Journal articles on the topic 'Bible colleges College student development programs'

Purpose:The aim of the researchers in this effort is to identify the challenges and barrier faced by teachers in colleges of Pakistan regarding their professional development. The study also discovers realistic implication and adaptation which can be used in order to have highly professionally developed teachers in colleges.Objective of the study:The current research is conducted to find the different professional development characteristic and different factors which are beneficial in professional development of college teachers as well as the factors which are the root cause of creating deficiencies in professional development programs of teachers, especially for college teachers.Methodology:In conducting the current research study the researchers had used the qualitative method and quantitative method. In quantitative method Likert scale or in other words summated rating scale is used; as it is easiest to construct and by the definition of this scale each statement on the scale have equal importance or weight. Sample taken to conduct this research study is 120 teachers from both the sectors as 60 public and 60 private respectively. Besides the questionnaire, interview technique is also been used to carry out the mention research.Findings: The major findings of research has reveled that professional development programs at institutional level are not carried in its required intensity moreover these programs if executed properly then could increase teachers’ satisfaction, student learning and learning output. However such programs are aimless as these programs are run without any definite purpose. Moreover it is found that there are inadequate course contents and trainers are mostly untrained. Also seminars are not conducted due to insufficient allocated funds and if seminars are conducted these results to be unproductive. Employee in educational institutions are not provided some sort of scholarship programs

Abstract Developed in 2012, our gerontology program has tracked enrollment, learning outcomes, student competency development, and career paths post-graduation. Enrolled students tend to be older, transferring from community colleges, reentering college due to work and family commitments, and retooling career paths. Our efforts have focused on career integration across all courses culminating in a two-term practicum program. Additionally, through discussions with community college faculty and students, alumni, and community partners, we have adapted our curriculum to address student needs for work, family care, and academic engagement through flexible course delivery, syllabus construction, applied project development, and direct contact with professionals in and outside the classroom. Developing strategies to ensure transfer student success is critical, as well as offering strong career preparation for older students entering the workforce. Comprehensive placement data and an overview of the needs and challenges for university programs to partner with community college programs will be highlighted.

LatinX student enrollments in community colleges in the United States are rapidly growing, yet LatinX student success rates have not matched this growth. There is a need for community college programs that serve LatinX student populations more effectively and incorporate multicultural educational practices. Using Anzaldúa’s Mestiza consciousness theory, this study analyzed community learning testimonios written by Latin American movement leaders and identified common themes applicable to a process of critical consciousness development in critical educational programs. The themes common across the four testimonios were (a) collective motivation for learning; (b) organizational dynamics, practices, and values; (c) critical social consciousness; and (d) transcendent communal awareness of identity.

As more students with an intellectual disability are attending postsecondary programs at colleges and universities, these students are presented with new opportunities for socialization (e.g., conversing with peers and faculty across campus environments, joining organizations of interest, and participating in campus events). The generalization of social skills to new settings and classrooms with unfamiliar people may be challenging for some individuals with an intellectual disability. We conducted a single-case study using a multiple baseline design across student and peer pairs to evaluate the effects of peer training on the social communication of students in rural college classrooms. Specifically, we collected data on students taking three or more turns during conversations, initiating or responding to their peer partners, and discussing academic or social topics (communication function) using partial interval recordings. After a brief training session with peers, all students increased the percentage of intervals taking three or more turns, with the majority of student responses focusing on academic content. We conclude the article by discussing key findings, limitations, future research directions, and implications for practice.

Objective: This study asked how faculty behaviors and course decisions best predict learning gains for students. Next, it investigated how the identified engaging practices vary based on faculty employment status, course experience, course level taught, and teaching area. Method: The sample was taken from students and faculty at one community college with a Hispanic-serving designation in California. Student participants took the 2012 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and faculty took the 2012 Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE). Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to identify significant faculty-related CCSSE variables that predicted academic learning, career learning, or personal development gains. Results: The models explained one third or more of the variance in each learning domain. Among the 16 significant predictors, seven were identified as having the strongest effects and served as dependent variables to determine whether there were significant differences in use of these practices among faculty groups. Faculty teaching full-time, faculty with more course experience, and faculty in career technical education (CTE) programs applied faculty-related engagement practices more than their counterparts. In addition, faculty teaching only college-level courses perceived better quality relationships with their students than faculty who taught only developmental courses. Conclusion: Grounded in the study findings are recommendations for community colleges to invest in programs that increase faculty availability to students and schedule courses so faculty gain experience teaching the same courses over time and implement faculty development programs specific to teaching strategies.

Employers report struggles to find work-ready candidates who possess a desired combination of job-specific technical, general math and reading, and social and behavioral skills. Community colleges are ideally situated to address these shortages, delivering a trained local labor force and often collaborating directly with employers and regional development boards to ensure the employability of their students and the economic vitality of their regions. One tactic to address these shortages is to introduce trainings geared directly toward soft and basic skill development. This paper presents case studies of two schools that use technology-enhanced trainings to incorporate work-readiness skill trainings in career technical education programs that are (1) flexible and learner-centric due to technology-enhanced delivery, and (2) use evidence-based assessment and intervention strategies to promote soft skill and literacy expectations. The trainings were provided by a non-profit education research and measurement company, which served as developer and research partner for the community colleges. Results demonstrate adult learner satisfaction and commitment with these blended learning and mobile technology solutions. Factors that facilitate training success, which include securing student buy-in and developing collaborative partnerships, are discussed.

Concerns about college and university student health date back to at least the mid-19th century. These concerns were addressed through the development and implementation of required, service-based physical activity education programs. In the 1920s–1930s, 97% of American colleges and universities offered such programs. Today less than 40% do. However, student health issues persist. This essay asserts that kinesiology departments are best suited to address these needs by delivering physical activity education courses through their institution’s general education curriculum. General education courses are those that every student must take in order to develop the competencies necessary for living a full and complete life and contributing to society. Given the growing costs of higher education, any such requirement must be justifiable. Therefore, implementing and sustaining a physical activity education general education requirement is not for the faint of heart; it requires effort, resources, support, and time. This essay explores these issues.

Partnerships between colleges and universities and K-12 school districts attempt to improve access to higher education by tailoring college outreach and teacher professional development programs to local needs as well as aligning high school curricula with higher education admissions criteria. In this article, we conduct a quasi-experimental evaluation of partnerships between universities and school districts in California. Our fixed-effects models indicate that comprehensive K-16 partnerships substantially increase student graduation and nonselective university enrollment rates in participating school districts, but that these effects take time. We argue that local partnerships are an effective, but resource- and time-intensive, K-16 school reform strategy.

In recent years, assessing learning outcomes has become a priority as colleges and universities have had to justify their existence to outside interests. Higher education institutions and administrators have had to account for the effects, or outcomes, of college that demonstrate its value to graduating students. Consequently, student affairs and campus life entities have felt the need to justify their existence within the larger campus community. Therefore, many academic and students affairs departments have refocused their assessment efforts on the student learning outcomes of their programs and other interventions with students. Assessing student learning outcomes has been challenging for many in the recreational sport profession. Part of this challenge lies in an inability to adequately determine and define the object of the assessment. To properly assess learning outcomes, the intended outcomes must be written in specific, measurable terms. This article adapts the ABCD method, introduced by Jordan, DeGraaf, and DeGraaf (2005), as a method for writing specific and measurable learning outcomes. Recreational sport administrators may incorporate this method to assist them in the development of a strategic assessment plan.

The current scarcity of employment opportunities has increased the importance of the internship experience for graduating college students. However, the development of internship sites is fraught with both internal and external barriers. The goal of this article is to describe the development of an internship program in an urban-based liberal arts college. The article describes the: a) use of the Community Diffusion Model to develop partnerships with community sites, b) multilevel barriers to successful program development and maintenance, and c) strategies used to overcome the barriers. During a threeyear period, 110 students participated in the internship program, 59 undergraduates and 51 graduates. Both graduate and undergraduate students were predominantly female, aged 21 – 45. A total of 60 internship positions based in 31 community partner agencies have been developed. Student participation was highest in the direct service activities, and lowest in education activities. Organizational, individual, task-related, and relationship barriers affected the development and maintenance of partnerships. Organizational barriers proved to be the most difficult of these barriers to resolve satisfactorily, while task related barriers proved the most manageable. Establishing partnerships among stakeholders while anticipating multiple implementation barriers was the important lesson learned. Based upon our experiences, we offer recommendations for the development and maintenance of internship programs to colleges, community institutions/organizations, site and program directors, and policy makers.

Teaching for civic education holds promise for assisting colleges and universities that suggest the promotion of global citizenship in their mission statements. This paper presents the study of a course where readings and activities from the literature of positive psychology were integrated with studies about current global issues and potential future scenarios, with the goal of enhancing students’ civic engagement. The hypothesis was that using activities designed to assist individuals in the development of hope, optimism, resilience, and other positive traits would encourage students to become more engaged in global issues. The analysis of students’ reflective essays reveals insights into the student experience. These results, combined with literature on the current thinking about teaching for civic engagement, provides educators and policymakers with factors to consider in evaluating their own programs. In addition, two overarching questions emerged: Can a college class enhance civic engagement? and How does this fit within the purpose of a university education?

