Here's a useful video clip explaining the idea of a Massive Open Online Course or MOOC:
Sunday, 31 July, 2011
What is a MOOC?
Friday, 29 July, 2011
Nova Scotia cans Dalhousie fee hike plan
From the Halifax Chronicle Herald:
Nova Scotia's advanced education department has rejected Dalhousie University’s proposed 10 per cent hike in fees for international students.
But those students will still pay an extra 6.5 per cent.
Earlier this week, the minister approved a 3.5 per cent increase in differential fees to provide more advisers, workshops and coaches for international students.
In February, the province announced a four per cent cut in funding to universities and a tuition cap of three per cent for undergraduate and graduate students.
Monday, 25 July, 2011
German universities set for huge student surge
From University World News:
Universities in Germany are expecting an enormous increase in first-year students next semester. This is due not only to studying becoming more popular in recent years, but also to double cohorts of higher secondary school-leavers and the country ending conscription.
The German states introduced shorter secondary school education at the gymnasium, roughly the equivalent of a grammar school, last decade. Compulsory military service ended this July.
As a consequence of these two developments the Rectors' Conference (HRK), representing higher education institutions, expects nearly 60,000 more first-year students will enrol than last winter semester, when 440,000 new enrolments resulted in the overall student population peaking at 2.2 million.
Thursday, 21 July, 2011
Adult learner participation in post-secondary education
A newly released report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario examines the participation of adult learners in post-secondary education. The report notes the following:
Adults with high literacy levels are three times more likely to participate in adult learning in Ontario than those with low literacy levels. As a result, those who would benefit most from further education are missing potential social and economic opportunities, including higher earnings and shorter unemployment periods.My colleagues and I made a similar point in a 2009 paper in the Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education. Back then, we made the following observation:
The highest participation rates in adult education and training are found among the employed (vs. the unemployed), the highly educated (vs. the less educated), and the highly skilled (vs. the lower skilled) (Rubenson, Desjardins, & Yoon, 2007). Meanwhile, those individuals with lower levels of formal education stand to benefit the most from training opportunities, particularly in the area of basic literacy competencies. Many Aboriginal peoples, low-income learners, people with disabilities, and individuals who leave school early face multiple barriers to participating in education and training as adults. However, certain forms of non-occupational adult education required to meet the needs of these groups, such as basic literacy programs in particular, are not widely accessible or available.
Tuesday, 19 July, 2011
Alberta Tory leadership candidate pledges tuition tax credit
Academica's Top Ten notes that Alberta Tory leadership candidate Ted Morton has pledged to introduce a tuition tax credit which would refund tuition paid by Alberta students who stay and work in the province for 7 years following graduation. The program would see up to $20,000 in tuition fees paid back to students in the form of a non-refundable tax credit.
Nova Scotia introduced its similar Graduate Retention Rebate a couple of years back. Around that time, the following commentary appeared in the Halifax Chronicle Herald:
Governments in Manitoba and New Brunswick have invested $100 million in such tax credits. Yet, no changes in retention rates have been observed since the credits were implemented. Rather than learning from their mistakes, our government wants to spend $6.5 million on, as Alex Usher says, "providing windfall gains to people doing exactly what they were going to do anyways" while failing to retain graduates and failing to make education any more accessible.
Despite their campaign that promised "change," this type of policy is simply an amplified archetype of the previous government’s own failed tax tactic. Why not invest these millions of dollars into something more useful? Why not improve access by directing this funding towards student grants or tuition reductions that will save students money now?
Students are calling on the government to change its approach, to lower tuition in order to keep youth from fleeing to Newfoundland for a more affordable education. We’re asking government to promise that no student is denied the right to a higher education for financial reasons alone.
Wednesday, 13 July, 2011
4 in 10 English universities to charge maximum fee
From University World News:
Nearly four in 10 universities in England will charge the maximum £9,000 (US$14,335) tuition fee across all courses, but together they will spend an extra £195 million a year on widening access, the Office for Fair Access has confirmed.
Nearly six in 10 universities will charge £9,000 for some of their courses.
The average fee for higher education institutions in 2012 will be £8,509, dropping to £8,267 after fee waivers, with an estimated average cost per student of £7,881 after allowing for institutional support.
Institutions that plan to charge more than £6,000 must get the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) to approve their agreements for widening access.
As a result, those universities are set to increase their spending on access measures to £602 million a year by 2015-16, up from £407 million in 2011-12.
Access measures cover a broad range of activities including outreach activities to raise aspirations and attainment, financial support such as fee waivers, bursaries and scholarships, and measures to improve retention. Outreach includes activities such as summer schools, mentoring, and advice and guidance for pupils.
Wednesday, 6 July, 2011
Cost and reputation attracting Maritimers to Memorial University
COST AND REPUTATION ATTRACT MARITIME STUDENTS TO MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND
(St. John’s, NL) – Affordability, a reputation for quality programs, and the availability of a wide range of program options are key factors in attracting Maritime students to Memorial University according to a report released today by researchers in Memorial’s Faculty of Education.
The study, Matriculating Eastward: Maritime Student Migration to Newfoundland and Labrador, investigated academic, social, and economic influences contributing to the enrollment of students from the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The research also compared factors influencing migrant students who relocate to Newfoundland and Labrador for full-time study with distance students who maintain their residence in their home province and study at Memorial using distance education means.
