The role of student services in enhancing the student experience: cases of transformation in Central and Eastern Europe

This research project examines the role of student services in universities in<br/>Central and Eastern Europe at a time of rapid transformation of the higher education<br/>sector, following from the collapse of the socialist period in 1989 and the<br/>implementation of the Bologna process after 1999. Conducted in the period 2004-<br/>2006, the research process aimed to identify the major factors of institutional change,<br/>and to what extent are students, and services for students, considered a driving force<br/>for organisational restructuring.<br/><br/>Based upon a comparative qualitative study of four public universities in<br/>Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Serbia, this project found ample evidence of<br/>institutional change and introspection, innovation, achievement, as well as awareness<br/>and critical analysis of weaknesses. However, the main expectation to find students as<br/>active agents in institutional change and in the improvement of the old and the<br/>provision of new services for students was not supported by the findings in this study.<br/>Although the four universities in this project share the characteristics of an allencompassing<br/>change process, students, and services for students, still play a marginal<br/>part in determining institutional priorities and in influencing the service provision and<br/>culture.<br/><br/>Having anticipated the lack of awareness of the role of student services in<br/>organisational management, this project examines the reasons for this from a<br/>historical perspective, using a comparative approach to development trends in the<br/>United States, continental Europe, and Central and Eastern Europe. It further suggests<br/>a model of integrated student services, based upon the actual experience of the Central<br/>European University, but defined and analysed against the context of the region.<br/><br/>This research project coincides with a growing awareness in public policy<br/>debates in continental Europe of the importance of institutional student support<br/>services. As the first study of institutional practices with regard to student services in<br/>Central and Eastern Europe, it anticipates the reform in this area and the integration of<br/>student services as part of the university core.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Southampton

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Bateson, Rositsa

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Taylor, John