David Jobbins
The opinions of more than 13,000 academics will be used to build a picture of the standard of teaching and research in the world's universities for the 2010 Times Higher Education World University Ranking.Despite an increased sample size, the findings will account for 20% of final scores, compared with 40% under the methodology used from 2004 to 2009. Meanwhile its main rival, QS, is introducing a rating system to better reflect the diversity of institutions by measuring their broader missions.The inclusion of both research and teaching means THE can claim its 2010 rankings will include the first worldwide reputation-based indicator of teaching quality. Thomson Reuters, the exclusive data supplier for the rankings, confirmed that 13,388 people had responded to its Academic Reputation Survey launched in March. "It is an excellent response in terms of volume," THE Editor Ann Mroz said. "But it is not just size that matters. The respondents were carefully targeted as experienced scholars by an invitation-only survey to ensure they are representative of their region and subject areas."We have a very high-quality sample that is much more representative and rigorous than anything the rankings have used before."Most respondents (38%) are from the Americas, 30% from the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions and 28% from Europe. Engineering and technology supplied marginally more respondents (23%) than physical sciences (21%) and social sciences (18%).
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0129, 20 June 2010
21 Juni 2010
Research Explores 'Development and Dreams'
Karen MacGregor
The 2010 FIFA world cup inspired one of the largest consolidated research exercises in South Africa in years. Culminating in a 2009 book, Development and Dreams, the research found the economic benefits of the global tournament had been wildly over-stated but its infrastructure and social legacies would be considerable, said co-editor Dr Udesh Pillay.
Development and Dreams: The urban legacy of the 2010 World Cup pulled together four years of research co-funded by the Development Bank of Southern Africa and led by the Centre for Service Delivery of the Human Sciences Research Council, or HSRC, which published the book. Pillay is the centre's director.
The FIFA 2010 World Cup Research Project combined academic and applied research. The academic component aimed to enhance understanding of mega events and urban development, in South Africa and internationally, through research conducted by the HSRC in collaboration with the Centre for Urban and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Studies were commissioned into urban development experiences and lessons learned from other mega sporting events, the South African World Cup bid and its governance, integration of planning into the strategic frameworks of host cities and their efforts to enhance their images, urban regeneration and the legacy dimension of the tournament, among other aspects.
The applied work contributed to the planning of host cities and conducted public perception surveys from 2005 to 2007, based on 3,000 respondents, to benchmark attitudes towards the World Cup.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0128, 13 June 2010
The 2010 FIFA world cup inspired one of the largest consolidated research exercises in South Africa in years. Culminating in a 2009 book, Development and Dreams, the research found the economic benefits of the global tournament had been wildly over-stated but its infrastructure and social legacies would be considerable, said co-editor Dr Udesh Pillay.
Development and Dreams: The urban legacy of the 2010 World Cup pulled together four years of research co-funded by the Development Bank of Southern Africa and led by the Centre for Service Delivery of the Human Sciences Research Council, or HSRC, which published the book. Pillay is the centre's director.
The FIFA 2010 World Cup Research Project combined academic and applied research. The academic component aimed to enhance understanding of mega events and urban development, in South Africa and internationally, through research conducted by the HSRC in collaboration with the Centre for Urban and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Studies were commissioned into urban development experiences and lessons learned from other mega sporting events, the South African World Cup bid and its governance, integration of planning into the strategic frameworks of host cities and their efforts to enhance their images, urban regeneration and the legacy dimension of the tournament, among other aspects.
