News Items from the Week of March 10, 2017

International

Revolutionising the global knowledge society | Higher education systems around the world are currently undergoing an academic revolution that is primarily the result of globalisation, democratisation and lifelong learning as a human right. As we move further into the 21st century, these factors will continue to play an important role in revolutionising the global knowledge society.

Internationalisation of HE must not be imposed | [The] top-down way of promoting internationalisation has limited the autonomy of Russian universities more than ever before… The Ministry of Education and Science’s approach to internationalisation is purely quantitative and based on boosting the numbers of international students and publications regardless of their impact.

Tax data part of UK graduate employment survey by 2020 | UK’s university statistics agency will publish graduate salary data from tax records instead of relying on survey responses

THE rankings publication schedule for 2017 revealed | Times Higher Education has confirmed the schedule for its portfolio of university rankings for the 2017 calendar year.

The Gender Gap in Publications | The report, “Gender in the Global Research Landscape,” is based on an analysis of Elsevier’s Scopus database, which includes abstract and citation data for more than 21,500 academic journals, book series and conference proceedings across the major research fields, as well as data on names of patent applicants maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Higher education: OECD favours better funding for innovation | The OECD says Australia’s research and business collaboration is still weak and decision-making within the innovation system, particularly at the government level, fragmented.

The Violent Fight for Higher Education | In South Africa, student anger over tuition costs and access has bubbled over—and some observers say the tumult is a harbinger of worldwide unrest.

U.S. National

Report: The race gap in higher education is very real | While minority populations such as black and Hispanic students are on the rise numerically in higher education, their ability to enter and succeed in the college world is waning.

177 Private Colleges Fail Education Dept.’s Financial-Responsibility Test | According to a Chronicle analysis of data released on Tuesday, 177 private colleges that grant degrees failed a U.S. Education Department test for financial responsibility in the 2014-15 academic year. That’s 18 more than the previous year.

Dual Enrollment Movement Seeks Bigger Role in Education | College in High School Alliance… The goal of the alliance is to advocate for greater support for dual enrollment models at the state, federal and local level in order to improve educational outcomes, said Adam Lowe, executive director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, or NACEP, which helped launch the alliance recently on Capitol Hill.

Political Turmoil, Public Misunderstanding: A Survey of Presidents | Higher education is widely misunderstood by the public, struggling to enroll sufficient numbers of students from low-income backgrounds and likely to face significant disruption in the flow of international students because of the Trump administration’s policies, college presidents widely agree.

U.S. States

Debate on college affordability spurs California lawmakers to offer proposals to help students | California legislators have introduced at least three dozen bills this year that aim to make college more affordable, including proposals to freeze tuition, demystify student loan statements and make textbooks cheaper.

State cuts, fewer students put NM higher ed in crisis | {I]ncreasing signs of strain under the one-two punch of declining enrollment, which means less tuition money, and recent state budget cuts to higher education that have called into question how to manage the state’s [New Mexico’s] schools.

National Center for Higher Education Management Systems to assist State System with strategic review | The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) will assist Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education in conducting a strategic review of the System’s overall operations — including those at each of the universities and in the Office of the Chancellor — and will make recommendations for changes that may be necessary to help ensure the System’s long-term future.

Opinion: Students should protect their right to higher education | There is hope for the future of higher education in Louisiana.

Institutional

The Aftermath at Middlebury | With Middlebury investigating what happened — including illegal acts in the attacks on the car and the professor, as well as violations of college policies — students have not come forward with their names to claim responsibility for what happened, or to discuss their views.

Southern Grad Schools See Need to Tap into Diversity Boom | As the United States moves toward a future where the population will be “majority minority” — a milestone demographic shift expected to occur by 2040 — graduate schools across the nation are evolving to meet the demands of current student and to anticipate their needs in the future.

Maricopa Community Colleges Giving ‘Step’ Compensation System the Boot | [T]he old “step” system — in which salary increases are linked to length of time on the job and blind to performance — will be replaced with a new “open-range” system that offers more flexibility to set salaries based on how well people actually do their jobs. And, “spot incentives” will be provided for employees who help their departments meet various performance goals.