Local Higher Education Institutions Research Articles

Acceptance and Continuance Intention of Web‐based Learning Technologies (WLT) Use among University Students in a Baltic Country

AbstractThis paper presents the acceptance and “continuance intention” of use for Web‐based learning tools among University students in a Baltic country, namely Estonia. In this paper, we used the technology acceptance model (TAM), which was extended to include two external constructs: the technology and user characteristics. These two constructs were modeled to influence the perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness constructs in the TAM. Further, another construct – continuance intention – in the information systems (IS) post‐adoption literature was linked to the TAM. We used a sample of 72 students from four local higher educational institutions that have experience with a specific Web‐based learning tool; i.e. WebCT. Our results indicate that both the characteristics of the technology and user affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. In addition, perceived ease of use significantly affects usage, whilst perceived usefulness did not show any meaningful influence. Our data, in the context of Web‐based learning technologies, also indicates that both usage and perceived usefulness influence continuance intention, whilst perceived ease of use does not. To conclude, the implications for both practice and theory are discussed.

Higher Education Appropriations and Public Universities: Role of Medicaid and the Business Cycle

Higher Education Plays a critical role in supporting macroeconomic growth and, for individual students, represents a gateway to future economic success. Higher education also exerts significant influence on a regional and local basis, in terms of both economic and civic development. For example, the quality of a region's higher education institutions and the proportion of college graduates in the population appear to be important determinants of per capita income growth.1 Research spillovers from universities are also somewhat geographically localized.2 The status of the nation's overall higher education system and local higher education institutions is thus of crucial importance to major urban areas. In the United States, state governments historically have taken the lead in financing higher education. But over the past twenty years, state government support for higher education has gradually waned, and the share of higher education expenditures subsidized by state appropriations has declined. One result of declining state support has been the widely publicized rise in tuition at public [End Page 99] institutions.3 However, there is a second result, which is less well recognized, namely a widening gap in expenditures per student and in average faculty salaries between public and private institutions. The relative decline in spending per student at public universities appears to be exerting an adverse effect on the quality of faculty, students, and education delivered at such institutions. Since roughly three-quarters of college students are enrolled at public institutions, any decline in the relative quality of the nation's public universities could have significant implications. In this paper, we examine interactions between state appropriations for higher education and other state budget items (especially Medicaid) and the business cycle. We document the substantial decline in state support for higher education over the past two decades, explore the business cycle's effects on higher education subsidies, and compare the cyclical patterns in higher education spending with the cyclical patterns in other types of spending. We also examine the relationship between the Medicaid program and state higher education spending. In addition, we look at how declining state appropriations for higher education affect the relative quality of public higher education institutions. State Support for Higher Education The decline in state support for higher education over the past several decades manifests itself in several common measures.4 Figure 1, which shows state appropriations for higher education relative to personal income,5 demonstrates state appropriations have fallen from an average of roughly $8.50 per $1,000 in personal income in 1977, to an average of $6.80 in 2003. Since personal income amounted to $9 trillion in 2003, state appropriations would have been about $15 billion higher in 2003 if appropriations had been maintained at the ratio to personal income that existed in 1977.6 [End Page 100] Click for larger view Figure 1 State Appropriations for Higher Education per $1,000 of Personal Income, 1977–03 On a real per capita basis, state appropriations rose rapidly in the mid- to late 1980s and then fell sharply in the early 1990s.7 Beginning in the mid-1990s, higher education appropriations rebounded, but only sluggishly. In the late 1990s the rise in state appropriations accelerated, so that by 2001 state appropriations returned to approximately their level in the late 1980s. Note, however, that the 1990s recovery appears quite different from the 1980s [End Page 101] recovery. Appropriations were slower to recover during the 1990s and never exceeded their previous peak. Since 2001, appropriations have declined sharply again, repeating the earlier business-cycle patterns. The same basic pattern holds with regard to appropriations per full-time equivalent student (see figure 2). Click for larger view Figure 2 State Appropriations for Higher Education per Capita and Student, 1977–03 State appropriations also declined... collapse You are not currently authenticated. If you would like to authenticate using a different subscribed institution or have your own login and password to Project MUSE Authenticate

Frequency of Use, Perceived Usefulness, and Actual Usefulness of Second Language Vocabulary Strategies: A Study of Hong Kong Learners

This study is the largest scale project ever conducted in Hong Kong concerning the learning of English vocabulary by Cantonese speakers. The aims of the project were threefold: (a) to find out the vocabulary size of the tertiary students and whether they need help with academic vocabulary, (b) to identify the strategies that are conducive to learning vocabulary in general and the strategies that are especially useful for learning high– and low–frequency words in particular, and (c) to look at the discrepancies among the frequency of use, the perceived usefulness, and the actual usefulness of vocabulary strategies. The participants in the study included 1,067 students who had recently been offered places by the 7 local institutions of higher education. A vocabulary test and a vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire were used for data collection. Whereas in an earlier work (Fan, 2001) the author reported the findings in relation to the first aim, this article focuses on the findings for the second and third aims. ANOVA and Multiple Regression were employed for data analysis. The results of the study shed light not only on the strategy profile of the Hong Kong learners in general but also on the complexity involved in strategy use. Strategies relevant to the learning of L2 vocabulary as well as high– and low–frequency words are identified, and their implications are thoroughly discussed.