Internships, externships, field experiences, cooperative work experiences, apprenticeships, practicums—There are probably as many combinations and adaptations of these terms in educational institutions as there are states and provinces in the United States and Canadal Yet all exist for the same purpose: to provide students opportunities to apply knowledge and skills learned in those educational institutions to the real world of work in the hospitality industry and to find out first-hand what a job in this industry really entails. Whether at entry level or supervisory level, students and industry benefit from this sometimes misunderstood, and often mismanaged, practical on-the-job experience. The Ohio Board of Regents, as with other state governing bodies, issues definitions and guidelines for a variety of industry work experiences. These give some uniformity within Ohio two year colleges, but even with this the structure and effectiveness of these experiences differ from college to college. The following chart summarizes the Ohio guidelines: The Columbus State Community College curriculum for Hospitality Management students includes two courses, Hospitality Management Cooperative Work Experiences I and II, requiring a minimum of 20 hours per week in employment during each of two 10-week academic quarters. The student receives two credits for each course. Ninety percent of the hospitality students have worked in the industry, so it is recommended they do not enroll in these courses until their last two quarters. Therefore, they can receive maximum opportunity to apply principles learned in previous coursework and work experience. Until two years ago, our hospitality co-op experiences were loosely structured with varying degrees of benefit to students. It was left almost totally to industry personnel to determine the jobs students would perform. Even though graduate follow-up surveys indicated that graduates felt their required work experiences were among the more valuable aspects of their courses of study, we felt we needed to make some changes to assure that all students were able to grow professionally as a result of the experiences. Our industry advisory committee reached impasse after impasse on essentials such as payment or non-payment, actual jobs to be performed, qualifications of the work site, and critical skills of graduates. It was commonly accepted, however, that there must be some opportunity to sharpen skills in human relations, communication skills, and problem solving if students are to become effective first-line supervisors. It was reinforced that the college cannot teach everything in two years and that we should rely on applied work experience to supplement the formal education. The community colleges offer open access, and the profile of the student differs from the traditional college student in the baccalaureate program. This must be considered in outlining requirements for an industry work experience. The student is usually from the local area and commutes within a 30 mile radius, is an adult learner who averages 27 years of age, is likely to have a family and financial responsibilities, and is already employed at least part-time and probably full-time. It is unrealistic to assume one can take this student away from a job necessary to pay the bills and require a non-paid or lower paid experience strictly for the educational benefits to be derived. A compromise was finally reached with our advisory group and it has worked well for students and for industry. A student already employed in a hospitality job may stay at that site—even continue to perform the same job duties at the current rate of pay, but additional opportunities are created. At the beginning of each quarter the instructor, student, and job supervisor together examine a set of expected educational program outcomes or competencies and evaluate the current strengths and weaknesses of that student. An individualized learning contract is negotiated to supplement and reinforce the expected outcomes based upon each student's career objective. Training objectives for the student are then established which can be achieved either within the current job, by transfer to another department within the organization, or by allowing the student to gain additional experience at the same site on a non-paid basis over and above the regular job for which the student would normally be paid. This assures that there will be career growth, and the student maintains the planned income. At the same time it does not place an unrealistic expectation upon the employer. Industry personnel are most cooperative, and rarely would a student need relocation. The instructor has weekly contact with each student in a seminar accompanying the co-op experience. In this seminar students discuss experiences and observations and there is further opportunity to participate in case studies and supervisory skill development. Unless problems develop, the instructor often makes interim follow-ups by telephone only, and will return to the site only for the final evaluation session with the student and supervisor. A grade is determined jointly by the instructor and supervisor including scores for job performance, achievement of established training objectives, and seminar participation. In those infrequent instances where a student was not already employed, job seeking skills are part of the co-op grade determination. Assistance is given by the instructor and college job placement personnel, but the student is ultimately responsible for obtaining employment. A student does have the option for a non-paid experience, arranged by the college, in which case there will be a set rotation of job stations within an organization. This required a more specific work schedule and a formal agreement outlining responsibilities of the student, college, and work site because of the liability involved. Instructor workload for coordinating work experiences is calculated by assigning one contact hour per week for the seminar and one quarter contact hour per week for each student enrolled in the co-op course. The college full-time faculty workload is 20 contact hours per week. One faculty person is assigned organizational responsibility for the seminars, but the student follow-up is completed by each student's faculty advisor. This works well because it gives all faculty the opportunity for interaction with industry personnel and provides variety in the teaching experience. And, of course, the advisor who has worked closely with the student through his or her academic career knows that student's abilities and needs best. What is the future of internships? Whether credit or not-for-credit, whether paid or non-paid, whether tightly, loosely or non-structured, industry internships are her to stay. Graduate surveys reinforce the fact that students find them invaluable. Industry personnel agree that applied work experience should supplement and reinforce classroom learning. There is no doubt that the experiences could often be better structured and executed, but they cannot be replaced! For the past several years, college educators have participated in serious discussions and conducted studies about the quality of American higher education. The American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC) has assumed leadership in the focus on assessment and outcomes of students' educational experiences. The emphasis on “value-added” education and assessment programs has pervaded our campuses. It is crucial that the education experience adequately prepare students for the workplace and for career mobility. The question arises as to how to measure whether a program actually meets this objective. An AACJC Policy Statementon Student Assessment suggests that colleges will be better able to meet diverse population needs and improve the overall rate of student success if they provide a comprehensive assessment program for all students using effective measures and tools. It suggests that traditional testing alone is inadequate and other appropriate measurements of program strengths and weaknesses must be developed. It is possible that at least one industry work experience or internship course, if taken during a student's last academic term and based on agreed upon objectives and mastery standards, could serve as a summative assessment measure to determine the effectiveness of learning that has taken place over the student's entire program. It could perhaps serve as the “capstone” course. As we grapple with this and other issues, perhaps the CHRIE Internship Technical Committee can delve into how we can more effectively make the industry internships an integral part of the teaching and learning process.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness of the necessity and importance of liberal arts education and to examine the satisfaction of college students with their liberal arts courses. This study was conducted from June 1–15, 2018, for college students who are taking liberal arts courses. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 statistical package programs. To understand the general characteristics of the survey subjects, a frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and reliability analysis were performed to measure the reliability and validity of the measurement tools, and a structural model analysis was conducted to verify the proposed research model. The result shows that a professor’s professionalism has a positive influence on the perception of a subject’s importance and necessity after the course, diversity has a positive influence on satisfaction in liberal arts education. Favorable changes in the perception of importance and necessity have a positive effect on satisfaction level. Our findings imply that colleges should operate an integrated student-selective education course that allows all students to select and take liberal arts courses. It should be organized to secure full-time professors who will be exclusively responsible for liberal arts curriculums.

Purpose This paper aims to describe the inception and continuation of a collaborative effort between York College’s Common Reader program and the York College Library. The Common Reader program comprises academic and extracurricular activities designed to help achieve the goals of York College’s First Year Experience Program to assist in the successful transition, achievement and retention of first-year students at York College, The City University of New York. Design/methodology/approach The Common Reader Committee was initially comprising only of participating classroom faculty and Student Development staff. York College Library was invited to help with one of the extracurricular events. Subsequently, the collaboration was considered essential to the success of the Common Reader program. This paper describes the library’s role in supporting the initiative. Findings The library is an active member of York’s Common Reader Committee and is involved in the selection of the Common Reader book; publicity of the program; promotion of library resources and services; and the programming of extracurricular events. Involvement in these areas allows the library to collaboratively build a learning community, integrate information literacy skills into the curricula, nurture the practice of critical reading and help students feel connected in a new academic environment. Originality/value Many colleges have implemented common reading programs, and, in many cases, libraries have been involved in the program in some shape or form. However, at York College, there is a strategic partnership between the library and the Common Reader program. Such a partnership has made it possible for the library to be deeply involved in helping students transition to college life.

There will be an increasingly older cast to American society during the next twenty to thirty years. Middle-aged and older Americans will face numerous changes in the workplace, including technological change, a global economy, lack of promotional opportunities, and layoffs. As a result of these changes, many adult workers will chose to enter or re-enter college programs to upgrade their employment skills. Personnel within institutions of higher education, including those in the counseling office, may not be fully prepared to serve these older students who will need assistance with their transition to college. Without such aid, these students might drop out of higher education, exacerbating the retention problem faced by many colleges. The retention literature indicates that the identification of and commitment to career goals as well as the development of relationships with the institution are two important contributors to the retention of college students. Additionally, the literature on the adult student has focused on the need for supportive counseling 1) to help adult students establish and navigate their personal relationship to the institution, and 2) assist them to resolve conflicts that may accompany their transition to college. If they are to help adults persist in their college programs, counselors need to know how to best address the problems and issues these older learners face. Counselors need to know the outcome of their counseling sessions with adults, so they can ascertain the best methods and processes to utilize; a common method used to assess outcome is client satisfaction, a form of self-report. This study explored three research questions: Among students who use counseling services, 1) To what extent can a combination of environmental (i.e., social climate), demographic (i.e., age, individual differences), and process (i.e., number of sessions) variables predict client satisfaction; 2) To what extent does client satisfaction differ between men and women; 3) To what extent can reason for attending counseling sessions (i.e., personal, vocational, educational) predict client satisfaction. Analyses were conducted using hierarchical multiple regression (Question 1), ANOVA (Question 2), and standard multiple regression (Question 3). The research sample consisted of 199 students at a comprehensive state university who attended at least one session of counseling. The results indicated that the relationship (cohesion) between a counselor and client is the most significant factor in a student's satisfaction with counseling, whether the student is an adult student or one of traditional age. For this reason, institutions of higher education should strive to develop a sense of cohesion, in the form of close relationships, with its students. Programmatic strategies, including those for adult students, are discussed.

Objectives – The purpose of this review is to examine the development of embedded librarianship, its multiple meanings, and activities in practice. The review will also report on published outcomes and future research needs of embedded librarian programs. Methods – A search of current literature was conducted and summarized searching PubMed, CINAHL, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (EBSCO), Academic Search Complete, and ERIC (EBSCO) through August 23, 2012. Articles were selected for inclusion in the review if they reported research findings related to embedded librarianship, if they provided unique case reports about embedded librarian programs, or if they provided substantive editorial comments on the topic. Relevant study findings were assessed for quality and presented in tabular and narrative form. Results – Currently, there is disparity in how embedded librarianship is being defined and used in common practice, ranging from embedding an online component into a single course to full physical and cultural integration into an academic college or business unit of an organization. Activities of embedded librarians include creating course integrated instruction modules for either face-to-face or online courses, providing in depth research assistance to students or faculty, and co-locating within colleges or customer units via office hours for a few hours to all hours per week. Several case reports exist in the recent literature. Few high quality research studies reporting outcomes of librarians or library programs labeled as embedded exist at this point. Some evidence suggests that embedded librarians are effective with regards to student learning of information literacy objectives. Surveys suggest that both students and faculty appreciate embedded librarian services. Conclusion – Most published accounts discuss librarians embedding content and ready access to services in an online course management system. A few notable cases describe the physical and cultural integration of librarians into the library user environs. Future research using valid quantitative methods is needed to explore the impact of large scale, customized, embedded programs.

