A Study of a Comprehensive Career Services System in Chinese Universities

Since 1999, with the adoption of expansion policy in higher education by the Chinese government, enrollment and graduate numbers have been increasing at an unprecedented speed. Accustomed to a system in which university graduates were placed, many students are not trained in “selling themselves”, which exacerbates the situation leading to a skyrocketing unemployment rate among new graduates. The idea of emphasizing career services comes with increasing employment pressure among university graduates in recent years. The 1998 “Higher Education Act” made it a legislative requirement. Thereafter, the Ministry of Education issued a series of documents in order to promote the development of career services. All higher education institutions are required to set up special career service centers and to set a ratio of 1:500 between career staff and the total number of students. Related career management courses, especially career planning classes, are required to be clearly included as specific modules into the teaching plan with a requirement of no less than 38 sessions in one semester at all universities. Developing career services in higher education has thus become a hot issue. One of the more notable trends in higher education in recent years has been the transformation of university career service centers from merely being the coordinators of on-campus placement into full service centers for international career development. The traditional core of career services in higher education had been built around guidance, information and placements (Watts, 1997). This core was still in place, but the role of higher education career services has changed considerably in recent years and the nature of each part is being transformed (Watts, 1997). Most services are undertaking a range of additional activities, and the career guidance issue is emphasized much more than before. Career management courses, especially career planning classes, are given special focus in developing career services in the Chinese case. This links career services clearly and directly with the course provision function. In China, most career service centers are engaging in the transformation period from a “management-oriented” organization to a “service-oriented” organization. Besides guidance services, information services and placement activities, there is a need to blend them together with the new additional teaching function, which follows the general trend as regulated by the government. The role of career services has been expanding and this has brought more challenges to its development in Chinese higher education. Chinese universities still remain in the period of exploration and establishment in developing their own career services. In the face of the new situation, it is very important and meaningful to explore and establish a comprehensive career services system to address student needs in the universities. A key part in developing this system is the introduction of career courses and delivering related career management skills to the students. So there is the need to restructure the career service sectors within the Chinese universities in general. The career service centers will operate as a hub and function as a spoke in the wheel of this model system, providing support and information to staff located in individual teaching departments who are responsible for the delivery of career education, information, advice and guidance. The career service centers will also provide training and career planning classes. The purpose of establishing a comprehensive career services system is to provide a strong base for student career development. The students can prepare themselves well in psychology, ideology and ability before employment with the assistance of effective career services. To conclude, according to the different characteristics and needs of students, there will be appropriate services and guidance in different stages and different ways. In other words, related career services and career guidance activities would be started for newly enrolled freshmen and continue throughout their whole university process. For the operation of a comprehensive services system, there is a need for strong support by the government in the form of macro-control and policy guarantee, but support by the government in the form of macro-control and policy guarantee, but also a need for close cooperation with the academic administration and faculties to be actively involved in career planning and employment programs. As an integral function within the universities, career services must develop and maintain productive relationships with relevant campus offices and key stakeholders both within the universities and externally.

More women in informatics research and education

Speaker: Lynda Hardman Organiser: Time: 04/02/2015 12:30-13:30 Location: B32/3077 Abstract The challenges of addressing gender inequalities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine is widely acknowledged. We currently hold a bronze award and ECS is one of many academic units in the University which has gained Athena Swan Charter status. In this seminar, Professor Lynda Hardman, Chair of the Informatics Europe working group "Women in Informatics Research and Education” will be explaining the causes of issued underlying gender inequality and constructive routes to addressing this important agenda. In undertaking to commit to an action plan which is a prerequisite of gaining charter status, the University or academic department agreed to accept and incorporate the Athena Swan six principles listed below: * To address gender inequalities requires commitment and action from everyone, at all levels of the organisation * To tackle the unequal representation of women in science requires changing cultures and attitudes across the organisation * The absence of diversity at management and policy-making levels has broad implications which the organisation will examine * The high loss rate of women in science is an urgent concern which the organisation will address * The system of short-term contracts has particularly negative consequences for the retention and progression of women in science, which the organisation recognises * There are both personal and structural obstacles to women making the transition from PhD into a sustainable academic career in science, which require the active consideration of the organisation. This seminar is designed to provide an opportunity to explore these issues NOTE: Lynda will be basing here talk on some of the work she directed as chair of the "Women in Informatics Research and Education” working group. The purpose of the working group is to actively participate and promote actions that contribute to improve gender balance in Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies. The first concrete result of the working group's activities was the publication of the booklet "More Women in Informatics Research and Education" in 2013. The booklet is a compact source of clear and simple best practices to deans and heads of departments that aim to increase the participation of women as both students and employees in their institutions. Many tips included were also inspired by colleagues already in leading positions who have already implemented actions in their institutions to attract more women and ensure their continued participation in the organization at commensurate ratios with their male colleagues. The booklet is endorsed by the European Commission and features a foreword by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for the Digital Agenda.

