Leading optometry research institutions and countries in Africa: Lessons for building synergy and resilient education

Coronavirus is a novel virus that hit the world starting from developed countries to under-developed countries. Ghana is amongst the countries in Africa that observed some level of confinement by their government leading to the shutdown of various institutions including schools. The resulting impact of the policy saw students being more vulnerable to food insecurity and related issues. This paper examines the effect of Coronavirus on students’ food insecurity status at the University of Cape Coast. The research design adopted for this study was the cross-sectional survey design with the University of Cape Coast, Ghana being the study area. A total of 291 students were randomly selected to participate in the study. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings of the study show that socioeconomic characteristics of students and food insecurity status showed no association. Students rated the extent of the effect of the pandemic as moderate and the major area of academic life affected was the change in the academic calendar. Class attendance was the most perceived effect of the pandemic. Students also reported that they were rarely food insecure. The study further found out that the best predictors of students’ food insecurity were age, current level, insurance and employment status. The major challenge faced by students during Coronavirus was difficulties in their academics. This led students to adopt mitigation strategies such as online studies, paying heel to Coronavirus protocols, and self-support to mitigate the pandemic’s impact. The study concluded that the academic activities of students of the University of Cape Coast were affected moderately by the pandemic and therefore recommends that the University of Cape Coast should improve its information and communication technology infrastructure to make online classes easier and the school should increase funding opportunity to less privilege students. Key words: Coronavirus, food security, students, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

This paper investigates how strategy formulation and implementation processes used by the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in building its digital collections compare with the Andrew’s strategic formulation and implementation theoretical framework. Theory-testing case study methodology was used. The data collection instruments were the key informant interview technique and document reviews. During the formulation phase, two aspects (resources and aspirations of senior management) were emergent. During the implementation phase, five aspects (achieving results, processes and behaviour, standards, motivation, personal) were emergent. All other elements of building the UCC digital collections were planned during both the formulation and implementation phases. Although the emphasis on students and learning is laudable and apt, there seems to be lack of focus on research support beyond digital collection building, despite the fact that research excellence is one of the UCC’s key priorities. Opportunities exist for improving feedback mechanisms between the users, digital library staff and the university management; and inclusion of social media tools in the digital library project. Since only the experience of a single institution of higher learning is considered, it cannot be definitively stated that strategy formulation and implementation will be similar in every institutional context. However, the results provide a basis for academic digital libraries to draw lessons from this case. In African public universities, there is little earlier research on strategy formulation and implementation in digital library management. Strategy formulation and implementation is a critical issue for higher education academic libraries especially in developing countries like Ghana, due to limited financial resources and the rapid change in the information environment during the last several decades.

This study assesses total quality management practices among Higher Education Institutions. The driving force for this investigation includes issues of concern in recent years. An educational system which was once envied by countries in Africa and beyond is gradually losing its enviable position which may be attributed to the lack of TQM framework and inefficient influences of external quality assurance bodies within the Ghana Higher Education Institutions in monitoring the courses and modules offered and the type of teaching and learning that goes on in the institutions as the central point in this study. The mixed method approach was adopted, specifically both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Analysis were performed on three HEIs Namely: University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana, and University of Mines with a total population of 36. The findings from the study indicated the average level at which the critical success factors are adopted to achieve effective quality management in HEIs is 2.56 (51%). This percentage according to the researcher‟s judgment shows that the level at which the critical success factors are practiced to achieve effective quality management in HEIs is relatively low since 51% of the respondents did not agree that the critical success factors for effective implementation of TQM in HEIs is actually adopted by the selected HEIs in this study. The findings from the interview responses led to the conclusion that there is absence of TQM philosophy in public HEIs. From the findings, it was concluded that management attitude towards TQM is partial. It revealed that management only show commitment towards Quality Assurance and Quality Control which are aspects of TQM and not Total Quality Management. This is said to be as a result of the philosophy of TQM not well-known and hence not well embraced.

