Dyslexia in higher education: creating a fully inclusive institution

Disability legislation demands inclusive institutional policy and practice to meet the needs of the growing numbers of students disclosing specific learning difficulties (SpLD)/dyslexia. However, surveys of provision indicate mixed levels of student satisfaction. Institutions need to be able to monitor the extent to which their practice embodies their inclusive mission statements. Fuller, Healey, Bradley and Hall developed a stage model of progress towards the fully inclusive institution which suggests that departments or individuals can remain at different stages, delaying transformation of the whole system. This case study, conducted within a small university, used documentation, interviews, questionnaires and focus groups to explore attitudes and practices at each level of the institution to establish the extent to which Fuller's model might enable identification and elimination of ‘disablist institutional practice’ and the development of the fully inclusive ethos. Policy, management, lecturers and students were surveyed to explore attitudes and practices relevant to SpLD/dyslexia. Findings indicated that Fuller's model provided a clear and practical way of charting the institution's journey towards full inclusivity. Participants demonstrated the existence of examples of inclusive culture at all levels in University X, alongside a need for strengthened and clarified systems cementing links between management policy and the work of facilitators and lecturers. Inconsistencies in the systems connecting the levels potentially allow disablist practices to survive. Hence, identifying these gaps can facilitate their closure and promote the establishment of the fully inclusive institution.     

Enrollment demand with constrained supply in a higher education institution

Studies of enrollment demand typically assume that public institutions accept all eligible applicants. In that case the coefficients of a regression equation that explains enrollment as a function of variables that affect student demand are properly interpreted as unknown demand function parameters. However, if enrollments are limited by institutional constraints on the supply of places, another approach to estimating student demand behavior is needed. In this paper we develop a model that explains the determination of enrollments in these cases and a way to estimate the coefficients of a student demand equation that is part of the model. The results are much better than those obtained from a conventional model of enrollment demand estimated using ordinary least squares.     

Macau higher education expansion in flux: a critical spatial perspective

In the former Portuguese colony, Macau, higher education is gaining more importance in the post-1999 era in local talent-building and regional integration to safeguard its socioeconomic sustainability. This paper is based on a recent and ‘innovative’ development in the arena of higher education in the territory, a creation of new space in mainland China for a local public university. By adopting a critical spatial perspective, we examine this idiosyncratic Macau model in three aspects: (1) What kind of power/knowledge production occurs in this new creation of space? (2) How does this new space (re)configure Macau higher education development in both local and global contexts? (3) In what ways does this emergent space re-order the relations between the state, society and school? In employing this spatial stance, we aim to open up understanding of how spatiality affects diverse possibilities in the case of Macau, in global higher education movement more broadly.     

E-learning in engineering education: a theoretical and empirical study of the Algerian higher education institution

Technology-mediated education or e-learning is growing globally both in scale and delivery capacity due to the large diffusion of the ubiquitous information and communication technologies (ICT) in general and the web technologies in particular. This statement has not yet been fully supported by research, especially in developing countries such as Algeria. The purpose of this paper was to identify directions for addressing the needs of academics in higher education institutions in Algeria in order to adopt the e-learning approach as a strategy to improve quality of education. The paper will report results of an empirical study that measures the readiness of the Algerian higher education institutions towards the implementation of ICT in the educational process and the attitudes of faculty members towards the application of the e-learning approach in engineering education. Three main objectives were targeted, namely: (a) to provide an initial evaluation of faculty members’ attitudes and perceptions towards web-based education; (b) reporting on their perceived requirements for implementing e-learning in university courses; (c) providing an initial input for a collaborative process of developing an institutional strategy for e-learning.

Statistical analysis of the survey results indicates that the Algerian higher education institution, which adopted the Licence – Master and Doctorate educational system, is facing a big challenge to take advantage of emerging technological innovations and the advent of e-learning to further develop its teaching programmes and to enhance the quality of education in engineering fields. The successful implementation of this modern approach is shown to depend largely on a set of critical success factors that would include:

1. The extent to which the institution will adopt a formal and official e-learning strategy.

2. The extent to which faculty members will adhere and adopt this strategy and develop ownership of the various measures in the context of their teaching and research responsibilities.

