Sullied: The Albanian Student Movement of December 1990

The study analyzes the beginning of the Albanian student movement of December 1990 from a historical–sociological and comparative perspective. This historical interpretation of various sources (newspaper articles, activists’ memoirs, interviews, and archival documents) draws its theoretical arguments from social movement studies, student activism, and the sociology of higher education. The study offers a complex explanation of the role of the movement during the country’s democratic transition by also looking at similar cases. Considerations of the broader international and local implications, the role of the university, the academic staff, and the student organization all are accounted for. After tracing the repertoires of strategies and content of the movement to the Albanian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, the study argues that student activism benefitted from the structural opportunities provided by changes introduced in higher education during the historical sequence of late Socialism.

The Smart Education Paradigm: Expected Outcomes and Real-Life Student Experience

Introduction. The article examines the transition of higher education to the paradigm of smart education. The article presents the results of a sociological study, the purpose of which was to compare the real experience of online learning of students with the expected results from the implementation of the principles of the new digital educational paradigm.Methodology and sources. The principles of the economics of higher education, the institutional tradition of the sociology of higher education, and the theory of social representations were used as a methodological framework for the study.Results and discussion. The results of monitoring the satisfaction and self-assessment of the online learning experience of students of one of the leading technical universities in Russia are presented. The authors of the article revealed the interest and generally positive attitude of students, regardless of whether or not they have an appropriate educational experience in online learning. At the same time, the question remains whether at the present stage of digitalization of higher education its transition to the principles of the smart paradigm is being carried out.Conclusion. First, there is still no sufficient data on a significant increase in the effectiveness of educational activities. It is possible to record only an increase in student satisfaction with their academic performance. Secondly, there is a problem of self-organization of the system. Finally, the degree of readiness of students who have completed online training for independent production of knowledge and solving non-standard problems is not clear. Rather, on the contrary, the more difficult the mastered professional discipline becomes, the more students need the help of a teacher.

Specialists training in a technical university in the transition to a robotic society

The prerequisites for the research of the topic arise from the tasks of society modernization and social training of professional staff for these purposes. The latter has traditionally been based on sociology as a science appropriate to the present moment, studying societal problems at the group and individual levels of individual behavior. However, during the transition to the Bologna model of education, it was withdrawn from the Federal State Educational Standard for training future engineers and dramatically downgraded in status, which had a negative impact on their personal potential as professionals. This was stated by employers who had been given the task of using these graduates for the purposes of Russia’s transition to an information, robotic society. The purpose of the research is to draw the attention of society and the authorities to the importance of strengthening the social training of groups capable of keeping up with the scientific and technological progress of society, using the base of sociological knowledge. For the methodological basis of the topic were used: the sociology of higher education, theories of personal role behavior, as well as the concept of social humanism. Three sets of sources and literature on the topic have been studied, revealing the main problem of society, which centers on the situation with “artificial sociality” as a condition of socialization of student youth, and the conjunction of their behavior with “digital risks”; as well as the impact of these risks on both natural and social environments. It is argued that students who are already taking these risks today are potential creators of new “digital” and other technologies, who have not mastered the skills of forecasting social and professional behavior and have not formed themselves as a whole person. The hypothesis formulated in the article about the tendency to reduce the hours of social training in universities for engineering personnel has been confirmed. The reason for this trend is the neoliberal policy of austerity on education.

The Formation and Development of Foreign Sociology of Higher Education: A Review

The review article summarizes the processes of development of higher education sociology abroad over the past 50 years. The choice of the research object was determined by the real achievements of national higher education systems and a high level of higher school sociology development in USA, Great Britain, France, Scandinavian countries, and Spain. The review reflects the advancement of leading sociologists of higher education in these countries. The authors have applied a methodology of comparative analysis studying the Western experience of sociological research in higher education, the main ideas and trends. The article dwells on the ways of changes in the content field of Western sociology of higher education. The practical significance of the review is determined by the possibilities of using the proposed analysis for the development of Russian sociology of higher education and University development practices.

Parental Unemployment and the Transition into Tertiary Education: Can Institutions Moderate the Adverse Effects?

We examine how parental unemployment affects children’s transition to postsecondary education in different institutional contexts. Drawing on theoretical perspectives in intergenerational mobility research and sociology of higher education, we estimate the extent to which these intergenerational effects depend on social and education policies. We use data from five longitudinal surveys to analyze the effects of parental unemployment on entry to postsecondary education in 21 countries. The results of multilevel regression analysis show that in contexts that provide better insurance against unemployment, in terms of generous earnings replacement, the adverse effect of parental unemployment is alleviated. Moreover, entry gaps between youth from unemployed and employed households are smaller in tertiary education systems with more opportunity-equalizing education policies that provide more financial support to students and reduce the role of private expenditure. Some evidence also indicates that policies are more relevant for children of less-educated unemployed parents.