Blogs

You’ve finally made it. You’ve handed in your final assignment, taken that last exam and now all that stretches in front of you is three glorious months of summer break. 

But as a student, there can often be pressure to make the most of your summer break and go travelling, do an internship and get a head start on next year’s reading list, while still finding the time to relax ahead of the new academic year. 

Some universities around the world have such a good reputation that by merely mentioning their name, people are aware of how good they are. Think Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge or Yale. 

My journey to doctoral studies in Switzerland began a little over a year before I actually started on 16 September 2013. I was (and still am) a research scientist working at the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute in Accra, Ghana.

We met during our master’s degree programme in sustainability and social innovation at HEC Paris, one of Europe’s leading business schools. We connected over our common desire to create employment opportunities for young people in Africa and to find solutions for sustainable food production and waste management.

Undergraduates looking to use their long summer break to enhance their skills, experience and employment prospects face the tough task of finding a suitable placement.

The Laidlaw Scholarship Programme offers an exciting opportunity to students with an interest in research and a desire to develop their leadership skills.

I am a final year student at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore pursuing my MBA. Two days at business school are hardly ever the same, but I am always trying to create some semblance of a routine. However, as I have discovered over the past year, this tussle makes life here much more exciting.

“This is not about doing the right thing – this is about survival, and we’re not ready to die yet” was one of the powerful opening statements at a simulation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations that I attended last month . 

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a question asked many times throughout the early stages of our lives by just about everyone in a young person’s circle: parents, teachers and friends. It is often the ambitions and dreams we carry that shape our choices and daily decisions, setting us on our individual paths. But what if you don’t know what you want to be?

What is the TEF?

The teaching excellence framework (TEF) is a system that assesses the quality of teaching in universities in England. It also includes some universities from Scotland and Wales.

The framework was introduced by the government in 2017 to provide a resource for students to judge teaching quality in universities and to increase the importance of teaching excellence (and bring it into line with research excellence) when rating institutions. It is important to note that currently the TEF analyses only undergraduate teaching.

The teaching excellence framework is a government-approved system that rates higher and further education institutions and alternative education providers with a gold, silver or bronze rating.

The framework was introduced in 2017 to judge teaching quality in different institutions. The ratings are determined by six core metrics based on teaching, academic support and progression to employment. Colleges also submitted a 15-page document to a panel of higher education experts and students, which was used alongside the metrics to determine their rating.