Marketing British Higher Education Overseas: The Response to the Introduction of Full-Cost Fees

Since the introduction of full-cost fees for overseas students in 1980 there has been a marked increase in marketing activities in British universities, polytechnics and in some other institutions of higher education. A survey of 33 universities and public sector higher education institutions in 1985 showed that 90 per cent undertook some form of marketing to attract overseas students, and 70 per cent reported that they had intensified their recruitment and marketing efforts since 1980. The British Council's Education Counselling Service, established in 1984, is now extremely active in certain countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. As well as increasing their publicity, many institutions have also strengthened their support services for overseas students and have developed new courses for the overseas market, particularly short courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Although there have been some instances of institutions adopting a 'hard sell' approach, most recognise the need for 'responsible recruitment' policies, and many are now developing comprehensive strategies covering admissions, financial support, the structure and content of courses for overseas students and academic and pastoral support services, as well as marketing. Partly as a result of increased marketing activities, the number of overseas students, which fell sharply after 1980, has been rising steadily since 1983, and the number in universities is higher now than before the introduction of full-cost fees. It is estimated that spending by overseas students now exceeds £1 billion.     

Learning Problems of Overseas Students: Two Sides of a Story

Research into the nature and extent of problems faced by overseas students in Australia is based almost entirely on surveys of this population either by staff of support services or by or on behalf of policy making bodies. The nature of educational difficulties ‐‐ ‘language’ and ‘study’ problems ‐‐ is still relatively unknown, however it has been explored to some extent by study skills counsellors and teachers of English as a second language. Little is known about perception of these problems by academic staff. This paper describes learning problems of overseas students as seen by the academic staff at the University of Queensland and compares them with the perception of learning problems held by overseas students. Academic staff (145) representing 50 departments, and 136 overseas students representing 14 courses at postgraduate level and 10 courses at undergraduate level responded to questionnaires identifying educational problems and suggesting possible solutions.     

‘The balancing act’ – Irish part-time undergraduate students in higher education

While the numbers of part-time students has increased in higher education in Ireland, little is known about these students or about how they balance their study and other commitments. Drawing on a larger study on Irish students’ experiences in higher education, this article attempts to address this gap in research and reports on Irish part-time undergraduate students’ socio-demographic and institutional characteristics. It further explores the balance between part-time students’ academic study and their life situations. The article proposes some recommendations with regard to policy concerning part-time students, particularly in the area of financial support available to part-time learners. It also calls for expanding opportunities for participation in part-time study in the light of changing demography and provision of resources to facilitate students’ participation in higher education. Although the findings of this article broadly agree with those of international studies, more research is needed into the experiences of part-time students in higher education.     

Postgraduate Education Towards the Year 2000 — A Changed Role for the Commonwealth Postgraduate Awards Scheme 1

Ph.D. research training in Australia only came into existence after World War II. It grew slowly until the late 1950s when The Commonwealth Postgraduate Award (CPRA) Scheme was introduced to promote the development of research training. The scheme has had an extensive impact on research training, supporting over 700 new students a year by 1982. However, no serious evaluation has been made of the Scheme and whether in the changed circumstances of the 1980s it needs to be revised. The present article reports some of the key results of the evaluation that the Commonwealth Department of Education commissioned. This study has shown that the CPRA scheme achieved its original objectives’, to develop postgraduate research schools; to maintain a flow of highly trained personnel to the workforce; and to promote the full intellectual development of the most talented students. But it is now operating in a new context where the conditions of expansion of the 1960s no longer exist and stronger pressures for relevance are being exerted on university research. In short, education policy and research policy have come into conflict, the result of which is new pressures on research education in general and the CPRA scheme in particular. Solutions to this conflict are proposed, involving no radical alterations of the scheme, but the trial introduction of a pluralist approach to postgraduate support which leaves the present scheme intact but meets the new demands the changing context is placing on postgraduate education.

     

The Monsoon Wedding phenomenon: understanding Indian students studying in Australian universities

How does the University sector identify and support the diverse needs of Indian students? This paper reports on a research project carried out on undergraduate students from India enrolled at a Melbourne‐based University. The focus is the need to understand why Indian students choose an overseas destination for tertiary study. The intent is to explore how the curriculum that they have experienced in their country prepares them for study in another. We examine the expectations of students in relation to studying overseas. The suggestion underlying this paper is that if academic and support staff in tertiary education understand international students in cultural cohorts, then it is more likely that their transition to tertiary education will be easier. We envisage that this may also lead to a greater retention rate for universities.     

