Non-public Universities Research Articles

Zasoby kapitału ludzkiego w Polsce północnej

For the purposes of this study it was assumed that human capital is: knowledge, skills, competences and other features embodied in man, which are associated with his economic activity. The main purpose of this study was to identify the state and changes in human capital resources in northern Poland and to present their spatial diversity using hierarchical agglomeration techniques. The research concerned northern Poland, understood for the purposes of this study as two voivodships, i.e. the Pomorskie and the Zachodniopomorskie voivodeships, each divided into poviats. The source material came from the published and unpublished statistical materials of the Central Statistical Office. In turn, the resources of the Central Examination Board and the Regional Examination Boards in Gdańsk and Poznań were used to develop school educational results. The time range of the study was the years 1999–2018. The research clearly shows that the role of human capital resources in northern Poland is increasing. On the one hand this is the result of the growing number of people with the highest levels of education, and on the other the growing social awareness that increases in quality and living conditions largely depends on self-investment. The change in life attitudes of young people, who are increasingly gambling on achieving higher education, has been confirmed by the growing number of students and changes in education. In addition, the introduction to the higher education sector of non-public universities and the education of academic functions in sub-regional centers has increased the spatial accessibility to education, primarily for the residents of peripheral regions. However, the distribution of human capital resources in the studied area is characterized by relatively strong polarization with a distinct distance between the Tri-City and Szczecin agglomerations, which was confirmed by the classification of poviats using agglomeration techniques. The disparities in the level of education in northern Poland are to a large extent the heritage of the socialized sector in agriculture. Post-farming areas form depopulation areas with unfavorable socio-economic conditions, where parents attach less importance to the education of their children. However, the positive effect of the ongoing changes is the involvement of human capital with a high level of education in research and development activities. Research shows that regions with a higher level of education and socio-economic development are characterized by greater wealth expressed in terms of GDP per capita.

Facilitating a Mentoring Programme for Doctoral Students: Insights from Evidence-Based Practice

Aim/Purpose: One approach to helping doctoral students deal with the many challenges they face is the provision of a structured mentoring programme to complement the more traditional doctoral curriculum and supervisor relationship. This paper reports a mentoring programme containing such activities as individual consultations and peer-mentoring workshops, introduced at one of the non-public universities in Poland and discusses the development of a model of support. In developing the model, two evaluation studies were conducted seeking to discover how participants perceived the mentoring programme, what needs the mentoring programme addressed, and what benefits it provided for doctoral students. Background: With reference to a new paradigm proposed by Kram and Higgins, mentoring emerges in the context of many developmental networks, where the more junior mentors and peer-mentors together discover new roles involved in doctoral education. Methodology: Case study methodology is utilized to gather perceptions of a doctoral mentoring programme. The conceptual framework for a two-part programme is presented and the results of two evaluation studies conducted on-line using a mix-method approach are reported. In total, 42 doctoral students participated in the studies, representing social sciences and the humanities disciplines. Contribution: This paper discusses a novel doctoral mentoring programme which finds its basis in evidence-based practice. This research goes beyond previous studies by undertaking an analysis of doctoral students’ needs, then considering relationships between those needs and structuring a programme to meet them. Findings: Findings showed three main areas of need for doctoral students: the need for social interaction at university; the need for structure in the doctoral journey, and the need for psychological support. Participants distinguished two perspectives that influenced the assessment of programme activities: (a) the meaningfulness of the mentoring programme to the individual; (b) the mentor’s attitude including the general atmosphere of collegiality during meetings. Results presented are supported by a proposed intervention model. Recommendations for Practitioners: The model presented may inspire other universities to implement similar approaches for supporting their own doctoral students. Researcher enablers are also offered as strategies relating to workshop topics, meeting schedules, and programme organization. The main recommendation for practitioners is to be sensitive to the psychosocial needs of students. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers interested in doctoral students’ needs and ways of supporting them can utilize the proposed model for strategically planning such support. It is recommended that further research into the area of mentoring doctoral students makes use of the mixed-method approach. Such an approach takes cognizance of phenomenological exigencies as they pertain to individual meaning-making. Impact on Society: Supporting the effectiveness of doctoral students is significant as failure comes at great professional and personal cost to the doctoral student. There are also potential costs in terms of faculty disillusionment and impacts on university reputation. Economic benefits to the nation may also be forfeited when doctoral students fail to graduate. Future Research: It would be valuable to corroborate the model presented and extend it through the development of a mentoring support scale which identifies more linearly specific doctoral students’ needs. Longitudinal studies are also required to verify long-term effects of the programme.

Private Universities in Vietnam: Reflection and Proposition

This paper discusses the progression of non-public universities in Vietnam through 30 years of national policy development. Since the first time that other forms of educational provision, rather than public, appeared on the scene, the private sector of Vietnam's higher education has changed intensively and contributed significantly to the overall development of the country. Nonetheless, this sector continues to lag in all aspects, including learning and teaching facilities, student enrollment, as well as academic staff. The quality of a private-university education also remains a concern. Meanwhile, the lack of favourable policies and mechanisms deters investment in private universities and affects a healthy competition mechanism between public and private institutions. Based on the analysis of private universities’ achievements and challenges, three critical issues, namely admission, quality, and autonomy, are thoroughly discussed. These are the issues that currently hinder the growth of this sector. However, when appropriately dealt, they will open up new development opportunities. In these aspects, the paper proposes several suggestions for the private sector to enhance their achievements and impact in the context of Vietnam’s higher education. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.12.16

Mergers of Public and Non-Public Universities in Poland – A Comparative Analysis

Mergers of Public and Non-Public Universities in Poland – A Comparative Analysis

Universities and medicine

History of universities with special emphasis on medicine as part of universities is presented as ashort survey. Particular attention is thereby focused on the development of university based medical schools in Austria, especially in the city of Vienna. The importance of Abraham Flexner for both the US and european medical schools is recognized. The Bologna-system of european curriculum design is mentioned as well as the development of non-public universities in Austria. Finally the peculiarity of the development of medical schools in Austria within the past twenty years is addressed. Digressions on Humboldt's vision of university and on lectures as an essential didactic item in universities are integrated within the text.

