Higher Education Policy

Higher education has become a politically sensitive issue, making it difficult to achieve institutionalised European-level cooperation and integration policies. Due to specific higher education policy initiatives at a European level and the appreciation of universities as key actors in the development of the European knowledge-based society and economy, it has become more common to emphasise the need for a European perspective on universities. However, nation-states are still solely responsible for regulating higher education and deciding national priorities. In this sense, university autonomy, funding and quality are three specific policy areas of interest for the European Union, as well as for Spain and Catalonia as demonstrated in the recent higher education policies and recommendations. The aim of this thesis is to study how European level higher education policies on university autonomy, funding and quality are adopted at national (Spanish) and regional (Catalan) levels. This research intends to achieve this objective by analysing the European, Spanish and Catalan arenas and by focusing on the three core policy issues selected. The study has a governance and multi-governance perspective with a special focus on how policies are adopted from level to level, and the match that these adoptions have in relation to the intrinsic characteristics of university autonomy, funding and quality. The methodology used to pursue this objective is of qualitative nature based on the analysis of policy documents and semi-structured interviews. The study reveals that the most common goals are very similar at the European, Spanish and Catalan levels. The greatest ‘match’ between policies at the different levels is found in the issue of university autonomy, whereas funding and quality assurance issues have a slight controversy and therefore do not ‘match’ so straightforwardly with the European policies. Reasons behind these findings can be found in the contextual elements of the Spanish and Catalan higher education systems, where in addition to the traditional academic values, historical, political and cultural issues have also an important role.

This paper examines matched unit-record results of 217 students who took both the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) over a three-year period at a public Master’s-Larger Programs institution in the Northeast. Results indicate that seniors recruited to take CLA using incentives exhibited more engaged behaviors on a range of NSSE items compared to seniors who did not take CLA, suggesting a recruitment bias in the testing population. Further, results confirm previous research by Carini, Kuh, and Klein (2006) that indicates only small relationships between test scores and survey items.

Bu kitap; duygusal ve davranışsal bozukluklara sahip öğrenciler hakkında bilgi sahibi olmak isteyen sınıf öğretmenleri, özel eğitim öğretmenleri ve alanda çalışan uzmanlar için hazırlanmış giriş niteliğinde bir uygulama kitabıdır. Her bir bozukluğun nedeni, tanımlanması, güncel araştırmalar ışığında verilmeye çalışılmış ve okul ortamındaki pratik uygulamalarla da anlatım zenginleştirilmiştir. Bunlara ek olarak belirli bir bozukluğun tüm yönlerine ilişkin temel yaklaşımla birlikte bilimsel olarak geliştirilmiş müdahele yöntemleri de verilmeye çalışılmıştır.

Bu kitabın alanda yeni çalışmaya başlayan öğretmenler kadar güncel verilerle desteklenen tanı koyma ve müdahele stratejilrine önem vermesi nedeniyle alanda uzun süredir çalışmakta olan öğretmenlere ve uzmanlara da yararlı olacağını düşünmekteyiz.

