But the snapshot findings of the Jisc survey of 27,069 higher and further education students in the United Kingdom also found that areas such as well-being, mental health and staff digital skills need more attention.

Sarah Knight, Jisc’s head of data and digital capability, said: “We hope this data pulse helps universities and colleges see clearly where students are benefiting, and where they could be better supported.”

Between October and December 2020, 21,697 higher education students and 5,372 further education students from 11 universities and four further education colleges took part in Jisc’s digital experience insights student survey.

The surveys seek to support the sector in adapting and responding to the changing situation as a result of COVID-19 policies.

The surveys will continue to run until 30 April 2021, but this first snapshot of results shows the swift work of colleges and universities in moving learning online has been predominantly well received by students.

Among those surveyed, 81% were studying online, 72% of them from home.

Both higher education and further education students surveyed noted the huge benefits of flexible learning, with lecture recordings proving helpful for note-taking and scheduling learning around other aspects of life. Some students enjoy the comfort and convenience of studying at home, as well as feeling more in control.

Learning online (ironically) has made it easier to get support from staff. They’re more likely to encourage us to talk to them and it is a little easier than having to find them physically on campus.

Students enjoyed a range of different online activities and were positive about being able to access lecture recordings and participate live online.

Analysis of free text responses in the survey was particularly revealing and highlighted how being able to watch sessions again helped students to study in ways that better met their learning needs, improved their understanding and encouraged further independent study.

For instance, recordings enabled them to catch up if they missed the live session, manage the pace and take notes. They also made it easier for students for whom English is not a first language to hear and understand the lecture.

Some of the more engaging activities were less well used and there are opportunities to embed activities like the use of small group discussions for peer support and collaboration, quizzes or polls, and online research tasks into curriculum design, the survey found.

This initiative will contribute to the recovery of the physical University in the wake of the pandemic, and is an important signal of Cambridge’s ongoing commitment to the performing arts.

The CMP heralds a step-change in music of all genres for outreach and inclusion, and for wellbeing across collegiate Cambridge. Maintaining a tradition of excellence, it will also seal the University’s position on a world stage for music performance.

The CMP will be a seedbed of experimentation and innovation. A radical commitment to diversity will offer more opportunities to more students than ever before, to explore new styles of music-making and performance.

The Centre will open at the end of the year; in the meantime the search is on for a new Director to take up their post in early autumn.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, said: “At a time of unprecedented stress for the performing arts, I am proud that Cambridge is creating a new Centre for Music Performance. A step-change in the visibility, breadth, reach and role of music performance, it will nurture the highest aspirations of the very best performers, besides offering a wonderful array of opportunities to those with previously limited experience. In the long run the Centre will be a stimulus for interdisciplinarity, research excellence and all-round personal development. I am thrilled to see the CMP go ahead at Cambridge.”

The Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education), Professor Graham Virgo, said: “This is one of the many ways Cambridge University is expressing its commitment to outreach, inclusion and diversity. We expect this Centre to build on our excellent array of musical endeavour to draw more students into the cultural life of the University, building their skills and confidence and supporting their wellbeing.”

Dr. Anthony Freeling, Chair, Colleges’ Committee, and President of Hughes Hall, said: “The Cambridge Colleges are well-known as a seedbed of musical life; the Centre for Music Performance will not only support this but enhance its connectivity and visibility so that more students are attracted to, and can fully enjoy, the proven benefits of music performance.”

Chair of the Faculty Board of Music and 1684 Professor of Music Katharine Ellis said: “The Faculty of Music is delighted to see the new Centre for Music Performance come into being. This new hub will be a game-changer supporting musicians right across the University, from soon-to-be professionals to those for whom music offers precious release from the stresses of intensive study. It will be a beacon for Cambridge’s already rich musical life and will enable students to access its variety more readily than ever before. We look forward to contributing to the CMP’s success.”

The Chair of the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) Trustees, Dame Fiona Reynolds, said: “CUMS has carried the flag for excellence in music performance at Cambridge for many years. During that time we have nurtured a host of young people for whom music is life-giving, from world-leading professional musicians to skilled amateurs. The CMP is the opportunity we have been looking for to take this to the next level, offering more students than ever before the opportunity to work with each other and professional artists from a wide range of genres in an atmosphere that fosters creativity and innovation.”

