Successful Engineering and Technology Student Mobility: Key Student Perspectives and Quality Determinants Before, During and After Student Exchange Under the Atlantis Programme

In this paper, we describe the lessons learned, and determinants of quality, from two Atlantis programmes. Additionally our two student authors will share key student perspectives relevant to student mobility: (1) before they visited the partner university, (2) while they were studying at the partner university and (3) after they returned to their home university. Purdue University and the Technological University Dublin, together with the Hochschule Darmstadt and Pennsylvania State University, were successful in securing an Atlantis mobility grant [1] for four years to support student and staff mobility between the United States and Europe. The programme has just completed its third year and both engineering and technology students have benefitted from it. Subsequently Purdue University, Technological University Dublin and the Universitat Politècnica De Catalunya were successful in securing an Atlantis grant to implement a dual degree MSc in Sustainability, Technology & Innovation [2]. This programme is now underway and the first students have begun study in partner universities. Given that the core theme for this SEFI Annual conference is global engineering recognition, sustainability, mobility, this paper will address aspects of all three of these topics from both a student and an academic perspective. Among the key determinants of quality [3] that will be highlighted are student selection, student preparation and orientation (both out-going and incoming), student housing considerations; instructional culture differences; student plan of study establishment; student finances; accommodation of miss-matched calendars; purposes and nature of faculty mobility; programme operation and personnel; project communication and evaluation [4]. The concept of sustainability will be approached in terms of both the content and experiences designed into the students’ plan of study as well as the continuation of the exchanges and dual degree programme beyond the four year externally funded projects that enabled their initiation. Because no academic paper can present first person student insights, perspectives, and concerns and because these are also central to the success of such programmes, we have carefully involved two students in the preparation of our paper and delivery of the presentation. In turn, they have interacted with other exchangees so that a broad perspective is presented. The summary findings of the projects’ third party evaluator [5] will be summarized to yield a complete 360° overview of what makes such important exchange and study-abroad programmes in engineering and technology fields successful. Finally, we will conclude with a brief highlighting of the evaluation design, assessment and monitoring systems needed to maintain effective forward progress for such project. The paper will be presented by two faculty/academics associated with managing the Atlantis programmes and by two students who participated in the Atlantis programmes

Russian perspectives of online learning technologies in higher education: An empirical study of a MOOC

There has been a rapid growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the global education market in the last decade. Online learning technologies are becoming increasingly widespread in the non-formal education sector and in higher and supplementary vocational education. The use of MOOCs in Russia to support the delivery of educational programmes at university level opens opportunities in terms of expanding the educational choice for students, the development of virtual academic mobility, reduction in the cost of educational services, and improvement in the accessibility of education. However, the effectiveness of using different online learning technologies at university level, and the consequences of their widespread adoption, has not been sufficiently explored. In this research study, a comparative analysis is made of the effects of different online learning models on student educational outcomes in a university setting. A study was undertaken in which different groups of students at the Ural Federal University, Russia, were encouraged to study technical and humanities disciplines using a framework of blended learning, and online learning with tutoring support. The results of the study were compared with the results of a reference (control) group of students who studied the same disciplines in a traditionally taught model. It was found that both models (blended and online) of MOOC implementation demonstrated greater learning gains, in comparison with the traditional model. For engineering and technical disciplines, there was no statistically significant difference between blended or online learning technologies. For the humanities discipline, where the communicative component of the learning process was significant, the blended learning technology produced better results. Conclusions of this empirical research may be useful for heads of educational organizations and teachers in helping them to make strategic decisions about the modernization of university courses by increasing the effectiveness of the implementation of new educational technologies. The results of this research project will be used for implementing the State Priority Project, ‘The Modern Digital Educational Environment of the Russian Federation’

Transnational Higher Education in Singapore - Relevance and Sustainability: Can transnational education programmes in partnership with Private Education Institutions continue to be relevant and sustainable in Singapore with the government's drive with SkillsFuture Initiatives?

