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Since European Union (EU) enlargement in 2003, labour migration from East to West and South to North has increased. It is to be expected that a share of these workers will want to retire in their host countries. According to the academic literature, EU legislation protects such mobility well by allowing the transfer of rights accrued in any EU country to another. However, such research has focused on legislation, not outcomes. We know little about how migration will affect the financial status of retired migrants in their host country and their ability to sustain a life there, should they stay after retirement. Using migration, wage and pension policy data (Eurostat, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), this paper projects the post-retirement incomes of a range of hypothetical EU migrants, selected in relation to the most common migratory flows since 2003. After having worked in their home countries (Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy) for at least ten years, these people move to richer countries (Italy, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom) and work there for at least 30 years. To determine whether they can remain settled after decades of labour force participation in the host country, the paper adds their pension entitlements from home and host countries and compares this income with the relative poverty line of the host countries. This shows that good portability of entitlements matters little when these are very low because of a large wage gap between home and host country. Thus, after at least 30 years of enjoying all citizenship rights as workers, most of these individuals are projected to receive incomes below the relative poverty line of their host countries and thus experience a sharp drop in this status. Their citizenship is diminished. The paper concludes by considering policies that could avoid such an outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the diversity in patients' experience of biomedicine and contrasts it with the normative view characteristic of health professionals. Ethnographic fieldwork among Polish migrant women in London, Barcelona and Berlin included interviews about their experiences with local healthcare and health professionals. Themes drawn from the narratives are differences between the cities in terms of communication between patients and health professionals, respect for patients' choices and dignity, attitudes to pregnancy and birth (different levels of medicalization), and paediatric care. It is argued that patients continuously negotiate among their own views and expectations based on previous experiences and knowledge from personal communication; internet forums and publications; and the offer of medical services in the countries of their settlement. Patients experience pluralism of therapeutic traditions within and outside bio-medicine. In turn, representatives of bio-medicine are rarely aware of other medical practices and beliefs and this leads to various misunderstandings. By highlighting the pluralism of medical practices in European countries and the increasing mobility of patients, this case study has useful implications for medical anthropologists and health professionals in a broader Western context, such as raising sensitivity to different communication strategies and a diversity of curing traditions and expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relation between risk of job automation and participation in adult education and training (AET) and examines variation in that relation across welfare regimes distinguishing between situational and institutional barriers. Using microdata of PIAAC, we analyze participation in formal or nonformal AET for job-related reasons in relation to the risk of automation of the respondents' occupation after controlling for main sociodemographic characteristics. Logistic regression models are run on respondents from 14 European countries representing different welfare regimes: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (Scandinavian countries); Italy, Greece, and Spain (Southern European); Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland (Central and Eastern Europe), Belgium, France, and Germany (Continental); and United Kingdom and Ireland (Anglo-Saxon countries). Our findings confirm that workers in occupations at high risk of automation were found to be consistently less likely to participate in job-related AET, quite irrespective of welfare regime. [The paper was presented at XIII Conferenza Espanet Italia--Il welfare state di fronte alle sfide globali (Venezia, 17 September 2020).]

This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014-2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills. [This study was presented at the 9th International Congress of Educational Research. Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.]

Aim: To investigate nursing/midwifery students, Clinical Mentors, Link Teachers and Head Nurses experiences within "Dedicated Education Unit" model in 6 European clinical placements and analyse the necessary elements for a powerful clinical learning environment. Design: A multi‐country, phenomenological, qualitative study. Methods: Focus group interviews were performed to identify the personal and organizational factors of importance for students and nurses/midwives. Results: Data analysis produced 4 main themes (1) Clinical placement organization, (2) students' clinical knowledge and skill acquisition, (3) students, and nurses/midwives' experiences within the DEU model and (4) factors for creating an effective learning environment. Conclusions: A close educational‐service collaboration, a realistic clinical placement planning, a focus on student learning process and an investment in professionals' education and development among others, are elements to set up a powerful clinical learning environment. Implications for the profession: It is considered advisable and urgent to improve the working conditions of nurses/midwives and the learning environments of students as a strategy to alleviate the global shortage of nurses and respond to the increasingly demanding health needs of the population. Impact: Due to the close relationship between students' learning and features of the clinical environment nurse educators seek innovative models which allow students to manage patient care and their transition to professional practice. To implement new learning strategies, identifying students, nurses and midwives perceptions and suggestions is a powerful information to evaluate implementation process and outcomes. Public Contribution: Our findings could help academic and clinical managers to meet the human and organizational requirements to create a successful learning environment in every student placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

