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Worries that don't go away...and how to make them go away

Martin — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:00:54 +0000

How different is it to be a student now compared to five years ago? Ten years? Twenty years?

The world continues to change. Your experiences are shaped by advances in technology. What you take for granted today may not have existed when you were born.

But how different are your worries compared to previous years?

Feeling anxious? (photo by jαγ △)

A YouthInsight poll of more than 1,500 students has asked current students and this year’s uni applicants about their anxieties about campus life. Times Higher Education reports on the top five concerns as:

Money (63%)
Difficulties settling in (50%)
Trouble making friends (48%)
Getting on with flatmates (44%)
Too much partying/drinking (22%)

There is nothing new in this list. And it’s understandable that you’d be worried about these things. For many, stepping on campus for the first time is also the first time away from the family home. The first time you’re fending for yourself in a major way.

If any of these matters are causing you anxiety, check out these links from the archives…

Money

Settling In

Making Friends

Turn Smalltalk Into Bigtalk: 7 Ways To Find Things To Talk About
Make Contact, Make Friends
Meeting New People (a fab guest post from Ali Luke, who is awesome BTW)

Getting Along

Partying/Alcohol

Many of your worries may be similar to others around you. The cliché goes that you’re all in the same boat when you start university. Cliché or not, that means you’re all trying to make sense of what’s new. And that’s not always easy.

Remember, you’re not getting it wrong. You’re exploring and discovering. The awesomeness can take time.

It’s worth the wait.

IAD AUCB in the press!

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:30:47 +0000

The IAD ‘Graduate City’, (constructed from the AUCB prospectus) along with its creaters,

Writing Britain at the British Library

Serena Trowbridge — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 07:55:07 +0000

The exhibition ‘Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands’ at the British Library displays some of the most remarkable manuscripts of British literature, themed around the idea of a sense of place. The exhibition notes suggest that the places in which writers lived shaped their writing, but also that ‘Their novels, poetry and plays can shape our perceptions and transform our places through imagination’. The exhibition moves through different aspects of the geographical locations for writers in the British Isles – from Rural Dreams and Dark Satanic Mills, through Wild Places, Beyond the City, Cockney Visions and Waterlands. The exhibition is large, and I took nine pages of notes – which I will condense considerably here!

At the beginning of the exhibition, a video shows writers talking about location, including Simon Armitage, who says that ‘a sense of place and geography permeates everything’. If you don’t believe that at the beginning, you will by the end. The exhibition moves you from one aspect of British geography to another, with manuscripts, books, photographs, paintings and recordings to guide you on your journey. Rural Dreams, for example, suggests that writers of the countryside often memorialise vanishing traditions, such as Carol Ann Duffy‘s poem ‘John Barleycorn’, a tribute to the traditional English pub, drawing on much older traditions. I enjoyed listening to a recording of Duffy reading this poem, too. Much is made of how much literature rests upon ancient myths, such as Gawain and the Green Knight, and Robin Hood.

I did find myself beginning to play a game of ‘Which authors/books will be appearing in the next section?’, which I found quite satisfying, as it’s really not too difficult to guess that Gaskell’s North and South will appear in Dark Satanic Mills, there will be some Dickens in Cockney Visions, and some Hardy in Rural Dreams. The range of texts covered is quite remarkable, from Thomas Gray to Posy Simmonds; from the 10th century Exeter Book to Harry Potter. The thrill of such exhibitions, to me, is of course seeing the manuscript of something I love; or just something I find mildly interesting: the notes for Ulysses, for example, are enough to make you doubt James Joyce’s sanity (if you didn’t already). Perhaps my only criticism, if it can be called such, is that the exhibition notes only give space for a small plot summary of most of the texts, and so if you didn’t know something about the books, you might be wondering why some had been included. But this is a small matter; the joy of the manuscripts, proofs, letters and other exhibits is too strong, and the organisation of the exhibition offers a real insight into the significance of place for British literature.

The exhibition covers so many bases, as well as celebrating the locale as well as the literature of the UK, that it is a fitting part of the Cultural Olympiad, celebrating nation and its achievements. So much ground is covered, both literally and figuratively – that I think it must have something to appeal to any visitor. From Blake’s London to Wordsworth’s Lakes, from Du Maurier’s Cornwall to Scott’s Edinburgh, this exhibition literally moves you.

