Academics and institutional differentiation in Australian higher education

Similarities and differences are explored between academic staff in four different types of Australian universities. Despite an overall high degree of homogeneity amongst academics, those in pre-1987 universities, especially Go8 universities, are better qualified, have appreciably better publication records, spend more time on research and writing, and show more interest in research than academics in post-1987 universities. Pre-1987 universities are more likely than others to have academic organisational units headed by professors and associate professors. Academics in pre-1987 universities have distinctively different views with regard to research funding and the place of research, as well as about academic standards and recent expansion in student enrolments. While post-1987 universities have pockets of research strength, these are small and relatively small proportions of academics produce the bulk of research output. The views of academics generally coincide with those of their institutions on key differentiation issues.     

北欧高等工程教育考察

本文介绍了全国工程硕士专业学位教育指导委员会北欧考察团在 2 0 0 4年 8月访问芬兰、瑞典和丹麦等国四所著名工程类高校的有关情况 ,包括调研的背景和目的、所访学校概况、考察调研体会 ,以及值得我国工程教育工作者借鉴的经验和做法等     

Internationalisation of higher education: European experiences

‘Internationalisation’ is generally defined as increasing cross-border activities amidst persistence of borders, while ‘globalisation’ refers to similar activities concurrent to an erosion of borders. Study mobility is viewed as the most visible component in this framework in Europe with ERASMUS as the largest scheme of temporary mobility. ERASMUS was a trigger for a qualitative leap of internationalisation strategies and policies since the 1990s: towards cooperation and mobility on equal terms, and towards systematic and strategic internationalisation. The ‘Bologna Process’ aimed to make higher education more attractive to students from other parts of the world and to facilitate intra-European mobility; however, many other activities are needed to stimulate mobility, and the Bologna Process pursues many other objectives. It remains to be seen whether supra-national and national policies and institutional strategies will continue to opt for wide-ranging cooperation based on mutual trust or whether the ‘competition paradigm’ will determine the scene.     

Tuning engineering education into the European higher education orchestra

The ‘Bologna process’ is promoting fundamental changes throughout European higher education. Education ministers appear determined to reach, by 2010, a significant convergence of the national educational systems. This implies the necessity of adapting curricula in terms of structures, contents, learning attributes, learning tools and assessment methods. The EC ‘Tuning’ project was set up in order to investigate the feasibility of this process on the basis of ‘available experience and recent developments in several of the Member states… particularly from previous and on-going European co-operation in the context of the Socrates programme’. The Tuning project, initially aimed at five areas only (mathematics, geology, business, history, educational sciences), was later extended to other areas, including engineering: synergy groups were formed for this purpose. This paper summarizes the final report of the Engineering Synergy Group, which examined the ‘tuning’ of engineering education (EE) into European higher education, taking advantage of the work of previous and current thematic networks, such as H3E, EUCEET and E4. A set of recommendations is presented in the final section of the paper.     

Change of higher education in response to European pressures: conceptualization and operationalization of Europeanization of higher education

This article focuses on change in higher education in response to environmental pressures, more specifically pressures coming from European integration initiatives with respect to higher education, e.g. the Bologna Process. Significant research attention has so far been focused on the supposed impact of European initiatives on higher education systems and organizations. However, while many of such studies would claim that what they focus on is “Europeanization of higher education”, few of them provide a clear definition of the concept of Europeanization and an explicit and elaborate theoretical approach. Therefore, the aims of this paper are: (1) to provide a clarification of the concept of “Europeanization of higher education”, and (2) to provide a systematized and robust analytical framework able to account for identified patterns of change. The article builds on the conceptualization and operationalization of the process of Europeanization developed in international relations and comparative studies literature, using two strands of neo-institutionalism: Europeanization through an external incentives perspective based on rationalist institutionalism and Europeanization through a social learning perspective based on sociological institutionalism. Exploration of the explanatory potential of the two Europeanization perspectives focuses on changes in approaches to quality assurance in European countries. An assessment of said explanatory potential, as well as a discussion about the analytical challenges related to using these two Europeanization perspectives is provided in the conclusion.     

Market as metaphor in central and East European higher education

Markets constitute the very centre of the post-communist reforms in the countries of Central and East Europe and the former Soviet Union. The two alternative approaches available for framing the market reform conceptually are, however, both inadequate. Those in favour of revolutionary theories fail to see the strong inertia of the academe and its desire for stability. Proponents of evolutionary theories of market reforms do not recognise qualitatively new relationships in many areas. Those eager to demonstrate the success of the market reforms as well as those presenting the success of the centralised higher education in a number of areas fail to realise the lack of legal framework for market reforms and missing political decisions on which the reforms could be based on. This article discusses the role of labour markets, markets of degrees and qualifications as well as the market of educational services as related to higher education reforms. It is proposed that downsizing the State has shifted many of its previous functions to random, often external agents. This creates a meta-level market - the market of market reforms in higher education. Through this quasi market formerly unified higher education systems and even institutions are broken into segments often ignoring each other's existence and seeking individual short term goals. As a result markets' pressure on higher education has taken extremely aggressive forms limiting access to quality higher education while the systemwide enrolment is rapidly growing through theactivities of new low calibre universities and diploma mills.     

