We are pleased to announce the first of many plenary speakers for the 2011 World Universities Forum.
Dr S. Gopinathan is Professorial Fellow at the Policy & Leadership Studies (PLS), Curriculum, Teaching & Learning (CTL) at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He served as the Dean of the School of Education (Mar 1994 till June 2000) and was the former Dean of Foundations Programme (July 2000 till June 2003) and Head, CRPP (May 2008 till Feb 2009). In this role he oversaw the development and implementation of the newly launched BA/BSc (Education) programme. He is a founder member of the Educational Research Association of Singapore and serves on the International Advisory Board of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education, and co-edits the Routledge Critical Studies in Asian Education.
To follow updates on plenary speakers or to visit the conference website, please click here.
by Suchitra Behal, in University World News
Career advancement prospects in Indian universities became more difficult last week with the University Grants Commission adopting a performance-based points system. From now on, lecturers will be graded annually on their performance and will be eligible for promotions based on their teaching, research and publication quality - not on seniority.
This is a move away from the earlier seniority-based promotions most universities relied on. The commission’s plans met with stiff resistance by many unions in the last two years but have finally been accepted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, with the agreement of almost all the lecturers’ representative bodies.
To read more…
By David Jobbins, in University World News
The opinions of more than 13,000 academics will be used to build a picture of the standard of teaching and research in the world’s universities for the 2010 Times Higher Education World University Ranking.
Despite an increased sample size, the findings will account for 20% of final scores, compared with 40% under the methodology used from 2004 to 2009.
Meanwhile its main rival, QS, is introducing a rating system to better reflect the diversity of institutions by measuring their broader missions.
To read more…
Want to get your 2011 publications underway now?
We are now accepting submissions for the 2011 volume of The Journal of the World Universities Forum. The next submission deadline is Monday 13 August 2010.
Refereeing of submitted papers will commence shortly so start the submission process early by submitting your proposal.
Paper submission guidelines are available online.
From University World News
US research universities are under threat from the recession and social changes, Linda Katehi, Chancellor of the University of California, Davis, told scientists at a recent American Association for the Advancement of Science policy forum.
Katehi said the two factors were combining to undermine universities. State support for universities was shrinking; in California, for example, state funding for the University of California was half what it was 25 years ago in real terms.
The result was big increases in tuition fees and these could go higher still, making university education unaffordable to many people.
To read more…
From Scott Jaschik, in Inside Higher Ed
Denver — State support for higher education tends to be cyclical — a fact that’s been comforting to many who study or teach at public colleges and universities that have been facing budget cuts these past two years.
But research presented here Monday at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association suggests that while you can still assume that what goes down will come up, you can’t assume it will happen any time soon. The research asserts that the time it takes states to restore deep cuts has grown longer in the last 20 years. Further, the research suggests that states that imposed large tuition increases, have centralized governing boards, or are located in the West may have to wait a particularly long time for cuts to be restored.
To read more…
By Yojana Sharma, in University World News
Universities in Hong Kong and Japan dominate the upper echelons of the QS Asian university rankings released last Thursday, with universities in Singapore and South Korea also making a strong showing in the top 20. But mainland China’s universities have not performed as well as expected in the regional comparison.
The 2010 Asian rankings drawn up by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), which also issues annual world university rankings, show the most economically developed countries of Asia also have the region’s top universities.
To read more…
International Student Security: By Simon Marginson, Chris Nyland, Erlenawati Sawir, and Helen Forbes-Mewett
More than three million students globally are on the move each year, crossing borders for their tertiary education. Many travel from Asia and Africa to English speaking countries, led by the United States, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where students pay tuition fees at commercial rates and prop up an education export sector that has become lucrative for the provider nations. But the ‘no frills’ commercial form of tertiary education, designed to minimise costs and maximise revenues, leaves many international students inadequately protected and less than satisfied. International Student Security draws on a close study of international students in Australia, and exposes opportunity, difficulty, danger and courage on a massive scale in the global student market. It works through many unresolved issues confronting students and their families, including personal safety, language proficiency, finances, sub-standard housing, loneliness and racism.
For more information…
Today the World Universities Forum Newsletter will be re-launched - marking the start of a new approach to connecting with and reaching out to our Universities Community. The Universities Newsletter will be sent out on a monthly basis and will contain important community news, conference updates, and publication information.
It is the hope of Common Ground Publishing that this newsletter will provide you with a more positive experience connecting with the Universities Community.
