Graduate Programme for University Leadership Now Recruiting

An outstanding programme for graduates looking to develop careers in university management. Recruitment for this year's round of Ambitious Futures, the Graduate Programme for University Leadership, has recently gone live: The university sector is one of the most innovative, vibrant and exciting environments in which to build your future career. If you're looking for a …

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 …

Mobilising the humanities

Humanities - helping to meet global development challenges I was pleased to be present at the launch of this study which was conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the British Council. It was launched on 1st May at Going Global 2014, the British Council's annual conference for leaders in higher education which took place in …

A stimulating new degree course

A Degree in Coffee? Inside Higher Ed has an entertaining piece on the advent of a new degree in the critical area of coffee:   Many students and faculty members consider coffee to be essential to their daily existence. The University of California at Davis could be moving toward offering a major in coffee, The …

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 …

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 …

Global Employability University Ranking

Global Employability University Ranking 2013 A new Global Employability University Ranking has just been published by Times Higher Education. The list is compiled by French human resources consulting group Emerging Associates along with Trendence, a German polling and research institute: It is based on responses from 2,700 recruiters in 20 countries, who were asked which of …

Britain’s lowest price degree course?

Asda is launching an undergraduate degree - will it be Asda price? Some time ago I posted on a story about Asda's parent company Wal-Mart and its partnership with a for-profit online education provider in the US. More recently we learned that Morrisons was to offer a degree course to some of its staff. Now …

Falling short: careers guidance in schools

A new Ofsted report on the parlous state of careers guidance Ofsted has recently published a report entitled Going in the right direction? Careers guidance in schools from September 2012. The report covers a sample of 60 schools to assess how they were addressing their legal responsibility, in place since September 2012, for securing access to …

Higher Ed data – way too much information

Tackling the surfeit of data I've written before here about Higher Education regulation (see for example this general commentary and this post on information provision) and the excess of information provision available to prospective students. It's pleasing therefore to see that HEFCE is undertaking a review of providing information about higher education. The aims of the review …

The Graduate Programme for University Leadership

An excellent programme for graduates looking to develop careers in university management. Recruitment for the Graduate Programme for University Leadership has recently gone live and the pitch is a good one: The university sector is one of the most innovative, vibrant and exciting environments in which to build your future career. If you're looking for …

Go West. Or East. Plans for more student mobility

Government wants more students to travel. There is to be a Government initiative to persuade more students to travel. The aim is that more UK students will be encouraged to broaden their horizons by travelling overseas for part of their degree courses. The new UK Outward Student Mobility Strategy aims to boost the number of …

On the size of branch campuses

Biggest isn't always best but it does tell you something Looking at the latest University of Nottingham student statistics and the most recently published HESA data it struck me that Nottingham is now the UK's largest campus university (ie if we exclude the Open University). However, it is important to understand that two of our …

Investing in careers support

More careers support for Nottingham students. The University of Nottingham has invested in a major expansion of its Careers and Employability Service intended significantly to enhance provision for students. The new investment will support the vision for tailored career development, learning and employability support to Faculties. So far, the following steps have been taken: 22 …

The College Scorecard: KIS-ing in the USA

President Obama announces a higher education initiative which looks a bit familiar. The College Scorecard as it is known has attracted some mixed reviews since it was announced by the President. The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that it is intended to help prospective students but that it doesn't perhaps do all that is claimed: …