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GAPS Bulletin - Global Access News (January, 2016)

Posted January 29, 2016 - 08:34

Welcome to the GAPS Bulletin (Year 2, Issue 1) – January 2016.

 
The GAPS Bulletin
Welcome to the GAPS Bulletin (Year 2, Issue 1) – January 2016
 
As we begin the new year, we encourage you to share or tweet using the buttons below to connect others in your networks to GAPS and to help us expand our reach.
 
Global Access News
Brazil’s Law of Social Quotas Deadline Looms
 
Brazil’s Lei de Cotas or Law of Social Quotas, passed in 2012, is soon to take effect. By early 2016, universities must demonstrate that at least one half of all newly admitted students are from public secondary institutions and that openings reflect the racial diversity of the population. While more than half of the population in Brazil self-identify as Black or of mixed race, only 10 percent of this group currently reach university. Many Brazilian families with means send their children to private primary and secondary schools to ensure entry to free of cost and high quality federally funded universities.
 
 
When you educate one person, you can change a life, but when you educate many, you can change the world.  - Shei Reshef, Founder, University of the People
 
Once the founding chair of for-profit KIT e-learning, the online partner of the University of Liverpool, Shai Reshef found his higher calling when he founded the University of the People in 2009, the world’s first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited American online university dedicated to opening access to higher education globally. Offering university credits in Business Administration and Computer Science through partnerships with a host of renowned academics and universities worldwide, UPeople is supported by the Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, the Hewlett Foundation and companies such as HP, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Western Union, Estee Lauder and others. To date, it has enrolled students from over 170 countries.
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Rising Rates of Post-Secondary Enrolment May Widen Economic Disparity Without Equal Access
 
Data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) shows that getting a salaried job generally results in higher incomes, which tend to rise faster at higher levels of education. With obtaining a salaried job likely also dependent on the level of education, the result may be worsening income inequality without equal access to higher education. In case of India, the problem is compounded because inequality of opportunity or economic outcomes is often tied to inequality between socio-religious groups.
 
Hunger & Homelessness Not Just Academics Challenge Community College Students
 
Recent findings show that many community college students in the United States struggle with food insecurity and unstable housing situations due to their financial circumstances. Nearly one in five Black students in the HOPE survey were homeless at some point in the previous month, while Black, Asian and Latino students are all significantly more likely than White students to deal with issues of hunger. Issues of student hunger and homelessness have grown as colleges welcome more non-traditional and first-generation students to their campuses, with few receiving any public aid.
Lack of Enrolment of Caucasian, Working Class Men in UK a Huge Loss
 
New data released by UCAS shows young, white, working class men in the UK are more than 50% less likely to attend university than women from the same socio-economic background. Women aged 18 are 35% more likely to enter higher education than men the same age, the highest difference ever recorded, according to the figures. Developments of the sort demonstrate that the UK faces challenges not only limited to widening access to different ethnic groups, but that they are in fact faced with a much broader problem which may change the face of the British workforce in coming years.  Sutton Trust’s CEO says “If we are to make sure that every pupil, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or background, is able to reach their full potential, we need to redouble our efforts to close these attainment gaps.”
Predicting the Face of University Education in 2030
 
Academic experts and highly ranked university officials from prominent institutions worldwide predict what the future has in store for higher education. While some question the future of teaching altogether, seeing artificial intelligence replacing human instructors, others see technology use going full circle within 20 years.  “Digital disruption is everywhere, as more and more universities establish massive open online courses, offering their best professors to a universal public through global online platforms, entirely free of charge.” Opinions vary as to whether this is a brave new world with long-term transformational consequences or a short-term pedagogic fashion from which the pendulum will swing back to more traditional campus norms by 2030.
Click here to share initiatives or news with access and success colleagues from around the world
Children of Canada’s immigrants Outperform at the PSE Level
 
