Measuring the performance of Public Universities of Georgia: The Case of Social Sciences Faculties Problems of education quality and knowledge production

• Thesis title in Czech: Měření výkonnosti veřejných univerzit v Gruzii: Případová studie kvality výuky a vědecké produkce společenskovědních fakult
• Thesis title in English: Measuring the performance of Public Universities of Georgia: The Case of Social Sciences Faculties Problems of education quality and knowledge production
• English key words: Education quality, higher education, Georgia, research, academic community, quality enhancement, quality assurance
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2018/2019
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Sociology (23-KS)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Mgr. Jan Balon, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned by the advisor
• Date of registration: 19.10.2018
• Date of assignment: 19.10.2018
• Date and time of defence: 27.06.2019 09:00
• Venue of defence: Jinonice - U Kříže 8, Praha 5, J3019, Jinonice - místn. č. 3019
• Date of electronic submission: 10.05.2019
• Date of proceeded defence: 27.06.2019
• Opponents: Olga Senkova

Guidelines

The following major methodology in higher education research will be used:
• Documentary analysis
• Interviewing
• Conceptual analysis
Brennan and Teichler (2008) frame of higher education analysis will be used including following
aspects from which special attention will be given to 1st and 2nd aspects of analysis:
• Quantitative-structural aspects
• Knowledge aspects
• Process and persons aspects
• Organizational aspects
Research survey will be designed in order to obtain general opinion from public University
professors in four University of Georgia (2 of them will be capital-based and the rest two regional).
At least three in-depth personal interviews will be conducted with higher representatives of
education system in Georgia (Ministry of education, National Center for Educational Quality
Management, State-funded research foundation heading personalities etc.) and one focus-group
will be conducted among protest movement participant students. Quality improvement-oriented
documents produced in Georgia since 2010 will be analyzed
By conceptual analysis it is mean that the political opportunity structure theory will be employed
for identifying the factors and external influences on formation of contentious movement around

the problems in higher education. (Tarrow & Tilly, 2015) The emphasize will be put on
institutional capacities that permit/repress the change.
Concerns will be united in two main pillars:
• Academic freedom, its context in Georgia and possibilities to produce critical knowledge
• Betterment of quality of education – determining factors in Georgia.
The structure of thesis:
I Abstract
II Introduction
III Theoretical Background
IV Research questions
V Methodology
VI Findings
VII Conclusion

References

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Transforming the Academy, Social Forces, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Jun., 2001), pp. 1217-1229, Oxford University
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Barnett, R. (2003), Beyond All Reason Living with Ideology in the University, Buckingham, SRHE and
Open University Press.
Baudrillard, J. (2002) Selected writings: Second Edition, Stanford: Stanford University press.
Bauman, Z. (1987) Legislators and Interpreters. Oxford: Blackwell.
Beck, U., Giddens, A., Lash, S. (eds), (1994) Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics
in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1988), Homo Academicus. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Brennan J, Teichler U, (2008), The future of higher education and of higher education research, Journal of
High Educ, 56:259-264, Springer.
De Vita, G.; Case, P. (2003) Rethinking the internationalization agenda in UK higher education, Volume
27, Issue 4, Taylor & Francis.
Delanty, G. (1998) The idea of the university in the global era from knowledge as an end to the end of
knowledge? , Social Epistemology, 12:1, 3-25, Taylor & Francis group.
Eagleton, T. (2006) Your thoughts are no longer worth a penny. The Times Higher Education Supplement:
10 March 2006.
Eurostat, "How much do member states spend on education?", ec.europa.eu
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/DDN-20170828-1 , Accessed on July
4, 2018.
Habermas, J. (1987) “The idea of the University – learning processes, New German Critique, 41, 3-22.
Habermas, J. (1978) Knowledge and Human Interests, 2nd edition, London: Henemann
Kobakhidze, O. "Georgia’s youth are taking to the streets — both on the left and the extreme right
[Analysis]", Oc-media.org, http://oc-media.org/analysis-georgias-youth-are-taking-to-the-streetsboth-on-the-left-and-the-extreme-right/
Accessed on July 4, 2018.
Machlup F. (1962) The production and distribution of knowledge in the United States. Princeton, New
Jersey, Princeton University Press.

