Funding Of Public Universities Research Articles

Equity and Social Inclusion in Higher Education: The Funding Dilemma in Public Universities in Kenya

Equity and social inclusion in education are core to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. This goal recognizes that education is a human right that should be accessible to all, irrespective of socioeconomic status. Universities are uniquely placed to contribute to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda by guaranteeing inclusive and equitable education. As citadels of research, knowledge production, and innovation, these institutions are rationally obligated to steer the 2030 Agenda. Indeed, the growth of university education has contributed enormously to Kenya's economic development. Yet, to continue contributing to inclusive and equitable education, universities require finances to reorient, repurpose and refocus. Unfortunately, public universities in Kenya are presently experiencing challenges that threaten their contribution to sustainable development through SDG 4. Therefore, this paper sought to enquire whether funding is a dilemma to universities achievement of equity and social inclusion goals. Besides, the paper considered strategies to address access, quality, and management barriers to inclusive and equitable education in higher education. The paper used the argumentative approach to conclude that inclusive and equitable education in higher education is at the most risk due to the diminishing funding of public universities and the unilateral push by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to overhaul some of these public universities. However, these institutions have the capacity to conduct research towards viable programs. Since funding does not appear as a dilemma to achieving equity and social inclusion in these institutions, this study recommends that the government should rethink the funding strategy in public universities by looking at other strategies like financial exposure awareness, development of principles, and change preparedness in order to enhance these institutions' potential to achieve SDG 4.

Patterns and trends of university-industry research collaboration in Ghana between 2011 and 2020

Purpose The ranking of universities and other research-intensive institutions in global ranking systems is based on numerous indicators, including number of articles with external collaboration, number of articles with international collaboration, number of articles with industry collaboration as well as co-patents with industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine university–industry research collaboration in Ghana, with the aim of exploring the relationship between the research output collaborations in the top four universities in Ghana and industry across different geographical scales. Design/methodology/approach This study’s data was obtained from the SciVal database, which drawn its data from the Scopus bibliographic and citation database. The bibliographic and citation data were extracted using a search of the publications affiliated to the University of Ghana, for the period 2011–2020. Findings Key findings demonstrate a constant rise in the number of research publications by the selected universities over time. Research collaboration intensity in the selected universities in terms of co-authored publications was higher as compared to single-authored publications. University–industry research co-authorships were, however, lower when compared to university–university research co-authorships. The university–industry research co-authorships occurred mostly with Europe, Asia-Pacific and North American-based institutions as opposed to African-based institutions. In Ghana, four industry-based institutions were engaged in intensive research with the selected universities. Originality/value This study demonstrates that, for each selected university, it is possible to measure the performance of individual universities in both intra-regional and international collaboration. Such results may be useful in informing policy as well as merit-based public funding of universities in Ghana.

Doing “more with less”: the entrepreneurialization of Finnish higher education and innovation policy discourses in 2015–2019

ABSTRACT In the past decades, the development of higher education institutions (HEIs) in industrialized countries has become intertwined with innovation policy and the goal of national competitiveness. Focusing on the discourses on innovation by the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), this article illustrates the transformation of Finnish higher education policy ideas in the late 2010s following the demise of the previous policy consensus built around the notion of the National Innovation System. Through a critical policy discourse analysis of 35 publications by the MEC, we demonstrate that its recent policy discourses are dominated by an increasingly market-centric strategy of entrepreneurialism in conditions of major cuts to the public funding of universities and R&D. This strategy has serious limitations and contradictions, which have generated institutional conflicts and hinder the development of a more sustainable and balanced innovation agenda for the Finnish higher education field.

Academia-Industry Linkages: Alternative Platforms for Engagement Under Nigerian Law

The mandate of Nigerian universities and other institutions of higher learning is to among others, teach and carry on research. The ability of universities to effectively carry on these mandates depend on adequate funding. It is a truism that Universities in Nigeria, both public and private are under funded. The low level funding of public universities in particular, has resulted into low level research outputs. Although there are laws and indeed policies that encourage collaborations between universities, industries and other agencies of government, it does appear that there is low level awareness by researches in leveraging on the existing platforms to bridge the academia- industry gap. This article explores alternative/additional funding options for researches based on collaborative platforms under current laws and policies and concludes that these alternatives/additional funding are not resorted to by researchers largely due to low level awareness of the laws and policies underpinning academia-industry and government collaborations. The inability of universities to take advantage of these platforms has impeded researchers from transforming their research findings into products and services. The article has brought to the fore the need for universities and other institutions of higher learning to explore the legislative and policy framework underpinning collaboration with a view to transforming researches into commercial products and services. The article concludes that universities and indeed other institutions of higher learning engaged in teaching and research do not need to depend wholly on government for funding as is currently the case, rather collaboration with government Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and industries is available and are necessary in transforming research outcomes into commercial products and services for the benefit of stakeholders under the applicable intellectual property laws and policies. In so doing, the universities would come closer to bridging the academia –industry gap.