New Canadian research has looked at how the children of immigrants perform in terms of postsecondary education (PSE) in Canada. “This is important because PSE is critical, not only to an individual’s economic and social success, but also to the country’s prosperity” says prominent researcher Ross Finnie. The analysis shows that first- and second-generation children of immigrants access PSE at much higher rates in Canada than do non-immigrant youth. By the age of 21, 86 percent of first-generation children of immigrants (that is, those who themselves immigrated to Canada along with their parents) obtained postsecondary education, with 84 percent of second-generation immigrants (those born in Canada to immigrant parents) doing the same. By comparison, there is a 72 percent PSE participation rate among non-immigrant youth. For those from the region that includes Syria, 93 percent and 96 percent of first- and second-generation children of immigrants, respectively, had moved into postsecondary education by the age of 21, with most having attended university rather than college or trade school.
Feminist Pedagogy in Classrooms Said to Increase Inclusiveness
 
Students may learn better in classroom settings that are based around feminist pedagogy according to the author. While current teaching and evaluation methods in higher education are geared to men’s learning styles, three feminist principles; don’t humiliate, don’t dominate, and don’t indoctrinate, may in fact lead to a more suitable learning environment for all. This type of classroom atmosphere values creating understanding of multiple perspectives rather than debating which is right or wrong. The construction of collective knowledge is at the forefront of this innovative teaching style.
Widely Varying Post-Secondary Completion Rates Across Europe
 
A recently released report by the European Commission (EC) take an in-depth look at the different rates of post-secondary completion across a number of European countries and compares some of the national policies aimed at addressing study success, including France, Norway, Poland, the UK, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany and Denmark. Despite recent reforms, Norway has the lowest completion rate of the list with 59% of initial students completing their degree.
Science & Technology Gap Holding Back Knowledge Economy Transition Says Youth Delegate
 
How to fully include science and technology as an integral part of the process of advancing economic growth is the central issue for the Commonwealth countries, according to a delegate at the recent 10th Commonwealth Youth Forum in Malta. She points to work done by the World Bank on the statistically significant relationship between the level of knowledge accumulation and economic growth that led to the creation of the Knowledge for Development (K4D) program among other research. According to K4D’s Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM), among the 35 Commonwealth countries identified by the KAM, 21 are S&T lagging.
 
GAPS Network News
European Students Union (ESU) Calls for Solidarity Across Europe With Student Refugees & Academics
 
ESU calls on all students, teaching and administrative staff, universities and other education institutions, as well as authorities, policy makers and citizens in general, to welcome and provide assistance and support to students and others who are displaced persons, such as refugees, asylum seekers or persons in a refugee-like situation that might want to pursue their education. They also emphasize a need to offer fair opportunities to academics in similar situations.
 
IAU Announces New UNESCO Partnership for WHED Portal
 
The IAU WHED Portal is an equitable, effective and well-structured tool for policy-makers and the higher education community to understand the higher education systems of other regions/ countries and establish contacts and partnerships. Covering 18,000 higher education institutions in 184 countries, It is available online free of charge in its basic features, with login and password for its advanced features as a benefit to IAU Members. A print version, the International Handbook of Universities is also available.  
 
Michigan Launches Goal 2025 Postsecondary Attainment Plan
 
The Michigan Postsecondary Credential Attainment Workgroup has recently released Reaching for Opportunity: An Action Plan to Increase Michigan’s Postsecondary Credential Attainment with the support of the Lumina Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
 
NEON Summer Symposium 2016 - Call for Research Papers & Examples of Best Practice
 
The two-day event will be held at the University of Leicester on June 9-10, 2016 on the theme of ‘Rethinking Widening Access: How do we improve student outcomes across the lifecycle?’
 
GAPS in the News
GAPS Sets Its Sights on SDG Goals
 
Five GAPS affiliated authors lay out some of the key global access challenges and align the GAPS agenda with the UN SDG goals for higher education by 2030.
 
GAPS Partnership Opportunities
The GAPS Initiative is seeking expressions of interest in collaborating on project partnerships from Network Partners and other organizations, including on proposals to address European Community and other funding opportunities. Interested parties should please contact Florian Kaiser.
 
Network Partners seeking to identify institutions and organizations with specific access and success related expertise for knowledge transfer or collaborations are also invited to contact the GAPS office.
GAPS Calendar
February 21-24, 2016:  Association of International Education Administrators 2016 Annual Conference. Building a Better World:  The Academy as Leader, Montreal, Canada.  More information available here.

