Whether it’s purchasing power parity or the Happiness Index, global comparisons require benchmarking. Sport does this well with World Cups and the Olympics, or better still the single ranking familiar to tennis and golf aficionados. The problem with universities is there are around a dozen rankings. Each is a variable mix of research, reputation and teaching metrics, leading […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
New global ranking system shows Australian universities are ahead of the pack
Faculty information systems: The benefits
Ask any university or higher education provider in general and they will tell you the same: Their faculty is the most important and invaluable resource at their disposal. Nevertheless, higher education institutions continue to encounter difficulties with the creation and maintenance of centralized information systems that meet the needs of their faculty members. According to […] … learn more→
Outdoor education at universities can be a positive legacy of COVID-19
Universities have faced major planning challenges due to COVID-19. While there has been significant media coverage about universities offering students online learning, what has been less discussed is how some activities have continued in face-to-face settings. My research is concerned with outdoor science education so I have long been engaged in studying outdoor learning. At the Université de Sherbrooke, among […] … learn more→
Note his pizza delivery man or his taxi driver: for once, would school be the way of reason?
When it comes to assessment, would the school get wise while the rest of society goes mad? We note, in fact, the coexistence of two movements in opposite directions. One, concerning school evaluations, which strives to better explain the objects of evaluation (new programs, core competencies ), advocates a more reasonable use of marks (or even a deletion of marks ), […] … learn more→
Pandemic is no time for a pedagogy overhaul
When this year’s lockdowns forced a sudden pivot to online teaching, academics had to scramble to adapt their teaching materials and curricula. You might have thought that they would have grabbed all the advice they could get. But while a few attended the online webinars on “emergency remote training” provided by agencies such as Advance […] … learn more→
Congress lifts long-standing ban on Pell grants to people in prison
When Congress decided in 1994 to ban federal student aid for people behind bars, it was part of a wider political agenda to “get tough on crime” – even though crime rates had begun to fall in the 1990s. The number of people behind bars grew, but, without access to federal student aid, higher education programs in America’s correctional facilities dwindled. […] … learn more→
Industry experience is not enough for university lecturers
Joseph Epstein’s recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on whether Jill Biden, pedagogy scholar and incoming US First Lady, should parade her right to place “Dr” before her name rightly caused a stir. In his article Epstein said a lot of things, but in the subtext said much more. The internet was alive […] … learn more→
Who needs the arts in a crisis?
“Crisis” is a word that has been much used during the pandemic to describe the scale and acuteness of the multiple challenges posed. But when, in late November, my father was admitted to intensive care with a recurrence of a cancer he’d been treated for earlier in the year, these metaphorical constructions give way to […] … learn more→
Covid’s disruptive forces should be harnessed to boost inclusion
The pandemic has starkly confirmed just how deeply inequality shapes the lives of individuals and communities across the world. Within higher education, social background has long had a decisive impact on access and success. This only risks being exacerbated by responses to Covid-19. Take the shift to online learning. Many people would like it to […] … learn more→
Investment in digital transformation will reap a rich dividend
As learning experiences go, the past year has been nothing if not intense. Not that the learning has been confined to students locked down in their bedrooms: universities, too, have been on something of a crash course in digital instruction. And their grades have been distinctly mixed. Those that tried to solve the Covid conundrum […] … learn more→