Objective: Local wound infections are a major challenge for patients and health professionals. Various diagnostic and therapeutic options are available. However, a generally accepted standard is still lacking in Europe. The aim was to develop an easy-to-use clinical score for the early detection of local wound infections, as a basis for decisionmaking on antiseptic therapy or decolonisation. Method: An interdisciplinary and interprofessional panel of experts from seven European countries was brought together to discuss the various aspects of diagnosing local wound infections. Results: The result was the adoption of the Therapeutic Index for Local Infections (TILI) score, developed in Germany by Initiative Chronische Wunden e.V., specifically for health professionals not specialised in wound care. Available in six European languages, the TILI score could also be adapted for different European countries, depending on their specific national healthcare requirements. The six clinical criteria for local wound infection are erythema to surrounding skin; heat; oedema, induration or swelling; spontaneous pain or pressure pain; stalled wound healing; and increase and/or change in colour or smell of exudate. Meeting all criteria indicates that antiseptic wound therapy could be started. Regardless of these unspecific clinical signs, there are also health conditions for the clinical situation which are a direct indication for antimicrobial wound therapy. These include the presence of wound pathogens, such as meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, septic surgical wound or the presence of free pus. Conclusion: The development of the new internationally adapted TILI score, which could also be used by any caregiver in daily practice to diagnose local infections in acute and hard-to-heal wounds, is the result of expert consensus. However, the score system has to be validated through a clinical evaluation. This is to be performed in expert centres throughout Europe. Declaration of interest: JD has received research support, lecture fees and travel-cost reimbursements from 4M, Coloplast, Convatec, Draco, Engelhardt, Paul Hartmann, KCI, Lohmann&Rauscher, Mölnlycke, SastoMed and Urgo. RL has received research support, lecture fees and travel-cost reimbursements from Mölnlycke and Urgo. AK has received research support, lecture fees and travel-cost reimbursements from 3M, B. Braun Melsungen, Bode/Paul Hartmann, Ethicon, Lohmann&Rauscher, Mundipharma, Oculus, SastoMed Schülke&Mayr, SERAG-WIESSNER and Urgo. JVS has received research support, lecture fees and travel-cost reimbursements from Mundipharma, Histocell, Quesper and Urgo. This work was supported by an unlimited grant from Urgo Medical. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Urgo Medical. The company had no direct influence on the content of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research within this paper compares the positioning of students and corporate branding features on higher education institution websites within the higher education systems of Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Spain and Poland. The selection of countries reflects among other things different governance regimes. The paper first outlines the analytical framework used for content analysis of the extent to which evidence of the marketization of higher education is present on higher education institutions' websites--especially with regard to the positioning and construction of student applicants. Secondly, it uses MANOVA to explain the variance by country and institutional type in relation to the presence (or absence) of different website features. Analysis of higher education institutions' websites confirms the initial expectations about the link between market-driven higher education governance structures and constructions of students as customers. Nevertheless, the variance in these overall trends is high. Despite the presence of corporate-style features on the higher education institution websites and the linked understanding of students as customers, the between-country and within-country differences reveal also sometimes even more dominant alternative understandings of students and student applicants. In the systems with more academic self-governance or with a state-centred mode of governance (usually mixed together like in Germany, Spain or the state sector in Poland), students are seen either as novices in the academic community or recipients of public service. The empirical findings presented in this article suggest that there is considerable diversity in the portrayal of student applicants on higher education institution websites in Europe, rather than a common construction as only consumers.

Despite existing empirical work that explores the multiple ways in which students develop a sense of belonging in higher education, there is a dearth of comparative research about the extent to which the concepts of community and belonging are central to what it means to be a student and how students in different national contexts (beyond Anglophone countries) construct community and belonging. Drawing on qualitative data from students from six European countries, we provide an account of conceptualisations of community and belonging. Specifically, this paper extends discussions around community and belonging in higher education through comparative inquiry. Notwithstanding the individualised and consumerist framing of students accompanied by market reforms in higher education across Europe, it shows that the notion of community and/or belonging features prominently in students' narratives. We also demonstrate how a sense of community and belonging is experienced on different levels. Crucially, the emphasis placed on community in students' sense of belonging varies by the country, pointing towards the continued influence of distinctive national traditions, structures and norms of higher education. Our analysis contributes to wider debates about the development of a European Higher Education Area and its impact on European homogenisation.

Although concepts such as research without borders have become more commonplace in recent decades, few studies have investigated the capabilities that global researchers require to cross both cultural and disciplinary borders. This paper explores global capabilities along with strategies and spaces that may facilitate academic researchers' acquisition and development of global research competence. The study's dataset comprises responses of 26 participants across 15 countries -- all of whom are members of a specific comparative education society -- who contributed their views via e-questionnaire. Findings indicate that research capacity building is a dynamic process and global competence calls for complex skills and conscious attitudes. Commitment to expand scientific curiosity beyond one's own culture and academic discipline appears to be a main criterion in achieving global competence. Results of this study are not meant to be prescriptive but rather exploratory and informative for a broad group of academic stakeholders.

