Editorial Introduction: The Creative Power of Historical Artifacts

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Bologna process, more or less: nursing education in the European economic area: a discussion paper

Palese A, Zabalegui A, Sigurdardottir AK, Bergin M, Dobrowolska B, Gasser C, Pajnkihar M, Jackson C. Abstract Abstract The Bologna Declaration and the subsequent processes is the single most important reform of higher education taking place in Europe in the last 30 years. Signed in 1999, it includes 46 European Union countries and aimed to create, a more coherent, compatible, comparable and competitive European Higher Education Area. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Bologna Declaration achievements in nursing education at 2010 within eight countries that first signed the Declaration on 1999. Researchers primarily identified national laws, policy statements, guidelines and grey literature; then, a literature review on Bologna Declaration implementation in nursing was conducted on the Medline and CINAHL databases. Critical analyses of these documents were performed by expert nurse educators. Structural, organizational, functional and cultural obstacles are hindering full Bologna Process implementation in nursing education within European Economic Area. A call for action is offered in order to achieve a functionally unified system within nursing

Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument

Abstract This study assesses the civic orientation of graduate students via the “Importance of Social Action Engagement” scale and tests that instrument’s construct validity and reliability when applied to graduate students. The study contributes to our understanding of the levels of graduate students’ willingness to engage with social issues, and to our ability to gauge those levels. The study’s results, based on a sample of 367 survey responses, reports on moderate levels of civic orientation amongst graduate students, and provides evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the instrument items when used with graduate students, and the overall instruments’ effectiveness in the initial exploration of graduate students’ orientation towards social engagement. The results offer useful feedback to graduate student program directors and faculty on the need to incorporate learning initiatives that actively engage their students with social issues, and suggest a viable tool to measure students’ civic orientation

"In Great Degree of Spirit": Higher Education Studies at the University of Toledo

The University of Toledo’s Higher Education program and its Russel Center for the Study of Higher Education host the SHHE Journal. This first article provides a historical account of their origins and growth. The beginnings of higher education studies at the University of Toledo marks a significant milestone in the institution’s history. Introduced in 1960 at the doctoral level, the Higher Education program was amongst the pioneers of doctoral education at the municipal Toledo University. Its faculty awarded some of the first doctoral degrees at the university and established the first interdisciplinary research center on higher education studies in the state of Ohio. Drawing on archival resources and secondary research, this article examines the broader context of doctoral education in the United States and Ohio, the visionary leadership of the education faculty who championed the cause of graduate education, and the expansion of the program through its own department and research center. Despite many challenges, the Higher Education program and its research center thrived and evolved over the decades. Today, the program boasts more than 650 graduates while its alumni serve institutions of higher education nationwide

Chapter 1: Redefining Short-Cycle Higher Education Across Europe: The Challenges of Bologna

This essay examines the impact of the Bologna Process on the development of short-cycle higher education in Europe, noting that the integration of short-cycle qualifications within the Qualifications Framework for the European Higher Education Area, combined with the critical place allotted to those programs in national lifelong learning frameworks, has charged short-cycle programs and qualifications with a dual responsibility: to train graduates for employment as well as prepare them for future studies. The challenges faced by European countries in creating programs and qualifications that meet this dual responsibility are discussed. </jats:p

Ups and Downs across Central and Eastern Europe

Larger private higher education sectors are much more common across central and eastern Europe. After the fall of the communist regimes in 1989, private institutions of higher education multiplied to varying degrees in central and eastern Europe. The most recent trends reveal slow private growth in most of these countries. Declines in the number of people served by private institutions have been limited in range and time, yet have occurred in both the university and nonuniversity private sectors

Shifting Private-Public Patterns in Short-Cycle Higher Education Across Europe

Short-cycle higher education is largely ignored by the literature, and yet it serves a growing number of students in Europe.  This article discusses the realities and challenges of this aspect of higher education, focusing particularly on the private sector