From September 12–16, 2011, the African Regional Committee (IBRO), the Society for Neuroscience, and the National Academy of Sciences (USA) held the 4th Teaching Tools Workshop at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. This was part of a series of teaching workshops to introduce a variety of materials for junior faculty in the African continent to assist in teaching neuroscience. In many countries, a lack of trained neurologists, neurosurgeons, and neuroscientists prompted the organizers to provide junior faculty members an overall framework, and the materials needed, for the day-to-day teaching of neuroscience in African countries. Neuroscience, in the view of the Teaching Tools Workshop organizers, includes basic science as well as clinical concepts. Neuroscience and related disciplines are subjects typically feared and shunned by students of medicine and science in Africa. This is partly because the material is difficult and introductory biology and psychology courses do little to prepare students for neuroscience. Furthermore, the neuroscience curriculum in many African medical schools is not consistent. With uneven neuroscience education for physicians and scientists, compounded by the persisting stigma of many neurologic and psychiatric diseases, inadequate diagnosis and treatment often occurs for these conditions. The Teaching Tools Workshop course and content are designed for junior faculty members currently involved in teaching on the African Continent in neuroscience/neuroanatomy/neurophysiology or a related discipline. This generally includes faculty at universities who have been teaching in a neuroscience related field for …

Research productivity in management schools of India during 1968-2015: A directional benefit-of-doubt model analysis

Given the growing emphasis on research productivity in management schools in India, the present authors developed a composite indicator (CI) of research productivity, using the directional benefit-of-doubt (D-BOD) model, which can serve as a valuable index of research productivity in India. Specifically, we examined overall research productivity of the schools and the faculty members during the 1968-2014 and 2004-2014 periods in a manner never done before. There are four key findings. First, the relative weights of the journal tier, total citations, impact factor, author h-index, number of papers, and journal h-index varied from high to low in order for estimating the CI of a faculty member. Second, both public and private schools were similar in research productivity. However, faculty members at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) outperformed those at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Third, faculty members who had their doctoral degrees from foreign, relative to Indian, schools were more productive. Among those trained in India, alumni of IITs, compared to those of IIMs, were more productive. Finally, IIMs at Ahmedabad and Bangalore and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad have seemingly more superstars than other schools among the top 5% researchers during 2004-2014. These findings indicate a shift in the priority from mere training of managers to generating impactful knowledge by at least two of the three established public schools, and call attention to improving the quality of doctoral training in India in general and IIMs in particular. Suggestions for improving research productivity are also offered.

There are low levels of research productivity among higher education institutions (HEIs) in Africa, which will likely compromise the continent's development agenda if not addressed. This study intends to develop a research framework to create a strategic roadmap that leverages leadership perspectives to foster a thriving research culture and contribute meaningfully to Tanzania's growth and development. We conducted a qualitative study involving higher education policy makers, senior university officials and academic staff from four sampled universities and two non‐university institutions that regulate Tanzania's higher education sector. The secondary data sources supported us in assessing the current state of research in Tanzanian HEI and the way forward. A thematic analysis revealed seven themes: research governance; capacity development strategy; reinforcement strategy; collaboration, networking and teamwork; establishment of research centres; dissemination strategy; and institutionalisation of research activities that can increase research productivity in the Tanzanian HEI context. This research adds to the literature on HEIs by identifying contextual strategy that can enhance research promotion in Tanzania and guide other African countries. In today's global information economy, research production is critical to the viability of HEIs and national development. This research aims to equip HEI leaders with a customised framework to help them direct their institutions towards research excellence and innovation. Context and implications Rationale for this study Tanzania recognises the pivotal role of research in achieving socioeconomic objectives. The research productivity of higher education institutions (HEIs) is crucial in addressing local issues and fulfilling national agenda. Why the new findings matter The findings reveal novel strategies for promoting research and how institutionalising them will enhance research engagement and productivity. Implications The research framework acts as a strategic guide for HEI policy makers that informs on how to encourage faculty and scholars and generate a better research output. The study shows how HEIs can institutionalise research, making it a part of its culture and mindset. The study has implications for the authorities and government bodies also, as the research productivity has a socio‐economic impact on national development.

Good teaching is crucial for implementing the school curriculum and is taken seriously by teacher training institutions. Pre-service teachers of various colleges of education are taken through multiple assessment strategies to obtain information for improving teacher training curricula to achieve the aim of training quality teachers for effective curriculum implementation. One of the ways of sourcing information for fine-tuning teacher training is the assessment of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. Sourcing information on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs helps to determine their readiness to implement the school curriculum after their training. This study aimed to assess the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service economics teachers at the University of Cape Coast using a quality teaching model as a framework. All 77 final-year pre-service economics teachers at the University of Cape Coast were included in the study. A questionnaire aimed at measuring the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service economics teachers were used to collect data. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics. The study’s key findings were that pre-service economics teachers were highly self-efficacious in teaching economics; male pre-service economics teachers had a higher self-efficacy belief than their female counterparts; and there was a weak, insignificant positive relationship between self-efficacy belief and pre-service economics teachers’ performance in off-campus teaching practice. It was recommended that female pre-service economics teachers should be encouraged more by their lecturers to help them improve their self-efficacy beliefs in teaching senior high school economics.

