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This article draws attention to local and global attendance monitoring in higher education. The paper outlines benefits of attendance monitoring for both the individual learner and university, and compares traditional paper‐based attendance monitoring systems with an electronic system piloted in the Business School and School of Technology at the University of Glamorgan. Typical problems associated with attendance monitoring are examined, and both attendance monitoring approaches are evaluated in terms of quantity and quality of data capture. Finally, student views on having attendance closely monitored are evaluated. This paper is of interest to anyone who uses attendance data, particularly for those who work in the field of student retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers conceptions of the term 'academic identity' amongst lecturers delivering higher education business programmes (HEBPs) in further education colleges (FECs). A brief look at leading authors' work on the subject of identity is considered first, which then moves on to offer a preconception of the term 'academic'. The data was drawn from a 2009 doctoral study by Feather looking at this subject area, and is based on findings from primary data collected in 2006-2007. Due to the lack of published work (at that time in, and on, Higher Education (HE) in further education (FE)); the study drew heavily on literature from HE. This study highlights the potential issues and anxieties of those who took part in the study about their academic identity, and how they make sense of the environment they work in. In addition, the paper will highlight whether these lecturers consider themselves to be academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis into the global phenomenon known as credential/qualification fraud, a $US 1 billion dollar ‘cottage’ industry which has tainted higher education in Australia, and does not appear to be abating. The study is developed through a conceptual framework of credentialism, degree creep and screening theory, which the author theorises spawns the demand for degree qualifications, both legitimate and ‘less‐than‐wonderful’ along continuums of legitimacy and acceptability. The paper suggests several key resources and tools that can be used by administrators of universities, non‐self accrediting higher education providers and industry human resource managers. The paper concludes by reviewing key‐global practices currently employed as proactive measures to minimise credential fraud, moving towards a best practice framework for Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an overview of a content analysis of sustainability policies from Canadian post-secondary education institutions. The paper reports findings on the orientations to sustainability evident in the policies; references to other policies within the documents; and other key themes on how sustainability is engaged in the policies in relation to overall governance, education, operations, research and community outreach. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 50 Canadian colleges and universities was selected based on representativeness across a range of criteria. A qualitative thematic content analysis of these policies was conducted using a collaborative coding approach. Findings – Results suggest that most sustainability policies described a Brundtland (i.e. intergenerational) and/or three-pillar (e.g. economic, environmental and social) orientation to sustainability. Many sustainability policies also connected to other external municipal or provincial policies. In terms of various domains of sustainability, campus operations was discussed by all of the policies and in the most detail, while discussions of sustainability in education (i.e. the curriculum) and in research were vague, and discussions of sustainability in relation to community outreach were included less frequently. Originality/value – This comparative study provides a broad view of sustainability policies from post-secondary institutions across Canada. It deepens our understanding of the institutions’ conceptualizations of, and priorities for, sustainability. This paper has practical implications for institutions seeking to create or further develop their own policies, and it contributes to the comparative scholarly literature on the institutionalization of sustainability in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of culture in the development of higher education institution (HEI) policy on widening participation. The study involved documentary research and interviews with senior and middle managers. It suggests that a culture of widening participation is often not embedded throughout institutions. Therefore, widening participation policy formulated at the senior management level is likely to be reinterpreted, revised - and in many cases even undermined or ignored - as it migrates down the organisational hierarchy. The paper contends that senior management take insufficient account of the cultural complexity of HEIs. As a result, there is too much emphasis on institutional (or 'meso') level policy-making and a top-down approach. The paper argues that more attention should be given to generating widening participation policy at the micro level within universities and colleges of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing student expectations of higher education is an increasing challenge to the university sector. How one institution responds to those changing expectations is examined close up. While student non‐completion is a feature of the contemporary higher education landscape, little analysis of the role played by higher education institutions in stabilising retention rates has entered the public domain. The paper acknowledges the influence by state policies and of student disposition towards higher education as factors that may affect non‐completion rates but questions the role played by higher education institutions themselves in reducing the rate of non‐completion. From a theoretical perspective, barriers are identified which, coupled with institutional data, provide a first‐cut analysis of possible strategies that could work to limit poor retention rate trends. An underlying question embedded within the paper is: should universities faced with high first‐year non‐completion rates expect students to accommodate to university life, or should they seek to adjust institutional culture to adapt to changing student demands and expectations? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares the implementation of quality management programmes of higher education in US and international academic institutions. The comparison is based on the use of formal quality models such as ISO 9000 and Malcolm Baldrige Criteria, Quality-of- Design, Quality-of-Conformance, and Quality-of-Performance. An interesting outcome was the absence of Quality-of-Performance among US universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparing engineering students for global workplace is a growing need as engineering schools not only recognize the value of university experience, but also discover that many of their students do not demonstrate the right skills and mindsets for global success. Fresh graduates frequently lack knowledge of other cultures and languages and, most importantly, of how communication works. This paper reports on a comparative, qualitative-quantitative study (of Japanese and international students with varying foreign exposure) conducted in a Japanese engineering and computer science university (with English as a medium of instruction), where internationalization and increase in global awareness are being promoted. The ever-increasing need for global skills in employees calls for a shift in educational focus and job application strategies. We suggest measures to be taken at tertiary education level that should lead to improvement of the communication and other global skills in Japanese graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses changes in overeducation incidence in Poland in 2006-2014. It finds that a rise in number of tertiary educated workers outpaced an increase in number of jobs requiring tertiary education, which resulted in a substantial growth of overeducation incidence. The overeducation increase was driven mainly by mild overeducation rather than severe overeducation. Overeducated workers are usually young with little job experience. Women are found at lower risk of severe overeducation compared to men, but relatively more at risk of mild overeducation. A low risk of overeducation is associated with having studied technical and health programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper looks at experimental alternative education systems to explore different approaches to pedagogical theories of post-secondary education. The paper focuses on the story of Rochdale College, an experimental free-form college and communal housing project associated with the University of Toronto between 1968 and 1975. The aims, theories and methods of Rochdale College are contextualized by an examination of two theorists on alternative education: John Dewey and Paul Goodman. The theories of Dewey and Goodman are explored through a brief examination of two experimental colleges that preceded Rochdale: The Experimental College (at Tufts University from 1927-32) and Black Mountain College in North Carolina (active from 1933-57). Ideas regarding alternative forms of education were integrated into socio-political ideas from the 1960s counterculture movement in America and Canada, and a major test site for a form of counterculture education was the controversial experiment called Rochdale College. The paper explores ideas of what an alternative post-secondary education system has looked like in the past, in order to pose questions about the ways it could take shape in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a shift in tertiary education, whereby large portions of theory are now taught online, and the practical skills underpinned by this knowledge taught in clinical environments. It is unclear if this flipped approach is appropriate for the learning styles Exercise Science (ES) and Clinical Exercise Physiology (CEP) students. First- and second-year ES and CEP students at a South Australian metropolitan university were invited to participate between March 2021 and October 2022. Eligible participants completed the Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) (Version 3.1) to identify learning styles. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the four KLSI learning orientations. Group scores for the learning orientations were used to identify group preference for abstractness over concreteness and action over reflection. A total of 69 students completed the KLSI fully. As a single cohort, Accommodators were the most common learning style, and there was a preference for concreteness over abstractness when gaining experience and a preference for action over reflection when transferring experience into knowledge. These findings indicate that Australian ES and CEP students have a unique learning style that may be suited to flipped classroom approaches, but only if they include opportunity to experience skill learning in a hands-on manner, while also allowing time for reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past few decades have seen increasing massification and privatisation of higher education in Australia, with new providers emerging that challenge the traditional universities. In this paper I analyse the make-up of the non-university higher education sector in Australia. I also describe the effect of FEE-HELP funding as a catalyst for change in the Australian private higher education sector and how this compares with the American experience. The final section of the paper presents an analysis of recent growth and consolidation of the Australian private higher education sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper puts forward the model of ‘microcosm-macrocosm’ isomorphism encapsulated in certain philosophical views on the form of university education. The human being as a ‘microcosm’ should reflect internally the external ‘macrocosm’. Higher Education is a socially instituted attempt to guide human beings into forming themselves as microcosms of the whole world in its diversity. By getting to know the surrounding world, they re-enact it intellectually. Such a re-enacting is a guiding theme in certain philosophies of education studied here. It is with the Neo-Humanist tradition culminating in Humboldt's reforms that an additional step was taken: the university should become itself the reflecting ‘microcosm’. This role is nowadays taken up by unconventional LLE, though with far-reaching changes. The paper is divided into four interconnected Sections each one developing a specific manifestation of the micro-macro relationship. The main thesis is that: (I) contemporary schemes of never-ending higher education or of so-called ‘transformative learning’ and of ‘universities-multiversities’ have their intellectual underpinnings either in similarity or in direct contrast to specific predecessors. Inherent tensions found in these predecessors have left their mark on this micro-macrocosmic model to the extent that it is present in them; (II) the proposed analysis in terms of this model enhances significantly our in-depth understanding of some latent aspects in current trends in LLE and related innovative university schemes; at the same time this model helps us structure appropriately and without anachronisms our humanisticly-inspired critical response to them for abandoning the ideal of the ‘wholeness’ of the human person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, the