Ethical Issues in the Malaysian Education System

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country in which the government gives preferential treatment in education, employment, and ownership to its majority ethnic group: Bumiputera. However, affirmative action policies in the current Malaysian context should work according to John Rawls’ Theory of Justice by being based on income rather than ethnicity. Certainly Malaysian Government should be praised for giving freedom to the Chinese and Indians to select their preferred school and this is partly consistent with Amartya Sen’s view of freedom; however this article argues that these communities are apparently given constraint freedom of choice.     

Employability: a contemporary review for higher education stakeholders

Higher education institutions are under pressure to produce employable graduates who are required to contribute to the sustainability of strong economic growth and development. As such, the onus is on the higher education sector to present graduates to the labour market who are both work ready and have attained employability. This article contributes to the discussion surrounding the employability of graduates by: enhancing understanding and discussing contemporary evidence and debate around employability; showing the genesis, influence and synthesis of the major models associated with employability; summarising the boundaries and barriers to graduate employment; and exploring the determinants of employability from the employer’s perspective. Importantly, the article summarises the contemporary theoretical bases of employability in the one place. Recommendations are made regarding further research and the need for further theoretical contributions.     

The Fiscal Impacts of College Attainment

This study quantifies one part of the return to U.S. public investment in college education, namely, the fiscal benefits associated with greater college attainment. College graduates pay much more taxes than those not going to college. Government expenditures are also much less for college graduates than for those without a college education. Indeed, over an average lifetime, total government spending per college degree is negative. That is, direct savings in post-college government expenditures (conservatively, about 85,000 per four-year-equivalent degree over an average lifetime) are greater than government expenditures on higher education (generously, about85,000 per four-year-equivalent degree over an average lifetime) are greater than government expenditures on higher education (generously, about 74,500 per degree). Plus, the direct extra tax revenues from college graduates alone (roughly $471,000 per degree over a lifetime) are more than six times the gross government cost per college degree. The average real fiscal internal rate of return on government investment in college students is conservatively estimated to be 10.3%.     

商务英语人才需求与培养质量对接的对策研究——基于广东工贸职业技术学院商务英语专业三届毕业生的调查分析

为培养出更多符合社会需要的商务英语人才,分别采用发放问卷、电话访谈、召开座谈会等方式对广东工贸职业技术学院商务英语专业2010—2012届毕业生以及他们的用人单位进行了＂商务英语人才需求与培养质量＂调查.调查结果表明,社会对于商务英语人才的需求量在总体上升,对人才质量要求也在提高.但目前用人单位具体需求与商务英语专业学生的能力表现仍有一定的出入和矛盾.基于调查,提出了推进教学改革、调整课程设置、注重素质教育的应对措施.     

公务员招考对象变化对大学生择业观的影响

近年来,中央和各省市公务员招考条件出现了一个共同的变化,即中央和省市公务员面向应届毕业生招考的比例越来越小,同时更多的招考职位面向有基层工作经验的人员,一部分职位开始面向工人和农民,还有部分职位定向招录基层服务项目的毕业生。这一显著变化势必影响毕业生的就业选择和择业观。通过对近年来公务员招录条件的这一变化对大学生择业观...     

Determining the subject balance in higher education: how should this be done?

It is the U.K. Government's policy to achieve the right number and balance of graduates in the 1990s. According to the Government, this will require more attention being paid to the needs of the economy when decisions concerning the allocation of resources between subject areas are being made. In particular, the Government believes that higher education should be more vocationally-oriented and aims to influence the subject balance in this direction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of constructing a set of indicators for deciding which subjects have produced the most marketable and the most satisfied graduates. Two sets of indicators are constructed. The first is based on labour market indicators such as the earnings and unemployment rates of graduates. The second set of indicators is based upon information about the value which the graduates themselves place upon their degree qualifications. When these two sets of indicators were combined, substantial differences were found in the relative worth of graduates in different subjects (for male and female graduates separately). Graduates in some subjects achieved far higher scores than graduates in other subjects on either one or both sets of indicators.The author is grateful to the ESRC for supporting the research reported in this paper, which is part of a larger project on the construction and evaluation of performance indicators in higher education.     

