Academic social cohesion within higher education

This article explores the theoretical foundations of social cohesion as it relates to higher education institutions. In so doing it seeks (a) to understand the core elements of social cohesion—social capital, human capital and ethical behavioural norms that serve a common good—and (b) to establish a flexible framework for understanding the combined contributions of higher education to society. Tertiary institutional phenomena (those occurring in higher education) that are involved in the creation of social cohesion are hereafter termed academic social cohesion. The particular emphasis is on higher education’s role in cultivating moral awareness as a vital product of institutions’ primary activities. These core functions of colleges and universities are discussed in relation to both academic social cohesion and the degree to which they should involve the creation of specific ethical norms.

社会资本因素对个体高等教育需求的影响

对中国大陆三省一市10909名高中生和香港3157名高中生的调查研究发现,学生参与社团活动、家庭教育期望,无论是对中国大陆学生还是香港学生的高等教育需求都具有显著影响。家庭中兄弟姐妹的数量、家庭成员辅导学生功课、父母与子女沟通频率等因素,对中国大陆学生的高等教育需求具有显著影响;家庭社会网络广泛度、师生沟通频率,则对香港学生的高等教育需求具有显著影响。研究还发现,一些常被认为影响个体高等教育需求的因素,如家庭社会网络资源、父母与学校的联系等,对学生的高等教育需求并无显著影响。     

The effect of blended learning on student performance at course-level in higher education: A meta-analysis

The present paper analyzes the impact of blended learning (BL) on the academic achievement of higher education students. A meta-analysis (k = 51 effect sizes) was conducted to perform a statistical synthesis of studies contrasting student performance in BL conditions with traditional classroom instruction. We include disciplines and instructors’ end-of-course evaluation method as moderating variables. The results show that BL demonstrates a small summary effect (g⁺ = 0.385, p < 0.001) compared to traditional teaching methods A significantly higher mean effect size was found in STEM disciplines (g⁺ = 0.496) compared to that of non-STEM disciplines (g⁺ = 0.210). Nevertheless, the weighted mean effect sizes reveal no significant differences regarding of end-of-course assessment methods, namely one-moment and multiple-component assessment. The finding confirms that BL is significantly associated with greater learning performance of STEM-disciplined students than with traditional classroom practice. Accordingly, discussion concerning the findings and implications for future research are elaborated.     

The challenge of financing higher education and the role of student loans scheme: an analysis of the student loan trust fund (SLTF) in Ghana

Student loans program is one of the most controversial phenomena in financing higher education in Ghana, but its importance as a cost sharing mechanism is incontestable. This paper describes the challenge of financing higher education in Ghana. It provides a critique of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Student Loans Scheme, and analyzes the present Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) policy. The paper outlines the new policy framework, critically looks at some implementation problems and provides some practical policy recommendations. The paper questions the mechanisms put in place to ensure the sustainability of the new policy? It concludes that a more efficient student loans scheme should strike the balance between lenders risk and borrowers aversion.     

Stability,performance and innovation orientation of a higher education funding model in Kazakhstan

This article is situated in a growing body of literature, focusing on higher education reforms in countries which emerged, or re-emerged, 25 years ago as the Soviet Union dissolved. With the focus specifically on Kazakhstan, this paper examines how the leadership of universities in this country views a higher education funding model– the state grants. The paper applies the lenses of stability, performance and innovation orientation to the examination of the state grants-based higher education funding model in Kazakhstan. This paper finds that despite recognition of the limitations of the existing funding model, there is limited interest to push for changes. This can be explained by the complex higher education policy environment which is also discussed in this paper.     

Changes in returns to education in India, 1983–94: by gender, age-cohort and location

There is hardly any estimate of the monetary returns to schooling in the labor market in India based on national level representative data for the recent period. This paper provides estimates of the returns to education in wage employment in India by gender, age cohort and location (rural–urban) for the most recent period 1993/4, and also evaluates the changes in returns over a period of time from 1983–94 using data from a large national level household survey. The estimates show that the returns to education increase up to the secondary level and decline thereafter. There is evidence of substantial gender and rural–urban differences in the returns to schooling. Investment in women's education, particularly at the middle, lower secondary and higher secondary levels, is more profitable than that for men in 1983 and also in 1993/4. The returns to women's primary and middle levels of education have declined while those to secondary and college levels have increased during the decade 1983–94.     

The expansion of higher education,employment and over-education in China

The article considers the current situation in the labour market for higher education graduates in China, showing what kinds of graduates have an advantage when facing potential employers. Secondly, it discusses the tendency of supply and demand between higher education graduates and the labour market from the perspectives of employment probability and over-education. Finally, the article suggests what should happen in the Chinese higher education system if it is to achieve a more effective relationship with the labour market.     

Higher education learning outcomes – Ambiguity and change in higher education

The emerging interdependent world order poses new challenges for States and citizens alike. For States, interdependence has meant a new concern with integration, whilst for citizens and authorities alike, greater mobility has raised new concerns about recognition of competences, qualifications, quality and transparency. The introduction of learning outcomes is one of the principal instruments to achieve this in higher education. This article analyses how the implementation of higher education learning outcomes (HELOs) can be seen as ambiguous governance and management tools, manifested as parts of international policy development and policy trends. These ambiguous tools intertwine with different disciplinary and stakeholder networks. The desire to implement HELOs in a more or less uniform way across as diverse contexts (countries, disciplines, institutions) as possible has led to a design strategy that favours generic definitions of learning outcomes. In the implementation process, these generic HELOs are experienced as ambiguous, meaning that they are characterised by an openness to different interpretations. This opens up a space of discretionary and interpretational latitude, either because HELOs are assimilated to traditional path dependencies, or because they allow institutional agents (such as institutional leaders and others) the space to introduce change. The ambiguity of HELOs simultaneously provides the flexibility for contextually‐diverse implementation, ensures less comparability than initially envisaged, and opens up the possibility for change, although change is contingent on structures and processes that are external to the policy process itself. HELOs are thus a paradigm case of the centrality of context in policy implementation studies.     