The objective of this paper is to understand how the public's beliefs in five countries may change as more families have direct experience with Alzheimer's disease. The data are derived from a questionnaire survey conducted by telephone (landline and cell) with 2678 randomly selected adults in France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United States. The paper analyzes the beliefs and anticipated behavior of those in each country who report having had a family member with Alzheimer's disease versus those who do not. In one or more countries, differences were found between the two groups in their concern about getting Alzheimer's disease, knowledge that the disease is fatal, awareness of certain symptoms, and support for increased public spending. The results suggest that as more people have experience with a family member who has Alzheimer's disease, the public will generally become more concerned about Alzheimer's disease and more likely to recognize that Alzheimer's disease is a fatal disease. The findings suggest that other beliefs may only be affected if there are future major educational campaigns about the disease. The publics in individual countries, with differing cultures and health systems, are likely to respond in different ways as more families have experience with Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION Surveillance of tobacco consumption in public places is an important measure to evaluate the impact of tobacco control interventions over time. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of smoking as seen by smokers and their smoking behaviour in public places, in six European countries. METHODS We used baseline data of the International Tobacco Control Six European countries (ITC 6E) Survey, part of the EUREST-PLUS Project, conducted in 2016 in national representative samples of about 1000 adult smokers aged 18 years and older in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Spain. For each setting (workplaces, restaurants, bars/pubs and discos) participants were asked whether they had seen someone smoking during their last visit there and whether they too had smoked there. We report the overall and by-country weighted prevalence of seeing someone smoking and the smokers' own smoking behaviour at each setting. We also assess the relationship between seeing someone smoking and smoking themselves at these settings. RESULTS The prevalence of smoking as seen by smokers was 18.8% at workplaces, with high variability among countries (from 4.7% in Hungary to 40.8% in Greece). Among smokers visiting leisure facilities in the last year, during their last visit 22.7% had seen someone smoking inside restaurants and 12.2% had smoked themselves there, while for bars/pubs the corresponding prevalences were 33.9% and 20.4%, and inside discos 44.8% and 34.8%. CONCLUSIONS Smoking is still prevalent at leisure facilities, particularly at discos in Europe, with high variability among countries. More extensive awareness campaigns and stricter enforcement are needed to increase the compliance of smokefree regulations, especially in leisure facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION The availability of lower-cost cigarettes in neighboring countries provides price-sensitive smokers with incentives to purchase cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This study estimates the prevalence of and factors associated with cross-border purchasing of cheaper cigarettes among smokers from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The prevalence of cross-border purchasing was estimated by residential location, defined as living in regions bordering a lower-price country (where prices were at least €1/pack lower), regions bordering a similar- or higher-price country, and internal non-border regions. METHODS Data were from a survey of nationally representative samples of adult smokers (n=6011) from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The primary outcome was purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Residential location was defined using The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS2 in Germany and NUTS3 in the other countries). Multivariable logistic regression tested differences in purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes by country and residential location. RESULTS Residential location was associated with purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in Germany and Poland (p<0.05): 31% of German and 11% of Polish smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries reported purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries had 4.21 times greater odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes compared to smokers living in non-border regions. CONCLUSIONS Overall, only a minority of smokers in the six countries purchased cheaper cigarettes outside their country. However, smokers living in regions bordering countries where cigarettes were at least €1/pack lower than their home country had significantly higher odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This effect was especially prominent among German smokers. Tax harmonization policies designed to minimize crossborder price differentials can eliminate lower-priced alternatives for price-sensitive smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores linguistic landscapes and the enactment of public visibility and presence of non-majority linguistic groups in EU member states. Non-majority linguistic groups gain power, visibility and presence through the introduction of bilingual or multilingual signposts on roads, streets, squares, and public buildings in towns and cities where a given linguistic group represents a significant population share. The article offers a comparative analysis of language policies of EU member states regarding enactment of official bilingual or multilingual signs in public space. Twenty EU member states have signed the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages," while 17 members have ratified it. In addition, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, an integral party of the Lisbon Treaty, stipulates that language diversity is one of the fundamental values respected by the EU. Hence, this comparative research assesses various practices employed by member states in relation to the proclaimed values of multilingualism. Consequently, the paper depicts and compares different language policies that produce linguistic landscapes in EU member states. Finally, it tries to determine whether there is a convergence towards a common EU policy on bilingual and multilingual signs in public space.

This paper explores patterns in participation in adult education and training (AET) by comparing five countries with high participation rates (the Nordic countries and the Netherlands) with three countries with significantly lower participation rates (France, Poland and the Slovak Republic). Using PIAAC data the paper examines differences in the levels of demand for AET as well as variations in barriers to AET participation between the two groups of countries. The demand for AET is higher than the actual participation rate since it includes those who do not participate although they wish to. The demand for AET is substantially higher in countries with high participation rates. Further, the structure and level of barriers is quite similar in the two groups of countries. Countries with low AET participation rate do not have a higher proportion of individuals reporting barriers to AET participation; that they do not participate in AET although they wish to. In both groups of countries demand for AET is strongly associated with the individuals' educational level. The findings are discussed by drawing on previous studies on drivers of and barriers to participation in AET.

