英国高等教育质量保障体系研究——以约克大学为例

本文介绍并分析英国高等教育质量保证体系的历史沿革,对当前实行的QAA（The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education）的主要职责、运行模式、框架设计和质量保证进行了分析和评述,对高等学校的内部质量监控做了介绍,并着重以约克大学为例介绍了高等学校的内部质量保障的制度、机构和措施,在此基础上分析了对我国高等教育质量保证的启示。     

Towards new forms of regulation in higher education: the case of South Africa

The paper reflects on the prospects for higher education reform in a country - South Africa - lodged within a sub-continent not noted for successful reform. The argument is that much of the policy debate is conducted in a way that dichotomises the issues: control versus autonomy; freedom versus regulation; state versus civil society. This dichotomous construal is unable to deal adequately with recent work on the changing forms of the state and changing state-higher education relations. The paper develops a distinction between administrative and political forms of control; and broadens the state control-state supervision distinction from one based solely on models to one based on the specific quality of inter-organisational coordination, connectivity and regulation. The paper concludes by spelling out what such a connective conception of organisation and regulation could mean for South African higher education.     

Psychometric evaluation of entry assessment in higher education: A case study

Entry assessment for higher education is a managerial and research topic in many European countries at this moment. Due to the increased claim for higher quality in education and the decreasing finances, universities seek for means to establish a high quality instream. Research has shown that types of entry examinations offer good possibilities to put “the right man on the right place”. Not only the quality of these examinations is an important issue, also systematic differences between student groups is a main point of attention. Turkey, using a two stage assessment for several years already, is a good example of the latter. Now that several universities think about selection at the front door, it might be worth to think about evaluating selection criteria and to look at method to avoid group bias for example. Evaluating the test items with respect to systematic differences between certain groups of students has become a crucial part of item analysis and validity studies among the test users. In the present study differential item functioning (DIF) analysis was carried out for the first stage of the University Entrance Examinations in Turkey by the use of four area indices. The differences in the magnitudes of the area indices have been compared with respect to the taxonomy of educational objectives the items are supposed to measure and the subject areas. The differences among the area indices were also evaluated and compared in the present study. Item characteristic curves were obtained across the sex and branch groups by using the BILOG package program.     

A case study of peer learning in higher aeronautical education

In order to improve student learning in an advanced course in aeronautics, lectures are replaced with more student-centred sessions based on peer learning. The course is organised in student teams, with the main task of delivering lecture requests for full class discussions. For the same reason, the written theory exam is replaced by a peer review of student reports. The new approach is found to result in a substantial increase of student–student and student–teacher interaction, leading to observable improvements in the course results. Finally, some feedback from the students is presented, being in great favour of the peer learning approach.     

滑铁卢大学高等教育浅析

滑铁卢大学(University of Waterloo)在数学和工程方面的成就在整个北美地区独占鳌头,包括计算机语言Fortran的发源和计算机代数系统Maple的研发等。许多高科技公司,如微软、Google和IBM公司,都和滑铁卢大学保持着良好的长期合作研究关系。对滑铁卢大学高等教育体制的特色-合作研究教育、本科生教育和研究生教育等进行介绍和分析,并结合作者在滑铁卢大学进行访问研究期间的实际经历,详细介绍了研究生进行科学研究的方式方法。     

Assessing personnel practices in higher education: A case study in the hiring of females

This study develops a dynamic model of ideal minority representation in an employer's work force. The model assumes that the hiring and termination processes are random and takes into account both changes in the size of the work force over time as well as minority representation in the labor pool from which employees are drawn. Various parameter specifications representing alternative employer personnel practices are utilized to demonstrate their impact on the adjustment path of work force minority representation toward that found in the overall labor pool. The model is then estimated empirically to generate a point of comparison in a case study involving alleged sex discrimination in the hiring practices of an academic department at a major midwestern university. A test procedure is illustrated which allows formal statistical comparisons of actual work force minority representation and the ideal minority representation by the model.     

