HIGHER EDUCATION IN ITALY ‐‐ PRESENT SITUATION AND PROBLEMS

The present tension in Italy's universities is attributable mainly to the following factors:

• the higher education system was changed during the 1960s to cater for the masses rather than just the élite, without there being any corresponding expansion of academic facilities, teaching staff and social services;

• changes in educational policies led to strains in the student‐professor relationship, and ‐ a sharp rise in youth unemployment has lowered student expectations and bred resentment among higher education graduates.

Below we present information analysing this situation, with special regard to the position of students, and including proposals for changes which would improve the condition of higher education in Italy.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING AND THE AVAILABILITY OF PLACES IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

The relationship between the need for human resources in Nigeria and the availability of places in Nigerian higher education in the 1980's is critically examined. Data were collected, with the aid of a special instrument, on the intake of new entrants into humanities and science programmes. The analysis of the data showed that despite the quantitative expansion of universities in the 1980's, the supply of university places was not related to the real needs of Nigeria in terms of human resources. To redress this unharmonious relationship, in particular as education is trapped in a web of turmoil in the middle of an educational crossroad, the article makes a case for the vigorous pursuit of a rational comprehensive policy with built‐in but continuous planning and implementation strategies based on relations of “equity”.     

ENROLMENT AND EMPLOYMENT PERSPECTIVES: THE SITUATION IN AUSTRALIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

As an exception to the usual regional character of the Bulletin we present an account of student enrolment and employment prospects for higher education graduates in Australia.     

THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRESENT SITUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN GREEK HIGHER EDUCATION

This article gives a bird's eye view of tertiary level environmental education programmes in Greece. As the author points out, environmental education in this country got off to a late start because of a late perception of the need for them. By the end of the 1980's, environmental components had been introduced into teacher training programmes, into the universities both as full course programmes in certain universities and as enrichment courses in most of them, and into the offerings of adult and vocational education. What has evolved is a satisfactory and pragmatic range of offerings to which more must be added to meet increased demand.     

THE SITUATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN GREECE

We give below current information on higher education in Greece based on the report presented by Mrs. Lina Cantifaris, the Undersecretary of State for Higher Education of the Greek Ministry of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs, during the 35th meeting of the Council of Europe's Committee for Higher Education and Research (CHER), which was held in Athens from 27 to 29 April 1977. (For a report on this meeting see page 3 in this issue).     

江西省高等教育与区域经济增长关系的定量分析

随着当前高新技术经济、知识经济的飞速发展,高等教育与经济发展之间关系越来越密切,高等教育对经济增长的作用也越来越重要。除了定性和抽象研究外,如何找出二者之间的量化关系和规律。选取1999-2009年江西高等教育规模、教育经费投入及经济增长水平三项指标,利用SPSS17.0统计分析软件,对江西高等教育与本区域经济增长关系进行定量研究,为处理好高等教育与经济协调发展,实现经济社会全面发展提供了参考建议。     

调整与适应:高等教育结构与劳动力市场的关系探寻

在现代社会里，高等教育不仅要在人才培养总量上满足劳动力市场的需求，更需要在结构上实现合理优化，达到与劳动力市场人才需求及就业结构的动态均衡。我国劳动力市场正日益呈现出由低级向高级发展、由卖方向买方转变、由东部向西部推进、由封闭向开放过渡的变化趋势，因此，高等教育的层次结构、专业结构、布局结构和体制结构等必须作出相应的调整，只有这样才能使我国高等教育培养和输送的人才不断满足劳动力市场的需要。     

MARKETING HIGHER EDUCATION: MYTHS AND PROBLEMS

The budgetary decentralization of higher education in the United Kingdom calls for individual institutions and units within them to take increasing responsibility for raising their own funds. The author, who argues that higher education institutions must derive an increasing proportion of their budgets from the marketing of their products goes on to explain how this can be done. To begin with, the nature of marketing and of market research must be well understood, and the legitimacy of the marketing process itself must be accepted by all the members of the university community. It is then necessary to do a marketing audit so as to establish what a given institution has to sell and what its outside environment wishes to buy. Flexibility on the part of the seller with regard to type, level, duration, and scheduling of courses is very important. It is also necessary to be able to persuade the potential buyer that he wants to have what the seller has to offer. At this point, however, the author cautions the reader as to the dangers of some seven market myths as applied to higher education and the dangers of oversell. He concludes that with prudence higher education can be marketed to the satisfaction of all concerned with results which avoid the “unhappy paradox” that the marketing of higher education is both essential and disastrous.     

RECENT TRENDS AND CURRENT PROBLEMS IN USA HIGHER EDUCATION

In the following article, Professor John D. Millett, Vice‐President of the USA Academy of Educational Development, points out major trends and problems of higher education in the United States, especially in the context of structural economic changes. Many issues discussed in this article will also effect American higher education in the 1980s.

The article is based on a paper Professor Millett presented at the International Seminar on Efficiency of Higher Education (Nieborow, 25‐28 September 1979), (Editor's Note: In No.1, January‐March 1980 of “Higher Education in Europe” other papers delivered at this meeting were presented, as well as the summary of the seminar's discussions.)     

EMPLOYMENT SITUATION AND PERSPECTIVES OF HIGHER EDUCATION GRADUATES IN BELGIUM

We present below the main results of the study “Insertion dans la vie professionnelle et emploi des diplômes universitaires” carried out under the direction of Dr. José van de Vijvere by the “Service de Programmation de la Politique scientifique” in Brussels.