UK Government set the target of increasing participation in higher education to 50% of 18-30 year olds by 2010, with a particular focus on young people from 'non-traditional backgrounds'. In order to increase this participation, a range of initiatives have been introduced in an effort to encourage young people to enter post-16 education. One significant initiative is Aimhigher, which specifically targets lower socio-economic groups and aims to raise the attainment and aspirations of young people. This paper emerges from research conducted in 2008 into post-16 withdrawal rates amongst Aimhigher students in the South East of England. Drawing from interviews and case studies with young people, further education (FE) colleges and schools, the paper argues that students benefit significantly from the intensive pastoral support provided in Aimhigher target schools, but that this is rarely carried over into FE. Although there is often significant pastoral support provided to students in FE, it is often quite disparate from that provided in Aimhigher schools and suffers from low take up. Whilst previous research investigating student withdrawal has focused on individual factors (socio-economic status and ethnicity) or institutional factors (the labour market), this paper highlights the views of young people and argues that, through establishing effective and cohesive mentoring schemes, schools and FE colleges have a substantial role to play in reducing student withdrawal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents research findings on students' experiences of the provision both of guidance and feedback, and with respect to examinations as well as coursework assignments. A first- and a final-year bioscience course unit were surveyed in each of three contrasting university departments. The resulting dataset comprised 782 completed student questionnaires and 23 group interviews with a total of 69 students. Although the questionnaire data provided a robust overall picture of the students' perceptions of guidance and feedback across the six units, the interview data made possible a much finer-grained analysis of their experiences. At the core of this analysis was a guidance and feedback loop, within which six interrelated steps have been picked out, beginning with the students' prior experiences of cognate assessments and closing with the potential of what has been learned from a given task to feed forward into subsequent work. By pinpointing potential troublespots, the framework can serve as a valuable diagnostic as well as analytical tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Frontiers of Education in China is the property of Higher Education Press Limited Company and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents some results from a review of evidence on the barriers to participation in further and higher education in England, organised around the life-course of an individual from birth to the decision to participate in FE/HE at the traditional age. It is clear that inequalities between socioeconomic groups appear early in life and remain important in attainment at school, in the range of the options available and selected at age 14 and 16, qualifications at age 18 and in the decision to participate in higher education or not. Overcoming the identified barriers to participation may be an important step for some individuals, but the evidence is that the role of these barriers is marginal. Also marginal, therefore, is the role of institutions in widening participation during the transition at ages 16 and 18. Policy levers to widen participation must be applied elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper takes the external quality assurance of English universities and colleges as an example of regulation in higher education as undertaken by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). Regulatory scholarship generally has been largely disinterested in higher education and the paper applies a 'regulatory lens' to higher education quality assurance. It reports the findings of a research project on the role identities and perceptions of the auditors recruited by the QAA from the academic community for undertaking institutional audits. It suggests that such a group may be regarded as 'regulatory intermediaries', facing both 'upwards' to the regulator, and 'down' to those being regulated. As such, they have an important function in the delivery of external quality assurance regulation and the paper reports on how they mediate and understand a range of frequently conflicting pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the factors that are at present reconstructing teacher education in Sweden and in other European countries, including professionalization, inherited traditions, feminization and globalization. The authors use as a basis for the paper: documentary analysis and nearly 60 qualitative semi-structured interviews with management and teaching staff from teacher education at one Swedish higher education institution, Umeå University. Five overall themes emerged from the study: gender; teacher education cultures; organizational changes; collaboration; and research. It is argued that women and men in teacher education are positioned differently with regard to change. Women teacher educators identify more with research and accountability imperatives while their male colleagues tend to focus more on classroom knowledge and skills. The paper considers possible explanations and makes tentative extrapolations to other European sites in varying political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service-learning, in which students learn course concepts as they carry out community service, is becoming more common in higher education. This paper analyzes promotional material for service-learning opportunities found on twenty-one university Websites. The study reveals that the Websites are promoting a range of benefits from participation in service-learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of ethical as well as practical implications of how service-learning opportunities are being marketed online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address the discourse of Romanian universities as a mirror of the reformation process in the national higher educational system. Design/methodology/approach - The focus of this paper is on external and internal communication, on institutional identity and the symbiosis of orders of discourse. The paper highlights the prospective EU integration as a major trigger of change in the Romanian educational system. It then draws upon critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a relevant research approach and presents the results of conducting critical discourse analysis on a corpus consisting of the web site presentation of ten public and private universities, on three faculty and