美国华盛顿大学研究生培养对交通运输工程学科的借鉴

对美国华盛顿大学研究生培养的特色进行了总结和介绍,按照“如何做研究-研究选题-研究方法-成果展示”四个步骤进行了详细阐述。为提高交通运输工程学科研究生的培养质量,从引入《Transportation Seminar》、学科交叉培养、出国交流、课程设置和面对面讨论5个方面进行了具体讨论,以期为交通运输工程学科研究生培养提供借鉴和参考。     

Continuing professional and career development: the doctoral experience of education alumni at a UK university

This article reports on a study of alumni who completed their doctorates 2, 5 and 10 years ago at a Graduate School of Education in the University of London (n=162). It investigates the circumstances within which these research students started and completed their research and how they have subsequently used their studies, showing the particular place of the Ph.D. and the new Ed.D. in professional development in the field of education internationally. It questions current national proposals to ‘improve’ doctoral ‘training’ in the UK by enhancing students' employability and suggests that policy should be based on the actual employment and other life needs of postgraduate students in different disciplines. It argues that research students are paying for the privilege of satisfying their intellectual curiosity and making an original contribution to knowledge and are as concerned with personal growth as with vocational development.     

Postgraduate research in Pacific education: Interpretivism and other trends

This article examines research by postgraduate students in education at the University of the South Pacific (USP) between 1968 and 2009. These experienced educators, who later return to their original education sector to influence policy and practice in some way, are producing new knowledge intimately connected to Pacific education systems. The article identifies broad trends in supervision, growth in completed degrees, research area, and national focus, and makes some comparisons with similar research in New Zealand. The article also focuses on how students position their research theoretically, using Lather??s research paradigm typology. The analysis indicates that many of these projects are positioned within an interpretivist paradigm, a few within positivist and emancipationist paradigms, and none at all within deconstructivist paradigms. The authors suggest that a Pacific education system underpinned by socially-critical theoretical perspectives, particularly deconstructive ones, can better respond to the twin challenges of creating universal and equitable access to education and arresting the loss of language, culture, identity, and life skills via rapid globalization.     

Watts at WAIT: the Establishment of Curtin University of Technology

This article identifies and explains significant features of the transformation of the Western Australian Institute of Technology into the Curtin University of Technology, which occurred in 1986. The event achieved test case status in challenging rigities of the binary system of higher education in Australia, although pressures to reform the system had been mounting for some years. Changes at WAIT, involving the emergence of substantial research programs in a college of advanced education, clashes with government policy towards the binary system and the enrolment of feepaying overseas students, and the status of major technological institutes, present in microcosm an insight into the circumstances leading to far‐reaching reforms to Australian higher education introduced in 1987.     

Patterns,drivers and challenges pertaining to postgraduate taught study: an international comparative analysis

The global growth in postgraduate (PG) study since the mid-1990s has been attributed to the expansion in Masters by Coursework participation (Bekhradnia, B. (2005). Postgraduate education in the UK: Trends and challenges higher education policy institute. Paper presented at a conference The future of postgraduate education supporting the students of today and tomorrow, London, 17 March). However, unlike at undergraduate level, research into understanding PG growth has been under-researched. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge gap by identifying and comparing the growth in PG study in Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK. It explores the possible drivers behind the growth and concludes by highlighting potential challenges facing the future of PG study across the sector.     

‘Taking your mob with you’: giving voice to the experiences of Indigenous Australian postgraduate students

Indigenous Australian postgraduate students experience different barriers from those encountered by non-Indigenous students. In the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate study, Indigenous students are more likely to come from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, have lower personal incomes and lack family and other networks supportive of engagement with tertiary, and especially postgraduate, study. While there is a growing literature on Indigenous participation in higher education, with the exception of a few notable examples, there is little known about the effectiveness of support mechanisms and issues for Indigenous students undertaking postgraduate study. Drawing on interviews with current and past Indigenous postgraduate students at The University of Queensland, this paper problematises the postgraduate experience for Indigenous Australian students, identifying common themes in their accounts. It also discusses one of the outcomes of the project along with planned future developments that aim to provide better support for Indigenous Australian postgraduate students at The University of Queensland. By knowing and acting upon the kinds of mechanisms that can assist Indigenous postgraduate students, the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous student participation in postgraduate study can begin to be addressed.     

Widening participation in postgraduate studies in Greece: mature working women attending an e‐learning programme

This article examines issues relating to widening participation in postgraduate study programmes in Greece. It focuses on a group of mature women and examines their experiences from attending a novel postgraduate e‐learning programme at the University of the Aegean. It presents findings from a study, which looked into mature women’s decision to return to higher education in relation to their responsibilities stemming from marriage, motherhood, work and housework. In particular it examines how these women balanced their different and often conflicting roles, managing to operate within very tight time schedules and demands from their postgraduate studies. The findings of this study have policy implications for issues of equality of educational opportunities and participation in higher education in Greece and elsewhere.     