This paper argues that links between academia and other economic sectors are increasing, especially through intersectoral mobility of university graduates. Murray [(2010). "The Oncomouse that Roared: Hybrid Exchange Strategies as a Source of Distinction at the Boundary of Overlapping Institutions." "American Journal of Sociology" 116 (2): 341-388] has identified literature pointing both to blending and continuing co-existence of the academic and commercial worlds. Based on a European-wide study of PhD graduates in the social sciences and humanities (SSH), this paper considers the extent to which intersectoral mobility reflects blending. It finds that intersectoral communities of practice exist mainly in applied fields of knowledge. However, in many areas of the SSH, differences in institutional norms and values inhibit intersectoral mobility, particularly in mid-career stages.

Background: Individual differences in personality and resilience are related to a variety of social behaviors. The current study sought to answer the question of whether BMW drivers exhibit different personality profiles and resilience levels compared with drivers of other car brands. Participants and procedure: An international study was carried out in India, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain on a sample of 448 athletes using the 20-item Mini-IPIP and the Resilience Scale. The results of BMW drivers (n = 91) were compared with the results of drivers of other German car brands (n = 357). Results: BMW drivers were characterized by higher neuroticism compared with drivers of other German car brands. They also showed higher resiliency, both in terms of total score and scores on the subscales of: personal coping competences and tolerance of negative emotions, tolerance of failures and perceiving life as a challenge, and optimistic attitude towards life and capacity for self-mobilization in difficult situations. The greatest difference was observed for the factor of tolerance of failures and perceiving life as a challenge. Using the Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner (DSCF) pairwise comparison test, gender differences between athletes (as BMW drivers and drivers of other German car brands, respectively) were discussed. Additionally, the results of the main logistic regression analyses emphasized that neuroticism represents a better predictor of BMW preference in the case of athletes (as drivers) than the scores obtained for resilience. Conclusions: BMW drivers differed from drivers of other German car brands only with regard to neuroticism. A higher level of neuroticism can affect mental health and the overall quality of life in athletes; aggression and distress management are essential. Athletes (as BMW drivers) also showed differences in resiliency levels. Understanding the mechanisms of behavior among BMW drivers is possible through considering their personality and individual differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the examination of the researches about the use of technology by fine arts teachers. The study was conducted according to the content and citation analysis model. In this context, Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection indexes were included. In the document scanning in the WOS environment, the keywords 'Fine arts', 'Teachers' and 'Technology' were searched. In total, 169 documents were examined and analysed one by one. They were analysed according to year, document type, WOS content category, country, source title, organisation and citation, authors, publication language and categories. As a result of this research, the first study was conducted in 2004, while the most studies were conducted in 2016. It was concluded that the published studies had the most Proceedings papers as the document type. The area where the studies of fine arts teachers on the use of technology are mostly carried out is Education Educational Research, according to the Web of Science content category. The most researched title in the distribution according to the Source Title field is 'International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts.' The university with the most studies is Kazan Federal University. The 19 authors who conducted the studies have a large number of studies in this field. It was concluded that other authors had only one study in the field. Again, when we look at the distribution of the countries and documents according to the language of writing, the country with the most studies is China and the language of the documents is English. The area continues to evolve.

Context: Existing studies have explored the association between workplace training and wages suggesting that training participation may have a positive association with wages. However, we still know very little about whether this association varies between men and women. Through its potential positive association with wages, training may balance wage differences between men and women. In addition, the gender wage gap varies across the wage distribution. Differences in the association between training participation and wages for men and women across the earnings spectrum may offer an explanation as to why the discrepancy in female/male earnings is larger at some point of the wage distribution compared to others. Approach: Using data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and unconditional quantile regression, this paper examines whether the association between workplace training and wages differs between men and women at different points of the wage distribution across 14 European countries. To partly control for endogeneity in training participation, detailed measures of cognitive skills have been included in the models. Findings: Findings show gender differences in the association between training and wages across the wage distribution. In most countries, results indicate larger training coefficients for women than men at the lower end of the wage spectrum whereas they are larger for men at the top. This pattern holds across most countries with the only exception of Liberal ones, where women benefit less than men across the entire wage spectrum. Conclusions: The findings of this work reveal that distributional variations in returns to workplace training follow a similar pattern across industrialized countries, despite their different institutional settings. Moreover, differences in training coefficients of men and women at different parts of the wage distribution suggest that training could reduce gender wage differences among low earners and potentially widen the gap in wages among individuals at the top of the wage distribution.