This may sound difficult, but it may be simpler than you think you get a first-class degree. 

Here are nine easy things you can do to boost your chances of securing that top degree classification.

Go to all (or most of) your lectures and seminars

While some lectures are more interesting than others, making the effort to go to them will likely pay off in the long term. Attending your lectures and seminars – even the boring ones – will cut down on your study time and may help you understand the course material in a different way. The lecturer may also give extra hints and tips about how to improve your assignment or presentation, or even what to revise for an exam.

Lectures offer you a sound basis for course material. This means that when you go to study you can revise efficiently rather than trying to learn it all from scratch. Seminars can be useful for clarifying aspects of the course material that you don’t understand.

Talk to your tutors

Making an effort to get to know your tutors can really be the difference between getting a first-class degree and not.

There are several ways to arrange to talk to your tutors. Most university lecturers have office hours which they will inform you of at the start of the year. During these hours you can stop by their office and ask for help or clarification if you’re struggling with anything. Alternatively, you can drop them an email or speak to them after class.

Know what they’re looking for

Knowing what your lecturer is looking for from your assignments is one of the most important aspects of producing good work at university. Knowing what your work should look like means that you can approach your assignment with a clear aim of what you’re trying to achieve.

To do this, read the marking criteria to find out how your work is going to be assessed. If there are any aspects of the marking criteria that you don’t understand (it can often be quite vague), talk to your lecturers to clarify.

Be original

When writing an essay, try to use sources beyond the reading list or sources that are from a different field but are still relevant to the question you’re trying to answer. The best pieces of work at university are those which contain sources from a wide range of places, including online journals, archives and books.

Too many students just take what someone else has written and use that as their main argument in an essay. If you want to get a first-class degree, you’ll need to expand on these arguments and develop your own comments and ideas.

Do the required reading

At the start of each module, you’ll be given a list of required reading. Although it can sometimes feel like a drag, doing the required reading is essential if you’re looking to get a first-class degree. In some universities, they won’t let you attend the seminar if you haven’t done the required reading beforehand. 

Explore the whole reading list, not just ones that you need to answer a question on an assignment. Most of these books can be found either online, through online archives, or in the library. 

Be organized

Being organized means understanding the assessment structure for each of your modules, whether they contain exams, coursework or group work, knowing when all these are due and being aware of the weighting of each piece of work. This will make sure you don’t miss a deadline. 

Keeping each of your assignments in specific folders will mean you can easily find them in the future and will help keep track of feedback so you can easily refer back to it later.

Go through feedback

Although on first glance feedback can be a bit disheartening if it isn’t very positive, it will usually give you a great deal of guidance in how to improve your learning and help you understand how to change your work for the better.

If you’re unsure about any of your feedback on an assignment, make sure to go over it with your tutor as soon as possible.

Get enough sleep

There have been plenty of behavioral studies which suggest that the quality and quantity of sleep each night has a significant impact on learning and memory.

Getting better quality sleep has been proven to help you absorb information better and record that information later on.

Study and work hard throughout the year, instead of just for your exams

This goes hand in hand with attending your lectures but making sure you understand the course material throughout the year – and asking when you don’t – will make revising for exams a lot quicker and more straightforward. 

Their call came during a webinar co-organised by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), L’Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and the International Association of Universities (IAU) on 23 March, which looked at the pivotal year for higher education and the Agenda 2030 SDGs.

Opening the 90-minute debate between university representatives from Africa, the Caribbean and Europe, Joanna Newman, secretary general of the ACU, said most development agencies still believed their focus should be on primary education or up to Year 12, and many people saw higher education as part of an ivory tower.

“But if you want to have good basic education you need universities to help with pedagogical material, you need to have good teacher training and good departments of education,” she said.

She said her organisation has defined six priorities and has been contacted by partners from the Americas “to provide Caribbean practical solutions to the needs of our region”.

The six priorities are:
• Digital transformation.
• Climate change and environmental justice.
• Public health and chronic diseases.
• Tourism and sustainable development.
• Transportation and logistics.
• And because we have post-colonial societies, issues like race and gender.

