Too Many Administrators?

Here we go again The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting piece on administrative staff numbers which suggests that a 28% growth in Higher Education work force numbers is primarily due to additional administrative staff. As report says Other industries have found ways to outsource services that are not central to what they do, …

True Crime on Campus §34: voodoo

New year true crime on campus Some odd things can happen on campus. Fortunately, our unflappable Security staff are more than capable of responding to any situation: 010 Report of a group of youths on Jubilee Campus. The youths were spoken to by Security and told to leave Campus. The youths ran into Exchange Building …

The Imperfect University: Sectoral change since Robbins and into the future

Behind schedule so thought might get away with a reblog this recent post on Robbins and the future.

Registrarism

All change please! Sectoral change since Robbins and into the future

Rewriting Robbins? The very thought

I recently agreed to give a presentation on this theme at an event entitled “Rewriting Robbins” by those lovely people at SGP Martineau.

You can find the full details of the event here  and my rather fetching but nevertheless superficial parade of pictures here:

Sectoral Change Since Robbins and into the Future from Paul Greatrix

Apologies in advance

Having agreed to deliver such a presentation I quickly realized the mistake I’d made but by then it was too late. It was of course ridiculously presumptuous to undertake such an exercise and even to contemplate commenting on Robbins with the benefit of 50 years of hindsight seemed like an outrageous impertinence. So, apologies in advance for any offence caused.

There was recently a very good piece in the Times Higher on Robbins. Among…

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Dealer deals

A fair deal for students? PA Consulting have produced an interesting report on 'The Student Deal': The Student Deal: designing genuinely student-centred higher education incorporates our latest thinking on current issues and challenges in higher education. Reflecting the changing dynamics of the higher education system, The Student Deal challenges the limitations of the current thinking …

24 hour study people

Food: all day and all of the night It's perhaps not that novel but Inside Higher Ed has a story about a small US college, Lynn University, which has introduced all-night dining to help, among other things, with more flexible class scheduling: Lynn made the adjustment in dining hours for a pretty simple and obvious …

Dead wood

Not very environmentally friendly Back in April 2008 I planted a tree at Lenton Rec as a mark of the University's sponsorship of the park. There was lots of other activity too as part of the support for Nottingham in Bloom. The report on the event includes a comment from the University's Off-Camous Student Affairs …

The 2014 Grant letter: another epistolary triumph

And the wait was finally over The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has written to HEFCE with the Department's annual message on funding and helpful bag of instructions. As excitement in the sector reached near fever pitch, the contents were being live-tweeted by @TimesHigherEd while everyone else waited to get hold of …

Netflix for University Selection?

An algorithm to help with university choice The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting report on a Netflix-like algorithm which is designed to help with selecting a university. A former admissions counsellor and now PhD student, Daniel Jarratt has been working on a tool which would help students find the right institution for them …

Building community in university halls

Revisiting Boyer

Registrarism

Interesting ideas for growing community in halls of residence.

An interesting essay in Inside Higher Ed calls for a more ambitious concept for residential life. The argument is that halls of residence provide the ideal location for developing students’ civic learning. The benefits include preparing them for life in an ever more challenging world:

The next generation is going to inherit a world filled with civic challenges. In addition to the usual challenges of community building, they will inherit communities struggling under the weight of large social and political institutions that are not up to the task of the modern era. They also will inherit communities grappling with complex global issues manifesting themselves as local problems, including a lack of jobs, water shortages, and racial/ethnic/religious divisions.

To meet their civic responsibilities, our students will need the capacity to thrive in diverse environments, embrace change as a daily reality, think outside…

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The future of counselling?

Is online counselling the future? The Chronicle of Higher Education has a fascinating story on the introduction of an online counselling programme in Florida. Initially developed as a response to resource constraints  it nevertheless seems to have real merit: Three years ago, facing a particularly acute demand for services, the Counseling and Wellness Center at the …

The 2013 International Leadership Conference: Managing Global Universities

A report on the conference held at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Last November delegates from UK, Australia, Middle East, China, India gathered in the unique setting of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China to explore the challenges of managing universities in an era of globalization. The conference, supported by The Chronicle of Higher …

Yet More Information

The US seems to be following the UK's lead I've previously written about the excess of information available for prospective students in UK HE and the fact that it really isn't a substitute for proper advice and guidance. Now The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on plans for extra information to be provided in the US and why …