Evaluation of partnership working in cities in phase IV of the WHO healthy cities network

An intersectoral partnership for health improvement is a requirement of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network of municipalities. A review was undertaken in 59 cities based on responses to a structured questionnaire covering phase IV of the network (2003–2008). Cities usually combined formal and informal working partnerships in a pattern seen in previous phases. However, these encompassed more sectors than previously and achieved greater degrees of collaborative planning and implementation. Additional WHO technical support and networking in phase IV significantly enhanced collaboration with the urban planning sector. Critical success factors were high-level political commitment and a well-organized Healthy City office. Partnerships remain a successful component of Healthy City working. The core principles, purpose and intellectual rationale for intersectoral partnerships remain valid and fit for purpose. This applied to long-established phase III cities as well as newcomers to phase IV. The network, and in particular the WHO brand, is well regarded and encourages political and organizational engagement and is a source of support and technical expertise. A key challenge is to apply a more rigorous analytical framework and theory-informed approach to reviewing partnership and collaboration parameters.

Australasian partnership in a first-year engineering course: Deakin University and Wuhan University of Science and Technology

This paper presents the results of domestic Chinese undergraduate engineering course taught by international Australasian teaching staff. The project is a part of a teaching collaboration between Deakin University and Wuhan University of Science and Technology. The cohort of students from Wuhan was a freshman undergraduate engineering course in mechanical engineering. The particular subject was a freshman engineering-materials course taught in English. The course covered an introduction to material-science principles and practices. A survey was used for evaluating student perceptions. It is aimed that this study will help academics from Deakin University to better understand student experiences, and to identify the current challenges and barriers faced in student learning. Analysis of the survey has shown that 90% of students agreed that they were motivated to learn and achieve the learning goals through this collaborative program. Around 90% of students found that group-based practical activities were helpful in achieving learning goals. Overall, 90% of students strongly agreed they were satisfied with the method of teaching.

Successful university-school partnerships: an interpretive framework to inform partnership practice

This paper presents an Interpretive Framework stemming from a longitudinal and iterative multiple case study of five Australian universities examining the cogent and unique practices underpinning their established and successful school-based science teacher education programs. Results from interviews with teacher educators, school staff and pre-service teachers, show four components that guide the successful and sustainable use of university-school partnerships. These components: Guiding Pedagogical Principles; Growing University-School Partnerships; Representations of Partnership; and Growth Model provide a scaffold for initiating, growing and sustaining partnerships that maximise the benefits for all. The essential role of both university and school staff is also highlighted.

Successful university-school partnerships: an interpretive framework to inform partnership practice

This paper presents an Interpretive Framework stemming from a longitudinal and iterative multiple case study of five Australian universities examining the cogent and unique practices underpinning their established and successful school-based science teacher education programs. Results from interviews with teacher educators, school staff and pre-service teachers, show four components that guide the successful and sustainable use of university-school partnerships. These components: Guiding Pedagogical Principles; Growing University-School Partnerships; Representations of Partnership; and Growth Model provide a scaffold for initiating, growing and sustaining partnerships that maximise the benefits for all. The essential role of both university and school staff is also highlighted.

Principles of contemporary corporate governance

Aims at providing a concise presentation of key topics and emerging themes in corporate governance. The text provide both law and business students, as well as practitioners of law and management, with an easy to follow explanation and analysis of key corporate governance principles.

International commercial law : principles and practices

International Commercial Law: Principles and practices considers the multifaceted nature of international commercial law and explains the rules, principles, policies and practices that comprise this area of law and the wide-ranging influences that shape it

The book provides an extensive analysis of the wider policy, moral, economic and political considerations underpinning international commercial law.
- It analyses and evaluates existing standards and practices, and suggests proposals for reform.
- It encourages readers to make informed judgments regarding the interpretation of relevant legal standards and to make predictions about how the law is likely to develop.

