Comments for QS Intelligence Unit

Comment on California Higher Education: a system in peril by Cal Cal

Cal Cal — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:08:47 +0000

UC Berkeley employees, faculty, staff reeling from Chancellor sponsored Operation Excellence (OE). Public universities are into a phase of creative disassembly where reinvention and adjustments are constant. Even solid world class institutions like the University of California Berkeley under the leadership of Chancellor Birgeneau & Provost Breslauer are firing staff, faculty and part-time lecturers through “Operation Excellence (OE)”. Yet many employees, professionals and faculty cling to old assumptions about one of the most critical relationship of all: the implied, unwritten contract between employer and employee.
Until recently, loyalty was the cornerstone of that relationship. Employers promised work security and a steady progress up the hierarchy in return for employees fitting in, accepting lower wages, performing in prescribed ways and sticking around. Longevity was a sign of employer-employee relations; turnover was a sign of dysfunction. None of these assumptions apply today. Organizations can no longer guarantee work and lifetime careers, even if they want to. UC Berkeley senior management paralyzed themselves with an attachment to “success brings success’ rather than “success brings failure’ and are now forced to break the implied contract with employees – a contract nurtured by management that the future can be controlled.
Jettisoned Cal employees are finding that the hard won knowledge, skills and capabilities earned while being loyal are no longer valuable in the employment market place.
What kind of a contract can employers and employees make with each other? The central idea is both simple and powerful: the job or position is a shared situation. Employers and employees face market and financial conditions together, and the longevity of the partnership depends on how well the for-profit or not-for-profit continues to meet the needs of customers and constituencies. Neither employer nor employee has a future obligation to the other. Organizations train people. Employees develop the kind of security they really need – skills, knowledge and capabilities that enhance future employability.
The partnership can be dissolved without either party considering the other a traitor.

Comment on California Higher Education: a system in peril by Cal Cal

Cal Cal — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:05:48 +0000

UC Berkeley senior management in peril: hire three million $ consultants to do the work of Cal senior management. Sorry Tale of UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Office: easily grasped by the public, lost on University of California’s President Yudoff. The UC Berkley budget gap has grown to $150 million, & still the Chancellor is spending money that isn’t there on $3,000,000 consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the consultants “thinking, expertise, & new knowledge”.
Does this mean that the faculty & management of UC Berkeley – flagship campus of the greatest public system of higher education in the world – lack the knowledge, integrity, impartiality, innovation, skills to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years? The consultants will glean their recommendations from faculty interviews & the senior management that hired them; yet $ 150 million of inefficiencies and solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor & Provost Breslauer were doing the work of their jobs (This simple point is lost on UC’s leadership).
The victims of this folly are Faculty and Students. $ 3 million consultant fees would be far better spent on students & faculty.
There can be only one conclusion as to why inefficiencies & solutions have not been forthcoming from faculty & staff: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility & the trust of the faculty & Academic Senate leadership (C. Kutz, F. Doyle). Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants’ recommendations – disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy – the underlying problem of lost credibility & trust will remain. (Context: greatest recession in modern times)

Comment on Visas, another homework for governments towards international education and Latin America students. Part III. by International education Articles

International education Articles — Tue, 18 May 2010 06:22:12 +0000

I think england education system is so good butt they should rebate in visa process for bank statement because those students who are from middle families they also want to take international study experience so i request to England education board they give a chance to those people also its a not only for rich people.

Comment on Iraq – The cradle of civilization, can the civilization of advanced higher education return? by Deena Al Hilli

Deena Al Hilli — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:01:13 +0000

After writing my last blog on higher education in Iraq, I attended the Going Global 4 conference organised by the British Council. They had a very interesting seminar on Iraq: Meeting the challenges through education reform and partnerships, which encouraged me to write a follow up piece on my last blog. In the piece above, I wrote about the few Iraqi students leaving Iraq for a better education, asking what happens now to the many Iraqi students who are left behind, however this seminar enlightened me on the many projects that are taking place in Iraq to help rebuild the higher education system.
There were three schemes presented on the day, in addition to a presentation by the minister of higher education in Kurdistan that highlighted the ministry’s vision of rebuilding the higher education within the Kurdish region of Iraq. DELPHE is a scheme funded by the Department of International Development and managed by the British Council in Iraq, to support partnerships between Iraqi higher education institutions and those in other countries. Rawabit, the Arabic word for links/partners, is another scheme supported by the British council that aims to support long term development and modernisation of the Iraqi technical education sector. The third scheme was HELMI, Higher Education Leadership and Management in Iraq, a scheme that aims to contribute to the longer-term development of the HE internationalisation agendas of the UK and Iraq.
Each scheme presented showed a lot of hope and potential for rebuilding the higher education sector in Iraq, with focus on teacher training, curriculum development, Quality Assurance Systems, leadership and management programs for deans and other academics. Although a lot of time is needed to reach the targeted level of high quality education, it appears that a lot of research, funds and time are going into rebuilding and improving a higher education system that was once the pride of Iraq.

Comment on All is not quiet… by Tweets that mention All is not quiet… « QS Intelligence Unit -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention All is not quiet… « QS Intelligence Unit -- Topsy.com — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:04:30 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by quelet and Miquel Duran, GlobalHigherEd. GlobalHigherEd said: A quick transition.? QS (of THE‐QS World Uni Rankings) given same day notice as THE-ThomsonReuters news made public: http://bit.ly/cWRgwb [...]

Comment on Financial factors can be a dangerous measure by Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:03:44 +0000

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Comment on QS.com Asian University Rankings due to provide insight on a larger number of indicators by may

may — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:13:49 +0000

i like QS ranking it really work hard to rank educational university , we are seeking to have the same thing in web site ranking of university Eduroute

Comment on Business schools to blame for the credit crunch? by Ben Sowter

Ben Sowter — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:18:04 +0000

I often think computing provides a good microcosm of your point here. Computing changes so quickly that universities and colleges have no chance of keeping up with the latest developments. There are two approaches – one that teaches a specific language or software – these programs tend to have state of the art facilities and more recent installations of everything required – yet the training quickly and inevitably become obsolete. The traditional university approach is to train the mind – coach the principles that can then be adapted to any language or software years after the student graduates – in this last case the student may learn in shabby labs on old software versions but they pick up transferable, adaptable skills. Whilst I agree with the value of work experience, I believe it is mistake to dismiss traditional forms of learning in favour of exclusively more vocational forms.

On a trip two years ago I visited two nanotechnology labs – one at KAIST in South Korea and another at Mahidol University in Thailand. The first was an impressive installation with clean rooms and multi million pound machines for cutting and handling silcon wafers and the like, in the latter case the professor had built the machine from a combination of purchased components, recycled equipment and even old motorcycle parts. Despite the gulf in the equipment (and the reality that academic breakthroughs are surely more likely to occur in the first instance) it struck me that the real education was happening in the second… that in the second instance the students were that much closer to the science. Perhaps this is an example of how practical aspects of education can be found not only in the workplace, but also with some innovative thinking from faculty members at universities.

Comment on QS.com Asian University Rankings: Beyond the obvious… by Top Ranking

Top Ranking — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:46:10 +0000

Japanese universities are always ranked among the best in the region, they were in the top ranking in the previous Asiaweek rankings as well.

Comment on Business schools to blame for the credit crunch? by Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:06:05 +0000

Education has and always will lag behind today’s business practices. They change so fasts they would constantly be rewriting courses. What students need is more real world work experience to complement there degree whilst they study.