Predictors of funding in academic fields

This study assesses the relative salience of various predictors of funding in different academic fields. Predictors of funding include the various dimensions of past research performance: articles, articles in leading journals and books. Articles predict quite accurately funding decisions in chemistry (r=0.58; p<.001). Books, on the other hand, are not the dominant predictor of funding in either the social or physical sciences. The implications of these findings for higher education are discussed and elaborated.     

高等学校筹资对策分析

经费不足是高等教育发展面临的普遍问题。因此,如何采取有效措施增加学校经费收入,是高校领导者普遍关心的事情。根据目前高校经费来源格局以及国家现行拨款政策,高等学校不能仅靠国家投入,要靠自身的条件与努力去拓宽收入渠道,有效增加收入。要解放思想、转变观念,积极采取对策,充分利用国家各种支持教育发展的政策,充分利用高校自身的各种资源优势,不断提高自筹经费的能力。     

Developing communities of practice within and outside higher education institutions

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are largely built on the assumption that learning is an individual process best encouraged by explicit teaching that is, on the whole, separated from social engagement with those outside the university community. This perspective has been theoretically challenged by those who argue for a social constructivist learning theory and a more collaborative approach to learning. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) afford lecturers and students an opportunity for extending the boundaries of a learning experience, not merely beyond the lone individual, but beyond the limits of discipline boundaries within a specific university community and beyond the institution into the local community. This paper illustrates how a collaborative effort between lecturers and students from the Computer Science and Education Departments at Rhodes University, teachers from the local community, the provincial Department of Education and a non-governmental organisation developed into an unfolding virtual and physical community of practice which enabled ICT take-up in a number of schools in the Grahamstown District, South Africa. This discussion of what has become known as the e-Yethu project provides an example of how ICTs, underpinned by the insights of social constructivism, the notion of 'community of practice' and in particular Hoadley and Kilner's C4P Framework for Communities of Practice, can serve to help HEIs understand ways in which ICTs can provide opportunities for developing collaborative learning within HEIs, and between the HEI and the local community.     

公共科研平台事业编制与非事业编制人员趋同管理的实践与思考

公共科研平台的技术队伍建设与人员管理是影响大型仪器设备使用效率、支撑能力、服务水平的关键因素,然而遗留的计划经济体制下的事业编制"铁饭碗"与现行的非事业编制聘用制并存,成为了抑制公共科研平台发展活力的重要因素。通过对清华大学生命学科校级科研平台在事业编制与非事业编制人员趋同管理工作方面的实践,力求探寻适合公共科研平台发展的人员管理之路。     

Some new approaches to research and development funding

Some new approaches to research and development funding, adopted by the United Kingdom's National Development Programme in Computer Assisted Learning are described. The five-year, £2.5 million National Programme, sponsored by seven Government departments, was set up in 1973 at a time of widespread concern about government R & D funding. The funding strategy of the Programme is described in the hope that it might apply to the funding of other educational innovations. Four unusual features are discussed in detail, the aim of the Programme; the role of the Programme directorate in cooperative funding; the approach to evaluation; and the emphasis on project management.The main aim of the Programme, from which all other policy and management decisions derived, was the institutionalisation of innovation. The Programme directorate, by contrast to the central staff of research councils, was active and interventive in the formulation of policy, the design and selection of projects, and their evaluation. A cooperative approach to funding was adopted which permitted projects to combine national and local interests, in an effort to avoid the over-centralisation of some of the large schools curriculum development projects in the UK and the USA, and the parochialism of some higher education research funding. A major evaluation device used in the National Programme was the midterm evaluation of projects. Projects were step-funded for one or two years in the first instance, with continued funding dependent on the outcome of the midterm evaluation. A further novel feature of the evaluation was the existence of independent educational and financial evaluation. Project management skills were considered important in the Programme, and various techniques were adopted, such as virement, to improve project management and control.     

Predicting federal research funding at colleges and universities

The relationships between federal research funding and institutional commitments and characteristics are assumed to be at certain levels, but such assumptions appear to be founded mainly upon subjective observations. This study examined the relationships between federal research funding and the following institutional characteristics: institutional research funds; doctors, masters, first professional, and bachelor's degrees awarded; and graduate, first professional, and undergraduate student headcount. Data was gathered from 60 research performing universities for fiscal year 1975. Multiple regression, simple correlation and partial correlation analyses were used to ascertain the strength of the relationships. Results showed that doctor's degrees awarded and institutional research funds possessed the strongest correlations to federal research funding, with doctorates being the strongest relationship at private institutions and institutional research funds the strongest relationship at public institutions.     

英国RAE大学科研评估制度及其对大学科研拨款的影响

随着英国高等教育规模的不断扩张以及政府财政压力的日益增长,为了加强科研拨款的选择性和透明度,提高政府科研拨款的使用效率,英国自1986年开始推行RAE大学科研评估制度。该制度对促进英国大学的科研水平、学科的调整等,起到了积极的作用。我国可考虑建立权威的半官方性质的中介评估机构,加强对科研拨款制度的研究,寻找评估与拨款结合的生长点。     

高校教师聘任制之法律研究

我国高校教师聘任制目前还存在着法律依据不足等问题,应借鉴发达国家的有益经验,完善教师聘任合同、争议仲裁机构和诉讼法规,规范其管辖与受理程序及部门。     

美国联邦政府资助大学科研的政策与机制

美国研究开发活动的分权资助体系,以及美国大学将教育与前沿研究活动相结合的特征,是美国充满巨大创新活力的主要原因。而联邦政府竞争性科研拨款机制,包括价值评议与同行评议,则保证了联邦政府资助科研活动的质量,促进了研究型大学的发展。分权和多样化的科研资助来源则使大学的自主权得以保障。