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Higher education today operates in a globalized environment. Within this setting, study abroad has been designated by the federal government as an educational tool to promote national security, U.S. leadership and active engagement in the international community. Roughly over 190,000 American students went abroad in 2003-2004. The 2005 Lincoln Commission report recommended that the U.S. send one million students abroad annually by 2017. This lofty goal will be difficult to obtain without having more comprehensive data on why and how students choose to study abroad. The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate student decision-making, expectation of and experience in study abroad. Factors that influence decision-making as well as expectations and on-site experiences were examined. The researcher drew from students participating in the Commerce School of Business International Programs at Respected State University as the sample, using a college choice theoretical framework built on years of previous research on the tactics of college-bound students and the college student experience. The researcher utilized qualitative research methods relying on interviews of the participants. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then coded. The data was member-checked and peer reviewed for validity. Surveys were employed to bolster interview data and to add reliability. The Anderson Model of Study Abroad Choice and Model of Study Abroad Student Expectations provide two frameworks for how students make decisions and what they expect when studying abroad. Critical factors for these models included: travel and location, educational attainment, aspirations, background, cultural exposure, personal growth, language development, financial variables, social environment, and institutional climate and characteristics. The study also revealed that study abroad experience can be explained using Terenzini and Reason's (2005) college experience model. The study contributes to the field of international education, academic affairs and student affairs by filling a large gap that exists in research on American students abroad. By examining the nexus between choice, expectation and experience in study abroad, the study provides rich data that can help to improve study abroad programming. / text

This thesis provides a better understanding of budgetary process and its characteristics in PJUs. This study aims at exploring budgetary process in such private universities, which includes the features of budgeting system applied: budget committee, budget accountant, budget format, the relation with Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE). The research aims also at studying the level of budget participation and related factors, researching the perceptions about budget procedures, investigating the impact of managers and department factors on budget characteristics, as well as examining the effects of budget participation on managerial performance. The investigation into the above objectives is approached through the employment of various methods. This thesis interviews sixteen budget preparers across eleven universities and a further three in the MoHE; and it collects 77 completed questionnaires from five PJUs. The research also employs archival documents, observations, guidelines and reports in order to accomplish the study objectives. This study adopts both qualitative and quantitative approaches in order to enhance the understanding of the researched phenomena and to highlight a number of findings. First, despite the similar features of PJUs, the budget process is dissimilar in these universities, in terms of the existence of the budget committee, budget accountant and participation procedures. Second, the results explain that all private universities adopt the MoHE budget format, but only seven out of nine apply it in their operations. The findings also indicate that three universities allow the lowest level of management to participate in the budget, four fulfil the minimum requirements of MoHE and allow the second level of management to participate, while two other universities adopt a centralised approach and do not allow the department managers to participate. Fourth, the interview results reveal inconsistency between university managers concerning their satisfaction with the MoHE budget. On the other hand, MoHE staff agreed that private universities comply with the requirements of the ministry. Fifth, there is no significant relation between the features of managers and their department with budget characteristics. Sixth, critically, the results suggest that budget participation is related to managerial performance. This study, therefore, concludes that the budget procedures should not exclude any manager in the university; and that budget participation will enhance the performance of the department managers.

The two time-honoured tasks of universities are teaching and research which have long provided society with specific skills and new knowledge and ideas. Expectations have increased exponentially and demands are originating from a much wider range of stakeholders. Universities are now given progressively more important roles in economic expansion, social development, better forms of political organization and governance, plus providing education for more students, and developing and transferring technology to industry. The capacity of universities to respond is insufficient, in both the developed and developing worlds. New models to guide the evolution of universities include the triple helix, the creation of entrepreneurial or specialized universities, large-scale excellence-driven environments or the concept of developmental universities. Most of these ultimately suggest that the universities move towards technology-oriented third missions, thus a closer interaction with enterprises. This special issue of Science and Public Policy explores such issues in 12 countries.

The third mission encompasses all activities of universities beyond their first and second missions, education and research. An analysis of various countries with different economic, political and geographic features reveals an increased demand for such activities in particular with regard to technology transfer, but also as to the support of the civil society in more general terms. Therefore the universities have to find a new balance between education, research and transfer/extension. However, suitable solutions are often complicated by the orientation of the universities and the policy actors on non-scrutinized paradigms originating in other contexts. The strategies in different countries are embedded in their specific context, making it impossible to determine a best practice. Nonetheless, many interesting approaches can be observed, and mutual learning can be fruitful.

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