The applied work contributed to the planning of host cities and conducted public perception surveys from 2005 to 2007, based on 3,000 respondents, to benchmark attitudes towards the World Cup.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0128, 13 June 2010
Seven Recipes to Become a Top Researcher
Jüri Allik
Young people entertain the illusion they will live forever and therefore time has no particular value to them. But success in scientific research presupposes the ability to travel in time. Unlike a dilettante, the professional scientist needs to think about how his or her ideas will be received in 10 years' time.For example, to be in the top 1% of researchers most cited in the field of psychiatry and psychology today, articles you have published in the last 11 years need to have received at least 533 citations, according to ISI Essential Science Indicators. At present there are only 15 scientists in Estonia who have crossed the 1% mark in their respective fields of research, two of them psychologists Risto Näätänen and Jüri Allik. There is also Estonian-born professor emeritus at the University of Toronto Endel Tulving, a pioneer in memory research, but credit for his work goes to Canada.So achieving success is not that difficult. The fundamental rule has been nicely worded by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers (2008). The key to success in any field is a matter of practising a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours (The Ten-Thousand-Hours Rule). This rule, as Gladwell convincingly demonstrates, holds true both for Mozart and for Bill Gates.It is easy to see that it therefore requires you to focus on your favourite activity for approximately three hours a day, including all Saturdays and Sundays, for 10 continuous years.When applied to the discipline of psychology, this rule means that during these 10,000 hours you need to write and publish as many articles as possible that are good enough for other researchers to find it necessary to cite them nearly 600 times.I have a couple of very good recipes à la 'Nigella Express' on how to achieve at least 600 citations in 10 years. Actually, I have even more recipes, but as a psychologist I am aware of the magical number 7, which represents the limit of human capacity to process information. This is why in the following passages I will confine myself to seven of them.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0128, 13 June 2010
Young people entertain the illusion they will live forever and therefore time has no particular value to them. But success in scientific research presupposes the ability to travel in time. Unlike a dilettante, the professional scientist needs to think about how his or her ideas will be received in 10 years' time.For example, to be in the top 1% of researchers most cited in the field of psychiatry and psychology today, articles you have published in the last 11 years need to have received at least 533 citations, according to ISI Essential Science Indicators. At present there are only 15 scientists in Estonia who have crossed the 1% mark in their respective fields of research, two of them psychologists Risto Näätänen and Jüri Allik. There is also Estonian-born professor emeritus at the University of Toronto Endel Tulving, a pioneer in memory research, but credit for his work goes to Canada.So achieving success is not that difficult. The fundamental rule has been nicely worded by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers (2008). The key to success in any field is a matter of practising a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours (The Ten-Thousand-Hours Rule). This rule, as Gladwell convincingly demonstrates, holds true both for Mozart and for Bill Gates.It is easy to see that it therefore requires you to focus on your favourite activity for approximately three hours a day, including all Saturdays and Sundays, for 10 continuous years.When applied to the discipline of psychology, this rule means that during these 10,000 hours you need to write and publish as many articles as possible that are good enough for other researchers to find it necessary to cite them nearly 600 times.I have a couple of very good recipes à la 'Nigella Express' on how to achieve at least 600 citations in 10 years. Actually, I have even more recipes, but as a psychologist I am aware of the magical number 7, which represents the limit of human capacity to process information. This is why in the following passages I will confine myself to seven of them.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0128, 13 June 2010
07 Juni 2010
The Rise of the 'Multiversity'
Some scholars date the beginnings of globalisation from the first move of people out of Africa, writes Simon Marginson for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Some date it from the spread of world religions - Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Others date it from the imperial European empires, the Napoleonic wars or the expanded trade and migration in the second half of the Victorian era. But one thing is certain: in the last two decades, the internet and cheaper air travel have created such closer integration and convergence that, for the first time, a single world society is within reach - and higher education, ranging beyond the nation-state, is a central driver.
The 'multiversity' - the university with multiple constituencies and demands that Clark Kerr, the former president of the University of California identified in the 1960s - has given way to the Global Research University, or GRU. The Global Research University is the multiversity with much more mobility, more cross-national research and learning, and more global systems and rankings.
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0127, 06 June 2010
The 'multiversity' - the university with multiple constituencies and demands that Clark Kerr, the former president of the University of California identified in the 1960s - has given way to the Global Research University, or GRU. The Global Research University is the multiversity with much more mobility, more cross-national research and learning, and more global systems and rankings.
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0127, 06 June 2010
Virtual University to boost Islamic Science
Wagdy Sawahel
Two institutions and a prize, all aimed at boosting scientific research in the Muslim world, have been announced by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The 57 member states agreed to establish the Islamic Virtual University, the Islamic Universities Business Network, and a prize for academic research papers.
The institutions were announced during the 5th session of the General Conference of the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW) held in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan FROM 12-14 May.
The virtual university will offer higher education degrees in science and technology through partnerships among the federation's members and other leading universities. Besides developing training and educational programmes, it is hoped that the university will also catalyse educational reform and collaboration within the Islamic world.
The business network will focus on promoting the commercialisation of technology and on developing innovation-based businesses. It will offer training programmes and help better communicate science from university and research institutes to interested parties in the public and private sector.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0126, 30 May 2010
Two institutions and a prize, all aimed at boosting scientific research in the Muslim world, have been announced by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The 57 member states agreed to establish the Islamic Virtual University, the Islamic Universities Business Network, and a prize for academic research papers.
The institutions were announced during the 5th session of the General Conference of the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW) held in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan FROM 12-14 May.
The virtual university will offer higher education degrees in science and technology through partnerships among the federation's members and other leading universities. Besides developing training and educational programmes, it is hoped that the university will also catalyse educational reform and collaboration within the Islamic world.
The business network will focus on promoting the commercialisation of technology and on developing innovation-based businesses. It will offer training programmes and help better communicate science from university and research institutes to interested parties in the public and private sector.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0126, 30 May 2010
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