世界一流大学留学生教育规模研究

大学留学生教育是反映现代大学教育质量与水平的重要参数之一,世界一流大学都比较重视留学生教育,但各个国家情况不同,留学生教育发展模式也有区别,各大学在留学生总数及比例、本科段和研究生段的人数及比例等方面都有不同程度的差异。我国大学的留学生教育还有待进一步提升,在发展过程中既要借鉴世界一流大学的经验,更要根据国情校情,因地制宜地稳步推进留学生教育的发展。     

Making the Most of Overseas Students

The educational case for overseas students has been put back on the agenda by present financial difficulties of higher education. Alternative and sometimes conflicting rhetorics of 'interntationalism' and 'Third World modemisation' now have to be re-examined. The general case for overseas students stemming from liberal education principle can be supplemented by specification of a range of benefits they may bring. One condition of realising these benefits is systematic thinking and positive action in the institution; another, even more fundamental, is the integration of overseas student provision into an international education policy, and of that policy in the overall policy of the institution .     

基础医学研究生创新能力培养的探索与实践

研究生教育侧重于创新教育,基础医学教育是研究生教育中至关重要的一部分,它不仅关系着人们的健康,而且也标志着整个国家的医疗水平。章文以延安大学医学院基础医学研究生作为实践与研究的对象,探讨了如何提高基础医学研究生的创新能力。     

Overseas students in the United Kingdom university system

This paper is in two main sections. The first offers a brief historical account of the involvement of overseas students in the UK University system; the second reviews the literature on student attitudes to their stay, relating this to the contemporary experiences of a small cohort of students on a postgraduate professional training course in an older university.While overseas students have traditionally been perceived as somewhat problematic, more recently, driven by economic, political and intellectual considerations, the mode of analysis has moved away from situating the cause of any problems in the students themselves, and towards exploring the relations between the needs of overseas students and the resources dedicated by universities to meeting them. Unless universities take seriously the implications of having overseas students, which include organisational and staff development issues as well as the proper adaptation of teaching methods and techniques, there is serious potential for things to go wrong.     

'I never thought they would enjoy the fun of science just like ordinary children do'– Exploring science experiences with early years teacher training students and children with severe and profound learning difficulties

Alison Bishop and Phyllis Jones both work in the School of Education at Northumbria University where they teach on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Phyllis Jones specialises in disability issues and Alison Bishop focuses on early years education. For the project described in this paper, they combined their areas of expertise, devising a small–scale research project to explore the experiences of a group of early years science specialist student teachers as they took part in workshops with a group of early years children with severe and profound learning difficulties. The research explores the changing attitudes and perceptions of the students with regard to the learning and teaching of science with young children. It becomes clear that there is a realization for many students that science can make a significant contribution to the education of children with severe and profound learning difficulties in the early years. The authors also discuss the need for training to equip the students to meet the challenges and rewards of working with children with severe and profound learning difficulties in their future teaching careers.     

Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE): First Findings

In this study, I examined the hypothesis that undergraduate research enhances the educational experience of science undergraduates, attracts and retains talented students to careers in science, and acts as a pathway for minority students into science careers. Undergraduates from 41 institutions participated in an online survey on the benefits of undergraduate research experiences. Participants indicated gains on 20 potential benefits and reported on career plans. Over 83% of 1,135 participants began or continued to plan for postgraduate education in the sciences. A group of 51 students who discontinued their plans for postgraduate science education reported significantly lower gains than continuing students. Women and men reported similar levels of benefits and similar patterns of career plans. Ethnic groups did not significantly differ in reported levels of benefits or plans to continue with postgraduate education.     

课题组代表制度:研究生导师和辅导员合力育人的桥梁——以南开大学化学学院课题组代表制度为例

导师和辅导员是研究生思想政治教育工作队伍的主体,南开大学化学学院结合实验学科研究生特点,从课题组中推选出一名学生代表,作为连接导师和辅导员的联络员,搭建起第一、第二课堂合力育人的互动桥梁,开创了导师与辅导员合力育人的新途径,以多方合力的形式提升研究生思想政治教育工作的实效性。     

Meeting the needs of overseas postgraduate women students through flexible distance education

This paper derives from preliminary research into prospects for a more flexible approach to mixed‐mode distance education for overseas students at Australian universities. The group studied is postgraduate women students sponsored by Australian aid programmes. Information from a survey of these students and their needs in such areas as academic concerns, accommodation and living conditions and issues of personal concern forms part of the background to the paper.

Data analysed includes: preference among three models of mixed‐mode study, the response to home country study by students, employers and sponsors, the availability of national networks likely to support mixed‐mode study and students’ assessment of the proposals. One conclusion suggested is that women with professional and domestic responsibilities could find mixed‐mode study more satisfying than full‐time study. Further information about the principles and operational characteristics of distance education is needed to clarify the expectations of parties involved in such a delivery mode.