Preschool education is an education process that prepares children for primary education, provides the training and upbringing conditions in the home and also aims to remove the inequalities in terms of language and society in the early period. The audit is to evaluate learning and all the factors that affect learning and also prepare the environment and conditions for effective learning. The purpose of this research was to develop a comprehensive point of view for preschool education audit in the world and our country. Document analysis that is one of the qualitative research methods were utilized in this paper as the method. The documents related to the systems in France, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Russia, China, Israel, America, Saudi Arabia, Japan, India Jordan, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Kosovo and Turkey were researched out within the scope of this study.

Aims. Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are prevalent in Europe but occurrence in primary care and the proportion of treated cases are understudied. This study reports prevalence of AUDs and their treatment in European primary health care settings and compares them with general population estimates.Procedure. We sampled 358 general practitioners (GPs, refusal rate: 56.4%) across six European countries (Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Spain) who assessed 13,003 patients including providing AUD diagnoses. A subsample of 8,476 patients (refusal rate: 17.8%) was interviewed subsequently, assessing DSM-IV AUD diagnoses via the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Final AUD diagnoses combined GP and patient interview information.Findings. Past year AUDs were prevalent with 11.8% (95% CI: 11.2–12.5%) across all regions, which is 1.6 times the European general population AUD estimate. Of those diagnosed with AUDs, 17.7% (95% CI: 15.4–20.0%) received professional help. Compared to general population estimates, AUDs and their treatment were more prevalent in primary care settings in most countries, with disproportionally high AUD rates in Italy and Spain and unexpectedly low AUD rates in Hungary.Conclusions. We found higher prevalence and treatment rates of AUDs in primary health care compared to general population surveys, with large variability between the observed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is the core of the factors that improved people for a better lifestyle and increases the level of society' development. Quality education is one of the most vital goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to actualizing these factors. Using relational network data envelopment analysis (DEA), which have three interrelated substages, this current paper computes the educational economy efficiency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries bearing in mind the characteristics related to SDGs. The contribution of our study is the use of a novel approach to computing the educational economy efficiency using relational network DEA with GAMS. Even though some interesting differences reveal in the efficiency of the countries, the findings show that countries with high-efficiency scores are clustered around countries like Latvia, Slovenia, and Korea.

The objective of this paper is an efficiency analysis concerning higher education systems in European countries. Data have been extracted from OECD data-sets (Education at a Glance, several years), using a non-parametric technique--data envelopment analysis--to calculate efficiency scores. This paper represents the first attempt to conduct such an efficiency analysis at a system-level in a cross-country comparison, while focusing only on tertiary education. The role of the public sector has also been analysed, by looking at the percentage of public spending devoted to higher education, and the way the public funds are used (channelled through private subsidies or directly assigned to institutions). It has been found that there is a small core of efficient units (e.g. Switzerland, United Kingdom), and that the influence of the public sector seems to play a role in determining efficiency scores. Many elements, related to critical policies, have also been analysed adopting a semi-parametric approach, to better explain the performances and efficiency differentials. Some key-policy implications have been derived. (Contains 12 notes, 11 tables, and 2 figures.)

This paper presents the main results of a recent survey of private higher education institutions from twelve selected European countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia) [in the framework of the UNESCO-CEPES project on "Private Higher Education in Europe and Quality Assurance and Accreditation from the Perspectives of the Bologna process Objectives," designed and implemented in collaboration with "Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management (LKAEM) and the World Bank"]. After a brief review of the current incidence of private education in the selected European countries, the authors give a description of the survey. Then the main findings are structured according to the nine goals of the Bologna Process and their corresponding level of implementation in private higher education institutions, and also to provide comparisons with public higher education institutions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and with some general remarks about the role of private higher education institutions in building the EHEA. (Contains 14 tables, 12 footnotes and 3 figures.)

Globalisation, technological changes and the industry-to-service economy transition has produced dramatic changes in the labour market, thus affecting higher education. It is no longer sufficient to provide students with disciplinary knowledge. Graduates are also expected to be adaptive, innovative and flexible. As these competencies are better developed in connection with practice, this implies modifications in the learning design. In this context, work-based learning (WBL) emerges as a relevant approach as it provides students learning experiences oriented for the appreciation of work and practical knowledge. However, several issues still restrain its expansion in the European Union (EU). There is (1) a great disparity in WBL implementation among EU countries which relates to educational cultures, (2) a concentration in certain disciplinary areas such as business and engineering, and (3) a lack of quality assurance. Drawing on reports and materials produced by the Erasmus+ project Integrating Entrepreneurship and Work Experience into Higher Education (WEXHE), this paper explores these issues by identifying differences in the level of implementation as well as design and delivery of WBL in seven EU countries across four disciplinary areas. It then brings forward success factors and drivers instrumental to the further development of better WBL.

