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Unequal access to university and the decision processes that give rise to it are important factors in the accumulation of educational inequalities. In this paper, we investigate a specific aspect of such decision processes by focusing on those students who change their original plans to start a (nontertiary) vocational education and decide to pursue a tertiary degree instead. In doing so, we find that more than one-fifth of the students in our sample who originally planned to pursue a vocational education change their original decision in this way. Moreover, while students from a more advantaged background are more likely to go to university in the first place, those among them that initially opted for a vocational education are also more likely to change their decision and go to university instead. We also find that parental preferences for tertiary education play an important role in the process of changing one's mind, even for adult children. Moreover, we find that differential parental preferences contribute to both the emergence of social background effects and—as a result—the perpetuation of educational inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The school-to-work transition is widely acknowledged as difficult, requiring meaningful support for young people to navigate successfully. This paper examines the reported experiences of six families navigating 23 home educated young people's transition from compulsory education to tertiary education and work. Data from semi-structured interviews with the parents were thematically analysed using Bourdieu's habitus, capital, and field. Findings indicate that the parents provided ample opportunity for self-exploration to encourage autonomy coupled with opportunity to explore and participate in the wider community, leading to a successful transition experience. The findings suggest that a contrasting, alternative career preparation method can be successful; one that values autonomy over the traditional approach which involves a scaffolded set of knowledge and skills. This study indicates that the transition can be successfully facilitated by providing young people with opportunity for autonomous self and career exploration in the community, without the standardised assistance provided through schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary science and higher education system, national and supranational governments fund and foster universities to collaborate through specific funding lines and competition in World University Rankings, making it indispensable for universities to demonstrate collaboration at the organizational level. Thus, universities strive to encourage their scientific members to collaborate – and to different degrees – facilitate forms of collaboration. Questions on how universities as organizations influence academic research collaboration arise. To go beyond the existing literature, this study firstly develops an analytical two-dimensional framework organizing the literature on four levels of investigation (meta, macro, meso, micro). Based on this framework, the paper presents a literature review of the current state of the art in academic research collaboration. Secondly, the paper establishes a research agenda by synthesizing organizational influences found as organizational characteristics, management strategies, and organizational culture and presents three research avenues for future research. The paper concludes that we have only just begun to study the organizational influences of universities (especially the organizational culture) on academic research collaboration and how these organizational categories are interrelated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External program review is often considered the "gold standard" approach to evaluating academic programs in higher education. Despite the importance of program review, skepticism persists regarding its ability to meaningfully engage faculty and have sustaining impact on program improvement. This paper builds on the academic Program Review Learning Community conceptual model and presents a process for applying a project management facilitation technique that leverages a course structure. The Program Review Course allows for multiple programs to be reviewed concurrently as part of an interdisciplinary cohort. Within the cohort, faculty teams gain access to templates, information sessions, workshops, and discussion forums, with opportunities for engagement both within and across multiple disciplines. Using learning modules, this approach is designed to create efficiency and collaboration in delivering program review tools and customized supports. Utilizing a course structure for program review fits well with a new way to think about program review because successful learning communities are often embedded within institutional structures. Use of this approach is expected to increase clarity and consistency, improve administrative feasibility, provide guidance for those new to program review, promote collegiality within and across programs, and involve team members in the creation of action planning. The authors propose that a course-based approach for conducting program review, with teams of disciplinary faculty joining an interdisciplinary cohort and supported by quality assurance practitioners and educational developers is a novel way to provide structure and academic development while meeting legislative requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simulator-based Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is a computer system that is made to provide students with a learning experience that is both customizable to a student's needs (e.g., level of expertise, pace) and includes simulation, e.g., demonstrate certain domain concepts or allow problem-solving while replicating a real-life situation. ITSs offers convenient and low-cost studying. We aim to explore the recent trends and identify limitations and opportunities in recent work on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) self-study simulator based ITSs, we conducted a systematic literature review investigating 47 papers from four different databases. The research encloses ITSs from various educational sectors, ranging from elementary, middle, secondary, tertiary, and after school training. The majority of the systems targeted tertiary education. As a result, there are many research opportunities in introducing a more generalizable approach to simulator-based ITSs which will make it easier to address many STEM-related subjects. There are also opportunities in utilizing help methods that emphasize encouragement and self-reflection. We noticed that the number of STEM-related simulator-based ITSs is relatively low. Another finding was that most simulator-based ITSs are domain-dependent, and therefore they are not reusable for other subjects. Finally, we found that the traits of feedback in simulator-based systems that result in positive learning outcomes are ones that combined immediate and delayed feedback, used procedural information in their feedback, of formative feedback type, and detailed feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains why more attention should be paid to promoting the postsecondary education of parents in and aging out of foster care. It reviews what is known about postsecondary educational attainment among parents in or aging out of foster care and these parents' unique challenges to pursuing postsecondary education. The paper describes the Healthy Teen Network Young Parents Logic Model as a framework to think about the needs of parents in and aging out of foster care, including needs related to postsecondary educational attainment. The paper applies the Young Parents Logic Model and highlights strategies to increase postsecondary educational attainment among young parents in the general population and youth aging out of foster care which can also benefit