Specialist business skills of international students

This paper follows on from that presented at the last BEST conference in Edinburgh (Higson & Hamilton-Jones(2004)). At that stage, the authors outlined their initial research work with students studying on the yearlong International Foundation programmes. at three local FE Colleges allied to Aston University. The research (funded by the University's Teaching Quality Enhancement Funds (TQEF) involved questionnaires and interviews with staff and students (the latter all from overseas). it aimed to identify ways to improve the learning experience of students on the International Foundation programmes, to aid their smooth transition to full degree programmes in Business and Management and to improve the progression rates of such students while studying at Aston. The initial research findings were used to design a module for those students' progress to degree programmes in Aston Business School. This paper discusses how the module was designed, its content and the assessment methods used to help determine whether students are achieving the learning outcomes. The basic principle was to identify areas of study where the International Foundation Programme students needed help in order to improve their learning styles to assist them with the requirements of other modules that they would be studying during their time at Aston. Particular emphasis was put on the need to develop active learners who were not disadvantaged by their lack of awareness of UK culture and society and who were as comfortable performing written work under examination conditions or presenting orally as their UK counterparts. An additional aim was to prepare these students for the placement year which was a compulsory part of their degree. The module, therefore, comprises a range of inputs for a number of staff, a company visit, weekly reflective learning leading to Personal Development Plan (PDP) work, formal examinations, presentations, group work •and individual case studies. This paper also reports on the initial reaction of the students and tutors to the new learning experience with currently 30 participants undertaking the module. Provisional findings suggest that the International Foundation programme has prepared the students well for degree-level work and that as a group of international students they are much more analytical and, after studying the module interactive than their counterparts who have come directly onto Aston degrees. It has shown them still to be quite passive learners, comfortable with facts and lecture-style learning environments, but less comfortable when asked to use their own initiatives. Continuing progress needs to be made in terms of encouraging them to develop a reflective approach to learning with the students taking some time to feel comfortable with an analytical approach to learning. In addition, im account of the students' reactions to having to work through a formal (PDP) and the results of their first assessments will be provided. At Aston, this work is being used as a pilot to recognise good practice with regards to work with further groups of international students. it is hoped that this would have widespread application across the sector.

Democratic Peace and Electoral Accountability

One of the few stylized facts in international relations is that democracies, unlike autoc- racies, very rarely fight each other. We examine the sustainability of international peace between democracies and autocracies, where the crucial difference between these two po- litical regimes is whether or not policymakers are subject to periodic elections. We show that the fear of losing office can deter democratic leaders from engaging in military con- flicts. Crucially, this discipline effect can only be at work if incumbent leaders can be re-elected, implying that democracies in which the executives are subject to term limits should be more conflict prone. To assess the validity of our predictions, we construct a large dataset on countries with executive term limits. Our analysis of inter-state conflicts for the 1816-2001 period suggests that electoral incentives are indeed behind the democratic peace phenomenon: while democratic dyads are in general less likely to be involved in conflicts than any other dyads, this result does not hold for democracies in which the executive faces binding term limits; moreover, the dispute patterns of democracies with term limits depend on whether the executive is in the last or penultimate mandate.

Role of financial and other information in trade credit decisions in SMEs: An international study

Trade credit is an important source of finance for SMEs and this study investigates the use of the financial statements and other information in making trade credit decisions in smaller entities in Finland, the UK, USA and South Africa. The study adds to the literature by examining the information needs of unincorporated entities as a basis for making comparisons with small, unlisted companies. In-depth, semi-structured interviews in each country were used to collect data from the owner-managers of SMEs and from credit rating agencies and credit insurers. The findings provide insights into similarities and differences between countries and between developed and developing economies. The evidence suggests that there are three main influences on the trade credit decision: formal and report-based information, soft information relating to social capital and contingency factors. The latter dictate the extent to which hard/formal information versus soft/informal information is used.

A Metadata Thesaurus: Report on the Knowledge Organization of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Conference Proceedings

2003 Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Proceedings appear in both print and online form. In order to aid search and retrieval of this growing body of research a researchers at the University of Washington and Siderean Software have started a metadata thesaurus. This poster reports on those efforts.