An Analysis of Strata Differences in Higher Education Opportunities (1982–2010)—Based on an Empirical Survey of 16 Chinese Universities

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the situations related to possibility and equality of opportunity in higher education in terms of chaos theory. During the research process, the aim was to determine the extent to which socio-economic chaos arising from student characteristics affected the possibility and equality of opportunity in higher education. In democratic countries, where it is considered that almost all professions with a high social status cannot be acquired without having a higher education qualification, higher education as a fundamental human right should be disseminated to different classes of the society. In this research, functions of a democratic educational administration upon the possibility and equality of opportunity in higher education in Turkey were discussed within the scope of sociologic variables. The population of “The Research for Equality of Opportunity and Possibility in Higher Education within the Concept of Democratic and Sociologic Features” included 29,477 students studying at Erzincan and Mersin Universities in 2012–2013 academic year; and the study sample included 776 students chosen with random cluster sampling model according to the faculties of both universities. Students with illiterate mothers were found to have benefited from the secondary education at a lower level than the other student groups. The student groups with high school and university graduate mothers were found to have benefited from the secondary education opportunities at a higher level.

Education is a basic human right for everyone. However, only 7% of young refugees have access to higher education compared with 42% non-refugees. This article explores the following research questions: i). What are the higher education opportunities and challenges for young refugees in the Nordic countries? ii). How do Nordic egalitarianism and structural violence respectively enable or disenable young refugees’ higher education aspirations in the Nordic countries? I employed Nordic egalitarianism and structural violence as analytical frameworks and qualitative evidence synthesis as a methodology. The findings indicate that, on the one hand, higher education institutions (HEIs) and introductory programmes (IPs) improve access to higher education for forcibly displaced youth in the Nordic countries. On the other hand, structural barriers continue to undermine young refugees’ higher education ambitions, contradicting the principles of Nordic egalitarianism. To address these challenges, I recommend that HEIs and IPs concretize their inclusive initiatives to make higher education emancipatory for young refugees in the Nordic countries.

The paper summarizes the experience in higher education institutions financing, substantiates the trends in their financial support models diversification. The study systematizes approaches to the organization of higher education institutions financing under market conditions and reveals their advantages and disadvantages in terms of the effects at the level of an individual and society as a whole. It defines tools and models of the financing under orientation on demand, supply and strategic purposes of the national development. The study proves the need to substantiate the rational balance of individual and social effects in higher education institutions financing, which can be achieved through a combination of market self-regulation and state regulation of the higher education services market. The system of methods was used in the study, namely: monographic – to define the research aim and conclusions, the method of theoretical generalization of foreign and domestic scientists was used to critically analyze the existing approaches to the organization of financing the work of agricultural education higher institutions. General scientific methods of cognition, such as analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, systemic integrated approach, were used to systematize the models of financial support for higher agricultural education institutions and to generalize the conclusions. The paper substantiated that the state should take leading positions in higher education institutions financing. The role of state funding in ensuring sustainable development of agricultural education higher institutions has been identified considering the specificity of educational services and their role in ensuring sustainable development of the agricultural sector of the economy and rural areas. It is argued that the current conditions of free economic development and challenges the institutions face requires focusing on consumer demand and adjusting their educational services through prompt updating the changing educational programs based on modern research, attracting a larger number of stakeholders in the financing model formation. The modern tendencies typical of the market of educational services determining the expansion of the participants of the organization of financing the higher education institutions activity, are considered. The importance of financing elements focused on the innovations development, the role of which will grow in the future, especially in the form of competitive and targeted financing is revealed. It is proved that the results-based approach to the organization of financing also reduces the risks of macroeconomic inefficiency and contributes to reducing the information asymmetry. The obligatory presence of the state in the organization of research funding in higher education institutions is justified due to the positive impact of research on educational services quality and increases their value for an individual and society. The paper considers options for market-oriented higher education financing and the state's demands in terms of the concept of management, public and private funding methods, the education fee. It is established that the changing conditions of the market of educational services require a revision of targets for state funding due to the following factors: increased number of foreign students, use of information and communication technologies, increase in the integration of higher education institutions nationally and internationally. Key words: higher education institution, higher agricultural education, concepts of higher education institution management, methods of free economic education financing, sources of higher education institutions financing.

What changes have taken place in the equalization of opportunities for entering higher education in China since the 1990s? The results of empirical analyses of nationwide urban and rural data conducted in the first part of this article indicate that, if the internal stratification within institutions of higher education is not considered, significant increases will take place in the opportunities for higher education among both urban and rural residents. The second part of this article conducts meta-analyses of relevant existing empirical studies in China and concludes that if the stratification within institutions of higher education is taken into account, the best higher education resources will accrue to cohorts with superior economic backgrounds and higher social status.

