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Assessing the effects of internationalizing policies on doctoral education in Malaysia

By Anya Klyukanova & Roxana Chiappa

“In Malaysia, with the right qualification, almost anybody can get at least some kind a tertiary education”. With this quote, Dr. Roshada Hashim, Director of USIM ‘Alamiyyah International Centre, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia and former Dean of the Institute of Graduate Studies at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, starts her explanation about the effect of internationalization policies on Malaysian doctoral education.

Dr. Roshada Hashim
Dr. Roshada Hashim

CIRGE had the opportunity to hold an extended conversation with Dr. Hashim, who shed light on the ongoing process of internationalization of doctoral education. Her vast experience as an investigator, formative professors, and top administrator for more than 20 years in Malaysia as well as research collaborator worldwide, makes her an expert voice to elucidate the challenge of doctoral education in Malaysia.

Malaysia ranks 11th in the world in attracting large numbers of international students. The government has been explicit in its attempt to internationalize higher education. How do you see this affecting doctoral education in Malaysia?

We are now seeing an increasing number of international universities opening branches of their universities in Malaysia. Because the government wants Malaysia to be a higher education hub, we have liberalized our educational policy to the extent that universities can open branch campuses here. This resulted in universities from the United Kingdom and Australian  opening branch campuses and we are expecting an even larger number of top universities from other foreign countries to open their branch campuses in Malaysia. Although these branch campuses will initially offer undergraduate programs, it stands to reason that these universities will expand to provide postgraduate programs resulting in an influx of doctoral students coming from abroad to Malaysia, but not just to study at Malaysian universities, but foreign ones as well. The fees charged by the foreign universities are only a portion of what they would pay if they were to study in United Kingdom for example, or their own country, so these are very effective circumstances for many students who want to pursue doctoral degrees. Currently, public Malaysian universities offer a wide range of  doctoral degrees but the presence of the foreign universities will eventually open up more opportunities for students worldwide to come to Malaysia and study.

Quality assurance is a hot topic in doctoral education in these days. What is the quality assurance process at these new universities?

Well, until now, every program has to go through the rigorous standards set by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency and the Ministry of Education. Malaysian students have  an opportunity either to study at government or private universities and would experience the same quality assurance mechanism. The difference is that the price is a tenth in government universities, because education  in government universities is highly subsidized, students pay a very small portion of the fees. Therefore, many students automatically will try to get into government universities, especially because many government universities are mature, very well equipped (and have a good infrastructure), in all, they are more attractive. But having said this, private universities are developing quickly and they are interested in improving their quality standards. Obviously many are well funded and therefore are able to improve at a faster rate than public ones.

Well, from my perspective, I notice a serious problem of unequal quality among our international students. Quality standards differ greatly from one nation to another nation, which, in my opinion, is affecting the success of their graduate education here in Malaysia.  For example, we get a lot of students from developing countries with various quality of skills and knowledge. Although everybody has a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree, the standards differ so much that when they come to our universities, these students sometimes need to catch up with our standards or they realize that they cannot follow the advance level that we have in our classes. Sometimes their academic qualification and the training they had received at home are not at par with our standards and therefore they have difficulties being admitted into our programs. We have had to take measures to level up the competencies  and I believe it has affected how we take in students and who we take in hence they may have to spend more time to complete their studies. Many universities in Malaysia have a policy to provide education for everyone.  This policy applies not just to Malaysian students but  it applies to all students who want to study in Malaysia, and because of this policy, we have an issue of quality.

  Besides, we also notice that there are students who fulfill the requirements to attend graduate school but lack the required language proficiency. There is a pool of students who have gone through a bachelor’s degree in their home country and since their country has limited opportunities for postgraduate studies, these students have to attend graduate school elsewhere. In doctoral studies, students more often than not have to write a dissertation in English. Therefore, we are now very selective and only take students who have a certain level of English proficiency. It is indeed an unfortunate situation because  it doesn’t mean that if you can’t speak English, you aren’t good enough for a doctoral program. Because of their inability to speak English and to formulate their arguments, we think they’re not smart. So it is very likely that we “miss” good doctoral students. We need to come up with creative solutions to address this gap in our education system.

 

This is one of the entrances of the Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, where Dr. Hashim works as the former Dean of the Institute of Graduate Studies
This is one of the entrances of the Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, where Dr. Hashim works as the former Dean of the Institute of Graduate Studies

 Do you see PhD students enhancing international collaboration?

