The impact of universities on the UK & East Midlands economies

A big impact indeed This Universities UK report from earlier in the year on the impact of universities on the UK economy really is a very interesting piece of work which covers the sector's increasing impact in terms of output, contribution to GDP, job creation, and overseas investment. It also looks at the knock-on effects …

GPA v Degree Class: a “Goldilocks” solution?

As UK looks at GPA, US considers degree class There has been a debate in UK Higher Education for the past few years about the merits of moving away from traditional degree classifications to a US style Grade Point Average (GPA). A recent piece in the Guardian notes the arguments for moving to GPA in …

Universities learning from cities

More alike than you think? The Chronicle of Higher Education has a diverting piece on what cities can teach Higher Education. Essentially the argument is that there are many similarities and that a long term view is necessary to deliver success: Cities and colleges are more alike than people think. Both are considered economic engines …

Mobility Really Matters

The Imperfect University: Staff getting on their bikes (an updated version of a post from a while back) One of the things professional services colleagues sometimes complain about is that whereas  academic staff can be promoted in post - and indeed can progress all the way from lecturer to professor in the same academic department …

‘Digital Intelligence’ for Higher Education

Is this the future? Or just a passing trend? A recent post discussed the possible benefits of learner analytics for delivering a more personalised education. Now we have a broader view as The Chronicle of Higher Education provides an update on Educause, the huge US Education Tech Trade Show in which it is observed that …

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 …

Knowing Your History

Know your history. Given the current running of The Changing University: Inside Nottingham NOOC I thought I would reflect on university histories. Given their nature it's often struck me as rather surprising that universities and their staff tend not to have a well developed sense of institutional history. Research matters to universities but they tend …

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 …

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 …

THE World University Rankings 2014-15

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are out The waiting is over and the final ranking of the season is now available from THE. All the details of the methodology and regional and subject variations are available on the THE rankings site. The claim is that they are "the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons …

The Promise of Personalized Education

Is this the future of student support? There has been a lot of talk of late about learner analytics and the potential benefits in terms of tracking student performance and identifying and intervening where they are at risk of dropping out. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on a number of companies who …

Applying to uni via video

Better than qualifications? The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting story on the use of videos in university applications. Whilst some institutions have been encouraging students to submit videos as supporting information, it seems at least one has now gone further and is offering students the opportunity to provide them as the primary selection …

Outsourcing student recruitment

Australian colleges trust to agents Very surprised by this piece in @insidehighered which notes that agents have expanded their reach into domestic higher education recruitment in Australia: When the Australian Skills Quality Authority examined 400 college websites during last year’s marketing audit, as many as 70 turned out to belong to brokerage firms rather than …

Tooled up campus security

Guns and Grenades for University Security Earlier this year I posted on the acquisition of an armoured truck by security at Ohio State University. The Chronicle of Higher Education has since discovered that other US universities have also taken advantage of the opportunity to buy surplus army kit including grenade launchers, M-16s, and armoured vehicles: …

New 2014/15 QS World University Rankings

The latest QS world league table is out Full details of the rankings can be found at the QS website. A summary of the world top 10 follows where we find MIT retaining the top spot for a third consecutive year but really not a lot to grab the headlines here: Global top ten 1 …