University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University: globalization of higher education in China

This essay studies the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University—the two Chinese campuses established respectively by the University of Nottingham and the University of Liverpool. They represent successful models of globalization of higher education in China; however their rationale, strategies, curricula, partnership, and orientation are very different. Through a comparative analysis, the paper reveals their unique development and offers a template for studies of globalization of higher education in China and elsewhere through branch campuses.     

A world-class university in China? The case of Tsinghua

Higher education, an integral part of China’s nation-building project, is a critical element in China’s strategic policy initiative of building national strength through science and education. One way to achieve this goal is to develop a higher education system of international stature. Perhaps more than any other country, through national programs such as 211 and 985, China has been explicit in selecting its best universities for intensive investment, with the expressed aim of making them world-class within coming decades, and contributing more to overall R&D and scientific development. Analysing how these top-tier universities in China are reaching for the gold standard, and using Tsinghua University as an example, this article examines the role of higher education in China’s rise and how Chinese universities are responding to the drive for innovation, against a background of globalisation and internationalisation. It analyses the experience of Tsinghua, a Chinese flagship university, sometimes dubbed ‘China’s MIT’, through an in-depth case study in an international context, seeking to answer the question of how far Tinsghua embodies the qualities of a world-class university.     

University students setting goals in the context of autonomy,self‐efficacy and important goal‐related task engagement

In this study, the authors attempted to examine the roles of trait autonomy, trait self‐efficacy, important goal‐related task engagement and gender in predicting whether undergraduate university students are willing to set difficult goals. One hundred and thirty‐six undergraduate communications students from the North‐Eastern USA completed an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to create the multiple item variables. The relationships were examined using structural equation modelling. As predicted, results revealed that trait autonomy indirectly and positively predicted setting difficult goals through trait self‐efficacy and a person’s willingness to engage in important tasks. A willingness to take on important goal‐related tasks and self‐efficacy beliefs was associated with those who reported a readiness to set difficult goals. Results suggest that before males engage in challenging goal attainment they must perceive themselves as self‐efficacious, whereas females are inspired by tasks that are important to them. If the tasks are important, by implication, so are the goals, notwithstanding their difficult nature. In the ‘Discussion’ section, we suggest implications for team‐based learning.     

Mentoring in black and white: the intricacies of cross‐cultural mentoring

Cross‐cultural mentoring relationships can be sites of struggle around the issues of race, class and gender. In addition, the mentor/protégé relationship offers micro‐cosmic insight into power relations within western society. The authors of this paper, a black woman associate professor and a white male professor, use the example of their mentoring relationship to illustrate six common issues facing academicians involved in these relationships: (1) trust between mentor and protégé; (2) acknowledged and unacknowledged racism; (3) visibility and risks pertinent to minority faculty; (4) power and paternalism; (5) benefits to mentor and protégé; and (6) the double‐edged sword of ‘otherness’ in the academy. Literature is used for review and critique of mentoring in the academy while offering personal examples to illustrate the complexity and success of a 13‐year mentoring relationship between a duo who began their association as teacher/student.     

Peer and self‐assessment in the first year of university

This paper reviews the literature about peer and self‐assessment in university courses from the point of view of their use, and the suitability of their use, in the first year of university study. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part argues that although first‐year students are involved in many of the studies that report on the use of peer and self‐assessment in higher education, the proportion of these studies that do so is somewhat less than in other year levels. In addition, relatively little of this work directly and explicitly discusses the suitability of peer and self‐assessment for students and courses at this year level. The second part of the paper provides an introductory exploration of the relationship between peer and self‐assessment, and specific features of first‐year assessment, learning and teaching. Three issues relating directly to the suitability of peer and self‐assessment in the first year are explored. In the third part, the paper briefly discusses the desirability of implementing peer and self‐assessment, in general, before seeking to extend this specifically to the first year. The paper concludes by recommending that greater use can and should be made of peer and self‐assessment in the first year of university study.     

Legitimacy and identity in teacher education: a micro‐political struggle constrained by macro‐political pressures1

To gain a clear sense of teacher educators at work, we need to look closely at the context in which they practice. Any attempt to address the questions of what works and the nature of evidence must be situated in the macro‐political context that constrains the work of teacher educators struggling for legitimacy and identity within both the university and the professional field of teaching. We characterize the macro‐political context as a set of neo‐liberalist forces that works to undermine the central role universities have played in the development of the nation state. As the university's role has become focused on supporting economic development and global competitiveness, this context is at odds with longstanding agendas of professional responsibility and self‐governance in teacher education. In this policy context, we argue that teacher educators need to engage in rigorous practice‐based inquiry that addresses issues of policy and governance, particularly those that tend toward direct government intervention or professional governance.     

