In this work, Burton R. Clark uses case studies from 14 innovative institutions to propose a new conceptual framework offering original insights into ways of initiating and sustaining change in universities.

We make choices all the time - about trivial matters, about how to spend our money, about how to spend our time, about what to do with our lives. And we are also constantly judging the decisions other people make as rational or irrational. But what kind of criteria are we applying when we say that a choice is rational? What guides our own choices, especially in cases where we don't have complete information about the outcomes? What strategies should be applied in making decisions which affect a lot of people, as in the case of government policy? This book explores what it means to be rational in all these contexts. It introduces ideas from economics, philosophy, and other areas, showing how the theory applies to decisions in everyday life, and to particular situations such as gambling and the allocation of resources. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

At last, the first systematic guide to the growing jungle of citation indices and other bibliometric indicators. Written with the aim of providing a complete and unbiased overview of all available statistical measures for scientific productivity, the core of this reference is an alphabetical dictionary of indices and other algorithms used to evaluate the importance and impact of researchers and their institutions. In 150 major articles, the authors describe all indices in strictly mathematical terms without passing judgement on their relative merit. From widely used measures, such as the journal impact factor or the h-index, to highly specialized indices, all indicators currently in use in the sciences and humanities are described, and their application explained. The introductory section and the appendix contain a wealth of valuable supporting information on data sources, tools and techniques for bibliometric and scientometric analysis - for individual researchers as well as their funders and publishers.

Written by historians and scientists from all over the world as well as by former and active staff members, this publication gives an inside perspective on the role played by UNESCO in the history of international scienctific co-operation over the past six decades. It is divided into six sections under the headings of: setting the scene, 1945-1965; basic sciences and engineering; environmental sciences; science and society; overviews and analyses; and looking ahead. It also features a list of chronological milestones during this 60-year period.

This book seeks to bridge the gap between theory and practice by identifying the main challenges which the implementation of the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) is posing in language teaching. It reports on the outcomes yielded by prominent European research projects and thematic networks and presents the insights of a prestigious set of scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers from different parts of Europe. The book is divided into four main parts. The first section examines the coordination of language studies in the European Higher Education Area, from general language policy development, to the practicalities of coordinating whole degrees or drawing up ECTS study guides. The second part analyses the concept of competencies within the Bologna process. Methodological aspects are broached in the third thematic block by sharing practical accounts and experiences across Europe. The final part seeks to clarify the most important aspects with regard to evaluating language learning in the new credit system, and examines learning outcomes, student work hours, or ECTS credits.

The demands of today’s society for greater specialization have brought about a profound transformation in the humanities, which are not immune to the competitive pressure to meet new challenges that are present in other sectors. Thus, lecturers and researchers in modern languages and applied linguistics departments have made great efforts to design syllabi and materials more attuned to the competences and requirements of potential working environments. At the same time, linguists have attempted to apply their expertise in wider areas, creating research institutes that focus on applying language and linguistics in different contexts and offering linguistic services to society as a whole. This book attempts to provide a global view of the multiple voices involved in interdisciplinary research and innovative proposals in teaching specialized languages while offering contributions that attempt to fill the demands of a varied scope of disciplines such as the sciences, professions, or educational settings. The chapters in this book are made up of current research on these themes: discourse analysis in academic and professional genres, specialized translation, lexicology and terminology, and ICT research and teaching of specialized languages.