Thèses sur le sujet « Continuing education – European Union countries »

Defence date: 16 March 2007
Examining Board: Prof. Michael Keating (EUI); Prof. Virginie Guiraudon (EUI); Prof. Marino Regini, (Università di Milano) ; Prof. Jacint Jordana Casajuana (Pompeu Fabra University)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
no abstract available

Defence Date: 05/12/2009
Examining Board: Adrienne Héritier (EUI/RSCAS); Ewart Keep (Cardiff University); Martin Kohli (EUI) (Supervisor); Vivien A. Schmidt (Boston University)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This dissertation deals with education systems and the change observed within them alongside changes in the wider political economy. The research is conducted by way of a comparative case study of England and Germany, two countries which in the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) literature represent two very different types of economic coordination (thereby making the study conform to a 'most different research design'). Extending the VoC approach, not only vocational education and training but also school education and higher education are analysed, since these two areas contribute decisively to national skill formation. The point of departure is the puzzling fact that the current reforms of the education systems of both countries are departing from the paths predicted by the VoC approach. The thesis thus argues against institutional path-dependency in the two countries, and in favour of an ideational approach based on discursive institutionalism. First, the theoretical chapter (second chapter) of the thesis includes discussions of discursive institutionalism, policy diffusion, and conceptual mechanisms of institutional change, and provides a framework which accounts for path-deviant discourses and reforms. Secondly, a description of the three educational areas in both countries sketches the paths the systems should have pursued if they were to evolve path-dependently. Thereby this chapter serves as a reference point against which recent developments are assessed (fourth chapter). Thirdly, a textual discourse analysis of various White Papers of the British Government formulating policies on skill formation serves to identify visions and aims. The same procedure is applied for relevant policy papers in Germany (fifth chapter). Finally, the translation of visions into concrete policy measures is analysed by focusing on three important reform measures in each country (sixth chapter). On the basis of the policy cycle stages these measures are traced back to their original intentions and are contrasted with the implemented initiatives. This procedure elucidates how reforms match and potentially alter the existing institutional design, how ideas drive educational reforms, and how they resist, 'bend', or even vanish, once they are employed in concrete policy initiatives.

Defence date: 4 July 2000
Examining board: Renaud Dehousse, EUI (supervisor) ; Bruno De Witte, EUI ; Yves Mény, EUI ; Denis Simon, University Robert Schuman, Strasbourg, and College of Europe
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 20 November 1992
Examining Board: Prof. Dr. Bruno de Wittw, Rijsuniversiteit Limburg ; Prof. Dr. M. Rainer Lepsius (supervisor), Universität Heidelberg ; Prof. Dr. Giandomenico Majone, Europäisches Hochschulinstitut, Florenz ; Prof. Dr. Roger Morgan (co-supervisor), Europäisches Hochschulinstitut, Florenz ; Prof. Dr. Fritz W. Scharpf, Max-Planck Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 19 November 2015
Examining Board: Professor Fabrizio Bernardi, European University Institute (EUI Supervisor); Professor Hans-Peter Blossfeld, European University Institute; Professor Dalton Conley, New York University; Professor Jan O. Jonsson, Nuffield College, University of Oxford/ Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University.
This thesis is a collection of four empirical studies which analyze the effects of family and sibling characteristics on educational outcomes. The analysis in all empirical studies is guided by the compensatory effect of social origin hypothesis according to which higher social origin families can reduce the negative impact of disadvantageous characteristics and life events on their children's educational outcomes. In detail, I study the effects of month of birth, parental separation, birth order, birth spacing, and maternal age. I use data on England, Germany, and Sweden. On a methodological level, I employ natural experiments, fixed effects methods, and instrumental variable (IV) estimation in order to control for the influence of unobserved confounding variables. Overall, I find support for the initial hypothesis with respect to the effects of month of birth, parental separation, and close birth spacing. Contrary to that, I find no systematic social origin differences in the effects of birth order and maternal age on educational outcomes. In the conclusion, I discuss the implications of these findings for theories of the intergenerational transmission of education, the differences in life chances of children from socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged families, and the allocation of resources within families. I discuss how further research could possibly test in how far differences in parental involvement between social origin groups are underlying these relationships.

