Public and Private Higher Education Institutions--Joint or Separate Evaluation and Ranking: The Polish Perspective

Since 1989, Polish higher education has been characterized by the emergence of a private sector of higher education as well as by the development of procedures and institutions for the evaluation and accreditation of higher education institutions and programmes in both sectors. Currently, the two sectors are evaluated separately by separate institutions. The authors call for the convergence of the two higher education sectors. Not only would evaluations of Polish higher education institutions thus be made more accurate and comprehensive, but the two sectors would learn from one another, and the private institutions and their students would become eligible to receive state grants.     

Comenius and Sweden,and Bengt Skytte's Sophopolis

In 1642 the Swedish government persuaded Comenius to come to Sweden in order to improve its educational system and, especially, to produce textbooks for the teaching of Latin. Comenius worked as an educational advisor to Sweden for six years. This paper describes his influence on and contact with the Swedish government and learned world and how his ideas of international cooperation and tolerance inspired men such as Bengt Skytte, who developed the idea of a 'Sophopolis', a centre or city of the learned and wise men drawn from many countries.     

THE EIGHTEEN‐MONTH EXPERIENCE OF THE NATIONAL EVALUATION COMMITTEE IN FRANCE

This article describes the origins of and the rationale for the creation of the French National Evaluation Committee, the niche which it fills within the context of French higher education, its make‐up, details of its first year of activity, its typical procedures for the evaluation of. a given institution and, in general terms, its evaluation criteria. An annex lists the current members of the Committee, the President of which is Laurent Schwartz, a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

     

Institutional accreditation as an instrument of public relations: The case of the Poznan´ university of economics

In December 2000, five Polish state institutions of higher education in economics established the Foundation for the Promotion and Accreditation of Economics Programmes. Its mission, as stated in its charter, is to improve the quality of economics and management education by disseminating and supporting its best models. This mission takes on particular importance on the eve of the inclusion of Polish higher education institutions into the European Higher Education Area. This article serves as a case study based on the experience of the Poznan´ University of Economics and what it gained from its accreditation in early 2003.     

The strategic role of public relations in creating the competitive advantages of private higher education in Poland: The example of the school of banking in Poznan´

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the key role of public relations in increasing the competitive advantages of higher education institutions. It identifies and describes the mechanism of the shift in interest from advertising to public relations that results from the increasing complexity of the environment of a private higher education institution. Moreover, the authors conduct an analysis of the main target groups of public relations activities, referring to the conceptual model of the “two markets” according to which a private higher education institution “sells” access to education to potential candidates and then “sells” its graduates on the labour market. The practical example of the marketing and public relations activities undertaken by the authors at the School of Banking in Poznan´ since 1994 are presented and elucidated.     

Quality Higher Education at the University of Novi Sad

As Serbian universities inherited a reputation for very high quality from the days of socialism, they have been somewhat reluctant to reform themselves, particularly to adopt the 3+2 degree award system as per the Bologna Process recommendation. In fact, Serbian universities are more successful in the international arena at macro-level than at micro-level. Still, the author's university, the University of Novi Sad, is reforming itself along the lines of the Bologna recommendations.     

Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering Education in Hungary

Engineering education has more than 200 years of tradition in Hungary. Chemical engineers are trained at the Technical University of Budapest (TUB) and at the University of Veszprém. The curriculum of the TUB chemical engineering education is given. Undergraduate environmental engineering education is offered at the University of Miskolc, at the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs and at the University of Veszprém. Curricula of the latter two are given. The TUB has several environmental specialization opportunities for engineering students, but at present no separate undergraduate environmental engineering education is offered. Such a curriculum is now under preparation and will be introduced in 1998. Several technical colleges also offer environmental engineering education, where the duration of the training is 3 years. Postgraduate education is a very suitable form to add environmental knowledge to the existing engineering knowledge of graduate engineers. The TUB and the universities in Miskolc and Veszprém are all very active in this field.     

Student Perspectives on Higher Education as a Factor in the Founding of Knowledge Societies

The Chairperson of ESIB--the National Union of Students in Europe, a student union umbrella organization--briefly traces the origins of her organization and argues vigorously for strong government support for well-developed and diverse tertiary education systems. These must be broadly engaged both in their respective societies and internationally so as to prepare civil society for participation in so-called knowledge-based society.     

Context Effects on Children's Use of Language

The sweeping changes in Swedish society in the 1990s, with extensive decentralisation, privatisation and cutbacks in the public sector, implied quite new conditions for the realisation of the aim of pre-school and school as a meeting place for children from different backgrounds. This article discusses some of these changes and their implications, through a study of parent's choice of pre-school care facility in the city of Uppsala. The main data source is a survey study among 1584 mothers of children born in 1995. The results show that parents' use of the right to choose pre-school facility is economically, socially and culturally segregated; the patterns of choice are construed in relation to residential areas but are not a simple effect of housing segregation. The choice of pre-school facility in Uppsala is thus a practice that creates specific conditions--socially and culturally homogenous private pre-school facilities--that make it virtually impossible for them to achieve the goal of being meeting places.     

The Establishment of Quality Assurance Mechanisms at the University of Nis and Other Systemic Changes in Serbian Higher Education

The author, the Rector of the University of Nis in Serbia and Montenegro, describes the recent introduction of quality control mechanisms and other reform measures in his university. These reform measures are intended to help adapt the university to the Bologna Process. The carrying out of these reforms has been aided by a university-wide evaluation that was conducted in 2002 by a team of the European Association of Universities. A second impetus for reform has been the participation of the University of Nis in the activities of the Regional University Network on Governance and Management of Higher Education in South East Europe.