3. The extent to which the university will offer adequate support in terms of training, software platform administration, online resource development and impact monitoring and assessment.

     

The influence of leadership behavior and organizational commitment on organizational readiness for change in a higher learning institution

Many factors contribute to the effectiveness in implementing organizational change. However, many change effort fail due to several factors such as lack of commitment, style of leadership, and emotional distress of the employees who have to implement the change. This study was intended to determine the influence of leadership behavior and organizational commitment on organizational readiness for change in a higher learning institution. It was based on a conceptual framework that combined part of an adapted model from organizational development and change theory. A total of 169 academic staff from the main and branch campuses UiTM throughout Malaysia were selected based on stage and cluster sampling to participate in this study. The result shows that there is a significant relationship between organizational commitment and leadership behavior on organizational readiness for change. The findings also revealed that 36.5% of the variance in readiness for change is explained by organizational commitment and transactional leadership behavior. In determining the role of the organization commitment as a moderating variable, the result of the study indicates significant moderating effect of affective commitment on the relationship between transformational leadership behavior and organizational readiness for change. This study implied that building organizational commitment as well as developing transformational and transactional leadership behavior could contribute to formulation of organizational readiness for change and subsequently lead to the success of a change program.     

Examining organizational climate in institutions of higher education

Two major questions related to organizational climate have existed in the organizational theory literature for the past twenty years. First, at what level of analysis should the construct of climate be operationalized (i.e., does climate have greater relevance at an organizationwide or subunit level?). Second, in what specific ways do organizations with positive climates differ from those with comparatively more negative climates. This study examines organizational climate in nine four-year public colleges and utilizes data from 2,937 respondents. The most significant findings are: (1) Climate does have relevance at the organizational level in that it distinguishes carnpuses from one another, but subunits, particularly academic departments, account for the largest proportion of variance; (2) administrators have significantly and consistently more positive perceptions of organizational climate than do faculty; (3) faculty at campuses with comparatively more positive climates report greater goal clarity and performance standards.     

The scholarship of research in teacher education in a higher education institution in transition: Issues of identity

This paper examines perceptions of professional and organizational identity of teacher educators in a ‘new’ University of Technology in South Africa, resulting from several recent mergers of colleges of education and colleges of technology mainly serving formerly disadvantaged students and schools. The findings show that most staff consider teaching and research as dichotomous. Research activities are seen to satisfy the institutional requirements for securing research funding and producing publications. Professional identities could be strengthened by a faculty-wide debate on the specific profile of teacher education in a University of Technology, resulting also in an agreed research ethos. Peer support in collaborative research groups with a focus on own practice is seen as an opportunity to strengthen research expertise.     

Professional higher education institutions as organizational actors

Organizational actorhood is a term that has gained prominence in literature about higher education as a way to describe some of the key global change processes with emphasis on organizational accountability, formalization of structure, focus on goal definition and managerialism. At the same time, there is less knowledge about how organizational actorhood is constructed in professional higher education institutions. Based on over 100 interviews and document studies of two case institutions, this article argues that professional higher education institutions show many characteristics of aiming to construct organizational actorhood, while their understanding of accountability is broader than would be in traditional comprehensive universities.     

Corporate-university linkages in Canada: transforming a public institution

In the early 1980s, following a decade of financial retrenchment in Canadian higher education, government policy statements and various scientific and research funding organizations began to articulate a new direction for universities. This new direction, referred to in this paper as the corporate agenda, heralds a new era of cooperation between universities and the corporate sector which, its proponents argue, will be mutually beneficial to both.These growing linkages between corporations and universities in Canada are transforming the structure and the mission of the university system. This paper focuses on economic, political and institutional changes that have affected the universities as public institutions. The development of this new agenda is influenced by what we refer to as third party networks, groups which are neither universities nor businesses. Our paper explores the process and discusses its effects on the organization of academic work, research and the emerging image of the university as a corporation.     

