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The purpose of this foresight editorial is to explore the changing nature of the traditional post‐secondary institution under increased pressure at the intersection of expanding…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this foresight editorial is to explore the changing nature of the traditional post‐secondary institution under increased pressure at the intersection of expanding demand for access and the maturation of the internet to allow international delivery to meet this demand.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an opinion piece.
Findings
The cost of basic knowledge assets, with the rise of “big data” and the internet, are asymptotically approaching zero, questioning why the increasing demand for access cannot be met at lower cost at the gates of the “Ivory Tower”. This is and will continue to have increased impact on how basic baccalaureate knowledge is delivered and certified
Social implications
The “bar” for job entrance has been raised beyond the secondary school diploma. At the same time, the removal of bottlenecks for post‐secondary certification, internationally, will change the nature of employment of graduates and also the entire infrastructure of the bachelor‐level institutional programs.
Originality/value
This is a contrarian foresight essay designed to provoke discussion at the systems level of education in general and post‐secondary programs in particular.
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Post‐secondary institutions are undergoing change. This review aims to look at how the changes are being addressed in Europe and the USA.
Abstract
Purpose
Post‐secondary institutions are undergoing change. This review aims to look at how the changes are being addressed in Europe and the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
Two books are reviewed. One looks at the change through the efforts of the Spellings Commission in the USA while the other, a study of the European Bologna Process, holds the hope that there might be lessons for the USA's traditional colleges and universities.
Findings
Both of the authors are concerned with the current and future state of post‐secondary education in the USA. Gaston defines the rise and the current state of the Bologna Process of harmonization of universities across the EU's borders. He also indicates that the USA's global hegemonic reputation may not hold in the future. Zemsky's study focuses on the Spellings Commission study and sees post‐secondary education as the center point of knowledge, needing some change, but not so off course that it needs to follow the path of homogenization which the USA sees as being taken in Europe. The paper also reveals how the US public institutions, the public itself and the government need to resolve the need for centers of academic and research excellence while addressing the social needs of an increasingly diverse population in a time of limited fiscal resources.
Social implications
The rising technological demands of a flattening world raise the educational need of the workforce taking it from K‐12 to K‐14+ and removing the bright line that has separated the tertiary institutions from the secondary schools. Additionally, global mobility changes the marketplace, particularly at the undergraduate levels and the role of the academics who labor in the Ivory Tower.
Originality/value
The paper reveals information on the influence of the Bologna Process and the Spellings Commission in educational reform.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the less than purposeful shift in post‐secondary education models and the implications for the institution, faculty and students.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the less than purposeful shift in post‐secondary education models and the implications for the institution, faculty and students.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis of the impact of technology for post‐secondary education futures.
Findings
Advances in virtual connectivity will deconstruct the traditional idea of a university while also challenging the economic models used by students in determining their future.
Originality/value
The increasing research and analysis of the ubiquity of knowledge once held within the university indicates that the disruption of post‐secondary education will force all parties to re‐assess the future of the post‐secondary institutions in a global knowledge society.
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The purpose of this editorial is to describe a current and recurring problem in post‐secondary education and a path out of it.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this editorial is to describe a current and recurring problem in post‐secondary education and a path out of it.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a viewpoint paper.
Findings
Education has to change direction. Badging and the world of multiplayer games provides one path to change the institutions and how to prepare, primarily, undergraduates as education moves from pre‐K‐12 to pre‐K‐16 and towards lifelong learning
Originality/value
The paper provides a viewpoint into one way in which post‐secondary education can move forwards.
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This study sets out to investigate the pattern of benefits from education along the earnings distribution and compares this pattern between general and vocational/technical…
Abstract
Purpose
This study sets out to investigate the pattern of benefits from education along the earnings distribution and compares this pattern between general and vocational/technical education in Singapore, with a particular focus on male‐female differences.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantile regression methodology is used, which allows for estimates of education benefits that differentiate the contribution of the quantity and quality of education along the earnings distribution. The quantile regression estimates highlight where in the income/ability distribution the impact of education is more pronounced.
Findings
Finds that, while the pattern of returns to an additional year of education for general education follows that of other high income countries, exhibiting increasing returns to education as one goes from lower to higher income quantiles, the returns to vocational education exhibit much lower heterogeneity. Based on the findings, the vocational education system in Singapore has served women with secondary vocational qualifications particularly well. They earn more, have higher labor force participation, experience higher employment rates and are associated with a narrower gender earnings gap compared with women with general education. However, this is not the case for women with polytechnic qualifications, who earn much less than men with such qualifications.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that, by and large, Singapore's vocational education system at the secondary level has successfully addressed the needs of the industry and has contributed towards narrowing gender earnings differentials. It has also contributed towards less overall earnings inequality, because it results in less heterogeneity in the returns to education, compared with general education. However, the curricula of polytechnics need to be re‐examined to identify the cause of the sharply lower female benefits from this type of education.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the empirical literature with its use of the quantile regression methodology in evaluating the benefits of vocational versus general education for men and women.
