Higher
Students get new courses for the 21st century
Aberdeen is the first British university to carry out a thorough review of what it teaches. But, asks Lucy Hodges, will the customers like it?
Inside Higher
Leading Article: Good start for fees review
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Lord Mandelson has managed to secure an impressive line-up for his review of university funding, which is expected to recommended that top-up fees be increased. Lord Browne, who spent his life in BP, rising from lowly graduate recruit to CEO, is widely admired for his expertise and will be ably supported, among others, by Sir Michael Barber, the former head of Tony Blair's delivery unit, the economist Diane Coyle, formerly of this newspaper, and Professor David Eastwood, Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham University and one of the cleverest minds in higher education. Moreover he has managed to keep the NUS happy by including a young person, Ranjay Naik, who used be on the English Secondary Students Association.
Bob Burgess: I hope student records make degree classes obsolete
Thursday, 5 November 2009
In the next academic year, many universities will pilot new records of student achievement that could replace our 200-year-old system of degree classification.
Universities are realising that a January start can hold many attractions
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Missed the September run? Don't panic, join the ever-expanding legion of second-semesterers. Does this sound familiar? You're on a summer holiday and while you're deep in an inspirational book you get the urge to change your destiny.
Diary Of A Third Year: 'The first year is wasted on freshers'
Thursday, 5 November 2009
I am only 21, but I feel like an old, old man. University does that to you. Nothing ages you quite like it. I arrived as a fresh-faced, optimistic teenager and will leave as a bearded and cynical twentysomething. In other words, I've become a student pensioner.
Why students want their universities to do better
Thursday, 5 November 2009
The body set up to sound out consumers is calling for lecturers to receive formal training and for all institutions to organise work placements.
Crime watch: Why students may think twice about studying in Manchester
Thursday, 29 October 2009
The city has the highest numbers of burglaries, robberies and violent crimes outside London. What does that mean for students
Conor Ryan: 'Universities must earn the right to charge higher fees'
Thursday, 29 October 2009
In the coming weeks the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, will announce the terms of reference for a review of student fees. The cross-party investigation is likely to recommend an increase in tuition fees from £3,225 to as much as between £5,000 and £7,000 a year, increasing the proportion of courses costs paid back by students after graduation. But if universities want the right to charge higher fees, there is growing political consensus that they must also be prepared to improve greatly the experience they provide for undergraduates.
Big ambitions: Queen Mary's new head sets targets to push college up the league tables
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Simon Gaskell is in his fifth day of his new job at Queen Mary, University of London, the grittily urban institution in the melting pot of the East End.
Alan Smithers: Keep education academics well away from running our schools please
Thursday, 22 October 2009
The massive Cambridge Primary Review is a wonderful example of why we need universities to keep occupied education academics who otherwise might be tempted to try to run things and do real damage. It is a rich source of ideas, never using one word when 10 will do, but it is weak on practical solutions. Cutting to the chase of the 78 conclusions and 75 recommendations, it appears that Professor Robin Alexander and the other 13 authors think primary education would be better if there were a broader curriculum, SATs were scrapped and the school entry age were raised to six.
Diary of a Third Year: What am I going to do with my history degree ... frame it?
Thursday, 22 October 2009
I spend more time defending my degree than I do studying it. Whenever I tell someone outside university that I'm taking history, they look puzzled, suppress a giggle, and ask "Why?" No one asks engineers or medics why they take their subjects. But then I suppose they're not stuck with a degree that gives few, if any, direct career opportunities.
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Columnist Comments
• Matthew Norman: Cowell is a God
He has no need to play God. On Greek mythological lines, he is one
• Adrian Hamilton: Lies, damn lies and Berlin speeches
We're back to propping up rotten regimes. Stability is more important than values
• Christina Patterson: Why it's hard to be a blonde in the City
A big, fat, dark, ugly man who complained about their intelligence
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