关于建设高水平大学的思考

高水平大学的建设是一个较长期的过程,不仅要形成尊重学术和民主管理的氛围,还要以本科教育为中心,形成自己的特色;既要服务于国家和社会的需要,又要注意摒弃极端的功利主义倾向。在高水平大学建设中,大学办学自主权和政府宏观管理缺一不可。建设高水平的大学,校长是关键,学科建设和教师队伍建设是重中之重。     

低碳发展方案编制指南(第三部分)——制定低碳发展规划

本节介绍制定低碳发展计划常用的核心步骤。本指南侧重城市层面;同样的步骤也适用于企业、市、省和国家等层级。中国自"十一五规划"起,对改善国内能源强度定出目标,包括各经济部门的节能目标。2009年12月中国政府公布了其碳强度目标,重点放在单位GDP用能引发的二氧化碳排放量。为实现该强度目标以及"循环经济"等经济性目标,制定低碳发展规划尤其必要。     

Response bias in follow-up studies of college students

The problems of response bias in longitudinal studies of college students are examined. An extensive follow-up questionnaire was sent to 1,253 college seniors who had participated in a similar survey as freshman four years earlier. Careful measure of student responsiveness in relation to various techniques designed to increase the proportion of responders (e.g., postcard, telephone contact) were kept.The less responsive groups were significantly different from their more responsive counterparts on nearly a dozen variables representing a wide variety of content areas, including academic achievement, self-concept, alcohol consumption, social deviance, and major choice preferences. Controlling for sex and socioeconomic status served to reduce, but not eliminate, these biases. Overall, the results indicate that researchers cannot account for follow-up nonresponse bias by making statistical adjustments according to data available at initial testing. The results are discussed in light of identifying the reasons for nonresponse, and attempting to develop categories of nonresponders who may be motivated to cooperate by different types of follow-up techniques.     

The benevolent health worm: comparing Western human rights-based ethics and Confucian duty-based moral philosophy

Censorship in the area of public health has become increasingly important in many parts of the world for a number of reasons. Groups with vested interest in public health policy are motivated to censor material. As governments, corporations, and organizations champion competing visions of public health issues, the more incentive there may be to censor. This is true in a number of circumstances: curtailing access to information regarding the health and welfare of soldiers in the Kuwait and Iraq wars, poor health conditions in Aboriginal communities, downplaying epidemics to bolster economies, and so forth. This paper will look at the use of a computer worm (the benevolent health worm) to disseminate vital information in␣situations where public health is threatened by government censorship and where there is great risk for those who ‹speak out’. The discussion of the benevolent health worm is focused on the Peoples’ Republic of China (China) drawing on three public health crises: HIV/AIDS, SARS and Avian Influenza. Ethical issues are examined first in a general fashion and then in a specific manner which uses the duty-based moral philosophy of Confucianism and a Western human rights-based analysis. Technical, political and legal issues will also be examined to the extent that they better inform the ethical debate.     

Quality assessment and quality assurance in distance teacher education

Governments around the world have increasingly used distance education (DE), both preservice and inservice, to overcome conventional, campus‐based programme constraints in funding, access and student places. DE programmes have shown that they can expand assess to teacher education, but still need to demonstrate that they can produce teachers of the quality needed for today's schools. Quality assessment systems have been developed, using either examinations or impact studies, to demonstrate programme effect on graduate outcomes related to good teaching. Quality assurance systems have been designed, based on the concept of the ‘learning organisation’, to assure continuous improvement in programme conditions related to the desired outcomes. Quality assessment and assurance systems are reviewed and some examples of quality DE programmes presented.