The World-Class Multiversity: Global commonalities and national characteristics

World-Class Universities (WCUs) are nationally embedded comprehensive higher education institutions (HEIs) that are closely engaged in the global knowledge system. The article reviews the conditions of possibility and evolution of WCUs. Three interpretations are used to explain worldwide higher education: neoliberal theory, institutional theory, and critical political economy, which give greater recognition than the other theories to the role of the state and variations between states. World higher education is evolving under conditions of globalization, organizational modernization (the New Public Management), and in some countries, marketization. These larger conditions have become manifest in higher education in three widespread tendencies: massification, the WCU movement, and organizational expansion. The last includes the strengthening of the role of the large multi-disciplinary multi-purpose HEIs ("multiversities"), in the form of both research-intensive WCUs with significant global presence, and other HEIs. The role of binary sector and specialist HEIs has declined. Elite WCUs gain status and strategic advantage in both quantity and quality: through growth and the expansion of scope, and through selectivity and research concentration. The balance between quantity and quality is now resolved at larger average size and broader scope than before. The final section of the article reviews WCUs in China and considers whether they might constitute a distinctive university model

Migrant Workers from Central Asia in Moscow: Adaptation Issues

The article is based on the results of the survey of migrant workers from Central Asia in Moscow and Moscow region. One of the key issues of the study was the degree of adaptation of migrants to life in the capital. The article discusses the issue both from the point of view of experts on labor migration and of the migrants themselves

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT DURING TEACHER EDUCATION AND PHASES OF THE CHANGE IN THE EVOLUTION OF VOCATIONAL TEACHERS' CONVICTIONS

Classroom management is known to be a central issue for teachers, and especially for novice teachers, who claim poor classroom climate. Classroom management is associated with a key competence for experienced teachers, that reveals a necessity for professional development in classroom management. When studying classroom management, it is essential to consider as the convictions as the practices of teachers. A major part of research assumes that convictions are concomitant with practices. Extensive research has been conducted with respect to the practices motivating student engagement and methods to maintain engagement appearance. Research is also aimed at analysis of student-centred and constructivist practices. The position accepted in the present research is rooted in the self-determination theory, socio-cognitive framework, which allocates the following types of practices presented as autonomy support versus control, and structure versus chaos. The survey comprised means of self-reported classroom management practices, general pedagogical convictions, and convictions about motivating students. Confirmatory factor analyses evaluated the relevance and variability of the scales depending on time. We studied intra-class correlations in a baseline variance component model to understand what proportions of the variance to be identified by time-varying features, and what proportion by participant qualities. The present mixed-methods study has a pupose to investigate the ways teachers change, reasons they change, considering the teacher education setting, the university setting, and the teacher's personal character. The article studies the evolution of 64 vocational teachers' classroom management as a result of the inputs of a teacher education program, and to clarify the incentives that propel or discourage teacher change. Research comprises axial analyses conducted with the use of a multilevel approach and interviews. This mixed-method study unfolded that vocational teachers' classroom management evolved into the convictions and practices propelled by the teacher education program. The contradictions in the results of the research regarding the effect of teacher education on classroom management may raise from the feasibility that teacher education is not the only way encouraging teacher change in classroom management. Thus, it is relevant to study a broader prospect regarding other teaching and learning experiences

Influence of modifying additives on formation of supported copper nanoparticles

The influence of modifying additives of Ce, Zr, La and Cs oxides on changes of electronic state of supported copper during the catalytic reaction of butane complete oxidation has been studied by the methods of IR-spectroscopy of adsorbed CO, XPS, EXAFS and XRD. The modifying additions of cerium and zirconium oxides stabilize the ionic state of copper, while lanthanum and cesium oxides decrease the effective charge of copper ions. The observed effects are caused by variation in metal dispersivity in the modified samples and by electron donor-acceptor interaction of the surface atoms and ions of copper with the modifier