关于和谐高校建设的思考

和谐高等学校建设,不仅具有重要的理论与现实意义,而且具有紧迫性。这是因为目前高等学校内外部矛盾具有鲜明性、复杂性和一定程度的尖锐性。本文通过对高等学校组织结构、社会功能、学校管理与运行机制等多角度分析,提出了和谐高校建设的途径和要点是①坚持政治民主化,确立教职工主人翁地位,办事公开、公正和透明;②创建优质教育氛围,一切服务于人才培养,充分发挥专业技术人员的作用;③实现先进文化共享,提倡文明、道德、合作与互助;④正确协调各种利益关系。和谐高校建设需要解决的问题主要是①努力克服官本位倾向;②坚决清除教育腐败行为;③积极创建求真务实环境;④加强监督控制机制的建设。     

The typology of organizational effectiveness in Australian higher education

This paper briefly summarizes the new developments emerging from a major ongoing research program in Australia in higher education that tested and extended Cameron's dimensions of organizational effectiveness. Framed in this context, the paper then reports on the second national study in Australia to replicate earlier findings. The results confirm earlier findings and unequivocally establish the four-group typology that existed until recently. Finally, discussion includes consideration of micro and macro benefits of the framework with particular emphasis on recent structural changes to the Australian higher education system with reference to organizational culture and quality standards.This paper was prepared during a recent period as visiting professor in the School of Business at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.     

Student-customer orientation at a higher education institution: the perspective of undergraduate business students

Existing literature is polarized and primarily conceptual on the topic of student-customer orientation. Research into this phenomenon has failed to realize that higher education as such consists of several different educational experiences and has therefore addressed and studied the issue at too general a level, i.e. at the level of the higher education institution (HEI) as a whole, not at the level of educational experiences that an HEI provides. Based on a validated model of educational experiences, validated student-customer orientation questionnaire [Koris, R., & Nokelainen, P. (in press Koris, R., & Nokelainen, P. (in press). The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ): Application of customer metaphor to higher education. International Journal of Educational Management. [Google Scholar]). The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ): Application of customer metaphor to higher education. International Journal of Educational Management] and a survey conducted among business students (N?=?405) in Estonia, the aim of this article is to identify whether in which categories of educational experience and to what extent students expect an HEI to be student-customer oriented. The results of the study show that students expect to be treated as customers in some, but not all categories of educational experience that an HEI offers.     

Research results of two personal learning environments experiments in a higher education institution

This paper focuses on institutionally powered personal learning environments (iPLEs). The concept of the iPLE can be seen as a way universities can incorporate learner-centred approach into the architecture of their technology-enhanced learning environments. The aim of this paper is to pose that there are other ways to learn complementary to virtual learning environments, such as using distributed Web 2.0 tools from personal learning environments (PLEs). With that aim in mind, this paper presents an exploratory study with two different iPLE configurations, analyses how they modify the learning–teaching process, and reports their perceived usefulness from the students' point of view. These two case studies were carried out by a research group of educational technology from a Spanish university in graduate and postgraduate courses. As reported by other case studies, the results revealed that students use the environment basically in the academic context and this usage is conceived as another time and effort requiring task. This fact can be observed in the low level iPLEs customization. The overall conclusions we can extract are, on the one hand, that the new environment to integrate informal and formal learning should be flexible and adaptable to the student's needs and preferences and, on the other hand, that academic tools might someday become personal tools.     

