The president of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent responds to the government’s green paper on higher education.
Independent Higher Education providers welcome students without A-levels
Independent Higher Education providers argue the case for making access to education easier for everyone.
We should create better HE systems rather than more universities, says expert
A global tertiary education expert has argued that governments should focus on creating better higher education systems rather than making more top-ranked universities.
List of Top 100 New Universities
The Time Higher Education have published their list of the top 100 universities that have started within the past 50 years. There is a real mixture of countries, with Switzerland, South Korea, Hong Kong the Netherlands, the united States and the United Kingdom all within the top 10. However, overall it is Australia that has the most universities in the list, just outperforming the the UK by one.
You can view the entire list here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11570249/Top-100-new-universities-the-list-in-full.html
Upcoming Event: Contemplation in the Classroom
An exploration of contemplative pedagogy in higher & further education
12th June – 14th June 2015 at Emerson College, Sussex
This event will bring together educators working in higher and further education with an interest in utilising contemplative practice in their teaching. The aim of the weekend is to deepen our understanding of contemplative pedagogy and to learn from each other’s experiences of teaching.
The focus of the weekend will be on how contemplative practice can be integrated into teaching and learning activities. What forms can it take? What are the challenges we face in integrating contemplative pedagogy? What are the benefits? What does it ask of us as teachers? We aim to get a balance between intellectual tasks and embodied experience; practice and theory; connection with others and internal reflection.
Although the weekend is aimed at educators working in higher or further education, anyone with an interest in contemplative pedagogy and a willingness to engage in a range of contemplative practices is very welcome.
- Arrival: 4.30pm on Friday 12th June until 2pm Sunday 14th June
- Cost: £250 (including accommodation, parking and meals)
- For more details: https://contemplativepedagogynetwork.wordpress.com/
- To book: bookings@emerson.org.uk
Private Higher Education to Face Tougher Quality Standards
In an effort to make sure private higher education providers contribute to, not detract from Britain’s reputation for excellent higher education, Universities minister Greg Clark says that they will face tougher quality standards. For example, they will need to register their students with the appropriate qualifications body before they can claim student support.
New Initiative at Oxford University Sets About Tackling Sexism Within Universities
Traditionally, the academic world has been dominated by men, with women struggling to be seen as equals. A new group of women are campaigning to turn things around…
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/24/sexism-women-in-university-academics-feminism
Charlotte von Bulow, Chief Executive of Crossfields Institute:
“Dr Selina Todd has written an interesting article about the lack of equality in universities. She is introducing the readers to the initiative ‘Woman in the Humanities,’ which sets out to explore how gender, ethics and politics of gender identity plays out in the world of humanities academia www.torch.ox.ac.uk/womenandhumanities. The article talks about recurring situations that woman academics face within the current university system. I ask myself: can we expect to experience real change if the system itself doesn’t change? I believe not. Post-structualism touched the issue in the sixties, seventies and eighties and facilitated some movement but we did not see a fundamental change to the system as a result. Equality is therefore still an add-on to the current system we have (a policy, really), rather than embedded in it. Dr Todd’s article raises two questions for me: 1) what does a system look like where equality is embedded, rather than an add-on and 2) if we work on the premise that we (women) are part of the problem, what is our role in the change process?”
Is Our Higher Education Landscape Diverse Enough?
If we are so keen for universities to be different, why are they being forced to meet the same guidelines? The Guardian’s Estelle Morris reminisces about a bygone era of polytechnics and institutes of science/technology, and wonders why universities are having to now all “jump through the same hoops”…
Are we too concerned with measuring Universities’ performance?
Are university league tables a good thing or are they causing our education establishments to spend time focusing on the wrong things? The Guardian’s Peter Scott investigates and finds that Universities are manipulating the data they report just to make themselves look good.
Should University Access be Available for Everyone?
According to a recent report, only 3% of disadvantaged 18-year-olds get places in the top universities. This compares unfavourably with the 21% of those from more privileged backgrounds. Professor Patrick McGhee asks whether Universities should be doing more for social mobility in education.
Charlotte von Bulow, Chief Executive at Crossfields Institute, says:
“The debate about social mobility and fairer access to elite Universities is a merry-go-round of category mistakes and moving goalposts. There is hope, however, in Professor McGhee’s article when he writes: ‘Should the debate not be about a fair system for access to the professions rather than securing fair access to an unfair filtering system?’
To this excellent question I would like to add the following: rather than being concerned with fairer access to elite universities, we need to work on multiple levels to ensure that a) the quality of higher education in universities across the nation has the appropriate breadth and depth to make a significant contribution to the development of individual potential, and b) that the access and social mobility issue is about receiving high quality higher education and not merely associating with brand names.”
Please see other articles on our blog with regard to the social mobility question.