Reforming American Higher Education: The University of Rhode Island International Engineering Program

The goal of this paper is to explore how American higher education may be better adapted to the needs of today’s global society by means of a more integrated curriculum, one that rigorously partners the “hard skills” of math, the sciences, and engineering (the STEM and professional disciplines) with those supposedly “softer” ones derived through the arts and humanities. The authors believe that students will be better prepared for the challenges of the contemporary workplace through an education equally grounded in the sciences and the arts, including the study of varied sets of value systems, by pursuing dual degrees across those disciplines. Having pioneered one such effective and well-known model for the internationalization of engineering education, the five year dual degree (BA/BS) International Engineering Program (IEP) at the University of Rhode Island, Berka and Grandin propose the marriage of engineering and language/culture as a model or template for a meaningful and productive partnership between science and technology, the humanities, and society as a whole, potentially adaptable to all comprehensive institutions of higher education and to a broad range of disciplines. As the United States seeks answers to a growing crisis of cost and relevance in higher education, therefore, the IEP will be presented here as an inspiration and a model for much needed reform, made possible by the creative reorganization and integration of subject areas which formerly went their separate ways, but benefitted enormously by finding their common ground

An examination of psychological contracts, careerism and intention to leave

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationships between elements of the psychological contract (i.e., type and fulfilment) and an employee’s intention to leave (ITL) their current organisation. The role of careerism as a potential mediating and moderating variable is also explored.Design/methodology/approach - Allied Health Professionals (N=202) completed a questionnaire containing measures of the psychological contract, careerism and ITL.Findings - As predicted, path analyses conducted via structural equation modelling demonstrated that careerism partially mediates the relationship between contract types and ITL. These findings suggest that employees with transactional contracts are more careerist, resulting in higher ITL, while employees with relational contracts are less careerist, resulting in lower ITL. Contrary to expectation, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that careerism failed to moderate the relationship between perceived contract fulfillment and ITL. However, a strong positive association between contract fulfillment and ITL was found.Research limitations/implications - The data were collected cross-sectionally, which limits the ability to make causal inferences.Practical implications - Results were consistent with the proposition that contract type and fulfillment predict employee ITL. It appears that employees with relational contracts are more likely to remain with their organization on a longer-term basis, compared to employees with transactional contracts, due to differences in career motives. Organizational awareness and understanding of employee psychological contracts and career motives is needed.Originality/value - This paper provides new theoretical and practical insights on how psychological contracts and careerism can influence Intention to leave among Allied Health Professionals

‘Do You Want a Receipt?’ Combating VAT and RST Evasion with Lottery Tickets

Governments both in developed and developing countries are facing the problem of value added tax (VAT) and retail sales tax (RST) evasion. This explains a growing interest in policies alternative to the traditional methods of deterrence. This paper describes the achievements resulting from a zero cost policy against VAT and RST evasion based on rewards. Customers are encouraged to request an invoice by changing the invoice into a lottery ticket, thereby making VAT and RST fraud and evasion more difficult for suppliers. Such a policy has, for example, been introduced in some Asian countries. After having characterized VAT and RST evasion as a special kind of public good situation, a theoretical explanation based on behavioral Economics models of the success empirically registered by this policy will be discussed. Given this theoretical framework, we then introduce an empirical test in order to verify the ex-ante applicability of the policy described in different socio-economic contexts. Finally we discuss the possible countervailing effects as well as the positive long-term side-effects of the introduction of the policy

"HENDERSON: FROM CHAOS TO CLARITY"

"HENDERSON: FROM CHAOS TO CLARITY

THE OPPOSING FORCES IN ALBEE'S 'THE ZOO STORY"

Introduction : placing The Zoo Story into the category ofAbsurd plays

Levekår for personer med nedsatt funksjonsevne : Fellestrekk og variasjon

-Bakgrunnen for denne rapporten er dels at personer med nedsatt funksjonsevne er en svært sammensatt og heterogen gruppe, og dels behovet for å etablere et godt system for dokumentasjon av levekårene for funksjonshemmete. Formålet har derfor vært (1) å undersøke hva vi vet om fellestrekk og variasjon i levekårene til personer med ulike former for nedsatt funksjonsevne ut fra foreliggende forskning, (2) å påpeke mangler i kunnskapsgrunnlaget, og (3) å drøfte mulige strategier for å bedre kunnskapsgrunnlaget. Størstedelen av arbeidet med rapporten har vært å analysere eksisterende forskning av relevans for problemstillingene