Accreditation in Turkish universities

In Turkey, students are more and more willing to participate in the global free movement of students and of high-skilled labour after their graduation. This is why they request international accreditation from universities. Therefore, accreditation is one of the parameters that play an important role in students' university selection. On the other hand, Turkey is aiming to be a European Union member. This imposes institutional legal and civil arrangements and harmonization. Also, the general trend of globalization dictates requirements from university graduates that are answered in best business practice in which accreditation is a major component. In this paper, accreditation efforts to achieve international recognition for Turkish universities are discussed. For this purpose information on higher education is given. Attempts for accreditation on licensure through FEANI is explained. Accreditation on department programmes by ABET (USA) and by an engineering institution (UK) are discussed and their similarities are pinpointed. Also, a Turkish, British and World Bank quality assessment pilot project for education and research is discussed.     

论理工科院校文科研究生创新能力的培养

理工科院校在文科研究生创新能力的培养过程中,首先应该正确分析理工科院校文科研究生的培养现状及其弱势;其次要克服困难,发挥理工科优势,使文科研究生在文理互动中不断提高自身的创新能力;最后,应以理工科求真务实的精神,引导文科研究生戒骄戒躁,在实践中实现创新。     

Improving graduate education to support a branching career pipeline: recommendations based on a survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences

Today's doctoral programs continue to prepare students for a traditional academic career path despite the inadequate supply of research-focused faculty positions. We advocate for a broader doctoral curriculum that prepares trainees for a wide range of science-related career paths. In support of this argument, we describe data from our survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Midway through graduate training, UCSF students are already considering a broad range of career options, with one-third intending to pursue a non-research career path. To better support this branching career pipeline, we recommend that national standards for training and mentoring include emphasis on career planning and professional skills development to ensure the success of PhD-level scientists as they contribute to a broadly defined global scientific enterprise.     

An empirical study of graduate student mobility underpinning research universities

The issue of international student mobility has had a profound effect on policy decision-making in the higher education system of essentially every country; however, the statistical data on this subject are insufficient, especially for graduate students. The purposes of this study are to substantiate the state of international mobility among talented graduate students in the sciences and engineering who will publish scholarly research in their future career and to present the mechanism of their moves between institutions. This paper quantitatively analyzes the trajectories of more than 7,000 scientists and engineers beginning at graduate school, obtained from the biographical notes attached to journal articles for authors in the fields of computer vision, robotics, and electron devices. The results suggest that mobility in various engineering fields at world-class research universities is subject to varied pull and push factors. In the fields of computer vision and robotics, a high world university ranking is a significant pull factor in the global mobility of graduate students, which may promote a US-dominated stratification between institutions of higher education, since the institutions at the top end of these rankings are generally in the United States. In contrast, in the field of electron devices, employment for highly skilled workers in domestic industries seems to act as an alternative pull factor for talented graduate students. This article also sheds light on the status of the universities that underpin first-tier research universities by providing undergraduate students to them, an important role that tends to be concealed in the world university rankings. Furthermore, this article suggests the existence of complementary relationships between the globally top-ranked research universities and the exporting top national research universities in various countries, a relationship that is key to the shape of the current global higher education system.     

Nanocourses: a short course format as an educational tool in a biological sciences graduate curriculum

Traditional courses for graduate students in the biological sciences typically span a semester, are organized around the fundamental concepts of a single discipline, and are aimed at the needs of incoming students. Such courses demand significant time commitment from both faculty and course participants; thus, they are avoided by a subset of the academic science community. Course length and the high barrier to course development are inhibitory to the creation of new courses, especially in emerging areas of biology that may not merit a full-semester approach. Here, we describe the implementation of a new, graduate-level course format, created to allow for rapid development of courses, provide meaningful educational experiences for both junior and senior graduate students and other members of our community, and increase the breadth of faculty involvement in teaching. These courses are greatly abbreviated, and thus termed “nanocourses.” Based on experience from the first three semesters, nanocourses seem to accomplish the initial goals that we set. Importantly, nanocourses engaged students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and others, thus providing a new mechanism to educate our community in response to rapid advances in biology. In our view, nanocourses are a useful tool that can supplement graduate-level curricula in varied ways.     

高校体育专业研究生管理初探

研究生管理工作是学校学生管理工作的一部分,但是由于研究生和普通本科学生在学历、经历及为人处世方面相对比较成熟,所以研究生管理工作和本科管理工作存在一定的差异性,笔者就高校体育专业研究生的管理工作谈谈自己的认识。     

Differences between physical and social sciences in university graduate departments

The greater articulation of scientific fields with well-developed paradigms — in Kuhn's sense of the term — is viewed as facilitating scientific activities within those fields. Contrasting two physical science with two social science fields, earlier research reported greater consensus in the physical sciences, greater willingness to work with graduate students, and large advantages in research support and funding as compared to the social sciences.Data on influence in decision-making indicate that physical science departments enjoy greater autonomy from their central administrations, although physicists in lower-quality departments report some administrative pressures over choices of research areas. While social science departments feel less autonomous from their central administrations, they grant more autonomy to individual members. Decisions related to teaching processes are made differently across fields, with the physical sciences relying more heavily on committees, and the social sciences relying on individual-chairman negotiations.Across all four fields (physics, chemistry, sociology, and political science), departments with relatively high reputations exhibit collegial structures, while departments with lower reputations show marked tendencies toward bureaucratization. These findings hold when size of department or university is controlled, although departments in smaller universities report more administrative influence than those in extremely large ones.It is argued: (1) Departmental autonomy in the physical sciences is enhanced by the visibility of consequences made possible by greater paradigm development. (2) Maintenance of individual autonomy in the social sciences is necessitated by the lower visibility of consequences and the uncertainty of outcomes of those fields. (3) The maintenance of collegiality within universities may depend on visibility of favorable consequences relative to socially approved goals.The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations; of the Science, Technology, and Society Group at Cornell; and of Cornell University. Requests for reprints should be sent to Janice B. Lodahl, School of Management, Crosby Hall, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y. 14214.     

