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The author analyses the effects of the emergence of mass higher education in relation to the phenomena of employment and employability. The analysis relies on national and international data. First, the study defines the concept of employability; then it presents the relationship between employability and economic theory. The analysis looks at the reasons for the emergence of mass higher education and its effects on the labor market. After this, the study will examine the relationship between over-education and the quality of gained qualifications. The writing also deals with two-level training – giving a solution to problems of mass higher education and labor relations. Finally, the study provides us with the conclusion that the state’s funding role is open to question when it comes to mass higher education and academic and economic relations as well, so that the employability of graduates should be re-evaluated.
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This article shows that ‘After Diploma Surveys` results (surveys aimed at ex-students) regarding their alma mater must be accepted with caution. Answers could be biased, for two reasons: firstly about 60-80% of people choose not to return questionnaires while some of them probably do so because of their bad opinion of their alma mater. Secondly, the bias may be caused by the large time lag between the university studies of respondents and data collection. Also, Hungarian Higher Education regulations have changed so frequently in the last twenty years that answers appearing in the survey will most likely be referring to a situation that is different from the now-existing one. General results from such surveys reveal that the labor market offers benefits to persons with a university degree. Present types of ‘Post Graduation Survey` give a new perspective: they are delivered by individual universities but with a common central block of questions along with other university-related questions; in addition, answers to the central block of these questionnaires are collected not only in local institutional databases but also in a central data bank.
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In an analysis of expectations related to graduate employment opportunities, the study examines, for the period before persons’ enter the labor market, student expectations related to such entry and successes instead of objective indicators of employment possibilities. The study analyses the individual background variables playing a determining role in study expectations via a multi-dimensional approach to labor market success, focusing on subjective elements. In addition to examining expectations in detail regarding the most important professional field background variable, the analysis – embedded within the framework of relevant technical literature – also focuses on expectation-related differences appearing between genders or social groups; it also looks at how previous professional work experience modifies people’s expectations. The analysis is based on data from a questionnaire survey obtained in relation to approximately 8000 people studying on undergraduate programs.
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Interview with András Semjén...
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At the start of European higher education reform in 1999, the year 2010 was earmarked as the deadline by which time one should have introduced it and achieved the desired goals. 2009 was the year of evaluation of the process, and the last bi-annual conference of ministers in Leuven/Louven-la Neuve - placed more emphasis on planning for the next time period, i.e. up until 2020. Based on “country reports”, the conference determined that reform had been introduced in all participating countries as far as the most fundamental of goals is concerned, though to varying degrees and depths, and with many different ‘solutions’ or ways of operating. Therefore, the process can be viewed as a success, but it is also obvious that full completion will take more time, and there remain open questions and unsolved problems in many areas. The performance of Hungary got a better than average score according to the quite simplified standard criteria.
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István Polónyi first looks over the programs of the government between 2006–2010; and after this he takes a look at the financial changes involved in public education. The argument is that efficiency has improved and many educational co-operatives have been set up in districts. Yet these leaps forward may have been injurious, too. The tuition fee became a gun in the election war of parties – and this is the reason why the government was unable to introduce it. At this time there were no important financial changes in the higher education. Maintainer agreements were introduced lasting 3 years, but they were a rather specious solution, i.e. and not a real leap forwards. At the beginning of this term the Research Institute of Higher Education was terminated, and professional teams replaced it; though these are fleeting - and nonindependent. The conclusion here is that there has not been any sensational change in educational politics during this time period, though irredeemable mistakes did not occur, either. They brought too and didn’t.
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The two issues – of teacher training and of the Bologna process, respectively – operate separately, though are not independent of each other. The Bologna process is marked by declarations of European education policy-makers, by national legal regulations, things that are monitored by national and European information agencies. Teacher training, however, is a set of more complex national processes, which are embedded in cultural traditions had by diverse national education systems, in different demographic and economic tendencies, while all are driven by different national/institutional interests. The author of this article endeavours to describe some of the changes that the Bologna process has introduced in teacher training (structural changes, changes in student mobility, diversities within Bologna policies in national systems) and also tries to interpret some of the ‘messages’ of Bologna relating to teacher training (what standardization, learning outcomes and transparency actually means, and how ‘relevant knowledge’ is to be understood in this field). The author concludes that the Bologna process is a kind of common challenge for national education systems – and for different sectors of higher education as well. It is an opportunity to redefine special education fields (teacher training amongst them) within the context of mass higher education, and to find creative solutions connecting with new needs inherent in a changing educational world.
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The points of debate within teacher training in the Bologna system have led to differing evaluations. The radical reform concept put forward by the Ministry of Education and the markedly opposing opinions of Eötvös Loránd University clashed with each other in 2003, when the Hungarian model of teacher training within the Bologna system was born. In the course of the development of the Hungarian model, professional and organizational conflicts were resolved via compromise decisions; however, the resulting – and profound – changes brought about new tensions. This study points to the 5 main features (teacher training only at the master level, integrating professional and pedagogical knowledge, dual qualifications, the importance of empirical competence and organizational emphasis, volume and selection) of the model that has had its introductory phase in 2009; while it also presents the main objections against them, and lists and discusses the arguments in favor of revision. The history of the reform is, at the present time, too short and as yet unsettled for us to be able to draw final, empirical conclusions in relation to its direction and achievements. One thing is certain, however: the radical changes brought about in public and higher-level education make restoration of the form of teacher education present before the Bologna process impossible.