Turning to the response to COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns and campus closures, Aduol said apart from the struggle to move to online teaching, African universities had tried to prove their relevance by making hand sanitisers, face masks and PPE.

“We also came up with structures that would allow markets to keep on functioning while responding to issues of social distance,” he said, adding that universities had gained “some respect” for helping society directly during times of crisis.

Miamians will once again come together to celebrate Alumni Weekend in a virtual environment on June 11-12

In the spirit of public interest and with safeguarding the health of the Miami family in mind, the Miami University Alumni Association made the early decision that Alumni Weekend 2021 will be a fully virtual event.

“By making the decision now, we can work with reunion committees and groups to make Alumni Weekend an uplifting, engaging and uniquely Miami experience for everyone,” said Kim Tavares MBA ’12, executive director of the alumni association. “We are excited to connect with Miamians across the country in fun and interactive ways as we bring the spirit of Love and Honor to them wherever they may be.”

More than 1,000 Miamians interacted with Alumni Weekend in 2020, including 12,600 total online views. The event featured a toasted roll tutorial, virtual yoga, Alumni College webinars and more.

Planning is ongoing to honor the 50th anniversaries of both the Classes of 1970 and 1971 with exclusive programming and activities during Alumni Weekend 2021.

“One of the highlights of each Alumni Weekend is recognizing the golden anniversary of our 50-year class,” Tavares said. “We are looking forward to celebrating this wonderful milestone with both the Class of 1970 and the Class of 1971 in a special way.”

While Alumni Weekend will be virtual only, future alumni events will be decided on an individual basis. Campus health updates are available on the university’s Healthy Together web page.

From academic faculty at world-renowned universities and EdTech startups, to Chief Innovation Officers and tech developers, the conference attendees and speakers are the people best placed to provide insight into the future of education.

This year, Imperial College Business School is co-hosting the event, and so we thought it apt to find out a little more about the ways they are using technology to transform the student experience.

Imperial offers a number of graduate programs from master’s degrees and PhDs to MBA programs. But the main thing the business school prides itself on is its innovative ethos and its STEM-driven technologies.

The Dean of Imperial College Business School Francisco Veloso told us: “We started investing in technology for education a few years ago. That has been present on the courses delivered to our community. The flexibility is quite important.

“For example, when we delivered accounting digitally to the students across Imperial, subscriptions went up 30 percent.

“It’s because all of a sudden if you’re a civil engineering student, [studying accounting] is no longer competing with your structures because you can take it online.” 

Collaboration is key to success

To give one more example of how Imperial College Business School have embraced technology, the school recently joined a group of leading business schools to launch a new digital learning platform to create a more flexible learning experience. 

By combining faculty expertise with cutting-edge technology, the platform hopes to meet growing demands from executives and students for a more flexible, bespoke and globally accessible learning experience.

Known as the Future of Management Education Alliance, the platform aims to transform the future of management education. As the first platform of its kind in the business education sector, Imperial and its partners are hoping for great things.

This new alliance will enable partner schools (Imperial, ESMT Berlin, BI Norwegian Business School, the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, EDHEC, Business School and Ivey Business School), to enhance the student experience through face-to-face, experiential and online learning methods.

Global competition has been enhanced by the rivalry between China and the United States in technology, with the US also pressuring Europe and Japan to curb research with China that is deemed sensitive.

For Asian countries attracting foreign STEM PhD students, the largest contingent has come from China. Countries such as Japan are already talking of more stringent vetting of PhD students from countries including China for more strategically sensitive PhD subjects, and having to rely on local students or foreign students from other countries in the region.

At the same time Beijing has initiated a campaign to keep PhD students and young researchers at home as it expands in major STEM areas as part of its own recently announced drive for self-sufficiency in technology.

Singapore has recently announced increased research funding for new emerging high technology areas and expanding doctoral places at its universities.

However, “in certain areas, especially in critical areas like artificial intelligence (AI), it’s very competitive, and the US is pretty strong,” according to the National University of Singapore (NUS) President Tan Eng Chye.

“There is a need for us to have a strong pipeline of Singaporean and Singapore-based researchers in this particular area [AI] and there are also other areas of critical expertise like quantum engineering where countries can be a bit more protective over such manpower,” Tan told University World News.