Plus: May's end may not spell end for English post-18 review WEDNESDAY 3 APRIL 2019
Good morning,
Academics are rightly proud of their doctorates and many insist their honorific titles are used on everything from business cards to bank statements. But should only traditional universities be allowed to award PhDs? In Germany, the debate has been set alight by plans for a new polytechnic-led doctoral college that many believe will shatter the country's finely balanced system of vocational and academic institutions. Today's newsletter also includes the latest on the prospects for England's review of post-18 education, the lowdown on the candidates vying to lead the UK's University and College Union, and a round-up of the key higher education lines from Australia's budget.
-Jack Grove, reporter and deputy features editor
jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com | | | Pick up a business card from a German academic and you're unlikely to find they've failed to mention their doctorate. That goes for professors and university presidents as much as lowly researchers – with some describing the Teutonic reverence for the PhD as almost cult-like. This fetish for academic titles ("Prof Dr Dr" is sometimes used by senior scholars) may therefore explain why plans to strip German universities of their monopoly over doctoral degrees have caused such a stir, with one university leader claiming the move will cause an "earthquake" in the country's scientific system. David Matthews explains why one state's plan to create a centralised doctoral college independent of any university has caused so much debate. Some believe these vocational centres of excellence, linked to universities of applied sciences, would not be equipped to award academia's highest qualification, while others wonder if the move will lead to a convergence of the different types of university in Germany. Supporters of the reforms, however, accuse universities of defending unjustified privileges. | | May-be not: Theresa May's early exit does not necessarily mean her review of post-18 education in England and its widely predicted proposal to lower tuition fees are doomed to lead to nothing, government insiders insist.
Back of the queue: Australia's higher education sector has been underwhelmed by a "business as usual" federal budget that will funnel money into vocational training but offers little to universities.
State of the union: Three candidates vying to become general secretary of the UK's University and College Union explain how they will approach the sector's challenges, including the unresolved pensions dispute, if elected next month.
Homeward bound: Chinese academics based in the US publish in more prestigious journals and are more highly cited than their colleagues who have been lured back home through the nation's Young Thousand Talents programme, but the differences are small, a new study says.
Insult to injury: The Trump administration appears to have virtually halted a process of reimbursing students defrauded by for-profit providers of higher education, with the backlog of claimants seeking relief now exceeding 158,000. | | | "We often get asked whether sustainable development should be integrated into normal activities, plans and programmes, or be a specialised activity. Our conclusion is that we need both but integration is the overarching goal," explains Göran Finnveden, vice-president for sustainable development and professor of environmental strategic analysis at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, ahead of the launch today of Times Higher Education's University Impact Rankings 2019 at our Innovation & Impact Summit, in Daejeon, South Korea. | | There are more than 7,000 jobs on THEunijobs | | | |
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue Early archives at
http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html ---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to
usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit
https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment