Global Business & Management Education News

Humanities courses lead to career success!

2011-12-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

My first degree is in English and History from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. My parents, who are nor highly educated, never asked me a single on question on my career prospect from Arts degree. Unlike most of my friends whom parents are business people, doctor or engineer, they were expected by their parents to follow the traditional career path. I am glad my parent let me study arts and humanities.

A piece from Times Higher Education by Jack Grove confirms my belief that Arts is a good degree!
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Sixty per cent of leading public figures in the UK have humanities, social science or arts degrees, a new study has found.

A report commissioned by the New College of the Humanities (NCH) found the subjects had been studied by the majority of those “at the top of their professions” – such as CEOs of FTSE 100 companies, bosses of top creative and financial companies, vice-chancellors of Russell Group universities and MPs.

Starting in September 2012, the privately-owned for-profit NCH will charge £18,000 a year for degrees in five subject areas: law, economics, history, English literature and philosophy.

Based in Bloomsbury, the college will be headed by A.C. Grayling, who year resigned from his post as professor of philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London earlier this year.

Dr Grayling said: “For service economies in the developed world, a broad educational background is essential.

“Much of the talent that goes into law, journalism, the civil service, politics, financial services, the creative industries, publishing, education, and much besides, is drawn from people who have studied the humanities.

“Our society and economy needs broadly educated people, who have gained a wider view of the world and human affairs – of how to think about them, understand them, and apply the lessons thus learned.”

But he added: “Our fear is that humanities provision is being diminished.

“It is wrong to think that humanities matter less, or offer fewer career opportunities than science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“Many bright young people could benefit enormously from them.”

From 2012, the publicly-funded teaching grant for arts, social sciences and humanities subjects will be scrapped, with the annual costs of up to £9,000 repaid by graduates.

A reduced teaching grant will be available only for clinical subjects and some science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

The NCH report found 65 per cent of MPs studied an arts, humanities or social sciences
discipline, compared with just over 10 per cent who studied STEM disciplines.

But only around 30 per cent of vice-chancellors of Russell Group universities came from an arts, humanities or social sciences background, compared to 65 per cent who had studied STEM subjects.

the author can be contacted at: jack.grove@tsleducation.com

Prof. Paul Greenfield will step down from his role as chair of the Group of Eight

2011-12-12T16:43:00.000-08:00

The Group of Eight announced the change early Friday evening, shortly
after Greenfield told UQ staff and alumni that he would be leaving
his position on December 16 instead of mid-next year.

"The Group of Eight secretariat is saddened by the news that
Professor Paul Greenfield is stepping down as Vice-Chancellor of The
University of Queensland and Go8 Chair," said a spokesman in a
statement.

"He has been a skilful and trusted leader of the Go8. The University
of Queensland has reached new heights through his direction and
drive. Those of us who have known him over many years have nothing
but admiration for his intellectual power, integrity and grace."

Greenfield is leaving following revelations an irregularity
surrounding the admission of a close relative into a medical degree.
It is believed the relative did not achieve the required
Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admissions Test score but
was allowed into the program anyway. Greenfield had already planned
to retire from the university in the middle of next year.

"In recent weeks, it has become increasingly difficult for me to
serve as vice-chancellor in the way this organisation and its
partners deserve. In addition, the ongoing pressure on my family and
the University is taking a toll, the level of which I am not prepared
to accept. As a consequence, I have decided to step down as
vice-chancellor of UQ from December 16, 2011, and depart the
university on January 13, 2012. This decision is mine, and has been
accepted by Senate," he wrote.

"Between now and January, I will work to ensure a smooth transition
to Professor Debbie Terry who will act in the VC role until a new
appointment is confirmed."

Terry, in her own letter, paid tribute to Greenfield and outgoing
senior deputy vice-chancellor Professor Michael Keniger, who is also
leaving the university on December 16.

"Under their leadership over the past four years, the university has
gone from strength to strength, performing exceptionally well in all
areas. I know that you will all join me in thanking Paul and Michael
for their many contributions and wishing them all the very best for
the future."

The work of RMIT and multinational corporation in promoting international education

2011-12-09T22:35:00.000-08:00

In Laos where the majority of citizens are poor, obtaining an overseas education qualification and experiences seem to be just a dream. Part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) by a multinational corporation called MMG seems to be an interesting initiative. I have received this news from my colleagues from RMIT and need to share it with the reader of my blog. Why? Simply because the project show case a strong link of industry and an international education provider.

Base metals mining company MMG is pleased to announce the graduation of 37 Lao community members in Certificate III qualifications from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

The community members are part of a program established by MMG and RMIT to provide skills to community members living around the Sepon copper and gold mine in the Savannakhet Province, Laos.

The program aims to increase the skill level of local community members and their capacity to undertake skilled jobs on site. It is part of MMG’s ongoing commitment to the sustainable development of the mine’s local community.

The graduates received the qualification in one of seven trades - carpentry, fabrication, refrigeration, mechanics, electrics, automotive or instrumentation – following four years of studies and at least one year of on-the-job training at the Sepon mine. The qualification is equivalent to that undertaken by apprentices in Australia.

The study component of the program included an annual 28-day intensive training course, run by RMIT trainers at the purpose-built Trades Training Workshop facility on site. The on-the-job training element involved working alongside, and being mentored by, maintenance supervisors and tradespersons. Successful graduates have all secured employment at the mine.

BounGneun Phonenavongdeuane, from Vilabouly District, gained her certificate in refrigeration and will work with the mine’s maintenance department. She said that graduating with a high qualification was very important for her.

“It will bring many changes for my future, especially related to my performance in the job I do,” she said.

Fellow graduate Viengkham Maphangvong, also from Vilabouly District, trained as a carpenter.

“I was very proud to be one of the local community members selected to join this high-standard study program. I would like to thank the company for providing an excellent training scheme for local people,” he said.

The achievements of the apprentices were recognised at a graduation ceremony that took place at the mine on 24 November. It was attended by family members of the graduates as well as local officials, company employees and representatives from RMIT.

The partnership between the Sepon mine and RMIT has been in place since 2006, with the first 16 apprentices and employees graduating last year.

Chinese University in Laos

2011-11-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

I am currently in Vientiane, Laos, for my research project on poverty eradication and Multinational corporations. While I'm here one thing that comes across my interest is story about the establishment of a Chinese University in Laos.

Soochow University, in Jiangsu Province, is expected to open an affiliate in Laos in 2012, according to People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party.

Clearly,Soochow will be the first foreign education institution to receive approval from the Laotian government to offer undergraduate and graduate programs. The university plans to provide courses for about 5,000 students in Laos, a country of more than six million where only 13 percent of the undergraduate-age population is enrolled in higher education, according to 2008 Unesco statistics.

A university official quoted in the report said Soochow would offer 12 majors, including Chinese language and literature, economy and trade, and engineering. Soochow University, which has about 50,000 students in China, expects the Laos campus to begin enrolling students next year, the report said.

While the university will initially send Chinese academics to the Laos campus, it plans to gradually employ more local teachers. The campus is estimated to cost $25 million.

China's collaboration with Laos in the form of education development is significant as Laos certainly push education in the forefront of national long-term development. As an educator, I really appreciate this collaboration and would love to witness the long and short-term imoacts of such collaboration.

Viva Global education! สะบายดี from Laos!

International Education Market 'Strangled'?

2011-10-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

PREMIER Ted Baillieu has accused the federal government of ''effectively strangling'' the international student market, and will join forces with New South Wales to push for wider changes to visa restrictions.
Only weeks after Canberra announced it would fast-track student visas and give foreign students the right to two years of post-study work - provided they graduate with a university degree - Victoria has branded the move a ''knee-jerk reaction'' that will threaten the state's $5.8 billion international education industry.
Mr Baillieu and his NSW counterpart, Barry O'Farrell, share concerns that the reforms focus too much on universities and not enough on the vocational education sector, where falling enrolments are the most severe.

he Liberal premiers are expected to use the next Council of Australian Governments meeting to challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard to further ease visa restrictions, with Victoria arguing the changes should be based on the type of qualification students get, not just that it comes from a university.
''The Victorian government is concerned that the Commonwealth have effectively strangled the international education market with a knee-jerk reaction that is threatening a $5.8 billion industry in Victoria,'' Mr Baillieu's spokeswoman told The Sunday Age.
''Victoria is developing a number of initiatives to grow our international student market, particularly from key countries such as China and India. However, the Commonwealth's actions have been inadequate and are threatening this important economic sector.''
Under the Commonwealth's changes, adopted from the Knight review into student visas, foreign students who undertake a university bachelor degree will have access to a streamlined visa system and the right to two years' work after graduating, without a restriction on the type of job.
They also will no longer have to prove they have more than $75,000 in their bank account, bringing Australia's system into line with other countries such as the US, where students simply declare they have the means to support themselves.
However, vocational training colleges will have to wait on a second review, due next year, before they see major changes to processing arrangements for their own international students.
Figures from the Immigration Department show offshore grants (visa approvals) for the vocational education and training sector fell by 44.6 per cent between June 2009-10 and June 2010-11 - including a 64 per cent decline from China, and a 90.1 per cent fall from India. University offshore grants fell by 18.3 per cent over the same period.
While universities have welcomed the changes adopted from the Knight review, others in the sector share the state government's concerns. In a letter to the federal government, Holmes Institute director Stephen Nagle said it was grossly unfair the changes did not apply to government-recognised ''university-equivalent'' providers such as his.
He said that without a level playing field, ''Holmes will have suffered irreparable reputational damage and will have lost considerable recognition in the sector'' by the middle of next year.
''Holmes should be entitled to compete equally with Australian universities in the international education sector,'' he wrote.
The fall in foreign student numbers has been blamed on factors including tougher visa rules, a higher dollar, and violent attacks, mostly against Indian students, a few years ago.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/student-market-strangled-20111008-1lf2d.html#ixzz1c2My08Or

International student 'blackmailed' by college

2011-10-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

TWO directors of a controversy-plagued Victorian private college for international students allegedly blackmailed an Indian student who complained about the college's standards.
The revelations raise questions about the Baillieu government's vow to clean up the industry, with at least one of the men facing criminal charges, Kanwal Singh, still working at and managing the South Pacific Institute in Melbourne's CBD.

The Indian-born Kanwal Singh, his fellow South Pacific Institute director Gurvinder Singh, who is also an Indian national and a third man, Ayush Gupta, were recently charged by the Victoria Police with two counts of making an unwarranted demand on a person with menace.

The charges relate to allegations that the trio threatened a student to get him to retract complaints he had made in 2009 about the South Pacific Institute.

The student had made complaints about the standard of education at the college and allegations that school staff were taking cash from students to upgrade marks and employing unqualified teachers.

After calling the institute yesterday and asking to speak to the manager, The Age was put onto Kanwal Singh.

When asked about whether it was appropriate he remained at the college while facing criminal charges, he told The Age: ''I don't want to comment on anything, mate. I have to check with my lawyer.''

Victorian education authorities have known about allegations of misconduct involving the South Pacific Institute since at least 2009, when The Age first reported them. The institute has denied claims of impropriety.

After the 2009 reports, the then Brumby government ordered education regulators to audit the institute and more than a dozen other colleges that were considered high risk. After the audits, several colleges closed down, but the South Pacific College remained open.

The 2009 revelations also led to the introduction by federal and state authorities of tougher regulations that authorities hoped would help clean up the industry.
Labor MP Luke Donnellan, who has previously called for Victorian authorities to better support overseas students, said the Baillieu government should ensure college managers accused of criminal offences were suspended until their court matters were resolved.

''It seems strange that a government that was very quick in opposition to condemn Labor over its handling of issues affecting overseas students is allowing a manager of an international college to remain in his post while facing criminal charges,'' he said.

''This does enormous damage to our international reputation and Mr Baillieu must do more to ensure Victoria is a welcoming and safe environment for overseas students.''
The international student industry was a $17 billion industry nationally and brought $4 billion every year into Victoria, but has been hit in recent years by the rising dollar, poor regulation of providers, attacks on Indian students in Victoria and Commonwealth changes to visa and residency conditions.

Kanwal Singh, Gurvinder Singh and Ayush Gupta are listed to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/international-student-blackmailed-by-college-20111017-1lteu.html#ixzz1b6a4vQoB

Why do we care about Times Higher Education World University Rankings?

2011-10-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University has recently announced the World’s top 400 Universities. American Ivy leagues and traditional British Universities are among the top 10, as one can predict. The World’s top University for 2011-12 is California Institute of Technology, followed by Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and Princeton Universities.

Universities from Asia have improved their performances from the previous rankings. Nine Universities from Asia, mainly from Japan, Korea and China, are listed in the World’s top 100 Universities. They include University of Tokyo (30), University of Hong Kong (34), National University of Singapore (40), Peking University (49), Kyoto University (52), Pohang University of Science and Technology (53), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (62), Tsinghua University (71), and Korea advanced Institute of Science and Technology (94). Only one University from South East Asia, National University of Singapore (40), has been placed among top 100 Universities.

Compared to most OECD countries, Australia has been performing very well in the ranking system. According to the 2011-12 THE, the University of Melbourne (37), Australian National University (38), the University of Sydney (58), and the University of Queensland (74) have progressed to the World’s top 100 Universities. Some of our non-traditional Universities, such as Charles Darwin University, Flinders University or Swinburne University of Technology, have made it to top 400.

What are the implications of the THE University rankings to Australia? We can interpret the consequences of the THE rankings in our higher education system in various facets. We understand from THE, that they rank world Universities by investigating the learning environment (30%), volume, income and reputation (30%), research influence (30%), innovation (2.5%) and staff, student and research (7.5%). In reality, all Universities are created in different socio-political and academic contexts. One of the classic arguments is the size of economy and its relationship with higher education system. For instance, THE looks at public and industry research income. However, indicators of public and industry research income as proportions of total research income are not sufficiently appreciative of how the size of one's national economy influences results. In this regard, they tend to advantage Western economic models and their higher education systems, and concurrently disadvantage more nations and developmentally oriented models.

Australian Universities may perform well, due to a number of reasons. One is the push from the federal Government on research performance. In the last 24 months, Australian academics were bombarded by the idea of the excellence in Research for Australia initiative (ERA), which adopted a combination of indicators and expert review by committees. In February 2011, an analysis of the government's ERA report (conducted by The Australian newspaper) found that only 12 universities were performing research at or above international standard, with the top four performing at a rate that could be considered well above international standard. Academics are trained to aim for better research performance and it has become culture in (almost) all Australian Universities.

Ranking of Journal and publications, hence, were created to make sure that key research outputs were published in the top (A* or A) journals in each discipline. Resources were spent to make sure that your research findings are disseminated in the top rank outlets. For some academics, research has become their top priority because it can ensure the quality of their scholarships. Questions such as “how do you plan to publish in Nature?” or “Have you published in Journal of Marketing?” have become common issue for discussion among Australian academics. From 2008-2011, all academic conferences I have attended (mostly are in business and management discipline) includes, at least, one session on meeting with the editorial members of Journal of XYZ.

Some academics argue that, because of the strong demand for research and publication, other forms of academic contributions, such as teaching or community services, may have been taken for granted. The university has always been an intellectual community and a forum for discussion and debate. Within the university there are many reservoirs of knowledge to which society at large can have recourse; but it has also been a centre for individuals who have changed society’s perceptions. Not all of its goals are known in advance, and the ongoing ferment is one of its essential characteristic. Clearly, the ranking may not be able to capture some of these aspects.

When we explore the THE rankings, we may assume that traditional universities from the US and the UK tend to perform better than their rivals in Asia, Australia Africa or South America, especially when we explore ‘reputation’ of the institution. In previous years, it was reported that the THE rankings rely on reputational surveys, which involve polling academics about which universities they think are the best in a given field. Hence, it may be meaningless for most academics. Some argue that these assessments often use too few academics, who may not be well informed about all the universities they are being asked to judge the quality and reputation of the University, and that there is a bias towards English-speaking countries, particularly those from the traditional UK and American systems.

Some academics may argue against the methodology and validity of the ranking system. The clear dilemma of the university rankings system, despite its diversity, is that its core agenda is to develop systems or indicators drawn from one reality, and get them to speak to diverse academic contexts across culture. Australian academic contexts are clearly different from those in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Therefore, our strong performance may be valid or invalid in the global academic culture. The standard uniform of rankings system may promote the homogenization of academic culture, which is not desirable in education.

Of special concern are the aspects of the method which deal with the difficult-to-measure concept of institutional reputation and research influence. Some academics may choose to ignore the ranking. We, however, must admit that THE is one of the highly regarded publications. Its influence is worldwide. Most governments, academic institutions, research funding bodies and students look at them to judge the quality of the universities.

Because of its influence in the international education market, international governments, students and parents will continue to seek out the best institution and continue to consult the wide variety of available university rankings. Leaders in the Australian higher education system must understand the controversy and rules involved in university rankings. It will help Australian universities to improve their academic performance in the future.

Dr. Nattavud Pimpa is a senior lecturer in international business at RMIT University.

This essay was previously published in online opinion

Australia and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-12

2011-10-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings were developed in concert with the rankings data provider, Thomson Reuters, with expert input from more than 50 leading figures in the sector from 15 countries across every continent.

Their rankings of the top universities across the globe employ 13 separate performance indicators designed to capture the full range of university activities, from teaching to research to knowledge transfer. These 13 elements are brought together into five headline categories, which are:

Teaching — the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
Research — volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
Citations — research influence (worth 30 per cent)
Industry income — innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
International outlook — staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).

The overall world top 200 rankings, the banded lists of a further 200 "best of the rest" universities, and the six tables showing the top 50 institutions by subject are based on criteria and weightings that were carefully selected after extensive consultation. We recognise that different users have different priorities, so to allow everyone to make the most of our exceptionally rich data and gain a personalised view of global higher education.

and the top 10 World University Rankings are...

1) California Institute of Technology (USA)
2) Harvard University (USA)
3)Stanford University (USA)
4) Oxford University (UK)
5) Princeton University (USA)
6) Cambridge University (UK)
7) MIT (USA)
8) Imperial College London (UK)
9) University of Chicago (USA)
10) UC Berkeley (USA)

and thos from Australia that appears in the list include
The University of Melbourne (37)
ANU (38)
The University of Queensland (74)

More information can be accessed at
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html

I will write an analysis of the ranking and hopefully I can publish it in the media somewhere.

Nattavud Pimpa is a senior lecturer in international business at RMIT University, Australia.

My Teaching Trip in Shanghai

2011-10-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

I spent 8 days in Shanghai, China in September to teach a group of 94 undergraduate students at Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. This wasn't my first time to Shanghai because, as part of my teaching plan at RMIT University, I also was there in 2010.

The trip was truly a story of transnational education and I need to share 3 points with you from the perspectives of an academic who experiences the up and down of offshore teaching.

1) Preparation for academic staff who is scheduled to teach offshore is very important. I understand from my previous experiences that we need to understand various aspects of the host country. Simple issues such as how to go to the classroom, how to operate computer in the local language, where to buy coffee or how to approach your students etc. are extremely important. Most academic staff did not get enough preparation from their institutions and may find this aspect of work is difficult to manage.

