Since the start of the twenty-first century, university rankings have become internationalized. Global rankings have a variety of uses, levels of popularity and rationales and they are here to stay. An examination of the results of the current global ranking reveals that well-reputed world-class universities are amongst the top ranked ones. A…

Being distinctive has not always been critical for universities in the U.K. Until recently, significant economic and political forces--largely public funding and regulation--had pushed higher education institutions as a whole toward homogeneity. What is distinctiveness? For some, it's synonymous with being unique. What makes an organization…

The target article seems to provide yet another illustration of the classic "It don't make no nevermind" principle in statistical analysis. In particular, relatively simple measures appear to do approximately as well as more complex measures do, even including indicators that represent nonlinear transformations of the simpler measures. The authors…

While both outsiders and defenders have antibullying attitudes, only defenders have the reputation to defend victims. However, outsiders--despite their reputation of avoiding involvement in bullying--do receive some defender nominations and thus defend victims at least occasionally. This study investigated the relationship between these behavioral…

The paper critically reviews the results of Korean massification in higher education (HE) and focuses on the consequences related to graduate employment. By analysing statistical data and reviewing related articles, this study explores the process of the massification of HE, investigates major factors influencing the expansion, and analyses and…

Development of academic mobility of students from different countries requires evaluating the influence of their cultural traits on the behavior on the educational products market. The subject of present study is the development of methodic approach towards evaluating the cross-cultural traits influence on students' behavior on the higher…

With the move toward mass higher education in Russia, academic degrees have lost much of their prestige. It is now necessary to look more closely at the reasons for this devaluation, to explore ways to optimize the training of researchers in graduate school programs, and to integrate Russia's system of science training into the European system.…

Constructions of femininity and attendant notions of feminism are being produced in different ways in different places around the world. This is a complicated global process that cannot be reduced to analyses that take place in nation states. This paper seeks to respond to and enhance Angela McRobbie's compelling argument about understandings of…

European universities have, since the late 1990s, undergone dramatic changes centred on internationalisation, harmonisation and competition. This paper is concerned with two specific consequences of these changes and their interrelationship: rankings and Englishisation, the latter defined as an increase in the use of English at universities of…

The 2008 global financial crisis cast a long shadow over Ireland's higher education and research system. The IMF said Ireland experienced an "unprecedented economic correction", while Ireland's National Economic and Social Development Office said Ireland was beset by five different crises: a banking crisis, a fiscal crisis, an economic…

The educational concept of "Zone of Proximal Development", introduced by Vygotskij, stems from the identification of a strong need for adaptation of the learning activities, both traditional classroom and modern e-learning ones, to the present state of learner's knowledge and abilities. Furthermore, Vygotskij's educational…

This paper presents an account of the conditions and consequences of a university-level teaching experience in the sociology of fame centered on the case of Lady Gaga. When the course "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame" at the University of South Carolina was announced in the autumn of 2010, it became the number-one Lady Gaga news…

The article explores how children use different types of knowledge of place to make sense of their relations to other children. The participants are children aged 11-12 in a small town in southern Sweden. The methodology used is place mapping with group interviews. A significant outcome is that the children connect emplaced and spatial knowledge…

Research on internationalization processes in higher education has steadily increased over the past decades. However, there is still a lack of analysis of how these developments have affected higher education and, specifically, the group of academic faculty members. To close this gap, this study explores the effects of internationalization on this…

Universities today inescapably find themselves part of nationally and globally competitive networks that appear firmly inflected by neoliberal concerns of rankings, benchmarking and productivity. This, of course, has in turn led to progressively anticipated and regulated forms of academic subjectivity that many fear are overly econo-centric in…