Showing papers in "Higher Education in 1977"

Faculty women in the american university: up the down staircase

Abstract: This paper compares the status of academic women in the United States, particularly at the most prestigious institutions of higher education, to that of faculty men. Inequalities in rank, prestige, rewards, work environment, and social expectations are discovered. The paper next traces the organization of women within academia professional organizations in the late sixties and ties these developments to the larger women's movement nationally. Finally, the impact of these organizations on government policy and on university personnel practices is assessed. The future status of academic women in a country with a declining birthrate, a sluggish economy, and diminishing financial support for higher education is considered.

The Economics of the Open University Revisited

Abstract: Revision of earlier cost calculations for the Open University and Conventional Universities in the U.K. for 1973 confirms the findings of a significant cost advantage to the Open University. An analysis of developments at the Open University since 1973 indicates, however, that there has been little reduction in average cost in real terms and no improvement is likely on known developments to 1979. This is surprising for it might be expected that as student numbers rise average costs would fall. A more detailed analysis of the structure of Open University costs indicates why this has not happened. A major determinant of costs is the number of courses and these have continued to grow rapidly since 1973. The rate of increase of new courses has been faster than the rate of increase of new students. In effect the University has been using the economies provided by increased student numbers to increase student choice through the provision of more courses rather than reduce average cost.

Academic staff and academic drift in Australian colleges of advanced education

Abstract: The Australian colleges of advanced education have been developed since the mid-1960s mainly on the initiative of the federal government with the aim of creating a separate sector of higher education parallel to the universities. They illustrate well what has been referred to in the literature as academic drift, a process whereby non-university institutions aspire to become more like universities. Academics in the colleges of advanced education have contributed to the process of upward drift. Academic drift in turn has produced important changes on some key characteristics of college academics.

Recurrent education - The new Jerusalem

Abstract: The origins of the concept of recurrent education and the claims presently made for it are analyzed. The recurrent education policies presently pursued in six OECD countries are described. The theory of recurrent education and relevant empirical data are reviewed. The authors conclude that the concept of recurrent education requires clarification and that the costing of proposals for recurrent education should be undertaken.

The changing role of the Japanese professor

Abstract: In analyses of the professorial role, an opposition is often established between the professional or external components and the university or internal components. From this perspective, professors at leading universities in the West are said to emphasize the professional components of their role. In contrast, in the past Japanese professors tended to emphasize the local university-centered components. In recent years, many professors have shifted their energies away from these university-centered components. Some have become “professional” in the Western sense, but others have become showmen and still others politicians. No single phrase suffices to summarize the trend away from university centeredness.

Evaluation of University Instructors in the United States: The Context.

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the context within which the teaching function in U.S. universities is carried out. It includes a conceptual scheme for the evaluation of instruction and suggests ways of analyzing evaluation in terms of (a) those components of the scheme which pertain to the instructor and his institutional context, and of (b) those which pertain to the institution and its societal context. The paper ends with advice for university administrators wishing to devise and implement evaluation for instructional improvement.

The demand for higher education facing an individual institution

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to provide an estimate of the elasticity and cros-selasticities of demand for higher education facing an individual institution. The utility which a high school graduate derives from each educational option open to him is assumed to be a stochastic function of the attributes of that option. For certain types of utility functions the maximization of utility results in the logit probability model. This model is used to analyze the choices made by a sample of high school graduates in Hawaii. Estimates of the price elasticity and the cross-price elasticities of demand for enrollment at the University of Hawaii are obtained. It is found that the demand is quite inelastic with respect to both tuition and total cost of education. These estimates imply that changes in tuition will not affect enrollment appreciably.

Student types and the evaluation of the university

Abstract: The relationship between student types and students' perceptions and evaluations of the university has been infrequently researched, particularly among the post-activist student generation. Using a random sample of 460 Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIU-C) students surveyed in 1973, the relationship between students' academic orientations and six academically-related sets of variables was investigated: (1) the students' adjectival descriptions of the university, (2) the students' evaluations of university goal implementation, (3) the students' attitudes about academic governance, (4) the students' evaluations of the academic environment, (5) the students' feelings of academic alienation, and (6) the students' preferences concerning academic reform. The results of this research indicate that students' self-descriptions on the Clark-Trow typology of academic orientations are moderately associated with their perceptions and evaluations of the university, with the nonconformist student type emerging as the most distinct academic orientation.

