The Singularity University

Two other recent articles in the Financial Times (1 & 2) called our attention to the Singularity University already introduced two posts back. Is this the way forward?

Bureaucrat U

This one is from Forbes Magazine, so you know what type of story you are getting. Some useful data are on offer though, even if some of our received opinion can be contradicted. "It is time for higher education to go on diet" seems rather an implausible lesson for Portugal at least right now, i.e. after so many years of budget cuts in the higher education sector.
The title of the story ("Pay the teachers, not the administrators") seems rather out of place if applied to Portuguese public and private universities alike. These are traditionally understaffed, or should I say "wrongstaffed" too?

A new type of university?

For what it's worth, take a look at this interesting pioneer effort to launch a new type of university in California.
From what I read there are some positives, but the whole experiment seems somewhat lunatic and lonesome! Difficult to believe they will be around by next year...

University becoming an ambiguous social factor?

"The aspirational society stalls at the gates of academe", by John Lloyd, in the FT of July 25, questions the role of the university in promoting social mobility. An extract: "...the university becomes an ambiguous social factor. The more education it confers, the better the possibility for advancement up through the classes. But it also functions as a filter: the professions, and higher earnings, are now so routinely associated with the degrees it gives that those without its benison find the career and class bonds tighter than ever."
Read on clicking on the above link and let us have your opinion on this blog as a comment.