Purpose Of University Education Research Articles

Nyerere’s Philosophy of Education for Self-Reliance and Its Implications for Enhancing the Socio-Economic Dimension of Current Kenyan University Education

While considerable attention has been devoted to exploring the potential of higher education in driving economic development, comparatively less focus has been directed towards its role in nurturing social imperatives associated with education. In the same vein, the economic benefits of a university degree in Kenya have been emphasised, while the social relevance of serving society has not received enough attention. In order to strengthen the social and economic paradigms of higher education in Kenya, the article examine the unique contribution of Nyerere's philosophy of education for self-reliance in the realm of African educational philosophies. The purpose of this study was to analyse what educational implications Kenyan universities can adopt from Nyerere's education for self-reliance philosophy using a literature-based research approach. The methodology of the study used was a multifaceted technique that comprised a literature review, conceptual analysis, a comprehensive content analysis and triangulation for evaluating relevant books, research studies, scholarly works and official papers about the socio-economic role of university education and Nyerere's philosophy of education. The study's findings indicated that the Nyerere educational philosophy, which is characterized by its invaluable lessons on the roles of the teacher, curriculum development, and the purpose of university education, may have beneficial implications on Kenyan university education. The socio-economic dimensions of university education emphasize enhancing society through problem-solving, community engagement, and career-oriented learning. The study also underscored the vital need for training for jobs in both white-collar and blue-collar fields by universities, the incorporation of problem-solving skills relevant to the 21st century, on-going professional development, and benchmarking. These recommendations could be the cornerstone of socio-economic education reforms at Kenyan universities, which could prepare its youth for the dynamic opportunities of the twenty-first century, positioning Kenya as a forerunner in the global advancement of socio-economic dimension of university education.

UM LUGAR PARA A LEITURA LITERÁRIA EM BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITÁRIAS

The present study aims, on the one hand, to reflect on reading practices within the university library, describing and explaining the various possibilities and their connection with the purpose of university education, and on the other hand to demonstrate as an extra reading activity teaching at the academy – a reading group – can provide meaningful reading experiences for those involved. To this end, the study develops a theoretical reflection, based on a literature review, which highlights the contributions of literary reading and reading groups in an academic context to the dynamics of lifelong learning. Then, interviews with participants in a reading group, carried out in a university library, are analysed, seeking to explore the impact of the experiences declared in this area on their daily lives. It is concluded that the reading groups assume themselves as an essential strategy to promote literary reading and learning transversal skills, namely academic skills based on critical reflection, orality and relational interaction, revealing, at the same time, the intertwining the reading hared with the daily lives of each of the participants, which goes beyond life in the gym. The study leaves clues to an extensive field of reflection and action.

DEVELOPPEMENT DES COMPETENCES ET EMPLOYABILITE DES JEUNES DIPLOMES : ETAT DES LIEUX ET ENJEUX

Employability is considered to be one of the purposes of university education, in addition to its traditional missions of research, knowledge production and teaching. This new concern requires that the achievements of students at the end of their studies should be better defined and known in order to discuss their relevance in regard to the requirements of the economic and social world and to find out if they are of a nature that ensure to them an integrationon the employment market.The objective of this article is hardly to evoke the problem of the professionalization of university studies, which remains a subject to be debated and deserves special attention, but to propose a line of reflection which combines the objectives of the professionalization of university studies with a redefinition of content and training courses by introducing a pedagogical and didactic dynamic.This educational renewal proposes a new conception of training in terms of expected knowledge and skills, whether specific or general, but also a review of assessment practices. In a knowledge-based economy, students must prepare for a wide variety of jobs and increasingly demanding employers, knowing that the public sector - the historic employer of university graduates - has given way to the private sector which employs more and more while requiring a quality training which would constitute, in its eyes, the pledge of a capacity of adaptation to new and unpredictable situations(Hutmacher, 2001).Thus, the definition and the developmentof students skills, facing an uncertain and diverse professional future, are of interest to both educators and professionals.

