U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems: a project sponsored by Universitas 21
world is free and open education. Free is an attractive ideal, but free and sustainable is an elusive combination. These efforts are ultimately still dependent on the kindness of philanthropists, volunteers, and legislators. The other face the merchants’ vision is the expansion of education as a privatized commodity provided by for-profit companies. Some open-educational innovators, like Wiley with Flat World Knowledge, are turning to the private sector to sustain innovations. Meanwhile, in investor circles from New York to Silicon Valley, the idea of education as a rich field ripe for disruption is gaining more currency than it’s ever had. (121) 6. The regrettable case of the Afghan German Management College is instructive is this regard. According to the 2011 UNDP Report Case Study: AGMC Business Education via Distance Learning detailing its functioning, ‘The AGMC was inaugurated in June 2006 by a small group of military officers of the Armed Federal Forces of Germany who served the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan’ who saw the need for distance-learning (via Internet), competency based small business training especially for women in rural Afghan villages. Despite the impeccable bona fides of its founders, its innovative nature and non-profit status, it was never able to obtain required accreditation by the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education (due to their requirement that the College have a large resident-learning component at a much higher cost of provision). It has thus been in the process of shutting down operations since the beginning of 2012. (Tim Lehmann, Personal Communication, 1 June, 2012).
Scientific publishing and global university rankings. How well are top publishing universities recognized?
The paper asks to what extent the top 200 universities in scientific publishing in four research fields are the same universities that occupy the top 200 positions in global university rankings. In this article, the top 200 lists of universities in scientific publishing are compiled of universities’ contribution rates in four fields: biological, physical, social and life sciences. Out of some 4000 academic institutions included in InCites, the paper identifies 437 top publishing universities in at least one field. The paper analyses the extent to which those universities are covered in six global university rankings’ top 200 listings: Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (NTU), QS World University Rankings (QS), Times Higher Education World University rankings (THE), University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) and US News and World Report Best Global University Rankings (USNWR). Out of these rankings, URAP, NTU and USNWR are more distinctive than ARWU, QS and THE in covering the 437 top publishing universities in their top 200 listings. Therefore URAP, NTU and USNWR are utilized in analyzing top publishing universities’ chances to be recognized. The paper identifies a total of 64 top publishing universities in at least three out of four fields recognized without exception in the top 200 lists of NTU, URAP and USNWR; out of them 24 reside in the USA, 21 in the EU and 19 in the rest of the World. In addition, the paper identifies other (373) top publishing universities variably recognized by the relevant of the three rankings (in terms of odds) depending on the fields in which the universities reach the top 200; odds range from 0.01 (biological sciences) to 12.00 (life, social and biological sciences). The region of residence of these 373 universities also varies, so that those reaching the top 200 in life sciences reside most frequently in the EU, those reaching the top 200 in social sciences in the USA and those reaching the top 200 in physical or in biological sciences in the rest of the World.
The Impact of Advanced Geometry and Measurement Curriculum Units on the Mathematics Achievement of First-Grade Students
The goal of Project M2 was to develop and field-test challenging geometry and measurement units for K-2 students. The units were developed using recommendations from gifted, mathematics, and early childhood education. This article reports on achievement results for students in Grade 1 at 12 diverse sites in four states using the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) mathematics concepts subtest and an open-response assessment. Using HLM, as expected there were no statistical differences between the experimental (n = 186) and comparison (n = 174) groups on the ITBS (91% of the items focused on number). Statistically significant differences (p < .001) favoring the experimental group were found on the open-response assessment with a large effect size (d = 1.88). Thus the experimental group exhibited a deeper understanding of geometry and measurement concepts on the open-response assessment while performing as well on a traditional measure that covered all Grade 1 mathematics.