The growing need to improve the quality and efficiency of translation by using technology has stimulated the practice of and research into translation technology teaching (TTT). Naturally, there is a need to analyse the state of the art and development of TTT from a quantitative perspective, because such research is still very scarce. This paper uses the bibliometric technologies, CiteSpace and VOSviewer in particular, to delineate the publication information of TTT-related research mainly in two citation databases, i.e., Web of Science (WoS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), from the year 1999 to 2020. It finds that China is gaining importance in TTT-related research, that international English-language publications pay more attention to the teaching of MTPE, while Chinese-language publications focus more on corpus-based TTT, and that English publications tend to use empirical methods, while Chinese publications tend to adopt non-empirical methods. The differences between the two publication communities in research methods and focuses call for contact and exchange between the two communities.

There is a growing body of scholarship on how students see themselves, and also on how they are conceptualised by other social actors. However, what has been less explored is how students believe they are seen by others, and how this impacts them. Drawing on focus groups with students across Europe -- and particularly plasticine models students made to depict how they felt they were seen by relevant others -- this paper will illustrate how the four most common ways in which students felt they were constructed were as hedonistic and lazy; useless and a burden; clever, hardworking, and successful; and a resource to be exploited. It will argue that such stereotypes had significant material impact on students' lives and how they experienced being a student. Finally, it will analyse how specific national contexts accounted for a range of variations in how students articulated these constructions.

The application of academic freedom may lead to a violation of individual rights, such as the right to respect private life or institutional rights such as university autonomy, or the right of the religious community to self-determination. These collisions between rights are resolved by constitutional courts either according to the proportionality test or by balancing the rights. This paper investigates cases from Czechia, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, where academic freedom collided with other constitutional rights, in order to determine methods for resolving these types of conflicts. This analysis demonstrates the way in which proportionality allows the construction of the content of academic freedom. It also shows the reasons why academic freedom could become a weak right and why sometimes it is a strong right.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have been performed on the relationship between working conditions and health. Numerous parameters still require further study, including working hours and obesity among different groups, specifically older workers in national, regional, and international levels. OBJECTIVE: Working hours have considerable effects on the socio-cultural, psychological, and economic aspects of people's lives and health. While long working hours increases income level and raises living standards, it increases the risk of certain health problems. This study investigated whether working hours are associated with obesity in upper-middle-aged workers. METHODS: The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) dataset was used for the analyses. Analyses were carried out by means of a Cox regression of the panel dataset created with the data in question, surveyed by European Commission to 12,000 participants. RESULTS: The survey was performed in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Ireland. We found that in most countries, especially Sweden and the Netherlands, upper-middle-aged employees working > 59 hours per week are more likely to gain weight than their counterparts working < 59 hours. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings raise awareness of obesity in older workers, and highlight the need to regulate working conditions and hours in the European Union and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation examining provision of physical education continuing professional development (CPD) in European countries undertaken to identify the types of practices being employed. We begin by providing a brief overview of what we currently know about CPD internationally in general education and physical education. Data are reported to reflect Parker and Patton's (2017) key characteristics of CPD that highlight effective CPD, summarise current trends and issues in physical education, and are intended to serve as a guide to how teachers learn and how they might be better served in that learning in these European countries. Studying current practices in CPD provision identified in this study provided modest insight to inform teacher education programmes and CPD providers on the current status of physical education CPD currently being employed in Europe. We propose these findings might inform international and comparative education with respect to CPD and set the foundation for physical education colleagues in Europe to develop a CPD network where endeavours such as sharing of CPD practices, engaging in discussion of those practices, and the design of collaborative research on such CPD practices are based.

