PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION

After a brief historical review, the author describes the legal, cultural and economic elements that brought women into US higher education in such big numbers. She also discusses the professional situation of women after graduation and reviews major problems awaiting a solution

Mrs. Nancy Tapper is executive vice‐president of the Centre for Social Redesign, Oakland, California. Trained as a mathematician she is a former professor and college president     

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN HUNGARY

Mrs. Deri, after stating that in Hungary today there is a satisfactory number of women students in higher education, splits up the total figures for women students at university into fields of study and shows which ones women usually prefer. She then reviews briefly the results of a sociological survey concerning various questions related to women in higher education, before and after graduation, their professional choices and career opportunities

Mrs. Vera Deri is attached to the Pedagogical Research Centre for Higher Education, Budapest, Hungary     

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN POLISH HIGHER EDUCATION

The article analyses the progress in the participation of women in Polish higher education, with respect to different fields of study and their position in graduate studies, as well as in professional life, where she underlines the dangers of the feminization of certain professions

Mrs. Jablonska‐Skinder is scientific secretary of the Institute of Science Policy, Technological Progress and Higher Education, Warsaw, Poland     

THE RESTRUCTURING OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USSR

Great interest is being expressed in higher education circles everywhere and at all levels in the fundamental changes envisaged with regard to the organizational structure and contents of higher education in the USSR. These changes constitute an important part of the restructuring; the “perestroika”, currently going on in all spheres and at all levels of Soviet society.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CC CPSU) adopted the Principal Directions for the Reorganization of Higher Education and Specialized Secondary Education. As a follow‐up to that framework document, the CC CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a number of decisions, dated 13 March 1987, aimed at giving substance to and at amplifying the basic principles enumerated. As change in Soviet higher education has been in the air for some time, we were able to preview some of its directions in previous issues of Higher Education in Europe, specifically in No. 4, Vol. XI (1986), pp. 80‐81 and in No. 2, Vol. XII (1987), pp. 83‐84.

As promised in the latter issue, we are now presenting the main provisions of these “Measures”, and “Decisions” via excerpts taken from five documents which were published partly in Byulleten’ Ministerstva Vysshego i Srednego Spetsialnogo Obrazovaniya, No. 6, 1987, and partly in Pravda, 27 March 1987.

The editors are solely responsible for the choice of excerpts as well as for the editorial and stylistic modifications that they believed necessary in order to fit them into the content of Higher Education in Europe.     

THE FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION OF ENTERPRISES IN THE FUNCTIONING OF FRENCH HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

The article discusses and tries to reconcile two phenomena; that, on one hand, in France, higher education is seriously underfunded, and that, on the other hand, public and private sector enterprises are experiencing shortages in the availability of highly qualified senior staff. At the same time, the need to obtain funding for higher education from sources other than the public authorities is recognized. Ways in which business may contribute to the funding of higher education are discussed, stress being laid on the use of the so‐called apprenticeship tax collected from enterprises and used to support higher education in given areas of training. The functioning and the receipts of this tax are analysed from a neo‐liberal perspective in terms of regional economic development, the types of institutions and programmes which receive subsidies from it, and amount per student. One obvious conclusion is that enterprises are loathe to contribute to the financing of initial education. On the other hand, since they are increasingly willing to finance specific and specialized training, universities, as distinct from other types of higher educations institutions in France, but having the necessary facilities and teaching staff, have been able to seize opportunities offered them to create special further training courses of use to enterprises. Hence, universities receive the largest share of the receipts of the apprenticeship tax.     

DEVELOPMENT AND FORMS OF INTERNATIONAL CO‐OPERATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USSR

In Soviet higher education, the policy of international contact constitutes an important element throughout the State programme of international co‐operation. The following article presents the main forms of and recent developments in this co‐operation. It is based on an article written by N.N. Sofinski, Deputy Minister of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education in the USSR.     

INCREASE OF EFFICIENCY ‐ THE PRESENT TASK OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USSR

The rapid development and increased efficiency of education is not an internal issue, but an urgent, objective necessity of society. A recent article written by V.P. Yelyutin, Minister of Higher Education and Specialized Secondary Education of the USSR, treats this problem in relation to the development of knowledge of working people, the organization of all problems related to education, and especially higher education.     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ISRAEL

We give below an article written for the Bulletin dealing with the present situation and development of higher education in Israel. The author of the article, Mr. Shmuel Bendor from the Planning and Grants Committee of the Israeli Council for Higher Education, is also the CEPES liaison officer for Israel.     

INCREASE OF EFFICIENCY ‐ THE PRESENT TASK OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USSR

The rapid development and increased efficiency of education is not an internal issue, but an urgent, objective necessity of society. A recent article written by V.P. Yelyutin, Minister of Higher Education and Specialized Secondary Education of the USSR, treats this problem in relation to the development of knowledge of working people, the organization of all problems related to education, and especially higher education.     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN LATVIA

This report considers ways in which the Republic of Latvia and other developing countries can evaluate the situations in which they find themselves and then act to obtain the greatest benefit from the development of higher education, science, and research. For fifty years higher education, science, and research in Latvia were separated from their equivalents in western countries. In addition in Latvia higher education was isolated from industry as well as from science and research. Now the reform of higher education, science, and research must be given a legislative basis. As Latvia would like to join the European Union, it should base its regulations concerning higher education, science, and research on those of the European Union. The necessary legislation must provide possibilities and mechanisms for the co‐ordination of the interests of the whole society and the interests of the academic community     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ICELAND

We give below a short summary of the latest developments in higher education in Iceland.     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN DENMARK

Similar to the enrolment trends which could be observed in higher education in most of the other European countries in the 1960s, the number of students in Denmark also increased rapidly in that period. To accommodate this increase, the capacity of the higher education system was expanded and a number of organizations, admissions and study reforms were introduced.

The following is a report on the situation of higher education in Denmark.     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ISRAEL

As I look back on my experiences in Jewish education in the United States I am struck by the extent in which we, as leaders and researchers, misread sociological factors which affect the development of the Jewish community and their consequential effects upon Jewish education. The unpredictable element, even under the most scientifically researched procedures, are characteristic of our modern Jewish history.