Centralization trends in higher education: Israel's Planning and Grants Committee

Israel's Planning and Grants Committee (PGC) was formed in 1974 to function as an intermediary body between the higher education system and the government in financing of higher education institutions. The PGC is largely composed of academics from universities. It was meant to guarantee both academic freedom of the higher educational system while providing for greater accountability. However, the PGC has increased its involvement in higher education and assumed also the role of planning the system as a whole and regulating the development of individual universities.This article analyzes the effects of PGC policies on Israel's universities in general and specific acts which have restricted institutional autonomy and might further limit their academic freedom.     

The British University Grants Committee 1919–83: Changing relationships with government and the universities

Since its creation in 1919 the University Grants Committee (UGC) has been seen in Britain and many other countries as a model piece of machinery for channelling funds from Government to universities. Over these 60 years there have been many changes and fluctuations in its relationships both with Government and universities, and its effectiveness has varied, depending on the circumstances of the period.Up till World War II the UGC achieved its purpose of serving as a buffer or shock absorber (UGC, 1968). These metaphors picture a largely reactive body responding to initiatives either by Government or the universities. After the Second World War there were calls for the UGC to play a more positive role in university development and national planning and its terms of reference were changed. The UGC's response to this change has been variable and only in the period post 1979 has it consistently played the broader role envisaged for it in 1946 although its rhetoric claimed this role for it in the 1960s. This more active role in the 1980s has brought mixed reactions: more respect from the Government but more criticism from the universities.Insofar as this criticism relates to the processes used by the UGC during its selective retrenchment activities (1981–83), these could be improved by a strengthened UGC; insofar as the criticisms relate to the basic idea of a committee composed primarily of academics apparently aiding and abetting a Government's policy to cut back higher education, the future viability of the UGC idea itself is called into question.Another variable in the UGC's future is connected with the recently created National Advisory Board for Local Authority Higher Education (NAB). Discussions have ranged widely over the future options for the coordination of higher education: a merger of the two bodies, their separate development or creation of an overarching body over both sectors and their respective agencies. For the moment, however, the continued existence of the UGC represents an extraordinary example of institutional longevity over a period when immense changes have occurred in British society, the machinery of Government, and the British education system.     

From marginalisation to integration: Arab-Palestinians in Israeli academia

The Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel, one-fifth of the country's population, has been underrepresented in Israeli institutions of higher education since the establishment of the state. This article focuses on the authors’ shared aim of promoting diversity and multiculturalism in institutions of higher education in Israel. It first introduces Arab marginalisation within Israeli society as a whole. Subsequently, it offers a critical overview of existing data and research on the challenges faced by young Arab-Palestinians in higher education institutions in Israel. Based on this indispensable analysis, which clearly shows the numerous obstacles that await Arab-Palestinians on their path to graduation, the article goes on to suggest some required changes. Presenting some useful policy transformations and courses of action, it subsequently introduces multicultural academia as a better conceptual and practical framework for achieving inclusive education.     

变革与转型:“后罗宾斯时代”的英国大学拨款委员会

1963年《罗宾斯报告》的发表标志着"后罗宾斯时代"的到来。这一时期是英国高等教育由精英化向大众化转型的关键阶段。"后罗宾斯时代"的大学拨款委员会经历了一系列变革,其职能范围得到扩大,角色定位变得更加积极。但是,由于管理机构的调整,大学拨款委员会的实际控制力与影响力较之从前大为减弱。这些转型模糊了大学拨款委员会最初作为"缓冲器"的角色定位,降低了其在英国高等教育领域的权力地位,为委员会在20世纪80年代的最终衰落埋下了伏笔,也对当今中国高等教育中介组织的建立与发展有一定的启示意义。     

Turning right at the crossroads: The Nelson Report's proposals to transform Australia's universities

During 2002, the Australian Education Ministerconducted a year-long review of tertiaryeducation under the title Higher Educationat the Crossroads. The policy statementarising from that review was released on 13 May2003. It incorporates a combination of newfinancial incentives on students anduniversities, potential expansion of full-feeplaces, and increased intrusion into universitypriority setting.The policy statement promised a $A1.5bexpansion in funding over four years, with morefully-funded university places, and an emphasison improving the quality of teaching andlearning.The strategy is market-driven and could createa `fee-culture' in Australian universities. Implementation of the new policy is not assuredas it has to pass a hostile Senate. Theimplementation process also carries risks forgovernment and universities. This paperdescribes the government's proposals andanalyses their premises and effects.     

The Distance Education journal at 40: crossroads and horizons

ABSTRACT

The development of distance education (DE) over the last 40 years is compared with the evolving content of the Distance Education journal during the same period. DE in general has been described as encountering a series of crossroad decision points, and as identifying numerous optimistic horizons beyond them. The decisions made and horizons sought have not always been prudent, however, and the journal’s critical approach and logical sequence of priorities have encouraged DE to avoid ill-considered options. Currently, the journal is challenged with helping the field to overcome mainstream educators’ lack of awareness of the traditional DE literature, media, and methods, and negative reactions to the effects of the massive open online course (MOOC). The approach taken by the journal during its first 40 years will help to overcome such problems and to keep the field on track.     

The Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee: From Gentlemen's Club to Political Lobby

During the mid 1980s the Australian Vice-Chancellors'Committee functioned as an informal but influential interest group in the higher education policy arena. With the introduction of the government's reform program of 1987–88 the committee found itself placed in a weakened and ineffective position. Since that time it has fought back to become an impressive and powerful political lobby. This article explores how the vice-chancellors went about rebuilding their organization, the way in which it now interacts with government, and the extent of its impact on policy development. Discussion concludes with an examination of the internal problems still besetting the committee.     

From policy to practice: applying educational change in Israeli schools for students at high academic risk

This short report identifies the academic and environmental experiences that support the reclaiming of students at high academic risk and describes an applicable school‐wide programme emanating from the call for educational change in Israel. The proposed structured academic programme demonstrates how schools can achieve broad student knowledge and set high performance standards while accommodating diverse student needs. As such, the programme provides school practitioners with intervention targets that promote school engagement and higher school performance. In addition, the report provides illustrative examples of the implemented programme within schools for students at high academic risk in Israel. It is argued that a movement towards an adaptive model of schooling as portrayed within the structured academic programme may prove to be effective in academically engaging students at academic risk, thus providing all students with democratic possibilities for learning and knowing.     

论公平原则在国家助学金评定中的运用

我国高等院校助学金制度的迅速推进,促进了高校教育的蓬勃发展。然而,由于缺乏量化标准,高校在评选过程中难以做到公平、公正,从而引发诸多负面影响。因此,在国家助学金评定过程中应围绕公平原则,以学生综合素质为评审标准、公平筛选资助对象,广泛开展宣传工作和诚信教育,细化资助工作步骤、建立公平评选程序,加强助学金发放后的跟踪管理,确保评定工作的公平与公正。     

Higher education at the crossroads: Response to an Australian ministerial discussion paper

The Commonwealth Governmentshould move to the funding of undergraduate coursesfor Australian students through the studentsrather than by way of direct grants toinstitutions. An independent coordinating bodyshould be re-established to report on thehigher education sector, advise theCommonwealth and administer Commonwealth highereducation programs. Public funding ofundergraduate education and research trainingshould be decentralised through a system ofscholarships. Undergraduate scholarship holdersshould pay charges determined by universitiesunder HECS (Higher Education ContributionScheme) arrangements. HECS arrangements alsoshould apply to full fee paying undergraduatesand PELS (Postgraduate Education Loan Scheme)arrangements to full fee paying researchstudents. Institutional research fundingshould be on a disciplinary basis, takingaccount of the volume and quality ofoutputs.     

Educational technology at the crossroads: New mindsets and new directions

Educational technology seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. Many exciting things are happening in the field, but increasingly we educational technologists find ourselves on the sidelines in our own ballgame. People from other disciplines are taking an interest in educational technology, but they show little interest in our knowledge base (often even little awareness that it exists!) and little interest in our professional organizations and publications. Why is this happening? What can we do about it? To what extent might our mindset be the problem? What new directions do we need to pursue to improve the health and value of our field? These are the central issues which this article discusses.     

Reconciling university autonomy with public accountability: The state,University Grants Committee and higher education in New Zealand

This article analyzes the contemporary role of the University Grants Committee (UGC) vis-à-vis New Zealand's universities and the Department of Education. Emphasis is given to the historical and political factors which resulted in devolution of the University of New Zealand in the early 1960s and brought the UGC into being. Established to guide the development of the university system in a period of budgetary expansion, the UGC assesses the financial needs of the universities and the national need for new academic programs. Recent financial exigency prompted the government to introduce restrictions on the financial autonomy of the universities. The UGC has lost some of its autonomy in consequence, but a fundamental change in its relationship to government or in its protective role with respect to the universities is considered unlikely.     

Formative assessment at the crossroads: conformative,deformative and transformative assessment

The theory and practice of formative assessment seems to be at a crossroads, even an impasse. Different theoretical justifications for the development of formative assessment, and different empirical exemplifications, have been apparent for many years. Yet practice, while quite widespread, is often limited in terms of its scope and its utilisation of the full range of possible approaches associated with formative assessment. The paper reviews these issues and explores them in relation to the development of formative assessment in higher education. HE is taken as ‘test case’ of the paradoxical implementation of formative assessment, whereby the aim is, ostensibly, to develop independent and critical learners, while in practice highly conformative assessment procedures are being designed and developed. The paper argues that developers also need to attend to the divergent possibilities inherent in formative assessment, if their aspirations for a more transformative practice are to be realised.     

Return to the crossroads: Maritain fifty years on

Abstract:

Writing a little over a decade ago of developments in educational philosophy, R. F. Dearden remarked on the dearth of alternative approaches to that of conceptual analysis which predominated, at least in Anglophone cultures, at that time. One possible avenue of enquiry which he identified as conspicuously absent in this respect was the development of a distinctively Catholic approach to problems of educational philosophy, observing that a work of the mid‐war years, Maritain's Education at the Crossroads (1943), appeared to be well nigh the only modem effort in this direction. More than a decade on from this, in a climate no longer exclusively dominated by conceptual analysis – indeed, in which there is unprecedented interest in a wealth of different schools, traditions and approaches to philosophy of education – Dearden's remarks about the absence of a distinctively Catholic perspective still apply. In the following essay, therefore, the authors have undertaken, via a critical analysis of Maritain's educational speculations of half a century ago, to try to discern some of the principal issues and considerations which would need to be addressed in the interests of identifying a distinctively Catholic educational philosophy.