New Realities for Leadership and Governance in Higher Education?

This paper considers some of the new realities that are likely toaffect higher education, particularly those arising from developmentsin communication and information technologies. Four scenarios arepresented as illustrations of how higher education might change;some of the elements that make up these scenarios are alreadyemerging. The paper then explores the role that leadershipand governance play in helping institutions to address the newrealities, particularly as change impacts on institutional culture and functioning.     

Risks and Risk‐Based Regulation in Higher Education Institutions

Risk‐based regulation is a relatively new mode of governance. Not only does it offer a way of controlling institutions from the outside but it also provides the possibility of making an organisation’s achievements visible/visualisable. This paper comments on a list of possible risks that higher education institutions have to face. In a second step, it is discussed that a higher education institution changes when a framework of risk‐based regulation is adopted. The paper then illustrates how governance changes when the risk‐based regulation approach is transferred from a UK context to an overall European one with differing traditions of higher education.     

A Self‐Teaching Guide to the Management of Equipment and Material Used in Education in Developing Countries

Abstract

This article covers the background which led to the production of the self‐teaching guide to the management of educational resources soon to be published by Unesco. It gives the structure of the publication, and the text of the Preface and Introduction which serve to explain the guide.

Further information on the guide can be obtained from the ICEM Secretariat, c/o CNDP, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75230 Paris, Cedex 05, France     

From schools to Higher Education – neoliberal agendas and implications for autonomy

Neoliberal agendas have acted to limit the agency of groups and of individuals through both the imposition of boundaries and through setting up rigorous systems of accountability which together act to codify behaviours. Such systems do not so much remove freedom as influence conceptions about the alternatives available. In this article we outline the English educational policy context and the pressures placed upon first primary schools and then Higher Education establishments, considering the extent to which accountability and an emphasis on the needs of the individual impact on leadership behaviours in schools and upon academic freedoms in Higher Education. Boundaries to individual or group agency are explored drawing together lessons about the limits on professionals in these two situations.     

The Role of Continuing Education in the Ongoing Changes in Higher Education in the Twenty‐First Century

Reflecting a French perspective, the author presents a scenario whereby universities in the Twenty‐First Century will devote a considerable portion of their time and effort to continuing education (or training) as part of an essential effort to make lifelong learning available to all. This shift in emphasis will, among other things, lead to the transfer of certain specializations from initial education (undergraduate education) to continuing education to be offered on demand in reaction to the needs of business partners and of the labour market. The importance of co‐operative links with enterprise, business, and industry, is bound to increase and to become a crucial cornerstone of higher education in the future. As increasing numbers of adults‐‐mature learners‐‐will be (re‐)entering higher education through continuing education programmes, university pedagogy must adapt itself to these students who will be studying and working simultaneously. University research will also be affected by the emphasis on continuing education. The future of the university is bright provided it opens itself up to society at large, develops an entrepreneurial spirit, and is able to engage in dialogue in the broadest sense.     

Examining Competition in Ontario’s Higher Education Market

Financial challenges have forced many publicly funded academic institutions in Ontario to adopt a corporate model and to use market tools to compete in the higher education market and maintain their enrolment and revenue levels. This study has analyzed how competition affects publicly funded universities in Ontario. Competition was examined by relating universities’ expenditures on price and non-price competitive variables (awards, marketing, graduates, and professors), as well as population to the total number of applicants, total number of enrollees, and capacity filling ratio over the period of 2006–2013. The study used quantitative research design and panel data regression method to draw conclusions. This study provides empirical evidence on how the effect of the adopted competitive variables varies for each university.     

Higher Education: is more better? Gender Differences in Labour Market Returns to Tertiary Education in Israel

Research on the transition from post-secondary education to the labour market refers mainly to differences between academic and vocational tracks in secondary education. In this paper we analyse Israeli data focusing on the transition from different levels of post secondary degrees and from various fields of study to the labour market. We examine three labour market outcomes: employment status, occupational prestige attainment, and job match. Data are drawn from a supplement to the 1983 Israeli Census, which includes a random sample of Israel's tertiary education degree holders (vocational and academic). Our central finding is that men who work in female-dominated occupations get better returns than women, and women who work in male-dominated occupations get better returns than men. We discuss several explanations of this finding.     

Higher Education and the Graduate Labour Market: The ‘Class Factor’

This article reviews the literature on the experiences of working‐class students at different stages of the student life cycle. It examines the factors influencing their participation rates in higher education (HE), their ability to adapt to university life, and their success in the graduate labour market. The article argues that without radical policies that fundamentally change the relationship between social class and pre‐HE qualifications, significant progress in widening participation is unlikely.     

