Are Students Customers in Finnish Higher Education?

This study examines Finnish higher education students’ perceptions of whether students are customers, based on qualitative interview data. The article contributes to the discussion on students as customers by giving attention to students’ own voices from a country where tuition fees are not generally collected. The data are presented and analysed using a matrix of preference and perception of seeing students as customers. While the data contained student voices insisting that it is not appropriate to talk about customers because money is not involved, different orientations showing either a preference or perception of students as customers were also described. It is concluded that seeing a student as a customer might be a solution to various higher education challenges which are not all related to tuition fees.     

Faculty Incivility in Higher Education of Afghanistan: Students’ Perspectives

Interchange - The study investigated students’ perception of faculty incivility in higher educations of Afghanistan. It studied faculty behaviors perceived the most uncivil by students and...     

Whose Quality Conventions? The Application of Convention Theory in Higher Education

Internationally, demands for greater certainty over the quality of higher education are multiplying. This article argues that convention theory offers insights for considering quality in higher education in an increasingly market‐based system. Examples from the Australian higher education system are used to show how quality conventions can be mapped at varying system levels and across varying actors and how the existing taxonomy of quality in higher education can be located in a wider social and economic framework. It is suggested that this approach assists in identifying those quality conventions which may become dominant across stakeholder groups.     

Drawing in Veterinary Anatomy Education: What Do Students Use It For?

In contrast to medical education, information on the use of arts as a learning approach is scarce in veterinary anatomy. The aim of this prospective, questionnaire-based study was to survey students' use of drawing in various aspects of veterinary anatomy learning (self-study, examinations, preparation for, and reflection on cadaver dissection). The quantitative data showed that first-year students with artistic preferences used drawing significantly more often in most aspects of anatomy learning than students with no such preferences, apart from the reported use of drawing in examinations and for reflection after cadaver dissection. The lack of significant correlations of the reported use of drawing in examinations with any other study variable provided support for the author's observation that student-generated drawings are not as commonly used in examinations as previously. In contrast to the study hypothesis, previous university studies did not correlate significantly with any aspect of the use of drawing in anatomy learning. None of the reported uses of drawing addressed the benefits of drawing in learning the comparative anatomy of animal species, a characteristic distinguishing veterinary anatomy from human anatomy. Qualitative student feedback indicated that encouragement and teacher-produced images would increase the use of drawing as a learning approach even if the implementation of drawing into the curriculum is not feasible. Conclusions from this study were implemented through self-directed learning in anatomy courses that replaced the canceled cadaveric dissections during the COVID-19 outbreak and also through the ongoing drawing workshops to further advance the use of drawing in veterinary anatomy learning.     

Is Texting Ruining Intimacy? Exploring Perceptions Among Sexuality Students in Higher Education

In the context of researchers’ and educators’ concerns about the pervasive use of technology to communicate with one another, this study explored whether the frequency of emerging adults’ computer-mediated communication (CMC) is correlated with their perceptions of intimacy, relationship, and sexual satisfaction. The sample included 298 young adults ages 18–29, primarily female students in human sexuality courses, who had been in a face-to-face romantic relationship for at least six weeks and who used CMC to communicate with their romantic partner. Examining the frequency of CMC, intimacy, and relationship satisfaction, the only significant correlation was with participants who sent a moderate number of emails to their partners in a typical day. There were no significant correlations between sexual satisfaction and frequency of any form of CMC (texting, instant messaging, or email). The findings of this research suggest that the use of CMC among this sample is not problematic. For some, in fact, CMC may be considered a helpful tool for maintaining their relationship.     

Justice in the Higher Education Classroom: Students’ Perceptions of Unfairness and Responses to Instructors

We investigated college students’ perceptions of instructor unfairness and their emotional and behavioral reactions to perceived injustice. Results obtained from 397 undergraduates from three universities in the United States indicate that anger and dissent were the strongest emotional and behavioral responses to injustice. Furthermore, disgust mediated the influence of injustice on student behaviors most damaging to professors—taking action, expressing verbal aggression, and dissenting to authority. Stress mediated the effect of injustice on the most constructive student behaviors—changing their approach and engaging in the class. We discuss the implications of the results of our study for the student-instructor relationship and learning in the contemporary higher education environment.     

Peer Feedback Improves Students’ Academic Self-Concept in Higher Education

Research in Higher Education - Peer feedback has been shown to be an effective strategy to improve academic achievement. However, little evidence is available about the effects of peer feedback on...     

“La Migra” in the Classroom: Transfronterizx Students Exploring Mobility in Transnational Higher Education on the US-Mexico Border

Based on an ethnographic study of a pre-engineering freshman course at a large university on the US-Mexico border, I explore how 4 Latinx undergraduate students, 2 of whom crossed the border on a daily basis to pursue higher education (HE), built a Lego robot that they named La Migra (a colloquial term for US Border Patrol). In particular, I demonstrate that the students drew from local authorized border crossing activities to design the robot to accelerate cross border mobility. In using the new mobilities paradigm (Sheller &; Urry, 2006 Sheller, M., &; Urry, J. (2006). The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A, 38(2), 207–226. doi:10.1068/a37268[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Urry, 2007 Urry, J. (2007). Mobilities. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]) and borderwork (Rumford, 2008 Rumford, C. (2008). Citizens and borderwork in Europe. Space and Polity, 12(1), 1–12. doi:10.1080/13562570801969333[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), I also show that the design of the La Migra robot, rather than a public good, was actually symbolic of the uneven distribution of mobility. In total, findings contribute a particularistic account of the understudied significance of physical border crossing to mobility in the context of transnational HE.     

