Higher Education in Romania: Evolution and Views from the Business Community

The paper has two purposes: to present the evolution of highereducation in Romania after 1990, as an illustration of the transitionperiod in Central and Eastern Europe and as a background for thesubsequent section, and to present the results of a study concerningthe relationship between higher education and the business communityin Romania. The empirical study is based on a survey of privatecompanies from Bucharest. The survey had as its main objective to analyse the evolution and performances of graduates from both privateand state universities in the labour market, based on the companies'experiences with them. Considering the results of the study, thepaper draws conclusions in relationship with the general status ofhigher education in Romania, focusing on the needs of the companies, as major beneficiaries of higher education, along with individualsand society as a whole.     

Higher education reform in Romania

This paper reviews the crisis in Romanian universities since the country's political transition in 1989, and describes the government's strategy for revitalizing the higher education system. Attention is drawn to the expansion of access to higher education, the dramatic increase of enrollments in social science fields, the spontaneous establishment of private higher education institutions, and to the many difficulties institutions are experiencing in coping with these changes especially because of resource constraints. Comprehensive reform of the role of the state in the financing and governance of higher education are proposed. The government's reform strategy involves accreditation of public and private institutions, establishment of open transparent mechanisms for allocating institutional and research funding, as well as changes in the structure of academic employment. Successful implementation will require strengthening the fragile management capacity of the Ministry of Education and the higher education institutions.     

Special education in Romania

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to give a closer view of the realities in special education in Romania, as part of the general reform in the educational system. It outlines the most important features of the past that have led to the present problems which Romania has to face, and presents the main categories of disadvantaged children in the context of social protection guaranteed by the present laws. Where available, data with respect to the years 1991 to 1993 are given.     

Globalization and higher education in Southern California: views from the professoriate

In this study, faculty at institutions of higher education in Southern California were surveyed to determine the ways they interpret the effects of globalization dynamics upon their various teaching and research activities. Faculty in the state’s three higher education tiers spoke positively about the intellectual benefits to be gained by exposure to different worldviews made possible by an increasingly diverse faculty and student body. Divisions were noted among the different tiers, however, with respect to their disparate levels of engagement with the private sector. The private sector was seen as having a negative impact upon the public sector’s research agenda while simultaneously being embraced by faculty at the community colleges. Faculty at the research institutions were typically critical of the overarching neoliberal paradigm and spoke in political terms about the ways this largely economic‐efficiency model was reorienting their teaching and research roles.     

Faculty Activities and Rewards: views from education administrators in the USA

The heads of education divisions of 245 colleges and universities in the USA were surveyed regarding their opinions about faculty activities and reward procedures. Tenure, which was viewed as having the greatest effect on faculty behavior, received significantly more attention from decision‐making bodies in the colleges, and merit pay received significantly less. Education administrators at top universities and larger universities viewed the desire for reputation as more motivating than did other education administrators. The department chairs believed that internal satisfaction was more of a motivating factor than did deans. The deans rated merit pay, contract renewal, promotion and tenure higher as motivators than did the department heads. Although evaluations of teaching were considered the most important for year‐to‐year contract renewal, article and book publication were the most important considerations in merit pay, promotion and tenure. A factor analysis grouped faculty activities into three factors: teaching, service, and publication.     

School-to-school support within a competitive education system: views from the inside

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on evidence from a study carried out in England to explore how schools can support one another’s improvement within a policy context that emphasises competition. The findings offer some reasons to be optimistic, and are suggestive of the capacity and potential of the school system in England to “self-improve” through collaborative means. However, light is also thrown on a number of barriers that need to be overcome to make such an approach work. The paper argues that developing a greater understanding of the social complexities involved in school-to-school support requires research that takes account of the views of those involved. With this in mind, the paper reflects on the experiences of a group of school leaders in England, leading to lessons that are likely to be relevant to those in other national contexts where competition is seen as a driver for school improvement.     

Opportunities for and obstacles to science in preschools: views from a community perspective

ABSTRACT

In this study, Activity Theory (AT) is used to analyse general patterns for how cultural and historical factors interact with the shaping of science activities in preschools. Data was produced from field notes, video observations, video stimulated recall group discussions and individual interviews with preschool teachers at fourteen preschool units, where science activities were described as a common feature of the practice. Two factors were found to be particularly important for how and whether science learning opportunities were afforded the children: the structure of the preschool community and the type of educational culture within it. In communities characterised by weak mutual commitment and without joint understanding of the purpose of the activities, the science learning objects of the activity often became fragmented and thereby elusive. This was also true for strong communities, with a shared approach and a joint understanding of the purpose of the science activities, but with educational cultures where science learning was not actively supported. In contrast, a strong community combined with an educational culture that allowed teachers to lead and intentionally frame the science content, offered child-centred science activities with clear science learning objects.     