U.S. MBA and Management Training Programs in Central and Eastern Europe

The transfer of the American model of management education to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is the subject of this paper. It specifically looks at the impact of a U.S. government-funded program to promote linkages between U.S. business schools and institutions in the CEE region. In 1990, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was authorized by the Congress to develop a program to assist the countries of the CEE region in their transition from command to market economies. This would consist of training and education in economics and management in nine countries from the Baltic states in the north to Albania in the south. This program, known as the Management Training and Economics Education Project (MTEEP) would include twelve grants amounting to nearly $100 million to eleven U.S. universities that would partner with 14 local institutions of higher education. The paper does not purport to contribute to theoretical literature, but rather to chronicle a trend in technology transfer. The author maintains that over a 10-year period MTEEP has contributed to a significant transfer of educational technology in the form of management education, especially in the establishment of MBA and executive MBA programs as well as management training programs.

Regional Scientific and Educational Complexes in the Russian Federation: Essence, Forms, and Mechanisms of Formation

Taking the Chelyabinsk region of Russia as an example, the author examines how economic decline, the result of transition, can be countered by the organization of local regional scientific and educational complexes. These bring together the government departments responsible for science and higher education, both at the federal and at the local levels, the local research institutions, and the local higher education institutions so that they can pool their efforts in achieving common educational, economic, scientific, and developmental objectives. Several of these regional complexes have been founded, or are in the process of being founded, in the Urals area of Russia. The author concentrates on the Regional Scientific and Educational Complex that is being created in Chelyabinsk, briefly describing the tasks that it has set for itself.

Links between higher education institutions and high technology firms

Universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) are an important resource network for high technology firms. In order to develop stronger links with industry HEIs have established Science Parks. To ascertain ‘added-value’ of a Science Park location in the UK the formal and informal links developed with local HEIs by independent Science Park firms are compared with the links made by a comparable group of independent high technology firms not located on a Park. Analysis of the combined sample of on and off-Park firms revealed having a link with a local HEI in 1986 was associated with survival over the 1986–1992 period. However, on the downside, empirical evidence collected in 1992/93 from firms in a follow-on sample (originally interviewed in 1986) as well as a ‘new sample’ study (independent firms that had located on a Science Park between 1986 and 1992) both revealed that the vast majority of links developed with local HEIs are generally informal ones. The policy implications of the research findings are discussed.

British Aerospace Takes off with Higher Education in Management Development

Describes how an aircraft factory British Aerospace Defence Ltd (Military Aircraft Division), Brough forged links with local institutions of higher education (Hull University and Humberside Polytechnic) to create two new in‐house training programmes for supervisory and middle management attaching these to nationally recognized qualifications (i.e. The CMS and DMS), and which might usefully serve as a blueprint for similar courses elsewhere. Outlines the distinctive content of each programme and shows how they are arranged and monitored; explains how they fit in with possible future developments (e.g. a company MBA); and concludes with a review of progress to date.

Chu K'o-chen and China's Climatic Changes

his whole life to the study of China's climatic changes over more than 5000 years. His studies were based on materials related to meteorological and phenological changes as recorded in historical documents?the archaeological evidence on oracle-bones, the phenological written material, the gazetteer information and instrumental records. His work showed that at times during the last three millennia, the climate was warm in the Yellow River valley, similar to that in the Yangtze River valley today. The annual mean temperature was 2?C higher than now, and the January mean temperature 30 to 5?C higher. After the Shang (Yin) Dynasty the climate took a series of upward and downward swings, with an amplitude of 1 ? to 2?C. The lowest temperatures recorded were in about 1000 bc, 400 ad, 1200 ad and 1700 ad. Within each major oscillation of 400-800 years, minor oscillations of 50-100 years with an amplitude of 0-5? to i?C can be discerned. CHU k'o-chen, whose name has sometimes been transliterated as Co-ching Chu, or Ko-chen Chu, has been called the father of meteorology in China, for he was the first director of the Institute of Meteorology of the Academia Sinica at Nanking. It was he who set up a whole series of weather stations across the vast area of China and trained a large number of weather-watchers, meteorologists, and climatologists. He was also one of the founders of modern geography in China. During his teaching career as professor of earth sciences at the Southeastern University, many of his students became China's leading geographers. He founded the department of history and geography at the National Chekiang University in Hangchow, which later became the major centre for the study of these two subjects. For a period of 14 years, as president ofthe National Chekiang University, he made this local higher education institution into one of the five leading universities in China. Chu was the pioneer of phenology in China and this remained a life-long interest: it was therefore natural that he should direct a group of scientists in the study and analysis of more than 5000 years of climatic change in China. His remarkable life spanned 85 years, from 1889 to 1974. It was an exciting period in the development of earth sciences in China, for great strides were made in geo? logy, meteorology, and geography. Many of the pioneers in these fields, particu?