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Comparative and international education (CIE) claims to be an interdisciplinary field embracing a diversity in methodologies and theoretical perspectives. Over the years, there has been an expansion in the range of theoretical perspectives employed in scholarship, as new scholars bring with them interests, expertise and positionalities. Our analysis maps the development of theoretical perspectives in doctoral theses in CIE at North American universities since 1990. We find that theory has changed considerably in this time, with a greater emphasis on critical perspectives and standpoint theories and a declining interest in economically focused perspectives. We also note that the role of doctoral advisors is primarily in terms of theoretical perspective, rather than context or methodology. These findings improve our understanding of the field in North America and potentially hold relevance to scholarship in other parts of the world.

The expansion of enrolment and attainment is a key theme in higher education research. In particular, research has examined cross-national determinants of higher education expansion while understanding expansion through the relationship between higher education and the labour market. Early work on higher education expansion established a key framework for classifying enrolment levels, but empirical studies on the global expansion of higher education are scarce. This study addresses this gap by comparing the existing patterns of higher education expansion to those experienced at other levels on the course to universal or nearuniversal access. We demonstrate that a model fitting universal access trajectories fits higher education as well as other levels of education, and, therefore, there is no prima facie reason to believe that its expansion will face ceilings or saturation levels based upon available evidence. Claims that are premised on such a ceiling should therefore consider empirical evidence for this assumption in their analysis. These findings contribute to discussions on higher education expansion as well as studies of higher education and the labour market.

This paper presents a social network analysis of partnerships in refugee education and shows how relationships between organisations change in response to multiple crises, including political and economic crises, disaster, and COVID-19. We draw insights from an original database of 440 state and nonstate entities engaged in Syria refugee education in Lebanon (2018-2021). We find that partnerships in refugee education comprise a complex web of global, national, and local actors. The policy network arising from these partnerships reflects power inequities wherein international organisations hold most influence. Moreover, crises impact the network, which expands to include new private actors. While the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to accelerate localisation, our analysis suggests the durability of global power hierarchies in refugee education response.

Both innovation and quality assurance are prominent concerns in higher education institutions but research is ambiguous with respect to the relationship between quality assurance and innovation. Sp...

Sand production in unconsolidated reservoirs has been an ongoing issue leading to significant reduction in well productivity, costly remediation, and damage to production facilities. This pape r introduces two novel chemical-based technologies, one water and one oil-soluble, that were designed to reduce operational complexities, improve reliability, extend ESP run life and offer critical benefits such as reduced relative permeability to water with minimal impacts on oil production. These technologies can be applied in wide range of reservoir conditions, from low (down to 15 °C) to high temperature (up to 110 °C) and can be deployed for both vertical and horizontal wells. In this study, a novel protocol and apparatus for sand migration study was developed. Sand packs with different sand sizes (100, 60 and 40 meshes) were prepared and tested under different pressure gradients to simulate various downhole environments. The impacts of water composition and temperature were also explored. The sand consolidation performance was quantified based on amounts of sand produced with and without treatment in conjunction with pressure drop profiles. The set up was then modified to measure effective permeability after chemical treatment. More than one hundred field trials were conducted using the oil-soluble technology to validate the laboratory findings. The laboratory results demonstrate that both oil and water-soluble technologies are effective in reducing sand production significantly. Performance of the water-soluble technology is a function of additive concentration and temperature; higher temperature environments require higher concentrations of the chemical additives. On the contrary, the oil-soluble technology is relatively insensitive to temperature variation and thus consolidation efficacy remains constantly high within the applicable range. Most importantly, both technologies significantly reduced water mobility (> 50%) in which the oil mobility reduction was merely less than 10%. The success rate of the oil-soluble technology is greater than 90% based on field result (>100 field trials) including low temperature reservoirs and selected sections of long horizontal wells. It is important to note that the oil-soluble technology, once pumped and set downhole, is no longer oil soluble therefore has been successfully deployed in oil reservoirs. This technology has also been shown to significantly reduce the maintenance frequency of electrical submersible pumps (ESP) and thus significantly extended run lives are observed. In certain cases, the frequency of cleaning out sand was reduced from several days to more than one year. Field observations also indicate that oil production rates were increased (>15%) and sustained for 2-3 months. The results of this study provide helpful information on using chemical-based technologies to address sand production issues in a wide range of reservoir temperatures with a high success rate. The novel technologies introduced here not only are effective for sand consolidation and extended ESP run life, but also efficient as relative permeability modifiers.

