Many networks such as communication, social media, covert and criminal networks have event-driven dynamics where the intensity rate of the events changes according to the occurrences of events in the network. In particular, events that occurred in a node of the network could increase the intensity of other nodes depending on their causal relationship. Thus, it is of interest to use data to uncover the influence network in which the edges represent the directional influence between nodes. An event-driven dynamic on a network can be modelled by a multi-dimensional Hawkes process driven by count data. In this setting, the influence structure of the network is then parameterized by the Hawke process. Understanding the uncertainty of the network constructed from the data is also important. This talks will discuss how we may build an ensemble of networks to reflect uncertainty. The outcome will facilitate downstream uncertainty analysis for network applications such as node classifications, link prediction and rare-event detection.
Quantifying model uncertainty and performing model selection within a Bayesian framework is becoming an ever-larger part of scientific analysis both within and outside of astronomy. I will present a brief introduction to Nested Sampling, a complementary framework to Markov Chain Monte Carlo approaches that is designed to estimate marginal likelihoods (i.e. Bayesian evidences) and posterior distributions, outline some of their pros and cons, and briefly discuss more recent extensions such as Dynamic Nested Sampling. I will also briefly highlight `dynesty`, an open-source Python package designed to make it easy for researchers to applying Nested Sampling approaches to various “black box” likelihoods present in their work.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a simulation technique widely used in chemical and process engineering applications. However, computation has become a bottleneck when calibration of CFD models with experimental data (also known as model parameter estimation) is needed. In this research, the kriging meta-modelling approach (also termed Gaussian process) was coupled with expected improvement (EI) to address this challenge. A new EI measure was developed for the sum of squared errors (SSE) which conforms to a generalised chi-square distribution and hence existing normal distribution-based EI measures are not applicable. The new EI measure is to suggest the CFD model parameter to simulate with, hence minimising SSE and improving match between simulation and
experiments. The usefulness of the developed method was demonstrated through a case study of a single-phase flow in both a straight-type and a convergent-divergent-type annular jet pump, where a single model parameter was calibrated with experimental data. This talk is based on a journal article we previously published in the AIChE Journal.
Since 2005 the UK higher education system has hosted a steadily increasing number of European students from outside the UK. EU students hold a widespread reputation of being capable and driven, and these qualities have made them desirable to UK universities. While their participation varies between institutions, and between the hierarchical layers of the sector, they have become recognised as a vital contributor to the diversity of the student fabric on UK campuses. However, following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (commonly referred to as Brexit) EU students will soon pay higher fees in the UK and lose access to the UK’s pay later tuition loans. Additionally they will be subjected to visa requirements and their post-study stay will be constrained by migration rules. Consequent to these changes, among others, it is anticipated that the amount of EU students opting to study in UK universities may decline by up to half of their pre-Brexit numbers. These projections provide a window through which we can examine what the potential loss of European students would mean for institutions across the UK. To that end, this paper examines interviews conducted in 12 UK universities with 127 participants pre-Brexit, predominantly senior executives and members of academic leadership. The analysis uncovered a number of institutional representations of EU students that arose in response to Brexit, most often concerning: student numbers and income; diversity; and quality. Representations varied geographically across the different nations of the UK, largely due to the differences in funding regimes unique to each but also institutional hierarchies within a stratified higher education system. The specificities of institutional representations within each nation highlighted the differential impacts the loss of EU students may have on universities across the sector, with notable implications for: future recruitment strategies; intra- and international competition; the breadth and nature of subject and study programme offerings; the creation and maintenance of collaboration networks; and interactions between students, funding, and research.
The educational migration of international tertiary students is a continuing worldwide trend. However, not everyone has sufficient resources for international education. Thus without state support, the cross-border mobility of students remains less than optimum. The state scholarships for outward student mobility pave the mobility way for students from lower-income groups.
In this study, as case studies, the state scholarships of Turkey and Chile were examined because of the differences in return obligation procedures that influence participation. While the Chilean scholarship programme obliges its recipients to return to Chile in 2 years after graduation and stay in Chile for a period depending on in which region the recipient lives, the Turkish programme appoints its recipients at pre-selected positions to work for the twofold study duration.
8 doctoral scholarship holders studying in the UK (4 for each group) were interviewed in 2019 to understand how the specific structure of a scholarship programme influenced their motivations to participate. After the data transcription, thematic analysis was applied, and the emerged themes as follows; quality overseas education, intercultural experience and (English) language acquisition. Since all participants are from the working class, receiving an international education was the primary motivation. Additionally, some Turkish participants stated their reason to apply for the scholarship as a “job guarantee”, which the Turkish scholarship programme offers at the selected universities and public institutions following graduation.
Albeit, most of the offered positions exist in the less-developed regions of Turkey. Thus the obligatory working duration hinders participation. The Chilean programme does not offer a job. However, the Chilean participants expect to get a decent job in Chile in their “preferred field” due to the international degree. Briefly, the participants are mainly inclined to participate in international scholarship programmes to advance their career opportunities in their homelands, where the youth unemployment rate is quite high.
