Różnorodność i zmiana: polityka rządowa a wpływ otoczenia

The article addresses the issue of change in the government-university relationships. As has become increasingly clear for both analysts of higher education policy and for administrators in higher education institutions, a fundamental shift in the relationship between national governments and higher education institutions is taking place in many Western European countries. In some countries, these changes are occurring at greater speed than in others, but movement to what has been labelled “state supervision” is quite dominant. The first part of the article analyses the rationale for this change at system level by tracing its historical imperatives; after which it discusses the concept of the supervisory governance model. The second part focuses in particular on one of the key of this objective and what doing so implies for the role and function of higher education institutions. By focussing on the specific issue of diversity, the authors intend to demonstrate the dynamic relationship between governments and higher education institutions that is implied in the supervisory model.Artykuł jest poświęcony zmianom w stosunkach między rządem i uniwersytetem. Zarówno dla analizujących politykę wobec szkolnictwa wyższego, jak i dla zarządzających szkołami wyższymi coraz bardziej oczywisty staje się fakt, że w wielu państwach Europy Zachodniej dokonują się zasadnicze zmiany w relacjach między państwem a instytucjami szkolnictwa wyższego. W niektórych krajach zmiany te zachodzą szybciej niż w pozostałych, lecz powszechna jest tendencja do przeobrażania stanu nazwanego „regulacją państwową” . W pierwszej części artykułu autorzy zajmują się systemowymi determinantami tych zmian, eksponując czynniki historyczne, oraz sposobem tworzenia państwowej regulacji. W drugiej części koncentrują się na jednym z kluczowych celów polityki w stosunku do szkół wyższych, to jest na problemie różnorodności i instrumentach realizacji strategii regulacji, a także na skutkach, jakie one wywierają w sferze misji oraz zadań szkół wyższych. Koncentrując się na problemie różnorodności, autorzy starają się pokazać zmiany zachodzące - pod wpływem modelu regulacji - w stosunkach między państwem a szkołami wyższymi

Restructuring higher education:a comparative analysis between Australia and the Netherlands

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful to success, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favour; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have actual experience of it. (Machiavelli

TechXcite: Discover Engineering—A New STEM Curriculum

TechXcite is an engineering-focused, discovery-based after-school science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program. The free curriculum is downloadable from http://techxcite.pratt.duke.edu/and is comprised of eight Modules, each with four to five 45-minute activities that exercise the science and math learned in school by using engineering principles to build products or learn processes that improve the quality of life. Ninety-eight percent of TechXcite instructors indicated that students learned and demonstrated improved competence in science and engineering. TechXcite Modules include building prosthetic arms, infrared remote controls, solar-powered cars, harvesting rain water, and imaging biological systems

Looking From The Outside In: The Issue of Equal Access to Computer-Mediated Learning by Distance Learners in Higher Education

This study examines the experience of distance learners, particularly those who fit into different equity groups, with online learning in higher education. Cyber education is no longer the realm of science fiction. Instead, the use of computer technology has now become an integral part of learning in the modern university. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) - it is hoped - will extend opportunities for learning outside the preexisting parameters of distance education and enhance the learning opportunities and outcomes for all students within these courses. Whilst there are many potentials for the new technology, the implementation of CMC in distance education, however, may assume that students will possess a pre-existing practical knowledge of computer technology. It also may assume equality of students in terms of access, competency, and opportunity. However, not all students have had the opportunity, the desire, or even the confidence to gain access to this medium. Often factors such as little or no income, geographical isolation, gender, time constraints, age, cultural background and disabilities compound to separate distance learners from the very technology that has the capabilities to provide them with greater opportunities in tertiary education. This study, conducted over a five-year period from 1998 to 2003, spans a time of rapid change in tertiary institutions in Australia, from the initial incorporation to the now widespread utilisation of computer-mediated technology in distance learning, the so-called 'third-generation' of distance learning. The aim of the study has been to explore the lived reality of a select group of 35 distance education students through their experiences with CMC

Why Planning Fails: A Study of Higher Education Planning in Papua New Guinea, 1984-1990

The nature and key determinants of national policy process are explored through an empirical study of failure in national tertiary education planning. It centres on a case study of the formulation and implementation of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Higher Education Plan 1986 - 1990: A Strategy for Rationalisation, during the period 1984 - 1990. It combines a grounded theoretical approach with examination of the explanatory power of pluralist, Marxist and elite theoretical perspectives. The main argument is that, although many factors combined to account for the lack of success in tertiary education planning in PNG, the following emerged as the most important: PNG's dependence on and vulnerability to the global economy; the scarcity of resources exacerbated by global recession, by Australian aid policy, and by PNG domestic economic policy in certain sectors; the weakness of PNG democracy and inherent incoherence in its government; and the deliberate frustration of planning by those interests that felt themselves directly threatened. A wide range of factors were exploited by those interests. Increasing resource scarcity, whether externally imposed or internally generated, played a key role in activating them and was associated with increase in inequality. Democracy was particularly vulnerable to elite domination when confronted by acute resource scarcity. Resource scarcity exacerbated the dominance of elite interests. This contributed significantly to the frustration of the national planning process, which in turn resulted in increased inequality. As many of these conditions and opportunities applied equally to the rest of the public sector, the explanation is applicable more generally to the policy process in PNG, and to some other countries with similar circumstances. Although pluralist, Marxist and elite theoretical perspectives are useful in explaining the frustration of policy process, each is insufficient by itself. They are not mutually exclusive and a synthesis would be more useful. Adequate theory would need to be capable of linking micro-level to global level policy phenomena