This datasheet on Seed production in aquaculture covers Identity, Description, Further Information.

With the current trend for application of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies, there has been much research into the possible upsets to production, from the nature of the produced fluids to changes in the scaling regime. The key question being addressed in this publication is the influence of EOR chemicals, such as hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), on scale inhibitor (SI) squeeze lifetime for barium sulphate and calcium carbonate scale risk. Squeeze lifetime is defined as the duration of time (or produced water volume) before the minimum inhibitor concentration (MIC) is reached. This is controlled by the adsorption, and later release, of the inhibitor onto the reservoir rock and the MIC of the inhibitor selected for the produced brine. This paper builds on earlier published work investigating potential changes to inhibitor adsorption caused by polymer EOR produced and moves to the evaluation of the changes in MIC due to the presence of EOR chemical. In the static inhibitor performance bottle tests, the EOR polymer alone appeared to show some degree of inhibition performance against BaSO4, but below a level required for effective scale management. However, in combination with the inhibitor (DETPMP) at near MIC levels, the inhibition efficiency was negatively impacted by the presence of degraded HPAM EOR polymer. During dynamic tube blocking tests, the inclusion of even low levels of HPAM (2.5 ppm) were shown to reduce the differential pressure build up suggesting barite scale inhibition or reduced adhesion to the coil. Furthermore, the scale morphology produced in these tests, examined under a scanning electron microscope, was clearly impacted in the presence of HPAM. For the CaCO3 system there appears to be increasing positive impact from HPAM on CaCO3 morphology with HPAM concentration and, as observed for BaSO4, an improved performance in dynamic efficiency experiments. However, at higher HPAM concentrations (500 ppm) the precipitate was amorphous and only a minor pressure rise was observed during the tube blocking experiments. From these observations, it is clear that HPAM can impact the way both calcite and barite scale grow, especially at lower inhibitor concentrations ( This study represents a comprehensive review of both inhibition performance in the presence of an EOR polymer and with these findings the implication to field treatment lifetimes and associated costs of scale management via scale squeeze in a field under HPAM flooding.

Policy discourses posit an accountability deficit as an underlying cause of a “learning crisis” in many low-income countries. Many studies understand this perceived deficit from a principal-agent perspective, arguing that incentives facing teachers and schools often do not align to the interests of parents and students. Such perspectives underlie many randomized controlled trials, which associate interventions with outcomes, but which also produce varying or inconsistent results across contexts. This paper seeks to study the accountability of schools and teachers more directly, looking at how it varies across public and private schools and how it relates to students’ literacy and numeracy abilities. We report results from a mixed methods study conducted in Mumbai and Kathmandu. Our results show that there are some relationships between accountability and learning outcomes, but these appear to be specific to the context. Quantitative data also show that differences between public and private models of schooling are negligible when students’ social backgrounds and school composition are considered. Qualitative data show that accountability processes create a significant burden on staff time and embed complex power dynamics that are not always productive. Taken together, these results problematize policies that seek to improve learning through “demand-side” approaches such as privatization. They show that the dynamics of accountability are a complex system, like the motion of a "double pendulum," and therefore simple conceptual approoaches such as the principal-agent model are of limited academic and practical utility.

Much literature discusses higher education as an agent for sustainable development, but the extent to which higher education contributes to unsustainable economic and social systems receives less attention. This paper examines the environmental impacts of international student mobility in higher education. Combining several datasets, the paper presents a model of greenhouse gas emissions associated with international student mobility. Estimates suggest that these emissions are substantial and are rising faster than overall global emissions, but the emissions per student are slowly decreasing, largely due to changes in the patterns of mobility. The paper concludes that although international exchange is increasingly important, a meaningful consideration of higher education for sustainable development should take account of environmental costs of international mobility alongside its benefits.

