SOME PROBLEMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN GERMANY

The underlying premise of this article is that the best way to become acquainted with higher education in Germany is to discuss its problems. Such problems as expanding enrollments, the role of research and teaching, the link between higher education and future employment, the question of the supposed equality of German universities, the link between regional development and higher education, and the question of the duration of studies are briefly discussed in light of the tension between the universities and the Fachhochschulen. The hint is made that the Fachhochschulen are more successful pedagogically than are the universities.     

NEED FOR CAREER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Career education is given increasing importance by the growing employment problems of higher education graduates. Below we give a summary of a statement concerning this problem in US four‐year colleges and universities prepared by the Committee on Career Education of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The statement was presented during the AASCU Annual Conference held in New Orleans from 10 to 13 November 1976.     

NEED FOR CAREER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Career education is given increasing importance by the growing employment problems of higher education graduates. Below we give a summary of a statement concerning this problem in US four‐year colleges and universities prepared by the Committee on Career Education of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The statement was presented during the AASCU Annual Conference held in New Orleans from 10 to 13 November 1976.     

THE ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION OF 80% OF YOUTH IN THE YEAR 2000

This article explores some of the probable consequences of the objective, elaborated throughout the French political spectrum, in favour of expanding French higher education enrollments such that by the year 2000, 80 percent of each age cohort will hold the baccalauriat and 90 percent of the latter will enroll in higher education. So far, the consequences of this objective have not been faced, particularly the tremendous changes required so as to make higher education in France universal. Certainly they will bring an end to the traditional elite nature of the French university with its emphasis on research and on the imparting of theoretical knowledge. Ineluctably, the emphasis will have to shift to practical courses and to career preparation. The author therefore suggests that the move to universality might best be accomplished by the development of numerous short‐term and vocationally oriented courses to be offered in distinct institutions to provide training to the bulk of the new entrants who will, for the most part, have completed high school in technical baccalaur éat sections. A traditionally oriented core within the university system will continue to offer long‐‐cycle courses admitting only the cream of the traditional general education baccalauriat holders and the best graduates of the new short‐cycle institutions. All the enrollees in the latter institutions should be encouraged to avoid over‐specialization so as to guarantee their professional flexibility with respect to future employment.

     

ACADEMIC DRIFT AND BLURRING OF BOUNDARIES IN SYSTEMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

A tendency towards academic drift and the blurring of boundaries exists in most differentiated higher education institutions as faculty members, particularly in non‐university sector institutions, seek to emulate the research paradigm of universities. As non‐university sector institutions perform essential educational and training roles in meeting the labour requirements of complex developed societies, their specific characteristics and functions must be protected. The best way to guarantee protection is to maintain the separate administrative identities of non‐university sector institutions and to encourage an ethos favouring such separation.     

THE CHANGING ROLE OF CAREERS SERVICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The strength of specialist careers advisory services in United Kingdom universities is linked to the in loco parentis tradition and also to the tradition of occupational flexibility on graduation. The evolution of such services from appointments boards to careers services is traced in terms of three sequential changes: the impact of counselling, the growth of careers education, and the move towards an open‐access style of delivery. The overlap of roles between careers services and teaching departments is analyzed in relation to individual guidance and placement, and particularly in relation to careers education. The extent of overlap tends to vary between vocational, semi‐vocational, and non‐vocational courses. The emergence of the concept of personal transferable skills has encouraged new forms of partnership between careers services and teaching departments. This development raises questions about where careers services should be located organizationally within higher education institutions. Should they, for example, be aligned to other student services, to academic services, or to marketing services? What organizational benefits do institutions seek from such services? Are they part of the core offer made to students, or additional.services which are open to. review in terms of their specific costs and benefits?     

HIGHER EDUCATION,MOBILITY AND LIFE OPPORTUNITIES

This article discusses what in the author's perspective are some of the most urgent aspects of certain questions which must necessarily be answered if one is to take seriously the basic ideas of the “One‐Europe” concept. As far as they concern institutions of higher education, they are first discussed in terms of the comparability of university degrees. For this purpose, the basic problem is stated with reference to two examples taken from Germany. Then the much more complicated situation involving many systems is sketched. It is not at all the intention of this article to recommend a strategy of “homogenization as far as possible”; however, it grapples with the reality that if graduates are to be able to obtain employment abroad, that is, to make a reality of international mobility, some system of comparability is urgently required. Another point raised refers to the effects of the constantly expanding educational sector on the opportunities of individuals and age cohorts, an aspect of the question which is frequently overlooked. Here the need for more information ‐ and planning according to the information received ‐ is obvious. The paper ends by suggesting certain changes in social conditions in order to improve opportunities for mobility.     

