which was published last autumn. The University Ranking by Academic Performance website has all the details but the background is as follows: University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) …

The Imperfect University: The End of Internationalisation?

Is it the end for internationalization? No. It’s not a bubble. It’s not bursting. A recent Chronicle blog suggested that, in common with some other higher education activities, internationalization was a bubble and about to burst. It isn’t. International student recruitment patterns continue to evolve, some branch campuses are less successful than others and the …