The changing role of the Japanese professor

In analyses of the professorial role, an opposition is often established between the professional or external components and the university or internal components. From this perspective, professors at leading universities in the West are said to emphasize the professional components of their role. In contrast, in the past Japanese professors tended to emphasize the local university-centered components. In recent years, many professors have shifted their energies away from these university-centered components. Some have become professional in the Western sense, but others have become showmen and still others politicians. No single phrase suffices to summarize the trend away from university centeredness.The authors wish to thank Kazuyuki Kitamura and the other members of the Research Institute for Higher Education of Hiroshima University for so generously supplying their unpublished data on university governance for their inspection. Also they acknowledge the stimulation they have experienced in reading Shigeru Nakayama's important comparative analysis of university traditions.     

从欧洲的三个国家看--大学与政府关系的变化

近十年来,西欧的政策呈现出放松管制、组织自治和标榜对个体公民更加关切的特点。这种政策态度在欧洲的高等教育界成了主流意识形态。本文想要展示的是,是否一些欧盟政府在管理高等教育方面采取了“后退”的作法,是否将制定高等教育政策作为自己的目标。欧洲政府的高等教育政策是否真的呈现分权化的特点?本文将对三个欧洲国家的高教政策进行讨论,它们分别具有不同的政策传统：法国(非常集权的政策传统)、英国(分权的政策传统)、比利时(集权的政策传统)。本文的研究结论是：到目前为止,法国的教育政策虽然还呈现集权的特点,但并不意味着高校完全没有选择它们发展方向的空间。而英国大学虽然仍独立于政府,但不止一次地被政府直接或非直接地推向某一特定方向。1989年以前,比利时(佛兰德区)保留着明显的集权的特点。而现在,高等教育政策已经不仅仅是政府的事情了,它比以往任何时候更成了私人机构的职责。     

社会公正与大学角色

Social justice is not only a vital ethical principle of the human society but also the all-important value of the entire social system. As a public sphere, the university undertakes the purpose to achieve public interest. It plays a significant role in reflecting, defending, and fostering social justice. Nurturing people with social justice awareness is a key mission of the university; it communicates and advocates the ideas of social justice, which helps to foster social justice consciousness of the public; and, for its own part, it must strive to embody and defend procedural justice. __________ Translated from Gaodeng Jiaoyu Yanjiu 高等教育研究 (Journal of Higher Education), 2007, 28(1): 13–19, revised by Zha Qiang, Faculty of Education, York University     

The role of African universities in national developments

The role of the university in national development is the subject of much discussion in Africa today. Attention and interest in the role of the university in national development has increased because of continuing concern that universities address problems caused by the technological changes that have affected the political and social-economic order in African society. Failure to cope effectively with such changes has led to a general disenchantment among students, parents, legislators, the client system and the general populace about the quality and relevance of university education today (Group for Human Development in Higher Education, 1984; Gaff et al., 1978; and Stordahl, 1981). Hence all three groups have demanded greater accountability: efficiency in the economic sense in the way universities deliver their programmes, as well as effectiveness in the educational sense (Miller, 1974).History shows that most African nations strove to establish at least one national university immediately after independence. The major purpose for establishing universities in these countries was, and still is, for the institutions to play a pioneering role in addressing problems of poverty, social disorganization, low production, unemployment, hunger, illiteracy, diseases, that is, the problems of underdevelopment, which appeared to be common on the African continent. Insurmountable political, social, economic, legal, ethnic, demographic and technological problems have continued to threaten the very existence of most new African nations and their people. Yet, governments have continued to invest heavily in the education of a selected few, whose direct contribution in solving these problems has not been objectively established.The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to synthesize the body of literature on the subject; to inject some critical analysis of positions taken by previous writers and pave the way for a more informed conceptualization of what the role of African Universities on national development ought to be, and must be, in the light of existing literature and personal reflection on the subject.The paper is divided into four sections. Section one defines a university and development. Section two presents and discusses problems that African universities face in a transitional era. Section three delineates the role areas of universities in national development. Section four provides analysis and discussion of contemporary problems that hinder universities from realizing their roles and contains suggestions on how to overcome them. A brief conclusion is then provided. A detailed development of each of the five components is provided in the ensuing sections of the paper.     

高校教育技术工作者的角色定位

从对课堂教学的技术支撑、对教学科研服务的技术支持及在相关专业培养大学生综合素质等方面提出了教育技术工作者的角色定位与作为,以便从更深层面认识现代教育技术的作用以及更好地使教育教学同信息技术教育相结合。     

Research policy and the changing nature of Australia's universities

Two central features of Australian universities are a strong research base and a structural organisation which reflects a close relationship between teaching and research. Current policy deliberations have produced recommendations in the national interest for the future development of Australian university research which are incompatible with these two central features. The recommendations consolidate the recent trend towards greater centralisation, co-ordination, selectivity and concentration of university research and its funding. Although certain sectors of Australian university research will benefit from the changes, the recommendations reflect neither a longer term view of the total higher education system, nor a sufficient concern with preserving the excellent and productive qualities of the current system. Their implementation will mean the adoption of research goals inimical to the fundamental purposes of universities; a less flexible and more conservative research system; a re-orientation of the research role of universities so that it is less harmonious with their teaching role; and a potentially harmful differentiation of academic staff, subject areas and institutions. In responding to the new demands of government, universities face a challenge in preserving their current strengths and core functions.     

