scholarly journals Not only students, but also not enough: the waves of protest in the higher education in Italy

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-73
Author(s):  
Gianni Piazza
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Temporary Workers ◽  
Budget Cuts ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
Administrative Employees ◽  
The University

Abstract In time of economic crisis, since the 2008 credit crunch, many Western and European countries entered in the “age of austerity” characterized by the imposition of unprecedented large cuts in welfare state provision. Even the public education institutions have been affected by government policies characterized by budget cuts, neoliberal private-oriented reforms and increase in tuition fees for students. In reaction to this, in the following years, various global waves of protests have arisen in many countries all over the world. Differently from the past, not only students have promoted these mobilizations, although they are majority, but also the education systems workforce: from professors/teachers to permanent and precarious researchers, from temporary workers to technical- administrative employees. Although these mobilizations have had specific characteristics related to the national contexts, they have shared common aspects as the defence of public education and the refusal of the commercialization/marketization and privatization process. In this paper I focus on the mobilizations in the higher education system occurred in Italy. The most important waves of protests were in 2008-2010 against the budget cuts and the university neoliberal reform promoted by the former centre-right Education Minister Gelmini. If in the 2008, students and precarious workers mainly promoted the Anomalous Wave movement, so called for its unpredictability, in the 2010, beyond the students, the open-ended researchers were the main protagonists. Notwithstanding the mass participation and the sympathy of part of the public opinion, the reform and the cuts were approved and then, the mobilizations decreased and seemed to be completely finished. I argue that these mobilizations were unsuccessful not only because of the fragmentation of student organizations and because of the low salience of higher education in Italian public opinion, but also because protesters were not supported by most university staff and hindered by the academic authorities (deans and rectors).

The Changing Mission and Nature of Partnerships in Public Universities

2013 ◽  
pp. 726-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Robin Russo ◽  
Kristin Brittain
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public University ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Mission ◽  
New Business ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The University

Reasons for public education are many; however, to crystalize and synthesize this, quite simply, public education is for the public good. The goal, or mission, of public education is to offer truth and enlightenment for students, including adult learners. Public education in the United States has undergone many changes over the course of the last 200 years, and now public education is under scrutiny and is facing a continual lack of funding from the states. It is due to these issues that public higher education is encouraging participatory corporate partnerships, or neo-partnerships, that will fund the university, but may expect a return on investment for private shareholders, or an expectation that curriculum will be contrived and controlled by the neo-partnerships. A theoretical framework of an academic mission and a business mission is explained, the impact of privatization within the K-12 model on public higher education, the comparison of traditional and neo-partnerships, the shift in public higher education towards privatization, a discussion of university boards, and the business model as the new frame for a public university. A public university will inevitably have to choose between a traditional academic mission that has served the nation for quite some time and the new business mission, which may have negative implications for students, academic freedom, tenure, and faculty-developed curriculum.

scholarly journals California's Downfall: Obama's Stimulus Funding Is a Lifeline, But What about Next Year?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Douglass
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
California State University ◽  
Access Time ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
State University ◽  
Budget Cuts ◽  
Time To Degree ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Degree Production ◽  
The University

California's famed public higher education system is undergoing a significant redefinition, driven solely by severe budget cuts. The state's tripartite system (the University of California, the California State University, and a network of nearly 110 community colleges) faces a daunting challenges in terms of access, time-to-degree, degree production, and the morale of faculty and staff at public universities and colleges. Though, currently, no consensus or political leadership appears to solve the long-term consequences, a debate on the next logical phase of California's higher education is necessary.

scholarly journals Effects of Socio-Academic Intervention on Student Performance in Vulnerable Groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7673
Author(s):  
Tarquino Sánchez-Almeida ◽  
David Naranjo ◽  
Raquel Gilar-Corbi ◽  
Jessica Reina
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Academic Intervention ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
University System ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Economic Support ◽  
Support Mechanisms ◽  
The University