2) Relationship management with your students and academic/professional staff at the host country. Student-teacher varies across culture. You may be comfortable with the way you are contacted by your students at home and make sure that you don't expect the similar kind of treatment in the new cultural setting. I think it is wise to talk to your colleagues or partners from the host country about this issue before you embark on the new journey.

3) Classroom management in the transnational education is interesting. Classroom can be more than a place of teaching and learning. In some culture, classroom is a place for social interaction and that how people learn very well. I, again, suggest you to talk to your friend from the local institution in terms of student's expectation, practices in the classroom and how to engage students in that cultural context.

nattavud pimpa is a senior lecturer in international business at RMIT University, Australia

Green Education in Singapore

2011-07-22T06:14:00.001-07:00

IBM has partnered Singapore's Ministry of Education (MOE) to help schools in the country become more "green".

Under the collaboration, the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) will tap Big Blue's expertise and technologies to develop a system that tracks power usage and reduces energy and maintenance costs, IBM said Friday in a statement. The system will be implemented in 20 schools.

The vendor has provided a US$100,000 grant to the SGBC for the initiative, dubbed Project Green Insights.

IBM said in the statement that a network of smart meters will be installed in the selected schools to track energy usage patterns, with the data accessible in a dashboard view via the cloud to stakeholders including teachers and students. The collaboration will seek to reduce usage tied to lighting and air-conditioning, with the aim of lowering carbon emissions.

According to an IBM spokesperson, only one school, the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East, has so far been selected for the first phase of the project. Another four schools will be jointly chosen by MOE, SGBC and IBM by mid-September this year.

Phase two, which will involve the remaining 15 schools, is scheduled to kick off in December 2011. The entire pilot project is expected to last a year from now.

Asian Era in International Education

2011-04-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

I have included the topic of inter-cultural communication in my class since 2008. Basically, my assumption is everyone who studies international business should learn the difficulties of cross-cultural communication and be comfortable with it. A number of studies that I looked at from key journals in international business (such as Journal of International Business Studies and Asia Pacific Journal of Management) confirm that communication does matter.

In BRW magazine a few months ago, the editor cited that Australian businesses lack the skills needed to cash in on the Asia boom with most executives unable to speak an Asian language.

They conducted a few surveys on this issue and it shows that, although most companies surveyed plan to increase their exposure to the rapidly growing markets on our doorstep, more than half had minimal experience in the region.

The report, by the Australian Industry Group and Asialink, said three-quarters of the 380 businesses surveyed were eyeing opportunities in Asia, and more than half were planning to expand over the next year.

But it also said 84 per cent of board members did not speak an Asian language, highlighting a key skills deficit facing Australia.

I found one repot that interview the CEO of Ai Group (Heather Ridout) and found that as more businesses had their futures tied to the region, these shortages were shaping up as a challenge.

Ms Ridout called on the government to create a workforce strategy to ensure Australian businesses had the necessary skills to engage in the region, and to invest more in Asian language programs.

I currently am working at a University of Technology where only 2 Asian languages, Chinese and Japanese, are taught. Having established the move from members of South East Asian nations (from ASEAN Free Trade Area to ASEAN economic community), I believe that languages such as Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese, Thai, Hindu, Bahala MAlayu etc. must be included in our business and management education.

Demise of International Education in Australia

2011-04-07T22:08:00.001-07:00

International education has long been the major export commodity from Australia to the World, mostly to Asia. We think there is no such thing as the end of this industry, as long as international students (and their parents) still need to speak English and put a high value on ‘Western’ education and degree. Some national statistics confirm that we need to revise the way we manage our international education policy.

The latest Federal Government figures show a 1.4 per cent decline in enrolments since December 2009 year for a sector that has grown almost 11 per cent a year for the past eight years. International students make up about a quarter of all university enrolments in Australia, so any reduction in intake has a serious impact on the bottom line. What contribute to the drop of international students? Apart from the obvious short-term factors such as complication in immigration policy and the application for international student visa, competition from the UK and the US, and the solid of Australian dollars, I would like to propose two long-term critical factors which are related to the demise of international education industry.

The first, and perhaps most important, issue is quality in Australian higher education system. In 2010, Australian Education International (AEI) commissioned a study on international students’ satisfaction. It is reported in the study that the five most important factors influencing students’ decision on where to study were: Quality of teaching (with 96% of respondents identifying this factor as important or very important); Reputation of a qualification from the institution (93%); personal safety (92%); reputation of the institution (91%); and research quality (90%). The concept of quality of international education goes beyond accommodating the learning needs of international students arising out of their own cultural and linguistic experience. Stakeholders in international education need to address key issues such as how international students are treated in and outside the university, what are the implications of international and local students learning to learn together, and how to promote healthy lifestyle and well-being among international students in this country?

The government try to create quality education through different mechanisms. One prominent strategy is the coalition of research bloc of the country’s eight elite universities known as the Group of Eight (GO8). It is recently reported that the federal government’s proposal to provide an additional 110,000 undergraduate student places by 2020, and 235,000 by 2030, within the GO8 system is putting quantity over quality and will result in much higher fees or greatly diminished academic standards. Hence, it is unlikely that the research intensive plan will be easily achieved when academic staff doubles their teaching and administrative load.

The second issue, for me, is the way we treat international students in Australia. A number of research studies in international education and trade in education service confirm that, for most international students, Australia is perceived as a safe, cheap and comfortable place to study. These points can be found and imitated in some other countries that export education to the international market. As a person working in this industry, I hardly hear a quick response from the University or the Australian government to international students to show our concern for their well-being. For instance, with the current disaster in Japan, we have not received a strong message from any major institutions or government to share how much we care for our Japanese students and their families.
Not so long ago, the spate of "racially-motivated attacks" on Indian students drew flak from all across the globe after several Indian students were injured and some even lost their lives. The quick response was several trips to India by top government officers, in order to promote Australia as a safe place to study. Instead of stating that the situation was not racially-motivated attack, the Australian government should have addressed some clear strategies to protect our international students from crime against our international students.

When it comes to the ‘value’ of Australian education, not much has been discussed and implemented among stakeholders in the international education industry. Henry George once stated that the value of a thing in any given time and place is the largest amount of exertion that anyone will render in exchange for it. What is the value of Australian education in the eyes of international students? What do they want in return from the money and time they spend in Australia? For instance, an international undergraduate business student at the University of Melbourne pays $31,776 a year. On top of the tuition fees are living expenses, other non-financial expenses and life opportunities.

Clearly, focusing on being an easy place to live and study is not quite the right message to send to international students (and their parents). Most Anglophone countries can modify their economic and education policies if they need to attract international students by focusing on offering cheap and easy courses to study. However, not all countries can provide a world class education system. The United States of America is a classic example when we think about the sustainability of international education industry. The Ivy league system and the balance of research and teaching universities in America can ensure the quality of existing teaching system and the creation of new knowledge. This is the message that all stakeholders in international education need to send to our international students and their parents. Australia must be perceived as a quality place for education, not a place to visit Koala and Kangaroo.

The image of being an easy place to study may be linked with the lack of preparation to offer an excellent education (and lifestyle) to our international students. Some recent examples include Canberra’s decision to lower entry requirements for international students, the increasing numbers of poor quality higher education degrees among public regional universities and private companies in most major cities in Australia, and the poor reactive and defensive strategies to support international students’ welfare and security. We cannot leave these issues with the government alone. As an academic, I believe all stakeholders in international education must acknowledge these issues and work towards the improvement of international students’ life and well-being in this country, if we need to offer an expensive value of Australian education in the global market.

Tertiary slump to sting unis

2011-01-17T19:13:00.001-08:00

STUDENTS are turning away from tertiary education courses in Victoria, with applications to study at TAFE plummeting by almost 10 per cent.

International year 12 student applications have slumped by 6 per cent this year, which will alarm universities because they depend on international student fees to subsidise domestic places.

Mature-age applications and graduate-entry teaching applications also plunged by 8.7 per cent.

Despite the fall in applications, the overall number of students who received tertiary offers - 75,781- was up 2.5 per cent from last year, according to the Victorian Tertiary Admission Centre.

Of those who applied to study at university, 82 per cent received an offer.

Poor and disadvantaged students were clear winners, with university offers to students from low socio-economic backgrounds increasing by 8 per cent, following the higher participation targets set by the federal government after the 2008 Bradley review of higher education.

The government has set a national target of 20 per cent of students at university coming from low socio-economic backgrounds by 2020.

It is also pushing for the overall number of students attending university to rise. University enrolment caps have been increased in recent years, and will be scrapped next year.

The government wants 40 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds to hold a bachelor degree by 2025, up from the current 29 per cent.

While university applications fell by 1.3 per cent in Victoria, TAFE and private tertiary colleges were most severely hit, receiving 8.7 per cent and 7 per cent fewer applications respectively.

University of Melbourne associate professor Leesa Wheelahan said when the economy was doing well there was less demand for tertiary education because it was easier to get a job.

She also said universities were poaching students because of the drop in international students and the new demand-led higher education system, which would lead to the cap on university enrolments being lifted next year.

''Universities are trying to get a bigger share of enrolments and cannibalising students who would normally apply to TAFE,'' she said.

Professor Wheelahan said the former state government's controversial shake-up of vocational education could also have cut TAFE applications, with fees for higher qualifications almost tripling and HECS-style loans introduced.

''I don't think the Victorian government has done a particularly good job of explaining income-contingent loans,'' she said.

The University of Melbourne this year offered 6000 new undergraduate places, more than ever and an 8 per cent increase on 2010. The number of offers it made to students from low socio-economic backgrounds jumped from 325 to 606, while offers to rural students increased from 659 to 754.

Acting vice-chancellor Professor Susan Elliott said the increase in overall offers, especially for disadvantaged students, was partly a response to the federal government's call for better university access for all students but also an essential part of the university's Melbourne Model. Under the model, students study a broad undergraduate degree and specialise at postgraduate level.

But when asked whether the government's growth agenda was sustainable, University of Melbourne senior vice-principal Ian Marshman said it was a serious issue for research-intensive universities such as Melbourne.

''In one sense the whole of the system has been living off the benefits of international student enrolments,'' he said. ''If there is some real hiccup in that area, it's going to make quite a big difference.''

Mr Marshman said his university received an average $16,000 for a Commonwealth-supported domestic student place and about $28,000 in fees from an international student, when the average cost of educating a student was more than $20,000, ''so there is actually a direct cross-subsidy from fee-paying students''.

''It's providing disincentives to institutions to enrol significant numbers of additional domestic students because they are losing money,'' he said.

The standard cutoff score to get into arts at the University of Melbourne was 88, down from 89 last year, and 85.05 for science, down from 89.05

by Jewel Topsfield

Australian Universities hit hard by slump in foreign students

2011-01-07T15:56:00.000-08:00

A slump in the number of international students coming to Australia is causing major problems for universities reliant on full-fee-paying students.

The latest Federal Government figures show a 1.4 per cent decline in enrolments since this time last year for a sector that has grown almost 11 per cent a year for the past eight years.

International students make up about a quarter of all university enrolments in Australia, so any reduction in intake has a serious impact on the bottom line.

Monash University is Australia's largest university and has more international students than any other.

Vice-chancellor Professor Ed Byrne says enrolments in English language courses at Monash College are down 30 per cent.

With half of those students typically migrating to full-fee-paying university places, that is a substantial loss of income.

"For next year, we're about $40 million on the income side away from where we'd hoped to be," he said.

Monash has just approved 359 redundancies to improve its budget forecast for next year.

Jennie Lang is pro-vice-chancellor international at the University of New South Wales. She says the decline in student numbers is worrying.

"In some instances, the downturn will initially be small and will be handled on the margins. In other universities it will be catastrophic," she said.

China is Australia's biggest market for international students, with India a close second.

Government data shows Indian student enrolments are down 17 per cent on this time last year.

The high Australian dollar has increased competition from the US and UK, but Ms Lang says recent changes to immigration rules are also to blame.

"There's been really significant problems about the messages we used in the election campaign to do with migration and whether or not Australia wants to grow its population," she said.

"That's been interpreted in our major source countries in Asia as Australia now sort of moving away from having international students and migrants."

'Perceived racism'

Ms Lang says there is also a perception that Australia is not as welcoming as it could be to international students.

"We've been picking that up in a number of countries that we've been visiting this year," she said.

Spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, Gautam Gupta, agrees with the assessment.

"I think everything plays a role. High Australian dollar obviously contributes, as for migration laws again, definitely a reason," he said.

"The biggest problem is the lack of confidence in the Australian Government and the lack of ability to stem the increasing violence."

Professor Byrne agrees perceived racism against Indian students has had an impact.

"We have a really good idea of this because of interviews with students and with our many agents throughout Asia," he said.

"So in South Asia, initially there were cultural safety factors as perceived in India. Now they've been addressed very vigorously by the Federal Government and by the university sector.

"I think cultural safety and a mutual understanding is being built up. It will take a few years to completely get over that hiccup but we'll get there.

"The Indian market was also very migration-focused and the new migration criteria I think have affected that market also."

But Professor Byrne is hopeful the downturn is not indicative of a long-term trend and that enrolment numbers from all overseas markets will have improved by 2013.

"I don't think there is going to be a decline in the long run," he said.

"Remember that the number of people who live in families that can afford university education privately in Asia is predicted to grow from something like 300 million today to over 1.4 billion in 10 years' time.

"The current international student market from Asia, especially China, is growing at more than 30 per cent a year and I think that's predicted to continue into the future.

"So this market is going to grow internationally for many, many years."

Source: ABC news by Anna Hipsley

Foreign student numbers continue to dive

2010-12-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

NEW international student commencements continue to fall, dropping 9.5 per cent, or more than 32,000 students, as at the end of October.

According to government agency Australian Education International, total enrolments in Australia are down 1.4 per cent at 599,795 students.

The drop in commencements has worsened marginally from a 9.3 per fall as at end-September, but the fall in total enrolments has accelerated from a drop of 0.9 per cent.

The figures come as the government continues to be pressured by the international education sector to ease tighter visa restrictions on students that it fears are discouraging applications.

As previously reported in The Australian, research by the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy has highlighted that students seeking an Australian visa have to have substantially more money behind them to qualify compared with the US, Canada and Britain.

In a statement today the Australian Technology Network of universities said the visa system was "threatening to the derail'' the industry.

"We have a ridiculous situation whereby the level of proof required by students from our key markets of China and India are substantially more onerous than for that required by students from Singapore and Malaysia,'' Ross Milbourne, ATN chairman and vice chancellor of University of Technology, Sydney, said.

International students seeking a local visa need to prove they have sufficient funds to cover tuition fees and living costs for the duration of their stay, which for a three-year degree would amount to at least $108,000, the Curtin Institute said. In comparison, it is about $40,500 in the US and $23,000-$25,000 in Canada, Britain and New Zealand.

As of October, enrolments in higher education remain 8.4 per cent up on a year ago, while commencement growth has slowed to 1.9 per cent. But the sector is braced for a substantial drop in numbers next year, especially in the second semester with some universities budgeting for falls of as much as 25 per cent.

The Curtin Institute has forecast that falling international student numbers in higher education could cost the economy as many as 19,000 jobs by 2012.

TAFEs and their agents are warning of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent decline in commencements next year, TAFE Directors Australia said yesterday.

Commencements in vocational education and training are down 8.2 per cent as of October. Enrolments are up just 0.4 per cent.

The English language college sector, which feeds both higher education and VET, remains the worst hit with enrolments down 18 per cent and commencements down 22.3 per cent.

(Source: The Australian)

Top unis warn on loss of quality

2010-10-25T05:03:00.000-07:00

THE academic integrity and international competitiveness of Australia's universities faces being seriously compromised.

This would occur if the Gillard government goes ahead with plan to approve thousands of additional student places without a corresponding boost to the sector's funding.

According to the coalition of the country's eight elite universities, known as the Group of Eight, the federal government's proposal to provide an additional 110,000 undergraduate student places by 2020, and 235,000 by 2030, is putting quantity over quality and will result in much higher fees or greatly diminished academic standards.

The Group of Eight has also expressed concerns that Australian universities are being driven into a one-size-fits-all regime, which lowers the standards of the best and props up the underperformers.

The group yesterday called on the Gillard government to either commit to billions of dollars to fund the proposed boost in university places, or allow tertiary institutions to make up the difference with sharply higher fees.

Without the funding, the Group of Eight says, the quality of tertiary education provided by Australian universities compared with other advanced countries will slide.

The warning follows a series of studies commissioned by the group, the reports of which have been obtained by The Australian.

Mike Gallagher, executive director of the Group of Eight, said the country's universities would struggle to maintain quality, while absorbing an additional 110,000 students by 2020 and 235,000 students by 2030.

From 2012, the government will remove the limit on the number of publicly funded undergraduate places, effectively undertaking to fund as many students as universities enrol.

But the federal government estimates that only 50,000 additional students by 2013 and 217,000 additional graduates by 2025 fall short of Group of Eight -- and subsequent Treasury -- projections.

Last year the government budgeted $491 million over four years, with a further $437m to target students from disadvantaged backgrounds. But the mid-year forward estimates increased the amount by $800m, suggesting the initial government predictions were wildly inadequate.

The Group of Eight estimates the additional places will cost an extra $3.6 billion a year (in 2008 dollars) by 2030. To maintain current staff-to-student ratios, among the highest in the world at over 20:1, will cost $1bn, while reducing them to 16:1 would cost further $7.5bn.

"We think the cost of growth needs to be shared. Government, general taxpayers and students will all have to pay more."

The Group of Eight says universities should be freed up to charge what they can, up to a 50 per cent increase on current fees.

"There are a whole lot of students who could afford to pay more but don't because the government won't let them," Mr Gallagher said.

He said the British government has recently proposed a sharp increase in fees. "Fee deregulation is unpalatable to government, but the issue is not going to go away," Mr Gallagher said. "The UK has just addressed it. It just takes a bit of leadership to say what is fair for the country and what's affordable for the country."

Australia is already the third-highest in OECD nations in how much individuals contribute to tertiary education -- behind only the US and Korea.

Marcia Devlin, a professor of higher education at Deakin University, said it was disappointing that students should foot the bill.

She said there were numerous other sources of potential funding, including industry, professional associations, alumni and philanthropy.

A spokesman for Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said the government was committed to a review of cluster funding rates -- or what the government pays universities for enrolling students in different disciplines -- "so that funding for teaching and learning remains internationally competitive".

The Go8 is also concerned that all universities are being driven into a one-size-fits-all regime, which lowers the standards of the best and props up the under-performers. Currently, there are three institutions in the top 100 of the Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings -- Australian National University, Melbourne and Sydney.

Other institutions represented by the Go8 are the universities of NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, Adelaide and Monash. Every member of the Gillard cabinet gained their first degree at a Go8 university.

The aggressive stance on funding by the Go8 is at odds with the traditional polite lobbying of vice-chancellors and could reflect the fine balance of power now in government.