DETA CONFERENCE 2009 PROCEEDINGS Foreword The Distance Education and Teachers’ Training in Africa (DETA) Conference is a biennial conference that was initiated to provide a platform for educationists in Africa to meet and deliberate on educational issues in Africa. Since its inception, it has enabled educationists to exchange knowledge and enhance their capacity to engage with opportunities and challenges in education on the continent. DETA’s major objectives are to contribute to the debate on teacher training in Africa and to build capacity for the delivery of teacher training programmes in Africa. These objectives represent ways in which the conference can support NEPAD, various protocols on education and training in Africa, the Millennium Development Goals, and some of the recommendations of the All-Africa Education Ministers’ Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education. The conferences are co-hosted by the organisers and other educational institutions and organisations. The 3rd conference, co-hosted by the University of Pretoria, the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, was held at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, from 3 to 6 August 2009. The theme was "Issues and challenges in education in Africa – The need for a ‘new’ teacher". Subthemes included the following: - Distance education in teacher education - Teacher education, and curriculum studies and development - Special needs education and education management, law and policies, and technology in education in Africa - Mathematics and science education, language and literacy education, religious and moral education, and HIV and AIDS education More than 200 delegates from 14 African countries (Botswana, the DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and three other countries (Canada, the UK and the USA) attended the conference. Fifty papers were read.

This paper discusses the research productivity of five state universities of Sri Lanka during 2015-2018, using scholarly output, citation impact and collaboration metrics of SciVal, and the contribution of the university libraries towards research excellence. Five multi-disciplinary state universities; University of Colombo (UoC), Kelaniya (UoK), Peradeniya (UoP), Ruhuna (UoR) and Sri Jayewardenepura (UoSJP) were selected as the sample. During the study period, 4723 publications and 3831 authors have been recorded, of which UoC and UoP records the highest numbers. UoR records the highest publications in top journal percentile and highest number of views (72) among the five universities. A total of 33104 citations are reported while UoP depicts the highest citation count (18322) as an individual university, while UoR records the highest h5-index (39). Highest Field Weighted Citation Impact (3.18) and the highest citations per publication (12.4) is recorded by UoP while the highest output in top citation percentile (32.5%) is recorded by UoR. UoR records the highest overall international collaboration (74.4) during the studied period and UoP records the highest academic/corporate collaboration (2.2). University libraries provide collections and conducive environments for researchers, training in searching for information, referencing styles and use of reference management software, plagiarism detection and they maintain Institutional Repositories. The study established that there is much scope for university libraries to expand the services to support research productivity and recommends that librarians should consider on more current support areas like research data management, measuring research impact, and digital curation in order to support their universities to achieve excellence in research productivity.