Gender matters in higher education

Much of the research in higher education has treated student bodies as homogeneous groups with a consequent neglect of any consideration of gender differences. To test the validity of such research a questionnaire was administered to 255 psychology students. The results showed some important differences in responses between the genders. In particular, the female students reported attaching more importance than males to pre‐course aims, rated various learning activities as more valuable and interesting than males and reported more improvement in nine of the 12 skills surveyed than the males. The males rated experiencing less difficulty for various aspects of the course than anticipated than did the females for 11 of 12 potential difficulties listed. As a consequence, it is suggested that researchers ought to be wary of conducting research into various aspects of higher education without considering potential gender differences.     

当前获取高等教育机会的不均等——依附于经济之上的社会资本的作用

本文首先分析了教育与社会的关系,教育在社会中的重要地位,从社会学的角度分析了社会系统中教育的功能,然后进一步分析了我国当前社会中高等教育存在的机会不平等的现状,最后从社会资本的角度来对当前社会中高等教育机会不平等的问题进行分析。     

Higher levels of education for higher private returns: New evidence from Malaysia

This study provides new and more accurate information about private rates of return to education (RORE) in Malaysia. Most of the prior studies on RORE have not addressed selectivity bias, and those that have are based on an older data set. The findings suggest that for both males and females, the average private returns to education are highest at the secondary (16.5 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively) and university (15.5 percent and 16.1 percent, respectively) education levels. Thus, it is important to pursue education until the secondary level and further to the university level to capture higher returns to education.     

高中生高等教育需求的经济动因分析

本文通过估计高中生期望的高等教育回报率及其高等教育需求的影响,检验了人力资本理论的基本假设。研究表明,高中生对高等教育的市场回报率有比较准确的预期,他们的高等教育需求也受其期望的高等教育回报率的显著影响。个体的高等教育需求与人力资本理论的解释是一致的,即个体对高等教育的需求,受高等教育的经济回报所激励。     

Impersonal statements: aspiration and cruel optimism in the English higher education application process

ABSTRACT

Full-time undergraduate applicants to English universities must apply via the University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS). By analysing the UCAS statements of 15 undergraduate applicants this article attempts to develop a critical understanding of the role that the personal statement has in applicants’ formation of themselves as subjects within higher education. The article explores how UCAS’s advice around the personal statements draws on discourses that frame higher education as an investment in human capital. Through a textual analysis of applicants’ statements, the article explores how applicants come to present themselves as competitive subjects within their personal statements, and suggests they adopt this position not because they are preparing themselves for the unlimited number of student places in higher education, but for the limited number of graduate jobs that await afterwards. The article suggests there is a ‘cruel optimism’ to this element of the application process, linked to structural inequalities.     

A quantitative and model-driven approach to assessing higher education in the United States of America

University ranking or higher education assessment in general has been attracting more and more public attention over the years. However, the subjectivity-based evaluation index and indicator selections and weights that are widely adopted in most existing ranking systems have been called into question. In other words, the objectivity and impartiality of those rankings has been worrisome. To address these concerns, this paper presents a quantitative and model-driven approach to acquiring the evaluation index and indicator weights in the US News & World Report ranking system. Structural equation modelling will be applied to mine non-subjective weights from collected data. The proposed approach will be validated using two groups of United States universities, National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges, classified by the US News & World Report. Managerial and administrative implications will also be explored. This study shows a very promising future because it opens a new venue for the scholars and practitioners in the higher education assessment field to develop a real-time, scalable and model-driven higher education ranking system.     

Accounting for structure and agency in ‘close-up’ research on teaching,learning and assessment in higher education

This paper examines research into teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) in higher education in terms of structure and agency. It argues that although issues of structure and agency are seen as crucial in social theory, they are very little discussed in research into TLA in higher education and that a consideration of structure and agency raises some important questions about this research and the quality of the explanations that it generates. It is therefore time to reconsider this research from the standpoint of structure and agency so that more sophisticated approaches to researching, and generating explanations of, teaching, learning and assessment in higher education can be developed.     

对高校公共体育教学改革的思考

分析高校公共体育教学的培养目标和存在的问题,提出了要以“终身体育”作为高校公共体育教学改革发展的方向以及进行高校公共体育教育改革的具体措施。     

河北省人口变动与普通高等教育的发展

自上个世纪末期以来,河北省普通高等教育规模出现了跨越式的发展,招生人数由1998年的17.85万剧增到2011年的48.53万,高校数量由48所增至110所。通过对河北省未来10年的人口预测分析表明,未来几年普通高等教育适龄人口将快速减少,到2015年将降至374.51万人,不及2008年峰值725.27万人的52%;适龄人口迅速锐减与高校招生规模急剧扩张"剪刀式"发展趋势,将导致高考录取率在2015年突破百分之百,千军万马拥挤"高考独木桥"的历史行将结束,高等学校将面临生源短缺危机。