young parents in foster care or aging out. Using the Young Parents Logic Model as a framework, the paper presents policy and practice recommendations to increase postsecondary educational attainment among young parents in and aging out of foster care and with directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine UCN (University College of the North) students' remote learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a reference for future remote education in Indigenous contexts. Survey data are used for empirical analysis of the five themes: socio-demographic contexts; social activities, stress, and well-being; academic performance; course delivery; and student support services. Transformative learning theory and Quadruple Helix Model are used as a framework to explore the breadth and depth of such five themes. As the descriptive study shows, the majority of UCN students are over 25 years old and study in their first and second year with major challenges such as Internet connectivity, private space, and interruption. Mean values reveal that the remote learning performance is determined by concerns about COVID-19 infection, mental and physical health, isolation and lack of socio-cultural activities, students' self-preparedness and motivation, and support services. The regression analysis shows that students' concerns about COVID-19 infection interference with course completion are directly affected by their worries about themselves or someone in their families who could be exposed to COVID-19, their mental health, and blended course delivery. Therefore, students' remote learning performance and their well-being will be enhanced if we take into consideration improving social distancing, educational technology, and course delivery with community–university culturally responsive collaboration. The research findings and the reviewed literature attest that transformative learning theory fits UCN's remote learning practices to meet educational goals through the university–community collaboration, which is supported by the Quadruple Helix model. As a result, such remote learning practices engage students, particularly Indigenous students, and the practices will help upgrade universities with similar attributes globally into Mode 3 universities, contributing to community economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the progress made by the EU regions on the path of digitalisation and growth of digital economy, by analysing the dynamics and drivers of a selected number of specific indicators, based on Eurostat data running from 2001 to 2016. The study is conducted at regional level, and finally aims to identify policy measures that could enhance the growth of digital economy in the EU area. Moreover, the paper investigates whether a common set of economic and social policy measures is effective in improving several indicators of digital economy, in the New Member States (NMS) as well as in the Old Member States (OMS), given that they still exhibit different patterns of digital transformation at regional level. The increase in tertiary education attainments together with the increase in the number of issued patents are found to be policy measures that generate positive effects for several indicators of digital economy, as well as for the NMS and OMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic Diaspora populations are an important resource that can be harnessed by home governments for national growth and development. Nigeria's academic Diasporas provide an opportunity for Nigeria's tertiary institutions to connect to the global knowledge community and for the government to utilize their skills and resources toward national innovation and growth. This paper examines the contributions of Nigeria's academic Diaspora populations by analyzing their various modes of engagement in Nigeria's development. The paper uses a review of relevant literature and responses from a questionnaire survey of 45 Nigerian international academics. Using the theoretical lens of the Diaspora Option Theory, the paper observes that the academic Diaspora has made significant contributions to Nigeria's development but that the benefits of these contributions can be enhanced through proper government engagement and coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a linear categorical random coefficient model, in which the random coefficients follow parametric categorical distributions. The distributional parameters are identified based on a linear recurrence structure of moments of the random coefficients. A generalized method of moments estimation procedure is proposed, also employed by Peter Schmidt and his coauthors to address heterogeneity in time effects in panel data models. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we find that moments of the random coefficients can be estimated reasonably accurately, but large samples are required for the estimation of the parameters of the underlying categorical distribution. The utility of the proposed estimator is illustrated by estimating the distribution of returns to education in the USA by gender and educational levels. We find that rising heterogeneity between educational groups is mainly due to the increasing returns to education for those with postsecondary education, whereas within-group heterogeneity has been rising mostly in the case of individuals with high school or less education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under political competition, bureaucrats who wish to maintain their jobs and salaries must continue to stimulate demand for their agency's services in order to secure funding. This paper suggests that one way a bureau can do so is by creating avenues for private entities to collect rents through entrepreneurial action. The Federal Student Aid office in the U.S. Department of Education and their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can serve as an example. By getting students to fill out a FAFSA application, colleges obtain the detailed financial information of students and families. Colleges can then use this information to price discriminate. The bureau's derived benefits from this behavior are two-fold: (1) Private interests groups can lobby political sponsors to continue funding the agency. Using data obtained from lobbying reports filed with the federal government, we find that there is a positive relationship between lobbying expenditures and the implementation of regulations that enhance the value of the rents associated with the FAFSA. (2) The source of the rents can be used as a performance indicator to meet the demands of political sponsors. Drawing from the 5-year strategic plans from the Department of Education and the Federal Student Aid office, we find that these bureaus can benefit from engaging in such behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education system has been radically transformed by technological impetuses owed to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4.0). Most recently, developing nations expedited smart education implementation to combat the negative effects COVID-19 has on education; thus, presenting managerial issues. A review of the literature on smart education shows that past studies focused primarily on the smart learning environment, substantially ignoring the importance of leadership and human resources capacity in the management of smart education. This study addresses the deficiency observed in the literature as it relates to the key factors that enable success in the management of smart education. The study applied a quantitative approach that derived data from a structured survey of probability simple random sampled Grenadian employees belonging to tertiary education. The Hayes multiple moderated mediation, Model 23, supported by SPSS-PROCESS Macro software was used to examine the study's model. Results showed that human resources capacity has a conditional indirect effect on smart education through the mediating