This initiative will contribute to the recovery of the physical University in the wake of the pandemic, and is an important signal of Cambridge’s ongoing commitment to the performing arts.

The CMP heralds a step-change in music of all genres for outreach and inclusion, and for wellbeing across collegiate Cambridge. Maintaining a tradition of excellence, it will also seal the University’s position on a world stage for music performance.

The CMP will be a seedbed of experimentation and innovation. A radical commitment to diversity will offer more opportunities to more students than ever before, to explore new styles of music-making and performance.

The Centre will open at the end of the year; in the meantime the search is on for a new Director to take up their post in early autumn.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, said: “At a time of unprecedented stress for the performing arts, I am proud that Cambridge is creating a new Centre for Music Performance. A step-change in the visibility, breadth, reach and role of music performance, it will nurture the highest aspirations of the very best performers, besides offering a wonderful array of opportunities to those with previously limited experience. In the long run the Centre will be a stimulus for interdisciplinarity, research excellence and all-round personal development. I am thrilled to see the CMP go ahead at Cambridge.”

The Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education), Professor Graham Virgo, said: “This is one of the many ways Cambridge University is expressing its commitment to outreach, inclusion and diversity. We expect this Centre to build on our excellent array of musical endeavour to draw more students into the cultural life of the University, building their skills and confidence and supporting their wellbeing.”

Dr. Anthony Freeling, Chair, Colleges’ Committee, and President of Hughes Hall, said: “The Cambridge Colleges are well-known as a seedbed of musical life; the Centre for Music Performance will not only support this but enhance its connectivity and visibility so that more students are attracted to, and can fully enjoy, the proven benefits of music performance.”

Chair of the Faculty Board of Music and 1684 Professor of Music Katharine Ellis said: “The Faculty of Music is delighted to see the new Centre for Music Performance come into being. This new hub will be a game-changer supporting musicians right across the University, from soon-to-be professionals to those for whom music offers precious release from the stresses of intensive study. It will be a beacon for Cambridge’s already rich musical life and will enable students to access its variety more readily than ever before. We look forward to contributing to the CMP’s success.”

The Chair of the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) Trustees, Dame Fiona Reynolds, said: “CUMS has carried the flag for excellence in music performance at Cambridge for many years. During that time we have nurtured a host of young people for whom music is life-giving, from world-leading professional musicians to skilled amateurs. The CMP is the opportunity we have been looking for to take this to the next level, offering more students than ever before the opportunity to work with each other and professional artists from a wide range of genres in an atmosphere that fosters creativity and innovation.”

This may sound difficult, but it may be simpler than you think you get a first-class degree. 

Here are nine easy things you can do to boost your chances of securing that top degree classification.

Go to all (or most of) your lectures and seminars

While some lectures are more interesting than others, making the effort to go to them will likely pay off in the long term. Attending your lectures and seminars – even the boring ones – will cut down on your study time and may help you understand the course material in a different way. The lecturer may also give extra hints and tips about how to improve your assignment or presentation, or even what to revise for an exam.

Lectures offer you a sound basis for course material. This means that when you go to study you can revise efficiently rather than trying to learn it all from scratch. Seminars can be useful for clarifying aspects of the course material that you don’t understand.

Talk to your tutors

Making an effort to get to know your tutors can really be the difference between getting a first-class degree and not.

There are several ways to arrange to talk to your tutors. Most university lecturers have office hours which they will inform you of at the start of the year. During these hours you can stop by their office and ask for help or clarification if you’re struggling with anything. Alternatively, you can drop them an email or speak to them after class.

Know what they’re looking for

Knowing what your lecturer is looking for from your assignments is one of the most important aspects of producing good work at university. Knowing what your work should look like means that you can approach your assignment with a clear aim of what you’re trying to achieve.

To do this, read the marking criteria to find out how your work is going to be assessed. If there are any aspects of the marking criteria that you don’t understand (it can often be quite vague), talk to your lecturers to clarify.

Be original

When writing an essay, try to use sources beyond the reading list or sources that are from a different field but are still relevant to the question you’re trying to answer. The best pieces of work at university are those which contain sources from a wide range of places, including online journals, archives and books.

Too many students just take what someone else has written and use that as their main argument in an essay. If you want to get a first-class degree, you’ll need to expand on these arguments and develop your own comments and ideas.

Do the required reading

At the start of each module, you’ll be given a list of required reading. Although it can sometimes feel like a drag, doing the required reading is essential if you’re looking to get a first-class degree. In some universities, they won’t let you attend the seminar if you haven’t done the required reading beforehand. 

Explore the whole reading list, not just ones that you need to answer a question on an assignment. Most of these books can be found either online, through online archives, or in the library. 

Be organized

Being organized means understanding the assessment structure for each of your modules, whether they contain exams, coursework or group work, knowing when all these are due and being aware of the weighting of each piece of work. This will make sure you don’t miss a deadline. 

Keeping each of your assignments in specific folders will mean you can easily find them in the future and will help keep track of feedback so you can easily refer back to it later.

