Educational and Financial Data Mining

Predicting student success has long been an interest of institutions of higher education as well as organisations responsible for preparing high-stake, standardised tests administered at national and international levels. This study discusses how performance prediction studies have evolved from those that use demographic data and high school grades to predict success in college to those that utilise sophisticated data collected in non-traditional educational platforms to predict end-of-course performance and to those that show how student progress can be tracked in a continuous manner. A total of 56 studies published since the nineties are discussed. Views on strengths and weaknesses as well as observed opportunities for improvement are presented. The consistently high results reported in many of the studies shall convince the reader that automated solutions to the problem of predicting student progress and performance can either be tailored for specific settings or can be adopted from similar settings in which they have been utilized successfully. A recommendation on how to build upon recent success is provided.

One of the major problems that a financial manager faces is the enormous amount of financial data. There is a variety of software systems used to support the process of investment decision making. In this paper, a software system for financial asset management is presented. The system is based on fuzzy logic, operates in real time and differs from existing systems for portfolio management in five key aspects. The system is tested on real data from Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

8th International Conference on Data Mining & Knowledge Management Process (CDKP 2019) provides a forum for researchers who address this issue and to present their work in a peer-reviewed forum. Authors are solicited to contribute to the conference by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in the following areas, but are not limited to these topics only

The aim of this study is to establish a framework for the financing of Turkey's vocational education system. The literature review is conducted for this study. In addition, one to one consultation with relevant experts from General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education (of Ministry of National Education, Republic of Turkey) is executed and related regulations, circulars and laws are identified. Moreover, the recent restructuring of vocational training and the student's educational process in vocational education are confirmed. The information obtained synthesized from different angles, in details and integrated in order to create this article.

In this article; first of all, general definition of vocational and technical education system is explained as vocational and technical education is educational process that prepares students for both higher education and for a profession or for life and employment areas according to their interests, wishes and capabilities as well as providing student with general knowledge with at least four years of compulsory education after primary education (MEB, 2013b, p. XV). The final structure of the vocational training system as in No. 652 Decree Law on the Organization and Duties of Ministry of National Education is explained. With this decree, General Directorate of Technical Education for Boys, General Directorate of Technical Education for Girls, General Directorate of Commerce and Tourism Education, Health Affairs Department, and Apprenticeship, Vocational and Technical Education Development and Promotion Department are assembled under one roof under the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education (MEB, 2015a).

New types of vocational and technical education schools whose legally bases on the circular on the Reduction of Vocational and Technical Secondary Education School Diversity (Date 05.01.2014 and numbered 176074) is emphasized. School types which are in four mainly are as follows: Vocational and Technical High School; Anatolian vocational program, Anatolian technical program. Multi-Program High School; Anatolian vocational program, Anatolian technical program, Anatolian high school program, Anatolian religious high school program. Vocational and Technical Education Center (METEM); Anatolian vocational program, Anatolia technical program, Certificate programs. Dual Vocational Training; certificate.

On the basis of Regulation of Vocational and Technical Education published in Official Gazette (2002), how students studying in vocational training handles vocational orientation and training process is explained in detail. Following that, basic components in the vocational and technical education are given and discussed briefly for the school years 2005 / '06, 2009 / '10, 2010 / '11, 2011 / '12, 2012 / '13, 2013 / '14, 2014 / '15. The number of students and of teachers of vocational and technical education are compared considering these academic years. For the 2014 / '15 academic year, the ratio of the sum of the total general secondary education to the number of students in vocational and technical education is given. For the 2014 / '15 school year, the share of vocational and technical education in secondary education is 42%. The share of general secondary education in secondary education is 58%.

General secondary education includes registered students who enrolled in the schools affiliated with General Directorate of Secondary Education, General Directorate of Private Education, vocational high schools (Police College) under other ministries and institutions, professional technical and religious schools and Open Education High Schools.  On the other hand, the vocational and technical education includes registered students who enrolled in the schools under General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education, General Directorate of Special Education and Guidance Services General Directorate of the secondary education schools, vocational school (conservatory) affiliated with other ministries and institutions, General Directorate of Private Education (Special) and the Open High School.

In later part of the article, number of students who enrolled in public and private vocational and technical high school is compared for the 2014 / '15 school year. Later on, according to OECD data in 2011, a section on the annual spending units per student in vocational and technical education in OECD countries is emphasized. According to these data, while Mexico is the country with spending the least per student in vocational and technical education with $ 1,302 annually in OECD countries, Switzerland is the country with the highest spending per student in vocational and technical education with $ 16.730 annually. Turkey is spending less than 1/3 of the OECD average which is 9643 US dollars, with 3,181 US dollars.

Thereafter in the another part of the paper, vocational and technical education financing sources; mainly vocational training financing sources mentioned in the secondary education financial resources and the official development and dissemination of vocational education fund are described in details. In the last part, the vocational and technical education financing and resource utilization-promoting proposals (obtained from a vocational and technical training workshops executed by General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education in 2012) are presented.

ÖZET
Bu çalışmanın amacı Türkiye’nin mesleki eğitim sisteminin finansmanı hakkında bir çerçeve oluştur-maktır. Bu çalışma için alanyazın araştırması yapılmıştır. Ayrıca, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Milli Eğitim Ba-kanlığı, Mesleki ve Teknik Eğitim Genel Müdürlüğü’ndeki ilgili uzmanlarla da birebir görüşerek ilgili yönetmelik, genelge ve kanunlar tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca, mesleki eğitimin son yapılanması, mesleki eğitimde öğrencinin eğitim süreci teyit edilmiştir. Elde edilen bilgiler detaylı, bütüncül ve farklı açılar-dan sentezlenerek bu makale oluşturulmuştur. Bu çalışmada; öncelikle mesleki ve teknik ortaöğretimin tanımına genel olarak yer verilmiştir. Mesleki eğitim sisteminin son yapılanmasından sonraki genel durum, mesleki ve teknik eğitim okul türleri aktarılmıştır. 2005/'06, 2009/'10, 2010/'11, 2011/'12, 2012/'13, 2013/'14, 2014/'15 eğitim ve öğretim yıllarında mesleki ve teknik eğitim temel bileşenlerine kısaca yer verilmiştir. Daha sonra, mesleki ve teknik eğitim finansman kaynakları; özellikle ortaöğretim finansal kaynakları içerisindeki mesleki eğitim finansman kaynakları ve mesleki eğitimi geliştirme ve yaygınlaştırma fonu açıklanmıştır. Son bölümde ise, mesleki ve teknik eğitim finansman ve kaynak kullanımı-teşvik önerisinden bahsedilmiştir.