Purpose: The objective of this secondary analysis is to describe the types of commercial complementary foods (CCF) consumed by infants and young children enrolled in the European Childhood Obesity Project (CHOP), to describe the contribution of CCF to dietary energy intakes and to determine factors associated with CCF use over the first 2 years of life. Methods: The CHOP trial is a multicenter intervention trial in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Spain that tested the effect of varying levels of protein in infant formula on the risk for childhood obesity. Infants were recruited from October 2002 to June 2004. Dietary data on CCF use for this secondary analysis were taken from weighted, 3-day dietary records from 1088 infants at 9 time points over the first 2 years of life. Results: Reported energy intakes from CCF during infancy (4–9 months) was significantly higher (p ≤ 0.002) amongst formula-fed children compared to breastfed children. Sweetened CCF intakes were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.009) amongst formula-fed infants. Female infants were fed significantly less CCF and infant age was strongly associated with daily CCF intakes, peaking at 9 months of age. Infants from families with middle- and high-level of education were fed significantly less quantities of CCF compared to infants with parents with lower education. Sweetened CCF were very common in Spain, Italy and Poland, with over 95% of infants and children fed CCF at 9 and 12 months of age consuming at least one sweetened CCF. At 24 months of age, 68% of the CHOP cohort were still fed CCF. Conclusions: CCF comprised a substantial part of the diets of this cohort of European infants and young children. The proportion of infants being fed sweetened CCF is concerning. More studies on the quality of commercial complementary foods in Europe are warranted, including market surveys on the saturation of the Western European market with sweetened CCF products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: To examine the association between registered nurses' (referred to as "nurses" for brevity) shifts of 12 hr or more and presence of continuing educational programmes; ability to discuss patient care with other nurses; assignments that foster continuity of care; and patient care information being lost during handovers. Background: The introduction of long shifts (i.e., shifts of 12 hr or more) remains controversial. While there are claims of efficiency, studies have shown long shifts to be associated with adverse effects on quality of care. Efficiency claims are predicated on the assumption that long shifts reduce overlaps between shifts; these overlaps are believed to be unproductive and dangerous. However, there are potentially valuable educational and communication activities that occur during these overlaps. Design: Cross‐sectional survey of 31,627 nurses within 487 hospitals in 12 European countries. Methods: The associations were measured through generalised linear mixed models. The study methods were compliant with the STROBE checklist. Results: When nurses worked shifts of 12 hr or more, they were less likely to report having continuing educational programmes; and time to discuss patient care with other nurses, compared to nurses working 8 hr or less. Nurses working shifts of 12 hr or more were less likely to report assignments that foster continuity of care, albeit the association was not significant. Similarly, working long shifts was associated with reports of patient care information being lost during handovers, although association was not significant. Conclusion: Working shifts of 12 hr or more is associated with reduced educational activities and fewer opportunities to discuss patient care, with potential negative consequences for safe and effective care. Relevance to clinical practice: Implementation of long shifts should be questioned, as reduced opportunity to discuss care or participate in educational activities may jeopardise the quality and safety of care for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study illustrates the huge untapped potential of quantifying the impact of culture in making meaningful comparisons across groups. Our focus is on cross‐national differences in nurses' reports of their relations with physicians, and how the measurement of this complex construct and the evaluation of true differences are related to dimensions of national culture. Design: We examine across 14 European countries the association between indices of national culture from the seminal work of Hofstede and 39,435 nurses' ratings of their relations with physicians. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate strong factorial invariance across countries and to examine the influence of power distance and masculinity. Findings: There was wide variation across countries in nurses' reports of their relations with physicians. Strong factorial invariance was shown for a one‐factor model, which confirmed that across countries the seven survey items measure a common factor of physician‐nurse relations. This model showed no country bias for any of the seven survey items, which suggests that differences across countries reflect true differences. These true differences were significantly associated with variation in country values of power distance, which showed a significant negative correlation with physician–nurse relations. Conclusions: Continuously pursuing a better understanding of characteristics that impact the studied indicators, such as national culture, is elementary to better understand the construct under study. In this application, country values of power distance negatively impacted nurse‐reported relations with physicians, which strongly varied across countries. Clinical Relevance: Better nurse‐reported relations between nurses and physicians link to higher nurse job satisfaction, lower emotional exhaustion, better nurse‐perceived quality of care, and lower patient mortality. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index is an excellent instrument to characterize variation in working relations between nurses and physicians as well as physicians' professional posture towards nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Europe, assumptions are often made within the academic literature and by some social commentators that students have come to understand the purpose of higher education (HE) in increasingly instrumental terms. This is often linked to processes of marketisation and neo-liberalisation across the Global North, in which the value of HE has come to be associated with economic reward and labour market participation and measured through a relatively narrow range of metrics. It is also associated with the establishment, in 2010, of the European Higher Education Area, which is argued to have brought about the refiguration of European universities around an Anglo-American model. Scholars have contended that students have become consumer-like in their behaviour and preoccupied by labour market outcomes rather than processes of learning and knowledge generation. Often, however, such claims are made on the basis of limited empirical evidence, or a focus on policies and structures rather than the perspectives of students themselves. In contrast, this paper draws on a series of 54 focus groups with 295 students conducted in six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain). It shows how understandings of the purpose of HE are more nuanced than much of the extant literature suggests and vary, at least to some extent, by both nation-state and higher education institution. Alongside viewing the purpose of HE as preparing them for the labour market, students emphasised the importance of tertiary-level study for personal growth and enrichment, and societal development and progress. These findings have implications for policy and practice. In particular, the broader purposes of HE, as articulated by the students in this study, should be given greater recognition by policymakers, those teaching in HE, and the wider public instead of, as is often the case, positioning students as consumers, interested in only economic gain.

In this paper, I examine whether generalized trust and education, as well as social security policies of welfare state institutions matter for cross-national differences in subjective well-being (SWB), because knowledge on this issue is still lacking. For this purpose I integrated the insights of two sociological theories: Social Function Production theory and Actor-Centred Institutionalism. Based on these theoretical notions we derived several hypotheses, which I tested using multilevel analysis of the data from the European Social Survey (2006), in a sample of 37,237 respondents from 22 European countries. My findings indicate that various extensiveness of social security policies matter for the level of SWB, and for the impact of education on SWB. I found negative impact of low education on SWB in all countries, except in Northern and Western European countries. This might suggest that social security policies of the latter countries have diminished the negative impact of low education on SWB. Moreover, my findings indicate positive relationship between individual education and generalized trust; as well as between generalized trust and SWB in countries with all five types of social security policies.