 Definitely. I think that’s how we’ve been surviving all these years. It’s how we’ve been able to improve our network. Many international students are from developing countries and become professors in their countries. Also, a good number of them work later in the ministries of their countries and in turn influence policies. Over the years, we have found that our alumni are  the ones with whom current PhD students connect and start collaboration. A lot of our collaboration is a result having educated them here during their PhD education

Do you think that the influx of international students is affecting the experience for both local student and academic staff, as well as international students and scholars within your universities?

I always tell people here that there is a culture shock on both sides. It is not only the international students who have to adjust to their new surroundings and culture, there’s a culture shock on the university’s side, too. As our universities mature and have more diverse groups of university students, the culture shock affects more of the non academic staff. We, the academic staff, are familiar with the do’s and don’ts of how people from different countries behave. However, the non academic staff have had very little exposure in the past to people from different cultures. We in Malaysian universities need to understand and know how to address people from different cultures. It’s not so much that we expect the international students to adjust to our culture, but that we have to become more knowledgeable about other cultures and adjust to theirs as well.

Overall, international students are welcomed and  accepted by both the university and the community surrounding the universities. The willingness to understand and accept different cultures must penetrate the entire university, including administrators and lecturers/faculty including the local students as well as among the international students themselves, otherwise we are not offering a very good learning and working environment. We need to be willing to give and take and not close our minds. I tell this to the international students and I tell this to our people. International students need to adjust to us, and we need to adjust to them. It is a positive and mutual adaptation process.

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Recently, the Malaysian government implemented a policy that aims to educate 200,000 international students by the year 2020, which is projected to boost the economy by about 180 billion USD. The success that Malaysia has been experiencing by focusing on higher education may prove to be a model copied by many other developing economies.

 

 

Doctoral Education in Australia: Lack of academic positions affects interests for pursuing doctoral degrees among domestic applicants

By Anya Klyukanova & Roxana Chiappa

While Australia is one of the more popular countries for international students to receive a postgraduate degree, domestic applicants seem to be less motivated for continuing doctoral degrees at home. Dr. Richard Strugnell, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Graduate Research at the University of Melbourne, summarizes the phenomenon succinctly: “The universities are not hiring – they’re just growing their class size, and as a consequence, there are a lot of PhDs who are finishing their degrees and can’t find jobs in academic positions. Then they try to find a position in their respective field   of the corporate sector or government, but they do not necessarily have an advantage by having a PhD.”  Dr. Strugnell is an expert on doctoral education in Australia. His experience as a professor, lead researcher, administrator and advisory member for Australian and International universities make him an informed voice to elucidate the challenges of doctoral education in Australia.

Dick_Strugnell

How can you explain this phenomenon of the depreciating value of a PhD in Australia?

There are several causes, but I perceive that graduates know early on in their doctoral programs that it’s going to be hard to find a job in Australia. This leads to attrition and low completion rates in some disciplines and to lower and lower domestic supply of PhDs. Twenty years ago, maybe more, it was very common for doctoral graduates from Melbourne to go to the US or Europe for a postdoctoral stay. Then, those individuals remained in these countries and went on to academic careers.  These days, I don’t see students traveling so often. I see students operating under the assumptions that even if they go overseas for a postdoc, when they come back, they will not get an academic position, so they might as well accept that and go straight into some sort of profession here (or try to) and therefore give up the idea of an academic career pretty early on.

CIRGE: Quality of doctoral education has become a hot topic in the United States and in some European countries. What kind of quality assurance mechanisms exist in Australia?  

The process of quality assurance is very different in Australia. For example, doctoral candidates who are about  to graduate submit their thesis in a similar way as candidates at US universities, but the Australian candidates do not have an oral exam and thus, the candidates are not subjected to the in depth questioning that can occur through a viva. The thesis is read by at least two experts in the field who have an opinion about the quality of the doctorate, which is a proxy for the quality of the research and the PhD graduate. The principle is that the thesis is examined and not the student. Therefore, we send the thesis to two or three experts outside of the university and usually outside of Australia.  From a quality assurance perspective, the thesis is being examined by people who have no conflict of interest within the university. In examination settings where internal examiners are used, it is sometimes hard to get fully objective views of the quality of the thesis and you can start to get conflicting views. But this examination process is just a consequence of Australia being a long way from everywhere else. The view was taken early on that since we were so far away and it took such a long time to get here by plane or by boat, then we would examine the thesis, not the student. So that’s a different quality assurance process than the one in place in other countries. In Australia, while we accept there are weaknesses in this process, at the same time, there is reasonable quality assurance, because the dissertation is being assessed by someone  who doesn’t have any relationship with the university.  They read the argument and make an assessment.

