New Global Universities Ranking: Shock Results

US dominates new global ranking Exciting news that US News is producing a new global universities ranking. In an extraordinary related development another league table, the "World Series Ranking", seeks to trump this and has published a top 20 which bears a remarkable similarity to the US national top 20: 1 Princeton University 2 Harvard …

True Crime on Campus §38: back to school

Autumn brings even more True Crime on Campus As autumn arrives and students return to campus our outstanding Security staff are ready for any eventuality: 2315 Patrol Security Officers spoke to a member of the Public who had fallen off his bike while cycling on a footpath adjacent to the Orchard Hotel. The male stated …

Ghana gets tough on Honoraries

In Ghana, the Accreditation Board is "mad" at honorary degree awards Ghana News reports that the country's Accreditation Board is "mad" at honorary degree awards by unqualified institutions: The conferment of honorary degrees is the prerogative of degree awarding institutions so mandated. Therefore accredited private tertiary institutions operating under the mentorship of chartered, degree-awarding universities …

Excess Baggage

Luxury Transport for Students Lots of coverage in the media for this new service offering Luxury Transport for Students. New students are urged to become VIFs – or Very Important Freshers – and take advantage of these new ways of getting to university: We are stepping up the game, we are changing the way students …

True Crime on Campus §37: long hot summer

Even More True Crime on Campus It may be summer but our always vigilant Security staff are still on duty to ensure that every unlikely situation is dealt with: 08:05 Security reported an altercation between a driver and a cyclist at the end of the road leading up to the West Entrance Gatehouse on University …

Archers Academics

Beyond @LegoAcademics Inspired by the novelty of Lego Academics and by the chance meeting (by my wife) of an Archers namesake at a conference I wondered how many Archers characters also had academic counterparts. (For those not familiar with the world's longest running radio soap opera see the Wikipedia page which helpfully summarises the plot …

More on Beyoncé and Ghostbusting courses

The Telegraph seems to have a bit of a thing about courses featuring popular music and musicians. Especialy Beyoncé. Recently they published this story about Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus studies being offered at US colleges: It will focus on the growth of the star’s media empire, with an emphasis on her roles as a “black …

The new University of Life

Some people are just too smart for university Must admit to being immensely irritated at the so-called 'UnCollege' proposition> And, having seen Dale speak recently at Going Global my annoyance has not decreased. This seems to be the story of UnCollege:   Dale was unschooled for grades six through twelve and enrolled at Hendrix College …

Spy kids

GCHQ accredits UK master's degrees for 'cyber spies'     Was very much taken by this thrilling news. Of course we have had Professional Body accreditation for many years and more recently courses supported by Asda and other supermarkets. But this is a little bit different. Not least in the sense that GCHQ is not …

Video game scholarships

League of Legends becomes a varsity sport Inside Higher Ed has a story about an Illinois university which has decided to make 'League of Legends' a varsity sport and award a number of scholarships to boot: In the latest blow to the nerd-jock distinction, an Illinois university has added video games to its varsity sports …

Signs of the Times

Is university signage important for academic achievement? No. And I fear that this story rather overstates the significance of signage on university campuses. This piece was pointed out to me by Simon @GlobalHE (to whom many thanks) and covers the importance of signage in education. Whilst I really do want to take it seriously and …

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 …

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? …

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 …