Perceptions Of Academic Staff Research Articles

Professional community and student engagement in higher education: rethinking the contributions of professional staff

PurposeScholarly studies on student engagement are mostly focused on the perceptions of students and academic staff of higher education institutions (HEIs) with a few studies concentrating on the perspectives of professional staff. To address this knowledge gap, this paper aims to examine how professional staff who are members of a professional community perceive their contributions to enhancing student engagement in a university.Design/methodology/approachData for the current study were gathered using semi-structured face-to-face interviews among 41 professional staff who were purposively sampled from a public university in South Africa. The data gathered were analysed using thematic analysis that involved a process of identifying, analysing, organising, describing and reporting the themes that emerged from the data set.FindingsAn analysis of the narrative data revealed that when professional staff provide students with prompt feedback, support the development of their social and cultural capital and provide professional services in the area of teaching and learning, they foster student engagement in the university. However, the results showed that poor communication flow and delays in addressing students’ concerns could lead to student disengagement. The study further argues that through continuous interaction and shared norms and values among members of a professional community, a service culture can be developed to address possible professional knowledge and skills gaps that constrain quality service delivery.Originality/valueThe current paper contributes to the scholarly discourse on student engagement and professional community by showing that a service culture of engagement is developed among professional staff when they share ideas, collaborate and build competencies to enhance student engagement. Furthermore, the collaboration between professional staff and academics is important to addressing the academic issues that confront students in the university.

An exploratory study on academic staff perception towards blended learning in higher education

As the years progresses, higher education has move towards implementing Blended Learning (BL) which is a combination of face-to-face and online mode of teaching and learning which have continued to advance in institutions all over the world. Accordingly, it is important to investigate the factors that may influence lecturers’ perception towards BL approaches. Likewise, there are fewer studies that explored BL in lecturers’ perspective. Therefore, this study proposed a framework based on Model of Personal Computer Utilization (MPCU) theory to examine the factors that influence lecturers’ perception of BL to improve teaching quality in higher education. A total of 413 lecturers across universities, colleges, and polytechnics responded to an online survey questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Science and Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling was utilized for data analysis. The results suggest that social factors affect towards use, complexity, job fit, long term consequences, facilitating conditions, and Information Technology (IT) experience significantly influences lecturers’ perception towards using BL initiatives to improve academic activities in higher education. Findings from this article support institutions in developing an understanding of the factors that can be considered to improve teaching design, as well as in improving IT for teaching and learning purposes.

Perceptions of academic staff about mentoring in a Faculty of Dentistry in a public university in South Africa

Mentoring programs contribute to the development and retention of academics in dental education. To describe the perceptions of academic staff of the Faculty of Dentistry, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, about a funded pilot mentoring process. Cross-sectional, purposive sampling qualitative design. Twenty mentees who had engaged in the funded mentoring process were targeted for semi-structured interviews, to describe their perceptions about the ongoing mentorship process, experiences in other mentoring processes, and expectations about future formal mentoring in the faculty. Quantitative data was analysed descriptively, while content analysis of the qualitative data was performed to identify themes. Perceptions of eight mentees, aged 37 to 59 years and spent between 3 and over 20 years in the faculty, were categorized into two themes - ‘A welcome initiative’ and ‘Mentorship seen as a holistic experience’. The program provided the much-needed space where mentees felt they could seek guidance for their development. Expectations from a future formal program included assistance in meeting institutional and personal demands. Participants’ expectations were broader than what the pilot program offered, though

Role of Knowledge Management on Organizational Performance, Case of Jimma University in Ethiopia

