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"The Royal Polytechnic Institution's story is the first episode in the long, diverse history of the University of Westminster. Drawing on an extensive range of primary and secondary sources this book explores the Institution's reputation for visual spectacle and the popularisation of science. It is lavishly illustrated with contemporary images.
A print paperback can be purchased direct from the University of Westminster for £20 following this link: www.westminster.ac.uk/historybooks
Staff, students and alumni can claim a 20% discount on this price."

The key to the evaluation of polytechnics lies in their capacity to create a new understanding of the opportunities in the rural areas for their students, and their ability to build upon this by providing sufficient training to exploit such opportunities, rather than the ability merely to provide skill training for wage employment as it is currently recognised

The study determines the extent of use of information resources provided in Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Library, Owo, Nigeria by the students. The research design is descriptive design survey. The study utilises structured questionnaire to obtain data. The population of the students is 6,550 and sample size of 1050 was chosen as the participants. A purposive sampling technique was adopted. A total of 1,020 copies of questionnaire from 1050 administered were returned and correctly filled, which produce returned rate of 97.14%. Data extracted were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that more than half of the participants always use library. Majority of the participants visit library to use social media (84.02%), 83.91% use it to consult library books, while 83.83% use it to do various assignments. The results revealed that 82.94% of the students preferred using textbooks, followed by 80.39% using social media networked and 72.89% use their lecture notes. It was observed that inadequate current textbooks, poor Internet connectivity and frequent power outages are the leading challenges encounter while using information resources available in the library. The result of this findings show that with the information resources available in RUGIPO library, the library is not fully utilized by the students. Based on the findings, it is recommended that more current and up-to-date journals need to be acquired. There should also be a solid policy and implementation framework by the Executive arms of government towards making poor Internet connectivity become a thing of the past in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

This paper examines the effect of the polytechnic reform on geographical mobility. A polytechnic, higher education reform took place in Finland in the 1990s. It gradually transformed former vocational colleges into polytechnics and also brought higher education to regions that did not have a university before. This expansion of higher education provides exogenous variation in the regional supply of higher education. The reform raised the mobility of high school graduates across local labour markets in the years after they had completed their secondary studies, which indicated increased mobility between high school and post-secondary education. We estimate that the reform enhanced the annual migration rate of high school graduates by 1.2 percentage points over a 3-year follow-up period. This represents a substantial increase, because their baseline migration rate is 3.7 %. The effect fades several years after the completion of secondary studies.

The legal status of polytechnic has been fundamentally changed from time to time. After the Law of National Education System Number 20/2003 and the Law of Higher Education Number 12/2012 came into effect, the polytechnic has been granted a new legal status that offers more diverse programs at various levels. Since then, polytechnic could conduct vocational diploma programs and degree programs in applied sciences from graduate to postgraduate. This legal status raises legal problems whether polytechnic is a higher education institution in vocational or applied sciences. Best education practices in some countries classify applied sciences higher education as academic education, not vocational education. This doctrinal research paper then will examine this legal problem using statute, historical and comparative approach, in the light of the Development Legal Theory. This study shows that the legal status of polytechnic is heavily dependent on government policy. In the absence of a clear and firm ground policy of vocational education, the legal status of the polytechnic has been interpreted differently from time to time. The government ought to reset the vocational education policy and then reform the law of the national education system. Therefore, the legal status of the polytechnic will be more sustainable and have better legal certainty accordingly. Regarding the recent development of higher education, it will be better if the government constitutes polytechnic as a higher education institution in applied sciences.