Urban Land Institute European Student Urban Design Competition

The Urban Land Institute European Student Urban Design Competition is accepting applications for the 2008 Competition until December 17. This graduate-level competition is intended to provide an interdisciplinary learning experience for real estate and design students in Europe. Self-formed student teams are asked to provide an urban design and a financial feasibility strategy for a large-scale real life site that ULI has identified somewhere in Europe. Through the formation of multidisciplinary teams, the program encourages cooperation and teamwork among future real estate professionals and the many allied professions, such as architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, engineering, real estate development, finance, psychology, law, and others. The winning team receives €35,000 and the finalist teams receive €7,000 each.

More information here.

EU ministers agree to set up European Institute of Innovation and Technology

EU research ministers agreed Friday to set up a European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and to create four private-public sector partnerships in the field of technology as part of a drive to bridge the bloc's competitive gap with the United States. The political agreement should allow to start implementation of the EIT regulation as from Spring 2008. The EIT will have a governing body, a director and an executive committee, but will not be a new institute as such. Rather, it will network and pool resources from Europe's universities and will initially seek to focus research into three broad areas: energy, climate change and information technology. The EU has earmarked 308.7 million euros for the functioning of the EIT for a period of six years.

Press release of the council meeting here.

New issue of Higher Education Research & Development: Volume 27 Issue 1

The new issue of the journal 'Higher Education Research & Development' (Volume 27 Issue 1) is now available for paid subscribers at the Informaworld's website. This issue contains the following articles:

• Facing and managing dilemmas as a clinical educator
• Qualitatively different ways of experiencing student self-assessment
• Bridging the implementation gap: a teacher-as-learner approach to teaching and learning policy
• University student anonymity in the summative assessment of
• The quality of guidance and feedback to students
• Evaluating an earlybird scheme: encouraging early assignment writing and revising
• Innovation in PhD completion: the hardy shall succeed (and be happy!)

Access this issue in Informaworld's website.

New issue of the journal 'Higher Education Research & Development'

The Journal of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia 'Higher Education Research & Development''s Volume 26 Issue 4 is now available for paying subscribers at the Informaworld website. The new issue contains the following articles:

• A quantitative approach to assessment of work-based learning outcomes: an urban planning application
• Lifelong learning: beyond the rhetoric of retention
• Deconstructing the skills training debate in doctoral education
• Commonly known, commonly not known, totally unknown: a framework for students becoming researchers
• Negotiating the university research culture: collaborative voices of new academics
• Show me the money! An empirical analysis of mentoring outcomes for women in academia

Access the issue's table of contents here.

INTERREG IVC Project idea - Campus Entrepreneurship

The Lahti University of Applied Sciences in Finlend is searching for European partners involved in entrepreneurship promotion for the Campus Entrepreneurship project. The project aims at promoting entrepreneurship and raising the entrepreneurial spirit in Higher Eduction Institutions, thus utilising their full entrepreneurial potential. Increased amount of entrepreneurs and increased amount of students becoming entrepreneurs are the project's expected outcome.

More information and contact details here.

CIDA City Campus

In 2000 Mr. Taddy Blecher and three partners formed the CIDA City CAmpus, a Johannesburg-based almost-free business school for students who cannot afford mainstream higher education. Charging students only a 21$ a month fee, CIDA now collects income from notable sponsors, such as Dell, JPMorgan, Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey. Students help to run the school and many teachers offer their services for free. Students are also required to volunteer for community work when they go back home during the holidays. In a country where good education is still an illusion for most poor South Africans, this is the kind of initiative that can have profound positive impacts on the communities and Mr. Blecher is now a local heroe.

More information on the CIDA here.

MIT OpenCourseWare: Urban Studies and Planning

OpenCourseWare from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provides free, searchable, access to the school's course materials for educators, students, and self-learners. The OpenCourseWare of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning includes the syllabus, calendars, readings, lecture notes, projects and assignments for some of the Department's undergraduate and graduate courses since 2001.

The Relationship Between Higher Education and Economic Well-Being

An interesting report that discusses the linkages between Higher Education and both economic development and individual benefits, with special consideration for the State of Arizona. Some interesting conclusions:

- Educated workers make a net positive contribution to government budgets, and they help to raise the wages of all workers in an area;
- Public and/or private investments that lead to tangible increases in degree attainment stand to deliver significant returns to the students that earn the degrees and to the economies where they ultimately live and work;
- One condition for local production of degrees to translate into high educational attainment in the adult population is that students must be able to find jobs in the state after they graduate;
- In general, a state is more likely to generate new jobs for graduates receiving degrees in engineering and science than it is for people acquiring skills for the delivery of local services such as public education and health care;

Full report available here