IBL News | New York Pearson Plc, the British education publishing giant, ended his long search for a new CEO, choosing Andy Bird— former president and chairman of Walt Disney International, an executive without experience running an educational organization – for the top job. The new Chief Executive Officer will face the challenge of guiding Pearson "out of a slump that led to a string of profit warnings," Bloomberg wrote. Putting the company back on the path of sustainable growth and profitability will be his main goal. Pearson’s succession process took an unexpected turn in June when activist investor Cevian Capital grabbed a 5.4% stake in the company and pushed for a say in the choice of a new CEO. It increased that position to 8.5% as of July 29. Yesterday, this company backed Andy Bird, as "he will bring “entrepreneurial experience and high energy to Pearson, and we expect him to drive profitable growth and shareholder value.” According to the announcement of the appointment, Bird will make an annual base salary of $1.25 million. He will also buy $3.75 million worth of Pearson shares.
AUGUST 2020 – NEWSLETTER #36 | Breaking news at IBL News |  Noticias en Español COVID-19 and Education • Children's Learning Worldwide Is a Priority But 818 Million Students Lack Basic Hand Washing • Is Your School Under Financial Stress? An Interactive Tool Shows Institutions' Readiness • Stanford Produces a Visual, Evidence-Based Course to Train Healthcare Workers on COVID-19 • A Paradigm Shift Among Students Towards Online Degrees: 73% Will Consider Enrolling Trump vs Schools • Stanford Reverses Plans and Decides to Deliver All Instruction Remotely • Harvard and USC Tell First-Year International Students to Stay Home • New International Students Barred for Any F-1 or M-1 Visa for Online Programs • European and U.K. Students Who Already Have F-1 and M-1 Visas Are Welcomed Back • The Trump Administration Drops Restrictions for International Students Amid Pressure from Colleges Universities • Georgia Tech's OMSCS Program Surpasses a Milestone: 10,000 Students Enrolled • Seven Large Universities Will Share Their Online Courses Among Undergraduate Students • New NSF Centers with Research Universities Will Focus on Health, Transportation, Quantum, and Agriculture • View: Education and Training as a Tool to Attract Customers and Enhance Presence on Google Industry • Google Announces 100,000 Scholarships for Three Career-Oriented Certificates • Apple Renews Its Free Coding Training Program in Swift and Xcode 2020 Events • Education Calendar – AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC  | Conferences in Latin America & Spain This newsletter is created in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company specialized in AI and credential-driven learning platforms. Read the latest IBL Newsletter  |  Archive of Open edX Newsletters
Access to handwashing stations and safe toilets that are clean and disinfected are key requirements for a safe reopening children’s schools worldwide –United Nations officials told IBL News. There are 1.6 billion students in 190 countries. According to UN data, roughly 43%, that is, 818 million lack access to basic handwashing facilities at school, with soap and water. A third of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The COVID-19 virus pandemic has created the largest disruption to education ever recorded. And the lack of hand hygiene and clean water in half of the student population dramatically aggravates the crisis. “Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services are essential for effective infection prevention and control in all settings, including schools", said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, General Manager at the World Health Organization, this week. “It must be a major focus of government strategies for the safe reopening and operation of schools during the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic.” A report built on reopening guidelines published on Thursday 13th by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, encouraged governments to seek control of coronavirus spread by balancing the need for implementing public health measures against the social and economic impacts of lockdown measures. There is substantial evidence of the negative impacts of prolonged school closures on children. Henrietta Fore, Executive Director at UNICEF, stated, “We must prioritize children’s learning, making sure that schools are safe to reopen." Globally, 43% of schools lack basic handwashing facilities with soap & water — key elements for fighting #COVID19. New @WHO & @UNICEF guidelines outline infection prevention measures needed to ensure schools can reopen & operate safely.https://t.co/e8GL3EKO6C — United Nations (@UN) August 14, 2020 – • Resource: Unicef.org: 2 in 5 schools around the world lacked basic handwashing facilities prior to COVID-19 pandemicÂ
A dramatic reversal in Stanford University’s reopening. Stanford University reported yesterday that it altered its plans announced in June for graduate education during the autumn quarter and that it won’t be bringing students back for on-campus learning, due to the increased spread of COVID-19. (There have now been nearly 600,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 10,000 deaths in California, and much of the state, including the whole Bay Area.) “We are planning for almost all undergraduate instruction to be delivered remotely during the autumn quarter, with very limited in-person offerings,” explained Marc Tessier-Lavigne, President of Stanford, in a letter to the institution community. “We will continue to offer on-campus housing for those undergraduates who were previously approved to be in residence due to a special circumstance and who continue to wish to be on campus, despite the plan for mostly remote instruction,” he added. With this announcement, Stanford University joins other major universities who decided to go fully online. Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Howard University, Loyola University Maryland, and Smith College made a similar decision last week. Columbia University's President, Lee C. Bollinger, wrote in a letter that the school has to drastically reduce the number of undergraduate students who can live on-campus to only students who need to for approved personal or academic reasons. In parallel, Stanford announced this week its decision to postpone sports competition.
edX announced yesterday that the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) joined its Consortium. The engagement started with the launch of five online courses at edX.org–already open for enrollment: Arctic Security Fundamentals One Health: A Ten Thousand Year-Old View Into the Future Remote Sensing of Wildfires Salmon, People, and Place Synthetic Aperture Radar: Hazards UAF is known as "America's Arctic university. "Our first-class faculty integrate teaching, research, and public service into all they do, creating a center for groundbreaking science, education, and the arts, with an emphasis on the circumpolar North and its diverse peoples," explained the institution. Master's Degree in Civil Engineering Another recent announcement by edX was the launch of an online Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Purdue University’s Lyles School of Engineering. The degree, fully online, is priced at $22,500 (30 credits). "The Master’s degree in Civil Engineering is designed for working professionals to complete part-time, and provides a deep dive into civil engineering with three interdisciplinary tracks: water infrastructure; infrastructure design, resilience and sustainability; and transportation systems. The degree is ranked the #6 civil engineering graduate degree program by U.S. News and World Report," edX explained in a blog post. This is the third online Master’s degree from Purdue offered on edX. Purdue’s online Master’s in Mechanical Engineering was announced in June 2020, and the Electrical and Computer Engineering degree was announced in September 2019. All three degrees are top-10 ranked programs and priced at $22,500.
