The Interface between Secondary and Higher Education‐‐The Case of Slovenia: 1989‐1999

Slovenia has introduced the Matura, an external examination taken at the conclusion of higher secondary education. This examination has two distinct purposes: to certify completion of secondary education and to replace all entrance examinations that might be required for selection and matriculation. As Slovenia was the first country in central and eastern Europe to introduce an external examination at the interface of secondary and higher education, its experience might serve as an example to other countries in the region wishing to move in a similar direction. This article describes the new examination that has been successfully administered in Slovenia since 1995, its structure, and the impact it has had on the education system, particularly on higher education, Matura results determining admission to course programmes.     

Post‐Experience Business Education

Summary

This paper provides a comparative analysis of data arising from three recent surveys of equal opportunity practice in relation to race, gender and disability. The surveys gathered information from a range of university departments and included questions about departmental structures and organisation as well as curriculum development. Instances of good practice are described, and some implications explored for the further development of equal opportunities in higher education.     

Non‐traditional Students in a Traditional System of Higher Education: The German Case of Formally Non‐qualified Students

For many years, higher education systems around the world have been reporting on “new”; and/or “non‐traditional” students which in many institutions represent the majority of all undergraduate enrolments. These students are older, have work experience, study part‐time, carry full‐time adult responsibilities, have to take on full‐time employment, take advantage of open admission policies, and focus their studies on vocational objectives. This article focuses on a small group of German non‐traditional students who enrol through special admission. Their backgrounds, their experiences, their motives, and their expectations will be described. Certain consequences for higher education will be sketched.     

The Structure of Higher Education Impacted by Distance Education

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Graduate Employment: Challenges for Higher Education in the Twenty‐First Century∗

The employment prospects for most higher education graduates worldwide are bleak for a number of reasons including the negative effects of the massification of higher education, rapid technological change, the crisis in the conception of work in highly developed societies, and the neo‐liberal political and economic agenda. A number of survival strategies are proposed to students as well as ways to improve the link between employers and higher education institutions so as to improve the study/future employment match. Students are advised to be flexible, able and willing to innovate, entrepreneurial, proactive, and not only to be willing to take risks but to consider risk and uncertainty as forms of opportunity.

     

Moral Education for Post‐Conventional Thinking

Abstract:

Concern for values in education is growing. In Canada and other countries, educationalists are becoming more aware of the need for providing for full and open discussions about moral matters. Kohlberg in the United States, Beck in Canada, and Wilson in Great Britain are three leading theorists who are involved in experimental work in moral education. In this paper, some of the ideas of these theorists are compared with reference to the development of post‐conventional moral thinking in people.     

Risks and Risk‐Based Regulation in Higher Education Institutions

Risk‐based regulation is a relatively new mode of governance. Not only does it offer a way of controlling institutions from the outside but it also provides the possibility of making an organisation’s achievements visible/visualisable. This paper comments on a list of possible risks that higher education institutions have to face. In a second step, it is discussed that a higher education institution changes when a framework of risk‐based regulation is adopted. The paper then illustrates how governance changes when the risk‐based regulation approach is transferred from a UK context to an overall European one with differing traditions of higher education.     

The Role of Continuing Education in the Ongoing Changes in Higher Education in the Twenty‐First Century

Reflecting a French perspective, the author presents a scenario whereby universities in the Twenty‐First Century will devote a considerable portion of their time and effort to continuing education (or training) as part of an essential effort to make lifelong learning available to all. This shift in emphasis will, among other things, lead to the transfer of certain specializations from initial education (undergraduate education) to continuing education to be offered on demand in reaction to the needs of business partners and of the labour market. The importance of co‐operative links with enterprise, business, and industry, is bound to increase and to become a crucial cornerstone of higher education in the future. As increasing numbers of adults‐‐mature learners‐‐will be (re‐)entering higher education through continuing education programmes, university pedagogy must adapt itself to these students who will be studying and working simultaneously. University research will also be affected by the emphasis on continuing education. The future of the university is bright provided it opens itself up to society at large, develops an entrepreneurial spirit, and is able to engage in dialogue in the broadest sense.     

Policy of Expanding Employment and Mission of Higher Education

Being laid-off, unemployment and difficulty for university graduates to fred their jobs have become widely concerned social issues. To solve the problems we must expand employment by every possible means. People usually think the countermeasure of expanding employment is to vigorously develop individual and private economy, and labor-intensive industry, etc. Indeed, these measures can increase the vacancies to solve the temporary problems of great urgency; however they can only give a short relief, but can＇t grant a permanent cu-e. At a time when our national economy is turning from labor-intensive mode to the capital and technology-intensive one, the mankind will enter an era of knowledge-driven economy soon; the basic countermeasure of expanding employment should be to develop higher education. It is the mission of higher education to turn the human resources of hundreds of millions of low quality of our country into the high-quality manpower capital. And to finish this mission, we must reform personmel training mode. We need to change the training mode of job-hunting to that of job-creation.     

The Genesis and Evolution of Pre‐vocational Education: England

Abstract

In the following article, the author attempts to provide a skeleton overview of the movement for pre‐vocational education, stressing that present concern regarding such issues as the purpose of education and the extent to which a utilitarian approach is acceptable, school‐to‐work transition, and emphasis on particular work‐related skills have, in fact, formed a recurring debate dating back at least a century. Anxiety regarding Britain's hegemony over Europe, particularly Germany, has always featured in the debate, as has the issue of education versus training. Key educational legislation provides four key stages in the development of the debate, culminating in close examination of the implications of the Education Reform Act of 1988 for the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI).     

Total Quality Management,the Learning Organisation and Post‐compulsory Education

Abstract

The turbulence confronting educational Institutions In the United Kingdom has led to the suggestion that any attempt to respond using established management principles and processes is likely to be dysfunctional. Total quality management (TQM) has been advanced as a strategy that will enable educational institutions adapt to the greater market orientation and transform them into learning organisations. The paper identifies the key principles of TQM, critically reviewing the literature that examines their application in education and focusing on the post‐compulsory sector. Secondly, selected linkages between the key principles and other approaches to the study of organisational behaviour, including aspects of open systems theory, leadership, teamworking, training and staff development, and organisational culture, are examined. The concept of the learning organisation is outlined and its relationship with TQM examined. The paper concludes that TQM treats organisational change issues in educational institutions and the concept of the learning organisation as unproblematic, Ignoring Issues of power, authority, resistance to change and double‐loop learning.