Private Higher Education in the Sultanate of Oman: Rationales, Development and Challenges

Diese Studie stellt die Entwicklung des privaten Hochschulbereichs im Oman dar und analysiert sie auf die damit verbundenen Erwartungen. Sie untersucht die wesentlichen Herausforderungen, denen sich dieser Sektor zu stellen hat, und formuliert einige Empfehlungen, um die Rolle der privaten Hochschulbildung im Oman zu fördern. Um die Situation in Oman einordnen zu konnen, wurde die Literatur zu Systemen der privaten Hochschulbildung in verschiedenen Ländern vergleichend aufgearbeitet. Der Autor dieser Dissertation hat zudem zahlreiche offizielle Dokumente, Statistiken der Regierung, Berichte, Korrespondenzen und auch unveröffentlichtes Material zum Thema Bildung, Wirtschaft und zur Personalentwicklung geprüft und analysiert. Halb-strukturierte Interviews wurden mit Präsidenten und Dekanen privater Hochschulen sowie mit einigen externen Akteuren durchgeführt, um die Stärken und Schwächen, Herausforderungen und Ziele des privaten Hochschulsektors in Oman zu analysieren.

Non-University Higher Education and the Relationship of Its Graduates and the World of Work: Colombia

The non-university sector has been part of the Colombian higher education system for more than 50-years. Despite its long years of existence, it has never occupied such an important role within the education system as the one it is having today. Therefore, the aim of this work is to analyze the development of the non-university sector in the framework of the country’s social, educational and economic demands. Likewise, its actual situation and certain aspects of the relationship between its graduates and the world of work, i.e., graduates’ employment characteristics, the relationship of higher education studies and their work, as well as their early career success, are examined. In order to generate the required information, a graduate survey was carried out in Atlántico (Colombia). The target population was graduates from higher education institutions registered in Atlántico who were awarded a technical, technological or professional degree in 2008 from any of the following knowledge areas: Fine Arts, Health Science, Economy-Administration-Accountancy and similar, and Engineering-Architecture-Urban planning and similar. Besides, interviews with academic and administrative staff from non-university institutions were carried out, and higher education related documents were analyzed. As a whole, the findings suggest that the non-university sector is expanding and may help to achieve some of the goals, for which it is widely promoted i.e., access expansion for under-represented groups, enhancement of the higher education system, and the provision of programs pertinent to the needs of the market. Nevertheless, some aspects require further consideration, e.g., the sector’s consolidation within the system and its quality. As for the relationship between non-university higher education and the world of work, it was found to be close; particularly in those aspects related to the use of knowledge and skills in the work, and the relationship between graduates’ studies and their work. Additionally, the analysis of the graduates’ in their early career stages exposes the significant role that the socioeconomic stratum plays in their working life, particularly in their wages. This indicates that apart from education, other factors like the graduates’ economic or social capital may have an impact on their future work perspectives

Perspectives on academic writing in european higher education : genres, practices, and competences

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Poldering a teaching qualification system in Higher Education in the Netherlands : a typical dutch phenomenon

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Teaching at the University of Leuven : a case of teacher training in Higher Education in Flanders, Belgium

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

The equity aspect within the framework of the assessment of the quality of Higher Education : developing indicators to identify students with a higher risk of failure at university with a view to improving equality of chances of succes

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Higher Education Quality and Guidance : efficacy of a career celf-management seminar for undergraduates

Monogr??fico con el t??tulo: "Calidad en la Educaci??n Superior: una visi??n en perspectiva"

Women on March in Goa : the gender transition in Higher Education after the Statehood

This paper attempts to address the interesting phenomenon of dominance of women in higher educational sector of Goa-a remarkable postcolonial event which occurred after Goa attained statehood in 1987. The Indian state of Goa has been experiencing a rapid socio-economic and cultural transformation. At present it enjoys many of the highest human development indicators in India, matching some of the developed countries. Its’ projected population at present is 1.45 million (Indian decennial census 2001 reported 1.348 million). When the Portuguese rule ended, the literacy was just 31 % whereas it stood at 82 % in 2001. Goa is a highly urbanized state in India. In 1960 there were just five towns and 15 % urban population. In 2001 the figures were, 44 towns and 50 % urban population. On economic front Goa has made tremendous progress mainly on account of the growth of mining, tourism and the service sector. Tourist arrivals in Goa have exceeded the state’s population from 2001. The Gross state domestic product (GSDP) at current prices in 2003-04 was Indian Rupees (Rs.) 96570 million, up from Rs. 3930 million when Goa became a full-fledged state. The banks are flush with funds indicating a booming economy. Goa has lowest birth and death rates and a life expectancy of 68 years for the males and 72 for females. The sex ratio however has shown a declining trend since 1960, from 1066 to 960 in 2001 (Table 1).The sex ratio for 0-6 years age group was 933. On this background we intend to examine the changing pattern of female education in Goa.