English-medium instruction in Chinese higher education: a case study

With the relentless internationalization and marketization of higher education in the past decades, English has been increasingly adopted as a medium of instruction at universities across the world. Recent research, however, has shown that despite its various optimistically envisioned goals, English-medium instruction (EMI) is not without problems in practice. This article reports a case study of an EMI Business Administration program for undergraduate students at a major university of finance and economy in mainland China. Informed by Spolsky’s language policy framework, the study made a critical analysis of national/institutional policy statements and interviews with professors and students to uncover EMI-related language ideologies, language practices, and language management mechanisms. Findings evinced a complex interplay of these three constitutive components of language policy in the focal EMI program and revealed considerable misalignment between policy intentions and actual practices in the classroom. These findings raise concerns about the quality and consequences of EMI in Chinese higher education. The article concludes with recommendations for further research on EMI policies and practices in China.     

Promoting self-regulated learning to improve achievement: A case study in higher education

Abstract

The aim of this article is to report on a study conducted to assess the effect of an intervention programme to improve SRL and the achievement of a group of poorly performing undergraduate students at the Tshwane University of Technology. SRL was used as theoretical framework. The case study reports on 20 Engineering students who attended learning skills intervention sessions and wrote a college version of the learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI) pre-test and post-test. The intervention consisted of 12 workshop sessions presented over a period of three months. The LASSI pre-test showed that the group scored below the 50th percentile on four scales (anxiety, attitude, selecting main ideas and test-taking strategies). Observed improvements in the post-test scores of the LASSI scales for seven out of ten scales were statistically significant. The students’ academic achievements also improved. The findings are important for improving student success and throughput in South African higher education.     

Leadership and gender in higher education: a case study

Literature concerning leadership styles in HE provides no distinct view on whether style relates to gender. Transformational styles are regarded by some as particularly suited to times of change, and likely to be adopted by women; but others argue such styles are unsuited to HE. In a study of leadership within an institute of higher education undergoing change, transformational and transactional leadership behaviours were identified in all senior managers, male and female. However, when official communications were plotted over time, transformational attitudes were superseded by transactional. Women managers apparently identified more with male gender paradigms and displayed male-type leadership behaviours, whilst men showed female paradigm identification and female-type leadership. Additionally, managers indicated that past experience of ‘poor’ management and their subject training had greatly influenced their leadership approaches.     

Gender and higher education experience: a case study

This research seeks to contribute to current discussion of gender differences in experience of higher education. Its specific focus is to compare the assessment of various university services by male and female students. The research sample consisted of 9793 students who participated in three University of Western Sydney surveys in 2004 and 2005. The results suggest that, first, female students place higher importance on the majority of the university’s services than do male students; second, as female students advance through their studies, they appear more demanding about the quality of services, while male students remain comparatively tolerant; and third, while all students consider that some areas warrant improvement, this is significantly more so for female than for male students. Specifically, the key areas for improvement from female students’ perspective are the relevance and instructional clarity of the course and efficiency of administration. It is recommended that, considering the current trends in higher education across gender, a sharper focus on these areas for improvement action could help the university ensure equity and better manage competition.     

Career repertoires of IT students: A group counselling case study in higher education

Uncertainty about future career prospects has increased enormously for students enrolled in higher education Information Technology (IT) programs. However, many computer science programmes pay little attention to career counselling. This article reports the results of a pilot study intended to develop group counselling for IT students to promote the students’ agency concerning their future careers. The group counselling discussions were analysed from the discourse-analytic perspective. Five repertoires were found: the status, the professional career, the pedagogical orientation, the employability, and the emergency plan repertoires.     

Towards sustainable internationalisation of higher education

This article engages with the question: what does the internationalisation of higher education in times of globalisation sustain and what should it sustain? We first consider, through literature on globalisation and Stier’s (Glob Soc Educ 2(1):1–28, 2004) work, limitations of currently prevalent perspectives on internationalisation in economic terms. We then offer a brief review of how sustainability is understood in higher education and articulate our own notion of educational sustainability. We flesh it out in reference to data reflecting ideas and activities constitutive of daily practices of internationalisation in one faculty of education. We contend that our sustainability frame of reference can expand opportunities to think critically about internationalisation and, more importantly, offers opportunities to see internationalisation in its complexity, and to re-think and reorder practices that are not in alignment with educational goals and values.     

