Princeton University

 Princeton University

Princeton was the fourth chartered institution of higher education in the Thirteen Colonies and it is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in the world. It is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States.

Princeton has the largest endowment per student in the United States. Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. It offers professional degrees through the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Architecture and the Bendheim Center for Finance.

From 2001 to 2016, Princeton University was ranked either first or second among national universities by U.S. News & World Report (USNWR), holding the top spot for 14 of those 16 years (sole #1 nine times, #1 tied with Harvard five times). Princeton was ranked first in the most recent 2016 U.S. News rankings, as well as #1 in the 2015 and 2016 rankings for "best undergraduate teaching." In the 2014–15 Times Higher Education assessment of the world's greatest universities, Princeton was ranked 7th. In the 2014/15 QS World University Rankings, it was ranked 9th overall in the world and 5th among US universities.In the "America's Top Colleges" rankings by Forbes in 2014, Princeton University was ranked fourth among all national colleges and universities, after holding the number one position for a number of years.In the 2015 U.S. News & World Report "Graduate School Rankings", all thirteen of Princeton's doctoral programs evaluated were ranked in their respective top 20, 8 of them in the top 5, and 4 of them in the top spot (Economics, History, Mathematics, Sociology).In Princeton Review's rankings of "softer" aspects of students' college experience, Princeton University was ranked first in "Students Happy with Financial Aid" and third in "Happiest Students", behind Clemson and Brown.Princeton was ranked the 360th top college in the United States by Payscale and CollegeNet's Social Mobility Index college rankings.Princeton was ranked 7th among 300 Best World Universities in 2011 compiled by Human Resources & Labor Review (HRLR) on Measurements of World's Top 300 Universities Graduates' Performance .

Stanford University

 Stanford University

Stanford University is known as one of the world's most prestigious institutions of US. It is a private research university in Stanford, California. Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford, former Governor of and U.S. Senator from California and leading railroad tycoon, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15.

The University is currently organized into seven academic schools. The schools of Humanities and Sciences (27 departments), Engineering (9 departments), and Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (4 departments) have both graduate and undergraduate programs while the Schools of Law, Medicine, Education and Business have graduate programs only. The powers and authority of the faculty are vested in the Academic Council.

Stanford University is a large, highly residential research university with a slight majority of enrollments coming from graduate and professional students. It follows a quarter system with Autumn quarter usually starting in late September and Spring Quarter ending in early June. The full-time, four-year undergraduate program has an arts and sciences focus with high graduate student coexistence. Stanford University is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Its most recent undergraduate admit rate (for the class of 2018) further dropped to 5.07%, the lowest in the University's history.

Full-time undergraduate tuition was $42,690 for 2013–2014. Stanford's admission process is need-blind for US citizens and permanent residents; while it is not need-blind for international students, 64% are on need-based aid, with an average aid package of $31,411. In 2012–13, the university awarded $126 million in need-based financial aid to 3,485 students, with an average aid package of $40,460. Eighty percent of students receive some form of financial aid. Stanford has a no-loan policy. For undergraduates admitted in 2015, Stanford waives tuition, room, and board for most families with incomes below $65,000, and most families with incomes below $125,000 are not required to pay tuition; those with incomes up to $150,000 may have tuition significantly reduced. 17% of students receive Pell Grants, a common measure of low-income students at a college.

Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williams town, Massachusetts, Williams is classified as "most selective" by U.S. News & World Report and "more selective" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

Williams College currently occupies 1st place in U.S. News & World Report's liberal arts ranking. Forbes magazine ranked Williams the second best undergraduate institution in the United States in its 2016 publication of America's Top Colleges. The college is one of the eight Little Ivies, and is known as a Hidden Ivy.

 There are three academic curricular divisions humanities, sciences, and social sciences, 24 departments, 33 majors, and two small master's degree programs in art history and development economics. Students may also concentrate in 12 additional academic areas that are not offered as majors (e.g., environmental studies). The academic year follows a 4–1–4 schedule of two four-course semesters plus a one-course "winter study" term in January.During the winter study term, students study various courses outside of typical curriculum for 3 weeks. Students typically take this course on a pass/fail basis. Past course offerings have included: Ski patrol, Learn to Play Chess, Accounting, Inside Jury Deliberations, and Creating a Life: Shaping Your Life After Williams, among many others. Williams students often take the winter study term to study abroad or work on intensive research projects.

The college's 2015-2016 Comprehensive Fee was $64,790; or $63,290 (if study abroad program is not pursued). 53% of students were given need-based financial aid, which averaged $46,006. For the 2015 admissions cycle, the acceptance rate was 16.8%. The admitted students’ academic profile showed average SAT scores of 735 in critical reading, 727 in math, and 735 in writing. The average super-scored ACT was a 33. 82% of the students who submitted high school rank were projected to graduate in the top ten percent of their class.

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore was one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States , located  in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Philadelphia. It is a is a private liberal arts college.

Uncommon for a liberal arts college, Swarthmore has an engineering program in which at the completion of four years' work, students are granted a B.S. in Engineering. Other notable programs include minors in peace and conflict studies, cognitive science, and interpretation theory.

