Internationalization of higher education in the crucible: Linking national identity and policy in the age of globalization

Nationalism’s rise represents a potential harbinger of doom for the internationalization of higher education (IoHE). Space exists for research to amplify our understanding of the interplay between internationalization and nationalism from a public policy theory perspective. The study identified and classified policies and policy ideas pertinent to IoHE, and furthermore, explored how political rivalries in Taiwan have influenced IoHE’s development under globalization. Analysis of documentary data from an online national database reveals how IoHE policy changes reflect the machinations of political actors to advance domestic political agendas and provoke controversy. The advocacy coalition framework informs our explanation of how the aforementioned changes reflect Taiwan’s inward-looking political climate, unique geopolitical circumstances, and longstanding controversy over national identity. The paper discusses the implications of context for IoHE development across three consecutive government regimes to provide insights for further comparisons with other localities and contexts.     

Enhancing the link between higher education and employment

This study aims to improve the efficiency of fiscal assistance programs for higher education by investigating those variables that influence college graduates’ employment rates. An empirical analysis of 2010–2011 higher education statistics shows that two variables – educational expenditure per student and the number of students per full-time faculty member – consistently and significantly affect college graduates’ employment rates, even after location and type of school are controlled. Although scholarship rates also affect employment rates positively, the number of students per industry–academe liaison officer does not have a statistically significant effect. Moreover, as educational expenditure per student or the student/faculty ratio increases beyond a certain level, graduate employment improves at an increasing rate. The two variables also affect the employment rate interactively. At a relatively higher level of per-student expenditure, employment rates increase even as the student/faculty ratio rises. However, at a relatively lower level of per-student expenditure, employment rates decline as the student/faculty ratio rises.The policy implication is that fiscal assistance programs for higher educational institutions should accord a much greater weight to these key variables when selecting and assessing institutional recipients.     

Stability,performance and innovation orientation of a higher education funding model in Kazakhstan

This article is situated in a growing body of literature, focusing on higher education reforms in countries which emerged, or re-emerged, 25 years ago as the Soviet Union dissolved. With the focus specifically on Kazakhstan, this paper examines how the leadership of universities in this country views a higher education funding model– the state grants. The paper applies the lenses of stability, performance and innovation orientation to the examination of the state grants-based higher education funding model in Kazakhstan. This paper finds that despite recognition of the limitations of the existing funding model, there is limited interest to push for changes. This can be explained by the complex higher education policy environment which is also discussed in this paper.     

The international performance of the South African academic institutions: a citation assessment

This article reports the results of an investigation to identify the disciplinary strengths and the international standing of the higher education institutions in South Africa. Even though comparative assessments provide valuable information for research administrations, researchers and students such information is not available in South Africa currently. The Essential Science Indicators database of the Institute for Scientific Information is utilized for the investigation and six South African universities are identified to be included in the top 1% of the world’s institutions cited in the international scientific literature. The identified institutions are University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria, Orange Free State University, University of Witwatersrand, University of Natal and University of Stellenbosch. Analysis of the scientific disciplines in which the South African institutions meet the threshold requirements for inclusion in the database shows that the country has citation footprints in only nine of the 22 broad scientific disciplines. The article identifies the international standing of the South African universities in the various scientific disciplines, and elaborates on the consequences relevant to higher education and science and technology policy.     

The complexity of human rights in global times: The case of the right to education in South Africa

The right to education has an established legacy in international agreements and debates, but has nonetheless proved difficult to achieve across the countries of the world. This paper explores why this might be so. It begins by locating the current architecture of rights in Enlightenment philosophy and the political and legal formations of modernity, exploring the paradoxical legacy this brings. It then looks more specifically at the right to education, and why it cannot be assumed that statements of rights deliver what they promise. Finally, it looks at education in South Africa to explore both the limits and the possibilities of using a framework of rights to achieve greater social justice in global times.     

Changing the course: equity effects and institutional risk amid policy shift in higher education financing in Kenya

Reform in higher education financing in Kenya has been occasioned by both endogenous and exogenous variables. Internal pressures of a declining economy, rapid demographic growth and increased inter-and intra-sectoral competition for scare financial resources, couple with external neo-liberal doctrine championed by global donors like the World Bank have resulted in a new market-competitive policy of financing higher education. This paper analyzes the equity and risk effects of the new policy for the main stakeholders, namely students, academics and institutions themselves. The paper contends that the policy shift has had a significant effect on equity just as it has introduced universities to risks through engagement in academic capitalism with its emphasis on marketization of university programs and services. The paper concludes with suggestions on some policy options that could help to mitigate the negative consequences of this new policy.