Rooted in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness, contemporary discourses on bilateral aid emphasize partnership, coordination, and allocation of aid according to recipients’ need. While aid to education is a key theme in literature on education for international development, systematic studies of aid flows in the education sector are very rare. After reviewing literature on determinants of bilateral aid and broader theories of globalization and development, we consider bilateral aid to education as a network in which donor and recipient countries are connected through flows of aid. We look at how the structure of this network has changed over ten years and find decreasing centralization in the aid network. Aid recipients are connected to increasing numbers donors, which would lessen their dependence and decrease donor influence. However, we find the presence and strength of ties are significantly related to donors’ interests, specifically former colonial relationships and the development of export markets. Thus, while there is some empirical support of a more egalitarian aid structure, there is also evidence that the aid relationship primarily reflects’ donors’ interests.

With the current trend for application of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies, there has been much research into the possible upsets to production, from the nature of the produced fluids to changes in the scaling regime. One key question that is yet to be addressed is the influence of EOR chemicals, such as hydrolysed polyacrylamide (HPAM), on scale inhibitor (SI) squeeze lifetime. Squeeze lifetime is defined by the adsorption of the inhibitor onto the reservoir rock, hence any chemical that interacts with the adsorption process will have an impact on the squeeze lifetime. This paper experimentally demonstrates potential changes to inhibitor adsorption from a polymer EOR project by demonstrating the complex interactions between HPAM and phosphonate scale inhibitors with respect to adsorption. This work presents a detailed coreflooding programme, supplemented with bottle tests, to identify the impact of HPAM on a diethylenetriamine penta(methylene phosphonic acid) (DETPMP) squeeze lifetime. A range of pH values, representing the expected inhibitor injection pH, have been studied on consolidated and crushed Bentheimer sandstone. A temperature of 70°C is used throughout as it represents the likely maximum temperature at which HPAM would be applied and the typical temperature at which DETPMP would be used in squeeze applications. The results presented show that scale inhibitor application pH is key in defining the impact of HPAM on DETPMP adsorption. Neutral pH displays a reduced squeeze lifetime, believed to be due to reduction of adsorption sites by HPAM. However, this impact could be countered by injecting this type of scale inhibitor at a low pH (e.g. pH 2). Static tests performed alongside the corefloods show that even low inhibitor concentrations (as found in SI pre-flushes) are sufficiently acidic to fully precipitate the HPAM from solution, but did not impact the adsorption. This study suggests, contrary to the commonly held view in the industry that EOR polymers may negatively impact squeeze lifetime, that with the correct selection of inhibitor type and their application pH it is possible to achieve the same results as in a conventional reservoir.

The relative importance of educational qualifications and cognitive skills forms an enduring debate in research on education and the labour market. While early work in human capital theory essentially equated qualifications and skills, signalling and screening theories provided a more nuanced distinction between the two, highlighting the importance of qualifications as a way of reducing uncertainty in hiring. Recent literature argues that most formal education is largely signalling that provides minimal productivity gains. This paper seeks to inform the debate on human capital and signalling theories by examining cross-national variation in how the qualifications and cognitive skills relate to earnings. Using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), we analyse variation in how cognitive skills (literacy, numeracy and problem-solving) and qualifications (secondary and higher education completion) relate to earnings. Although the contributions of qualifications tend to outweigh cognitive skills, the relative contributions of each factor vary considerably across countries. This variation suggests that high levels of signalling are not inevitable and may be explained by contextual differences in education systems and labour markets. Countries with more higher education attainment have lower levels of signalling and place higher premiums on cognitive skills.

This study examines the construction and meaning of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools as manifested by schools in four locations: Chicago, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. Through analysis of schools’ websites, we identify three major approaches towards constructing the schools’ image: globally acknowledged quality, moral global citizenship, and neoliberal global citizenship. We show how these approaches are employed in each of the contexts and discuss theoretical implications. We suggest a further nuanced conceptualization of global citizenship education (GCE) by reviewing the varied ways these IB schools are engaging with the topic, and how local contexts might shape these. In light of the growing prominence of International Baccalaureate Organization programs worldwide, it is important to foster theoretical discussions on the ways GCE is articulated and manifested.

