Occupational stress as it relates to higher education,individuals and organizations

This study examined through survey research methodology the degree to which, faculty, administrators and program coordinators, working in higher education, experience stress at work. The Occupational Stress Indicator was used, composed of four compound factors: sources of occupational stress, individual characteristics, coping strategies and the effects of stress. Preliminary findings showed that occupational stress has a negative impact on the degree of satisfaction with their achievement, value and growth, being strongest with faculty and coordinators, (dissatisfaction with career opportunities, personal growth, skill utilization). Another significant outcome was the dissatisfaction of faculty with the organizational design, structure and processes (communication, change implementation, motivation, supervision style, participation in decision-making). All possess individual characteristics of the Type A Scale; they all considered major sources of pressure in their jobs to be their relationships with others, home/work interface, their need to achieve personal and corporate success. Occupational stress has affected their state of health.     

Class, authenticity and the transition to higher education for mature students

The stated UK Government policy on Higher Education is to attract increasing numbers of non‐traditional applicants to Higher Education. Mature students are positioned as key within this policy initiative. However, the statistics suggest that recent policy changes have made it more rather than less difficult for non‐traditional students to attend university. This paper explores some of the sociological and psychological processes which make working‐class transitions to higher education problematic by focusing on the narratives of 23 mature students attending an inner London Further Education college. It is argued that class, although mediated by gender and ethnicity, always counts in the transition process. Also, within the working‐classes there are different class fractions with differing priorities in relation to risk, challenge and fitting in. These solidarist and individualist fractions within the working‐classes result in differing priorities, attitudes and actions in relation to the higher education choice process.     

Albanian Entrepreneurial Practices in Human Smuggling and Trafficking: On the Road to the United Kingdom via Brussels, 1995–2005

The authors studied the entrepreneurial culture among Albanian smugglers and traffickers using 43 Albanian judicial files in Belgium from 1995–2005. They analyse the niches that these “entrepreneurs” created as well as the way they invested profits. The authors also analyse the personal agency of the smuggled and trafficked clients, and practices that may help to explain the specific entrepreneurial culture. Short comparisons are made with other ethnic criminal groups engaged in similar activities during the same period in Belgium.     

Parental education, children's performance and the transition to higher secondary education: trends in primary and secondary effects over five Dutch school cohorts (1965–99)

According to Boudon, social background affects educational transitions as a result of differences in children's academic performance (primary effects) and differences in transition probabilities given children's level of academic performance (secondary effects). This study addresses historical changes in both primary and secondary effects on the educational transition from primary school to higher secondary education in the Netherlands. In addition, it considers changes over time in the relative importance of these effects. The study compares five cohorts of Dutch pupils, specifically those enrolling in secondary education in 1965, 1977, 1989, 1993 and 1999, and it employs counterfactual analyses. The main findings are that secondary effects have been stable and primary effects have fluctuated to some extent. As a result, the proportion of the total effect of social background accounted for by primary effects has increased somewhat, from 53 per cent to 58 per cent.     

Access to higher education for disabled students in South Africa: a contradictory conjuncture of benevolence, rights and the social model of disability

The structures of support services for disabled students in the South African higher education system find themselves in a contradictory conjuncture of rights, benevolence and the social model of disability. To elucidate this argument, this paper (a) outlines the status of support provisions for disabled students in South Africa; (b) compares the state of these support provisions with those of the UK and the USA; (c) compares the different paths taken by South Africa and the developed countries in general towards disability rights. It concludes that South Africa seems to be moving along a contradictory path and that it should make a commitment to prioritize equal access to higher education for disabled students.