“While there are important differences between the decision-making of students who relocate to the province and those who study via distance, our results underscore the importance of cost, and tuition fee levels in particular,” said Dr. Dale Kirby, principal investigator for the study. “Cost is not the only factor, but it is a key factor in students’ enrollment decisions”.
The study underscores Memorial University's opportunity to distinguish itself from competitor institutions in the Atlantic region and to market itself to a broad base of potential applicants based on affordability, solid reputation, and comprehensiveness. These attributes may also comprise a firm basis for attracting students from other Canadian provinces and internationally.
The study was conducted in two phases including a survey of students from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island who were attending Memorial University during the 2010-11 fall semester. The survey was followed-up with a series of one-on-one interviews with students during the 2010-11 winter semester.
The full report is available for download in .pdf format from the following website: http://bit.ly/pP9j5J
- 30 -
For more information, please contact:
Dale Kirby
Faculty of Education
Memorial University of Newfoundland
709-864-7623
Tuesday, 5 July, 2011
Students left scrambling as B.C. college closes
A story we hear all too often:
Duncan’s Sprott-Shaw Community College campus will board up its doors Sept. 2.
Those enrolled at the Cowichan site received the news Monday their programs are being cancelled after Student Loans Canada axed the Cowichan headquarters from its list of places to issue loans.
“Student Loans has pulled our designation from the Duncan campus,” 17-year Sprott-Shaw employee, Duncan campus Associate Director Jonathan Green confirmed Tuesday.
And about 90 per cent of students studying at the local grounds receive government dough, he explained.
Monday, 4 July, 2011
Financial incentives and student outcomes
This recent article from the Journal of Human Resources reports that a free tuition program for post-secondary students who maintain a minimum GPA and course load can positively impact academic outcomes:
Programs linking college aid to academic achievement could work either by lowering the cost of college or by inducing additional student effort. I examine the PROMISE program in West Virginia, which offers free tuition to students who maintain a minimum GPA and course load. Using administrative data, I exploit discontinuities in the eligibility formula and the timing of implementation to estimate causal effects. I find robust and significant impacts on key academic outcomes. Impacts are concentrated around the annual requirements for scholarship renewal, suggesting that the program works via incentives for academic achievement, not simply by relaxing financial constraints.Reference: Scott-Clayton, J. (2011). On money and motivation: A quasi-experimental analysis of financial incentives for college achievement. Journal of Human Resources, 46(3), 614-646.
Sunday, 3 July, 2011
International students shun Sweden's tuition fees
From University World News:
The number of international students studying in Sweden will fall more than 75% next academic year, following the introduction of tuition fees, according to new figures on the number of advance payments made.
Foreign student numbers will drop by 26,900 this year to 6,300 in 2011-12. Among non-European Economic Area (EAA) students the fall is even more dramatic, with only 1,280 international students compared with 16,600 in 2009-10, the last year of comparable figures.
This is despite the fact that 5,000 non-EEA students were offered a study place at a Swedish university.
Peter Honeth, the Education Secretary, told University World News: "The number of international students in Sweden has increased rapidly over the last few years...not just by being free of charge."
But Daniel Guhr of Illuminating Consulting Group said that while a drop in fee-paying non-EEA students in Sweden was to be expected, the order of magnitude of the decline was troubling.
Saturday, 2 July, 2011
Weekend music blogging: Sherman Downey and The Ambiguous Case
Please share the video below from by my friends Sherman Downey and The Ambiguous Case. Sherman Downey is a gifted songwriter and the band has garnered much acclaim in musical circles since the release of their 2009 album Honey for Bees. Ever the troopers, the band is continuing to tour and perform in spite of Downey's recent injuries in a motorcycle accident.
Friday, 1 July, 2011
Paying for university in England: Tinkering with the ivories
From The Economist:
IN A crowded field of U-turns and climb-downs, the government’s bid to reform university finance has earned special distinction for its mix of unpopularity and unintended consequences. Last year, in a bid to transfer most of the spiralling costs of tuition from the state to students, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition raised the maximum fees English universities can charge, while slashing the exchequer’s contribution to teaching. The aim was both to ease the pressure on the public purse from rising student numbers, and to create a market in which universities compete for students on cost and quality.
The plan failed on both counts—but ignited riots among students and ire among parents and lecturers. On June 28th the coalition unveiled new proposals to contain costs and facilitate choice, by letting both good and cheap universities expand.
At the root of the government’s trouble has been a simple miscalculation. When, last year, Parliament voted to increase the maximum annual tuition fee from £3,375 ($5,400) to £9,000 from September 2012, David Willetts, the higher education minister, said the full whack would be charged only in “exceptional circumstances”. He was wrong. Most universities have chosen to ask £9,000; middling institutions have raised their fees in line with the elite, safe in the knowledge that demand for places is so strong that theirs will still be filled. The result is that, on average, university education in England will soon be as expensive as in America (Scotland and Wales have their own regimes).
Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador
This University was raised by the People of Newfoundland as a Memorial to the fallen in the Great Wars 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, that in freedom of learning their cause and sacrifice would not be forgotten.-- Plaque inscription, Arts and Administration Building, Memorial University of Newfoundland
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