The light bulb is commonly used as an illustration to accompany articles about innovation and science (see above). It is a universally recognised symbol of discovery – the a-ah! moment when the researcher/inventor finally finds the big breakthrough or cracks a hitherto unsolvable problem. A light...
Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel is proving to be one of the country’s most stimulating thinkers. This entrepreneur, engineer, neuroscientist and educator has a way with words that enables him to talk about complex issues in an engaging manner. He makes the problems and...
There used to be at least a couple of ways you could make it in this world besides being born rich and lucky. The Beatles became “the toppermost of the poppermost” not by chance, but by unconsciously following what Malcolm Gladwell called the 10,000 hour...
This year’s NMC Horizon Report on shifts and currents in higher education spotlights a “long term impact trend” which it says will need governments to prioritize major education reforms to help universities “restructure themselves around increasing the employability of their students”. The report, now in...
She is no doubt some kind of genius but Coursera chief Professor Daphne Koller doesn’t inhabit some other-worldly dimension in which the enigmatic and the ambiguous are essential vocabulary. She talks common sense, and she talks it good. Coursera has been in the MOOC business since 2011,...
An amazing event happened this week that simply could not have been conceived of in any practical sense in previous eras. It took place, along no doubt with many other splendid things, big and small, amid the business-as-usual tragedy and turmoil that haunts our planet....
It’s been called “the challenge-driven university” – a new model of higher education that emphasises a different approach to student learning. Traditional methods such as lectures and exams are spurned in favour of team work focused on practical problems, with businesses often sponsoring projects and...
In recent decades higher education has become a major economic force around the globe. But have university managers correspondingly become sufficiently business-like? Well, there may be room for improvement according to one opinion this week. But first, the scale – it’s big. According to a Deloitte Access...
The ever-perceptive Simon Marginson posed an intriguing question in a recent speech to the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning conference in Taiwan. It was - Will higher education become as commonplace as mobile phones? While he didn’t outright answer his own question, the...
Here’s a thing. In this digital age of tablets, handy mobile devices, laptops and other technological must-have accessories, guess what is one of the most popular places on any university campus anywhere in the world? It’s the university library. In the words of the UK’s Society...