variable of leadership capacity. Additionally, the moderating variables of additional investment in the 'ɑ' path and student demographics in the 'ɓ' path both displayed significant moderating effects. The findings of the study have provided several valuable insights into the theoretical and practical implications of the influence of leadership and human resources capacity in the implementation of smart education. Therefore, it is recommended, that the soft variables assessed in this paper need to be harnessed accordingly to achieve smart education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of Indigenous engagement, participation and success in the sciences is a concern both in Australia and in Canada. The authors of this paper have taught Indigenous students in tertiary enabling programs, undergraduate science and science education. Their experiences bridging Indigenous and Western cultures in science and science education through Both-Ways (BW) or Two-Eyed Seeing (TES) pedagogical and methodological approaches form the data for this paper. Their teaching experience with tertiary level Indigenous students using BW/TES pedagogies serves as case studies for the epistemic insight (knowledge about knowledge) they have gained. Each of the case studies considers the role of the Nature of Science (NOS) and potential conflicts through engagement with the two knowledge paradigms. Rather than being in conflict, the two worldviews are seen as complementary, a situation leading to epistemic insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to increase the number of African American women who obtain STEM degrees has been well documented in the literature by researchers, scientists, and policymakers. Increasing the participation of this group of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM is both an issue of social justice and economic advancement on a national scale. Despite decades of efforts to address this need through research and funding, the participation of African American women in STEM is still low. In part, this may be due to the limited number of studies that include the voices of African American women. Drawing upon the theories of cultural border crossing and resiliency, this paper highlights the stories of eight successful African American women who earned a terminal degree in a STEM field. The purpose of the study was to identify and describe the key factors that these women said aided in their persistence and resilience during two key periods: before postsecondary education and during postsecondary education. We use a case study approach to interpret their stories about the obstacles they faced and the strategies they employed to overcome them. Our findings suggest that experiences outside of school are more important than experiences inside school. The paper concludes with a discussion of the finding's implications and recommendations for African American women's recruitment and retention in STEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational institutions are increasingly investing into digital delivery, acquiring new devices, and employing novel software and services. The rising costs associated with maintenance, in combination with increasing redundancy of older technologies, presents multiple challenges. While lesson content itself may not have changed, the educational landscape constantly evolves, where tertiary institutions are incorporating new modes of content delivery, hybrid-style learning, and interactive technologies. Investments into digital expansions must be taken with caution, particularly prior to the procurement of technology, with a need for the proposed interventions' scalability, sustainability, and serviceability to be considered. This article presents the Triple-S framework for educators, administrators, and educational institutions, and outlines examples of its application within curricula. The paper synthesises research evidence to provide the foundation underlying the key principles of the Triple-S framework, presenting a useful model to use when evaluating digital interventions. Utilising the framework for decisions regarding the acquisition of educational technology, devices, software, applications, and online resources can assist in the assurance of viable and appropriate investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 lockdown has caused disruption to education of all levels with far-reaching implications and unveiled the shortfalls of the current education model. Cycles of tightening and relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown confer uncertainty to the continuity of education. This article aims to comprehensively present the impacts of COVID-19 on primary, secondary and tertiary education and propose sound educational practices in the COVID-19 era. Papers related to educational impacts and implications of COVID-19 were selected for this review through a PRISMA model. The review shows that a shift of learning remotely or online has affected educators and learners, especially in relation to learning loss among learners, limitations in instructions, assessment and experiential learning in virtual environment, technology-related constraints, connectivity, learning resources and materials, besides psychosocial well-being. These impacts are exacerbated by inequalities in the distribution of resources as well as inequities attributed to socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, learning ability and physical conditions. The recommendations for future educational practices comprise adaptability of curricula to embed independent and online learning options, concurrence of diverse learning modalities for seamless learning transitions and flexibility, flexible staffing and learning model, enhanced support, technological and curricular innovation with simplification and standardization, as well as interactive, responsive and authentic virtual environment. This review contributes significantly to enhance preparedness of education to crisis while ensuring continuity and quality of education in the era of COVID-19 uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the demand for workers in Switzerland. We compare the hypotheses that an increase in ICT leads to upskilling or job polarization and investigate their implications for countries where vocational education and training (VET) is the most widespread education program at the upper secondary level. Using data from a large employer–employee survey, we create a novel measure of ICT based on the percentage of ICT workers within firms. This measure allows us to assess the impact of ICT on the educational composition of the workforce by exploiting variation over time. We find that ICT has an upskilling effect from 1996 to 2018: ICT decreases the demand for low-skilled workers while increasing the demand for high-skilled workers, especially those with a tertiary vocational education. These results strongly suggest that VET is a valid alternative to a strictly academic education, because workers with a tertiary VET degree are as good, or better, at adjusting to technological change as workers with a tertiary academic education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric method for efficiency and performance analysis of decision making units. The paper deals with production systems where decision making units are described by their inputs and outputs in several consecutive periods. The paper presents (Park and Park in Eur J Oper Res 193(2):567-580, ) multi-period DEA model that is oriented on the 'best' period of the unit under evaluation only. This aim of this paper is to overcome the disadvantage of this model and formulate new models of this class that allow evaluation the efficiency of decision making units within the whole production chain. The presented efficiency and super-efficiency multi-period DEA models are illustrated on a case study. The study consists in analysis of research and teaching performance of 19 Czech