Most serious league tables of the year?

League tables of choice All rankings have their shortcomings. Some though are perhaps even more methodologically questionable than others. I was struck recently by two league tables which seemed to be even less credible than this very important ranking of universities based on the length of their name. First up is the ranking of the …

Real or Fake Universities: the results

 Real or fake universities? The votes are in     Most of the following list of institutions are from the US and the UK but there are a few from other countries too. Five of these are fake but all the other ones are real. Did you manage to identify the five HE fraudsters? IHere's …

Graduation Fails

It's that time of year again I've previously commented on graduation matters here but omitted to mention one particular challenge of the season: pronouncing graduands' names. Our Deans work very hard on this and it really is not a task I envy them. But now there is a possible solution. The Chronicle of Higher Education …

Taking Student Mental Health Seriously

 Students Supporting Students Have only just learned of Student Minds. Did you know: Students, after joining university, are more anxious and more likely to develop depression? It's no surprise, university can be a stressful and daunting environment. Estimates show that around 25% of all students experience distress at a worrying level. The move away from home …

Universities: real or fake?

 Real or fake universities? You decide I've written here before about Monsters U and Sim U... ...and also, there is the very convincing University of Antarctica   Elaborate creations all of them. So, are you smart enough to get a job with the BIS Higher Education Governance Team? Can you tell real from fake universities? …

Big bucks for students with big ideas

A big prize for University of Pennsylvania graduates The Philadelphia Enquirer has a good story about an initiative at the University of Pennsylvania for graduates who want to change the world: Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a strong desire to change the world and an excellent plan for how to do it?A new …

When is a campus not a campus?

The QAA has published a report which takes issue with UK international branch campus definition The United Arab Emirates has many international Branch Campuses including some from the UK. A recent post here commented that branch campuses, including the University of Nottingham's campuses in Malaysia and China, were a major part of international activity.   …

Breakfasts of champions?

Academics and their breakfasts Greatly amused by this story in Inside Higher Ed about a new website which encourages academics to photograph and consider their breakfasts: What you eat for breakfast may not merit space on your C.V, but a new website called Academic Breakfast is based on the idea that how professors start their …

Sino-Foreign Unity

Inauguration of Sino-foreign Cooperative Universities Union Sino-foreign universities are still small in number. Since the establishment of the first Sino-foreign institution, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, a decade ago, the number has grown though and npw six have come together to establish the Sino-foreign Cooperative University Union and Presidents Forum. The event was a …

True Crime on Campus §36: one in the eye

True Crime on Campus: Once again our always vigilant Security staff are on hand to ensure that every unlikely situation is attended to: 2240 Report of a smell of gas in Humanities Building. Security attended. Officers could detect a faint smell of gas which dissipated during the night. 1325 Report of blocked toilets in DHL. …

International branch campuses: over-exposed?

 Are there too many branch campus headlines? Not quite. A recent piece in University World News suggested that there was just too much attention given to international branch campuses rather than other forms of international activity: International branch campuses receive a lot of attention for their motivations, successes and failures. In addition, some recent big-name …

Up on the Higher Ed Catwalk

More Higher Ed excitement in the world of fashion I've written before here about higher education fashion developments in London in the form of the Condé Nast college as reported in the Evening Standard a couple of years ago: MOVE over AC Grayling, there’s a new college in town. Magazine publisher Condé Nast is launching …

Guardian League Table 2015: Well I never

New Guardian League Table for 2015 entry (and yes, Cambridge is top) Top 25 of the full list (available here) is as follows (last year's position in brackets): 1 (1) Cambridge 2 (2) Oxford 3 (4) St Andrews 4 (7) Bath 5 (9) Imperial 6 (8) Surrey 7 (3) LSE 8 (6) Durham 9 (10) …