A Clash of Science Policies

Over the last two decades, reablement has been studied and implemented in more than 16 countries. It is a person-centred approach aiming to enhance individuals’ (physical) functioning and increase or maintain their independence in meaningful activities. Goal setting and interdisciplinary collaboration are identified as important key elements of reablement. Due to limited intervention descriptions in the scientific literature, it is not clear how these two elements are applied in practice. This hinders the uptake of reablement services among healthcare care providers on national and international level. This study aimed to provide insight into: (1) goal setting; and (2) interdisciplinary collaboration within reablement programs. Therefore, a qualitative study in Norway and the Netherlands was conducted. In both countries, reablement staff (n=14) was interviewed. Data was analysed using both deductive and inductive content analysis. To increase rigor in terms of credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability; member checking, uniform data collection methods, note-taking, and direct quotations were used to analyse and present the data in this study. These focus groups resulted in, on the one hand, a clear overview of procedures regarding goal setting, treatment and evaluation methods, and on the other hand, valuable insights into staff experiences regarding interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition, facilitators and barriers for the implementation of goal setting and interdisciplinary collaboration in reablement programs were identified. This study resulted in valuable knowledge for healthcare providers to effectively implement reablement in practice.

BackgroundMost assisted living (AL) settings organize and provide opportunities for residents to participate in activities (e.g., exercise, music, arts and craft, cognitive activities, religious services, community outings). Despite the known benefits of activity participation, it is widely reported that there is a lack of activities that are considered meaningful for residents and thus many residents spend much of their time during the day disengaged. Further, there are numerous challenges to engaging assisted living (AL) residents with dementia in meaningful activity at the resident and community level. Resident challenges include acute medical events, advanced age, comorbidities, physical and cognitive abilities, lack of motivation, cultural expectations, pain, and behavioral symptoms of distress (BSD). Community level challenges include environments and policies that limit opportunities for meaningful activities and limited resources.MethodTo overcome these challenges and optimize engagement in meaningful activity for residents with dementia, the Meaningful Activity for Managing Behavioral Symptoms of Distress (MAC‐4‐BSD) intervention was developed. MAC‐4‐BSD is theoretically based using the Social Ecological Model and Social Cognitive Theory and includes four components: 1. Assessment of the environment and policies; 2. Education of staff; 3. Assessment of resident preferences and goals for meaningful activity; 4. Mentoring and motivating staff and residents. The overall aim of MAC‐4‐BSD is to reduce BSD, increase engagement in meaningful activity, and improve quality of life for residents by modifying the environment and empowering staff to facilitate and engage residents with dementia in AL settings. The MAC‐4‐BSD intervention is implemented by a Research Facilitator working with a facility champion and monthly meetings take place with a facility stakeholder team to provide updates on successful strategies and brainstorm challenges encountered.ResultsTo date, a total of 5 AL settings and 71 residents with dementia have participated in the study. Based on content analysis of field notes we will describe stakeholder goals established, barriers to implementation, and facilitators to meet goals in the participating settings.ConclusionsKey findings include the influence of administrative or leadership support, level of engagement among direct care staff, interdisciplinary collaboration, and access to resources and supplies in the environment to facilitate meaningful activity for residents with dementia.