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According to the author the EU document “Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of Member States, meeting within the Council on 15 November, for improving the quality of teacher education” correctly sums up the European tendencies and requirements in relation to TE. The article analyses the main points of the document (qualification from a higher education institution, a suitable balance being arrived at between research-based studies and teaching practices, effective early career support, adequate mentoring support throughout one’s career, high quality training in school management and leadership, coherent relationships amongst initial, induction and in-service teacher education, partnerships between schools and teacher education institutions, the acquisition of the abilities necessary for effective teaching, mobility programs relating to teachers, teacher educators and student teachers, and making the teaching profession a more attractive career choice). The Hungarian situation and new developments paint a controversal picture: for example, Hungarian teachers study for eleven semesters to get their qualification, though their induction is not dealt with properly; the coherency between ITE and CPD, mentoring and partnerships can be improved, management training is at a high level, and competences are well defined – yet their effect on the teacher education process brings forth many questions.
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The structural and content reform of teacher education – and especially the new one-semester-long practical training, its content elements and conditions of realization – are investigated. A detailed description of mentors‘ roles and the necessity of mentor-training is given, and the benefits and difficulties of the new forms of cooperation between schools and teacher training institutions are presented. Some basic and stable elements of reform are additionally emphasized (a change for which might place at risk the whole system). Also, some professionally disputable elements will be brought to light.
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The article concisely reveals the main reforms in the Swedish education system. It, also, outlines the organisational features of the Swedish higher education system in the postwar era, with a focus on the 1970s to the early 2000s. The author analyses political, social and educational conditions which have had a great impact on the process of higher education formation in the context of integration and decentralization policy.
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The following sentence has been adopted as the motto of the article: “In [...] the perspective of selfless dedication to truth, the university as a whole must be philosophical, i.e. loving wisdom.” On the basis of such statement, it was agreed that the question is not so much about the presence of philosophy at the university but about the degree of philosophicality of the university itself. It was suggested that this philosophical approach should be based on a broadly understood classical philosophy, which would include the most important streams of the Western philosophical thought. It was proposed that philosophical education, both for students of philosophy and those majoring at other disciplines, should include a classic set of philosophical disciplines (philosophy of being, cognition, ethics, logic with methodology and history of philosophy) and a classic set of philosophical problems (i.e. being, God, man, truth, good, unity, beauty, happiness). The emphasis is not so much on providing the listener with a list of views on a given subject but rather on allowing the lecturer to have his/her preferred opinion, noting that teaching is an interpersonal relationship oriented towards truth. Such presence of philosophy at the university requires a radical turn from currently dominant scientist, technocrat and bureaucrat approaches which decrease the level of education, degrade the position of professors at the university and destroy the univeristas understood as the community of teachers and students.
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Catholic University means common. For this reason it may serve as the model of contemporary university of humanities. Commonness is in opposition to unilaterality and tightness. Commonness - Catholicism - manifests itself in a variety of domains of life. It primarily manifests itself in our religion. This side of Catholicism is the foundation stone for life truly human, on the one hand life in appreciation of all real values of what is terrestrial - on the other hand life that opens to infinite, eternal horizons of truth, goodness, joy. Furthermore - as Krąpiec explains - the Catholic University of Lublin has set out two priorities. The top priority - the study of religious creativity and those fields of culture that are linked with religion. The study of a variety of manifestations of the Catholic culture undoubtedly constitutes the great subject matter worthy of organised method-based cognitive procedures. The study of the Catholic culture, especially of our country of millennial heritage in that field, is the masterpiece that is elaborated upon by theology and Canon law, and philosophy and faculties of humanities. The other specific priority of our University is to educate the Catholic intelligence amongst both the layman and the clergy. According to Father Krąpiec, University should most of all guard the complete truth about man and safeguard that truth. Today it appears to be the ‘reason of state’ as ‘to be or not to be’ for Catholic University as well as for universities of humanities.
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This essay exposes the ways in which the Progressive pursuit of ‘diversity’ in U.S. higher education is not actually diversity at all but ideological homogeneity. After citing numerous instances of diversity mongering on campuses, an axiological analysis of Progressive diversity is offered to show clearly why and how their diversity is really uniformity. Throughout the essay, much attention is given to Progressive diversity and Catholic education, since such diversity and Progressivism in general are dealing perhaps a mortal blow to the future of Catholic higher education.
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The Author emphasizes that we cannot preserve the identity of any being other than ourselves without first admitting that identities other than ourselves exist independently of us, the rational starting point for anyone seeking to solve this problem must consist in admitting three evident truths: 1) Beings other than ourselves (real natures) exist; 2), like us, the identity of such beings consists in being organizational wholes (wholes made up of parts); and 3) organizational unity exists in and through the harmonious relationship of the parts of an organizational whole to each other and to some chief aim, or act, the organization seeks to generate or cause. In his article the Author analyzes three main issues: to preserve the identity of a Catholic university, we must first recognize three things: 1) what is a Catholic identity; 2) what is a university identity; and 3) how these two identities can be essentially merged to become a third identity, or organizational whole: a Catholic university. More: Because Catholicism and universities are cultural identities, cultural wholes, we cannot possibly hope to resolve such a problem without first understanding what constitutes a cultural whole.
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The Author notes that Catholic education today is suffering from an identity-crisis. As the Catholic university has become indifferent to its identity, it has predictably declined. Catholic educators are supposed to have the knowledge and will to defend Catholic wisdom. But for a variety of reasons there have been compromises and confusions seducing Catholic educators to abandon some of the essentials of Catholic wisdom. The Author analyzes the thesis that secularism as a worldview insinuates itself into Catholic universities, influencing actual instruction in the classroom, curricular design, and even campus culture. The influence persists, and without trained faculty and committed leadership to defend boldly Catholic wisdom. His point is that the transformation of Western society by secularists is analogous to the transformation that has taken place in Catholic universities.
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