This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

This dissertation scrutinizes the problem domain of gender-knowledge integration into Swedish higher education study programs in informatics. This integration has been expressed as desirable by for example the Swedish government, individual universities and university colleges and the student union alike. In Swedish informatics study programs however, gender-knowledge seems to have been integrated to a limited extent and there is a dearth of research in this area as well. This indicates that gender-knowledge has so far only to a limited extent been recognized as important for Swedish informatics study programs. The purposes of this research is to 1) increase the insight of managers and developers of informatics study programs into the potential of gender-knowledge to enrich informatics as a subject; and to 2) inspire commitment and provide a means for the design of informatics study programs in which gender-knowledge is integrated. The overarching research question for this project is: What are the crucial challenges for a successful integration of gender-knowledge into Swedish informatics study programs? To address the overarching research question, several studies have been conducted through scrutinizing documents like articles, reports, evaluations and syllabuses, as well as listening to the accounts of experiences of the gender-knowledge integration process communicated by lecturers, PhD students and study program coordinators following a hermeneutic research approach. The results of these studies indicate that the process of integrating gender-knowledge is challenging and that there is a need of support for getting the process up and running. For this, a guide that identifies different important questions to be addressed related to challenge categories like knowledge, organization, pedagogical, and resistance has been developed. The knowledge challenge seems to be particularly challenging hence special attention is paid to the development of a basic theoretical gender-knowledge base that, along with some concrete examples on how the basic theoretical gender-knowledge base, could be integrated into areas of concern for informatics study programs. The different types of support suggested above should be considered food for thought and perhaps pointers of where to start looking. After all, only the local informatics community can integrate gender-knowledge into a study program in an enriching way thus making the systemically desirable culturally feasible.

This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

The paper describes the exchange program in between the University of Wisconsin/ Milwaukee and the University of Potsdam in the field of economics. It discusses in detail the development of the program, including the problems and challenges. Additionally a brief description of the curriculum is presented. Then the future possibilities of the Transatlantic Degree Program (TDP) are discussed and the influences and problems of the Bologna process analysed.

Sparčiai vystantis informacinėms technologijoms auga šios srities specialistų poreikis. Specialistų paklausa stipriai viršija pasiūlą. Rengiant šį darbą buvo iškelti 5 uždaviniai. Vienas iš jų buvo išanalizuoti vidurinio ugdymo informacinių technologijų bendrąją programą. Buvo atlikta informacinių technologijų vidurinio ugdymo programos bendrojo ir išplėstinio kursų analizė. Šiame darbe taip pat buvo analizuojami ir lyginami 2012-ų ir 2013-ų metų informacinių technologijų valstybiniai brandos egzaminai. Taip pat buvo atlikta informacinių technologijų krypties studijų programų analizė. Pateiktas Lietuvos universitetų ir kolegijų, turinčių informacinių technologijų krypties studijų programas, pasiskirstymas pagal miestus, šių programų apžvalga, studijuojami specialybės dalykai. Išanalizuota IRT specialistų Lietuvoje pasiūlos – paklausos 2014 – 2016 metų prognozė. Magistrinio darbo metu atliktas mokinių anketinis tyrimas, kurio tikslas buvo išsiaiškinti mokinių profesijos pasirinkimo motyvus ir požiūrį į informacinių technologijų krypties specialybes. Tyrimui atlikti buvo sudarytos elektroninės apklausos anketos, apklausti 195 mokiniai iš 9-ių Šilutės rajono mokyklų, padaryta analizė bei suformuluotos išvados. / As the information technologies develop rapidly a need for the specialists in the field is increasing. The demand for specialists exceeds the supply. There were 5 problems raised during preparation of this thesis. One of them was to analyse the curriculum of the secondary education IT subject. The analysis of curriculum of the secondary education IT subject’s general and extended courses was performed. In this thesis, national school leaving IT exams of 2012 and 2013 were analysed and compared, and examples of problems were given. Also, IT studying programmes were analysed. Distribution of towns and cities of Lithuanian universities and colleges offering IT studying programmes, overview of these programmes and subjects studied were listed. Prognosis for the supply-demand of IT specialists in Lithuania for 2014-2016 was analysed. During the process of writing this Master’s thesis, pupils’ questionnaire survey was performed. The aim of this survey was to establish the motives behind pupils’ choice of profession and their views on professions relating to IT. Online questionnaire was created for performing this survey, and 195 pupils from 9 Šilutė district’s schools were questioned. The results were analysed and findings were concluded.

