Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland for questioning over an abduction and murder committed in Belfast in 1972. He maintains his innocence and after four…
As Iraqis prepare to go to the polls to vote in parliamentary elections ten years on from the invasion, the country is a lifetime away from where things used to be. Iraq’s education system, once one of…
Would you want to study under the bright lights of the Big Apple?
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A growing number of UK students are considering going abroad to study with a majority of them motivated in some part by the rise in university fees at home, according to new research on student mobility…
Among the many changes currently sweeping through US public universities is a move away from traditional seat-time in class. Known as “competency-based education”, it is often done online, asking students…
Academics are accused of not contributing enough to society, but universities don’t value community and digital activities that get them out of their ivory towers.
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Perhaps we should excuse comments made during the 2013 federal election about “wasteful” and “increasingly ridiculous research” undertaken in Australia. The real shock was not that shadow ministers could…
Now, write an essay on the Pre-Raphaelites.
Ellieboat via flickr
As part of the recent announcement that A Levels and GCSEs in arts subjects in England are to be made more “rigorous and demanding”, the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, said he was “passionate…
Oxford may be winners, but not at diversity.
Andrew Matthews/PA
Young people from black British backgrounds are more likely to go to university than their white British peers, but they are much less likely to attend the UK’s most selective universities. As the Independent…
I’m doing a straw poll. How much would you pay?
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I’m an unabashed political junkie. Who’s up, who’s down; who’s in, who’s out. Yet it’s fair to say that pretty much all the day-to-day policy spinning, posturing and firefighting rarely percolates outside…
Winning large research and capital grants could soon bring unwanted headaches for UK universities along with all the acclaim. From the next academic year, their accountants will be expected to adopt new…
If we want to open up the university campus further to a wider community,we could start with removing the physical barriers to people flows.
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With technology changing the landscape of higher education, The Conversation is running a series “Re-imagining the Campus” on the future of campus learning. Here, Tom Kvan explores how design should make…
Why aren’t there more black professors?
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It is a shocking statistic that there were just 85 black professors in UK universities in 2011-12. In stark terms, this means that there are more higher education institutions than there are black British…
By definition, corruption is any type of deviation from an ideal. Ideals, as well as ideas, are core business for higher education. So when we fall short it matters. Reputation is becoming ever more important…
First-year university students too often feel alone and unsupported at their campus.
AAP/Julian Smith
Starting first year at university can be a daunting experience and a big adjustment for new students. Some adjust easily and thrive. As many as one third do not and think about leaving. If first year goes…
The drop in applications to European language programmes at UK universities will not have come as a great shock to anybody teaching languages. For at least the past 15 years, the number of students applying…
Gill Wyness, London School of Economics and Political Science
The announcement that the government intends to sell off part of the student loan book is perhaps no surprise, but it is bad economics. Debt from student loans is currently a groaning £46.6 billion on…
How many R&D teams does it take to fix a lightbulb?
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There is a tired old mantra that periodically echoes along the corridors of Whitehall. It goes something like: “The UK is great at science but poor at turning it into innovation”. Yet since the Conservative…
When the International Studies Association attempted to regulate the blogging activities of some of its members, the reaction was unsurprisingly hostile. The row has prompted coverage in academic outlets…
Xu Zhiyong, jailed for four years. for inciting public disorder.
Wikimedia Commons
In the past decade, US and UK universities have embarked on a program of developing formal relationships, exchanges, and partnerships with their counterparts in China. No scholar interested in promoting…
Chalk and talk maths classes are not going to cut it for modern students.
Maths image from www.shutterstock.com
Students who are ill-prepared in mathematics are entering university and creating challenges for mathematics departments. There are lots of ideas out there on what to do about this but little evidence…
While mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela, many are also celebrating the staggering achievement of those who struggled with to overthrow apartheid in South Africa. Lest we forget, apartheid means separation…