New HE strategy for Wales

‘For Our Future – The 21st Century Higher Education Strategy and Plan for Wales’ builds upon and replaces ‘Reaching Higher’. The strategy and plan will set out the strategic direction for higher education in Wales.

The Minister has outlined a significant shift in how the £400m+ annual funding from the Welsh Assembly Government to the HE sector in Wales will be spent to improve efficiency, widen access, develop strong links between the economy and higher education providers and improve opportunities for learning through the medium of Welsh.

To download the document click here

Press release, 25 November 2009: http://wales.gov.uk/news/latest/091125highereducation/?lang=en

Note: on 3 November the UK Government unveiled a new framework for the future success of higher education, setting out the important role universities will play in securing the country’s economic recovery and long term prosperity.

Lord Mandelson’s vision to sustain university success in more challenging and competitive times sets out the Government’s approach on the major issues facing universities, including the need to make greater contributions to the economy, widening access and strengthening our research capacity.

The higher education framework, Higher Ambitions, sets out a strategy for universities to remain world class, providing the nation with the high level skills needed to remain competitive, while continuing to attract the brightest students and researchers. 
Download ‘Higher Ambitions’

Research 3.0 – How are digital technologies revolutionising research?

The UK can only maintain its worldwide reputation for quality research, if researchers take advantage of the digital revolution, says JISC.

Today, JISC is launching a year-long campaign called ‘Research 3.0 – driving the knowledge economy’, to debate how digital technologies are changing not only what research we do, but how it can be carried out.

A new video , ‘How digital technologies are creating a new paradigm in research’, sets the agenda for the coming year and introduces the key issues such as how to share data, why collaborate and how to publish research work online?

To support this video, THE (Times Higher Education) publishes a ’Data Revolution’ supplement, highlighting how JISC is supporting universities and the Research Councils to advance in the  ever-changing technology landscape.

Visit the campaign website at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/res3

Read THE ‘Data Revolution’ supplement at
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=409097

Congratulations to Andrew Prescott

All our good wishes go to Dr. Andrew Prescott (pictured left), currently Manager of Library Services at University of Wales Lampeter.

Andrew has been appointed to the post of Director of Research at the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow. He will be starting in his new post at Glasgow on 11 January 2010.

Andrew has been a committed and energetic member of WHELF and will be much missed. He brought a great depth of scholarship to WHELF, together with lots of ideas for technical innovations. We wish him well in his new post.

Mapping the needs of a generation

Emerging findings from a major three-year research study into the
information-seeking behaviour of doctoral students have highlighted the need
for far greater understanding of the generation born between 1982 and 1994 –
commonly dubbed Generation Y.

Researchers of Tomorrow was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to
establish a benchmark for research behaviour, against which future
generations can be measured – and also to provide guidance for librarians
and information specialists on how best to meet the research needs of
Generation Y scholars.

See http://www.researchersoftomorrow.net for more findings.