Theoretical literature on institutions emphasizes the importance of logics–shared rationalizations–in determining many aspects of organizations. In this literature, universities are often discussed as an example of an institution with a particularly strong and cohesive logic, one rooted in notions of academic excellence and the pursuit of universal knowledge. However, more recent literature has argued that multiple institutional logics often compete and conflict with one another in a single organization. In this paper, we use the notion of competing logics to examine how academics in the United Kingdom understand the university as an institution. We perform a factor analysis on questionnaires completed by academics to identify overarching rationalizations of universities. Our analysis suggests three competing institutional logics characterize universities: autonomy, utilitarianism and managerialism. We show these multiple logics produce competing models of the university as an institution, and we discuss the practical and theoretical implications.

This chapter examines the application of learning analytics techniques within higher education – learning analytics – and its application in supporting “student success.” Learning analytics focuses on the practice of using data about students to inform interventions aimed at improving outcomes (e.g., retention, graduation, and learning outcomes), and it is a rapidly growing area of educational practice within higher education institutions (HEIs). This growth is spurring a number of commercial developments, with many companies offering “analytics solutions” to universities across the world. We review the origins of learning analytics and identify drives for its growth. We then discuss some possible implications for this growth, which focus on the ethics of data collection, use and sharing.

The expansion of higher education enrollment and attainment is a key uncertainty in the education profile of future populations. Many studies have examined cross-national determinants of higher education expansion as well the understanding of expansion through the relationship between higher education and the labor market. Early work established a typology for levels of enrollment, but recent empirical studies on the global growth of higher education attainment are scarce, and available projections resort to imposing ad hoc limits on future expansion. This study addresses this gap by comparing the trajectories of higher education expansion with those experienced at other levels on their course to universal or near-universal access. We demonstrate that a population-level model of expansion toward universal access fits higher education as well as lower levels of education (i.e., primary and secondary education). In other words, that there is no prima facie evidence of a ceiling in higher education enrollment that would indicate saturation significantly below 100 % participation. Claims that are premised on such a ceiling should therefore consider empirical evidence for this assumption in their analysis. These findings contribute to discussions on higher education expansion as well as studies of higher education and the labor market. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s13524-019-00775-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The potential influence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on higher education institutions is much discussed and debated, with some arguing that MOOCs are a disruptive innovation that will radically change existing models of higher education. However, analyses of whether and how MOOCs might disrupt higher education models are relatively scarce. This paper analyses whether MOOCs should be considered a disruptive innovation according to the concept’s defining criteria. It compares characteristics of disruptive innovation with current developments in MOOCs, suggesting three perspectives – performance, benefits, and market – that can be used as a lens and analytic framework to explore and evaluate current practice. The findings indicate that MOOCs do not match all the characteristics of disruptive innovation as they are commonly identified in the literature. However, MOOCs may be a sustaining innovation that establishes new markets for learners who are not served by universities.

This paper seeks to empirically evaluate the association of decentralization of education systems and student achievement. It employs PISA (2015) data to perform multilevel analysis for each and every participating country. Decentralization effects are estimated on the imputed scores of mathematics after controlling for various studentlevel and school-level covariates. Findings reveal an important pattern across the analyzed countries. The random intercepts models suggest that decentralization has no significant effect on student achievement. The results of this paper challenge the primary notions of advocating for decentralization in education systems for improving student outcomes. Based on the empirical evidence from a multitude of countries, this paper argues that decentralization could be more of a false promise and an ineffective prescription.

