Universities' millions in Iceland — BBC NEWS | Education October 17, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentDemise of Icelandic banks hits some UK universities. Any more to follow? Best not to think about their pension funds at the moment…
"Universities' secretary John Denham said a total of 12 English universities had £77m at stake though none of the institutions was in jeopardy.
Oxford University and its colleges have £30m - or 5% of their overall cash deposits - invested in three of the troubled banks or subsidiaries. Cambridge faces losses of £11m…
On Wednesday it emerged that three Welsh universities had £8.1m at risk…
Manchester Metropolitan University said it was hopeful it would get back the £10m it had invested…
The University of Manchester said it had £5m of its general investments in the banks…
The Open University said it had invested £6.5m in UK subsidiaries with the Icelandic banks."
Times Higher Education: Bologna Process and UK: The long and the short of it October 5, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentThe Bologna gap between universities in the UK and much of Europe:
At the heart of the debate is the British one-year masters degree. The accord does not require a two-year masters degree, but most European universities offer a qualification of this type as standard. Across continental Europe, the masters is a research-intensive course aimed at preparing students for a PhD and a career in academia. In the UK, it performs a quite different function - offering the high-level professional skills required by the workplace.
As such, the one-year masters offered by UK universities could be seen as minimalist, even lazy. According to the Hepi report: "If the Bologna brand were to become well established, and if the UK was seen not to be 'Bologna-compliant' - and there are undoubtedly a number of our competitors who would like to create that impression - then that could damage the UK's attractiveness to international students.