B-Schools and Social Media

Two researchers from the University of Massachussetts Center for Marketing Research have released a study on The Missing Link In Social Media Use Among Top MBA Programs:Tracking Prospects

Google's Knowledge Graph

Google's latest development on its search engine is explained in the video below and on this page.

2012 - Top 10 issues for IT leaders in Higher Education

Top 10 IT issues 2012 - Educause survey.

1. Updating IT professionals' skills and roles to accommodate emerging technologies and changing IT management and service delivery models
2. Supporting the trends toward IT consumerization and bring-your-own device
3. Developing an institution-wide cloud strategy
4. Improving the institution's operational efficiency through information technology
5. Integrating information technology into institutional decision-making
6. Using analytics to support critical institutional outcomes
7. Funding information technology strategically
8. Transforming the institution's business with information technology
9. Supporting the research mission through high-performance computing, large data, and analytics
10. Establishing and implementing IT governance throughout the institution

How's your life?

Check out the newly released interactive OECD Better Life Index. You can also create your own better life index and have it compared to the average index. The index compares well-being based on 11 topics - housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance - and integrates data on gender and inequality

New look for Google Scholar

Google Scholar has a new look, read all about the changes from the Google Scholar announcement.

To access the advanced search features, users must click on the arrow in the search box and can refine the search without leaving the result page.

Free online courses from Harvard and MIT

Harvard and MIT have teamed up to release edX an open source platform to deliver online courses worldwide.
The schools have committed to a combined $60 million ($30 million each) in institutional support, grants and philanthropy to launch the collaboration. Here is an excerpt of their FAQs.

Who can take edX courses? Will there be an admissions process?
EdX will be available to anyone in the world with an internet connection, and in general, there will not be an admissions process. For a modest fee, and as determined by the edX board, MIT and Harvard, credentials will be granted only to students who earn them by demonstrating mastery of the material of a subject.

Is there anything innovative about the online technology?
Yes. It will move beyond the standard model of online education that relies on watching video content and will offer an interactive experience for students. And the technology will be open source; other universities will be able to leverage the innovative technology to create their own online offerings.

edX press conference:

Video streaming by Ustream

AAUP Faculty Salary report – 2011/2012

A Very Slow Recovery: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2011–12

The AAUP released its annual review of faculty compensation, read the April 9, 2012 press release.

Average Salary for Full-Time Faculty, by Category, Affiliation, and Academic Rank, 2011-12 

Adapted from this Higher Education article: Slow Recovery

Academic salaries, an international comparison

The project led by a team of researchers from Russia's Higher School of Economics and Boston College in the USA looks at salary data from 28 countries.

The research will be available in an upcoming book: Paying the Professoriate: A Global Comparison of Compensation and Contracts

Data is available on the project website

Click for bigger view

Tablet ownership triples among college students

The Pearson Foundation recently released their second annual survey on Students and Tablets.
Key findings:

• Tablet ownership has more than tripled among college students since March 2011, with one-quarter of students now owning a standard tablet (25%), compared to only 7% in March 2011.
  
•  Ownership of standard tablets among college-bound high school seniors has quadrupled from 4% in March 2011 to 17% in January 2012.
  
• Among college students, one-third (35%) of those who own a standard tablet also own an e-book reader or small tablet device.
  
• Almost one-half of current tablet owners (46%) say that they intend to purchase another tablet within the next six months.

For more information, read the Pearson Foundation Survey on Students and Tablets 2012

The European Business Schools Women on Board Initiative

Several european business schools (including INSEAD) have come up with a list of:

"3500 board-ready women to bring Europe into the 21st Century and support European Commission Vice President Reding’s initiative to shatter the glass ceiling for women in Europe’s publicly listed corporation’s board rooms. "

Participating schools:

• Boston University Institute of Leadership Brussels
• Cambridge Judge Business School Cambridge University 
• EDHEC Business School 
• EFMD – European Foundation for Management Development
• Erasmus University: Rotterdam School of Management 
• ESMT 
• IMD BUSINESS SCHOOL 
• INSEAD 
• University of St. Gallen: Institute for Leadership and Human ResourceManagement – Female Board Pool 

Press release

Full List
FT article: Schools promote women on boards