This paper investigates differences in higher education outcomes according to the qualifications with which students enter university. The study is situated in the context of increasing marketization, competition and privatization in post-16 qualifications, combined with an increase in students entering higher education with either vocational qualifications (e.g. the Business and Technology Education Council [BTEC] qualification) or a mix of academic and vocational qualifications. It draws upon literature on markets in education as well as studies on educational choice and pathways to examine whether different entry qualifications offer equal chances of success in higher education. Using multilevel logistic regression, the analysis examines the relationship between types of entry qualifications (academic, vocational and mixed) and the probability of achieving a first or upper-second class degree at university, which are associated with increased opportunities in the labour market and postgraduate study. Controlling for a range of demographic and institutional characteristics, the analysis identifies a strong decrease in the probability of a first or upper-second class degree for students who enter higher education with vocational qualifications. These results are discussed in relation to theories of markets in education and social class and education.

Much research on higher education has discussed the positional competition induced by global rankings and the complementary concept of “world-class” universities. This paper investigates the network of social media communication between globally ranked universities. Specifically, it examines whether universities seek to preserve and reproduce status by selectively forming associations with highly ranked institutions. It uses social network analysis and exponential random graph models to investigate data on interactions through the popular social media website Twitter.com. Findings show that social media communications are significantly related to global rankings, but that the size of this effect is quite small. Instead, structural relationships within the network and geographical location appear to have more influence on network structure. These results suggest a need to critically reassess the category of “world-class” universities and the role of global rankings in global higher education.

The goal of this chapter is to introduce the network paradigm for analyzing relational phenomena and organizing knowledge in higher education research. This introduction is presented by example: it analyzes knowledge on inter-organizational relationships of higher education institutions. The formation, maintenance, and impact of relationships are implicitly relational, although they have largely been understood as a consequence of institutional practices. Through the network paradigm, we show that focusing on relations we can develop new and more precise models to understand the antecedents, consequences, and characteristics of these networks.

Following the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, international development policy discourses have focused on partnership as an overarching principle. With a focus on participation and non-hierarchical relationships, new partnerships aim to reconstitute the aid relationship in a way that obviates power inequality and hegemony. However, empirical studies of these partnerships are scarce. This paper uses social network analysis to analyse relationships between organisations involved in prominent partnerships for education in international development. Our analysis of an original dataset demonstrates that bilateral donors, civil society organisations, and international organisations are most likely to occupy central positions in this network, meaning that they enjoy high levels of connectivity to many organisations. Literature on international networks suggests that these organisations would therefore shape the flow of information and ideas between organisations, influence the distribution of resources among members, and determine normative preferences of the partnerships. In contrast, recipient governments, private businesses, and universities occupy peripheral positions. We contextualise these findings with respect to literature on aid in international education and privatisation in the political economy of educational development.

Kathleen Lynch and her colleagues Bernie Grummell and Dympna Devine have produced a frustratingly compelling volume that documents the arrival of ‘new managerialism’ in the Irish education system. ...

This paper examines international student mobility between member states of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), a group of 47 countries that committed to reforming their higher education systems to improve the comparability and compatibility of degrees. While increased student mobility is a key goal in its official documents, little research has empirically investigated student mobility patterns in respect to the EHEA. The analysis employs multivariate techniques to identify trends in student mobility between 1999 and 2009, using a spatial approach to visualise the relationships between member states as constituted through student mobility flows. Results show that within the analysis timeframe student flows in the EHEA became more even in their distribution, but that in terms of the relationships between states, the EHEA became more centralised and segmented, meaning that key actors mediated exchanges between peripheral states and the region was more easily divided into self-contained clusters. The...

Simulation is now the educational standard for emergency training in residency and is particularly useful on a labor and delivery unit, which is often a stressful environment for learners given the frequency of emergencies. However, simulation can be costly.This study aimed to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of low-cost simulated obstetrical emergencies in training family medicine residents.The study took place in a community hospital in an urban underserved setting in the northeast United States. Low-cost simulations were developed for postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and preeclampsia/eclampsia (PEC). Twenty residents were randomly assigned to the intervention (simulated PPH or PEC followed by debriefing) or control (lecture on PPH or PEC) group, and equal numbers of residents were assigned to each scenario. All participants completed a written test at baseline and an oral exam 6 months later on the respective scenario to which they were assigned. The participants provided written feedback on their respective teaching interventions. We compared performance on pretests and posttests by group using Wilcoxon Rank Sum.Twenty residents completed the study. Both groups performed similarly on baseline tests for both scenarios. Compared to controls, intervention residents scored significantly higher on the examination on the management of PPH but not for PEC. All intervention group participants reported that the simulation training was "extremely useful," and most found it "enjoyable."We demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of two low-cost obstetric emergency simulations and found that they may result in persistent increases in trainee knowledge.