economic faculties in four years period from 2009 until 2012. The model considers two inputs (number of academic employees and labour costs) and two outputs for teaching efficiency (number of students and number of graduated). Research efficiency is expressed using the number of publications in various important categories and the number of so called RIV points that describe the quality of publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically interrogates the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to higher education in low-income countries. While the SDG Goal 4, Target 4.3, calls for ensuring 'equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university' around the world by 2030, the SDGs lack targets that would make this a reality in many countries where higher education requires reform and rebuilding. Instead of providing assistance to these countries to (re)build and strengthen their fragile higher education systems and institutions, the SDGs, as expressed in Target 4.7, aim to only provide opportunities to a select group of individuals to study at universities in developed and some developing countries. This approach has failed in the past and will only lead to the creation of dependency on foreign aid and assistance and continuation of chronic lack of capacity in many countries. This paper will show that despite the rhetoric about leaving no one behind, the SDGs will leave many behind through the neglect of higher education in low-income countries. Building local institutional and other forms of capacity in the higher education sector in low-income countries should have been one of the priorities in the SDGs. This way countries would be able to develop and strengthen universities and other institutions of higher learning and deliver quality education to their populations. The paper will map out a possible way forward for those interested in assisting low-income countries to strengthen their higher education systems and institutions as this is a prerequisite for inclusive socio-economic development and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been the leading source of foreign students pursuing tertiary degrees in other countries. The incoming Chinese students in Hungary comprised the third highest number of foreign students in the country in 2016. This paper examines the Chinese students' motivations for choosing the Hungarian education system, with the purpose of gaining a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the flow of Chinese students to Hungary. In terms of methodology, this paper uses the systematic review protocol by retrieving relevant literatures. The author developed the main factors influencing Chinese students' choice of the Hungarian education system, which are social class inequality and the modernization process from the Chinese perspective; meanwhile, the state policy perceptions, the institution, and community influence are encouraging from the Hungarian views. Moreover, individual motivation and the challenges of "invisible academic performance in the classroom" are explored with regard to Chinese students in Hungary. This article practically contributes to policy implications for Hungarian higher education in the international environment and inspires Chinese students who are from the lower socioeconomic classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper estimates the effect of tertiary education eligibility on crime in Sweden. The hypothesis tested is that continuing to higher education decreases crime rates since it allows young people to escape inactivity and idleness, which are known to trigger crime. However, to qualify for tertiary education, individuals have to meet the eligibility requirements in upper-secondary school. Tertiary education eligibility may therefore affect crime rates.Methods: This paper uses a panel data set of 287 Swedish municipalities over the period 1998-2010 to estimate the tertiary education eligibility effect on crime. However, estimating educational effects on crime is challenging, because investment in education is an endogenous decision. In Sweden, substantial grade inflation, increased tertiary education eligibility by more than 6% points between 1998 and 2003. Thus, since the eligibility increase is exogenous to the educational achievements of a student cohort, i.e. not accompanied by a corresponding knowledge increase, we can use the increase to identify the effect of tertiary education eligibility on crime.Results: It is found that increasing the tertiary education eligibility rate decreases both property and violent crime substantially.Conclusions: The results show that when young people have the opportunity to attend tertiary education, and thus escape unemployment or inactivity, their propensity to commit crime decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the feasibility of an income-contingent loan system to finance tertiary education in Indonesia. Using graduates' income data from the 2015 National Labor Force Survey, we modeled the life-cycle income distribution of university graduates using unconditional quantile regression. We used these estimates to simulate different income-contingent loan (ICL) schemes to observe the effect on the amount of repayment, length of repayment, government subsidy, and repayment burden of males and females in different quantiles of income. We simulated three loan schemes: without real interest, with a 25% surcharge on the total loan, and with 2% real interest. Implicit government subsidy was lowest with the 25% surcharge scheme. Results showed that ICL with a lower repayment burden is feasible in Indonesia and can increase access to tertiary education. We also discussed the administrative capacity among tax authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide an overall perspective on the teaching and learning of discrete mathematics. Our aim is to highlight what research has been conducted in this area and to connect it to existing research ideas for future work. We begin by characterizing discrete mathematics and its role in the school curriculum, highlighting themes, topics, and mathematical practices that distinguish discrete mathematics. We then present potential benefits of focusing on discrete mathematics topics for mathematics education; in particular, we discuss the accessibility of topics in discrete mathematics, the connection to mathematical processes and affect, and the relevance of discrete mathematics in our current society. We also emphasize discrete mathematics from an international perspective, highlighting studies from the US, Italy, France, Chile, and Germany, which are across all school levels–primary, middle, and secondary school, and with some implications for post-secondary education. We particularly discuss discrete topics including number theory, combinatorics, iteration and recursion, graph theory, and discrete games and puzzles; we describe and situate these topics within literature. We also suggest the additional topics of game theory and the mathematics of fairness that we hope to see addressed in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature is rife with papers discussing the state of developed and developing economies with a number of commonalities around what drives life satisfaction. In sum, females, the educated and well off, younger and older generations, the married or partnered as well as employees with decent job prospects report higher life satisfaction. Yet, whether these hold true in a diverse, expatriate society transitioning from post-oil dependence to a knowledge economy, as is the case in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is unknown. Using survey data of a nationally representative sample collected by the Gallup Organization between the years of 2006 to 2017, we explore life satisfaction of more than 17,000 UAE residents and citizens. Our results show that the usual predictors found in other nations did not completely hold true. Age