If you are not currently a subscriber but would like to receive future newsletter emails, please go to ontheuniversity.com and click on “Sign Up: Our Newsletter” in the upper right-hand corner.
If you have inquiries, concerns, or general comments, please feel free to contact the newsletter team at support@ontheuniversity.com
Location and Date
The 2011 World Universities Forum will be held at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in Hong Kong from January 14-16. For more information, please visit www.UniversitiesForum.com
Call for Papers
If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins with submission of a paper proposal. For information on proposals, presentation types, and other options please see http://ontheuniversity.com/conference-2011/call-for-papers/#ppt . To submit a proposal, please see http://ontheuniversity.com/conference-2011/call-for-papers/ . If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the conference.
Registration
Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register at any time. For registration options, or to register for the 2010 Diversity Conference, see: http://ontheuniversity.com/conference-2010/register/.
Themes
http://ontheuniversity.com/ideas/theme/
From Geoff Maslen, in University World News
A private US foundation has proposed increasing the proportion of Americans with “high-quality degrees and credentials” to 60% of the population within 15 years. President and CEO of the Indianopolis-based Lumina Foundation, Jamie Merisotis, told a conference in Miami the goal was to boost the proportion of higher-education qualified Americans from the current 40% to 60% by 2025.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative University, Merisotis said Lumina was working on increasing completion rates via its funding commitments to college preparation, success and productivity.
To read more…
by Sabrina Tavernise, in The New York Times
LAHORE, Pakistan — The professor was working in his office here on the campus of Pakistan’s largest university this month when members of an Islamic student group battered open the door, beat him with metal rods and bashed him over the head with a giant flower pot.
Iftikhar Baloch, an environmental science professor, had expelled members of the group for violent behavior. The retribution left him bloodied and nearly unconscious, and it united his fellow professors, who protested with a nearly three-week strike that ended Monday.
To read more…
From Sarah King Head, in University World News
Students likely to benefit most from a university education are not those from socially advantaged backgrounds. Instead the opposite appears to be true, according to a report in the American Sociological Review.
A study by Dr Jennie E Brand of the University of California at Los Angeles and Dr Yu Xie of the University of Michigan suggests students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, who completed university, changed their socioeconomic status in a more profound way than did those for whom higher education was culturally inevitable.
The authors based their research around a cost-benefit analysis of the long-term outcomes of students from the 1960s to the present day. They derived their data from two sources: the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study 1957.
To read more…
By William Branigin, in The Washington Post
President Obama signed into law Tuesday a package of revisions to his new health-care overhaul that includes a measure aimed at making higher education more affordable.
The provision ends what Obama called a long-standing “sweetheart deal” for banks in federally guaranteed student loans.
In a speech and signing ceremony at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College, Obama said the health-care reform legislation and the revisions represent “two major victories … that will improve the lives of our people for generations to come.”
To read more…
From Cathleen McCarthy in Cal Alumni Association
Academics try to sift truth from subterfuge in the blogosphere.
Online, J. Bradford DeLong is, first and foremost, a liberal muckraker. His blog thrives when there is plenty of right-wing muck. Subtlety is not DeLong’s style, one reason other bloggers love to riff on his posts. As GOP resistance to Obama’s bills heated up, DeLong found his voice again. Last August found him authoring a series of posts on Republican subterfuge, including “Why the American Right Lies So Much” and in case we missed the point, “Republicans. Lying All the Time. About Everything. Because the Press Won’t Call Them on It.”
To read more…
From Yojana Sharma in University World News
With more than three million students studying outside their own countries, and rising, universities and governments are keen to know what kind of environment increases the inflow and outflow of students, and how countries compare in encouraging collaboration overseas.
A new index launched at the Going Global conference attempts to quantify how open to different ways of international collaboration a country’s higher education system is.
Developed by the British Council with the Economist Intelligence Unit, the index tracked policies in 11 countries to quantify international collaboration, overseas branch campuses, joint academic programmes, publications and patents, academic and student mobility, visa policies, quality, access and recognition of foreign degrees.
To read more…
The 2010 World Universities Forum
9-11 January 2010 Congress Centre, Davos, Switzerland
http://www.UniversitiesForum.com/
Call for Papers
If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins with submission of a paper proposal. For information on proposals, presentation types and other options. Submit a proposal. Please note that if your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the conference.
Registration
Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register at any time. Register!
Creator Sites
All officially registered World Universities Forum delegates may make their own Creator Website. The first step is visiting the
CGPublisher Creator page.
