Refugee Students at College and University: Improving Access and Support

This article summarizes the findings and recommendations of a study into access to, and experience of, colleges of further education and universities by refugees in Sydney, Australia. The study sought to identify examples of institutional good practice which are potentially transferable to other major host countries for refugees in the developed world. It focuses upon the factors influencing the decision to enter college or university, sources and usefulness of information and advice, access courses and special entry schemes, the recognition of prior learning and overseas qualifications and institutional sensitivity and support. It concludes with a series of recommendations for providers of further and higher education to improve access and support for students from refugee backgrounds.     

‘The balancing act’ – Irish part-time undergraduate students in higher education

While the numbers of part-time students has increased in higher education in Ireland, little is known about these students or about how they balance their study and other commitments. Drawing on a larger study on Irish students’ experiences in higher education, this article attempts to address this gap in research and reports on Irish part-time undergraduate students’ socio-demographic and institutional characteristics. It further explores the balance between part-time students’ academic study and their life situations. The article proposes some recommendations with regard to policy concerning part-time students, particularly in the area of financial support available to part-time learners. It also calls for expanding opportunities for participation in part-time study in the light of changing demography and provision of resources to facilitate students’ participation in higher education. Although the findings of this article broadly agree with those of international studies, more research is needed into the experiences of part-time students in higher education.     

Education for Syrian Refugees: The New Global Issue Facing Teachers and Principals in Turkey

This study addresses the educational status and needs of Syrian school-age children at Turkish public schools and the perspectives of teachers and school principals who work with Syrian refugee students. Data was collected from an ongoing qualitative interpretive case study research project using semistructured interviews with teachers and principals who worked with Syrian refugees in 2 inner-city elementary schools in Istanbul, Turkey. The findings of this study indicate that state schools provide many Syrian children with access to education that addresses the needs and challenges associated with the refugee school-age children. For example, Syrian children are thought to have rights identical to Turkish children regarding access to a free education in the Turkish public school setting, and the government has allowed Syrian students to enroll in universities without examinations or without having to show proof that they had attended universities in Syria. However, language barriers with respect to speaking and understanding Turkish must be mitigated to integrate Syrian refugees into Turkish culture. The results of the study also indicate that Syrian students are in a constant state of depression and trauma due to war and migration. Because of language-related issues and limited access to everyday necessities, Syrian children are often in need of comprehensive psychological support. Thus, this study recommends that teachers and principals participate in professional training and development programs to be able to provide psychological support to students.     

La noblesse d'état anglaise? Social class and progression to postgraduate study

Despite rapid growth in UK postgraduate education and a current focus on issues of access to higher education, consideration of possible social class differentials at the postgraduate level is missing from the sociological literature. Using Higher Education Statistics Agency data, this paper presents a preliminary investigation of the relationship between social class and progression to postgraduate study in England and considers the interplay with other salient variables, including subject of study, institutional type and first‐degree achievement. Evidence of a social class differential in progression to higher degrees is used to test various sociological theories, particularly those proposed by Bourdieu. There is support for the concept of ‘institutional habitus’ developed in recent UK studies. It is concluded that there is scope for further in‐depth empirical research into social class and postgraduate study.     

Discursive constructions of equity in Australian higher education: Imagined worlds and the case of people seeking asylum

There is a strong rationale for people seeking asylum and refugees given temporary protection to be key beneficiaries of Australian higher education equity practices. However, despite the extreme precarity they face, this group remains among the most educationally disadvantaged populations in Australia. Here, we use critical discourse analysis to examine the publicly available statements of 38 Australian universities to identify discursive representations of equity practices and connections, with our analytic gaze focused through the lens of people seeking asylum. Using a three-part analytic heuristic examining ‘statements’, ‘practices’ and ‘connections’, we offer a critical discourse analysis of how each public university expresses its commitment to the equity agenda in powerful stakeholder-facing documents—such as annual reports, strategic plans and media releases—and we compare this analysis against institutional stated practices with regard to people seeking asylum. In identifying misalignments between equity statements and stated practices, we suggest that institutional equity narratives articulate ‘imagined worlds’, in which all marginalised groups can access higher education. We argue that now is the time to move beyond these ‘imagined worlds’, to enact stated commitments to universal education, by instituting real and effective practices to facilitate equitable access to Australian higher education for people seeking asylum.     

