8 mei - This summer University College Roosevelt will increase its summer school. Added to the courses on excellent teaching with Harvard, there will be new programs in several disciplines. “The aim is to attract a wider range of participants than just university students.”
6 mei - The location for the next ISTP is known, now the theme can be picked. Stanislaw Dylak from the Polish delegation suggests the ‘learning society’: “If you organize the learning society perfectly you don’t need evaluations, but when you organize a school like a factory, you need some strict quality assessments.”
1 mei - University College Roosevelt welcomes its Harvard colleagues for their combined summer program on excellence in teaching. Teachers from HE are invited to a series of workshops on microteaching and other innovative concepts. Teaching in HE is as vital for its quality as research, is the shared philosophy.
1 mei - A world leader in humanoid robotics must save Italy’s schools and science. The former rector of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Maria Carrozza is Italy’s new minister of Education and Science. “The Italian university needs to open up to the world, because our academic system is destined to collapse”.
26 april - The next Summit on the Teaching profession will be held in New Zealand. Wellington is the most likely location for the fourth edition of this event. “I am delighted that New Zealand’s bid to host this prestigious event for the teaching profession has been accepted,” says Education Minister Parata.
22 april - Coursera founders Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller are listed in the Time 100 of most influential people. The introduction of their MOOC platform changed the worldwide higher education landscape.
16 april - Russia’s fifteen leading universities must become ‘world-class’ before 2020. During a visit to the Netherlands Ural Federal University rector Victor Koksharov said: “But regions in Russia are a lot bigger than in other countries, you have to become regionally excellent first.”
3 april - At only fifteen, Jack Andraka did what the entire medical community couldn’t: he created a cheap sensor test for cancer. If others are to follow his lead, education needs more creativity; the current system “is the most effective way to kill innovation.”
3 april - Australia (finally) gets its own MOOC platform, Open2Study. Critics said that Australian universities until now had engaged in “a lot of gnashing of teeth but not a lot of action.” Minister for higher education Chris Bowen ended this discussion by directly signing up for an anthropology course.
18 maart - Canada is one of the few countries which has a surplus of high-quality teachers. ScienceGuide asked Ramona Jennex, Chair of the Canadian Council of Ministers of Education, how they created this luxurious position.
13 maart - While Rabia Bouzian, ScienceGuide Student of the Year 2009, was teaching in the Glassroom about her peer-coach project for students at the Hogeschool Rotterdam, the international delegates of the ISTP were debating the potential use and misuse of teacher feedback and appraisal systems.
26 februari - Accountability and quality of doctoral education have become increasingly important as the number of PhD-holders has risen sharply. The European University Association analysed the different processes of quality assurance.
25 februari - The English level of Finnish students is improving steadily, research from Cambridge shows. This is an important development, since many international students leave Finland prematurely because of the Finnish language. English classes for students and teachers could solve this bottleneck.
22 februari - The prestigious Derek Bok Center has a new faculty director, Robert Lue. “Robert Lue is one of Harvard’s foremost leaders in innovative teaching”. Now he joins the ‘dream team’ of innovative teaching.
21 februari - The edX family has a Dutch member: Delft University of Technology will join the major MOOC-platform founded by MIT and Harvard. ScienceGuide spoke with a delighted edX president Anant Agarwal: “The introduction of MOOCs is like the rising of the tide, it will lift all boats”.