Student employment: social differentials and field-specific developments in higher education

In this article, we examine social origin differences in employment patterns across different stages of higher education and compare these differences between vocational and academic fields of study. Using data from a large-scale German student survey, we study the development of inequality, according to social origins, in student employment from first-year to graduating students. We show that inequality in job quality exists and is partly attributable to the need for students from lower social origins to work in order to finance their studies. We hypothesise that initial inequalities decrease as students progress through higher education. While we find evidence for this hypothesis, we also show in multivariate models that the reduction of inequality in the student labour market is explained by prior differences between social origin groups.     

趋同与特色:德国应用科学大学“应用型研究”的机遇与挑战

应用科学大学是德国高等教育体系的重要组成部分。在50年的发展过程中,应用科学大学面临着高等教育系统的趋同与自身的特色发展。在两种力量的共同作用下,"应用型研究"开始为应用科学大学所重视。学科发展、市场需求、政策法律等方面都为应用科学大学科研功能的发展作好了准备。然而"应用型研究"所必需的人员、资金以及制度资源都具有竞争性,应用科学大学科研功能的发展受到具有"先发优势"的大学的约束。尽管"应用型研究"理念为应用科学大学争取了科研功能发展的空间,但是科研资源的有限性制约了应用科学大学科研功能的发展。     

Social inequalities in access to higher education in Croatia: five decades of resilient findings

This article provides a panoramic view of research findings on social inequalities in access to higher education in Croatia since the 1960s, guided by the question of what has changed in the findings. Our review shows that there is stark continuity over the last five decades: students from better educated family backgrounds tend to be overrepresented in higher education; students from better educated and white-collar family backgrounds are more likely to enrol in academic as opposed to professional study courses; students at one Croatian university in particular stand out in terms of their more privileged social background; and medicine seems to be the prime academic field for observing social reproduction. We note that these persistent findings run parallel to a dramatically changing political, economic and social context in Croatia, including transformations in the 1990s resulting from social ownership of the means of production to widespread private ownership, as well as transformations from a one-party political system to the establishment of a multi-party political system. The article maps possible theoretical explanations for the resilience of social inequalities in access to higher education in the context of dynamic times. It also questions the role of educational policies in this process.     

Travels in extreme social mobility: how first-in-family students find their way into and through medical education

ABSTRACT

Higher education is understood as essential to enabling social mobility. Research and policy have centred on access to university, but recently attention has turned to the journey of social mobility itself – and its costs. Long-distance or ‘extreme’ social mobility journeys particularly require analysis. This paper examines journeys of first-in-family university students in the especially high-status degree of medicine, through interviews with 21 students at an Australian medical school. Three themes are discussed: (1) the roots of participants’ social mobility journeys; (2) how sociocultural difference is experienced and negotiated within medical school; and (3) how participants think about their professional identities and futures. Students described getting to medical school ‘the hard way’, and emphasised the different backgrounds and attitudes of themselves and their wealthier peers. Many felt like ‘imposters’, using self-deprecating language to highlight their lack of ‘fit’ in the privileged world of medicine. However, such language also reflected resistance to middle-class norms and served to create solidarity with community of origin, and, importantly, patients. Rather than narratives of loss, students’ stories reflect a tactical refinement of self and incorporation of certain middle-class attributes, alongside an appreciation of the worth their ‘difference’ brings to their new destination, the medical profession.     

The academic success of undocumented Latino students: School programs,non-profit organizations,and social capital

Based on 29 in-depth interviews with undocumented Latino college students and graduates in Southern California, this study explores how academic high achievers obtain the information, resources, and emotional support they need to achieve college-student status. The study highlights the importance of the programs offered by schools and nonprofit organizations to compensate for undocumented Latino students’ lack of social capital and their parents’ lack of human capital. Forging a trusting relationship with teachers and/or counselors remains crucial for navigating the unique application process for undocumented students and for identifying private funding sources.     

Marginal utility of social capital: the assistance of family and friends in choosing university studies

Abstract

We focus on transition from school or employment to university and analyze how social network characteristics and the quantity of social capital (SC) influence the assessment of help in selecting a program of study. We analyze data of undergraduate students at a German university and find that SC has an amount and a context effect. First, we assume that in networks where students find a lot of SC, they also receive helpful advice. Second, a social network close to academia offers useful help. Our multivariate analyses support the context effect, but also indicate a marginal utility of SC. Students with academically educated parents rate their parents’ help as more useful, and students with studying friends rate their friends’ advice as helpful. However, students who are rich in SC among family and friends rate their help lower than students who are rich in SC among only one part of their network.     

