Archive for the 'Headline' Category

Announcing the Winner of the 2011 Award for Best Practice in Higher Education

Published on December 31, 2011 in Conference, Headline, News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

We are very pleased to announce that the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Integrative Arts (CAiiA) – Planetary Collegium is the 2011 recipient of the World Universities Forum Award for Best Practice in Higher Education. Each year, the Award recognizes some of the most significant higher education practices, including curricula and research.

Founded and directed by Professor Roy Ascott, the CAiiA – Planetary Collegium is a PhD research program located primarily in the School of Art and Media at Plymouth University (UK), with nodes at the Nuova Accademia de Belli Arte, Milan and Hochschule fuer Gestaltung und Kunst, Zurich. The Collegium brings together a geographically and professionally diverse group of people, including artists, scientists, theorists, architects, and scholars, for doctoral and post-doctoral learning and research. Meeting on-line, and face-to-face in research sessions, conferences and symposia, members of the CAiiA – Planetary Collegium focus on the intersection of emerging forms of art and architecture, new media, and technology, science and consciousness. This collaborative — and syncretic — approach, one nominator explained, “opens the exchange of ideas, where discovery, creativity and personal and professional development can flourish, with the support of the exceptional Planetary Collegium’s academic faculty.”

The Best Practice Award will be announced formally at this year’s World Universities Forum, which will be held at the University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece from 8-10 January 2012. This marks the fifth year of the Forum, which was inaugurated in Davos, Switzerland in 2008 and was held subsequently in Mumbai, India (2009), Davos, Switzerland (2010) and Hong Kong (2011). The 2012 Forum will continue the discussion of the current role and future possibilities of the university. We are pleased that this discussion will include recognition of the CAiiA – Planetary Collegium, Plymouth University, and the inspiration it provides for reinventing the ways in which universities develop degree programs and conduct research.

Announcing the winner of the International Award for Excellence

Published on December 19, 2011 in Headline, Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Congratulations to Rui Gonçalves, Ana Vitória Baptista, Catarina Lobão and António Melo the winners of the International Award for Excellence in the world universities field with their paper Evidence-Based Practice in Higher Education: Discussing its Value to Enhance Teaching and Learning.

Abstract: Nowadays, we observe that Academia is focusing a great importance on research in general and evidence-based practice (EBP) in particular. In fact, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary and cross-cutting approaches within research are being increasingly emphasised. This knowledge and process may have a great relevance to improve several activities, namely the teaching and learning process in Higher Education (HE). In this paper, we assume that EBP may be defined as the use of conscious and explicit scientific evidence which will increase the efficiency and quality of the teaching and learning process at HE institutions. Even though there are several studies that prove the importance and success of this interactive pedagogical experience, they also point out the existence of several barriers within some scientific domains that make the implementation of this strategy somewhat difficult. Thus, we will reflect on some aspects mentioned in the literature regarding the implementation of EBP with the ultimate goal of better understanding the impact it may bring to teaching and learning in HE. In particular, we will reflect about the importance and impact this strategy has in what regards the promotion of students’ generic skills and competences. Along this paper we will emphasise the importance that research in general and EBP in particular may have in the development and enhancement of teaching and learning process.

Now Accepting Nominations for 2011 Higher Education Awards

Published on August 23, 2011 in Conference, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

The World Universities Forum is accepting nominations for its Higher Education Awards. These three awards — for Best Press, Best Policy, and Best Practice — recognize the most significant higher education achievements of 2011. Award recipients will be invited to attend the 2012 World Universities Forum where they will receive their awards. Awardees will also be recognized in the WUF program, press releases, and other forms of publicity.

Best Press: The Best Press Award recognizes outstanding journalistic reporting in 2011 on higher education topics. Nominees may be higher education news stories from any form of media, and any media outlet, provided the intended audience of the reporting extends beyond the confines of narrow academic or policy specializations. The Award will be granted to the individual(s) instrumental to the creation of the news story.

Best Policy: The Best Policy Award recognizes the most significant higher education policies of 2011. Nominees may include innovative and/or far-reaching policies established on institutional, local, national or international levels. The Award will be granted to the individual(s), group(s), organization(s) or institution(s), etc. instrumental to the formulation of the selected policy.

Best Practice: The Best Practice Award recognizes the most significant higher education practices of 2011. Nominees may include, for example: innovative curricula, research projects, student services, etc. The Award will be granted to the individual(s), group(s), organization(s) or institution(s), etc. instrumental to the achievement of these practices.

To submit your nomination, please fill out the nomination form (note: nominations must be submitted by 18 NOVEMBER 2011).

To read more about previous winners, please see our website.

Announcing Plenary Speaker Ronald Barnett for 2012 World Universities Forum

Published on July 5, 2011 in Conference, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

We are pleased to welcome Ronald Barnett to the 2012 World Universities Forum as one of our plenary speakers.

Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. He is a recognized authority on the conceptual and theoretical understanding of the university and higher education. His books, several of which have won prizes and have been translated into other languages, include The Idea of Higher Education, Higher Education: A Critical Business, Realizing the University in an age of supercomplexity, Beyond All Reason: Living with Ideology in the University, and A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty (all published by McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press). His latest book is Being a University (Routledge – January 2011). Ronald Barnett has held senior positions at the Institute of Education, including that of Pro-Director for Longer Term Strategy and was also, for seven years, a Dean. He is a past Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education, and has recently served as a Special Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry into Universities and Students. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Society for Research into Higher Education and is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Visiting Professor at universities in China and Australia. He also acts as a consultant, and has worked with most of the national organizations in the UK and many individual universities, including the University of the West Indies and the TATA University Institute of Social Sciences in India. He has been awarded a higher doctorate of the University of London, is an Academician of Social Sciences and was the recipient of the inaugural ‘Distinguished Researcher’ prize of the European Association for Institutional Research (EAIR). He has been a keynote speaker in over 30 countries.

For more information about our plenary speakers, please visit our website.

Announcing Plenary Speaker Fatma Gök for 2012 World Universities Forum

Published on June 25, 2011 in Conference, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Fatma Gök to the 2012 World Universities Forum as one of our plenary speakers.

Fatma Gök received her bachelor’s degree from the Department of Education Sciences at the University of Ankara and received her graduate education and PhD, in 1987, from Columbia University, USA. She works as a professor at the Department of Educational Sciences at Bogaziçi University. Her academic work focuses on education policy, social foundations of education, gender in education and comparative education. She has published on the right to education, discrimination in education, the relationship between social justice and education and neoliberal policies in education. She was part of the editorial collectives of the journal “Socialist Feminist Kaktüs,” between the years 1988-1992 and the feminist magazine “Pazartesi,” between 1999-2001. She acted as the coordinator of the Education Philosophy Working Group at the Democratic Education Congress of the Teacher’s Union in 1998 and of the Working Group on the Right to Education in the Face of Global Assaults at the 5^th Democratic Education Congress, again organized by the Teacher’s Union Egitim Sen. Her “Survey of Teacher Profiles”(together with Rifat Okaçabol) was published in 1998. She was the editor of “Education in 75 years” published by the Turkish Economic and Social History Association. Her comic-book, and guide, “Towards a Educational Environment Respectful of Human Rights,” prepared together with Alper Sahin, takes a critical look to school and is used as a resource for the efforts to bring a democracy to schools. “Education in Multicultural Societies – Perspectives from Turkey and Sweden,” prepared together with Marie Carlson and Anika Rabo, was published by I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. In 2007. Recently she convened the XIV. World Congress of Comparative Education Societies held in Istanbul during June 2010.