does not follow the usual U-shaped life satisfaction relationship in male or female citizens. Tertiary education contributes to life satisfaction only for men, but not women. Unemployment and the freedom to live one's life as chosen have no significant impact. There remain culture-specific determinants of life satisfaction that require continued investigation, particularly in Middle Eastern nations such as the UAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the world universities are having to face constantly changing environments. A particular type of important change is public policy reforms or regulatory jolts. The English higher education sector is an example of the latter, where constant regulatory jolts have been seen in past decades. Leaders at universities have needed to interpret these environmental changes and decide how to cope with them. In this paper, the case of the post-Browne Review reforms in England’s higher education sector is used in order to explore how senior leaders in universities make sense of regulatory jolts. Based on primary qualitative research, which involved 47 semi-structured interviews with senior university leaders in England, including 24 vice-chancellors, I explore how senior leaders in universities interpreted, or made sense of, the post-Browne Review regulatory jolt. The paper suggests that senior university leaders’ interpretations might be deeply intertwined with their identity interpretations of who they are throughout these periods of turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Geography education requires a combination of knowledge, skills, and geospatial relational thinking. To improve the learning efficiency and durability of knowledge, a new inquiry-based instruction system using tangible user interfaces has been developed. The tangible landscape modeling system (TLMS) comprises four components including a malleable physical model, 3D scanner, projector, and standard computer with software. In this paper, we introduce the TLMS for geography themes from a primary to a tertiary education level. We present a case study conducted for the secondary level of education in a local school with 8 children at the age of 11 years from a marginalized community. The TLMS is applied to typical geography themes with topographic maps, land surface and landscape processes such as water flow and flooding phenomena, often poorly understood by students. These examples are documented by the experiment setups and description of the workflow steps. Results of this study showed an improved understanding of the concept of contours and basic landforms. This indicates that the tangible landscape modeling system provides an easy-to-understand concept and teaching tool that improves the geospatial relational thinking of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion boards can provide a glimpse into the regular and substantive interaction required in online courses. Advances in technology and an increased interest in learning analytics now provides researchers with billions of data points about instructor and student interaction within a learning management system (LMS). This study used LMS data to explore the frequency of interaction between instructors and students in discussion boards in online courses at one institution. Overall, 415 courses were analyzed spanning two semesters. Results from the study found that the average number of posts by an instructor was 32.9. The average instructor interaction was 1.49 instructor posts per student. 23% of courses had no instructor posts. Student posts averaged 470 per course and the average posts per student was 19.9. Based on the discussion board activity, the most discussion interaction occurred during the first two weeks of the semester. Results also suggested that there is no relationship between student satisfaction and the number of total posts in a course. The paper concludes with implications for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared college students' learning from, and perceptions of, print and digital readings, with the goal of providing an informed recommendation for students and educators regarding best approaches for reading assignments. To add to the literature, we focused on a common experience in college – reading an educational article – in addition to investigating numerous dependent measures and taking a mixed methods approach overall. Undergraduate students read an article in print or digitally on a computer or tablet. Students then completed a comprehension quiz with the article accessible or not, and answered self-report questions regarding cognitive load, perceived control, satisfaction, confidence, knowledge gain, and general preferences for paper versus digital educational resources. Results indicated that students spent equivalent time with, and learned equally well from, all versions. Perceptions of their learning experiences were also strikingly similar. Students generally described a preference for print over digital resources, but the number of students utilizing digital resources outside of the study was notable. This research supports that print and digital readings are equally viable options for students to use while reading, and that digital materials may be becoming more commonplace in college students' studying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hong Kong, parental preference for babies born in the Chinese Zodiac dragon year causes spikes in fertility. The larger number of “dragon babies” born in 1988 resulted in a schooling cohort which was 5% larger on average every school-year. Using an innovative identification strategy that avoids selection bias, I find that dragon cohort students increase their time spent studying math by an average of 0.26 hours per week (a 9% increase relative to the mean). These effort responses are strongest for girls and for students whose parents do not have post-secondary education. Being in the dragon cohort also results in higher math scores. These empirical findings are consistent with competitive behavior changes of dragon cohort members responding to the presence of additional students. I cannot, however, rule out other possible mechanisms, such as cooperation, peer quality, and educational investments, acting in conjunction to improve academic outcomes. This paper is the first to document the test score and effort impacts of such zodiac cohorts; its findings highlight the importance of cultural forces in determining population changes, and their potential to influence education and other societal outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes whether and how attending an internship during tertiary education affects income. We address endogeneity with an IV approach that exploits information regarding whether the internship was a mandatory component of the study. We further address selection into programs with mandatory internship by using the share of mandatory internships at the closest university, exploiting the low mobility of Swiss students. The results show that internships increase graduates' incomes. We explore potential mechanisms for the effect of internships on income, finding that general human capital is the main mechanism rather than firm- or field-specific human capital, signaling, or screening. These results indicate that students should continue to invest in internships and that mandatory internships have a place in university curricula because they improve the quality of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing demands on higher education have placed an unprecedented external pull on universities. Bernstein (Pedagogy, symbolic control and idenity: theory, research, critique, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., Lanham, ) refers to this 'outward' pull of the late twentieth century as the 'regionalization of knowledge'. One of the consequences of this 'facing outward' is contestation over curriculum and what should be privileged. Should