:The author uses sampling survey data from students at higher education institutions and performs an empirical analysis of the distribution of different types of higher education opportunities for residents with different socioeconomic backgrounds. The study finds that there is a significant relationship between the distribution of different qualities of higher education opportunities in China and the socioeconomic backgrounds of student families and parents’ social strata. The children of those with advanced degrees, large city residencies, high incomes, and advantaged occupations occupy more high-quality higher education opportunities. Further analysis shows that even though there is a large proportion of those with high incomes at high-level universities, income is not the main cause of this advantage. When other factors such as urban-rural residence and parents’ degrees and occupations are identical, children from high-income families actually have fewer high-quality higher education opportunities.

If Africa is to remain relevant and competitive in today’s knowledge-based economy, it has to rely on higher education institutions (HEIs) as centers of excellence for knowledge production. HEIs nurture and sustain the production of highly-skilled individuals to support Africa’s growing economies. Among all possible ways, this could be achievable through strategic curricula innovation driven by emerging mobile technologies. Consequently, Africa’s HEIs need to embrace the ‘New Normal’ by optimizing online teaching and learning in their pursuit to expand information and communications technology (ICT) literacy as a means to increase students’ opportunities in higher education (HE). However, Africa’s ability to embrace the ‘New Normal’ has been marred by inadequate ICT infrastructures, low connectivity, unreliable power supply, and national budget constraints that may undermine Africa’s HEIs’ potential to augment knowledge production and innovation.

The establishment of higher education institutions in French-speaking African countries began in 1896, but it is during the first decade after the independence of these countries that the higher education sector experienced a major development. At that time, the mission assigned to higher education institutions was primarily related to the preparation of human resources needed for operations of the civil service and the development of the education sector. In French-speaking African countries (also known as Francophone Africa), higher education institutions started facing problems during the 1970s, such as a rapid increase in student enrollments, the insufficiency of financial resources allocated to the higher education sector and the implementation of policies which allocated a significant share of the resources to student scholarships and various subsidized social services provided to students. This trend, which continued at least until the end of the 1980s, led to a significant deterioration of staff working conditions, the degradation of infrastructure and facilities and a lack of teaching materials. Together, these resulted in a major decline in the relevance and quality of higher education offered in these countries. At the beginning of the 1990s, the decline in relevance and quality of higher education had reached such an alarming level that several French-speaking countries decided to undertake major reforms of their higher education systems in order to enable them to respond more effectively to the challenges of sustainable human development. Towards the end of the 1990s, all the major stakeholders in higher education in Africa had agreed that there was an urgent need for revitalizing higher education in Africa. This support was clearly affirmed at the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education and in several subsequent publications, in particular a 2002 World Bank policy document entitled Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education. This chapter analyzes the development, challenges and opportunities of higher education in French-speaking African countries during the period from 1960 to 2004. The analysis encompasses the major stages of higher education development in French-speaking countries, covering systems, students and staff issues, research, inter-university cooperation, funding policies and reforms undertaken in selected