How mature-age students succeed in higher education: implications for institutional support

This article draws on stories of success in higher education by mature-age students of diverse backgrounds to highlight some key implications for institutional support. We begin by reviewing the post-World War II background of mature-age study in Australian higher education to provide a context for presenting some major findings from a small, in-depth research project. We examine these findings to focus on the role of institutional support in the success of mature-age students, particularly given recent sectoral factors affecting their access and support. The study findings show students’ primary supports were families and friends. Participants all belonged to equity categories as designated by the Australian government, but many did not use institutional supports. Some lacked the confidence to approach staff; others were unaware support services existed or lacked the time to access them. The participants’ stories demonstrate the complex disadvantages experienced by mature-age students. They highlight universities’ need to ensure support services are ‘student-centred’ in order to ensure improved educational and equity outcomes for their mature-age student populations.     

应放缓全面实施中等职业教育免费政策

本研究旨在对中等职业学校农村家庭经济困难学生和涉农专业学生免学费政策的阶段性成效进行评估,并就2012年加大中等职业教育财政投入的举措提出建议。主要结论和建议是:中等职业学校的办学行为与办学质量存在诸多不尽如人意的现象,这影响了中等职业教育助学金和部分学生免学费政策效果的达成。在中等职业教育的学校布局和管理体系尚不成熟的情况下,目前加大中等职业教育的中央财政投入应以诱导地方政府完善学校布局、改革管理体系、提高办学质量为核心目标。换言之,不赞成近期内以实施全面免费为加大中等职业教育财政投入的优先选项。     

Higher education in Kenya: an assessment of current responses to the imperative of widening access

Higher education is a key factor in a nation’s effort to develop a highly skilled workforce for competing in the global economy. In this paper, current trends in accessibility, equity, participation and financing of higher education in Kenya are examined. The paper explores the challenges which need to be confronted and discusses the way forward for reforming higher education policies in Kenya to widen access and advance equity by suggesting a number of strategies. It highlights the need for programmes and policies focusing on improving access to quality secondary education experiences; increasing aspirations and application to higher education; and the improvement of policies on financial support to disadvantaged students through the already existing Higher Education Loans Board. It concludes with a number of recommendations including a new revenue allocation particularly to the rising numbers of higher education aspirants from low income, rural, ethnic minorities and women.     

Developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: Teachers’ experiences of using the Open Educational Resources (OER) of the teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme

The TESSA (teacher education in sub Saharan Africa) programme aims to improve teacher education at scale by developing open educational resources (OER) that allow sustainable and locally managed pedagogical change in higher education institutions and schools. The article offers a sociocultural theoretical rationale for the pedagogy of mutuality represented in the TESSA OER; and for the research approach to understanding pedagogical change that recognises the dialectical relationships between national policies and institutional structures and practices, and the consequent impact of these on teachers’ practice and pupils’ learning. It reports from an interview-based enquiry, from the project¹ ‘Extending and embedding TESSA OER’, looking at how teacher educators at a Kenyan University served to broker changes in pedagogy within the institution and its partner schools. Two school-based cases are discussed that highlight the role teachers, who take up these pedagogical challenges play in further brokering change in their local institutions; some of the influences that support the process of institutional change are identified and how these are understood and reported to increase access and enhance learning for all pupils.     

