Higher Education and Equity in Portugal

The main topic of this article is to consider the role of the State in providing higher education in Portugal, paying attention to the fact that the privatisation of higher education has been in place since the eighties (Amaral 1999) and also that it is difficult for students and their families to find the monetary resources needed for attendance at university (Cabrito 1999). The discussion focuses on the funding of higher education in a quasi-market situation (Le Grand et al. 1993), as Portugal hasn't escaped the universal trend towards privatisation of education (Whitty et al. 1998). In the last decade, the relationship between State, universities and students has been changing rapidly (Acherman et al. 1989; Barr et al. 1993; Williams 1990; Henkel et al. 1999), and some arguments are presented that equity in access to higher education must be guaranteed (Mora 1997; UNESCO 1998; Williams 1992). In this connection, the need is argued for free attendance on higher education and State subsidies to students to cover the costs of education. Firstly, the economic and social condition of university students is presented. Using data from two periods, one academic year from the 60s and one from the 90s, the increase in the degree of equity that the university system had known in recent decades can be verified. According to the analysis, the Portuguese population in general is better represented in the university student body nowadays, than in the 60s. Therefore, it is possible to discuss the maintenance of a low degree of equity in the Portuguese university system. For this, the economic and social condition of university students is compared with – that of the Portuguese population in the 90s. Secondly, the expectations of the students of higher education are presented, in order to understand the value attached by them to a university degree, which explains the social demand for education. Finally, the costs of higher education, both private and public, are evaluated. From this evaluation, it is possible to conclude that the principal source of funding of higher education costs is the student and his/her family and to discuss the need for a more interventionist State in higher education financing. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Higher education: an education for the Élites? The Portuguese case

This article raises questions about the degree of equity of higher education in Portugal. It is based on research that the author conducted in 1995 and 1996. From diversified indicators, namely the academic level and social class of the parents of university students in particular, and the Portuguese population, the author concludes that, in general, Portuguese higher education is not equitable. Moreover, Portuguese university education can hardly be described as promoting the universal right to education. The author backs his conclusion by a determination of the spending of students and families on education and the large proportion that the sum represents in their total budgets. The article ends with some suggestions as to how to guarantee fulfillment of the universal right to education.     

Privatisation and marketisation of higher education in Indonesia: the challenge for equal access and academic values

Increasing costs of running educational institutions and funding educational programs, coupled with decreasing government subsidies to support such costs, have made privatisation and marketisation of higher education a common phenomenon throughout the world. The article presents the development of this trend in Indonesia utilizing two recent government regulations: Badan Hukum Milik Negara (BHMN/State Owned Legal Institution) law of 1999, and Badan Hukum Pendidikan (Educational Legal Institution) law of 2009. Three main criticisms to the regulations include impartiality towards low-income students, the government’s reduced responsibility and commitment to education, and commercialization of public universities. The article argues that the regulations and their main criticisms have failed to address the underlying causes to educational inequity and the lack of emphasis on the impacts of privatisation and marketisation on academic values and purposes of higher education. The article emphasizes the need to revisit the purposes of higher education, to reinforce academic standards and values, and to strengthen the teaching profession.     

The European ideal of a university: Portugal's views from the 1950s and 1960s

This study stems from research on the ‘Standing Conferences of Rectors and Vice-Chancellors of the European Universities' (1948–), an experimental initiative for co-operation among European universities, emphasising the reformative ideal that appeared in international circles in the years following the Second World War. These conceptions were gradually received in the sphere of Portuguese national education, enabling an internal and already on-going debate on the role of the university in Portugal to proceed and possibly providing a base for a ‘last-minute’ and delayed attempt to reform higher education in Portugal during the 1970s – just before the outbreak of the Revolution in 1974. Based on a historiographical methodology, this article attempts to understand how and in what shape recommendations from international circles (mainly from these European University Conferences) were assimilated by the thought and philosophical insights of the Portuguese elite, mainly concerning the gauge of National Education and the concept of the university. Thus, an effort is made to understand the official view of the Portuguese ‘New State’ regarding the ‘aims of the university’, contextualising the Portuguese higher education problem in the 1950s and 1960s, and in its relation to Portuguese national science policy rationales.     