地方政府管理创新探究

新公共管理运动之后,英国地方政府引入了"最佳价值"管理模式,实现了公共服务供给的多元化,在减轻政府负担的同时提高了公共服务的质量;我国富阳地区地方政府的大部制改革实现了管理模式由垂直型或者扁平型向纵横交错的管理模式的转变,上述两种改革模式为我国的地方政府管理创新提供较好的蓝本,可作为我国地方政府管理创新的借鉴。     

农业高校毕业生就业问题与对策研究

在高校毕业生就业形势严峻的大背景下,农业高校毕业生就业形势不容乐观。政府对农业高校毕业生到基层就业的扶持政策落实不到位,社会对农业高校学生认识片面,农业高校农科类专业设置与市场脱节且缺乏完善的就业创业指导体系以及农业高校毕业生自身就业观念狭隘、能力低都是影响农业高校毕业生就业的系列问题。通过落实扶持政策、转变对农业高校...     

‘If the child cannot come to the school,then the school must go to the child’: The railway station platform schools in Odisha,India

Despite its constitutional obligation of ensuring universal primary education, the Indian Government has not been able to find a way to educate its 18 million street children. It is widely accepted that the government lacks the capacity – financial, managerial and human resource – to provide meaningful education to those who are left out of the formal education system. Many civil society organisations across India are trying to bridge the gap by educating children living in high-risk settings. One such initiative, the Railway Platform School started by Ruchika, proves that quality bridge or condensed courses are an effective way of encouraging children to access the formal education system. This article argues that the government needs to appreciate and support this kind of innovative initiatives, and also government and other civil society actors needs to operate under a collaborative framework to ensure reach out to children, who have been left out of the Government schooling system.     

'My eyes went wide open'– an evaluation of the special needs education awareness course at Molepolole College of Education, Botswana

This article is an evaluation of the special needs education awareness course run at Molepolole College of Education, Botswana. The course directly reflects the Government of Botswana's policy on special education and seeks to provide students with a wide range of skills and knowledge to help them identify and support pupils with a variety of special needs. It also seeks to examine teachers' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with a wide range of learning support needs in the ordinary school. The evaluation was carried out by Gareth Dart, senior lecturer in the Department of Special Needs Education at Molepolole College of Education, who, in this article, reports the views of the first cohort of student graduates to complete the full course. This account also includes feedback from staff at schools who were involved with supervising the students as they did their special education assignments while on teaching practice. Feedback from the students and teachers is very positive in terms of the content and effect of the course although Gareth Dart suggests that a more thorough evaluation will have to wait until the graduates have been in the field some time. In the future, there will be a need to assess the long-term impact of the course upon the practice of teachers; to review the sustainability of this form of teacher education; and to make judgements about the influence that new generations of teachers have upon schools and policies promoting inclusion.     

体育特岗教师培训模式的构建与实施

特岗教师就是特殊岗位的教师。宁波市政府根据应届高校毕业生的就业现状,提出了"四个1000"工程。其中就有培养培训1000名面向山区海岛任教的教师,其中有45位初中、小学体育教师参加了特岗培训。本文拟从培训的内容、培训的模式、培训形式、培训考核及反思与建议出发,探讨体育特岗教师培训模式的构建与实施。     

Does the type of higher education affect labor market outcomes? Evidence from Egypt and Jordan

In Egypt and Jordan, there is a substantial mismatch between the output of the higher education system and the needs of the labor market. Both demand and supply-side factors could be driving this mismatch. This paper tests a key supply-side issue, whether differences in the institutional structures and incentives in higher education affect the labor market outcomes of graduates. Specifically, we ask if the stronger alignment of incentives in private relative to public higher education institutions produces more employable human capital and better labor market outcomes. We examine the impact of the type of higher education institution a person attends on several labor market outcomes while controlling for his or her pre-enrollment characteristics. The results demonstrate that supply-side issues and institutional incentives have little impact on labor market outcomes while family background plays by far the largest role. Proposed reforms for higher education often suggest increasing the role of the private sector in provision of higher education. Our findings indicate that this approach is unlikely to improve labor market outcomes.     

Scope, relevance and challenges of financing higher education: The case of Tunisia

Like other developing countries, Tunisia has allocated increasing levels of resources to education, particularly higher education, over the past few decades, mainly through public funding. From 2005 to 2008, public expenditure on education amounted to around 7.4% of GDP, with 2% allocated to higher education. Recently, however, budgetary constraints have increased, student enrollment is increasing rapidly, and the country needs to improve its higher education so that graduates are more employable. In this context, to enhance access and equity, public policy is required to define orientations and programmes to improve quality and efficiency while reducing costs. This article first assesses public expenditure on higher education in Tunisia, with respect to its adequacy, efficiency, and equity, and then explores the challenges posed to financing by demographic changes, the need for higher quality of education, and private provision. It also examines some strategies for reinforcing financing, and analyzes measures to increase private funding.     

