The global significance of biodiversity science in China: an overview

Biodiversity science in China has seen rapid growth over recent decades, ranging from baseline biodiversity studies to understanding the processes behind evolution across dynamic regions such as the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We review research, including species catalogues; biodiversity monitoring; the origins, distributions, maintenance and threats to biodiversity; biodiversity-related ecosystem function and services; and species and ecosystems’ responses to global change. Next, we identify priority topics and offer suggestions and priorities for future biodiversity research in China. These priorities include (i) the ecology and biogeography of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountains, and that of subtropical and tropical forests across China; (ii) marine and inland aquatic biodiversity; and (iii) effective conservation and management to identify and maintain synergies between biodiversity and socio-economic development to fulfil China''s vision for becoming an ecological civilization. In addition, we propose three future strategies: (i) translate advanced biodiversity science into practice for biodiversity conservation; (ii) strengthen capacity building and application of advanced technologies, including high-throughput sequencing, genomics and remote sensing; and (iii) strengthen and expand international collaborations. Based on the recent rapid progress of biodiversity research, China is well positioned to become a global leader in biodiversity research in the near future.     

Same-gender relationships in graduate supervision

A reviewing of the research literature revealsarguments that both support and contradict theassumption that female supervisors are important forsupporting academic careers of female graduatestudents. The present study supports the claims thatgender matters when supervisory relationships areestablished. Data from a survey among all regularfaculty members at Norwegian universities show thatthere is a significant same-gender tendency ingraduate supervisory relationships, and that thistendency is stronger among women than among men. Thetendency varies between fields of learning and betweendepartments with different proportions of femalefaculty members. The results are discussed in relationto different explanations of same-genderrelationships.     

Educational choice and persistence in male- and female-dominated fields

Even though female students now make up more than half of all higher education students in many countries, the distribution of women across fields of study is still very uneven. This study examines the gendered nature of recruitment and dropout in higher education. Our results show that students who made gender traditional choices more often had an early preference for the study programme they enrolled in. Moreover, female students reported more often than male students that they had been encouraged by their parents and friends. However, unlike what we expected, there are no differences between students in gender traditional and non-traditional programmes with regard to encouragement from parents and students’ confidence that they had made the right choice. While male students’ dropout is unrelated to the gender composition of educational programmes, women drop out of female-dominated programmes to a lesser extent.

Globalisation or europeanisation? International contact among university staff

The article examines whether the increase in international contacts among university researchers is an impact of a general globalisation trend, or whether it is an effect of policy initiatives on national and supranational levels such as EU research programmes. The present study demonstrates that the sheer volume of international contacts among Norwegian university staff has increased substantially during the last 20 years with respect to conference participation, guest lecturing, study and research visits, peer review work, research collaboration and international publishing. While patterns of international visits have not changed with respect to geographical pattern, research collaboration and co-authoring has become increasingly directed towards other European and Nordic countries. Moreover, we demonstrate a homogenisation between fields of learning regarding the degree of international contact while there are significant differences in geographical orientation. We conclude that general trends of globalisation and regional policy initiatives from the EU are supplementary rather than contradictory with respect to international contacts among Norwegian university staff. Data are drawn from studies based on questionnaires carried out in 1981, 1991 and 2000 among all tenured faculty members of Norway’s four universities.     

Consequences of Project Organisation in Graduate Education

It is a common assumption that disciplinary differences in the organisation of research and knowledge structure have implications for graduate students' learning processes. The present study indicates, however, that even though the inclusion of master's degree students in faculty member's research projects are much more common in the natural sciences than in the humanities and the social sciences, such projects improve quality and effectiveness of graduate education in all fields of learning. Disciplinary differences imply, nevertheless, that projects should be organised differently. Graduate education in the humanities and the social sciences should be organised as research seminars and umbrella projects of individual student theses to a greater extent, rather than trying to apply a research organisation model developed in laboratory fields.     

Departmental Contexts and Faculty Research Activity in Norway

The aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between departmental attributes and university faculty research activity. Since individual and departmental factors are highly interrelated, individual attributes are included in a hierarchical linear model taking into consideration the nested structure of the data. Research activity is measured by research input in terms of time spent on research activities, and research output in terms of publications. The contextual factors have greatest impact on the indicator that is considered to be most essential when assessing research performance: published scientific articles. Department climate, age structure, as well as proportion of faculty members’ with PhD’s have significant impact on research output.     

Author Index Volume 9 2003

Authors Index

Author Index Volume 9 2003     

The relationship among learning outcome measures used in higher education

Although grades are still considered important signifiers of graduates’ quality, greater attention has been paid to other measures of learning outcomes in higher education. This shift in attention is attributed to an increased focus on study quality, employability, quality development and accountability. This article examines how grades relate to different measures of self-reported learning outcomes in engineering, health programmes and education programmes. Longitudinal data from national surveys in Norway are analysed in combination with data from public registers. Self-reported learning outcomes are related to student engagement and factors indicative of effective educational practices, while grades are related more to student background characteristics. Self-reported learning outcomes therefore measure individual gain or value added, using the personal starting point as a reference In this regard, this paper argues that it is important to critically discuss what kind of measures should be used as learning outcomes.     

Teaching and research. The relationship between the supervision of graduate students and faculty research performance

This article examines the relationship between the supervision of graduate students and university faculty research performance. We find that the supervision of Ph.D. students who have projects related to their supervisor's research has an independent effect on faculty members' scientific productivity in the natural and medical sciences and technology, but not in the humanities and social sciences. The relationship between the supervision of project related major subject students and the faculty members' productivity is only significant in the social sciences. These results are generally supported by data on faculty attitudes toward the supervision of graduate students. Those who supervised Ph.D. students gave a considerably more favourable assessment of the importance of supervision for their own research than those who only supervised major subject students, and the proportion of faculty members who answered that supervision of Ph.D. students was part of their own research to a great extent, was very much higher in the natural and medical sciences and technology than in the humanities and social sciences.     

The Impact of Massification on University Research

Universities have been challenged asteaching as well as research institutions. Onthe one hand, universities have been requiredto teach more students and pay more attentionto quality of teaching and educationalprogrammes; on the other hand, there has beenincreasing focus on faculty researchperformance. This paper examines whether theseare conflicting demands, or whether universityfaculty are able to fulfil these requirementssimultaneously. In Norway, the number ofuniversity students almost doubled between 1987and 1995. Norway is, therefore, a sound case toexamine the impact of massification onuniversity research.