This article contributes to a better understanding of the social acceptance of the investment model of volunteering, that is, the view that volunteering can enhance employability through the development of professionally relevant knowledge and competences. Based on the analysis of Eurobarometer data, the article explores (1) the prevalence of the investment model of volunteering in the EU-27 countries and the extent to which this varies between individuals with the potential to make hiring decisions (IHP) and the general population, (2) the demographic factors associated with the acceptance of this model, (3) whether national differences in the acceptance of the model are better explained by variation between countries or cross-national demographic factors and (4) whether national institutional characteristics related to the competitiveness of the national labour market, the specificity of the education system, the strength of the continuing vocational training system and cultural factors influence acceptance. The results show that the acceptance of the investment model of volunteering is relatively widespread in Europe and that variation in the acceptance of the investment model among the general population is driven by both individual (age and class) and between-country differences (related to the strength of training for unemployed people), but variation is more attributable to differences between countries than cross-national demographic groups. IHP, on the other hand, tend to be more homogenous in their acceptance of the investment model than the general population.

Detailed measurements of the flow instability of dilute shear-thinning viscoelastic aqueous solutions, with relatively low zero-shear viscosities, in an obstructed microchannel flow are reported. We examine the flow behaviour resulting from a 100 μm post placed in the channel centreline over a range of Reynolds numbers ( $$5

We hypothesize that a formal simulation curriculum prepares neonatology fellows for difficult conversations better than traditional didactics.Single-center neonatology fellowship graduates from 1999 to 2013 were sent a retrospective web-based survey. Some had been exposed to a Difficult Conversations curriculum (simulation group), others had not (no simulation group). The simulation group participated in one workshop annually, consisting of lecture, simulation, and debriefing. Scenarios were customized to year of training. Epoch comparisons were made between the simulation and no simulation groups.Self-rated baseline effectiveness at discussing difficult topics was not different. The simulation group reported more supervised family meetings and feedback after fellow-led meetings. Simulations were rated very positively. The simulation group reported increased comfort levels. Strategic pause and body positioning were specific communication skills more frequently acquired in the simulation group. In both groups, the highest ranked contributors to learning were mentor observation and clinical practice. In the simulation group, simulation and debriefing outranked didactics or other experiences.Simulation-based workshops improve communication skills in high stakes conversations. However, they do not substitute for mentor observation and experience. Establishing a structured simulation-based difficult conversations curriculum refines vital communication skills necessary for the high stakes conversations neonatologists direct in clinical practice.

INTRODUCTION Transition of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to a new physical plant incurs many challenges. These are amplified when the culture of care is changing from traditional cohort-based care to the single-family room model. Altered healthcare delivery systems can be tested in situ with TESTPILOT: Transportable Enhanced Simulation Technologies for Pre-Implementation Limited Operations Testing. The aims of the study included promoting translation of existing processes and identifying staff orientation material. We hypothesized that (1) numerous process gaps would be discovered and resolved, and (2) participants would feel better prepared. METHODS A functional neonatal intensive care unit was modeled before its opening. Scenarios were developed, volunteers recruited, and rooms supplied with equipment. Participants performed usual duties in two 30-minute in situ simulations followed by facilitated debriefings. As latent safety hazards were identified, they were corrected and retested in subsequent simulations. Staff was surveyed for perceived preparedness. RESULTS Ninety-six multidisciplinary participants identified 164 latent safety hazards in verbal and written communication, facilities, supplies, staffing, and training, 93% of which were resolved at transition. Staff preparedness varied but showed improving communication, workflow patterns, and awareness of equipment and supply locations. The majority stated that this simulation experience changed their practice. CONCLUSIONS Simulation is very effective for identifying process gaps before major institutional change. TESTPILOT generated iterative workflow enhancements and staff orientation toward improving patient care at transition and beyond. The extensive coordination required to implement such large-scale simulations is well worth the benefit for systems refinement and patient safety.

