Parents’ educational styles and adolescent autonomy

The purpose of this paper is to explore, by means of semi-structured interviews, how families of adolescents perceive and describe their educational styles and the development of adolescent autonomy. Specifically, the results of two different studies will be discussed: the first was conducted with a group of 83 parents (fathers and mothers) of 15- to 18-year-old adolescents, male and female, from different cultural backgrounds (medium-low and medium-high). The second study involved both adolescents and their parents of three age-groups (10 families with 13-, 15- and 17-year-old adolescents, for a total of 90 interviews), half male and half female. In the first study fathers and mothers were asked to describe the educational style they adopted in raising their children, its consistency across situations and similarities and differences with their partner’s style; moreover, parents’ beliefs about the process of separation/ /individuation of the adolescent were assessed. The second study focused on family members’ (father, mother, adolescent) perceptions and beliefs about the nature of autonomy and its development and on their degree of congruence or incongruence within the family; moreover, the inclusion of a group of younger subjects (13-year-olds) was intended to provide a picture of a larger age span. Results of content analysis conducted on subjects’ answers showed the presence of different “models” or “styles” of education adopted by fathers and mothers, as well as different conceptions of “autonomy” and patterns of autonomy development, which appear to differ according to the sociodemographic variables considered.     

Understanding the evolution of the entrepreneurial university. The case of English Higher Education institutions

There has been strong policy interest in universities becoming more entrepreneurial and engaging in knowledge exchange activities as part of an expanding third mission agenda. However, our understanding of the evolution and diversity of such activities is limited. Using longitudinal data from the Higher Education Business Community Interaction (HEBCI) Survey, this study examines the evolving configuration of universities' knowledge exchange activities and stakeholders by analysing distinctive clusters of English universities. We find an increasingly diverse profile of third mission activities across different types of universities: within old, more established universities, Russell Group universities increasingly focus on research‐oriented activities typically in partnership with large firms and non‐commercial organisations; while another group engages in a broad range of knowledge exchange activities with low specialisation over time. Newer, less research intensive, universities increasingly rely on activities such as consultancy and formation of spin‐offs. A decreased engagement with small and medium enterprises and a lower share of knowledge exchange activities at the regional level are observed across the time studied for all universities.     

How many hours of instruction are needed for students to become competent in engineering subjects?

The aim of this work was to compare the curricula of three different agricultural engineering courses and to determine the competence of graduating students in three subject areas in order to identify possible shortfalls in the number of hours of instruction (HI) required for full competence to be attained.

A total of 132 students sat a voluntary examination in the final year of their studies to determine their competence in three subject areas: electrical facilities, machinery and construction. The degree courses completed by these students are meant to provide them with the legal standing required to undertake infrastructure projects in agricultural installations.

This work detected significant differences in the competence of graduates in the mentioned subjects, depending on the number of HI they had received. Students who had received under 120 HI in these subjects were found to be significantly less competent than those who had received more.     

Droplet dispensing in digital microfluidic devices: Assessment of long-term reproducibility

We report an in-depth study of the long-term reproducibility and reliability of droplet dispensing in digital microfluidic devices (DMF). This involved dispensing droplets from a reservoir, measuring the volume of both the droplet and the reservoir droplet and then returning the daughter droplet to the original reservoir. The repetition of this process over the course of several hundred iterations offers, for the first time, a long-term view of droplet dispensing in DMF devices. Results indicate that the ratio between the spacer thickness and the electrode size influences the reliability of droplet dispensing. In addition, when the separation between the plates is large, the volume of the reservoir greatly affects the reproducibility in the volume of the dispensed droplets, creating "reliability regimes." We conclude that droplet dispensing exhibits superior reliability as inter-plate device spacing is decreased, and the daughter droplet volume is most consistent when the reservoir volume matches that of the reservoir electrode.