The study examined the influence of information quality on effectiveness of academic heads of departments (HODs) in public universities in South-West, Nigeria. Managerial effectiveness is the academic heads of departments’ ability to achieve desired results and goals of the departments and universities. Studies in the past revealed that managerial effectiveness of academic heads of departments in public universities in Nigeria has not been encouraging. Factor such as information quality is perceived may influence managerial effectiveness of academic heads of departments in public universities in South-West, Nigeria. Survey research design which included the collection of primary data from the respondents was used for the study. The study population comprised 770 academic heads of departments in public universities of South-West Nigeria. Proportional sampling technique was used to arrive at 309 academic heads of departments by the researcher to capture the entire academic heads of departments in the public universities in South-West, Nigeria. The result proves that the regression analysis result revealed that information quality (F (1,245) = 101.771, p<.05, R2 = 293) has significant influence on effectiveness of academic heads of departments. The study confirmed that information quality is highly necessary in effective management of various tasks to achieve university academic goals by academic heads of departments. The study recommended that university administrative system should emphasis quality of information by academic heads of departments to achieve strategic goals and objectives in the university. Also information quality for effective management of academic heads of departments needed improved ICT facilities and other information services.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the efforts of key social actors in influencing the reform of Iranian public universities budgeting system, from incremental to performance-based budgeting (PBB), the tensions that arose as competing efforts of institutional change were undertaken, and ultimately the impact of these efforts on the extent to which the Iranian government transitioned to a system of PBB in public universities.Design/methodology/approachData comprises of semi-structured interviews with managers and experts involved in the budget setting process and an analysis of budgetary policy documents, reports and archival material such as legislation. An institutional work lens is employed to interpret the findings.FindingsWhile actors advocating the change were engaged in institutional work directed at disrupting the old budgetary rules by disassociating the rules moral foundations and creating new budgetary rules (through new legislation), universities undertook subtle resistance by engaging in extended evaluation of the new proposed PBB rules thereby maintaining the old budgetary rules. The reforms undertaken to introduce PBB in Iranian universities achieved minimal success whereby incremental budgeting continued to constitute by far a larger percentage of the budget allocation formula for university budgets. This finding illustrates change and continuity in university budgetary systems resulting from institutional work of actors competing to control the basis of resource allocation under the proposed PBB system by proposing contradicting models.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the importance of understanding the interplay of institutional work undertaken by competing social actors as they seek to advance their goals in shaping budgetary reforms in the public-sector. Such an understanding may inform policy makers who intend to introduce major reforms in public-sector budgeting approaches.Originality/valueUnlike prior studies that largely focused on how organization-level budgeting practices responded to changes in public budgeting rules (i.e. at the site of implementation of the rules), this paper highlights how strategies of change and resistance are played out at the site of setting budgetary norms.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges posed by the funding model on the transformation of public universities into entrepreneurial universities in Botswana to determine how the model affects or influence the adoption of an entrepreneurship model in public universities. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study with 30 participants from four (4) public universities was conducted with the use of a semi structured interview. The sample was drawn from top management in each of the universities. Data was transcribed, coded and grouped into themes with the use of Atlas ti software version 22. Findings: Government funding model hinders the transition of public universities into entrepreneurial universities. Firstly, the funding model is bureaucratic in nature. Secondly, the model forces public universities to operate from a zero budget. Thirdly, the model encourages irresponsible spending. The less funds a university utilizes the higher the cut in funding in the next budget allocation cycle. Fourthly, the funding model has a short budget cycle which hinder public universities to conduct long term projects which brings more financial returns compared to short term projects. Lastly, while research is seen as a key driver to aid the transformation, the model does not cater for a research and transformation budget. Research limitations/Implications: The study was limited to the enquiry of the challenges of the government funding model on the transition of Botswana public universities into entrepreneurial universities. The study focused on insights from senior management of public universities. While this formed a good basis for this exploratory study, future studies may consider a quantitative study with other key players to validate these findings. Further research is therefore recommended amongst middle management and university students in public universities. Practical Implications: This research improves knowledge in the systematic executions for developing strategies that are likely to influence and support the entrepreneurship model in Botswana's public universities. Originality/Value: This research was the first attempt to examine the challenges posed by the funding model on the transition of public universities into entrepreneurial universities in Botswana. Recommendations were made for government policy makers to review the current funding model with the view to develop a new model to support an entrepreneurship model in public universities. Paper type: Research Paper

This study sought to determine the link between Performance Contracting and implementation of strategic objectives in Kenyan Public Universities. The main objective was to establish the extent of utilization of the Performance Contract (PC) as a tool for implementation for strategic objectives in Kenyan public universities. The study was anchored on the Balanced Score Card theory and used a combination of descriptive survey research design and correlation research design. The target population for this study included thirty-one (31) public universities in Kenya; a sample of 62 respondents was drawn from senior management and officers in charge of PC and strategy implementation in each University as well as 10 key informants from the Ministry of Education and the Public Service Performance Management and Coordination Office. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics; correlation and regression analysis was computed to determine the degree of association between the performance of Kenyan public universities in performance contracting and implementation of their strategic objectives. Methodological triangulation and pilot testing were adopted to test for validity while Cronbach Alpha reliability Correlation Coefficient was used to test the reliability of the data. The study established that utilization of Performance Contracts contributes to 74.2% of the changes in strategy implementation in Public Universities in Kenya. It recommends that the universities should focus on the PC as a tool to enhance strategy implementation, allocate more funds for strategy implementation and improve their financial standing by engaging in more income-generating activities.

