Hungary's higher education system has been going through a gradual shift from an elite to a mass system: enrolment has surged in recent decades. There is growing pressure on financing, with rising costs, limited public funding and an increasing student population. In parallel, there is a growing recognition that an important part of the benefits…

There has been rapid growth in private higher education in most countries, including in Asia, during the last two-three decades. This growth, mostly motivated by profit, has had an effect on education and development in general and caused loss of equity--both social and economic, an increase in regional disparities, an erosion in quality, a change…

This article is about student learning, specifically the problem of what a university can do to develop its students' powers of learning. The broad approach is to discover what we can learn from the university's long experience with developing students' critical faculties and then apply the lessons to developing students' powers of learning. The…

There has been an increase in the number of postgraduate students who have published papers from their research before submitting their theses. In this study we report on the experiences in this respect of 58 recent postgraduates, one-third of whom were non-native speakers of English. 32 of these 58 students (55 per cent) had published papers…

The UK' s Joint Information Systems Committee recently commissioned Ipsos MORI to undertake some research on students' expectations and experiences of the use of ICT in higher education. In this article we attempt to give a flavour of the research findings and comment on some key issues in connection with the use of ICT in higher education. The…

This article explores from a sociological perspective how MA students of Education perceive the impact of their teachers' research activities on the quality of teaching and learning in higher education in the UK. It originates from a qualitative research design, from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 43 postgraduate (MA) students of…

This article is a tribute to the Popperian educationist Tyrrell Burgess, who died earlier this year. Burgess is identified as the originator of an approach to the curriculum whereby students are helped to formulate problems, and propose and test solutions. This approach was first developed at the School for Independent Study at North East London…

The intention to introduce a form of post qualification application (PQA) for entry to UK universities has provoked considerable interest, debate and controversy, not least over its impact on diversifying the intake of undergraduates gaining entry to the allegedly most prestigious universities and courses. We review the arguments and evidence…

The need for reform of university governance has recently come into question with a series of high profile examples of the apparent failure of the standard "sector norm" model among the post-1992 universities, at London Metropolitan, Leeds Metropolitan and East London Universities. This article takes forward the discussion in two previous (Evans,…

The question of the value of higher education is today set in the context of an unprecedented banking and financial crisis. In this context of fundamental change and financial realignment, it is important that we as members of the university remake our case for why the university deserves to be considered alongside all those other worthy causes…

The authors examine how the American economy has experienced sharp contractions in overall levels of output, income, and wealth resulting from the recent financial crisis, and how these losses have had an impact on the nation's labor market. The significance of these trends to American higher education is summarized in these terms: "Large labor…

Globalization presents a new social context for educational institutions from elementary schools to universities. In response to this new context, schools and universities are slowly changing their ways. These changes range from altering the curriculum so that students understand the process of globalization itself, or developing competencies…

In this article, the author uses the occasion of the centennial of University Extension at Harvard to document how this unique educational institution came into being and why it became associated with Harvard University. He traces the prominent role played by the Lowell family in establishing the Lowell Institute of Boston in the late 1830s and…

In common with the United States, Europe is currently experiencing a serious economic recession. The crisis, which started in the financial sector, is now rippling out and affecting heavily other economic sectors: construction, property, retailing, manufacturing, etc. The arguable cause of the crisis was a failure of management in financial…

A significant component of continuing education involves teaching management, especially through the array of academic degree programs offered to part-time older students. In fact, the ability to offer management education is critical for the viability of continuing education. Co-existing amicably with its institution's business schools is the…