Emerging from the pandemic, the Russian labor market is actively restoring network polysubject partnership with organizations of secondary vocational education (SPO). The demanded directions of network activity of large regional colleges-educational complexes and network subjects-customers of personnel were determined. The subject of their network partnership is the modules of the network poly-subject educational program and the network communities of SPE graduates. Practice-oriented results of an interdisciplinary scientific study were obtained in the Laboratory of professional Education of the Institute of Educational Development Strategy of the Russian Academy of Education under the state task “Scientific and methodological foundations for creating an industry strategy for the development of education (secondary vocational education) and mechanisms for its implementation”, project no. 073-00086-1901 for the planned period 2020–2021. Introduction. Statement of the problem. In line with the methodology of the international scientific school of academicians of RAO S. Ya. Batyshev – A. M. Novikov, the theoretical foundations of the formation of network professional education/training/upbringing were developed, which is provided by the pragmatism of network connections and relations. The network approach has become an actual theoretical and methodological basis for designing schemes of network polysubject partnership of large vocational colleges and partners-customers of personnel. You must uncover the essential, the distinctive characteristics of the network of vocational education from the traditional level of understanding of secondary professional education, implementing educational standards fgos SPO. The following were determined: a) directions of network activity of large colleges of SPE; b) subjects of network partnership; c) modules of the network program; d) classification of network partnerships of SPE graduates. Purpose of the article. To develop a practice-oriented scheme of polysubject network partnership of SPO with the participation of network subjects – customers of personnel. To determine the current conceptual framework, to gain new knowledge about the specifics of network program modules and mechanisms of formation of network partnerships of SPE graduates. Methodology and methods of research. The network approach, as a regulator of the interface of virtual and physical realities in human life, allows us to design different formats of network partnerships, united by solving the problems of building professional qualifications for each student. Such partnerships become the core of the “competence network”, because qualifications have long been formed and evaluated not in colleges, but in network professional communities. The research methods are theoretical (development and critical analysis of schemes of poly-subject network partnership, clarification of the conceptual apparatus, formalization of classification features in the design of partnerships); empirical (observations and critical analysis of the pilot practice of network partnership of regional colleges). The results of the study, discussion. The article presents an interdisciplinary understanding of the phenomenon of polysubject network partnership of large regional colleges of vocational education and training subjects. The current conceptual framework based on the network approach is defined. A basic scheme of network partnership has been developed. The article presents the specifics of the modules of network educational programs for increasing professional qualifications of students of vocational schools (including citizens with disabilities), on the basis of which network professional communities are formed. Conclusion. Conclusions. Based on the purpose of the study, a large regional college –educational complex should be considered as the core of polysubject network partnerships, which are focused on building professional qualifications for different age groups of students and their implementation in the structure of a multi-layered Russian economy. The subjects of further discussion should be: the development of scientific, methodological and personnel support for the quality of the network educational process and the quality of the result of building professional qualifications by the subjects of network professional partnerships.

Improving the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of adolescent girls is one of the primary aims of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adequate and accurate knowledge, a favorable attitude, safe behavior, and regular practice contribute to adolescent girls’ SRH, maternal health, and child health. Considering this, this study aims to explore the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of SRH among college-going older adolescent girls in Chittagong district, Bangladesh. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in four colleges among the older adolescent girl age group of 16–17 years old (N = 792) attending a higher secondary grade in Chittagong district. Data were collected using a structured and self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analyses were used to summarize the SRH-related KAP and identify the associated factors, respectively. The level of knowledge about puberty, family planning, maternal health, and HIV/AIDS was not satisfactory among the older adolescent girls. Different myths are common in the rural area with regards to menstruation, which impose several restrictions on adolescent girls and adult women. Standardized coefficients of beta (β) and p value < 0.05 in linear regression analyses demonstrated that being a student of the science group (β = 0.29, p < 0.001) and reading about or watching SRH issues on media (β = 0.21, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with older adolescent girls’ high level of knowledge in this regard. Furthermore, being a student of the science group (β = 0.17, p < 0.001), urban residence (β = 0.20, p < 0.001), regular SRH communication (at least once a month) with a mother/sister/friend (β = 0.10, p = 0.003), and reading or watching any SRH content on media (β = 0.22, p < 0.001) appeared as predictors of adolescent girls’ positive attitude towards SRH issues. Moreover, being a student of the science group (β = 0.07, p = 0.048), urban residence (β = 0.22, p < 0.001), regular SRH discussions with a mother/sister/friend (β = 0.09, p = 0.005), pre-knowledge on periods before menarche (β = 0.12, p < 0.001), and reading or watching any SRH content on media (β = 0.18, p < 0.001) are the most important factors influencing a regular hygienic practice of SRH. This study suggests strengthening SRH-related comprehensive education programs incorporated into the curriculum, the effective use of mass media, and supplying behavioral change communication materials.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which higher education participation is democratized in the entrepreneurial city of Hong Kong by the policy innovation that encompasses internationalization. There is a dearth of empirical studies about transnational education in Hong Kong, except for a few which examine students’ perceptions of transnational education from a user perspective, situated in marketized conditions (Leung and Waters, 2013; Waters and Leung, 2013a, b). The minimal volume of existing research has ignored the innovative aspects of democratizing higher learning by internationalization, namely, the operation of international degrees by overseas universities on offshore campuses. This policy innovation by transnational institutions is significant in an era of the globalization of higher education, as access to higher education cannot be otherwise realized given the local education policies. Design/methodology/approach Employing documentary research, this paper presents and assesses the growth of community college international education at The University of Hong Kong and its unique facets, juxtaposing it with the marketized context of East Asian higher education. It engages in specific reviews surrounding the operational mode and academic collaborations of the international educational programs and practices at the Hong Kong University’s School of Professional and Continuing Education. Findings This documentary research finds that the internationalized academic profession of partner universities enables curriculum design, pedagogy, teaching ideas and assessment methods to be informed by a diversity of international academic cultures and indigenous knowledge. Through this policy innovation, international education is institutionalized in such a way that it takes Hong Kong students beyond the community college context, which is relatively localized. It also illuminates the way in which the “ideoscape” of American community colleges and international partnerships with Australian and British universities have been manifested in the Hong Kong education hub for transnational student flows and intellectual exchanges across the Asian region. Originality/value This paper contributes to the academic literature of higher education studies, particularly in the areas of massification and democratization, as well as their connection with internationalization and policy innovation. It also delineates various forces that are propelling the development of higher education’s internationalization and massification.

A decade ago, access to technology was limited and wiring schools was one of the nation's highest education priorities (NCREL, 2005). Ten years of substantial investments have vastly improved this picture. According to the Secretary's Fourth Annual Report on Teacher Quality, virtually every school with access to computers has Internet access (99%), compared to only 35 percent of schools in 1994, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (Parsad & Jones, 2005). The Office of Technology Assessment report to Congress in 1995 stated that "Technology is not central to the teacher preparation experience in most colleges of education. most new teachers graduate from teacher preparation institutions with limited knowledge of the ways technology can be used in their professional practice" (Office of Technology Assessment, 1995). The report, in which this statement appeared, titled Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection, was a wake-up call, and over the past years, much remunerative progress has been made. Many states are attempting to address educators technology skills through the creation of teacher or administrator standards that include technology; as of 2003, 40 states and the District of Columbia have such standards (Ansell & Park, 2003). A number of states have adopted technology requirements for initial licensure. For example, 13 states require teachers and/or administrators to complete technology-related coursework, and nine require them to pass technology-related assessments. In addition, a number of states have implemented policies to improve veteran teachers technological skills (Ansell &Park, 2003). Addressing the issues of technology integration into the curriculum, the Maryland State Department of Educations (MSDE) PT3 consortium infused technology into the state's teacher education programs in three ways. First, the consortium used the Maryland Teacher Technology Standards to redesign both arts and sciences and education courses so they incorporate technology-related knowledge and skills. The Maryland Teacher Technology Standards included learning outcomes and, core learning goals and skills for success; it also specifies what students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade need to know and be able to do in English/Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The Maryland State Department of Education (1999) provided expectations for how technology can and should be used to support student learning and instruction. Second, the group developed performance assessments in order to measure the technological competence of teacher candidates. Third, the consortium developed a system for electronic portfolios that incorporates a student teacher's technology performance assessment. These portfolios can be made available to future employers to demonstrate technology-related proficiency. The consortium is statewide and diverse, including several public universities and two communities. According to a report titled, Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age (AAUW, 2000), Washington, DC; as violent electronic games and dull programming classes turn off increasing numbers of adolescent girls, the way information technology is used, applied, and taught in the nations classrooms must change. Furthermore, commensurate with rapid changes in technology, a remarkably consistent picture emerges: more boys than girls experience an early, passionate attachment to computers, whereas for most girls attachment is subdued. Margolis and Fisher (2002) reported that computing is claimed as male territory very early in life: from early childhood through college, computing is both actively claimed as guy stuff by boys and men and passively ceded by girls and women. Society and culture have linked interest and success with computers to boys and men. In the words of Margolis and Fisher (2002), curriculum, teachers expectations, and culture reflect boys pathways into computing, accepting both assumptions of male excellence and womens deficiencies in the field (p. 4). Social expectations towards educational leadership in academic and economics terms depend on the integration of technology in every facet of society. The American family survival depends on the abilities and incomes of all adults. The type of technical skills needed to be creative and to survive in the job market escalates daily. Educational leaders must be aware that gender equity among middle school students with respect to the use of computer technology should be grounded in the development of programs that not only address the educational aspect of schools, but also allow students to develop their appreciation for, and understanding of the interrelationship among computer usage, careers, and values. With the implementation of such programs, schools could operate as equalizers for the sexes regarding computer competency and attitudes. Educational leaders have the ability to direct resources to show how computer technology may release the creative impulse in children and allow them to think and learn. Educators need to link the curriculum and technology with student interests. Both male and female students use computer applications that can be linked to the educational setting, such as word processing, Internet, completing homework, reports, and projects, as well as communication through email, self-expression, and personal interest. Educators who are developing these programs must understand how girls lose interest in technology and recognize the different learning styles of each gender. The role of training district school teachers to effectively utilize computer technology within the classroom is important if strides are to be made in supporting girls and women in choosing computer-related careers and using computers as a medium of expression. Institutions of higher education would provide opportunities and hold the responsibility of reviewing the technical construction of each teachers plan. Educational leaders will meet frequently with university representatives to review, discuss, record experiences, develop, modify, and evaluate plans and performances to ensure that teachers receive the training necessary to instruct all students utilizing appropriate computer technology. Degree attainment, certification, and re-certification should be linked to the variation of experiences, the structure, depth, detail, and impact of the program developed by the practitioner in consultation with representatives from higher education and the school district. Partnerships with local school districts and institutions of higher learner should be established to develop programs, which incorporate many of the tenets discussed above.

