Search

The paper emerges from the ways in which several specific encounters during studying abroad in Ghana continue to intrude upon my sense of self, in turn calibrating the emotional and existential impetus of present personal and academic inquiries. In this ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to explain the variations in education efficacy have fallen short for three reasons. First, up until now, there has been little systematic way of thinking about education; second, the existing scholarship relies heavily on domestic institutions?namely, elections?as the only form of constraint; third, the absence of institutions in a discussion of how education achievement can promote economic growth is troublesome. In this paper, I present a new approach for conceptualizing the dependent variable?education efficacy. I also explicitly shift the focus away from elections by introducing (a) other non-institutionalized domestic threats and (b) international threats, and discuss how they constrain a state leader to develop education institutions of high efficacy. I employ a cross-case analysis of Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, and Hungary to test the new hypotheses. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the enormous increase in demand for higher education in the last two generations, the hugely-intensified need for intellectual skills, credentials and qualifications, and research (as the R in R and D), governments as well as societies in many parts of the world are concerned with “reforming” their “higher education” systems, reforms in which universities are being conceived of as only one part of a continuum of post-secondary educational provisioners.Traditional systems of university governance, which include the techniques of bottom- up “accreditation” in North America, and the top-down Government “recognition” in much of Europe, are being challenged by what is called “Quality Assessment”. Introduced under Thatcher and Blair in the UK, it is being spread to Europe through the Bologna Process and an EU Commission-supported network of national agencies (NARIC/ENIC ). It has advocates within Ontario in Canada, and the US Federal Government’s recent Spellings Commission, very critical of US higher education, drew upon it to challenge the current “accreditation” system. What values lie behind each of the three systems? How different from each other are they in actuality? What concrete issues have brought QA to the fore in each place?In Bologna-Europe, quality assurance (not capitalized) was seen as crucial for engendering and sustaining the “trust” necessary to underpin vastly expanded student and researcher mobility, that is study or work in another country, which would be recognized and counted toward one’s degree in one's home country. This is still true and important.But QA (capitalized) can be and is also a “management tool”. Research questions on this aspect are: To whom does QA give influence, and how? For example, the strategic “bargain” on the European scene is “university autonomy” in exchange for “accountability” (to publics, to students, to governments). But who exactly is using QA to accomplish precisely what changes? From where do their goals/objectives emanate? What is the role of associations of universities? of disciplinary bodies? of “educationists”? Are there differences in the way “academic freedom” is conceptualized? What are the implications of newly professionalized management, using the QA tool, for universities conceived of as a professoriate, as a “community of scholars” exercising “collegial “ governance, at least for the fundamental academic questions? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Studies programs have proliferated across campuses over the past decades. Given the increasing ubiquity of IS education, as well as the interdisciplinary nature of IS, previous scholarship has examined the diverse ways in which our students are taught. Yet there is no comprehensive information on how IS programs are administered. Through surveying the directors of various IS programs throughout the country, this project seeks to examine some of the broader issues surrounding undergraduate IS. In particular, I will examine student popularity of our programs, the various ways in which they are structured, and the stature of IS programs within our home institutions. The goal is to provide a comprehensive assessment and benchmark of the characteristics of IS programs, as well as a broader perspective of how our programs are implemented and where they stand within their home institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]