Go through feedback

Although on first glance feedback can be a bit disheartening if it isn’t very positive, it will usually give you a great deal of guidance in how to improve your learning and help you understand how to change your work for the better.

If you’re unsure about any of your feedback on an assignment, make sure to go over it with your tutor as soon as possible.

Get enough sleep

There have been plenty of behavioral studies which suggest that the quality and quantity of sleep each night has a significant impact on learning and memory.

Getting better quality sleep has been proven to help you absorb information better and record that information later on.

Study and work hard throughout the year, instead of just for your exams

This goes hand in hand with attending your lectures but making sure you understand the course material throughout the year – and asking when you don’t – will make revising for exams a lot quicker and more straightforward. 

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Miamians will once again come together to celebrate Alumni Weekend in a virtual environment on June 11-12

In the spirit of public interest and with safeguarding the health of the Miami family in mind, the Miami University Alumni Association made the early decision that Alumni Weekend 2021 will be a fully virtual event.

“By making the decision now, we can work with reunion committees and groups to make Alumni Weekend an uplifting, engaging and uniquely Miami experience for everyone,” said Kim Tavares MBA ’12, executive director of the alumni association. “We are excited to connect with Miamians across the country in fun and interactive ways as we bring the spirit of Love and Honor to them wherever they may be.”

More than 1,000 Miamians interacted with Alumni Weekend in 2020, including 12,600 total online views. The event featured a toasted roll tutorial, virtual yoga, Alumni College webinars and more.

Planning is ongoing to honor the 50th anniversaries of both the Classes of 1970 and 1971 with exclusive programming and activities during Alumni Weekend 2021.

“One of the highlights of each Alumni Weekend is recognizing the golden anniversary of our 50-year class,” Tavares said. “We are looking forward to celebrating this wonderful milestone with both the Class of 1970 and the Class of 1971 in a special way.”

While Alumni Weekend will be virtual only, future alumni events will be decided on an individual basis. Campus health updates are available on the university’s Healthy Together web page.

Of course, there isn’t a crystal ball that can tell us exactly what skills will be needed and what won’t be needed. However, with the help of the University of the Witwatersrand, we’ve come up with five skills we believe you’ll need to succeed in your future career, whatever it ends up being.

Cognitive flexibility

The rise of digital technologies means you’re going to need to be able to handle the plethora of opportunities and challenges that come with it.

Do you have the ability to adapt to change and conceptualize complex multiple ideas all at once? If so, you’re showing qualities that reside in advanced multi-taskers and which are highly valued by employers and recruiters.

Digital literacy and computational thinking

As the world continues to rely on highly technical and continuously evolving technologies, the need for those with the digital skills to match also increases.

You’ve most definitely heard of STEM, but have you heard of SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud)? Although it may seem like we’re being bombarded with digital buzzwords, being digitally literate offers capabilities beyond what was once thought possible when it comes to emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and data science.

“We need to train scholars to deal with the challenges of the 21st century, some which we may not yet have encountered,” says Professor Adam Habib, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand<.

“We need to work across sectors to develop the technology required for us to leapfrog across eons of poverty, unemployment and inequality, and in so doing to create a new world order that prioritizes humanity before profits and power.”

A master’s degree in artificial intelligence or e-Science can help advance your digital skillset and accelerate your technical acumen in these emerging fields, from learning about data visualization and exploration, to computational intelligence, and natural language technology. 

Judgement and decision-making

Although robots and automation technology may be better than humans in other ways such as calculations and diagnostic solving, it’s still going to be humans that deal with the subjective side of data analytics.

Considering we’re on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution, we’re still going to need to have somebody who is able to show the world what numbers mean and their significance.

Emotional and social intelligence

For everything that can be replaced by digital technologies and artificial intelligence, emotional and social intelligence remain uniquely human capabilities.

In some sectors, these qualities are absolutely crucial. The demand for jobs in healthcare, for example, are on the increase – demonstrating how some roles will always require a human element. Your future job is more than likely going to include working closely with others, so having empathy, the ability to collaborate, as well as excellent communication skills is something you’re most definitely going to need. 

Creative and innovative mindset

Despite a report by the World Economic Forum in 2018 suggesting robot automation will create more jobs than they displace, you’ll still do well to keep on top of your creativity skills and maintain an innovative mindset.

Much like having an excellent sense of social intelligence, natural creativity is something which can’t be easily replicated by the latest digital technologies. As long as you can think outside the box, you’ll be just fine.

Although the majority of the German states had already been offering low-cost or completely free tuition, only now, with the removal of fees in Lower Saxony, can the nation call itself completely free of tuition fees.

One of the German states to scrap tuition fees as far back as 2012 was the state of Hamburg. Hamburg’s senator for science, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, explained to The Hornet the reasoning behind the move. “Tuition fees are socially unjust,” she said. “They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

No fees for international students, but some for postgraduates

While tuition is now free at all universities in Germany, there is still a nominal cost that all students will be charged. This cost, usually no more than €250 (US$315) per semester, is in place to cover administration, student support services and other unavoidable costs.