In Ecuador, affirmative action policies enable students from vulnerable groups to preferentially enter universities. However, these policies are limited to admission and do not include academic or socio-economic support mechanisms that, according to the literature, promote student insertion in the higher education system. In this study, the effects of socio-academic intervention on the academic performance of vulnerable students are presented. For this, 41 students were selected among 164 vulnerable students entering the Escuela Politécnica Nacional in the second term of 2019. The 41 students attended a socio-academic intervention course for one term, while the remaining 123 attended the Escuela Politécnica Nacional levelling course directly. Once both groups of students finished the levelling course, their performance in each of the course subjects was compared. The results showed that the academic performance of the students in the intervention was significantly higher in mathematics and geometry compared to the students who had no intervention. These results show that the socio-academic intervention promotes the real insertion of vulnerable students in the university system.

scholarly journals Statistical analysis of the structure and dynamics of material and human resources in public education over the past two academic years in Bacau

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenia Harja
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Public University ◽  
University Education ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
The Public ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Material Basis

The public university education in Bacau, represented by “Vasile Alecsandri” University from Bacau has developed over the past two years not only in terms of student numbers, but as human and material resources available to them. After the number of students per teacher, public higher education from Bacau is situated on the second place after Iasi, the number of teachers representing 1% of the country. The structure by scientific degrees of teachers has improved in the last year, reaching over 36% professors and lecturers and 144 PhDs. Over 55% of the teachers are younger than 40 years. The material basis has improved both quantitatively and qualitatively by putting into use a new building, bringing an additional 27 classrooms and 11 seminar rooms and providing the conditions of modern higher education.

scholarly journals Threats and vulnerabilities of the academic profession vs university personnel potential development

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 440-450
Author(s):  
Svetlana V. Lobova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Profession ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
University Personnel ◽  
Scientific Periodical ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
The University

The formation and development of the university's personnel potential is one of the conditions for joining the project to support higher education organizations announced by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in June 2020. The project is called the Strategic Academic Leadership Program. The fulfillment of this condition cannot be carried out without overcoming the limitations and effective responses to the challenges that are associated with the academic profession. The article is a review. Its purpose is to study threats and barriers to the development of the university’s personnel potential. It is shown that as internal threats one should consider the high stressfulness of faculty activities, violation of their personal safety and low loyalty; the barrier is the vulnerability of the academic profession. The research focuses on the current staff of Russian universities. The main research methods are analysis and synthesis of relevant scientific periodical literature. The main result of the study is the position that the presence of threats and vulnerabilities in the academic profession entails consequences that have a devastating effect not only on the personality of the teacher, the university, the academic community, but also on the higher education system as a whole, catalyze the departure of teachers from the academic profession, and prevent the preservation of and the development of the university personnel potential, ensuring the competitiveness and attractiveness of the university.

scholarly journals Unwaged Posts in UK Universities: Controversies and Campaigns

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 533-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Forkert ◽  
Ana Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
Uk Higher Education

This article examines unwaged posts at UK universities, using recent examples of advertised job posts. While unpaid work is common in the UK higher education system, unwaged posts are not. The posts under scrutiny in this article differ from traditional honorary titles as they target early career academics, who are unlikely to have a paid position elsewhere, rather than established scholars. The article contextualizes the appearance of these posts in a climate of increasing marketization of higher education, entrenching managerialism in higher education institutions, and the casualization of academic work. We also discuss resistance to the posts, arguing that the controversy surrounding unpaid internships in the creative industries created a receptive environment for resisting unwaged posts in academia. We analyze the campaigns that were fought against the advertisement of the posts, mostly through social media and the University and College Union. We explore the tactics used and discuss the advantages and limitations of the use of social media, as well as the role of trade unions in the campaigns against these posts, and we reflect on what future campaigns can learn from these experiences.

scholarly journals Thoughts on the higher education system in Poland. Changes – issues – evaluation. Part 1

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-137
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Grzywacz ◽  
Grażyna Miłkowska ◽  
Magdalena Piorunek ◽  
Lech Sałaciński
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Bologna Process ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Higher Education Systems ◽  
University Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University ◽  
Education Science