Research Development in Public Universities in Nigeria: Problems and Solutions

This paper discussed barriers to research development in Nigerian public universities. Secondary data were used to support the points raised in the article. The secondary data were sourced from print materials and online publications by recognized institutions and individual authors. The paper concluded that Poor funding, lack of modern laboratories, inadequate infrastructure facilities, strike actions, insecurity, brain drain, the poor linkages between researchers and the industrial sector, unattractive working conditions for researchers, strict guidelines for accessing grants and poor mentorship are some of the barriers to research development in public universities in Nigeria. To solve the identified problems, the paper among other things recommended adequate funding of public universities with a special interest in research development in all the public universities in Nigeria.

The Low Demand for Public Administration Programs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: What May Be Behind It?

"The importance of public administration (PA) education and training is obvious, any effective public administration system needs an influx of a new and well-educated workforce. Compared to the (relatively) better situation in other Central and Eastern European countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia represent a very specific case – the falling number of students in PA programs threatens the existence of the only programs with international accreditation (those at Masaryk University Brno and Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica). The aim of this paper was to investigate the reasons why so few students apply and enroll in these EAPAA-accredited programs. Qualitative research is used to achieve this goal. In the opinion of the program chairs and our secondary analysis, there are multiple factors behind the very low level of demand which critically threatens the existence of the best master programs in the countries studied. A very specific issue that appears to be unique for both countries is free public university education with unregulated demand. Such an environment, combined with the performance- based funding of public universities and other higher education institutions, where the number of students is a decisive factor in the amount of the public grant to the university, generates an oversupply of places offered to secondary school graduates. The role of other potential barriers for the interest to study public administration is catalyzed by the ‘oversupply’ conditions. The questionnaire, the statements of program chairs, and our secondary analysis confirm that there is a role to be played by monitoring other potential barriers — the fact that programs are run in economics faculties, limited trust in politicians, government and public administration, the system of access to the civil service and salary levels in the public sector."

School Plant Management in Public Universities in Nigeria: Challenges and the Way Forward

Quality education cannot be guaranteed in the absence of adequate and wellmanaged educational facilities. However, Nigerian public universities face numerous challenges in terms of school plant management. This paper examines school plant management in public universities in Nigeria: challenges and way forward. Secondary data were sourced online to buttress points raised in this paper. The paper identified the following as some of the challenges facing school plant management in public universities in Nigeria: poor attitude of staff and students toward maintenance of school facilities, pressure on school facilities due to over-enrolment of students, inadequate funding of public universities, among others. Strategic policies to foster positive attitudes among staff and students in order to instil the habit of ownership mentality among staff and students in all educational institutions with regard to school plant management, expansion of school facilities, increased educational funding, and so on were among the suggestions made as to the way forward.

School Plant Management in Public Universities in Nigeria: Challenges and the Way Forward

Quality education cannot be guaranteed in the absence of adequate and well-managed educational facilities. However, Nigerian public universities face numerous challenges in terms of school plant management. This paper examines school plant management in public universities in Nigeria: challenges and way forward. Secondary data were sourced online to buttress points raised in this paper. The paper identified the following as some of the challenges facing school plant management in public universities in Nigeria: poor attitude of staff and students toward maintenance of school facilities, pressure on school facilities due to over-enrolment of students, inadequate funding of public universities, among others. Strategic policies to foster positive attitudes among staff and students in order to instil the habit of ownership mentality among staff and students in all educational institutions with regard to school plant management, expansion of school facilities, increased educational funding, and so on were among the suggestions made as to the way forward.

WILLEM DREES ON THE HUMANITIES

AbstractDo universities still need departments in the humanities—philosophy, history, languages, and so forth? Many today, particularly legislators with control over the funding of public universities, feel that the emphasis should be on, and only on, departments in the STEM field. Willem B. Drees, a former dean of humanities, makes a spirited defense of the worth of the humanities and of their continued place in higher education. This essay looks at Drees's arguments in a critical, yet appreciative, fashion. It is a debate we need to have.

Responding to COVID-19 Through Socialist(ic) Measures: A Preliminary Review

When the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a global pandemic, countries stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Some countries resorted to socialist(ic) measures ranging from nationalizing private hospitals to state-supervising face mask factory operations, and from freezing prices of basic commodities to suspending rent, mortgage, and utilities payments. Typical socialist advocacies such as homes for everyone, egalitarian distribution of goods, free health care for all, and public funding for universities and scientific research, also gain more ground as the crisis worsens. This paper is aimed at documenting and describing these measures, as a springboard for arguing that the global capitalist status quo should be transformed/replaced if humanity is to survive this and future global pandemics. At the very least, this paper will also provide practical ideas and insights which local and national authorities can utilize in the battle against COVID-19 and hopefully, in building the foundations of a future socialist world where humanity will be better equipped to deal with pandemics and other crises.

