Efficiency in the community college sector: stochastic frontier analysis

This paper estimates technical efficiency scores across the community college sector in the United States. Using stochastic frontier analysis and data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for 2003–2010, we estimate efficiency scores for 950 community colleges and perform a series of sensitivity tests to check for robustness. We find that community colleges have become more efficient over time, but no evidence of economies of scale. We also find significant variation in efficiency across colleges, with only part of this variation explained by exogenous differences by state and across student characteristics.     

First- and second-generation design and engineering students: experience,attainment and factors influencing them to attend university

Challenges for students who are ‘first-in-family’ to attend university have been discussed within widening participation discourse. However, in the UK, ‘first-in-family’ or first-generation students have frequently been conflated with those experiencing poverty or from lower socio-economic groups. This research integrated survey data with assessment data from final-year design and engineering students in a UK university to examine students’ attainment, the influences on why students decide to attend university and students’ experiences during their degree programmes. Analysis of the data showed variations in the reasons for first- and second-generation students wanting to go to university, particularly a significant difference in the influence of parents. First-generation students described significantly less parental influence on the decision to attend university than second- or subsequent-generation students. Smaller differences in students’ experiences and attainment in university were also noted. Whilst first-generation students reported differences in study habits, their attainment was, on average, marginally higher than that of their peers. Building on others’ theoretical work, which suggests the importance of social capital within higher education (HE), this research highlights the difference in social influences on both university application and expectations of university for those with and without a family history of tertiary education. Further research is needed to explore, in larger samples, whether the social influences on individuals’ perception of HE are in turn shaped by whether or not their parents attended university, and further, what impact this may have, not only on degree outcomes but also on the broader benefits typically associated with graduate experience.     

Hyperinstrumentalism and cultural policy: means to an end or an end to meaning?

This paper investigates the implications for cultural policy of the logic of the instrumental view of culture taken to its conclusion. Policy developments that establish sets of justifications and rationales that have nothing to do with the cultural content of the policy concerned, but which arise from a deliberate realignment of policy frameworks, establish a form of hyperinstrumentalism. With hyperinstrumentalism the focus on outcomes and the ends of policy means that cultural policy is only as important as the ends to which it is directed. As such, hyperinstrumentalisation demonstrates the consequences for the sector of conditions where claims about the value of culture are irrelevant to political actors. The paper questions whether sense can be made of this shift as a coherent and strategic political choice, rather than as a simple assault on culture. The case of Northern Ireland’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is used to illustrate this. The authors question whether hyperinstrumentalism undermines the justification for an autonomous domain of cultural policy.     

Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education

The study reported here is seeking to gain enhanced understandings of the acquisition and development of core and generic skills in higher education and employment against a backcloth of continued pressure for their effective delivery from employers, government departments, and those responsible for the management and funding of higher education. This pressure appears to have had little impact so far, in part because of tutors' scepticism of the message, the messenger and its vocabulary, and in part because the skills demanded lack clarity, consistency and a recognisable theoretical base. Any empirical attempt to acquire enhanced understandings of practice thus requires the conceptualisation and development of models of generic skills and of course provision. These models are presented together with evidence of their validity, including exemplars of the patterns of course provision identified.     

Obituary

It is with great regret that we announce the death of Gregory Buckland-Smith known to so many of us in ICEM simply as ‘Buck’. He was educated at London University and the Royal Military College of Science. After qualifying he contributed to many journals, particularly in the educational field. On the outbreak of war he joined the army and spent much of his time working on radar. When the war ended he worked with the Foreign Office in Germany as Head of the Films Division. As early as 1945 he was reorganising schools radio in Germany and playing a leading role in the re-establishment of the Institut fur Film und Bild. These were early days in film making also, with films such as ‘A School in Cologne’ and ‘Berlin Looks to the West’. ‘Buck’ also made many friends during this period in Germany and in other countries and was involved with ICEM virtually from the beginning. He was one of our very few honorary members.     

Stimulating transition to postconventional morality: The pickering high school study

Over a four-month period, a class of Grade 11 students were involved in discussion of ethical problems and principles at a postconventional level (as defined by Lawrence Kohlberg). At the beginning and the end of the period, these students used very little postconventional thinking. However, one year later they exhibited a significant usage of post-conventional moral thinking, in comparison with a control group that remained unchanged throughout.

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Résumé Pendant quatre mois, les élèves d'une classe de onzième année ont participé à la discussion de problèmes et de principes de moralité au niveau post-classique (selon la définition de Lawrence Kohlberg). Au début et à la fin de cette période, ces étudiants ont exprimé peu de réflexions post-classiques. Un an plus tard, cependant, ils manifestaient une nette attitude fondée sur des principes de morale post-classique alors que l'attitude d'un groupe-témoin n'avait subi aucune modification pendant la même période.

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The authors wish to express their sincerest gratitude for the very willing cooperation and assistance of Mr. Malcolm Mitchell, head of history at Pickering High School, of Mr. Kettle, the then principal, and other members of staff, and of the students involved in the study, particularly those in the experimental class.