Times Higher Education has a piece about the most highly educated cities in the world. First, of course, is London, followed by Paris, Los Angeles, San Francisco (presumably including Berkeley) and Stockholm. The data comes from a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the international financial services company, which includes information about the percentage of the population with degrees and the ranking of universities in the city by (surprise!) Times Higher Education.
Boston is not in the top ten because it was not evaluated by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Note that the rankings indicator is based only on those that actually take part in the THE rankings. So London's score would not be affected by places like London Metropolitan University or the University of East London.
Looking at the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, the most important indicator might be the PISA scores, which suggest that the future belongs not to London or Paris but to Shanghai.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Friday, June 06, 2014
Are they having fun in Shanghai?
Harvey Mudd College is a very expensive highly ranked private school with a strong emphasis on the teaching of engineering and technology. The US News and World Report 2013 rankings have it in 12th place among national liberal arts colleges, second for master's engineering schools and fourth for computer engineering. Even so, it seems that some feel that it is a failure because it is not getting enough women to take courses in key disciplines such as computer science.
The new president, Maria Klawe, is taking care of that.
The new introductory class for Computer Science at Harvey Mudd is designed for those who did not go to computer camp in high school and is supposed to be interesting. Students edit Darth Vader's voice and on one test the answer to every question is 42 ( guess what the media would say if that happened in an underachieving inner city high school). If you are not amused by the joke about 42 you should forget about going to Harvey Mudd.
The course used to be about programming and was dominated by "geeky know it alls" who have now been told to mind their manners and shut up. Programming in Java has been replaced by Python.
"It was so much fun; it was so much fun" said one student.
Also, all female first year students go to attend a conference on women in computing .
And so, at Harvey Mudd 40% of computer science majors are now women. Bridgette Eichelberger switched from engineering to computer science because the fun of engineering was nothing compared to the happiness of computer science.
Meanwhile over at Berkeley, the introductory computer science course is now called the "Beauty and Joy of Computing".
Someday universities in Shanghai, Seoul and Taipei may start turning their faculties of science and engineering into places where the daughters of the 1%, or maybe the 5%, can find fun and happiness and from which repellent geeks and nerds have been cleansed. Until that happens the universities and corporations of the US have cause to be very very afraid.
The new president, Maria Klawe, is taking care of that.
The new introductory class for Computer Science at Harvey Mudd is designed for those who did not go to computer camp in high school and is supposed to be interesting. Students edit Darth Vader's voice and on one test the answer to every question is 42 ( guess what the media would say if that happened in an underachieving inner city high school). If you are not amused by the joke about 42 you should forget about going to Harvey Mudd.
The course used to be about programming and was dominated by "geeky know it alls" who have now been told to mind their manners and shut up. Programming in Java has been replaced by Python.
"It was so much fun; it was so much fun" said one student.
Also, all female first year students go to attend a conference on women in computing .
And so, at Harvey Mudd 40% of computer science majors are now women. Bridgette Eichelberger switched from engineering to computer science because the fun of engineering was nothing compared to the happiness of computer science.
Meanwhile over at Berkeley, the introductory computer science course is now called the "Beauty and Joy of Computing".
Someday universities in Shanghai, Seoul and Taipei may start turning their faculties of science and engineering into places where the daughters of the 1%, or maybe the 5%, can find fun and happiness and from which repellent geeks and nerds have been cleansed. Until that happens the universities and corporations of the US have cause to be very very afraid.
Thursday, June 05, 2014
The World's Top Global Thinkers
And finally the results are out. The world's leading thinker, according to a poll conducted by Prospect magazine, is the economist Armatya Sen, followed by Raghuram Rajan, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and the novelist Arundhati Roy.
Sen received degrees from the the University of Calcutta and Cambridge and has taught at Jadavpur University, LSE, Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. Rajan has degrees from IIT Delhi, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and MIT. Roy studied architecture at the School of Architecture and Planning in Delhi.
The careers of Sen and Ragan illustrate a typical feature of Indian higher education, some excellent undergraduate teaching but somehow the outstanding students end up leaving India.
Prospect notes that the poll received "intense media interest in India" so it would be premature to conclude that the country has become the new global Athens.
The top non-Asian thinker is Pope Francis.
Personally, I am disappointed that the historian Perry Anderson only got 28th place. I am also surprised that feminist and queer theorist Judith Butler, whose brilliant satire -- Hamas as part of the global left and so on -- is under-appreciated, was only 21st.
Sen received degrees from the the University of Calcutta and Cambridge and has taught at Jadavpur University, LSE, Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. Rajan has degrees from IIT Delhi, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and MIT. Roy studied architecture at the School of Architecture and Planning in Delhi.
The careers of Sen and Ragan illustrate a typical feature of Indian higher education, some excellent undergraduate teaching but somehow the outstanding students end up leaving India.
Prospect notes that the poll received "intense media interest in India" so it would be premature to conclude that the country has become the new global Athens.
The top non-Asian thinker is Pope Francis.
Personally, I am disappointed that the historian Perry Anderson only got 28th place. I am also surprised that feminist and queer theorist Judith Butler, whose brilliant satire -- Hamas as part of the global left and so on -- is under-appreciated, was only 21st.
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Two Articles in New York Times
Sunday's New York Times had twoarticles on international rankings. The first, by D. D. Guttenplan, is 'Re-Evaluating the College Rankings Game' and includes interviews with Angela Yung Chi Hou of the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan, Ellen Hazelkorn and myself.
The second by Aisha Labi is about the recently published U-Multirank rankings which are sponsored by the European Union.
The second by Aisha Labi is about the recently published U-Multirank rankings which are sponsored by the European Union.
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