Classroom Management and Socioemotional Functioning of Burmese Refugee Students in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Access to Malaysian government schools is prohibited for refugee children, and hidden refugee schools only reach a minority of Burmese students in Malaysia. This study used a participatory culture-specific consultation (PCSC) approach to examine the perspectives of Burmese refugee teachers on Burmese refugee student socioemotional issues and classroom management using interviews, observations, a preliminary refugee teacher focus group (N = 10: 4 men, 6 women; M age = 26 years), and a primary focus group with refugee teachers who were Burmese refugees (N = 9: 6 men, 3 women; M age = 30 years). First, themes suggested that societal pressures have an effect on the classroom environment. Second, refugee student behavior and emotions ranged from externalizing to internalizing. Third, refugee teachers relied on traditional Burmese methods for managing serious misbehavior. Fourth, with mild misbehaviors, teachers employed more “modern,” student-centered methods. Results inform culture-specific consultation designed to meet refugee education needs.     

独立学院毕业生就业期望影响因素研究——基于人力资本和社会资本的双重考察

依托母体高校举办的独立学院具有在招生、人才培养、就业指导等的特殊性,其毕业生所拥有人力资本和社会资本对就业期望可能产生特定的影响。基于人力资本和社会资本的双重因素,对某独立学院2012届毕业生的就业期望进行问卷调查和实证分析,结果显示独立学院学生在人力资本和社会资本的存量上存在差异;社会资本相对人力资本,对毕业生就业预期的影响更大些。为此,独立学院毕业生要正视所处的教育生态环境,理性认识人力资本和社会资本、高校要分类指导人力资本和社会资本不同含量的毕业生,正确认识社会资本的作用。既要维护"继承性社会资本"。也要开发"生成性社会资本"。政府应做好毕业生就业流向的合理疏导。     

Returning from earning: UK graduates returning to postgraduate study,with particular respect to STEM subjects,gender and ethnicity

It has been argued by some (e.g. the Confederation of British Industry [CBI]) that graduates lack the skills that render them employable. In particular, graduates of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects are often portrayed as being unready for the world of work. This study uses three large-scale national data-sets from the UK to explore this assertion, including the results of the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education surveys. It reports analysis of 22,207 individuals who graduated from their first degree in 2007, and works from the hypothesis that those entering the workforce and then returning for taught postgraduate study are primarily doing so due to underemployment in the period following graduation. The study uses binary logistic regression and finds that a range of educational, demographic and employment-based variables have a significant relationship with the propensity to return for taught postgraduate study. Of particular note, those returning tend to be high achievers from elite universities in low-skill work after graduation, as well as women and those from minority ethnic communities; this suggests a mix of individual and structural factors at work. In addition, STEM graduates were significantly less likely to return, apparently challenging the argument advanced by the CBI.     

Training Minds for Tomorrow's World: on Independence,Curiosity, and Effectiveness∗

Writing as the former Director of the Council for Industry and Higher Education of the United Kingdom, the author makes a plea for the shared responsibility of universities and industry to educate for change and growth. Thus, graduates of higher education, who will be confronted with a variety of opportunities, must be educated to face a post‐industrial society characterized by an automated economy, a quantifiable world, complexity, and rapid obsolescence. The author proposes that students confronted with a combination of practical training and humanistic subjects, who through their education develop good communication and numeracy skills, flexibility, and the ability to work in teams will be best able to survive and to prosper in the job markets of today and tomorrow. Producing this new kind of graduate will also require changes in the approaches to teaching; more students will have to learn to a high standard more efficiently with fewer staff members per student. The aim of producing employable graduates by means of state‐of‐the‐art instructional methods will best be achieved through creative dialogue between employers and educators.

     

高校毕业生创业服务体系途径研究

就业是民生之本、创业是就业之源。高校毕业生创业服务体系的建设,主要从学校、政府和社会多方面考虑;学校通过教学、课外活动、社会实践等一系列途径为学生创业做好充分的准备;政府通过合理的优惠政策,提供信息、扶持毕业生创业,使其少走弯路,社会是一个大舞台,给毕业生提供平台让大学生充分施展自己的才智。     

解决高校毕业生就业难的策略研究

高校毕业生就业难的主要原因在于高等教育结构性失衡。解决高校毕业生就业难,需要进行一系列改革促使高等教育转型,一方面,政府通过产业升级、改善就业环境等,为高校毕业生提供更多的就业岗位;另一方面,高校自身进行改革,培养社会需要的合格人才。