Peter Quiddington, a adjunct lecturer from the University of New England, who is about to publish a book on the failed lobbying efforts of vice-chancellors, applauded the Go8's more assertive approach.

"Vice-chancellors argue that if they don't ruffle feathers, there will be more in the future. And the government of the day has always rolled them. They are being ripped off blind."

A spokesman for senator Brett Mason, who has carriage of higher education for the opposition, said: "The Go8's paper raises many issues and ideas that are very important in developing . . . policy."

Source: The Australian.com.au

The Fall of International Education

2010-10-16T22:45:00.001-07:00

I came across this news from the age and think that we are in the cross-road of international education in Australia. Subject matter is Indian students in Australia!!

Indian student enrolments at Australian universities are set to plunge by at least 80 per cent in the 2011 academic year, a leading academic says.

Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis warns that higher education across the country, including Victoria where it is the state's biggest export earner, is taking a massive hit after reports of attacks against students from the sub-continent.

"According to our best sources ... the fall in applications from India into Australian tertiary education ... are predicting at around 80 per cent, some institutions are reporting up to 90," Professor Davis told reporters in Melbourne.

"We did have a system where everything was growing. It's no longer true, so we are going to have to go back and look again."

Monash University is expected to cut staff numbers by more than 300 in 2011 due to drastically reduced international student revenues, the National Tertiary Education Union says.

But Melbourne University, with a more diverse mix of foreign students, is "better prepared" to weather the storm, a university spokesman said.

Prof Davis said Australia was the only country in the world where international student numbers were dropping.

"Every other country is seeing an increase in international students," he said.

"We are the only country in the world that is having this sharp fall, which tells you that whatever the factors are that are driving it, they're about what we do in Australia."

If the international student market continues to soften, universities will need to increase pressure of the federal government for more investment, Prof Davis said.

He conceded that the consequences of lost income would be felt by Australian students but would not confirm whether fees would rise.

"We would all prefer to see public investment (rather) than further increases in student fees, but it may be that, in the mix of things that get talked about, student fees is part of them," he said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said a variety of factors, including the high Australian dollar, some immigration changes and fierce competition in the region had put pressure on enrolments, but the government would continue to promote Australia as a desirable country to study in.

"We do want to see international students come and study here, so we'll keep working with the Victorian government, with individual universities on international education, but there are a range of factors putting pressure on at this time."

Prof Davis said Australia had never been the first destination of choice for Indian students, but actual or perceived violent attacks had not helped the cause.

"There's no doubt that the climate in India was deeply critical of the way Australians had handled it, and there was also no doubt it was going to affect people's willingness to come here," he said.

"We were already in a market where we weren't necessarily an attractive destination - this ensured that we were not an attractive destination.

"It takes a long time to rebuild a reputation ... almost overnight we've shown that.

"You only do it through patient diplomacy, you do it through endless delegations, you do it through scholarships, and you have to work very hard with the community at home to make it clear that there are ... really disturbing consequences."

(Source: http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/indian-student-numbers-to-drop-80-20101014-16l8j.html)

Transnational Education Experiences

2010-10-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

In the last 8 days, I spent my week working in Shanghai and I realised how much I enjoy working with students from Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade (SIFT). The class I taught was under the umbrella of RMIT Bachelor of Business (International Business) program. Thus, I expected the students to be worldly...or at least..... internationally in their views to the business and education.

I wasn't wrong when I went to teach them on the first day because most of them showed a high level of enthusiasm and understanding of key global issues. This is totally different from what I read from research on Chinese students (or myth about Chinese students). Some, not all, of them were quiet and passive in the first 60 minutes. Later on, when we broke the ice, I started to see the sparkling in their eyes when we started to talk about issues such as offshoring, outsourcing, Wal-MART in China, how Justin Bieber becomes global brand etc etc. I must admit the very first class at SIFT for me went very well and the very first lesson I learnt from this class is student-centered approach can become a reality when teachers shift the focus from the 'context of knowledge' in the classroom to the 'context of learning' among students.

Turning off the tap

2010-09-18T03:54:00.001-07:00

Very interesting article from the age:

Over the past 18 months a number of factors have led to a fall in the number of overseas students wanting to study in Australia. And universities, which rely on international student fees after years of government underfunding, are panicking.

Education observers around the world are now questioning whether Australia's business model for international education was such a good one after all.

Commentators such as Horst Albert Glaser, emeritus professor at Germany's University of Duisburg-Essen, are also questioning the morality of taking fees from foreign students from developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region to prop up Australian universities.

But in Australia such issues do not take centre stage. What's brewing here is deep frustration among universities that recent government policy changes are fuelling the drop-off in foreign students.

In an attempt to stamp out visa rorting, and weaken the link between immigration and education, the federal government last year introduced more stringent rules governing student visas, and tightened immigration regulations.

That has caused a slowdown in the rate of foreign students starting courses. As the problem worsens there is growing disquiet in Victoria's universities that the honey pot is drying up.

The issue is a political hot potato because universities rely on foreign student fees for an average of 16 per cent of their total funding, and use much of that revenue to cross-subsidise domestic students.

As Stephen King, dean of the business and economics faculty at Monash, suggested on the website Core Economics recently: ''If you are an undergraduate HECS student and you are sitting next to a foreign fee-paying student, turn to them and say 'thank you'. After all, they are paying for your education.''

He warns: ''If the university sector ends up in financial crisis it is taxpayers who will be bailing them out.''

Melbourne University's higher education expert, Simon Marginson, argues the downturn is primarily due to immigration policy changes, not a fall in demand, though that is also occurring.

''This export industry cannot be expected to grow forever,'' he says, ''and the long-term quality and reputation of Australian international education, including its commercial capacity, depends on the resources we put into it.''

Melbourne University education economist Ross Williams likens the government's strangling of the supply of foreign students to a ''tap being turned off a little''.

He predicts the damage to universities will reverberate through the economy, with fewer foreign students affecting property prices (since foreign students form a large part of the rental market) and dampening demand for ancillary services such as cafes around universities.

Universities heavily reliant on international students are on shaky ground. Central Queensland University is the most vulnerable as it relies on foreign students for 44 per cent of total revenue.

Victorian institutions at risk are Ballarat University (31 per cent), RMIT University (26 per cent) and Swinburne University of Technology (20 per cent). The picture is not much rosier for larger universities such as Monash University (18 per cent), Melbourne University (16 per cent) and La Trobe University (13 per cent).

Monash University is bracing for a 5 per cent fall in foreign student enrolments next year and a 10 per cent drop the year after.

Vice-chancellor Ed Byrne says university budgets are feeling the squeeze. ''There's been a systematic underfunding of domestic students, so no Australian university gets enough money from government or fees to pay our costs,'' he says. ''Our costs are dependent on the international markets, so not only do international students bring vast economic earnings to the state, not only do they contribute culturally enormously to our campuses, they also are key factors in university budgets in this country.

''For a state like Victoria, I think this is potentially the most serious economic thing on the horizon.'' International education is Victoria's top export earner, bringing in $5.8 billion last year.

At Swinburne University, foreign student numbers are down 10 per cent on last year. Forecasts for next year suggest that will shrink to about 80 per cent of 2009 levels. Vice-chancellor Ian Young believes the government must encourage more international students to come to Australia.

''The real danger in Australia is sending a message out into the market that we're really not interested in having international students come to Australia. So the market is basically voting with their feet and saying if [Australia] doesn't want us, there are other places we can go,'' he says.

Foreign student numbers are reasonably steady at La Trobe University says international director Liz Stinson, but the university is planning for a drop.

''I personally think we have been let down. We have done our darndest to both deliver high-quality education and to obey the law … We've all been working away at this for 10 years and I think there is a collective sense in the industry that we have been let down by government,'' she says.

In a sign of growing alarm, the Group of Eight leading universities has warned that a crippling downturn in foreign student numbers would imperil universities.

They have called on politicians to take urgent action to pull the international education industry from the brink of potential disaster. They want changes to student visa arrangements to ensure legitimate students are not discouraged from applying to Australia.

And they argue that tightening visas to deal with problems in the training sector, particularly so-called dodgy colleges, has resulted in ''collateral damage'' to universities.

John Phillimore from the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University says a slump in foreign student numbers would lead to massive job losses, increased class sizes and fewer courses.

Any suggestion that universities are just crying wolf was put to rest in a recent report by Professor Phillimore and fellow Curtin University colleague Paul Koshy, which warns of alarming consequences if the government does not reconsider its policies. In a description of the worst-case scenario - ''the perfect storm'' - they warn that by 2015 foreign student enrolments in higher education could plunge from about 214,000 in 2010 to about 148,000 in 2015, resulting in 36,182 fewer jobs and a collapse of $7 billion in university revenues.

Professor Phillimore told The Age the perfect storm scenario was a plausible outcome.

In the past 18 months, a cocktail of factors have conspired to put international education under severe pressure. They include a stronger Australian dollar, the impact of the global financial crisis, and fierce competition from countries such as the US.

Australia's reputation as a study destination has also taken a hammering, with attacks on foreign students, the collapse of private colleges, the immigration debate during the election campaign and tougher student visa rules.

''The impact of most of these factors has yet to be fully felt,'' the Curtin report warns. However, there are already signs of flattening demand. Government data shows foreign student enrolments in higher education are down 6.3 per cent for the year to June 2010.

Enrolments in English language courses are hardest hit, falling more than 20 per cent. Reports from student recruitment agents suggest enrolments could fall by up to 40 per cent. This is alarming for universities as English language courses are a pathway to higher education in subsequent years. Similarly, immigration data shows visas granted to students applying from overseas fell by a staggering 25 per cent in 2009-10.

David Buckingham, principal adviser to the office of the vice- chancellor at Monash University, is worried.

''The administrative conditions imposed by the Australian visa system are actually far more onerous than [those that] apply with competitor countries,'' he says. ''It's treating the students and their families almost as if they are money launderers, rather than those who are actually prepared to pay a significant amount in the education of their children.''

Under current visa arrangements, the family of a Chinese student wanting to do an undergraduate course at Monash would need to show it had up to $150,000 in the bank for six months before the date of the visa application, he says.

In comparison, Britain requires students to show a bank deposit of about $40,000 held for 28 days. The US merely asks the student to show adequate funds for self-sufficiency.

No one is arguing that we need to go back to days of easy visas, he says, but ''the visa system should be geared to sort the wheat from the chaff''.

In the absence of government action, universities such as Melbourne University are doing what they can to prepare for hard times ahead.

Deputy vice-chancellor global engagement Sue Elliott says: ''[Considering] the outlook for 2011 and particularly 2012, we are concerned. We are intensifying our engagement with schools, and internationally, but we are also seeking to diversify our student source countries as well.''

RMIT deputy vice-chancellor international Stephen Connelly is also president of the International Education Association of Australia. He wants to see the establishment of a parliamentary secretary for international education.

''What's happening now is a reaction to decisions by government that have been ill informed and poorly implemented with no overarching strategy and no vision. If they got those things right there wouldn't be a problem,'' he says.

In response to questions from The Age last week, then immigration minister Chris Evans defended the government's visa changes. He said the government would work collaboratively with the sector to ''ensure these reforms strike the right balance between making the visa application process easier for genuine students, while imposing appropriate checks on those who may seek to abuse the system''.

In the Gillard government's new ministerial line-up Chris Bowen takes over as immigration minister while the education portfolio is split, into schools, skills and tertiary education. Chris Evans has the skills and tertiary education portfolio and both ministers can expect intense lobbying by universities.

In the meantime, Melbourne University's Professor Marginson, is adamant that Australia would provide a stronger university education to local and international students if the quality of teaching and research could be guaranteed through adequate government funding.

It's a view shared by educators who argue foreign students' greatest attribute is not their ability to pay fees. Says Melbourne's Sue Elliott: ''If we were not reliant on international students for income, we would still seek to have international students in our classrooms from across the world … [the true value] is those very important links that are made. Those sorts of connections are priceless.''

Those priceless connections are now at stake as questions about the morality of using developing countries to fund education in Australia loom large. Professor Marginson notes the morality issue is rarely discussed.

''A sign,'' he says, ''of how our one-sided and almost solely commercial approach to international education has emptied out the moral content of our educational relationship with the Asia-Pacific region.''

Overseas student numbers plummet

2010-09-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

The fall in international student commencements accelerated in July as numbers from India plummeted with the crackdown on student visa fraud and tougher migration policies.

The falls are hitting vocational and English language courses heavily but these also feed students into universities, which are braced for the effects as well.

The figures, compiled by Australian Education International, have been revealed as the international education sector lobbies government for support and for adjustments to be made to the visa rulings.

Year-to-date new student commencements across the whole international sector were down 7.4 per cent at the end of July compared with a year ago.

The English college sector was worst hit, with a fall of 23 per cent, while the vocational sector dropped 8.6 per cent.

The drop is mainly in registrations from India, where much of the visa fraud had been concentrated. Year-to-date commencements from India have fallen by 20,000 students, or 40 per cent, to 30,500.

Melbourne University migration expert Lesleyanne Hawthorne said the vocational and English college sectors were experiencing a necessary reversal after fast growth as students and colleges took advantage of the previous study to migration pathway.

The old system awarded bonus points for permanent residency for a plethora of courses, including hairdressing and cookery.

However, the government's recent changes would keep students intent on migrating focused on doing quality courses and securing employee sponsorship, she said.

"We are having a shake-out that was inevitable. The steps that have been taken federally to say enrolment in an Australian course isn't an automatic entitlement to permanent residency was a necessary statement," Professor Hawthorne said.

(source: The Australian)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/overseas-student-numbers-plummet/story-e6frg6nf-1225913528166

Commencements in the higher education sector, however, were up 5.6 per cent.

Internationalisation of Business Schools: A thought from AMLE

2010-08-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

The forces that have limited the internationalization of higher education generally and business school globalization in particular, especially in the United States, are numerous and complex. At the broadest level, they include the same factors that
have traditionally limited the globalization of U.S.business: a large, prosperous, and somewhat isolated domestic market for goods and services.They also include the relatively recent advent of technologies to allow for the full globalization of
services as described above. But given that many U.S. companies are now fully globalized—“transnational” in the Bartlett and Ghoshal sense—it seems time, indeed overdue, for U.S. business schools to follow suit.

Business schools and their leaders themselves recognize this shortfall. Indeed, at an AACSB meeting in early 2009, Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor of global strategy at IESE Business School, suggested that most of the cross-border collaborations among
business schools offered little genuine integration of courses and curricula, remarking, “If that’s all we do, we risk becoming a specialized segment of the travel and hospitality industry (Mangan, 2009: pa.9). Edward A. Snyder, then dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said,

”It’s time to stop pretending that we’re doing more than we really are“ (Mangan, 2009: A29).

Blair H. Sheppard,dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, has probably offered the boldest response to these critiques, pushing forward with an
expanded version if its ”cross-continent MBA,” under which students spend significant periods working and studying at campuses in Britain, China, India, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Duke’s main campus in North
Carolina (Mangan, 2009). But on balance, business schools in the United States and around the world have not progressed very far in terms of their globalization,
even as other private, public, and nonprofit organizations have. AMLE has provided a platform for research, debate, and discussion of the challenges of globalizing
U.S. (and non-U.S.) business schools and of the related phenomenon of the internationalization of management curriculum.

In the very first issue of Academy of Management (Learning and Education aka AMLE), Henry Mintzberg and Jonathan Gosling (2002) reflected on a “new” approach to management education as exemplified in the International Masters Program in Practicing Management (IMPPM), which included collaboration among business schools in India, France, the U.K., Canada, Japan, and Korea.

They argued that living and working in different contexts allow managers to “live cross-cultural experiences as authentically as possible” (Mintzberg& Gosling, 2002: 66). Yet, since this article was published, AMLE has featured relatively few
papers that have addressed this important topic. While some potential contributions may have been “left on the floor” as a result of the review process, we need much more innovative thinking around this topic. I see great potential for exploring
questions such as

• What is a global business school? How should it be defined? How can “globalness” (in the business school context) be measured?
• What mechanisms exist for advancing global business education? How can success and failure of these efforts be measured?

Just a thought :)

US News Business School Ranking (Marketing)

2010-07-28T21:25:00.001-07:00

Best Business Schools Specialty Rankings: Marketing
Ranked in 2010

1 Northwestern University (Kellogg) Evanston, IL

2 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) Philadelphia, PA

3 Duke University (Fuqua) Durham, NC

4 Stanford University Stanford, CA

5 Harvard University Boston, MA

6 Columbia University New York, NY
University of Chicago (Booth) Chicago, IL

8 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross) Ann Arbor, MI

9 University of California--Berkeley (Haas) Berkeley, CA

10 University of California--Los Angeles (Anderson) Los Angeles, CA

International Students and Racism

2010-07-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

As a former international students and a teacher who has been working with international students in the last 3-4 years, I can't stand some attitudes that my students have to put up with. I am not saying that most of them had experienced racism. Some of them do..and racism comes in different forms. I found this excerpt from the Australia Association of Social Science and it motivates me to write about this topic. I states:

"International students are often viewed only in terms of their economic usefulness to the host country, and the focus is on expenditure, rather than their income situation. Although street crime victimisation is reported, there are many other types of crimes or abuses and perpetrators: employers who exploit, educational colleges which behave rapaciously and unethically, the behaviour of some immigration agents and landlords, to name a few. For example, some landlords, it is claimed will not rent to Indian students. This constitutes racial discrimination. There have been claims of landlords expecting sex for rent (and sometimes in addition to rent). There are cases of exploitation through overcrowding, poor conditions such as no smoke alarms.
Understanding the context of the student can complete the policy picture."

This is ridiculous form any points of view. What can we do to protect our students? I, personally, think that the University and State government MUST work together to protect our students. I know this is seen as an old-fashioned argument by some people but, to me, it is the sustain way to protect our student and to ensure we provide a fair service to them, while they are in our country.

International Education Industry

2010-07-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

Due to greater mobility of people, social and technology revolutions, and emerging market of foreign degrees, the higher education sector has transformed tremendously. In this scenario, Australia’s effective position taking strategies in global higher education has resulted in the increase of overseas student population from 1% to 9% between 1993 and 2003 (AEI, 2005a; Marginson, 2007) Australia also has the advantage of its global geostrategic location which positions it as the nearest Anglo-Saxon country to Asia Pacific. Thus providing Asian students a regional alternative for Anglo-American education (Marginson, 2007). Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Indonesia and India are among the top source countries for Australian higher education (Mazzarol & Hosie, 1996). Mazzarol (2006) predicts that there are significant possibilities for Australia to utilize education as global positioning good for the students from Asia Pacific region.

