Do it in the dark: universities prepare for Earth Hour 2012
On Saturday 31 March, people around the world will be switching off as many lights as they possibly can, as part of the annual Earth Hour event. Students and universities are of course also doing their bit, and some have come up with especially creative ways of raising awareness – and having some fun in the dark.
Organized by the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour began in Australia in 2007, and has rapidly grown into the world’s largest environmental event. The aims are to focus attention on climate change, and encourage people to think about how they could reduce their energy use on a daily basis.
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HE News Brief 26.3.12
- Canada:Canada to receive 3,000 Brazilian students
- UK: Government injection for research and development
- Middle East: Comparative data for MENA required
- Vietnam: Lawmakers to vote on autonomy for universities
Scholarships still available via QS Education Trust
More than 150 postgraduate students from all around the world have benefited from QS scholarships over the past six years. And there are now plans to extend the scheme to undergraduates.
QS is the only publisher of global rankings to devote some of the income from associated conferences and other activities to help outstanding students. The QS Education Trust was founded in 2005 and now has funds of more than $1.2 million to support students taking MBAs and other postgraduate programs.
The original aim was to become the world’s largest independent community-based provider of postgraduate scholarships. But the company hopes to incorporate undergraduate studies in 2012.
At present, there are separate schemes for MBAs and other postgraduate programmes. Most awards are worth between $10,000 and $20,000, but one at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, in Belgium, offered in association with several leading MBA recruiters, is worth a total of €425,000.
“QS Scholarship winners are united by their demonstration of responsible leadership and community commitment, in very varied circumstances” Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS
There are dedicated awards at 14 business schools, but other scholarships can be taken up at universities all around the world. Alexandru-Cosmin Buteica used his to take MSc programmes in management and business administration at the Rotterdam School of Management, at Erasmus University. Whilst there, he also spent a semester as an exchange student at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in Santiago.
Alexandru learnt of the awards when he attended a QS Top MBA and Masters Fair at the University of Bucharest, where he took his first degree. He was awarded the QS Top Community Scholarship, for demonstrating commitment and skills in contributing to the advancement of communities.
The co-founder of FORCE, the Foundation for Opportunity, Responsibility and Chance for Education, he has since won a place on the International Talent Programme run by ING, the Dutch bank. He said: “I plan to build up a strong career path in the future, and do what I like best: learn from the people that surround me, invest in my personal development and give as much time, energy and knowledge as I can to the communities in which I am active and especially to the youth. I am still involved in various Romanian NGOs and I do my best to contribute to the development of communities and invest in youth education.”
Alexandru, who is now 25, added: “The QS scholarship was a great financial opportunity for me, as it covered the whole tuition fee for my Master’s. I am most grateful to the QS foundation for offering this scholarship, which contributed to my international education and personal development.”
Details of the awards can be found at here. The deadline for applications is May 28. Universities and business schools and universities interested in the scheme should email scholarships@qs.com .
HE News Brief 19.3.12
- UK: Elite Russell Group of universities announce four new members
- Mexico: New regulations for private institutions
- Uganda: Private universities emerge in Uganda
Leaving their 1994 Group membership , Queen Mary, Durham, Exeter, and York have all joined the elite Russell Group, which now has 24 members. The Group represents the UK’s elite group of research intensive institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial. According to the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, 60% of research in the UK is produced by the Russell Group. Professor Michael Arthur, chair of the Russell Group and the vice-chancellor of Leeds University, says that the four institutions were invited to join the Group because of their innovation and research intensity across a broad range of subjects.
The number of private institutions have grown considerably in Mexico, from 995 in 2006 to close to 1,500 in the current year. The number of students attending these universities increased from 400,000 in 2006 to one million in 2012 and come mostly from underprivileged backgrounds. The rapid growth rates are prompting many to be concerned with the quality of education received at private institutions, particularly because there are no quality assurance regulations in place. In order to curb this, the Ministry of Education has announced that private institutions will go through a thorough assessment process by national assessment bodies to ensure standards are up to scratch. The government is trying to balance increasing student enrolment numbers (Mexico (37%) trails behind Chile (56%) and Argentina (71%) for instance) with policing new institutions for quality.
A year after the furore surrounding Makerere University, which was once known as the ‘Harvard of Africa’, many are contemplating the role of private institutions in the country. Makerere, some are saying suffers from overcrowding which may have contributed to the strikes that took place last year. Private institutions, which total 30 in the country, are viable alternatives for many however some worry that the rapid growth in private institutions may contribute to further divisions within society. Mahmood Mamdani, director of Makerere’s Institute of Social Research, says that ‘commericialisation’ of higher education may lead to an even deeper divide between the rich and poor. Private institutions at the moment costs more than public universities and Professor Mamdani worries that only richer students could afford to go to a private institution while poorer students are relegated to overcrowded and badly managed public institutions
Serbian universities and the labor market
Serbia, the most populous of the states of the former Yugoslavia, became a candidate for EU membership in October 2011 and regards itself as a western-facing democracy.
Like Serbia’s other institutions, its universities are now facing up to the changes that this new status will involve. Serbia’s population of about eight million is served by eight public and eight private universities. Of these only one appears in the QS World University Rankings. This is the flagship institution, the University of Belgrade, founded in 1808. But even Belgrade only appears in our 601+ group, the lowest rung on the Rankings ladder. Speakers at a February conference on Serbian universities and the labour market explained that variable standards are a key issue for Serbian universities.
