Scottish universities call for an end to free higher education

“Principals warn that universities in Scotland will be left with a £200m funding gap after tuition fees are raised in England …” (more)

[Severin Carrell, Guardian, 28 February]

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Firm defends writing essays for students

“A company offering to write essays for students insisted today the service does not tempt students to commit plagiarism. Write My Assignments has already supplied 10 Irish students with written essays for €280 to €350 each …” (more)

[Alan O’Keeffe, Herald, 28 February]

Micropublishing E-books for Higher Education

“The usual hype about new e-toys is familiar territory with e-books. Writing in 2008, before Kindle was launched (bK), Mark Nelson was writing in Educause that ‘some experts predict 2007 – 2009 will be the transition years for the higher education e-book market’. Obviously this hasn’t happened here …” (more)

[Is this going to be on the exam?, 28 February]

German scientists outraged in defence minister plagiarism affair

“Thousands of German scientists and academics have signed an open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel expressing their unhappiness over the official handling of the by-now notorious case of plagiarism on the part of her minister of defence. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is accused of having duplicated large parts of his 2006 PhD thesis …” (more)

[Quirin Schiermeier, The Great Beyond, 28 February]

Studying Abroad and Labour Market Mobility

“Abstract: We investigate the effect of studying abroad on international labour market mobility later in life for university graduates. We exploit the introduction and expansion of the European ERASMUS student exchange programme as an instrument for studying abroad …” (more)

[Geary Behavioural Economics Blog, 28 February]

Irish election raises questions for stem cell research

“The Fianna Fail party, in power in Ireland since 1997, had supported science well enough over the last decade or so to allow the small country to dramatically raise its international profile. This year it even scraped into the top twenty science-producing countries in terms of citations per research paper. Irish scientists now have to worry about whether this progress will be maintained under Fine Gael …” (more)

[Alison Abbott, The Great Beyond, 28 February]

Arts and Humanities disciplines

“New RIA Report – Key Performance Indicators to Research in Arts and Humanities disciplines http://www.ria.ie/Our-Work/Policy.aspx” (tweet)

[Royal Irish Academy, 28 February]

How to Save Academic Freedom

“Tenure is disappearing. Corporate and government interests are interfering with academic research. And since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling in Garcetti v. Ceballos, the courts are suggesting that faculty members who speak out on governance may be punished, and even fired …” (more)

[Erin O’Connor and Maurice Black, Inside Higher Ed, 28 February]

Business selling college essays refutes claims of plagiarism

“A company offering students help with college assignments has denied it promotes plagiarism despite warnings against the use of such services …” (more)

[Niall Murray, Irish Examiner, 28 February]

Technology to blame as standards in basic skills fall

“The increasing availability of technological aids in mobile phones and music players is having a detrimental effect on teenagers’ language and maths skills …” (more)

[John Walshe, Independent, 28 February]

Education and social exclusion

“One key change in the way in which we view higher education has been thrown into relief by the funding crisis in most western countries. As resources have dried up, university representatives (including me) have warned that poorly resourced institutions cannot compete globally and will not be recognised as being at the cutting edge of scholarship and innovation …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 28 February]

Students drop out over delay in grants

“Dozens of hard-up students are dropping out of college every week because of massive delays in issuing grants. Maintenance grants are supposed to be paid in three instalments over the academic year. But more than 2,000 students have still not received their first payment, which should have been issued in September last year …” (more)

[Nick Bramhill, Irish Examiner, 28 February]

An Irishman’s Diary

“Since its very foundation in 1592, the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin (aka Trinity College Dublin, and hereafter TCD) has been joined at the hip to England’s two most ancient universities, Oxford and Cambridge …” (more)

[Chris Ashton, Irish Times, 28 February]

Universities being asked to repair problems in society

“Universities are being asked to ‘repair the problems of 18 years of upbringing and education’ by skewing admissions in favour of poorly performing pupils, according to a leading headmaster …” (more)

[Graeme Paton, Daily Telegraph, 28 February]

College lecturers set for day of action

“Scotland’s largest teaching union has called on college lecturers to stage a day of action against cuts to further education funding …” (more)

[BBC News, 28 February]

Higher Education Means Lower Blood Pressure

“To avoid a heart attack, it’s a good idea to lose weight and quit smoking. Perhaps the best cardiac health insurance, however, is going to graduate school …” (more)

[Josh Fischman, Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 February]

As They Ponder Reforms, Law Deans Find Schools ‘Remarkably Resistant to Change’

“Sweeping changes in the legal profession and stinging critiques of law schools’ performance have done little to change the way the nation’s 200 accredited law schools educate their students, several speakers said at a national symposium here over the weekend …” (more)

[Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Legal Education, 27 February]

Politics and the Demise of the Humanities

“… Politics got us to this point in the first place. By politics, I mean two things. First, the state continually exerts more and more control over higher education in America. Whereas once ninety percent of higher education was private, today state-governed educational institutions now educate over three fourths of all students in America. This trend means that the humanities are largely government-controlled, and state universities cannot defend the humanities using particular metaphysical foundations. Second, as a result of the first point, faculty end up looking to particular political justifications for the humanities …” (more)

[Perry L Glanzer, Minding the Campus, 27 February]

Beauty in the academic labour market

“The labour market returns to ‘beauty’ have been studied by various authors. However it is not something that you might expect to be a feature of academia …” (more)

[Kevin Denny, Geary Behavioural Economics Blog, 27 February]

UCC take Collingwood Cup at the death

“On a glorious spring afternoon, University College Cork midfielder Luke Burgess’ excellent finish in extra time was enough to clinch the prestigious Collingwood Cup for his side …” (more)

[University Times, 27 February]