Blog

With funding such as the £1.5bn Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) specifically focussing on international collaboration, working with overseas organisations will continue to be a focus for UK higher education institutions. While international collaboration can have many benefits, working across geographies and cultures also produces many challenges. As a relative newcomer to research administration and management, I was ...

As someone who was born in 1996, I have always gone through life, precariously teetering between Generation Y and Generation Z. On the one hand, I often roll my eyes when teenagers ask me for my Snapchat instead of my mobile number (I don’t even have a Snapchat – I’m so old!), but I cannot escape the fact that I will never understand the bond between Millennials and their adventurous ambition and independence. ...

When I think about the next generation of students, I can’t help thinking of the lyrics to a song by Cat Stevens that was part of the soundtrack of my own life 40 years ago: ‘Oh very young, what will you leave us this time?’ It’s hard to imagine all the possibilities that exist for this so-called Generation Z, and the many contributions they will make in the years to come. Our challenge, as universities, is ...

INORMS brings together research management societies and associations from across the world. The network enables member societies to compare their national or regional issues, and to learn from each other. The significant growth of the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) congress and conference sizes in recent years, reflects the increasing role and relevance of INORMS as a platform. The INORMS 2018 ...

We have always aimed to be conversational, open, and helpful through our official social media channels. I've been lucky enough to run many workshops about social media inside and outside the university and it's the one thing I always relate back to – if you can't offer anything else, be a human. If you have no budget and no shiny things to fall back on, there's no reason your institution can't have a human voice. For the cost ...

In June 2018, the Council of the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) formally endorsed the Research Administration as a Profession (RAAAP) survey as an INORMS initiative. RAAAP is an International Survey which seeks to find out the key skills, attitudes and behaviors of successful research management and administration (RMA) leaders.  Over 2,600 individuals from 64 countries responded to the ...

The higher education sector in India is in a state of complete flux. While Gross Enrolment Ratios (GERs) have seen a steep increase from 20.8% in 2011-12 to 24.5% in 2015-16, the quality of teaching and learning in higher education institutions and employability of India's graduates remains concerning. The essential problem is that teaching in higher education remains disconnected with larger society today. There are three main ...

'Economic success is no longer determined by possession (e.g., of raw materials or physical prowess), but by the capacity to generate new knowledge and by the ability of the workforce to apply this knowledge successfully.' (Mary L Walshok) The role of academia today has expanded to include innovation, the generation of intellectual property, the commercialisation of knowledge, and the incubation of startups. In fact, every ...

Day three began with a stirring lecture from Ada Wong JP on the power of bringing communities together to creatively improve their shared spaces. It is this, she says, not the architecture that really makes a place special. Ada gave up a successful political career to become a social innovator and her passion for her role was palpable and had a huge effect on our students. After this, it was time for our first workshop on design ...

Our first day of the 2018 ACU Summer School opened with a short welcome talk from Professor Wong Suk-ting, the Associate Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She gave a quick overview of the history and culture of Hong Kong. There is no city like it on earth, she says – a real melting pot of east and west, old and new. It is a city that continues to grow and develop, heightening the need for ...