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Special thanks to Christy Kelsey Zigler for her guidance and feedback on the statistical models and results. Thank you to the Student Research Grant of the School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, part of which supported this study. This publication represents only the views of the author; any errors are only her own.

This quantitative study examines the effectiveness of government financial assistance policies in access to higher education in post-socialist Mongolia as of 2012, using probabilistic, cross-sectional Household Social and Economic Survey data. Using a six-subscale composite socioeconomic status (SES) variable, the study examines the effect of SES on government financial assistance, relationship between the State Budget Organization employee status on the assistance and the SES levels. Cross tabulations and multinomial regression models were applied in the analyses.

This paper examines higher education in Afghanistan. Based on qualitative research, including interviews with key policymakers and stakeholders, the paper examines the primary issues, challenges, progress, and future vision for higher education in the country. The research reveals that one of the most significant issues in the country in the post-Taliban era is female participation in higher education. It also shows the importance of alternative forms of higher education, such as two-year institutions, private education, and technical/vocational education.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, tribal familial affiliations form the basis of society with opinions and viewpoints of parents and other family elders heavily influencing the decisions of younger Emiratis. Social transitions caused by rapid and progressive economic development have affected each consecutive generation with a vastly different set of social circumstances than the preceding generation.

Higher education regionalization in Asia Pacific: Implications for governance, citizenship and university transformation edited by J. N. Hawkins, K. H. Mok, and D. E. Neubauer describes and summarizes the conversations happening around regionalization in the Asia-Pacific region, and is a potential resource for the higher education community interested in the Asia-Pacific region.

The authors are thankful to the reviewers of this article. Their suggestions helped to significantly improve this paper. We are also grateful to all the interviewees who participated in this study.

Considering that coordination can take many forms, and may be instituted through an array of policy instruments and tools, we take the position that coordination is both a consequence of pressures on higher education some of which are brought by market forces (globalisation) but also that state coordination of higher education can be a trigger for change. Our objective is to demonstrate this through a review of literature and legislative and policy instruments in Namibia. We complete the review with an in-depth analysis of key informant interviews on coordination in Namibia.

This manuscript is a research essay, which is distinguished by its reliance on systematic and empirical data coupled with an essay approach to the interpretation and presentation of the authors' perspectives and opinions.

The Republic of South Sudan is one of the newest of all African countries having become an independent state on July 9, 2011. After years of prolonged war, beginning in the mid-1950s, among different political, tribal, and military factions, and with the Sudan, the South Sudan is now a full-fledged country. The country continues to deal with the legacy of colonialism, genocide, and oppression, and is involved in a civil war.

This work presents a new numerical method for processing atomic force microscopy (AFM) data to determine the elasticity of cultured adherent biological cells. Raw AFM force-indentation data is commonly interpreted using the Hertz and Sneddon contact mechanics models to fit a Young’s modulus or apparent cell elasticity. This apparent cell elasticity is highly dependent on the method used to identify the first point of contact between the AFM probe and the cell surface.

Mechanical behavior of cells plays a crucial role in response to external stimuli and environment. It is very important to elucidate the mechanisms of cellular activities like spreading and alignment as it would shed light on further biological concepts. A multi-scale computational approach is adopted by modeling the cytoskeleton of cell as a tensegrity structure. The model is based on the complementary force balance between the tension and compression elements, resembling the internal structure of cell cytoskeleton composed of microtubules and actin filaments.

What is the influence of parents on college students' grades? While social capital from parents, through the lens of parental involvement, has been used in research of both primary and secondary schools, it has not been fully examined at the undergraduate level. 172 undergraduate students at Lehigh University were given a survey to see what influence social capital from parents may have on their grades. Social Capital was measured as parental involvement.

The purpose of the present paper is to identify the main challenges facing Kenya's public higher education system and to propose plausible and, concrete steps policy makers and educational leaders can take to address those challenges to ensure the country's higher education system prepares the human capital, which is necessary for the construction of a knowledge economy.

Universities have come to be viewed as essential in accelerating a country's knowledge economy in order to maintain its global competitive edge. However, as it currently stands, the Global North governs much of the output of knowledge production through research and scholarship. International partnerships between universities offer the opportunity to bridge this gap by offering new avenues through which these institutions can better prepare students for the globalized world and build institutional capacity.

BOOK REVIEW: Cuervo, H., & Wyn, J. (2012). Young People Making it Work: Continuity and Change in Rural Places. Victoria, Australia: Melbourne University Press. 208 pages, ill., ISBN: 9780522860979.

This work was supported by the Global Gateway Faculty Associates Grant from the University of Nebraska Foundation and the University of Nebraska Office of the President.

Higher education institutions in Vietnam have embraced opportunities to collaborate internationally to address specific educational needs that have emerged as a result of an accelerated economic and political society. The shift to a global market-driven economy has resulted in the need to produce better prepared graduates, advance in technology, and a shift in teaching and learning practices. In this study, we examine the motivations of 22 Vietnamese graduate students to attend Vietnamese-German University (VGU).

BOOK REVIEW: Bigalke, T. W., & Zurbuchen, M. S. (Eds.). (2014). Leadership for Social Justice in Higher Education: The Legacy of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program. Palgrave Macmillan. 250 pages. ISBN: 9781137366498

Book Review: Ashcroft, K., & Rayner, P. (2011). Higher Education in Development: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc., 286 pp., ISBN: 978-1-61735-541-7.

In addition to accrediting American colleges and universities that enroll over 20 million students a year, the US regional accrediting agencies also accredit international institutions. Existing research on international accreditation has not previously investigated the impact that international activity might have on the standards used by US regional accreditors.

In 2012 implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) allowed for more than 1.5 million undocumented youth to become eligible for work authorization and to qualify for institutional and in some cases, state financial aid (Passel 2012). With these changes, access to higher education became a realistic possibility for undocumented youth all around the United States. Nevertheless, a generation of undocumented students who managed to navigate the college application process and successfully enrolled in institutions of higher education remained.

As a result of globalization and the digital revolution, the concept of creativity has become increasingly central to education policy and practice, particularly during the times of growing uncertainty and accelerating change. On the one hand, the calls for creativity are driven by an economic imperative and instrumental values. The argument is that there has been a shift from an industrial-based economy to a knowledge-based economy to a creative economy. In such an economy, accessing knowledge is much easier than ever before.

This study explores the effect that university and career preparation materials and resources in Cambodian upper secondary schools have on students' post-secondary plans, aspirations, and expectations. Globalization, and in the case of Cambodia the integration with transnational organizations like the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), has rapidly increased the speed at which people need to remain technologically connected, and has effectively opened physical and metaphorical boundaries between nations and cultures.

Race and ethnicity contribute to degree attainment among students attending their first year at a higher education institution, with White and Asian students holding the highest degree completion rates and Black and Hispanic/Latinx students holding the lowest. Although the number of students attending college is increasing overall, these degree attainment gaps between racial groups persist and warrant assessment.