International students: not an immigration issue

Students really aren't immigrants Excellent piece in a recent edition of Times Higher Education by Edward Acton. The essence of his argument is that international students make a massive contribution to the UK economy and most of them leave the UK after graduating. In other words, they really should not be considered as part of …

The Imperfect University: More and more regulation

More Regulatory Woes A recent speech by the Universities Minister focused on his apparent desire to reduce regulation for institutions: “We are in a government that understands the value of autonomy,” Mr Willetts said. Mr Willetts talked about the possibility of reducing data collection requirements as well as the likelihood of universities escaping some EU …

Regulation, Regulation, Regulation

More Regulatory Woes In University Governance: Questions for a New Era, Professor Malcolm Gillies looks at a whole set of issues around university governance. A previous post noted his suggestion about a greater involvement of alumni but he suggests that they will become more important than the state, at least in governance terms, because of …

World Education: The New Powerhouse – Going Global 2011 §1

Some comments on Going Global 2011 - World Education: The New Powerhouse? I was fortunate to be present at the British Council’s Going Global Conference in Hong Kong earlier in March. There were about 1,000 delegates there and as might be expected for this kind of event many of the presentations were high level and …

More visa uncertainty

Position on visas still not clear The Guardian has a story on the latest government position on changes to the visa regime. Whilst on the face of it there does seem to be some movement in response to the concerns expressed by universities, there are still significant uncertainties: But young scientists applying for visas may …