Suchergebnisse

In September 2017, in a celebrated speech on the future of Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed the idea that Europe should have at least twenty "European universities" of sufficient scale that would allow students to move between different institutions, experience other cultures and take classes in at least two different languages. Speaking in the Sorbonne to an audience of university presidents, diplomats and parliamentarians as well as students, he argued that culture and knowledge is what binds the European Union together and that European universities could uniquely help to "create a sense of belonging" that will be the "strongest cement for Europe". Countering the apparent fragmentation of European, Macron's vision is of revival of the values of multiculturalism and multilingualism wherein every young person should "travel the continent to learn other languages" and "unlearn their natural boorish ways". This Europe, he claimed, "which has lived through so many wars and conflicts: what holds it together is its culture"

The financial sustainability of Europe's universities is of crucial importance to the future of the European knowledge-based society and, therefore, to the European University Association. With this project report EUA aims to stimulate the debate with analysis of funding and fi nancing from the institutional perspective. As an independent voice of Europe's universities in Brussels, EUA attaches highest priority to this issue as an essential requirement for Europe's universities to meet the challenge of the "Modernisation Agenda" for universities under discussion with governments at both the national and European level.

Institutions of learning at all levels are challenged by a fast and accelerating pace of change in the development of communications technology. Conferences around the world address the issue. Research journals in a wide range of scholarly fields are placing the challenge of understanding "Education's Digital Future" on their agenda. The World Learning Summit and LINQ Conference 2017 proceedings take this as a point of origin. Noting how the future also has a past: Emergent uses of communications technologies in learning are of course neither new nor unfamiliar. What may be less familiar is the notion of "disruption", found in many of the conferences and journal entries currently.

Is the disruption of education and learning as transformative as in the case of the film industry, the music industry, journalism, and health? If so, clearly the challenge of understanding future learning and education goes to the core of institutions and organizations as much as pedagogy and practice in the classroom.

One approach to the pursuit of a critical debate is the concept of Smart Universities – educational institutions that adopt to the realities of digital online media in an encompassing manner: How can we as smarter universities and societies build sustainable learning eco systems for coming generations, where technologies serve learning and not the other way around? Perhaps that is the key question of our time, reflecting concerns and challenges in a variety of scholarly fields and disciplines? These proceedings present the results from an engaging event that took place from 7th to 9th of June 2017 in Kristiansand, Norway.

An impassioned and controversial exploration of the future of the university. On one side are self-proclaimed modernisers who view the institution as vital to national economic success, its principles of private and personal enrichment necessary conditions of 'progress'. On the other side the university is about extending human possibilities and freedoms, seeking earnestly for social justice, and participating in democracy. This book analyses the former position, and argues for the necessity of taking sides with the latter

It is not necessary to assume what may be 'the myth of political neutrality' to defend the value of free inquiry or the need for objective research, that is, research as free as possible from propagandistic demands. Such inquiry and research are quite compatible with a self-consciously politicized university as long as this politicized university is also a university which is committed to the ideals of a critical university in which there is an attempt to discover the truth (or at least truth) about politics and society. What needs to be feared is not a political university but a political university which would deliberately accept propaganda and deny the ideals of open and fairrninded inquiry. The important thing is not to fight against the politicization of the university but to fight for a politicization of the university which takes a humane and rational direction- a direction in which, among other things, the ideals of free and rational inquiry are defended and 'cooking of the evidence' to fit ideological preconceptions is not tolerated.

University rankings are 'hot'. Some universities, policy makers and journalists seem to take them quite seriously. At the same time, however, they are also fiercely criticized. The best known worldwide rankings tend, for instance, to have a strong anglo-saxon bias and tend to give insufficient valorisation to human sciences.