There is an excellent review of the exhibition on the Times Higher Education website which I would recommend. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue by Christina Hardyment.

'Exception' becomes the rule as three in four charge £9K fees

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:00:29 +0000

‘Exception’ becomes the rule as three in four charge £9K fees | John Morgan | Times Higher Education | 26 July 2012

Post-92s among high risers as coalition hopes for ‘competitive pressure’ fade. About three-quarters of English universities will charge £9,000 for at least some courses next year, with several new universities increasing their average fees by about 10 per cent.

Euro 'own goal'? Coalition tactic could bleed British R&D

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 23:00:35 +0000

Euro ‘own goal’? Coalition tactic could bleed British R&D | Elizabeth Gibney | Times Higher Education | 19 July 2012

Critics demand ‘joined-up’ thinking as plan to cut EU budget threatens research. Efforts by the UK to curb rises to the overall European Union budget are threatening to cut the €80 billion £63 billion in EU research funding proposed for 2014 to 2020, Times Higher Education has learned.

Business School’s performance outstanding, says Head of School

Brunel Business School — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:37:14 +0000

Prof Zahir Irani The University has been delighted to record dramatic improvements across all the ma

Private bodies saddle up for state subsidies

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 23:00:18 +0000

Private bodies saddle up for state subsidies | John Morgan | Times Higher Education | 12 July 2012

Number of private courses eligible for public loans is increasing, BIS data show. Students on private college courses such as animal chiropractic care, acupuncture and “contemporary person-centred psychotherapy” have been eligible to receive state-subsidised funding during the past two years, with one private institution being given state loan access for nearly 100 sub-degree vocational courses in a single day.

In Defence of Unpaid Academic Positions?

florapostewrites — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:08:31 +0000

*N.B. This story is the result of a conversation on Twitter debating the casualization of academic posts. I fictionalized the conversation in order to explore the issues it raised about a controversial topic without it becoming a personal attack. The wizard does not in any respect represent my views. 27/12/12*

Once upon a time in the far away land of jobs.ac.uk, bordering the almost-mythical Avalon of academic employment, the University of Birmingham advertised an academic position in the Department of Psychology. Required was a research assistant, who would be an ‘excellent graduate’ with a PhD and access to a car, commit to working in the department two days a week and contribute significantly to a study into mental illness. The position would be ‘honorary’. What a nice term, so positive, so optimistic – how valued this research assistant must be! And the expectations of the department – so high, they expect this honorary research assistant to be among the best in their field. And self-sufficient too.

But there was something wrong. Peeling back the overgrown thorns that covered the entrance to the departmental palace revealed a horror: the honorary research assistant role was a sham. It did not allow that precious access to the isle of academic employment, for it was unpaid. No money. Nada. Nothing. Working for free.

Naturally when the postgraduate and early career princes and princesses heard about this they were furious. ‘Expect us to work for nothing?’, they cried, ‘that’s unfair!’ They were naturally concerned that all of their effort and hard graft during their graduate study was not being valued by academic departments expecting them to take on unpaid positions to contribute to studies that would ultimately benefit said department when the evil REF monster came to make its judgement on their impact (and eat all first born children). The outcry became such that the University of Birmingham publically withdrew the post. But the cat was out of the bag and the debate continued. Moreover, there were dissenting voices – ones that claimed that, actually, unpaid internships could be beneficial. Really? Could it be true?

One of the voices, an aged wizard with a long white beard in which fairies lived, got in touch with a group for postgraduates in sociology and the claims he made were fascinating. The wizard pointed out that actually this practice had been going on for decades and, if nothing else, the openness with which Birmingham were acknowledging the unpaid aspect of the position represented a step forward in being honest about the state of the academic job market. It also opened up the opportunity to a much wider field – beforehand, according to this wizard, the unpaid research assistant roles were all in-house, a closed shop, and only those who been tipped the wink from a mischievous elf would be in the running for the work. So really, this was quite an enlightened move forward – equal opportunities and all and because, as the wizard maintained, unpaid research assistant positions were standard practice, par for the course and so on – simply something we live with and accept as normal (a bit like wasps at your picnic, or rain in a British summer), we should see this advertisement as something of a move forward. Heading in the right direction. And, there were benefits too. This wizard pointed out that the prospect of publication greatly increased by taking on such an unpaid role, and that he himself had gained his first position in High Wizardry because of a publication stemming from his own unpaid research assistant position. It was a good thing in his view, to take on this sort of work. Though it was hard going at first it would undoubtedly increase one’s likelihood of gaining suitable access to that long wished for academic position.

