GlobalHigherEd

To what degree have the territorial dimensions of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) been made visible? Remarkably little, I would argue.

Is there an alternative term to World University Rankings that would better reflect the realities of the very uneven global landscape of higher education and research?

Reflections on the new academic year, online courses, the OECD's forthcoming Education at a Glance (2012), and international consortia of universities.

Hot off the press report -- Measuring Academic Research in Canada: Field-Normalized Academic Rankings 2012.

What to do when development strategies for a city-region change, but there is limited higher education capacity in said region? This issue emerged this summer when, following a work-related visit to Beijing in late July, I spent four fascinating days in Yeosu, a city of approximately 300,000 located near the southeast tip of South Korea.

it would be misguided to think that the establishment of campuses overseas (however funded) could be a substitute for international students coming to study in the UK. The experience of the University of Nottingham with its campuses in Malaysia and China has been hugely positive and the benefits of campus development have been considerable. But net income isn’t one of them. In the longer term interests of the UK economy and its world leading Universities, international campuses and internationally mobile students must be seen as complementary initiatives in internationalisation, not alternatives.

Danny Boyle's Olympic Opening Ceremony was unexpectedly enjoyable. From the opening ring (courtesy of Bradley Wiggins) of a 27 ton bell, to the closing festivities, it conveyed a multilayered and multivalent sense of many aspects of what Britain is and isn't (a point deftly made by the New Yorker late last night). As Boyle himself put it, "The Ceremony is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be."

Beijing-based reflections on international collaboration, Yale-NUS College, and internet censorship in China.