The US model of doctoral education appears as a reference for several countries, such as Germany, which is promoting institutional and formative adjustments  in order to provide more structured conditions in their doctoral education programs. How does Australia address this process of creating structured doctoral programs? 

There are tensions around preparation. Our PhD is shorter than the American doctoral degree by two or three years and usually students don’t do as much teaching during their candidature. In many disciplines, they finish their undergraduate studies and jump right away into the research phase. We’re trying to make our students more like US graduates who have more and deeper discipline related coursework in either a bridging Masters program or in the first 1-2 years of the research phase. Employers are looking at the preparation of the graduate, and want to know about the types of experiences student received during the PhD. Was there any further preparation between the undergraduate degree and entry into the PhD program? And when there was not, there is a growing pressure on the preparation pathway to include coursework. Probably that pathway will be extended to have a deeper disciplinary understanding before the PhD candidates begin their research. While we are beginning to extend the process of receiving a doctorate, we do not want it to become as long as the process is in the United States. You can graduate with a PhD in Australia in six to seven years after you have started your undergraduate degree. That rarely happens in the US. So the pressure here is to extend the program and make our graduates look more like US graduates, who may have deeper discipline knowledge gained through coursework or teaching, by adding more disciplinary related coursework. We are harmonizing our model to the US.

International students are important actors in the doctoral education system in Australia.   We have developed strategic relationships with universities in particular countries like China, where China’s undergraduates will come to Melbourne to do their PhDs and then go back to China. There’s good investment from our side into these collaborations. We need a certain number of PhD students because in the Australian research environment, especially in the STEM disciplines, doctoral students do much of the research. This is also different than the US. We don’t have so many postdocs here; we have a lot of PhD students, relatively speaking. If we can’t get Australian students to do PhDs, then we need to get the PhDs from China, India, Europe, and sometimes from the United States. In this sense, international students provide both an important challenge and opportunity for Australian universities: they need to hire more international researchers and professors in order to internationalize our workforce to deal with larger numbers of international undergraduates.

melbourne
Campus of University of Melbourne, one of the most important universities in Australia.

Is the Australian national government addressing any policy in regards to doctoral education?

Well, the government carries out an exercise looking at research strengths every two to three years, in order to see how strong the universities are from a research perspective. This program is called the ERA: Excellence in Research in Australia. This program assesses the research strength of universities by discipline. But then this program doesn’t restrict research training to those universities that can demonstrate a strong research culture. It allows every university to do what they want regardless of the quality of the research and research infrastructure. We think this is an ineffective policy that is potentially bad for the student. It’s hard enough to get a job as it is, but it’s hard to get one when you don’t really know what internationally competitive research looks like.  So the government is certainly interested in doctoral education, but it is not interested enough, in our view. The government should not only take a keen interest in the research production, but it should also be interested in the quality of research, and allow research and doctoral education in only those universities with very good research environments. A good doctoral training program can only happen in a good training environment. We have some places offering PhDs where the research environment is pretty skimpy.

CIRGE: Is the decline of PhDs seen as an important issue? How can this issue be resolved?

To support the increased higher education participation rate, the Australian academic sector needs to grow and there’s no evidence that anyone wants to invest in this country, in growing the academic sector. The federal government wants more students to go to university but they don’t want to spend more money on the universities on a per student basis – the government simply wants the universities to absorb the increasing students numbers with little additional funding and/or to transfer the major financial burden to students.  The Australian government bandies around the fact that university graduates have significantly increased lifetime earnings and therefore should pay more.  What they do not say is that, as a consequence, university graduates pay more in income taxes over their lifetime that more than offsets the costs of their education.

And the other area that needs a lot of work is explaining to potential interested students the value of doing a doctorate and the skills that doctoral students obtain during their training, thus becoming more employable in all sectors of society, be it in academia, or government, or industry. The value of their training needs to be understood both by the PhD candidates and by employers. This is not happening at the moment.

All we can see is that the number of Australian students who are applying is declining. This is a bit disappointing, but at the same time, it raises the question of the role of doctoral education and the value of a PhD outside of the academy.

In a study commissioned by the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, which is the department responsible for administering funding for higher education in Australia, 1,200 PhD researchers were surveyed in 2012. It was found that almost all of them enjoyed their work, but experienced difficulties with the employment system. In fact, more than half the respondents indicated that “uncertain job prospects” was the single worst aspect of a PhD career.

