News Items from the Week of November 23, 2018

International

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Universities shouldn’t be playing the global rankings game | The ranking system is based on a snapshot of institutional performance in a given year. It’s a zero-sum game: a gain by one institution is necessarily a loss by another. And as Chris Brink, a former university vice-chancellor, shows, the rankings have no scientific validity. He points out that the different ranking systems – Times Higher Education is just one among many – produce different results based on the criteria used and the weighting assigned to each. A small change in the weighting results in significant changes in an institution’s ranking.

‘Distributed Excellence’ – A model for European HE | The concept of ‘Distributed Excellence’ was developed in a discussion paper at the German and Polish rectors’ conferences in 2017…Rather than producing a small number of excellent institutions, the initiative showcased the wide spread of research quality across institutions. In 2018, 34 universities in 30 German cities were able to secure funding for so-called research clusters that highlight international excellence in a certain discipline or interdisciplinary field of research.

Remaking the Common Good: The Crisis of Public Higher Education in Colombia | As Colombia under right-wing president Iván Duque promises to further roll back desperately-needed public university funding, a student movement is taking action against the deepening of neoliberal restructuring of public higher education in Colombia.

Underfunding in higher education leaves Ireland unequipped to deal with Brexit | Irish universities are already feeling the effects of Brexit. Recently, Trinity College Dublin printed an open letter in the Financial Times, in which it outlined how Brexit has already had a detrimental impact upon them. According to the letter, they have seen 20% decline in applications from Northern Irish students.

Widening participation in higher education: 2018 | [U.K.] Annual statistics on young peoples’ participation in higher education, including their social background and occupation after graduating.

U.S. National

The Higher Education Learning Crisis | There is a crisis in American undergraduate higher education requiring a shift away from spurious magazine rankings, unacceptable graduation rates, inequitable admissions selectivity, rising costs, and administrative and faculty inefficiency to a more fundamental problem: Students do not learn enough in college, period.

U.S. States

A history lecture, affordable textbooks, and a mobile sustainability lab | Salem State University was recently awarded a $100,000 grant to make college textbooks more affordable. The grant from the state Department of Higher Education will help launch the Viking Open Educational Resources and Textbook Affordability Initiative.

UW joins with WSU to promote affordability of public higher education | Public higher education is not just possible, it is easily within reach for Washington residents. That’s the message behind a new joint public-awareness campaign of the University of Washington and Washington State University to promote the affordability of higher education in the state of Washington.

4-year college freshman enrollment drops | About 10,300 first-time freshmen are enrolled in West Virginia’s public four-year colleges this fall – a decrease of about 9 percent from last fall and down 5 percent from five years ago – according to numbers released Friday.

Institutional

Telling the HBCU Story | the prevailing narrative associated with HBCUs is that of relevancy, purpose and effectiveness in a “post-racial” America. It is clear that these questions of relevancy continue to be heightened by various higher education and media outlets. Comparing the performance of HBCUs to the larger higher education universe continue painting a picture that does not reflect the critical success and impacts these institutions not only have on their students and regional communities but to the competitiveness and sustainability of our nation’s economy.

Iowa Wesleyan University will remain open after receiving donations from alumni, others | Iowa Wesleyan University’s Board of Trustees met Thursday to discuss whether to close the institution, founded in 1842. The board on Nov. 1 postponed a decision on the university’s future. The university needed $2.1 million to stay open for the spring 2019 semester. An Iowa Wesleyan professor and alumnus donated $500,000, and the Mount Pleasant Area Chamber of Alliance donated $120,000. It’s unclear how much was raised from other donations.

‘Common Sense’ or ‘Sexist Trash’? | A series of anonymous pamphlets roils Long Island University’s Post campus, portraying its president as out of touch and overpaid in a time of budget cuts.

Defining Learning Innovation | What all learning innovation efforts have in common is that they are thought of as strategic for the institution, they operate on a scale that requires some institutional/organizational support, and that the outcomes may not be known. Learning innovation efforts are disciplined experiments. They have a research and development (R&D) component. They are committed to scaling advances across the institution, and to moving from pilot projects to regular operations.