Academic freedom at Oxford: the responsibilities of being grown up

The short article discusses the state of academic freedom at Oxford and the impact of attempts to alter both the institutional system of governance and the university contract

'Achieving Bologna convergence: is ECTS failing to make the grade?'

Transparent and consistent credit transfer procedures are essential if EU Universities are to successfully build the European Higher Education Learning Area and thrive in the emerging global knowledge economy. Currently the European Credit Transfer System is the most widely used mechanism to enable credit transfer between universities in different EU nations. Using data from 20 universities in four EU states, this paper examines the problems of calculating and using ECTS grades. The results demonstrate that the alignment of ECTS grades varies within nation states and show that, despite the fact that ECTS grading is a norm referenced system, while the national systems are usually criterion referenced, many ECTS conversion tables provided by universities indicate straight line transference from institutional to ECTS grades . Given the anticipated increase in student mobility following the EU enlargement to 25 nations, the paper proposes a re-alignment of ECTS towards a criterion referenced system. Such a new system would acknowledge and build on the diversity of EU higher education systems, unlike the current mechanistic system, which both masks this diversity and is flawed in calculation, and ad hoc in operation

Academic freedom: a research bibliography

A generic bibliography containing over 1000 references (books, journal articles, monographs, conference papers, reports, etc.) on the subject of academic freedom in higher education, from various countries (Australia, Canada, Europe, the UK and the USA, etc.) which cover (inter alia) the genesis and history of the concept, intellectual and artistic freedom, the legal interpretation of academic freedom, individual and institutional academic freedom, the responsibilities and duties associated with academic freedom, etc

E-México - building on success, for success

The paper details the ITC context for México, which is characterised by a low, but rapidly growing use of ICTS, and then examines at the recent E-México policy initiative launched by President Vincent Fox, in the light of México's considerable experience in using ICT for distance education. Finally the paper suggests that, by benchmarking against Finland (a country with a high use of ICTs in both business and education), México would derive considerable social, economic and educational benefits from the use of ICT

Quality criteria in educational research: is beauty more important than popularity?

Presentation Contents: HISTORICAL CONTEXT: The poor quality of educational research THE DISCUSSION FRAMEWORK: Assessing Quality in Educational Research CRITIQUES: Is assessing the quality of educational research possible or necessary? During the past decade, as national governments more particularly in the USA and the UK have scrutinised more closely the cost effectiveness and impact of research funding within higher education, they have become critical of the overall quality of educational research, in terms of its scientific rigour, its utility for practitioners and the manner in which it is assessed. This paper addresses the reasons why the quality of educational research was questioned and then examines the discussion framework for assessing quality which emerged. Following from this, the merits of possible internal and external criteria for the worth of educational research are considered. The links between these criterial sets and the function and purpose of qualitative and quantitative approaches to educational research are considered. Finally the question of whether educational research is an art or a science is addressed. RESEARCH: into education – are medical and economic models appropriate? EDUCATION: Is it an art or a science (or what)

Responding to the vision of the information society: first steps towards a national virtual university.

Executive Summary 1. There is confusion, both in academic circles and the public more generally, about the definition of a virtual university. Hence in considering such an option, it is worth looking more fundamentally at the contexts for higher education, and the functions of a National Virtual University equipped to meet the needs of the 21st Century. 2. The increase in the use of ICT has caused a radical increase in demand for higher education globally, and increased access to higher education via the use of ICT. New suppliers in the form of private and corporate universities, now compete with universities in their home countries, and increasingly, overseas. 3. Although demands for higher education are growing rapidly, analysis of the new and changing demands on universities at local, national and international levels, within an increasingly global knowledge market, indicates that the role of a National Virtual University will be much broader than that of an existing university. Moreover, a NVU will need to successfully compete in an environment which is growing in competitiveness and complexity as corporate universities start to operate, but will have to do so with greater efficiency and lower funding. 4. The socio-economic environment in Finland is characterised by an internationally high (and growing) involvement with information and communication technologies in all spheres of life. Within this fast developing Information Society, there is a high need for increasing skills levels and retraining, especially with respect to ICT. However, like elsewhere in Europe, the use of technology for collaborative teaching in Universities and for promoting joint research with industry, is comparatively underexploited, although the existing higher education platform, provides a useful structure which could adapt to, and benefit from, the establishment of a National Virtual University. 5. The rationale for incorporating the use of new technologies in higher education by building a National Virtual University is well-established. Such a development would require a quantum leap in the design and development of a new learning method. However, in addition to educational benefits, the NVU would aid the creation of a knowledge based economy, the promotion of social cohesion, the protection of the existing Finnish university system, and the preservation of national language and culture. 6. The experience of previous virtual university ventures in the USA demonstrates that collaborative ventures, based on existing providers and reliant on reengineering of existing teaching and learning practices, are unlikely to be successful, even where they are well financed. A National Virtual University can be constructed with varying degrees of functionality, but where it covers all ranges of university activities (teaching, research and technology transfer), and is well-linked to the local community, the cost of development will be high but the returns on expenditure will be greatest. 7. A project of this size, complexity, cost and importance will only succeed in maximising its potential as a collaborative venture, if it involves all stakeholder groups in discussing its form, as consensus on the form of the NVU will be critical in ensuring the success of its implementation