The use of information and communications technology (ICT) for education in developing countries has been a subject of great interest and speculation, with its proponents arguing that ICT improves educational quality, develops critical thinking skills, expands access, increases economic competitiveness and facilitates inclusion in a rapidly expanding global information society. However, few of these claims have been verified from an empirical standpoint, leading to substantial criticism of the push to expand ICT. This article analyses how the global discourse on ICT in education has unfolded in Nepal, concentrating on educational policies on ICT and how these relate to a rather limited domain of practice. It argues that policies on ICT in education reveal an uneasy and fragmented engagement with the global discourse, while in practice its use is often innovative although so limited as to cause little substantive change. However, in both policy and practice the importance of ICT is more due to its power as a symbol of modernity and progress than any utilitarian value.

This paper examines information access in Nepal, its current limitations, and opportunities for expansion, particularly in rural areas. It argues that government policies and the regulatory environment have failed to create the competition necessary for rapid expansion of information access through information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly in rural areas. Furthermore, restrictive approaches to licensing and exorbitant fees have hindered the ability of civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to provide information access at the local level. This has resulted in very limited access to information outside a few urban centers and created some of the world's highest access costs in one of its poorest countries. To successfully address this situation, the newly installed republican government will need to create an environment that promotes competition in less lucrative rural markets while negotiating the demands of existing license holders.

This paper investigates the relationship between educational policy, equity, and national development in Nepal. It argues that current inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes are largely attributable to persistent inequities and biases in the educational policy framework. We begin by surveying the complex, multifaceted reality of educational disparity in contemporary Nepal and trace these inequalities to exclusionary practices in the policy environment that have persisted in various forms since the inception of an independent Nepali state. We then show how these educational inequities contributed to the civil conflict that engulfed Nepal from 1996 to 2006. Analysis and critique of the most recent policy trends, decentralisation and privatisation, provide insight into the future nexus of educational policy and equity in Nepal. We conclude that it is imperative for policymakers to reconceptualise the relationship between development, education, and equity at this critical juncture.

Summary In recent years, a number of nonaqueous delivery systems for scale inhibitors (SI) have been developed that are designed to be applied as low-damage, low-water-cut or pre-emptive squeeze treatments (e.g., in critical or expensive subsea wells). The mechanisms through which nonaqueous SI systems operate is an important technical issue. Only when a good understanding of the transport and retention mechanisms is developed can this be built into a model for designing such squeeze treatments (such as the SQUEEZE VI model). The experimental work in this paper focused on a specific oil soluble version of a standard pentaphos-phonate inhibitor (DETPMP), which has been described previously in the literature. Several floods have been carried out comparing corresponding nonaqueous and aqueous applications of DETPMP to better determine the main features of the transport and retention mechanism of the system. Novel core flood experiments with tracers in both the aqueous and oleic phases have been performed and are reported in this paper. Unique information is generated by designing very detailed flooding cycles and carrying out tracer floods at each stage. Results point to the formation of an immobile "emulsion-like" third phase in this system. To confirm our proposed mechanism, nonaqueous inhibitor has also been applied at zero residual water saturation (100% oil) to investigate whether or not the tailing effect (or third layer deposition) could be generated without previous oil/water partitioning of the SI. For this case, tailing of the brine tracer only was observed. Mass balance showed that there was still considerable retention of SI that was ultimately produced during the aqueous post-flush. The corresponding aqueous-inhibitor coreflood showed similar returns to that of the previous nonaqueous experiment and no retardation of either the tracer species or the metal ions in the brine. No formation damage occurred for either phase after the inhibitor was injected. A further "control" flood (no SI treatment) proved that the brine tracer tailing arose as a direct result of the treatment. The use of the tracer species in each (water and oil) phase is a genuine innovation, which provides a powerful additional technique for demonstrating the effect of chemical treatments on the flow and the retention of all fluids in the core.