Defence Date: 26/06/2009
Examining Board: Frank Baumgartner (Penn State University); Susana Borrás (Copenhagen Business School); Adrienne Héritier (EUI/RSCAS) (Co-Supervisor); Rikard Stankiewicz (Lund University (emeritus), formerly EUI) (Supervisor)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
The literature on the policy-making of the European Union (EU) has trouble understanding the long-term evolution of EU policies. While numerous accounts exist that analyze EU policies from a historical, analytical-descriptive and normative perspective, no existing account has studied the evolution of EU policy output from a positive perspective. This thesis wants to start filling this gap in the literature by studying the patterns of policy evolution in the European Union’s research and technology development (RTD) policy. This policy is studied at three different levels of analysis. The first level is that of budgetary dynamics; here I test two alternative hypotheses on the pattern of budgetary change, both derived from the American literature: the classical incrementalist hypothesis, and the punctuated-equilibrium hypothesis of Bryan Jones and Frank Baumgartner. The second level of analysis is that of agenda dynamics, where I study the pattern of issue expansion/contraction on the fragmented agenda of the EU, and test two alternative hypotheses on the allocation of agenda space to RTD policy. The third level of analysis is that of institutional dynamics; here I test the hypothesis that institutional stability is associated with phases of incremental changes, whereas institutional developments occur in correspondence with budgetary punctuations. The empirical results show that both the budgetary and agenda dynamics of this policy are fully compatible with the punctuated-equilibrium hypothesis. However, the hypothesis on the correspondence between budgetary punctuations and institutional change is to be rejected. The final part of this work investigates the mechanism and the necessary conditions for the emergence of new policy priorities, by focusing on the recent emergence of security RTD as a new priority of the Framework Programme. This dissertation is the first work to empirically test the punctuated-equilibrium model on the EU, with an extensive and original dataset composed of budgetary, agenda and institutional delegation data.

One of the main purposes of this dissertation was to examine gender- and socioeconomic status (SES)-related mathematics achievement gaps among Turkish middle-school students compared to achievement gaps in European Union (EU) countries. A further purpose of the present study was to investigate qualified mathematics teachers’ distribution in relation to student SES among Turkish middle schools. Finally, relationships between mathematics teacher quality indicators and students’ mathematics achievement within Turkish middle-school classrooms were explored. In this dissertation, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2007 data were used. Sample countries were Turkey, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and Slovenia. Achievement gaps by gender and SES were examined using Cohen’s d effect sizes and 95 percent confidence intervals. Relationships between mathematics teacher quality and students’ mathematics achievement were investigated using hierarchical linear modeling. Results showed none or only negligible gender differences but substantial SES-related gaps in Turkish students’ achievement in mathematics, overall, or in various content and cognitive domains. Correlations between students’ SES levels and their achievement were the largest in Turkey compared to the sample EU countries. Among the sample EU countries, only Hungary had as large or even somewhat larger disparities as Turkey between low- and high-SES students’ mathematics achievement. The current study also identified SES-related inequities in access to qualified mathematics teachers in Turkey. Low-SES students were more likely to be taught by mathematics teachers who had less than 3 years of experience or who did not hold a degree in mathematics or mathematics education. On the other hand, years of experience and a degree in mathematics or mathematics education were found to be substantially related to Turkish eighth-grade students’ mathematics achievement. Low-SES students’ mathematics teachers were also more likely to report lack of confidence in their preparation to teach various mathematics contents. To narrow achievement gaps, Turkish policy-makers can explore and benefit from policies of the countries identified in the present study as more equitable in terms of student achievement than Turkey. The current study also shows Turkish policy-makers importance of the equitable distribution of qualified mathematics teachers in closing the mathematics achievement gap in middle schools.

Defence date: 28 May 2010
Examining Board: Fabrizio Bernardi (EUI); Jaap Dronkes (formerly EUI/Univ. Maastricht, Supervisor); Markus Gangl (Univ. Wisconsin, in absentia); Irena Kogan (Univ. Mannheim)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis concerns the labour market outcomes of early school leavers in a European, cross-national perspective. More specifically, it deals with the way country level factors shape the disadvantages these early school leavers experience on the European labour market, when compared with those who have at least upper secondary education. To the extent that country level variation in the labour market integration of early school leavers can be attributed to specific institutional and macro-structural characteristics, it enriches the single cross-national definition of early school leaving, and points towards best practices that can be learned from. The overarching research question that runs through this thesis is twofold. To what extent is the labour market integration of early school leavers in Europe obstructed by the country-specific macro-structural factors underlying a knowledge economy? And, second, can the various education and labour market policies across the European countries help to decrease the relative labour market disadvantage of early school leavers? The concept of early school leaving, the process of ranking and rating countries on the basis of institutional and macro-structural characteristics, and the increasing availability of standardised country level indicators have all developed through a cross-fertilisation of academic research and EU policy making, which is why this thesis draws upon both the empirical literature and the Lisbon objectives when arguing the relevance of the research and formulating its conclusions. Using the ESS, the ECHP, and the EU-SILC, this thesis addresses the cross-level influences of educational expansion, skill-biased occupational change, the type and quality of the education and training system, and labour market policies. In conclusion, attention is drawn to the three most relevant findings in this research. These are (1) the downside of an equitable educational system, (2) the benefit of a higher educational quality, and (3) the influence of durable active labour market policy.