Funding Allocation and Staff Management. A Portuguese Example

For many years the Portuguese Ministry of Education used a funding formula to allocate the State budget to public higher education institutions. Some of its major objectives were higher enrolments and allocation equity. As the expenditure on salaries was a major component of the budget, the formula was supposed to force convergence to established standard staff/student ratios. This article analyses the evolution of staff numbers in Portuguese public universities to assess how successful the funding formula has been in forcing convergence to standard staff numbers.     

Higher Education and Continuing Education in Portugal

The Portuguese higher education system has been called upon to play an important role in the regional development of the country through the initial training of technical and managerial cadres and through continuing education. With this role in mind, the State gave its support to the founding of a number of higher education institutions, both public and private, at university and at polytechnic level. Thus the disparities with regard to the availability of higher education throughout Portugal are being reduced. As a result of these measures, all the regions of the country have registered considerable increases in the numbers of students enrolled in higher education institutions, even if these figures are very small compared to those with regard to higher education enrollment in the other countries of Europe. The Portuguese case is an excellent illustration of the future of higher education, not only with regard to the initial training of cadres, but also with regard to the continuing education of teaching staff members and technicians. Research will play a decisive role, not only in production, but also as a means of assuring the continuing education of managerial staffs who are in particular need of it.     

From Design and Implementation to Impact of Quality Assurance: An Overview of Some Studies into what Impacts Improvement

Abstract

Access to university has improved following the massification of the Australian higher education sector which started in 1989, with the expansion being funded by a widening of the funding base. In the ten years from 1989, Australian universities enrolled an additional 231,000 students, including an extra 189,000 in undergraduate bachelor degrees. Specific equity policies have further attempted to increase opportunities for students previously excluded from higher education. This paper looks at changes in the composition of the student body, and in the patterns of university funding. Using aggregated national student data sets, some of the changes which have arisen from massification are identified, with particular consideration of designated equity groups.     

The financial burden of attending university in Georgia: Implications for rural students

By evaluating the impact of policies to financially support university students in Georgia, this article demonstrates the systematic spatial disparities that exist in a context of formally equal competition. The author uses a mixed-methods design, combining quantitative evidence on the entire population of Georgian university applicants in 2005–2009 with data obtained through in-depth interviews with rural families and with policy-makers, to understand the costs associated with attending universities, based on their prestige and location, as well as inequalities stemming from existing policies on the allocation of public funding. She suggests that the distribution of public funding is apparently fair, as urban and rural students incur the same average out-of-pocket tuition costs. Behind the façade of the fair outcome, however, lie serious spatial inequalities based on the complex interplay between the residential origin of higher education applicants, tuition costs, public funding allocations, university locations, and prestige. The analysis shows that urban applicants apply, and gain admission, to more prestigious universities which charge higher tuition than the universities where rural applicants enrol; urban students also manage to obtain higher proportions of the public tuition grant than their rural peers. Thus, rural and urban students purchase higher education of different quality for the same out-of-pocket costs, with urban students being more privileged and rural students relatively less so. Exacerbating this injustice is the fact that rural residents in Georgia earn half of the average urban income.     

高等教育公平视域下的日本助学贷款模式研究

日本贷学金建立在公平原则基础上从贫困大学生中选拔优秀学生,而中国是兼顾贫困家庭的优秀大学生和非贫困家庭的优秀大学生,虽然两国对公平的侧重点不同,但高等教育贫困学生的资助体系公平性发展的完善是高等教育发展的必然。日本贷学金的借贷程序和贷学金的回收制度对健全和完善我国贫困大学生资助体系有重要借鉴意义。     

析高校贫困生资助工作的育人功能

做好高校贫困生资助工作,促进教育公平,充分发挥资助工作的育人功能,是构建社会主义和谐社会在高等教育领域的一项重要内容。文章通过解读现行高校资助体系,分析其育人功能发挥存在的不足,提出相应的对策。     

Privatising form or function? Equity,outcomes and influence in American charter schools