To improve online learning pedagogy within the field of paralegal education, this study investigated how paralegal students and paralegal instructors perceived the effectiveness of synchronous and asynchronous online paralegal courses. This study intended to inform paralegal instructors and course developers how to better design, deliver, and evaluate effective online course instruction in the field of paralegal studies.Survey results were analyzed using independent samples t-test and correlational analysis, and indicated that overall, paralegal students and paralegal instructors positively perceived synchronous and asynchronous online paralegal courses. Paralegal instructors reported statistically significant higher perceptions than paralegal students: (1) of instructional design and course content in synchronous online paralegal courses; and (2) of technical assistance, communication, and course content in asynchronous online paralegal courses. Instructors also reported higher perceptions of the effectiveness of universal design, online instructional design, and course content in synchronous online paralegal courses than in asynchronous online paralegal courses. Paralegal students reported higher perceptions of asynchronous online paralegal course effectiveness regarding universal design than paralegal instructors. No statistically significant differences existed between paralegal students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of synchronous and asynchronous online paralegal courses. A strong, negative relationship existed between paralegal students’ age and their perceptions of effective synchronous paralegal courses, which were statistically and practically significant. Lastly, this study provided practical applicability and opportunities for future research. Akyol, Z., & Garrison, D. R. (2008). The development of a community of inquiry over time in an online course: Understanding the progression and integration of social, cognitive and teaching presence. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12, 3-22. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ837483.pdf Akyol, Z., Garrison, D. R., & Ozden, M. Y. (2009). Online and blended communities of inquiry: Exploring the developmental and perceptional differences. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 10(6), 65-83. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/765/1436 Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2014). Grade change: Tracking online education in the United States. Babson Park, MA: Babson Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.utc.edu/learn/pdfs/online/sloanc-report-2014.pdf Alreck, P. L., & Settle, R. B. (2004). The Survey Research Handbook (3rd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin. 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Purpose – The increase in prevalence of behavioral health issues among college and university students is burdening the scholastic sector both domestically and internationally. More American students participate in study abroad programs than ever before. These provide educational institutions with additional duty of care challenges and responsibilities especially when it comes to their health status while studying or working abroad. The requests for assistance to an assistance service provider of students from US universities studying abroad were compared to international assignees from US employers in terms of closing diagnoses and case outcome types. The purpose of this paper is to indicate that there are differences in diagnoses and case outcomes between students studying abroad and employees working abroad. Students are more likely than international assignees to be diagnosed with behavioral health issues, to be referred to a health provider (rather than being treated through in-patient care) and to be evacuated or repatriated. It is recommended that US universities change their duty of care practice from the “inform and prepare” to a higher level benchmark, commonly practiced in the US corporate sector, of “assess, assist and protect.” Design/methodology/approach – US employers and universities often contract with a service provider for international travel assistance for their traveling employees/students. The sample consisted of case records of a large assistance service provider based on request for assistance (RFAs) by international assignees and students from its different US client organizations (US employers and universities) over a 24-month period (January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011), with all client travel originating in the USA and traveling abroad. A two-year framework was used to include a larger sample of short- and long-term international assignees. The individual requesting assistance (student or international assignee) was the primary unit of analysis. The multiple case records can be viewed as a “case study” of an assistance provider (Yin, 2014). According to Yin’s case study design typology, this research used a single case (embedded) design. It is a single case study of client records from a global assistance provider of medical and security services for international travelers. The case study was embedded because it involved more than one unit of analysis. The case study included 17,071 records from two different subunits: 831 students studying abroad from 82 US universities and 16,240 US international assignees working for 889 US employers requesting assistance for health-related issues from the global service provider. The US client organizations included universities with study abroad programs and employers of different sizes and industries who have global mobility programs. Findings – The hypotheses related to different diagnoses and outcomes based on RFAs while working or studying internationally were confirmed in spite of the fact the age and gender (important antecedents of morbidity) were controlled. Compared to international assignees, students are more likely to be diagnosed with behavioral health issues, more likely to be referred to a health provider (rather than being treated) and more likely to be evacuated/repatriated. This not only shows the importance of behavioral issues among students while studying abroad but also indicates that the corporate organizational support structures for international assignees are different than those universities provide to students. Research limitations/implications – This study assessed how RFAs by students studying abroad differed from international assignees working in corporate organizations. With this type of case study, the mode of generalization is “analytic” rather than “statistical.” In analytic generalization, the empirical results of the case study are compared to a previously developed theory (Yin, 2004, p. 38). As a result, the authors are striving to generalize the particular empirical results of students and international assignees to the broader institutional theory. Practical implications – The research has implications for further research. First, these results can be replicated with other samples of students studying abroad. If replications result in similar findings, indicating that students have increased risk of being diagnosed with behavioral health conditions, this finding can be probed for a better understanding of both process and outcome. For instance, future research can delineate the specific behavioral health diagnoses the students are receiving, which can have important implications for behavioral health care providers, educational duty of care considerations, as well as direct future research in this area. An additional area of critical importance for future research will be elucidating the students’ systemic experience of increased stress associated by studying abroad, the subsequent psychological and physiological responses, as well as how students are impacted by this stress. There are also some systemic stresses that are unique to the study/work abroad context. Many of the administrative requirements (such as required paperwork for travel, visas, travel scholarships, funding, vaccinations, health care, etc.) are taken care of for international assignees by their employers through the global mobility division. They are not necessarily done by universities for their students. Students are largely responsible for these themselves although with some guidance through the study abroad program staff. Researchers can also examine how cultural adjustment models apply to students studying abroad. For instance, how might changes in anticipatory adjustment impact student development of behavioral health conditions, including both individual factors such as pre-travel training, as well as organizational factors such as selection systems designed to identify those that could need additional behavioral health support while they are abroad. Likewise, in-country adjustment can also be evaluated in future research to identify individual, organizational and cultural aspects that could be associated with increased behavioral health diagnoses in students. Such research can shed more light on this understudied population, illuminating the steps that university can take, with regard to duty of care concerns, to ensure students have safe and beneficial experiences abroad. Social implications – The population of corporate international assignees is emotionally more mature and more experienced in world travel and therefore more likely to be adaptable to the challenges of traveling and living abroad than the study abroad population of students. As more students enroll in study abroad programs, the absence of an infrastructure to support behavioral health issues at the time of enrollment, while on-site and upon return will only result in more exposure for both students and educational institutions. E-learning tools, and even anonymous student self-exams can assist in determining fitness for study abroad. Simultaneously, colleges and universities must educate their local and distant faculty/team leaders, host institutions as well as other students to recognize and react appropriately to a behavioral health crisis. Adherence to such a strategy will certainly help to mitigate the risk of a failed study abroad experience. Although this study is limited to US students traveling overseas, behavioral health is an issue with students globally. American institutions hosting foreign students should, therefore, re-evaluate their existing domestic resources to accommodate the psychological needs of their visiting international students. It is the authors recommendation that, prior to travel, students should develop greater self-awareness, with or without the assistance of a professional. Implementing these recommendations will move university duty of care practice from the “inform and prepare” to a higher level benchmark, commonly practiced in the corporate sector, of “assess, assist and protect.” Originality/value – With regard to case outcomes, students had lower odds of experiencing severe outcomes, such as in- and out-patient care, than international assignees. Similarly, students had lower odds of being evacuated or repatriated than international assignees.

Mentoring, though defined differently in various fields of study, has become an important tool for college and universities to ease the transitioning of first year students. This article explores the concept of mentoring and highlights some of the programs that can be found on some of our colleges and universities. Though most mentoring programs have been in existence for fewer than ten years, many of these programs are reporting anecdotal evidence of its successful enhancement of students' academic abilities, interpersonal skills, and individual development.

Those providing and managing sport in primary, secondary and post-secondary educational settings must be cognizant of the need for sport programs to enhance, rather than detract from, the educational environment. American post-secondary education provides an important context for inquiry in sport for two primary reasons. First, college enrollment marks a significant period of transition for individuals who are at a developmentally impressionable stage of their lives. Second, roughly 80% of all college students participate in some form of physical activity during their time on a college or university campus, with roughly half of them participating in formal sport. Two bodies of literature provide guidance for sport managers in US higher education: 1) sport development theory and 2) student development theory. This paper aims to provide a road map to facilitate the conversation between these two bodies of theory to unpack the potential contribution of sport to the individual development of sport participants at American colleges and universities.

Business schools and graduate business programs have struggled since their inception to ensure that what students learn in their courses will resonate with the skills needed in their careers. To date, there has been limited attention paid to cocurricular experiential learning opportunities to assist with this challenge. In this article, we discuss the process of implementing cocurricular professional development (PD) workshops as part of a college-wide initiative to increase experiential learning opportunities for students. This college-wide initiative challenged two assumptions: first, that the classroom is the best space for valuable learning and second, that faculty are the best equipped to lead decisions on what students should learn. The workshops help students develop both the tangible and intangible skills required to succeed in industry. We faced many challenges in implementing the workshops, including the need to challenge the predominant view that nothing of significant value could be learned in a workshop. We conclude our article by identifying the factors responsible for the ultimate success of the program and offer guidance for colleges looking to change perceptions of value in learning and broaden their experiential learning practices.

Historically, the primary mission of higher education has been to prepare students to be effective leaders and informed citizens. Throughout the past 2 decades, colleges and universities have placed an increasing emphasis on programming related to leadership (Roberts, 1997). Student affairs administrators have designed academic courses, cocurricular programs, and experiential learning focused on the development of college student leadership. Parallel to this emphasis, there have been significant developments in the study of leadership. The shift has been from focusing on the characteristics of individual leaders (perspectives embedded in Western culture), to leadership as a group process involving change (Johnson, 1995). As a result, leadership educators find a plethora of literature that is cumbersome and difficult to synthesize for a course or program. Susan Komives, Nance Lucas, and Timothy McMahon provide educators with a contemporary, consolidated resource with their book, Exploring Leadership for College Students Who Want to Make a Difference. What makes this publication unique is that it is a textbook written specifically for college students to be used in a variety of contexts.