VET Leadership for the Future: contexts, characteristics and capabilities

This study examines leadership in Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) sector. VET leaders make a vital and growing contribution to learners, industry and society, yet research on their work is limited. This has direct implications for ensuring leadership is most effective, and for framing evidence-based capacity development. To assist the sector, and in particular the people who find themselves running large and complex training organisations, this study paints a picture of what VET leaders do, and of how they can do it best

Moving forward:a review of North-West University's first ten years

This independent report commissioned by North West University (NWU) contradicts the university's recently published claim that it has bridged its racial divisions and addressed historical inequalities. According to the 10-year review, “Present management structures and practices are not fully conducive to achieving transformation goals [and] … racial and gender imbalances persist in the composition of student and academic staff bodies.” The report follows NWU’s own review published in December 2013. NWU's own findings on campus divisions differ substantially from those of the independent panel. Both reviews assess the extent to which NWU has met the many targets it set in 2004, when the government merged the formerly white, Afrikaans-medium Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and Mafikeng’s former University of Bophuthatswana

Repertoires of governance among members of Australian university governing boards

Recent corporate collapses have focused public attention on the roles and responsibilities of governing boards. These issues are also significant for Australian universities. This research examines the repertoires of ideas that public university governing body members use to make sense of their governance functions. Through a qualitative study of the language of members of five university governing boards (councils), it identifies the repertoires, or 'regimes of justification' (Boltanksi & Thevenot 1991), used by board members to interpret the principles and practices of university governance. My thesis is that board members of university councils in Australia use several distinct repertoires - of business, of the community, of traditional university values and of professionalism - to express their ideas about university governance. Analysis of these repertoires, each of which implies a different 'logic of action' (Bacharach, Bamberger, & Sonnenstuhl 1996), illuminates our understanding of why board members interpret governance functions in different and sometimes contradictory ways. It also provides a means to assess the influence of 'managerialist' ideas on Australian university governance and the extent to which Australian university governance is yet to become professionalised. The theoretical basis for the research is drawn from the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, coupled with the discourse analytical method of interpretative repertoires (Wetherell & Potter 1988). By viewing board governance as a locus of discursive struggles over differing systems of value, it becomes possible to analyse the impact on 'practical politics' (Heffernan 1997) of the repertoires of key ideas revealed in discourse by governing board members. This research affirms the significance of organisational and wider societal values in non-for-profit governance. Broad concepts of the public good, participation and the university ideal are used to counterbalance an extreme managerialist view that universities are no more than a particular type of business. It is noted that certain repertoires may be more commonly employed in particular institutions such as regional universities. Reflexive consideration of these differing repertoires by council members could contribute to more effective university governance

The relationship between the insulin-like growth factor-1 axis, weight loss, an inflammation-based score and survival in patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer

<b>Background & aims:</b> The involvement of a systemic inflammatory response, as evidenced by the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS), is associated with weight loss and poor outcome in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. There is good evidence that nutritional and functional decline in patients with advanced malignant disease is associated with catabolic changes in metabolism. However, defects in anabolism may also contribute towards nutritional decline in patients with cancer. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between IGF-1 and IGFBP-3, performance status, mGPS and survival in patients with inoperable NSCLC. <b>Methods:</b> 56 patients with inoperable NSCLC were studied. The plasma concentrations of IGF-1, IGFBP-3 and leptin were measured using ELISA and RIA. <b>Results:</b> The patients were predominantly male (61%), over 60 years old (80%), with advanced (stage III or IV) disease (98%), with a BMI≥20 (84%), an ECOG-ps of 0 or 1 (79%), a haemoglobin (59%) and white cell count (79%) in the reference range. On follow-up 43 patients died of their cancer. On univariate analysis, BMI (p<0.05), Stage (p<0.05), ECOG-ps (p<0.05), haemoglobin (p<0.05), white cell count (p<0.05) and mGPS (p<0.05) were associated with cancer specific survival. There was no association between age, sex, treatment, IGF-1, IGFBP-3, IGF-1:IGFBP-3 ratio, or leptin and cancer specific survival. With an increasing mGPS concentrations of haemoglobin (p<0.005) and IGFBP-3 (p<0.05) decreased. mGPS was not associated with either IGF-1(p>0.20), or leptin (p>0.20). <b>Conclusions:</b> In summary, the results of this study suggest that anabolism (IGF-1 axis) does not play a significant role in the relationship between nutritional and functional decline, systemic inflammation and poor survival in patients with inoperable NSCLC