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IN THE DAYS BEFORE TYPEWRITERS, stenographers, and tape‐recorders, when every word of a book was written by hand, revised by hand, and eventually printed from the handwritten manuscript, the industry required to produce such a history as that of Gibbon is remarkable. How much more remarkable the industry of women writers, in days when authorship for women was not always regarded as a respectable profession. Consider the output of Jane Austen, compelled to write in a corner of the family sitting‐room, and to conceal her papers hastily if a caller arrived, or Mrs Trollope, nursing her dying son by day, and writing all night to support her family.

THE RELICS OF A WRITER, his manuscripts, typescripts and memorabilia, have no life of their own, but they give life: they generate and resurrect. Too often they are abused, their products peddled to advance a thesis of no virtue, but this is the nature of things. Yet without them, properly handled, as they should be in an archive, there is no revelation: and not just for scholars either, less for them than for those who love O'Hara. Just a contemplation of them can bring some of him back to those who love and have some inkling of the concern and the care he had for his craft and his creation. He was a concerned man; he had a conscience. He sought and engaged the craft and sullen nature of his gift until it became as much a part of him as his fist. It became as much a part of him as his mind and body; it became his life. No photostat, microform, information retrieval can ever, will ever, replace the true relics, so that the place that holds them becomes for all who need or desire them a singular place, a side altar as well as a memorial. This is both meet and proper, for John O'Hara was a religious writer. He was not unique in this—all good writers are, one way or another—but he was one, especially; a moralist, in a Brooks Brothers shirt, in his bespoke shoes off Peal Brothers. Writing was his rod and his staff. To die in harness, shining in use, was his good luck that we must be thankful for. Requiescat in Pace, as he wrote of Philip Barry, another of them, in his dedication to him of The Farmers Hotel, a book that notched me. O'Hara knew what he was about. He was like one who keeps the deck by night, bearing the tiller up against his breast; he was like one whose soul was centred quite in holding course although so hardly pressed. And veers with veering shock now left now right,

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

This chapter examines the changing state–university–student relationships in post/socialist China since the late 1980s. We begin with an introduction to four salient themes in scholarship on Chinese post/socialism that are highly relevant to higher education: globalization, gradualism, civic society, and a critique of holism. These themes help us explain interrelated educational trends that affect the state–university–student relationship: the globalization, “massification,” and stratification of higher education; the redefined role of the state in university governance and management; higher education marketization and privatization; and the quest for meaning and (e)quality in and through higher education. Our general argument is that during the “socialist” period the main relationship central to higher learning was between the state and students. Universities were agents of the state; from a legal point of view, indeed, universities did not have an independent status from the state. In the “post-socialist” era the university–student relationship has become more significant. We examine this reconfiguration through two case studies, one on the development of college student grievance and rights consciousness, and the other on reforms in higher education student services administration. When looked at from the point of view of the state, we see that appropriation and implementation of policies and regulations shaping student rights and services are in partial contradiction with state policies to accelerate economic growth and bolster party authority. From the point of view of universities, we see institutions grappling with how to deliver on forward-looking structures and actions while navigating between the state's policy mandates and growing expectations and demands of its student and business stakeholders. From the point of view of students, we see how constrained agency, uncertainty, and the power of the credential motivates social praxis. At all levels of the state–institution–student relationship actors are employing a kind of pragmatic improvisation (one of the salient features of post/socialism) captured by the well-known Chinese proverb “groping for stones to cross the river.” This saying is an apt metaphor for the tentative searching by state, institution, and individual for a safe foothold in the post/socialist world.

This paper aims to explain the weaknesses and inconsistencies inherent in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 (USA).

The approach is entirely theoretical and multi-disciplinary (and relies on some third-party empirical research), and it consists of a literature review, critique and the development of theories which are applicable across countries.

The Dodd-Frank Act is inefficient and inadequate as a response to the global financial crisis. The Dodd-Frank Act has not resulted in significant economic growth and has increased transaction costs and compliance costs for both government agencies and financial services companies.

The author developed the theories introduced in the paper.

There have been regular policy enactment and dynamism to ensure progress and sustainability in the development of higher education (HE) in China after the Cultural Revolution. This study was purposed to reveal the processes of the Chinese higher education (CHE) development through series of policy implementations from the epoch of economic reformation and opening-up policy.

The authors employed document analysis, and selected and critically analyzed documents that include published articles and books, the official website of the Chinese Ministry of Education, and historical documentaries of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and their HE aftermath. Again, a semi-structured interview was utilized with a sample size of 20 academics vested in the CHE history. Five academics from four universities in China were interviewed to analyze the historical events of the CHE transformation and current policies about the CHE development.

The authors established that enrollment in the CHE has increased since the economic reformation; there has been the enhancement of the CHE internationalization in recent decades and the emergence of world-class universities and programs in the CHE as a result of the world class policies and projects. For consistency of the innovative programs toward HE development, the authors have posited some challenges, future goals and the global impacts of the CHE development and its sustainability.

The utilization of document analysis cements the claims by the interviewees, which enriches the value of the results. This study would provide literature guidance to international researchers to critically concoct theoretical assumptions from the findings to critically investigate the developmental policy pattern of HE institutions.

WHILE MIGUEL DE CERNANTES SAAVEDRA languished as a guest of King Philip of Spain in a small noisome cell of the Madrid prison, he had time to do two things. He wrote each day at a rickety table with the quill and parchment he had bribed his jailer to supply. His manuscript concerned an old gentleman farmer, grey, lean, and weatherbeaten—like Cervantes himself, then fifty‐six—who had read so many books about chivalry that ‘his brain had dried up and he had gone completely out of his mind’. The old man was obsessed that he must leave his farm and ride out as the knights of old had done into a world of giants, maidens in distress and deep enchantment. Nearly four hundred years later the name of the old knight‐errant is still world famous, for Cervantes chose with care the name of his run‐down hero, Don Quixote. (Cervantes spelt it Quijote.)

There is growing concern in college management about the quality of education in tertiary institutions. For related studies, people normally encounter the problems of developing measurement indicators and identifying components of quality education. Some people use SERVQUAL, a technique making use of the gap between customers’ expectations and perceived experience as indicators of service quality, to measure quality of services offered by professionals such as physicians. Hampton applied the technique to identify and measure the significance of different components of quality education, by using the questionnaire designed by Betz, Klingensmith and Menne. Hampton’s findings sound reasonable but seem to be too simplified and confined to the characteristics of students in the USA. The expectations and perceptions of the students are often shaped and influenced by their cultural orientation and environments. Hong Kong students who are more pragmatic and instrumental may value less the significance of campus life on quality education but put more stress on assessment. This study is designed to apply the modified SERVQUAL skill to examine Hampton’s findings with reference to the students in a different social and cultural context. It is hoped that a list of quality indicators can be identified against which the performance of the higher educational institutes can be measured.

This paper aims to provide an overview of education system reform in China since 1978, and its practical implications.

Data were collected from literature review and interview. An overview of education system reform and its practical implications was found through data analysis.

There has been two types of education system reforms in China since 1978. The first type is school education system reform, and the second is education management system reform.

A point arising is how to reform the education system at the national level.

This is the first time the researcher has studied education system reform and its characteristics in China since 1978, and it can help people to understand education system reform in China systematically.