America and UK are the leading host countries for international education securing 28% and 12% respectively of the proportion of world’s foreign students (OECD; 2005, as cited in Marginson, 2006, p25). Consequently Australian government terms them as Australia’s major competitors in international education (AEI, 2005b). The global positional market of education is fashioned by the US positional market. US host 26 of the top 40 research universities of the world (SJTIHE, 2004, as cited in Marginson, 2006). Thus prove to be the top destination for the prospective international students. However, America’s supremacy in the global scenario of international education is not sustained by active marketing strategies but is a byproduct of the quality of its research universities as well as the most important factor of it being a super power, politically as well as economically. Because of lack of active marketing, global war and visa issues, in 2003-2004 the foreign student enrolment in US experienced a sharp decline of 2.4 percent (IIE 2004, as cited in Marginson, 2006). After 9/11 and Iraq war, US universities also experienced decline in the student enrolment form Muslim countries, whereas in Australia it increased significantly (Marginson, 2007). Despite current trends in the decline of international student enrolment in US universities, America remains to be the world leader in education and will continue to be the standard by which the quality of education will be judged worldwide. In this context the Melbourne’s Vice Chancellors forum’s decision to make efforts to position Melbourne as a knowledge city comparable to Boston seems to be logical and plausible.

In the face of this unidirectional global competition, segmenting the Asia-Pacific region, India and Muslim countries for future marketing strategies may prove to be the success factor in sustaining the multi billion dollar industry of international education in Australia. However targeting potential students in these countries pose additional questions as to what are the factors that motivate a student to select a particular foreign study destination. Gray, Fam & Llanes (2003), conducted a research in three countries, namely Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore, investigating the motivational factors that inspire students in making study destination choices and the media they use to gain information about foreign universities. They used five brand positioning dimensions which can play a role in inspiring prospective international students, ‘university’s learning environment (including excellent staff, facilities and research resources), reputation (including brand name, achievements and high standard of education), graduate career prospects (including graduated’ employment prospects and expected income, and employers’ views of graduates), destination image (including political stability, safety and hospitality) and cultural integration (including religious freedom and cultural diversity)’ (p.115). Gray et al found that graduate career prospects and reputation were the common motivating factors among the three nations reviewed. Moderate importance was given to the university’s learning environment and destination image. And cultural integration issues were given the least importance.

Global Marketing for Australian Education

2010-06-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

I have received a number of emails from the readers of "Global Marketing for Australian Education". One of the questions is why do we need to think about marketing for education? Shouldn't education be free?

As an author of the book, I would like to share with you my intention when I wrote this book. It was not my intention to promote the concept of hard marketing for international education service. In fact, I have been interested in product development, communication improvement and transnational education offer. Thus, the book focuses on how to develop proper international education service to students from around the world. This book also focuses on consumer behavior by examining international students and various reference groups. It is my hope that we will not use marketing to manipulate students. We, on the other hand, should learn how to improve the quality of international education services.

** The book is available online at
www.amazon.com

www.amazon.co.uk

Book on Demand

National and Organizational Culture

2010-06-29T06:53:00.001-07:00

The emphasis on the central role of national culture has continued in recent years. For example, the most recent large scale project, GLOBE (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004; Javidan, House, Dorfman, Gupta, Hanges, & de Luque, 2004), while not explicitly using the term 'constraint', emphasizes that the relationship between national culture and organizational culture is strong with organizations mirroring the countries where they are found, which seems consistent with the idea of a constraint.

Johns (2006: 396) states explicitly that 'national culture constrains variation in organizational cultures'. His argument relies significantly on empirical work by Hofstede (1980, 2001) and on the work by Chatman and Jehn (1994), the latter who concluded that industry explained a substantial portion of the variance in organizational culture. Accordingly, Johns argues that 'the contextual imperative suggested by these findings stands in sharp contrast to the common view that cultures are shaped essentially through internal processes' (2006: 396).

There are, however, several issues with these conclusions. First, Gerhart and Fang (2005), in their re-analysis of Hofstede's data, show that country differences explain only a small percentage of the variance in individual level cultural values, suggesting that mean differences between countries are small relative to differences (i.e., variance) within countries. This considerable within-country variance at the individual level would be expected to contribute to variance in organizational cultures. Second, Gerhart (2008), in his re-analysis of Chatman and Jehn's (1994) data collected in the USA, shows that organizational differences, in fact, explained more variance in cultural values than did industry differences. This re-analysis casts doubt on the argument that organizational differences in culture are as constrained as is believed. Additional evidence shows considerable variation in organizational culture and strategies within other countries such as China (Krug & Hendrischke, 2008; Tsui, Wang, & Xin, 2006), suggesting room for managerial discretion. Third, no empirical research to date actually provides a direct estimate of the magnitude of the relationship between national culture and organizational culture. Conclusions about national culture as a constraint on organizational culture would be more compelling with such evidence.

Finally, from a conceptual point of view, Johns's (2006) conclusion that constraints such as national culture are a 'contextual imperative' which constrains internal management discretion stands in sharp contrast to frameworks in the strategy literature such as the resource based view (RBV) (Barney, 1986, 1991) and related human resources (HR) management perspectives (e.g., Barney & Wright, 1998) that organizational culture (together with related HR practices) is a factor that organizations can use to create value and to differentiate themselves.

My new book: Global Marketing for Australian Education: Lessons and Strategies

2010-06-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

My recent book "Global Marketing for Australian Education: Lessons and Strategies" is now available in most major bookshops and online. The book discusses various aspects of marketing strategies for international education service. I would like to share with you the descriptions of this book.

"International Education has become a global industry, driven by aggressive marketing overseas of degree programs by universities. Actors in international education are contributing to the new phase of international education industry. International education providers, thus, need to acknowledge the developments, understand marketing strategies and address the challenges of the future. By investigating Australian international education industry, this book explores the concepts and practices of international marketing strategies from Australian educational institutions. Marketing lessons and strategies from Australian international education are the highlight of this book."

The book is also available online at www.amazon.com

Strategies and international education

2010-05-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Despite sustained growth in international education (Bohm, et al., 2003, UNESCO, 2006)investigation into the marketing of international education remains limited and is largely based around international student choice [e.g. Joseph and Joseph (2000); Lawley (1998)] and student perception [e.g. Gatfield, Barker and Graham (1999); Patterson, Romm and Hill (1998)]. In the early 1980s, Kotler and Murphy (1981) called for the development of marketing strategy within the university sector. Yet by the late 1980s Pokarier and Ridings (1998) found institutional strategic planning regarding international student recruitment still to be at a low standard. More recently, Maringe (2004) calls for the adoption of marketing principles by university managers while in a review of marketing within the higher education sector, Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka (2006) f ind research of marketing within higher education remaining at a “relatively pioneer stage” (p. 334).

Within the small body of extant studies, marketing tactics of universities in the United Kingdom are investigated by Naude and Ivy (1999) who find tactic operationalisation
differences based on institutional age. Mazzarol and Hosie (1996) find no evidence of
consistent international education marketing strategy in Australian universities and Maringe and Foskett (2002) recommend that marketing should become an integ al part of institutional operations. Mazzarol (1998), using student recruitment as a measure for market success, identifies factors considered to have a critical impact on market success and then subsequently develops a model of competitive advantage for education institutions recruiting internationally (Mazzarol and Soutar, 1999). The positioning of university brands in Asian markets is considered by Gray, Fam and Llanes (2003). To date, no studies with a secondary school focus have been identified. This brings about the fundamental need to investigate marketing strategies from an educational institution point of view.

University Ranking in Europe

2010-04-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

An expert group on the assessment of university-based research was established by the European Commission in July 2008. The main objective was to "identify parameters to be observed in research assessment and to analyse major assessment and ranking systems to establish a more valid comparative methodological approach".

Now the group has delivered its final report proposing wide-ranging changes in the world ranking of universities and calling for a more fine-tuned assessment methodology.

The EU Commission asked for the development of a multidimensional methodology to capture more dimensions of academics' work. It also asked the group to identify the types of users of measurements of the quality of university-based research, take stock of the main methodologies in use and identify data requirements for a new multidimensional approach.

The group had 15 distinguished members from 12 EU member states and Australia, and two international organisations. It was headed by Professor Wolfgang Mackiewcz of the Free University of Berlin.

In its report, the group says universities should be funded more for what they do than what they are. Competitive funding "should be based on institutional evaluation systems and on diversified performance indicators".

Although university ranking systems have been widely used since their introduction in 2003, assessment experts have serious reservations about the methodologies used. Besides this, the ranking systems tend to focus on the 100 top ranked institutions.

The EU group wants to make a new and coherent methodology to assess the research produced by European universities. And this should be relevant to the 17,000 higher education institutions around the world.

In a foreword to the report, Commissioner Janez Potocnik, who commissioned the report and who participated in the conference before the report was launched, quotes Einstein: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts".

The group claims that "the absence of appropriate, verifiable and trustworthy data can undermine the usefulness of cross-national comparisons and benchmarking". It then makes reference to a 2007 article by RV Florian in Scientrometics: "Research has found that the results of the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Rankings of World Universities are not replicable, thus calling into question the comparability and methodology used."

The methodology recommended by the group is an assessment based on fit-for-purpose, with combined quantitative indicators and data with qualitative information undertaken at the level of 'knowledge clusters'.

Such knowledge clusters should be based on an administrative unit such as a faculty, department, school, teams, centres, institutes, interdisciplinary issue-driven clusters, the report says. They should allow for aggregation to the institutional level.

The group has developed an outline for a "multi-dimensional research assessment matrix" that links specified users with their defined properties and objectives to specific data, quantifiable and qualitative indicators and specific assessment methods.

Based on this exercise, the group demonstrates the method in several case studies: on research excellence initiatives in Australia and Germany; individual universities in Belgium and Finland; national evaluation agencies and processes in France, Germany, Norway, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK; and on global rankings such as Webometrics, the ARWU, THE-QS rankings, as well as performance rankings of scientific papers and the Leiden ranking on bibliometric indicators.

To take the project forward, the report proposes:

* Establishment of a European observatory for assessment of university-based research.
* Investment in developing a shared information infrastructure.
* The launch of a pilot for a multidimensional research assessment matrix.
* Adapting the multidimensional matrix to web-based technology.
* Launching a project of pilot indicators to measure the social and economic impact of research.
* Developing a financial model to cover the full cost of university-based research.

Unemployment and Business

2010-04-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

The unemployment rate for the OECD area was broadly stable in February 2010 compared with January. The headline rate fell 0.1 percentage point but this reflected the partial unwinding of effects that led to a temporary increase in Korea's January rate. Month on month, the general picture is of broad stability across all OECD countries, a trend reinforced by the March figures for the United States and Canada, which were unchanged at 9.7% and 8.2%, respectively.

Situation in Thailand

2010-04-11T05:05:00.001-07:00

The Thailand of today is not quite the France of 1789 — there is no history of major tensions between rich and poor here, and most of the country is peaceful despite the noisy protests. But more than ever Thailand’s underprivileged are less inclined to quietly accept their station in life as past generations did and are voicing anger about wide disparities in wealth, about shakedowns by the police and what they see as the longstanding condescension in Bangkok toward people who speak provincial dialects, especially from the northeast.

The deference, gentility and graciousness that have helped anchor the social hierarchy in Thailand for centuries are fraying, analysts say, as poorer Thais become more assertive, discarding long-held taboos that discouraged confrontation.

The haves in Thailand have a lot — the country has one of the most inequitable income distributions in Asia, a wider gap between rich and poor than in China, Malaysia, the Philippines or Vietnam, according to a World Bank report.

Four years of political turmoil have brought clearer divisions between wealthy families and their domestic staff, between the patrons of expensive restaurants and the waiters who serve them, between golfing businessmen and the legions of caddies who carry their bags.

“This is a newfound consciousness of a previously neglected part of Thai society,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, one of the country’s leading political scientists and a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s FSI-Humanities Center. “In the past they were upset, but they weren’t cohesive as a force and coherent in their agenda. New technologies have enabled them to unify their disparate voices of dissatisfaction.”

The role of technology in bringing together the protesters has been crucial. The leaders of the protest movement have used community radio stations, mobile-phone messaging and the Internet to forge an identity for lower-income Thais and connect a vast constellation of people in villages and towns.

At times the protests in Bangkok could be described as flash mobs of the disaffected. Protesters, who wear trademark red shirts, have converged on government buildings, banks and military bases across the city guided by text messages.

China trade tensions with US

2010-04-02T16:31:00.001-07:00

China’s trade disputes with the U.S. have been “amplified” and in some cases are no worse than those with other countries, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said ahead of a visit to Washington this month by President Hu Jintao.
Kirk declined to single out China as a protectionist nation in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt” airing this weekend. The U.S. and China, with $409 billion in annual trade, have a complex relationship that holds “great promise,” Kirk said.
“Our challenges with China I think get amplified because there’s so much attention focused on China,” Kirk said. “But we have challenges throughout Asia.”
President Barack Obama would like to complete at least one of three pending trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama this year, Kirk said. While he declined to say which accord would come first, Kirk said the administration is making “good progress” on resolving labor and tax issues with Panama.
Bipartisan cooperation will be required on trade issues to keep the U.S. competitive with other countries that are lowering tariffs, Kirk said. He has met with representatives of labor unions and congressional Democrats over the past 14 months to try to defuse the emotions surrounding trade, Kirk said.

Top 15 Business school Ranking: 2010

2010-03-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

1) London business School
2) Wharton (U Penn.)
3)Harvard Business School
4)Stanford University GSB
5) Insead
6)Columbia Business School
7)IE Business School/Spain
8)MIT Sloan School of Management
9)Hong Kong Uni. Business School
10) IESE Business school/Spain
11) India Institute of Management
12)STERN (New York University)
13)Dartmouth College: TUCK
14)IMD/Switzerland
15) Yale School of Management

(Source: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings)

Global university rankings 2007: interview with Simon Marginson December 12, 2007 by globalhighered

2010-03-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

Editor’s note: The world is awash in discussion and debate about university (and disciplinary) ranking schemes, and what to do about them (e.g. see our recent entry on this). Malaysia, for example, is grappling with a series of issues related to the outcome of the recent global rankings schemes, partly spurred on by ongoing developments, but also a new drive to create a differentiated higher education system (including so-called “Apex” universities). In this context Dr. Sarjit Kaur, Associate Research Fellow, IPPTN, Universiti Sains Malaysia, conducted an interview with Simon Marginson, Australian Professorial Fellow and Professor of Higher Education, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne. The interview was conducted on 22 November 2007.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q: What is your overall first impression of the 2007 university rankings?

A: The Shanghai Jiao Tong (SHJT) rankings came out first and the ranking is largely valid. The outcome shows a domination of the large size based universities in the Western world, principally English-speaking countries and principally the US. There are no surprises in that when you look at the fact that the US spends seven times as much on higher education as the next nation, which is Japan, and that is seven times as much as a very big advantage in a competitive sense. The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) rankings are not valid, in my view, I mean you have a survey which gets 1% return, is biased to certain countries and so on. The outcome tends to show that similar kinds of universities do well as in the top 50 anyway as in the SHJT because research-strong universities also have strong reputations and that shows up strongly in the THES, but the Times one is more plural with major universities in a number of countries (the oldest, largest, and best established universities in a number of countries) appear in the top 100 who aren’t strong enough in research terms to appear in the SHJT. But I don’t put any real value on the Times results – they go up and down very fast. Institutions that are in the top 100 then disappearing from the top 200 two years later, like Universiti Malaya did. It doesn’t mean too much.

Q: In both global university rankings, UK and US universities still dominate the top ten places. What’s your comment on this?

A: Well, it’s predictable that they would dominate in terms of a research measure because they have the largest concentration of research power – publications in English language journals, which mostly are edited from these countries and to their scholars in numbers. The Times is partly driven by research (only 1/5 of it is) and partly driven by the number of international students that people have – they tend to go to the UK and Australia more than they go to US but they tend to be in English-speaking countries as well. At times one half (50%) is determined by reputation as they’re reputational surveys at which one is 40% and the other is 10%. Now, reputation tends to follow established prestige and the English language, where the universities have the prestige as well. But the other factor is that the reputational surveys are biased in favour of countries which use the Times, read the Times and know the Times (usually in the British Empire) so it tends to be UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong that put in a lot of survey returns whereas the Europeans don’t put in many; and many other Asian countries don’t put in many. So, that’s another reason why the English universities would do well. In fact the English universities do very well in the Times rankings – much better than they should really, considering their research strengths.

Q: What’s your comment on how most Asian universities performed in this year’s rankings?

A: Look, I think the SHJT is the one to watch because that gives you realistic measures of performance. The problem with SHJT is it tends to be a bit delayed – so that there’s a delay between the time you performed and the time it shows up in the rankings because the citation and publication measures are operating off the second half of the 90s; in the HiCis, Thomson HiCis count used by SHJT. So when the first half of the 2000 starts to show up, you’re going to see the National University of Singapore go up from the top 200 into the top 100 pretty fast. You will expect the Chinese universities will follow as well, a bit slower, so that Tsinghua and Peking Uni, Fudan, and Jiao Tong itself will move towards the top 200 and top 100 over time because they are really building up to many strengths. That would be a useful trend line to follow. Korean universities are also going to improve markedly in the rankings over time, with Seoul National leading the way. Japan’s already a major presence in the rankings of course. I wouldn’t expect any other Asian country, at this point, to start to show up strongly. It’s not the reason why the Malaysian universities should suddenly move up the research ranking table when they are not investing any more in research than they were before. It will be a long time before Malaysia starts creating an impact in the SHJT because if those China policy tomorrow requires universities to build on their basic research strengths which will involve sending selected people off abroad all the time for PhDs, establishing enough strengths in USM, UKM and UM and a couple more for major research bases at home and to have the capacity to train people at PhD level at home and so on, and be performing a lot of basic research. To do that you have to pay competitive salaries, you got to (like Singapore does) bring people back who might otherwise want to work in the US or UK…and that means paying something like UK salaries or if not, American ones. Then you’ll settle them down, and it’ll take them 5 years before they do their best output. Malaysia is perhaps better at marketing than it is with research performance because it has an International Education sector and because the government is quite active in promoting the university sector offshore and that’s good and that’s how it should be.

Q: What about the performance of Australian universities?

A: They performed as they should in the SHJT, which is to say we got 2 in the top 100. That’s not very good in the sense that when you look at Canada which is a country which is only slightly wealthier and about 2% bigger and a similar kind of culture and quality and it does much better. I mean it has 2 in the top 40 because it spends a lot more on research. Australia would do better in the SHJT if more than just ANU was being funded specially for research. Sydney, Queensland and West Australia were in the top 150, which is not a bad result and New South Wales is in the top 200, Adelaide and Monash were in the top 300 as is Macquarie I think. So it’s 9 in the top 300, which is reasonably good but there’s none in the top 50, which is not good. Australia is not there yet in being regarded a serious research power. In the THES rankings, Australian universities did extremely well because the survey vastly favours those countries which use the Times, know the Times and tend to return the surveys in higher than average numbers and Australia is one of those and because Australia’s International education sector is heavily promoted and because Australia has a lot of international students, which pushes its position up in the Internationalisation indicator. So Australia comes out scoring well in the THES rankings, having 11 universities in the top 100 and that’s just absurd when you look at the actual strengths of Australian universities and even their reputation worldwide, and they’re not strong in the same sense overall as research-based institutions. I’d say the same for British universities too – I mean they did too well. I mean University College London (UCL) this year is 9th in the ranking and stellar institutions like Stanford and University of California Berkeley were 19th and 22nd — this doesn’t make any sense and it’s a ludicrous result.

