The reform process of Portuguese higher education institutions: from collegial to managerial governance

Tertiary Education and Management - Portuguese public higher education institutions have been undergoing a major reform process since 2007. The most noticeable changes were introduced by Law...     

Student-generated content: an approach to harnessing the power of diversity in higher education

Internationally, classes in higher education institutions are becoming larger and more diverse. Support for ‘non-traditional’ students has often taken the form of additional remedial classes offered outside the main curriculum, which has met with limited success. Sociocultural theories of learning argue that the potential clash between the sociocultural context of disciplinary knowledge and the very different home contexts of many non-traditional students needs to be acknowledged. One way to achieve this is to use student-generated content, which allows teachers to bring student experiences and voices into the community of practice and acknowledges the importance of their prior experiences in knowledge production. Building on such sociocultural approaches to teaching and learning, this paper focuses on the use of student-generated podcasts as a means to harness the diversity of student experiences in a large (nearly 600 students) first-year Economics class at a South African University.     

Being highly internationalised strengthens your reputation: an empirical investigation of top higher education institutions

In an educational context characterised by globalisation, reputation constitutes a crucial issue for today’s higher education institutions. Internationalisation of higher education is often seen as a potential response to globalisation and, consequently, higher education has become increasingly internationalised during the past decade. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between internationalisation and reputation in top higher education institutions. Results reveal that internationalisation positively influences a university’s reputation but also moderates the relationship between the institution’s reputation and its institutional performance with regard to research quality, teaching quality and graduate employability.     

Classifying higher education institutions in Korea: a performance-based approach

The purpose of this study was to classify higher education institutions according to institutional performance rather than predetermined benchmarks. Institutional performance was defined as research performance and classified using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, a statistical method that classifies objects according to specified classification factors. In the analysis, 47 Korean universities with doctoral programs were classified as research universities (seven universities), research active universities (14 universities), and doctoral universities (26 universities). In the detailed discussions, profiles of each group were analyzed and discussed; and, disciplinary classifications were conducted in engineering, natural science, and social science and humanities. In addition, to validate the classifications, the research performances of these categories were compared with those of U.S. peers. In the comparisons, the research performance of Korean universities was similar to that of U.S. peers. From the analysis, the classification results emerging from the performance-based approach were shown to be equivalent to that of conventional classifications using predetermined benchmarks.

Flipping the classroom: an effective approach to deal with diversity at higher education

Even though the flipped classroom is an increasingly popular method in education, a literature search shows a gap in research on this method in higher education. This article describes an experiment with two central questions: (1) How do students and lecturers assess the effectiveness of the FC method? And (2) What are crucial design elements? To be able to answer these questions we designed an experiment within a large-size, interdisciplinary, course. For three years we carefully monitored and evaluated the course. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data. Our findings show a positive contribution of the FC approach to the learning experience of students. We also found that a strong link between theory and practice is essential in the course design; combined with active learning we were able to involve students and stimulate them to reach a deeper level of understanding. Moreover, we believe that the FC approach offers opportunities to have a large interdisciplinary group, with different learning needs, work together on higher attainment levels.     

HEISQUAL: A modern approach to measure service quality in higher education institutions

Considering students as the key stakeholders in higher education institutions (HEIs), the present study identifies service quality (SQ) indicators from their perspectives and proposes a more comprehensive instrument for measuring SQ exclusively in HEIs. HEISQUAL covers the operational as well as technical aspects of SQ by following a holistic approach, which has largely been ignored in previous studies. The proposed instrument was subjected to different scale development tests where outcomes fully complied with the benchmark values and proposed seven SQ themes, namely teachers’ profile, curriculum, infrastructure and facilities, management and support staff, employment quality, safety and security, and students’ skills development.     

An empirical analysis of the performance of Vietnamese higher education institutions

This article provides an analysis of the academic performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam with 50 universities and 50 colleges in 2011/12. The two-stage semiparametric data envelopment analysis is used to estimate the efficiency of HEIs and investigate the effects of various factors on their performance. The findings reveal that HEIs in the surveyed sample show that there are still potential avenues to improve their existing performance. There appears to be a difference in the efficiencies of public and private HEIs in the reported year. It is noted that the inefficiency of HEIs are not entirely a result of managerial performance, but also influenced by other factors such as location, age and the contribution of tuition fees. Our results are expected to provide more understanding of the operational efficiency of HEIs for educational managers and policymakers to find possible solutions to improve the performance of Vietnamese higher education.     

