Opportunities for early-career researchers to engage with science policy through the Biochemical Society

Science policy can be broadly defined as a two-way dialogue between science-related sectors and government. It involves the exchange of scientific findings and opinions with policy makers to inform the decision-making process, as well as the scrutinization of legislation around science-related topics to ensure it is based on sound evidence. Science policy covers a variety of issues, including research, education, funding, ethics, public health and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Public Education Funding and Economic Growth IN Nigeria; ARDL-VECM and Causal Inference Approach

Considering the enormous impact of poor standard of educational system in Nigeria over the years, the study investigated the effects of public education funding on economic growth in Nigeria from 1985 to 2019. The paper used secondary data sourced from both Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and World Bank’s Development Indicators 2019. The paper employed Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag co-integration, Error correction mechanism and granger-causality tests as technique for data analysis. The ARDL bound test co-integration results revealed that RRETE, RCETE and Inflation have positive relationship with Economic growth. However, RETE, SEDU and PRI have indirect influence on Economic growth in Nigeria. Statistically, only RRETE has a long run causal effect on economic growth. ARDL Error Correction Regression output showed that RETE and RCETE are significant at 10% level while PRI is significant at 5% level this indicates the existence of short run causal relationship with the establishment of ECM long run equilibrium adjustment speed. The causal results revealed unidirectional inference between SEDU and RETE, PRI and RETE, PRI and RRETE with no feedback effect. Therefore, the study recommended educational funding targeted at secondary and primary education system in order to acquire productive skills and knowledge to stimulate economic growth and development in Nigeria. There is need to meet the UNESCO funding ratio for both recurrent and capital expenditure on education sector.

Computational informatics in the training of future informatics teachers in the context of the development of modern education

It is known that the huge computing resources of modern computers are used primarily to solve problems that arise in various applied areas in the process of mathematical modeling of real objects. The aim of this study is to present a theoretical justification of the need to train informatics future teacher in the field of computational informatics and to develop a methodology for teaching him/her in the context of the development of modern education. The competence-based and contextual approaches to teaching and the concept of pedagogical education funding are used in the research. The necessity of training future informatics teacher in the field of computational informatics has been justified and a methodology for teaching it based on web quests has been developed and experimentally tested.The implementation of the developed methodology for teaching computational informatics on the basis of modern educational technology web-quest will equip him/her with the necessary knowledge and ensure the development of his/her information and computational competence.. Key words: training of informatics teacher, competence-based approach in teaching, computational informatics, information and computational competence, digitalization of education

Whose money matters in public education: A “public” good that parents purchase

Instead of asking whether money matters, this paper questions whose money matters in public education. Previous literature on education funding uses an aggregate expenditure per pupil to measure the relationship between education funding and academic performance. Federalism creates mainly three levels of funding sources: federal, state, and local governments. Examining New York State school districts, most equitably funded across school districts among the 50 states, this paper shows that neither federal nor state funds are positively correlated with graduation rates. Only local revenues for school districts indicate a strong positive impact. Parents’ money matters. This finding contributes to a contentious discourse on education funding policy in the governments, courts, and academia with respect to education funding and inequality in American public schools.

Financing higher education in Ukraine in the 21st century: challenges and prospects for overcoming them

The development of higher education is characterized by new priorities, which necessitates the adjustment of higher education funding mechanisms in response to new challenges. The purpose of this article is to identify these key challenges in Ukraine and justify the possibilities to face them. The analysis of funding of higher education was conducted based on macroeconomic indicators for 2005 to 2020. It is also reviewed that financing of higher education in Ukraine is characterized by decentralization and diversification, which are characterized by an increase in the share of local budgets in the structure of higher education funding in Ukraine and the use of extra-budgetary sources of funding, in the form of tuition fees. The analysis has revealed the following key challenges of financing higher education: massification of higher education, which is characterized by the triad of "high availability - low price - low quality"; change in approaches to educational activities and decrease in the number of students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; inefficient model of financing higher education, which results in producing specialists with higher education that do not meet the needs and demands of the labor market. Overcoming the identified challenges can be achieved through reforming higher education models by aligning the structure, scope and quality of training with the needs of the economy and labour market, and its financing, through changing the cost-based approach to financing by results. This, in turn, would help align budget funding with institutional efficiency and curriculum effectiveness, and reduce the number of unclaimed specialists with higher education.