Choice and social class of medical school students in Greece

A growing body of literature focuses on choice of studies in the context of policies on widening participation in higher education and graduates' difficulties in the labour market. Drawing on research findings showing a relationship between social class and choice of studies, we conducted a qualitative study on first‐year medical students in a Greek university. The research aim was to examine the seemingly paradoxical choice of medical school, given the contradiction between the great investment in time, effort and money required, and inflation of medical graduates and high unemployment levels. Apart from the impact of social class, findings suggest that choice is also strongly influenced by the broader context of the social and financial relations, and the education system. We argue that any attempts to analyse choice processes need to accommodate the specific national characteristics and peculiarities.     

Democratising higher education in Ghana and Tanzania: Opportunity structures and social inequalities

This article is based on an ESRC/DFID funded research project on Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/wideningparticipation). There are questions about whether widening participation in higher education is a force for democratisation or differentiation. While participation rates are increasing globally, there has been scant research or socio-cultural theorisation of how different structures of inequality intersect in the developing world. Questions also need to be posed about how higher education relates to policy discourses of poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals. The article explores participation in higher education, utilising statistical data and life history interviews with students in two public and two private universities. It focuses on how gender and socio-economic status intersect and constrain or facilitate participation in higher education. Findings to date suggest that opportunity structures reflect social inequalities.     

人才发展与素养教育统一——高等师范院校教育科研管理的生命力

高等师范院校教育科研管理的生命力,关键是实现素养教育与人才发展的有机结合。因为教育科学研究的目标内容、方法手段、管理策略实施等,成为大学教育内容全方位开发、管理思维方式定位和价值观念更新的奠基石。在实践上,合理建立有效制度、实行学术休假制和弹性学制,开辟学科博客论坛,发展学报电子期刊,使课程的师范性、实践性与学术性统一,有利于全面、有效地开发人才资源,进而为科技高速发展和市场经济发展服务。     

从大学生的学习取向看科学教育与人文教育融合的必要性

对全国万名大学生的随机抽样调查表明，当代大学生在学习取向上，倾向于“实用技术”，严重忽视“人文知识”的学习。造成这一局面的重要原因之一就是，当代大学生在成长过程中受到了技术主义和狭隘功利主义思想的影响。由此，实现科学教育与人文教育融合是非常必要的。     

台湾科技类大学办学模式研究及启示

台湾科技类大学隶属于高等职业技术教育体系,同时又是台湾高等教育体系不可分割的重要组成部分,其建立和发展基于台湾经济发展需求,在服务台湾地区产业转型升级和产业技术进步等方面起到了关键作用。大陆部分地方本科高校目前正积极向应用技术类型高校转型,了解台湾科技类大学办学模式建立的时代背景,汲取和借鉴其办学经验具有重要的现实意义。     

文科大学生科学素养及能力调查——基于就业的视角

部分高校对文科大学生的科学素养及能力的教育与培养重视不够甚至缺失,在一定程度上使得文科大学生在就业时失去了部分竞争优势。据对宁波市三所高校大学生就业情况和用人单位的调查,说明了毕业生的科学素养、综合素养与就业的相关性,同时提出如何提高文科生科学素养的相关举措。     

Academic choices and motivation: Diverse groups in Israel

Israel is a multi-cultural society with a Jewish majority and a large Arab minority. This study aims to examine whether Israeli Arab and Jewish students have different motivations and consider different factors when choosing a college for postgraduate studies. A case study, during the academic year 2010–11 administered questionnaires to 290 Jewish and Arab postgraduate students in a private academic college in order to investigate students’ motivations for postgraduate studies and choice of college. Findings indicated that the strongest motivation expressed by all the students is a desire for self-fulfilment. Motivation for social mobility and to help to empower their society is more important for Arab students. Convenience considerations (proximity to home, flexible entrance standards and employment prospects while studying) determined college choice for Jews and Arabs more than college reputation and teaching quality. Yet Arab students attach more importance than Jewish students to the college’s quality. It is concluded that postgraduate programmes should be more sensitive to diverse students’ needs.     

