Search

The policies, priorities, and productivity of postsecondary admission offices are under a great deal of scrutiny. The current realities range from the pressures of tuition-driven institutions to de...

Despite myriad benefits of higher education to communities and the public at large, a commonplace perception these days is that the most important benefit of higher education centers on what accrues to individual degree earners. Institutions can inadvertently encourage this narrower perception in various ways. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the distinctive function of Christian higher education and to consider how that function might affect contributions to the common good. We outline three contributions to the common good that appear to be connected in important ways to the distinctive function of Christian higher education.

Central to this study is an exploration of the degree to which higher education is perceived as an individual and/or a collective value. Seminal literature supports the notion that colleges and universities are Western institutions. Throughout the Asia Pacific, higher education is expanding in a hybrid form in collectivist societies. This qualitative phenomenological study was guided by two questions: How is economic value shaped by cultural values and Western and Asian constructs? How is the value of higher education constructed as an individual and/or collective good by colleges and universities in the Asia-Pacific region? Using notion of disjunctures, scapes, and flows as a framework of analysis, we interviewed 25 participants in higher education across the Asia-Pacific region. The findings yielded themes of Western dominance, Asian distinctions, and the complicated perceptions of higher education as an individual or collective benefit. The theoretical framework of scapes and flows provided a lens to e...

Using a large dataset from a state education system, this study examined the experience of international college students in the United States as well as the connection to their cognitive, affective, and civic outcomes. The study utilized data from the 2010 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) and a sample of 35,146 junior and senior undergraduate students across 10 campuses. The results of this study showed that international students may uniquely experience college and may not benefit from those experiences as much as their domestic peers. Furthermore, this study identified a broad range of college experiences that contribute to the key outcomes for international students. The study discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings

Belief systems, spirituality, and religion are all integral components of culture. In any society, culture permeates institutions in ways that are both visible and unseen. Furthermore, belief systems are important to understand in cultures where higher education plays a prominent role in educating students, producing knowledge, and serving the purpose of creating good citizens. However, because of commitments to objectivity, positivism, and formal science, the role of belief and knowledge that are outside the canons of science is not often considered within the core functions of a university. This volume seeks to engage these questions directly and explore the various ways in which belief systems are part of the fabric of higher education—whether implicitly or explicitly. Throughout the Asia Pacific region, there are predominant philosophies, belief systems, and religions in societies, including Buddhist, Muslim, Shinto, Christianity, Marxism, and derivatives of Confucianism. In this chapter, we pursue a deeper understanding of the role of belief practices as it is played out in both private and public higher education and provide an overview of each section and chapter throughout the volume.

Higher education in Asia is marked by a variety of belief systems that are intertwined by local context and culture. Historically colleges by and large have all been initiated with a clear mission and vision that are tied toward a fundamental purpose and public good, but over time, most institutions drift from their original mission, embracing a variety of different approaches and techniques to either remain competitive in a global environment or fight to stay financially viable. In addition imperialism and colonization have left an indelible mark, and the lingering impact is still evident in policies and practices. In this chapter we also introduce the concept of spiritual capital, borrowing from the framework of Pierre Bourdieu, and argue that spiritual capital can ultimately serve as symbolic capital in societal contexts that are invisibly driven by certain beliefs and philosophies.

Trademarks figure prominently in college and university brand formation efforts. Trademarks are intangible rights that allow institutions to define and protect aspects of their identities important to them as they engage in markets. This multiple-method study, grounded in legal and policy research, provides a first look at how institutions are harnessing the power of trademarks in service of brand initiatives in three understudied areas: promulgation of institutional slogans, engagement in contentious arbitration actions over Internet domain names, and the coining and adoption of new names by university offices of technology transfer.

Public land-grant universities have historically engaged with the public through knowledge extension in the agricultural sciences, which later grew into other forms of outreach. Given the important mission of land-grant institutions to positively impact agricultural sciences, this inquiry focuses on the role of agricultural extension and the exchange of Indigenous knowledge through university programs. In a case study of a Native-serving institution with land-grant status, we explored the roles of Western and Indigenous science through interviews with university faculty and food producers. The responses demonstrate that perceptions of Native science in the Western knowledge environment are varied and can create a barrier between the University and the community. The barrier, in turn, can produce a gap that prevents the university from fully offering public benefits that are inclusive of Native peoples, perspectives, and science.