A violent conflict between Maoist insurgents and the national government has engulfed Nepal for most of the last decade, a situation that has been complicated by deep-seated instability at the highest levels of the government itself. Even with the declaration of a ceasefire in 2006, violence endures in pockets of lawless banditry and unrest at the hands of separatist groups. During the conflict, education and schools played a central role, with issues such as the neglect of rural schools, the right to mother tongue education, and the expansion of private schooling figuring prominently in the Maoists' list of grievances. Both sides used intimidation and violence to gain support from rural schools, which acted as one of the lone advocates of community interests during the upheaval. This article argues that throughout the conflict formal education in Nepal has simultaneously presented many faces: on one hand it contributed to the conflict by reinforcing social inequalities while on the other it mitigated the effects of the conflict by maintaining social cohesion and mediating between opposing sides. In other cases it seemingly did both at once: acting as an egalitarian force by expanding basic education and literacy at an astounding rate while simultaneously excluding certain groups from sharing the benefits of the country's development. Building upon the work of Bush & Salterelli, the article shows that in the case of Nepal education presents not two but many faces that are highly contextual and remain relevant in the post-conflict environment.

The BP operated Schiehallion Field, UKCS has been on production since 1998 through an FPSO which is in the latter stage of its original design life. In order to capture additional oil and gas that has been accessed by further exploration, field extensions and technology applications, in 2006 BP and its license partners embarked on a project to re-develop the greater Schiehallion area. This included the initiation of the Quad 204 Project to replace the existing FPSO, yielding an opportunity to implement an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) scheme through incorporation of EOR equipment in the new project facilities. A polymer flood, utilising an acrylamide-based polymer (HPAM), is currently being evaluated as the leading EOR technology option. Polymer flooding seeks to improve oil displacement efficiency by increasing the viscosity of the injected water-flood. A more viscous flood gives a lower mobility ratio of injected brine to displaced oil, improving local, areal and vertical sweep efficiency and increasing oil recovery. The biggest challenge to the success of a polymer flood in Schiehallion is maintaining reservoir voidage. In maintaining voidage, down-hole pressures must increase when injecting a viscous phase. This is a concern on Schiehallion, where the injection pressure is limited. This restriction has led to the extensive program of laboratory work detailed in this paper, which shows, with associated reservoir modelling, that a relatively low viscosity polymer solution can materially improve water-flood recovery, while maintaining reservoir voidage. A further challenge is the adverse weather conditions west of Shetland which makes the deployment of a liquid, rather than a powder polymer the only practical choice. If the polymer flooding scheme is sanctioned, Schiehallion will be one of the first full-field offshore schemes utilising this technology. This paper details the laboratory test program covering both rheological and porous flow studies. Initial rheological work focused on optimum in situ flood viscosities and polymer dosages. This was followed by injectivity studies, measuring polymer Resistance Factors (RF) at different flow rates in aqueous-phase core floods, utilising field core. This paper then progresses to report results from a reservoir condition ‘live’ core flood. This measured polymer adsorption and Residual Resistance Factor (RRF) under field conditions. Finally a section on reservoir simulation identifies the importance of these two variables in reducing uncertainty in estimates of incremental oil in reservoir models.

This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of cross-national data on armed conflict, state fragility, and enrolment in primary and secondary schooling. The study is motivated by questions raised in the 2012 Human Security Report, which challenges the widely held assumption that conflict is necessarily detrimental to educational outcomes. We use multilevel modelling techniques to determine how conflict and fragility relate to changes in enrolment. Our findings suggest that growth in enrolment is significantly lower in conflict-affected countries but that the effect is dependent upon countries' overall enrolment level. However, when we control for fragility, the effect of conflict is not significant, which is consistent with the Human Security Report's suggestion that fragility is an underlying cause of both conflict and poor educational outcomes. We conclude by discussing the relevance of our findings and challenges for future research on fragility and education.