Introduction: Medical practice is a highly emotionally and behaviorally demanding occupation. Thus, the design of teaching and learning programs in medical colleges need to be modified to adapt such need. Behavioral and social sciences must be implemented to develop competent medical health care workers. Educational programs in Egyptian medical schools are undergoing a gradual shift toward integration, student-centeredness, and early clinical exposure. The Psychiatry Department & Medical Education Department at the Armed Forces College of Medicine in Egypt in collaboration with the Medical Education Department at Michigan state university; developed behavioral & Social science curriculum by adopting ADDIE’s basic five-step model, which includes Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation processes. The identified curriculum has been split into three divisions: social topics related to behavioral medicine, basic psychology, and clinical medicine related to behavioral science. Twenty-six topics were included in these three divisions and were distributed in the seven selected core competencies. The working team expects to include more sociocultural and anthropology topics in the curriculum in the future. Additionally, it is hoped that more time will be allocated for this module, so it would be more possible to include other teaching & assessment methods for developing global understanding of disorders, and practical skills for behavior modification, as well as, encourage students to consider actual treatment strategies in clinical case scenarios. It is also hoped that students could get the chance for early exposure to hospital-based cases. This will motivate the students by allowing them to come into contact with various real-life settings. Context: Medical practice is a highly emotionally and behaviorally demanding occupation. Thus, the design of teaching and learning programs in medical colleges need to be modified to adapt such need. Behavioral and social sciences must be implemented to develop competent medical health care workers. Educational programs in Egyptian medical schools are undergoing a gradual shift toward integration, student-centeredness, and early clinical exposure

The State University of New York (SUNY) Learning Network (SLN) is the online instructional program created for the 64 colleges and nearly 400,000 students of SUNY. The foundation of the program is freedom from schedule and location constraints for our faculty and students. The primary goals of the SLN are to bring SUNY's diverse and high-quality instructional programs within the reach of learners everywhere, and to be the best provider of asynchronous instruction for learners in New York State and beyond. We believe that these goals cannot be achieved unless faculty receives appropriate support.This paper will examine factors that have contributed to the high level of faculty satisfaction we have achieved in the SLN. The analysis will be done on several levels. This first section will look at the SLN at a program-wide level and will provide information regarding the systemic implementation of our asynchronous learning environment.The second section examines issues that contribute to on-line teaching satisfaction from a faculty-development and course-design perspective. This section will present the evolution of the four-stage faculty development process and a seven-step course design process that was developed by SLN and comment on lessons learned.The third section presents results from the SLN Faculty Satisfaction Survey conducted in spring 1999. This section examines factors from a quantitative analysis that significantly contributes to faculty satisfaction with online teaching and offers recommendations for course and program design based on these factors.The fourth section examines faculty satisfaction at the level of individual institutions with examples from specific courses. This section will introduce the reader to local implementation of SLN courses at two college programs in the SUNY system: the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University at Albany (UA), and the Internet Academy (IA) of Herkimer County Community College (HCCC). These case studies present and examine important evidence of faculty satisfaction from a single-institution and individual-faculty perspective.

Background: Binge drinking is a dangerous practice. Among college students, continuously high rates of binge drinking on campus result in deaths, accidents, poor academic performance, risky behavior, the development of substance use disorder, and a number of other serious problems and conditions. Collegiate Recovery Programs have shown promise as an intervention for curbing binge drinking at colleges and universities. Objective: This paper reviews the literature on the prevalence and risks of campus binge drinking, and the relative success of interventions designed to limit it. While certain initiatives have succeeded more than others, the most appropriate strategy combines efforts on the environmental and individual level to incorporate policies tailored to the unique needs of a given collegiate community, consistent with findings on the best options for treatment and recovery in general. Result: : Evidence suggests that Collegiate Recovery Programs are an effective strategy at some schools because they provide holistic and targeted care for students in recovery. They serve a vulnerable student population whose interests are often overlooked in the wider consideration of campus binge drinking and issues of safety and bureaucratic incentives. Conclusion: Collegiate Recovery Programs ought to be considered as at least one helpful avenue for schools considering mechanisms to cut down on elevated binge drinking rates. Tailored strategies mixing other effective approaches should consider these programs as part of their overall focus.

Interdisciplinary (i.e., university-wide programming) and disciplinary (i.e., programming open to participants from one college or department) teaching development programs for graduate students have been used for many years in higher education. Currently, research on the benefits of these teaching models remains scant in terms of a contextualized understanding, and empirical studies are needed. The purpose of this study was to determine graduate students’ perspectives related to interdisciplinary and disciplinary teaching and learning experiences. Two online surveys were used: a quantitative survey and a qualitative follow-up survey. Three participatory focus groups were also conducted to allow for further in-depth exploration in both an interdisciplinary and disciplinary group setting that represented seven distinct colleges. Statistical and thematic analyses were conducted with survey responses, and thematic analyses were conducted on focus group data. Similar themes emerged from the survey and focus group data identifying perceived benefits of participation in either interdisciplinary or disciplinary teaching development. Respondents’ perceived benefits were related to: (a) becoming a better teacher; (b) social learning; and (c) that while the perceived benefits of the models vary, the outcomes of both experiences are shared. The lived experiences of these graduate students expand the characterization of interdisciplinary and disciplinary programming. This study points to the need for graduate student programs—specifically teaching development offered by educational development units—to provide both interdisciplinary and disciplinary teaching development opportunities that achieve a blend of benefits for learners. Les programmes interdisciplinaires (c’est-à-dire les programmes offerts à l’échelle de l’université) et disciplinaires (c’est-à-dire ceux qui sont ouverts aux participants d’un collège ou d’un département) de perfectionnement de l’enseignement pour étudiants de cycle supérieur existent depuis de nombreuses années en enseignement supérieur. À l’heure actuelle, la recherche sur les avantages de ces modèles d’enseignement reste très incomplète en matière de compréhension contextualisée et il y a grand besoin de mener des études empiriques. Le but de cette étude était de déterminer les perspectives des étudiants de cycle supérieur liées aux expériences d’enseignement et d’apprentissage interdisciplinaires et disciplinaires. Deux sondages en ligne ont été employés : un sondage quantitatif et un sondage de suivi qualitatif. Également, trois groupes de discussion participatifs ont été organisés afin d’explorer plus profondément les contextes des groupes interdisciplinaires et disciplinaires qui représentaient sept collèges distincts. Des analyses statistiques et thématiques ont été effectuées avec les réponses aux sondages et des analyses thématiques ont été effectuées sur les données recueillies des groupes de discussion. Des thèmes semblables se sont dégagés des sondages et des données recueillies des groupes de discussion. Ces thèmes identifiaient les avantages perçus de la participation dans le perfectionnement de l’enseignement tant interdisciplinaire que disciplinaire. Les répondants ont perçu les avantages suivants : (a) possibilité de devenir de meilleurs enseignants; (b) apprentissage social; et (c) bien que les avantages perçus de chaque modèle varient, les résultats des deux expériences sont semblables. Les expériences vécues de ces étudiants de cycle supérieur élargissent la caractérisation des programmes interdisciplinaires et disciplinaires. Cette étude souligne la nécessité que les programmes pour étudiants de cycle supérieur – spécifiquement les programmes de perfectionnement de l’enseignement offerts dans le cadre d’unités de pédagogie – doivent offrir des occasions de perfectionnement de l’enseignement à la fois interdisciplinaires et disciplinaires pour que les apprenants tirent des deux modèles un mélange d’avantages.