University mergers in Russia from the students’ perspective: uncertainty and loss of identity

University mergers are a common practice in higher education systems around the world. Merger-related aspects such as the transformation of organizational and administrative structures, the impact on the internal funding allocation mechanisms, or changes in academic strategies and profiles, are well researched. However, the role of students in university mergers and their understanding of these processes are hardly investigated. The aim of this study was to identify how students are affected by merger processes. Through the conceptual framework, integrating university organizational identity theory and studies of the human side of mergers and acquisitions, this article encompasses six institutional cases in Russian higher education. These cases were selected to illustrate different scenarios of university mergers and accordingly to analyze the variety of student experience in changing universities. The project’s data included the results of document analysis, analysis of the merged universities’ representation in the public space, interviews and focus-groups with university administrators and with students who studied during the process of university merger. It highlights such perceived effects of mergers as anxiety and perceived unfairness due to post-merger changes, activization of we-they opposition between the students of merged universities, loss or transformation of organizational identity, and clash of university cultures.

     

Authority in the classroom: adolescent autonomy, autonomy support, and teachers’ legitimacy

Younger generations are increasingly questioning the legitimacy of teachers. However, evidence concerning classroom authority and the many factors that shape it tend to disregard the complexity and dynamics of the relationship between the teacher and the student. This paper aims to contribute to further unfold and understand this topic. Specifically, teachers’ legitimacy is examined from the scope of the Relational Model of Authority and the principle of autonomy, from the standpoint of the individual (i.e. adolescent’s autonomy level) and the individual’s perception of the social context (i.e. perceived autonomy support). Participants were 323 adolescents attending two secondary schools in urban areas of Portugal, from 9th to 12th grades. The results indicate that teachers’ legitimacy, as recognised by students, varies according to their perceived autonomy support. In addition, more autonomous adolescents, when in contexts that they perceive as lower in autonomy support, recognise lower levels of legitimacy to their teachers, compared with individuals with lower autonomy levels. Results are discussed from the standpoint of the Relational Model of Authority, the Self-Determination Theory and the Theory of Psychological Reactance.     

Socio‐cultural‐historical constructivism in the preparation and practice of early childhood teachers in New Delhi,India

Abstract

The author conducted a study with early childhood educators in New Delhi to understand the teachers’ perceptions of the relationship between their preparation and practice within a theory‐practice framework. The research problem emanated from the observations and experiences of the author, indicating an existing three‐way tension between the design of current Indian teacher education programs, the dominant discourse of early childhood education, and the underlying values of Indian philosophy that defined the construct of the teacher and child in Indian society.     

Creativity,Complexity and Self‐similarity: The Vision of the Fractal University

Creativity and communication processes in engineering education have become more and more necessary in highly complex structures such as technological networks and ‘virtual’ reality. These issues also include an educational challenge for university: all education for the future has to be based on experiencing reality. A new socio‐technical approach describes the engineering profession in all aspects beside technology, such as tasks, views, organizational structures or cooperation. Therefore, university and higher education have to change into self‐similar structures to support the learning of complexity in real life. The experiences of the Department of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Technology in Aachen, as a socio‐technical, self‐similar and creative system, show such learning processes of students (and staff) in undergraduate education, research and organizational structures.     

Predicting university performance in Psychology: the role of previous performance and discipline‐specific knowledge

Recent initiatives to enhance retention and widen participation ensure it is crucial to understand the factors that predict students' performance during their undergraduate degree. The present research used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test three separate models that examined the extent to which British Psychology students' A‐level entry qualifications predicted: (1) their performance in years 1–3 of their Psychology degree, and (2) their overall degree performance. Students' overall A‐level entry qualifications positively predicted performance during their first year and overall degree performance, but negatively predicted their performance during their third year. Additionally, and more specifically, students' A‐level entry qualifications in Psychology positively predicted performance in the first year only. Such findings have implications for admissions tutors, as well as for students who have not studied Psychology before but who are considering applying to do so at university.     