This diploma thesis deals with the satisfaction of PhD students with facilities for the study by means of data gained from DOKTORANDI 2014 survey. The aim of the thesis is to identify factors that influence the satisfaction with facilities for PhD studies and finding similarities among different fields of studies according to satisfaction with facilities. The first part of this thesis contains a description of higher education with a focus on PhD programs and a description of statistical methods that are subsequently used in analytical part and a description of DOKTORANDI 2014 survey. The analytical part aims to answer the questions which factors affect the PhD students´ satisfaction with facilities for study using logistic regression and decision trees. Further it tries to determine the satisfaction similarities of PhD study fields with facilities for studying using cluster analysis.

The target of the thesis is to describe present higher education system in Slovakia and the way of breakdown of subsidies for public universities and higher schools with focus on comparison with the Czech Republic. First part is about historical development and present state of higher education in Slovakia. Second part is focusing on grants for carrying out accredited study programs and the last part is analysis of study field coefficient and coefficient of employability of graduates. According to used methods I found out that different ways how to evaluate performance of higher schools and universities leads to different results, though they are using the same characteristics.

Les sociétés contemporaines affrontent le défi de s’intégrer et s’adapter à un processus de transformation qui vise la construction de sociétés du savoir. Ce processus doit notamment son élan aux institutions d’enseignement supérieur qui constituent un espace privilégié où on bâtit l’avenir d’une société à partir des savoirs et celles-ci doivent faire face aux nouveaux enjeux sociaux, économiques et politiques qui affectent tous les pays du monde. La quête de la qualité devient donc un processus constant d’amélioration et surgit l’intérêt par l’évaluation au niveau universitaire. Par conséquent, cette recherche s’attache au sujet de l’évaluation à l’enseignement supérieur et s’enfonce dans le débat actuel sur les changements provoqués par les évaluations institutionnelles produisant un défi puisqu’il s’agit d’une prise de conscience fondée sur la culture de la qualité. L’autoévaluation est une stratégie permettant aux institutions d’enseignement supérieur mener des processus intégraux de valorisation dont le but est d’identifier les faiblesses des facteurs qui ont besoin d’améliorer. Le résultat conduit à l’élaboration et à la mise en œuvre d’un plan d’amélioration pour l'institution, programme académique ou plan d’études. À travers l’orientation du modèle d’évaluation systémique CIPP de Stufflebeam (1987), on a pu analyser de façon holistique la mise en place de l’autoévaluation depuis son contexte, planification, processus et produit. Ainsi les objectifs de la thèse visent l’identification du développement de la deuxième autoévaluation afin d’obtenir une reconnaissance de haute qualité et effectuer la mise en œuvre du plan d’amélioration auprès des programmes académiques de Licence en Comptabilité et Gestion de l’entreprise de la Faculté de Sciences de l’Administration de l’Université du Valle en Colombie. À travers l’appropriation de la théorie Neo-institutionnelle les changements apparus après l’autoévaluation ont été également analysés et interprétés et ont ainsi permis l’achèvement des fins de la recherche. La méthodologie développe la stratégie de l’étude de cas dans les deux programmes académiques avec une approche mixte où la phase qualitative des entretiens semi-structurés est complémentée par la phase quantitative des enquêtes. Des documents institutionnels des programmes et de la faculté ont aussi été considérés. Grâce à ces trois instruments ont pu obtenir plus d’objectivité et d’efficacité pendant la recherche. Les résultats dévoilent que les deux programmes ciblés ont recouru à des procédés et à des actions accordées au modèle de l’Université du Valle quoiqu’il ait fallu faire des adaptations à leurs propres besoins et pertinence ce qui a permis de mener à terme la mise en œuvre du processus d’autoévaluation et ceci a donné lieu à certains changements. Les composantes Processus Académiques et Enseignants sont celles qui ont obtenu le plus fort développement, parmi celles-ci on trouve également : Organisation, Administration et Gestion, Ressources Humaines, Physiques et Financières. D’autre part, parmi les composantes moins développées on a : Anciens Étudiants et Bienêtre Institutionnel. Les conclusions ont révélé que se servir d’un cadre institutionnel fort donne du sens d’identité et du soutien aux programmes. Il faut remarquer qu’il est essentiel d’une part élargir la communication de l’autoévaluation et ses résultats et d’autre part effectuer un suivi permanent des plans d’amélioration