Early career teachers are more likely to stay on if they practise what they teach in their own time. We found that practitioner-teachers – such as art teachers practising art and biology teachers observing nature – see themselves as better quality teachers when measured against key principles of learning and teaching. These principles include providing clear assessment […] … learn more→

Studying abroad can bring great rewards, but being a visitor in a foreign land also comes with significant risks. “It is important to understand how the risks may be different from home, and to be prepared,” says Shaun Jamieson, an International Risk Analystat Iowa State University, where I teach Spanish and run the university’s largest study abroad […] … learn more→

Every year, millions of international students travel to different countries to study at university. This, together with a lack of public funding for universities, has created an increasingly competitive market in which universities work directly against each other to chase students and the money they bring. This shift was heralded by the introduction of a whole host of […] … learn more→

As you probably know, in addition to being director of research training and blogging, I am an active researcher in the area of research education, particularly post PhD employability. Occasionally I like to colour outside the lines by dabbling in related fields of study. One area that interests me is the nature and extent of academic […] … learn more→

So I’ve been wandering through a Buzzfeed article of all things, which talks about the student loans. We’ve established that 15-20% of the population has these loans, that they’re inescapable, that default rates are steadily rising and, bottom line, these victims won’t be able to pay them off. The important detail here is the 15-20%, […] … learn more→

Academics everywhere are under increasing pressure to improve their performance and that of their institution, often by undertaking tasks that respond directly to new forms of measurement and management within the sector. League tables now exist for every imaginable university degree, region and specialism and the plethora of tables continue to grow. Over the last eight years, […] … learn more→

Artificial Intelligence is now present in many spheres of our life. This rise of AI is both exciting and challenging because AI and machine learning have become an inseparable part of our life. The easiest way to understand artificial intelligence is to map it to something that we already understand, i.e. our intelligence. You can […] … learn more→

Parcoursup is the platform of orientation and application of high school students to higher education which replaced the Admissions Post-Bac site in 2018. For this second season of use, it seems important to us to return to one of the new features introduced by the procedure: support schemes offered to students to which universities answered […] … learn more→

In my past experience as an academic adviser, it was difficult to explain to a disappointed family why their child did not make an admissions cut-off when the student’s overall high school average was over 80 per cent. I also accompanied students who got into their programs of choice through the many hurdles they faced […] … learn more→

Allegations of parents cheating and bribing top-tier universities in the US to secure their children’s admission have caused a media storm in recent weeks. Those indicted included members of the Hollywood elite. The US attorney said “there can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy”. The parents’ actions were denounced, in a system that claims […] … learn more→