See more on

http://www.tossgascoigne.com.au/docs/CareerSupportForResearchers.pdf

Doctoral Education in South Africa: University and industry collaboration

By Anya Klyukanova & Roxana Chiappa

Facing particular issues of its own higher education system and shaped by a global competition for attracting the most talented citizens, South Africa is developing strategies to increase its number of PhDs, particularly in areas in need  by the industry. CIRGE had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Ahmed Bawa, vice-chancellor of Durban Technology University in South Africa and an expert of doctoral education in this country. 

Dr. Bawa

 


“In a country of 52 million people, only 1800 doctorates are produced each year”. With this statement, Dr. Ahmed Bawa begins to address the magnitude of the challenge that South Africa is facing in its higher education system. His experience as a professor of physics and administrator for more than 20 years provides us a good insight into the different challenges of a national higher education systems confronted with globalization.

“One of the main challenges in doctoral education for South Africa is the undersupply of good candidates. Even when we recently have partnered with the industry sector to train an increasing number of their workers, we still have to adapt several components”.

This fact should be understood within the context of its late development of mass higher education that South Africa, among other developing countries, has addressed in the last three decades. Dr. Bawa ties this to the “very serious pipeline problem in South Africa, with a small number of primary and secondary schools functioning well, while the majority function poorly. So the problem is that from the very outset when students leave the school system, the pool from which to draw applicants is already quite small and it only gets smaller when you get to the PhD point.” For this reason, most PhD applicants, at least in the field of engineering, tend to be “mature scientists who have been in the industry for quite a while”, Dr. Bawa explains.

Given this context, tertiary education institutions are now starting to collaborate with the industry sector in an effort to train the next generation of PhD graduates. This collaboration is seen in the two different types of doctoral degrees offered to students: (a) research-based programs, focused mostly on the student’s dissertation, and (b) coursework-based programs, where the students spend half of their time on coursework. As explicated by Dr. Bawa, “the coursework-based doctoral programs are aimed at people who are in the industry sector and although there is research, it relates to the work situation, rather than being linked to some academic imperative. These specific programs provide the basis for people in industry to study problems and projects that emanate from their own industry.”

Moreover, Bawa highlights that there is a growing tendency amongst some of the big industries to require people in the laboratories to move towards these industry based doctoral programs. “Among the industries, there is almost a requirement that the senior scientific staff should have doctorates; specifically industrially oriented doctorates.”

Knowledge economy and government policies

South Africa, among other emergent economies, has chosen to take a knowledge economy route in its macro economic policy. “Therefore, there’s a strong impetus to employ people with higher qualifications, so that’s applying pressure for enrollments”,  Dr. Bawa adds. “A lot depends on what the state of the economy is and whether a particular industry is creating a lot of innovation or not. If there’s a lot of innovation going on, then there’s pressure to increase the number of people with masters or doctorates.”

To shape these ecosystems, a number of policy initiatives such as the National Education Policy Initiative (NEPI) and the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE), the National System of Innovation, the National Research and Development Strategy have focused on the provision of access and social mobility for students. Given these policies higher education in South Africa is seen to be a major development driver in the country’s information-knowledge system.

In tandem with these policies, the South African government introduced reforms to its migration policy. Similarly to how other counties are increasing efforts to attract the most talented scientists worldwide, the immigration policies in South Africa are “being revisited and improved to try and make it easier for people to come into the country and enter the science system, either as professors or as doctoral candidates. An example of this effort is the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI), where the idea was to attract very high-level scientists from across the world into South Africa. The research chairs are very prestigious and are given financial support to set up their own laboratories.”

This type of policy is trying to solve one of the biggest challenges within higher education, according to Dr. Bawa. “The big challenge for us is to try and understand how to have a sustainable higher education system that can produce the next generation of academics. What do you do in the meantime? Well, we can’t simply just wait for the school system to improve – that’s going to take many years so the question is how do you get students into the system, keep them in the system, and improve their capacity to succeed?”

Professor Ahmed Bawa is a theoretical physicist. Until August 2010 he was a faculty member of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Hunter College and a member of the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Anya Klyukanova

photo (3)Originally from Russia, Anya is a graduate student getting her Master’s in Education Policy at the University of Washington. After receiving her undergraduate degree in political science and digital arts, Anya relocated to Moscow to aid in the start-up of a private research university, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, a partner of MIT. Her research interests include international higher education and the study of education within a political context. As an intern, Anya hopes to develop her research with CIRGE and contribute to the study of comparative higher education.

