THE STAFFING AUTONOMY OF GREEK UNIVERSITIES: AN ATTEMPT AT QUANTIFICATION

This study aims to assess the degree of staffing autonomy of Greek Universities, from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. The recent European University Association (EUA) research relating to University Autonomy did not include Greece since no input was provided for a series of years. Therefore, a thorough attempt to produce the necessary data (with special reference to the implementation period of Law 4009/11) will contribute to filling in the gap and providing useful country-specific outcomes. The methodology to be employed in this study complies with the one used by the EUA complemented with its own produced outcomes by studying the relevant literature together with the applicable legislation for the period in question. Thereby, the relevant outcomes produced (as numerical scores) allow for the ranking of Greek Universities as compared with their European counterparts. In specific, they level at a quite low position in terms of staffing autonomy. Having achieved that, proposals are offered for both the improvement of the EUA methodology for measuring staffing autonomy as well as for changes in the Greek legislation and Greek University practices to increase their performance and competitiveness in a continually changing and dynamic environment.  Article visualizations

THE FINANCIAL AUTONOMY OF GREEK UNIVERSITIES: AN ATTEMPT AT QUANTIFICATION

This study aims to assess the degree of financial autonomy of Greek universities, from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. The recent European University Association (EUA) research relating to University Autonomy did not include Greece since no input was provided for a series of years. Therefore, a thorough attempt to produce the necessary data, with special reference to the implementation period of Law 4009/11, will contribute to filling in the gap and provide useful country-specific outcomes. The methodology to be employed in our study complies with the one used by the EUA complemented with our own produced outcomes by studying the relevant literature together with the applicable legislation for the period in question. Thereby, the relevant outcomes produced (as numerical scores) allow for the ranking of Greek Universities as compared with their European counterparts. In specific, they level at a medium position in terms of financial autonomy. Having achieved that, proposals are offered for both the improvement of the EUA methodology for measuring financial autonomy as well as for changes in the Greek legislation and Greek University practices in order to increase their performance and competitiveness in a continually changing and dynamic environment.JEL: H52; H83; I22; I23; I28; P43  Article visualizations

MMP9 but Not EGFR, MET, ERCC1, P16, and P-53 Is Associated with Response to Concomitant Radiotherapy, Cetuximab, and Weekly Cisplatin in Patients with Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer

Concomitant administration of radiotherapy with cisplatin or radiotherapy with cetuximab appear to be the treatment of choice for patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer. In the present retrospective analysis, we investigated the predictive role of several biomarkers in an unselected cohort of patients treated with concomitant radiotherapy, weekly cisplatin, and cetuximab (CCRT). We identified 37 patients treated with this approach, of which 13 (35%) achieved a complete response and 10 (27%) achieved a partial response. Severe side effects were mainly leucopenia, dysphagia, rash, and anemia. Tumor EGFR, MET, ERCC1, and p-53 protein and/or gene expression were not associated with treatment response. In contrast, high MMP9 mRNA expression was found to be significantly associated with objective response. In conclusion, CCRT is feasible and active. MMP9 was the only biomarker tested that appears to be of predictive value in cetuximab treated patients. However, this is a hypothesis generating study and the results should not be viewed as definitive evidence until they are validated in a larger cohort

Squeezed Coherent States in Double Optical Resonance

In this work, we consider a “Λ-type” three-level system where the first transition is driven by a radiation field initially prepared in a squeezed coherent state, while the second one by a weak probe field. If the squeezed field is sufficiently strong to cause Stark splitting of the states it connects, such a splitting can be monitored through the population of the probe state, a scheme also known as “double optical resonance”. Our results deviate from the well-studied case of coherent driving indicating that the splitting profile shows great sensitivity to the value of the squeezing parameter, as well as its phase difference from the complex displacement parameter. The theory is cast in terms of the resolvent operator where both the atom and the radiation field are treated quantum mechanically, while the effects of squeezing are obtained by appropriate averaging over the photon number distribution of the squeezed coherent state

