THE OPEN UNIVERSITY AS AN INNOVATIVE COMPONENT OF THE UK HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

2019 ◽  
pp. 410-418
Author(s):  
Modestova T.V.
1990 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 262-266
Author(s):  
Maggie Inchley

The UK higher education system is going through a period of self-assessment: looking outwards to expand education provision; looking inwards to devise a new system of funding. This article discusses how and why the system will be expanded and examines how the funding gap will be filled by the public, industry and the students themselves.


2022 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Aljosa Sestanovic ◽  
Fayyaz Hussain Qureshi ◽  
Sarwar Khawaja

This paper analyses the role and significance of the endowments for the UK higher education system. We have systematised the metrics commonly used to measure the performance of the academic endowments. To collect the data about universities and colleges, we exploited the data provided by the HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) that collect and disseminate UK higher education data and the data provided by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The size of the university and colleges endowments is valued using their respective financial statements, using endowment reserve account of the balance sheet.The academic endowments linked with the UK universities and colleges are estimated to be worth £15.8 billion in 2020. According to the number of the endowments linked with universities and colleges endowments, they play a significant role in the UK higher education system. However, there is a notable difference concerning endowment size between the few most reputable academic institutions and other universities and colleges. For example, the two largest endowments (the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge with accompanied colleges endowments) in 2020 had a share of 75% measured by the size of the endowment assets. Moreover, this 75% has been stable during the last several years.In addition, the UK academic endowments are much smaller than their US counterparts and thus generally have lesser significance for the UK higher education system, while they may play a significant role for particular institutions. The endowment size per student has also been much smaller in the UK than in the US. Except for the six universities and colleges, the share of the income coming from endowments and donations in the total income has been relatively low, 2% or less. Considering the long history and tradition of the endowments in England, their role in the UK higher education system is deeply rooted. However, with their historical performance and significance for some higher education providers, there is an opportunity for a more prominent role in the future.


Author(s):  
Kirsten Forkert ◽  
Ana Lopes

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.


Author(s):  
Paul Clark

The period since the election in May 2010 has seen a number of very far-reaching reforms enacted in the higher education system in the UK, and especially England. These have been driven in large measure by the economic situation, but also by the aim to introduce a more market-based approach into the sector. At the same time, the higher education system faces a number of long-term challenges, particularly in terms of how it can best contribute to much-needed regional and national economic growth. This article first summarises the reforms which have been put in place and some of the factors driving them; next goes on to set out the long-term challenges which the sector will need to address; and finally assesses whether the policy platform established through the government's reforms is likely to help or hinder the achievement of the sector's (and the country's) strategic aims.


Author(s):  
Weiyuan Zhang ◽  
Wei Li

Open and distance education has been playing an important role in China’s development of higher education and lifelong learning. In 2012, the Chinese government approved six large-scale radio and television universities (RTVUs) to become open universities (OUs), including the Open University of China (OUC), Beijing Open University (BJOU), Shanghai Open University (SHOU), Guangdong Open University (GDOU), Jiangsu Open University (JSOU), and Yunnan Open University (YNOU). The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive analysis of the transition from RVTUs to OUs, and the current state and challenges of open universities in China after five years’ reform. Five topics are explored in this paper, including: the new positioning of open universities in China’s vast and differentiated higher education system; award bearing and non-award bearing program offerings; implementation of the online teaching and learning modes; the use of Open Education Resources (OER) and online mini-courses; and the development and use of a credit bank system. A summary of these topics follows a discussion of four issues of open university reform, including key performance indicators (KPIs) for open universities, cohesion and resource sharing between the national and provincial open universities, quality assurance for award bearing programs, and planning to transform China’s existing 39 provincial RTVUs into OUs. It is expected that the results of this study would contribute to knowledge about institutional differentiation in the world’s largest higher education system, and on the merits of open and distance education in the human resource development in China. This paper may also provide insight for other countries that are engaged in institutional differentiation of higher education systems punctuated by the essential role of open universities in such planning and implementation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 304
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Knight