Anormal Psikoloji kitabı, ruhsal bozukluklar alanında çalışan tüm profesyoneller, psikiyatristler, klinik psikologlar, psikologlar, psikolojik danışmanlar, hekimler, sosyal hizmet uzmanları, psikiyatri hemşireleri ve bu alanlarda öğrenci yetiştiren akademisyenler ile eğitim alan öğrenciler için temel bir başvuru kitabıdır.
2013 yılının Mayısı ayında yayımlanan DSM-5 ölçütlerine göre ruhsal bozukluklarla ilgili sunulan bilgilerin güncellemesinin de yapıldığı bu kitap, tüm dünyada pek çok üniversitenin psikiyatri ve psikoloji bölümlerinde ders kitabı olarak okutulmaktadır.
Kitabın her bölümünde, ilk olarak ruhsal bozukluklarla ilgili vakalar sunulmakta, daha sonra bozuklukların klinik tanıları yapılmakta ve DSM-IV-TR’den farklı olan DSM-5’te yapılan değişikliklere yer verilmektedir. Ayrıca, DSM-5’teki tanı ölçütleri, bozuklukların etiyolojisi ve epidemiyolojisi, bozukluklar üzerinde kalıtımın ve çevrenin etkileri, biyolojik ve sosyal ve kültürel etkiler, en güncel araştırmalardan elde edilen verilerle harmanlanarak sunulmaktadır. Ruhsal bozuklukların tedavisinde etkili olacak terapi yaklaşımları ve ilaçla yapılan tedaviler hakkında da bilgiler veren kitap, sahip olduğu zengin içeriği ile eşsiz bir kaynaktır.
Anormal Psikoloji kitabının; profesyoneller ve öğrenciler için önemli bir rehber olacağına, yardıma ihtiyaç duyan insanların sorunlarının çözümüne, ruhsal bozuklukların tanı ve tedavisinde önemli katkılar sağlayacağına inanıyoruz.

The present paper unveils Booker T. Washington’s thoughts on education and their relevance in the contemporary educational system in India. Education is the most powerful tool which changes our life, society and ultimately country. A proper education moulds an individual’s character and makes his/her life better by inculcating moral values, intelligence, creativity and skills. It shows the way how to live and behave in society with dignity. It strengthens an individual’s head, hand and heart. Booker T. Washington, a renowned African-American educationist, dedicated
his entire life for the empowerment of the coloured people of America through the means of education. His educational model proposes industrial and technical education, agricultural education and training, vocational education, skill based knowledge, moral values, etc.

The main aim of the text is to discuss the expected consequences of the reform of education and of higher education from the perspective of implementing the welfare state.  The welfare state is the main promise of the Law and Justice political agenda. Its fulfillment determines the support of the voters for this party. By analysing the possible effects of each reform, the author considers whether the Law and Justice party is building a welfare state. He argues that, in spite of promises and the voters’ expectations, the consequences of these key public policies for the shaping of a welfare state will not be egalitarian. The analysis is based on specialists’ discourse on the two reforms in reference to the idea of social equality. It is a critical study in the sociology of knowledge.

Głównym celem tekstu jest omówienie przewidywanych skutków reformy edukacji i szkolnictwa wyższego z punktu widzenia realizacji państwa dobrobytu. Państwo dobrobytu jest głównym postulatem programowym Prawa i Sprawiedliwości. Obietnica jego realizacji przesądza o poparciu wyborców dla tej formacji. Analizując możliwe efekty każdej z reform, autor zastanawia się, czy PiS buduje państwo dobrobytu. Argumentuje, że wbrew zapowiedziom i oczekiwaniom wyborców skutki tych kluczowych w perspektywie kształtowania państwa dobrobytu polityk publicznych nie będą miały egalitarnego charakteru. Podstawą analizy jest dyskurs specjalistów na temat obydwu reform w odniesieniu do idei równości społecznej. Jest to krytyczne studium z socjologii wiedzy.

Because of processes of globalisation, internationali-sation, and neo-liberal world policy Flanders (Belgium) is facing new problems concerning inequality of opportunities in education. This might raise sever¬al questions. In this paper three questions are an¬swered: 1) is there equality of opportunity in the Flemish education system, 2) what is the policy of the Flemish government in relation to inequality of opportunities in education and which answers could be offered to remedy for inequality of opportunities in higher education, and 3) does the academisation of college education contribute to more equality of opportunities in higher education. Besides delivering a short description of the inequality of opportunity in education, the author criticised some of the limita-tions of the current research. The second part of the paper is mainly interested in the description of research about new actions in the USA for the promotion of equality of opportunity in higher education. The third part supports the thesis that the processes of academisation of college education contribute to more equality of opportunity, although the means provided by the government to attain this purpose are not sufficient.

