VCs Weekly Higher Education Digest: November 19, 2018
What’s holding Africa’s young scientists back? Munyaradzi Makoni and Sharon Dell WORLD UNIVERSITY NEWS
The continued dependence of African higher education on international science funding, along with insufficient mentoring programmes and the legacy of the brain drain, are among key constraints to the progress of young African scientists, according to a comprehensive new book.
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20181116115441467
A Smarter Way to Think About Intelligent Machines By Ed Finn THE NEW YORK TIMES
When it comes to the future of artificial intelligence, we seem to be stuck in a loop. We tell the same stories about A.I. over and over again: society is destroyed (the “Terminator” movies), the machines emulate and replace us (“Ex Machina”), the machines become gods pulling the strings (“The Matrix”). This is a dangerous way to think about A.I., because the stories we tell influence the decisions we make about how such systems should operate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/opinion/killer-robots-ai-humans.html
How A.I. Is Infiltrating Every Corner of the Campus By Lee Gardner THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Machines are unlikely to replace most humans in college operations, but they are making those operations more efficient — potentially freeing up people for other activities. The new technologies, corralled under terms such as "artificial intelligence," "machine learning," and "the internet of things," involve ways in which machines are able to perform tasks hitherto associated with human intelligence.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-AI-Is-Infiltrating-Every/243022?cid=cp197
CIPD 2018: Language of AI and automation spreads fear By Rachel Sharp HR MAGAZINE
A panel at the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition discussed how AI and automation will help and hinder HR. The language of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is misused and incites fear among the workforce, according to a panel on day two of the 2018 CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition.
http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/cipd-2018-language-of-ai-and-automation-spreads-fear
Automation affecting both the high- and low-skilled workforce By Rachel Sharp HR MAGAZINE
Automation is creating a need to reskill both high-skilled and low-skilled parts of the workforce, said Ravin Jesuthasan, managing director and global practice leader at Willis Towers Watson, speaking at a Harvard Business Review event to launch his new book Reinventing Jobs.
The Open University is in trouble. Can it be saved from closure? By Sanjana Varghese UNIVERSITY BUSINESS
The Open University started as a radical experiment that disrupted education. But now it's in trouble: courses have been cut, applicants are in free fall and that's before you account for online courses.
https://www.universitybusiness.com/news/open-university-trouble-can-it-be-saved-closure
Meet the New Mega-University By Goldie Blumenstyk THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Spend a little time inside the sprawling former textile mill that houses the key business and academic arms of Southern New Hampshire University’s online college, and one thing becomes abundantly clear: This is an enterprise built to grow…. [E]nrollment has gone from 8,600 degree-seeking students in 2008 to more than 122,000 today. The president since 2003, Paul LeBlanc, will tell you that it’s just getting started. The plan is for the university to nearly triple its enrollment over the next five years.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Meet-the-New-Mega-University/245049?cid=wsinglestory_hp_1
Trump Administration's Take on Title IX By Andrew Kreighbaum INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a proposed rule Friday that would revamp expectations for colleges’ handling of campus-based sexual misconduct…. But women’s groups and advocates for survivors of sexual assault warn that it will undermine the rights of victims. And they say it will let colleges off the hook for not taking the issue of sexual misconduct seriously.
The Impact of Female Chairs By Colleen Flaherty INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION
It’s common advice: to increase faculty gender diversity, increase the gender diversity of institutional leaders. But what about department chairs, a kind of middle-management position -- do they make a difference? And beyond gender diversity, does having a female chair help improve the success of female academics? The answer to much of the above is yes, according to a new working paper finding that in departments with female chairs, gender gaps in publication and tenure rates are smaller among assistant professors.
Employers Want Liberal Arts Grads By Emma Whitford INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION
A report being released today says higher education is not keeping pace with the ever-changing job market. The report examines the “translation chasm” between the skills graduates of liberal arts programs have and the skills employers say they’re looking for in an applicant. Turns out, they’re not all that different, but “liberal arts graduates are too often left to stumble upon the valuable mixture of layered skills” required for any specific career, according to the report.
From A to Gen Z By Meredith Barnett CASE CURRENTS
From virtual reality to student-driven storytelling, institutions around the globe are exploring new ways to market to the digitally savvy next generation of students…. But technology is just one piece of the puzzle—there's more to what attracts these born-and-raised digital natives to educational institutions. Here's how strategic enrollment marketing—high-tech, low-tech, and anything in-between—can speak to what today's prospective students value most.
https://www.case.org/currents/from-a-to-gen-z
On call: how much support should academics give students? By Anna McKie TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION
Round-the-clock demands from students can take a toll on lecturers. With a THE survey highlighting rising expectations, Anna McKie asks where the line should be drawn between professional and private life.
Unbundling and Rebundling Higher Education in an Age of Inequality By Laura Czerniewicz EDUCAUSE REVIEW
Unbundling and rebundling are happening in different parts of college and university education, through new forms of teaching and learning provision and in different parts of the degree path, in every dimension and aspect—creating a complicated environment in an educational sector that is already in a state of disequilibrium.
Global University Employability Ranking 2018: China’s rise stalls By Simon Baker TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION
Analysis of ranking since 2011 suggests China is not making same ground as in research-based rankings, while Germany and South Korea have leapt forward…. Meanwhile, the analysis also illustrates how universities in the US, UK and France have fallen back since 2011, while Germany has bucked the European trend to be second only to the US for the number of universities in the top 150.
