Tertiary Education and Management最新文献

China's phenomenal growth in higher education has received increasing scholarly attention, particularly its initiative to build world-class universities. Though a crucial contributor to its rapid development, the changing hiring practices of mainland Chinese university employers remain largely underexposed. This study presents qualitative evidence drawn from document analysis and in-depth interviews to show current trends, which reveal university employers' widespread preference for graduates with an overseas background, will tend to deprive domestically trained graduates of vital opportunities for career development, which may have detrimental consequences in the long run. The study found that a substantial number of Chinese university employers explicitly articulated their talent preferences, with a strong favour towards applicants with overseas credentials and/or experience. Further analysis of the textual data identified two nuanced trends: universities in a more economically developed region and at a higher level tended to have more rigid and exclusive recruitment preferences for candidates with an overseas background; competitive employers tended to be selective in applicants' overseas backgrounds by gauging their potential productivity measured in quantifiable research outputs. In response to the pressure brought by such preferential practices, domestic doctorates were found to be learning to accept and struggle to cope with the changes. These findings are discussed in the context of the internationalisation of higher education and the popularisation of overseas education with implications for and beyond the Chinese experience.

Growing numbers of students from non-Portuguese speaking countries, designated as 'non-Lusophone students', signal the diversification of the international student population in Portugal. Until recently, international students came almost exclusively from other Portuguese-speaking countries. Employing social network analysis, the paper analyses the enrolment patterns of non-Lusophone students in Portuguese higher education - by institution type, qualification and discipline - to understand what aspects in particular attract these students. Findings indicate that public universities are mostly attractive for their doctoral degrees, in various disciplines, with students coming from very diverse regions. Public polytechnics enrol few non-Lusophone students, continuing to rely on the traditional Portuguese-speaking public. Private institutions attract Western and Southern European students, to integrated masters in Health programmes. Implications for institutions in other semi-peripheral countries intending to diversify their international students are highlighted: the identification of their strengths, at discipline or degree level, and the target-publics likely to find their programmes appealing.

The growth in student numbers from the Indian subcontinent countries has increased exponentially in the Australian higher education system over the past decade. Unfortunately, this growth has not been accompanied by initiatives to address the distinctive cross-cultural challenges faced by this cohort. This paper seeks to identify academic and professional staff perceptions of how they can help alleviate the social and academic challenges faced by subcontinent students. Thematic analysis of multiple focus group interviews established a range of simple initiatives that university staff and decision-makers could introduce to alleviate these challenges. Academic and professional staff should clearly and repeatedly articulate course, assessment and integrity expectations and make use of pre-arrival and orientation interactions. The pedagogic environment should be customised to subcontinent students in the classroom, and written teaching materials should be supplemented with engaging videos, ideally subtitled. The introduction of cross-cultural awareness training for academic and professional staff would improve the learning experience of subcontinent students. Adequate resourcing of academic skills and English language support and mental health support services also emerged as valuable initiatives. The cross-cultural awareness training for academic and professional staff should also be customised to their specific roles.

What motivates students to participate in student organizations, how students participate in university administration decision-making, and how such participation influences students’ overall development is under-researched in Bangladesh. Therefore, to uncover such dynamics we employed document analyses, observations, and in-depth interviews with 25 university administrators, teachers, students, and social and cultural activists. As a result of this research, the findings reveal several factors behind students’ participation in student organizations that also participate in university administration. While such participation is positive for students’ overall development, the participation in university administration is not that effective. This requires of the university administration to reconsider students’ voices and interests while making decisions related to students’ overall development.

Evaluation of research performance has significantly increased in importance, particularly in many emerging higher education systems. In Malaysia, the Malaysian Research Assessment (MyRA) was developed to evaluate the research performance of universities and Research Centres of Excellence (RCoEs). This paper reports on a participatory action research approach aimed at developing a new framework for measuring research performance of Malaysian RCoEs. The introduction provides the contexts leading to the development and adoption of the MyRA including the challenges and its appropriateness as a tool for evaluating the research performance of relatively smaller entities namely, RCoEs. A stepwise approach in developing an alternative system of assessment for RCoEs is then described, leading to a list of prioritised components and criteria for the newly proposed tool. Finally, some of the wider implications of the new assessment framework are discussed, including the applicability to other contexts, lessons learned, and the contribution to the literature.