Q: It is widely acknowledged that in the higher education sector the keys to global competition are research performance and reputation. Do you think the rankings capture these aspects competently?

A: Well, I think the SHJT is not bad with research performance. There’s a lot of ways you can do this and I think using Nobel Prize is not really a good indicator because while the people who receive the prize in the Science and Economics are usually good people; someone said people who are just as good just never receive a prize – you know, because it’s submission-based and it’s all very open; it’s arguable as to whether it’s pure merit. I mean anyone who gets a prize has merit but it doesn’t mean it’s the highest merit of anyone possible that year. Given that the Nobel counts towards 30% of the total, I think it’s probably a little exaggerated in its impact. So I’d take that out and I’ll use something like the citation per head measure, which also appears in the THES rankings actually using similar data but which can be done with the SHJT database as well. But there are a lot of problems – one of the issues is the fact that for some disciplines, for example, cite more than others. Medicine cites much more heavily than engineering so that a university strong in medicine tends to look rather good in the Jiao Tong indicators compared to universities strong in engineering and many of the Chinese and universities in Singapore and Australia too are particularly strong in engineering so that doesn’t help them. But once you start to manipulate the data, you’re on a bit of a slippery slope downwards because there are many other ways you can do it. I think the best measures are probably those developed by Leiden University citation where they control for the size of the university and they control for the disciplines. They don’t take it any further than that and they are very careful and transparent when they do that. So that’s probably the best single set of research outcomes measures but there are always arguments both ways when you’re trying to create a level playing field and recognising true merit. The Times doesn’t measure reputation well when you have a survey with a 1% return rate and which is biased towards 4 or 5 countries and under-represents most of the others. That’s not a good way to measure reputation so we don’t know reputation from the point of view of the world, as the THES are basically UK university rankings.

Q: What kinds of methodological criticisms would you have against the SHJT in comparison to the THES?

A: I don’t think there’s anything that the THES does better; except that the SHJT uses the citation per head measure which is probably a good idea. The SHJT uses a per head measure of research performance as a whole which is probably a less valuable way to take into account size but I think the way Leiden does it is better than either in terms of size measure. That’s the only thing the THES does better and everything else the THES does a good deal worse so I wouldn’t want to implicate the THES in any circumstances. The other problem with the Times is the composite indicator — how do you equate student-staff ratio which is meant to be measured with teaching capacity? How can you give that 20% to research and 20% to reputation? What does that mean? Why? Why not give teaching 50%, why not give research 50%? I mean it’s so arbitrary. There’s no theory at the base of this. It’s just people sitting in a market research company and Times office, guessing about how to best manipulate the sector. The Social Science should be very critical of this kind of thing, regardless of how well or how badly the university is doing.

Q: In your opinion, have these global university rankings gained the trust or the confidence of mainstream public and policy credibility?

A: They’ll always get publicity if they come from apparently authoritative sources and they appear to cover the world. So it’s possible, as with the Times, to develop a bad ranking and get a lot of credibility but the Times now has lost a good deal of ground and the reason why it’s losing credibility, first in the informed circles like Social Science, then with the policy makers, then with the public and the media. And it’s results are so volatile and universities get treated so harshly by going up and down so fast when their performance is not changing. So everyone is now beginning to realize that there is no real relationship between the merit and the university and the outcome of the ranking. And once that happens, the ranking has no ground – it’s gone, it’s finished; and that’s what’s happening to the Times. I mean it will keep coming out for a bit longer but it might stop altogether because its credibility is really reducing now.

Q: To what extent do university rankings help intensify global competition for HiCi researchers or getting international doctoral students or the best postgraduate students?

A: I think the Jiao Tong has had a big impact in focusing attention on the number of countries in getting universities into the top 100 or even the top 500 for that matter (and in some countries the top 50 or top 20) and that is leading in some nations, you could name China and Germany for example, as places where the concentration of research investment is occurring to try to boost the position on individual universities and even disciplines because Jiao Tong also measures mean in 5 discipline areas as well, as does the Times. I think that kind of policy effect will continue and certainly by having a one world ranking, which is incredible such as the Jiao Tong, will help intensify global competition and lead everyone to see the world in terms of a single competition in higher education, particularly in research performance, which focuses attention on the high quality of researchers who comprise most of the research performers. I mean, studies show that 2-5% of researchers in most countries produce more than half of the outcomes in terms of publications and grants. Having this is helpful and it’s a good circumstance.

Q: Do you have any further comments on the issue of whether university rankings are on the right track? What’s your prediction for the future?

A: I think bad rankings tend to undermine themselves over time because their results are not credible. Good ranking systems are open to refinement and improvement and they tend to get stronger, and that’s exactly the case with the Jiao Tong. I think the next frontier with the rankings is the measurement of teaching performance and student quality. The added point of exit — whether it’s done as an evaluated thing or just as a once-off measure. The OECD is in the early stages of developing internationally comparable indicators of student competence – it might use just competency tests like problem solving skills, it may use discipline-based tests in areas like Physics which are common to many countries. It’s more difficult to use disciplines but on the other hand if you just use skills without knowledge, it’s also limited and perhaps open to question. The OECD has got many steps and problems in trying to do this and there are questions as to how this can be done — whether it’s within the frame of the institution or whether through national systems. There are many other questions about this and the technical problems are considerable just to get cross-country measures which are similar but this may well happen when you have ranking capacity on the basis of student outcomes, probably becomes more powerful than research performance in some ways; at least in terms of the international market. I mean research performance probably distinguishes universities from institutions and gives them prestige but teaching outcomes are also important. Once you can measure and establish comparability across countries and measure teaching outcomes that way, then it could be a new world.

End

Asian Management: Challenges and Opportunities in Turbulent Times Macau, SAR, China, December 12-14, 2010

2010-02-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

The Asia Academy of Management invites papers for its seventh conference on the theme of Challenges and
Opportunities in Turbulent Times. No leader in any company would deny that the first decade of the 21st century
has had its disproportionate share of turbulent times. Businesses s in Asia have been affected by, and responded,
to the heightened risks, that have accompanied Asia’s continued rise in prominence in the world economy.
As with the diversity across Asia nations in culture, society and economic systems, the effect of such challenges,
alongside managers’ responses to these challenges have been highly variant. It is now time to collectively reflect
on our experiences in these turbulent times and move forward with a development of an improved understanding
of the creative strategies that have been, and will be, developed to handle the challenges and capture the
opportunities in these turbulent times.
Given the variety in firm responses, Asian firms’ experiences and strategies in turbulent times can provide new
insights to the development and extension of core management theories. The Seventh Asia Academy of
Management conference will accordingly focus on how Asian managers should lead their organizations in an era
characterized by these unprecedented challenges. More specifically, issues related to the broad theme of the
conference include, but are not restricted to, the following:
• What are the major changes in the environment in Asia and in the world. What are the specific challenges
that Asian managers have had to confront in the first decade of the 21st century?
• How are Asian firms responding to the new sources of turbulences in the environment? What are the
changes in the strategies of Asian firms?
• How do Asian firms perceive the future environment in Asia and in the world?
• What have Asian managers learned from their experiences in these turbulent times? How can they move
their organizations forward? What are the obstacles and challenges in front of them in implementation?
• What are the characteristics that Asian leaders need to possess in this era? How should today’s Asian
leaders be different from those in the past? What are the new skills that need to be acquired and
developed?
• What are the changes that Asian firms need to make so that they can remain viable and competitive in
this era? What should managers do to implement these changes?

Human Resource Development and the Emerging Needs of the World

2010-01-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

This is the last paper from ICBME conference and some key points that I learnt from this presentation include:

1)The scope of HRD: from 72-95 there is no agreement of the definition of HRD. Scope is limited to organisational context, not the HRD in the societal context. HRD challenges include national environment, organisational factors, professional environment (i.e. emphasis on stakeholders, emphasis on strategic planning), global environment (leadership, technological change).

2) Comparison of traditional and modern HRD: limited to organisation VS. extension beyond that boundaries. Modent HRD is flexible to encompass multiple theories from multi-disciplines. Modern views are more into the critical perspectives of HRD (pragmatism).

3) HRD and its link to knowledge, skills and capabilities of individuals should be emphasised in the modern world.

Live from the ICBME Conference

2010-01-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

I am attending an International conference on Business and Management Education in Bangkok. The paper that I am listening to (while I'm writing thins blog) is culture and leadership. The presenter identifies Long-Term Orientation (LTO) and tried to identify the concept of perseverance as a consistent effort to achieve goal and business culture in East Asia. He said that Chinese business look at long-term prospect of business and it plays an important role in goal-setting in the Chinese business context. Connection in the sense of relationship and thrift were compared in this paper. Very interesting to listen to the dimensions of LTO (thrift, connection and perseverance).

In terms of power structure, he discussed power asymmetry or the interdependency among business partners (i.e. suppliers and manufacturer). His pointed is in global business, big manufacturers such as P&G and WALMART seem to hold power over their suppliers and influence the pattern of global business and consumption.

New way to think 'Curriculum' in business education

2010-01-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

Existing curricula and accompanying forms of pedagogy and assessment based on rigid borders and hierarchies between forms of knowledge, formal and informal learning spaces, individual and group identities, ages and stages of learning and between educators and learners seem increasingly outmoded in the global era. At the same time new spaces and possibilities have emerged for a creative re-imagining of what counts as relevant knowledge and of teaching and learning. Curricula must enable learners to participate in an increasingly and irreversibly global economy where new technologies have transformed the nature, speed and scale of production and exchange. They must also produce the capabilities to support sustainable livelihoods in a context where economic crisis has precipitated the production and reproduction of inequality along the lines of race, ethnicity, class and gender. At a political level the development of global and regional blocs and changes in the role of the nation state and of decentralization and localization have implications for how citizenship is defined and taught and for the politics and processes of curriculum reform.

Cultural globalization has also involved contradictory processes. On the one hand Western forms of culture and knowledge have assumed hegemonic status whilst on the other non-western, including indigenous and fundamental religious identities, have re-asserted themselves. Mass migrations have broken old associations between place and identity and created new, hybridized ethnicities and forms of difference. Curricula must empower learners to assess the relevance of different forms of knowledge, to negotiate new borders of group and individual identity and to understand and engage with diversity

International Business Conference

2010-01-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

I am off to attend an International Business Education conference in Bangkok next week. In fact, the conference looks like an integration of business management and business education conference. What I expect most from this conference is to listen to the keynote speaker, Dr. Evangelos Afendras from AIT, who will deliver a speech on Phronesis and the redesign of MBAs. The conference will be held at Asian Institute of Technology and the paper that I will present is from my previous project. This is the link to my paper.

When I come back from Thailand, I will share with you the conference stories as usual.

Border

2010-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

Impressive strands of research have convincingly shown, over the last decades, the emergent reality of increasing world-level interconnection in almost every field of social action. Corresponding theories, models and research designs, however, while conceptualizing this new reality in terms of incessant processes of the diffusion of specifically “modern” (i.e. mainly “Western”) models, policies and organizational patterns, and of the growing harmonization and standardization of fields of social action along “world-cultural” lines, have not gone unchallenged. Rather, cross-cultural studies and alternative social theorizing have pointed to much more complex developments of regional fragmentation, regionalization, and (re-) diversification; of multiple forms of adoption, transformation and hybridization of world-level models and ideas; and of the impact of specifically cultural – i.e. mental, semantic, religious etc. – cleavage or “border” lines. Thus, “multiple modernities”, “entangled histories”, social-cultural hybridization, and “culture-specific world of meaning” repeatedly raise the issue of identifying theories that allow one to systematically analyze, and explain, the intricate interaction of global processes with local agency, or of world-level forces with the self-evolutionary patterns of culture-specific meaning.

Border and Space in Education (the Theme for 2010 World Congress Comparative Education Conference)

2010-01-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

‘Border’ is a key concept for analyzing the relationship between education and society at all levels. Borders can be national, regional, social or psychic; they can be fixed or shifting. Borders and ‘lines’ can be material (walls), psychological (in peoples’ minds) or metaphorical (the ‘glass ceiling’ for women’s careers). Discussions of borders are part of discussions of space, and of space-time.

‘Space’ can be absolute/concrete/fixed/measurable (rooms, properties, cities, territories) but also relative (flows and exchanges of energy, peoples, money and information in space and time); and relational (linked to how people operate together in or across these spaces). Space is something produced by human activity and in turn conditions it.

Educational space is where ‘difference’ is conceived, reproduced or contested. Our interests would be the linkages between material space (institutional buildings, camps), representations of space (maps and organizational charts as well as metaphors) and spaces of representation, (the lived or experienced space, our feelings and emotions, our senses of security or insecurity). Spaces are made in the living of our lives, and since they are always being made, the possibility remains for them to be made differently. ‘Border-crossers’, physically and psychologically, can defy or challenge structures, and can reclaim power or identity.

The production and control of space and borders is always tied up with questions of power and politics; and also with the production of inequality. Spaces and their uses can be classed, gendered, racialised, and sexualized. The production of space is also therefore linked to the production of identities, to spaces for assembly, or to keeping ‘others’ in their place, materially or symbolically – whether ‘members of the nation-state’, ‘believers’ or ‘the disabled’. Our educational concerns therefore link to inclusion and exclusion.

Reขbordering is an aspect of globalization, and it is thought that all themes would have globalization as a backdrop if not a direct concern, and as an opportunity as well as a threat. There would be concerns about responsibility across and within borders (for climate change, arms trade, movements of peoples). But also the concerns are about borders in terms of social divisions, the invisible and visible lines between groups, and how education can challenge those borders which deny freedoms, rights and capabilities. Then, what are the educational spaces for contestation of inequality, for interruption?

New Business and New Way of Learning

2010-01-01T04:30:00.000-08:00

2009 was a big year for me. As an academic, there was a huge demand from the university and students for us to redefine our concept of teaching and learning. We know we need to keep on 'improving' our way of teaching..how to do it?...this is a big question I kept asking myself.

I did a number of activities to find the best solution for the abovementioned question.Je ne sais quoi kepts on running in my head when I went to the class, conducting a couple of projects with my mates, or reading articles on this topic. I think it's a real complication for people like me to understand points I raise. I hope this year I might start to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

From the conference

2009-12-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

I just came back from ANZCIES conference and there were a number of good papers presented by fantastic researcher in international and comparative education and social science. One of the best papers that impressed me immensely is 'Southern Theory and its Dynamics for Post Colonial Education' by Anne Hickling-Hudson (my all time Hero!). Anne started criticising the value (and representation) of Northern theories in most aspects of social science. The book by Connell states that it isn't a history of social thought, it does function as a critical historiography of selected social texts and their contexts. It starts by showing how the social science took their modern institutional form in the second half of the 19th century at the high tide of European imperialism.

Anne argues in her presentation that colonised and peripheral societies produce social thought about the modern world which has as much intellectual power as metropolitan social thought and more political relevance.

Actually there are a lot to be mentioned in this study and I am happy to share with you in terms of the paradigm in power and knowledge from the West-south perspective.

Natt

Australia and New Zealand Comparative Education Society Conference

2009-10-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Entering the Age of an Educational Renaissance: Ideas for unity of purpose or further discord?
24 - 27 November 2009

University of New England, Armidale

The theme for ANZCIES 2009 is Entering the Age of an Educational Renaissance: Ideas for unity of purpose or further discord? It is designed in response to the ever-increasing needs to advance our understanding of educational planning, behaviour, and development.

Is education perceived as a tool for peace? Can we use education to expand our imagination to explore new ways of thinking for collective action? What can we do to view education as a whole---from early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary to lifelong learning? How can the world foster greater co-operation to offset fear of collapse, apathy, and complacency? Indeed, the world has changed, so how should education change with it? These and other related questions will be raised at the conference.

The aim of the conference is to present a series of papers that rigourously analyse discrete practical problems that help guide comparative and international research, uncover dilemmas, fallacies, myths, and/or to seek viable solutions to global and local concerns.

International Leadership Workshop in Thailand

2009-10-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

Dr Nattavud Pimpa from the School of Management visited Burapha University in Thailand last month to organise and run a workshop aimed at capacity building in public sector leadership among local civil servants.

The project is an affiliation between School of Management and Burapha University’s Graduate School of Commerce. In 2007, Dr Pimpa won and Emerging Research Grant (ERG) from RMIT to conduct a comparative leadership research in Victoria and Thailand. The results of the project become the contents of the workshop.

Dr Pimpa’s work in the area of research and educational collaboration in international leadership and management won him this opportunity through a grant provided by the Australia-Thailand Institute (ATI), an organisation within the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The workshop, held from Wednesday 29 September to 30 September, in Chonburi. Chonburi is one of the key strategic provinces in logistics, manufacturing and international trade and tourism in South East Asia. The workshop covered the concepts of Australian and Thai leadership characteristics, styles, effectiveness, inter-cultural leadership and team building in the Thai and Australian context. Fifteen local civil servants in the eastern Thailand participated in this workshop and created links among themselves and with RMIT.

“Leadership is a key function in all organisations and I believe that this workshop helps the participants from public health, education and local governance policy in the east of Thailand to implement the concept of leadership to their organisations” said Dr. Pimpa.

Co-organisers of the workshop included Dr. Timothy Moore from the University of Melbourne and Associate Professor Suda Suwannapirom, the Dean of the Graduate School of Commerce, Burapha University.

According to Associate Professor Suwannapirom, projects such as these are important because they ‘help create a strong academic bond between RMIT and the Thai government.’

Gender and Computer in Education

2009-08-21T00:14:00.000-07:00

Williams, Ogletree, Woodburn, and Raffeld (1993) reported that male college students, compared with females, experienced more computer involvement in their daily lives and perceived themselves as more competent with computers. However, some studies did not reveal significant gender differences. For example, Zhang (2005) found that gender was not a significant factor in terms of college students’ receptivity for distance learning. Davis and Davis (2007) reported that no statistically significant difference was found on overall perception of computer competence based on gender

Studies on the use of computers by males and females in workplace and household settings have told a similar story. Earlier studies revealed that, in general, women seem to have less experience with computers and tend to be less skilled in the use of computers (Harrison & Rainer, 1992). In addition, women seem to suffer greater levels of computer anxiety (Igbaria &Chakrabarti, 1990). The more recent studies claim that
these gender differences have shrunk. For example, Morris, Venkatesh, and Ackerman (2005) studied over a half year the reactions and use behaviors among 342 workers being introduced to a new computer application. They found that gender effects in individual adoption and use of technology differed based on age. Specifically, gender difference in technology perceptions became more pronounced among older worker, but a unisex pattern of results emerged among younger workers. Ono and Zavodny (2005) conducted a comparative study between USA and Japan. They found that there were significant gender differences in computer and internet usage in both countries during the middle 1990s. By 2001, these gender differences had disappeared in the US but persisted in Japan. However, controversy exists in regard to the recently reported smaller gender differences. Some recent studies still document fairly visible gender differences. Schumacher and Morahan- Martin (2001) found that in general, men tend to have more favorable attitudes toward computers. Ong and Lai (2006) surveyed 156 employees from six international companies in Taiwan and found that men’s rating of computer self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioural intention to use e-learning are all higher than that of women.

a new article on ipod and teaching

2009-07-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have just read an article written by Crispin Dale from the University of wolverhampton on "iPods and Creativity in Learning and Teaching:
An Instructional Perspective". This article is published in the International Journal of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education which is an electronic journal. Please take some time to read this article and think about the way to be innovative in your teaching.

http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/

Business Degree- Australian Online!