Marginson, S. (2009) Open Source Knowledge and University rankings, Thesis Eleven, Volume: 96, issue
1, pp: 9-39. SAGE publishing.
Maringe, S & Foskett, N. (2010) Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education. London:
Continuum International Publishing Group.
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Complementary, Antagonistic, or Independent Constructs? The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 73, No.
5 (Sep. - Oct., 2002) pp. 603-641, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Morrisson, T. "Self-Governance Elections in TSU Underway amid Student Protest",
georgiatoday.ge , http://georgiatoday.ge/news/5218/Self-Governance-Elections-in-TSUUnderway-amid-Student-Protest
, Accessed on July 2, 2018.
Parsons, T. (1973) The American University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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earth.
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Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
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Research and Teaching, London: UCL Press.
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https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS , accessed on July 3, 2018

Preliminary scope of work in English

The MA thesis deals with the problems of education quality at the faculties of social sciences at Georgian public Universities with an emphasize on professors' involvement in the process of quality improvement. In this research, professors are regarded as the core actors of academia. This MA research covers four public Universities of Georgia and its social sciences faculties, these are Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Ilia State University, Gori State University, Akaki Tsereteli Kutaisi Stare University. Certain factors determine the reason for the interest of education quality; the most important among them are high salience of the issue of higher education and student upsurge that emerged in the country since 2011. The contentious character of education quality exposed by students motivated me to study the problem further, especially from professors' perspective, that was yet not covered. Besides, dominant literature about HE quality and management problems are produced about Western countries and Universities. It is essential to see how the problem is formulated in other geographical settings.



The idea of the University education has undergone through several challenges and modes of both governance and thought. The aims University education varies from individual to collectivist goals of society, from Enlightenment goals to contemporary “knowledge-based economy” principles and material gains for stakeholders outside the University base. The dominating social science literature on the idea of the University mention social theoriests such are: Robert.K.Merton (1988). Thomas Kuhn (1970). John Dewey (1966), Talcott Parsons (1973), Pierre Bourdieu (1988), Ulrich Beck (1994) , Zygmunt Bauman (1987), Michelle Lamont (2010), Andrew Abbott (2014) etc. Predominant notion of Humboldtian community of University of culture is now superseded by market-driven “knowledge-based economy”. There are two distinctive oppositions, which competes to be the defining frame of University education -On the one hand epistemological concerns emphasizes the value of education, knowledge as “for its own sake”. On the other hand, the value based on the demands of other social actors, dominantly the market.



Several social actors are entering the field of higher education and they try to have an influence on problems of education and the research production and its purpose and current face (Delanty, 2008). The power of the academic community is at stake. The epistemological form of accountability has been altered by an administrative form of accountability and productivity in education is separated from the productivity of education (Machlup, 1962). The academic community is not the only instance who defines the production of knowledge in an academic institution. University education is challenged by many external actors, market forces and state regulations or demands. The countries in the process of democratic transition and labeled as developing countries, like Georgia, that faces the challenges of high education on different levels of higher education is remarkable. The demands of the quality of education are aggravated by the expectation of Euro-approximation goals and aspiration towards European social organism. The modernization of the education system is intertwined with the goals of modernization, which was set in the early beginning of the 2000s.



My research problem deals with the quality enhancement of high education with the involvement of professors both at the external and internal levels. I am interested in what are the main constraints of quality enhancement and what are the opportunities for progression. I examine the factors of research commercialization in Social sciences, the Motivations of professors to produce better quality knowledge and the role of QA internal and external agencies.



I will use two types of methodology: document analysis and interviews.

I will analyze documents conceptually by picking up key-words and looking for the significance and definition of the concept in relation to my chosen theoretical framework and position.



Research questions:



* How does the external and internal quality assurance proceeding help the professors to improve the quality of the subjects they teach?



* How does the Internationalization and Bologna process help to improve the education quality at Social Sciences?



* What are the prospects of research commercialization in Social Sciences?



* How do professors view the research-teaching integers at today's University?



Research objectives:



* Examine what the motivations of professors to produce better quality knowledge are.



* Investigate how do the professors define their role today's Georgian Public Universities in terms of academic and administrative responsibilities



* Determine whether education quality at Public Universities is dependent on existing resource allocation schemes or individual motivation of professors to strive for better conditions.



Theoretically, my research is linked with an array of theories including New Public Management, Humboldtian, Neo-Humboldtian understanding of the University. The scholarships of R.K. Merton, Thomas Kuhn ( Bill Readings (1996), Michelle Lamont(2009), etc.