Uses of mobile phones in higher education

This brief paper explores the current and potential usage of mobile phones within higher education. It reports on the outcomes of a brain storming session regarding this subject undertaken with a cohort of final year Computer Science students undertaking a Social, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Information Technology course at The University of Reading. Subsequent analysis was undertaken as a result of online discussion using a Managed Learning Environment and a web based survey completed by over 250 undergraduates from around the UK.

Enterprise Architecture adoption method for Higher Education Institutions

During the last few years Enterprise Architecture has received increasing attention among industry and academia. Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be defined as (i) a formal description of the current and future state(s) of an organisation, and (ii) a managed change between these states to meet organisation’s stakeholders’ goals and to create value to the organisation. By adopting EA, organisations may gain a number of benefits such as better decision making, increased revenues and cost reductions, and alignment of business and IT. To increase the performance of public sector operations, and to improve public services and their availability, the Finnish Parliament has ratified the Act on Information Management Governance in Public Administration in 2011. The Act mandates public sector organisations to start adopting EA by 2014, including Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Despite the benefits of EA and the Act, EA adoption level and maturity in Finnish HEIs are low. This is partly caused by the fact that EA adoption has been found to be difficult. Thus there is a need for a solution to help organisations to adopt EA successfully. This thesis follows Design Science (DS) approach to improve traditional EA adoption method in order to increase the likelihood of successful adoption. First a model is developed to explain the change resistance during EA adoption. To find out problems associated with EA adoption, an EA-pilot conducted in 2010 among 12 Finnish HEIs was analysed using the model. It was found that most of the problems were caused by misunderstood EA concepts, attitudes, and lack of skills. The traditional EA adoption method does not pay attention to these. To overcome the limitations of the traditional EA adoption method, an improved EA Adoption Method (EAAM) is introduced. By following EAAM, organisations may increase the likelihood of successful EA adoption. EAAM helps in acquiring the mandate for EA adoption from top-management, which has been found to be crucial to success. It also helps in supporting individual and organisational learning, which has also found to be essential in successful adoption.

Typology of companies networks for competitive assessment: an application in higher education institutions

Taking into account the changes in the market scenario by virtue of globalization, Institutes of Higher Education (IES) as well as other organizations seek their competitive stability. For that reason, it is up to organizations to adopt innovative models of management for their operations aimed at improving results. Company networks consist of a model that is perfect for uniting efforts through cooperation among partners in a given business, which can involve ties of different natures. This paper shows the development and the application of an auxiliary technique to analyze the intensity, nature and importance of internal and external relations in the formation of results for a company network. For such, a multiple case study was conducted at two IES in the State of São Paulo and their networks of partners and employees in order to observe their specificities and organizational strategies. The study demonstrated the existence of specific performance criteria (pillars) for each IES and its network, resulting from its competitive reality. It reveals evidence that the education pillar is strengthened in both cases, and the research pillar is growing, although it is the weakest. The outreach pillar is the most robust in the public IES and the financial sustainability pillar is relevant for the private IES, and it was only detected in this IES.

Higher education in evening courses in Brazil: history, growth and public policies at the beginning of the XXI Century

