Bordeaux Ecole de Management (BEM) and Euromed Marseille have recently announced their merger (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/32573bbc-429a-11e1-97b1-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jsc1WYVg). This will create a new giant in the French and European landscape with a 90 million Euros budget, more than 9000 students, 160 academics and 35000 alumni. It is interesting to note that Euromed has been looking for a partner for… [Read more…]
October 18, 2011
A recent information surfaced that private equity firms are looking to acquire universities (in UK) (http://bit.ly/pAEJly). This was followed last week by an article in the T.H.E. (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=417767&c=1). I think that this information should not seen as a threat as the past experiences have shown that such investment is most of the time far from… [Read more…]
October 7, 2011
This is a translation from an article written in French by Jean-Claude Levandowski and published in Les Echos on Oct. 6th, 2011. (http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-politique/france/actu/0201668519901-trois-institutions-qui-raisonnent-deja-a-l-echelle-de-la-planete-228020.php) Start of quote: Toulouse School of Economics Being immediately in international competition and be listed in the very first places: it is the ambition of the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), the result of a spin-off from the University of Toulouse. The TSE is already ranked 11 th in the world (and the 3rd in Europe)… [Read more…]
September 22, 2011
Recently, because of the questions raised both in the US and in UK on the outcomes of investing in university studies (see for example the Financial Times article on the OECD report: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1d27b936-dded-11e0-a391-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1YcA8ODzf ), the concept of value has emerged in the discussion on the future of higher education. I think it is important to… [Read more…]
September 8, 2011
As presented by l’Etudiant, the French education magazine, more and more French students, thank to the rules of the European Union, are choosing foreign universities for disciplines where the entry exam in France is very competitive (original article in French: http://www.letudiant.fr/etudes/international/filieres-selectives-osez-leurope-15380.html ) Two examples: Study medicine in Cluj, Romania Since 2007, the year of Romania’s… [Read more…]
August 25, 2011
While the presidential campaign starts, the left-wing think tank Terra Nova published on August 23rd a paper entitled “Make our students succeed, make France progress: Proposals for a wake-up call toward a knowledge society” . Yves Lichtenberger, former president of the University of Marne-la-Vallee is one of the rapporteurs. Anything consensual in this text in… [Read more…]
August 17, 2011
Back in 2009, Nian Cai Lu, the creator of the ARWU “Shanghai” ranking aptly warned that this ranking did “not constitute a standard for world-class universities” (for this interview in French: http://www.educpros.fr/international/relations-internationales/detail-article/h/256d469b6a/a/nian-cai-liu-concepteur-du-classement-de-shanghai-notre-ranking-ne-constitue-pas-un-standard.html) This is the opportunity to remind us a simple fact: general rankings (Times Higher Education ranking and ARWU being the best examples) are… [Read more…]
August 1, 2011
An edited version of this post was published by The Guardian Higher Ed on August, 23rd, 2011 : http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2011/aug/23/business-schools-professional-graduates A recent article in The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jul/25/white-paper-universities-training-jobs#start-of-comments), following some points of the White Paper, has sparked a debate on the role of HEIs. Should they train students for life or give them skills for work?… [Read more…]
July 20, 2011
It is the trend now to consider that the apparent proliferation of branch campuses worldwide is similar to a bubble and that it could suddenly burst. The main similarity that I see with a financial bubble is that the same experts who were ecstatic about the internationalisation of universities 10 years ago are now promising… [Read more…]
July 12, 2011
In a recent article, the Chronicle of Higher Education is jumping in the hot debate in the US on measuring the workload of academics (Efforts to Measure Faculty Workload Don’t Add Up: http://chronicle.com/article/Efforts-to-Measure-Faculty/128163/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en) The general public (taxpayers) and local authorities want to understand better what they get for the money. In an era of tight… [Read more…]
January 20, 2012
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