Globalisation and the advancement of information technology in the 21st century has resulted in the growing worldwide trend of higher education internationalisation and mobility. Coupled with rapid socio-economic changes and technological advances, two mega-trends – massification and mobility – have greatly influenced the higher education landscape. The inclusion of education as a tradable service under the WTO’s GATS treaty in 1995 has ‘dislodged’ education from its traditional public good position to be a quasi-public good negotiated within a typical market structure. Students are treated as “customers” and the programmes are “products or goods”. The global expansion of this tradable service has led to an increasing trend of mobility of students, faculties, programmes and institutions. Transnational education (TNE) has contributed a significant proportion of the international education expansion and growth. The objective of this study is to evaluate the status and sustainability of TNE in Singapore, in the context of the focus on mastery of skills against traditionally degree-based qualifications under the SkillsFuture Initiatives Framework launched by the Singapore government. The study researched on demographic data, facts and statistics and government discourse on university degree. TNE stakeholders, such as overseas university partners, students, graduates and teaching faculties were surveyed and interviewed to draw insights. The findings could be summarised as follows: as Singapore pushes towards a globalised and knowledge-based economy, there is continued appetite for higher education to stay competitive through the acquisition of new skillsets. With the cohort participation rate set at 40% for local public universities with no plans to increase this further, access to TNE as an alternative will cater to the needs of the remaining cohort as well as adult learners who need to upgrade themselves to stay relevant and competitive in the rapidly changing economic environments

Learning through exchange about organic agriculture - case of Europe and Australia

LEAFSE is the catch word for an innovative program of exchange study for young Australians and Europeans, with organic agriculture as the focal point of their Masters level studies. Two years ago, the European Commission and the Australian Department of Education, Science and Technology (DEST) came up with the call for applications for a pilot project to support international mobility of tertiary students between the two continents. The grand aims set for the exchange included providing students with an international outlook and a range of perspectives, preparing them for the global marketplace, enable their understanding and empathy for different cultures and traditions and foster exchange of information. A number of us with an interest and an already existing academic network in organic agriculture proposed LEAFSE - Learning through Exchange - Agriculture, Food Systems and Environment, a winning project, which was chosen as the single pilot project from a field of well over a dozen contenders. Within the broader theme of Agriculture, Food Systems and Environment, we named organic farming as the focal point of the exchange, and we were aware of the immense possibilities for learning through exchange inter-continentally in this field. Under this project, Master's level students from EU study for a semester at a partner university in Australia, and students from Australia study for a semester at a partner university in EU. The partners in the programme are, from Europe: • The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark • University of Wales, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom • Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands • University of Kassel, Witzenhausen, Germany, and from Australia: • University of Western Sydney, New South Wales • University of New England, New South Wales • University of Western Australia, Western Australia • University of Queensland, Queensland The project has an innovative but manageable framework for mobility of the students, a joint programme of study which incorporates many novel elements including holistic thinking, experiential and integrated learning and use of newer tools of communication technologies, and above all, a structure that fosters a high degree of inter-cultural understanding and network building. When completed, the pilot phase of the project would have enabled exchange of 36 students from each continent, nine from each participating institution. The respective government agencies provide the students with an adequate stipend to cover travel and living expenses for six months of study. The project has been running on target and the results of the first year of exchange have been more than impressive. This presentation will be a joint effort by the faculty and a number of participating students to demonstrate the cultural, agricultural, pedagogic, and practical lessons that have been learnt from this exchange in the field of organic farming. It will also highlight some of the challenges which need to be overcome in our efforts towards shaping sustainable agricultural and food systems which are cognizant of our respective environments

The intention to use mobile digital library technology: A focus group study in the United Arab Emirates

IGI Global (“IGI”) granted Brunel University London the permission to archive this article in BURA (http://bura.brunel.ac.uk).This paper presents a qualitative study on student adoption of mobile library technology in a developing world context. The findings support the applicability of a number of existing constructs from the technology acceptance literature, such as perceived ease of use, social influence and trust. However, they also suggest the need to modify some adoption factors previously found in the literature to fit the specific context of mobile library adoption. Perceived value was found to be a more relevant overarching adoption factor than perceived usefulness for this context. Facilitating conditions were identified as important but these differed somewhat from those covered in earlier literature. The research also uncovered the importance of trialability for this type of application. The findings provide a basis for improving theory in the area of mobile library adoption and suggest a number of practical design recommendations to help designers of mobile library technology to create applications that meet user needs

