Celebrating Student Success
We really do have an outstanding Students’ Union A nice new website publicising the University of Nottingham Students’ Union’s successes over the past year and its centenary celebrations: For the last week of the semeste…
Posts, page 28
Most serious league tables of the year?
League tables of choice All rankings have their shortcomings. Some though are perhaps even more methodologically questionable than others. I was struck recently by two league tables which seemed to be even less credible …
Real or Fake Universities: the results
Real or fake universities? The votes are in Most of the following list of institutions are from the US and the UK but there are a few from other countries too. Five of these are fake but all the other ones are real. Did …
Graduation Fails
It’s that time of year again I’ve previously commented on graduation matters here but omitted to mention one particular challenge of the season: pronouncing graduands’ names. Our Deans work very hard on this and it reall…
Taking Student Mental Health Seriously
Students Supporting Students Have only just learned of Student Minds. Did you know: Students, after joining university, are more anxious and more likely to develop depression? It’s no surprise, university can be a stress…
Universities: real or fake?
Real or fake universities? You decide I’ve written here before about Monsters U and Sim U… …and also, there is the very convincing University of Antarctica Elaborate creations all of them. So, are you smart enough to get…
Big bucks for students with big ideas
A big prize for University of Pennsylvania graduates The Philadelphia Enquirer has a good story about an initiative at the University of Pennsylvania for graduates who want to change the world: Graduating from the Univer…
When is a campus not a campus?
The QAA has published a report which takes issue with UK international branch campus definition The United Arab Emirates has many international Branch Campuses including some from the UK. A recent post here commented tha…
Breakfasts of champions?
Academics and their breakfasts Greatly amused by this story in Inside Higher Ed about a new website which encourages academics to photograph and consider their breakfasts: What you eat for breakfast may not merit space o…
Sino-Foreign Unity
Inauguration of Sino-foreign Cooperative Universities Union Sino-foreign universities are still small in number. Since the establishment of the first Sino-foreign institution, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, a…
True Crime on Campus §36: one in the eye
True Crime on Campus: Once again our always vigilant Security staff are on hand to ensure that every unlikely situation is attended to: 2240 Report of a smell of gas in Humanities Building. Security attended. Officers co…
International branch campuses: over-exposed?
Are there too many branch campus headlines? Not quite. A recent piece in University World News suggested that there was just too much attention given to international branch campuses rather than other forms of internatio…
Up on the Higher Ed Catwalk
More Higher Ed excitement in the world of fashion I’ve written before here about higher education fashion developments in London in the form of the Condé Nast college as reported in the Evening Standard a couple of years…
Guardian League Table 2015: Well I never
New Guardian League Table for 2015 entry (and yes, Cambridge is top) Top 25 of the full list (available here) is as follows (last year’s position in brackets): 1 (1) Cambridge 2 (2) Oxford 3 (4) St Andrews 4 (7) Bath 5 (…
Universities gripped by puppy mania
Puppies for relaxation It’s exam time and I’ve written before here about the advent of the puppy room as a means of addressing exam stress. All parts of the media seem to have got rather excited about this and other stre…
Capital spend spend spend
Changing patterns of capital spending in universities HESA recently released details of HEIs’ capital spend in 2012-13 showing the total spend on buildings and equipment and the sources of the funds used: Times Higher Ed…
Timetabling can be fun
A Real Higher Ed Challenge A really fascinating article by @Graham_Kendall on the maths behind an exam timetable. It’s one of those things that affects everyone at university – staff and students. And it’s hugely importa…
An Ethics App?
Difficult ethical decision? There’s an app for that I was taken by this interesting development in applying academic research to real world issues. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on a new mobile app intend…
Ranking systemically
The new U21 systems ranking Following on from last year’s second league table, U21 has now published its 2014 Rankings report, which is intended to give an overview and ranking of higher education systems across the worl…
Needed: More Money, Money, Money
Higher Education needs more and better fundraising. And fundraisers A new publication from HEFCE on developing the HE fundraising workforce: This report was commissioned by HEFCE to address one of the recommendations in …