The diploma disease in Central Asia: students' views about purpose of university education in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan

ABSTRACTThis paper examines students’ views about the purpose of university education and its role in their future employability in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Data was gathered through focus groups with 172 undergraduate students. Findings suggest that due to socio-economic pressures, students largely see the purpose of university in terms of its economic value, namely enhanced access to employment opportunities and improved financial wellbeing. While future career prospects are key motivation to pursue a university degree, this study shows that the perceived role of university credentials in employability is declining. Due to an oversupply of graduates and limited employment opportunities, employers have raised the bar for qualifications to select job candidates. Coupled with an undergraduate degree perceived as an ‘incomplete degree’, students are driven to earn more educational credentials; leading to a greater supply of graduates and what appears to be a widespread occurrence of ‘diploma disease’.

The evolution of learning: Post-pedagogical lessons for the future university

This article offers a post-pedagogical image of universities. We explore two main purposes of university education: creating an educated public and preparing learners for their future careers. This exploration draws on philosophers Barnett, MacIntyre and Nussbaum. We then utilise a series of reports from The Foundation for Young Australians to offer insights into the changing nature of society, technology, and worklife. The evolution of models or theories of learning sets the scene for the framework for how to structure the future university—a post-pedagogical learning institution in which educators are learning specialists, learners are engaged in meaningful and critical thinking, learning and acting.

Setting New Standards for Homo Academicus: Entrepreneurial University Graduates on the EU Agenda

In this article, we examine how the ideal university graduate is constructed in the European Commission’s documents on entrepreneurship education (EE). Our analysis illustrates how persuasive policy language determines the standards for educating entrepreneurial graduates to optimally meet the needs of the liberal market economy. We argue that the policy discourse on EE reformulates the idea of being academically educated. In the context of building the European knowledge economy, EE has become a significant theme that establishes neoliberal ideals, redefines the values of European university education, and generates instrumental and one-dimensional understanding of the purpose of university education.

Latin Woostered and Hard-Boiled: The Classical Style of P. G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler

Latin Woostered and Hard-Boiled: The Classical Style of P. G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler KATHLEEN RILEY The Victorian classicist Benjamin Jowett, outlining his vision for Oxford’s classical curriculum (or “Greats”), believed “the function of the scholar was to bring Greek ideas into contact with the modern world, and the purpose of university education was to produce not scholars or researchers but statesmen and men of the world.”1 One Oxford alumnus who exemplified this vision was Oscar Wilde. For him the classics were not just essential to education ; they were an important part of another aspect of the modern world—mass entertainment. From his journalism to his plays and his novel, Wilde incorporated the ancient world in literary “products” designed to be consumed by large middle -class audiences. Effectively, he found a way of reconciling Parnassus and Piccadilly, the cloister and the marketplace. Two later writers, born at a time when Wilde was making his mark as a wit, cultural critic and boulevardier, also epitomized Jowett’s worldly vision—though their training ground was not Oxford but an English public school, Dulwich College, founded by Elizabethan actor-manager Edward Alleyn. They were P. G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler, near contemporaries who, while apparently very different from one another, had in common a classical education to which they subsequently ascribed their great facility as English prose stylists. The current Master of Dulwich College, Joseph Spence, maintains: “Chandler’s Philip Marlowe may speak with a Los Angeles accent, but his syntax owes more to Virgil and Livy than to any later writers.”2 And Chandler himself remarked: “It would seem that a clasarion 26.2 fall 2018 sical education might be a rather poor basis for writing novels in a hardboiled vernacular. I happen to think otherwise.”3 Wodehouse described his schooling on the “Classical side” as “the best form of education I could have had as a writer.”4 And here is another point of comparison with Wilde, of whom Seamus Heaney once said: “The lighter his touch, the more devastating his effect. When he walked on air, he was on solid ground.”5 Heaney was referring to the brilliant paradoxes and high-wire wordplay of Wilde the Society satirist, the subversive insider and scourge of Victorian hypocrisy, but he also pinpointed an intrinsic aspect of Wilde the freelance classicist. Wilde wore his erudition lightly but the sheer nimbleness of his creative genius, the assiduous court paid to triviality , the formation of so “delicate [a] bubble of fancy”6 as The Importance of Being Earnest, all had a rootedness and authority attributable in large measure to his formal classical training. Wodehouse as weaver of whimsy and Chandler as purveyor of pulp fiction have a similar rootedness and authority that derive from a solid grounding in classics. Like Wilde again, and his pitch-perfect High Comedy, Wodehouse and Chandler create very particular worlds in their writing—contrasting worlds of light and dark. Chandler ’s is the Los Angeles demimonde, a world of hard edges, of blackmailers, femme fatales and tuxedoed racketeers, of seedy saloons and gambling joints; a world both repellent and seductive in its lurid, noirish venality. In his penultimate novel, The Long Goodbye, L.A. is personified as “a city no worse than others, a city rich and vigorous and full of pride, a city lost and beaten and full of emptiness.” Descending the mean streets of this urban underworld is Chandler’s private eye, Philip Marlowe, a hero with mythic resonance, “a shopsoiled Galahad,”7 a gumshoe Aeneas every bit as worldweary as Virgil’s hero and just as attuned to the lacrimae rerum, the tears inherent in the human condition. If Chandler depicts a city and its inhabitants indisputably banished from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Allah (a notorious Hollywood hotel of the 1930s and ’40s), Wode18 latin woostered and hard-boiled house captures a world delightfully preserved in prelapsarian aspic or, as Evelyn Waugh put it, “a world of pristine paradisal innocence. For Mr. Wodehouse there has been no Fall of Man; no ‘aboriginal calamity’. His characters have never tasted the forbidden fruit.”8 An article in the New Yorker, in March...