Higher education and fertility: Evidence from reforms in Greece

This paper examines the impact of higher education on women’s fertility decisions. To address the endogeneity of non-compulsory education participation, I focus on an increase in the supply of higher education and a concurrent schooling reform that jointly expanded higher education opportunities in Greece in year 2000. Drawing data from the 10% sample of the 2011 Population Census, I use the exogenous variation introduced by the first grade enrollment age cutoff to apply a Regression Discontinuity Design comparing educational attainment and fertility for women that were just, and just not exposed to the reforms. The probability of giving birth before age 30 decreases by around 20 percentage points for women who completed higher education because they were exposed to the reforms. Career outcomes for employed women with higher education improve, while fertility decreases at ages following graduation, suggesting that the result is primarily driven by the increasing opportunity cost of children.     

Higher education in Japan: A view from outside

Higher education in Japan is often characterized in comparativestudies as considerably expanded, highly stratified, overshadowed bycompetition for admission, not very demanding for the masses ofundergraduate students, important in awarding credentials, but without closelinks between the subjects of study and subsequent professional tasks. Thesecharacteristics have been pointed out so frequently in the past that thequestion has to be raised whether this picture is too old-fashioned and toomuch of a stereotype. This article echoes the previous articles of thisspecial issue. The themes addressed by Japanese authors are partlysummarized, partly supplemented and partly challenged by a foreign observer.Developments and notably changes in the early 1990s are analyzed in respectto the quantitative-structural pattern of the Japanese higher educationssystem; governance and financing; access and admissions; learning, teachingand research; links between educational attainment, credentials and career;curricula, competences and graduate employment, and finally graduateeducation. The author draws the conclusion that efforts directed towardsreforming higher education have been spread over many issues, among themmany academic issues such as new curricular approaches, rather thanfocussing on single major issues such as steering, governance and evaluationas one could observe in Europe during the last ten years or so. Changingsocietal conditions, for example growing employment problems, the increaseof specialists' career and internationalization currently stimulate areconsideration of higher education policies in various respects.     

高等教育大众化:日本的经验与教训

日本高等教育大众化的实现具有与欧美各国不同的路径,即以大力发展对社会需求具有“敏感性”的私立高等教育来达成的,但也因此遇到高等教育质量的下降及爆发全国性的大学学潮等问题。为了摆脱高等教育面临的“危机”,构建适应大众阶段的、新的大学和高等教育系统,日本政府(文部省)进行了一系列的政策性探索,其中最具代表性的是中央教育审议会于1971年提交的咨询报告所阐述的关于高等教育的13项改革构想及其实施。日本高等教育大众化所遇到的诸多问题,在许多方面与现在正处于急速发展的大众化过程的中国具有共通性,其为解决问题而出台的诸政策对中国来说,也具有一定的借鉴意义。     

From your business to our business: industry and vocational education in Australia

Over the last 20 years, the voice of business and its impact upon Australian vocational education have transformed. These changes comprise the reluctance of enterprise to be involved; industry determining what is taught and assessed, and how; the principles for administering vocational education; and attempts to use vocational education to reform the schooling system. These transformations and government complicity in them are enmeshed in the restructuring of the Australian economy, allegedly in response to an increasingly competitive and globalised economy. They were also facilitated by vocational education continuing to be misunderstood and having low status. However, the expanded leadership role afforded to Australian business has not been matched by its purchase on the complexity of educational issues and practice, including the need to encompass other interests (e.g. small business and students). While vocational education has become the business of business, it seems it is business not understood. Even in addressing its own purposes (i.e. work readiness), business has demonstrated a preference for ideological and näive imperatives that have proved inadequate. Along the way, the goals for vocational education and standing of its institutions, practitioners and students have all been transformed, probably to their detriment.     

Teacher education budget cuts in Romania and the US: points of contrast and comparison

Background

Budgets for teacher education programmes have been substantially reduced as a result of the global economic crisis.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to compare the teacher education budget cutting processes and procedures for universities in Romania versus one university in the United States.

Sample

The data were collected from six Romanian universities that all have teacher education programmes. These universities represent the range of higher education quality in the country as indicated by their publication rates. Data from these universities were compared with those from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). UNR is the flagship university in the Nevada System of Higher Education, and Nevada has been harder hit by the recent global economic crisis than any other state in the United States and cuts to teacher education there have been substantial.

Design and methods

Data about the budget cutting processes and decisions in the teacher education programmes of six Romanian universities were collected through an electronic survey. These data were compared with the processes and decisions made at the UNR.

Results

The budget cutting processes in Romania were less transparent, and involved less input from stakeholders such as faculty and staff. Most decisions were made at a higher level of authority in Romania, and cuts in Romania were more likely to be across the board rather than more strategically targeted as they were in Nevada.

Conclusions

These differences are discussed in terms of the historical legacy of structures and policies in Romania, and the resistance to reform inherent in those structures and policies.     

Unfinished business: education without necessity

In both its substance and form this paper speaks of the arid direction of education, particularly under the conditions of what some call ‘performativity’, such as the constraints of quality assurance and the demands of academic research. The paper tries to construct a counter or alternative discourse about educational practices. It speaks of them as unpredictable, not susceptible to closure or summary, and foregrounds the importance of relationships between students, and between them and their teacher. It speaks of learning as intellectual, but also as emotional and embodied. It asks questions, and offers one kind of suggestion, about just what kind of language is appropriate for writing about our lived experience as teachers and learners.