Since the mid-1970s, the higher education system in the UK has massified. Over this period, the government policy drivers for higher education have shifted towards a homogenised rationale, linking higher education to the economic well-being of the country. The massification of higher education has involved a widening of participation from traditional students to new and diverse student cohorts with differing information needs. The increased positioning of students as consumers by higher education means the student choice process has become complex. Drawing on a recently conferred doctorate, this article asks whether the messages sent by institutions about the motivation for undertaking a degree have changed during the recent period of massification of UK higher education. It asks how such changes are reflected, overtly or in coded form, in the institutional pre-entry ‘prospectus’ documents aimed at students. Taking a discourse-historical approach, the work identifies six periods of discourse change between 1976 and 2013, analysing prospectuses from four case-study institutions of different perceived status. The research finds that the materials homogenise gradually over the period and there is a concordant concealment of the differential status, purpose and offer of the institutions, alongside an increase in the functional importance of the coded signalling power of the differential prestige of undergraduate degrees within the UK. This research’s finding that the documents produced by institutions have become increasingly difficult to differentiate highlights equity issues in provision of marketing in terms of widening participation and fair access aims.


2021 ◽  
pp. 126-133
Author(s):  
Гайна Абдулловна Арсаханова

Медицинские факультеты британских вузов предоставляют образование самого высокого качества и являются чрезвычайно привлекательными для иностранных студентов благодаря эффективным программам коммуникативной адаптации, что обеспечивает студентам, чьим родным языком не является английский, овладеть желаемой специальностью в англоязычной среде и, в дальнейшем профессиональной жизни, пользоваться всеми преимуществами принадлежности к общности, которая является носителем языка международного научного общения. В свете общеевропейских требований были определены особенности образовательных процессов в Великобритании. Характерной чертой образования в Великобритании есть понимание иноязычного профессионального общения как составного компонента иноязычного образования, которому присущи определенные закономерности, которые находятся в поле зрения специалистов и реализуют реформы ее содержания и технологии функционирования. Понятие профессиональное иноязычное общение  рассматривается как особая межличностная профессиональное взаимодействие в сфере информационно-познавательного контакта, которая предполагает обмен информацией с учетом возможностей познавательного и эмоционального воздействия на собеседника и особенностей речевого и поведенческого этикета носителей языка. Система высшего образования в Великобритании является сложной и имеет ряд характеристик, которые вообще не встречаются в других странах Европы. Во-первых, существует четыре системы, по одному для каждой административной юрисдикции Великобритании: Англии, Шотландии, Уэльса и Северной Ирландии. Сходство среди четырех больше, чем их различия, поэтому можно говорить о системе высшего образования в Британии», однако различия, однако, отмечаются и становятся все более и более популярными. В частности, Шотландия, которая всегда имела отдельную образовательную систему, приняла особый подход к организации образования на всех уровнях и, например, использует систему кредитования и квалификации, которая охватывает все уровни деятельности от среднего до высшего образования. Отношения между высшими образовательными системами Великобритании становятся все более сложными с 1997 года, когда она перешла к системе законодательства в Шотландии, Уэльсе и Северной Ирландии. The medical faculties of British universities provide education of the highest quality and are extremely attractive to international students thanks to effective programs of communicative adaptation, which ensures that students whose native language is not English, master the desired specialty in an English-speaking environment and, in the future of professional life, enjoy all the advantages of belonging to a community that is a native speaker of the language of international scientific communication. In the light of the pan-European requirements, the features of educational processes in the UK were determined. A characteristic feature of education in the UK is the understanding of foreign-language professional communication as an integral component of foreign-language education, which is characterized by certain patterns that are in the field of view of specialists and implement reforms of its content and technology of functioning. The concept of professional foreign language communication is considered as a special interpersonal professional interaction in the field of informational and cognitive contact, which involves the exchange of information taking into account the possibilities of cognitive and emotional impact on the interlocutor and the peculiarities of speech and behavioral etiquette of native speakers. The higher education system in the UK is complex and has a number of characteristics that are not found in other European countries at all. Firstly, there are four systems, one for each administrative jurisdiction of the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The similarities among the four are greater than their differences, so we can talk about the higher education system in Britain," however, the differences, however, are noted and are becoming more and more popular. In particular, Scotland, which has always had a separate educational system, has adopted a special approach to the organization of education at all levels and, for example, uses a credit and qualification system that covers all levels of activity from secondary to higher education. The relationship between the UK's higher education systems has become increasingly complex since 1997, when it switched to a system of legislation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


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