2009-07-25T03:02:00.000-07:00

Business education in Australia has gone through different stages since the open-door policy of the Australian government in 1980’s. One of the major drives for the development of business education is information communication and technology (ICT). The use of ICT and online component of the business program has different formats to let the student choose from. Business schools in Australia have been attempting to integrate ICT to their programmes in order to foster the quality of teaching and learning in business education. The common question among business schools in Australia is how ICT become the major constituents of modern business education.
Generally the online business course in Australia could fit into three major categories (Ryan, 2001):

1. Self-paced independent study. The student set the schedule and study at his/her own pace. The materials can be reviewed for as long as the student needs it. Feedback from online quizzes takes the form of pre-programmed responses. There is no one to whom the student can direct questions. This form of study requires the highest self-motivation.

2. Asynchronous interactive. The student participates with an instructor and other students, although not at the same time. The student attends the class whenever he/she likes for any amount of time. This approach offers support and feedback from the instructor and classmates. It is usually not as self-paced as independent study.

3. Synchronous learning. The student attends live lectures via computer and asks questions by e-mail or in real-time live chat. This format is the most interactive of the three and feels the most like a real classroom. Flexibility is more limited because of the set lecture schedule. There are limited course offerings in this format due to high delivery costs.
Affected by the above motivation to go for an online business course, the criteria of some business schools selection are specified. Selection differs from one student to another, but the major criteria is, first, the flexibility to enrol in the program and courses. The second criterion is the adequate time to complete the courses (Pimpa and Suwannpirom, 2008; Gerencher, 1998). The third criterion is the services and quality offered (Marsh and Dunkin, 1992).

The next criterion is the accreditation (Peltier et al, 2003). Accreditation is defined as any form of independent review of educational programs for the purpose of helping to establish that the learning offered is of a uniform and sound quality (Marsh and Dunkin, 1992). Accreditation is used to evaluate the quality of the education as determined by the accreditation body. Accreditation by internationally respected bodies, such as the AACSB, is an important selling point of programs at reputable business schools (Webster and Hackley, 1997). Some business schools that offer the online MBA or BBA are accredited by local bodies, but until now the AACSB accreditation body did not give any accreditations for the online MBA (Webster and Hackley, 1997). The accrediting agencies have a challenge in which it should develop specific standards for distance education students (Wood, 2000).
The next aspect is the reputation of the university (Gerencher, 1998). Many online institutions do not offer classes, rather they award degrees based on the candidate’s previous life experience (Online Business Education, 2001). This would be of concern for those universities, and also it could affect negatively other online universities due to the stereotyping. An example of a bad reputation is a university offering what is called a “diploma mill”, which is the name that is given to any university that operates primarily to make money or issue degrees/credentials without any thought to insuring that an education occurs (Gerencher, 1998). The final element is the ability to compensate for the lack of face-to-face experience (Feldman, 1999), which is addressed later in the paper noting the studies held to examine that feature of the online business degrees.

The development of ICT for online business education has improved the way lecturers construct the pedagogy for international business as well as the way students learning experiences can be improved (Pimpa and Suwannapirom, 2008). Previous studies have discussed the benefits of using ICT in teaching and learning in business, economics, and management (Ettinger, Holton, & Blass, 2006). In the context of learning and teaching in international business, however, researchers have proposed a number of problems and challenges when using electronic forms of education. Previous research study by Feldman (1999) claims that for online business courses to be effective, faculty and the administration need to integrate program planning, monitoring, management, and resource allocation and careful selection of learning materials. They also need to offer students pre-entry guidance, personal communication and feedback. Identification of the importance of these factors lends strong support to the belief among online educators that distance learning courses that are offered online are not a cheap or discounted method of delivery, if the courses are to be established and delivered properly (Goodyear and Jones, 1998).

Dissemination of the project

2009-07-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

I am currently in Thailand for several reasons. One o them is to present my paper at the national conference at the graduate school of commerce, Burapha University and to collect more data from the participants in Thailand. So far, I realise Thai students are very keen to use online resources and need to incorporate e-techniques in all forms of learning and teaching in international business. The institutional encouragement seems to contribute much more significantly than any other factors in this country. Why? this is because the variety of quality in 'investment in e-business education' among the Thai universities. From the first interview, I realise this huge differences in budget and level of commitments among universities in Thailand (in investment for e-education).

The next plan for this project

2009-05-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

The next plan for this project is to collect more data from accounting and finance students in order to compare their views on online engagement with students from international business. I do plan to contact them before the end of this semester because they might go away during the semester break in June-July and that may pose some technical problems for this project.

See how we go?!?!?!?!?

ANZIBA conference

2009-05-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

The conference was held at the University of Queensland, one of the fantastic looking uni. in this country. what impressed me most was the very first keynote speech delievers by Prof. Lar, a visiting Professor at the UQ. He's Swedish and has long been working in the international business for a long period. What inspired me about his speech was regarding the way we conduct research and the culture of research in international business at global level. I do agree with him that lecturers are forced by the publication culture and some of us have been struggling to survive in this culture.

The rest of the conference was mediocre, due to the limitation in number of speakers and time of the conference. I particularly feel that the theme on teaching and learning in international business should be emphasized at the next year ANZIBA conference. This year, I only found 4-5 researchers and academics in this area talked about their work regarding learning and teaching, which is truly insufficient. Maybe we need more delegates to support the governance of ANZIBA.

ANZIBA Conference -Part 1

2009-04-14T17:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend will be another 'interesting' time for me. Not because of a recovery from a long Easter break or a time to visit another country towns. In fact, I am going to the Australia and New Zealand International Business Academy (ANZIBA) conference. Of course, I plan to disseminate some of the findings from this project at the the conference and expect to receive some feedback from my ANZIBA colleagues. TWell, this is my second experience with ANZIBA and I"m not pretty sure if I have already fallen in love with the organisation. Unlike ANZIECS that I previously lamented about in early 2009, ANZIBA is larger and can be more complex.

The paper that I plan to disseminate at the conference is entitled "The Nature of the Online Education Engagement in the International Business Programme: A Phenomenographic Study" I think the last part of the title is very exciting ...at least to me! I talked to my colleague (and.. a-hem.... boss) Dr. Carlene Boucher about the title of the paper and Carlene has suggested a more sophisticated title...a phenomenography concept..which is one of the most interesting qualitative approaches to study people's learning experiences.

I will come back with a full report by next weekend!

Trade in Education Service: China

2009-04-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

This project is all about international education, due to a strong demand for Australian higher education from overseas market. China has retained in top position as a major 'sending country' to Australia. However, the role of China in international education is in transformation..from sending to receiving. Trade in higher education in China developed rapidly since China's adoption of its Open Door policy in 1979. The rise of a market-oriented economy has transformed China from an overwhelmingly agricultural economy towards a more industrialized and information-based economy that puts a premium on human capital (knowledge) development. The nation's overall strength is thus believed to depend significantly on the quality of its human resources. In the face of the great need to speed up the nation's economic growth and national development, China began to send students abroad to study in 1979. Since then, China has become the leading country in the enrollment of students in industrialized nations.

But China's higher education market has been opening itself up to the outside world as well. While many Chinese students are eager to apply to study in
foreign universities, education officials in China are vowing to provide higher quality services for a growing number of foreign students pursuing higher education in China. Statistics show that some 62,000 foreign students were enrolled in over 360 Chinese colleges and universities in 2002 (China Institute of International Education Report, 2002)．In addition, according to a rough estimate by the Ministry of Education, there were 721 joint programs in China at the end ofyear 2002, an increase of more than nine times over 1995.

The future potential of China as an exporter of higher education services appears to be challenged by China's entry into the WTO, at least in the view of many officials in the Chinese higher education sector. China became a formal member of the WTO on December 11, 2002, but negotiations began much earlier. China's economic reforms qualified China for membership in a number of international economic organizations and the country became an observer of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT)in 1952 and formally applied for full GATT membership in July 1986．The 8th International Trade Round, the so-called Uraguay Round (1986-94) replaced the GATT by the WTO. GATT Member-States had determined that international trade could be increased by structuring agreements similar to the GATT that focus on trade in areas other than goods, such as services (e.g. education and health) and intellectual property rights. Thereupon, three multilateral agreemenis became the pillars within the framework of the new World Trade organization: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the General Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.(TRIPS)

Findings and Diseemination

2009-03-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

At this stage, I aim to collect more data from accounting and finance students who are two main groups for this study.I think I'm done with IB students since the findings of this study from this cohort seem to be quite repetitive now.

Next month, after Easter break, I will present some findings from this research project at the 2009 Australia-New Zealand International Business Academy in Brisbane. This annual conference is a significant event among researchers and academics in international business and globalisation in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Hopefully, I'll have some more interesting stories to share with you.

One finding from my study

2009-03-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

At this stage, I am still preparing some data and playing with them in terms of creating themes and concept from the data. One of the emerging theme that I have found so far is the nature of international business course that stimulate student's participation in online education in international business.

Participants expressing the conception of nature of international business are distinguished among themselves. International business, as an area of study, is perceived as a highly engaged course whereby learners need to bring their previous life experiences as consumers, members of society, or observers of the world to understand the phenomenon of international business. Online learning is perceived as a platform to share and exchange their academics and life experiences (in the form of personal opinion) while they are learning in the formal education system. Furthermore, various forms of online education, such as webblog, discussion boards, or wiki, encourage them to be highly interactive in the learning process. As international business courses aim to create an understanding of the international aspects of management, for formulating and implementing effective strategies in an increasingly complex world economy, personal experiences and the roles of individual students as observers of changes in global and local factors were useful for the contribution in the online discussion and knowledge exchange among students in this study.

In three cases research interviewees referred to the nature of international business courses as “real-world” (NIB-1) and “tangible” (NIB-2), when compared to other disciplines in business and economics. In the first case, the participant identified his experience on “arguing” with his team mates on the discussion board regarding the effect of political ideology in China in choices of entry mode. He felt that he was less compelled to identify his “Asian” background in the discussion board, and that made him feel freer in setting lines of arguments to support his choice of entry mode and to criticise the role of Communist Party in China. The issue of race and ethnicity and other “sensitive” issues (NIB-3) in international business courses can be freely and openly discussed using online platforms because the identity of the students is not explicitly demonstrated as in the traditional face-to-face learning.

Stories from the field (2)

2009-02-16T15:54:00.000-08:00

In this study, I decided to utlise the research methodology of phenomenography to explore the experiences and stories of international business students, and how did they interact with other students in the online forum. Last month, I interviewed an 2exchange students from Mexico and Korea in an effort to 'listen' to their stories. To be frank, I am sick of previous studies that keep reporting stories such as:

"overseas students are passive learners"
"American are more proactive in the class"
"Students of Chinese background are quiet, polite, and studious"

You don't need any more research to create this kind of stereotpe in international education. Although sopme of that facts may be true, it may not be applicable in the sense of international business disciplines because in this class the context is worldly and the language of discusson can be more flexible. Futhermore, the geographical and cultural boundaries are not perceived as a barrier but the vitality of international business and trade.
Some of the findings from both students' stories are very intereting but I'll let you know more about ti next time :)

A story from the fieldwork (1)

2009-01-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I updated this blog. As I've been traveling and collecting data, writting another application etc. I intend to update more stories from my interview cases and share it with the readers. In fact the case that I interviewed was a while ago but I've been listening to the story from the case which is very interesting for an educator like me. The student mentioned the use of online resources as a usual place to dump info. and non-textbook message to the students. Furthermore, some (not all) teachers frequently said "It's all there in the web! you just log in and will find it" to the students and that was directly reflected by the first participant in this study.

I also listen to the story of a business lecturer who refused to co-operate with the students in the online platform. What I heard is he/she would never accept any forms of online submission because it's never been good enough for the traditional academic! Strange but very interesting story. The students tried to negotiate but it seem to be really difficult to convincet this lecturer to change his/her mind. Strangely, this is the case of student at one of the top institutions in Australia, where almost all primary school kids in this country submitted their homeworks electronically!

ANZCIES Conference: Comparative Minds

2008-11-27T16:23:00.000-08:00

I've just returned from the annual Australia and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society (ANZCIES) Conference in Perth. I arrived Perth on Monday 24th in the evening and the whole flight experience was really shocking since there were, at least 5 crying babies on board! However, I spent all 4 hours reading some business magazines that I plan to read a long while ago.

The conference started on tuesday and this year there were a few delagated from the World Council of CIES, including Prof. Crane the president of the world council of CIES and Prof. David Turner from Wales. I really enjoy and was striked Prof. turner's keynote address on "comapartive method" as one of the key messages sending aroundto the audiences was "are we all comparing what we supppose to compare? If not, what will be the consequences of this malfunction of the approach?" That strikes me because in my current project, I am aiming to compare business learnig methods among fuinance, management, and accounting business but there are a number of contexts that I still haven't seriously considered to affect thee way these students learn in their classes.

The first day of ANZCIES conference was filled by a number of topics and presentations that broaden my ideas on the direction of higher education in different corners in this globe. For example, Brian Denman, the young president of the ANZCIES, led the key discussion on transnational education market and online modes of entry. Although this topic isn't new to me, I thought some of the info. on the spread of online ed. market in the global arena as discussed by Brian is well supported by the data.

The best paper - so far for me is ...of course my most favourite scholar Dr. Anne Hickling Hudson from Queensland Uni. Her topic on the collaborative project (trdae/development/education) from Cuba to Venezuela and other caribbean nations is really impressive and insightful. I mean I couldn't have any clues on quality of Cuban ed and the fact that this country is the leading nation among lativ american groups in trade and development. Good thing to share with my students in the class.

The funniest moment- my students' ponsan and our duet-presentation on social imaginary and globalisation in higher education policy in Thailand" It's fuuny because when i lloked at Ponsan I saw myself when I came back to ANZCIES for the first time in 2000 and of course I was nervours like hell! So was Ponsan and the time he presented his paper! The supportive collegiality of ANZCIES will immune my student for the future research activity! I know it will be good for him!

The hottest moment- Leslie vidovich and her presentation on "Trust in Higher Education" OMG! How could you spend 45 mins discussing "trust" in the context of the HE and Di cullen,the best mentor of the conference, from the australian catholic university started to point out role of university as public institution not profit making and its conflich with trust! hot hot hot!

Obviously, I have made a number of new contacts with "colleagues" from a number of institutions such as the University of New Wngland, Newcastle Uni., Macquarie, the World Bank, UWS etc. and I do feel this is going to be a long-term academic relationship.

2 good news: I was selected as Victoria representative for the ANZCIES! How exciting! I would love to organise and support the work of ANZCIES in Victoria and make it a better event! Secondly, Ponsan my student is nominated (and selected) as student representative for ANZCIES...well done!

My final word is there are a number of new theories (Southern theory, Human capital (in the context of comaparative ed) theory etc.) Godd learning experiences folks!

Data Collection is not easy!

2008-11-11T16:44:00.000-08:00

I am now in the process of the data collection and last wee was the first group I conducted an interview. Like most researchers, when you act as the moderator of the interview, you really feel that you can't control the flow of conversation. Sometimes, when I threw a question to the participants (students) I wasn't sure if the response was right for the question. Again, there is no right/wrong idea in giving your ideas and feedbacks regarding online learning.

so far, technical aspects of the e-learning at RMIT has been raised quite repeatedly and that doesn't surprise me. Not because of the service isn't good but because of the visibility of this problem for all students. Some other pedagogical and cultural aspects were mentioned in the conversation. I hope to hear more of these points (and some other points) from the next round of data collection.

Next week, I'm scheduled to interview 4 more students to finalize the perspectives from management students and the preliminary findings will be presented at the Academy of International Business Australia and New Zealand at the University of Sydney in December.

ANZCIES Conference

2008-10-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Australian and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society Conference

Meeting of Comparative Minds: Education in all its forms
24 - 27 November 2008
Curtin University, Perth

Comparative and international education examines all aspects of schooling and education across the globe. Research analyses can range from single nation case studies to large cross-national studies, but they usually share commonalities in approach, method, or conceptual framework. As educational contexts, structures and practices become increasingly valued in a 'globalising' world, comparative analyses serve as potent vehicles for interpreting and discovering patterns among educational phenomena.

The primary aim of the conference is to promote dialogue on comparative and international education research throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As the region is comprised of countries with a wide range of educational systems, cultures, political regimes and levels of economic development, the conference is an ideal venue for critical analysis and interpretation.

Data Collection

2008-10-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

I am currently preparing to collect data for this project. Basically, I need to interview students in the business portfolio (in accounting, finance, and management). The interview will be conducted in a group of 5-6 and will take 20-30 minutes. If you are interested in taking part in this project, please leave your message here.

2008-10-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in international and comparative education, please participate in this year ANZCIES conference in Perth. See you threre.

Current Economic Affair

2008-10-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

Much of the political discussion surrounding the $700 billion bailout passed by Congress last Friday has revolved around how the plan will affect ordinary “Main Street” Americans. Yet the financial crisis has had an impact world wide. Will the economic “base of the pyramid” — the three to four billion people in the developing world who earn under $3,000 per year — feel the pain?

It is estimated that large portions of many developing countries’ GDPs are held in the informal sector. In Nigeria, for example, it is estimated that two-thirds of the country’s economic output takes place outside of any economic and legal regulation. Unfortunately, this means that many people developing countries (90% in Nigeria, for example) have the dubious “advantage” of being unbanked. They draw income, pay expenses, and hold savings in cash and rarely engage with the formal capital markets in any direct way. While they may not be adversely affected by the financial crisis, people in developing countries are affected by other issues, such as the increase in food prices. That cost was up 40% in 2007 alone according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and it has effectively lowered the income of millions of people already living without a financial cushion.

The fact remains that an enormous swath of the world’s population has never had access to the wealth-generating power of capital markets that we, until recently, have taken for granted. This should prompt us to consider how we can best help the world’s poor access the wealth-magnifying capacity of well regulated formal financial markets without exposing them to the type of reckless behavior demonstrated by of some of the major American financial institutions in recent years.

The project has been approved by business portfolio's ethics committee

2008-09-17T00:17:00.000-07:00

Good news for me to receive this info. from the portfolio that this project is approved. The last part of the letter of approval is interesting. It stated:

The RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) requires the submission of Annual and Final reports. These reports should be forwarded to the Business Portfolio Human Research Ethics Sub-Committee Secretary. Annual Reports are due in December for applications submitted prior to September in the year concerned. I have enclosed a copy of the Annual/ Final report form for your convenience. Please note that this form also incorporates a request for extension of approval, if required.