The American Professoriate and the Movement Toward Unionization.

Abstract: This paper examines the movement away from professionalization and toward unionization by the American professoriate. A content analysis of the bi-annual addresses of the thrity-two past presidents of the American Association of University Professors demonstrates that the approach taken by this organization which has been central in representing the professional interests of the professoriate has been inadequate. The fact that academics are not independent professionals but carry out their research and pedagogical functions in bureaucratic structures makes their quest for autonomy particularly problematic. The traditional stance taken by the leadership of the American Association of University Professors seems to ignore the obstacles, e.g. the distribution of power in organizations, in the path of attaining full professional status. Consequently, the professoriate has not only fallen considerably short of its aspirations and is beset with a number of problems, e.g. continual violations of academic freedom, but increasing numbers have begun looking to labor unions to further their quest for professional status.

The French University: What happened after the revolution?

Abstract: This paper examines the nature and significance of the changes introduced in the French university system since the passage of the Orientation Act of Higher Education in 1968. The process of higher education change is conceptualized in terms of a slow and disjointed process in which the political limits of legitimate change have been somewhat expanded through a succession of incremental adjustments. French universities have thus followed certain trends also apparent in other Western European nations; their operation and governance have been democratized, bureaucratized and politicized; their social functions are shifting toward greater vocationalism and professionalism; curriculum issues have tended to overshadow structural problems.

Notes on the Canadian Professoriate.

Abstract: While many publications on higher education in Canada make some reference to the professoriate, few are devoted specifically to that group. This paper draws, therefore, on many sources in an attempt to provide an overview. Aspects dealt with include characteristics of the professoriate; recruitment and selection; salaries and fringe benefits; rank, promotion and tenure; teaching, research and community service; professorial associations; and the professoriate and politics.

East African higher education from the community standpoint

Abstract: The concept of community education is considered in relation to higher education in East Africa. The case of the University of Dar es Salaam is taken as an example to show how the concept has been adapted to meet the needs of a university in a developing society. Orientations towards the community in terms of teaching, research and other activities are described. Problems of access, admission, control and participation are considered in the context of the changed conditions within which the university must operate. The suggestion is made that experience shows that an institution can re-order itself in such a way as to contribute more effectively to the national community it serves.

The Robed Baron: The Academic Profession in the Italian University.

Abstract: The Italian academic profession is subject to complex bureaucratic structures and many strains as the result of rapid academic expansion but very limited resources. The ladder up the academic profession is both complicated and very difficult. Norms of professionalism are in conflict with the traditional “patron” system. This paper analyzes the current situation of the academic profession in Italian universities, and stresses a discussion of the career ladder and how it works in the academic system.

In search of Saraswati: The ambivalence of the Indian academic

Abstract: College teachers in India are the focus of this article. Working conditions, attitudes, and their organizational milieu are surveyed. Data for this article are provided by a case study of the University of Bombay. The ambivalent role of the college teacher as an individual with an inadequate income, declining social status, and yet the pretensions of professionalism is a theme of this article. The Indian teaching community has been called on to function in a rapidly expanding higher education system but with inadequate resources. This situation has led to declining standards of education in general, and in a demoralization of the academic community in particular. A tradition of bureaucratic involvement in academic affairs and only a limited amount of academic freedom have further retarded the growth of a profession and effective teaching community.

Experiments of Two-level Training in Hungarian Higher Education.

Abstract: An experiment designed to train engineering students to two levels of terminal achievement within single institutions is reported. The “operative engineers” (formerly high level technicians) qualify after three years whilst “research and development engineers” (fully qualified engineers) take five years. Organisational and curricular problems necessarily created by such integrated schemes are described and discussed. Social attitudes in society in general and in the student body in particular make the task of directing students towards the shorter form of training complex and difficult. From the experience gained so far it can confidently be asserted that the experiments in two-level training have been successful.