Area Studies and Study Abroad in the 21st Century The future now belongs to societies that organize themselves for learning. - Ray Marshall and Marc Tucker, Thinking for a Living, xiii Few today would argue with the conviction that nearly every phase of our daily lives is shaped and informed by global societies, corporations, events and ideas. More than ever before, it is possible to claim that we are increasingly aware of the dynamic power and penetrating effects of global flows on information, technology, the sciences, the arts, the humanities, and languages. Borderless, spaceless and timeless, such sources of knowledge, it appears, are effortlessly digested and disseminated without clocks, calendars, or physical limitations. It is, of course, a mistake to believe that packages of “instant” knowledge that appear to wing their way at megahertz speeds in and through our earthly lives account for all or nearly all that there is to know—or, more importantly, to learn—about our communities, regions and the globe itself. On the contrary: the “knowing” about how to live, to work, to prosper, or to understand ourselves and those around us is not what educators mean when they speak of intellectual achievement and practical understanding. It is the “learning” about us, our societies and our global knowledge that lies at the heart of the international educator’s life work, and it is the learning that is the most controversial aspect of education. The act of “learning,” in fact, is less objective and more subjective, is less passive and more active, and is less superficial and more profound in each of our lives. By definition, a responsible learner is one who takes on the intellectual challenge and the social and personal obligation to leave this globe a better place for those who follow, who assumes the life work of influencing the lives of others, and who is committed to making the best of every opportunity both within the reach and beyond the vision of the mind’s eye. Study abroad has traditionally been viewed as a time of seeing and viewing, however passively, the differences and similarities of other peoples, societies and cultures. The period of knowing about what others do or say can occur at any time during one’s life; however, the “knowing” of studying abroad is accomplished in the college years prior to the accumulated knowledge about practical learning and living. In this respect, study abroad has been seen as an experience which may or may not invest the students in greater or lesser insights about the peoples, societies or cultures around them. Further, when study abroad is bound up with travel or movement from place to place, it can become a passive act, so much so that travel rather than learning becomes the goal of the study abroad experience. Simply put, the more that one travels, the more, it is argued, one learns. Furthermore, while seen as desirable for “classroom learning,” some would say that no amount of academic preparation appears to be useful in the enterprise of the travel experience, since so many experiences are unpredictable, individualized and, in some cases, arbitrary. From the perspective of study abroad, it might be said that the gods of area studies no longer completely fulfill our students’ needs, while the gods of global studies have not yet fulfilled their promises. Janus-like, international educators look in one direction at a still highly intense and valued picture of local cultures and identities, and in another direction toward an increasingly common culture, economy and society. The former appears to celebrate the differences and “uncommonness” of the human experience while the latter smoothes over the differences to underscore the commonalities and sameness of our contemporary world. The choice appears to be between the particular and the universal, the local and the global. Academic preparations, such as area studies programs, appear to be unnecessary for the individualized forms of learning, such as study abroad. Indeed, since an area studies preparation may raise or strengthen stereotypical perceptions of the overseas peoples, societies and cultures, it has been argued that it best be left aside. In this context, students are viewed as a tabula rasa on which new discoveries from living and studying overseas leave an imprint or impression. It seems that sending as many students as possible in as many directions as possible has become the dominant study abroad objective. Thus, “whole world” presentations and documentation often rely on the “other” as the learning objective with little or no attempt to discriminate or distinguish the levels of learning that such “whole world” immersion entails. In recent times, additional concerns about liability, health, safety and comfort levels have been added to the “pre-departure” orientations and training programs. The “student as self-learner” continues to be viewed and treated as a “customer knowledge-consumer” within both U.S. private and public colleges and universities. In the age of “globalization,” it is the conviction of the editors of Frontiers that knowledge consumption is only a small aspect of the 21st century international educators’ arsenal. More importantly, it will be argued in this special issue on area studies and Study Abroad that the intellectual development of the U.S. undergraduate needs to be enhanced with skills of self-learning and transdisciplinary perspectives on local and regional cultures and languages. The authors contributing to this special thematic issue of Frontiers have been asked to bring their state-of-the-art thinking on area studies to bear on the key question confronting study abroad: How does specialized understanding of geographical and cultural areas of the world enhance and strengthen undergraduate learning on and beyond our campuses? In other words, in what ways do area studies inform overseas learning through the activity of study abroad? The variety of responses demonstrates two principal ways in which area studies has begun to reformulate its goals and strategies. First, area studies reaffirms a commitment to local and regional comprehensive research and teaching, and redefines its mission in terms of the need to come to grips with local knowledge and specific social and cultural practices within a globalized world. Second, area studies specialists question long-held definitions of concepts, including those of “geographical area” and “globalization,” in order to maximize contributions to U.S. undergraduate learning. David Ludden begins our issue with a review of the Social Science Research Council and the Ford Foundation’s understanding of the transition in area studies from the Sputnik era to the globalization era. Ludden notes the faculty dilemma in working in an “area.” He points out the political interests of the Cold War for public funding of such specialized academic skills, skills which, whether funded by the government or not, were and continue to be defined by the scholar first and then by finances. Drawing on his own experience at the South Asia Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, Ludden takes the reader through the intellectual rationale for area studies, and how that rationale is being redefined in favor of stronger area studies in the present globalization era. Gregory Kulacki’s study of China and the Chinese experience points accurately to one approach to defining area studies; that is, in terms of the peoples and cultures studied. In a sense, Kulacki makes it clear that Chinese studies is “legitimate” and has authority as long as it reflects the Chinese themselves, their experiences and lives. Ann Curthoys, on the other hand, notes the growing importance of defining Australians and Australian studies not only in terms of the changing experiences of contemporary Australia, but also in terms of the demands of non-Australians, who ask for more precision in defining Australians, their history, society and cultures. Richard Beach and George Sherman take on a more difficult matter, at least from the viewpoint of U.S. faculty and students. Canada is rarely seen as a study abroad site for U.S. students, not only because of its geographical position but also for its cultural and historical proximity. The overall U.S. view, albeit unflattering, is that Canada and Canadians are very much like the U.S. and Americans, so why study in Canada? Beach and Sherman argue that history, languages, and borders do make a difference, both physically as well as culturally. Using the argument of the previous area studies specialists, they are interested in the ways that Canadians have shaped and informed their cultural and social identities in the teeth of U.S. economic and political domination in the region. The implications of globalization are, perhaps, more immediately evident in the Canadian case than in any other world region. U.S. students would do well to observe the processes of adaptation and acculturation first-hand by studying and living in Canada. James Petras gives us a broader vista of regional adaptation to the economic and political forces of globalization with his essay on Latin America. Indeed, Latin America has a dynamic similar to that of Canada due to its physical, cultural and historical proximity to the U.S. It would be a mistake to see Latin America only in terms of the north-south regional dynamics, since Europe, Asia and Africa have also shaped both past and present structures and institutions within that region in ways far more dramatic than has the United States. Study abroad, Petras reminds us, is an excellent way of learning directly about Latin American societies, cultures and politics from Latin Americans themselves, a learning that may be widely different from the official U.S. diplomatic and corporate perspectives. Finally, the very familiar world regions, such as England, offer in some cases more challenges to the U.S. undergraduate than might be expected. Jane Edwards looks at Britain and all that U.S. students may or may not know about that culture and society. The study of Britain lends itself, Edwards argues, to more than the usual challenges, due to the preconceived notions that U.S. students bring with them to, say, London. Understanding the “European-ness” of Britain and its historic relationship with continental Western Europe will justify the need to see Britain as less familiar and more complex, thus necessitating the need to study, visit and live in parts of Britain and Western Europe. In this case, the area does define the country, its identity and culture in a historical interplay of social, cultural and economic forces. David Lloyd, Philip Khoury and Russell Bova invite the reader to return to large regional perspectives through African, Middle Eastern and Russian area studies. David Lloyd presents an analysis of the broad and immediate contexts of African studies. While recognizing the difficulty of establishing consistently causal links between African studies and study abroad in Africa, he delineates the significance of local, experience-based study for the development of collaborative African studies research. Lloyd argues that the benefits of study abroad in Africa to African studies belie the relatively small number of students involved. Further, assessment for funding and other purposes needs to utilize criteria that take into account the challenges of on-site study in Africa and the depth of post-study abroad participation not just in African studies per se, but in other related areas as well. Considering the recent past of Middle East studies, Philip Khoury charts its response to post-Cold War criticism. He illustrates new directions the field is taking towards including different geographic areas, and new emphasis in organizational priorities, noting the importance of funding for providing first-hand contact for students in Middle Eastern studies with scholars from the Middle East. Khoury assesses the impact of recent historical and political events in the area on Middle Eastern studies, and looks toward more inclusive research efforts. Russell Bova examines another region that has undergone considerable political, social and economic change in the 20th century. Having moved from empire to soviet socialist states and now to a confederation of nation states, Russia and, naturally, Russian area studies, offer an excellent example of local and regional complexities both in the nomenclature of the region and in the changes in Russian studies programs. Bova illustrates the need to understand the specific dynamics of local communities in their relationship to larger administrative units such as provinces, states and national capitals. In referring to the “double transition” of contemporary Russia, Bova reminds us that globalization is both a grass roots and elite process with many unlikely “bedfellows” that is also changing more rapidly each decade than had been the case fifty years ago. Finally, Richard Falk and Nancy Kanach collaborate to discuss the ways in which globalization and study abroad are emerging in the post-Cold War period. The sudden shifts of economic and political power make our world more fragile and more difficult to comprehend without considering the “computer gap” that is rapidly leaving whole communities and even nations in a more uneven relationship with the power brokers than ever before. The need to reflect with care and precision through area studies is complemented by the additional pressing need to study, see and learn outside of the U.S. Globalization means promoting study abroad and reaffirming the strengths of local and regional studies. Taken together, these essays invite international educators to reconsider notions of learning before, during and after study abroad. The writers view study abroad as an opportunity for social and intellectual engagement with other peoples and with oneself. The essays point to a variety of ways of intellectually preparing our students for their initial encounters with sets of real-life global experiences. Reflecting on such engagement and encounters allows students to begin to formulate, with increasing sophistication, specific and general concepts about individual differences, local and regional commonalities, and the global transformations of our present era. In light of the current area studies debates, we might also reconsider approaches to pre-departure preparations, create onsite projects, and reorganize the overseas curricula of study abroad programs themselves. In particular, students can continue to benefit from area and global studies programs back on the home campus upon their return, where they can enter effectively into scholarly debates and continue the learning and personal growth that began while they were abroad. Frontiers welcomes comments and suggestions for future special issues. We see ourselves and our field of international education in greater need of close cooperation with our faculty colleagues both in terms of defining the work of international learning, and in terms of formulating and designing international or global programs. We thus invite our readers to see Frontiers as a forum for such academic exchanges, and promise that Frontiers will respond to articles, essays, book reviews and reviews of resources for study abroad with collegial interest and enthusiasm. We wish to thank especially Brian Whalen, Rhoda Borcherding and our other colleagues on the Editorial Board for their support, encouragement and assistance in completing this special issue. We are particularly pleased with the authors and their willingness to listen to our requests and comments. Thomas Ricks, Villanova University Katharine Krebs, SUNY Binghamton Michael Monahan, Macalester College Suggestions for Further Reading Altbach, Philip G. and Patti McGill Peterson, eds. Higher Education in the 21st Century: Global Challenge and National Response. IIE Research Report Number 29. Annapolis, MD: IIE Books, 1999. This slim volume focuses on principal topics for colleges and universities to consider both locally and globally. Philip Altbach and Todd Davis set the tone of the volume with their “notes for an international dialogue on higher education.” Stressing the need for practical education, the authors also raise issues about the role of technology, the increase in “internationally mobile students,” the global role of graduate education, privatization of higher education, committed faculty and the threats of “managerialized” universities. The eight responses to the opening themes address specific issues for China, India, Africa and South Africa, Latin America, Japan and Europe. The work is a very good discussion text for international educators and their area studies faculty colleagues, and also provides a theoretical basis for the design and development of overseas programs. Stephen R. Graubard, ed. “Education Yesterday, Education Tomorrow.” Daedalus. Vol. 127, No. 4 (Fall, 1998). The eleven authors of this issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences build off the Fall 1995 issue of Daedalus and its topic of “American Education: Still Separate, Still Unequal.” While neither accepting nor rejecting the thrust of A Nation at Risk, the authors look both at what has occurred over the past three decades, and at what is on the horizon for the next decade. In stressing reforms of systems and innovative ways of learning, the authors’ discussions invite the international educator to address a variety of ways in which students learn and to challenge the system in which they thrive. WWW. NAFSA.ORG/SECUSSA.WHYSTUDY In 1989, NAFSA and COUNCIL created the Whole World Committee (WWC). Initially chaired by John Sommers and now chaired by Mick Vandenberg, the WWC set out to find ways by which U.S. students could and would choose non-European overseas sites for a semester of study and learning. One of the tasks that the WWC accomplished was the creation of four area study essays on Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East. Each essay, entitled “Why Study in …,” addresses basic fears and stereotyping of the non-European world regions. The essays then focus on benefits, health and safety, “getting started,” housing, and practical learning in each of these regions. In newly-attached longer versions, the essays also have a bibliography and more informative texts. The shorter versions were published serially in Transitions Abroad. NAFSA has added two additional important essays to this website, on “Class and Study Abroad” and “An African-American in South Africa.” Overall, the readers of Frontiers will be well-advised to access the articles at the website and consider using all the essays in their pre-departure orientation training, faculty area studies discussion groups, and in welcome-back sessions for returning students. Richard Falk. Predatory Globalization: A Critique. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1999. The thesis of Richard Falk’s critique is that “predatory globalization’ has eroded, if not altogether broken, the former social contract that was forged between state and society during the last century or so” (p. 3). The breaking of that contract resulted from the state’s “deference to the discipline of global capital” and the neglect of the common good. Falk argues that only the “massing of strong transnational social pressures on the states of the world could alter the political equation to the point where the state could sufficiently recover its autonomy in relation to the world economy.” He demonstrates the emergence of a new kind of transnational politics referred to as “globalization-from-below.” In restoring “global civil society,” this new politics will need to move forward with the project of cosmopolitan democracy, including the protection of human rights. For the international educator, creating overseas programs that allow for a better understanding of the interconnectedness of regional and global levels is an admirable goal. More important, however, are those programs that offer U.S. undergraduates insights into “world order priorities” such as global poverty, protection of the planet, the sources of transnational violence, and “responsible sovereignty” in ways rarely found in traditional classroom learning on our campuses. Mark Tessler, Jodi Nachtwey and Anne Banda. Eds. Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle East Politics. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999. This edited work addresses a wide range of issues involved in the “rational choice” versus area studies debate that is so well elucidated by David Ludden in the opening article of our special issue. Looking at the “area studies controversy” from the perspective of political scientists, the editors’ Introduction underscores questions that we international educators need to address ourselves. It is valuable to wonder about the “uses and abuses” of area studies in planning our overseas programs, or discussing the “internationalization” of our curricula. It is also critical to understand the Eurocentric and overly-simplistic approaches of the social science “rational choice” models. While agreeing that both area studies and the social science theories and methodologies are necessary for a global understanding, the present work places such questions within the context of the Middle East as a stimulus and a model for increasing the value of research about any country or region.

