Why university students choose an international education: A case study in Malaysia

Why has Australian offshore higher education become the educational investment of choice for many students? What benefits do students anticipate from this education? What is the relationship between educational goals and educational experience? To address these questions, this paper draws on findings from empirical research conducted with students studying at an offshore campus of an Australian university in Malaysia. It was found that students typically chose to enroll with the Australian university to receive an international education. Reasons offered for seeking an international education effectively delineated two groups of students. For Malaysian nationals, an international education was valued largely as a passport to employment with (Western) multinational corporations operating in Malaysia. Generally the Malaysian students made positional investments in Australian offshore higher education. For non-Malaysian students an international education was typically selected as an aid to procuring a new identity. These students chose an international education with the hope of expunging provincial outlooks. From international education, they wanted new ways of viewing the world, new habits of thinking and new skills and approaches. They sought a personal metamorphosis. These students, therefore, typically made self-transformative investments in international education. The paper further shows that investment choices influenced the way students experienced their education. Of the two populations distinguished by investment type, students who made self-transformative investments were more likely to respond positively to challenging education experiences associated with studying at the campus.     

Patterns of student interaction in Clark-Trow subgroups

Previous research on the Clark-Trow model has failed to provide evidence on whether students classified into the same Clark-Trow subgroup interact with one another or are even aware of their common orientation. Yet, this is a basic tenet of claims that these subgroups operate as campus subcultures. This study investigated whether students who self-select into the same Clark-Trow subgroup interact significantly more often with each other than they do with members of the other three subgroups. The results tend to disconfirm expectations based on the Clark-Trow model and suggest these subgroups do not operate as student subcultures.     

Predictors of academic and social integration of college students

This study extended earlier research based on Tinto's 1975 model of student college attrition by investigating patterns of student social and academic integration across institutional types. This study found that different college types were characterized by different patterns of student participation in the social and academic life of the college. Personal characteristics and overall climate associated with each institutional type explained statistically significant but modest amounts of the variance in student participation in specific campus activities that help define campus life. Moreover, several personal characteristics were related to students' campus behavior differently across institutional types. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for student recruitment and retention.     

Do girls’ scholarship programs work? Evidence from two countries

This study examined the extent that a scholarship program operating in Sierra Leone and Djibouti was successful in increasing girls’ persistence in basic education. Results of field studies indicated that scholarships could be appropriately targeted and delivered in ways that appear to minimize misappropriation of funds. However, the scholarships often created significant tensions between award recipients and non-recipients and among their families that frequently isolated recipient girls and led to their harassment by non-recipients. These findings are interpreted within the context of the larger debate about the relative merit of abolishing school fees for all students or targeting scholarships for only the neediest students.     

Sustaining Community Participation: What Remains After the Money Ends?

SUSTAINING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: WHAT REMAINS AFTER THE MONEY ENDS? – A major concern confronting development specialists in the education sector is the sustainability of project activities and outcomes, that is, their ability to persist once external funding ends. The increased attention of international development-assistance organizations to sustainability reflects the greater recent focus on outcome-based funding. The present study investigates differences between six communities in Ghana that varied in their ability to sustain externally initiated community-participation activities beyond the life of the external development-assistance project that promoted those activities. It was hypothesized that high- and low-sustaining communities differ in eight managerial and socio-cultural dimensions suggested by earlier research to be important for sustainability of community-level activities: planning, transparency, leadership, and participation, on one hand, and, on the other, social cohesion, resources, community skills, and valuing of education. Findings indicate that leadership and social cohesion are the two most vital elements in the sustainability of organizational structures intended to promote community participation in the oversight of local schools. Other factors suggested by the model are largely subsumed under leadership, so that the model can be simplified.     

Undergraduate students' experiences of using information at the career fair: A phenomenographic study conducted by the libraries and career center

Information literacy is vital to students seeking employment following their undergraduate education. Yet little is known about how students approach using information as part of their career search. This phenomenographic study examined how students experience using information as part of a career fair, or on-campus job expo. Researchers interviewed undergraduate students after a major campus career fair. The findings suggest that students may experience using information in a career fair context as: 1) navigators completing a series of steps, 2) performers seeking to connect with the right person, or 3) aligners determining if a company is a match for them.     

Detection of deficits in temporal pattern discrimination using the seashore rhythm test in young children with reading impairments

A deficiency in temporal pattern discrimination frequently is a distinguishing characteristic of children with dyslexia or learning disabilities (LD). We studied the feasibility of using the Seashore Rhythm Test, a subtest of the Halstead-Reitan neurological assessment battery (Halstead, 1947), with young children to discriminate children with reading impairments from age-matched controls reading at a normal level, in an effort to develop tools to determine readiness to read in young school-age children. Major considerations in test selection were ease of administration and wide use and acceptance. Fifty-nine children in Grades 1 through 3 were administered a battery of tests during the last 3 weeks of the school year by blinded experimenters. Tests administered included the Seashore Rhythm Test, Benton Visual Retention Test, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Blau Torque Test, and the Rod and Frame Test. Children with reading impairments (n = 24) in all age groups were found to exhibit a marked deficit in the ability to discriminate patterned pairs of tones on the Seashore Rhythm Test compared to controls (n = 26). These children also exhibited deficits in right-left orientation, as indicated by their poor performance on the Blau Torque Test. Performance on the Seashore and the Blau by a group of children diagnosed as learning disabled (n = 9) was similar to the group with reading impairments. No significant differences between controls and children with reading impairments or LD were observed in Rod and Frame or Benton performance. The results suggest that the Seashore Rhythm Test may prove to be a useful tool to detect young children who will later show signs of reading impairment.     

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board's first decade.

Concern over the safety of the United States' defense nuclear reactors in the late 1980s led to congressional creation of an independent oversight board. The Defense Nuclear Facility Safeties Board (DNFSB) is responsible for overseeing safety issues at the U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear facilities and issuing recommendations on operations and safety at these facilities, which include South Carolina's Savannah River Site, Texas' Pantex facility, Colorado's Rocky Flats Depot, and others. This article provides an historical overview of the DNFSB's first decade and discusses its relationship and interaction with the Department of Energy and congressional oversight committees as well as the recommendations it has issued on nuclear safety. An assessment of DNFSB's future prospects concludes the article.     

Leg muscle recruitment in highly trained cyclists

In this study, we examined patterns of leg muscle recruitment and co-activation, and the relationship between muscle recruitment and cadence, in highly trained cyclists. Electromyographic (EMG) activity of the tibialis anterior, tibialis posterior, peroneus longus, gastrocnemius lateralis and soleus was recorded using intramuscular electrodes, at individual preferred cadence, 57.5, 77.5 and 92.5 rev . min(-1). The influence of electrode type and location on recorded EMG was also investigated using surface and dual intramuscular recordings. Muscle recruitment patterns varied from those previously reported, but there was little variation in muscle recruitment between these highly trained cyclists. The tibialis posterior, peroneus longus and soleus were recruited in a single, short burst of activity during the downstroke. The tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius lateralis were recruited in a biphasic and alternating manner. Contrary to existing hypotheses, our results indicate little co-activation between the tibialis posterior and peroneus longus. Peak EMG amplitude increased linearly with cadence and did not decrease at individual preferred cadence. There was little variation in patterns of muscle recruitment or co-activation with changes in cadence. Intramuscular electrode location had little influence on recorded EMG. There were significant differences between surface and intramuscular recordings from the tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius lateralis, which may explain differences between our findings and those of previous studies.