‘Tuning’ College Degrees

Posted on April 8, 2009 by | Comments Off on ‘Tuning’ College Degrees

Inside Higher Ed: ‘Tuning’ College Degrees

In a major new effort to assure rigor and relevance for college degrees at various levels, three states are today formally launching a project aimed at “tuning” academic programs in six fields of study.

“Tuning,” borrowed from Europe’s Bologna Process, involves research and surveys of faculty members, students and employers, and consultation with business and government leaders, to determine exactly what a degree in a given field stands for in terms of students’ learning and competencies. Europe embarked on tuning as part of an effort to make degrees across the continent interchangeable, so that a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in Italy would mean roughly the same as one in the Netherlands, and that graduate programs and employers could thus know what a given degree would represent.

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Nigeria: NUT Suspends Strike in Sokoto

Posted on April 7, 2009 by | Comments Off on Nigeria: NUT Suspends Strike in Sokoto

This Day: NUT Suspends Strike in Sokoto

Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) Sokoto State chapter has announced the suspension of a three day strike embarked by primary school teachers on Wednesday which has paralyzed academic activities in the state.

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Nigeria: TSS: Oyo teachers call off 37-day-old strike

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The Punch: TSS: Oyo teachers call off 37-day-old strike

The leadership of the Oyo State wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers has suspended its 37-day-old industrial action following an agreement reached with the state government on the implementation of the new salary structure.

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The big debate: Layoff notices at TUSD

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Tucson Citizen: The big debate: Layoff notices at TUSD

‘I do not understand why teachers have not yet stormed the state capitol. They should be . . . throwing rocks through the windows to get (Gov.) Jan Brewer’s attention.’ – Franklin

The story: Anticipating a large cut in funding from our deficit-plagued state, Tucson Unified School District says it will notify 560 employees, most of them untenured teachers, that they might be laid off at the end of the school year. Some of the employees likely will be called back to work, but many won’t.

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Not worth a strike

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Toronto Star: Not worth a strike

The union representing Toronto’s public high school teachers wants us to believe education would suffer if their members had to supervise students in the hallways for an average of another 20 minutes a week.

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Caption gaffe: Apostates, instead of Apostles ‘worst possible mistake’

Posted on April 7, 2009 by | Comments Off on Caption gaffe: Apostates, instead of Apostles ‘worst possible mistake’

The Salt Lake Tribune: Caption gaffe: Apostates, instead of Apostles ‘worst possible mistake’
Newspaper » BYU reprints issues of The Daily Universe due to front page typo.

Provo » The phone call Rich Evans got Monday morning wasn’t good news.

It was an employee at Brigham Young University’s The Daily Universe , where Evans is the editorial manager. There was a typo on the front page.

“It was the worst possible mistake,” Evans recalled.

The error? A caption on a photo from this weekend’s LDS General Conference stated that “Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates and other general authorities raise their hands in a sustaining vote Saturday morning. …”

The newspaper staff retrieved as many of the 18,500 copies of the paper as possible and reprinted them with the correction. And it issued an apology to the apostles. The staff also explained how it happened: an error in spell-checking.

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Canada: Cash-strapped universities looking at cancelling small classes, programs, charging flat tuition

Posted on April 7, 2009 by | Comments Off on Canada: Cash-strapped universities looking at cancelling small classes, programs, charging flat tuition

Globe and Mail: A whole new meaning to cutting classes

Cash-strapped universities looking at cancelling small classes, programs, charging flat tuition

As the last grim signs of winter fade from Canadian campuses, the spring rite of cutting classes is taking on a whole new meaning.

Course calendars across the country are under the microscope as universities, trying to do more with less, are taking a hard look at programs and class sizes. The end result will likely be fewer choices for undergraduates and larger classes in September – another symptom of the financial squeeze on higher education

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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More students + less money = no diplomas

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The Guardian: More students + less money = no diplomas

The government’s decision to cut sixth-form funding has stunned schools and colleges

Brian Rossiter is struggling to come to terms with a government decision to cut funding for what was supposed to be one of its biggest priorities in education. Rossiter is head of an 11-18 comprehensive and was told last week that funding for its thriving sixth form – which has grown by 28% in just two years as teenagers have been persuaded of the value of further study – is to be reduced by nearly 4% from September.

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Widow loses lawsuit over UC Irvine’s willed body program

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Los Angeles Times: Widow loses lawsuit over UC Irvine’s willed body program

Evelyn Conroy sued after the university lost track of James Conroy’s body. The California Supreme Court says she failed to prove that the university violated its donation agreement with her husband.

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Quake ‘Practically Destroys’ University in Italy, With Some Students Trapped or Killed

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The Chronicle: Quake ‘Practically Destroys’ University in Italy, With Some Students Trapped or Killed

A powerful earthquake that struck central Italy early Monday caused catastrophic damage at the University of L’Aquila, possibly killing one student and leaving more than half a dozen others trapped in the rubble of a collapsed dormitory.

