IREG-7 Conference
Employability
and Academic Rankings
Programme
IREG-7 Conference: Employability and Academic Rankings
– Reflections and Impacts
14-16 May 2014, London, United Kingdom
[Venue: Darwin B40LT, University College London]
Organized by
IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence
QS Intelligence Unit
Wednesday, 14th May 2014
Whole day: Arrival of participants
14.30 – 18.00 Meeting of Executive Committee of IREG Observatory (closed session)
location: South Wing G14 Committee Room, University College London
18.30 – 20.30 Welcome Reception
The Cloisters, University College London
Thursday, 15th May 2014
8.00 – 9.00 Registration
9:00 – 9:15 Opening Session and Welcome:
Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director, QS Quacquarelli Symonds
Michael Arthur, President & Provost, University College London
Jan Sadlak, President of IREG Observatory
9:15 – 11:30 First Session: Employability of Graduates: The Corporate Perspective[s]
Moderator: Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive, Association of Graduate Recruiters, United Kingdom
During this session panellists representing employers or other bodies – private and public sector – will present their institutional experience and views with regard to current and future developments determining employability of graduates and human resources development [whenever appropriate referring to use of global, national and professional rankings for various decision making in the areas of employment].
- Christian Schutz, Global Head of University Relations, Human Resources, Siemens AG, Germany
- Rachel Schroeder, Head of Employment Marketing Strategy, Airbus Group
- Beth Jenkins, UK & NL Recruitment Marketing Advisor, Shell International
- Ashley Hever, Talent Acquisition Manager UK & Ireland, Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
11:30 – 11:45 Coffee break
11.45 – 13:00 Second Session: Employability and Skills Structure – A Lens for Assessing Performance of Higher Education Institutions and Study Programmes
Chair: Klaus Hüfner, Professor Emeritus, Free University of Berlin; IREG Audit Coordinator, Germany
- Marian Mahat, LH Marting Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management, University of Melbourne, Australia, and Benoît Millot, former Lead Education Economist at The World Bank, Washington DC, USA: Rankings and Employability: A System and Institutional Perspective
- Vincent Han-Sun Chiang, Professor and President, Fu Jen Catholic University, and Angela Yung Chi Hou, Professor, Graduate Institute of Educational Leadership and Development, Dean, Office of International Education, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan: Building Student Core Competencies and Enhancing Their International Employability Skills in Taiwan Higher Education: A Case study of Fu Jen Catholic University
- Ana Lebre, Universidade Europeia, and Joana Motta, Lecturer and Researcher, Universidade Europeia, Portugal: Portuguese Private Universities – Reputation for Employability
- Euiho Suh, Professor and Chair, University Evaluation & Management Committee, POSTECH, and Han Soo Kim, Professor and Chair, Vision 2020 Committee, Sejong University, Republic of Korea: Curability-Weakness (CW) Diagram to Prioritize University Management Issues: Case Studies
– how they are dealing with the challenge of preparing employable graduates as well as facilitating their professional development;
– their experience with ranking organizations in relation to employability;
– any suggestions do they have for the ranking organizations to improve methodology and presentation of rankings
- Marina Markova, Associate Professor and Corporate Relations Coordinator, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia: Sustainable Development of University Competitiveness on Labor Market Based on Mutually Beneficial Interaction.