This study explored role of knowledge management practice on the performance in higher education institute at Jimma University College of agriculture and Veterinary medicine in Ethiopia, considering academic staff perception. The study mainly employed quantitative descriptive research design using cross sectional design also used qualitative approach. For data collection, pre-tested self-administered structured questionnaire used. Considering 143 academic staff a population studied using census approach out of total 214 excluding those currently engaged in further study. Response rate was 81.8%. Descriptive and inferential statistics analysis employed utilizing STATA 14. Major finding includes: willingness of knowledge sharing and discovery was at high level. Knowledge sharing, capture, utilization as well as organizational and IT infrastructure support was at medium level. Chi-square (χ2) test indicated there is association between knowledge capture, sharing, utilization, organization support, IT support and performance. However ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that only component knowledge utilization has positive and significant impact on performance. The study identified challenges in the practice of knowledge management such as inadequate fund, unsatisfactory documentation, inadequate support and cooperation consecutively. Thus college should spend more in knowledge management practice can improve innovation utilized in funding research, enhance team work, improving technology, motivate academic staff to retain and share knowledge. Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge share, Performance, Practice, Process

Responding to the COVID-19 emergency: student and academic staff perceptions of academic integrity in the transition to online exams at three Australian universities

This paper explores the perceptions of academic staff and students to student cheating behaviours in online exams and other online assessment formats. The research took place at three Australian universities in July and August 2020 during the emergency transition to online learning and assessment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sought to inform decision making about the future of online exams at the participating universities. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using online surveys. The findings of the study led to seven key observations, most notably the need to redefine the characteristics of academic misconduct to account for changes wrought to examinations in a digital world. The study concludes with lessons learned in relation to enhancing academic integrity in digital examinations and assessments.

Validity and fairness of utilising student evaluation of teaching (SET) as a primary performance measure

ABSTRACT In a super-saturated world of academia, the real power has slowly moved from academics’ ownership of their own means of production to a more managerial ethos, with all the accompanying control systems, surveillance, bureaucracy, performance audits and judgements that that entails. Student evaluation of teaching (SET) has become a significant evaluation tool, focusing on front-line contact and quality of teaching, allowing students to make that judgement call. This leaves out a large part of the picture of how institutions are managed and function, putting the onus on the academic and their relationship with students, teaching capability and cohort results. This leads to a sense of unfairness and poses questions about the validity and reliability of judgement calls based on student evaluation of teaching data and subsequent fairness in reward and recognition. This work considers the perceptions of Jordanian academic staff in a private institution of the use of SET as a summative tool for performance appraisal. This research has confirmed that the use of SET as a dominant, if not sole, factor in judging performance can extenuate academic stress. Thus SET results need to be used in a measured way.

Internationalisation of the curriculum in Malaysian Universities’ business faculties: Realities, implementation and challenges

In today's increasingly globalised and integrated economy, the need for the internationalisation of post-secondary education curriculum cannot be over stressed. This is particularly pertinent to nations, such as Malaysia, with a fast growing number of international students and international universities. The experience and perception of academic staff of Malaysian universities' business faculties regarding the internationalisation of the business faculty curriculum is explored in this study. The central thrust of this study was to investigate the perception and experience of business faculties' academic staff on internationalising the business faculty curriculum in Malaysia. The study utilised the phenomenological approach. Data was collected through face-to-face interview with academic staff of business faculties from two universities using semi-structured interview. The responses were sorted into codes (open coding & analytical/axial coding) and analysed through continuous review of the participants' own words/phrases. Among the key findings of the study is that, most academic staff in Malaysian business faculties have the knowledge about internationalisation of the curriculum but lack the knowhow in the design and implementation. Vital recommendations including the need for regular capacity building trainings to be organised for academic staff to help develop relevant competence in the internationalisation of the curriculum were proposed.