Dewey, Implementation, and Creating a Democratic Civic University

Today, the existence of independent Ukraine as a civilized country with a European vector of development is under threat. For higher education, the problem of training qualified specialists capable of rebuilding the agricultural sector of our country is extremely acute. After all, military aggression led to the loss of human potential, including the displacement of participants in the educational process within Ukraine and abroad (more than 2,000 educational institutions were damaged by bombings and shelling, more than 200 of them were completely destroyed); among pupils/students and teachers/teachers there are killed and wounded (since the beginning of the war, as of mid-August 2022, 361 children died and 711 were wounded; more than 8 million people crossed Ukraine). A significant number of higher education institutions were completely or partially destroyed (as of July 22, 2022, 7 institutions of higher education and 9 institutions of professional pre-higher education were completely destroyed, 46 institutions of higher and postgraduate pedagogical education, 69 institutions of professional pre-higher education were damaged. The greatest destruction and damage was experienced by institutions of higher education and professional pre-higher education of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia regions. Part of the students lost full access to educational resources, although in the majority of institutions the educational process during the period of martial law was organized in the form of distance learning.Higher agricultural education also suffered significant losses. In order to organize safe education, universities were relocated from the occupied territories, including agricultural higher education institutions: Dmytro Motornyi Tavri State University of Agrotechnology, Luhansk National Agrarian University (joined to Volodymyr Dal East Ukrainian National University by a separate order of the Ministry); Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University, etc. Therefore, we consider it urgent to search for innovative ways of high-quality professional training of future specialists during the war and after its end in Ukraine. The subject of the research is designing the content of education in crisis situations.Overcoming the crisis in higher education caused by the war requires decisive action. Therefore, when developing educational resources, university teachers should focus on the Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in Ukraine for 2022–2032 and the Operational Plan for its Implementation in 2022–2024. This strategic document defines the priorities of the higher education system at the current stage of development of society and the country's economy, as well as the main characteristics that will be formed by 2032. The goals and objectives of the Strategy are a detailed road map for rebuilding and continuing the reform of the higher education system in the post-war period. Completing the tasks defined by the Strategy will reduce the destructive consequences caused by the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of independent Ukraine.Modern realities require changes in the organization of the educational process in higher education. The purpose of the article is to study the conceptual foundations of designing the content of higher education, taking into account the peculiarities of the educational process in crisis conditions.The research methodology is based on basic research in the philosophy, pedagogy and psychology of professional education; the general psycho-pedagogical theory of learning and cognition, in particular about the relationship between theory and practice; on the conceptual positions of pedagogy and psychology regarding the role of computer-oriented methods, means and forms of education in the professional training of future specialists in higher education, on person-oriented, systemic, integrative and professional approaches to teaching and education of students of higher education institutions. To solve the research tasks, the study used a complex: theoretical – analysis of philosophical, pedagogical, psychological, methodical literature and information resources of the Internet, which highlight the problems of forming the content of education in the process of professional training of future specialists; analysis of domestic and foreign experience and conceptual approaches to the study of this problem; analysis of the peculiarities of the educational process in crisis conditions.Conclusions. The war has intensified and expanded the challenges already facing education due to the COVID-19 epidemic. For the Ukrainian educational system, this test became a kind of incentive that opened a window of new opportunities, becoming a catalyst for long-overdue modernization changes in education. First of all, it is about the development of digital and distance education, in particular online. In accordance with these forms of education, the content of education should be adapted. When designing the content of higher education, it is necessary to take into account the integrative nature of modern educational disciplines, their purposeful orientation towards holistic and systematic preparation for professional activity. One of the important conditions for designing the content of education is to take into account the needs of the labor market in our country in the near future and focus on Ukraine's entry into the European educational space.

Problem statement. The Bologna Process has initiated the formation of a single European Higher Education Area. Today's students, through academic mobility programmes, have a unique opportunity to obtain academic experience and professional competences developed during their studies at higher education institutions in other countries. In particular, master students from Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture (PSACEA) under agreement with National Engineering School of Saint-Etienne (France), had the opportunity to access the educational process at French Higher Technical Education Institution and conduct a comparative analysis of the educational process within the study of the discipline “Methods of teaching in higher education institution”. The purpose of the article is to conduct a comparative analysis of higher education systems in Ukraine and France on the basis of data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and Statistical Guidelines and reference materials of France and characterize the professional development methods of French teachers (on the example of the National Engineering School of Saint-Etienne). Conclusions. In today's globalised world, quality higher education has become a significant means of ensuring a high level of professional qualifications in all spheres of human activity. The increasing demand for higher education, as well as the increasing students number, add pressure to higher education and blur the boundaries between the economic and political sectors. Student exchanges and double degree programs provide opportunities for innovative student learning, as well as increasing the education effectiveness, which in turn leads to increased demand for this sector of public life. Despite the high cost of higher education, French universities are very popular among foreign students, including Ukrainian, as they contribute to the formation of relevant professional competencies for young people, providing greater opportunities in the further employment process. Although the number of foreign students in Ukraine is lower (compared to France), domestic our higher education institutions are also beginning to be in high demand among foreign applicants, thus strengthening not only the field of education but also international economic relations. For the Ukrainian system of teachers’ professional development, it is appropriate to study and partially implement the experience of French higher technical school. In particular, the variety of proposed methods and forms of professional development deserves attention, as it indicates the efforts of educational managers in France to create a pedagogical environment psychologically comfortable and as professionally appropriate.

A qualitative exploration examining the enhancement of students? personal and professional development through an employability focused curriculum

