Martin Henson

Workshop on Grammatical Acquisition, Elicitation and Typology ...

The first GREAT workshop, establishing joint research between the Linguistics departments at Essex and JNU took place in Wrabness in the summer of 2010. Also present were researchers from Kuwait, Ghana and Germany.

 

JNU-Essex Alliance ...

The Vice Chancellors of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Professor B B Bhattacharya (middle) and the University of Essex, Professor Colin Riordan (right) signed an agreement that establishes an institutional alliance between the two universities. 

The Alliance creates a close bond between the universities, integrated vertically from the Vice Chancellors downward, and horizontally across almost all the academic areas that the institutions have in common. In addition the aim is to make connections between areas of professional service too.

 

 

JNU delegation at Essex ...

We were delighted to host a visit to Colchester from Prof Vaishna Narang and Prof H C Narang, from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Prof Narang visited Prof Andy Spencer and Dr Sonja Eisenbeiss in the Department of Language and Linguistics. Prof H C Narang visited Prof Peter Hulme in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies.

Among other discussions, plans for a workshop on common interests in Linguistics at JNU in March were developed. Prof Spencer and Dr Eisenbeiss hope to travel to Delhi in the next couple of months.

Visit to Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India

A flying but amazingly intense visit to JNU again, following the Vice Chancellor of JNU (pictured), Prof B B Bhattacharya's visit to Essex in June. I had the great pleasure in renewing old acquaintances and making new friends. It was good to meet with people from Life Sciences, Linguistics, Sociology, and Philosophy again, but the main focus of the visit was to meet people in Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Information Technology, Law and Governance, International Development, and Art and Aesthetics.

JNU has a beautiful campus; it is spacious and wonderful to walk through at first light and in the evening -- indeed, at any time!

Interesting times ahead for us I think ...

Keeping your house in order …

The IndianExpress.com has this:

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has said some "dubious" educational institutions in Australia were ruining the lives of young Indians and asked Canberra to come out with new regulations to cover private colleges to undo the damage. He also said "physical attacks" on Indian students in Australia and the poor quality of courses and services offered in many vocational colleges were of concern to India.

"I think they (vocational colleges) are not only bringing a bad name to Australia but they are destroying the future of the younger generation of Indian students," Krishna, who is here on a visit, told 'The Australian' newspaper.

What strikes me as extraordinary is that there is evidently no internal quality-assurance process within the country that monitors and governs such activities. In much less well-developed higher education systems than Australia's there are already examples of much better practice; for example, the United Arab Emirates has a Commission for Academic Accreditation that has been ruthlessly policing all non-federal higher education for almost a decade. There is a very long list of so-called educational institutions that have been closed down, and another list of those who simply failed to make the grade. In the UAE you need a license to operate at all – something that is non-trivial to obtain – and then have any educational programme accredited before students can be recruited.