Beyond cultural specific？ Cross-cultural management in the context of globalization： General trends and psychological implications

By reviewing evaluations collected via interviews from supervisors and employees in different companies, the author tries to pinpoint the extent to which a given corporate culture is applicable in a different cultural context. These studies present the results from really HR-audits. The study deals with the influence of corporate culture. This case study is about a German establishment in the United States （mechanical engineering industry）. The results clearly reveal that the acceptance of a corporate culture in a foreign cultural context is very low among the employees of the host country, regardless of the cultural patterns in the individual cases. The attempt to implement at any price a given concept of motivation programs and human resources development measures has held negative effects instead of positive effects on work efficiency and on the commitment of staff. The results will be critically analyzed. Psychological implications will be worked out and general trends are discussed.     

On cross‐cultural bridges and gaps: identity transitions among trailblazing Druze women

The emotional conflicts and evolving Identity of the first Druze women who turned to study in Israeli universities is explored in this paper. While the benefits of higher education are widely discussed, this article wishes to focus on the different, more complex effects of education on the lives and identities of women. The study examines the complex identity patterns of these pioneering women after returning to their villages on completing their studies – influenced by their uniqueness as the first women in their community to achieve academic degrees and by the intercultural transitions they experienced along the way. The narrative identity and emotional processes are derived through interview analysis of 34 first Druze women that entered universities. The findings are viewed in light of modern and postmodern psychological theories of identity discussing lacunæs in western identity theories that cannot entirely account for certain aspects of interviewees’ identities.     

Income generation for non‐core university activities: a case study of the University of Central Lancashire

The English Funding Council has announced its intention to invite tenders for the contract currently held by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), and the Australian government is promoting a Bill to curb the activities of the equivalent body, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. This article compares the two agencies, and it draws upon debates and developments in Australia to interpret recent changes in QAA's relationship with universities focusing, in particular, on the significance of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education and the new single review method – Higher Education Review. The authors suggest that QAA's current crisis may have been precipitated by its failure to attend to the concerns of its members (Universities UK and the other representative bodies). The article concludes by proposing three basic principles which should govern the design of any new method for the review of UK higher education institutions.     

Teaching in offshore programmes: an assessment of university faculty’s self-efficacy,cultural competence and preparedness

This study aims to examine the teacher self-efficacy and cultural competence of university faculty in the context of offshore programmes, and the impact of these two constructs on teaching satisfaction, intention and preparedness. A questionnaire survey collected data from the faculty members of universities in Taiwan, a non-English-speaking country, which launched offshore programmes in Vietnam. It then applies structural equation modelling technique to estimate the path coefficients and test its proposed research model. The analysis reveals that in the context of teaching in offshore programmes, cultural competence is a major factor determining university faculty’s teaching self-efficacy, and has an indirect effect, through the direct effect of teaching self-efficacy, on satisfaction, intention and preparedness. It is surprising though that faculty members are found very confident of their self-efficacy when teaching in English in offshore programmes, even though none of them are native English speakers.     

Strategies of alliance: Models and modes of post‐secondary‐university integration

Abstract

Late in 1996, Kalgoorlie College and the Western Australian School of Mines in Western Australia were merged to form an expanded campus of Curtin University, based in the state capital city of Perth. This paper uses a frame analytical approach to examining how differing and competing interpretations and commitments affected how the merger was played out. Three important frames, each of which had a major influence on the merger for periods of time are identified: one that emphasised regional social and economic development, another centred on education for industry and a third based on economic rationalism. This analysis connects changes in the direction of the merger to shifts in the way the merger was framed.     

Strategic planning directions of Malaysia’s higher education: university autonomy in the midst of political uncertainties

In Malaysia, the national government has seen fit to steer higher education policy in a direction that is in the ‘national interest’. This notion of ‘national interest’ is best exemplified by the changing relationship between the State, higher education institutions and the market. Since the late 1960s, we saw the gradual but steady erosion of university autonomy with the increasing dominance of the State. The recently launched National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2020 and the National Higher Education Action Plan, 2007–2010, which operationalised the Strategic Plan, promises greater autonomy for the universities. While this increased autonomy for universities could be regarded as Malaysia’s response to deal with emerging issues in higher education management and governance, the amendments to the University and University Colleges Act, 1995 have not resolved the issue of wider autonomy from the Malaysian treasury regulations for public universities. For the State, in the present climate of political and economic uncertainty, giving full autonomy to the public universities is seen to be inappropriate and untimely. The State considers public universities as still heavily dependent on the State for resources, and thus the need for regulation and supervision.