Autonomy and control: a university funding formula as an instrument of public policy

Formulas are used in many jurisdictions to allocate public funds among universities which may then have considerable autonomy in the internal allocation of those funds. This paper provides first an overview of formula funding as it affects university education. This is followed by an exposition on the balance between autonomy and accountability in the Province of Ontario. Formula funding in Ontario is used as a case study to evaluate how effective formula-funding has been in encouraging autonomous universities to work towards the attainment of public policy objectives. The analysis shows that four mechanisms have in fact been used - namely formula funding, designated extraformula grants, incentive funding, and controls - and that some objectives are better supported by different mechanisms. The paper concludes with a discussion of the evolution and an evaluation of formula funding in Ontario against the objectives given for its introduction.     

Catholic religion teachers in Chile: an approach to identity building with regard to existing mission-profession tension

Religion classes are found throughout the entire school system in Chile. These are mostly conducted by Catholic teachers who form their own professional identity from internal demands (imposed by the Catholic Church) and external demands (imposed by the school culture, social media, students and their families). This paper presents a reference framework for the professional teacher identity and analyses the linguistic structures and persuasion strategies present in three documents that directly question this group of teachers, building an identity profile of them. Discursive mechanisms are identified which legitimise identity traits. The way in which said productions influence the thoughts and actions of their readership is also analysed. A documentary study design is used based on critical documentary analysis. The investigation shows breaks in the discourse and an existing tension between the mission and the profession, underlining that the Catholic religion teacher is first and foremost an evangeliser. The performance capacity of this discourse on the listeners is discussed along with the effect of the almost complete absence of references to teaching professionalism and the possible influence on the development and results of the subject.     

Taking stock of the UN Decade of education for sustainable development: the policy-making process in Flanders

In this paper, we address the implementation of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Flanders, a sub-national entity of Belgium. Our analysis shows how the policy-making process in Flanders is inextricably intertwined with three developments in environmental and educational policy: the increasing impact of ESD policy and discourse on environmental education, the framing of social and political problems as learning problems, and ecological modernisation. These trends give shape to a post-ecologist and post-political policy regime and, thus, affect what is possible and acceptable within Flemish ESD policy. However, this case study also revealed that these developments do not completely determine ESD policy-making in Flanders. Our examination thus allowed us to understand how the actual policy translation in a particular local setting brings about powers that legitimise and maintain as well as counteract the bounds of the policy regime that emerged in the context of the UN Decade.     

Predictors of outside funding for research among AASCU institutions: A reanalysis

Muffo and Coccari (1982) analyzed data pertaining to the causes of variation in the number and amount of external funds for research. Unfortunately, their analysis is methodologically flawed by the presence of multicollinearity and has led them to conclusions unsupported by their data. By using LISREL, which treats highly correlated manifest variables as indicators of underlying latent factors, this reanalysis shows that the only significant indicators of funding are past success in securing funds and an emphasis on graduate education.I am grateful to John Muffo and Ronald Coccari for their generosity and help in sharing with me their data.     

The politics of international league tables: PISA in Japan’s achievement crisis debate

Using the political‐economic analysis of globalisation and education as well as a culturalist approach to education policy borrowing, the paper analyses the role of local actors, specifically, national newspapers and the Ministry of Education, in mediating the potentially homogenising curricular policy pressure of globalisation exerted through the PISA league tables. Using the recent Japanese education policy debate as a case study, the author demonstrates how the Japanese media interpreted the PISA 2003 findings in a way that resonated with the specific cultural, political, and economic context of the time and how the Ministry used the findings to legitimise otherwise highly contentious policy measures. Questioning the conventional interpretation that the PISA 2003 shock caused the Ministry to redirect its controversial yutori (low pressure) curricular policy, the paper reconstitutes the Ministry as an active agent that capitalised on an external reference (PISA) to re‐establish its political legitimacy in a time of increasing neo‐liberal state‐restructuring.     

Prepaid Tuition Plans for College Education:

During the 1990-91 school year, thirty states cut higher education budgets by an average of 3.92 percept. Higher education costs for universities and tuition fees for students have increased dramatically during the 1980's and likely will continue to rise during the 1990's. Parents are concerned that a college education may be prohibitive in the near future. Consideration of prepaid tuition programs as a means of funding a college education may provide a means to ease that concern. This paper discusses strengths and weaknesses of prepaid tuition programs and provides an analysis to illustrate their use as a possible alternative in funding a child's future education. Some financial planners seem to be steering people away from these prepaid plans. However, prepayment plans do offer significant potential benefits to parents in regard to locking in the cost of college tuition. As seen in the analysis, a parent of ten-year-old child can invest $10,356 and receive tuition benefits in excess of $30,500.     

