The Times/The Times Higher Education Supplement --League Tables in Britain: An Insider's View

The Times has been a pioneer in the publication of university league tables in the United Kingdom as an aid to the application process for young people seeking to select the most appropriate course programmes and institutions. It published its unified league table for the first time in 1993. The Times Higher Education Supplement, a weekly newspaper under the same ownership, has complemented The Times operation by publishing simultaneously the data on which The Times ranking is based. These data are intended specifically for consumption by a readership drawn from among academics and administrators in the universities and other higher education institutions of the country. The underlying philosophy of The Times/The Times Higher Education Supplement operation is to reflect the greatest degree of objectivity using publicly available and verifiable data as proxies for measures of performance across a range of criteria. The methodology is subject to continuous review in consultation with the universities.     

Gender Issues in Parental Involvement in Student Choices of Higher Education

This article explores gender, social class and ethnic issues in parental involvement in students' choices of higher education. It draws upon interviews with students and their parents, who were a small group of an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study of students' higher education choice processes in the UK. Gender was highly significant in several respects, illustrating changes in higher education over the last 20 years, whereby more women than men now enter higher education. Most of the interviewees were female. They were mothers and daughters who were thinking about higher education. The article explores first how gender is inflected in choice processes--from whether students choose to involve their parents in the study, to their parents' characteristics, to the forms of involvement revealed. Different facets of involvement are considered--interest, influence and support, investment and intrusion. Secondly, the article provides illustrations of girls' collaborative approaches to the choice processes, in which some of their mothers also engage. This is contrasted with boys' perspectives and those of fathers who were interviewed. This illustrates how gender is woven through social networks across the generations. Parental involvement varied in terms of gender, educational and social backgrounds, or notions of 'institutional' and 'familial habitus'. Finally, the authors reflect upon why gender is salient in how young people and their parents think about their involvement in choosing universities and relate this to changes in higher education policies and practices.     

Choice, Diversity and 'Exit' in Schooling — A Mixed Picture

Traditionally, most systems have required that parents send their children to a school within the district of residence and close to the family home, sometimes with an elite private system co-existing alongside. In recent years, this basic model has been modified, with some countries witnessing more extensive changes than others. This article outlines the range of change that has taken place along the dual axes of promoting diversity and establishing room for the exercise of parental choice. The synthesis article draws on the material submitted by all the countries participating in the OECD study, and not only those which feature specifically in this issue.
The first section reviews the current situation regarding parental choice of school and evidence relating to how that choice is exercised by different groups of parents. For choice to be exercised, there must be alternatives to choose from, and hence there follows a review of some of the policies and practices for diversity. The article then examines diversity in more forms contrasting selective and non-selective schools, public and private schools, and formal and home schooling. Several countries have moved to greater diversification of public education, allowing for different types of schools accommodating different student ability levels or parents' educational preferences. The role of demand is clearly a central element in their emergence and differing fortunes. This in turn is closely, but not exclusively, related to the familiar factors of social advantage and reproduction as well as to issues of value choices and beliefs.     

Ethical Concerns for Counselor Educators

This article identifies four areas of ethical concern in counselor education. Counselor educators in the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES) region were surveyed regarding their attitudes and practices concerning these four areas. Survey results with conclusions and recommendations are given. Vignette 1: J. Jones, a single counselor education professor, is told by K. Adams, a single female graduate student in one of his classes, that she finds him very attractive. She then invites him to her home for dinner. Vignette 2: J. Smith, a student and advisee of counselor educator M. Thompson, is taking a group dynamics course from her this semester. He believes that participation in the course has triggered his desire to work on some issues in his personal life. He approaches Dr. Thompson to be his counselor. Vignette 3: Counselor educator F. Rogers suggests an idea for a research study to graduate student P. Collins. Ms. Collins carries out the study and submits a paper describing it in order to meet a requirement in Dr. Rogers's class. Dr. Rogers later decides that with some revision this paper could be publishable. He spends many hours revising the paper so that it is suitable for publication. When he submits it, he lists himself as first author. Vignette 4: Counselor educator A. Johnson is serving on C. Young's dissertation committee. Ms. Young, who is a training director at a major business in the community, offers Dr. Johnson a lucrative consulting contract with her company.