Drawing from the Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study examined the Gratification Sought and the Gratification Obtained from using Social Networking Sites among Iranian, Malaysian, British, and South African higher education students. This comparison allowed to drawing conclusions about how social networking sites fulfill users' needs with…

In view of the fact that diversity in higher education has increased, it has become critical to deal with the needs of non-traditional students, and especially the students underprepared for the demands of higher education. In an attempt to address this issue and answer the question, "How can underprepared students be encouraged to become…

This year the Research Institute for Higher Education in Hiroshima University hosted an international conference in close collaboration with Hijiyama University. The main purpose of the 2008 conference was to enable the participants to give preliminary country/regional reports based on their national/regional surveys. This publication reports the…

This compilation represents the second installment of reports on second language and multicultural issues. Six of the 13 international reports received in response to the questionnaire were published in "Reading Research Quarterly," volume 42, number 3. These seven reports were filed by International Research Correspondents (IRC) and are…