Although international students annually contribute billions of dollars to the US economy, meaningful intercultural interaction between international students, peers, and faculty is often missing at US host campuses. Feelings of isolation, loneliness, and alienation are pervasive among international students at US campuses; these feelings can negatively impact students

This study presents the findings that emerged in a qualitative policy-oriented case study of an institution&rsquo, s transition to a work college in the United States of America. Researchers collected 32 individual interviews, along with other observational data and institutional archives to understand the appeal of federal policy and government investment in the institution&rsquo, s transition to a work college. From this data, two findings emerged that promoted the sustainability of the institution: Educational Justice Promotes Cultural Sovereignty and Academic Activism and Political Connections. What emerged in the analysis of the findings was that notions of access, affordability, dignity, sovereignty, and justice are all expressions of sustainability in higher education, which is one part of a societal ecosystem. The institution&rsquo, s movement toward a work college model created a more sustainable educational model that allowed the institution to access federal policies and government investment inclined toward employability, promote its community, and develop significant political connections and advocacy. Throughout the transition, the institution exhibited profound ethical vision of higher education. This ethical vision&mdash, justice through education&mdash, stretched beyond the boundaries of the institution and into its adjacent neighborhood, city, and nation.

The concept of human rights has a lengthy and theoretically diverse history as both a philosophy and a corresponding system of laws and protections. Fundamental and collective values are translated into a set of laws to protect individuals in a way that will benefit society. Societal philosophies have ranged from broad and equal protections to unequal protections that were justified as good for broader society. In relation to education, the seventeenth-century philosopher and theologian Comenius is credited with focusing on education as a universal right without respect to class, sex, race, or any other category.

The purpose of this article is to expand knowledge beyond quality and assessment practices in the Asia-Pacific region to develop a profile about the nature of learning domains and degree qualifications. Using a policy research and analysis framework, data were collected from 16 of the 21 APEC economies about higher education systems and learning outcomes. This article evaluates the learning outcomes used throughout the region for a focus on workforce development and capacity building and addresses the regional landscape across Asia-Pacific economies for higher education learning domains or outcomes, student mobility, and regional cooperation.

Public good is generally defined as a benefit to or the well-being of society. However, articulating the centrality of the public good mission proves to be an easier task than understanding the degree to which the mission is being fulfilled. Higher education institutions typically identify a mission to articulate a purpose and a guiding framework for existence. There is an ongoing need to describe the aspects of what is public and to communicate the macro historical impact of higher education that has eluded a clear definition. This chapter creates a clear framework for understanding academic public good and positions each chapter as one perspective on the impact of university–community engagement. The seven chapters include education for elderly citizens, digital cultural preservation, creative tourism, the role of industry, transnational higher education, and social philosophy.

This article published in Volume 2, Issue 1, pages 29-41 (DOI 10.5195/ehe.2011.41) has been retracted at the request of the editors. The editors became aware of the issue on 21 March 2016 and quickly began investigating the situation. Several locations in the article contain plagiarized texts from various authors, either with inadequate or no attribution. Specifically, these include: excerpts from Marilee J. Bresciani’s 2006 book Outcomes-Based Academic and Co-Curricular Program Review: A Compilation of Institutional Practices appearing on page 30; excerpts from Tom Schuller and Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin’s chapter in the 2009 book International Organizations and Higher Education Policy: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally? appearing on page 31; excerpts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) website “UNESCO, OECD guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education” appearing on page 31; excerpts from David H. Kamens and Connie L. McNeely’s 2010 article, “Globalization and the Growth of International Education Testing and National Assessment” published in the Comparative Education Review appearing on page 31, and; excerpts from E. J. K. McKellar’s conference paper “Change our assessment practices? Why should we? The theory behind assessment practices” appearing on pages 32-33. The author apologizes to the journal and to its readers for the errors noted above.

Higher education in the developing world is a subsection of the larger topic of international issues in higher education (see Oxford Bibliographies in Education “International Issues in Higher Education”). Higher education has become a global sector with extensive cross-border interactions, including flows of students, education providers, and even policy frameworks. The intersection between higher education and international development flows in both directions of influence. In some cases, the international development arena has influenced higher education (particularly in developing countries) and, in other cases, higher education is designed to play a role in development goals, such as reducing poverty and promoting social and economic growth. The question of how to explore higher education in the developing world begins with the notion of what constitutes developing. The first section of this article explores definitions of development and the global forces that shape those definitions. This opening section includes ideological and theoretical anchors that help to articulate arguments for and against the particulars of development in practice. A second section explores the biggest actors on the global development stage—International Organizations (IOs). These organizations include development banks, multilateral and unilateral aid agencies, and government and nongovernment organizations that operate with goals that include promoting poverty reduction, economic growth, social progress, and other attributes considered to be essential to a functioning nation-state. Behind the large-scale endeavors of IOs are a host of issues that have created the history of development and facilitated the interaction of nation-states based on power and wealth differences. These issues include the categorization of indigenous knowledge, colonial endeavors, and notions of social and economic progress. Included in the article is a list of regional reports that relate to the issue of development, primarily focused on Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and portions of Central America and South America. The concluding section provides a reference guide to major journals that cover topics related to the issue of higher education in the developing world.

