Breadcrumbs 7 May 2021

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  • 07/05/2021

    On certification

    Professor: ‘certification’ mania hobbles Middle East development | Times Higher Education (THE)

    Students in the Middle East and North Africa are too often more interested in “acquiring” a degree than developing the understanding that should come with it, a leading scholar has warned.

    “Students – and the parents who bankroll them – are often more interested in acquiring professional certification than truly understanding the world and the role of an educated citizen within it,” said Professor Masri.

    Gee. Well, all I can say is that the Middle East must be a very big place. I wish it were otherwise.


     EI! OK! GOK!

    Appointment of Founding Dean of the Medical School at University of Worcester

    The School’s planned curriculum emphasises problem-based learning, early consultations, programmatic assessment, and professional, emotionally intelligent communication at every stage. The Dean will be responsible for overseeing the GMC approval process and instituting an ambitious strategy that will ensure that the School becomes a highly successful new medical school.

    Medical education has a lot in common with the catwalks of Paris and Milan, and airport business books.


    The pleasures of rejection

    Writing a grant proposal is like doing your taxes, except that you can’t pay your accountant to do it for you.

    Paul J. Silvia

    Although I do remember stories of academics who outsourced their online training modules in which mouse movements were the only outcome measure (unconsciously of course…)


    BGGD

    Standard Life Aberdeen to change name to Abrdn | Scotland | The Guardian

    Standard Life Aberdeen has announced it is changing its name to Abrdn, in an attempt to give the venerable UK asset manager a 21st-century makeover.

    The Edinburgh-based company, which dates back to 1825, said that the change reflected a “modern, agile, digitally-enabled brand”. The name, however, which is pronounced “Aberdeen”, has not been well received.

    BGGD as they might say up North. And of course:

    The new identity, developed by the branding agency Wolff Olins, will be rolled out this summer “alongside implementation of a full stakeholder engagement plan to manage the transition”. The company would not reveal the cost of rolling out Abrdn, which will replace five brands the company had been using across its business.


    Education may or many not scale but wealth does

    Break Up the Ivy League Cartel – BIG by Matt Stoller

    Meanwhile, as of 2020, the aggregate value of the endowments of the richest 20 U.S. schools rose to over $311 billion, all of which are subsidized by taxpayers through the tax-free treatment we offer nonprofit educational institutions. The common joke, that Harvard is a hedge fund with an educational arm, is not so far off.

    According to the IMF, the value of these endowment funds is greater than the GDP of New Zealand, Finland, or Chile.

    In 1940, the acceptance rate at Harvard was eighty-five percent. In 1970, it was twenty percent. This year, for the class of 2025, it was 3.4 percent.

    (author: Sam Haselby)