Strategies for internationalisation at technical universities in the Nordic countries

This article investigates strategies for internationalisation at technical universities in the Nordic countries. The study explores the institutional rationales for internationalisation, the stories told in the strategy documents, the importance of leaders, faculty, administration and students for implementation of the strategy, and barriers and key components of successful internationalisation. We studied the strategic work with internationalisation across 27 technical universities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. This work reflects both global trends of competition and the traditional Nordic model of cooperation. Overall, the universities incorporated internationalisation in their strategies in order to increase quality in research and education, and to establish strategic partnerships and networks. There is a shift in rationales from a more traditional approach of internationalisation to a new integrated form.     

Redefining External Stakeholders in Nordic Higher Education

Present higher education reforms in the Nordic countries diminish the role and influence of the state on the governance of higher education institutions. While still providing a framework for the management of higher education, in general, the state supervises rather than controls higher education institutions (HEIs). The rhetoric of change stipulates HEIs to respond to environmental needs, and the external stakeholders often assume greater prominence relative to the internal ones. This development is explained by a paradigmatic shift in the concept of good governance. Furthermore, the Stakeholder Society perspective is used to investigate the changing position and meaning of stakeholders in Nordic higher education.     

Redefining External Stakeholders in Nordic Higher Education

Tertiary Education and Management - Present higher education reforms in the Nordic countries diminish the role and influence of the state on the governance of higher education institutions. While...     

Participation in job-related lifelong learning among well-educated employees in the Nordic countries

The purpose of this study was to explore participation in job-related lifelong learning (LLL) among well-educated mature workers and compare it across four Nordic countries. Although this group generally is very active in LLL, the centrality of knowledge work in society, rapid pace of skills-renewal and rising learning demands for all qualifications levels, necessitates a better understanding of the patterns and factors affecting their skill development. The paper builds on theories of learning motivation, human capital and workplace learning. Data from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) by the OECD were used. In addition to high participation rates, systematic level differences in participation were found across the countries. Results of logit regression analyses revealed clear differences between countries in the models that explained participation, which gave limited support to a single ‘Nordic model’ of LLL. Furthermore, the predictors of participation commonly found among adult populations, low-educated individuals and/or younger adults, appeared less valid for well-educated individuals.     

Towards Continuously Continuing Education in the Nordic Countries

The training at school and university undergraduate level to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning is important for their future need of lifelong education. The concept of continuously continuing education is introduced, to be used for both initial university campus education and continuing education. If the computer, with computer and video networking, is considered and used as a multimedia tool, students will be familiar with working within a virtual classroom. This will foster them to continue their learning after graduation and promoting lifelong education. Information is given about the objectives and operations of the Nordic Forum for Computer-aided Higher Education and some other initiatives within the Nordic countries to move towards a European ( or Global) Electronic University to promote continuously continuing education.     

Research on Gender and Education in the Nordic Countries

Sex has for many years been an important independent variable in educational research, but the serious theoretical discussion of the variable as a dependent variable belongs mostly to the last three decades. A need for a conceptual reorientation has emerged which, for one thing, resulted in the replacement of the concept sex by the concept gender. The article in this section presents and discusses the necessity and the development of this theoretical reorientation in the Nordic countries, which has attracted many researchers and instigated inventive projects. In addition the article gives an overview of Nordic empirical gender research in or related to education: first the studies that opened up the field, then the development that followed. This presentation focuses on different subareas, such as studies of gender and ability, learning and achievement, studies of gender aspects of classroom interaction, studies of single‐sex learning arrangements, action research studies in order to expand the interpersonal and emotional skills repertoire of boys and girls, studies of gender identity. Although differences between the Nordic countries are clear, similarity is the dominant trait. At the end the article comments on recent viewpoints on the likely development of gender policy and outlines basic educational questions within the Nordic educational systems.     

Contract arrangements in the Nordic countries—solving the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma?

Steering higher education through the establishment of a “contract” between the state and the individual higher education institution is becoming an increasingly popular way of regulating the relationship between the two actors in the Nordic countries. This article addresses some theoretical foundations for this approach derived from principal/agent theory and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of established contract arrangements in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The article discusses the potential of using such arrangements in relation to the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma. It is emphasized that trust is vital in solving this dilemma and that the balance between the need for public accountability, the efficient regulation of higher education, and institutional change must be given high priority in refining existing contractual arrangements.     

