Decline In Quality Of Education Research Articles

Threats to the Human Capacity of Regional Higher Education Institutions

In recent years, the sphere of science and education in Russia undergoes significant reforms. However, the existing framework guiding the development of the higher education contradict the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of Russia. These contradictions concern the conditions for building an integral system of personnel reserve and recruitment, which is necessary for the scientific and technological development of the country. The change of the funding model and the transition to two-tier higher education contribute to the outflow of talented youth to the cities where branded universities are concentrated. It creates threats to the human capacity of regional higher education institutions (both regarding staffing number, and regarding personnel reserve). Decreasing trend in number of students because of the federal budget appropriation and the existing system of per capita funding for regional higher education institutions are the threats for regional higher education. These threats can result in permanent reduction of the number of academic teaching staff and in potential decline in quality of education due to increasing teachers’ workloads. The transition to the two-tier model of university education has changed the approach to evaluating the efficiency of scientific research. The number of publications in the journals, which are indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus, has increased, but the patent activity of the leading higher education institutions has decreased many times. The ratio of number of articles to the number of the granted patents in the leading Russian universities significantly exceeds a similar indicator of the leading foreign universities. It can be regarded as «brain drain». Furthermore, this fact explains why the specific weight of income from the results of intellectual activity in total income in the majority of the Russian universities is close to zero. Regional higher education institutions need a strategy of innovative development. This strategy assumes the change in the system of financing of higher education and the evaluation of the efficiency of scientific activity to stimulate the creation of disruptive social and technological innovations. Further research can be devoted to the identification of the agents of influence on education and science and the development of a methodology for the assessment of damage from their activity.

Data, Lies and Politics: Elusive Development Goals to Exclude Majority

The current debate on beef ban, cow slaughter, meat ban and so on overlooks one of the crucial aspects that is how many poor people are really in the position to make such choices as to consume luxurious diet consisting of animal proteins or afford daily food consisting of cereal, pulses and vegetables. In a country where millions could not afford two proper meals a day, can they really exercise option of exercising choices in a period when inflation is increasing and economic policies are resulting in yawning income inequalities between the rich and the poor? However, the media, the politicians and the international organizations paint the picture otherwise for their vested interest. In order to divert attention from the basic issues like increasing hunger, growing poverty, escalating incidences of crime, mounting violence, rising pollution, falling health situation, decline in quality of education, rolling back of welfare provisions, reduction in the social security provisions, increase in infringement of basic freedoms, meaningless debates are being initiated. And often to substantiate the unjust discussions the data or the facts are being twisted and manipulated to suit the interest of presenter or a particular group rather than benefiting masses. This work looks at this aspect of politics of data where much difference persists between what the numbers shows and what actually exists on ground and the manner in which real focus is ignored. It points out to the situation where data and facts are often being controlled in a manner to present partial and distorted picture to serve the interest of a few. Moreover, in the free market economy where traditional ideologies are joining hand with the neoliberal agenda, often data and facts are being used to tell the stories befitting those in power while curtailing the everyday stories of masses of people who are struggling in the everyday life and rewriting their own destiny. An Irish singer, architect and a lecturer Frank Harte has very rightly stated “Those in power write the history, while those who suffer write the songs... and, given our history, we have an awful lot of songs.”

The governance of Kenyan public universities

This study investigated issues in public university governance that contributed to the rapid expansion of university education and its impact on the quality of education as well as the effect of government involvement in the management of universities. The study established that although the socio-economic and political pressures coupled with external policy formulations led to the rapid expansion of all levels of the education system following Kenya's independence in 1963, university education expanded phenomenally from the 1980s in response to the insatiable demand for such education. The political system exploited this demand as a means of squaring issues relating to historical and regional inequality and the devaluation of the assumed elitist ethos of the formal education system. Among the important politically motivated factors that has influenced large numbers of student admission in public universities is the relatively high frequency of student boycotts of lectures which in most cases are accompanied by government closures of institutions. The politicisation of decision-making has further reduced the effectiveness of the Commission for Higher Education which had been set up with full statutory powers to plan, develop and maintain the quality of university education. The overall consequences of politicised university governance has been unplanned growth of university education without commensurate rise in the level of funding, leading to a sharp decline in quality of education, and diminished democratisation of decision-making within the university management. All these factors point to the need for constitutional liberalisation which will release universities from arbitrary intervention by the executive powers and the need for universities to diversify their sources of funding.