Educational developers around the world are employed in a range of settings and under different working conditions, including academic (faculty) positions and administrative (professional staff) roles. Curiously, in a survey of 1,000 developers from 38 countries, the authors find that a full 51% of developers in the United States are on…

The question of whether neutrality is possible in academic development invites us to explore the particular place of academic development in our institutions and how academic development is positioned in our particular national and institutional environments. This paper, which reports on a small pilot study of how Canadian academic development is…

The purpose of this article is to provide continuing higher education leaders with a comprehensive overview of the major considerations for doing business in the global market. Included is an analysis of the driving forces in global higher education and current trends in cross-border programs and a brief review of activities that may be part of a…

Using the development of Third World countries as a metaphor for individual school development, this article describes a method used for eight years in a British secondary school to support internal school development initiatives. Emphasis is placed on internal communication and collaboration and on obtaining outside support rather than outside…

Profiles South Africa's system of 15 technikons, institutions providing 1- to 5-year programs in science, technology, engineering, business, and industry. Discusses growing enrollments, the shift away from science and technology fields, teacher qualifications, and the place of technikons in South Africa's postapartheid higher education system.…

This article discusses the social and educational conditions that have supported the development of teacher centers, using a perspective from social anthropology, Malinowski's "functional" theory of institutions. Teacher centers are seen as a reflection of growing teacher power in a climate of shifting authority structures. (SJL)

Four books examine recent and ongoing changes in the university as an institution, focusing on lifelong learning and increasing numbers of nontraditional students, the entrepreneurial university, and the university in the knowledge society. The new university must balance its roles of serving the new economy while continuing to safeguard and…

During the 1980s, the higher education systems of China and Taiwan were reformed as part of selective social transformations driven by different domestic forces: economic in China and political in Taiwan. Common to both reforms was devolution of institutional powers to colleges and universities, but within institutional and curricular limits…

This report describes a research project designed to investigate the relationship between perceived organizational culture and the current general level of Internet self-efficacy as well as with two sub-categories of expertise: use of course management shell software and Web authoring software. The perceived organizational dimension of "employee…

The Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE) in Hiroshima University started a program of research on the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) in 2005. This research is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science as a grant-in-aid for scientific research headed by Professor Akira Arimoto, Director of the Research Institute for Higher…

Compares the transition from elite to mass higher education in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and discusses implications for a similar developing trend in China. Examines female participation, relative emphasis on science and technology education, balance of four-year and shorter programs, and extent of private higher education. Contrasts…

During 1960-95, unplanned and uncontrolled educational expansion in Nigeria, coupled with a population explosion, military coups, and a depressed economy, created an environment of crisis in the educational system. Problems included poor funding; inadequate facilities; corruption in admissions, certification, and examination practices; emergence…

Traces the lifecycle of the Primary Science Programme (PSP), 1983-99, a representative South African nongovernmental organization. Shows how the social and economic environment shaped PSP development and demise. Highlights tensions between quality versus quantity, subject versus holistic focus, and participatory versus authoritarian management…

Examines the development of liberal education throughout the Great Plains region of Canada and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Argues that western Canadian universities were more influenced by "general education" experiments and liberal-professional programs initiated at U.S. universities than by the 19th-century liberal…

The way in which integrated effort encompassing several epistemologies has developed in one organization is analyzed. The concern is to investigate under what conditions multidisciplinarity flourishes. The data base is a long-term, intensive case study of the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) of the University of Pittsburgh since its…