STEERING PATTERNS IN THE AUSTRIAN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

Inspired by Burton Clark's “triangle of coor‐dination” whereby a university is steered according to its relationship to “state authority”, the “academic oligarchy”, and the “market”, the author analyses the debate going on in Austrian higher education circles today about the proper way for the universities of the country to be steered. The general proposal is to supersede the University Organization Act of 1975, which had really been a reformulation of the traditional ministerial bureaucratic centralism typical of Austrian university governance, in favour of market‐oriented and decentralized approaches with many of the functions of the Ministry of Science and Research to be handed over to a buffer organization to be created. The chances are, however, that fundamentally very little of current practice will be changed because of the strength of set patterns and because of the inner contradictions within the principal reform proposals.     

The Pedagogical Qualification of the Academic Teaching Staff and the Quality of Teaching and Learning

The author takes note of the relative unpopularity of pedagogical and in‐service training for university teachers, particularly in the German‐speaking university world, and asks himself why this is the case. The reason, he suggests, has to do with the traditional view that what counts in universities is research, teaching being a secondary preoccupation of the teaching staff. Yet, public opinion as well as selected European higher education institutions and administrations have mounted efforts to make pedagogical training a standard part of the required qualifications of university teaching staff members. Following a survey of European efforts, particularly in the United Kingdom and in Germany, to interest university teachers in university‐level pedagogy, the author presents what a polling of teachers and students in Germany consider to be good teaching practices. He urges all teaching staff members to adopt these practices.     

高校课程教学进度计划改革探析

在针对我国高校传统课程教学进度计划存在问题进行分析的基础上,结合国内外大学典型syllabus和课程纲要示例,对我国高校传统课程!教学进度计划(课程授课计划)的改革提出了一些建设性的意见。强调在课程教学进度计划的改革中要树立“以学生为中心”的教育观念,建议革新高校传统的课程教学进度计划,从课程教学进度计划走向课程纲要,将对教与学两个方面的要求融会在课程纲要之中。     

The School in Question: a comment

Abstract

In Germany the tradition of university autonomy goes back to Humboldt's reform rather than the privileged corporations of the middle ages. Humboldt's concept of the university is still fertile as a model and a method for today's universities. The social significance of science in the modern world, increased expenditure on higher education, and the academisation of a growing number of professions seem to undermine the traditional legitimation of university autonomy. On the other hand good new reasons for autonomy can be derived precisely from scepticism with regard to a naive belief in the progress of science and to an all‐too‐narrow professionalisation of university education. The ever closer interconnection between ‘academic’ and ‘public’ functions of the universities has led to the replacement of the traditional ‘dualistic administrative structure’ by a ‘unified'one under a rector/president. The dualism of functions has, however, reappeared in the distinction between ‘legal’ and ‘more extended’ supervision by ministers. For the future a more precise distinction between global regulations legitimately claimed by the state and self‐government within the framework thus set should be aimed at.     

The American University in Bulgaria as an Entrepreneurial University

Entrepreneurship in an educational institution is not strictly commercial. It is also defined in terms of educational objectives. The author, who is the Provost and Dean of Faculty at the American University of Bulgaria at Blagoevgrad, describes the setting up of this university in 1990‐1991 as a case study in educational entrepreneurship. This American‐style liberal arts university has become very successful through offering a curriculum that is unique to the Bulgarian higher education environment and employing faculty and staff who have a very strong professional and personal commitment to the institution and its mission. The university operates according to democratic principles of shared governance with an emphasis upon Total Quality Management and state‐of‐the‐art facilities in such areas as Internet access, computerization, and library automation. The university has made a successful adaptation to the Bulgarian cultural, linguistic, and material environment, and has won the respect of the traditional Bulgarian academic establishment. Success in this case is illustrative of entrepreneurship defined as taking an exciting idea and making it work in spite of difficulties.     

智能化多媒体教室建设探索

通过一个典型的现代化智能教学大楼多媒体教室的设计，对多媒体教室结构特点、功能以及设计原则进行了分析，提出了一个现代智能教学大楼中多媒体教室的配置方案的实例。     

Considerations for Faculty Preparing to Develop and Teach Online Criminal Justice Courses at Traditional Institutions of Higher Learning

Criminal justice programs at traditional institutions of higher learning have been moving toward offering courses online and, in some cases, placing entire programs online for the better part of the past decade. In competition with for‐profit institutions, many traditional colleges and universities have expanded their distance education programming to include online courses and programs to attract students. As a result, the number of criminal justice students has increased, as have the profits for home institutions. With this growth in the online education market, the criminal justice faculty member has been thrust, willingly or unwillingly, into the world of online teaching—a method of instruction foreign to many instructors. From the authors’ experience at their current (and in the case of the lead author a second) institution, this paper addresses many issues that must be considered by faculty members before embarking on this type of time‐intensive initiative.     