If you put creative people in a hothouse setting, innovation will naturally emerge. John Seely Brown, director of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) [1] collaboration of art and digital technology is one of the most exciting research trends of the decade. It has given rise to a rarified design discipline of fashioning new sites for innovation, new hothouses for collaborative projects. major players are, of course, government, educational institutions and corporations, each with their own resources, interests and intentions. Universities house a broad array of specialists, for instance, while corporations have deep financial resources. Essential to the fertility of any hothouse is interdisciplinary collaboration that attempts to move beyond the narrow focus of traditional models of research. In practice, however, neither corporate nor traditional academic cultures have proven flexible enough to nurture the collaborations between software engineers, artists, designers, business people and social scientists that are needed for the design of ground-breaking new digital media. As a result, a number of new media programs in art schools have been created wit hout the traditional divisions between the academic and corporate worlds, [2] forming collaborative research and learning environments that attempt to bridge the gap between art and science first noted by C. P. Snow in the 1940s. The clashing point of subjects, Snow wrote, two disciplines, cultures--of galaxies, so far as that goes--ought to produce creative chances. [3] movement to create new centers reflects the pervasive influence of Xerox PARC and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory as paradigms for collaborative digital media research. Xerox PARC is the quintessential corporate think tank, and, since 1993, PARC's Artist-In-Residence program (PAIR) has teamed practicing artists with in-house researchers who work with similar digital media. One of PAIR's goals is to influence PARC's research culture: is a conscious attempt to boost, alter, nudge and in a minor way redirect the creative forces of PARC by providing alternative viewpoints, theories, personalities, and methodologies within the halls, offices, and long corridors and around the steaming coffee pots of the community. [4] These collaborations may indeed alter the corporate culture, but the artists remain outsiders, unable to directly influence research. limitations of the PAIR model suggest the need for the development of collaborative opportunities in which artists do more than just use the facilities. Similarly, the ground-breaking MIT Media Laboratory is a model worthy of further description. progenitor of university-based, interdisciplinary research centers, the Media Lab first explored the potential for industry sponsorship. An innovative intellectual property policy that allows all corporate sponsors to share in the Media Lab's developments encourages free sharing of ideas, and has the added benefit of insuring that no single sponsor can unduly influence research. Sponsors also provide outside field testing venues for the Media Lab's research projects, which are organized into three large areas: Digital Life, News in the Future and Things that Think. [5] But although the Media Lab and Xerox PARC present compelling paradigms for digital research, fundamental questions remain about how to attract the best people, how to enhance collaboration, how to create new relationships with corporate culture and how to extend the lessons from research institutions to broader education. Three new instituti ons--a public university in Canada, a research center in Sweden and a corporation in the United States--attempt to answer these questions. There seems to be plenty of funding available for new multidisciplinary media centers, but guaranteeing the future viability of collaborative research methods is a challenging proposition. …

Malaysian public and private universities have faced unprecedented challenges due to multiple government policies in the short and medium term – coupled with economic uncertainty, budget cuts, and the entrepreneurial university (EU) agenda. This pressure is aimed to both public and private universities in accordance with the third mission of the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2015–2025 and ranking agencies by effectively engaging with the community and business, generating income in the process of tackling fundraising. The purpose of this study is to fill that gap by exploring the perspectives of those who are part of the Entrepreneurship Architecture implementation, as intermediaries of knowledge exchange and the impact of interaction by embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) in achieving the mission of Entrepreneurship University by the government. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop a new model for internal parties in public universities as a guide for policy development and strategies to achieve the EU agenda. The Entrepreneurship Architecture Model will be used to identify the existing determinants, the AI infrastructure, and how the demographic factors, e.g., staff and related universities, support the model.