university prospectuses, and one promotional CD. Finally, the paper briefly compares the discourse of Romanian universities with the discourse of universities from the UK, France, Italy and Germany, and suggest lines for improvement. Findings - Romanian society is currently the site of ample reformation and one of the factors that trigger change is the prospective integration in the European Union. In higher education, change is enacted discursively though the emergence of new genres as the generalization of promotion as a discursive practice. The discourse of Romanian universities is heavily colonized by the EU discourse, but factors pertaining to local culture also resurface openly. Discourse is, indeed, a factor of change, but not the only one affecting it. The westernizing of Romanian university discourse needs to be backed up by a westernizing of patterns of thinking and behaving. Originality/value - The paper presents insights into the discourse of Romanian universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The study presented in this paper is intended to assist the decision-making process in Romanian higher education institutions on topics such as market structure analysis, market segmentation, positioning of the specializations, and the cannibalization between them. Design/methodology/approach - This paper describes a preliminary qualitative study that examines the primary motives that affect choice of specializations before developing and validating a measurement instrument. The objective of the questionnaire was to help managers collect information regarding perceptions on specializations from a pool of 344 students of a major Romanian business faculty. The data were used to generate a perceptual map, which disclosed a three-cluster solution. In a parallel study, an internal analysis of preferences on 1,390 subjects revealed the existence of three market segments: "the pragmatics," "the sociables" and "the diploma hunters." Findings - Facing competition, Romanian higher education institutions need to carefully plan their actions, and better manage their scarce resources. Originality/value - This study is one of the few that tried to develop, to reliability test and to validate a questionnaire in the field of higher education, and the first one that has analyzed the positioning of the specializations at the level of a business faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The available research indicates that the prevalence of stress is increasing among students studying in higher education. Issues such as student retention and student progression are becoming increasingly important for all universities. There are a significant number of studies that have examined stress and this paper critically reviews that research and identifies several issues that as yet have not been explored. The paper also highlights a number of key weaknesses in the current literature base. In previous studies there has been a focus on a quantitative approach, and research studies have been restricted to using as subjects individuals from a narrow range of disciplines. It is also suggested that there is a need to undertake longitudinal research to investigate individuals' stress experiences during the period they study at university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions how far it is possible to teach for critical hope in English higher education given changes now taking place and that can be anticipated from the self-styled ‘free-market reform’ introduced by the 2003 HE Act. It draws upon Gramsci and Freire to develop a dialogic pedagogy with students at two former polytechnics. It then describes interactions aiming to develop such a pedagogy with ethnically mixed, predominantly female, locally living and working class sociology students at one institution and similar students on an introductory core course for a youth and community degree at the other. The paper invites contributions to what is in effect an evidence-based conversation between the co-authors on how far critical pedagogy can afford students and teachers opportunities to go beyond the commodified transmission of information in specialist academic disciplines and of competences specified for future occupation in the emerging hierarchy of researching, teaching and training universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the educational implications of pursuing equity and access for adult learners across further and higher education sectors. It contextualizes some advantages and disadvantages in cross-sectoral arrangements by reference to a specific access and equity partnership program in Australia and analyses the impact on the equity aims of the program in continually maintaining and developing the partnership. From the perspective of the University, the argument is that the University–TAFE localized collaborative model offers a successful and viable pathway to university for adult learners from an educationally disadvantaged and/or low socio-economic background. The perceived benefits of a community partnership, however, can undermine the educational and equity benefits of such a collaborative arrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Articulation across the further education/higher education (FE/HE) interface is of vital importance in addressing the government's widening participation agenda. Many institutions are grappling with how best to prepare students to make this transition particularly when they are direct entrants and join ongoing cohorts of students who are already familiar with the HE environment. At one new Scottish university, the generic module ‘Next steps at university’ aims to prepare students for life at university and to help them acquire the necessary key skills for coping with HE delivery and assessment regimes. This paper presents an overview of the basis on which the ‘Next steps’ module curriculum was designed with respect to content, delivery methods and assessment then analyses the performance and progression outcomes for 103 students who successfully completed the module. These outcomes are set within the context of institutional figures and the beneficial impact of ‘Next steps’ is explored in quantitative terms with respect to progression, retention and performance statistics. [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]

