Resource: Global Dimension Website

This site offers free access to a number of educational resources on global issues. 

The Global Dimension Website is managed by DEA, a UK education charity that promotes global learning. As well as the site editor, there are a number of editorial and curriculum advisors, bringing a wide range of experience in teaching and supporting the global dimension in schools(…..)

This website is a guide to books, films, posters and web resources which support global, intercultural and environmental understanding for all age groups and subjects.

From climate change to poverty, water to fair trade, you can find a huge range of teaching resources and background material(…..)

You can browse through the teaching resources database from any page of the site by choosing the curriculum subject, type of background material or topic .

(From Global Dimension )

Link: Global Dimension Website

 

Report: Teacher supply, recruitment and retention in six Anglophone sub-Saharan African countries (EI, 2007)

From Eldis

Title:Teacher supply, recruitment and retention in six Anglophone sub-Saharan African countries
Authors: D. Sinyolo
Publisher: Global Campaign for Education , 2007

Full text of document

This document reports on a survey conducted by Education International, which investigated teacher supply, teacher attrition, teacher remuneration and motivation, teacher absenteeism and union involvement in policy development in six Anglophone African countries. The survey was undertaken in The Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

 

Resource: Child protection project in Europe website

This website offers access to a variety of resources, including a very useful documentary library with reports and documents on topics related with education, child protection and living conditions of disadvantage children (For instances see the 2008 report Last in Line, Last in School)

The Child protection project in Europe website is a product of the Regional Child Protection Project, located in Budapest, Hungary.

This project is implemented by Terre des hommes - Child Relief, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Terre des hommes - Child Relief launched in mid 2005 the Regional Child Protection Project (RCPP) for South Eastern Europe. At the end of the pilot phase, in January 2007, Tdh decided to concentrate the efforts of the RCPP to contribute to the common goal: children in migration are better protected against exploitation.

Links:

• Child protection project in Europe
• Terre des hommes

 

Report: ‘The Bologna process and the UK’s international student market’ (HEPI, May 2008)

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) as recently publish a report analyzing the impact of the bologna process ‘for the future of the UK as a destination for international students’. “The Bologna process and the UK’s international student market” indicates that ‘UK has been an active and influential participant in
European higher education reform’. A recent article at the Guardian, “UK universities at risk of losing foreign students“, offers an overview of the report an points out that the paper warns that UK could lose out lucrative international students as a result of the Bologna process. In short, “the Bologna process means that other European countries are providing the bachelors then masters degree structure that was unique to the UK” thus, this is resulting in an increasingly competitive market in a context that erodes some of the competitive advantages that UK universities had.

Links:

Report: “The Bologna process and the UK’s international student market” (HEPI), May 2008

Article: Lipsett, Anthea (May 22, 2008). “UK universities at risk of losing foreign students” The Guardian.

 

Resource: The UNESCO Portal on Higher Education Institutions

From UNESCO:

This portal offers access to on-line information on higher education institutions recognized or otherwise sanctioned by competent authorities in participating countries.

It provides students, employers and other interested parties with access to authoritative and up-to-date information on the status of higher education institutions and quality assurance in these countries.

Currently, information can be accessed on the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. In the next stage of the project, the number of countries covered will be expanded.

The country information on this portal is managed and updated by relevant authorities in participating countries. More information on the national processes for recognizing or otherwise sanctioning institutions is available on the country pages.

Users are encouraged to consult several sources of information before making important decisions regarding matters such as the choice of an institution, course of study or the status of qualifications. Individuals wishing to have their qualifications recognized for work or further study are advised to consult the competent authorities of the country in which they are seeking to have their qualifications recognised. It is also important to note that some institutions not on the national lists may offer quality programmes. Users are encouraged to contact the national contact point(s) for each country, if necessary, for further information.

Link here

 

State-istics and the challenges of representing global higher ed

A great post by Kris Olds at the Global Higher education blog on new forms of graphic representation of the global  flows and networks in higher education policy.

From Globalhighered:

The globalization of higher education and research is starting to become represented in some insightful graphic formats, as we hinted in our November entry ‘Global geographies of R&D‘. This said the creators of graphic representations are stymied by what Peter Taylor at Loughborough University deems state-istics; the fact that many of the statistics analysts use are created by national governments (for even multilateral agencies like the OECD or the World Bank need to draw out their data from member nations). As Taylor notes, though in relation to the challenges of acquiring data on the relations between ‘global cities‘:

The common term for social data is ‘statistics’ a term that derives directly from the word state. This is, of course, no accident: large-scale data collection on human activities has its origins in state needs and continues to be dominated by states: hence my portrayal of it as state-istics.

Unlike the natural sciences, within social science there is little or no ‘big science’ where very large sums of money are committed to solving theoretical problems. The latter enables natural scientists to concentrate on developing measurements specifically designed for their theoretical purposes. In social science, most data that is collected relates to small-scale cumulative scientific activity. To get an evidential handle on big issues, researchers normally rely on the statistics that are available, that is to say, already collected. Collection is carried out usually by a state agency for the particular needs of government policy, not, of course, for social science research. But the problem is much more than the possibility of having to use unsuitable data. Basing ‘big social science’ on state-istics means that the state defines the basic dimensions of the leading edge ‘macro’ social research and therefore the framework within which most social research is conducted.