This chapter explores public good within traditional Western frameworks and through a hybrid of Asian values and philosophies. Government or public investments, like education, are often evaluated in a binary of individual or social benefits. Although the benefits are not mutually exclusive, they are distinct, and applications of the benefits vary across regions around the world. A variety of sources are used in this chapter to explore the contemporary approach to public good in Asian societies and the corresponding systems of higher education. In an effort to more concretely unpack the notion of public good in Asian societies, this chapter includes a brief overview of relevant ancient philosophies that preexisted the liberal and Western constructs.

Although Western epistemology has dominated the landscape of higher education through early establishment and subsequent expansion, via colonization, the Confucian model of education is also a driving force of higher education throughout Asia. Four driving forces of higher education (Western, Confucian, Economic, and Globalization) will be discussed in greater detail in the following chapters in this part, and this chapter provides an overview of each force. These dominant forces shape the degree to which a higher education is attainable and the degree to which it is considered useful for society.

Two land-grant institutions, Michigan State University (MSU) and Texas A&M University (TAMU) used funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to partner with the National University of Rwanda (NUR) to support the agriculture faculty in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide. In addition, the three institutions implemented key elements of the land-grant model (extension and outreach) for coffee farmers. Among positive results were training new faculty, increased product quality, and higher income for the farmers. These successes illustrate elements of the land-grant model and university partnerships that can be leveraged to reduce poverty and increase public benefits.

This article examines the language of global accountability as well as the recommended tools used to assess the quality of higher education as noted in the new World Bank Education Strategy 2020. This article concludes that intended learning outcomes often reflect ideological dispositions and when imposed on countries considered “developing,” have the potential to replicate the pattern of placing greater value on knowledge produced in “developed” countries. This trend may continue to relegate developing countries to the role of consumers in the knowledge economy.

Although a great deal of research assesses the value of both diversity and spirituality in the university setting, little research addresses the experience of underrepresented students and their spiritual development in an environment that is defined by a mission committed to spiritual growth. Utilizing data from the College Students' Beliefs and Values survey, a longitudinal dataset from the UCLA Spirituality in Higher Education project, this study explored the racial differences in students' spirituality at faith-based institutions. Amongst all students, seniors demonstrated significant growth on the spiritual identification and ethic of caring scales, and their religious commitment decreased during college. White students scored significantly higher on the religious commitment scale than non-white students, and non-white students scored significantly higher on the ethic of caring scale.

This brief introduction sketches our sense of the “dynamic global contexts” that currently are redefining Asia Pacific higher education (HE). Included within this brief framework review are issues of cross-border education, the differentiating effects of national tensions to align HE capacity with differential national birthrate profiles, the pressures created within all Asia Pacific HE systems by the dynamic and continual development of ranking/status systems, and complex shifts in the meanings of the public good as they are presented within these societies and affect current balances between the historic provision of public and private HE.

The African continent is filled with a textured history, vast resources, and immense opportunity. The landscape of higher education on such a diverse continent is extensive and complex. In this review of the landscape, four primary topics are evaluated. The historical context is the foundational heading, which briefly covers the evolution from colonization to independence and the knowledge economy. The second main heading builds upon the historical context to provide an overview of the numerous components of higher education, including language diversity, institutional type, and access to education. A third section outlines key challenges and opportunities including finance, governance, organizational effectiveness, and the academic core. Each of these challenges and opportunities is interconnected and moves from external influences (e.g., fiscal and political climate) to internal influences (e.g., administrative leadership and faculty roles). The last layer of the landscape focuses on leveraging higher education in Africa for social and economic progress and development. Shaping a higher education system around principles of the public good and generating social benefits is important for including postsecondary institutions in a development strategy.

Education is fundamental to development and growth. Access to education, which is a basic human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, is also a strategic development investment. The human mind makes possible all other development achievements, from health advances and agricultural innovation to infrastructure construction and private sector growth. For developing countries to reap these benefits fully—both by learning from the stock of global ideas and through innovation—they need to unleash the potential of the human mind. And there is no better tool for doing so than education.

Globalization has become such an all-encompassing concept that it is almost meaningless. However, most scholars recognize that the term conveys in some manner or form a shrinkage of time and space such that events happening in one part of the world have the potential to impact other locales (Giddens, 1999; Held, 1991). Beyond this most basic meaning, it is hard to find any agreement on what the term actually conveys or when in fact the world actually entered a global age (Morrow & Torres, 2000). Given the vagueness of globalization as a concept, the challenge then is to be as clear as possible in discussing various forces related to globalization that may impact a particular phenomenon under study. In the case of this chapter, the phenomenon of interest is university transformation in the developing world.

This study explores US funding for university partnerships between the US and Africa. The primary objective was to study how funds are facilitated through partnerships to promote social development and poverty reduction. Findings include the innovative and resilient nature of the 11 projects included in the study as well as pitfalls in the bureaucratic system that administers the grants.