afin d’obtenir des changements importants et produire ainsi un enracinement plus fort de la culture de la qualité et l’innovation auprès de la communauté académique. Les résultats dégagés de cette thèse peuvent contribuer à mieux comprendre tant la mise en œuvre de l’autoévaluation et des plans d’amélioration aussi que les aspects facilitateurs, limitants, les blocages aux processus d’évaluation et la génération de changements sur les programmes académiques. Dans ce sens, la recherche devient un guide et une réflexion à propos des thèmes où les résultats sont très faibles. Outre, celle-ci révèle l’influence des cadres institutionnels ainsi que les entraves et tensions internes et externes montrant un certain degré d’agencement par le biais de stratégies de la part des responsables de la prise de décisions dans les universités. On peut déduire que la qualité, l’évaluation, le changement et l’innovation sont des concepts inhérents à la perspective de l’apprentissage organisationnel et à la mobilité des savoirs. / Contemporary societies face the challenge of incorporating and adapting themselves to a transformation process aimed at the construction of knowledge societies. Such process is especially oriented by Institutions of Higher Education, which are seen as a privileged space where the future of a society is forged through knowledge and as such, they face the new social, economic, and political challenges affecting the world. Thus, the search for quality education becomes a continuous improvement process which brings about the interest in educational evaluation in the university milieu. This research study deals with the evaluation of higher education as part of the current debate concerning the changes and challenges triggered by institutional evaluation, an awareness-raising process based on the quality culture. As an strategy, self-evaluation allows institutions for higher education to carry out holistic assessment processes aimed at detecting weaknesses in those institutions requiring improvement. Therefore, the outcome of this serves as basis for the design and implementation of an improvement plan, not only for each institution but also for each study program. Stufflebeam’s (1987) CIPP systemic model was used to holistically analyze the implementation of self-evaluation, considering variables such as context, planning, process, and product. The objectives of the study were: 1. Find out how the second self-evaluation process of the Public Accounting and Business Administration study programs of the Administrative Sciences Faculty of Universidad del Valle, aimed at obtaining high-quality reaccreditation from the Ministry of National Education of Colombia, was carried out; 2. Implement the Improvement Plan for such study programs; and 3. Analyze and interpret the changes arising from this self-evaluation, by using the Neo-institutional Theory. The methodology evolved around a case study of two study programs. A mixed approach was chosen, where the qualitative stage of semi-structured interviews was complemented by the quantitative stage of surveys. The data also included institutional documents dealing with information about the two study programs and about the Faculty. The findings show that both study programs followed right procedures and carried out correct actions in order to fit the Universidad del Valle Institutional Model by making the necessary adjustments to meet their needs and pertinence, which led to the successful implementation of the self-evaluation process. Likewise, it was found that the factors with the best improvement rate were Academic Processes, Teaching Stuff, Organization, Administration and Management, Human Resources, Infrastructure, and Financial Resources. Contrary to this, the factors with the lowest improvement rate were Alumni and Institutional Welfare. We conclude that following a sound institutional framework provides study programs with an identity and support and, at the same time, it allows them to implement follow-up improvement plans that bring about significant changes resulting in the rooting of the quality culture and innovation of the academic community. These findings can shed light into a better understanding of the implementation of self-evaluation and that of improvement plans. In addition, they can be instrumental in recognizing the importance of facilitating factors as well as constraining factors that may hamper evaluation processes and the generation of changes within the study programs. Thus, this research study can be seen as a reflection guide on a subject which has been scarcely dealt with. It is also important as it exposes the role played by institutional frameworks and the internal and external pressures exerted on administrative staff members involved in decision-making processes at institutions of higher education. All in all, it can be said that quality, evaluation, change, and innovation are inherent concepts to the organizational learning perspective and to the mobility or knowledge transfer.