Intercultural PhD supervision: exploring the hidden curriculum in a social science faculty doctoral programme

International knowledge markets rely heavily on a ready supply of highly mobile doctoral students, many of whom are from the global South, to bring in revenue. The supervision of these PhD students, however, can reproduce neo-colonial knowledge relations, often in subtle ways. In settler nations, international PhD students may find that they are assigned subaltern status in their university departments and this can have a significant impact on their learning. This paper explores the experiences of a group of international PhD students in a social science faculty in a New Zealand university during the first two years of their doctoral studies. It examines how they responded to the displacement of their cultural values and priorities, the way they navigated intercultural engagements with supervisors, and their ensuing relationships with indigenous and ethnic allies in the faculty. Despite considerable pressure to conform to the dominant modes of academic knowledge production that characterise universities in settler nations, it is concluded that international students find ways of speaking out, often in highly coded forms, that complicate their subaltern academic status.     

In a practical mood: Studying for a profession in the changing kibbutz

The influence of recent social and economicchanges in the Israeli kibbutz on the prolongedstage of youth was examined with respect tohigher education. The young people on thekibbutz of the late 1990s appear lessmoratorial and more instrumental about theirfuture and commence higher education earlierthan in previous age cohorts. When starting tostudy, their educational and professionalprospects are crystalized as those of thenon-kibbutz student. Most of them opt foracademic, degree-granting studies, but a higherpercentage than among the general populationprefer vocation-oriented colleges to theresearch oriented universities. In choosingfields of study, they prefer more appliedstudies like engineering, social services andpractical arts and are less likely to choosesciences and the humanities. De-communalizationand economic instability of the kibbutz,inadequate preparation in kibbutz high schoolsfor the competitive admission to theuniversities, exposure to a restricted range ofoccupations during adolescence, and lack of acultural tradition supportive of elitiststudies may explain this practical mood, moresalient among kibbutz women.     

Massification,diversification and internationalisation of higher education in China: Critical reflections of developments in the last two decades

Against the context of higher education expansion initiated in 1998, this Special Issue sets out to critically examine the major developmental trends in higher education in China. The present article sets out the broader policy context for the Special Issue with particular focus on reviewing the rapid expansion of higher education in the last two decades. More specifically, this article discusses the higher education development trends in China through the massification, diversification and internationalisation processes in transforming the higher education system. This article also highlights the major arguments of the articles being selected for this Issue.     

高校扩招后大学生就业和相对工资调整检验研究

通过运用现有的大规模问卷调查数据和经济计量方法对我国高校扩招后大学毕业生就业和工资调整现状进行检验,有助于客观描述大学生就业市场存在的问题。研究结果显示,影响大学生的关键问题并非就业数量不足,而是就业质量不高。因此,通过完善现有的高等教育管理制度,激励教育供给部门灵敏应对市场需求,鼓励和引导高校自主办学和特色办学,实现大学生劳动力的有效供给,努力提高就业质量,是解决问题的关键所在。     

The sociology of education as the history of the present: fabrication,difference and abjection

The paper explores the fabrications of human kinds in pedagogical research. It examines the social and psychological sciences of education as producing independent spaces for the study of people in order to act on them and as a cultural thesis for people to act for themselves. Further, it explores the principles generated about who the child is and should be. It is argued that the making of human kinds embodies particular historically generated modes of representing the possibilities of life; and these modes function to divide, differentiate and abject particular qualities of people and populations into unlivable spaces. This comparativeness produces inequality as it strives for equality. The analysis engages educational studies in a conversation with history, philosophy, political and cultural studies that draw on particular European studies brought into the US to challenge its philosophical, analytical and social/psychological traditions.     

荷兰博士生教育：发展、特点与趋势

对荷兰博士生教育的研究显示,科学合理的遴选机制、系统有效的指导训练机制和强有力的物质保障机制构成了荷兰博士研究生教育创新发展的支撑,其呈现出国际化、分类型培养、AIO制度等特点。荷兰博士生教育改革仍在继续,呈现培养多元化、就业非学术化、组织形式高度国际化等趋势。     

Access and equity programme provision-evaluation in Australian higher education: a what matters approach

This article draws on findings from a national review of the evaluation of access and equity initiatives across Australian higher education to argue that utilising responsive mixed methods focused on the values of participants enables crucial understanding of what matters to the people involved. Based on the evidence collected, a “what matters” conceptual guide is provided to assist with programme design and evaluation. The approach enables identification of the multiple complex variables involved in generating programme outcomes that matter to the groups they are intended for. Provision and evaluation processes must be iteratively connected so that they are responsive to changing contexts and needs over time. Key concepts from critical realism and complexity theory are applied to highlight that context, complexity, and temporality are critical elements to incorporate into approaches to provision-evaluation. The “what matters” guide is designed to enable programmes that are accessible, engaging, and valuable to all participants.