Opportunities for a democratic pedagogy: a comparative study of South African and Swedish teachers' attitudes to inclusive education

This paper is based upon the collaboration between two research groups from Stockholm University and the University of South Africa. The main objective is to compare attitudes between South African (SA) and Swedish teachers regarding inclusive education (IE). IE in this paper is examined as a distinct part of the Swedish welfare system. The method used can be characterised as a combined, quantitative and qualitative research design with a purposive sampling. A similar adapted questionnaire was distributed in the two countries. The Swedish teachers in our data are more pro‐inclusion and more hesitating to accommodate learners with barriers in special schools. However, both the Swedish and the SA teachers in the study are hesitating towards the feasibility to implement IE practically. A team approach is concluded to be an adequate pedagogy for supporting IE both in South Africa and Sweden.     

Dilemmas in crossing the boundaries: From K-12 to higher education and back again

For the purpose of reflective analysis, this article, which employs narrative inquiry as a research methodology, combines two “crossing the boundaries” dilemmas I experienced over the course of a decade. While the dilemmas relate to different issues that emerged in my career (standardized testing as a K-12 teacher and the formal evaluation of a reform program as a tenured, full professor), I trace the roots of the dilemmas to the same source: the hegemonic relationship between theory and practice which, despite the passage of time, continues to persist in the field of education and to shape the professional experiences of educators, some of which are miseducative. I argue that until the relationship between educational practices in schools and educational practices in universities are addressed, school reform that benefits children cannot be fully realized.     

The economic benefits of higher education in Cyprus: The expectations of prospective students

The paper investigates the economic benefits and costs of higher education as these are perceived by higher education candidates and labour market entrants in Cyprus. It provides further evidence on the topic after a similar study which preceded the present project by 10 years. Perceived rates of return to education are presented for two points in time, namely, 1993 and 2003. The findings point to an increasing awareness of the link between education and earnings on the part of young people, which can be linked to the country's economic development. The main influences on the respondents’ expected lifetime earnings are examined through multiple regression analysis. Gender and ability are found to be significantly related to expected earnings.     

Choosing a major in higher education: Profiles of students’ decision-making process

This study identified decision-making profiles of students who make a choice of a major in higher education. These profiles were examined in a sample of Belgian students at the end of Grade 12, when the educational system expects that these adolescents choose a specific major. Using latent class cluster analysis on adolescents’ scores for coping with career decisional tasks (i.e., orientation, exploration, decisional status, and commitment), four clusters were identified. As expected, these profiles paralleled Marcia’s (1966) identity statuses (i.e., the achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion status). Results provided support for the external validity of the identified clusters through differential associations with several person variables (i.e., career decision-making self-efficacy, career choice anxiety, and decision-making style) and with academic functioning in higher education (i.e., commitment, academic and social adjustment). Implications for current educational research and research on career decision-making are discussed.     

Taking stock of sustainability in higher education: a review of the policy literature

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the current literature that examines the uptake of sustainability policies in higher education. Articles were retrieved from both ERIC and Scopus databases and then manually reviewed to ensure that they focused on each of: higher education; sustainability; and policy. A total of 91 articles were analysed using a multi-stage process that involved sorting data according to typologies (i.e. temporal, terminology, methodology, geography), coding the text of the articles based on topical content, and an indexing method used to label data for further analysis and the development of broader code categories. Results suggest that drivers and barriers associated with the integration of sustainability policy in higher education are well known; yet increased research is needed to understand best practices and processes by which sustainability can be furthered through higher education policy. In addition, findings demonstrate the need for future research to focus on various aspects of the policy process, including policy development and enactment, and on implications of policy for practice. While there have been some reviews of sustainability policy in higher education research to date, this review contributes to this literature by highlighting research primarily focused on sustainability policy within higher education.     

The “A” factor: Coming to terms with the question of legacy in South African education

This paper attempts to offer an alternative framework for assessing education delivery in South Africa. Its purpose is to develop an analytic approach for understanding education delivery in South Africa in the last 11 years and to use this framework to pose a set of strategic questions about how policy might be framed to deal with delivery. The paper begins with a quick review of the country's achievements and challenges in education and shows that a failure to produce a high quality education system remains the country's primary challenge. The broad approach that is taken is to suggest that dominant approaches for understanding this lack of performance underplay the specificity of the country's context and specifically so its apartheid legacy. This legacy, it is argued, continues to be determinative in shaping, and accounting for the character of current social behaviour in the country, including the performance of children in schools.     