Students at master’s level may also still be expected to pay some tuition fees if they did not study in Germany for their bachelor’s degree. These ‘non-consecutive’ students can expect to pay fees of around €10,000 (US$12,644) per semester. Those who did study in Germany at undergraduate level, and are planning to enroll in a postgraduate program directly, may also be entitled to free or partial tuition fees.

It is likely that this change to legislation will help universities in Germany continue to attract prospective students from around the world, consolidating its place among the most popular international study destinations.

The report, conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Kaplan International Pathways (Kaplan), also found that international students are also finding graduate jobs in sectors with acute skills shortages – debunking the idea that they could be taking jobs that would otherwise be held by UK students.

The amounts don’t take into account tuition fees, which also inject billions every year into the economy. The report found that EU students contribute £1.2 billion, while non-EU students contribute £2 billion, and contributions also varied across different study levels, with master’s graduates contributing the most, at £1.6 billion.

UK Universities: #WeAreInternational

The report was welcomed by both the National Union of Students (NUS) and the #WeAreInternational campaign, which was launched in 2013 by the University of Sheffield to celebrate and emphasize the importance of diversity in the university’s student and staff, in response to concerns from international students about negative media coverage and some political statements on immigration in the UK.

Within this campaign, the university points out that the contribution of international students goes far  beyond their financial value, with their research demonstrating that these students are also well ingrained in the city’s life, working and volunteering in hospitals, charities and schools as well as enriching Sheffield’s culture with music, food, dance and language events throughout the year.

A spokesperson for the UK-wide #WeAreInternationalcampaign said: “This report underpins the case to reinstate the competitive post-study work rights for which students themselves have long lobbied.

“Far from the idea that international students who undertake a period of work after their courses should be discouraged, we now know international graduates are a national asset. It is in our interest and theirs to make sure our visa system reflects that.”

The discussions took place in a virtual talk organised by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and prepared by the DAAD Competence Centre for International Academic Collaborations (KIWi), and coincided with the presentation of DAAD propositions on future cooperation with the UK. Erasmus+ scholarships for UK-German student exchange will still be available for the next two years.

“We should make use of this transitional period to develop alternative access routes and financing models for students,” DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee maintained.

“From a German perspective, a European approach would be desirable in the long term. In the short term, I believe that what we need most is to swiftly establish a close network of new bilateral higher education agreements between UK and German universities.”

Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International, emphasised the importance for academic relations of the UK being associated to the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation framework on the basis of last December’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK.

However, currently there is uncertainty over how this will be paid for because the UK Treasury failed to include the £1 billion (US$1.4 billion) funding needed in the Chancellor’s Budget on 3 March, as reported by University World News.

Stern also maintained that the UK government’s new Turing Scheme could actually boost the motivation of UK students to go abroad by providing opportunities for short stays in other countries.

Responding to a demand for information made in parliament by the opposition Green Party in March, the government revealed that there had been a sharp fall in the number of visa applications submitted by international students and researchers.

Processing abroad of applications for stays in Germany can now take up to one year, parliament was also told.

From 2019 to 2020, the number of visa applications for international students and researchers fell by almost 40%. In 2019, a total of 78,985 visa applications were processed, with 70,672 visas being granted. The corresponding figures for 2020 were just 49,073 and 43,207 respectively.

Pre pandemic Germany had nearly 400,000 international students studying at its universities, according to Studying in Germany.

Thirty-one out of 173 German diplomatic missions abroad are either granting no visas at all or are only doing so in a very restricted manner. In the same period, the overall number of international first-year students fell from 32,229 to 22,830.

The federal government explains that the spread of the virus has led to a sometimes considerable reduction of staff capacities for handling visa applications at the consulates abroad, resulting in longer waiting periods for applicants.

Many visa offices have had to restrict public hours and take measures to protect visitors as well as staff. Additionally, operations are sometimes constrained by measures, including lockdowns, taken by authorities in the respective countries.

Understandably, living your entire life through a computer screen can cause motivation and focus to take a dip here and there. For many who’ve never had to study remotely before, making the adjustment is likely to have been taxing.

So, it’s worth paying attention to what universities are doing to ensure their students are getting the most out of their studies when at home, with even more distractions readily available.

QS in Conversation recently held a virtual panel on this topic, featuring: Dr Betty Vandenbosch Chief Content Officer at Coursera; Alex Chisholm Head of Analytics at QS Quacquarelli Symonds; Dr Gog Soon Joo Chief Futurist, Chief Skills Officer, Chief Research Officer at SkillsFuture Singapore.

Are students performing better with online learning weaved into their academic year?

In the online space, a student is in control of their learning experience; how they curate and learn, and also if they repeat tasks. But what needs to be done by educators to encourage students to undertake their studies?

Vandenbosch said: “I think the most important thing is that students and faculty together have to recognize that it’s a different world.

“In online education, the instructional design helps faculty put together a course that is engaging and helps people.

“With instructional design you can have worked examples, readings, peer experiences, projects, guided projects, all sorts of things you can do to help students learn better than just watching a video and taking notes. That’s what’s going to make the difference in helping students stay engaged online.”