De globalisering van de samenleving heeft aan de problematiek van de kansengelijkheid in het onderwijs een andere dimensie gegeven. Daarenboven gaat dit proces gepaard met een toenemend belang dat in onze samenleving aan het neoliberale gedachtegoed wordt gehecht. Het is duidelijk dat dit zijn sporen zal achterlaten op de ontwikkeling van het beleid voor meer kansengelijkheid. Ik licht deze begrippen eerst kort
toe om me dan toe te spitsen op drie vragen betreffende de kansengelijkheid in Vlaanderen

Analysis of social and economic conditions of vulnerable/disadvantaged groups of students in Croatia, based on data from the EUROSTUDENT survey and from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. Report prepared for the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia.

This article provides an analysis of the concept of "competences, based on an Anglophone bibliography. It supports the argument that "competences" do not constiture merely an operational concept, but rather and foremost a normative one. Given that  competences are treated as a basic component of the contemporary policy of the European Union, we have analysed the relative bibliography indicating that the competences, being the cornerstone of employability, are also treated as the primary constituent of the new ideal type of  individual adapted to the needs of the new global economy. This design seems to replace the traditional process of socialization. In reality, it is the implementation of a new societal project. A project where the role of the University in promoting competences seems central.

This presentation was given to at the Offre d’enseignement supérieur a l’étranger: incitations bénéfices et modelés économiques – analyse et retours d’expérience workshop on transnational education (TNE) organised by France Stratégie.  It sets out the traditional business models for TNE, discussing the way that these are blurring and changing over time.  It then considers the forces driving the changes in TNE and speculates on a future in which TNE business models will change so significantly that they will no longer be TNE as we currently understand the concept.

Internationalization to date has been largely focused on outputs. This is true at the institutional, national, and regional levels. Resources, research, and the media concentrate on the quantitative fluctuations associated with student mobility, scholarly publications, transnational partnerships, international student enrollment, and to a growing extent, the number of international faculty and staff. These factors frequently serve as a proxy for measuring global competitiveness and prestige. However, if we are truly focused on the “common good,” they provide little insight into what I argue is a larger—more expansive and more ambitious—mission for internationalization: to develop a sustainably just, globally connected, and interculturally competent society. For that to happen intelligently, what is “vitally important” (Rumbley, 2019) is a re-centering of our work from internationalization outputs to outcomes. I suggest in this discussion that faculty are not only essential actors in internationalization, but a key constituency for bringing outcomes to the fore, as well as an overlooked opportunity for developing synergies between policy, research, and practice.

Although there has been rapid expansion of higher education around the globe, such expansion has not resulted in a more equitable system. Drawing on the work of Nancy Fraser, equity in higher education is conceptualised as 'parity of participation' and includes both equity of access and outcomes. The tensions between expansion and equity are illustrated by comparing South Africa's equity challenges with those of Brazil and the USA. Focusing on South Africa's critical choices, four scenarios or possible futures are provided to illustrate some of the trade-offs and strategic choices. The main argument is that if South Africa's higher education system continues to expand without a concomitant investment in the effectiveness of teaching and learning, it will not achieve the policy goals of equity of access and outcomes. Furthermore the investment needs to be strategically targeted to interventions that can serve as systemic levers of change for reducing drop-out rates and improving graduation rates. To this end, over the next decade the state needs to prioritise an investment in an undergraduate curriculum more 'fit for purpose'. The investment needs to be in curriculum reform that normalises different levels of foundational provision, identifies and removes curriculum obstacles that delay or impede graduation, and provides opportunities for 'breadth' for all students, not only those who come from privileged backgrounds. Significance: • If South Africa's higher education system continues to expand without a concomitant investment in the effectiveness of teaching and learning, it will not achieve the policy goals of equity of access and outcomes.

