Browsing Tag

higher education

Seminar

The Globalisation of MOOCs: Democratisation of Education and the Future of the MOOC Revolution

October 11, 2013

12:45 – 2:00
October 22, 2013
206 Runme Shaw Building, HKU Main Campus

Speakers: Michael A Peters & Tina Besley

Chair: Liz Jackson

 

The MOOCs revolution promises to open up school level and higher education by providing accessible, flexible, affordable courses, using a range of platforms. Fast-track completion of university courses for free or low cost has the potential to change course delivery, quality assurance and accreditation, credentialing, tuition fee structures and academic labour. Educational institutions need to learn from these initiatives’ new business, financial and reve- nue models to meet the needs of learners in an open marketplace. Open education brings opportunities for innovation and exploration of new learning models and practices. We need to understand the threats of the monopolization of knowledge and privatization of higher education together with the prospects and promise of forms of openness (open source, open access, open education, open science, open management) that promote creative labour and the democratization of knowledge. Policy makers need to embrace open- ness and make education affordable and accessible and also profitable for institutions in an open higher education ecosystem.

Michael A. Peters Professor of Education at the University of Waikato and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois is the executive editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory and editor of two international journals, Policy Futures in Education and E-Learning and Digital Media. His interests are in education, philosophy and social policy, and he has written over 60 books.

Tina Besley Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Global Studies in Education, University of Waikato, recently returned to New Zealand after 11 years in UK & US universities. She has published widely in philosophy of education, educational policy, subjectivity, youth studies, interculturalism, and the global knowledge economy.

Seminar

The Culture of Borrowing: The Thai State, Higher Education and Quality Assessment

October 1, 2013

12:45-2:00pm
Wednesday October 2
206 Runme Shaw Building, HKU Main Campus

Speaker: Rattana Lao
Chair: Mark Bray

Influenced by the theory of policy borrowing and lending, this seminar explores why “a global education policy” such as quality assessment (QA) resonates in Thailand. The research deployed a qualitative case study methodology with a triangulation from document analysis, 80 elite interviews, and a three-month internship at the Office of National Educational Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA).

Historical legacies of the Thai state as an active borrower of foreign idea creates a fertile ground for QA to resonate in Thailand. The Thai elites have always, actively and purposefully, made reference to policies from elsewhere in order to legitimize national reform. Thailand deploys externalization strategy to justify the locally and historically rooted logic and aspiration that becoming modern and adapted to global trends is a national necessity.

Rattana Lao (Amp) was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, and for her doctorate graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the HKU Faculty of Education.

Seminar

Islam as a Culture or an Ideology: The Role of Universities

January 31, 2013

Speaker: Abbas Madandar Arani
Chair: Liz Jackson

Dialogue among civilizations requires a full understanding of different
views towards the functions of each civilization. Islamic civilization has
been one of core points in controversies about both “dialogue and conflict
among civilizations”.

The word ‘Islam’ may raise two general views on this civilization. The first
regards Islam as a culture, and the second considers Islam as an ‘Ideology’.
These two views entail different social and cultural implications.

Universities can promote one of the two aforementioned views. Taking a
cultural view towards Islamic civilization, universities can strengthen an
intellectual relationship between civilizations. Alternatively, promotion of
an ideological view increases the conceptual distances and gapes in
understanding between Islamic civilization and other civilizations.
The presentation will first explain these two views, and will then indicate
different functions of universities and other higher education centres in
some Islamic countries.

Abbas Madandar Arani received his PhD from Mysore University, India,
and is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at
Lorestan University, Iran. His research and teaching interest is in the field
of comparative education, with particular focus on education reform,
globalization and internationalization, religion and schooling, and
educational management and leadership.

Seminar

Seminar: Research, Academic Life and Solutions Career Development

January 29, 2013

HAYHOE

 

2:15-3:30pm
Wednesday 15 May 2013
Room 204 Runme Shaw, HKU Main Campus

Speaker: Ruth Hayhoe

 

In this roundtable-format sharing session, Ruth Hayhoe looks back at
her experiences of collaborations between academics and universities
in Canada and China, and sheds light on the paths to be taken for
continued and sustainable conversations between scholarly communi-
ties in the west and the east. She will draw upon the experience of
university partnerships across a number of disciplines and a fairly
lengthy period of time, as well as reflecting on implications for emerging
scholars. Her talk will also enlighten those who look forward to the next
year conference: “Transforming Canada-China Educational Cooperation:
Significant Legacies and Future Challenges” (Beijing, May 9-14, 2014) co-
organized by Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University
of Toronto, York University, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, and
Tsinghua University.

A paper for this talk can be downloaded here.

Ruth Hayhoe is President Emerita of the Hong Kong Institute of
Education and a professor of the Ontraio Institute for Studies in
Education at the University of Toronto. In 2009 she was given a Lifetime
Contribution Award by the Higher Education Special Interest Group of
the Comparative and International Education Society of the USA (CIES),
and in 2011 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the CIES. She is also an
Associate Members of CERC and has written many books, of which five
have been published by CERC.

Seminar

Seminar: The Chinese government’s overseas academic talent policy and mainland Chinese scholars in the United States

November 29, 2012

CERC-CREC-Seminar-Li-Mei

Speaker: Li Mei

This seminar will interrogate the concepts of brain drain, gain, circulation and knowledge diaspora and the shifting patterns of academic mobility between a rising power and a leading power.

The research on which the seminar is based examined the patterns and reasons for Chinese academic mobility to the US by targeting those staying in US universities. Through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, the research explores why some Chinese academics have chosen to return while the others prefer to stay in the US. It also asks how they view the academic profession in the home and host institutions, and examines the collaboration and interaction with China’s domestic peers and colleagues.

The findings have implications for China’s strategy to get its overseas academics back. The study also notes the changes in Chinese academic systems when significant numbers of academics return.

Li Mei is an associate professor in East China Normal University, Shanghai. She earned her PhD from HKU in 2006. She was a visiting scholar at the University of California Los Angeles in 2011.

Her research interests focus on globalisation and internationalisation of Chinese higher education, higher education policy, and the academic profession in China. Her latest book is: The international markets for higher education: The global flow of Chinese students.

Announcement

CERC book receives award

July 30, 2012

CERC would like to extend congratulations to Ruth Hahoe, Jun Li, Jing Lin and Qiang Zha, the authors of our latest book in the Series “CERC Studies in Comparative Education”, entitled Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities: In the Move to Mass Higher Education. The book  has received the 2nd place in the 3rd Annual Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) Higher Education Special Interest Group (HESIG) Best Books for the academic year 2011-2012!