The marketisation of higher education: symptoms, controversies, trends

Motivation: Marketisation of higher education accompanying the development of a market economy having expressed, among others, the ‘imitation’ of management models specific to the enterprise sector, an adaptation of the market terminology, changing roles of students and the importance of their satisfaction with the study causes still a lot of controversy in the academic community, dividing it into supporters and opponents of the current process with a strong predominance of the first group. Aim: The aim of this article is to present the arguments and opinions of supporters and opponents (deck research) and the chosen Polish university representatives (primary research) of the marketization process of higher education. In the article the results of desk research as well as the author’s own research will be used. Results: Supporters of marketisation argue that this process will turn universities into more flexible, more efficient and more responsive to the needs of society, the economy, students and parents institutions. Opponents pay attention to the cultural, intellectual and pedagogic consequences of this process. Both groups conclude that there is no turning back from this process and it cannot be avoided. Intensification of university marketing is perceived both by representatives of Polish public and non-public universities, as shown by the research conducted by the author. There were no significant differences in terms of the statements made by representatives of the different types of universities. Only sometimes more decision-making flexibility of non-public universities was emphasized, better use of information technology in their communication with prospective and current students, better knowledge of IT tools as well as slightly more intensification of promotional activities.

Innowacje w szkolnictwie wyższym jako podstawa modernizacji sektora

In higher education, innovations are all changes that can be positively evaluated from the point of view of one particular criterion: equalizing educational opportunities, the education system’s impact on innovations in the economy, improvement of graduates’ professional skills or their involvement in public life. As we will show in the article, the following can be considered as innovations: creation of non-public higher education establishments and vocational schools, changes in study programmes, improving teaching methods, implementing new methods of scientific research and so on. Higher education in Poland requires reconstruction. A considerable part of the sector remains non-privatized. The number of places available for students at state-owned universities today is 3.5 times bigger than before the transformation. Students of non-public universities, who pay tuition fees, are practically deprived of all state aid. Polish universities occupy low places in international rankings, and the innovativeness of the Polish economy is among the lowest in Europe and in the European Union. This innovativeness depends on many factors, but transfer of research results from the academe to the economy as well as preparing graduates for their professional careers are among the most important ones. The article is based on selected literature, analysis of statistical data, own research, and experience gathered e.g. while the author was the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Non-public Universities in the years 2000-2005.

Changes in students’ choice determinants in Poland: a comparative study of tertiary business education between 2008 and 2013

For the last 20 years Polish education faced turbulent changes, first experiencing a rapid increase in the number of students and the dynamic growth of educational institutions, and then facing the reverse trend of decreasing number of students and universities being closed down or facing serious financial problems. Furthermore, forecasts for the next 10 years predict that most of the non-public universities in Poland will experience serious problems to survive in the market. Facing new challenges, universities changed the way they think about their students and the customer-oriented approach became the dominant management imperative for most of them. Ability to understand the reasons behind students tertiary education decisions emerged as a key issue in increasing enrollments. Predicting students choice determinants may be however more difficult than expected as those choices are dynamic and might change over time. While the literature on the university choice factors is growing, still little is evidenced with regard to the dynamism of the tertiary education decision making process and this article is aimed to contribute to filling this gap. We identified that both aspects of students decision making process—pursuing tertiary education and the choice of the particular university—are a subject of change over time and might be conditioned on economic, social and demographic changes of the given market.

Positive image of university and local government - common cause

Introduction In this article the author discusses the issue of image of a non-public university in the context of the image of a local government, which functions on the territory where the university is located. The author discusses the mutual influence of both entities and the resulting benefits. In order to illustrate the subject the example of one of the richest and best-developing local governments in Poland – Community of Polkowice – which in 2002 decided to establish its own university together with the District (poviat) of Polkowice. The university is financed to a large extent, which is probably an exception in whole Poland1 with funds from the budget of local government. Lower Silesian University of Entrepreneurship and Technology in Pokowice (DWSPiT) has been functioning on the market of higher education for a decade. It has a significant contribution to the building of a positive image of local authorities and uniting the identity of the local community. Even though people from outside Polkowice also study at the university, it is often called a „local government’s university” or „local university”, alongside the division into public and non-public universities, according to which it was categorized2, according to the law. One of the things important for the potential students is the fact that the university is located in the region of Polkowice, which is developing fast and offers the possibility of studying, potential jobs and in the longer perspective also attractive living conditions. The goal of the article is to try to show, on the example of Polkowice and the Lower Silesian University of Entrepreneurship, the impact that a non-public university may have on strengthening the positive image of local government and to present the scope of cooperation between a university and local government and its image value for the university itself. The subject, due to the limitations imposed by the form of this article, will be limited to only the most important issues, according to the author. The development of free market economy after 1990 changed the approach to regions and education. People started to perceive both education and regions in commercial categories. At universities