It can be debated as to whether higher education as a culture and industry has become “locked-in” to its systems and processes; but what is less likely to be argued is that the underlying educational mission of higher education is to lead and advance through research and education the future of our society. We have begun to critically ask what academic institutions should be doing to address these current social challenges and who should be held accountable for not only asking these questions, but also making these impactful decisions. Understanding how academic leadership adapts and innovates in a changing societal environment and with fluctuating industry needs is important in order for both graduates and graduate programs to stay relevant and competitive. Nevertheless, as we modify our systems and processes, we need to continue to evaluate our leadership and their successes and failures, so as to learn from them moving forward. We also need to recognize how graduate education is evolving through these large and small scale changes, and what does this mean to our purpose as leaders, faculty, and staff. Identifying value and purpose should be at the core of our educational mission and influential in our curriculum development. Regardless of the role or title, an overall review of the organizational structure may led to a better understanding as to how academic roles, and in particular leadership positions, are assessed and justified both within academic culture and outside of the industry.
There are still a number of questions that have to be asked related to this topic, some that this paper has alluded to and others that this paper has not address but should be explore in future research. Some of those questions including: How do we currently measure graduate school success? Can graduate programs develop a system of longitudinal learning for their graduates and alumni? How can we add value for graduates, to be maintained through an alumni community network? How can academic administration better create this value and establish these partnerships with the professional world? What is the direction and future goal/purpose of graduate education and who is its audience?
While all of these questions have their place and deserve their time to be discussed, we circle back to the main focus of this paper, that being the position and responsibilities of leadership in graduate education and how these roles are appointed. Regardless of the responsibilities, while these individuals might have the academic, scholarly and research background, many academic leaders come in lacking the appropriate knowledge, skills, and competencies to manage and lead and administer larger program visions and responsibilities. How they gain this aptitude seems to vary, leader-by-leader and experience-by-experience. Yet, it begs the question, why can a model not be designed to standardize this process in order to ensure that we are not only identifying leaders with strong academic credentials but also individuals that have vision, passion, progressiveness, and can relate this to the institutional identity and overall mission.
I recognize that this is not a question that I can answer, but the goal here is more to explore and shed light on the question moving forward. Ultimately, this is a long process that is not, and cannot, be answered quickly. Simply substituting these leadership roles will not solve the larger challenges that graduate education faces, though it could be a starting point. There is a cultural change that needs to take place in order for longitudinal and sustainable goals, innovation, and development to occur within graduate education. What is promising however, is the growing recognition that the landscape of graduate education and education in general is shifting. There are new challenges on the horizon, some present and some predicted. Given the research and the qualitative responses from many of those in positions of power and leadership, the seeds of change lie in academic leadership. We need these inspiring, innovative, and open-minded, interdisciplinary leaders to make decisions and guide graduate education forward in the 21st century.

Organizational identity can be designed to reduce the risks of uncertainty about future states of public organizations and the inherent potential issues related to evaluation and assessment. As such, organizational identity may shape a congruent and credible self-representation of the university, where a consistent narrative articulates compliance to diverse institutional frameworks, commitment to organizational distinctiveness, and a sensible rationale for strategic change. By examining the strategic plans of four European universities over a 10-year period of major organizational change, the paper discusses the subtleties of the specific combinations of the three different functions and the implications for institutional leadership.

We draw on population-level administrative data from the U.S. Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service to quantify the impact of for-profit college attendance on the employment and earnings of over one million students. Using a matched comparison group difference-indifferences design, we find that certificate-seeking students in for-profit institutions are 1.5 percentage points less likely to be employed and, conditional on employment, have 11 percent lower earnings after attendance than students in public institutions. These results hold for both men and women and for seven of the top ten fields of study. We find that earnings and employment outcomes are particularly poor for students attending for-profit colleges that offer the majority of their courses online and for multi-campus chains. We find that for-profit students experience small, statistically insignificant gains in annual earnings after attendance compared to a matched control group of young individuals who do not attend college. A back-of-the-envelope comparison of these earnings gains to average debt burdens suggests that for-profit certificate programs do not pay off for the average student.