March 6-8, 2016: Council for Opportunity in Education (COE).  36th Annual Policy Seminar: Campaigning for the Future, Washington, D.C. For information click here.

March 9-12, 2016: European Students’ Union (ESU). European Students' Convention 31 (Amsterdam, Netherlands). For details click here.

March 16-18, 2016: Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC). Global Grand Challenges: Channeling International Collaboration, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. For information, click here. 

April 3-5, 2016: Diversity Network. 4th Annual Diversity Abroad Conference, Atlanta, Georgia. More information available here.

April 4-8, 2016:  ASEF, 5th ASEM Rectors’ Conference and Students’ Forum (ARC 5), Prague, Czech Republic. For details click here.

April 27-28, 2016: Widening Participation Conference: HE: Transforming lives though life-wide learning? Milton Keynes, UK. For more information click here.  

May 3-5, 2016: British Council. Going Global 2016. Cape Town, South Africa. For details click here.

May 9-14, 2016: European Students’ Union (ESU). Board Meeting 70 and Board Meeting Seminar, Bergan, Norway. More information available here.

May 17-18, 2016: United Nations: International Ministerial Meeting: Education Sector Responses to Homophobic Violence. (Paris, France). For details click here. 

May 29-31, 2016: European Access Network’s 25th Anniversary Conference, Dublin. For more information, click here.

May 29 – June 3, 2016: NAFSA 2016: Building capacity for global learning. Denver, USA. For additional information click here.

June 1-3, 2016:  48th EUCEN Conference, Dublin (IE). Dublin City University and the Higher Education Centre. Crossing borders through lifelong learning:  Enhancing quality and equity in higher education. For more information, click here.

June 3-5, 2016: 13th PASCAL international conference: Learning Cities 2014.  Glasgow, United Kingdom. For more information click here.

June 13-15, 2016: ISCN 2016: Leadership for a Sustainable Future. Siena, Italy. Additional information available here.

June 21-23, 2016: 2nd International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’16). Valencia, Spain. For additional details click here. 

August 31-September 3, 2016: Council for Opportunity in Education (COE)’s 35th Annual Conference, San Diego, California. More information available here.

September 13-16, 2016: EAIE 2016. Liverpool, United Kingdom. For more information click here.

September 19-21, 2016: National College Access Network (NCAN) Annual Conference, Detroit, Illinois. For additional information, click here.

October 21-22, 2016: American Indigenous Research Association 2016 Meeting: Research from the Field: Application of Indigenous Methodologies and Methods. Pablo (MT), USA. For more information click here.

November 10-12, 2016: ASHE Annual Conference 2016, Higher Education and the Public Good. Columbus (OH), USA. For details click here.

November 14-17, 2016:  The next IAU General Conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. Co-organized in partnership with a Consortium of Thai universities lead by Siam University, this 15th General Conference will focus on Higher Education: a catalyst for innovative and sustainable societies. For more information, click here.

November 23-25, 2016:  Combined Conference of ICED and HELTASA Ethics, Care and Quality in Educational Development. Cape Town, South Africa. For details click here.
About GAPS
GAPS World Congress 2017:  Sao Paulo
 
The GAPS Steering Committee will meet in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in February 2016 to begin planning for the GAPS World Congress 2017.
Online Library
We have restructured our Online Library: All articles are now in alphabetical order.

The Library has the following new postings:
  • Income Inequality - The GAP between Rich and Poor
  • Who are the bachelor's and master's graduates?
  • Overview on Student-Centred Learning in Higher Education in Europe
  • Trends Shaping Education 2016
  • Did you know...? Gaps in the Access Community
Additionally you can find all published GAPS Bulletins and GAPS Students & Young People Bulletins in the library.
 
To access the GAPS online library, click here.
To share initiatives or news with access and success colleagues from around the world email
Florian Kaiser or tweet @gapseducation


Disclaimer

All links in this newsletter are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only. They do not constitute an edorsement or an approval by GAPS of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organisation. GAPS bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of external sites or for that of subsequent links. Please contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.

 

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