Nurse researchers are under increasing scrutiny related to measures regarding performance, productivity, quality and excellence. In addition to internationally recognized citation metrics such as the Hirsh Index©, within many countries various metrics and measures are in place and these are used to judge and rank the performance of researchers through research assessment activities (Haigh et al., 2015). Although some of these measures are relatively new, they have quickly gained prominence (McKenna et al., 2012). Australia has the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA), New Zealand (NZ) has the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF), and the United Kingdom (UK) has the Research Excellence Framework with similar research assessment activities occurring in other parts of the world (Haigh et al., 2015). These measurement exercises were originally established to measure factors such as the quality and impact of scientific research (Hicks et al., 2015), and to foster and support excellence in research. However, they have come to have far greater bearing than their original aim. In some instances, metrics influence promotion, funding and perceived research impact as research evaluation and assessment exercises draw on metrics to judge and sometimes rank the performance of researchers, including nurse researchers. Today's generation of nurse researchers is the first generation that has had success (or otherwise) measured by such metrics. Previous generations of nurse researchers have had much simpler and somewhat cruder measures as evidence of impact, such as numbers of publications rather than the number of citations and standing and rank of journal. In 2019, Ioannidis, Baas, Klavans, and Boyack generated data for 100,000 scientists using standardized indices and a composite indicator for career-long and single-year research impact. Research fields and subfield-specific data were provided for authors between 1996 and 2017. In addition, separate data were shown for metrics with and without self-citation as a means of detecting extreme self-citation. Single year metrics provided an opportunity for younger scientists with fewer papers to benchmark. Nursing emerged as one of 176 subfields based on common areas of publication, as noted in Scopus. The database was updated to the 6th of May, 2020 with impact statistics for 2019 (Ioannidis et al., 2020). In this update, previously unassigned multidisciplinary journals were assigned to specific fields and sub-fields using a 'character-based convolutional deep neural network'. This update contains the top 100,000 scientists across all fields with and without self-citations, as well as scientists who were not in the top 100,000 according to the composite index but are nevertheless in the top 2% of scientists in their main subfield discipline. Considering this data set, we were struck by who was listed within the sub-field discipline of nursing (n = 1368/216,714), who was absent from the list and what could be learned from this information. A secondary analysis of the publicly available data sets; provided by Ioannidis et al. (2020); https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/2 was undertaken with a specific focus on nurse researchers within Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) as nurses in these countries are subject to regular and public research evaluation exercises and this provided a manageable sample to scrutinize (n = 147/1368 nurse researchers). The purpose of this examination was to ascertain: (i): the accuracy of the classification system used to categorize researchers into the 'nursing' sub-field; (ii) the areas ANZ nurse researchers are researching in as indicated by Scopus keywords; (iii) the nature of appointment(s) that ANZ nurse researchers hold; (iv) the research environment that ANZ nurse researchers operate within; (v) the variability in composite indices for ANZ nurse researchers within the nursing sub-field; and (vi) publication patterns associated with achieving a composite index that led to inclusion in the primary data set. In addition, we sought to explore gender, level of appointment and cultural diversity in this cohort. There were 35,893 authors with publications in the sub-field discipline of nursing. Of the scientists with publications in nursing as sub-field 1, 747 (0.46%) were in the career cohort and 763 (0.47%) in the single year cohort. In total 147 (0.07%) scientists from Australia (n = 140, 0.06%) and New Zealand (n = 7, 0.003%) had nursing as their subfield (1 or 2) discipline; 67 (45.6%) in the career and single year cohorts, 68 (46.3%) in single year only and 12, (8.2%) in the career only group. Within the nursing sub-field 1 discipline, ANZ scientists were ranked between 14th and 716th (all citations) or 29th to 714th (self-citations excluded) in the career cohort where global nursing ranks ranged from 1st to 824th or 1st to 712th respectively. In the single year cohort, ANZ nursing scientists were ranked between 13th and 814th (all citations) or 21st to 694th (self-citations excluded), where global nursing ranks ranged from 1st to 845th or 1st to 716th respectively. The majority of ANZ scientists were female (n = 108, 73.5%) registered nurses (n = 101, 68.7%), one (0.7%) had dual nursing and midwifery registration and two (1.4%) midwifery registration alone. Professorial (Level E) appointments were most frequent (n = 109, 74.1%), followed by Associate Professor (Level D: n = 18, 12.2%) or Senior Lecturer/Fellow (Level C: n = 13, 8.8%). There was a single ANZ scientist appointed as a Lecturer (Level A) in nursing sub-field 1 or 2. Of the Professorial appointments, 20 (18.4%) were no longer in paid employment, 11 (55%) were Emerita or Honorary/Adjunct Professors, 11 (10.1%) were Head or Associate Head of School, 15 (13.8%) were Directors of Research Centre's or Institutes, 8 (7.3%) Dean or Associate Dean and 3 (2.8%) Distinguished Professors. Of note, despite being listed as an affiliate of Australian institutions, 7 (6.4%) Level E scientists were not residing in Australia. Completion of a doctoral qualification was able to be confirmed for all but 2 (1.4%) of the ANZ cohort. Scientists were affiliated with a total of 38 institutions: from within Australia (n = 34) and New Zealand (n = 4). Thirteen (34.2%) institutions had a single affiliated scientist and 9 (23.7%) institutions; Griffith University, Western Sydney University, Deakin University, University of Technology Sydney, University of Adelaide, Flinders University, La Trobe University, Queensland University of Technology, Southern Cross University; had between 5 and 13 affiliated scientists. There were no scientists included from the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory. Scrutiny of the ANZ nurse scientist cohort revealed a senior and potentially older, culturally homogeneous group (Table 1). Questioning succession planning within academic institutions is not unreasonable based on this data. Professoriate roles appear to be the norm in institutions from the populous Eastern seaboard. Disappointingly there were no Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or Maori peoples identified across the 38 institutions to which these scientists belonged, and this omission raises important questions. Are we generating knowledge that is uniformed by Indigenous and other cultural perspectives? Or are we simply replicating colonial, white ways of knowing? Why are there not more citations to work by First Nations nurse scientists? We are aware there are several prominent successful First Nations nurse researchers in both Australia and New Zealand not included in this dataset. Common topic foci of included ANZ nurse scientists relates to the expertise of these scholars, yet they do not feature. Knowing their work is published in reputable journals, the logical conclusion is that this work is not adequately cited which leads to questions regarding inherent systemic bias in the selection of studies for citation by nursing researchers. There is clearly a need to support the development of First Nations research agenda in nursing to facilitate opportunities for Indigenous nurses to generate the knowledge that is needed in Indigenous health and beyond. Furthermore, we must take steps to identify and rectify what appears to be systemic bias in relation to the use and citation of First Nations nursing science. In a discipline where 90% of the workforce is female, over 25% of this cohort were male. Trends in the data revealed men ranked higher than women, despite women having a higher number of publications and higher citation metrics. Issues of gender misrepresentation are not new in nursing. Evidence indicates that men consistently have an equal if not larger share of leadership roles within the discipline and this permeates academic and clinical settings, promotion and career progression and funding success (The Lancet, 2018). In contrast to medicine, nurses do not have the luxury of balancing research with patient care in clinical practice. Research is not usually identified as a structural component of our "normal duties" and the upshot of this is the inequity in research mentorship, training, uptake and support. The cohort of ANZ scientists not included in this data set is as important as those who are. The composite score underpinning ranks is premised on citations and author order. While some researchers are prolific, their absence stems from their work not being cited, the position of authorship lacking influence within the algorithm to generate the score, or the fact that their scholarly influence has been generated as a consequence of their capacity to lead, mentor and collaborate within the discipline complemented by, but to a lesser degree, the scientific research they have disseminated. This in turn would be consistent with influential scholars within the discipline that have robust H indices and lower profile research records. Authorship order features in performance management metrics within academic settings. The onus to be the first or last author has the potential to reduce interest in a collaborative publication that is instrumental in early career mentoring. The impact of this mandate will be keenly felt by the next generation of nurse researchers. Early career academics not aligned with a generous mentee will have to develop niche teams that have exclusive foci. There is a danger in that while specific cognate areas of practice may benefit, the discipline more broadly will suffer. It is unlikely that research metrics will go away—it is far more likely these metrics will gain even more prominence into the future. It is important that nurse researchers are aware of the role and nature of the metrics they are measured by and can implement strategies to enhance the visibility of their work and their expertise. Examination of this data set has raised important issues about research metrics and the impact of these on nurse researchers. It has raised issues of equity in relation to gender and status in relation to First Nations nurse researchers and highlighted the need for robust and strong succession planning for nursing science.