ITALY: IMBALANCE BETWEEN HIGHER EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

The employment situation for higher education graduates is generally deteriorating due to a stagnation and difficulties in the economic sector and continuous increase in the number of graduates. The following article, which analyses this problem with regard to the situation in Italy is based on a report written by Professor Catello Cosenza, Professor of Political Economy, University of Rome. The report was prepared within the Council of Europe's Standing Conference on University Problems (CC‐PU) project on relations between employment and training. The main elements of the synthesis report, based on several national reports, was presented on page 25 of July‐September 1979, Vol.IV, No.3 issue of “Higher education in Europe”.     

TRANSFORMING CZECH HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

The process which got underway after the Velvet Revolution to transform Czech higher education had first to confront the fact that a good deal of desired continuity existed. The first reform law was hastily conceived, and the reform process has been hampered by insufficient funding. The possibilities of introducing tuition fees in the state institutions and of founding private universities are being debated in Parliament Both innovations would represent a major cultural change. The reform process has been aided by the contributions of western governmental and non‐governmental organizations.     

NON‐STATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The development of a market economy in Russia is greatly affecting the structural reform of education. One result is the establishment of non‐state educational institutions which are offering various types of higher education programmes and educational services. This short article describes the possible role of non‐state educational institutions as a part of the general higher education system.     

HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE WORLD OF WORK: AN OVERVIEW

This article presents an overview of the state of the art in studies of higher education and the world of work, based on papers, some of which are published in this issue, presented at the 1992 annual meeting of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers. It considers the contributions made to the study of the subject by different disciplines and sketches the range of relationships between higher education and work. It discusses the contribution of higher education to the labour market, its diversity and dynamics, and the employment experiences of graduates. It analyses the different value systems of the two sides, their expressions of needs, and reciprocal impacts. It asks what role government and institutions play in effecting the relationship. It analyses the knowledge and skills content of higher education. And, finally, it offers a research agenda. The emphasis of the paper is on the substantive issues against their institutional and structural aspects.     

DROP‐OUT AS A MANIFESTATION OF REPRODUCTION DYNAMICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The link between drop‐out rates and the indicators of the socio‐cultural background of undergraduates is analyzed. The conceptualization of the drop‐out problem is based on the theory of cultural reproduction. The tension inherent in this Bourdieuan concept is linked to the opposition between different student cultures and the one‐dimensional, largely hidden, cultural expectations of higher education institutions. One can argue that students who have the most favourable sociocultural backgrounds obviously adapt themselves better to the quite elitist culture of the academic world. The likelihood of this kind of existence of cultural screening is, however, related to the hierarchical status structure of the given academic field. Presumably, the disciplinary culture of top‐units, that corresponds to the culture of the dominant classes, hinders the efforts of common undergraduates to complete their studies. The empirical findings of this study indicate that persons who withdraw from higher education without having been awarded a diploma come from a lower social class background slightly more frequently than do those who do not withdraw, and, surprisingly, are males living in urban and more educated communities. Such unequally biased post‐selection is also more common for the middle and upper than for the lowest‐ranked fields of the academic hierarchy. Generally speaking, differences between social classes, so far as this phenomenon is concerned, are quite small, but may become more pronounced.     

The Transition from Higher Education to Employment in Europe 1

The study of the so‐called transition phase in the lives of young people as they move from higher education graduation to employment is becoming an important area of study. A thorough understanding of the process contributes to a general understanding of the link between higher education and employment. The transition phase is examined from an international comparative perspective. Transition can be “smooth” or “rough”, Japan being known as having, by and large, the smoothest and the most institutionally aided process of transition. The type of institution from which one graduates plays a role in the type of transition process that one will experience, but it does not follow that graduates of applied programmes and institutions (Fachhochschulen) will have an easier time than graduates of traditional universities. The subject as a whole, that is filled with subtleties, clearly deserves to be the object of additional study.