Well, the postgraduate sociologist sprite who had been chatting to the wizard thought long and hard about this. It seemed inconceivable to her that a culture in which graduates worked long hours on their thesis, often supplementing this with low paid teaching in a system designed to move work away from highly paid senior wizards to the far more affordable graduate teaching assistants, and then demanded that they work for free so that the senior wizards could ready themselves for the REF monster, could ever be anything other than deeply exploitative. To her it didn’t matter that this situation was as old as the hills that surrounded the Ministry for All High Wizarding – just because something had been going on for donkey’s years (and donkey was extremely old) didn’t mean that it should continue. Especially not when the system of postgraduate research and training had changed. The fact was that lots of the postgraduate princes and princesses had enormous amounts of debt that were unheard of in previous generations. They had been made to pay far more for their undergraduate education than the current senior wizards and now, very often, in the struggle for the piecemeal funding that was available in wizarding academia (for wizarding was not so highly regarded anymore), many postgraduate girls and boys were supporting themselves through their study and worked long hours in other lowly jobs to supplement their living. Because of the REF monster and lack of money in wizarding (and let’s face it, the successive Grand High Governments of Philistinism were largely responsible for many of these problems), even postgraduates and early career researchers needed to have a wealth of quality publications and presentations in their sack of golden goodies. Like everything else, it was just the done thing.

The sprite began to wonder where wizarding institutions would end up if the cheap labour of postgraduates and early career researchers dried up. She feared that actually the poor underlings of wizardry were colluding in their own downfall – but also that if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be any wizarding left to be done, that it would all crumble into so much dust and debris. She could see how, even if one railed against such positions, that they were still very tempting to take up. Better inside the ivory tower than desperately clinging to the mouldy ivy that wrapped itself around the bricks. And these fears and expectations played on each other and kept things exactly the way they had always been with no one daring to make changes. So maybe the aged wizard was partially right and the advertisement was A Good Thing. Now that everyone knew what was happening it couldn’t be secret anymore and maybe, just maybe, things might not carry on the way they were. After all, no one was really happy with the state of play, not even the Grand High Wizards. So even in all the misery, despair and rage there blinked a little sparkle of fairy dust hope and everyone fixed their gaze upon it and wished.

But of course, that wasn’t the end of the story….

Grand fee paid for each foreign student

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 23:09:45 +0000

Grand fee paid for each foreign student | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 5 July 2012

THE investigation shows almost £60m spent on agents’ commissions. UK universities recruited more than 50,000 international students through commission payments to overseas agents last year, spending close to £60 million on the practice in 2010-11, a Times Higher Education investigation has found.

Finch's open-access cure may be 'worse than the disease'

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:00:17 +0000

Finch’s open-access cure may be ‘worse than the disease’ | Paul Jump | Times Higher Education | 28 June 2012

Research elite say cost of gold plan could cripple the sector as publishers profit. A move to full “gold” open-access publishing will “cripple university systems” by incurring large extra costs without significantly improving access to research, leading research universities have warned.

Open access may require funds to be rationed

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:00:11 +0000

Open access may require funds to be rationed | Paul Jump | Times Higher Education | 21 June, 2012

Moving to gold model could cost sector an extra £60m a year, says Finch group. The cost of making the transition to full open access could require universities to discourage or bar researchers from publishing minor papers in order to maintain funds for publication in top journals.

Cheating disputes quadruple - and that's just 'tip of the iceberg'

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:00:09 +0000

Cheating disputes quadruple – and that’s just ‘tip of the iceberg’ | Jack Grove | Times Higher Education | 14 June 2012

Complaints over penalties a growing concern for the sector, says OIA. The number of students challenging punishments handed out for cheating and plagiarism has quadrupled in just three years.

High stakes: £21m fines and 'blindfold poker'

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:00:36 +0000

High stakes: £21m fines and ‘blindfold poker’ | John Morgan | Times Higher Education | 07 June 2012

Over-recruitment penalties soar in costly guessing game over enrolments. England’s universities were fined almost £21 million for recruiting too many students this year, more than double the £8 million they were fined last year.

Brunel University top in London, 6th in the UK, 35th worldwide in new ranking.

