The OECD has a global video competition for 18-25 year olds that closes on 31 March. Entrants must make a 3 minute (max) video on the big issues in education and skills. Your students might be up for it and if they win they get a free trip to Paris (to an OECD Forum, but I’m sure they’ll see the sights too).

Policy, Management & People

1. CTV Building A report into the CTV building, where King’s Education students and staff died, has been released. The finding is that the building’s design did not meet the standards of the day when it was built (The Press).
2. Massey QS Rating Massey has undergone a rating by Quacquarelli Symonds and gained a four star rating overall, with five stars in places. It’s a good idea for QS to charge for special rankings of universities as it boost their overall brand. Their star rankings are described here.
3. Raukawa Sports Te Wananga o Raukawa is getting ready to open a new sports/events centre, which sounds like it should have multiple uses for the wananga and the community.
4. Raukawa-Tainui Te Wananga o Raukawa will also be running a masters degree in tahuhu matauranga Maori (Maori knowledge) in conjunction with Waikato-Tainui College for Research and Development. The College has focused more on Waikato Uni as partner to date, so it’s an interesting move for both the College and Raukawa.
5. Science Policy Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce spoke on science policy at a Victoria-hosted conference yesterday.
6. Lunch Meeting Massey put out a release yesterday titled “Ties with US Ambassador strengthened over lunch” and even provided a photo of the Ambassador with VC Steve Maharey. If you want to know more about Steve’s lunch dates, follow him on Twitter.
7. Countertenor Xiao Ma is a countertenor artist in residence at Victoria (no, I didn’t know what one was either).
8. Extras: TEU newsletter had some interesting stuff on a Waiariki settlement and a BIM competition; PTE Solomon Group got dragged into the Whanau Ora debate for no obvious reason (and the reporter used SAC EFTS when the PTE has mostly targeted training places); Joachim Ogden is WITT’s new hospitality head; community garden at Massey Albany; Waikato’s Prof Michael Peters gets an hon doc from SUNY Empire State College.

Research & Innovation

1. Facebook Victoria’s Kris Bubendorfer is working with colleagues in Germany and Wales to develop a Facebook app that would allow users to donate their computers’ processing time for research.
2. Stem Cells Auckland’s Prof Phil Crosier et al have found that infections can lead to the development of new blood stem cells in zebrafish (which are close to mammals in this area).
3. Not Sunsmart Otago Uni’s Tony Reeder has found that very few schools follow Cancer Society sunsmart guidelines.
4. Ethics Otago and Auckland academics have signed a letter to Tony Ryall expressing concern about ethic committee changes.
5. Extras: Auckland’s Matt Rayner wants money to find birds; Waikato’s Rachel McNae won an award for her PhD thesis.

Public Issues

1. Prison Religion Laidlaw’s Mark McKeown on chaplains’ access to Mt Eden prison.
2. Web Privacy Auckland’s Gehan Gunasekara writes an op-ed on Web privacy.
3. Extras: Otago Uni’s Prof Lloyd Spencer reports from Noumea on fishing; VUW and Otago Uni staff are on a Gareth Morgan trip to Antarctica; food industry group disagrees with Otago Uni academics’ traffic light labelling idea; Massey’s Claire Matthews on bank profits going offshore.

Students

1. SBW Auckland student Jaime Ridge kisses SBW (you probably will click the link, even though you know you shouldn’t).
2. Extras: NZUSA’s workshops started yesterday and I had the pleasure of speaking there; Massey design grad doing a good work; NorthTec’s Orientation; Dyson design competition; Media Design School student’s Beck’s win.

Stakeholders

1. Pacific Health Otago Uni has a good idea of having its fourth year medical students spend a weekend with a Pacific family – I’m all for broadening experiences in tertiary education.
2. Extras: SIT sponsoring Southern Steel netball.

Teaching & Learning

1. Ferry Learning Competenz has helped Interislander ferry staff gain NCEA.
2. International Security Massey has appointed Negar Partow to develop their international security masters programme. She shifted here from Iran in 2002 and I think we’ll hear more of her given recent events over there.