私立研究中心:拉美高等教育发展现状与变化

在拉丁美洲,私立研究中心引领了社会和政策领域的研究热点.与公立大学相比,它们发展得更成熟,成果更丰富,也更具影响力.巴西私立高等教育由不同文化背景的、具有历史沿袭的团体组织构成,毕达哥拉斯学院是其中新兴的第三种办学模式,堪比凤凰城；智利的高等教育日益向私有化发展,私立高等教育已经成为高等教育的主导,并利用有限的经费获得了较高的学术能力；墨西哥私立高等教育类型多样,低端或需求满足型学校数量众多；乌拉圭是拉美最后一个批准私立高校的国家,其私立高等教育发展较迟的原因在于天主教对社会的影响较小、公立教育的质量较高以及国家对私立高校的约束较强,但私立高等教育仍与公立高等教育在研究生教育领域展开了新的竞争.本刊已连续四期刊登菲利普·G.阿尔特巴赫《私立高等教育:全球革命》(2005年)一书的部分文章,这期刊登该书有关拉丁美洲私立高等教育的相关文章,以飨读者(标题系编者所加).     

解决方案式营销才能卖高价!

大多数企业的销售方法已经过时,它们要做的是卖价值而不仅仅是卖东西,是帮客户解决问题,而不仅仅是提供某种产品。今天的市场环境要求销售人员能够准确把握买方所处的销售阶段,了解他们的需求点。     

撒马尔罕和它的湛蓝的圆顶塔——帖木儿故国游记

在旅行者头脑里有一幅幻想的地图,象蜘蛛网一样,上面密布着奇光异彩的城市,它们的名字象美妙的音乐一样悦耳。撒马尔罕就是其中一个城市,它的魅力来自它名字的四个奇妙的音节,好象银铃一样叮咚作响。鲁宾·达利奥眺望远方的地平线时,一首赞美撒马尔罕的《徘徊之曲》油然而成:     

穆斯林的复兴要求

在一本伊斯兰先知的旧书中写道:“将出现一个和平和稳定的新时期”。但是,在伊斯兰纪元的第十五世纪(就是说穆罕默德于622年从麦加逃亡到麦地那,从此开创了一个新的历史时期和伊斯兰教的光辉纪元),这种在其萌芽时期所做的不够慎重的估计似乎并没有得到证实。今天,整个穆斯林世界都在沸腾。伊朗正在向阿拉伯石油世界宣传它的革命经验;在马来西亚,“安拉的军队”,一个决定恢复“真正的信仰”的传教士组织,希望把所有的异教徒扔进海洋;在菲律宾,政府未能成功地制止南部穆斯林的叛乱;在土耳其,宗派之争在一年之内     

在公共服务递送中运营共同生产：服务蓝图的贡献

本文认为,公共服务应从以产品为主导的逻辑转向服务途径。通过采取服务导向,公共服务递送的经验性、组织间和系统性,以及作为共同生产者的服务使用者角色,将一同被考虑。论文将通过服务蓝图的应用,解释共同生产如何操作。并介绍了高等教育中的一个案例。在这一案例中,蓝图的创建将师生汇聚在一起,专注于学生入学的设计,从而改善学生体验,并支持共同生产。      

Assessing the relevance of higher education courses

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area has involved specifying lists of professional competencies that programs are expected to develop, and with this the need for procedures to measure how every course within a higher education program is aligned with the program's competencies. We propose an instrument for characterizing this alignment, a process that we call assessing the relevance of a course. Using information from the course syllabus (objectives, contents and assessment scheme), our instrument produces indicators for characterizing the syllabus in terms of a competence list and for assessing its coherence. Because assessment involves quality, the results obtained can also be used to revise and improve the course syllabus. We illustrate this process with an example of a methods course from a mathematics teacher education program at a Spanish university.     

Quality of life among lifetime victimized men

Quality of life was compared for lifetime victimized (n = 353) and nonvictimized men (n = 167) for demographic and quality of life variables by a cross-sectional design. The univariate analyses showed that victims compared to nonvictims had a lower quality of life, were younger, more often had upper secondary school education, and were more often blue-collar/low white-collar workers, on student allowances, on unemployment, financially strained, and smokers. The regressions revealed that unemployment, financial strain, smoking, depression, and home/public abuse were associated with reduced quality of life among victimized men. Being a blue-collar/low/intermediate white-collar worker and social support were related to increased quality of life. This study may have provided new insights into the experiences of quality of life of victimized men.     

College and university compliance with a required meningococcal vaccination law

OBJECTIVE: Maryland became the first state to pass a vaccination law requiring college and university students living on campus to obtain a meningococcal vaccination or to sign a waiver refusing vaccination because college students are at increased risk for disease. The authors sought to identify how Maryland colleges addressed the law and determine whether schools were in full compliance. PARTICIPANTS: The authors surveyed 32 college/university administrators via a self-administered questionnaire. METHODS: The authors calculated vaccination and waiver rates and assessed compliance with the law overall and with specific law components. RESULTS: Among 28 participating schools, annual vaccination rates and waiver rates among students during 2000-2004 ranged from 66%-76% and 12%-17%, respectively. Two (7%) schools were compliant with all components of the law. CONCLUSIONS: Mandatory vaccination laws do not ensure compliance at the college and university level. Mandatory reporting, increased education, and collaboration between colleges and universities and public health agencies are needed.     

Evaluating mission drift in microfinance: lessons for programs with social mission

The article contributes to a better understanding of implications of scaling up on the social mission of microfinance programs. It proposes a methodology to measure the extent, if any, to which a microfinance program with a poverty alleviation mission drifts away from its mission during rapid scaling up and presents findings from a field research using the proposed methodology at Activists for Social Alternatives (ASA), a microfinance organization that serves poor women in rural India. The findings indicate that mission drift is not a result of deliberate decisions by the management or board but rather is a result of the challenges posed by the scaling-up process. At times, changing trends in social outcomes were not obvious, and management was not aware of the changes indicated by the proposed measures of social performance.