Search

In 1968 and again in 1969, practitioners and scholars of the ombuds concept in higher education gathered to discuss this new idea. From these gatherings, a conference proceeding was published called The Ombudsman in Higher Education: Advocate or Subversive Bureaucrat. These meetings were the first dedicated to the topic of ombuds in higher education, and the resulting conference proceedings provided the first comprehensive document dedicated to the role. This paper seeks to analyze these proceedings in order to better understand the theoretical foundations of contemporary ombuds practice and research. Additionally, this paper also examines early definitions and considerations of the ombuds role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title of this article comes from the very first report of Michigan State University's Office of the University Ombudsperson where the ombuds compares the role of the ombuds as one that helps students to take "arms against a sea of trouble" (Hamlet) referring to the faculty and administration as the sea. While a unique observation, it truly does not describe the scope and depth of the work of this role during those early years. This research began as an effort to revisit and reflect on the legacy of fifty years of ombuds practice that started at Michigan State University in 1967. In order to effectively understand the role, scope and purpose of the office, as well as the founding ombuds, Dr. James Rust, the researcher examined the annual reports provided by Dr. Rust and his colleagues that covered the years of 1967 through the end of his tenure in August 1974. To provide context for these reports, additional reports and papers produced during that time were consulted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College and university ombuds were created throughout the United States in the late 1960's in response to campus tensions created by the Vietnam War and a growing university bureaucracy. The role of these offices was to guard against violations of student rights and to provide pathways for redress of student grievances and based upon the Danish model of ombudsing. The ombuds role evolved with changes on college campuses and in society broadly. Within a short time, these offices expanded their scope to serve faculty, staff, and other constituencies, eventually becoming a part of the organizational ombuds model. This paper examines early ombuds practice, specifically the shift away from a model that served only students to one that served the entire campus community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new universities of the 1960s were innovatory, in their curricula, architecture, independence and academic ambitions. They also marked a different relationship between universities and their localities. For a century, new universities had been predicated on local demand, whereas the 1960s universities were conceived of as national institutions meeting a national demand. This new approach to university–civic connections was sudden, novel and contributed to a sense of remoteness attached to the new universities. This paper examines how the different policy was formulated, predominantly by the UGC, and considers some examples of how the policy played out in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The University of Birmingham was planned, advanced and established with both national and German models of a University in mind. Civic reasons for the planning of the University need to be viewed within a broader motivational context. Even with a strong sense of civic place, the University was conceived as a modern University with multiple founding visions. The set-up goals shifted as the size and complexity of the University increased and early ideas of social mission were either restricted or largely absent in practice. The paper examines the nature of the original institutional commitment to the ‘civic’ dimension of the University between 1900 and 1914 and highlights the many tensions that emerged between the growing academic standing of the University and its continued enthusiasm for the City and regional links. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The separation of examining from teaching, pushed furthest in the ‘examining university’ of which London University, founded in 1836, was the model, was a much-debated principle in nineteenth-century Britain. This separation was generally rejected in Scotland, but only after complex controversies that illustrate how Scots defined their university tradition in comparative terms, and how Scottish developments interacted with those in England and Ireland. Among the issues involved were proposals for a National University or central examining board, and claims that graduates should have a right to give ‘extramural’ teaching in competition with professors. The paper traces this aspect of university reform in Scotland from the 1820s to the 1890s, and argues that the professorial model and the integration of teaching and examining were successfully consolidated and defended. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A substantial amount of time and resources are invested in the improvement of teaching and learning methods within Higher Education institutions today. These efforts could be undermined by problems of low student attendance however - an issue which has attracted increased attention in 21st century education literature. Moreover, previous studies have found that lecture attendance is a key factor in improving student academic performance. Thus, the main aim of this paper was to gain insight into Undergraduate student perceptions on their lecture attendance. This included identifying student's perceptions on reasons for both lecture attendance and absenteeism, using data obtained from 162 undergraduate Business students from a British university in Southeast Asia. A purposive sample was selected from three diverse economics modules - classified according to year of study. Ethical guidelines for social research were adopted in this study. The main reasons cited by students as motivations to attend lectures included: acquiring knowledge, gaining exam guidance and collection of lecture notes. On the other hand, students stated that they will not attend lecture if the classes are held during weekend and if they needed time to complete their coursework. Contradict to previous studies, availability of online lecture materials and environmental conditions are not valid reasons for not attending lectures. In the second stage analysis, this study also investigated the association between key reasons for attending and not attending lectures and student characteristics, using Chi-Square test. The findings suggest that female students perceived that attending class would lead to good grades above male students. Interestingly, more male students highlighted that they would be less likely to attend classes if a lecture slot competed with a coursework deadline. It is worth noting that student perceptions on reasons for attending and not attending lectures are not statistically different across year of study. The policy implications for universities with a similar profile are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recognizes the way in which scientific knowledge has reached center stage, have opposed the dogmatic arguments, cultural and ideological beliefs uncritically established for years. The scientific