Century-of-Information Research (CIR): a strategy for research and innovation in the century of information

More data will be produced in the next five years than in the entire history of human kind, a digital deluge that marks the beginning of the Century of Information. Through a year-long consultation with UK researchers, a coherent strategy has been developed, which will nurture Century-of-Information Research (CIR); it crystallises the ideas developed by the e-Science Directors' Forum Strategy Working Group. This paper is an abridged version of their latest report which can be found at: http://wikis.nesc.ac.uk/escienvoy/Century_of_Information_Research_Strategy which also records the consultation process and the affiliations of the authors. This document is derived from a paper presented at the Oxford e-Research Conference 2008 and takes into account suggestions made in the ensuing panel discussion. The goals of the CIR Strategy are to facilitate the growth of UK research and innovation that is data and computationally intensive and to develop a new culture of 'digital-systems judgement' that will equip research communities, businesses, government and society as a whole, with the skills essential to compete and prosper in the Century of Information. The CIR Strategy identifies a national requirement for a balanced programme of coordination, research, infrastructure, translational investment and education to empower UK researchers, industry, government and society. The Strategy is designed to deliver an environment which meets the needs of UK researchers so that they can respond agilely to challenges, can create knowledge and skills, and can lead new kinds of research. It is a call to action for those engaged in research, those providing data and computational facilities, those governing research and those shaping education policies. The ultimate aim is to help researchers strengthen the international competitiveness of the UK research base and increase its contribution to the economy. The objectives of the Strategy are to better enable UK researchers across all disciplines to contribute world-leading fundamental research; to accelerate the translation of research into practice; and to develop improved capabilities, facilities and context for research and innovation. It envisages a culture that is better able to grasp the opportunities provided by the growing wealth of digital information. Computing has, of course, already become a fundamental tool in all research disciplines. The UK e-Science programme (2001-06)—since emulated internationally—pioneered the invention and use of new research methods, and a new wave of innovations in digital-information technologies which have enabled them. The Strategy argues that the UK must now harness and leverage its own, plus the now global, investment in digital-information technology in order to spread the benefits as widely as possible in research, education, industry and government. Implementing the Strategy would deliver the computational infrastructure and its benefits as envisaged in the Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014 (July 2004), and in the reports developing those proposals. To achieve this, the Strategy proposes the following actions: support the continuous innovation of digital-information research methods; provide easily used, pervasive and sustained e-Infrastructure for all research; enlarge the productive research community which exploits the new methods efficiently; generate capacity, propagate knowledge and develop skills via new curricula; and develop coordination mechanisms to improve the opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to make digital-infrastructure provision more cost effective. To gain the best value for money strategic coordination is required across a broad spectrum of stakeholders. A coherent strategy is essential in order to establish and sustain the UK as an international leader of well-curated national data assets and computational infrastructure, which is expertly used to shape policy, support decisions, empower researchers and to roll out the results to the wider benefit of society. The value of data as a foundation for wellbeing and a sustainable society must be appreciated; national resources must be more wisely directed to the collection, curation, discovery, widening access, analysis and exploitation of these data. Every researcher must be able to draw on skills, tools and computational resources to develop insights, test hypotheses and translate inventions into productive use, or to extract knowledge in support of governmental decision making. This foundation plus the skills developed will launch significant advances in research, in business, in professional practice and in government with many consequent benefits for UK citizens. The Strategy presented here addresses these complex and interlocking requirements.

