Trends in Governance in Further Education

Abstract

The governance of further education colleges has two main phases since the passing of the Education Act 1944 – the period when further education colleges were under local authority control and the period from ‘vesting day’ on 1 April 1993 when colleges became incorporated and further education corporations were formed as charities. This review is primarily concerned with the landscape of college governance since 1 April 1993 and draws upon some of the very limited number of research studies into the practice of further education governance. The experience and contribution of the key governance players – chair of the corporation, governors, the principal, the senior staff, the clerk to the corporation – are discussed. Throughout the period since 1993, college governance has operated within a policy framework provided by government and, to a greater or lesser extent, the implementation of those policies by agencies of government. In simple terms, the pattern may seem to be creativity (in the early years), compliance (following some high profile college governance collapses), micro-management (through the Learning and Skills Council years) and now the most open, imaginative phase as the current government encourages the strong colleges to play a bigger part in local education provision. Perhaps now is the time when the experience of college governance to date is able to draw upon its considerable strengths and show what the accumulation of governance capital can achieve.     

Trust in public institutions in Russia: The lowest in the world

The article's topic is the attitudes of the Russians toward their social institutions. As it will be shown, Russia is a country, much more than any other, that mistrusts its social institutions, political institutions in particular. There is no one institution that can garner more than 40 to 50 percent of the nation's trust. Indeed, in terms of their lack of confidence in social institutions, the Russians are behind not only the most advanced countries in the world, but even countries known for their unstable political systems, such as Colombia or Nigeria.     

春秋两个劳动节

每年5月1日的国际劳动节,是世界上大多数国家劳动人民共同的节日,而美国和加拿大的劳动节,则是在每年9月的第一个星期一.这一春一秋两个劳动节,都是起源于19世纪末的美国.     

Suicide in Bahrain in the last decade

A combination of social, legal, and religious factors make reporting of suicide difficult in Bahrain, an Islamic country. Limited available data indicates a very low incidence rate of 3 per 100,000. The objective of the present study was to describe the pattern of suicide in Bahrain during a 10-year period. The registered suicide cases (N = 304) at the Ministry of Interior for the 10-year period from 1995 to 2004 were reviewed and analyzed. The mean suicide rate was 0.6 per 100,000 for the Bahraini nationals and 12.6 per 100,000 for the non-Bahrainis with and 17.7 per 100,000 for the Indian migrants. Men were six times more likely than women to commit suicide. The majority of the subjects were under 35 years of age with financial domestic problems being the most common reason reported in the record and hanging the mostly commonly used mode of suicide (92.8%). The suicide rate for the Bahraini population remains low compared to other countries. The higher rate of suicide among Indians merits further investigation. Moreover, more research is needed on the epidemiology of suicide risk factors in ethnic groups for further prevention and intervention.     

Impacts of Bribery in Healthcare in Vietnam

This study explores how bribery in the health sector is associated with people’s well-being and with universal health coverage. By using the data of Vietnam from 2011 and 2012, this study reveals a negative correlation between the prevalence of bribery and health outcomes and the health insurance coverage. Additionally, the results indicate that bribers feel neither cured of injury/disease nor satisfied with healthcare service quality. Furthermore, there is a significantly negative correlation between the belief of the necessity to give a bribe and the health insurance enrolment decision.     

Research and productivity in wheat in Israel

The introduction of the new Green Revolution wheat varieties to Israel is reviewed and analysed. It was found that the first stage varieties (developed from local Mexican wheats) did not have a significant impact on yields in Israel. Dwarf varieties and new crosses bred in Israel from Mexican genetic material contributed significantly to yield increases. Returns to local research are estimated. Conclusions about the role of the International Research System are drawn.     

帝国时期俄罗斯的中国移民:人文特征与管理体制

在中俄两国关系良性发展的今天,还存在着一些隐性的尚未完满解决的问题。例如互信了解问题等,而互信问题的核心包括所谓的“军事威胁”和“移民威胁”。本文拟从历史的角度考察和分析沙俄时期的中国移民的人文特征以及管理体制。     

Normalizing Masculinities in Water Bureaucracy in Thailand

This article addresses the question of whether the culture of masculinity, which is dominant in the water bureaucracy of Thailand, has been changing since the country officially adopted the international paradigm shift towards an integrated approach that emphasizes, among other things, gender equality and women's participation in water resources management. Despite official rhetoric, masculinities have held sway in organizational structure and behavior. Women in both traditional and new water agencies, and those under their mandates, continue to be disadvantaged and excluded. More potent change measures, such as strong gender-sensitive capacity building, are needed. To succeed, such measures may also require broader reforms in state bureaucracy.     