Despite compelling qualitative arguments for scale and scope economies in university-level distance education, as distinct from traditional class-based face-to-face instruction, there is little rigorous quantitative evidence in support. In this paper, we explore the scale and scope economies of distance education using a multiplicatively separable cost function and a sample of 37 Australian public universities over the 10-year period from 2003 to 2012. The results suggest strong overall scale and scope economies and product-specific scale economies for distance education. Further, the economies of scope for distance education are increasing with mean output, suggesting an increasing cost benefit of producing distance education in conjunction with traditional class-based face-to-face teaching. This provides an important implication: when allocating places for different modes of attendance or considering further expansion of student numbers, there should be a priority on distance education as a means of achieving significant cost savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations in assessment practice have become widespread in Higher Education (HE) throughout the world. Taking a case study approach, this paper examines the nature of students' assessment preferences at one English university, and compares the views of UK students with a sample of learners from a number of other countries studying at the same institution. A brief discussion of the literature is followed by a methodological overview, before turning to an examination of the study's findings with regard to the students' views and experiences of assessment. Similarities and differences in preferences are explored, and an attempt is made to account for these on the basis of the insights supplied by the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several changes and developments (e.g., the changing labor market, growing worldwide competition, technological advances, and changing demand patterns in tourism) require new employability skills from graduates that enable them to cope with the changing circumstances of the tourism business world. Universities are therefore encouraged to embed key skills in their curricula, yet there is often a considerable gap between what educational institutions offer and what is needed and required by the industry (i.e., there is a need to create a hub and interface between the industry and the institutions of higher education). One attempt to actually create this interface and increase the opportunities for graduates to maintain or obtain employment is to look at diverse skills and competencies that enhance employability of graduates. Although there have been considerable efforts to specify employability skills, the question of how these could be developed within the curriculum prevails. The purpose of the present paper is to theoretically discuss the concepts of employability, skills requirements, and competencies for graduates and to present the results of a quantitative survey carried out among domestic and international Management Center Innsbruck internship partners to assess the required employability skills of the market from the employers' point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1989, when it became legally possible for private higher education to operate in New Zealand, the sector has grown to become a significant part of the country's higher education system. This paper explores the private penetration, traces the changes that have occurred in private higher education, and evaluate the sector's position in New Zealand today. The private sector has had to find a niche for itself in a higher education sector dominated by a mature, well developed public sector. In so doing, New Zealand's private higher education exhibits differences and similarities with private higher education sector internationally. The New Zealand case is one of private entry into a mature higher education system in an economically advanced country. Emphasis is also placed on the dissimilarities between the private sector and the more predominant public tertiary education institutions in New Zealand. It is clear from this study that the private sector has characteristics that clearly distinguish it from the public higher education sector in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted on stakeholders' perception of who influences the decision-making processes in Ontario's public postsecondary education institutions. The study identified and interviewed representatives of those stakeholder groups that are frequently written about as the main forces behind decision making in colleges and universities. This is a qualitative research study in which four institutions were selected for case studies. The findings suggest that administrations are the most influential, and faculty unions/associations are the least influential in Ontario's (Canada's second largest and most populated province) public colleges and universities. It is concluded that those in central positions with access to information from all levels, and who are in close proximity to the gatekeepers of the institutions, will dominate the decision-making processes in postsecondary education institutions. They will be the generators and harvesters of ideas and implementers of decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a model developed by Brookfield (1995), a deliberately reflective approach is taken in this paper to the relationship between the author's earlier work in a department of adult education and her current teaching on a course for new university lecturers. As increasing numbers of mature students are being encouraged into universities, she wonders whether the principles and practices of adult education have a place in the pedagogic practices of higher education. She summarises the development of adult education departments in British universities, and draws attention to different pedagogic approaches in adult and higher education. Looking through various 'lenses', the author concludes that there is a need for a new professional agenda in higher education - where commonality and difference provide the starting points for mutual exploration and self-understanding - and that the traditions of adult education have a significant contribution to make to this agenda. [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]

The purpose of this paper is to use an historical approach to examine the changing nature, size and diversification of education and training in New Zealand. In particular, attention will be concentrated on the impact of the introduction of competition into the New Zealand tertiary education industry since 1989. It will examine the relationship between the various tertiary education institutions as well as the relationship between these institutions and the demands of both students and industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the report ‘Higher Education policy issues and trends: An update on higher education policy issues in 11 Western countries’, 2004’, www.utwente.nl/cheps/higher_education_monitor/update.doc/index.html. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the impact of the proposed Constitution in the European Union (EU) on higher education policies in the region. Prediction of the improvement of policies within the proposed constitution; Illustration of examples of EU involvement in higher education; Drive to increase competitiveness.