it privilege knowing, doing or being? Should it foreground formative training in the basic sciences or applied problem-solving? Is its priority educating the mind or preparing for a vocation? These questions can set up a series of 'false choices' about the purpose of higher education, what it means to be educated and what our priorities should be in curriculum reform. The aim of this paper is to move the discourse beyond these polarities by making visible the 'stakes' in the curriculum reform debate illustrated in the Muller thinkpiece (High Educ 70(3):409-416, ). The paper offers a conceptual framework for understanding current curriculum contestation and applies the framework in an illustrative manner to a particular higher education curriculum reform initiative in South Africa. The framework shows how 'what does it mean to be educated?' will vary depending on the different types and hence purposes of curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2010, the European Commission launched the Europe 2020 strategy 'for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth' in the EU. Education is a major pillar of the Europe 2020 strategy due to its long-run impact on economic growth, productivity, and social cohesion. The Europe 2020 strategy established two headline targets on early leavers from education and training and tertiary educational attainment at the EU level. This paper attempts to assess the Europe 2020 strategy for the education pillar in terms of convergence across countries. Despite the fact that every country in the EU has its own national targets in these two headline indicators, progress on the achievement of the Europe 2020 strategy requires convergence. Thus, even if the EU as a whole meets its targets in 2020, the existence of a growing divide between the best and worst performing countries would cast doubt on the prospects of real economic convergence and the sustainability of the process. Our empirical findings reveal the existence of convergence clubs in educational attainment and the early leavers rate, and points towards the idea of multi-speed transitional dynamics in Europe, calling into question the convergence in educational performance in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper investigates the benefits of overseas tertiary education for international postgraduate students enrolled at a research-intensive university in Malaysia, an emerging yet under-researched Asian education hub. The study is based on 55 semi-structured qualitative interviews with international students and academic and professional support staff. Our analysis identified three sets of benefits linked to specific economic, educational, social and cultural pull factors: academic success, building knowledge and skills, and contributing to home country on return. Our analysis illustrates the interplay between macro and meso-level actors and policies in shaping the micro-level experiences of international students. The paper contributes new insights into vital nuances in the nature and lived experience of the key benefits of international education relating to academic success and time, language learning and friendship, and employability and ‘giving back’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the long presence of assessment and quality assurance in US higher education, questions and concerns about higher education quality in this higher education system have been salient for the last several decades. Compliance and student learning are two frequently competing rationales for the implementation of assessment practices. This article explores assessment processes in three public universities in the United States to illustrate common challenges harmonizing these two rationales. The analysis compared institutions along four dimensions: (a) accountability, (b) educational mission, (c) assessment framework, and (d) student learning outcomes. Based on the present analysis, we argue that assessment for accreditation compliance and assessment for student learning are in fact different processes, based on the way they are implemented in US institutions. As a result, we claim that assessment for accreditation compliance is insufficient for improving higher education quality when student learning is taken into consideration. By studying the application of tuning in the United States, this paper also contributes to cross-national analyses and the comparative literature in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how students from rural areas in Bangladesh face particular challenges in adapting to university dormitories in urban areas. There has been an increase in the number of students migrating from rural areas of Bangladesh to the cities for pursuing higher studies. These students face numerous challenges to adapt themselves to a diverse and unfamiliar cultural setting of an urban university dormitory. Following Oberg's (1954, 1960) "culture shock" model, this study examines the adaptation challenges and coping strategies of rural students living at the urban university dormitories in Bangladesh. Mixed research methods, using paper-based questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, were used to collect data. Drawing upon a survey among 400 students and 10 in-depth interviews, this study identifies specific challenges that most students face in their adaptation process such as, substandard food quality, unhealthy accommodation, psychological trauma, depression and anxiety. The most effective coping mechanisms are fostering a positive attitude, joining social associations and talking to friends and families. It is expected that findings of this study would be useful for tertiary educational institutions to develop a support system that will help rural students better adapt to urban settings, which would positively contribute to their educational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education system refers to the organisational structure of higher education institutions and the staff and infrastructure needed to provide postsecondary education. To better develop a country or region's higher education system, administrators need to have a handle on the current state of the system, which requires regular and realistic assessments of the quality and sustainability of higher education. Thus, this study constructed a quality-sustainability model (QSM) for national higher education. Nine countries with developed higher education and 13 indicators were selected to reference higher education quality and sustainability globally. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to downgrade these 13 indicators and extract the factor coefficient score matrixes. Of these, four principal components were used for further analysis. Each sub-indicator is assigned weights by the entropy weighting method (EWM) to obtain a quantifiable QSM. The model innovatively includes indicators such as "academic integrity" and is applied experimentally to data from nine countries to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of their higher education systems. The study found that each country's education system has different strengths, and by comparing and summarising them, the findings can guide the development of future-oriented higher education. This study has made some development recommendations based on the model by combining multidisciplinary theories. The study enriches existing methods for assessing the quality of higher education and identifies the weaknesses and directions for the development of higher education in some developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pasifika learners comprise a significant number of students in the New Zealand education system. In terms of educational performance, Pasifika learners generally have lower success rates and academic achievements than other student groups at both secondary and tertiary levels. The aim of this paper was to review current governance, investigate student support