Search

This paper investigates how differences in resource endowments of universities shape variation in their response to regulatory pressures. Earlier research on higher education institutions tends to conceive regulatory rules as the primary basis of action and does not attend to differences in the salient characteristics of universities. This paper is based on the premise that satisfying regulatory demands requires resources that are compatible with these demands, making resource endowments of universities a potentially significant source of variation in their responses to regulatory pressures. We empirically investigate the relationship between human resource characteristics of economics, management, and political science departments of Turkish universities and how these departments responded to the intensifying regulatory pressure to publish more in indexed journals. Findings reveal that departments which predominantly employ researchers trained in North American universities published significantly more in indexed journals between 2000 and 2008. These departments are better endowed with respect to resources that are necessary for publishing in indexed journals, most importantly knowledge of theory, methodology, and style sought by indexed journals. The paper shows that attending to differences in resource endowments of universities as well as regulatory goals and tools facilitates understanding of how regulation-driven processes unfold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the contribution made by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) towards enhancing the integration of sustainable development concerns in Africa through its initiative, the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in Africa (MESA) Universities Partnership, during the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). The paper underscores Africa’s wealth and diversity of natural resources while illuminating sustainable development challenges facing the region in order to highlight the need for African universities to respond appropriately. It furthermore outlines the role of education in sustainable development and attempts to contextualise higher education in Africa by exploring universities’ (historical and current) role with regard to ESD. The paper goes onto describe the MESA partnership and list the programme’s key milestones by outlining ESD innovations in African universities, as well as by examining ESD in terms of its global impact and influence on policy to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctoral students are highly important in university—firm relationships, since they are significant producers of knowledge in collaborative research projects, they are an important channel for knowledge transfer between universities and firms, and are vital in network configurations between firms and universities. An increasing number of doctoral students interact with firms, but we know relatively little about the experiences of these students or how collaboration influences their training, research and subsequent careers. With this in mind, this paper presents a literature review of (1) theoretical assumptions concerning the roles doctoral students are expected to fulfill in university–industry relationships, and (2) empirical research of doctoral students’ interaction experience and outcomes of doctoral student-industry interaction. The aim of the paper is to develop hypotheses for further research on doctoral student—industry interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper posits a classification of tertiary education institutions into four tiers: world research universities, selecting universities, recruiting universities, and vocational institutes. The distinguishing characteristic of world research universities is their research strength, the distinguishing characteristic of selecting universities is their strong student demand, the distinguishing characteristic of recruiting universities is their lower student demand, and the distinguishing characteristic of vocational institutes is their predominance of vocational programs. Yet there is one general characteristic that underlies the whole classification: positional value. The classification is put within a theoretical framework which generates tests of the classification proposed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the dynamics of competition in higher education. National competition and global competition are distinct, but feed into each other. Higher education produces ‘positional goods’ (Hirsch 1976) that provide access to social prestige and income-earning. Research universities aim to maximise their status as producers of positional goods. This status is a function of student selectivity plus research performance. At system-level competition bifurcates between exclusivist elite institutions that produce highly value positional goods, where demand always exceeds supply and expansion is constrained to maximise status; and mass institutions (profit and non-profit) characterised by place-filling and expansion. Intermediate universities are differentiated between these poles. In global competition, the networked open information environment has facilitated (1) the emergence of a world-wide positional market of elite US/UK universities; and (2) the rapid development of a commercial mass market led by UK and Australian universities. Global competition is vectored by research capacity. This is dominated by English language, especially US universities, contributing to the pattern of asymmetrical resources and one-way global flows. The paper uses Australia as its example of system segmentation and global/national interface. It closes by reflecting on a more balanced global distribution of capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and the revolution in technological communications are major forces of change in higher education. This environment, when coupled with the needs of adult learners and the rising costs of tuition at traditional colleges and universities, has stimulated the emergence of for-profit, degree-granting higher education in the United States. This paper examines the growth of for-profit higher education, provides a cost/profit analysis, and gives examples of for-profit universities that are increasing international in scope. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these developments for traditional colleges and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores international comparisons of the extent of commonality or diversity in the main national external quality assurance frameworks for higher education. It has been suggested, from an European survey, that there are common features in national quality assurance frameworks (van Vught and Westerheijden (Quality Management and Quality Assurance in European Higher Education: Methods and Mechanisms) 1993; Luxembourg, Commission of the European Communities, Education Training Youth). The paper extends the survey, tapping other comparative reports. These comparisons show that a `general model' of external quality assurance does not universally apply, but that most elements of it do apply in most countries. We conclude that the `general model' provides a starting point from which to map deviations. In each country, there may be specific additions of elements or omissions from the model, but more usually there are modifications or extensions of elements. These variations are determined by practicalities, the size of the higher education sector, the rigidity/flexibility of the legal expression of quality assurance (or the absence of enshrinement in law), and the stage of development from state control of the sector. Some additions to the `general model' are suggested. The paper also considers efforts to produce an international scheme for external quality assurance of higher education, and the applicability of the `general model' to the transfer of quality assurance frameworks from country to country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an emerging interpretive framework for understanding the active role instructional designers play in the transformation of learning systems in higher education. A 3-year study of instructional designers in Canadian universities revealed how, through reflexive critical practice, designers are active, moral, political, and influential in activating change at interpersonal, professional, institutional and societal levels. Through narrative inquiry the voices of designers reflect the scope of agency, community and relational practice in which they regularly engage with faculty in institutions of higher learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methodological diversity has enriched higher education research. One area about which little is known is the dynamics of multi-investigator multi-institutional projects. This paper examines what happens inside a large-scale, team-based research project with an emphasis on decision points related to methodology and reporting results. Systematically reflecting on the tensions that emerged during one effort can give license to other investigators to openly discuss and manage more productively the decisions and struggles in their research and avoid pitfalls that could compromise the research endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationships among life goals, job prospects and fields of study for a sample of young European higher education graduates. The results show that there is a characteristic pattern for each field of study with regard to the variables used. Graduates in a given field have similar life goals and job prospects, as well as a similar educational and social background, irrespective of cultural and labour market differences associated with their country of residence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational history of the Sultanate of Oman has undergone rapid development. In 1970, there were three primary schools. Today, there is universal education, with modern public and private institutions. In 1985, the first teacher education institutions offered a diploma programme. In 1994, six Colleges of Education, offering a degree, were established. Recently, the Directorate General-Colleges of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, introduced a quality assurance process in these colleges based on self-assessment, external review, feedback, and monitored change. This paper outlines how the process was established, the challenges it presented, and the solutions that have been developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As university teachers we find ourselves grappling with the increasingly diverse legacies of students' prior pedagogic experiences – some of which seem to work against the quality intellectual outcomes now demanded from higher education. In this context, this paper reports a descriptive study of pedagogy created for Chinese students in a mainstream Australian secondary school with a high level of tertiary entry. An influential literature on student learning in higher education has pointed to the constraining effects of both Western and Chinese secondary schooling on university students' learning. In the case of Chinese students who enter Western universities from Western secondary schools, the picture is complicated by research indicating that students of English as a Second Language (ESL) receive even more constraining forms of pedagogy than their native-English-speaking peers. A framework of Bernsteinian sociological concepts and discourse analytic concepts was employed in the study reported here to explore this possibility. Implications are drawn for managing the transition of ESL students to university contexts, and for reflecting on our own responses to linguistic and cultural diversity in the tutorial room. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]