Conservation Laws and Global Solutions of Linear First Order PDEs with Distributional Coefficients

AbstractWe treat linear partial differential equations of first order with distributional coefficients naturally related to physical conservation laws in the spirit of our preceding papers (which concern ordinary differential equations): the solutions are consistent with the classical ones. Under compatibility conditions we prove uniqueness and existence results. As an example we consider the problem ut+δtux=0,u(x,−1)=h(x)(h∈C2(R) is given); our theory grants that the unique solution in C2(R2)⊕D′ℓ(R2) is u(x,t)=h(x)−h′(0)δ(x,t) and this has a physical meaning (D′ℓ(R2) is the space of distributions with discrete support and δ is the Dirac measure at (0,0))

The expansion of doctoral education and the changing nature and purpose of the doctorate

Doctorate level attainment has increased significantly in developed economies. In 2019, the average share of 25–64-year-olds with a doctorate across the OECD was around 1%. However, if current trends continue, 2.3% of today’s young adults will enter doctoral studies at some point in their life. This essay starts by describing the expansion of doctoral education. It then reflects on the causes of this growth and the consequences for the nature and purpose of the doctorate. This reflection is mostly based on published research in Higher Education in the last 50 years and the author’s work on policy analysis for the OECD on this topic. The paper finishes with a research agenda on doctoral education and the career of doctorate holders.The author would like to acknowledge the support given by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (FCT), within the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), project UIDB/00757/2020.The author was involved in the OECD Global Science Forum’s projects Reducing the Precarity of Academic Research Careers and Career Options for Doctoral and Postdoctoral Scientists referenced in the text. However, the opinions expressed in this chapter are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OECD or its members. The author would like to thank the editors-in-chief and a coordinating editor of Higher Education for useful constructive feedback on a previous version of this article

Benchmarking Higher-Education System Performance : A Look at Learning and Teaching

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Higher education system rankings and benchmarking

The authors were involved in the Benchmarking Higher Education System Performance project of the OECD referred in the text. However, the opinions expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OECD and of its members.The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the emergence of higher education system rankings and other frameworks that attempt to make sense of the performance of higher education systems. It starts with a review of higher education system rankings and how they attempt to overcome the failings of institutional rankings. It then covers alternative approaches for monitoring higher education beyond traditional rankings. It introduces the approach of benchmarking higher education system performance rooted in the literature on performance, the performance of public services, and the performance of higher education. It offers a view of what is possible to do with an ontological approach to the performance of higher education systems instead of exercises driven by data availability and discusses the challenges of moving forward with such an approach. It concludes by discussing the likely coexistence of the discourses on world-class university with the world-class systems, and the challenge for countries to balance them. © Ellen Hazelkorn and Georgiana Mihut 2021.(undefined

Supply chain quality management in education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the concept of supply chain quality management (SCQM) in education. It then analyses a particular country case study in light of the concept, presenting empirical evidence of the challenges and good practices relating to it. Design/methodology/approach The empirical work is based on a country case study which includes data on four higher education institutions and nine secondary schools. Data are obtained from national and institutional documents, as well as from individual and panel interviews. The authors have used content analysis for both data and interview transcripts. Findings The authors find that whereas we can think of education systems as supply chains, there are important challenges to SCQM in education, namely, regarding information sharing, trust, integration and leadership. Conversely, the authors have found some ad hoc good practice which could be developed into more systematic SCQM practice. Research limitations/implications The study covers only a single case study, and a part of the education supply chain. Practical implications The work could inform policy makers as well as institutional leaders on practices that would improve the performance of the education supply chain. Social implications Education is a very important activity sector with a strong impact on the well-being of societies. Gains in education performance resulting from better SCQM in education would thus impact us all. Originality/value The paper offers a novel way of looking at the education system through the lenses of SCQM; if implemented it could significantly improve the performance of education systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Academic staff quality in higher education : an empirical analysis of Portuguese public administration education

Higher education accreditation frameworks typically consider academic staff quality a key element. This article embarks on an empirical study of what academic staff quality means, how it is measured, and how different aspects of staff quality relate to each other. It draws on the relatively nascent Portuguese experience with study programme accreditation. The study provides an analysis of staff quality in public administration education, an area of massive expansion in recent years. Several dimensions of quality are assessed (staff qualifications, research intensity, disciplinary orientation, diversity, international orientation, professional orientation, and inbreeding) along with the interactions that occur between them. A statistical analysis is made of the indicators for all 21 study programmes in the area of public administration, involving 236 academics in 6 public universities. We find that, in general, the quality of academic staff complies with standards, but there are issues regarding qualifications and research intensity that need to be addressed. The findings emphasize the need to uphold academic staff quality standards but calls for policies to curtail possible gaming resulting from it. The article illustrates the relevance of analysing staff quality from an empirical point of view and its contribution to our understanding of how different quality accreditation processes function and their implications for how quality is achieved in higher education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Conclusion: New Practices and Identities as Drivers of Cultural Change

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Let the devil choose : frustration or anxiety in the wake of performance measurement in universities

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss changes and challenges in the management of universities by using two archetypes - the ivory tower and the mass university - as an intellectual device to illustrate the nature of changes from traditional to contemporary universities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Past performance does not guarantee future results: lessons from the evaluation of research units in Portugal

Research units in Portugal undergo a formal evaluation process based on peer review which is the basis for distributing funding from the national research council. This article analyzes the evaluation results and asks how good they are at predicting future research performance. Better research evaluations mean the institution receives more funding, so the key question is to what extent research evaluations are able to predict future performance as measured by bibliometric indicators. We use data from the peer evaluation of units in 2007–08, and analyze how well it is able to predict the results of a bibliometric study of the units’ Web of Science publications in the period 2007–10. We found that, in general, units that had better peer ratings, and thus more funding, as well as an increased capacity to attract extra funding, were not necessarily those that ended up producing more excellent research. The results provide an empirical contribution to the discussion regarding whether science can be measured and how, and reinforce the importance of evaluations where the use of quantitative data is defined and the differences between areas are accounted for. This analysis provides a snapshot of Portugal's recent scientific performance. Chemistry and physics are among the subfields with higher output and impact, which agrees with a traditional preferential funding of these areas. Institutions also excel in areas that may be assuming an increased relevance (Plant Sciences, Food Science and Technology, Neurosciences and other health-related subfields), which should be taken into account when implementing future science policies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio