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In order to study whether college scholarships can be an effective tool in raising students’ performance in secondary school, we use one aspect of the Kalamazoo Promise that resembles a quasi-experiment. The surprise announcement of the scholarship created a large change in expected college tuition costs that varied across different groups of students based on past enrollment decisions. This variation is arguably exogenous to unobserved student characteristics. We estimate the effects of this change by a set of “difference-in-differences” regressions where we compare the change in student outcomes in secondary school across time for different student “length of enrollment” groups. We also control for student fixed effects. We find positive effects of the Kalamazoo Promise on Promise-eligible students large enough to be deemed important – about a 9 percent increase in the probability of earning any credits and one less suspension day per year. We also find large increases in GPA among African American students.

The purpose of this paper is to undertake an inquiry into the way academic entrepreneurialism manifests itself in the changing discourses of the notion of “scholarship”. It particularly examines the contexts, rationales, definitions and implications of the discursive field of the “scholarship of application”. The global trend of academic entrepreneurialism profoundly affects the organisation of higher education institutions and academic life. Particularly, the form of scholarship has been undergoing subtle but constant transformation. The emergence of knowledge economies worldwide influences the practices and goals of traditional academy and illustrates commitment for fundamental knowledge and the new economies emphasise the results and impacts brought by applied knowledge. Alongside the “scholarship of discovery”, the “scholarship of application” is given attention.

By reviewing the related literature, this paper articulates the definitions and dimensions of the “scholarship of application”. In addition, the impacts brought about by the concerned academic and policy discourses will be discussed.

This paper finds that the emergence of the discursive field of the “scholarship of application” – as well as the discussions and actions in response to it – coincide with the intense neoliberal changes that affected traditional academia in the 1990s. It is argued that the emergence of and subsequent responses to the discursive field of the “scholarship of application” resulted in transforming purposes and practices of academic life. The discursive field of the “scholarship of application” also impacts on the concerned academic and policy discourses.

To sustain the advancement of the scholarship of application, this paper implies the need to develop practices, cultivate culture as well as formulate prestige and reward mechanisms inherent to the existing higher education systems.

This chapter summarizes and explicates the work of Kenneth Liberman, an exemplary but underappreciated practitioner of ethnomethodology for the past 30 years. Four paradoxes or tensions organize the discussion. First, Liberman is highly confident that confidence is almost always unwarranted. Second, Liberman is extremely skeptical yet respectful of ordinary knowledge and practices. Third, Liberman insists that meaning is not inherent even while he tries to faithfully study and represent reality. Fourth, Liberman attempts to do work that benefits various individuals and groups, but he believes that the self is illusory and that social problems are interpretations. These four themes are common (but not universal) in ethnomethodological scholarship. Consequently, Liberman's work can be used as an instructive point of entry into that form of inquiry.

There is a growing desire for more scientific and technical knowledge regarding Africa. This is because Africa has the potential and opportunity to generate impactful research. However, this potential is not optimized because of several constraints, including the lack of systematic reviews and models of knowledge management and paradoxical trends in Africa. The purpose of this paper is to review studies on knowledge management and associated paradoxes in Africa and a paradox-conscious African knowledge management model. The autochthonous African model that the authors propose has implications for global knowledge management.

The authors review studies on knowledge management and paradoxes on Africa.

The authors propose a model and identify 12 paradoxes broadly categorized as industrial, political and social.

The paradoxical tensions characteristic of Africa may be considered integral to business and policy rather than local expressions to be solved through international “best practice.”

The model this paper propose enables theoretical and empirical studies of knowledge management sensitive to the paradoxical tensions associated with autochthonous management knowledge and autochthonous knowledge management.

Throughout the world universities are expected to change to match changes in their host environment. In the developed world the value of higher education is often questioned for resources expended, while in developing countries education institutions are particularly valued for the contribution they can make towards national development. In Africa the contemporary view is that, to fulfil their role, higher education institutions have to move away from the traditional “Oxbridge” stance and operate in the context of their host societies. Universities in Africa have attempted to meet demands for relevance without basic alterations in academic styles, organization, governance or for most part in curricula. Herein lies the dilemma. This study investigates the role of Makerere University's contribution to the national development of Uganda. Data for the study are drawn primarily from interviews with key people in Ugandan Higher Education.

In 1991, through a series of accidents I found myself – an American academic from Vanderbilt University – located in Chiang Mai, a small city in Northern Thailand. I had chosen Chiang Mai University as the site for a Fulbright Fellowship working with their Department of Educational Administration. During the course of the Fulbright Fellowship, which lasted 7 months, I was initiated into a world of schools that was different from what I had known as a teacher, school administrator, and scholar in the USA.