Presentations 2013 – 2014

Luncheon Talk: Motivation and Experiences of International Doctoral Students

Dr. Jenny Phelps, Assistant Dean at the Graduate Studies in the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

October 10th, 2013  at 12.00 pm – Miller Hall – College of Education – University of Washington

See more

Conceptual Approaches to Doctoral Education: A Community of Practice

 A silent paradigm shift has occurred in doctoral education. Preparing the next generation of PhDs to function successfully in and contribute to today’s and tomorrow’s global environment requires an approach that goes beyond conceptualizing an apprenticeship model and institutes communities of practice, which should include recognition of peers as learning partners. Coordinated efforts are also needed across many levels inside and outside the university. Because more is being asked of the next generation of researchers—in addition to the traditional academic research competencies, they now need professional skills as well as cultural competencies—what is required today at the PhD level is the kind of purposeful structuring that allows for transformative doctoral education. 

Nerad, M. (2012)  Conceptual Approaches to Doctoral Education: A Community of Practice, Alternation, No 19,2, pp. 57–72. 

Download:  Conceptual Approaches to Doctoral Education

 An earlier version of this article appeared in Acta Academica Supplementum 2011, 2:198–216. (ISSN 0587-2405) Available at: http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/ journals.aspx?article=1264.

 

 

Luncheon Talk: Motivation and Experience of International Doctoral Students

“Otherwise, Elsewhere: International Doctoral Students in Globalized Transnational Spaces”

Dr. Jenny Phelps from the University British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada presents findings from her recent dissertation

   Where?  Miller 102T

 When? Thursday October 10th at 12:00 p.m.

Dr. Jenny Phelps is the Assistant Dean, Student Administration and Strategic Initiatives, at the Graduate Studies in the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

 See the complete dissertation: here

Abstract

This study asked broad questions about how and why talented individuals from around the world imagine and choose to pursue doctoral education in a particular location (the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada), their experiences as international doctoral students in constructing and navigating their lives and studies in place and space, and their imagined careers, accomplishments, responsibilities and locations as they emerge from formal education with its apex of achievement.
These trajectories into, through and beyond doctoral education were viewed through the lens of globalization theory and theories of capital with the purpose of understanding further how the phenomena associated with globalizing and networked social fields (including higher education, research, policy, work and migration) are reflected in student purposes, imaginations, choices and experiences. A case-study design focusing on a single institution and a multiple, embedded case research method which analyzed personal narratives were used.
The study found that international doctoral students pursue PhDs with many purposes in mind, some of which reflect dominant policy and institutional discourses of purpose for doctoral education (such as human capital development, career preparation and knowledge production).
However, students were also found to utilize doctoral education abroad as a mechanism for building less theorized forms of capital, for contributing to social good, and for pursuing sometimes surprising private purposes. Their experiences in first becoming and then navigating life as international graduate students demonstrated immersion and engagement in the attributes of deeply globalized societies, including networked technologies, high levels of mobility, globalized fields of education, research and work, and transnational spaces in which borders and identities become more fluid.
The growing global embrace of neoliberal, market-based ideologies infiltrated student experience and imagined careers in nuanced ways. However, while large-scale forces of globalization clearly shape international doctoral student trajectories, these forces are not homogenizing nor fully controlling of student experiences. Students navigate these forces with agency and strategy within their personal ranges of motion, and offer a multiplicity of narratives and trajectories that counter any singular notion of the “international doctoral student”. Implications for doctoral education, public policy, and further research are advanced.


Recent Publications on Doctoral Education

List of latest publications on the various aspects of doctoral education around the world.

           

 The metaphors we study by: the doctorate as a journey and/or as work

Hughes, Christina; Tight, Malcolm – Higher Education Research Development – 2013

 

PhD capacity-building, from aid to innovation: the SANPAD-SANTRUST experience

Smit, B, Williamson, C.; Padayachee, A.  – Studies in Higher Education – 2013

 

Mentorship, supervision and learning experience in PhD education

Linden, J., Ohlin, M., Brodin, E. M.  – Studies in Higher Education – 2013

 

 Performance-based assessment of graduate student research skills: timing, trajectory, and potential thresholds

Timmerman, B. C., Feldon, D., Maher, M.; Strickland, D.; Gilmore, J. – Studies in Higher Education – 2013

 

Completing a PhD by publication: a review of Australian policy and implications for practice

Jackson, D. – Higher Education Research Development – 2013

 

‘Becoming molecular girl’: transforming subjectivities in collaborative doctoral research studies as micro-politics in the academy