世界著名大学师均研究生数的研究

从学校、学院、学科三个层面对世界著名大学师均研究生数进行了研究:排名不同的大学师均研究生数相差不大,总体上看,排名203—500的大学师均研究生数稍大一些;美洲、欧洲师均研究生数较小,而亚太地区师均研究生数较大;师均研究生数与学院、学科性质有密切的关系,不同的学院、学科在师均研究生数方面,存在着较大的差异。     

Organisational barriers for women in senior management: a comparison of Turkish and New Zealand universities

This paper reports on the second phase of a multi‐country study examining cross‐cultural perspectives of gender and management in universities. The first phase of this research with eight countries found that the representation of women was consistently low, especially at Rector/Vice Chancellor level. In the second phase interviews were conducted with both male and female senior managers including current and former Rectors/Vice Chancellors. The focus of this paper is on the organisational barriers to women becoming and being managers in Turkish and New Zealand universities. Twenty‐four interviews were conducted in Turkey and 26 in New Zealand. Rectors/Vice Chancellors and other senior academic colleagues were found to be crucial in supporting academics into senior management. Barriers discussed include time management and role conflict between work and non‐work life.     

Identifying the trends and impact of graduate attributes on employability: a literature review

Tertiary Education and Management - Graduate employability has become an issue since there are broad mismatches between the acquired graduate skills from university and the required skills by...     

e-university: a cross-case study in four Italian universities

This paper describes the aims, the methods, the stages and the results of the research project 'e-University. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a factor of change in Italian universities', undertaken between 2003 and 2006 by the Universities of Trento, Perugia and Sassari and the Catholic University of Milan.
The characteristics of the four institutions' subjects and objects of the investigation are analysed as case studies and then compared as a cross-case study in the light of the factors that we feel constitute the main areas of concern in the four institutions as to the implementation of ICTs in the teaching/learning process, ie, the characteristics of the governance strategic plan, the choices relating to technology and the choices related to pedagogy. The paper describes the collaborative effort characterising the community of researchers through the different stages of the research. It also analyses how the individual features of each university—relating to its history, the number of students, the range of faculties, the diffusion of e-learning, the driving factors for innovation, the institution's policies—have fostered a lively and fruitful discussion between different view points, thus engendering deeper reflections for each context.     

The funding of universities in the Netherlands: Developments and trends

Recently, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science proposed that the funding system of Dutch universities be drastically altered by introducing a system of capacity funding. The intention is to abandon the current (direct) student dependence in funding and, instead, to offer a stable, long-term funds perspective. If this capacity funding is actually adopted, a trend break in the funding system of higher education and research in the Netherlands will occur.This article describes the developments in the funding of Dutch universities over the past decades and the (expected) developments for the future. With regard to the near future and in addition to the capacity funding intended the author will also discuss other developments anticipated by him.It will be shown that during the last forty years four generations of funding models have been used in the Netherlands. Soon the changeover to the fifth generation will possibly be made. A number of issues will be discussed, such as the introduction (and enlargement) of lump sum funding, elements of output funding (performance based funding) and competition on the basis of quality.First, some basic characteristics of funding systems in general will be presented. They will be used to analyse the relevant developments in the Dutch higher education allocation systems.     

研究生学习中的三个主要问题及其应对——兼论研究生研究品质构成的基本要素

问题意识淡薄,缺少积淀,缺乏有效的分析工具与方法,是研究生学习中的三大问题。它们在抑制研究生创新能力提高的同时,抑制了研究生教育目的的实现。这种问题的出现,与研究生已接受和正在接受的教育以及在这种教育之下形成的观念、养成的学习习惯紧密联系在一起。改变这种情况,需要改变教育教学方式,尤其需要研究生改变自己的学习方式,即把以书本知识掌握为目的的维持性学习转变为以问题解决为主旨的创新性学习。     

走向世界的中国高校人文社会科学研究——以引文统计分析为视角

通过检索Web of Science中国际核心期刊专题数据库SSCI和A&HC.收集了我国高校研究人员截至2009年主笔或参与合作完成的人文社会科学方面的论文.在对总体数据进行各年统计的基础上.探讨了我国高校人文社会科学文献在引文量、引文期刊、引文年代、被引作者及高校科研水平等方面的内容.从引文分析的角度剖析走向世界的中国高校人文社会科学的研究情况.     

土耳其高校教学改革与创新人才培养的考察

通过对土耳其高校的考察以及相关资料的研究,介绍了与实践创新教育关系密切的土耳其高校教学改革的五大特色:学科设置灵活,强调学科交叉;资格文凭互认,注重质量认证;重视创新实践,加强产业联系;立足全球视野,加强国际合作;推进教育公平,提倡终身教育。在介绍土耳其高等教育改革基本情况后,结合中国国情,提出了可供我国高校借鉴的思考。     

地方高校研究生教育创新的实践与思考

随着国家《中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》(2010-2020)的实施,地方高校研究生教育既面临着改革与发展的新形势,又面临着新挑战。努力克服地方高校经费困境、制度制约等问题,调整、创新培养机制,提高教育质量,才能更好地满足学生接受研究生教育的需要。     

规模与质量统一: 军队综合大学基础教学的探索

如何在教学规模扩大的条件下保证和提高教学质量,是军队综合大学面临的一个亟待解决的问题。只有坚持改革与创新,走内涵质量建设之路,正确把握教学规模与教学质量之间的辩证统一关系,才能实现教学上数量、结构、质量、效益的协调发展和不断优化。