Shifting selves: The emergence of new identities in South African schools

This is an exploratory study on the nature and extent of racial integration in South African schools in the post-apartheid period. While there is vigilant media attention to occasional, dramatic incidents of racial conflict in white schools, there is very little research on the ways in which student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated within the dominant institutional cultures of former white schools. The research findings suggest that student identities are shaped and framed within stable institutional cultures that remain impervious to change despite the changing demographics of the student body; but that even under these conditions student identities are constantly being questioned and recast as black and white students begin to engage each other in the daily routines of institutional life.     

Language,culture and identity in the transition to primary school: Challenges to indigenous children's rights to education in Peru

This paper analyses a ‘critical moment’ in the educational trajectories of young indigenous children in Peru: the transition to primary school. It addresses the inequalities in educational services that affect indigenous children, before looking at the micro-level processes that take place in school settings, through a focus on two selected case studies from the Young Lives study of childhood poverty. Using longitudinal information collected in two consecutive years, the case studies show how the children's language and culture are excluded from school premises and their very identity as children and indigenous people is disregarded, negatively affecting their educational performance.     

Fair access to higher education and discourses of development: a policy analysis from Indonesia

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between fair access policies and discourses of development through a policy analysis of higher education reform in post-authoritarian Indonesia (1998–present). The method was document analysis of five laws/regulations, using the criteria of accessibility, availability, and horizontality to identify the extent of fair access for students from (1) lower socioeconomic backgrounds and (2) under-developed regions of the archipelago. The analysis demonstrates how neoliberal, human capital, inclusive development and Pancasila discourses have been called upon in the making and un-making of a higher education market, with ultimately favourable outcomes for the fair access agenda.     

School resources and the gender reading literacy gap in South African schools

The importance of reading literacy as a foundation for academic success is widely acknowledged. What is less well understood is why gender patterns in reading literacy emerge so early and continue throughout learners’ educational careers. This paper adds to this literature by investigating the gender patterns of reading literacy (why girls outperform boys) in South African primary schools and whether changes in the schooling system can result in favourable changes in this gender reading gap. Compatible with international trends, girls in primary schools were significantly better readers than boys during the period of investigation. We found strong links between material and human resources and achievement in reading. The link between increased resource availability and improved educational outcomes was stronger for girls than for boys and therefore increased the female academic advantage. This finding remained consistent across socioeconomic levels. The implication is that either the school resources available in South African primary schools are more suitable for teaching girls how to read or that girls appear to be able to make use of the available resources more effectively to improve reading. Policy interpretations are discussed in the context of improved resourcing of schools.     

To be or not to be an academic: South African graduate students’ vocational choices

In the post-apartheid era, South African universities are striving to attract and retain diverse faculty, as mandated by the 1998 Employment Equity Act (EEA). While the focus on faculty is critical to the transformation agenda, it is informative to step back and consider the factors that influence graduate students’ decisions regarding joining the academy. This qualitative study explores the educational experiences and vocational decisions of 50 masters and doctoral students from the EEA's “designated groups,” who are poised to become academics. Factors influencing graduate students’ vocational choices should be taken into consideration as universities strive to attract more diverse faculty.     

A case study of a merger in Chinese higher education: The motives, processes, and outcomes

This paper examines an institutional merger taking place in Chinese higher education beginning from 1994. Using the case study method, the paper examines the pre-merger planning, the post-merger integration process, and the outcomes of the merger. The paper argues that a number of major external and internal factors have led to the decision to merge. The planning and implementation of the merger was largely a top-down process and subject to political intervention. One of the most prominent issues identified in this case is the difficulty of building a unified identity for the new institution as was reflected in the controversies and fights about the name of the new institution. The case studied provides a good example and valuable lessons to higher education institutions considering merger or other forms of organizational change.     

Geographical stratification and the role of the state in access to higher education in contemporary China

This article extends the geopolitical theory on geographical stratification to understand the persistent inequality in access to higher education in contemporary China. Drawing on empirical evidence on the geographical distribution of institutions, and differentiated admissions and recruitment processes, I examine how political and institutional arrangements shaped opportunity structures in access to higher education for students from different geographical origins. I conclude that the state's decentralised governance gave the eastern area more power and advantages while the students from the poor western and central regions suffered a lack of opportunities in achieving upward social mobility through higher education.     

Aspirations and equality in higher education: gender in a South African university

This paper considers ways to theorise aspirations in terms of capabilities and agency to function as human beings, as well as our resources to act and participate in this world using a South African case of women students’ aspirations. In this analysis higher education should foster women’s freedom as critical agents to make genuine choices about their lives and futures, including being able to engage critically with gender norms. The paper thus explores critical agency, together with aspirations – the goals one wants to reach in the future – that indicate which capabilities are valued and which could unlock critical agency. However, the paper also considers the ambiguities generated by the persistence of gender norms and the way these may work in higher education cultures to constrain what women have reason to value and hence their capabilities and achievements.