Transnational higher education challenges us all, for networks and flows cross national borders, in often untracked ways, and many of the key movers and shakers in this unsettled context are select institutions, or city-regions, but certainly not national spaces.

 

Resourcer:Worldmapper

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 600 maps. Maps 1-366 are also available as PDF posters. Use the menu above to find a map of interest.

An example is the following map on Tertiary Education Spending Growth (1990-2001).

The territory size shows the proportion in spending in tertiary education between 1990 -2001.

The site informs that:

There have been spending increases in tertiary education in 135 of the 200 territories in the world, between 1990 and 2001. North America and Southern Asia are the only regions where there has been a spending increase in every territory. In Eastern Asia there has been a spending increase in every territory except for Mongolia. In Central Africa there has been a spending increase in every territory except for Burundi.

The size of spending increases varies hugely between places. Increases in spending per person in North America and Western Europe are over 4 times those in the next highest regions of Eastern Europe and Japan.

 

Progress for children: a world fit for children statistical review

From Eldis:

An overview of progress made in attaining the millennium development goals with regard to children

Title:Progress for children: a world fit for children statistical review
Authors: ; UNICEF
Publisher: United Nations [UN] Children’s Fund , 2007

Full text of document

This paper provides an overview on progress made in attaining the millennium development goals (MDGs) with regard to children.

On the way towards the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1), underweight prevalence has declined even if low weight or height for children aged under 5 remains common in many developing regions.

With regard to MDG 2, universal enrollment in primary schools has been successfully promoted and more than 85 per cent of primary-school-age children attend school. However, the provision of secondary education lags behind.

 

Audio/Video: Bruno Latour

A very complete list of Bruno Latour Audio/Video lectures available online.

From ANTHEM:

• Listen to audio: “The Tarde/Durkheim Debate” with Bruno Karsenti as Emile Durkheim, Bruno Latour as Gabriel Tarde, and Simon Schaffer as the Dean, at the Tarde/Durkheim: Trajectories of the Social Conference at Cambridge University, 14 March 2008
• Listen to audio: “The Harman Review: Bruno Latour’s Empirical Metaphysics,” a symposium with Bruno Latour, Graham Harman, Lucas Introna and Noortje Marres, chaired by Edgar Whitley, at ISIG, London School of Economics and Political Science, 5 February 2008
• Listen to MP3: “Another European Tradition: traceability of the social and the vindication of Gabriel Tarde,” lecture by Bruno Latour, European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, 4 February 2008
• Listen to RealPlayer Audio: “Episode 5 - Ulrich Beck and Bruno Latour,” How to Think About Science, CBC Radio, 12 December 2007
• Listen to audio: “Is there a cosmopolitically correct design?” Manchester Architecture Research Centre, University of Manchester, 5 October 2007
• Watch the video or listen to MP3: “From Object to Things: How to Represent the Parliament of Nature?” A lecture by Bruno Latour, The Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium, UC Berkeley’s Center for New Media, 17 October 2005
• Watch the video: “Nature Space Society” by Bruno Latour, with Olafur Eliasson, Doreen Massey and Dominic Willsdon at the Tate, London, 19 April 2005
• Watch the video: Bruno Latour on the Issue Ticker, at “Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy.” Exhibition. ZKM_Museum for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany, March 2005

• Watch the video: “Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy.” Exhibition. Opening speech by Bruno Latour, ZKM_Museum for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany, 19 March 2005
• Watch the video: “Assembly or Assemblage? Politics and Polytechnics.” A lecture by Bruno Latour, Politecnico di Milano, 17 November 2003
• Listen to RealPlayer Audio: “Why has the Critical Spirit Run Out of Steam?” A lecture by Bruno Latour, Stanford Humanities Centre, 7 April 2003
• Watch the video: “What is Iconoclash?” A lecture by Bruno Latour given at the symposium “Image Wars and Image Floods,”12 July 2002
• Watch Flash presentation: “Iconoclash” by Bruno Latour given at CCA Kitakyushu, 1 July 2002

 

Report: UK-China-Hong Kong Transnational Education Project (British Council, 2007)

From globalhighered :

Both China (PRC) and the Hong Kong SAR offer an expanding and highly competitive market opportunity for overseas higher education institutions (HEIs). As noted in a recent report commissioned by the British Council (UK-China-Hong Kong Transnational Education Project), a number of UK HEIs are providing hundreds of new ‘international’ degree programmes in Hong Kong and China.

According to the Hong Kong Education Bureau, in January 2008 there were over 400 degree programmes run by 36 different UK HEIs in Hong Kong. On the one hand, UK HEIs can be seen to work as independent operators, offering a number of courses to local students registered with the Hong Kong Education Bureau under the ‘Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance’. At the same time, UK HEIs have also initiated a series of collaborations between UK and Hong Kong HEIs. These collaborations are exempted from registration under the Ordinance. In January 2008 there were over 150 registered- and 400 exempted-courses run by 36 different UK HEIs in Hong Kong.