Transnational Education (TNE) in the past 20 years has emerged as a prime mode of international higher education. This period of rapid growth in TNE activity has been driven by a shortage in supply of higher education (HE) in offshore markets. As this supply-demand gap starts to shrink – and offshore markets become more condensed –exporting institutions need to find ways to diversify their TNE operations.
So far, the prime focus of exporting institutions has been to replicate the home campus learning experience in their offshore partnerships. This replica model has been subject to criticism, primarily for its failure to recognise the impact of cultural and education factors affecting student experience across different countries.

At the same time, the prevailing views of the student as customer and of quality as value for money impose additional pressures on TNE exporting and importing institutions to balance between educational outcomes and student satisfaction.

This presentation sought to provide answers to the following three  questions:
1) How technology (and the role of virtual reality) can facilitate new models of TNE?​
2) How exporting institutions can differentiate their TNE provision via curriculum development?
3) How to align educational quality (e.g. learning outcomes) and service quality (e.g. student satisfaction) in a cross-border context?

The OECD is currently engaging in a world-wide feasibility study entitled International Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO). This feasibility study seeks to develop measures that would assess student learning outcomes that would be valid across different languages, cultures and higher education institutions. Drawing on anticolonial perspectives, this article provides a critical policy analysis of the AHELO project. Based on a review of the AHELO texts, it presents two themes: 1) crisis and imperial logic in policy production, 2) Anglo-Eurocentrism as global designs and colonial relationships. It argues that, through AHELO, OECD is striving to construct a global space of equivalence for teaching and learning in higher education, and in so doing, perpetuates coloniality in global higher education. It concludes by noting some comparative observations between AHELO and PISA in terms of the increasing role of global knowledge for policy tools in educational policy.

Science policies emphasizing the advanced qualification of human resources, together with democratizing access to science and internationalizing the science base, are shown to help
build the conditions needed to drive brain gain over time.
Exploring a new set of data for the period 1970–2010 in Portugal, this paper focuses on the analysis of flows of doctorates, with the ultimate goal of helping to promote the absorptive capacity that emerging regions and countries worldwide need to acquire to learn how to use science for economic and social development. It shows a notable process of brain gain by the end of this period and, above all, it provides a dynamic approach to the cumulative process of building knowledge-based societies. The results show the need to consider the co-evolution of brain gain, brain drain and brain circulation over time and space. In addition, they suggest the
importance of certain major counter-intuitive policy instruments to facilitate the co-evolution of human capital formation and research capacity building. In the case of Portugal, these instruments have included a centralized program of research grants, research careers independent of traditional
academic career tracks, and a diversified system of funding research units and institutions based on research assessments through international peer reviews.

The COVID-19 pandemic quickly led to the closure of universities and colleges around the world, in hopes that public health officials’ advice of social distancing could help to flatten the infection curve and reduce total fatalities from the disease. Drawing on Copenhagen school securitization theory and analyzing 25 declarations of emergency eLearning at American universities, I argue that in addition to COVID-19 being framed as a general threat, face-to-face schooling was also presented as a threat through these policies. A review of securitization theory—with particular attention to the question of advocacy and the relationship of desecuritization to emancipation—grounds the investigation theoretically. I argue that securitization theory is an important tool for educators not only for observing (and understanding) the phenomenon of emergency eLearning, but also for advocating the desecuritization of schooling after the COVID-19 crisis passes.

These poems, composed in Somali and in English, provide a poetic reflection of the recently emerged debate on the theme of Caddaan Studies which means "White Studies". The criticism and counter-criticism contained in the debate dug so deep into life nerve of Somali Studies that over a thousand people participated. The poems, under the title "Inaugurating Caddaan Studies" were composed with a critical observation of the debate.