This report is a part of the results of the international project entitled “Studium in Osteuropa: Ausgewählte Aspekte (Analysen, Befunde)” conducted in the years 2013-2015 under supervision of Prof. Wilfried Schubarth and Dr Andreas Seidl from the Potsdam University, Department of Education Science, and Prof. Karsten Speck from the University of Oldenburg, Germany. The project was conducted jointly by representatives of academic centres from Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. Its general aim was a comparative analysis of the effects of implementation of Bologna Process directives into the higher education systems of the individual countries. The changes introduced into the higher education systems in the countries involved in the project were described and evaluated, discussed was in particular the problems of education of teachers at the university level. The following text is the result of the contribution of the Polish group participating in the project. The report will be presented in two parts. The first part is focused on the macro-societal context of transformations in the higher education system in Poland. The implementation of selected aspects of Bologna Process directives is described and supplemented by empirical comments. The second part deals with selected aspects of university level education of teachers, followed by a polemic against the assumptions and execution of the target transformations of higher education system.

scholarly journals Invisible Roots of Knowledge Production and their Role in Resistance to the Marketisation of Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-140
Author(s):  
Heather McKnight
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Pension Scheme ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Commons ◽  
The University

Recent, highly visible, struggles in Higher Education in the UK, such as the pensions strike, have aimed to recast such protests as part of a bigger struggle to maintain the public university. Viewing the shared pension scheme as one of the last defining features of a public institution. However, Federici in her recent book Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons warns us if we wish to change the university in line with the public construction of a ‘knowledge commons’ that there is a need to question “the material conditions of the production of the university, its history and its relation to the surrounding communities” (Federici, 2019) and not just the academics within it. There is a need to consider how debate on knowledge production is insulated from the invisible work that sustains academic life including cleaners, cafeteria workers and groundkeepers, as well as to consider the potential colonisation of land institutions are built upon (Federici, 2019). Narratives of resistance to marketisation in Higher Education, while well meaning, still create disproportionate invisibility on the grounds of gender, race and socio-economic status, ignoring the material and intellectual value of such contributions. This paper considers how Federici’s approach to the politics of the commons discredit, deconstruct and potentially transform approaches to resistance to marketisation in education. It argues that struggles against marketisation, or for academic freedom, should be seen in the broader scope of access to education for all, and a continuum of co-dependant knowledge production. It will consider how different structures of privilege and oppression structure what is represented, resisted and fought for within and by the institution. Issues that are seen as marginal or controversial can be avoided in increasingly legislated upon, and therefore risk averse, students’ unions and trade unions. Which in turn reproduces a student and staff body that similarly continue to propagate such damaging structures both within and out with the institution. A rethinking around who the knowledge producers are, can help us restructure the university as a commons that resists the violence of capitalist logic, rather than one that upholds it. Thus problematising and reconstructing how we view the idea of a future university commons, in a way that recognises intersectional oppression and a misuse of certain bodies as a commons in and off themselves.

scholarly journals TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN MOROCCAN UNIVERSITIES : READING IN THE REALITY OF PRACTICE IN THE LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL EXPÉRIENCES

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (03) ◽  
pp. 247-257
Author(s):  
Saadia LADBES
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quality Management ◽  
Total Quality Management ◽  
The State ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
International Experiences ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The University

In Morocco, there is a crisis that has not yet found its way to serious and decisive treatment, which is the output crisis of the higher education system. Though the successive public policies seek to contain correctional projects and initiatives, they have not made the difference, and have not set out effective and efficient tracks in developing mechanisms for evaluation, development and reconstruction, to produce educational and learning outputs that contribute to the real takeover of the State's development aspirations. The weak capacity of Moroccan universities to respond rapidly to the global, economic, cultural and technological variables imposed by globalization and securing the conditions for social, economic, political and security stability of the state, requires bypassing through advanced science-based treatment of quality and value of achievement. The issue of total quality management in higher education institutions may be raised by including international experiences that have succeeded to curb the regulatory and administrative failure of its educational institutions, to enhance the chances of Moroccan universities to transfer higher education in Morocco from traditional measure to modern measure by applying quality control standards in management, planning and implementation, in accordance with a strategy that is supported by the State and the University.

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