They called for a national university ranking system to be introduced to shine some light on the quality of both the public and private sector providers. Neighbouring Macedonia has recently announced its first national rankings, coordinated by the Shanghai team that runs the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Serbian employers seem even less pleased with the graduates they get from their local universities than their competitors in other nations. Not only are they unprepared for work, say recruiters, but they have often graduated in antique topics such as agricultural economics, or ones such as art history that might be better-adapted to more expansive economic times.
Serbia’s private academic sector is ambitious, and its plans make some comparative ranking of universities an increasing priority. At the moment, Serbians can attend public universities for free, but pay fees at the private institutions. However, private university managers point out that the right to free higher education is enshrined in the constitution. There may be a test case in the constitutional court some time soon to find out whether students at private universities are entitled to state funding.
Despite these issues, Serbian graduates have one thing in common with those of other nations. They are more likely to be in work than the rest of the population. About 9 per cent of the workforce has higher education. While unemployment in general runs at 29 per cent of the workforce, only 14 per cent of graduates are unemployed.
These severe economic conditions mean that the population of Serbia has recently been falling by about 100,000 people per year, partly by emigration and partly by low birth rates. Once Serbia does join the EU, the flow of skilled people westward may increase. Like other nations in a similar position, Serbia is seeking all manner of inward investment. There is excitement at the imminent arrival of Fiat, whose new factory will employ thousands, and should encourage vehicle component suppliers to set up nearby. But there is also anxiety at the very low level of entrepreneurship and new business development. Serbian universities, public and private, produce management graduates in abundance. One conference speaker said that there is probably no point bothering to train so many managers for an economy which is in too poor a condition to use them.
● Martin Ince was in Serbia speaking at the Connect to the Market conference organised by fusionatconference.com.
● ARWU Macedonian ranking http://tinyurl.com/7lrt3od
QS Best Student Cities 2012: post-launch effects
The first global ranking of student cities, published last month by QS, caused a stir around the world, reaching more than 500,000 people on Twitter and attracting more than 1 million hits on the topuniversities.com website.
Paris edged out London as the top city, benefiting from a concentration of leading universities with low study costs. Four continental European cities appeared in the top ten, while both Melbourne and Sydney reached the top six for Australia.
QS Best Student Cities Ranking rated the top 50 cities on student mix, quality of living, employer activity and affordability. Public information, published surveys and data gathered in the production of the QS World University Rankings were combined to produce scores.
Cities had to have at least two world-ranked universities to be included. Edouard Husson, Vice-Chancellor of the Universities of Paris, said the city’s triumph in the first QS student cities ranking had been welcomed both by the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, and by President Sarkozy. He said the accolade reflected the huge amount of work taking place in French universities and especially in Paris, with its high density of leading institutions.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, the chief executive of QS, said the success of Paris also reflected the affordability of study at French universities. Both domestic and international students could attend leading institutions at low cost. The ranking was welcomed in student cities across the world.
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, was delighted that second-placed London had been confirmed as one of the best places on earth to study. “We have more bookshops than New York, more museums than Paris (which, by the way, are free) and less rainfall than Rome,” he said. “What’s not to like about London?” Other city leaders were almost as pleased as Mr Johnson.
In Dublin, for example, Andrew Montague, the Lord Mayor, said that the city’s appearance in the top 10 worldwide was “hugely useful” in raising its profile among prospective students. Media organisations in 30 countries reported on the ranking.
Forbes Magazine said the results would be welcomed by those who “enjoy bashing education in America” since Boston was the only US city in the top 10. However, Chicago, San Francisco and New York all joined it in the top 20. Students and alumni competed for bragging rights on social networking sites, where discussion continues on the relative merits of different cities. More than a fortnight after the ranking appeared, Amanda Drolet was still extolling the virtues of Boston on Twitter, while others argued for Berlin, Montreal and Barcelona.
Open Doors event at the University Alliance
Last week, I attended the ‘Open doors’ event organised by University Alliance. The focus of the event was to discuss the Wilson Review. The discussion surrounded the idea of a ‘business and university’ collaboration. The age-old saying can’t be any more true, ‘marriage is a union of two’.
The speakers included Professor Sir Tim Wilson, Trudy Norris-Grey, Professor Beer, Libby Hackett, Matt Smith and Andrew Battarbee. Some of the key areas covered by Professor Sir Wilson included the following:
- Student placements
- A year abroad for student experience
- Business referral within universities (universities recommending a peer university that offer placement in areas which they themselves don’t)
- Universities effectively responding to business
- Start-up fairs at universities
If you feel like these are areas of interest at your university, or that you might improve from such partnerships, you can find more details on the University Alliance home page.
HE News Brief 12.3.12
- Australia: Australian universities lose twenty percent of its foreign student numbers
- World: Institutions in the US, Japan, and South Korea top list of WIPO’s patent filers
- UK: Twenty years later and former polytechnics are making strides
- China: Thousand Foreign Experts program seeks to recruit foreign university staff and entrepreneurs
HE News Brief 5.3.12
- Europe: Research ministers call for bigger role for social sciences in Horizon 2020
- India: Massive rise in number of Indian students sitting Graduate Record Examination
- US: Liberal arts education on the rise in Asia
- Asia Pacific: Australia-China higher education forum announced
HE News Brief 27.2.12
- Australia: Australian universities may jeopardise its appeal in the Asian market
- UK: New structures in September causing anxiety
- Asia: Liberal arts education on the rise in Asia
- Rankings: Undergraduate course offerings decreased since 2006