Swarthmore's Oxbridge tutorial-inspired Honors Program allows students to take double-credit seminars from their junior year and often write honors theses. Seminars are usually composed of four to eight students. Students in seminars will usually write at least three ten-page papers per seminar, and often one of these papers is expanded into a 20–30 page paper by the end of the seminar. At the end of their senior year, Honors students take oral and written examinations conducted by outside experts in their field. Usually one student in each discipline is awarded "Highest Honors"; others are either awarded "High Honors" or "Honors"; rarely, a student is denied any Honors altogether by the outside examiner. Each department usually has a grade threshold for admission to the Honors program

The college is considered by U.S. News & World Report as "most selective", with 12.4% accepted of the 7,817 applicants during the 2014–2015 admissions cycle, a 4.6% drop in acceptance. Of those admitted, the college reports that of the 44% who reported rank, "33 percent are valedictorians or salutatorians. [52] percent are in [the] top two percent of their high school class and 94 percent are in the top decile."In 2012, The Princeton Review gave Swarthmore a 99 out of 99 on their Admissions Selectivity Rating. In the November 2003 selectivity ranking for undergraduate programs, The Atlantic magazine ranked Swarthmore as the only liberal arts college to make the top ten institutions, placing Swarthmore in tenth place.

A Development Education Review

Policy And Practice

(A Development Education Review)

Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review is a bi-annual, peer reviewed, open access journal published by the Centre for Global Education and funded by Irish Aid. Launched in 2005, Policy and Practice has a growing international readership.  In 2015, the journal web site received 150,000 vistors from 150 countries with particularly high numbers of readers located in Britain, Ireland, North America, and - in the global South - Austrialia, South Africa, The Philippines, Indonesia and India. The journal aims to celebrate and promote good practice in development education and to debate the shifting policy context in which it is delivered.  Policy and Practice is informed by values such as social justice, equality and interdependence and is based on the Freirean concept of education as an agent of positive social change.  We hope you find the journal a useful means of analysis, reflection, debate, and action on development issues...

Tenth Anniversary Edition

This is a special commemorative, tenth anniversary collection of the most cited articles to have been published in the Centre for Global Education’s journal Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review over the past decade.  The journal celebrates and promotes

good practice in development education; a radical and transformative educational process that empowers the learner to become actively engaged in efforts to eradicate poverty in justice both locally and globally.  Since 2005, Policy and Practice has become an articulate vehicle for debating inequalities within and between the global North and South, and for encouraging active engagement with the issues underpinning poverty and injustice.  This special collection carries articles by leading scholars in the field who debate issues on the cutting edge of development education practice and the policy environment in which it is delivered.  Policy and Practice debates and affirms the transformative capacity of education to create a more just and equal world and this is an essential collection for anyone interested in exploring the role of education as a means toward progressive social change.

“This special issue of Policy and Practice provides an outstanding view of the state of the field of development education from a range of excellent scholars and practitioners.  Once again, this journal demonstrates its success in supporting educators' understanding of the contested areas and edges of development education theory and practice in many parts of the world”.

Lynette Shultz, Associate Dean, International & Director, Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research, University of Alberta.

Centre for Education Policy and Practice

Centre for Education Policy and Practice

The Centre for Education Policy and Practice promotes the interconnection between research, policy and practice. The Centre investigates the impact of policy and practice in terms of research evidence of what works to meet learners' needs and improve learning outcomes, but also examines ways in which research can be informed by a thorough understanding of the perspectives of policy makers and practitioners. The work of the Centre, addressing all levels of education and training, is organised around three themes: effective teaching; effective institutional leadership; and effective system leadership.

Effective Institutional Leadership

The Centre supports research and disseminates knowledge about effective leadership of educational institutions, including knowledge about best practices in recruiting and developing effective leaders, and the practices of high-performing and improving education and training institutions nationally and internationally. The Centre works closely with, and provides support to ACER programs and units undertaking projects in these areas.

Effective System Leadership

The Centre supports research and disseminates knowledge about effective policies and strategies for improving systems of education and training institutions. The work seeks to understand and support system-level initiatives to meet learners' needs and improve learning outcomes. The Centre works closely with, and provides support to ACER programs and units undertaking projects in these areas.

Effective Teaching

The Centre supports research and disseminates knowledge about effective teaching practices, effective approaches to initial teacher education, effective professional learning, and the performance management of teachers. The Centre works closely with, and provides support to ACER programs and units undertaking projects in these areas.

edcational policy

Edcational Policy

Educational Policy (EPX) focuses on the practical consequences of educational policy decisions and alternatives. It examines the relationship between educational policy and educational practice, and sheds new light on important debates and controversies within the field. Educational Policy blends the best of educational research with the world of practice, making it a valuable resource for educators, policy makers, administrators, researchers, teachers, and graduate students..

Policy and Practice

Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review is the flagship publication of the Centre for Global Education and the only journal on global education published in the island of Ireland. It features contributions from practitioners in a range of education settings based in Ireland, Britain, across Europe, North America  . It is in its seventh year of operation, and is available as an open-access online publication to increase accessibility and global reach. It aims to widen the global education sector’s understanding of the delivery and effectiveness of development education at local and international levels.

Policy and Practice is published bi-annually, and aims to provide a space for practitioners to critically reflect on their practice and discuss the main challenges faced by practitioners such as funding, evaluation and monitoring practice. The journal features in-depth contributions on aspects of global education practice such as research, methodologies, monitoring and evaluation, the production of resources, enhancing organisational capacity, strategic interventions in education, and sectoral practice. The journal aims to share research findings, update academics and practitioners on policy developments, celebrate and promote existing good practice in global education, inform the work of practitioners in development education and related adjectival education organisations, and to promote global education within the statutory education sector in Ireland.

Each issue of the journal has a theme which is addressed by three to four peer reviewed articles (Focus section). There are also a variety of regular sections in each journal, including shorter articles (Perspectives), discussion features (Viewpoints), and resource reviews (Reviews).

The journal’s designated web site is developmenteducationreview.com. The site has an archive of previous articles and profiles the current issue. It is an excellent resource for educators interested in, or researching, global education and its related areas of activity.