The tyranny of distance: Online learning, isolation and attrition rates

George, AM ORCiD: 0000-0002-6308-3558; Lambropoulos, VE ORCiD: 0000-0002-1818-777XAddressing student attrition rates is a crucial aspect of tertiary education policy and practice. In terms of practice, student retention is intrinsically linked to quality of teaching. There is also now an urgency as to the issue given that the Commonwealth government recently announced its intention to make university funding conditional upon performance-based metrics, including student retention rates. The correlation between academic and social integration, institutional attachment, and student attrition rates in traditional face-to-face study mode was established long ago (Tinto, 1975). According to Tinto, student integration is developed through peer associations and interaction with faculty. It results in a collective affiliation and minimises the risk of attrition (Tinto, 1975: 107). However, the evidence of such correlations in the online tertiary landscape is a relatively new terrain. Drop-out rates for online students are more than double that for face-to-face or blended modes (Australian Government, 2017). Therefore, online learning carries with it an acute risk for student attrition (Bawa, 2016). Other issues facing online tertiary students include isolation and low motivation (Bawa, 2016; Milheim, 2012). It is the isolation factor that consistently features in scholarship on attrition rates for online students (Bawa, 2016; Rush, 2013; Rovai & Downey, 2010; Rovai, 2003). Low student motivation ties back into issues of lack of support and relatedness (Chen & Jang, 2010). Rush’s 2014 study of online tertiary students found that isolation and disconnection were key indicators of student dissatisfaction. Rush’s findings tended to support Tinto’s theory that increased academic and social interaction lowered attrition. She also found that online learners were less autonomous than Moore’s (1975) early work would suggest. It is against this background that this paper explores the issue of student isolation amongst a cohort of online students with the objective of informing teaching strategies and academic professional development. In particular, we benchmark Rush’s findings against data collected via a 2018 survey of undergraduate students in the Bachelor of Laws program at CQUniversity. Preliminary analyses confirm Rush’s findings, with isolation as a key indicator of online learner dissatisfaction, and lower student autonomy. This latter point has implications for online teachers using the ‘flipped classroom’ model

The tyranny of distance: Online learning, isolation and attrition rates

Addressing student attrition rates is a crucial aspect of tertiary education policy and practice. In terms of practice, student retention is intrinsically linked to quality of teaching. There is also now an urgency as to the issue given that the Commonwealth government recently announced its intention to make university funding conditional upon performance-based metrics, including student retention rates. The correlation between academic and social integration, institutional attachment, and student attrition rates in traditional face-to-face study mode was established long ago (Tinto, 1975). According to Tinto, student integration is developed through peer associations and interaction with faculty. It results in a collective affiliation and minimises the risk of attrition (Tinto, 1975: 107). However, the evidence of such correlations in the online tertiary landscape is a relatively new terrain. Drop-out rates for online students are more than double that for face-to-face or blended modes (Australian Government, 2017). Therefore, online learning carries with it an acute risk for student attrition (Bawa, 2016). Other issues facing online tertiary students include isolation and low motivation (Bawa, 2016; Milheim, 2012). It is the isolation factor that consistently features in scholarship on attrition rates for online students (Bawa, 2016; Rush, 2013; Rovai & Downey, 2010; Rovai, 2003). Low student motivation ties back into issues of lack of support and relatedness (Chen & Jang, 2010). Rush’s 2014 study of online tertiary students found that isolation and disconnection were key indicators of student dissatisfaction. Rush’s findings tended to support Tinto’s theory that increased academic and social interaction lowered attrition. She also found that online learners were less autonomous than Moore’s (1975) early work would suggest. It is against this background that this paper explores the issue of student isolation amongst a cohort of online students with the objective of informing teaching strategies and academic professional development. In particular, we benchmark Rush’s findings against data collected via a 2018 survey of undergraduate students in the Bachelor of Laws program at CQUniversity. Preliminary analyses confirm Rush’s findings, with isolation as a key indicator of online learner dissatisfaction, and lower student autonomy. This latter point has implications for online teachers using the ‘flipped classroom’ model