PhD pedagogy and the changing knowledge landscapes of universities

PhD supervision is increasingly embedded in frameworks that link research to issues of knowledge transfer involving the translation of knowledge to domains outside the university where it can be taken up and applied. This tends to require research that goes beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries and raises questions of the nature of knowledge relationships required in this context. This paper draws on the work of Basil Bernstein to identify the organisational, knowledge and interpersonal relationships that these changes now require, describing the nature of the work involved in weakening boundaries between disciplines and its implications for supervisor/student relationships. The paper then outlines the challenges this presents to universities, with specific reference to the humanities and social sciences, attempting to implement strategic programs reconciling pedagogic requirements with the quality, impact and completions they must attest to in order to secure public funding.     

地市高校在构建区域创新体系中的价值意蕴

高等学校在构建创新体系中,承担着义不容辞的历史责任.地市高校在区域创新体系中的价值作用是不可低估的:地市高校是区域创新体系不可或缺的主体要素;地市高校是培养区域创新人才的摇篮;地市高校是构建区域创新体系的基地;地市高校是构建区域创新体系的生力军;地市高校可以促进区域创新体系的构建.     

The role of universities and colleges in educating gifted undergraduates

The overwhelming weight of the literature on "gifted learners" deals with the K-12 years; little attention is given to postsecondary efforts. Among the many approaches to meeting the needs of gifted students at the college level are admission without high school graduation; credit for previous advanced work; identification during and after admission; advising by specifically designated personnel; career planning; and special programs such as honors programs, admission to graduate courses, mentorships, and research opportunities. Professors can encourage gifted learners by adapting their teaching methods and by personal contact. Scholarships and academic recognition also support high aspirations. Many issues at the college level echo those encountered in the K-12 system. Attention to the gifted learner at the college level represents uncharted territory and a new frontier.     

The role of rhetoric in changing teachers' beliefs

This paper critically reviews recent suggestions from Buchmann, Fenstermacher, and Zumwalt that teachers draw their own conclusions from research findings, rather than accept the conclusions researchers draw. Drawing on Gusfield's analysis of the language of social science, the paper considers the suggestions as proposals for the rhetoric that should be used in research reporting. It is argued that acknowledging the importance of teachers' rationality does not require researchers to abandon drawing implications and attempting to persuade teachers to accept those implications.     

The market oriented university and the changing role of knowledge

The development of corporate-university linkages occurs within the orbit of two major influences, the information society and the globalization of capital. The presence of the information society builds great pressure towards the production and transfer of knowledge. The economic contraction of recent years is juxtaposed against the globalization of capital which demands that productive enterprises compete on a world wide scale. Universities are not exempt from this dynamic as they too are propelled toward a market orientation. This process leads to a series of conflicts within our universities which define the parameters of the transformation.The first part of this paper discusses these areas of development and conflict within the market university: 1) autonomy and collegiality, 2) the market and the university, 3) ideology, 4) globalization and privatization, 5) pluralism. The second part focuses on the role of knowledge within market university and the change from social knowledge to market knowledge. The focus here includes: 1) the social context of knowledge, 2) science, research of knowledge, 3) knowledge as property, 4) the transfer of knowledge. It is in this context that a new public policy for universities must be charted.     

新建地方本科院校改革与发展之道

树立适合本科教育的大学理念,是新建地方本科院校实现制度转型并获得可持续发展的先决条件;建立和完善常规管理体系,强化教育成本核算和问责机制,刚是新建本科院校提高管理水平和办学效益的关键;加强关键领域的投入与管理改革,以关键领域的提升带动整体发展,则是其立足自身条件、改革发展模式的必然选择.     

The Networked University: The structure,culture, and policy of universities in a changing environment

Tertiary Education and Management - The universities in Europe are finding themselves in a turbulent environment. They are exposed to global and European developments. This article links changes in...     

Forum The challenge of sustainable development and the role of universities

Sustainable development has been defined as development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It has been the subject of increasing discussion and debate during the last two decades.This article presents a brief survey of the overall problems inhibiting sustainable development, and outlines their impact in both developed and developing areas. The different phasing, magnitude and spectrum of problems to be faced in each area are emphasized.The article then discusses relevant policy and generic planning issues, and the need for policies and decision-making tools which can begin to cope with the uncertainties involved. While a range of approaches is needed to cope with the problems concerned, it is argued that universities in both the developed and developing world have a special role and responsibility in contributing to the challenge of sustainable development.