     

GERONTOLOGICAL EDUCATION: PROPOSITIONS FOR CURRICULUM PLANNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Higher education has not properly responded to employment needs in the field of aging. This paper suggests that any endeavor to infuse a gerontological component in the curricula of colleges and universities should take into account four basic propositions: the policy adjustments to the demographic “aging” of our society; the phenomenological reappraisal of an extended individual life cycle; the social‐experimental quality of new gerontological social policies; and the emerging concern for ecological determinants of human behavior, as a means for generating alternatives to institutionalization. Employment needs and projections are related to the increasing demand for short‐term training programs and the emerging interest in lifetime learning approaches to adult education.     

大学生就业成本的实证研究

伴随着高校扩招,大学毕业生的就业形势更加严峻,就业过程中发生的大学生就业成本引起了社会的关注。通过实证研究发现,学校付出的努力对学生就业有显著影响,学生付出的费用对找到工作的起薪有显著影响,两者之间存在替代关系。因此,应该加大学校就业指导和就业服务的力度,重点在专科院校、高职院校和一般本科院校提升就业指导机构,以利于提高就业率。     

Is It worth Being ‘Traditional’ in An Era of Mass Individualization?

This article deals with the question of how the segmentation of higher education participation connects with the segmentation of the graduate labour market into jobs with different levels of quality. With data comprising educational and labour market histories of graduates with Master's degree from nine European countries, the author analyses how graduates with traditional higher education careers come off on the European labour market compared to those with non‐traditional educational careers. When examining the quality of the employment that graduates obtain early on in their career, three criteria are applicable: the job stability and the quality of the education‐job match to both the level of their studies and skills. The method used in the analysis is logistic regression. Results indicate that being a traditional/non‐traditional graduate does affect the odds of finding proper employment; however, whether the influence is positive or negative greatly varies with respect to gender; the number of graduates with the same type of educational career on the local market and the criteria used to evaluate the adequacy of the employment.     

HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The article gives an aperçu of the development of higher education in the Czech Republic from 1990 to 1993. The Higher Education Law of 4 May 1990 provides for the greater democratization of higher education structures and for increased institutional autonomy. Accreditation boards have been created. An Act of 9 July 1991 led to the creation of five new universities through the reform and amalgamation of pre‐existing institutions. Principles for a law setting up student tuition fees are given.     

ROMANIAN HIGHER EDUCATION DURING THE TRANSITION PERIOD

Romania has a long tradition of higher education, one which was stifled during the period of communist rule from 1948 to 1989 and is now, during the period of transition which began in 1990, beginning to re‐emerge. The system is confronted with shortages of academic personnel in a number of fields and with the financial inability to offer academic staff proper salaries or even to finance much needed improvements in infrastructure. The system, which used to be completely public, is now confronted with the mushrooming of private universities of dubious quality. The system of assessment and accreditation of the new institutions, both private and public, is described, as is the development of national standards for a final licenta ^{1 1} This degree/diploma, similar to the French licence, is the first degree/diploma of long‐cycle undergraduate higher education that is awarded in Romania. View all notes examination. The hope is that these and other reforms coupled to an annual expenditure of at least 4 percent of GNP on higher education will lead to steady improvement in the output of Romanian higher education institutions.

     

私立高等教育的公共性

本文重点分析了私立大学的公共控制问题和私立机构利用公共资源的问题。私立学院和大学将政府提供的资助转换为学费,取得空前的繁荣。不同私立大学在市场化机制下的行为方式是不同的,优秀私立大学带动了学费水平的不断提高。营利性大学是美国高等教育领域中发展最快的一部分。成功商业模式的复制和学生资助政策,是营利性大学快速发展的两个关键因素。私立大学的出现也带来了教育质量等一系列问题。新的政策走向似乎更有利于营利性大学,使之有可能获得更多的公共资源。     

PROBLEMS AND PRIORITIES OF RUSSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

A wide‐ranging discussion of the problems facing Russian higher education in the period of transition is introduced. Although enrollment and employment levels in higher education continue to be high and have not suffered the sorts of cuts as in the other sectors of the Russian economy, much must be done to increase the efficiency of the system. For the author, the key to increased modernization and efficiency is increased reliance on the information technologies in all areas of teaching, learning, and research. She cites the case of World University in California that is completely an on line operation even while arguing that certain elements of traditional higher education should be retained in the Russian Federation. She is persuaded that both humanistic and scientific subjects and programmes can benefit from informatization. The result will be a world‐class higher education system for Russia.