Distance higher education and regional equality in China Scholarly Article - European Journal of Education, April 2022]

Title: 

Distance higher education and regional equality in China  

 

Authors: 

Fengliang Li, Feiyu Wu & Zhilin Wang  

 

Published: 

European Journal of Education, 5 April 2022 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ejed.12502   

 

Abstract: 

Distance higher education plays a critical role in the promotion of regional equality in China by contributing to the availability of higher education. However, unbalanced regional development of distance higher education can lead to a widening of educational inequity. The study on which this article reports sheds light on the issue of unbalanced regional development of distance higher education in China, using provincial data that spans from 2008 to 2018. A dual-index method with Gini coefficient and Theil index was employed to measure regional inequality of distance higher education in China. The findings show that tertiary correspondence education and tertiary radio and television education represent a comparatively small percentage of the regional inequality in distance higher education. Online tertiary education contributes to a greater extent to regional inequality in distance higher education. Intra-regional inequality constituted a large percentage of the total inequality. Also, intra-regional inequality in tertiary correspondence education has increased in western, and central China from 2008 to 2018. Inequality in tertiary radio and television education has also increased in central China from 2008 to 2016. Intra-regional inequality in online tertiary education was marked in all three regions, while inter-regional inequality in online tertiary education decreased from 2008 to 2018.

 

Post-pandemic Higher Education: Perspectives from University Leaders and Educational Experts in the United Arab Emirates [Scholarly Article - Higher Education for the Future, 2021]

Title:

Post-pandemic Higher Education: Perspectives from University Leaders and Educational Experts in the United Arab Emirates 

 

Authors:

Sanaa Ashour, Ghaleb A. El-Refae & Eman A. Zaitoun

 

Published:

Higher Education for the Future, 21 April 2021

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23476311211007261

 

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity to rethink higher education. This study focused on analysing experiences from three higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the onset of the crisis and explored how university leaders and professors in these institutions imagine post-COVID-19 higher education. The study aimed to find out whether the pandemic has been a factor that has helped to legitimize online teaching and learning as a universal mode of delivery across different fields of studies, or if the Zoom fatigue has shown its limitations. In addition, the research investigated what transformations university experts predict and their vision for the future of higher education. The study found that many lessons learnt during the period of forced adoption of distance education will be used by universities to enhance and expand online learning provisions. This shift will be driven by the investments the universities have made in distance education and the increased familiarity of the students, staff and institutions with e-learning. The study participants foresee that more sophisticated forms of hybrid campuses will be a more appropriate model for the future, if face-to-face (F2F) classrooms do not return.