Planning the mobile future: The border artistry of International Baccalaureate Diploma choosers

This paper reports on a study of students choosing the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBD) over state-based curricula in Australian schools. The IBD was initially designed as a matriculation certificate to facilitate international mobility. While first envisaged as a lifestyle agenda for cultural elites, such mobility is now widespread with more people living ‘beyond the nation’ through choice or circumstance. Beck (2007) and others highlight how the capacity to cross national borders offers a competitive edge with which to strategically pursue economic and cultural capital. Beck’s ‘border artistes’ are those who use national borders to their individual advantage through reflexive strategy. The study explored the rationales and strategy behind the choice of the IBD curriculum expressed by students in a focus group interview and an online survey. This paper reports on their imagined transnational routes and mobile orientations, and how a localised curriculum limits their imagined mobile futures

EU-NICE, Eurasian University Network for International Cooperation in Earthquakes

Despite the remarkable scientific advancements of earthquake engineering and seismology in many countries, seismic risk is still growing at a high rate in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Successful practices have shown that a community’s capacity to manage and reduce its seismic risk relies on capitalization on policies, on technology and research results. An important role is played by education, than contribute to strengthening technical curricula of future practitioners and researchers through university and higher education programmes. In recent years an increasing number of initiatives have been launched in this field at the international and global cooperation level. Cooperative international academic research and training is key to reducing the gap between advanced and more vulnerable regions. EU-NICE is a European Commission funded higher education partnership for international development cooperation with the objective to build capacity of individuals who will operate at institutions located in seismic prone Asian Countries. The project involves five European Universities, eight Asian universities and four associations and NGOs active in advanced research on seismic mitigation, disaster risk management and international development. The project consists of a comprehensive mobility scheme open to nationals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, North Korea, Philippines, and Sri Lanka who plan to enrol in school or conduct research at one of five European partner universities in Italy, Greece and Portugal. During the 2010-14 time span a total number of 104 mobilities are being involved in scientific activities at the undergraduate, masters, PhD, postdoctoral and academic-staff exchange levels. This high number of mobilities and activities is selected and designed so as to produce an overall increase of knowledge that can result in an impact on earthquake mitigation. Researchers, future policymakers and practitioners build up their curricula over a range of disciplines in the fields of engineering, seismology, disaster risk management and urban planning. Specific educational and research activities focus on earthquake risk mitigation related topics such as: anti-seismic structural design, structural engineering, advanced computer structural collapse analysis, seismology, experimental laboratory studies, international and development issues in disaster risk management, social-economical impact studies, international relations and conflict resolution

Reform of Governance in Higher Education Sector as a factor enhancing international mobility of students - the case of Poland

The aim of the paper is the presentation of main directions and programmes enhancing international mobility of students in Europe and outside Europe and some results of this programmes in the case of Poland. The paper examines also the main decisions of the European Commission related to the reform of the Higher Education Sector in the EU as one of the most important factors stimulating mobility in the tertiary education schools

Marketing higher education in Africa : challenges and opportunities

This chapter examines the global marketing environment of today’s higher education institutions (HEIs). (Semi) Autonomous HEIs and business schools are increasingly behaving like for-profit organisations as they seek new opportunities and resources to prioritise revenue creation. Therefore, they are diversifying the portfolio of their student populations by recruiting domestic and international students. In this light, this contribution deliberates on contemporary integrated marketing communications that are intended to support HEIs to promote their quality, student-centred education as well as their high-impact and meaningful research in global markets. Moreover, it reports on how HEIs’ marketing endeavours will be able to forge fruitful and collaborative relationships with industry stakeholders; foster student mobility and engagement in exchange programmes, as they can create partnership agreements with other institutions, among other strategic avenues. These issues imply that tomorrow’s educational institutions will have to keep investing in adequate resources, competences and capabilities to leverage themselves amid intensifying competition in challenging socio-economic environments.peer-reviewe