This article reveals problematic aspects of choosing and implementation of the information system (IS) in higher military education institution activity. Article gives the description of solving further tasks: describing of operations, which provide main higher military education institution capabilities, choosing commercial information system and determination of integrated IS creation variants, developing of the measures plan for higher military education institution activities automation. During the methodology development, experience of implementation of automation means in commercial, military and educational spheres was taken into consideration. Using of process-oriented approach was proposed. this gives ability to figure the system view of organization (institution) architecture, determine peculiarities of realization of managemant (strategy) processes, main processes in scientific and educational activities and enabling (additional) processes, that within the analysis phase plays the role of basis for definition of functional requirements to IS for meeting higher military education institution demands. For analysis and rating of commercial IS author have chosen quantative multi-criteria method – hierarchy analysis method, which allows to solve ill-structured problems. For IS analysis were investigated and determinate main criteria's for making the decision which can fully meet higher military education institution demands. Results of experts consultation are the base data, which is represented like paired comparison matrix for each hierarchy nodes. Determination of options priority while choosing commercial IS was performed using specialized software «MY PRIORITY 1.0». Results of this analysis can be used for argumentation of IS developer choice. Peculiarity of the given methodology is the complex approach to: identification, formal definition, analysis and improvement of higher military education institution activities; evaluation of automation level, actual needs, peculiarities of creation and IS requirements definition and automation means taking into consideration specific (military) training in higher education institution.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic significantly affected the mode of delivery in higher education worldwide, with Zimbabwe not being an exception. The goal of this study was to understand how the coronavirus pandemic positively and negatively affected teaching and learning in higher education in Zimbabwe. Literature on how higher education in Zimbabwe has been operating before the pandemic was reviewed. A further attempt was made to understand how COVID-19 changed teaching and learning in higher education institutions in Zimbabwe. In order to understand this, firstly an effort was made to appreciate how the Government reacted in a bid to control the spread of the pandemic. Secondly, the effects of the actions of the government on teaching and learning in higher education institutions were assessed. Thirdly, adaptation techniques adopted by higher learning institutions in order to survive in the new normal situation were probed. The inevitable, new strategies, which include an increase in the use of distance education, e-learning, online teaching, were appraised in order to realize their positive and negative effects on the achieving of student outcomes. The study concluded that the most significant effects of COVID-19 on teaching and learning in higher education in Zimbabwe are delayed syllabus coverage by instructors, compromisation of students’ right to quality education, lack of sufficient resources for standardised learning of students, level of literacy in the computer technology on both instructors and learners and additional costs in learning such as acquiring e-learning gadgets, WIFI and internet accessibility. However, higher education benefited from the emergence of COVID-19 in advanced use of ICT, globalisation in networking by students in various Institutions through online learning and innovation by students through opening of learning forums such as Google classroom and student mobile libraries. The study advocates for continued use of E-learning methods in teaching and learning to counter COVID -19 consequences, adoption of all teaching strategies in Higher and tertiary education and maximum use of ICT in teaching and learning for sustainability. The findings will benefit Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Universities and other institutions of higher learning and research boards in Academic Institutions. Being only based on the review of literature carried out as a snapshot of an ongoing situation, the study recommends an empirical inquiry for further research, to potentially more deeply interrogate the effects of COVID-19 on both students and educators.

Emerald Studies in Higher Education, Innovation and Technology seeks to provide a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach to these interconnected topics and invites proposals from all scholars working in these fields. The underlying purpose of this series is to demonstrate how innovations in education, educational technology and teaching can advance research and practice and help us respond to socio-economic changes and challenges. The series has a broad scope, covering many topics, including but not limited to learning analytics, open and distributed learning, technology enhanced learning, digital pedagogies, data mining, virtual and augmented realities, cloud computing, social media, educational robotics, flipped classrooms, active learning, innovation networks and many more.

Ukraine is currently facing the challenge of providing accessible education for all, including people with special educational needs. One of the key tools for achieving this goal is the creation of resource centers for inclusive education in higher education institutions. Resource centers for inclusive education in Ukrainian institutions of higher education are an important step on the way towards ensuring equal opportunities for all students and supporting their successful learning and development. The article examines the problem of creating resource centers for inclusive education in higher education institutions in Ukraine. The prerequisites for the creation of such centers are studied, and their goals and main tasks are determined. The activities of these centers in various education institutions of Ukraine are analyzed. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the needs of students with special educational needs and the methods of their integration into the academic environment. The prerequisites for the creation of resource centers for inclusive education are the recognition of the need for inclusive education and the awareness of the importance of creating an environment where every student has the opportunity to receive quality education regardless of their personal characteristics. Also, the prerequisites for creating resource centers for inclusive education cannot fail to include an analysis of the current state of inclusion in Ukrainian higher education institutions. The goals of resource centers are to create a favourable environment for the learning and development of students with special educational needs. The main tasks include supporting access to education, advising, and providing the necessary resources and services for the successful education of target groups of students. Innovative approaches to the development of inclusive education, aimed at creating a favourable environment for the development of each student, regardless of their characteristics, are highlighted. Resource centers become key agents in implementing the principle of equal opportunities in higher education and contribute to the formation of an open and tolerant society. Keywords: inclusive education, resource centers, higher education, special educational needs, accessible education, quality education, inclusive education.