What is this project all about?

2008-09-02T17:52:00.001-07:00

This project aims to investigate the extent to which accounting, finance, and management undergraduate students from different cultural and learning backgrounds negotiate online learning environments. Previous studies reported the increasing role of online education and training for future accountants and business managers as well as “cultural gaps” between individual students in online learning and communication (Volet and Ang 1998; McLoughlin and Oliver 2000; McLoughlin 2001). However, those designing and delivering online education in accounting, finance, or management often fail to take into account these cultural differences (McLoughlin 2001). This study will help investigate gaps in cultural groupings and conditions of interaction among students from diverse backgrounds in online learning. It will identify the unique challenges these students encounter in the online learning environment. As reported by Conole (2004) and Hannon and D’Netto (2007), factors such as institutional, pedagogical, technological, and cultural issues play a pivotal role in the success or failure of online learning. This project will adopt their models to investigate the impact of those factors on diverse students’ negotiation of, and engagement in accounting, finance, and management online education.

Major problems of online education come under, four categories: institutional or organisational, technological, pedagogical and cultural. Institutional issues, such as organisational factors, and their interaction with technology can have a profound effect on culturally diverse students. Conole (2004) and Hannon and D’Netto (2007) reported issues such as institutional support for online education, communication between students and institutions, or guidance from the institution can promote a strong level of online engagement by students. Additionally it is confirmed that pedagogical approaches facilitate profound learning rather than surface learning (Ramsden 1992). As online learning in business involves a number of activities, people, and processes, it is important for universities and lecturers not to see it as “culture-neutral”. Lecturers should be concerned how cultural differences are managed in virtual learning. There are dangers in simply transferring traditional face-to-face learning methods to an online system. Previous studies make extensive reference to the access, speed, system, and clarity of the usage of informational communication technology for the promotion of students’ engagement in online education. Finally, cultural factors such as the linguistic, approach to learning, and communication contents also play a pivotal role in students’ readiness and willingness to engage in online learning. Language and approach in learning are among the most significant obstacles for cross-cultural learning. Differences in writing conventions (style, format, content, and organisation) between instructors and their audience can also often lead to poor communication. For example, some cultures take offence at brief exchanges using short sentences or declarative language (McLoughlin 2001). They may require more polite or more indirect interactions. Direct or corrective feedback may similarly embarrass some users. To be more effective, online educators must be willing to adapt their materials to other cultural, linguistic, and learning conventions (McLoughlin and Oliver 2000). The increased global popularity of online international business education has generated a number of studies addressing specific issues of cultural identity thereof that suggest race, ethnicity and cultural stereotypes, and their attendant prejudices, can be reproduced via online education, and even encoded in the software interface (Nakamura 2002; Hannon and D'Netto 2007).

Previous studies in online education and business pedagogy (Debreceny, Lymer et al. 1999; McLoughlin 2001) reported major problems of cultural and environmental insensitivity, teaching style differences, disparate educational values, difficulties of language and semantics, and other technical problems relating to the platform used, operating systems and a lack of standard interfaces. McLoughlin (2001) and Reeder et al (2004) also reported that cultural and language differences in students are not always explicitly taken into account in the planning and design of learning technologies, instruction design and generic courseware. Chase et al (2002) found a ‘cultural gap’ between individuals in online education. (and communication), and that “participation rates differ by cultural grouping” in online communication (McLaughlin, 2001). A number of studies in online education in various disciplines confirmed online education with complicated interfaces, procedures, conditions, or interactions present unique challenges to learners from different academic, cultural, and learning backgrounds (Reeder, Macfadyen et al. 2004; Hannon and D'Netto 2007).

Given the abovementioned issues, this project will investigate and compare factors of engagement and effectiveness of online education among accounting, finance, and management students. The outcomes from this project, therefore, will help educators and researchers in accounting, finance, and management education to better understand the issues of diversity underpinning students’ experience in online education and training. This understanding will help improve the implementation of online education in accounting, finance, and management courses. Thus the study will provide long-term benefit for higher education institutions that offer accounting, finance, and management programs to student of diverse backgrounds

International Education in Thailand

2008-07-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

Over the period between 1995 to 2001, the number of Thai HEIs offering international programmes increased significantly from 15 institutions in 1995 to 37 institutions in 2001 (ONEC, 2001). The department of export promotion (DEP) has been attempting to increase the intake of new international students in Thai HEIs by 30 percent per annum (DEP, 2004).The cost for each foreign student, who enrols in Thai HEI is approximately 500,000 Baht per year (tuition fees plus living cost). Recognising the amount of revenue that can be generated from these expenses for the nation, the Thai government has endeavoured to promote higher education to new prospective students in target countries. The number of international students enrolled at HEIs in Thailand has increased significantly from 2,240 in 2001 to 4,962 in 2003 (DEP, 2004). The top five home countries of these international students were China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India and Japan (DEP, 2004). These international students have contributed approximately 2,172 million Baht per year to the Thai economy and it was expected that the revenue would increase to 2,484 million Baht at the end of 2003 (DEP, 2004).

Although the international higher education service offered by HEIs in Thailand has grown significantly in terms of both the number of programmes and the number of local and international students, local and international HEIs operating in Thailand need to learn much to deliver this service. In particular international postgraduate programmes which are operating in a foreign territory, culture, and customs. One of the major problems in fostering the quality of internationalisation of the Thai education is lacking in information, research and knowledge in this area. It causes Thailand and institutions operating in the kingdom to offer local or transnational programmes without strategic directions.

Higher Education in Vietnam

2008-06-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

“According to Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training [MOET], to the end of 2005 (MOET, February 2006), there are 230 universities and colleges which are public and non-public (terms used by MOET). State research institutions number 300 (Tran et al, 1995) all of which are public. Vietnam’s universities, colleges and research institutions are responsible to various ministries which means that they work under direct supervision of their ministry or provincial authorities in terms of their mission and financial support, for example the University of Medicines reports to the Ministry of Health. However, the curriculum of each is subject to approval by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

In recent years, the higher education system in Vietnam has undergone many positive changes. In relation to access and equity in higher education, policy making bodies such as the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the MOET have launched several new policies and trialed various models to both modernize the higher education system and respond to the needs of access and equity in higher education. International agencies, foreign donors, as well as private enterprise, have also contributed a great deal to increasing access and equity to higher education in Vietnam and the re-organization of the higher education system structure and capacity building for universities/colleges for the future.”

My current publication

2008-06-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Guys,

My paper on Vocational Education programme in Thailand is recently published in the International Journal of Management in Education. You can follow the link here to get an abstract of the paper

Education is back

2008-04-27T04:43:00.000-07:00

I disappeared from the screen for a long while due to my work commitment. Will be back online shortly.

Thai Studies Conference in Bangkok

2008-01-16T21:41:00.000-08:00

I have just returned to Melbourne from Thailand and Singapore. The conference I attended was quite mediocre in the sense that there wasn't any paper that striked my thought in education. The best thing about this conference was the fact that I could presented my project on educational leadership in the Thai context to a tiny group of audiences. I really enjy listening to the comments from some of them. Questions regarding the cultural context and organisational behaviour in the Thai schools was really popular.

Of all scholars I met, Dr. Irving Chan Johnson from the National University of Singapore was one of the most impressive in his comments on the cultural context, ways of living, and the Thai. I probably

Changing from School Manager to School Leader!

2008-01-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Schools have traditionally been managed by a bureaucratic management style principal. In this method principals rely on a rational set of structuring guidelines, such as rules and procedures, hierarchy, and a clear division of labor (Allen 1998). Principals using this style receive lots of credit for an efficiently run school. Over time this style of management eventually backfires as creative teachers and students become unsettled. These types of principals tend to be control freaks who find it difficult to let go of the detail and are particularly threatened by the idea of empowering other leaders for fear of diminishing their own power base. These principals soon forget that schools exist for students and not for administrators (Prideaux, 2001). As new decision making models emerge with research backing their success, the role of the principal begins to change.

Principals are no longer strictly managers; they are expected to be leaders. Leaders that can take their school to a higher level of academic achievement, where all students are successful learners and all teachers engage their students in learning. To become such a leader, principals need to leave behind their bureaucratic management styles and redefine themselves as a moral leader. Principals that are leaders not just managers will be able to move their school forward. These new principals allow teachers to be leaders in developing better curriculums to reach the needs of all students. For a principal to maintain this type of leadership, he/she will need to learn how to serve his staff not just manage it.

Principals are beginning to value the important role that teachers play in the success of their school. Recognizing their value, principals are beginning to work with teachers to achieve goals that will contribute to the schools success. Principals are looking for a leadership style that welcomes the cooperation of others and values their input. One such leadership style is that of a servant leader. In servant leadership one serves the needs of their staff (Sergiovanni, 2000). By serving one's staff instead of serving one's own needs, a principal is able to create change within the school. Principals can practice servant leadership in the three ways that Sergiovanni (2000) describes: purposing, empowerment, and leadership by outrage.

--to be continued --

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

I wish you all the very happy year and enjoy managing your education!

Education Education, and Education!

2007-12-20T23:57:00.000-08:00

Nearly 30 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. declared that the challenge for schools is "to teach so well that family background is no longer an issue." By increasing the rewards for education, globalization has added urgency to King's argument, but globalization paradoxically creates a temptation to ignore him, too. By driving down the cost of tradable goods such as cars and DVD players, it leaves untradable ones such as education looking expensive. There's a tendency for policymakers to say that education spending is growing a bit faster than inflation -- isn't that generous enough? But inflation is low partly because globalization brings us goods from cheap foreign suppliers. The economic challenge posed by those cheap foreign suppliers is precisely the reason we should invest more in our children.

Can we trust studies from the 1940?

2007-12-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

One of the most comprehensive and replicated studies in behavioural theroies is one from that began at Ohio State University in 1940s. Researchers in that team sought top identify independent dimensions of leader behaviour. From thousands dimensions, they eventually narrowed the list to 2 categories (amazingly!). They are "initiating Structure" and " Consideration"

Initiating structure referes to the extent to which a leader likely to define and structure his/her role and those of employees in the search for goal attainment. It includes behaviour that attempts to organise work, work relationships, and goals.

Consideration is described as the extent to which a person is likely to have job, relationships that are characterized by mutual trust, respect for employees' ideas and regard for their feelings. Such a person show concern for follower's comfort, well-being, and satisfaction.

10th International Thai Studies Conference in Bangkok (9-11Jan08)

2007-12-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

As part of my ERG project, I will attend and present a paper on educational leadership in Thailand at the 10th international conference on Thai studies at Thammsat University. The theme of this year conference is Thai Societies in a transitional world. I found this following from the website and hope it may be useful for any of you who would like to attend this conference.

"The Thai Khadi Research Institute, the first institution in Thailand to devote itself to Thai studies, invite scholars from all disciplines and intellectual perspectives to participate in the 10th International Conference on Thai Societies in a Transnationalized World. The conference is a continuation of a well-established academic tradition which aims to promote research and in-depth study of Thai culture and society as well as to provide a forum for academics to present their viewpoints and research findings. Besides the academic focus, the conference will be an event to celebrate the auspicious occasion of the 80th birth anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in recognition of His Majesty's great benevolence and life-long work for the well-being of the Thai people."

More info of this conference can be accessed as http://www.thaiconference.tu.ac.th

2007-12-02T23:12:00.000-08:00

Reference groups and choices of vocational education:
Case of Thailand

Nattavud Pimpa
School of Education
RMIT University
Nattavud.pimpa@rmit.edu.au

AARE 2007 International Education Research Conference
Research Impacts: Proving or Improving?
Fremantle, Western Australia
University of Notre Dame Australia
25-29 November 2007

Abstract:
Low prestige attached to technical vocational education and training and its inherent inequities are a common phenomenon in Thailand. This study aims to identify factors influencing Thai students’ choices of vocational education. The results confirm five key influencing factors: personal attitude, curriculum, potential employment, attractiveness of campus, and tuition fees. Furthermore, this study indicates that teachers from secondary school and parents can strongly influence students’ decision to go to vocational institutions. In summary, it is recommended that stakeholders in vocational education in Thailand should continue promoting a good image of vocational education and its students to the society. Since vocational education has suffered from being perceived as a second class education and thus militates against effective learning, marketing communication is strongly recommended as an, effort to create an on-going understanding with students and community of its relevance and importance.

Keywords: Marketing for Education, TVET, Education Choice, Thailand

Changes in policy for vocational education are linked to national aspiration and achievements in human resource development and economic growth worldwide. The Thai government has continued to enhance the capacity of vocational education sector in order to meet the increasing demands for skilled manpower (MOE, 2006). In 2007, Thailand’s Ministry of Education aims to achieve a 20% increase in the number of vocational students’ enrolment (MOE, 2006). The government has seen the necessity to adapt the educational system to the development and labour needs of the country.
Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) refers to a range of learning experiences which are relevant to the world of work and which may occur in a variety of learning contexts, including educational institutions and the workplace. It includes learning designed to develop the skills for practising particular occupations, as well as learning designed to prepare for entry or re-entry into the world of work in general (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2007). TVET has been given much promotion and priority and support to enhance the new policy changes. Various types of training programmes are offered and administered by the Thai Vocational Education Commission.

Eight levels of studies ranging from semi-skilled level, offered to students who have completed the lower secondary level, to technical teacher training programmes (degree level), open to holders of Higher Certificates of Technical Education with high academic records and a desire to become technical teachers at colleges and vocational training centres have been programmed by the Ministry of Education to suit the student's previous academic background (MOE, 2006).
With rapid transformation of societies in social, political, economic, technological, and education atmospheres in Thailand, there has been a major change in people’s perception on the need for and nature of TVET. New challenges have begun to emerge, while old ones remerge. Unfortunately, TVET is not necessarily favoured by all. Foster (1965) challenged the vocational school myth and called it “vocational school fallacy.” Foster and Blaug (1973) clearly argued that vocationalisation cannot be a remedy for educated unemployment:

“It cannot prepare students for specific occupations and reduce mismatches between education and the labour market; academic streams promise higher wages than vocational streams; accordingly demand for vocational education might not exist”

Furthermore, vocational schooling may create “a sense of second class citizenship among both teachers and taught which militates against effective learning” (Blaug, 1973; MOE, 2006). With the succinct, clear and powerful arguments of Foster, Blaug and others, it was hoped that the issue was buried. Few countries have given up their efforts in developing elaborate systems of VET. After all, it has inherently a powerful appeal. Many countries have set ambitious targets. For example, China had a goal of expanding vocational education so that at least fifty per cent of the enrolments in secondary education would be in vocational education in the near future; India has a similar target of reaching 25 per cent; and Bangladesh 20 per cent (Tilak 2002).

The World Bank’s sector policy paper on education (World Bank, 1999) attacked school curricula as excessively theoretical and abstract, insufficiently oriented to local conditions, and insufficiently concerned with attitudes and with manual, social and leadership skills; and accordingly the Bank also suggested increasing vocationalisation of the curricula of academic schools (Tilak 2002).

The enrolments in vocational education as a proportion of enrolments in senior secondary level are indeed high in quite a few countries of the region on which data is available. Furthermore, UNESCO-UNEVOC (2007) indicates some key Global statistical monitoring of TVET with several particular challenges such as:

• Improving coverage by ensuring that all forms of TVET are included: education and training; formal education, non-formal education and informal learning; public and private sector or community provision.

• Distinguishing TVET from other types of education, such as general and pre-vocational education; or adult education. A related challenge would be clarifying sponsorship of TVET programmes by Ministry, public or private provision, etc.

• Counting enrolments in these programmes, while dealing with the issue of part-time and short courses in order to avoid double counting of those taking several part-time courses simultaneously or several short courses back to back in the same year.

• Developing indicators (such as Gross Enrolment Ratios and Net Enrolment Rates) or other appropriate indicators for monitoring participation in TVET.
Previous international studies (i.e. studies from Venezuela, Israel, Turkey) confirm that investments in TVET are beneficial for the individual and for the society (Bennell, 1996; Bishop, 1998; Fiszbein and Psacharopoulos, 1993; Neuman and Ziderman, 1991). Tunali (2005), using Turkish data from the 1988-1998 period, finds that vocational education offered some advantages in terms of labour market outcomes, specifically by rendering females (but not males) more likely to participate in the labour market, as well as offering some protection against unemployment. Most studies estimate the mean return to education using ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation (Sakellariou, 2003), which is interpreted as the return to additional schooling for an individual with mean ability. Recently, an increasing number of studies have investigated the pattern of returns to an additional year of education along the earnings distribution. These studies provide a strong support of the benefit of TVET to national economic.

Thailand is one of the industrial countries in the Asia-Pacific region that requires a number of skilled labours. One of the major tasks of the current government in Thailand is to improve the vocational qualification standard for the international and national market. The Office of Vocational Education Commission (OVEC) in Thailand formulated the Thai Vocational Qualification (TVQ), wherein vocational competencies are divided into five levels (MOE 2006). The TVQ places emphasis on competencies, the accreditation of prior learning and experience, the promotion of public-private sector cooperation in providing additional skills training for workers in various enterprises so as to raise labour productivity to international levels, and enhancing the global competitiveness of Thailand.

Although the attempt has been made to create quality in vocational education, OVEC reported that social attitudes to vocational education are not encouraging. Negative attitudes to manual work severely dampen the demand for vocational education. Furthermore, TVET is conceived as a system of education for the poor, and for the educationally backward sections that are not eligible for admission into higher education (OVEC 2006). This view perpetuates inequalities in the system.

Low prestige attached to vocational education and its inherent inequities are somewhat a common phenomenon in Thailand. The suspicion that vocational curricula provide “a second-class education and track some individual’s lower class or lower caste, racial minorities and women - away from academic education and access to jobs of the highest pay and status" (Grubb, 1985) became quite strong over the years and became obvious through some public polices of ill-treatment of vocational education in educational planning and resource allocation, while contributing to the strengthening this belief (Tilak 2002).

Presently, in Thailand, people are valued for what they know more than what they actually produce. Employers demand more educated people, who are equipped with new sets of knowledge and skills, to perform high value-added forms of business activities to continue to compete in the global market. Fewer young people start their careers with vocational education, but more working people acquire vocational education for enriching and updating their industry-specific knowledge and skills. The drastic changes in industry and society require the Thai vocational education institutions to define their new roles and to create new values to a new composition of stakeholders, and, their performance will be evaluated by a new set of criteria and standards.

Education Choice and Influencing Factors

A number of studies have been conducted by various researchers on the factors influencing the choice of education in various countries. In the US, a study by Baird (1964, Cited by Bradshaw et al 2001) showed that the students’ key choice criteria are good environment, high academic standards and course availability while Brennan (2001) found that the key choice criteria are good faculty and high standards. He also identified quality of the institution and cost as the most important elements. Maguire and Lay (1981 cited in Bradshaw et al 1981) identified financial aid, peer influence, special program, and size of the institutions, location, athletic facilities and social activities as the most important factors in choosing an educational institution.

