Masters scholarship programme
Scotland to boost links with US
Scotland's higher education institutions are offering more than 50 masters scholarships to US students to boost links between the nations. The Scotland-USA Graduate Scholarships programme has been launched by 17 higher education institutions in collaboration with the British Council's Education UK Scotland. US graduates who have not studied in Scotland have until 1 July to apply for courses beginning this autumn, with 51 one-year scholarships valued at £2,000 on offer. Institutions in the scheme range from the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Glasgow College of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, said: "We want to encourage stronger links between Scotland and the US, for the benefit of both countries." The US is the third-largest market for Scottish universities, with US student numbers increasing annually. Numbers rose from 2,390 in 2003-04 to 3,325 in 2006-07.
Managing the 'multiversity'
Dearing lauds new skills focus
Universities are becoming "multiversities" in need of managers with a new set of skills, Lord Dearing said in a speech at the University of Gloucestershire this week. Lord Dearing, author of the landmark 1997 Dearing review of higher education and a member of Times Higher Education's editorial board, said: "I cannot think of integrated private-sector enterprises - as distinct from conglomerates - that match the modern university in the range of its activities: and all this has quietly happened without society really appreciating the scale of what has been happening. This process of continuing enlargement of the role of the university into a multiversity may be highly challenging, requiring new skills, especially for the most senior staff."
Education marketing awards
Birkbeck excels on four counts
Four gold awards for excellence in education marketing have been scooped by Birkbeck, University of London. The university won awards for marketing department of the year, best use of traditional media, best postgraduate prospectus and best part-time prospectus at this year's Heist awards. The University of Leicester was honoured for best national student recruitment campaign, the University of Derby for best website and Manchester Metropolitan University for best human resources marketing and public relations campaign.
- See: www.heistawards.co.uk
Teaching qualifications
Practitioners salute masters plan
Plans for masters-level credits for schoolteachers would be welcomed by the profession, research suggests. A study by the University of Cumbria found that 70 per cent of student teachers believed that having a masters improves job prospects, and 66 per cent felt that such credits would improve the practice of teaching. Alison Jackson, who led the research, said: "The moves to make teaching a masters profession will succeed only if those within the profession feel that it will bring a tangible benefit to the quality of teachers produced by the system. The results indicate that teachers do believe that it will improve the quality of work and in turn, increase job prospects in the long term."
