In the news... Univeristy Rankings
University Rankings Don't Tell The Whole Story
Ellen Hazelkorn, Irish Times.
"The main emphasis of...rankings is on the bio-sciences, with limited accuracy for social science, while the humanities and arts are largely ignored. Despite such global challenges as climate change, energy, healthcare delivery and urban infrastructure, rankings have difficulty measuring interdisciplinary or collaborative research. They do not recognise research which leads to new products and services, high-performance start-ups or social innovation, nor measure the quality of teaching or the impact of research on teaching."
"To paraphrase, Einstein, global rankings focus on what is easily measured rather than measuring what counts."
Read full article at irishtimes.com...
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25/11/2008
MBA News
Time for boot camp MBAs
By Jonathan Spector, Financial Times.
The MBA seems to arouse more debate than most degrees, with critics wondering about its relevance, questioning its value and trying to discern common management errors that executives with the degree are prone to making. This has led to an almost perpetual questioning of the MBA curriculum.
Many innovations have emerged from this process of self-examination but, as I reflect on the nature of the MBA debate, I’m struck by its somewhat limited scope. In particular, there seems to be a fundamental belief that the MBA has to be at least one year in length.
Read full article at ft.com...
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30/10/2008
Country Overviews
29/10/2008
Travel Sites - Low Fares Airlines
Australia/Asia
| Jet Star | Virgin Blue | Freedom Air | ||
| Air Asia | Pacific Blue | Regional Express |
Europe
| Ryanair | Easyjet | Norwegian Air Shuttle | ||
| Flybe | Jet2 | Myair | ||
| Transavia |
North America
| South West Airlines | jetBlue | West Jet | ||
| Frontier Airlines |
South America
| despegar.com | GOL |
28/10/2008
Travel Sites - International
International
11/08/2008
France - News
HEC Extends China Portfolio
Hot on the heels of its successful EMBA programme in Beijing, HEC School of Management Paris is to expand its activities in China with the launch of a second EMBA in Shanghai.
The new programme will start next March and is being offered in partnership with the training centre of the National Development and Reform Commission.
This latest EMBA will be aimed at select senior managers, largely from the private sector, and will look at market-focused themes and general management. The programme will be taught in English by HEC faculty.
The new partnership will give HEC Paris the opportunity to engage in China-relevant research.
Bernard Ramanantsoa, dean of HEC Paris, says that the new EMBA demonstrates the school’s global reach and is a strategic expansion of HEC’s international portfolio.
HEC launched its EMBA programme in Beijing almost two years ago, under the auspices of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (Sasac). The Sasac-HEC EMBA programme has been designed to enhance the technical and leadership skills of Chinese executives, mainly from state-owned enterprises.
The NDRC - a macro-economic management agency - is keen to repeat the success of the Beijing programme.
(ft.com - August 2008)
06/08/2008
UK - News
Weaker pound could attract more overseas students
by Anthea Lipsett, The Guardian.
Universities could benefit from the economic downturn as more overseas students choose to study in Britain because of the weaker pound, the British Council will claim today.
International students contribute £2.5bn to the UK economy in tuition fees alone and British universities increasingly rely on that income.
But the credit crunch will mean fiercer competition for students in the global higher education market, today's British Council conference on international students will hear.
However, the council's research, which it will unveil at the going global conference, predicts growth in the numbers of students from India, China and Nigeria coming to the UK to study as a result of the drop in the value of sterling.
"Our baseline forecast estimates a rise in market share for the UK in the forecast period compared with the competitor set of countries, from an estimated 12.5% in 2006 to almost 26% by 2015," the report says.
Read full article at guardian.co.uk...
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02/07/2008
Ireland - News
THE GOVERNMENT is to announce an unprecedented €400 million in funding for research activity in third-level colleges under the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions.
To date, the third-level research programme has helped fund projects such as bio-medical and bio-molecular research at UCD's Conway Institute (€36 million in funding) and the National Centre for Bio-Medical Engineering Science at NUI Galway (€32 million).
The latest funding, which will be managed by the Higher Education Authority, will bring the total investment in the third-level research programme to more than €866 million since its inception in 1998. Some €261 million was invested in the last round.
A large proportion of the new funding will provide laboratory and other research infrastructure in colleges. While the main focus will be on science and technology, additional funding will be awarded to research projects in arts and humanities.
The new funding will help to deliver on the targets set for the third-level sector in the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation and the National Development Plan 2007-2013. These envisage a doubling of PhD graduates and the establishment of "world-class" research centres.
At present, the Republic is 15th of 27 OECD states when it comes to the number of students with advanced research degrees.
It is understood the new funding will:
• Deliver new and additional space and state-of-the-art facilities for researchers;
• Provide new "national shared facilities" or research centres, identified as being critical for Ireland;
• Support the development of "structured" PhD education initiatives - better preparing researchers for the workplace, whether in the public or private sector. The intention is that these researchers will contribute to enhanced innovation and creativity in business, in industry and across society;
• Support research in areas of new and emerging potential.
(Irish Times - May 08)
USA - News
The United States retains its global preeminence in science and technology, with a big boost from foreign students, scientists and engineers, a RAND Corporation report issued on Thursday said.
RAND researchers said their conclusions contradict perceptions among some Americans that the nation was losing its competitiveness in these crucial fields.
In fact, the United States remains ahead of its main competitors in Europe and Japan, according to the report from the nonprofit research organization requested by the Pentagon.
"Although developing nations such as China, India and South Korea showed rapid growth in S&T (science and technology), these nations still account for a small share of world innovation and scientific output," the report added.
The report looked at government, corporate and academic science and technology activities. It did not provide a country-by-country ranking but cited the United States as the world's leader based on a number of measures.
The United States accounts for 40 percent of the global spending on scientific research and development, employs 70 percent of the world's Nobel Prize winners and boasts three quarters of the world's top 40 universities, the report said.
...
(Washington Post - June 08)