Since the end of the last century, there have been lots of analyses on the evolution of various basic types of structures of authority and academic governance patterns, public policies and practice models, all together in search of the most effective formula for adapting the higher education institutions to the new educational requirements and trends of the global market, characterized by increasing competition. In this context, our paper provides a succinct analysis of the worldwide trends in the governance and management of higher education with an emphasis on Europe and on the evolution of the Romanian universities, in the context of the public policies promoted during time.

Working-class students tend to be less socially integrated at university than middle-class students (Rubin, 2012a).  The present research investigated two potential reasons for this working-class social exclusion effect.  First, working-class students may have fewer finances available to participate in social activities.  Second, working-class students tend to be older than middle-class students and, consequently, they are likely to have more work and/or childcare commitments.  These additional commitments may prevent them from attending campus which, in turn, reduces their opportunity for social integration.  These predictions were confirmed among undergraduate students at an Australian university (N = 433) and a USA university (N = 416).  Strategies for increasing working-class students’ social integration at university are discussed.

College affordability is an issue of major concern for students and families. Need-based aid is one way to tackle this issue, but as more students apply for grants, fewer are able to receive aid. Illinois needs to invest more in programs such as the Monetary Award Program in order to maintain college access for today's students. Student debt topped $1 trillion dollars nationally in 2013. More should be done to help borrowers manage student debt in order to maintain an accessible higher education system in Illinois.

Το παρόν βιβλίο διαπραγματεύεται την έννοια της εκδημοκρατικοποίησης της ανώτατης εκπαίδευσης και των ορίων της. Η έννοια εκκινεί ως κοινωνικό αίτημα που γίνεται πολιτικό πρόγραμμα και πράξη. Είναι τέτοιας δυναμικής που από τον Β΄ Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο και μετά (αργότερα στην Ελλάδα) κυριαρχεί στη συγκρότηση εκπαιδευτικών πολιτικών και μετασχηματίζει συνολικά τα εκπαιδευτικά συστήματα των αναπτυγμένων χωρών και εξειδικευμένα την ανώτατη εκπαίδευσή τους. Τα αποτελέσματά της είναι διφορούμενα. Από την μια, πέραν πάσης αμφιβολίας πέτυχε νέες πληθυσμιακές ομάδες να αποκτήσουν πρόσβαση και εμπειρία στην ανώτατη εκπαίδευση (ποσοτική εκδημοκρατικοποίηση). Από την άλλη, αν το βασικό διακύβευμά της ήταν η εξάλειψη του κοινωνικού αποτυπώματος στις εκπαιδευτικές πορείες τότε σίγουρα αυτό δεν επιτεύχθηκε. Σήμερα, λόγω της γιγάντωσης του συστήματος ανώτατης εκπαίδευσης και της αδυναμίας των κυβερνήσεων να καλύψουν το κόστος λειτουργίας του έχει αρχίσει να τίθεται σε αμφισβήτηση η αξία και το νόημα της εκδημοκρατικοποίησης.

Knowledge based relevant education is strategically important for the economic growth and social development of any country or region. However-according to OECD Jobs for Youth report 2010-youth unemployment hits records in Europe and causes concerns all over the world. Governments have responsibility for nurturing dual vocational training programs as traditionally done in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. These programs not only guarantee employment after graduation but emphasize special skill development of youth. Dual type of education seems to be effective at the level of tertiary education too. Engaging business, industry and local governments in education can create exceptional synergy in higher education, enabling higher education institutions to follow rapid technological changes and advance new learning technologies. The Hungarian government – following a 2 year long pilot period-has undertaken huge structural changes in its higher education system in order to adapt the German model of dual education and make room for plenty of new BA degree programs. This paper aims to present the dual program implementation tool set (institutional, legal, financial) and the Hungarian way of adaptation of this foreign educational innovation. The study is based on the empirical evidence collected from the national level data and documents and a closer scrutiny of experiences of institutions concerned. The study also draws up desirable results and visions of the future.