Highlights of the current issue (Autumn 2011)

 'Academic excellence cannot be summarised as a number' is the conclusion of an article Don’t read university rankings like reading football league tables: taking a close look at the indicators by Kay Cheng Soh in the Autumn 2011 issue of Higher Education Review. Dr Soh analyses the three commonly used university ranking systems, with an emphasis on their contribution to the final score. He shows that all three systems have indicator redundancy, and he argues that:

 ‘it is well advised not to read academic league tables as if there were football league tables, lest the seeming simplicity and deceiving similarity misguides judgments leading to misplaced importance resulting in misinformed decisions and actions’.

Other articles in this issue

Legislating for private providers: White Paper dilemmas by G R Evans. Professor Evans discusses a number of issues arising from the new system for tuition fees in England: value for money, protection of the quality and changes to the rules for degree-awarding powers are examined. She questions:

 ‘In whose interest is the increase of private provider presence? It seems far more likely to lower than to raise standards. Its capacity to ensurethat students are well taught on high quality courses is untested, and in the absence of traditional academic support and supervision it is hard to see how it can be guaranteed.’

A balanced higher education system by Roger Brown. The author argues that the differences between 'self' and 'collective' interests in both the academy and wider society must be established, to help us to better understand the challenges presented by marketisation and privatisation. He concludes that there is an

‘unavoidable role of the state or a regulator acting on its behalf. This embraces but goes beyond the ‘traditional’ role of safeguarding the use of public money and seeing that society gets best value from it.’

Designing strategies to make cooperative learning culturally appropriate in the Vietnamese context by Pham Thi Hong Thanh, Robyn M Gillies and Peter Renshaw. This article explores actors that affect the work of, and interactions between, students in Vietnam. There are few studies which tease out the operation of pedagogies in different cultures. The article highlights ‘the dangers of cherry-picking educational practices from other countries and cultures’.

Creative angels and exegetical demons: artistic research, creative production and thesis by John Freeman. The author, from Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, considers the relationship between artistic research, creative production and exegesis.He argues that

‘if practice is not significant then it has no place as part of a higher degree by research’.

Note: King Midas and the European Higher Education Area by Elsa Hackl. Analysing the pronouncements of European ministers on higher education the author concludes that they ‘need to consider what universities are for, and take, before it is too late, steps to preserve their public character’.

Notes from North America: Some more facts, numbers and assertions and Mutterances by Paul Alper.

Books: Policy, problems and radicalisation by Yvonne Hillier. Other books reviewed by John Wyatt, Elsa Hackl, Gill Evans, Jim Crowther, Saranne Weller and Patrick Ainley.