There are three distinct and complementary objectives in this article in order to clarify the higher education outline in Brazil, specifically evening courses (classes are held on weekdays, generally from 7:00 pm to 10:30 pm) and thesecurrent sector policies. The first objective is to present a short historical overview on the establishment of evening courses in Brazil, including those in the higher education level, occurred on the middle of last century. The second objective is to demonstrate the growth of evening higher education in Brazil, considering that in 1998, of the 2.1 million college enrollments, 55.3% were enrolled in evening courses; in 2010, twelve years later, of the 5.4 million students enrolled, there were 63.5% enrolled in evening courses. This expansion is due to the growing need of many students who must work while attending college, to defray costs of the study as well as personal and family costs. The reality of the working student is hostile considering external factors, such as transport problems, public security and lack of legislation for flexible working hours. The third objective is to discuss current public policies to expand eveningopenings in public institutions which represent nowadays only 16.1% of the 3.4 million enrollments for evening classes, including federal (6.8%), state (7.0%) and municipal (2.3%) institutions. In the third objective it is included the discussion of programs for scholarships and tuition loans. The methodology applied was to rescue historical information on the establishment and the expansion of evening courses in Brazil, analyzing the current general Brazilian policies and the specific ones from the State of São Paulo. The research results pointed to the importance of federal programs for scholarships and tuition loans for students from private institutions such as the 1,382,484 scholarships since 2004 (PROUNI Program) and the 847,000 tuition loans since 1999 (FIES Program). Important steps have been made by the Brazilian government. Considering that there are 3,987,424 enrollments in private institutions, the effectiveness of the programs for scholarships and tuition loans is still insufficient to meet the universal benefits for the student’s needs. Evening courses became the real instrument of social inclusion for many Brazilian youths and must be expanded quantitatively and qualitatively, with aggressive public policies, including also, scholarships and tuition loans.

Modes of Diversification in Bulgarian Higher Education: Case Studies in four Disciplines

This project was stimulated by the unprecedented speed and scope of changes in Bulgarian higher education since 1989. The rapid growth of the student population and the emergence of a new private sector in higher education led to tightening governmental control and a growing criticism of autonomy and academic freedom. This raised questions about the need for diversification in the field, about the importance of recent innovations in terms of strategic choices for future development and so of how higher education governance could maintain diversity without the system deteriorating. The group first traced the extent of spontaneous processes of innovation at the level of content, of institutions, and the organisation of teaching and learning processes. They then identified the different parties in the struggle for institutionalisation and against diversification, and promising mechanisms for maintaining diversity in higher education. On this basis they outlined a basis for a wide-ranging public discussion of the issue which may serve as a corrective to the mechanisms of state control. Their work included analysis of the legislative framework laid down in the Higher Education Act, which effectively dispenses with the autonomy of universities. They then surveyed the views of both high-level executives in the field and the academics actually involved in the process, as well as of the "consumers" of the educational product, i.e. the students. In considering diversification, they focused on four different types of programmes, including those where diversification is largely limited to content level (e.g. Law), those where it operates mainly on structural levels (e.g. Industrial Management), those where it is often feigned (e.g. Social Work), and those where it is at best formal and sporadic (e.g. Mechanical Engineering). They conclude that the educational system in Bulgaria has considerable internal resources for development. The greatest need is for adequate statutory regulation of academic life which will provide incentives for responsible academic development of higher education institutions and create conditions for the institutionalisation of academic self-organisation and self-control, which will in turn limit the pathological trends in the diversification processes.

A Comparative Study on Higher Education Acts in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Russia

The original aim of this project was to describe and analyse the higher education acts in force in five Central and Eastern European countries at present, trying to understand the dependence of higher education on the historical traditions, national peculiarities and all-European tendencies. The description and comparison of the main aspects of higher education was supplemented by a study of the possibilities of transferring experience in the field between the five countries and possible solutions to implementing foreign structural and functional models. Questions covered included the role of the state in the management of higher education, the structures of the higher education systems and the organisation of institutions, academic autonomy and the classifications of academic teaching staff, the main trends in the recent development of research, academic degrees, the accreditation of higher education institutions, and the financing of higher education. Popov found that it was almost impossible to understand the dependence of higher education on historical traditions and national peculiarities purely through a study of the relevant legislation. Education traditions in these countries have twice been broken, once with the start of communism (1917 in Russia and 1944-45 in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania) and for a second time at the beginning of the 1990s. The most recent higher education acts in all five countries studied have abandoned many of their historical and national traditions, following instead all-European trends as determined by Western Europe, and the project included a study of the dependence on these trends. There were also difficulties in comparing some aspects of higher education as it depended on how far a given aspect has different or common features in the different countries and to what extent the application is comparable. While many possible areas for transferring experience between the five countries were identified, Popov concentrated on those where he felt that there was a real practical possibility of application in view of national academic differences. He concluded by defining some of the challenges facing each country in the field of higher education and by making some predictions as to the developments in the different countries.