Back to the Classroom: Educating Sessional Teaching Staff about Academic Integrity

The increased incidences of academic misconduct in universities are compromising the reputation of higher education in Australia and increasing the work of academics responsible for the delivery of quality learning outcomes to students. Confronted with increasing instances of academic dishonesty in university classrooms, universities play a pivotal role in ensuring their academic staff are well-equipped with academic integrity knowledge. It is therefore important to understand academic staff perspectives about the training their workplaces could provide them on academic integrity. Specifically, this qualitative case study explores the opinions and perceptions of sessional or casual university academic staff on what content they would like to know about academic integrity, and how this knowledge could best be delivered to them. The study found that participants (N = 18) were genuinely interested in furthering their understanding of academic integrity issues, particularly in the areas of contract cheating, effective use of plagiarism detection tools, and developing a toolkit of skills that they could use to detect and deter plagiarism. In terms of the delivery of academic integrity training programs, webinars and orientation sessions were suggested as effective delivery mechanisms. Imparting knowledge about the content areas through the identified delivery mechanisms could enhance teaching faculty’s understanding of student academic dishonesty and how to curb this behaviour proactively.

Adaptation of the Global Academic Performance Scale: Reliability and Validity Study

Today, with the skills that cannot be imitated by others the person who gains competitive advantage in the organization contributes to the organizational goals. In this way, the good performance of the employees provides reputation, prestige, brand value, awareness, quality, effectiveness, efficiency and profitability. Therefore, it is important to integrate the knowledge, experience, talent and motivation level of an academic staff with the university objectives to which it is connected and to increase the quality of education. In this context, this research was carried out to adapt the Global Academic Performance Scale developed by Abubakar et al. (2018) into Turkish, to test its validity and reliability, and to measure the academic perceptions of academic staff on global academic performance. In this research, which is an empirical research, survey technique was used as a data collection tool. Academic staff working in Faculty of Sport Sciences at universities constitute of the population of the research. In this context, data from 198 samples determined by convenience sampling method were collected. Descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, and explanatory and confirmatory factor analyzes were used in the analysis of the data. As a result, it can be stated that the Global Academic Performance Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool which can be used for determining the academic performance perceptions of the employees in different samples and practices in Turkey.

Academic Staff Perception of the Extent of Politicizing Administration of Universities: Implications for National Development

The aim of this study was to examine academic staff perception of the extent of politicizing administration of universities: Implications for National Development. The study adopted survey research design. The study was guided by two research questions and two research hypotheses. The population of the study was made up of all academic staff in the University of Calabar and Cross River University of Technology, all in Cross River State, Nigeria. Out of the sample size of 430 academic staff used for the study, 250 were males while 180 were females. The instrument for data collection was entitled: “Academic Staff Perception of the Extent of Politicizing Administration of Universities Questionnaire (ASPEPAUQ).” Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions. While independent t-test was used to test the two hypotheses formulated for the study. From the result of the study, academic staff members were positive in their perception of the extent of politicizing administration of universities. Male and female academic staff did not differ significantly in their rating of the extent of politicizing administration of universities. It was also found that provision of adequate funds, provision of adequate facilities, proper management of available resources, discouragement of ethnicity and improvement in staff physical/social environment were rated as the vital roles of universities administrators in the administration of universities for national development. It was concluded that due process in practice should be maintained and improved upon by the respective universities administrators to ensure equity and for national development to abound.

Academic leadership: Perceptions of academic leaders and staff in diverse contexts

Universities have been coping with various challenges and pressures over the last decade. Therefore, capacity building for academic leaders is a critical point for universities to survive in this challenging era. Yet, existing studies suffer from several limitations. Among others, they do not consider the examination of academic staff members’ and leaders’ perceptions from diverse contexts, thus capturing insight into current practices. Using a qualitative study, we explored the perceptions of 18 academic staff members and leaders from eight Chinese and European universities, under which the perceived concept, a profile of effective academic leadership, and the motivators to become academic leaders from cross-cultural perspectives were emphasized. The results demonstrated that academic staff and leaders widely perceive the notion of academic leadership in diverse contexts as a complex concept. In addition, the findings provided several insights into understanding the profile of an effective academic leader who possesses a range of capacities and specific leadership styles. Furthermore, significant motivators that stimulate academic staff and leaders to pursue academic leadership positions were also examined and discussed. The results of this study can serve as a stepping stone for designing the framework used in leadership development programs as well as for collaboration in capacity development for university academic leaders.