What Mathematics Education May Prepare Students for the Society of the Future?

This paper attempts to engage the field in a discussion about what mathematics is needed for students to engage in society, especially with an increase in technology and digitalization. In this respect, mathematics holds a special place in STEM as machines do most of the calculations that students are taught in K-12. We raise questions about what mathematical proficiency means in today’s world and what shifts need to be made in both content and pedagogy to prepare students for 21st Century Skills and mathematical reasoning.     

Meditation in Higher Education: Does it Enhance Cognition?

We predicted that students in a sociology course that included contemplative practices (i.e., mindfulness meditation) would show an increase in performance on higher level cognitive abilities (executive functions) over the semester compared to a control group of students. Change in executive functions performance was not significantly different between the two groups. However, when looking within the meditation group, the time spent meditating predicted the amount of executive function improvement, suggesting that the amount of time spent meditating is strongly related to the level of improvement. This finding provides preliminary support for benefits of meditation for students’ higher level cognitive abilities.     

Adult,Flexible Students’ Approaches to Studying in Higher Education

A Norwegian translation of the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI‐32) was administered to 1477 adult students attending flexible study programs in higher education in Norway (2004‐05). The intention was to investigate their approaches to studying, taking into account their educational backgrounds and their present, challenging study conditions. The latter being characterized by off‐campus studies and shortage of time due to working‐life and family obligations. This article is concerned with two questions: (1) Is prior education correlated with approaches to learning among these students? and (2) To what extent are contextual constraints, personal effort, and self‐efficacy associated with study approaches among these students? This study shows that adult, flexible students are primarily meaning oriented. The first‐time students among them, however, are more reproducing oriented than students with prior higher education. Self‐efficacy turned out to be more strongly associated with approaches than personal efforts. Obligations of everyday life, contrary to hypothesis, did not have the expected impact.     

Who Benefits from the Massification of Higher Education in Taiwan?

The objectives of expanding higher education are to foster advanced personnel and realize the concept of achieving equal access to education. The problems created by the expansion of higher education in many countries, including Taiwan, in fact indicate a divergence from originally anticipated objectives. Such problems include the uneven allocation of resources, tuition differences between public and private schools, and vicious competition in the face of declining student enrollments, all of which contribute to concerns about educational quality issues. Of additional interest is whether Taiwan's focus on university enrollments of disadvantaged ethnic groups has created a trend toward greater educational opportunities for its aboriginal people. Nevertheless, the distribution of resources is increasingly concentrated on elites from high socioeconomic backgrounds and in a few public universities. All of these factors have facilitated an increasing class reproduction in higher education. The original elites continue to enjoy a wealth of resources. Yet while more and more students gain access to higher education, their institutional teaching quality and learning environment still fall behind that of the elites.     

Preparing Students for Social Action in a Social Justice Education Course: What Works?

The purpose of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of how the curriculum and teaching strategies in a social justice education course prepared them for social action engagement. Past studies using a similar approach to teaching about social justice issues did not include student interviews. Students’ perspectives can shed light on how experiences in a social justice education course prepared them to challenge social oppression and work toward equity in their daily lives. Six students were interviewed one semester after they completed a social justice education course. Findings indicated teaching strategies (e.g., experiential activities) that included students’ lived experiences also increased their personal awareness, empathy, confidence, and knowledge about tools for social action. These teaching strategies were identified more often than content as key in preparing students to take action. Classroom implications are discussed.     

Executive Compensation in Public Higher Education: Does Performance Matter?

Executive evaluation and compensation are central to organizational accountability and governance. Driven by increasing public demand on justifications and accountability for substantial salary increases for public university presidents, this paper is intended to shed light on the linkage between performance and executive compensation in public universities by examining the determinants of university presidents’ pay from 2004/2005 to 2008/2009 academic years. The central question is whether presidential compensation is related to a wide array of newly developed university performance measures or is independent of performance, i.e., university presidents are paid like bureaucrats in line with the widely supported conclusion in Jensen and Murphy (1990b) suggesting corporate CEOs are really paid like bureaucrats. Methodologically, Arellano–Bond dynamic panel model is applied to control for serial autocorrelation in the compensation data, i.e., university presidents’ pay in the current period is dependent to a great extent on that in the prior period. With extensive individual, institutional, and performance characteristics examined, it is concluded that performance related variables play a very limited role in determining public university presidents’ executive remuneration, when temporal autocorrelation is properly controlled, and presidential pay is strongly and persistently associated over time. The statistically insignificant pay-performance relationship together with the temporally persistent increases of presidential compensation may provide initial evidence supporting that public university presidents are paid like bureaucrats.