- Daniela Seskar-Hencic, Associate Director, Institutional Analysis and Planning, and Jana Carson, Manager, Institutional Evaluation and Accountability, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Using Survey Methodologies for Assessing Graduate Employability Outcomes – Two Examples from the Ontario System and the University of Waterloo
- Magdalena Platis, Vice-rector, University of Bucharest, Romania: Employability and the Students’ Motivation for Higher Education Studies,; Institutional Changes
- Linda Crane, Associate Dean, Bond University, Australia: Learning from the Employability Successes of Other Universities: Analysis and Recommendations from a National Case Study – Australia
- Jamilya Nurmanbetova, Professsor and First Vice-Rector and Aigerim Shilibekova, Director of International Cooperation, Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazachstan: Impact of Academic Rankings on Internalization Strategy: Case of Gumilyov Eurasian National University
15:45 – 17:00 Fourth Session: Methodological Challenges for Academic Rankings to Reflect Employability: Experiences of Ranking Providers
Chair: Waldemar Siwiński, President of Perspektywy Education Foundation; Vice-President of IREG-Observatory, Poland
- Yan Wu, Center for World-Class Universities, and Nian Cai Liu, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong, University; Vice-President of IREG-Observatory, China: Employability-Related Indicators for Academic Rankings
- Marek Garlicki, MRC INDICATOR, Poland: “Perspektywy” University Ranking – how to gather reliable employers’ opinions on universities
- Olesya Lynovytska, Director, International Projects Center “Euroosvita”, Ukraine: Need of Reconciliation of Higher Education and the Word of Work: Experience of Ukrainian University Rankings
- Martin Ince,QS Global Academic Advisory Board Convener, QS Quacquarelli Symonds: Driving Response and deriving discerning metric from employer surveys
17:00 – 18:30 Fifth Session: New International Academic Rankings
Chair: Nian Cai Liu, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong, University; Vice-President of IREG-Observatory, Shanghai, China
- Bob Morse, Director of Data Research, US News & World Report, USA: The US News Arab Region University Rankings Project: Responding to Regional Needs and Expectations
- Phil Baty, Editor of Times Higher Education Rankings and Editor at Large of Times Higher Education, United Kingdom: Times Higher Education: BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings
- Gero Federkeil, Manager-in-charge of Rankings, CHE – Center for Higher Education; Member of U-Multirank Consortium, Vice-President of IREG Observatory, Germany: – U-Multirank: First Results
- Ben Sowter, Head of Division, QS Intelligence Unit; Mapping uncharted territory: Recent and future developments from the QS Intelligence Unit, by type, region and subject
19:30 – 21:30 Conference Gala Dinner
[location: Holiday Inn London, Regent’s Park, Carburton Street W1W 5EE]
Friday, 16th May 2014
9:00 – 10:30 Sixth Session: Analyses, Initiatives and Developments Relevant to Academic Rankings
Chair: Francisco José Soares, President, National Institute for Educational Studies and Research Anisio Teixeira, Brazil
- Jennifer Engle, Vice President for Policy Research, Institute for Higher Education Policy, Washington, DC, USA: US Administration Proposal to Create a Federal College Ratings System: Purpose and Approach
- Liliya Kiriyanova, Associate Professor, Head of Communication Policy Division, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia: New Initiatives and Developments in Academic Rankings: The Russian Experience
- Veljko Jeremić, University of Belgrad, Serbia: A way to enhance methodology of Perspektywy University Ranking
- Angelika Lex, Director Academic & Government Relations, Elsevier, The Netherlands: A New Research Evaluation Framework; Elsevier’s Latest Developments
- Igor E. Bulyzhenkov and Oleg N. Solovyev, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia: Round University Ranking (RUR): New System for Traceable Evaluation and Comparison of Higher Education Institutions
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30 Seventh Session: Impacts of Academic Rankings on Planning, Policy and Landscape of Higher Education and Youth Employability
Chair: Gero Federkeil, Manager-in-charge of Rankings, CHE – Center for Higher Education; Vice-President of IREG Observatory, Germany
- Paola Mattei, University Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy and Fellow of the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford University, United Kingdom: Reflection on the Emerging International Landscape of Higher Education [based on findings of the book entitled “University Adaptation at Difficult Times”, edited by Paola Mattei which has been released by the Oxford University Press in April 2014]
- Irina Efimova and Ilya Kuftyrev, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia: Global University Ranking as a Tool for Development of Integration Process between Higher Education Institutions and Employers: Russian Peculiarities
- Chiara Mio and Achilles Giacometti, Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Italy: Sustainability in University Rankings: New Proposal for Rankings.
12.30 – 13:30 Final Session: Discussion and Closing Remarks
Co-Chairs: Ben Sowter, Head of Division, QS Intelligence Unit, United Kingdom and Jan Sadlak, President of IREG Observatory
CONFERENCE CLOSES
14:15 – 16:15 General Assembly of IREG Observatory (members only)
16:30 – 18:30 Meeting of the Executive Committee of IREG Observatory (closed session)
Invitation
14-16 May 2014, London, United Kingdom
Organized by
IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence
and
QS Intelligence Unit, UK
What does the average student go to university for? By far the most substantial subsequent destination is the world of work. A job. Whilst statistics suggest that a university degree is still, on average, a ticket to better job and a better salary, with the massification of global higher education it has become a hirers’ market and employers are beginning to expect and even demand that graduates are more than their degree certificate. As the cost of higher education escalates around the world, students are turning to their universities expecting to be equipped with the skills employers are seeking.
Students look to universities to get employed and rankings to help them choose a university, employers look to universities to provide work-ready graduates and to rankings to help them identify where to find them.