Identifying the Perceptions of Academic Staff on Internationalization in the Higher Education

Identifying the Perceptions of Academic Staff on Internationalization in the Higher Education

Academic and Non-Academic Staff Perception on Influence of Corruption on Enforcement of Due Process in Management of Tertiary Institutions in Kebbi State, Nigeria

Corruption in Nigeria is an issue that has become a national malaise and a focus for educationists at all levels. The study focused on how corruption influences the enforcement of due process on the management of tertiary educational institutions in Kebbi State. Four of such institutions were randomly selected while 200 Academic staff and 250 Non-academic staff were chosen using stratified random sampling technique. A validated questionnaire with reliability index of 0.78 was used to elicit the data needed in conducting the study. Three research questions were analyzed using simple percentages while three Null hypotheses were generated and tested using Chi-square at 0.05 levels of significance. The study found that corruption influenced the enforcement of both substantive and procedural due process in judging cases of violation of institutional rules in the sampled schools. It was also found that corruption factors have persisted despite laid down regulations in the institutions. The paper therefore recommended among other things that the institutions should regularly revise and update their rules to ensure that they are aligned with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The ethics committees existing in the institutions should closely monitor cases of violation of due process so as to ensure that justice, fair play and equity is maintained in the management of tertiary institutions in Kebbi State.

Employer and academic staff perceptions of science and engineering graduate competencies

ABSTRACT This paper reports on the findings from a study investigating science and engineering employers and university academic teaching staff perceptions of the competencies science and engineering recent graduates require in the workplace. Data were collected through surveys and focus group interviews of science and engineering employers and academic teaching staff. Participants rated 26 graduate competencies on how important they are for graduates entering the science and engineering workplace across three aspects: important today, important in 10 years’ time, and, the perceived competency performance level of recent graduates that have entered the workplace. The findings revealed that employers thought teamwork, written communication, problem solving, oral communication, and interpersonal relationships were particularly important for today while academic teaching staff, however, viewed problem solving, written communication, critical thinking, conceptual thinking, and oral communication to be important today. The findings offer insights into the extent current preparation of science and engineering students are meeting employer expectations and highlight shifts in perceived future competencies to enhance support for student learning and employability outcomes. Implications are offered for strengthening curriculum, pedagogy and assessment approaches for workplace preparation. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the present study and how future research might resolve those limitations.

Perceptions of Academic Staff on Causes of Plagiarism in Project Writing Among Undergraduate in Southwest Nigeria

Despite knowledge and awareness of plagiarism among undergraduates through the teaching of related compulsory university course for all students as well as teaching of research methodology in various field in Nigeria universities, final year students sill found plagiarized while writing their research work. It was based on the above, that this study was design to explore the perception of the academic in Southwest Nigeria on the causes of plagiarism among final year undergraduates while writing their research project. The study makes use of descriptive survey research design of expo factor type where eighteen universities were selected with a total sample of 1,800. Data were collected through questionnaire and analysed using both the descriptive and quantitative analysis. The findings indicated among others that laziness, lack of knowledge about plagiarism, lack of experience among students in producing source-based writing and lack of adequate skill to write final year project were some of the perceived causes of plagiarism in project writing. Moreso, incompetent graduate, injustices in grading student’s projects were some of the effect of plagiarism. Similarly, awareness campaign and theuse of plagiarism checker among others were some of the perceived measured that can be adopted in solving the menace of plagiarism among students.