Student satisfaction with Portuguese higher education institutions: the view of different types of students

Tertiary Education and Management - The purpose of this paper is to discuss student satisfaction with Portuguese higher education institutions, and to analyse how this varies for different types of...     

Program diversity in higher education: an economic perspective

Program diversity in academic systems has become an important goal of higher education policy in many countries. Policy makers assume that a diverse academic system will better satisfy public preferences and needs and lead to greater social and economic benefits for society. While these assumptions adopt a recognizably economic perspective, very little of the literature on program diversity in higher education applies economic theory or methods as a means of framing relevant research. The article suggests that an economic perspective would define and measure academic diversity in terms of program innovation in academic institutions, not only in teaching, research and public service activities, but also in the processes of production and markets served. An economic perspective can also provide valuable theoretical frameworks for exploring the important question as to whether and how markets or governments affect program innovation in higher education.     

Performance management and diversity in higher education: an introduction

Tertiary Education and Management -     

Dropouts from higher education: Toward an empirical model

Longitudinal data gathered from all 683 first-year students in the College of the University of Chicago in 1965 are used to test the utility of a theoretical model in explaining the undergraduate dropout process. The model as operationalized represents a synthesis and extension of concepts pertinent to balance theory, Durkheim's theory of suicide, and recent work on college dropouts. It regards the decision to leave a particular social system as the result of a complex social process that includes family and previous educational background, academic potential, normative congruence, friendship support, intellectual development, grade performance, social integration, satisfaction, and institutional commitment. Multiple regression analysis is used to assess the independent contribution of each of these factors in the explanation of important outcomes in this process. Although social integration, satisfaction, and institutional commitment can be explained primarily on the basis of the intrinsic rewards associated with interpersonal relationships and intellectual development, the short-run dropout decision is largely influenced by extrinsic performance criteria among the men but less so for the women. Over a four-year period, however, formal academic performance is clearly the dominant factor in accounting for attrition among both sexes. The implications of these findings for institutional policies are discussed.

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Résumé Les données recueillies sur une certaine période de temps à partir des 683 étudiants de première année au Collège de l'Université de Chicago en 1965, servent à vérifier l'utilité d'un modèle théorique pour expliquer la raison de l'abandon des études chez les étudiants non encore diplômés. Tel qu'il est employé, le modèle représente une synthèse et un prolongement des concepts se rapportant à la théorie de l'équilibre, la théorie du suicide de Durkheim et à une étude récente sur les étudiants démissionnaires au niveau universitaire. Il concerne la décision de s'affranchir d'un système social particulier, cette décision étant l'aboutissement d'une évolution sociale et complexe qui implique la famille et les études faites antérieurement, les possibilités intellectuelles, la conformité normative, le soutien de l'amitié, le développement intellectuel, les résultats scolaires, l'intégration sociale, la satisfaction et l'engagement institutionnel. On a recours à l'analyse de variables multipls pour évaluer dans quelles mesures chaque facteur intervient dans l'explication des issues importantes de cette évolution. Bien que l'intégration sociale, la satisfaction et l'engagement institutionnel puissent être expliqués principalement à partir des satisfactions intrinsèques retirées des rapports humains et des progrès intellectuels, la décision rapide d'abandonner les études est considérablement influencée par les critères d'accomplissement extrinsèques chez les hommes et à un degré moindre chez les femmes. Cependant, en quatre ans, les résultats scolaires officiels constituent certainement le facteur dominant expliquant l'écrasement subi par les deux sexes. On étudie les implications de ces découvertes relativement aux lignes de conduite à adopter par les étabolissements d'enseignement.

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The author wishes to acknowledge the able assistance of Miss Rondo Wood in the preparation and analysis of the data presented in this paper.     

Student plagiarism in higher education in Vietnam: an empirical study

This paper assesses and compares the prevalence of plagiarism across different student and assignment characteristics at a university in Vietnam, using the similarity index reported by the text-matching software Turnitin as a proxy measure of plagiarism on a sample of 681 student papers. The findings present a level of match higher than reported in earlier studies at universities outside of Vietnam, with an average similarity index of 29.06%. Controlling for the gender and major of the students, the extent of plagiarism is implied to be negatively correlated with the students’ academic performances and with the likelihood of being caught, and positively correlated with the length of the assignments. Thus, this study, relying on actual text-matching data rather than self-reported surveys, provides the first empirical test of two theoretical plagiarism models proposed in the literature. The explanatory factors confirmed by this study illustrate the potential benefits of the use of software tools to detect plagiarism and can help refine academic integrity policy formulations for universities.     

Competition,innovation and diversity in higher education: dominant discourses,paradoxes and resistance

Abstract

This article explores the powerful yet contradictory role of neoliberalism, its competitive mechanisms and emotional logics. Theoretically, it reviews the shifting state-higher education-market nexus through the lens of a critical cultural political economy paradigm. Conceptually, it closely examines Davies’ work on the ‘logic of competition’ (2014) and Naidoo’s idea of ‘competition fetish’ (2011, 2015, 2018) to expose the material and discursive dispositifs through which nation-states, institutions and individual actors mobilize universities to position themselves in the global knowledge economy. The discussion is informed and supported by empirical evidence drawn from a doctoral project (2013–2014). The article aims to contribute to the extant critique of (higher) education by introducing the paradox of ‘polarized convergence’ as an instance of differentiation without diversity in the contemporary English university. Such paradox urges the re-visitation and broadening of the idea and practice of the entrepreneurial university to reinvigorate the link between competition, innovation and diversity.     

Students' choices in Portuguese higher education: influences and motivations

Students face significant pressures in their decision about their career plan. These pressures are simultaneously internal and external, personal and social, individual and from the reference group. The present paper aims at understanding the reasons driving students' choices, perceived needs, and aspirations. Moreover, it discusses the major influences/pressures of the student's choice and tries to understand how choice is affected by the students' socioeconomic and cultural background and other factors such as institutional reputation or “professional heritage.” The construction of the career plan is analyzed by applying a qualitative analysis methodology through content analysis of the freshmen discourses. The results point out the relevance of social status, intelligence, gender, competences, values, and interests of each person for the construction of his/her career plan. All these levels are highly influenced by self-esteem, which is closely related to the social value of career options and paths. The more central the variable self-esteem is, the less susceptible it will become to change other variables such as educational level, profession accessibility, or gender adequacy.     

Understanding change in higher education: an archetypal approach

During the past three decades, higher education institutions have been changing, moving away from the traditional bureaucratic archetype towards a more managerialist one. Empirical research already demonstrated that organisations tend to be in a hybrid area of archetypal change. Considering the specific case of a government-imposed reform in Portugal, and using a case study approach of six public universities, this study aims to explore archetypal hybridism through the lens of two main dimensions: systems and structures and interpretive scheme. The theoretical background lies on academic literature on organisational change in higher education and specifically on archetype theory. The findings drawn from document analysis and interviews outline the main characteristics of the hybrid archetype that we chose to name efficient-collegiality.     

Adopting self-accreditation in response to the diversity of higher education: quality assurance in Taiwan and its impact on institutions

In 2012, Taiwan implemented a dual-track quality assurance system comprising accreditation and self-accreditation in higher education institutions. Self-accrediting institutions can accredit their programs without requiring approval from external quality assurance agencies. In contrast to other countries, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan authorized self-accrediting institutions to develop their own evaluation standards. This study investigated the institution-based accreditation standards and their implications on institutional internal quality assurance. Content analysis revealed that 37 % of the indicators of self-accreditation were new and not used as review indicators in the original accreditation track. Two frequently added indicators were featured indicators and levels of internationalization. The results also indicated that institutions tend to structure their internal quality assurance systems uniquely. Three types of approaches for developing institution-based standards were identified: bottom-up, hybrid, and innovative approaches. Self-accreditation has benefited institutions committed to educational quality and pursuing excellence by enabling them to employ a fitness-for-purpose approach. The diversity of higher education and educational policy changes constitute new challenges to higher education. Balancing between accountability and autonomy is critical for all stakeholders of higher education.     

Internationalising higher education: comparing the challenges of different higher education institutions in Malaysia

Internationalisation of higher education in Malaysia is seen as a means for improving and empowering higher education so that the higher education institutions in the country can become comparable to the best in the world. While the government has spelt out the directions as well as some of the targets for internationalisation, higher education institutions in the country have been internationalising for different reasons and with different levels of priority and intensity. Public universities, especially the older ones, have been engaged in internationalisation as part of their academic growth and development. Concurrently, a variety of private institutions of higher learning has evolved since the opening up of private higher education from the 1980s. These include private universities that have been established by large corporations, smaller private colleges that have been elevated to the status of degree-conferring institutions as well as branch campuses of foreign universities. The objective of this paper is to examine the different concepts and challenges of internationalisation faced by the different types of higher education institutions in the country, using the case study approach. It was found that in each of these cases, the concept of internationalisation and the challenges faced are different, although funding is raised as a problem in three of the four cases. These different challenges imply that current policies may have to be fine-tuned in order to address the different needs of these institutions in their respective efforts to internationalise.