The teaching of statistics in the U.S. and Japanese universities is briefly reviewed. It is found that H. Hotelling's articles and subsequent relevant publications on the teaching of statistics have contributed to a considerable extent to the establishment of excellent departments of statistics in U.S. universities and colleges. Today the U.S. may be proud of many well-staffed and well-organized departments of theoretical and applied statistics with excellent undergraduate and graduate programs. On the contrary, no Japanese universities have an independent department of statistics at present, and the teaching of statistics has been spread among a heterogeneous group of departments of application. This was mainly due to the Japanese government regulation concerning the establishment of a university. However, it has recently been revised so that an independent department of statistics may be started in a Japanese university with undergraduate and graduate programs. It is hoped that discussions will be started among those concerned on the question of organization of the teaching of statistics in Japanese universities as soon as possible.

Significant resistance to private universities in Argentina has resulted in a small, but strong participation of this sector in higher education. Core debates about private actors in education have evolved from vigorous opposition to more nuanced discussion about their fundamental role. However, the more prestigious and larger public sector still enjoys much governmental support in terms of finance and regulations, which has led the private sector to rely mostly on tuition revenue.

This article reports a survey of academic vice-presidents and deans of Canadian universities which was undertaken in 1991. The focal topic was reform (defined as significant change), and perceptions of reform occurring over the past three years were derived by means of a questionnaire. Many changes were reported, giving the impression of highly responsive institutions, but these reforms were seen to be modest rather than bold in nature and reactive rather than pro-active. The major environmental influence impelling change was the level of funding. The reforms perceived to be most frequent and significant were mandate changes arising from strategic planning, responses to funding constraints, curriculum expansion, coping with increased student numbers, changes in administrative structure especially at the vice-presidency, and more democratic decision-making. Respondents were generally supportive of the goals which were perceived to lie behind the reforms but were not convinced that significant progress towards goals was actually being achieved. A comparison with reform in other parts of the world revealed that Canadian universities follow the decentralized ad hoc pattern found in federal nations, but there is reason to hope that strategic planning will produce a clearer sense of direction than has been typical elsewhere. The report concludes that the claim that universities are not responsive to changing societal needs is unwarranted, but that more significant lasting reforms are needed. ; Cet article rapporte les résultats d'une enquête effectuée en 1991 auprès de vice-recteurs et de doyens d'universités canadiennes. Le but de cette enquête était d'évaluer les changements importants s'étant opérés dans les établissements durant les trois dernières années ainsi que les perceptions qu 'en avaient les répondant(e)s à l'enquête. Les personnes interrogées ont fait part d'un grand nombre de cas donnant l'impression que les établissements s'adaptaient résolument au changement. Mais après analyse, il appert que les changements identifiés sont plus modestes que décisifs et de nature davantage réactive que pro-active. L'élément déterminant ayant déclenché la plupart des actions entreprises se rapportait au financement des établissements. Les changements les plus fréquents et importants observés touchaient les mandats découlant de la planification stratégique, des coupures budgétaires, des croissances de clientèle étudiantes, des changements dans les structures administratives, particulièrement au niveau de la vice-présidence, ou des processus plus démocratiques de prise de décision. Les personnes interrogées appuyaient, de façon générale, les objectifs poursuivis mais ne croyaient pas que des changements en profondeur s'étaient opérés par rapport à ces objectifs. Une comparaison avec d'autres systèmes d'éducation ailleurs dans le monde révèle que les universités canadiennes présentent des modes de gestion décentralisée et ad hoc semblables à ceux observés ailleurs dans les nations constituées en fédération, mais qu'il y a lieu d'espérer que la planification stratégique amènera les établissements à mieux clarifier leurs orientations. Cette étude conclut que les universités tentent réellement de répondre aux attentes de leur milieux, mais que des changements plus substantiels sont nécessaires.

This volume brings together theoretical perspectives and empirical studies on the ongoing Englishization of Nordic universities. A core objective is to contrast and address the gap between ideological representations of this phenomenon and the ways in which it unfolds in the practices on the ground. The book provides perspectives from five Nordic countries: Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, with one chapter from each country focusing on ideologies and another on practices. The book is intended to provide an up-to-date resource on the internationalization and Englishization of Nordic universities for scholars, policy makers and anyone wishing to gain an overview of current issues in the field.