Mazzarol (1998); Krone et al (1981); and Morgan, Baron, and Bainbridge (2001) suggested the major influential variables are:
1) Location of the institution
2) Reputation
3) Courses that are available with the benefits that they offer
4) Career opportunities with employment
5) Course specifics (content, structure, method, and assessment)
6) School ambience and environment (distant from home, rural/urban place, atmosphere of the campus, facilities of the city)
7) Reputation of the institutions

The United Kingdom studies also showed that location, which refers to the town or city in the UK, is an important factor that can influence students’ choice of institution. For example, a UK based study by Moogan, Baron and Bainbridge (2001) showed that if students wanted to remain at home and attend an institution locally, they started to prioritize according to the location (distance from home) of the institution, followed by courses on offered. Those wishing to study away from home looked at all the possible courses first and then the location and social variable would have greater weighting for this group. This study also found that the factors that are most influential in their choice of institution might change as the decisions made may be highly influenced by family, friends and others. Pimpa (2005) also confirms the importance of reference groups on students’ choice of education. Most studies showed that the relative importance of the evaluative criteria changes over a period of time prior to making the choice of institution to attend.

Despite the fact that students’ choice of education is complex and multi stage decision-making process, there has been a handful of academic research conducted in the area of TVET choice. A number of previous studies examined various factors influencing students’ choice of basic or higher education (Pimpa, 2005). This research, therefore, aims to investigate factors influencing Thai students’ decision-making to enrol in TVET institutions. Types and sources of influencing factors from personal (reference groups) and non-personal sources are the major focus of this study.

Research Questions

Based on the purpose of the study, three research questions have been postulated.
What criteria do Thai students use to evaluate their decision to enrol in the vocational education institution?
Which reference groups influence students’ choices of vocational education?
What are the pattern of relationships among influencing factors and reference groups?

Research Design and Methodology

Stage 1:

The purpose of this phase is to measure factors influencing Thai students’ decision to enrol in vocational institution. It adopts a quantitative (or positivistic) approach. Samplings of this study are first year students who are currently enrolled in 15 TVET institutions in the East of Thailand. Researchers selected first year students because their choices are not painted by some other experiences, such as impression with the school, or friends at new school, which may change their thinking.

The researcher contacted 15 government vocational institutions and asked for permission to collect data from 2,215 first year students. A total of 412 completed questionnaires were returned, and used in the analysis. A profile of the sample is presented in Table II
Age
16-19 years (median 17 years)
Gender
Male = 51.8%, Female = 48.2%
Programs of Enrolment
Business, Tourism, Management = 51%
Technical and Engineering = 49%
Grade point average
from previous schools
Below 2.00 = 18.5%, 2.00-2.50 = 35.6%
2.51-3.00 = 29.3%, < 00 =" 16.6%" baht =" 50.5%" baht =" 42.5%" baht =" 7.0%">Instrument Development

The extensive literature reviewed was performed, in order to identify various factors influencing students’ choice of VET education. Then, questionnaires were developed and divided into three parts: demographic information of the respondents, twenty items used response categories of 1 (least influence) to 5 (strongly influence) focusing on factors influencing choice of VET education, and fifteen items used response categories of 1 (least influence) to 5 (strongly influence) focusing on the influence from reference groups.

Validity measures the degree to which items on the research instrument actually relate to the content of the area or issue under investigation (Hair et al 1998). The content validity of the research instrument used in this research relates to the extent to which it examines various influencing factors on Thai students’ choices of VET education. Hair et al (1998) suggests that the best way in which to ensure content validity is to subject the instrument to judgmental validation by experts in the area. In this case the experts were the deputy directors from the Office of Vocational Education, two research fellows at Graduate School of Commerce (Burapha University, the major university in the eastern Thailand), and three vocational students. Their feedback, both positive and negative, helped shaped the final version of the questionnaire.

In terms of internal consistency of the scale, standard deviations, means, and reliability values for the scales were performed (estimated by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient). The standard deviation values are satisfactorily close to the expected values for a normal distribution of responses, and the Cronbach’s alpha values are all well above the minimum recommended criterion of 0.70 (Hair et al, 1998), providing strong evidence for internal consistency of the scales.

Stage 2:

To further investigate the effect of choice factors on students’ perception on vocational education, two focus group interviews were conducted. Each group had seven participants. The first group was recruited through researcher’s network from vocational colleges in Cholburi (in the east of Thailand), and then a snowball technique was employed to garner participants for the second groups. The researcher moderated the interviews. After a general introduction, in which the study was described as “Vocational Schools Experience”, and bio-data collection, the moderator facilitated discussion on the choices of vocational education and how these are influenced by factors finding from the first stage of this study.

Results
Factors Influencing Students’ Choice of Vocational Education

To determine factors influencing students’ choice, factor analysis was performed to analyse the underlying dimensions of the evaluative criteria that were used by vocational students. Prior to that, the mean score of all variables were analysed. The extraction method used was principle component method. To determine the number of factors to extract, the latent root criterion was used because the number of variables is less than 50 (Hair et al 1998). According to this technique, researchers selected factors that are having eigenvalues that are greater than 1. To obtain the orthogonal rotation, varimax method was used in this study. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy of this analysis shows the score of 0.9212 indicating that the degree of intercorrelation and the appropriateness of using factor analysis as meritorious. Results of factor analysis are presented in Table III..

Principal components analysis revealed the presence of five components with eigenvalue exceeding 1. These five factors accounted for 63.62% of the total variance. All items show the factor loading ranging from 0.40 to 0.80. An inspection of the screeplot revealed a clear break after the fifth component. Using Catell’s (1966) Scree test, it was decided to retain five components for further investigation.

The first factor is labelled as ‘Personal Attitude’ of which four items were loaded on it. The test on internal consistency of the items in this factor indicates the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.87.

The second factor is labelled as ‘Curriculum’ of which four items were loaded on it. The test on internal consistency of the items in this factor indicates the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.88.

The third factor is labelled as ‘Future Employment’ of which three items were loaded on it. The test on internal consistency of the items in this factor indicates the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.79.

The fourth factor is labelled as ‘Attractiveness of Institutions’ of which six items were loaded on it. The test on internal consistency of the items in this factor indicates the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.87.
Finally, the fifth factor is labelled as ‘Tuition Fees’ of which three items were loaded on it. The test on internal consistency of the items in this factor indicates the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.70.

The Influence of Reference Groups on Students’ Choice of VET

Results in Table IV indicate that influencing factor from teachers from previous schools is the strongest personal influencing factors, followed by influencing factors from family and senior students who currently enrol in vocational institutions.

It reveals strong relationship between personal attitude and family influence (r = .50, p < .01), and personal attitude and influence from teachers from secondary schools (r = .50, p < .01). Medium correlation was reported among influence from family and curriculum (r = .46, p < .01), future employment (r = .41, p < .01), institution attractiveness (r = .41, p < .01), and tuition fees (r = .31, p < .01), influence from relatives and personal attitude (r = .37, p < .01), influence from friends and personal attitude (r = .43, p < .01), curriculum(r = .35, p < .01), institution attractiveness (r = .35, p < .01), influence from teachers and curriculum (r = .44, p < .01), future employment (r = .35, p < .01), institution attractiveness (r = .43, p < .01), tuition fees (r = .32, p < .01), influence from senior students and personal attitude (r = .40, p < .01), curriculum (r = .32, p < .01), institution attractiveness (r = .38, p < .01), and tuition fees (r = .31, p < .01). Finally, weak relationship was found between influence from relatives and curriculum (r = .26, p < .01), future employment (r = .18, p < .01), institution attractiveness (r = .27, p < .01), influence from friends and future employment (r = .28, p < .01), tuition fee (r = .25, p < .01), and influence from senior students and future employment (r = .21, p < .01). Qualitative Findings

The results indicate that personal attitude is important for them if they are interested in pursuing their career immediately after education. They believed that vocational training will help them gaining some skills that traditional academic education cannot provide. Almost all of them believe that the generic technical skills and occupationally specific skills provided in vocational education increase students’ productivity, skill transfer, job access, and job stability when vocational graduates find training-related jobs.

“I chose vocational college because I want to learn mechanical skills. I know this is going to lead me to my dream job and the college offers the course I want” (15, male, mechanical engineering student)

“I see myself as a practical person, not really into year 12 and University. I need to do some study and work” (16, male, Tourism student)

Some participants expressed their positive feelings toward TVET because of its practicality and real-world education. They used words such as ‘real’, ‘practical’, ‘fast work’, ‘secured future’, ‘focus’, and ‘employment’ when compared TVET to basic education. Students in home economics and tourism seem to praise the value of vocational education that suits their personality.

“I learn culinary art at my college and I know I will work in a goof hotel, or maybe overseas, after graduation. This education surely helps me to travel the world” (16, female, Home economics student)

Furthermore, most participants agreed that students’ social background play a pivotal role in their decision to enrol in the vocational college. Most of them perceived themselves as member of the low to middle socio-economics family. They seem to accept the fact that vocational education in Thailand is appropriate for students from poor socioeconomics (and academic) background. Since the cost of education is not expensive, completion time is acceptable (3 years for certificate and 4-5 years for diploma level). They identified higher education as the long-term plan for their lives. Most of them plan to obtain a degree after spending a few years at work.

Researcher also asked some participants regarding curriculum of their programmes. Most of them agree that prior to their enrolments they discussed curriculum issue with their teachers, siblings, and friends. Most participants agreed that the curriculum reflect a wide variety of issues and subjects, ranging from gaining basic skills that require few materials and little skill to vocational content in highly sophisticated level. They do not see a strong influence from their family members, in particular parents, on this issue. Guidance teachers seem to have a strong influence on this aspect of Thai students’ choice of vocational education. Most participants collected data regarding different vocational colleges’ curriculum, reputation, and facilities from their friends, sibling, and guidance teachers.

“My sibling who is studying at the college told me all about the place. It sounds like the programme is very interesting. I trusted him!”
(17 Female, Tourism student)

“It was difficult for me when I decided to do vocational study instead of year 10 because I knew nothing about the college. Luckily, my guidance teacher from my former school provided me with good suggestions and clear pathway” (16 Male, Commerce student)

In terms of future employment, most students agreed that they discussed this aspect with their parents and siblings. Five participants in this study expressed that different family members played different roles in influencing their decision making. Parents initiated the need for the family to have someone who spent only a few years at college and then find work to support the rest of family. Siblings provided them with information about programmes and place to study. Furthermore, friends and guidance teachers convinced them that vocational education is a good choice for rapid employment.

Interestingly, most students cited that activities and campaigns from the office of vocational education commission is one of the major factors convincing them to enrol in the vocational education institutions. Since 2005, the vocational education commission has attempted different strategies to attract students to consider vocational education. One of the major strategies is “re-imaging vocational education”. Examples of activities for this project include free TVET seminars and workshops nationwide, working with the community during the tsunami disaster, establishing “fixed-it” centre as a free technical service provider to the community, collaborating with international agencies in key industrious areas such as petrochemical, information technology, agriculture, and aquaculture, and organising more social activities for the public such as “Gentleman Vocational Students Program” or “Mister and Miss Vocational Education pageant”. These activities help in re-imaging the status of vocational education in the Thai society.

“I went to the vocational education seminar last year and I was impressed by the quality of the institution. Vocational education is not only a poor grade education as people said.” (18 Male, Agriculture student)

“I think vocational education is not all about students who could not perform well in the academic world. That is a dull idea! I know I am smart and I am doing well in my study” (17 Male, Tourism student)

It seems that Thai students seem to be comfortable to enrol in the vocational education program that are accepted (or being seen as a goof program) by different reference groups in the Thai society. This situation is very similar to previous research in school choices in most countries in South East Asia which is categorised as collectivistic society (

Conclusions and Discussions

This research study confirms that the key criteria students used in confirming their decision-making to enrol in the vocational institutions are personal attitude towards vocational education, curriculum of the courses offered by institutions, potential for future employment after graduation, attractiveness of the campus, and tuition fees and scholarships. These factors should be strategically communicated to the potential students. With regard to the attitude towards vocational education, Thai Ministry of Education must carry on promoting a good image of vocational education and its students to the society. Since vocational education has suffered from being perceived as a second class education and taught which militates against effective learning, marketing communication, in an effort to create an on-going understanding with students and community, is strongly recommended.
With regard to curriculum, vocational institutions should emphasize on modernity of their curriculum, activities to develop students’ academic skills, teaching approach and how these help students to excel in their studies. However, vocational education need not necessarily be purely vocational and technical. It should also include general skills and attributes that are useful across a wide variety of occupations. This is particularly important in the rapidly changing economic systems.

Financial support, in the form of scholarship, apprenticeship, and assistance, should be one of the key tools to attract more students to enrol in the TVET programme. Both quantitative and qualitative results from this study confirm that Thai students will look for some financial supports from the institutions, government, or industries. The Ministry of Education should strengthen its collaboration with industries, local communities, and international organisation to inject more scholarships (or financial aids) to students who may lack an opportunity to further their education after year 9. This form of assistance will help strengthening relationship among the institutions, community, and students.

To attract more students, vocational institutions must also highlight the quality of education that they are providing. This includes informing the target audience of the variety and number of programs, teachers, and prospect of future employment. Institutions can showcase in their promotional effort statistics on how soon the graduate generally obtains employment, the types of jobs and a brief profile of companies that employed them, as well as scholarships and financial aid available to students.

Various reference groups, both distant and proximal groups, play a pivotal role in influencing students’ final decision to enrol in a vocational institution. Guidance teachers from their previous schools are the most influential points of contact. Different reference groups can influence students’ choice in various ways. For example, guidance teachers can help by providing information on programs, institutions, and the benefit of attending vocational institutions. Friends can influence students by opining students’ attitude on TVET programmes. At the same times, family members of students also play a significant role in influencing their decision making. Vocational institutions should communicate with them and educate them, in order to promote long-term understanding of vocational education.

This study confirms that in a collectivistic society, like Thailand, education stresses the skills and virtues necessary to be accepted among group members. Choice of vocational education in Thailand is related to “social approval” and “group identification”. Students need to feel secured about being accepted by their social groups and networks. They need to know that what they are going to study is right and not oppose to social acceptance. This is a major concern for the Thai Ministry of Education to promote the value of group. Strategies to promote vocational education in Thailand should entail the need to preserve group harmony and consequently results in students’ positive perception about TVET.

Global demands for skills have increased substantially in recent years as a result of scientific and technological advances, rapidly changing markets and the intensified global economic competition due to accelerated globalisation (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2007). This form of competition for skilled labour effects global economic transformation. An increasing proportion of countries are in direct competition in trade for more advanced goods and services within the global economy. To compete successfully in this global competition, the Thai government must strategically address significance of both formal and informal vocational training and skills training systems. This is the key challenges of responding to the new and different global labour market requirements.

References

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Bishop, J. (1998). Occupation-specific versus General Education and Training, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 59, pp.24-38.

Blaug, M. (1973). Education and the Employment Problem in Developing Countries. (Geneva: International Labour Office)

Bradshaw, G. Espinoza, S., and Hausman, C. (2001). The College Decision-Making of High Achieving Students. College and University, Vol.2, pp.15-22.

Brennan, L. (2001). How Prospective Students Choose Universities: A Buyer Behaviour Perspectives, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. The University of Melbourne.

Catell, R. (1966). The Scree Test for Number of Factors, Multivariate Behavioral Research, Vol. 1, pp.245-76.

Fiszbein, A., Psacharopoulos, G. (1993). A cost-benefit analysis of educational investment in Venezuela: 1989 update, Economics of Education Review, Vol. 12 No.4, pp.293-8.

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Grubb, W.N. (1985). The Convergence of Educational System and the Role of Vocationalism. Comparative Education Review, Vol.29, pp.526-548.

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Organizational Behaviour in Education

2007-12-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

I am asked to develop a new course in OB in Education which I used to teach in the school of business. This is my idea for the contents of this course. what do you think about it? Should I change any things? Please feel free to comment!
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BUSM 1680 Organisational Behaviour for Educators

Course Description:

Educational institutions are conceptualised as formal organisations and their operations can be explained by organisational theory. To empower leaders of the educational institutions, this course focuses on the impacts that education leaders and group members have on workplaces. It aims to enhance participants to have a clear grasp of the practical realities of their work, their experiences, and their personal views of the world in relation to educational organisations. The need for educational leaders to examine assumptions, beliefs, and behaviours that have been thoroughly internalised will be fully explained in this course. The ways in which psychoanalysis, behaviourism, and humanistic and social psychology affect organisational behaviour in the education settings will be examined in this course. Topics include organisational climate, organisational change, educational leadership, workforce diversity, motivation, conflict management and education reform will be discussed in details. The multidisciplinary foundations of the discipline of ‘organisational behavioural’, including theoretical models and personal experience will be considered through reflective, participative adult learning.

Learning outcomes and objectives:

On successfully completing this course, participants will be expected to be able to manage individuals, manage team, and diagnose education organisations. Participants will be able to:

- Understand the evolution of educational management concept and its relation to philosophy of organisational behaviour

-Interpret, differentiate and summarise concepts of work-based behaviour including individual and group values and attitudes; motivation; dynamics; power; conflict and negotiation within the education setting.

-Understand the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organisation’s effectiveness

- Contribute to the improvement of educational leadership and management within organisations through an increased awareness of organisational dynamics.

- Analyse organisational behaviour and its effect on learning within educational organisations.

- Consider and Utilise differences and/or commonalities in decision-making methods and goal setting in the education environment.

- Understand the concept of workforce diversity and its impact on organisational behaviour in education setting.

- Synthesized, interpret and integrate, at a high level, knowledge and understandings derived from multiple sources and perspective.

- Be an effective education leader by leading team in problem-solving, capable of applying critical and creative thinking to a range of issued associated with learning and the profession

- Engage in critical reflection and lifelong learning to constantly enhance practice in international and Australian educational contexts.

Overview of Learning Activities:

Participants will have the opportunity to apply course content to their own life through guided discussion, facilitated group work and individual study. Samples from various educational organisations and sectors will be drawn in each class. Learning opportunities will be maximised through participant preparation and participation in activities and guided discussion. Options for individual study will include reading, reflection, and work-based activities.

Summary of Assessment:

Assessment in this course will require the submission of the equivalent of 6,500 words. Students will have a choice of submission formats for one assignment task. A second assignments task will required the writing of an analytical case study based on the participant’s work-based experience.

My project on Educational Leadership and Management

2007-12-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

I am a researcher and lecturer in the area of leadership and management. I have just started working at RMIT University in Australia in June this year (2007). Prior to joining RMIT, I was at the Ministry of Education and Graduate School of Commerce, Burapha University in Thailand.

I am now doing a research project on comparative study of leadership styles of principals from Australia, singapore, and Thailand. This project is funded by RMIT University as part of my Early Career Research grant.

I aim to create this blog to share with you my experience throughout the journey of this research, findings, and seek some comments and feedback from all of you. Please feel free to chat with me and leave me some comments.