Refereed publications (also known as peer-reviewed) are the currency of academia, yet many PhD theses in Australia result in only one or two such papers. Typically, a doctoral thesis requires the candidate to present (and pass) a public Confirmation Seminar, around nine to twelve months into candidacy, in which a panel of the candidate’s supervisors and invited experts adjudicate upon whether the work is likely to continue and ultimately succeed in the goal of a coherent and original contribution to knowledge. A Final Seminar, also public and sometimes involving the traditional viva voce or oral defence of the thesis, is presented two or three months before approval is given to send the 80,000 to 100,000 word tome off for external examination. And that soul-destroying or elation-releasing examiner’s verdict can be many months in the delivery: a limbo-like period during which the candidate’s status as a student is ended and her or his receipt of any scholarship or funding guerdon is terminated with perfunctory speed. This is the only time most students spend seriously writing up their research for publication although, naturally, many are more involved in job hunting as they pin their hopes on passing the thesis examination.There is, however, a slightly more palatable alternative to this nail-biting process of the traditional PhD, and that is the PhD by Published Papers (also known as PhD by Publications or PhD by Published Works). The form of my own soon-to-be-submitted thesis, it permits the submission for examination of a collection of papers that have been refereed and accepted (or are in the process of being refereed) for publication in academic journals or books. Apart from the obvious benefits in getting published early in one’s (hopefully) burgeoning academic career, it also takes away a lot of the stress come final submission time. After all, I try to assure myself, the thesis examiners can’t really discredit the process of double-blind, peer-review the bulk of the thesis has already undergone: their job is to examine how well I’ve unified the papers into a cohesive thesis … right? But perhaps they should at least be wary, because, unfortunately, the requirements for this kind of PhD vary considerably from institution to institution and there have been some cases where the submitted work is of questionable quality compared to that produced by graduates from more demanding universities. Hence, this paper argues that in my subject area of interest—film and television studies—there is a huge range in the set requirements for doctorates, from universities that award the degree to film artists for prior published work that has undergone little or no academic scrutiny and has involved little or no on-campus participation to at least three Australian universities that require candidates be enrolled for a minimum period of full-time study and only submit scholarly work generated and published (or submitted for publication) during candidature. I would also suggest that uncertainty about where a graduate’s work rests on this continuum risks confusing a hard-won PhD by Published Papers with the sometimes risible honorary doctorate. Let’s begin by dredging the depths of those murky, quasi-academic waters to examine the occasionally less-than-salubrious honorary doctorate. The conferring of this degree is generally a recognition of an individual’s body of (usually published) work but is often conferred for contributions to knowledge or society in general that are not even remotely academic. The honorary doctorate does not usually carry with it the right to use the title “Dr” (although many self-aggrandising recipients in the non-academic world flout this unwritten code of conduct, and, indeed, Monash University’s Monash Magazine had no hesitation in describing its 2008 recipient, musician, screenwriter, and art-school-dropout Nick Cave, as “Dr Cave” (O’Loughlin)). Some shady universities even offer such degrees for sale or ‘donation’ and thus do great damage to that institution’s credibility as well as to the credibility of the degree itself. Such overseas “diploma mills”—including Ashwood University, Belford University, Glendale University and Suffield University—are identified by their advertising of “Life Experience Degrees,” for which a curriculum vitae outlining the prospective graduand’s oeuvre is accepted on face value as long as their credit cards are not rejected. An aspiring screen auteur simply specifies film and television as their major and before you can shout “Cut!” there’s a degree in the mail. Most of these pseudo-universities are not based in Australia but are perfectly happy to confer their ‘titles’ to any well-heeled, vanity-driven Australians capable of completing the online form. Nevertheless, many academics fear a similarly disreputable marketplace might develop here, and Norfolk Island-based Greenwich University presents a particularly illuminating example. Previously empowered by an Act of Parliament consented to by Senator Ian Macdonald, the then Minister for Territories, this “university” had the legal right to confer honorary degrees from 1998. The Act was eventually overridden by legislation passed in 2002, after a concerted effort by the Australian Universities Quality Agency Ltd. and the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee to force the accreditation requirements of the Australian Qualifications Framework upon the institution in question, thus preventing it from making degrees available for purchase over the Internet. Greenwich University did not seek re-approval and soon relocated to its original home of Hawaii (Brown). But even real universities flounder in similarly muddy waters when, unsolicited, they make dubious decisions to grant degrees to individuals they hold in high esteem. Although meaning well by not courting pecuniary gain, they nevertheless invite criticism over their choice of recipient for their honoris causa, despite the decision usually only being reached after a process of debate and discussion by university committees. Often people are rewarded, it seems, as much for their fame as for their achievements or publications. One such example of a celebrity who has had his onscreen renown recognised by an honorary doctorate is film and television actor/comedian Billy Connolly who was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by The University of Glasgow in 2006, prompting Stuart Jeffries to complain that “something has gone terribly wrong in British academia” (Jeffries). Eileen McNamara also bemoans the levels to which some institutions will sink to in search of media attention and exposure, when she writes of St Andrews University in Scotland conferring an honorary doctorate to film actor and producer, Michael Douglas: “What was designed to acknowledge intellectual achievement has devolved into a publicity grab with universities competing for celebrity honorees” (McNamara). Fame as an actor (and the list gets even weirder when the scope of enquiry is widened beyond the field of film and television), seems to be an achievement worth recognising with an honorary doctorate, according to some universities, and this kind of discredit is best avoided by Australian institutions of higher learning if they are to maintain credibility. Certainly, universities down under would do well to follow elsewhere than in the footprints of Long Island University’s Southampton College. Perhaps the height of academic prostitution of parchments for the attention of mass media occurred when in 1996 this US school bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters upon that mop-like puppet of film and television fame known as the “muppet,” Kermit the Frog. Indeed, this polystyrene and cloth creation with an anonymous hand operating its mouth had its acceptance speech duly published (see “Kermit’s Acceptance Speech”) and the Long Island University’s Southampton College received much valuable press. After all, any publicity is good publicity. Or perhaps this furry frog’s honorary degree was a cynical stunt meant to highlight the ridiculousness of the practice? In 1986 a similar example, much closer to my own home, occurred when in anticipation and condemnation of the conferral of an honorary doctorate upon Prince Philip by Monash University in Melbourne, the “Members of the Monash Association of Students had earlier given a 21-month-old Chihuahua an honorary science degree” (Jeffries), effectively suggesting that the honorary doctorate is, in fact, a dog of a degree. On a more serious note, there have been honorary doctorates conferred upon far more worthy recipients in the field of film and television by some Australian universities. Indigenous film-maker Tracey Moffatt was awarded an honorary doctorate by Griffith University in November of 2004. Moffatt was a graduate of the Griffith University’s film school and had an excellent body of work including the films Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1990) and beDevil (1993). Acclaimed playwright and screenwriter David Williamson was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by The University of Queensland in December of 2004. His work had previously picked up four Australian Film Institute awards for best screenplay. An Honorary Doctorate of Visual and Performing Arts was given to film director Fred Schepisi AO by The University of Melbourne in May of 2006. His films had also been earlier recognised with Australian Film Institute awards as well as the Golden Globe Best Miniseries or Television Movie award for Empire Falls in 2006. Director George Miller was crowned with an Honorary Doctorate in Film from the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School in April 2007, although he already had a medical doctor’s testamur on his wall. In May of this year, filmmaker George Gittoes, a fine arts dropout from The University of Sydney, received an honorary doctorate by The University of New South Wales. His documentaries, Soundtrack to War (2005) and Rampage (2006), screened at the Sydney and Berlin film festivals, and he has been employed by the Australian Government as an official war artist. Interestingly, the high quality screen work recognised by these Australian universities may have earned the recipients ‘real’ PhDs had they sought the qualification. Many of these film artists could have just as easily submitted their work for the degree of PhD by Published Papers at several universities that accept prior work in lieu of an original exegesis, and where a film is equated with a book or journal article. But such universities still invite comparisons of their PhDs by Published Papers with honorary doctorates due to rather too-easy-to-meet criteria. The privately funded Bond University, for example, recommends a minimum full-time enrolment of just three months and certainly seems more lax in its regulations than other Antipodean institution: a healthy curriculum vitae and payment of the prescribed fee (currently AUD$24,500 per annum) are the only requirements. Restricting my enquiries once again to the field of my own research, film and television, I note that Dr. Ingo Petzke achieved his 2004 PhD by Published Works based upon films produced in Germany well before enrolling at Bond, contextualized within a discussion of the history of avant-garde film-making in that country. Might not a cynic enquire as to how this PhD significantly differs from an honorary doctorate? Although Petzke undoubtedly paid his fees and met all of Bond’s requirements for his thesis entitled Slow Motion: Thirty Years in Film, one cannot criticise that cynic for wondering if Petzke’s films are indeed equivalent to a collection of refereed papers. It should be noted that Bond is not alone when it comes to awarding candidates the PhD by Published Papers for work published or screened in the distant past. Although yet to grant it in the area of film or television, Swinburne University of Technology (SUT) is an institution that distinctly specifies its PhD by Publications is to be awarded for “research which has been carried out prior to admission to candidature” (8). Similarly, the Griffith Law School states: “The PhD (by publications) is awarded to established researchers who have an international reputation based on already published works” (1). It appears that Bond is no solitary voice in the academic wilderness, for SUT and the Griffith Law School also apparently consider the usual milestones of Confirmation and Final Seminars to be unnecessary if the so-called candidate is already well published. Like Bond, Griffith University (GU) is prepared to consider a collection of films to be equivalent to a number of refereed papers. Dr Ian Lang’s 2002 PhD (by Publication) thesis entitled Conditional Truths: Remapping Paths To Documentary ‘Independence’ contains not refereed, scholarly articles but the following videos: Wheels Across the Himalaya (1981); Yallambee, People of Hope (1986); This Is What I Call Living (1988); The Art of Place: Hanoi Brisbane Art Exchange (1995); and Millennium Shift: The Search for New World Art (1997). While