论高等学校的扩招

高等教育由精英化向大众化乃到论过渡,这是高等教育发展的必然趋势,中国的高等教育相对落后,因此扩招是必然之选择,高校扩招对国家、社会、学校、家庭及至个人均有诸多裨益,面对高校扩招所带来的诸多问题与困境,我们要积极地探求解决问题的思路。     

Transforming U.S. higher education: An organizational perspective

Scholarly work on organizational change within colleges and universities is relatively unknown among campus administrators and policy makers. To counter that low visibility, this essay reviews existing theories and research evidence on the topic. The goal is to provide some general guidelines for those who seek to refine purposes, develop programs, and improve effectiveness and efficiency on their campuses.James C. Hearn is Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia. He has his A.B. from Duke University and M.A. in Sociology and Ph.D. in the Sociology of Education from Stanford University. A former policy analyst and college administrator, his teaching and research focus on postsecondary organization and policy. Currently he is examining connections between institutional governance and the changing demography of university faculty.An earlier version of this article was first presented at the conference on Justice, Participation, and Sustainability in Higher Education, University of LaVerne, LaVerne, CA, September 17, 1994.     

The demand for higher education facing an individual institution

The purpose of this paper is to provide an estimate of the elasticity and cros-selasticities of demand for higher education facing an individual institution. The utility which a high school graduate derives from each educational option open to him is assumed to be a stochastic function of the attributes of that option. For certain types of utility functions the maximization of utility results in the logit probability model. This model is used to analyze the choices made by a sample of high school graduates in Hawaii. Estimates of the price elasticity and the cross-price elasticities of demand for enrollment at the University of Hawaii are obtained. It is found that the demand is quite inelastic with respect to both tuition and total cost of education. These estimates imply that changes in tuition will not affect enrollment appreciably.The authors wish to express their appreciation to Arthur S. Goldberger, H. Laurence Miller, and Pan A. Yotopoulos for their comments on earlier drafts of the paper.     

Predicting higher education outcomes and implications for a postsecondary institution ratings system

The accountability of colleges and universities is a high priority for those making policy decisions. The purpose of this study was to determine institutional characteristics predicting retention rates, graduation rates and transfer-out rates using publicly available data from the US Department of Education. Using regression analysis, it was determined there are 14 predictors of the full-time retention rate, 7 predictors of the part-time retention rate, 15 predictors of the graduation rate and 12 predictors of transfer-out rates. Institutions and policymakers could use the results of this analysis to determine the policies that would be beneficial to improving the analysed outcomes. All four analyses indicate good fit with R² ranging from .273 to .828. Some possible policy implications include addressing selectivity if institutions want to improve retention rates and addressing affordability to improve retention and graduation rates.     

Assessment in a Rwandan higher education institution: a quest for aligned assessment to promote socio-economic transformation

Assessment in institutions of higher learning has been researched worldwide. However, there are gaps in research exploring the implications of assessment practices for learners’ access to the kind of knowledge enabling them to participate in their communities’ socio-economic transformation. This is the case in the African Great Lakes region, including Rwanda. This paper investigated the assessment practices at the University of Rwanda-College of Education to establish whether they enable students to access powerful knowledge for socio-economic transformation, which promotes critical thinking and creativity, or the knowledge of the powerful, which promotes memorization of knowledge produced by experts. The study adopted mixed methods, where 361 questions from 20 examinations papers for 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 academic years were analysed using Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Interviews with lecturers and group discussions with students were conducted. The findings revealed that assessment practices heavily encourage the knowledge of the powerful, with limited focus on the socio-economic transformative knowledge. Such practices are unlikely to lead to national socioeconomic transformation, which the government expects from education. The paper recommends revisiting assessment practices in Rwandan higher education to instil in the graduates the required knowledge for active contribution to socio-economic transformation.     

E-learning technology and higher education: the impact of organizational trust

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of trust perceptions on teachers’ intention to continue using e-learning technology in higher education. Drawing on the model of organizational trust and the information systems continuance model, a new research model is developed and tested using data from a university college based on a survey of 401 university teachers. We find that teachers’ perceptions of system-based trust and trust in management exerted strong direct effects on intention to continue using an e-learning system. Additionally, system-based trust affects perceived usefulness, and thus fully mediates the influence of perceived usefulness on teachers’ intentions to use e-learning technology. Our findings clarify the relationship between trust and teachers continued use of e-learning technology and have implications, theoretical as well as practical, for trust-building structures that could improve the implementation of e-learning technologies in higher educational settings.