The Control and Management of Higher Education in Great Britain,with special reference to the role of the University Grants Committee and the Committee of Vice‐Chancellors and Principals

Abstract

The claim that students should determine their own curricula is examined. If granted, primacy would be given to the autonomy and self‐ascribed interests of the students. The case for student autonomy is discussed in the context of the theory of philosophical anarchism. The anarchist dichotomy of autonomy and authority is criticised. A brief examination of Kant's account of autonomy leads to a rejection of the strong individualism that characterises that dichotomy. It is argued that the curriculum should be the outcome of the shared autonomy of students and teachers; such would serve the interests of students by maximising the autonomy of all. The curriculum would meet the interests of all students, but would not, indeed could not, represent the self‐ascribed interests of each individual.     

Innovation in Education ‐‐ the Case for the Interactive Videodisc in Schools

Abstract

This article explores the case of the videodisc in the context of the progress of technological innovation in the field of education. It looks at what the medium has to offer and the ways in which it is currently being used, before going on to consider the factors that may impede its acceptance and what can be done towards ensuring its implementation.     

Access to Gender‐Sensitive Higher Education in Eastern and Central Europe: Reflections from the CEPES Project on “Good Practice in Promoting Gender Equality in Higher Education”;

Summarizing the incomplete results of the UNESCO Programme on “Good Practice in Promoting Gender Equality in Higher Education”;, the author asks that any assessment of the progress made in the area of gender‐sensitive education take regional specificities into account. The regional environment is at best neutral and usually hostile to feminism in subtle ways. In spite of the lack of tradition and experience in gender‐sensitive social institutions, valuable things have been happening in the region. Placed within their socio‐economic and political contexts (and not necessarily judged according to western standards) individuals, programmes, and institutions are pioneering in the field. Access to the benefits of an education incorporating a coherent gender dimension is, for the time being, limited. Some reasons for this situation are outlined in this article.     

Where Do All the STEM Graduates Go? Higher Education,the Labour Market and Career Trajectories in the UK

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Problems with the supply of highly skilled science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers have been reported by employers and...     

Philosophical and Socio‐Cognitive Foundations for Teaching in Higher Education through Collaborative Approaches to Student Learning

This paper considers the implications for higher education of recent work on narrative theory, distributed cognition and artificial intelligence. These perspectives are contrasted with the educational implications of Heidegger's ontological phenomenology [being‐there and being‐aware (Da‐sein)] and with the classic and classical foundations of education which Heidegger and Gadamer once criticised. The aim is to prompt discussion of what teaching might become if psychological insights (about collective minds let loose to learn) are associated with every realm of higher education (not just teacher training).     

From Tradition to Diversity： Educational Transition of American Higher Education

The United States is extremely diverse include whites, blacks, Native Americans, Alaskans, in the racial and ethnic backgrounds of its citizens, which Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. Such a diverse combination of different racial populations makes the characteristics of accessibility and diversity in American higher education important. The necessity of educating such a vast and diverse population in a climate of competing social demands on limited public resources presents the United States with serious challenges. This paper discusses and analyzes educational transition, innovation and future development in American Higher Education.     

Total Quality Management,the Learning Organisation and Post‐compulsory Education

Abstract

The turbulence confronting educational Institutions In the United Kingdom has led to the suggestion that any attempt to respond using established management principles and processes is likely to be dysfunctional. Total quality management (TQM) has been advanced as a strategy that will enable educational institutions adapt to the greater market orientation and transform them into learning organisations. The paper identifies the key principles of TQM, critically reviewing the literature that examines their application in education and focusing on the post‐compulsory sector. Secondly, selected linkages between the key principles and other approaches to the study of organisational behaviour, including aspects of open systems theory, leadership, teamworking, training and staff development, and organisational culture, are examined. The concept of the learning organisation is outlined and its relationship with TQM examined. The paper concludes that TQM treats organisational change issues in educational institutions and the concept of the learning organisation as unproblematic, Ignoring Issues of power, authority, resistance to change and double‐loop learning.     

Relating Higher Education with the Labour Market: Graduates’ expectations and employers’ requirements

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.

     

Relating Higher Education with the Labour Market: Graduates’ expectations and employers’ requirements

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.     

Education and school‐to‐work transitions in post‐communist Poland∗

Abstract

Unemployment in Poland rose throughout 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993 but the proportion of school‐leavers among the unemployed peaked in 1990. Unlike in most western market economies, the best‐ educated young people in Poland did not prove the least vulnerable to unemployment. This paper uses evidence from studies of young people in Gdansk, Katowice and Suwalki to argue that one reason why young people from professional and vocational secondary schools have not borne a heavier share of Poland's unemployment since 1990 has been the flexibility and responsiveness of these schools to Poland's new labour market conditions. Since the reforms many of these schools have contracted drastically. Some have closed. But others have thrived The latter have often benefited from favourable local labour market conditions, but their success has usually been at least equally due to their own resourcefulness in introducing new courses which teach skills that are in demand, and securing various kinds of sponsorship from employers. Three reasons are offered to explain the responsiveness of education in Poland to the changing labour market conditions: general support for ‘the reforms’, the schools’ experience of making informal deals with employers under communism, and the post‐communist authorities’ willingness to force unsuccessful schools to close and to see teachers made redundant.