UK Higher Education and Internationalisation Success

Today, I attended a conference session with presentations by a Peruvian, Columbian, Italian and Canadian students, chaired by a Greek lecturer, who talked about national and international innovation policies. We cannot say the U.K. has not succeeded in internationalising their Higher Education sector.

Lady Gaga

Should someone be doing a thesis on Lady Gaga's marketing prowess? In just 10 minutes of her live performance,

1. she used her personal stories about her dad being ill,
2. talked about her (real or fabricated) affection towards the Royal family (saying how she wished she were invited to Will and Kate's wedding and the "news" allegedly supplied by her PR people that she was learning to speak with the Queen's accent, and
3. tried to appeal to the audience by saying what she was told to and not to do on the BBC e.g. swearing, and
4. performing the unreleased tracks which she shouldn't do.

The woman is a genius. Musically, maybe not so much but marketing-wise, she's definitely top of the game in the pop world.

Nick Risinger

What dedication!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110512/ap_on_sc/us_night_sky

I wish I had that kind of passion.

Social mobility

Social mobility's only real meaning is the ability to move up socially. It only talks about one direction of movement - upwards. Not downwards, or even sideways. People do not want to move down social scale so it is implied that efforts to promote "social mobility" always create win-win, unlike a zero-sum game. However, social mobility is directly linked and contributed mainly by economic power, either on the mobilized's part or mobilizee's. If economic gain is not zero-sum, is it possible that social mobility is indeed a win-lose game also? As many move upwards, there are always those moving downwards or left behind. Or is it simply that the bar gets continually raised until everyone is royalties? Five-starred becomes six, seven or ten-starred. Luxury becomes standard and first class becomes economy. Is the aim of social mobility Utopia?