Topic and Its Context
One of key function of higher education is providing those who graduate from its institutions and programs with knowledge, skills and competences which allow them to enter and function on a broadly-understood labour market. There is ample evidence that the likelihood of having a job is greatly enhanced by being a higher education graduate.
Relations between higher education and labour market and skills supply have never been simple or straightforward. In recent years, due to structural transformations in economic and social systems, there are arguments about emergence of a new paradigm – moving from a provider-driven model to a consumer-driven one. In this context, higher education institutions are expected to be responsive to “signals” from the economic and social sectors.
Changes in study programmes as well as pedagogical practices to ensure a more prominent role for work-based learning, availability of internship programmes, sandwich courses, problem-based learning and learning outcomes focused learning are the response coming from higher education institutions. In addition, higher education institutions are requested to demonstrate that their study programmes provide a set of qualifications and competences [often referred to as “learning outcomes”] which give employer reliable, comparable and easily interpreted information about qualifications of the graduate. It is an increasingly usual practice [and expectation] that higher education “follow the graduate” by collecting information about his/her early stage of post-graduate employability and professional career.
It is therefore evident that cooperation between higher education and those representing a “world of work” are seen as important engine for improved employability of higher education graduates. Such cooperation is even more relevant considering that professional development as well as assurance of employability is growingly seen in relation to continuous education and lifelong learning (LLL).
If in general terms there is a positive correlation between employability and “university diploma”, a number of elements are determining graduates career/employability success. It is not surprising to observe that variations in employability and earnings depend on the type of institution, study programme graduates attended and the type of degree they obtained. It is not surprising to note that those who graduated from more prestigious institutions fared better than those from less prestigious ones, and, on average, that those who majored in engineering and economics earned more than those in the humanities.
It is evident that university rankings are symbiotic with the above presented developments. Taking into consideration that they are seen as one of information tools for variety of stake-holders, including those directly and indirectly concerned with em
Organizers
Organizers
- IREG Observatory on Acadmic Ranking and Excellence
- QS Intelligence Unit, UK
Program Committee
- Jan Sadlak, President, IREG Observatory, Co-Chair
- Ben Sowter, Head of Division, QS Intelligence Unit, United Kingdom, Co-Chair
- Liu Nian Cai, Vice-President, IREG Observatory; Director, Center for World-Class Universities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
- Waldemar Siwiński, Vice-President, IREG Observatory; Perspektywy Education Foundation, Poland
- Gero Federkeil, Vice-President, IREG Observatory; CHE Center for Higher Education, Germany
Organizing Committee
- Kazimierz Bilanow, Managing Director, IREG Observatory
- Stephanie Braudeau, QS Intelligence Unit, United Kingdom
Call for papers
IREG-7 Conference:
Employability and Academic Rankings
Reflections and Impacts
14-16 May 2014, London, United Kingdom
Darwin Building, University College London
CALL FOR PAPERS
This is the seventh IREG conference and this year the theme centres on employability. However, the IREG conference plays an important role in facilitating the discussion and debate around academic rankings in general. As such the programme is designed to emphasise employability but also explore other trends and developments and how they influence, or are influenced by academic rankings.
The first session will feature employers’ views in panel form, but for the remaining sessions the IREG-7 Programme Committee would like to invite papers in tune with the identified themes of the six other sessions:
SECOND SESSION
Employability and Skills Structure – A Lens for Assessing Performance of Higher Education Institutions and Study Programmes
THIRD SESSION
Universities Panel: Perspectives on Employability-related Responsibilities in Teaching and Life-long Learning
FOURTH SESSION
Methodological Challenges for Academic Rankings to Reflect Employability: Experiences of Ranking Providers
FIFTH SESSION
New Initiatives and Developments in Academic Rankings
SIXTH SESSION
MOOCs and Digital Delivery: Reflected in Rankings, Valued by Employers?
SEVENTH SESSION
Impacts of Academic Rankings on Planning, Policy and the International Landscape of Higher Education and Youth Employability
Wherever possible, session proposals should draw on new observations and data and tied to the theme of the session. Every effort will be made to accommodate high-quality papers that the Programme Committee consider of keen interest to the conference audience. Session titles may be adapted to ensure an engaging and consistently high-quality conference.
The first proposal [extensive outline] of the paper should be sent to secretariat@ireg-observatory.org no later than 31 December 2013. Authors who have been pre-selected will be contacted by the end of January 2014 to finalize their paper and deal with any organizational issues.
Accommodation
We recommend delegates stay at the IBIS. All the below hotels are located within 10 minutes’ walk from UCL.