高校中外合作办学德育工作对策研究

高校中外合作办学是我国高等教育中的一种新生事物。中外合作办学的培养目标及其学生所处环境的复杂性,决定了必须加强德育工作,加强民族精神,爱国主义教育;强化思想政治课育人功能,建设高素质队伍,重视文化熏陶等。     

Readers building fictional worlds: visual representations,poetry and cognition

This article explores the complex nature of the literature classroom by drawing on the cognitive linguistic framework Text World Theory to examine the teacher's role as facilitator and mediator of reading. Specifically, the article looks at how one teacher used visual representations as a way of allowing students to engage in a more personal and less teacher‐driven transaction with a poem and to encourage them to reflect on their own roles as active makers of meaning and knowledge in the classroom. The article shows how teachers can be mindful of the various contextual factors that can privilege and legitimise certain kinds of response in the classroom and be wary of external factors and pressures that can promote the idea of preconceived knowledge. The teacher in the case study presented was able to both facilitate the experience of reading poetry in an unmediated way and also develop her students' metacognition in relation to the reading process itself. The article shows how Text World Theory's status as a socio‐cognitive grammar may be of benefit to teachers in understanding the nature of communicative interaction and literary transaction.     

Teachers ’ conversations about civic education: Policy and practice in Australian schools

Civic education has been a priority for many countries in the Asia Pacific region over the past decade. Governments of different persuasions have recognized the need to provide stability and cohesion in their societies. This has been particularly so at a time when globalization and other forces threaten to fragment the nation state and co-opt its citizens into broader realms of allegiance and commitment. Policy makers have not been slow to come up with new directions for civic education in the school curriculum and the literature now abounds with examples from different countries. Yet missing from this flurry of policy development has been recognition of the role that teachers play in constructing civic education programs at the school level. In the end, it is teachers in classrooms who determine how centralized polices are understood and implemented. Drawing on a sample of Australian teachers, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the role that teachers play in constructing and reconstructing civic education policy in schools and classrooms. Interviews conducted with teachers in four Australian States/Territories have revealed that teachers ’ personal views of civics are more likely to influence them than external policies, their focus is more on citizenship than formal civics programs and that they are reluctant to develop programs where civic knowledge is formalized and disciplined based. The research reported in this paper was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The views expressed are those of the authors and not the ARC.     

关于高职院校专业教师转型的几点思考

当前我国高等职业教育正处于一个特殊的历史时期,外部生源数量的减少和学校内部专业的新旧更替,都使高职院校专业教师的职业发展方向充满了变数。在这样一个背景下,作为高职教育的主力——高职专业教师该如何把握好自己的转型与发展才能适应高职教育的变革呢？本文就其中的一些热点问题提出了自己的思考。     

The evolution of the student as a customer in Australian higher education: a policy perspective

In 2014, the Australian Federal Government attempted to de-regulate higher education fees so as to allow universities to set their own tuition fees. The associated public debate offer critical insights into how the identity of a student as a ‘customer’ of higher education is understood and deployed when developing higher education policy. This paper uses the 2014 Australian higher education reforms as a lens through which to further scholarly research into the student-as-customer metaphor and to see how it is influenced by the perceptions and understandings of policy actors external to the higher education sector. These include politicians, special interest groups, the students and their parents and prospective employers. This study reveals that the public/private nexus—both of funding and benefit—problematizes traditional conceptualisations of students and others as higher education customers. In turn, this restricts the ability or desire of policy actors to describe how the student functions as a customer as a consequence of market reform. This inability compromises the development of effective and sustainable higher education policy.     

Implementing Quality Service-Learning Programs in Community Colleges

This cross-case comparative study at Western Community College and the University of the Coast explored through a constructive lens the characteristics that lead to sustainable, high quality service-learning programs and how they are implemented at institutions of higher education. The researchers determined that both Western Community College and the University of the Coast (a) have diverse collaborative partnerships that promote excellent communication between all of the entities, (b) offer a wide variety of service-learning courses to connect curricular and cocurricular experiences, (c) have a stable funding base, (d) provide the necessary resources, (e) have continuity in staffing, and (f) incorporate feedback and assessment into their respective service-learning programs. The findings from this study, based on one-on-one interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis, serve as a model on how to create quality and sustainable service-learning programs that combine academic scholarship, off-campus learning discoveries, reflection, civic engagement, and meaningful community service. The research may be applicable for educators at community colleges at various stages in developing service-learning programs, or who are transforming faltering programs, trying to make them sustainable.     

Effectiveness of relationships and sex education: A systematic review of terminology,content, pedagogy,and outcomes

This paper presents a systematic review on published research on universal school-based relationships and sex education for children aged 4–18 years. The review excludes papers focused solely on targeted cohorts, specific content areas and approaches such as abstinence-only education. Systematic searches were conducted with 5007 papers identified and following three rounds of screening, 134 papers were included in this review. The review sought to identify the terms used to describe sex education, the content included in programs or curriculum, the approaches forming the basis for implementation, the methods used to evaluate programs including the outcomes assessed. We conclude that the terms used in the field are vast, the content varied, approaches were wide-ranging, methods numerous and claims to effectiveness fluctuated and at times contrasted. Future research should seek to identify consistency in terminology and content, identify pedagogical approaches that are fully described building on the field of expertise in education, and engage highly rigorous methods and expertise in evaluation. The field of sex education must be recognized socially and institutionally so that appropriate funding and resources can be distributed to achieve the depth and breadth of knowledge required to progress the field. The implications of this impact on children's access to and ability to develop knowledge, skills, behaviours and critical thinking about themselves and their relationships.     

