This article identifies student mobility flows using Erasmus data from 2007–2008 to 2013–2014. We used the software programmes “R” for statistical analysis and “Pajek” for analysis of networks. Findings provide an overview of student mobility from three perspectives. We find the most balanced relative outbound and inbound mobility in Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Poland. Moreover, Spain and Italy exchange the most students between each other. Overall, the core centres for student mobility are Spain, France, Germany and Italy. Smaller countries, such as Luxemburg, Malta and Liechtenstein, have large numbers of mobile students considering the size of the country's student population. The network analysis revealed three groups of countries: (1) good receivers and senders (Spain, Italy, and Germany), (2) good receivers only (Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Portugal) and (3) good senders only (Belgium and the Czech Republic).
COBISS.SI-ID: 40339973
In times of globalisation of higher education, alternative theoretical and methodological approaches were introduced in the field of comparative higher education research. To stimulate the debate on this issue, this paper firstly addresses them theoretically by combining the concept of institutional isomorphism and the ‘glonacal’ analytical heuristic. On this basis, it discusses arguments in favour of convergence and diversity from the perspective of the internationalisation of higher education and also points to the limits of institutional isomorphism resulting from ‘glonacal’ influences of agencies and agency on the development of (internationalisation of) higher education. Secondly, the paper also draws attention to the influence of globalisation on the selection of methodology in comparative higher education research by exposing the limits of methodological nationalism. Along these lines, it portrays the reversed pyramid model of different horizontal and vertical levels of comparisons with which it establishes the (missing) link between the selected theoretical and methodological framework of comparative (higher education) research. In conclusion, it acknowledges the need to integrate the contextual element into the comparative framework which allows thorough analysis of complex relationships between globalisation and higher education both theoretically and methodologically.
COBISS.SI-ID: 48490499
Mission statements are perceived as effective strategic tools and foundations of an organization's objectives, driving the development of strategic plans to meet the established goals. A vast number of studies have investigated mission statements in industry; however, little is known on how mission statements affect institutes in the higher education sector. Every university is intrinsically different, with its own mission and goals. This study aims to explore how mission statements make the difference among universities, by understanding the values delivered by the mission statements. This study attempts to understand the core values of universities through a content analysis of the mission statements of the top 250 universities worldwide. The results show four core dimensions in university mission statements, namely, “Education Philosophies”, “Strategic Orientation”, “Social Responsibility” and “Values to Stakeholders”, while the most common core values are “Research”, “Educate” and “Student”. Mission statements offer insightful venues for the analysis of the strategic directions of universities. The results show that top universities present their core values through their mission statements. Some mission statements are more service-oriented (towards students) and some are more social-oriented (towards society and stakeholders). These mission statements are communicated to various stakeholders. “Education philosophies” are communicated to educators and students, “Social responsibility” is to the society, “Values to the stakeholders” are towards the different parties involved in the education system and the last one “Strategic orientation” is for the strategy setting. This paper proposes a new methodology of mission statement studies, covering not only studies on mission statements but also the internationalization strategies of universities, which attract attention from academics and education researchers.
COBISS.SI-ID: 40124933