Perceptions of Academic Supports for Indigenous Nursing Students

Given the education completion gap between Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students and the need for more Indigenous nurses, support for Indigenous nursing students is imperative for academic success. Indigenous nursing students face a number of barriers to success and struggle with the demands of the university setting. Academic, financial, personal, and cultural supports may assist students to successfully adapt and overcome these barriers. Educational institutions, such as Saskatchewan Polytechnic, have recognized barriers to Indigenous student success and have put a variety of measures in place to assist students. This paper aims to examine the current literature on Indigenous nursing student perception and academic support staff perception of available supports. The literature suggests that facilitative factors such as collaborative relationships between support services, individual supports, the learning environment, financial supports, and student characteristics all play a role in the academic success of students. Stressors, health, institutional racism, and feelings of shame and self-doubt are some barriers students must overcome. Within the larger context, students’ pre-university educational experience, the academic environment, and program characteristics impact the effectiveness of support services. Indigenous nursing students and Indigenous students from other programs share similar perceptions as to the effectiveness of support services. The perception of academic staff is that the needs of both Indigenous nursing and non-nursing students are similar. Although there is little research in the area of library services in relation to how they support Indigenous nursing student success, student perceptions of other support services are positive when students use them...

Challenges affecting quality of objective structured clinical examination: Assessment of academic staff perception and their improvement suggestions

Background: Assessment of clinical competence is an essential, mandatory requirement and critical norm for accountability of educational objectives as the traditional testing tools cannot evaluate clinical competence. But it became a tough job for nurse educator as it poses several challenges in terms of objectivity and reliability. In spite of increasing usage of OSCE in nursing and the huge number of studies published about it, it is still debatable about advantages of its using. OSCE costs remain an obstacle facing its use. The aim of this study: was to assess challenges affecting quality of OSCE and suggestions of improvement as perceived by academic nursing staff.Design: A descriptive exploratory research design was used.Setting: Faculty of Nursing, Minia University.Subjects: A purposive sample of 40 clinical instructors and assistant lecturers at medical-surgical, pediatric, obstetric, and community health nursing that using OSCE in students' clinical evaluation.Tools: I-Socio-demographic data sheet II- Self-administered questionnaire to assess the perceived challenges affects quality of OSCE among study participants and to obtain their suggestions to overcome these challenges.Results: The highest manpower related challenges perceived by participants were insufficient faculty members (83%) and OSCE is stressful for students (81%). For non-human challenges, the most prominent ones were that some procedures require longer time than others (90%), unsuitability of the available settings to the number of students (83%) and insufficient needed materials/equipment (73%).Conclusion: The founded human and non-human challenges of the current study may affect the quality of OSCE in all steps, from preparation to application and subsequent suggestions are interrelated. Staff suggested improving in labs preparation and increasing labs numbers. Also, allocating sufficient budget and increasing number of trained staff.Recommendations: Increase the number of clinical instructors, budget and the work hours of OSCE to accommodate with the increased number of students and permit periods of rest for both staff and students.

Academic staff perspectives on technology for assessment (TfA) in higher education: A systematic literature review

AbstractThis paper presents a systematic literature review of academic staff experiences and perceptions of adopting Technology for Assessment OF/FOR/AS Learning in Higher Education. This paper is a qualitative synthesis of 65 peer‐reviewed journal articles published between 2012 and 2017 reporting on the use of technology for assessment (TfA). The results suggest that there are some efficiencies for staff in implementing TfA but this can come with a cost at the set‐up and maintenance phases. Furthermore, results indicated that assessment design is not of foremost concern to academic staff when introducing TfA, but that a wide variety of pressures and both educational and operational drivers are present. There were inconclusive findings in relation to understandings of appropriate institutional environments and supports for TfA to flourish in higher education. There is a need for empirical research, particularly longitudinal investigations, of academic experiences of implementations of TfA to investigate sustainability of adoption. The imperative of exploring the academic staff perspective as the instigator and manager of both the technology and the student learning experience requires deep consideration as TfA adoption progresses.

Equitable Workload and the Perceptions of Academic Staff in Universities

Equitable Workload and the Perceptions of Academic Staff in Universities

Attitude and Perception of Academic and Administrative Staff towards Progression in Higher Institutions of Learning in Ghana

Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature by analysing staff motivation and how it is linked to their career progression. High level of motivation exists among staff with positive impacts on job performance. Issues of staff promotions (fairness, transparency, timeliness), conducive work environment, and putting concrete succession plans in place is advocated for a more sustained quality education.