Private Higher Education and the Labor Market in China focuses on Chinese private higher education institutions and investigates their institutional management efforts in linking private higher education to the labor market. The dissertation firstly describes and analyzes how these mostly demand-absorbing institutions include elements aimed at meeting labor market demands in their mission statements, and how they improve student employability and bridge graduates and employers through job-oriented fields of study provision, educational delivery, career services, as well as networking and partnerships. It then examines graduate surveys on initial employment outcomes about employment status, starting salary, job and education match, and job satisfaction, while exploring the associations of t...

In the past twenty years or so, assessment in education has become increasingly viewed as a means of guiding and improving student learning, rather than simply measuring it. The assessment for learning (AfL) movement, arising primarily from mainstream primary and secondary education in the UK, strongly advocates this formative, learning-centered view of assessment. At the level of classroom practice, AfL is comprised of a number of key procedures including: the use of effective feedback, self-and peer assessment, questioning and classroom dialogue, and the formative use of summative tests. Based on a series of classroom research projects, this doctoral thesis examines these AfL procedures in a higher education EFL context with adult students at a university in Tokyo, Japan. After an int...

The Dubai International Conference in Higher Education is a conference where educators, academic managers, students, and researchers from around the world come together to discuss the challenges facing education now and in the future. As global youth unemployment steadily rises, there are even more demands on higher education institutions across the world to demonstrate their relevance both to the needs of the 21st century learner and to those of the 21st century employer. The conference theme for 2013, 'Succeeding in the Pursuit of Quality,' offered an exciting opportunity for international educators to share knowledge, ideas, and expertise as we strive constantly for ever greater quality in teaching learning and research, leadership, and academic management.

Michigan State University in Dubai recognized the unprecedented challenges facing higher education in the 21st century. In a world where expectations of the learner are becoming ever more demanding, the universities are asked how they can sustain excellence through innovation.

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990 drastically changed the state’s entire educational system in ways of curriculum, governance, and finance. KERA has served as somewhat of a blueprint for reform legislation in a number of other states. A literature review revealed that traditionally the relationship between K-12 reform and higher education (teacher preparation) in the United States has not been very strong. Although the connections between the two were unclear early on in Kentucky’s reform efforts, much progress has been made in linking KERA to the teacher preparation programs in the state. Some documentation on how the state colleges and universities have responded to the legislation exists. Very little literature, however, on how the private institutions have respon...

Last year, the Dubai International Conference in Higher Education considered the global challenge of sustaining success in higher education. This year, we posed the question: ‘How do universities combine rigour with relevance?’ Once again we have invited all those involved in the higher education community to come together to share insights related to the provision of education that is rigorous and at the same time relevant. The three key premises of the conference are these: 1. Higher education institutions must demonstrate their relevance to the needs of the workforce in a landscape of constant and rapid economic and social change. 2. They must maintain the rigorous academic standards that are the hallmark of a quality institution. 3. With the accelerating...

This study explores pragmatic strategies in disagreement affected by power relations in Mandarin Chinese with data collected in the People's Republic of China.This study first investigates in what ways power relations in Chinese university settings influence pragmatic strategies in disagreement. The study then shows with natural data that a new cultural orientation characterized by new features has emerged among the Chinese people. Thirdly, the author probes the controversial issue of pragmatics and power, and proves that the maxim of Relevance can be taken as a supermaxim of CP, which dominates the analyses of the relationship between language use and social parameters.Si Liu has successfully initiated a combination of statistical analysis and ethnographic approach in pragmatic research...

Organizations are often rewarded for doing the trendy and flashy, as the recent fashionable university efforts related to Massively Open Online Course's demonstrate all too clearly. Innovations demonstrate many things symbolically to external stakeholders: you are on the cutting edge, you are the future, you are worthy of investment, you can respond to competitive pressures, you are attuned to a larger world, and so on. Ultimately, unfortunately, it is often not the work you do, but what your efforts stand for symbolically that is critical to evaluations of work performance. Here we will explore symbolic innovations comprehensively. Studying them provides a more thorough view of innovation processes and the underlying factors that motivate, generate them. Looking at innovations as sym...