The American experiment with charter schools advanced on dual impulses of increasing opportunities for disadvantaged students and unleashing market competition. While critics see these independently managed schools as a form of privatisation, proponents contend that they are public schools because of funding and accountability arrangements and potential benefits, and believe that the economic logic around these schools will produce equitable educational opportunities. This analysis considers how charters are or are not instances of privatisation in education, showing that the marketised environment they are intended to nurture serves as a route for profit-seeking strategies. In reviewing the research on charter school organisational behaviour and outcomes in marketised environments, I find evidence of de facto privatisation in function if not in form. As charter schools often act like profit-seeking entities, but fail to achieve expected academic and equity outcomes, the concluding discussion considers how these schools are placed between conflicting goals, and serve as entry points for private organisations seeking to penetrate the publicly funded education sector. I conclude that perhaps their most important role is in serving as a vehicle for privatising public policy—diminishing the public while enhancing the position and influence of private interests and organisations in education policymaking.     

高等教育公平与学费政策选择

高等教育学费政策取决于政府效用与教育公平的匹配情况,当存在完善的贫困生资助制度时,二者能在一定程度上得到兼顾,高学费、高资助政策是满足激励相容条件的最优选择.但就我国当前而言,由于资助制度不完善,高学费仍会冲击教育公平,政府必须通过高财政投入来控制学费水平.此外,高等教育的个人收益率有较大不确定性,应据此制定差异化学费政策.     

How Has Massification Changed the Shape of Australian Universities?

Access to university has improvedfollowing the massification of the Australianhigher education sector which started in 1989,with the expansion being funded by a wideningof the funding base. In the ten years from1989, Australian universities enrolled anadditional 231,000 students, including an extra189,000 in undergraduate bachelor degrees. Specific equity policies have further attemptedto increase opportunities for studentspreviously excluded from higher education. This paper looks at changes in the compositionof the student body, and in the patterns ofuniversity funding. Using aggregated nationalstudent data sets, some of the changes whichhave arisen from massification are identified,with particular consideration of designatedequity groups.     

千呼万唤始出来:俄罗斯大学生资助系统一瞥

转轨以来,俄罗斯高等教育的巨大增长伴随的是政府高等教育拨款的大幅削减.从1996年至2000年,俄罗斯大学生资助计划几经波折,在经历了学生商业贷款的流产、政府资助计划的夭折后,国家统一考试和高等教育券终于付诸实施,该计划对于减少招生过程中的腐败行为,缓解学生财政压力以及促进高等教育公平都取得了较好效果.     

Family background, financial constraints and higher education attendance in China

Using data from the 2004 China College Student Survey, conducted by the author, this paper finds that long-term factors such as scholastic ability and parental education are significantly correlated with higher education attendance. By contrast, short-term financial constraints are also significantly associated with higher education access, but to a lesser degree. Furthermore, in recent years China's higher education expansion has provided broader access to students from lower income families. However, the tuition fees and “net prices” of elite universities are lower than those of medium quality universities, while the tuition fees and “net prices” of medium quality universities are lower than those of relatively low quality universities and colleges. This has led to a reverse relationship between family income and attendance costs, such that lower income families now shoulder a much higher burden for their childrens’ university education than higher income families.     

Language learners’ representations of Portugal: implications for culture teaching / Las representaciones de Portugal de los estudiantes de portugués: implicaciones en la enseñanza de aspectos culturales

This pedagogically-oriented study investigated cultural representations of Portugal held by 29 learners of Portuguese in a large public university in Malaysia. The main purpose of this study was to demonstrate how these representations could be employed for teaching the cultural component of the Portuguese language programme. During the content analysis, representations of Portugal provided by the respondents were divided into 11 categories. The study then assessed salience and favourability of each category of images. The findings revealed that the language learners’ representations of Portugal were for the most part positive. The images referring to Portuguese people formed the largest and most salient category. Overall, the students’ representations of Portugal tended to be simplistic and included ubiquitous stereotypes. A discussion of pedagogical implications arising from these findings concludes the article.     

