Summary report of baseline study of employability related activities in Scottish colleges

Providers report strong support for the development of employability skills and attributes,including core and 'soft' skills, both as discrete units and embedded within course provisionalongside other learning goals. Career education and guidance, including employment seeking skills, are addressed to a lesserextent than 'employability' through the inclusion of discrete units or embedded in other courseunits. While some providers include specific units in courses, student development in these areasis often addressed through central student services. Advice and guidance is most likely to beprovided at the pre-exit stage of students' programmes although it is important while students areon-course. Post-exit guidance is least likely to be supported, with colleges indicating thatobtaining progression information was difficult. Enterprise is the least likely aspect to be addressed, either in relation to business start-up or as afocus in developing enterprising skills and attitudes. College staff indicated that there was a needfor clarification on what was meant by enterprise and enterprising approaches and how theymight be incorporated into other units. There was strong support at institutional level to provide resources to enable students to reflecton issues related to employability, with course providers reporting wide use of personaldevelopment review and planning, though a wide range of terms was used to describe this

Measuring the volume and value of the outputs of higher education institutions

One of the key issues facing the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council is how to assess the contribution made to Scotland's economy by Scotland's higher education sector. Higher Education's contribution to the economy and society at large is viewed as providing one of the most important justifications for government expenditure on higher education. However there is a paucity of robust quantitative evidence against which related resource allocation decisions aimed at encouraging economically valuable activity can be made. Taking higher education activity as a whole there has been no practical, valid, way to analyse the economic value of what universities do, or to compare the value thus created with that generated by other activities in the economy. The overall objective of this paper is to show how the development of a framework with comprehensive and detailed quantitative measures of the outputs of HEIs in both volume and value terms can enable a holistic analysis of higher education institutions' economic value. The present paper draws on initial case study research supported by the Nuffield Foundation which was further elaborated in two substantive reports to the Scottish Funding Council

Valuing knowledge transfer : a new approach to assessing the broader impact of higher education institutions

There is considerable policy interest in exploring the overall value of higher education to society and in how higher education can support wider economic growth and development through 'knowledge transfer' from higher education institutions. Until fairly recently consideration of 'knowledge transfer' activity has tended to be mainly focussed on those HEI outputs that are commercial or market-based, relate to interaction with businesses and which are also relatively easy to measure (licensing, patents, consultancy contracts and so on). However it is beginning to be recognised that non-market outputs of higher education institutions (such as community interactions) could also have significant economic and social value linked to their support of knowledge flow to the wider community. This paper presents a new perspective on knowledge transfer from institutions. It demonstrates the application of welfare economic principles to estimate the value of non-market outputs of higher education institutions and It presents the results of a pilot study of 3 areas of non-market activity of Scottish higher education institutions, namely community engagement, cultural outreach and public policy advisory activity

Task Force on Funding System Priorities Coordinated Action by CGIAR Members : Final Report for the Annual General Meeting 2005

At AGM2004, Denmark initiated a discussion on the topic of funding CGIAR priorities and proposed that a task force be commissioned to examine the possibility of developing a mechanism to allocate unrestricted funds in the context of the priorities recommended by the Science Council (SC). The Terms of reference for the task force were approved in March 2005 with objectives: 1) To assess and evaluate opportunities for financing System Priorities and, separately, for financing the SC and its Secretariat; and 2) To propose one or more new financing mechanisms in support of CGIAR priorities recommended by the SC. This report looks at funding trends, funding system priorities, a proposed "way forward", several funding mechanism options, and recommendations. It contains the following annexes: the task force terms of reference, the trends in financing the CGIAR, and the summary of donor survey to explore changing restricted funding to unrestricted. The task force was led by Finn Norman Christensen from Denmark. This document was discussed at the Business Meeting at AGM2005

Role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase isoforms in murine skin inflammation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate

p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase plays a pivotal role in skin inflammation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the various p38 isoforms. p38 beta/delta-knockout-C57BL/6 mice were generated, studied in a 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA)-induced skin inflammation model and compared with wild-type mice. The inflammatory response was determined by ear thickness, myeloperoxidase activity and histology. mRNA and protein expression of interleukin (IL)-1 beta and IL-6 was determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR and enzyme-linked immunoassay. In both groups application of TPA resulted in a significant increase in inflammation, and pretreatment with the p38 alpha/beta inhibitor, SB202190 resulted in a significant inhibition. A significantly slower onset but prolonged duration of the response was seen in p38 beta/delta knockout mice. This was paralleled by a significant, but transient, lower IL-1 beta and IL-6 protein expression in p38 beta/delta knockout mice. Although the p38 alpha isoform is important, our data also demonstrate an important role of the p38 beta and/or delta isoforms in the regulation of TPA-induced skin inflammation.</p

A microwave dielectric biosensor based on suspended distributed MEMS transmission lines

Design and characterization of a miniature microwave dielectric biosensor based on distributed microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transmission lines (DMTL) is reported in this paper. The biosensor has been realized by bonding the DMTL device with an acrylic fluidic channel. In order to demonstrate the sensing mechanism, the sensor is used to detect the small variation of the concentration of aqueous glucose solutions by measuring the electromagnetic resonant frequency shift of the device. It is observed from the results that the second notch of the reflection coefficient (S-11) varies from 7.66 to 7.93 GHz and the third notch of the reflection coefficient varies from 15.81 to 15.24 GHz when the concentration of the glucose solution ranges from 0 to 347 mg/ml, which indicates that higher order notches have higher sensitivities if looking at the absolute change in frequency

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [26th ed. 2007]

The 2007 edition of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 26th release of the print directory and the 7th year of the online version (www.wifoundations.org). The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. However, additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation Web sites, annual reports, and newsletters. Wisconsin foundations continue to grow in the following key areas: number, grants, and particularly assets. Active grantmaking foundations now number 1,251, with 73 new foundations identified since last year’s publication, resulting in a 25% increase over the past 10 years. Over the past year, total grants increased by 5.8% to a total of almost $479 million, while assets increased by 12.5$6.2 billion.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1003/thumbnail.jp

Baseline study of employability related activities in Scottish colleges

In October 2004, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC)'s predecessor bodies, theSFEFC and the SHEFC, publishedLearning to Work(SFC 2004), a discussion paperabout how Scotland's colleges and universities can help to enhance learners'employability. In subsequent dialogue with stakeholders, there was agreement thatemployability should be a specific focus for quality enhancement in the college sectorfrom 2006-07. As a basis for further development, the SFC commissioned this studyto provide information on the range of current activities and practices in Scotland'scolleges which contribute to enhancing employability

Provision for students with learning difficulties in general colleges of further education - have we been going round in circles?

This is a PDF version of an article published in British journal of special education© 2006. The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.This article discusses the current situation for students with severe learning difficulties in general colleges of further education. Findings are presented from a critical review of the literature and a small-scale preliminary investigation which set out to explore the idea that, despite radical changes to the special school sector and to the structure and organisation of further education, provision in colleges of further education for these students is poorly focused. Students with severe learning difficulties experience provision that is, at best, circuitous and repetitive and that, at worst, leads individuals back into dependence, unemployment and social segregation. Using the outcomes of interviews and the scrutiny of inspection reports, a searching critique of current practice and an interesting set of recommendations for ways in which the situation could be radically reviewed and improved is provided