A number of important trends are affecting the demand for, and delivery of, collaborative higher education internationally. Some commentators predict that China will soon be the dominant global economy. Whether one subscribes to this viewpoint or not, there is no doubting China’s increasing influence. Just as China’s increasing global influence affects economies, so will China’s perspectives on education affect collaborative programs and education providers around the world. The 2013 proceedings of the Forum on International Collaborative Academic Programs (FICAP-2) present recent work from academics addressing topics pertinent to global academic program delivery and success. Key themes of the conference held at the China Jiliang University in Hangzhou, China included the increasing ...

Women in Hawai`i graduate at slightly higher rates than men at three of the four major institutions of higher education in Hawai`i (Institute for Women's Policy Research The Status of Women in Hawaii 2006) as compared to up to seventy-three percent of men at these same Hawai'i institutions and compared to nearly eighty-five percent of women who enroll at women-only colleges. With fewer than half of all enrolled women students at the four major Hawai`i institutions graduating, it is important to understand the possible influences that may contribute to this problem -- one of which is observable institutional culture. Considerable research on the influence of elements of institutional culture has been done at most major institutions of higher education in the continental United States. Ho...

Recent national efforts to coordinate and promote higher education in the fire service led to this national survey of fire service degree programs. The main purpose of the study was to gather descriptive information concerning fire service degree programs offered at two-year and four-year accredited institutions. A second purpose of the study was to identify the perceptions fire service degree program coordinators/directors hold concerning current and future issues affecting their programs. The information collected as part of the study can be used in a variety of ways from benchmarking among fire service degree programs to assistance and support with policy formation at the local, state, and federal level. Of the 248 institutions identified for this study, 222 (89.52 percent) were...

Based on data on publicly traded insurance firms, the first essay examines questions about the effect of large catastrophic events on insurance firms. Rather than looking at a single event, thirty catastrophic events were aggregated into quintiles and the cumulative abnormal returns around these events were found to be significantly positive over a 25 day trading window. There is no significant evidence that post-catastrophic stock returns are correlated to the magnitude of the catastrophe. The second essay analyzes the effect of a large land grant university, the University of Illinois, on the State Treasury of Illinois. If the State Treasury were acting as its own agent trying to maximize revenues, would it choose higher education as an investment versus other alternative investm...

Despite evidence that 90% of violent crimes are committed by men, higher education professionals and researchers still understand relatively little about the process by which male students acquire the attitudes, knowledge, values and skills which serve as deterrents to perpetrating violence against women and against other men. Men Against Violence is a peer advocacy organization at a large, public Research I institution in the South which focuses on the special and unique responsibility men have to end violence. Through participation in a wide array of service learning, community action and leadership opportunities, MAV members challenge cultural norms which link masculinity with violence. Types of violence targeted by MAV include: fighting, domestic violence, rape, vandalism, hazing, h...

The purpose of this study was to examine the complexities of successful attainment and achievement of 10 Mexican American males in a rural Southwest community college. This study strives to offer insights concerning the questions: (a) what behavioral patterns of current family, peers, and conditions in school have influenced the educational decisions of these Mexican American males? and (b) what social conditions motivate these Mexican American males to seek and achieve higher education despite adversity? This qualitative research was also aimed at establishing and understanding how a selected number of Mexican American males have achieved academic success. The researcher chose 10 men with either an associate of arts or an associate of science degrees for an in-depth interview and used ...

Society's evolving perception of the role of and value of higher education relates to education's role in employment. Employment is the most cited reason for school completion. The creation of peer tutoring programs was to improve the academic performance of underprepared students. This study evaluated tutors registered in the Tutorial Training Course T-15 at Chabot College, Hayward, California. The Tutor Evaluation and Self-Assessment Tool (TESAT) was utilized to measure the tutors' performance. Thirty tutors performed the pre- and post-assessments. The instructor also evaluated the tutors with the TESAT, after the tutors' post-assessments to investigate the relationship between the tutors' and their instructor's perception of their tutorial skill. The tutors rated themselves as be...