Graduates’ vocational skills for the management accountancy profession: exploring the accounting education expectation-performance gap

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on understanding the vocational skills required by graduates and assessing the competence of graduates for the management accountancy profession. It explores ‘expectation gaps’ by examining whether the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, practitioner employers and university educators have different expectations with regard to the important vocational skills for graduates. The research aim is to generate a greater understanding of the factors that create identified expectation gaps between the above stakeholders and to explore the implications of any gaps. The research was conducted by interviewing stakeholders and a survey of university accounting educators in UK and Ireland business schools. Expectation gaps between the stakeholders were identified. These expectation gaps appear to exist owing to conflicting views on the purpose of university education. The paper contributes to the growing debates about the general role of higher education in society and the role of university accounting educators in supplying graduate trainee accountants for the management accountancy profession.

니체와 대학 교육의 목적

대학 교육은 어떤 방향으로 나아가야 하는가? 물론 21세기, 과학기술의 혁신, 지식혁명과 정보사회화, 대학 교육의 대중화 등에 따른 여러 변화를 외면할 수는 없다. 현대사회는 과학기술사회이다. 우리의 삶 전체는 근본적으로 과학기술문명에 뿌리를 두고 있다. 그렇기 때문에 대학은 이러한 사회를 더욱 발전시키고 이끌어 나갈 인재를 키우기 위해 전문적인 직업교육을 시켜야 하는 것은 당연하다. 하지만 대학 교육의 목적이 직업교육과 실용교육에만 있다고 말할 수 없을 것이다. 대학 교육의 목적은 교양교육을 바탕으로 하면서 전문적인 직업교육으로 나아가는 방향 속에서 균형 잡힌 전인적 인간상을 길러내는 데 있기 때문이다. 만약 이러한 대학 교육의 본래 목적을 포기하게 되면 대학의 본질과 역할은 상실될 것이다. 본 논문은 대학이 그 본래의 목적과 달리 국가와 경제에 종속되어 실용화되어가는 19세기 후반기의 상황 속에서 대학 교육의 목적에 대해 성찰했던 니체의 교육 철학에 대해 살펴보고자 한다. 이를 위해 본 논문은 우선 대학의 역사적 형성과 형성기의 대학의 목적에 대해서 서술할 것이고, 니체가 당대의 대학 상황을 어떻게 비판하는지를 살펴볼 것이고, 니체의 속물교양 개념에 대해서 논의한 후, 직업교육과 교양교육, 그리고 교양의 이상에 대해서 논의할 것이다. 끝으로 대학 교육의 미래 방향에 대한 니체의 제안을 살펴볼 것이다.