碩士
長庚大學
醫務管理學研究所
90
Abstract The Continuing Medical Education (CME) is defined, in brief, as an educational activity which serves to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician assistant uses to provide services for patients, the public or the profession. It goes without saying how important the CME is because the CME could directly or indirectly influence not only a physician’s performance but also a clinical effect. Although the CME has developed for two centuries, it has been just taken the attention in the recent years since the change in the medical environment and improvement in the medical education. On August 12, 1988, the World Federation for Medical Education announced the Edinburgh Declaration that recommended twelve contemporary medical education actions. This Declaration was internationally approved by governments and by the world health parliament. One of the acts, coordination of medical education and healthcare systems, draws the most attention. The Continuing Medical Education of Medical Specialists had been implemented for many years in Taiwan before the physician law was revised in 2002. The nature of the Continuing Medical Education of Medical Specialists in Taiwan was similar to that of the Voluntary Continuing Medical Education (VCME) in the European Union (EU), taking initiatives with respect to the continuing education. However, because of the factors, such as the ambiguous legal sources, the disordered specialist medical associations, and the congenital deficiency of the flexible regulations, the fullness of the public pressures that ask for the sound profession and the high quality in medical practice only get few feedbacks. The amendment of the physician law in January 2002 indicates that a physician should participate the CME and renew the license regularly. This amendment stands for the Mandatory Continuing Medical Education (MCME) approved by Taiwan. The rare relevant researches would contribute to the difficulty in implement of this new amendment. Therefore, this paper is expected to design the general guidelines for the implementation of the MCME in Taiwan in the future from discussing the mechanisim of regulation by the Comparative Study, comparing the regulation in the Mandatory Continuing Education in America with that in the European Union The core concepts of the American Mandatory Continuing Medical Education are the duties division as well as the two ways regulations in the demand and in the supply. The principal regulation model consists of Accreditation, Recognition, and License Renew. The duties are classified according to the property of the regulations, such as the regulation is monitored by the professional associations and audited by the government. The coordination of the regulations of the associations and the legal issues are provided by the American Medical Association. Although the standards are varied from one state to another, according to the regulation, the principle of License Renew, Accreditation, and Recognition of State Medical Societies are consistent due to the initiatives with respect to profession and the audit in the medical practice by the government. In the past, the CME, adopted by a number of countries in the EU, was different from the MCME in America. As a flexible regulation, it put emphasis on the scientific and ethical standards in medical education, taking initiatives with respect to new methods, new tools, and management of medical education. The fullness of time the pressure of quality assurance in medical practice as part of clinical governance resulted in CME becoming mandatory for re-accreditation and re-certification and become a contractual requirement adopted by the European Union of Medical Specialists in the recent years. These experiences could be references for the implementation of CME in the future in Taiwan, In conclusion, this paper recommends facilitate the Mandatory Continuing Medical Education by the following steps in Taiwan. In the short term, focus on the development of the content in the CME and the Accreditation Statement; in the middle term, focus on the combination of the Recognition standards and the improvement of license renew; in the long term, focus on the development of the Physician’s Recognition Award and connect the regulation systems to be the core competence of the continuing medical education. Key words: Continuing Medical Education,Physician Law, The Mechanism of Regulation

Defence date: 14 June 2010
Examining Board: Prof. Bruno de Witte (European University Institute) Prof. Marise Cremona (European University Institute) Prof. H. Schneider (Maastricht University) Prof. M. Dougan (University of Liverpool)
In 2012 awarded the ‘The Jacqueline Suter Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in European Law’
First made available online: 24 August 2021
The Bologna Process is a powerful reform movement, aimed at establishing a European Higher Education Area, most specifically by introducing a common standard of a three-cycle Bachelor, Master, Doctorate system for higher education degrees all over Europe. The Process is based on the non-binding Sorbonne and Bologna Declarations, and is a powerful follow-up process consisting of regular Ministerial Conferences and in-between follow-up meetings. In this sense, the Bologna Process is an important de-nationalisation of higher education. However, the strictly inter-governmental Process takes place outside the institutional framework of the European Union, even though all the EU Member States take part. Also the framework of the Council of Europe has been avoided. This exclusion of the European Organisations is remarkable, especially considering the large overlap between the subject matter of the Bologna Process and their activities. Most notably, the Bologna Process deals with diploma and study credit recognition, student and teacher mobility, research, lifelong learning, quality assurance and a European dimension in higher education, which are all well-established fields of activity of both the EU and the Council of Europe. In this way, it is argued, Bologna detracts from the large body of EU higher education law, and the – often underestimated – legal competence of the EU in higher education. Therefore, the Bologna Process can also be considered as a re-nationalisation of higher education. The Bologna Process is controversial. Some consider Bologna to be a great success, as it has spurred an overwhelming amount of (legislative) changes in almost all European countries through voluntary convergence, whereas others oppose it for precisely this reason. This thesis provides a legal analysis of the Sorbonne and Bologna Declarations and the ensuing Process. From a European law perspective, there are several grave concerns about the way the Bologna Process was created and how it is currently operated. Using the option of operating within the EU framework, most particularly the option of a Bologna Directive, as a comparison, it is argued that with the Bologna Process the Member States have chosen to harmonise their higher education system by less accountable, less transparent, less democratic and less effective means. This is why the Bologna Process amounts to harmonisation by stealth.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to provide synoptic comparison of economic conditions of the selected labour markets together with the information for workers about the possibility of reachable financial remuneration of their work performance within selected EU countries. The theoretical part includes theoretical background about the national economic factors and its current situation within the selected countries. The practical part analyzes how national economic factors, education or gender can influence the remuneration. The last chapter summarizes the obtained results and describes the differences on labour markets in selected countries.