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Plane Stolen From Canadian College Leads U.S. Fighter Jets on Chase

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AP: Plane Stolen From Canadian College Leads U.S. Fighter Jets on Chase

Man nabbed after plane taken from Canada to Mo.

WAUSAU, Wis. – A single-engine airplane flown away from an airport in Canada by a student pilot Monday was intercepted by jet fighters over Wisconsin but kept flying south through two more states. It finally landed on a road in southeastern Missouri and the pilot was apprehended.

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Oregon: Is MHCC cutting its faculty?

Posted on April 6, 2009 by | Comments Off on Oregon: Is MHCC cutting its faculty?

The Advocate: Is MHCC cutting its faculty?

Budget cuts face college administration; 16 faculty receive tentative layoff notice

After notification this week of tentative layoffs of 16 full-time faculty members, MHCC instructors are wondering if this is the only solution.

“If we’re trying to grow, this is one of the worst ways to do it,” political science instructor Janet Campbell said Wednesday at a town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon in the Visual Arts Theater.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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India: Students, faculty support FTII staff’s demand

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The Times of India: Students, faculty support FTII staff’s demand

Members of the staff association of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), students and faculty all stood in solidarity demanding the resignation of FTII registrar S K Thakur on Saturday. The peaceful protest was held after the registrar failed to clear the arrears of the FTII staff following the sixth pay commission hike in August 2008. “Since September we have been asking the registrar to clear our due4s, but all along we have been given no concrete answer. The registrar kept saying the money hasn’t arrived yet,” said P A Mahajan, president of FTII’s staff association.

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U Nebraska removes half of hallway lights on campus to save energy costs

Posted on April 6, 2009 by | Comments Off on U Nebraska removes half of hallway lights on campus to save energy costs

Net Nebraska: UNL budget cuts make students, professors wary

Anyone strolling campus hallways these days has noticed some visible evidence of the nation’s economic woes arriving at UNL: saloon lighting.

Jay Jackson, of building maintenance, is busy removing half the remaining bulbs from hallway fixtures across campus – more than 4,000 so far – as part of UNL’s effort to reduce energy costs.

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Vermont: UVM faculty plan budget-cut protest

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Fox 44: UVM faculty plan budget-cut protest

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – University of Vermont faculty members who say a starvation diet is being imposed on the school’s academic programs are planning a “Let Them Eat Gruel?” budget-cut protest.

United Academics, the union representing most UVM faculty, says President Daniel Fogel’s plan to reduce staffing will result in an English department without courses on Charles Dickens, a Political Science department without courses in international politics and a civil and environmental engineering program at risk of losing accreditation.

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Budget Woes Take Their Toll on Cal State University System

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Wall Street Journal: Budget Woes Take Their Toll on Cal State University System

SAN FRANCISCO — Relentless budget cutting by California lawmakers is taking some of the luster off the California State University system, one of the state’s most prized institutions.

Once regarded as a national model, the 23-campus system is reeling from more than $500 million in budget cuts and underfunding over the past two years. As a result, CSU officials for the first time are dropping the policy of accepting all qualified applicants to schools of their choice in a system now brimming with more than 450,000 students.

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Union president says professor’s dismissal first in 25 years

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Calgary Herald: Union president says professor’s dismissal first in 25 years

OTTAWA — Denis Rancourt is the first tenured professor fired by the University of Ottawa in at least 25 years, according to the president of the university’s professors’ union.

“To my recollection, it generally doesn’t happen at the university,” said Atef Fatim, president of the Association of Professors at the University of Ottawa.

Rancourt, a physics professor and self-described anarchist, was suspended by the university in December after attracting national media attention for his unorthodox teaching methods, which included giving an A-plus to every student in an upper-year physics class.

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Florida: Faculty complaint exposes unrest at Chipola College

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Tallahassee Democrat: Faculty complaint exposes unrest at Chipola College

MARIANNA — An obscure labor-law complaint filed by nursing professors at Chipola College has exposed simmering unrest among faculty members at the little campus in the tall-pine country of Florida’s Panhandle.

“They used to get paid the same for doing the same work,” said Tom Brooks, a Tallahassee attorney for the United Faculty of Florida. “Now they have to work a lot more to earn the same.”

Chipola faculty representatives say there’s “an ol’ boy network” that pays handsome salaries to an influential current state legislator and another former lawmaker who serve as roving ambassadors for the college president.

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L.A. school board chief meets with teachers willing to accept pay cuts

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Los Angeles Times: L.A. school board chief meets with teachers willing to accept pay cuts

A top Los Angeles school district official is meeting this morning with teachers who are breaking with their union to support pay cuts as a way to avoid layoffs.

Board of Education President Monica Garcia will huddle with teachers from Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, just west of downtown, where more than 30 young or less experienced faculty members have received notice that they might lose their jobs at the end of the year. Delegations from other schools also are expected to attend.

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Profs blast lazy first-year students

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Toronto Star: Profs blast lazy first-year students

Wikipedia generation is lazy and unprepared for university’s rigours, survey of faculty says

University professors feel their first-year students are less mature, rely too much on Wikipedia and “expect success without the requisite effort,” says a province-wide survey to be released today.

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