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Differences among Senior Allopathic and Nonsenior Applicants for Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency.

Background: In Africa, HIV/AIDS research is concentrated in certain countries, particularly South Africa. This distribution may not accurately reflect the disease prevalence or the true research efforts of countries. Objectives: To identify HIV/AIDS research productivity of countries in Africa and the Middle East, in absolute terms and adjusted for people living with HIV, population size and economic development. Methods: We identified all the articles and reviews on HIV and AIDS in the Web of Science Core Collection in which African or Middle Eastern countries had participated. After determining the number of documents produced by each country, we adjusted the findings for the number of people living with HIV, number of inhabitants, gross domestic product and gross national income per capita. Results: African and Middle Eastern countries participated in 21.52% (n = 14 808) of all 68 808 documents analysed. East and Southern Africa produced 17.8% of all documents (n = 12 249), West and Central Africa accounted for only 3.34% (n = 2300), and the Middle East and North Africa, 1.18% (n = 814). South Africa produced 40.94% (n = 6 063) of all publications. Only two other African countries — Uganda (12.97%; n = 1 921) and Kenya (10.71%; n = 1 586) — produced more than 10% of these publications. The indices used for adjusting research productivity revealed the effort and contribution of other countries. Conclusion: Our study confirmed the leading role of South Africa in driving HIV/AIDS research, but also highlighted the contribution of countries such as Uganda, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.