The insurrectionary period in South Africa from 1984 to 1986 saw thousands of young and old people confronting the apartheid regime in the streets, the workplace and elsewhere. The revolts were largely led by a broad coalition from below. While the African National Congress (ANC) provided ideological and symbolic guidance, its organisational capacity was limited. In the aftermath of the National Consultative Conference in Kabwe, Zambia, in June 1985, the ANC accelerated its effort to promote a people’s war, which regarded the arming and training of domestic units under the guidance of cadres of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), and the mobilisation of the local population, as essential. Yet, on the ground, many of the militarised youth groups who were fighting the police and soldiers in the name of people’s war remained outside the direct control of the ANC’s leadership. They broadly followed the ideological and strategic programme of the ANC and, in some instances, received weapons and rudimentary military training. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, oral history interviews and archival research, this article traces the experiences and motivations of one such group in the township of Sebokeng to the south of Johannesburg. It focuses on the complex relationships between popular insurgency and the ANC’s call for people’s war and ungovernability. The article argues that a lack of control and support not only gave these units considerable freedom to interpret the ANC’s strategic objectives, but it also created issues of accountability and exposed them to risks due to poor training and discipline.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is an effective and satisfying way to provide health care services and learning across professions. This study aimed to explore interdisciplinary collaboration experiences amongst social work and allied health sciences graduate students and examined factors that contributed to their interdisciplinary collaboration. An interdisciplinary survey was conducted in a Mid-Atlantic public university. Analysis was conducted using hierarchical regressions from 112 health sciences and social work students. Students with positive attitudes toward interdisciplinary health care teams and part-time students compared to full-time students presented higher flexibility of interdisciplinary collaboration. Students with positive experiences of interdisciplinary collaboration demonstrated higher levels of interdependence, compared to those with no and negative experiences of interdisciplinary collaboration. Students in medicine were less likely to show interdependence, compared to those in social work. Professional disciplines and educators should put efforts in offering opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration practice and building curricula to promote positive attitudes toward interdisciplinary teamwork.

The purpose of this study was to determine what leads to a higher reputation among peer academic institutions as reported in the US News and World Report's 2005 annual survey of ‘America's Best Colleges’. It was found that the level of student attention and selectivity are determinants of peer assessment for private universities. A university's research emphasis and prior ranking influence peer assessment for both private and public universities. An emphasis on research, however, has a greater impact on the peer assessment of public versus private universities. Student size and sports team performance appear to influence the peer assessment of private and public universities, respectively. Thus, peer assessors are able to make clear distinctions between private and public universities with a potential bias towards more visible universities in general.

Society's expectations for an increased role in science agenda setting and greater returns on public science investments shift university management practices. Entrepreneurial university, new public management, and sociology of science literatures inform the changing expectations about the roles and norms that govern university management and scientists' behaviours but scholars have paid limited attention to societal responses when those changing roles and norms are employed. We examine societal responses towards managerial prerogative in managing scientists in public universities. Content analysis of media data from six cases of universities in Denmark and New Zealand demonstrates extended societal engagement regarding organisation-related topics, a division of opinion regarding managerial prerogative towards sanction of scientists' behaviours, and constrained ability of employers and employees to engage in public debate due to employment law issues. Implications for researchers and university managers engaging with society and the role of communication competencies to achieve the third mission are discussed.

Background: The traditional thesis-based PhD model in Ghana has increasingly come under scrutiny for its limited relevance to real-world challenges, overemphasis on theoretical knowledge, and rising concerns about academic integrity, including widespread thesis outsourcing. In an era that demands innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and societal impact, Ghana’s doctoral education system requires urgent reform. This study aimed to explore the limitations of the current PhD model and to propose a practice-based and impact-oriented alternative tailored to Ghana’s educational and developmental context. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was adopted. Quantitative data were collected through surveys administered to 256 participants comprising PhD students, graduates, faculty members, and university administrators across five public universities in Ghana. Qualitative data were obtained through 24 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions with academic stakeholders and employers of PhD holders. Additionally, policy documents and doctoral curricula were reviewed to assess the structural orientation of existing programs. Comparative analysis was conducted on international alternative models such as practice-led PhDs and industrial doctoral pathways. Results: Dissatisfaction emerged in the qualitative findings, as 78% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the current framework of their doctoral education as being too focused on the thesis and not designed to prepare them for practical or industry work challenges. Other concerns raised were insufficient interdisciplinary engagement, minimal focus on real-world problems, innovation, cooperation, and collaboration. There is substantial stakeholder demand for a more diversified PhD education model that features portfolio-based evaluation, community and industry-based co-continuous research, co-authorship, and focus on outcomes-based outputs from the doctoral candidates. A model was proposed focusing on the integration of practice, research, and professional advancement along with the study findings. Conclusion: The study, conducted in the context of Ghana, determined that the conventional PhD framework is antiquated and does not meet current academic, industrial, and societal needs. It is evident how a practice-oriented, impact-driven approach to doctoral education would benefit the proposed context. The proposed framework aims to provide a more responsive, accountable, and inclusive approach to doctoral education towards achieving national development priorities. There is expected increased value, integrity, and relevance of PhD training in Ghana and the rest of Africa if this approach is embraced by universities and policymakers. Keywords: Doctoral Education Reform, Practice-Based PhD, Research Impact, Innovation in Academia, Thesis Alternatives, PhD Policy, Academic Integrity