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Stephen Hunsaker, Donald R. Baum and Katy Ducos
The study aims to provide insight on the potential effectiveness of demand-side financing for catalyzing improved educational outcomes in Malawi; and, given the extent of…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to provide insight on the potential effectiveness of demand-side financing for catalyzing improved educational outcomes in Malawi; and, given the extent of cost-related constraints to school contexts in other low-income countries, the results have relevance for education policy decisions more broadly.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilizes a non-equivalent groups research design to compare the educational experiences and outcomes of two student groups – those who did and those who did not receive a needs-based scholarship to attend secondary school and college in the Dowa, Kasungu, and Lilongwe Districts of Malawi. The authors assess impacts across a range of short and medium-term outcomes, including: school attendance, withdrawal, attainment, graduation, employment status, employment quality, and post-schooling income.
Findings
The scholarship substantially reduces the household cost of participation in school, and reduces the distance travelled to school. As a result, scholarship recipients attain between 1 and 1.5 years of additional schooling and graduate at higher rates. In terms of post-schooling outcomes, recipients are in higher wage-earning occupations after leaving school. Overall, results suggest that scholarships are an effective demand-side strategy for improving educational attainment, progression, and potentially longer-term labor market outcomes.
Originality/value
The study adds new evidence on policy approaches for expanding access to educational opportunities and increasing labor market outcomes in a context (Malawi specifically and sub-Saharan Africa more broadly) where evidence on such demand-side interventions is still growing.
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The debate concerning the relationship between maternal education and child nutritional status is not a foregone conclusion. This paper aims to contribute to the existing debate…
Abstract
Purpose
The debate concerning the relationship between maternal education and child nutritional status is not a foregone conclusion. This paper aims to contribute to the existing debate by examining this relationship for the case of Uganda.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically, the study was based on household models of optimization, just like in the standard consumer theory, to gain insights into household demand for the health good. Empirically, the paper employed maximum-likelihood probit models and computed marginal effects in order to obtain logically interpretable results.
Findings
The paper finds that once the socio-economic factors are controlled for, the significance of maternal education, especially primary and secondary levels, in influencing child nutrition status decays but post-secondary education persists. Therefore, if mothers are exposed to the same socio-economic conditions, it is education of the mother beyond secondary level that generates a difference in the child nutrition outcomes.
Practical implications
These findings suggest that efforts to improve the child health outcomes in the future need to target measures that aim to educate women beyond secondary level. The government program to extend free education at the secondary level is a good start and should be strengthened.
Originality/value
Literature presents no consensus on the effect of maternal education and child nutritional status. It is often argued that maternal education is simply a proxy for the socio-economic conditions and geographical area of residence such its significance decays once these are controlled for. Yet others argue that maternal education is a single most important factor influencing child nutritional outcomes. The debate is still very hot and this study sought to contribute to this debate for the case of Uganda.
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The purpose of this paper is as follows: this is a short excursion into the changing world of post‐secondary education through a review of two books: Reinventing Higher Education…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is as follows: this is a short excursion into the changing world of post‐secondary education through a review of two books: Reinventing Higher Education: The Promise of Innovation, by Ben Wildavsky, Andrew P Kelly and Kevin Carey; and DIY U, by Aya Kamenetz.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents reviews of two recently published books.
Findings
The economics and functions of post secondary education at the baccalaureate and post‐baccalaureate (research) levels are changing in a world where knowledge flows freely across geo‐political boundaries. The Ivory Tower no longer commands from a fixed location or as the center of knowledge, both the historic and the new.
Originality/value
Individuals as well as public and private sector entities have multiple sources for knowledge and new abilities of sharing and obtaining knowledge. “The Academy” as created in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an independent home for scholarly endeavors has changed as new demands are placed upon the institutions and the faculty.
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Dennis C.S. Law and Jan H.F. Meyer
The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is a quantitative instrument for collecting student feedback on programme quality that has been tested and practically used in Western…
Abstract
Purpose
The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is a quantitative instrument for collecting student feedback on programme quality that has been tested and practically used in Western university response‐contexts. The purpose of this paper is to adapt and partially validate a Chinese translation of the CEQ, for application in the new context of post‐secondary education in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
From a population of about 2,515 students in six institutions, 1,572 responses were obtained, representing a response rate of 62.5 percent. Given that a Chinese CEQ has never been tested in this new context, an exploratory approach was adopted by examining the psychometric properties of the CEQ constituent scales and their underlying factor structure as exhibited via item‐correlation analysis and exploratory factor analysis.
Findings
The alpha values of the CEQ scales in the present study are generally lower than those of the other reported studies. The results of exploratory factor analysis indicate that the degree of overlap among the constructs as measured by the CEQ scales is more extensive than most other reported studies, resulting in only four factors being explicitly indicated, with some constructs being overshadowed by other more salient constructs and failing to exhibit in the factor structure.
Practical implications
While broadly supporting the potential of CEQ‐type surveys in informing the quality endeavour, the findings of the present study (and those of some related tests on Chinese students that have recently been reported) suggest the need for further development of the CEQ for application in the Chinese context in general, and the context of Hong Kong post‐secondary education in particular.
Originality/value
The paper cross‐validates the CEQ in a new context.
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