니체와 대학 교육의 목적

대학 교육은 어떤 방향으로 나아가야 하는가? 물론 21세기, 과학기술의 혁신, 지식혁명과 정보사회화, 대학 교육의 대중화 등에 따른 여러 변화를 외면할 수는 없다. 현대사회는 과학기술사회이다. 우리의 삶 전체는 근본적으로 과학기술문명에 뿌리를 두고 있다. 그렇기 때문에 대학은 이러한 사회를 더욱 발전시키고 이끌어 나갈 인재를 키우기 위해 전문적인 직업교육을 시켜야 하는 것은 당연하다. 하지만 대학 교육의 목적이 직업교육과 실용교육에만 있다고 말할 수 없을 것이다. 대학 교육의 목적은 교양교육을 바탕으로 하면서 전문적인 직업교육으로 나아가는 방향 속에서 균형 잡힌 전인적 인간상을 길러내는 데 있기 때문이다. 만약 이러한 대학 교육의 본래 목적을 포기하게 되면 대학의 본질과 역할은 상실될 것이다. 본 논문은 대학이 그 본래의 목적과 달리 국가와 경제에 종속되어 실용화되어가는 19세기 후반기의 상황 속에서 대학 교육의 목적에 대해 성찰했던 니체의 교육 철학에 대해 살펴보고자 한다. 이를 위해 본 논문은 우선 대학의 역사적 형성과 형성기의 대학의 목적에 대해서 서술할 것이고, 니체가 당대의 대학 상황을 어떻게 비판하는지를 살펴볼 것이고, 니체의 속물교양 개념에 대해서 논의한 후, 직업교육과 교양교육, 그리고 교양의 이상에 대해서 논의할 것이다. 끝으로 대학 교육의 미래 방향에 대한 니체의 제안을 살펴볼 것이다.

Excavating the role and purpose of university education in the postmodern age: historical insights from the South

ABSTRACTUniversities in the early twenty-first century have become captive sites of global capitalism. The role of universities in this neoliberal knowledge system is to produce consumable knowledge for transnational corporations and flexible, knowledge worker-entrepreneurs. It is difficult to see where the university’s roles in social justice and equity fit into the current higher education policy environment. While these are global trends in higher education, the focus of this article is on analysing key Australian policy documents from the 1950s to the 2000s. These policy texts contain discursive constructions of universities that both mirrored and produced powerful social imaginaries about higher education. Building upon earlier research, I analyse these policy documents using a form of Foucauldian archaeological analysis that seeks to trace the ways in which discourses define and delimit possible constructions of universities. This article makes an original contribution to contemporary debates about higher education policy because it engages in detailed Foucauldian archaeological analysis that opens up the present to critique, enabling us to trace how constructions of the postmodern university have emerged over time and have come to be normalised. It also offers counter-narratives about how policy futures might be [re]constructed.

Bringing together knowledge and capabilities: a case study of engineering graduates

In contemporary times there is a renewed focus on the purposes of university education in science or engineering, especially in emerging economy contexts like South Africa where the massification of higher education is in its early stages. The contributions by Muller (High Educ 70(3):409–416, 2015) and Walker (High Educ 70(3):417–425,2015) both recognise the crucial importance of expanding epistemological access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but their visions offer different emphases on how to proceed. Muller (2015) argues for the centring of disciplinary knowledge, while for Walker (2015) it is the concerns of society that should be central. In this article we argue that both of these are partial answers. We draw on a longitudinal study with ten South African engineering graduates, who were interviewed both in their third year and then approximately a decade later. Our analysis shows how the engagement with disciplinary knowledge is at the heart of the shaping of ‘graduateness’. Thus we argue for a coming together of the two perspectives in this issue towards a nuanced perspective on graduateness that recognises the significance of disciplinary knowledge but that also holds a space for the development of student agency in higher education.