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of 10 selected academically successful African American male leaders. In this study, "academic success" was defined as these African American men who attained a master's or postgraduate degree such as a M.D., Ph.D., or J.D. Even though there is bountiful research on the deficiencies in the lives of African American males, it is still unclear what conditions lead African American men to higher educational attainment. The goal of this study was to also add to the deficient, ever-emerging body of research in the area of African American male educational attainment, while providing viable solutions that speak to the plights of African American males from all educational backgrounds and experiences. Using a bas...

Although the literature contains much research about reentry women in past decades, that research focused primarily on white, middle class women. It is rich with studies in mentoring, but previous studies rarely explored the crucial connections between reentry women and mentoring. This study bridges the gap by exploring the experiences of 10 multicultural, reentry women in the rural South at a small community college. The researcher conducted audio-taped interviews of all participants and collected several prose artifacts offered by participants. Initially, the typed transcripts were analyzed and coded into major categories; codes were collapsed and meaning making continued until 5 themes emerged that best evinced the essence of the participants' experience. The findings show that reentr...

Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy explores the dark sides of psychology, the science that penetrates almost every area of our lives. It must be read by everyone who has an interest in psychology, by all those who are studying or intend to study psychology, and by present and potential clients of psychotherapists. This book will tell you which parts of psychology are supported by scientific evidence, and which parts are simply castles built on sand. This is the first book which comprehensively covers all mistakes, frauds and abuses of academic psychology, psychotherapy, and psycho-business. The second volume was published under the title Psychology Led Astray Cargo Cult in Science and Therapy, also released by BrownWalker Press. IN THE NEWS See Chronicle of H...

Two working physicians with a team of multigenerational, multidisciplinary and rising thought leaders created a system, Wealth from Health, to take an honest, unfiltered look at American healthcare. Rather than beginning from an institutional perspective, the team started from the premise of patients and families best understanding their needs and wants and then designing systems that champion access and health. Step by step instructions allow anyone with a vision to create true value: cost effectiveness merged with high quality of care. Far from theoretical about what might work, or capturing the low hanging fruit of better workflows, this book is an eminently practical guide with reproducible examples and stories from the authors’ decades on the frontline of American medicine. When Co...

This book shows how scientific and psychotherapeutic practices change into worthless rituals called by the famous physicist, Richard Feynman, "cargo cult." It is a must-read for everybody who is interested in psychology, who is studying or intends to study it, but also for present and potential clients of psychotherapists and parents of mentally-disabled children. Readers will learn which parts of psychology and therapy are cargo-cult-like and which are reliable. This book is the second part of trilogy devoted to the dark side of psychology. The first volume was published under the title Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy, also released by BrownWalker Press. IN THE NEWS See Chronicle of Higher Education (20 Mar 2017) BOOK REVIEWS Psychologist Witkowski f...

This qualitative study explores how middle managers who thrived during Hurricane Katrina used their workplace social support systems. An emphasis was placed on identifying the sources and types of support received before, during, and after the Katrina crisis. Significant challenges exist today for organizations on the basis of societal, political, environmental, and technological trends. Among those trends are predictions of greater numbers and intensities of weather-related crises triggered in part by global weather pattern shifts and global warming. These challenges create a compelling need for leaders to effectively plan for and manage crises to assure organizational survival. Middle managers, in particular, play a critical role in terms of planning for and recovering organizational ...

This book is one of the most comprehensive guides to international maritime law from the Russian perspective. It consists of three relatively independent sections: Russian Maritime Law, International Public Maritime Law, and International Private Maritime Law. First section discusses the development of the maritime law as a branch of the Russian law. It examines concepts and sources of the Russian federal laws, secondary legislation and customs, including the influences guiding the future of Russian law of the sea. . The second section examines International Public Maritime Law including the principles, sources, subjects, as well legal status of the vessel, including the vessel's state flag, her name, state registration, the problem of "flags of convenience", vessel's documents, the c...