Unsettling equity frames in Australian universities to embrace people seeking asylum

ABSTRACT

Transnational migration, especially the growth of forced migration is unsettling the literature on widening access to university education. Equity definitions and understandings that frame social inclusion have presumed stable domestic populations within nations and targeted redressing historic internal social inequalities. Refugees and people seeking asylum have high aspirations to access to university education to gain recognition or update qualifications. University access for refugees and people seeking asylum is hampered by restricted funding entitlements that privilege citizens and admissions criteria that position them in the international student market and favour language and cultural requirements that reflect the dominant national culture. A qualitative narrative-based case-study of the admissions practices in one university in Australia explored the opportunities and blockages experienced by those seeking access and the dilemmas recognised by the admissions’ gatekeepers. Employing organisational theory and Scott’s three pillars of a neo-institutional framework, the regulative, the normative and the cultural-cognitive pillars, the article argues that homogenised institutional policies and practices to assess applications construct norms of access and equity, which create new exclusions for forced migrants. In revealing how some gatekeepers sought to ‘workaround’ these practices of exclusion, the article provides hope that informal learning within organisations can lead to organisational change.     

The integration of sustainability education in Namibian colleges of education

Abstract

This article reports results of the study that examined constraints on the integration of Sustainability Education in Namibian colleges of education. The sample consisted of sixty-four (64) teacher educators selected from a total of one hundred and seventy-two (172). The findings of the study show that institutional, dispositional and situational constraints affect the cross-curricular integration of Sustainability Education in these colleges. The recommendations support the re-orientation of administration, curriculum and in-service training for teacher educators and administrators in order to support the cross-curricular integration of Sustainability Education in Namibian colleges of education.     

A critical analysis of the Syrian refugee education policies in Lebanon using a policy analysis framework

ABSTRACT

Lebanon, a country impacted by ongoing political and economic instability, has an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees competing for access to already fragile healthcare, education and labor sectors. Half of these refugees are children. This piece will discuss the efforts and policies Lebanon already has in place regarding the education of Syrian refugees. This will be done through the implementation of Lesley Vidovich’s (2007) a policy framework which proposes an analysis of the policy context and policies’ influence, an analysis of the policies as text as well as an analysis of the implementation of those policies. Such a framework has the opportunity to not only provide a holistic view of the Lebanese history and context leading to current policies surrounding the education of refugees, but it has the potential of serving as a systematic framework for other various contexts concerning education in conflict areas.     

清华大学精品课程建设的实践与思考

课程建设是高等学校教学建设的中心工作之一,也是保证人才培养目标实现的重要举措,课程建设水平直接影响高等学校的教学工作水平和人才培养质量。本文回顾了二十多年来清华大学课程建设的历程,分析了学校、北京市和国家精品课程建设的总体情况和成效,并在此基础上提出了深入推进精品课程建设工作的初步思考。     

对我国高校消防教育现状的调查研究

高校的消防事故威胁到高校的人身安全和财产安全,加强高校消防教育具有非常重要的战略和实际意义。本研究通过网络问卷调查,获得我国部分高校的消防教育现状,通过分析调查现状,提出相关改进建议,以期为高校消防教育的进一步发展提供借鉴。     

A policy of vulnerability or agency? Refugee young people’s opportunities in accessing further and higher education in the UK

The UK government’s austerity cuts have negatively impacted many voluntary-sector interventions that provided support to refugees. One such intervention, the Refugee Integration and Employment Service (RIES), is discussed in this paper. The RIES was a UK Border Agency-funded integration programme for recognised refugees and operated through voluntary-sector organisations nationwide. Findings of this small, qualitative study tentatively suggest that without bespoke support such as RIES, refugees will struggle to make informed and strategic decisions about their future education choices, restricting their ability to exercise autonomous agency. Current UK policy of counting refugees alongside other types of migrants will not cater for the specificity and multiplicity of issues faced by refugee young people. This will inhibit their opportunities and increase vulnerabilities, compounding their precarious position in UK society.     

Achieving Universal General Secondary Education in Ethiopia in line with the middle-income country vision: a reality or a dream?