Profesionalne kompetencije budućih pedagoga

The worldwide expansion of higher education introduced the problem of quality of knowledge that graduate students possess, as well as question whether they are competent to fulfill the requirements of their future profession. Education and training for professional work, in our educational system, is realized in various ways: through lectures, exercise classes, seminar paper writing, research projects, consultative work and practice in educational methodology. These are only some of the key themes concerning university education of pedagogues-to-be that should be considered if we are to train them to perform a high-quality educational work. The purpose of this research is to construct an evaluation scale that will examine the importance of competencies the future pedagogues are acquiring during studying. It is constructed on the basis of different classifications of competencies of a pedagogue. The research has shown that the students highly value professional knowledge that is necessary for a high-quality educational work, and that they are familiar with the area of work and the requirements of their future profession. They also acknowledge the importance of acquisition of competencies in scientific and professional research. All of the statistical parameters give quite encouraging and affirmative data, since the purpose of university education, after all, is to train the future pedagogues for high-quality educational work and to develop their personalities so that they can manage a variety of situations. Particular significance of this paper resides in the fact that the research performed was conceptualized in such a manner as to emphasize the analysis of the pedagogy studies program from the students' point of view. Timely information regarding the profession's requirements and encouraging interest in research of educational practice can encourage further development of young pedagogues' professional competencies as well.

Investigating the use of smartphones for learning purposes by Australian dental students.

BackgroundMobile Internet devices and smartphones have at present a significant potential as learning tools and the development of educational interventions based on smartphones have attracted increasing attention.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to obtain a deeper insight in the nature of students’ use of smartphones, as well as their attitudes towards educational use of mobile devices in order to design successful teaching interventions.MethodA questionnaire was designed, aiming to investigate the actual daily habitual use, as well as the attitudes of dental students towards smartphones for their university education purposes. The survey was used to collect data from 232 dental students.ResultsOf the 232 respondents, 204 (87.9%) owned a smartphone, and 191 (82.3%) had access to third generation (3G) mobile carriers. The most popular devices were the iPhone and Android. Most of the respondents had intermediate smartphone skills and used smartphones for a number of learning activities. Only 75/232 (32.3%) had specific educational applications installed, while 148/232 (63.7%) used smartphones to access to social media and found it valuable for their education (P<.05). Students accessing social media with their smartphones also showed significantly more advanced skills with smartphones than those who did not (P<.05). There was no significant association between age group, gender, origin, and smartphone skills. There was positive correlation between smartphone skills and students' attitudes toward improving access to learning material (r=.43, P<.05), helping to learn more independently (r=.44, P<.05), and use of smartphones by teaching staff (r=.45, P<.05).ConclusionThe results in this study suggest that students use smartphones and social media for their education even though this technology has not been formally included in the curriculum. This might present an opportunity for educators to design educational methods, activities, and material that are suitable for smartphones and allow students to use this technology, thereby accommodating students’ current diverse learning approaches.

The purpose of university education.

This paper addresses the need for stronger links between university education and career development. It calls for a new model of a university that continues the liberal education tradition within a context that is more focused on the relevance of the content to career and life beyond college.

Dilemmas in Teaching Happiness

Dilemmas in Teaching Happiness

Dilemmas in Teaching Happiness

There is a burgeoning amount of research into happiness and greatly increased popular attention, so it seems logical to add a course on happiness to the university curriculum. We encountered, in developing and running such a course, a number of dilemmas that the topic of happiness makes especially acute. Should the teacher remain separate from the class, as an authority, or participate in group activities? Is the primary goal of the class to learn content or to change the relationship of students to the world? What does a mark for learning content signify if developing happiness habits is a goal? Should one goal of the class be for the teacher to be happy and, if so, does this conflict with student learning? These dilemmas reflect larger questions about the purpose of university education. This paper reflects on those questions through our experience of formulating and delivering a new university class on happiness.

The education of professional electronic engineers

The purpose of university education in electronics is discussed in the light of the requirements of industry. The role of postgraduate experience courses is considered, particular reference being made to the problems which the Bosworth scheme encountered

Capital Formation by Education

Capital Formation by Education

The Purpose of University Education

The Purpose of University Education