Hotel IBIS London Euston (map below)
3 Cardington St London, Greater London NW1 2LW
2 nights from £214
Travelodge London Central Euston
1-11 Grafton Pl London, Greater London NW1 1DJ
2 nights from £158
Cardington Street Euston, London NW1 2LP
2 nights from £268 (single) or £357.6 (double)
Albany St Regents Park, London NW1 3UP
2 nights from £370
Holiday Inn London, Regent’s Park (Please note the Gala dinner will held be in this hotel)
Carburton Street, London W1W 5EE
2 nights from £408
Radisson Blu Edwardian Grafton Hotel
130 Tottenham Court Rd London W1T 5AY
2 nights from £430 (single) or £502 (double)
Information
Weather forecast:
Typically in May in London, the average day temperature is 17°C and the average night temperature is 8°C. It can sometimes go up to 25°C in May. The average monthly rainfall is 49mm so it may rain during your stay. The sun rises at 5.09am and the sunset is at 8.46pm.
Directions to the venue:
Address:
University College London – Gower Street – London – WC1E 6BT
Tube station: Euston Square/Warren Street.
Map available on http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps
Please find below the directions to UCL from London’s five main airports. Taxis will be expensive, probably more than £50. Please use only registered metered taxis from taxi ranks and it is best to ask the approximate price before.
Heathrow:
By London Underground (Piccadilly Line) to Russell Square or King’s Cross/St. Pancras station. Journey time 55 minutes. Cost: £3 (off-peak) or £5 (peak). More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
By Heathrow Express to Paddington station. Journey time 15 minutes. Cost: £20 one-way or £25 return. More information on www.heathrowexpress.com.
From Paddington take the London Underground (Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan or Circle Lines) to Euston Square. Journey time 10 minutes. Cost: £2.10.
Heathrow Airport website: www.heathrowairport.com
Gatwick:
Option 1: Gatwick Express to Victoria station. Journey time 30 minutes. Cost: £19.90 one-way, £34.90 return (£26.50 off-peak). More information on www.gatwickexpress.com.
From Victoria take the London Underground (Victoria Line) to Warren Street station. Journey time 10 minutes. Cost: £2.10. More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
Option 2: First Capital Connect to St Pancras International station. Journey time 45 minutes. Cost: from £18.50 one-way. More information on www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk.
From Kings Cross/St Pancras underground station take the London Underground (Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan or Circle Lines) to Euston Square station. Journey time 5 minutes. Cost: £2.10. More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
Option 3: By National Express Coach to Victoria. Journey time 85 minutes. Cost: from £6.50 one-way.
From Victoria Station take the London Underground (Victoria Line) to Warren Street station. Journey time 10 minutes. Cost: £2.10. More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
Gatwick Airport website: www.gatwickairport.com
Stansted:
By Train: Stansted Express to Liverpool Street station. Journey time 45 minutes. Cost: £23.40 one-way, £32.80 return. More information on www.stanstedexpress.com. From Liverpool Street take the London Underground (Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan or Circle Lines) to Euston Square station. Journey time 10 minutes. Cost: £2.10. More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
By Coach: Take National Express A9 or Terravision A51 to Liverpool Street. Journey time 55 minutes. Cost: £8.50 and £9 respectively (one-way). From Liverpool Street take the London Underground (Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan or Circle Lines) to Euston Square station. Journey time 10 minutes. Cost: £2.10. More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
Stansted Airport website: www.stanstedairport.com
Luton:
By train: Take the shuttle bus from the airport to Luton Airport Parkway station. From there, catch a train to St Pancras station. Journey time 45 minutes. Cost: from £13.50 one-way. More information on www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk.
From Kings Cross/St Pancras underground station take the London Underground (Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan or Circle Lines) to Euston Square station. Cost: £2.10. Journey time 5 minutes. More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
By National Express Coach to Victoria. Journey time 65 minutes. Cost: £10 one-way. From Victoria station take the London Underground (Victoria Line) to Warren Street station. Journey time 10 minutes. Cost: £2.10. More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk
Luton Airport website: www.london-luton.co.uk
London City Airport:
By Underground
Take the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) from London City Airport Station to Canning Town station. From there, catch the London Underground to Warren Street station (Jubilee Line, changing to the Victoria Line at Green Park). Journey time 40 minutes. Cost: £2.70 (off-peak) or £3.20 (peak) More information on http://www.tfl.gov.uk.
London City Airport website: www.londoncityairport.com
Please note provided fares are for guidance only as of September 2013 and are likely to change at 1st January 2014.