Purpose: To clarify needs and requests of the young generation to the contemporary and future education on food systems, this paper aims to examine the following issues: students' background knowledge, students' behaviour as consumers and food citizenship, most interesting topics of SFS for students and students' preferences and expectations in developing different skills, topics and preferences in teaching/learning methods. Design/methodology/approach: This study was performed as an online-survey amongst eight European Universities in seven European Union (EU) countries to which 1,122 students responded. Data was analysed with descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses. Findings: Taste and Health are the most important values and motives that influence students' food buying and consumption decisions, but significant differences were found amongst students from different universities and countries. The most important topics for students for future teaching courses are "organic food", "fair trade", "organic agriculture" and most important skills to learn are "ability to make a judgement and justify decisions" and the "ability to create and innovate". Excursions and field trips as teaching methods was given the highest ranks. Research limitations/implications: Different study programmes and cultural backgrounds of the participating students in the different universities could be a limiting factor for the interpretation of some results. Originality/value: These results provide a basis for improvement of higher education in the EU towards sustainable food systems based on experiential learning/teaching methods.

This paper presents one of the first cross-nationally comparative studies on the economic and social returns to grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals). Specifically, we investigated whether grit incrementally predicted objective (income) and subjective (job satisfaction) career success over and above cognitive skills and educational attainment; whether grit's association with career success was moderated by individual characteristics; whether grit's associations with career success varied across countries; and whether this variation could be explained by labour market conditions (unemployment rates). Multi-group structural equation models with data from 6,738 respondents from 19 countries revealed that grit was incrementally associated with income and job satisfaction in some but not all countries. Grit's effect sizes were mostly modest, yet there were some indications for variations by education and labour market conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that the associations between grit and career success are not uniform but vary across individuals and contexts.

Cultural background is an important variable influencing neuropsychological performance. Multinational projects usually involve gathering data from participants from different countries and/or different cultures. Little is known about the influence of culture on neuropsychological testing results in children and especially in European children. The objectives of this study were to compare neuropsychological performance of children from six European countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland and Spain) using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and to apply a statistical procedure to reduce the influence of country/cultural differences in neuropsychological performance. As expected, the results demonstrated differences in neuropsychological performance among children of the six countries involved. Cultural differences remained after adjusting for other confounders related to neuropsychological execution, such as sex, type of delivery, maternal age, gestational age and maternal educational level. Differences between countries disappeared and influence of culture was considerably reduced when standardised scores by country and sex were used. These results highlight the need for developing specific procedures to compare neuropsychological performance among children from different cultures to be used in multicentre studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses which conditions may predict a better salary for people who got a PhD in social sciences and humanities (SS&H) in 13 European countries. Among the controlling variables, predictors are also: change of country of residence; percentage of time spent respectively in research and managerial activities; and impacts achieved during one's PhD programme. Findings, but also policy implications both for PhD programme planners and PhD candidates, are: some specific impacts such as having advised policy-makers, having released interviews to media and having managed and coordinated projects, all predict better salaries for PhD holders in SS&H, other things being equal. To move geographically out of one's country where PhD was awarded is also a good predictor of better wages, provided PhD holders do not swap sectors after attainment of PhD.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to adapt the Systemic Sclerosis Quality of Life Questionnaire (SScQoL) into six European cultures and validate it as a common measure of quality of life in systemic sclerosis (SSc).Methods: This was a seven-country (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and UK) cross-sectional study. A forward-backward translation process was used to adapt the English SScQoL into target languages. SScQoL was completed by patients with SSc, then data were validated against the Rasch model. To correct local response dependency, items were grouped into the following subscales: function, emotion, sleep, social and pain and reanalysed for fit to the model, unidimensionality and cross-cultural equivalence.Results: The adaptation of the SScQoL was seamless in all countries except Germany. Cross-cultural validation included 1080 patients with a mean age 58.0 years (SD 13.9) and 87% were women. Local dependency was evident in individual country data. Grouping items into testlets corrected the local dependency in most country specific data. Fit to the model, reliability and unidimensionality was achieved in six-country data after cross-cultural adjustment for Italy in the social subscale. The SScQoL was then calibrated into an interval level scale.Conclusion: The individual SScQoL items have translated well into five languages and overall, the scale maintained its construct validity, working well as a five-subscale questionnaire. Measures of quality of life in SSc can be directly compared across five countries (France, Poland Spain, Sweden and UK). Data from Italy are also comparable with the other five countries although require an adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]