Linkage to the West and Electoral Manipulation

The relationship between linkage to the West and the survival of political regimes has gained increasing attention in recent years. Despite this attention, one aspect of this linkage remains poorly understood, and that is the effect of linkage to the West on electoral manipulation. Scholars have suggested that linkage to the West raises the cost of government abuse because it increases the probability of Western governments taking action in response to reported abuse. This assumption then suggests that incumbents should choose the forms of repression more wisely. Consequently, in cases of the higher level of linkage to the West incumbents are less likely to use the more visible forms of repression and manipulation. I test the aforementioned assumptions on time series, cross-national data set with observations of 147 elections in competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2010. I find that extensive international relations to the West have only minimal and statistically non-significant effect on visible forms of repression and manipulation. These results contribute to our understanding of international linkage as they show that linkage to the West does not provide sufficient protection to opposition leaders and groups.

Higher Education Quality Assessment in Ethiopia: A Comparative Study

<p>The major objective of this study was analyzing the Ethiopian Higher Education quality assessment model in line with another world. The total 46 key informants were purposively selected from the data sources of this study (Ethiopian public HEIs and the Ministry of Education) and interviewed. Document analysis was another instrument. Using descriptive qualitative research design, data were analyzed in themes qualitatively. Literatures describing the higher education quality assessment models were reviewed. The literature on the models of higher education quality assessment generally tends to converge to the general model of higher education quality assessment and tends to diverge from it while it adds many approaches to the dimensions. It is recommended that the Ethiopian system better to be governed by an independent agency that has strong international linkage, and the system should emphasize the need of stakeholders in quality assurance and assessment. Use of diversified methodologies and existence of explicit standards for resource utilization were recommended. Rigorous interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary peer reviews are strongly recommended in this study.</p>

Placement Strategies of World's Top Business Schools

Institutional Ranking in higher education space has become a very important practice and management institutions across the world are greatly profited by the published global rankings based on various criterions. The ranking is usually publicised depending upon Institutional infrastructure, their employment &placements, teaching pedagogy, research output, faculty-student ratio, international linkage, application of technology in teaching – learning process etc. In this study, we have chosen to research the placement strategies of global top 10 listed institutions 2017 by Financial Times (FT) to ascertain a meaningful picture of their career offerings and strategies in attracting market. An effort is also being put towards exploring various strategic industry-interaction initiatives and interview scheduling practices of top ranked world's management institutions. Their student career statistics are also examined and analysed to ascertain the learning outcome arising post implementation of identified strategies.