Archives information publishing new design in post-custodial regime: The National Archives Experience Digital Vaults

The uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Web environments for creation, treatment and availability of information have supported the emergence of new social-cultural patterns represented by convergences in textual, image and audio languages. This paper describes and analyzes the National Archives Experience Digital Vaults as a digital publishing web environment and as a cultural heritage. It is a complex system - synthesizer of information design options at information setting, provides new aesthetic aspects, but specially enlarges the cognition of the subjects who interact with the environment. It also enlarges the institutional spaces that guard the collective memory beyond its role of keeping the physical patrimony collected there. Digital Vaults lies as a mix of guide and interactive catalogue to be dealt in a ludic way. The publishing design of the information held on the Archives is meant to facilitate access to knowledge. The documents are organized in a dynamic and not chronological way. They are not divided in fonds or distinct categories, but in controlled interaction of documents previously indexed and linked by the software. The software creates information design and view of documental content that can be considered a new paradigm in Information Science and are part of post-custodial regime, independent from physical spaces and institutions. Information professionals must be prepared to understand and work with the paradigmatic changes described and represented by the new hybrid digital environments; hence the importance of this paper. Cyberspace interactivity between user and the content provided by the environment design provide cooperation, collaboration and sharing knowledge actions, all features of networks, transforming culture globally. © 2011 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Archives information publishing new design in post-custodial regime: The National Archives Experience Digital Vaults

The uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Web environments for creation, treatment and availability of information have supported the emergence of new social-cultural patterns represented by convergences in textual, image and audio languages. This paper describes and analyzes the National Archives Experience Digital Vaults as a digital publishing web environment and as a cultural heritage. It is a complex system - synthesizer of information design options at information setting, provides new aesthetic aspects, but specially enlarges the cognition of the subjects who interact with the environment. It also enlarges the institutional spaces that guard the collective memory beyond its role of keeping the physical patrimony collected there. Digital Vaults lies as a mix of guide and interactive catalogue to be dealt in a ludic way. The publishing design of the information held on the Archives is meant to facilitate access to knowledge. The documents are organized in a dynamic and not chronological way. They are not divided in fonds or distinct categories, but in controlled interaction of documents previously indexed and linked by the software. The software creates information design and view of documental content that can be considered a new paradigm in Information Science and are part of post-custodial regime, independent from physical spaces and institutions. Information professionals must be prepared to understand and work with the paradigmatic changes described and represented by the new hybrid digital environments; hence the importance of this paper. Cyberspace interactivity between user and the content provided by the environment design provide cooperation, collaboration and sharing knowledge actions, all features of networks, transforming culture globally.

Plan of action for the information and knowledge society in Latin America and the Caribbean (eLAC2015)

Draft plan of action for the information society in Latin America and the Caribbean (eLAC2015)

This is the version of the draft Plan of Action eLAC2015 agreed upon at the regional preparatory conference for the third Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Montevideo on 23 and 24 September 2010, incorporating editorial changes made by ECLAC.

Report of the Third Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lima, 21-23 November, 2010

Incluye bibliografía

Where do Latin America and the Caribbean stand in relation to the eLAC2007 Plan of Action?: evidence from available information

Includes bibliography

Fact Findings and Lessons Learned from the Comparative Study on Information Techonology (IT) Usage by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Latin America and Asia

ECLACs International Trade and Integration Division (DCII) will launch the book titled Information Technology for Development of Small and Medium-sized Exporters in Latin America and East Asia in the end of September 2005. The report provides an overview of the present condition of Information Technology (IT) and its use to promote international trade. It focuses on the experiences of IT usage by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Latin American and Asian-Pacific regions, with a special focus on SME exporters in the 13 researched countries, that were selected from the Forum for East Asia - Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) member countries. This issue of the FAL bulletin is produced based on the executive summary of the book.

Information technologies in trade facilitation and their use by msmes

This issue of the Bulletin is based on the material presented at the seminar Information Technology for Development of Small and Medium-sized Exporters in East Asia and Latin America, which was held on 23 and 24 November 2004 at the headquarters of ECLAC in Santiago, Chile. The seminar was part of the project entitled Comparative Study on East Asian and Latin American IT Industry, financed by the thematic fund for information and communication technologies (ICT) for development of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has been carried out in close collaboration with the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), an organization that belongs to the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO). This article contains a discussion of the concepts, definitions and standards associated with electronic commerce, as well as the opportunities to be seized and the challenges to be met so that MSMEs can expand their electronic business.