Brunel Business School — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 23:36:36 +0000

Brunel University has been ranked top in London, 6th in the UK and 35th in the world in a new world

Without fees reform, our children would really feel the pinch

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:00:58 +0000

Without fees reform, our children would really feel the pinch | Times Higher Education | 31 May 2012

David Willetts defends the coalition’s student finance policy as a fair, progressive model that will support the present and protect the future.

Barclays bids to fill the postgraduate student loans gap

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:02 +0000

Barclays bids to fill the postgraduate student loans gap | John Morgan | Times Higher Education | 24 May 2012

As bank talks to BIS, critics ask how a ‘risk-share’ plan will further fair access. One of the UK’s biggest banks has put forward to ministers a proposal for a postgraduate student loans system based on a “risk-share” scheme with universities, Times Higher Education has learned.

Muscle from Brussels as open access gets an €80bn boost

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:00:08 +0000

Muscle from Brussels as open access gets an €80bn boost | Elizabeth Gibney | Times Higher Education | 17 May 2012

‘Hell of a difference’ as Horizon 2020 set to make accessibility the norm. The European Union is set to throw the weight of its €80 billion £64 billion research funding programme behind open-access publishing, Times Higher Education has learned.

Five reasons to study in Holland

ISC — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:52:21 +0000

One: Quality Education and Research Excellence
Dutch graduates are known for being high acheivers. Nyenrodes BBA program offers students the option to study at the University of Westminster, London during their final year and gain a dual degree classification. The Times Higher Education supplement ranks 11 universities in Holland in the top 200 in the world. Holland has also received international acclaim for its Problem-Based learning system; training students to analyze and solve practical problems through self-study and self-discipline.

Two: International Study Environment
Holland was the first non-English-speaking country to offer courses taught in English. The Dutch higher education institutions together offer 1,455 courses taught entirely in English. This makes Holland the front-runner in continental Europe for their international approach.

Three: Culture and Leisure
Holland is a varied country with plenty to see, whether you’re strolling through the relaxed towns, taking a boat trip on the many canals or lakes, lazing on the beach or walking in the woods and dunes. There is no shortage of entertainment either, major international stars regularaly perform at venues throughout the country, and Parkpop (in The Hague in June) is one of the largest free pop festivals in Europe.

Four: Student Life
Universities have a real student culture. Each institution has a network of associations that bring students together for academic activities, sports and recreation. All of these associations are run by students, and some of them are internationally orientated.

Five: Location
The Netherlands is ideally located for exploring the rest of Europe. High speed trains from Amsterdam can take you to Brussels in just 2 hours, if you change trains here you can be in London in a further two hours. By flying from Schipphol airport in Amsterdam, you can get to most European cities in under two hours.

Nyenrode Business University offers degree preparation programs for international students looking to study and undergraduate or MBA degree in Holland but who don’t have the right academic grades or English language score. For more information about degree preparation programs at Nyenrode Business University you can visit our website www.nyenrode.nl/preparation or to speak to one of our advisers you can complete this simple enquiry form.

Keep health checks for all, Hefce tells quality consultation

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:00:30 +0000

Keep health checks for all, Hefce tells quality consultation | John Morgan | Times Higher Education |10 May 2012

Funding body would prefer to retain full reviews for every institution. Unscheduled investigations of standards at universities could be triggered by indicators including poor student satisfaction survey scores, graduate employment data and low levels of “professional accreditation” of teaching staff, England’s funding council has proposed.

Marginal incentive: coalition 'blinks first in game of chicken'

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:00:30 +0000

Marginal incentive: coalition ‘blinks first in game of chicken’ | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 3 May 2012

Fees could rise at lower end as pool shrinks, while ABB allows expansion at top. The government has radically scaled back the number of “core-and-margin” places that will be open to bids in 2013 from low-cost universities and further education colleges, raising the prospect that institutions that cut fees for 2012-13 could raise them again

Price of avoiding the market: your freedom

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:00:47 +0000

Price of avoiding the market: your freedom | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 19 April 2012

Devolved governments are constricting autonomy of universities, Hepi says. Universities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland risk having their autonomy reduced to that of further education colleges because the rejection of England’s market approach has come at the cost of increasing government intervention, a report on the impact of devolution on higher education has said.

