Bringing the State Back In: restoring the role of the State in Chinese higher education

In the last few decades, in the wake of three major crises in political faith and the overall instability that followed the end of the Cultural Revolution, the post-Mao Chinese government has sought to improve the lives of its citizens and to restore political legitimacy through rapid economic growth that has focused almost exclusively on GDP. This strong focus has brought about rapid, widespread economic growth to China, and has, by classical market standards, been a success. At the same time, issues of social development and human well-being have received less attention. Before the Hu-Wen leadership's formal accession to power, the Jiang-Zhu administration sought to adopt neo-liberal ideas and practices to reform the delivery of social services and the implementation and funding of social policy. In this context, major fields of social policy such as health, education, and housing have been going through the processes of marketisation and privatisation, which have placed much of the financial burden of meeting these social welfare needs on China's citizens. After several decades of privatisation and marketisation in the educational system, the Chinese government has been the subject of repeated criticism for failing to tackle what is popularly known as the ‘new three mountains phenomenon’, namely, the rising cost of health, education, and housing in recent years. Against the wider policy context described above, this article examines the social and political consequences of the privatisation and marketisation of education. It also discusses the major policies and strategies recently adopted by the Chinese government to restore the role of the State in the education system in order to address the negative consequences of the privatisation of education. Finally, it critically examines the main implications of major reforms undertaken in higher education in Mainland China.     

Social factors and adult learners’ motivations in re‐entering higher education

While there is less doubt that adult learners are motivated by different reasons to re‐attend school, it is important to note that, other than psychological factors, social factors are also important in shaping the participation decision. Although researchers have attempted to include social factors in participation models, there is not a conclusive relationship between socioeconomic background and motivation for participation. This study attempts to clarify the linkage between different social factors and adult motivations in re‐entering school to acquire a university degree. By regressing motivations onto three sets of social variables, we found that family role and social position have significant impact in affecting some of the motivations for re‐entering school. These results confirm that adult motivations to learn are embedded within the social lives of adults.     

Enlightenment and Education in Eighteenth Century America: A Platform for Further Study in Higher Education and the Colonial Shift

The prolific educational discussions of America's founding generation have led to extensive treatments surrounding the nature of early-national education in recent scholarship. Republican educational models Jefferson, Rush, and Webster have been scrutinized and praised as the forerunners to modern American higher education. Where these treatments are remiss, however, is in clearly identifying the fundamental shift in educational purpose between 1740 and 1780. Higher education classrooms were inundated with both Enlightenment and Evangelical literature, resulting in new arenas of student autonomy, thus radically departing from the traditional model of higher education carried over from England. An analysis of this transformation will highlight how the highly regarded republican educational ideas on education did not necessarily illustrate a thoroughly new model of higher education. Rather, it gave new definition to an already existing paradigm.     

Educational gaps in medical care and health behavior: Evidence from US Natality data

The US Natality files provide information on medical procedures and health related behavior during pregnancy and childbirth. The data set represents nearly the universe of mothers who give birth in the US, providing the most complete coverage possible of medical care and health behavior among a specific patient population. We document gaps in outcomes by education of the mother and the changes in these educational gaps during 1989-2002.     

Dual Enrollment,Community Colleges,and Baccalaureate Degree Attainment

This study examines baccalaureate attainment by a cohort of 2004 Virginia high school graduates who enrolled in a minimum of one dual enrolled course while high school seniors. Results of the logistic regression analyses indicate that students who began their postsecondary education at community colleges were significantly less likely to earn a baccalaureate degree when compared to students who began directly in four-year institutions. Minority students, though more likely to enroll directly in a four-year institution, were less likely to earn a baccalaureate degree than their White counterparts. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.