and evaluate outcomes at a New Zealand tertiary institution. Data collection occurred in three phases. The first stage of the research saw 37 student questionnaires completed between May and June 2014, phase two consisted of semi-structured interviews with graduate students between September and October 2015. Phase three in March 2016 entailed the analysis of learner achievement records. The results of the research illustrated that Pasifika students' experience was improved through a variety of learning support systems being available to them. Participants identified that the most valuable student support systems were study skills support and study buddies. Pasifika students also recognised that having a supportive environment that respected Pasifika cultural values and building trust in relationships with staff enhanced their learning experience. In conclusion, a variety of appropriate support systems and a culturally sensitive environment are needed to enrich Pasifika students' tertiary learning experience and achieving positive graduate outcomes. The insights provided by this paper will help develop student support systems that improve graduate outcomes of Pasifika learners, forming a template that can be implemented at tertiary institutions in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central question for education authorities has become ' which factors make a territory attractive for tertiary students?' Tertiary education is recognised as one of the most important assets for the development of a territory, thus students' mobility becomes a brain drain issue whenever there are prevalent areas that attract students from other territories. In this paper, we try to identify the most important factors that could affect student mobility in Italy. In doing that we analyse students' flows across competing territorial areas which supply tertiary education programs. We will consider a wide range of determinants related to the socio-economic characteristics of the areas as well as resources of the universities in the territories in terms of variety and quantity of the degree programs there available, financial endowments provided by Central Government, and services available to students. The Bradley-Terry modelling approach based on pair comparisons has been adopted to define the attractiveness of competing territories and assess how much the detected divergences can be attributed to factors directly related to the considered characteristics of the universities in the territory and how much is ascribable to inherent characteristics of the areas where the universities are located such as the labour market conditions. Furthermore, the adopted approach allows us to consider uncertainty in defining territorial attractiveness and making comparisons. In this way, we would like to provide some evidences to assess if the rules currently used by the Central Government to finance public universities on the basis of their capabilities to attract students really reward the efforts made by the university system in the area to improve their standard of quality or, on the contrary, reward the territorial features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a rudimentary process intended to guide faculty in K-12 and higher education through the steps involved to produce video for their classes. The process comprises four steps: planning, development, delivery and reflection. Each step is infused with instructional design information intended to support the collaboration between instructional support staff and faculty to produce video that will be meaningful to students and support their success in a class. In outlining this approach, the paper also explores technological and pedagogical considerations related to each of these steps that can help faculty and staff determine how best to incorporate video into online classes. Finally, supported by research on best video practices and with examples from our own experiences as instructional designers and instructors, the paper outlines how these steps relate to four broad categories of video: introduce, model, explain/inform and feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a study undertaken from a phenomenographic perspective, which examines teachers' approaches to information communication technology (ICT)-enhanced teaching in vocational tertiary education. Twenty-three teachers from three Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews about their ways of experiencing the use of ICT in various vocational courses. The findings revealed two strategies with five main orientations to ICT-enhanced teaching distributed along a continuum from teacher-focused approaches: comprising information-oriented, feedback-oriented and practice-oriented to student-focused approaches: consisting of activity-oriented and industry-oriented teaching. The identified strategies and orientations extend the frameworks of teachers' approaches to ICT-enhanced teaching revealed in the previous phenomenographic studies in tertiary education. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of these findings for TAFE sector and tertiary education in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The children of Canadian immigrants from some source regions, Asia, Africa and China in particular, attend university at extraordinarily high rates. Most others participate at lower rates, but still compare favourably with non-immigrant Canadians. In this paper, the Youth in Transition Survey is used to analyse the role of various background factors on these outcomes, including parental education, family income, parental expectations, high school grades and PISA test scores. To some degree, the children of immigrants go to a university because they have higher levels of the background attributes associated with university attendance, parental education in particular. But by allowing these effects to vary by immigrant group, this research finds that the high immigrant university participation rates are largely driven by those possessing 'unfavourable' characteristics (low levels of parental education in particular) attending university in spite of these apparent disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of creating learning communities have been clearly established in educational literature. However, the research on 'community-of-learning' has largely focused on intermediate and high-school contexts and on the benefits of co-facilitation in the classroom. In this paper, we contribute to educational research by describing an approach for a large (1000 + students/year), lecture-theatre based, university management course. This approach largely excludes co-facilitation, but offers a unified and integrated approach by staff to all other aspects of running the course. By applying an ethnographic methodology, our contribution to the 'community-of-learning' literature is a set of strategies that enable a sense of belonging and collective ownership amongst all participants in the course. We describe the experienced benefits, as well as challenges, of such teaching, as we outline the methods we use to enhance students' perception of belonging to a community-of-learning. We conclude by making recommendations as to the requirements of adopting a community-of-learning teaching approach to tertiary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, about 175 million children have no access to universal education in 2017. Nearly, 16 million young children in East Asia and Pacific Region are not enrolled into school, accounting for 19% of children in pre- and primary school age. This paper analyses surveillance data, extracted from the integrated Health and Demographic Surveillance System (iHDSS) database, developed by Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research in the period 2011–2017 to assess the implementation of Millennium Development Goals associated with universal education in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Net