Marketisation of higher education and dual-track tuition fee system in post-Soviet countries

The marketization of higher education in the 15 countries that were formally part of the USSR has established a system model that is distinctive within world higher education, the dual-track tuition system. The foundations of this model were established in the economic liberalization of late Soviet period which facilitated a common pattern in higher education across the post-Soviet countries. Although a private sector has been established, the primary mode of marketization has taken place within the public sector. This remains dominant but has been split into two heterogenous segments in terms of funding and student selection. National systems, and individual institutions, have become divided between state-subsidized higher scoring students, and fee-paying lower performing students, creating different valuations and behaviours for the two segments. National standardized testing is an important instrument of marketization, shaping student selection and institutional differentiation and legitimating the unequal social outcomes that result. Empirical comparison across the 15 countries demonstrates a high level of privatisation of costs, largely because of private funding within public sector. This system model, which is incoherent and fosters a large-scale commitment to non-excellence, reflects a larger duality within post-Soviet societies and polities which remains unresolved. Higher education is riven between the Soviet egalitarian legacy of higher education as a public good, and the post-Soviet moment of the late 1980s and 1990s in which policy shaped by Anglo-American neoliberal thinking set out to turn education into a consumer choice on the basis of an abstract formula of the ideal market.     

Academics’ and employers’ perceptions about responsibilities for employability and their initiatives towards its development

This paper reports the results of preliminary research into how Portuguese academics and employers perceive the responsibility of different higher education stakeholders—students, teaching staff, higher education institutions, employers, and policy-makers—for developing graduate employability. The study was conducted 8 years after the implementation of the Bologna Process, the reform that placed employability firmly on the agenda of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Portugal. This paper aims to assess the extent to which higher education is held responsible for developing employability, and to characterize the activities undertaken by the two actors to achieve that end. In particular, with respect to academics, we characterize curricular and other changes to study programmes, and, with respect to employers, their participation in activities undertaken by HEIs meant to ease the transition of students to the labour market. The data comes from a survey responded to by 684 Portuguese academics and 64 employers. Academics and employers alike were found to attribute high responsibility for developing employability to higher education, suggesting that the political message of the Bologna Process regarding the relation between higher education and the labour market has been assimilated. However, the activities reported by both types of respondents indicate only an average commitment to developing employability. Here, the low participation of employers in internal institutional activities is noteworthy, suggesting that the recognition of employers as stakeholders in higher education, as advocated by policy-makers, has yet to happen in Portugal.     

Specific Learning Disabilities and the Portuguese Educational System

Although the Portuguese educational system advocates the accommodation of all students in regular schools, it has not adopted a coherent discourse that would contribute to meeting effectively the needs of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD). As such, the successive reorganizations of special education have resulted in uninformed decisions that have caused the education of students with SLD in Portugal to be, in many instances, detrimental to their academic and social growth. We describe the reality of SLD in Portugal, considering four main topics: (1) the establishment of the SLD concept, (2) the birth of a Portuguese definition of SLD, (3) the context of educational policy, and (4) the provision for students with SLD.     

Dearing is Dead – Blunkett is Born? The Future Funding of Higher Education

The Dearing Report's most substantial and rigorous piece of work on funding has been rendered irrelevant by the government's decision to adopt a different approach which Dearing had not considered. Much time, effort and money could have been saved if the government had made its objectives clear before the Report was finalised rather than on the day it was published.
Yet the Dearing chapters on funding are not wasted because they provide the case for a student contribution to tuition costs on the grounds of equity. These arguments are examined and supported in the paper. The Report is criticised for missing the opportunity to argue for credit-based funding in relation to both the public and student contributions.
The reasons for the government preferring its particular mix of means-tested fee and loan instead of means-tested maintenance grant are explained in terms of its political objectives. The effect of the government's proposals is that no student or parent pays more now for higher education than under existing arrangements. The extra private costs are incurred by graduates in repaying their additional loans out of their future income.
Finally, the misplaced emphasis on dealing with the full-time student funding problem led the Committee to give insufficient attention to other students. The adoption of a genuine lifelong learning model of higher education might have generated more relevant proposals not only on funding but elsewhere.