The Business Side of World University Rankings

globalhighered — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:26:42 +0000

Over the last two years I’ve made the point numerous times here that world university rankings have become normalized on an annual cycle, and function as data acquisition mechanisms to drill deep into universities but in a way that encourages (seduces?) universities to provide the data for free. In reality, the data is provided at a cost given that the staff time allocated to produce the data needs to be paid for, and allocating staff time this way generates opportunity costs.

See below for the latest indicator of the business side of world university rankings. Interestingly today’s press release from Thomson Reuters (reprinted in full) makes no mention of world university rankings, nor Times Higher Education, the media outlet owned by TSL Education, which was itself acquired by Charterhouse Capital Partners in 2007. Recall that it was that Times Higher Education began working with Thomson Reuters in 2010.

The Institutional Profiles™ that are being marketed here derive data from “a combination of citation metrics from Web of KnowledgeSM, biographical information provided by institutions, and reputational data collected by Thomson Reuters Academic Reputation Survey,” all of which (apart form the citation metrics) come to the firm via the ‘Times Higher Education World University Rankings (powered by Thomson Reuters).’

Of course there is absolutely nothing wrong with providing services (for a charge) to enhance the management of universities, but would most universities (and their funding agencies) agree, from the start, to the establishment of a relationship where all data is provided for free to a centralized private authority headquartered in the US and UK, and then have this data both managed and monetized by the private authority? I’m not so sure.

This is arguably another case of universities thinking for themselves and not looking at the bigger picture. We have a nearly complete absence of collective action on this kind of developmental dynamic; one worthy of greater attention, debate, and oversight if not formal governance.

Kris Olds

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12 Apr 2012

Thomson Reuters Improves Measurement of Universities’ Performance with New Data on Faculty Size, Reputation, Funding and Citation Measures

Comprehensive data now available in Institutional Profiles for universities such as Princeton, McGill, Nanyang Technological, University of Hong Kong and others

Philadelphia, PA, April 12, 2012 – The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters today announced the availability of 138 percent more performance indicators and nearly 20 percent more university data within Institutional Profiles™, the company’s online resource covering more than 500 of the world’s leading academic research institutions. This new data enables administrators and policy makers to reliably measure their institution’s performance and make international comparisons.

Using a combination of citation metrics from Web of KnowledgeSM, biographical information provided by institutions, and reputational data collected by Thomson Reuters Academic Reputation Survey, Institutional Profiles provides details on faculty size, student body, reputation, funding, and publication and citation data.

Two new performance indicators were also added to Institutional Profiles: International Diversity and Teaching Performance. These measure the global composition of staff and students, international co-authorship, and education input/output metrics, such as the ratio of students enrolled to degrees awarded in the same area. The indicators now cover 100 different areas, ensuring faculty and administrators have the most complete institutional data possible.

All of the data included in the tool has been vetted and normalized for accuracy. The latest update also includes several enhancements to existing performance indicators, such as Normalized Citation Impact. This allows for equally weighted comparisons between subject groups that have varying levels of citations.

“Institutional Profiles continues to provide answers to the questions that keep administrators up at night: ‘Beyond citation impact or mission statement, which institutions are the best collaboration partners for us to pursue? How can I understand the indicators and data that inform global rankings?’,” said Keith MacGregor, executive vice president at Thomson Reuters. “With this update, the tool provides the resources to reliably measure and compare academic and research performance in new and more complete ways, empowering strategic decision-making based on each institution’s unique needs.”

Institutional Profiles, a module within the InCites™ platform, is part of the research analytics suite of solutions provided by Thomson Reuters that supports strategic decision making and the evaluation and management of research. In addition to InCites, this suite of solutions includes consulting services, custom studies and reports, and Research in View™.

For more information, go to:
http://researchanalytics.thomsonreuters.com/institutionalprofiles/

About Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs approximately 60,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. For more information, go to http://www.thomsonreuters.com.

Contacts

Alyssa Velekei
Public Relations Specialist
Tel: +1 215 823 1894

Want to know who may not stay the course?

Peter Kandlbinder — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:00:10 +0000

Want to know who may not stay the course? | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 12 April 2012

Service outlining prospective students’ likelihood of dropping out worries some while Deloitte argues that flagging up students most at risk of quitting will help institutions improve retention strategies A Big Four audit firm is offering universities the chance to profile students by age, social background and nationality to judge how likely they are to drop out of study.