this is a most impressive body of work, and is well unified by appropriate discussion within the thesis, the cynic who raised eyebrows at Petzke’s thesis might also be questioning this thesis: Dr Lang’s videos all preceded enrolment at GU and none have been refereed or acknowledged with major prizes. Certainly, the act of releasing a film for distribution has much in common with book publishing, but should these videos be considered to be on a par with academic papers published in, say, the prestigious and demanding journal Screen? While recognition at awards ceremonies might arguably correlate with peer review there is still the question as to how scholarly a film actually is. Of course, documentary films such as those in Lang’s thesis can be shown to be addressing gaps in the literature, as is the expectation of any research paper, but the onus remains on the author/film-maker to demonstrate this via a detailed contextual review and a well-written, erudite argument that unifies the works into a cohesive thesis. This Lang has done, to the extent that suspicious cynic might wonder why he chose not to present his work for a standard PhD award. Another issue unaddressed by most institutions is the possibility that the publications have been self-refereed or refereed by the candidate’s editorial colleagues in a case wherein the papers appear in a book the candidate has edited or co-edited. Dr Gillian Swanson’s 2004 GU thesis Towards a Cultural History of Private Life: Sexual Character, Consuming Practices and Cultural Knowledge, which addresses amongst many other cultural artefacts the film Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean 1962), has nine publications: five of which come from two books she co-edited, Nationalising Femininity: Culture, Sexuality and Cinema in Britain in World War Two, (Gledhill and Swanson 1996) and Deciphering Culture: Ordinary Curiosities and Subjective Narratives (Crisp et al 2000). While few would dispute the quality of Swanson’s work, the persistent cynic might wonder if these five papers really qualify as refereed publications. The tacit understanding of a refereed publication is that it is blind reviewed i.e. the contributor’s name is removed from the document. Such a system is used to prevent bias and favouritism but this level of anonymity might be absent when the contributor to a book is also one of the book’s editors. Of course, Dr Swanson probably took great care to distance herself from the refereeing process undertaken by her co-editors, but without an inbuilt check, allegations of cronyism from unfriendly cynics may well result. A related factor in making comparisons of different university’s PhDs by Published Papers is the requirements different universities have about the standard of the journal the paper is published in. It used to be a simple matter in Australia: the government’s Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) held a Register of Refereed Journals. If your benefactor in disseminating your work was on the list, your publications were of near-unquestionable quality. Not any more: DEST will no longer accept nominations for listing on the Register and will not undertake to rule on whether a particular journal article meets the HERDC [Higher Education Research Data Collection] requirements for inclusion in publication counts. HEPs [Higher Education Providers] have always had the discretion to determine if a publication produced in a journal meets the requirements for inclusion in the HERDC regardless of whether or not the journal was included on the Register of Refereed Journals. As stated in the HERDC specifications, the Register is not an exhaustive list of all journals which satisfy the peer-review requirements (DEST). The last listing for the DEST Register of Refereed Journals was the 3rd of February 2006, making way for a new tiered list of academic journals, which is currently under review in the Australian tertiary education sector (see discussion of this development in the Redden and Mitchell articles in this issue). In the interim, some university faculties created their own rankings of journals, but not the Faculty of Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) where I am studying for my PhD by Published Papers. Although QUT does not have a list of ranked journals for a candidate to submit papers to, it is otherwise quite strict in its requirements. The QUT University Regulations state, “Papers submitted as a PhD thesis must be closely related in terms of subject matter and form a cohesive research narrative” (QUT PhD regulation 14.1.2). Thus there is the requirement at QUT that apart from the usual introduction, methodology and literature review, an argument must be made as to how the papers present a sustained research project via “an overarching discussion of the main features linking the publications” (14.2.12). It is also therein stated that it should be an “account of research progress linking the research papers” (4.2.6). In other words, a unifying essay must make an argument for consideration of the sometimes diversely published papers as a cohesive body of work, undertaken in a deliberate journey of research. In my own case, an aural auteur analysis of sound in the films of Rolf de Heer, I argue that my published papers (eight in total) represent a journey from genre analysis (one paper) to standard auteur analysis (three papers) to an argument that sound should be considered in auteur analysis (one paper) to the major innovation of the thesis, aural auteur analysis (three papers). It should also be noted that unlike Bond, GU or SUT, the QUT regulations for the standard PhD still apply: a Confirmation Seminar, Final Seminar and a minimum two years of full-time enrolment (with a minimum of three months residency in Brisbane) are all compulsory. Such milestones and sine qua non ensure the candidate’s academic progress and intellectual development such that she or he is able to confidently engage in meaningful quodlibets regarding the thesis’s topic. Another interesting and significant feature of the QUT guidelines for this type of degree is the edict that papers submitted must be “published, accepted or submitted during the period of candidature” (14.1.1). Similarly, the University of Canberra (UC) states “The articles or other published material must be prepared during the period of candidature” (10). Likewise, Edith Cowan University (ECU) will confer its PhD by Publications to those candidates whose thesis consists of “only papers published in refereed scholarly media during the period of enrolment” (2). In other words, one cannot simply front up to ECU, QUT, or UC with a résumé of articles or films published over a lifetime of writing or film-making and ask for a PhD by Published Papers. Publications of the candidate prepared prior to commencement of candidature are simply not acceptable at these institutions and such PhDs by Published Papers from QUT, UC and ECU are entirely different to those offered by Bond, GU and SUT. Furthermore, without a requirement for a substantial period of enrolment and residency, recipients of PhDs by Published Papers from Bond, GU, or SUT are unlikely to have participated significantly in the research environment of their relevant faculty and peers. Such newly minted doctors may be as unfamiliar with the campus and its research activities as the recipient of an honorary doctorate usually is, as he or she poses for the media’s cameras en route to the glamorous awards ceremony. Much of my argument in this paper is built upon the assumption that the process of refereeing a paper (or for that matter, a film) guarantees a high level of academic rigour, but I confess that this premise is patently naïve, if not actually flawed. Refereeing can result in the rejection of new ideas that conflict with the established opinions of the referees. Interdisciplinary collaboration can be impeded and the lack of referee’s accountability is a potential problem, too. It can also be no less nail-biting a process than the examination of a finished thesis, given that some journals take over a year to complete the refereeing process, and some journal’s editorial committees have recognised this shortcoming. Despite being a mainstay of its editorial approach since 1869, the prestigious science journal, Nature, which only publishes about 7% of its submissions, has led the way with regard to varying the procedure of refereeing, implementing in 2006 a four-month trial period of ‘Open Peer Review’. Their website states, Authors could choose to have their submissions posted on a preprint server for open comments, in parallel with the conventional peer review process. Anyone in the field could then post comments, provided they were prepared to identify themselves. Once the usual confidential peer review process is complete, the public ‘open peer review’ process was closed and the editors made their decision about publication with the help of all reports and comments (Campbell). Unfortunately, the experiment was unpopular with both authors and online peer reviewers. What the Nature experiment does demonstrate, however, is that the traditional process of blind refereeing is not yet perfected and can possibly evolve into something less problematic in the future. Until then, refereeing continues to be the best system there is for applying structured academic scrutiny to submitted papers. With the reforms of the higher education sector, including forced mergers of universities and colleges of advanced education and the re-introduction of university fees (carried out under the aegis of John Dawkins, Minister for Employment, Education and Training from 1987 to 1991), and the subsequent rationing of monies according to research dividends (calculated according to numbers of research degree conferrals and publications), there has been a veritable explosion in the number of institutions offering PhDs in Australia. But the general public may not always be capable of differentiating between legitimately accredited programs and diploma mills, given that the requirements for the first differ substantially. From relatively easily obtainable PhDs by Published Papers at Bond, GU and SUT to more rigorous requirements at ECU, QUT and UC, there is undoubtedly a huge range in the demands of degrees that recognise a candidate’s published body of work. The cynical reader may assume that with this paper I am simply trying to shore up my own forthcoming graduation with a PhD by Published papers from potential criticisms that it is on par with a ‘purchased’ doctorate. Perhaps they are right, for this is a new degree in QUT’s Creative Industries faculty and has only been awarded to one other candidate (Dr Marcus Foth for his 2006 thesis entitled Towards a Design Methodology to Support Social Networks of Residents in Inner-City Apartment Buildings). But I believe QUT is setting a benchmark, along with ECU and UC, to which other universities should aspire. In conclusion, I believe further efforts should be undertaken to heighten the differences in status between PhDs by Published Papers generated during enrolment, PhDs by Published Papers generated before enrolment and honorary doctorates awarded for non-academic published work. Failure to do so courts cynical comparison of all PhD by Published Papers with unearnt doctorates bought from Internet shysters. References Brown, George. “Protecting Australia’s Higher Education System: A Proactive Versus Reactive Approach in Review (1999–2004).” Proceedings of the Australian Universities Quality Forum 2004. Australian Universities Quality Agency, 2004. 11 June 2008 ‹http://www.auqa.edu.au/auqf/2004/program/papers/Brown.pdf>. Campbell, Philip. “Nature Peer Review Trial and Debate.” Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science. December 2006. 11 June 2008 ‹http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/> Crisp, Jane, Kay Ferres, and Gillian Swanson, eds. Deciphering Culture: Ordinary Curiosities and Subjective Narratives. London: Routledge, 2000. Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). “Closed—Register of Refereed Journals.” Higher Education Research Data Collection, 2008. 11 June 2008 ‹http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/research_sector/online_forms_services/ higher_education_research_data_ collection.htm>. Edith Cowan University. “Policy Content.” Postgraduate Research: Thesis by Publication, 2003. 11 June 2008 ‹http://www.ecu.edu.au/GPPS/policies_db/tmp/ac063.pdf>. Gledhill, Christine, and Gillian Swanson, eds. Nationalising Femininity: Culture, Sexuality and Cinema in Britain in World War Two. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1996. Griffith Law School, Griffith University. Handbook for Research Higher Degree Students. 24 March 2004. 11 June 2008 ‹http://www.griffith.edu.au/centre/slrc/pdf/rhdhandbook.pdf>. Jeffries, Stuart. “I’m a celebrity, get me an honorary degree!” The Guardian 6 July 2006. 11 June 2008 ‹http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,1813525,00.html>. 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