Democracy,caring and competence: values perspectives in ECEC curricula in the Nordic countries

The aim of the study is to explore how Nordic Early Childhood Education and Care policies frame values education in preschools with a special focus on the values of democracy, caring and competence. The study is part of a larger Nordic project, Values education in Nordic preschools: Basis of education for tomorrow, the aim of which is to explore values education from various perspectives, policy levels, institutional levels and personal levels. The study applies Habermas’s theoretical ideas of communicative actions, lifeworld, and the system. Here the focus is on the system level, namely, values in national curriculum guidelines that serve as the basis of pedagogical practices in preschools in the Nordic countries. Thematic research analysis described by Braun and Clarke inspired the qualitative analysis of the documents. In addition, a quantitative language-based approach was applied to the study. Keywords related with democratic, caring and competence values were selected. The findings reveal different dimensions and meanings of the three value fields, such as democracy as being and/or becoming; care as fulfilment of basic needs and an ethical relationship; and competence values as learning for sociality and academic skills.     

北欧国家生态文明教育的三维向度

生态文明教育是世界各国面临的共同课题,作为提出并实践可持续发展的先行地区,北欧国家积极探索生态文明教育模式,主要体现在动因、内容、实践三个维度。在动因维度,生态文明教育是北欧国家实施绿色立国战略的基石、推动教育绿色转型的依托、满足公民绿色需要的抓手。在内容维度,北欧国家生态文明教育内容丰富、涉及面广,主要包括生态认知、生态技能、生态伦理和生态消费等方面,旨在全面提升公民的生态文明素养。在实践维度,北欧国家制定并实施生态文明教育战略、建立并完善生态文明教育机构、构建并执行生态文明教育法律、推广并运用生态文明教育技术,开创了颇具特色的北欧生态文明教育道路。     

Education and poverty in affluent countries

This article reflects on the desire to defend and claim public education amidst the educational policy effects of contemporary neoliberal politics. The defence of public education, from schools to higher education, undoubtedly provides a powerful counter-veiling weight to the neoliberal policy logic of education-as-individual-value-accrual. At a time of intense global policy reform centred on marketisation in education, the public education institutions of the post-war welfare state are often characterised as being lost, attacked, encroached upon and dismantled. In this paper, I contend it is important to avoid mobilising a memory of public educational pasts that do not account for their failings and inequalities. Turning to a historical engagement with the emergence of neoliberal politics, the paper explores how challenges and contestations surrounding ‘the public’ from multiple standpoints converged in the rise of neoliberalism. Recognition of these convergences and contestations, I suggest, assists to provide a more nuanced account of the relationship between neoliberal reform and the welfare state, and thus of the complex task of imagining, claiming and working towards a just and equitable public education.     

北欧成人通识教育特点研究

北欧的成人通识教育有其鲜明的特点，包括悠久而良好的成人通识教育传统，独具特色的成人通识教育机构，强有力的成人通识教育立法保障，高素质的成人通识教育师资队伍，以及对成人通识教育领域科研工作的高度重视。     

A Nordic Perspective on Early Childhood Education and Care Policy

The national policies and historical roots of early childhood education (ECE) vary from society to society. In the Nordic countries, early childhood education and care (ECEC) policies have been built in the context of the welfare state. As such, they are closely connected to other welfare policy areas such as social policy, family policy and education policy, in addition to which a close relationship with labour policy is also evident. This article sheds light on the historical roots of Nordic ECEC policies by describing the commonalities and differences between the Nordic countries. The ‘Nordic model’ is commonly described as integrated. Education, teaching and caring form an integrated unit and the term early childhood education and care is therefore typically used when describing the ‘Nordic model’. It is also said to be based on a child-centred, holistic approach with an emphasis on participation, democracy, autonomy and freedom, while its track record of high quality ECE services is considered to be due in part to the use of a well-trained workforce. The Nordic countries are, however, developing and redefining their ECEC policies in the global economic and cultural context, in which governments have to choose their priorities. Pressure to standardize ECE services is also apparent, and signs of erosion of the key elements of the Nordic model have been seen in recent policy debates. This paper discusses the current direction of Nordic ECE policy making and the future of the Nordic model.     

北欧五国高等教育质量保证机制概述

高等教育大众化在一些发达国家已成为现实，高等教育质量保证机制是确保大众化高等教育健康发展的必要途径。本文选取了北欧的丹麦、芬兰、冰岛、挪威和瑞典五个国家，对其高等教育质量保证机制建立的背景、机制的运行及其最新发展加以介绍，并分析了五国的共同特点，以期对我国高等教育质量保证机制的建立提供参考与借鉴。