美军大规模调整亚太军事基地

据《韩国时报》3月22日报道,韩国将与美国联合投资110亿美元,在远离朝鲜人民军火炮射程之外的南方为2.8万驻韩美军修建新家,那里将成为美军在朝鲜半岛上的"枢纽基地".     

Poverty and productivity in female-headed households in Zimbabwe

A household survey conducted in rural Zimbabwe in 2001 is used to compare the position of de facto and de jure female-headed households to those with a male head. These households are characterised by different forms of poverty that impinge on their ability to improve agricultural productivity. However, once inputs are accounted for, it is only for growing cotton that female-headed households' productivity is lower than that found for male-headed households. General poverty alleviation policies will benefit the female-headed household but specific interventions via extension services and access to marketing consortia are also indicated.     

War Crimes in the Armed Conflict in Pakistan

Research on the characteristics of suicide bombers is reviewed. Contrary to previous commentary, it is suggested that suicide bombers may share personality traits (such as the "authoritarian personality") that psychological profiles of suicide bombers might be feasible, and that the suicide bombers may be characterized by the risk factors that increase the probability of suicide.‐     

Identity in Transformation: Russian-speakers in Post-Soviet Ukraine

Abstract

This essay examines the transformation of identity of Russian-speakers in independent Ukraine. Based on survey, focus groups and public discourse data, it explores the hierarchy of identities of those people who use predominantly Russian in their everyday lives and the meaning they attach to their perceived belonging to the Ukrainian nation. Although many scholars argued after the breakup of the USSR that Ukraine’s Russian-speakers would form into a community distinguished by its preferred language, the present analysis shows that they have instead been transformed from Soviet people into Ukrainians—and that without drastic changes in their language practice.     

Participation in a School Incentive Programme in India

Education policy has recently focused on improving accountability and incentives of public providers for actual learning outcomes, often with school-based reward programmes for high performers. The Learning Guarantee Programme in Karnataka, India, is prominent among such efforts, providing cash transfers to government schools that achieve learning at specified high levels. This study examines whether schools that self-selected into the incentive programme are different than those that did not. The answer has important implications for how to evaluate the impact of such a programme. Although we find no significant differences in resources and characteristics, we do find significant and substantial differences in test scores prior to selection into the programme, with better performing schools more likely to opt-in. These findings also provide insight into how incentive-based programmes that focus on levels of (rather than changes in) achievement can exacerbate inequality in education. Failing schools, since they are more likely to opt-out of incentive programmes, are likely to require other targeted programmes in order to improve. In addition, our findings reinforce the value of randomised controlled trials to evaluate incentive programmes since evaluations that rely on matching schools based on resources (if, for instance, pre-programme test scores are unavailable) will be biased if resources poorly predict test scores.     

Reconsidering Gender Bias in Intrahousehold Allocation in India

Finding evidence of gender discrimination among children in the intrahousehold allocation of goods has often proven to be difficult. This article uses data on education expenditures in India to test whether data aggregation, data reliability and the statistical method used help explain this pattern. Results suggest that discrimination against girls is increasing in age and robust to the statistical method and the expenditure measure at the all-India level, although state-level results are more sensitive. I find that data aggregation and statistical method are important factors in detecting gender bias, while data reliability does not seem to play a major role.     

Moderating Factors in Adopting Local e-Government in Spain

This study analyses the factors that influence citizens' intention to use e-government activities offered by municipalities in Spain. For this purpose, we developed a straightforward user behaviour model that considers the components of the TAM and DOI models simultaneously, harnessing their synergies and factoring in the role of citizens' trust. We also examined the moderating role that population size can play in the model's behaviour. Among the results we obtained, it is important to note that user trust not only improved the model's fit, but also showed a significant effect on intention of use for all the population sizes that we analysed. The other significant relationship for all the samples linked ease of use to perceived usefulness. For the other relationships between variables, we observed the moderating role of size for the populations we considered.     

Suicidal behavior in South Asians in the UK

Rates of deliberate self-harm have been reported to be higher among South Asians, especially women, in the UK. Two studies collected information on inception rates of deliberate self-harm in the UK and reported that rates of attempted suicide are much higher among South Asian women especially those aged 18-24. These rates are associated with high rates of cultural alienation and previous attempts. The implications of cultural conflict are discussed in this context. In addition, a hypothetical model of interrelationship of factors for both adults and adolescents is described.