The European Round Table of Industrialists and the restructuring of European higher education

The restructuring of European higher education (EHE) since the 1980s is a widely studied subject. However, this paper argues that previous studies have paid insufficient attention to the role of transnational policy-making groups in this complex and multilevel process. This argument is supported by focusing on how the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) has participated in this restructuring since the mid-1980s. This paper's focus is especially in two ERT documents that were published in the 1980s. The main finding is that the current restructuring of EHE reflects interests of the ERT that represents the emerging transnational capitalist class (TCC) at European level.     

Competition unleashed: horizontal differentiation in German higher education

Unlike in the US and other western countries, the higher education market in Germany has been sheltered from competition. This changed recently, when a governmental ‘excellence initiative’ began to allocate substantial supplementary funds dependent on higher education institutions’ performance, in 2005. This study is aimed at assessing differentiation tendencies arising from the acute need to become more discernible in an increasingly competitive environment. Based on a content analysis of the full sample of German higher education institutions’ mission statements, we measure the degree of horizontal differentiation among institutions, applying correspondence and cluster analysis techniques. We conclude that horizontal differentiation is not incisive to date, and identify idle potential for creating a more perceptible brand personality.     

Job satisfaction among young European higher education graduates

The effects of diverse education-related variables on job satisfaction scores are analysed using a sample of European higher education graduates at early stages of their working life. Ordered choice models for job satisfaction are estimated including as explanatory diverse educational variables such as field of study, graduates’ evaluation of their educational experience, the match between the competences developed during education and those required by jobs, as well as information on graduates’ values and interests. The results show, even after controlling for actual job characteristics, that education-related variables have a great impact on graduates’ job satisfaction. Additionally, estimation results by each one of the countries included in the sample are also presented.     

Overeducation among European University Graduates: a comparative analysis of its incidence and the importance of higher education differentiation

The incidence of overeducation in eight European countries is here assessed by means of multiple indicators. With the exception of Spain, the results reveal that overeducation is a minor risk amongst European tertiary graduates. Yet, the contrast between different indicators reveals the existence of an overeducation of a moderate kind in countries with high rates of tertiary attainment (Norway, Finland and Netherlands). Our results also reveal the importance of higher education differentiation for understanding the risk of overeducation. Graduates from humanistic fields, bachelor courses and vocational colleges are more exposed to overeducation, though their disadvantage varies cross-nationally.     

Obstacles faced at various stages of capability regarding distance education in institutions of higher education

Conclusions Faculty compensation concerns and the lack of development and maintenance time are the greatest barriers to distance education across all organizational stages of capabilities. It may be that certain factors such as legal issues and evaluation, both of which show a steady increase from Stage 1 organizations to Stage 5 organizations, are the last to be tackled because other obstacles are more important in the earlier stages of maturity. The evidence from the responses to this survey indicates that there is a relationship between an organization’s level of capability in distance education and the barriers to distance education reported by respondents for some but not all barriers. Separately, we found evidence to support Moore’s assertions that barriers associated with     

Creating a common grammar for European higher education governance

This paper addresses the interaction between European Union policies and national higher education sectors in the countries involved in the TRUE project (England, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland) making the case for European governance. Relevant for this matter is the role of political processes that evolve at European level shaping political discourses and practices, thus creating a common grammar for European higher education governance. By empirically focusing on evaluation and funding policies the paper argues that European governance reflects in how this common grammar is being created and reconfiguring the environment within which European higher education systems and institutions are developing.     

欧洲学分转换系统与俄罗斯高校的学分制改革

为应对全球化和市场经济的挑战,俄罗斯高等教育系统积极学习、借鉴欧洲高等教育发展的经验.实行欧洲学分转换系统是欧洲高等教育空间一体化建设的重要举措.本文在介绍欧洲学分转换系统基本特征的基础上,对俄罗斯利用欧洲学分转换系统改革高校教学过程组织模式的原因及措施进行了阐述.     

Managing differentiation of higher education system in Japan: connecting excellence and diversity

This article presents recent reform processes in Japanese higher education, concerning the tensions emerging within the system regarding ‘excellence’ and ‘diversity’. The article particularly focuses on how Japanese universities have reacted to the recent ‘competition’ and ‘differentiation’ policy promoted by the government, drawing on recent survey results conducted with academic managers at Japanese universities. It is interesting to examine the case of Japan, a historically diversified and differentiated national system, which has been changing rapidly with recent national ‘top-down’ policy reforms, followed by more recent and new bottom-up institutional initiatives. The study shows that universities are trying to achieve excellence, fulfilling different functions at the same time, aspiring to be excellent in teaching, research and social contribution without having institutional capacity to meet these expectations. Appropriate internal governance and external mediation mechanisms need to be created at the institutional level to manage diversification of the higher education system as a whole.     

高等教育一体化进程中的欧洲学分转换系统

通过对“欧洲学分转换系统”的发展历程、运作规则及其形成和运作特点的阐析,提出高等教育国际化趋势下,我国高校相互之间现存的藩篱必须打破,影响学分互认和学生流动的坚冰必须消融,构建一个充满活力的具有中国特色的高等教育市场已是迫在眉睫。