A framework for the forensic investigation of unstructured email relationship data

Our continued reliance on email communications ensures that it remains a major source of evidence during a digital investigation. Emails comprise both structured and unstructured data. Structured data provides qualitative information to the forensics examiner and is typically viewed through existing tools. Unstructured data is more complex as it comprises information associated with social networks, such as relationships within the network, identification of key actors and power relations, and there are currently no standardised tools for its forensic analysis. Moreover, email investigations may involve many hundreds of actors and thousands of messages. This paper posits a framework for the forensic investigation of email data. In particular, it focuses on the triage and analysis of unstructured data to identify key actors and relationships within an email network. This paper demonstrates the applicability of the approach by applying relevant stages of the framework to the Enron email corpus. The paper illustrates the advantage of triaging this data to identify (and discount) actors and potential sources of further evidence. It then applies social network analysis techniques to key actors within the data set. This paper posits that visualisation of unstructured data can greatly aid the examiner in their analysis of evidence discovered during an investigation

From ECTS to EGS: strains, pains, brains and gains

This paper examines specific features relating to the process of changing the method of assessment and grading in higher education within the European Union, namely: • that strains on the academic staff are inevitable, given the growing pressures for European integration within a wider (25 nations plus) community; • that irrespective as to whatever or wherever change takes place in higher education, (be it in curricula design and delivery, assessment and grading, etc.) it has to be undertaken by people who may be resistant to change, and who hence may find the process painful. Consequently, addressing the human dimension (through inclusive involvement) in securing successful change is paramount. • that changes to the national higher educational systems, by their very nature, create large and complex problems, which hence necessitates very carefully considered policy responses, and sophisticated and sustained implementation strategies (brains). • that the gains associated with a successful implementation may be greater than those initially sough

The Role of Church is Fostering Racial Harmony

COVID-19 has taken center stage across the world. The United States of America battles the disease, but it is not the only fight the country is in right now. Keeping Americans safe remains a high priority for the newly elected political leaders. They have need to bridge the great racial divide. The politicians have an important and necessary role to play in addressing the race problem. But they cannot do it on their own. The church must be part of the conversation and the solution to this age-old race problem. The church is at crossroads. How it responds to race and race relations will significantly impact its fulfillment of the Great Commission. In God’s master plan of final redemption, there will gather before the throne of God worshippers from every nation, tribe, and people (Rev. 7:9). The challenge for the church today is to demonstrate how to love God and others amidst cultural differences. Loving God and others requires being intentional when engaging with fellow believers and non-believers. It is recognizing that God loves diversity, and He is the creator of all humanity. Christianity is not an exclusive club but rather a journey of walking with God through the curves and turns of life. It is modeling the heart of God when engaging with others. It is the church sharing and living the heart of God with every nation, tribe, and people

An object-oriented organic architecture for next generation intelligent reconfigurable mobile networks

Next generation mobile networks have great potential in providing personalised and effcient quality of service by using re-confgurable platforms. The foundation is the concept of software radio where both the mobile terminal and the serving network can be re-configurable. This approach becomes more effective when combined with historic-based prediction strategies that enable the system to learn about application behaviour and predict its resource consumption. We extend that concept by proposing the use of an object-oriented intelligent decision making architecture, which supports general and large-scale applications. The proposed architecture applies the principles of business intelligence and data warehousing, together with the concept of organic viable systems. The architecture is applied to the CAST (Configurable radio with Advanced Software Technology) platform