The European Union (EU) Erasmus+ program is the most common student exchange schema in European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The program included member states of the European Union, members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), and candidate countries (the Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of Turkey, and the Republic of Serbia). The universities awarded with Erasmus+ program funds do not have any country restrictions to send or receive students since Erasmus+ is seen as a means of unification under the EHEA and the Bologna Process. However, over the years, specific mobility patterns emerged between countries that reciprocally exchange students based on the universities’ inclinations to sign mobility agreements predominantly with other universities in certain regions in Europe. These patterns portrait not a unified higher education area in Europe but a fractured one. It can be argued that these patterns heavily reflect the geopolitical positions and pragmatic preferences of individual countries involved in the Erasmus+ Program. These sub-regions and hubs in the EHEA are usually constrained by sectoral, practical, and historical positions and relations of universities involved in the Erasmus+ program. Hence, this research aims to analyze the network properties of the Erasmus+ student mobilities between these countries based on official statistics provided by the EU to determine a general account of the geopolitical hubs and sub-regions concerning the EHEA.
Outgoing student mobility in teacher training has, among other things, the purpose of developing culturally sensitive teachers. However, how likely students are to engage in various mobility schemes varies depending on where they are geographically located. International coordinators from teacher training colleges around Denmark tell the same story: The geography of the college highly influences the number of students engaging in outgoing mobility, because geography and the socio-demographic profile of the students is linked. The coordinators describe students in bigger cities, such as Copenhagen and Aarhus, as more adventurous and less tied in family and economic affairs, while students in the outskirts of Denmark are bound up by, among other things, family, property, and a generally more rooted lifestyle. The location of the teacher education, and accordingly the profile of the students, creates different challenges for the coordinators in relation to student mobility. To accommodate these challenges, the coordinators work on developing ‘mobility packages’ that make planning easier and secure access to mobility for all students. Furthermore, my findings indicate that the various coordinators employ different strategies in the process of attracting students to study abroad, such as dividing the students into yes-no-maybe groups depending on how likely they are to engage in mobility. This then influences which students they then spend time on guiding. I draw on data from my Ph.D.-project and I wish to present and discuss findings from interviews with ten international coordinators, and discuss possible solutions and how these aim at changing access to mobility.
English is the language of instruction in many universities around the world. Accordingly, English language skills, which youths of less privileged social backgrounds are often said to ‘lack’, plays an important role in the future aspirations of young people and to access and widening participation. In this paper, I argue that English is an important resource, which affects students’ mobility within and outside of their countries. Using interviews with 25 Colombian youths, some of which had finished secondary school and others were higher education students at the time of the fieldwork, my study explores the challenges and opportunities that Colombian students who plan to study abroad (including Europe) encounter in relation to English language. The findings indicate that the English capacity of the majority of the participants does not meet the English language requirements (mostly ILETS, TOEFL or GRE) of most universities with English as a medium of instruction. This ‘lack’ of English skills affects the social mobility and future aspirations of the students and, thus, their motivation to study abroad. Ultimately, the study reflects on the implications of English provision for social and academic mobility.
Transnational education (TNE) represents a lesser known aspects of the internationalization of higher education, whose volume and importance are growing.
If, on the one hand, TNE represents a way for universities to expand recruitment offshore; on the other hand, it also constitutes for students an alternative to student mobility to traditional destination countries.
The trickiest interrogations arising from TNE expansion are connected with the more general questions on whom offshore students are and why they decide to enroll this way. Though, data on this topic are still scarce.
This paper presents the results of a survey conducted among students enrolled in German TNE projects in several countries. The results reveal that TNE students cannot be considered a monolithic group; rather they have fairly heterogeneous motivations and attitudes. In particular, they show how, for some students, TNE enrollment seems to be a way to overcome the (perceived) limits of the higher education sector in the origin countries and that, in few cases, TNE was a way to avoid ‘involuntary student mobility’. In the majority of cases, however, it seems that TNE has been considered by the respondents as a “safer mobility”, a “trial run to mobility” and a way to acquire the resources needed to emigrate afterwards by those who wanted to go abroad but were not able to do it. Finally, some of respondents who did not desire to study abroad experienced a sort of ‘internationalization of aspirations’, leading them to desire to go abroad after graduation.
Until recently, internationalisation of higher education was largely considered an end in itself especially due to its impact on the UK economy. In the past few years, however, the conversation has changed considerably and with the challenges that Covid-19 restrictions have presented for the internationalisation based on students ‘mobility, the focus has diverted more on improving the quality of education and research as well as serving larger social goals. The focus should be on developing a culture of mutual support and strategic inclusion with partner Universities with potential development of dual purposing resource and mutual enrichment.
This contribution is aiming to investigate how does remote cooperative teaching, based on mutual enrichment across international ITE providers, support active participation of students in international activities?
Participants were undergraduate student on the ITE programme within Meduc year3 course: Health and Well-being Elective School of Education, University of Glasgow and Italian student teachers on the course “Scienze della formazione” at the Niccolo’ Cusano University, Rome.
Several sessions were organised and remotely delivered to both cohort of students with a careful blending of tutors’ expertise, focused on their cultural and language diversity; a carefully planned topic of high interest for both countries: Parental Engagement in pupil’s Education; and finally, a very well taught integration of the sessions’ content and task requirements into both Universities’ assessment agenda. Results showed a mutual enrichment and active participation which went beyond any expectations with elements of e-networking and overcome of language, communication and even possible stereotype barriers.