学科资源的知识组织和服务—985工程高校图书馆核心职能

信息化时代高校图书馆的核心职能应该是进行专业化的知识组织,形成新的知识产品,开展学科化的知识服务。高校图书馆只有立足于学科发展,才可能完成从传统的资源管理走向知识管理,从资源服务走向学科化的知识服务的根本转变。本文从学科化服务的角度阐述了高校图书馆知识组织与知识服务的核心价值观与内涵,并从全国高校图书馆特别是985高校图书馆目前的迫切需要出发提出了知识服务工作的增长点。     

Assessment and examinations in Armenia

This profile describes traditional assessment practices in Armenia – many of which are typical of those formerly practised throughout the Soviet Union – and the ongoing efforts to reform formal examinations and school‐based evaluation techniques. The extraordinarily high stakes associated with the examination currently used to select applicants for university places are discussed, as are the consequences for teaching and learning of having entrance tests based on published, rather than unseen, item banks. Progress towards introducing a new, dual‐purpose school‐leaving/university selection examination is outlined and the remaining hurdles described.     

国外创业型大学与营利性大学异同辨析

创业型大学与营利性大学是20世纪后期世界高等教育领域兴起的两种新型的教育机构,二者既有差异,也有共同之处.从组织性质、产生背景、大学职能、办学目的四个方面分析了这两类大学的不同之处,同时也指出了二者的共同之处：对“额外收入”或“利润”的追求以及企业化的运作方式.创业型大学模式为我国公立高校中具备条件的研究型大学发展提供了一种可资借鉴的实践范式,而营利性大学模式则启示我国应实行“营利性”和“非营利性”民办高校的分类管理模式.     

Preparing students with intellectual disabilities to audit inclusive university courses

There is a growing trend toward including adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) in further education. However, there is a lack of literature on the preparation of students with ID to attend further education. This article, by James Wintle of Queen's University, Ontario, describes how a non‐profit organisation, CALC Prep, prepares adults with ID to audit university courses. Eighty hours of observations were conducted over the course of one term at this organisation. A grounded theory approach was used to identify themes within CALC Prep's curriculum. Themes within the curriculum that were considered most useful for students preparing to audit courses at the university included familiarising the students with the university, enhancing self‐awareness, enhancing self‐expression and building literacy skills. Additionally, recommendations for improving the transition of students with ID from the preparation programme to auditing university courses are offered.     

University‐Industry Relations at the Technological University of Compiègne

The system of university‐industry relations of the Technological University of Compiègne (UTC) is described. Since the founding of this institution in 1972, its provision of know‐how, services, and goods to the surrounding community has evolved into a very structured system. Representatives of the business community hold membership in all the decision‐making bodies of the University. Some of its components have formed a Law‐of‐1901 ‐type organization and others, a limited liability company, to provide services on either a non‐profit or a profit basis. The whole university and its components have formed the UTC Group. The result is described as a very successful symbiosis of a public institution and privatized components.     

Barriers and pathways to creating sustainability education programs: policy,rhetoric and reality

This article outlines an action‐oriented research project regarding the University of British Columbia’s engagement with sustainability. In 1997, the University of British Columbia (UBC) created a sustainability policy that suggests all UBC students should be educated about sustainability. Using data from a series of in‐depth interviews the author outlines a range of institutional barriers that impede the implementation of sustainability education including: the problems of disciplinarity, the competitive environment of the university, misdirected criteria for evaluating students and faculty, and multiple priority‐setting by the administration. The article concludes with recommendations on how to create institutional change and sustainability education programs at the university level.     

Academic and social integration in higher education: a survey of satisfaction and dissatisfaction within a first‐year education studies cohort at a new university

A survey of student satisfaction and dissatisfaction was undertaken within an undergraduate education studies cohort at a new university in the English Midlands. The cohort included both ‘traditional’ and ‘non‐traditional’ students and represented an increasingly typical ‘widened’ community of students within higher education. This student‐ informed survey enabled expression of facets of experience which were found to be deeply satisfying or deeply dissatisfying by the cohort and which also had the potential to impact upon their academic and social integration. The cohort was asked to link facets found deeply satisfying or deeply dissatisfying to the likelihood of their retention and degree completion or the likelihood of their exit from the institution. Themes emerging were concerned with teaching and learning, debt and money worries, workload and support. Many of the facets identified fall within institutional control and can be managed in order that both ‘traditional’ and ‘non‐traditional’ students may achieve integration, maintain their personal vision and be retained. The survey methodology employed can be adapted to accommodate contextualization within other higher education institutions. It is suggested that engagement with such survey methodology represents investment in both institutional, educational and financial health.     

