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Month: March 2016

What university students think about assessment – reflections from Italy by Serafina Pastore

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Over time, the higher education systems have been exposed to deep and radical transformations. Different processes such as, standardization, diversification, privatization, and internationalization have brought deep institutional changes. Many are the problems that higher education systems have had to deal with: first of all the pervasive attention on teaching-learning quality considered both at institutional and…

Higher education and employability by Cristina Sin

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Cristina Sin (Centre for Research in Higher Education policies (CIPES), Portugal)

Since around the turn of the century, the European Council and the European Commission have vigorously promoted the message that universities must enhance graduate employability through the articulation of curricula to labour market needs, through career guidance or through closer cooperation with employers.  The Bologna Process, too, upheld employability as a central objective of its…

Mergers in Higher Education – some key take aways! By Rómulo Pinheiro, Lars Geschwind & Timo Aarrevaara

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(clockwise) Lars Geschwind (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden), Rómulo Pinheiro (University of Agder,Norway) and Timo Aarrevaara (University of Lapland, Finland)

  Mergers are attractive for political and administrative decision makers because they are presumed to boost efficiency and effectiveness, broaden student access, increase government control over higher education systems and result into larger organizations. Whereas the structural approach emphasizes the benefits of globalisation, marketisation, rankings and economics of scale, the cultural approach focuses on benefits…

On the Development of Students’ Attitudes towards Corruption and Cheating in Russian Universities by Elena Denisova-Schmidt, Martin Huber and Elvira Leontyeva

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Recent Russian initiatives on raising the competitiveness of its higher education system in the international context have been more than successful: The British Times Higher Education magazine included 13 Russian universities on its 2015 list, while only two universities were on this list in 2014. Little by little, Russian universities are moving up into good…

Universities’ Third Mission: Tackling structural and cultural barriers by Rómulo Pinheiro

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Rómulo Pinheiro (University of Agder and Agderforskning/Centre for Advanced Studies in Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS))

Despite increasing awareness towards the important role that universities play in society and the economy through their third missions – of regional development, innovation, outreach, etc. – a series of key challenges remain largely unaddressed. Structurally, a balance needs to be achieved between the core tasks of teaching and research, which take the bulk of the…

European universities facing the challenge of international recruitment by Maria Pietilä

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Maria Pietilä (Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki)

In the recent years, there has been lively discussion on needs to renew academic career structures in European universities. The career paths have typically differed between European countries. This may be problematic if increasing mobility is a significant policy aim. It has also been considered whether the current circumstances for pursuing academic career are attractive…