THE UNIVERSITY IN THE 1980s: AN ANACHRONISM?*

Abstract: The purposes of universities as traditionally defined and as specified in both the Carnegie Commission in the USA and the Loi d'Orientation de l'Enseignement Superieur of 1968 in France, are considered in the context of the profound changes which have occurred in western industrialized societies in recent decades. Some of these changes may make it more difficult for universities to fulfull properly such traditional purposes as providing an independent critique of society's evolution, asking questions about the ways in which moral, material and technological problems are handled and the maintenance of that spirit of free enquiry which is an essential part of human freedom.

A Note on Costing the Teaching Activity in Higher Education.

Abstract: This note explains one method of calculating unit costs for the teaching function in higher education. A formula is developed for allocating expenditures on the basis of a timetable analysis and tested on data from Lanchester Polytechnic and Loughborough University for the academic year 1972/73.

The decision to enter higher education: The case of polytechnic sociology students

Abstract: This paper examines the decision to enter higher education by students who entered British polytechnic degree courses in sociology/social studies. It is concerned with the extent to which occupational considerations affect the decision to enter and with relating these findings to theories of occupational choice. The paper commences with an examination of three models of occupational choice and summarises the findings of studies that have focused on the entry into higher education and occupational decision-making. The results of our own study, based on questionnaire and interview data, indicate that occupational considerations are of limited importance in the decision to enter sociology/social studies courses at polytechnics. Rather our data favours a model emphasizing the role of socio-cultural background of home and school creating expectations for higher education. Data on past decisions which affect educational careers indicated that entry into higher education was seen in terms of an automatic process rather than a conscious decision made for particular goals. In our population there was, however, a small vocationally oriented group who differed from other students, in which females and those under 18 years of age were over-represented, and who were predominantly from two colleges which offered vocational training in their courses. Our results, we conclude, lend support to a fortuitous model of occupational choice in respect of the decision to enter higher education. Expectations derived from socio-cultural backgrounds of the students were more important in determining entry than conscious occupational goals.

Problems in the context evaluation of individualized courses

Abstract: From 1970 to 1974 an Individualized Study System (ISS) for mathematics courses for first year engineering students was developed. Because of changes in the curriculum, new courses had to be developed from August 1974. The context evaluation of these new courses (ISS-calculus) consisted mainly of the evaluation of the mathematics courses developed during the preceding years. After a year the Department decided to suspend ISS as a teaching system for calculus partly because of dissatisfaction of the teachers with ISS-calculus. This paper consists of two parts. Part one (sections 1,2) is a case study and summarizes the development of the system from 1970 to 1975. It examines in detail the problems encountered in this development with special attention to the role of the executive teacher. The organization of an ISS-course and the planning decisions to be taken become more complex according to the number of executive teachers. In part two (sections 3,4) we provide a classification of ISS courses to illustrate the complexity of the system and we offer some general advice on the management of individualized study systems.

Manpower planning, rate of return analysis, and the university medical schools: the case of australia

Abstract: In this paper, an examination is made of some of the errors in educational planning arising from manpower forecasts. Using the Australian doctors manpower plan, 1975–91 (Committee on Medical Schools, 1973) as an illustration, the writer shows the large variation in results that can occur through the substitution of alternatively feasible coefficients. Rate of return analysis is then used to examine the economic feasibility of the recommendations to expand the Australian medical schools, the conclusion being made that rate of return analysis is required for the economic decision making, the manpower forecasting only being a “thechnological”. guide for varying, the returns of income differentials of the investment to allow for any rigidities in the education system or the labour market.

The Latin American professoriate: Progress and prospects

Abstract: The article describes the traditional image of the Latin American university professor and focuses on the effects that the movement toward a full-time professoriate and other changes have had on the recruitment patterns, morale and scholarly productivity of contemporary academics in Colombia and Argentina.

The socialization of German university teachers: Some observations on role acquisition in an academic context and the consequent institutional effects

Abstract: Recent trends in universities in the German Federal Republic are reviewed with special reference to the norms, values and attitudes of university teachers. Despite democratising influences the head of department is still a powerful figure. Recruits to the university teaching profession tend to conform to traditional values and ideas about the university. This has implications for the importance given to teaching. It is suggested that change may be brought about by helping academic staff to understand more fully the practical implications of the maintenance of traditional positions and also by exploiting opportunities which appear in the course of organising workshops devoted to the improvement of teaching in higher education.