This article analyses the challenges facing secondary education in the context of Ethiopia’s Growth and transformation Plan (GtP) for 2010/11–2014/15 and its stated goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2025. It does not aim to provide a definitive set of recommendations for universalising general secondary education to meet the demands of a middle-income economy. Rather, the article informs policy makers and other stakeholders about the options available in the context of Ethiopia. It aims to equip them to chart a path for sustainable expansion of the subsector, enabling universalising secondary education to play an important role in transforming the country from a low-income to a middle-income economy. The article investigates the participation rate in secondary education that would support a middle-income economy, and then analyses how teacher preparation, development and management, together with school-based management, can contribute to ensuring quality secondary graduates. However, the following problems still persist in secondary education: the gap between access for urban and rural populations remains significant; gender disparities and disparities between regions remain high; access to general secondary education (grades 9–10) is still low; access to preparatory secondary education is low; and the distance between home and school is far for numerous children, which represents a barrier in particular for adolescent girls. The article summarises policy options for universalising general secondary education. The most critical reform areas identified in the study relate to the financing, and governance and management of secondary education, particularly school-based management.     

The shaping of institutional research and planning

This paper reviews the origins of institutional research and its more recent association with a separately identifiable planning function. It examines in depth the issues involved in institutional research and planning and particularly emphasizes the role of values, politics, and social pressures in regard to the planning function. Planning by single institutions is likely to be more directed to attaining administrative and faculty aspirations than to meeting educational and social needs. As a result, there is considerable doubt that the institutional research and the planning function can be successfully conjoined. To prevent one dominating the other, the best resolution is that of interacting but independent units whose analyses and recommendations are brought into accord with reality (both needs and resources) by the administrations and boards in which responsibility for institutional operations is vested.The paper also points up some of the problems generated for institutional researchers by the poor quality and unjustified claims and recommendations of much of what purports to be scholarly writing or research on higher education.     

Easing access for lifelong learners: a comparison of European models for university lifelong learning

Easing access to higher education (HE) for those engaging in lifelong learning has been a common policy objective across the European Union since the late 1990s. To reach this goal, the transition between vocational and academic routes must be simplified, but European countries are at different developmental stages. This article maps the development in Denmark, Finland, Germany and England using a case study approach deploying data triangulation from a national and institutional perspective. It explores the extent/commonality of structural factors for easing access for students engaging in lifelong learning. The cases are at widely different stages, but the following factors were considered essential in all countries for opening universities: the establishment of transition paths from secondary education and working life into HE and links between HE, businesses and adult education from a national perspective and the recognition of all forms of learning, the flexibilization of study formats and the design of a curriculum that suits all from an institutional perspective.     

Informational capital and the transition to university: First‐in‐family students' experiences in Austrian higher education

The agenda for widening participation in higher education has led to increasing numbers of students with a broader range of education and family backgrounds. However, transitioning to the university landscape remains a highly complex negotiation process, especially for first‐in‐family students, who cannot draw on previous experience from higher education in their families. Gaining access to informational capital—a combination of cultural and social capital—plays a crucial role in managing education transitions. We draw on rich empirical data obtained from 26 autobiographical narrative interviews with first‐in‐family university students in Austria to investigate how transitions to university are affected by informational capital. We also explore how access to informational capital was influenced by (1) institutional practices, such as initiatives to support students, especially first‐year students; and (2) cultural fit—the extent to which a student's cultural capital corresponded with the dominant cultural capital in the field of their chosen discipline or higher education establishment. Our findings show that gaining access to informational capital was strongly affected by the institutional practices at universities within the different disciplines, thus highlighting the importance of higher education institutions in supporting their students during transition processes. We conclude with policy implications for how higher education institutions can assist first‐in‐family students to succeed at university.     

Access to higher education for rural-poor students in China

China is now facing significant challenges in funding its rapidly expanding higher education systems, though it has experienced enormous economic growth in recent years. Equity has become a serious concern in Chinese higher education system. This article tries to identify the causes and implications of under-representation of the rural-poor students in China’s higher educational institutions: academic and social preparedness, institutional funding arrangements, the admissions policy, and the socioeconomic background are significant factors that determine an individual’s opportunity to access to higher education. Also, a brief discussion of possible policy recommendations is presented.