Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discover and better understand the efficiency of university mergers from the perspective of knowledge production, with the research capability as the point of contact.

In total, 20 colleges and universities directly under the central ministries that merged in 2000 were taken as the research samples. Factor analysis methods are adopted to calculate the public factor scores, which were taken as the basis of the time series analysis and similar comparative analysis.

The results indicated that, by the end of 2005, the reform of universities merger has a positive impact on the universities' knowledge production, but there was a “short‐term prosperity” after the merger happened, especially in the aspect of scientific research funding efficiency and the transformation of knowledge production outcomes.

Few if any mergers are painless and in the literature on mergers it is generally agreed that it can take up to ten years for the wounds to heal and for the new institution forged from previously autonomous identities to operate as a cohesive and well integrated whole.

By reviewing the related literature on the Jiaoshi Pinren Zhi (JPZ) system, this paper seeks to indicate that the implementation of JPZ not only has led to domestic brain drain and the imbalance of teachers' qualities between different areas and schools, but also has violated children's equal rights to education guaranteed by the Constitution and educational laws in PR China.

By analysing national policies and laws and some cases, the paper points out that the reforms on teachers' employment causes the imbalance of teachers' qualities between different areas and schools and it is against the principle of children's equal rights to education guaranteed by the Constitution and some educational laws in China.

Since the late 1980s, many reform initiatives have been launched in the context of the transition from planned economy to market economy in China.

The reforms on the teachers' employment system from “Tongyi Fenpei” (TF, a system of unified placement for all graduates) and the life‐time employment system to JPZ (a free contract employment system) is one of the important reform initiatives.

Under the new policy framework, the China Government will substantially increase education resources investment. As a result, financial under‐provision of schools will not be the main problem in the near future. However, school efficiency will emerge as the new factor in attracting the attention of the government and the public in China, which is also one of the important fields of Education Economics research.

The authors use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate a sample of 58 primary schools in six districts in Beijing, hoping to find the solutions to school efficiency improvement as a result of under‐adequate investment.

In the years to come, the central government of China will continue to enhance transferring payment from the exchequer. The education input will be assured accordingly. However, if schools run under low efficiency, the education resources will not be well used and sustainability of elementary education will not be assured.

In light of the research purpose and the limited data, there has been no in‐depth discussion of the impact of, for example, families' social status, district development disparity, social cultural influence and history context. Obviously, considering more factors which may affect school efficiency will help to find the best solution for the public education sector of government.

To cope with the challenges of the twenty‐first century, the Hong Kong SAR government initiated the Curriculum Reform in 2001. In 2006, a research team from a tertiary institution was commissioned to review the progress of change for smooth implementation of the reform in its next phase. This paper aims to examine this issue.

The nature of the review is basically a survey, applying questionnaires and follow‐up focus‐group interviews to collect data from different groups of subjects. The sample was around 20 per cent of the population, i.e. a total of 252 primary (n=138) and secondary (n=114) schools.

The paper reports findings on the support for the Reform by primary and secondary schools. Five areas of agreement among school heads are examined, which include challenges to be met, guiding principles of the reform, learning goals, reform framework and the overall agreement with the rationale of the reform. It is found that, while the curriculum reform was supported among school heads, senior teachers and teachers, there was a gap between the views of senior management team and frontier teachers.

This is a very comprehensive research project with a limited timeframe. The paper can only report and discuss findings mainly on the support for curriculum reform by school heads. Other aspects of the study will be discussed and reported separately in subsequent papers.

The gap between the views of senior management team and frontier teachers is worth probing as this is the most obstructive factor to the implementation of the reform. Identifying the cause would be the first step in formulating strategies to address and, hopefully, to facilitate the smooth transition from the phase of implementation to the continuation phase of the change process.

The study has suggested the development of a two‐dimensional framework of agreement areas and stakeholders which will contribute to a better understanding of the change process in general, and achievements of a curriculum reform in particular. Other issues are also discussed.

This paper aims to analyse the reform syndrome, bottle‐neck effects and their impacts on teachers and school education in the last ten years and highlight the direction of new developments.

The paper examines educational reforms in Hong Kong in the last decade.

Echoing the international trends of educational reforms, Hong Kong, as an international city, has initiated a series of educational reforms in the past decades. The experiences of educational reforms in Hong Kong may provide a good case for understanding the dynamics of educational reforms and drawing theoretical and practical implications for research, policy formulation and implementation not only in Hong Kong but also in other international communities.

From the analysis of the reform syndrome, particularly the bottle‐neck effect, there should be seven key aspects for policy‐makers, educators and stakeholders in Hong Kong to address the emergent key issues in educational reforms and work for the further development of their education system in the coming few years.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of principal preparation and training in China by providing a background discussion of principal preparation in a number of countries. As an illustration, it provides an overview of the curriculum used in the initial preparation of school principals at Beijing Normal University.

The paper draws mainly on writing and research from China, Australia and the USA to explore principal preparation and training in China.

In addition to providing a rich description of principal preparation in China, the paper's main findings comprise seven key challenges that confront China as it endeavours to provide quality principal preparation. These challenges include China's diversity and uneven social, cultural and educational development; limited resources in some regions throughout China; the place and importance of study tours for principal preparation; the teaching approach used to train principals; the process used for assessing principal learning during their training programs; the limited transfer of learning from the classroom to the school environment; and the timing of training for principals.

Each of the challenges arising here raises important practical implications for developers of principal training programs.

The paper paints a picture of principal preparation in China and raises a number of issues and challenges with which it continues to grapple. Of note is that China is not alone in facing some of these ongoing concerns.