Adopting Web‐Based Learning and Teaching: A case study in higher education

Most universities worldwide are becoming distance education providers through adopting web‐based learning and teaching via the introduction of learning management systems that enable them to open their courses to both on‐ and off‐campus students. Whether this is an effective introduction depends on factors that enable and impede the adoption of such systems and their related pedagogical strategies. This study examines such factors related to adopting a learning management system in a large multicampus urban Australian university. The research method used case study approaches and purposively selected the sample consisting of innovative teaching academics from across the university, who used web‐based approaches to teach both on‐ and off‐campus learners. The data were analyzed using a combination of Rogers’ theory of diffusion of innovations and actor‐network theory and revealed a series of enabling and impeding factors faced by pioneering technology‐adopter teaching academics, some of which are technology related while others are policy related and common to large multicampus institutions. The study found that safe adoption environments recognizing career priorities of academics are a result of the continuous negotiation between the evolving institution and its innovative and creative staff. The article concludes with a series of conditions that would form a safe, enabling, and encouraging environment for technology‐adopter teaching academics in a large multicampus higher education setting.     

Disseminating development initiatives in British higher education: a case study

The Effective Teaching and Assessment Programme (ETAP) was commissioned and funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils for England, Scotland and Wales and ran during the academic year 1993–4. Its aim was to identify and disseminate best practice in specific subject areas, student support and resource based learning. ETAP supported five projects, each undertaken by a consortium of British higher education institutions. This paper reports an evaluation of the programme based on interviews with leaders of the individual projects, along with a questionnaire survey of potential users of the products of the programme. A framework is offered for interpreting the results of the evaluation. Six different meanings of the word dissemination are identified, corresponding to the different degrees to which users actively engage with the materials produced. These distinctions are applied to the data collected and the findings are summarised in terms of the key notions of awareness of what is available, the attitude of teaching staff towards centrally-produced materials, and the accessibility of those materials. The implications of these three concepts are discussed in relation to the technical, organisational and presentational issues which promote or hinder the effectiveness of the dissemination. A number of policy recommendations for Funding Councils and institutions are outlined.     

Tax limitation initiatives and their impact on higher education: A case study

More and more tax limitation initiatives seem to be put forth for voters approval and several have passed which have implications for higher education. While those passed differ from each other substantially, a case study on the effects of Proposition 13, the first to pass in U.S., on California higher education has been instructive. Community colleges had to temporarily reduce some of their programs, primarily in adult and non-credit education, which have since been restored on a fee basis. Additionally, the control for community colleges has been shifted to the state. The four-year colleges and universities have also been indirectly affected as reflected by substantial increase in student fees when the state surplus was exhausted. Finally, despite seemingly devastating effects, most states which have been affected have learned to cope with decreasing or stabilized financial support.     

Sustainable development in higher education in Russia: the case of St. Petersburg State University

This article focuses on attempts to introduce elements of sustainable development education into the curriculum of one of the largest Russian universities. At St. Petersburg State University, compulsory courses relevant to sustainable development have been introduced or modified in 14 faculties out of 20 during the last decade. Examples of environmentally oriented projects within and outside the university are given. The authors touch upon the state of affairs in higher education in Russia, and write about sustainable development in a wider sense, beyond the environmental context. Sustainable development in education for Russia is one of the most important pre-requisites for sustainable development in society. A model for reforming the system of national higher education is given to illustrate possible ways of achieving sustainability in education.     

Towards inclusive education: the case of Finland

The article examines the Finnish system of basic education and the means it employs to support good learning and healthy growth and development for all students. The excellent learning outcomes of the Finnish comprehensive school indicate that it is possible to develop a system with both quality teaching and learning, and equity and equality for students. Throughout the article, special needs education is seen as an important, but not dominant, aspect of Finland’s inclusive policies. The article concludes with five theses central to a working model of inclusive education.     

全面质量管理理论在高校管理中的应用

全面质量管理理论是源于工业生产的实践理论,该理论所蕴含的理论特质与实践思想也能够应用于高校管理工作中.全面质量管理理论具有全方位性、过程动态性、综合整体性等特点,这些特点的存在符合高校管理的发展理念.全面质量管理理论在高校管理中的应用主要有三个层面:注重教学管理工作的全面性与系统性,重视学生思想引导与交流,加强现代化教学管理系统的应用.这些应用策略有利于提升高校管理工作的实践效果,因此,高校管理工作中引入全面质量管理理论具有现实意义和战略意义.