ADMINISTRATION STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN FRANCE

The design and management of higher education systems are important factors in discussions on planning organization and financing of higher education.

We present below information on the administration structure and management of the French higher education system based on part of the study “Systems of Higher Education: France” written by Professor Alain Bienaymé of the University of Paris‐IX Dauphine, which was sponsored by the International Council for Educational Development (ICED).     

美国《高等教育法》修订与高等教育财政改革

1965年通过的《高等教育法》是美国历史上最为重要的高等教育立法之一,扩展了联邦政府在高等教育财政领域的角色。该法以再授权的方式周期性地予以修订,到目前为止,已进行了8次再授权。2008年通过的《高等教育机会法》是对该法的第8次再授权,本次修订提出了一系列重要的高等教育财政改革措施,并突出体现了促进和改善入学机会、可负担和问责的高等教育财政理念。     

A PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVE ON THE STUDY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

This article explores the relationship between higher education research and the study of public administration, the concpetual perspectives of which are useful for understanding the links between government policy‐making and higher education. A short introduction to the study of public administration is followed by the presentation of six newly evolved concepts of public administration which are labeled as follows: comprehensive rationality, the community action approach, the public choice approach, political systems theory, policy sciences, and contingency and inter‐organizational approaches. All of these have contributed to the eclecticism and the conceptual pluralism of the discipline of public administration as a whole. Having been adapted to the theoretical underpinnings of the administration of higher education, these six concepts have stimulated the development of four theoretical models for the analysis of decision‐making processes in higher education: the analytical or rational actor model, the garbage can or organized anarchy model, the collegiality model, and the political model. Specific problems in higher education administration have been addressed, as they have arisen, with reference to one or more of the six concepts and the four decision‐making models. For the future, the public administration approach to higher education will be most likely to draw upon the study of co‐ordination mechanisms in collective decision‐making processes and the comparative analysis of the external functions and performances of government.     

THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRESENT SITUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN GREEK HIGHER EDUCATION

This article gives a bird's eye view of tertiary level environmental education programmes in Greece. As the author points out, environmental education in this country got off to a late start because of a late perception of the need for them. By the end of the 1980's, environmental components had been introduced into teacher training programmes, into the universities both as full course programmes in certain universities and as enrichment courses in most of them, and into the offerings of adult and vocational education. What has evolved is a satisfactory and pragmatic range of offerings to which more must be added to meet increased demand.     

HIGHER EDUCATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN LIGHT OF THE RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TBILISI CONFERENCE

Promotion of environmental education in higher education and Unesco activities in this context, especially in light of the work and recommendations of the Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education, are presented in the following article.

It was written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Victor Kolybine from the Environmental Education Section of Unesco.     

HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE CONCEPT OF LIFELONG EDUCATION

The following article does not give a complete answer to the above question nor does it define the concept of lifelong education, but it shows the place and the role of lifelong education in the system of education.

The article is based on the first chapter of the study written by James B. Ingram, Director of the B. Ed. Course at Bradford College (the United Kingdom) in collaboration with the Unesco Division of Educational Structures, Contents and Methods and the Unesco Institute for Education in Hamburg.     

WOMEN AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

This is a summary, written for CEPES, of the background paper prepared for the study conference “Women and Higher Education” organized by the Study Centre OTO, October 29‐30 1980 in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands.

The article summarizes the principal currents of discussion in the Netherlands pertaining to the question of women in higher education, and draws an analytical picture of major obstacles encountered by women in Dutch higher education.     

高等教育中国家与市场的关系

欧洲大学现在失去了昔日的光彩,公共和私人教育支出水平较低是造成其衰败的部分原因;而高度集中的国家管理体制抑制了大学之间的有效竞争,从而使得大学在教育和研究两方面都缺乏进步的动力。对这一体制加以改革都会面临三个问题:政府对大学的掌控程度、政府对大学的资助程度和大学之间的竞争程度。这三个问题既是相互关联的,在一定程度上又是彼此独立的;既可能存在有公共资助但没有公共产权的情况,也可能存在有公共资助和公共产权同时还保持了高度竞争的情况。高等教育不同于其他产品和服务,具有“连带性”特征,这使得大学竞争与效率和公平问题之间存在着紧密而复杂的关系。     

SHORT OVERVIEW OF CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LITHUANIA IN THE DOMAIN OF QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND RECOGNITION OF HIGHER EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

This article describes current developments in regard to quality assurance and the recognition of higher education qualifications in Lithuania. With the aim of internationalizing its higher education system, Lithuania acceded to the UNESCO European Diploma Convention in 1994 and to the Council of Europe Convention on the Equivalence of Diplomas Leading to Admission to Universities in 1996. The Ministry of Education created the Lithuanian Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education in January 1995. It has been very active in a number of directions since then. In addition, Lithuania has subjected its science to international evaluation, is a partner in the Baltic Higher Education Coordination Committee, and is participating in two PHARE projects for the development of co‐operation in higher education. The main obstacle to greater co‐operation in regard both to the recognition of academic qualifications and to quality assurance is lack of financial resources.     

THE RESTRUCTURING OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USSR

Great interest is being expressed in higher education circles everywhere and at all levels in the fundamental changes envisaged with regard to the organizational structure and contents of higher education in the USSR. These changes constitute an important part of the restructuring; the “perestroika”, currently going on in all spheres and at all levels of Soviet society.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CC CPSU) adopted the Principal Directions for the Reorganization of Higher Education and Specialized Secondary Education. As a follow‐up to that framework document, the CC CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a number of decisions, dated 13 March 1987, aimed at giving substance to and at amplifying the basic principles enumerated. As change in Soviet higher education has been in the air for some time, we were able to preview some of its directions in previous issues of Higher Education in Europe, specifically in No. 4, Vol. XI (1986), pp. 80‐81 and in No. 2, Vol. XII (1987), pp. 83‐84.

As promised in the latter issue, we are now presenting the main provisions of these “Measures”, and “Decisions” via excerpts taken from five documents which were published partly in Byulleten’ Ministerstva Vysshego i Srednego Spetsialnogo Obrazovaniya, No. 6, 1987, and partly in Pravda, 27 March 1987.

The editors are solely responsible for the choice of excerpts as well as for the editorial and stylistic modifications that they believed necessary in order to fit them into the content of Higher Education in Europe.