This report aims to provide insight into the realities faced by higher education academic staff at a time of fast-moving change and increasing societal demand. Fluctuating student numbers, new funding and steering mechanisms are among the features of today's European higher education landscape, but not enough is known about how academic staff are…

As tuition is being introduced--or raised--at publicly supported university systems around the world, more people are embracing the idea that rankings can help consumers get the best value. Jamie P. Merisotis, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a Washington-based research group, says that in the last few years, national…

Since 2002 the "Zurich E-Learning Certificate" offers lecturers and academic staff from the three main universities in Zurich the possibility to take part in a professional development program which supports the acquirement of eCompetence. The program is the result of a cooperation between the University of Zurich (UZH), the Swiss…

Factors promoting excellence in a technical university and requirements for obtaining or maintaining it are examined, and the problems encountered by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in achieving excellence in a decade of retrenchment are discussed. (MSE)