Adopting self-accreditation in response to the diversity of higher education: quality assurance in Taiwan and its impact on institutions

In 2012, Taiwan implemented a dual-track quality assurance system comprising accreditation and self-accreditation in higher education institutions. Self-accrediting institutions can accredit their programs without requiring approval from external quality assurance agencies. In contrast to other countries, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan authorized self-accrediting institutions to develop their own evaluation standards. This study investigated the institution-based accreditation standards and their implications on institutional internal quality assurance. Content analysis revealed that 37 % of the indicators of self-accreditation were new and not used as review indicators in the original accreditation track. Two frequently added indicators were featured indicators and levels of internationalization. The results also indicated that institutions tend to structure their internal quality assurance systems uniquely. Three types of approaches for developing institution-based standards were identified: bottom-up, hybrid, and innovative approaches. Self-accreditation has benefited institutions committed to educational quality and pursuing excellence by enabling them to employ a fitness-for-purpose approach. The diversity of higher education and educational policy changes constitute new challenges to higher education. Balancing between accountability and autonomy is critical for all stakeholders of higher education.     

PESTEL模型视角下高校贫困生精准资助策略研究

随着高等教育的不断深入发展,我国高校大学生人数在逐年增加,其中贫困生群体也在扩大,精确地资助贫困生并落实精准资助方式成为各界关注的课题。基于当前高校贫困生精准资助存在的问题,并从政治因素、经济因素、社会因素、技术要素、环境因素和法律因素等视角,对高校贫困生精准资助外部大环境进行系统分析,着力从加强过程管理、构建协同机制、建立指标体系和综合方法体系等三方面提出了策略方法,以期构建最佳的精准资助环境体系。     

ADMINISTRATIVE INTENSITY AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This paper formulates a model to partition theobserved administrative/faculty ratio (or administrativeintensity) for higher education institutions into twocomponents. One component uses internal factors. The second component acts as an augmenter anduses external factors. In particular, it uses sources offunding dependency to explain additionally the demandfor administrative resources. A logit analysis is used to link the type of institutionalcontrol to sources of funding dependency. The mainresults indicate that public institutions use relativelyless administrative resources compared to privates in seeking public and private sources of funding.Privates, on the other hand, use relatively less whenseeking private funding, but they use relatively morewhen seeking public funding. Policy implications relate to barriers of entry to the fundingsources.     

‘Make money,get money’: how two autonomous schools have commercialised their services

ABSTRACT

Using the stories of two autonomous public schools in Australia, this paper demonstrates how commercialisation can simultaneously position schools as both consumer and for-profit producer. Drawing on Foucault's articulation of discourse as that which constitutes and makes available what is possible to be said, done and imagined, the paper illustrates how the current marketised articulation of education is allowing for new possibilities of commercialisation in schools. Together these stories demonstrate that there are creative ways that these schools have embraced their autonomy, while relying on market solutions to acquire the resources they deem necessary for their students and their communities. However, it also shows how these resources and the attainment for them are inextricably constituted by the market orientation of education more broadly and how this presents potential dangers for what schools may be and become as a result.     

Universities and the mobilization of claims of excellence for competitive advantage

This study discusses the phenomenon of making claims of excellence by universities, which we interpret as a response, inter alia, to the hitherto unfamiliar context of scarce and diminishing resources. The main objective is to understand how claims of excellence are mobilised by higher education institutions to achieve “competitive advantage”. The paper argues that most claims of excellence do not derive from evidence and are a misrepresentation of reality geared at attracting resources. It is further argued that by making claims of excellence universities take advantage of the experiential nature of their goods and services, and the phenomenon of information asymmetry. Those targeted by these claims only discover the true excellence of the university’s goods and services after consuming them and of course, providing resources.     

Achieving inclusion? Effective resourcing of students with special educational needs

In line with the increasing policy emphasis on inclusive education, there is now a greater focus on how best to provide for students special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. However, there is little consensus internationally as to the most equitable way in which to support these students. Despite ongoing evaluations of the existing funding structures, there has been little discussion to inform future changes and ensure an equitable distribution of resources. This paper examines the system of SEN funding in Ireland during a period of policy change. Using data from a National Survey of Schools, we examine the profile and distribution of students across different school contexts to assess the extent to which the existing funding model targets those most in need. Findings show that the current through-put funding system broadly targets students with SEN but in any new model, there is room for greater differentiation in the allocation of funding, particularly within disadvantaged school contexts. The paper highlights the need for further discussion around how we conceptualise special education in mainstream education. We argue for greater emphasis on student outcomes and school accountability where SEN funding is received to support students.     

论新建本科院校的发展亟需地方政府财政投入

新建本科院校是我国高等教育的一支不可忽视的生力军。本文通过对新建本科院校发展现状的特点及其发展的物质保证——教育经费的来源分析,认为导致教育经费紧张的因素是多方面的,有外部的和内部的,有直接的又有间接的,解决学校教育经费紧张的对策是形成以地方政府财政投入为主导的办学经费筹措机制,以保障新建本科院校的可持续发展。