The implementation of OECD corporate governance principles in post-crisis Asia

The recent OECD Principles on Corporate Governance provide a framework for the convergence of global corporate governance practice. This paper considers the implementation of these global ‘best-practice’ standards of governance as part of the continuing post-economic-crisis reform throughout Asia. These initiatives have explicitly acknowledged that no single model of governance can exist, and instead have focused on those elements apparently common and, therefore, applicable to all countries. Notwithstanding the existence of these elements, this paper investigates the difficulties involved when attempting to implement general rules across countries at different stages of economic and legal development. While implementation will be hindered by obvious cultural disparities, long-term change in practice requires a cultural shift in the philosophical and financial bases of the firm.

Overcoming principles: dialogue in business ethics

Basing itself upon a virtue-ethics approach, this paper questions the value of syllogistic or deductive approaches to teaching business ethics and to the modelling of the kinds of judgments that executives are asked to make in situations of moral complexity. It urges that the teaching of ethical theories, of ethical principles, and of logical methods of moral thinking, and the use of hypothetical or historical scenarios, be augmented by the method of `Real Case Dialogue' which more nearly models the eal and intense existential realities of ethical decision making. A brief description of such a dialogue is offered so aslo provide an example.

Training young people through a school/enterprise partnership: a longitudinal study

This paper reports a longitudinal study of 58 students who undertook an engineering traineeship concurrent with their final two years of secondary school. The student experience was planned as a partnership arrangement between a manufacturing enterprise, a secondary school, and a post-secondary technical education institution. Results are discussed in terms of completion of studies, employment and career pathways, employment outcomes, and post-traineeship employment destinations. Both the quantitative and qualitative data indicate that participants have benefited significantly in each area investigated. The significance of the program in developing propositional, procedural, and dispositional workplace knowledge is also discussed.

A partnership model of corporate ethics

The stock market crash of 1987 had a profound effect on corporate Australia and the Australian community in general. The fall-out revealed that some of our most respected business figures had not been as ethical, or even as lawful, as we would have hoped. This impropriety produced in Australia an awakening to business ethics. Whilst many companies endeavoured to introduce ethical practices into their corporations, they perceived ethics as a way of minimising damage to the corporation and in some cases as a means of competitive advantage. What was lost was the reason that one should embark on business ethics; and that is to make the society and corporate Australia a more ethical place in which to exist.This paper proposes a model based on 2 factors: commitment and partnerships, as a means of enabling corporate Australia to refocus attention on the main purpose of being inherently ethical in all that we do. This ethical model requires a commitment to partnerships with all stakeholders both internal and external in an attempt to enhance the level of ethical business practices that are contemplated and pursued within corporate Australia. Whilst the research agenda and the information collected is Australian-based, it is hoped that the ideas contained within this paper will have a wider appeal to corporations in similar cultural settings.

Australian tort law reform: statutory principles of causation and the common law

By mid-2004, Parliaments in each Australian jurisdiction will either complete or will be in the process of partial codification of the law of torts. The reforms, including those to the law of negligence, are extensive. This article focuses on codification of the law of causation as an element of the cause of action in negligence. It examines the background to "tort reform", as the process has been labelled, and discusses the common law paradigm of negligence and various approaches to causation. It then analyses and compares the causation provisions in each jurisdiction.

An IT Bachelor degree using modern technologies to illustrate core concepts and principles and building generic skills

Information Technology (IT) changes very quickly and influences business, industry and the public in an enormous manner. Outsourcing of IT jobs to cheaper overseas labor and globalization of IT companies become a common practice. Graduates of IT university courses must be well prepared to address the needs and expectations of business, industry and every day life. Many factors in an Information Technology curriculum influence graduates’ professional preparation and image. The most important of them is to reflect technology change, the current state of knowledge of computing, business and industry demands and students’ expectations. The aim of our project was to develop a new Bachelor of IT curriculum that satisfies these requirements. In this report we concentrate our attention on two critical aspects of IT curriculum content, the modern technologies to be used to illustrate basic concepts and principles of computing, and the generic skills that each graduate is expected to acquire to get a job in Australia.