achievements allow for changes inhuman conceptions to transform the perception, interpretation and interaction between humans and their environment critically and reflectively. This essay re-creates the complexity and impact for which they had to move evolutionary ideas in some states of the American Union, the situation in Argentina and finally the case of Mexico, which all fall similarities and differences. Similarities in the difficulties and differences in the acceptance, management of time and the influence of beliefs about the origin and formation of our planet. Beyond the passage of a controversial debate, this paper frames a reflection that searches there adersaw are of the role played by the University in the transmission of knowledge and critical discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nexus between epistemic culture and academic conceptions of the generic skill of critical thinking. Although generic skills are seen as being of great importance in higher education, there has been little examination into the ways in which the knowledge culture of each specific discipline influences the academic staff's conception of generic skills. This paper investigates the ways in which critical thinking is understood by academic staff in two related but distinct disciplines, history and economics. It finds that while there are some similarities, critical thinking in economics is defined primarily as the use of economic tools whereas critical thinking in history is described from a range of perspectives. Thus the epistemic culture of the discipline appears to influence conceptions of critical thinking. This has implications for the ways in which generic skills are framed within the broader university community and indeed has implications for policy at both the university and the political level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the distinctiveness of the professional doctorate in education (EdD). To deliver on this aim the paper contextualizes the local and particular EdD by locating it within its wider perspective. First the development of Higher Education (HE) in England is considered. Next the historical development of the EdD is examined. Finally the paper argues that the EdD is distinctive and challenges the university tradition. Moreover the paper begins to provide tentative suggestions to the way in which practitioners and researchers doing the EdD might act as knowledge workers, knowledge producers and work for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of universities in the twentieth century is, at least from the perspective of growth, a massive success. Australian higher education is no exception. Prior to the Second World War, Australia had six universities and approximately 10,500 students. Now there are in excess of one million students attending 39 institutions. In each phase of student expansion, governments have sought to make universities accessible to new segments of the community, a pattern that informs contemporary social inclusion initiatives. This paper focuses on two successive periods – the 1940s/1950s and the 1960s/1970s – during which university participation expanded. Comparing two universities which were at that time very different from one another – the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales – I consider the ways both universities approached admissions to understand what each institution hoped to achieve in attracting students beyond the traditional elite. This helps move beyond government strategy and rhetoric to consider what universities believed was at stake as they enabled new students to enter their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the proposal of healthy universities as an approach to health promotion feasible and necessary to work in higher education institutions. It exposes its definition and basic features, the steps to facilitate proper implementation and a historical review about the existing projects in universities of America and Europe. In Peru, there are several initiatives, among which the work of the Consortium of Universities and currently the start of the PUCP Healthy Program at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Finally, it is done a brief review of the work implemented to date by this program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that theTimes Higherprovides a powerful tool for understanding the changing character of UK higher education (HE) and can usefully be seen as representative, and in some ways constitutive, of that changing character. Drawing on an analysis of a sample of stories from theTimes Higher, it documents the changing policy climate of UK HE from 1979 to 2010. It offers a broadly chronological account of themes that have emerged as prominent at different times during this period, pointing,inter alia, to fears about threats to the humanities, the rise of various forms of instrumentalism and the incorporation of HE institutions and agencies into a common mindset characterised by a preoccupation with marketing and corporate success. The last of these is embodied in the changing format of the newspaper itself and in its own activities as a key player in the HE sector, notably as a sponsor of university rankings and awards. Whilst being sensitive to countervailing tendencies, the authors suggest that the growing instrumentalisation of HE and related cultural shifts represent a changed ‘structure of feeling’ in UK HE. They conclude that the university rankings, awards and other image commodities that are a key part of this changed structure of feeling now play such a substantial role in the cultural life of universities that the norms of both rationality and professional ethics which tended to prevail in deliberations about university strategy 30 years ago may no longer be taken for granted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Evaluation has always bee a particularly significant aspect of university life. University is the place where research evaluation is produced as well as evaluation of the eligibility of scientists to teaching and research activities supported and oriented by social institutions. Evaluating activities are therefore essential to life and continuity of higher education system and research training.At present, traditional mechanisms of evaluation, based on self-autonomy and academic self-government, are at a critical point. New tools are actually used to ensure higher levels of objectivity and more opportunities for research comparison and legitimacy of researchers devoted to it. In this paper I offer a comment on the possibility of introducing quantitative evaluation methods or qualitative, individual and responsive methods for the formulation of reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the social policies' main topics in modern societies is the university studies. It is not irrelevant to the policy maker that university students are the new voters. But the birth of the universities in the Middle Age was the result of students and teachers rebelliousness against the power of the State. The reason of this paradox is the difference between the objective of university education then and now. This paper is an approach to the libertarian point of view of university education. An explanation of the present inefficiency is analysed, mainly from a historical perspective, together with a mid-term forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]