This author focuses on the ethical aspects of conducting university research and teaching. What function does the university perform in making the contemporary world more humane, and what threats are connected today with this mission? Scientific work is, of course, also practised outside the university, and teaching does not have to follow the university model; however it cannot be denied that the university is a ubiquitous scientific and educational institution, the values of which should be remembered and emphasized in light of modern scientific and cultural developments. This paper highlights first the features specific to the university, with an emphasis on educational and cultural production. Next, the challenges faced by the university in the context of modern civilization are addressed. To conclude, a few personal observations about moral dimensions and challenges are shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European universities must face the crisis of the Humboldtian model, and find new organisational solutions. This paper proceeds from two starting observations. The first is the one according to which we are in a “cultural shift” that makes culture the element on which performance, including technologically and cognitively, depends. The development of societies now depends on the culture shared by human beings more than on their economy or technology. The second observation is that culture itself and its ethical underpinning should be open for consideration. The development of society now depends on culture and on its adaptive capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the apparent conspiracy of silence and/or culture of disinterest with regard to ethical issues in higher education. A first interpretation treats it as an almost entirely negative phenomenon – the subordination of university values to external political and market forces. The second interpretation, elaborated here, is more nuanced and less judgmental; the apparent erosion of the autonomy of the university and growing fuzziness of traditional academic values are seen as evidence not of decline-and-fall but of higher education's success within the expanding territory of the knowledge society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review the current debate regarding the work of academic developers in higher education and their rightful "place" in higher education, particularly with regard to notions of the discipline, research and scholarship of teaching. We describe and compare the work of discipline academics and academic developers and argue that the two are more similar to each other than different. We acknowledge the challenges and tensions that exist in the overlap between the domains of expertise of discipline academics and academic developers, and attempt to articulate sources of these tensions in a conceptual model. Ultimately we defend two propositions: (1) that academic developers are, by the nature of their work, academics, and (2) that the discipline that academic development is a part of, namely the discipline of higher education , is a legitimate academic discipline in its own right. The consequences of these two propositions are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 60s and early 70s, several universities were set up in various European countries with the intention of providing an alternative to established institutions of higher education. The new universities were expected, amongst other things, to experiment with new forms of leadership and management internally, give teaching and learning higher priority, and to be regional relevant institutions for the area in which they were located. The paper analyses to what extent three such university establishments: Aalborg University in Denmark, Maastricht University in the Netherlands and Tromsø University in Norway have managed to maintain and develop their alternative profile during the last thirty years. The study suggests that even though the universities in some areas have adapted to environmental pressure, they have managed to keep their profile as innovative and alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two main objectives. First, it presents the new relationships between the State (the Ministry of the University) and each university in Italy, and the evaluation system established in 1996 and revised by a recent law passed in October 1999. Second, it focuses on the characteristics of the evaluation system which has to be implemented, in order to verify the universities programmes, as well as their results in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and quality. Particular attention is devoted to the system of indicators to be used for the evaluation and for the allocation of specific funds in terms of incentives, and to their possible effects on the decisions of the universities' management. Finally, appropriate statistical methods to analyse the system of indicators considered are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]