A University Model for Multiple Problem Areas

The author argues strongly for a model of university organization that is based upon problem areas rather than upon the traditional departmental structure that is itself based upon strict disciplinary delimitation. The required shift is made difficult by the bookkeeper mentality of university administrators who find the spontaneous development of problem-based and problem-driven work groups difficult to track and to fit into traditional administrative structures. The shift, however, must be made in order for the university to retain its position on the cutting edge of creativity. University administration must adapt itself to the new realities of knowledge production.     

大学生体育与健康教育的文化困惑

在教学过程中看到大学生体育与健康教育经常不被学生所重视,笔者从传统文化入手来考察影响大学生体育与健康教育的文化障碍。笔者认为在高等院校的体育与健康课程教学过程中讲授传统儒文化的健身思想时,难以运用实证论的方法讲出令学生信服的内容,在介绍中国传统道家养生文化时又缺少具有说服力的理论支持。而传统意识和文化在很大程度上还控制着大学生的体育与健康行为。这种由现代文化和传统文化的碰撞而产生的尴尬必然影响学校体育与健康教育的效果。     

“Nobody Can Better Destroy Your Higher Education than Yourself”: critical remarks about quality assessment and funding in Estonian higher education

This paper is devoted to the controversies surrounding higher education reform in Estonia. The main stress is put on the mechanism of quality assessment and assurance built into the bill of the Law of Higher Education. Owing to a significant conflict of interests between the HE institutions and the inability of any national level body to draw system‐wide policy, the bill has been discussed for four years and the parliamentary vote postponed several times. This has severely limited the development of democratic decision‐making processes in Estonian higher education. By now the traditional Soviet style of extremely centralised quality assurance has been dissolved in both higher and secondary education. In the new bill the term ‘educational standard’ is used several times: however, the content and origin of such standards remains unclear. From the comments of leading Estonian educationists, it is possible to conclude that there is a hope to copy ready‐made standards from some of the Western European countries. For this author the value of that solution is debatable. The last issue to be discussed in the paper is the idea of using relegation to the vocational sector as a punishment for poor performance. The author sees the roots of this kind of approach in the traditional underestimation of any kind of vocational education by the university community.     

THE COMPUTERIZATION OF LIBRARY‐INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

This article provides an analysis of the “computerization of library‐information technology”. Its author begins by listing the basic tasks in the computerization of libraries in higher education institutions, these being the study of the traditional library‐information technology, the definition of the subject area, the synthesis of the language facilities, and the definition of the structure and content of input and output documents. The article takes as its example the library‐information system which was elaborated and is now in use at the research library of the N.E. Bauman Technical Institute in Moscow, a system which makes use of personal computers. The system as a whole is illustrated with reference to the experience gained in the use of the computerized library technology which is applied in the processing of new library acquisitions and in information retrieval. The author also explores the ramifications of this technology with regard to all the stages in the computerization of university libraries.     

美国营利性大学之制度探析

美国营利性大学以其新型大学制度特征引起了人们的关注。美国营利性大学得以制胜的制度主要有课程制度、管理制度、产权制度、就业制度和外部支持制度等等。营利性大学制度的出现带来了大学办学思想上的革命,创新了传统大学的经营和管理方式,其具有强大生命力的原因在于降低了运营成本,并具有强大的市场适应力。美国营利性大学制度对我国民办大学制度建设颇有启示意义。     

The socialization of German university teachers: Some observations on role acquisition in an academic context and the consequent institutional effects

Recent trends in universities in the German Federal Republic are reviewed with special reference to the norms, values and attitudes of university teachers. Despite democratising influences the head of department is still a powerful figure. Recruits to the university teaching profession tend to conform to traditional values and ideas about the university. This has implications for the importance given to teaching. It is suggested that change may be brought about by helping academic staff to understand more fully the practical implications of the maintenance of traditional positions and also by exploiting opportunities which appear in the course of organising workshops devoted to the improvement of teaching in higher education.This is an abbreviated version prepared by the Coordinating Editor, of a longer article, available from the author, dealing with the topic at greater length. We are grateful for permission to include this study in the special issue on academics - Coordinating Editor.