enrolment rate in primary education was 58%. Only 28% of children aged 7 were enrolled in Grade 1, and only 7% of children aged 15 years reached Grade 8 in the school year 2015. Late enrolment into Grade 1 among children aged 7 years was identified as the main cause of low net enrolment rate, leading to low completion rate of primary education in the following years and affecting the overall quality of universal education. Despite the improvement in gender equality, males had better access to education services than females as reflected in high male-to-female student ratios among the schooling age population, 5–24 years, which increased from 108 at primary to 132 at secondary and 181 at tertiary education. Educational policy-makers and practitioners should take immediate actions to improve net enrolment in Grade 1 and completion rate at primary education, as well as gender equality in education in PNG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite the prevalence of remediation, previous research presents contradictory findings regarding its short- and long-term effects. This paper uses a doubly robust inverse probability weighting strategy to examine whether the degree completion and wage outcomes associated with remedial education vary by passing or failing remedial coursework. Using the NLSY Postsecondary Transcript-1997 data, we find that almost 30% of remedial course takers fail a remedial course. Students who took and passed their remedial coursework at both 2-year and 4-year colleges were more likely to graduate from college than similar students who did not take remediation. For both 2-year and 4-year college entrants, students who failed remedial coursework were less likely to obtain a bachelor's degree and, among degree receivers, took longer to graduate. Students who entered 2-year or 4-year colleges and who failed remedial coursework earned lower wages over time compared to similar students who never took remediation. Among 4-year college entrants, these wage differences seem to be explained completely by degree completion. However, wage differences for 2-year college entrants still remain after accounting for degree receipt. Our findings thus suggest that while many students may benefit from remedial education, a substantial number of students struggle with remedial coursework and fail to realize the intended benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community engagement has played central roles in tertiary education, expanding the potentials for academic as well as civic enhancement. Such efforts are often undertaken in part with the use of metrics, as tertiary education institutions attempt to reach various community audiences with quantitatively-supported defenses of their missions, through research analyses and publications, and with their participation in formal institutional ranking systems. However, dramatic expansions of the use of metrics and the importance of publications in academics have fostered gaming and manipulation practices designed to enhance artificially both individual and institutional reputations, including predatory journal administration, coercive citation, forced joint authorship, paper mill and ghostwriting efforts, H-index manipulation, creation of bogus documents, development of fraudulent academic conferences, and many others, as well as falsified research itself. As they emerge in the press or in watchdog reports, such questionable practices can disturb delicate negotiations concerning the respective roles of communities and academic institutions as well as be perceived by some community members as violations of trust. The practices can be especially harmful when associated with celebrity or "star" academics who often are granted substantial institutional leeway. This study maps an assortment of these emerging practices from a community engagement perspective; it also analyzes recent discourse as to the impacts the normalizations of these problematic practices are having on community-academic interactions. It discusses strategies toward making production and use of academic metrics and related research output less easily manipulated and more worthy of trust both by academic participants and the community as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I investigate undergraduate students' discrete location choices in presence of a plethora of potential destinations and psychic costs. I demonstrate how enrolment into institutions of tertiary education is influenced by personality and social preferences. More importantly, these individual traits are found to affect the valuation of location-specific conditions in alternative study locations. Eventually, the relevance of location attributes, such as urban or labour market characteristics, varies substantially with respect to distance and individuals' personality. This has direct implications for student recruitment, since prospective students display distinct geographic sorting patterns along these traits: students featuring higher levels of patience integrate post-graduation opportunities into their decision-making. As a consequence, institutions in economically less prosperous regions might attract a specific subset of the overall student population, which might also have repercussions on student performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the tertiary education institutions, rankings have started gaining ample attention all over the world. This has created a profound impact on the indian higher education system. As a result of that, in 2015, the government of India announced National institutional ranking framework (NIRF) to rank the indian institutions. NIRF is based on multiple parameters which are evaluated by standardised survey. In this work, a mathematical model, which can handle such multiple parameters to rank higher education institutions (HEIs), has been proposed. In this model, six criteria, named as, student intake, faculty strength, expenditure of the institution, research paper published per faculty, placements and perception, are considered. Since the criterion perception is a qualitative criterion and can not be modelled by classical mathematics, fuzzy rule based inference system is proposed to determine its precise value. Then DEA-Entropy-TOPSIS approach has been employed to rank HEIs. To emphasize the applicability of the proposed method, a numerical illustration is provided. It is asserted that this proposed mathematical model is a unique HEIs ranking approach involving human perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses time series data for seven industrialized countries from 1980-2009 to explore the causality between health care expenditure (HCE) and economic growth. We have set up a classical Cobb-Douglas production function including HCE, labor, capital, and an augmented function additionally including the number of patent applications (as a proxy for technology and research) and the total number of tertiary education students (as a proxy for education). Our results show that there is a long-run relationship between growth and HCE. As regards causality, in the classical production function, evidence for mutual causality between GDP and HCE is noted only in France, Germany and England, causality from HCE to GDP is noted in Italy and Japan, while no causality whatsoever is evidenced in Canada and USA. However, a completely different situation is unveiled when the augmented production function is used with mutual causality being noted in all perused variables. The novelty of our study lies first in that it contributes to the health-growth nexus literature for high-income countries which has been quite controversial and second it sets off new variables whose omission might be one of the reasons of the result dichotomy. Results of this study will be very useful for high-income countries currently afflicted by the economic crisis and embark on HCE curtailments or revisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]