Lenz Taguchi,  H.  – International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education – 2013

 

Peer relationships and the biomedical doctorate: a key component of the contemporary learning environment

 Kemp,  M.W., Molloy,  T., Pajic, M., Chapman, E. – Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management – 2013

 

 The Routledge doctoral students’ companion: getting to grips with research in education and the social sciences/The Routledge doctoral supervisors’ companion: supporting effective research in education and the social sciences

Hopwood, N.  – Studies in Continuing Education – 2013

 

Developing early stage researchers: Employability perceptions of social science doctoral candidates

Golovushkina, E., Milligan, C. – International Journal for Researcher Development – 2013

 

Science and Practice in Clinical Psychology Doctoral Training

 Bjornsson,  A. S. – Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice – 2013

 

Developing doctoral scientists for drug discovery: pluridimensional education required

Janero,  D. R. – Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery – 2013

 

What are the major impact factors on research performance of young doctorate holders in science in China: a USTC survey

Jibao G., Yu L., Doug V.,Wen, T. – Higher Education – 2013

 

Dissertations at a Distance: Students’ Perceptions of Online Mentoring in a Doctoral Program

Kumar, S., Johnson, M., Hardemon, T. – The Journal of Distance Education – 2013

 

Changing Schools of Education Through Grassroots Faculty-led Change

Perry, J.A. – Innovative Higher Education –  2013

 

The Quest for the PhD: A Better Metaphor for Doctoral Education

McCulloch, A. – International Journal for Researcher Development – 2013

 

Career goals, pathways and competencies of geography graduate students in the USA

Solem, M.,  Kollasch, A.,  Lee, J. – 2012

… 2006. Envisioning the future of Doctoral Education: Preparing stewards of the discipline, San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass. … 2006. The assessment of Doctoral Education: Emerging criteria and new models for improving outcomes , Sterling, VA : Stylus. …

 

Graduate Students’ Perceptions of Their Advisors: Is There Systematic Disadvantage in Mentorship?

Noy, S.  Ray, R. – The Journal of Higher Education – 2012

… Our findings speak to the utility of the intersectionality framework for examining interpersonal relations in higher education and suggest that advisor support in doctoral education is raced and gendered. …Advisors and advisee issues in doctoral education…

 

 Coping with loneliness: A netnographic study of doctoral students

Janta, H.,  Lugosi, P., & Brown, L. –  2012

… International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy , 23(1/2): 4–32. [CrossRef] View all references) study examines this further by comparing perceptions of doctoral students in chemistry and education across a number of UK departments…

 

The path to graduation: A model interactive web site design supporting doctoral students

Simmons-Johnson, N. –  2012

… Objective. This 2-phase mixed method study assessed 2nd-year doctoral students’ and dissertation students’ perceptions of the current Graduate School of Education dissertation support web site, with implications for designing a model dissertation support web site.

 

Jorge Balan launches book about Latin America higher education institutions in the knowledge economy

Jorge Balan, member of the Form and Forces network, has recently edited Latin Americas New Knowledge Economy: Higher Education, Government and International Collaboration. This is the seventh in the Global Education Research Reports series jointly published by the Institute for International Education and the American Institute for Foreign Study Foundation. Previous books have examined higher education initiatives and exchanges in China, India, and the Middle East, as well as new developments in global mobility.

The book reviews the policies, institutions, and programs that helped bring about these changes, as well as their outcomes in terms of access, workforce training, and research. In this piece, leading scholars from Latin America in the U.S. explore key issues, including higher education’s role in advanced workforce development, trends in academic mobility and outcomes for brain circulation, and investment in the region by U.S. universities and corporations.

Author

Dr. Jorge Balan is an Argentine sociologist who has published extensively on comparative higher education policy, academic and labor mobility, rural-to-urban and international migration, and regional development in Latin America.

He has been involved with CIRGE since 2007 in topics related to doctoral education in Latin America.

He contributes regularly to International Higher Education, a leading newsletter, and has published with Philip G. Altbach a book on World-Class Worldwide: Transforming Research Universities in Asia and Latin America (Johns Hopkins University Press), with translations published in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. His most recent paper on research universities in Latin America was published in Social Research: An International Quarterly, volume 79, number 3, 2012.

He is currently a Senior Research Scholar and Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, where he teaches a graduate course on Higher Education Policy in Developing Countries. Dr. Balan has responsibilities within the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Global Centers program, and is an external researcher with the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad, a leading Argentine think tank based in Buenos Aires.