The paradigm of interdisciplinarity in forensic investigation. A case in Southeastern Spain.

What the National Institutes of Health (NIH) did was unique in the history of federal support of research in the biosciences. The uniqueness was called to my attention in 1959 when I visited the Soviet Union as one of five American biochemists on an exchange program between our National Academy of Sciences and theirs. After a month of our observing the management of research in the major Soviet universities and institutes, the Minister of Science asked us to compare the Soviet and American systems. We said diplomatically: “Your system is different. You place authority for direction of research in the hands of a Director of Research. In the United States, the individual scientist is in control. After applying for a research grant, the scientist is judged in competition with other applicants by a group of peers outside his institution. With the award of a grant, he becomes his own boss. His success or failure depends on what he accomplishes.” Our Russian host was puzzled: “It is your system that is different. Our system is the same as that practiced in all other countries, in Europe and Japan.” He was right, and it is still true that in most of the world, direction of research is vested in a relatively few senior people, whereas in the United States the bulk of research money in biomedical science goes to thousands of individual investigators. The independence of scientists to initiate and pursue their own research programs in the biomedical sciences was achieved because the NIH designated research grants to individual scientists, thus making them unbeholden to department heads, deans, and university politics. The university had no choice but to grant independence in order to compete for the grantees, their teaching contributions, and the considerable income from indirect costs attached to their grants. However, the very competition for grantees, essential to the success of the NIH grants program, does depend on the independence of the private and public universities from centralized state controls, virtually unique in the United States. Of current concern is whether this remarkable NIH program can withstand budgetary limitations and the increasing pressures to distribute block grants. Already, a considerable fraction of the NIH research budget is obligated to program projects in some of which a director can select the investigators and choose projects that might not withstand peer review. While many of these projects serve legitimate purposes, the outlay to support them has in effect become a fixed “entitlement” expenditure. By contrast, the percentage of awards for investigator-initiated projects (R01's), the “discretionary” component of the budget, has declined sharply. Trends to centralize and collectivize bioscience research support are worldwide. Japan should be applauded for initiating and sustaining the Human Frontier Science Program. However, grants are made only to a group of investigators assembled from several countries who can devise a project advanced enough to be divided among them. In Europe, the European Union requires that investigators from three or more countries find a consensus project that can be parceled up, leaving no room for a scientist to do something utterly original and unpopular. In the United Kingdom, the Medical Research Council is planning to consolidate grants along similar lines. And in Italy, the powerful baronial organization of research-granting agencies perpetuates fragmentation and favoritism. An oft-stated reason for block grants and collective efforts is the expensive equipment and resources needed to solve the problems of major diseases. A common illusion is that strategic objectives are necessary to discover the cures for cancer and AIDS and that groups of sufficient size need to be mobilized for wars and crusades against these enemies. Nothing could be more misguided. In the history of triumphs in biomedical science such wars and crusades have invariably failed because they lacked the necessary weapons-the essential knowledge of basic life processes. Instead, some of the major advances-x-rays, penicillin, polio vaccine, and genetic engineering-have come from the efforts of individual scientists to understand Nature, unrelated to any practical objective. Basic research has been the province of the individual investigator and remains the lifeline of medicine.