Comparative Analysis of Funding of Education in Nigeria

Some of the obstacles to the nascent democracy In Nigeria include the neglect of education for Its citizens, the spate of armed robbery attacks, political assassinations, religious conflicts and lack of proper education funding coupled with the seeming helplessness of security agencies to handle criminal acts. The focus of this paper is to comparatively analyse the funding of Education in Nigeria tertiary institutions. In the 19 years since Nigeria returned to civil rule under the Fourth Republic, University teachers in the country have embarked on strikes 14 times that saw them stay away from work for about 40 months. The latest strike by the teachers under the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) began in November 2018 lasted till February 2019, in spite of several rounds of meetings between leaders of the Union and the Federal Government all because of funding of education. ASUU has been locked in a protracted dispute with the Nigerian government over issues connected to poor funding of public universities. In the course of this study, the Comparative Analysis of Funding of Education in Nigeria were brought to the fore while the objectives of the study were well spelt out. Hypotheses were postulated and the Group Theory was used to explicate the works. Data were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. From the primary sources, the survey method was adopted. Data obtained from this method were analysed with the aid of Simple Percentage. Thereafter, the five researchable hypotheses were tested and accepted while the null hypotheses were rejected. The implication is that there was relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Generally, the paper brought to focus that effective funding of education in Nigeria is a task that must be done with collective efforts of all stakeholders for the growth and development of universities in Nigeria. In a nutshell, this paper suggested policy prescription and recommendations which are aimed at repositioning universities in Nigeria. Finally, this paper however, painstakingly appraised several of these issues and concluded that all stakeholders in the federal polity should thread softly, be objective, rational, altruistic and magnanimous in order not to make the existence of true federalism (social, education, political and economic cohesive existence of the people, peace and tranquillity) a fleeting illusion and a mirage.Key Words: Education, Funding, Strikes, Federal, State, Government

Pathways to performance: an examination of entry pathway and first-year university results

Although diversity at universities has increased dramatically over the past 150 years, many groups are still under-represented relative to their proportion in the general population. Initiatives to improve diversity have included the increased use of entry pathways other than direct admission from secondary school. As admissions via these alternative entry routes have increased, concerns have grown that alternative-entry students are not well prepared for university study. Here, we describe the outcomes for students entering university via one alternative entry pathway and compare them with those of students entering from secondary school. We used quantile regression with restricted cubic splines to examine the relationship between secondary school performance (quantified by the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank; ATAR), pathway of entry to university, and performance during first year university. Entry pathway significantly affects the conditional distribution of first-year marks. Outstanding performance is largely confined to students entering university from secondary school (Year 12 entry), rather than from an institution for technical and further education (TAFE). Concomitantly, for any given ATAR, the risk of failure is higher amongst Year 12 entry students than among TAFE entry students. The results have substantial implications for changes in admission criteria and for the public funding of universities.

WEBOMETRIC RANKINGS AS INFORMER OF PUBLIC POLICY ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH

The role of universities as engines of national economic growth and development cannot be overemphasized. This has always strengthened the argument for greater involvement in public funding of higher education globally. Though arguments subsist over the inadequacy of public contributions to university education in Nigeria [4.98% of total budget in 2005; 9.64% in 2008 and 5.40% in 2010] and various allocations by Tertiary Education Trust Fund to the Nigerian universities, available statistical evidences of the differential webometric rankings of universities by Times Higher Education Supplement World Universities Rankings[THES], the Shanghai Jimo Tong Academic Rankings of World Universities[ ARWU],the QS World Universities Rankings[QSWUR] and Leiden Rankings which are global in nature and equally important high graduate unemployment rate phenomenon, do not give any credit to the public funding status of Nigeria’s binaried university system. We took a critical look at the rankings of Nigeria’s universities nationally, internationally and continentally against the backdrops of university goals, university rankings indicators and their relevance to economic growth and development. We observed that Nigeria’s universities have retrogressed at an increasing rate in their economic growth contribution using the economic growth models of Ricardo, Harrod- Domar, Neo-classical theory and Kaldor. We concluded that rather than discount the webometric indicators of the Shanghai rankings, Nigeria’s university administrators should think globally and act locally in order to maintain universities of internationally comparable quality. We recommended an emphasis on subject/ discipline ranking system for adoption by Nigerian governments as a barometer for increased funding of public universities in order to arrest graduate unemployment and boost university autonomy

An investigation on allocative efficiency and implications of new funding plans for the Australian universities

In 2013 and 2014, the Australian Federal Government introduced the Gonski reforms and fee deregulation measures to reform the prevailing financing provisions for education sectors in Australia. The central proposition of the proposed new measures was to reduce the funding of public universities by the Federal Government. One likely consequence of the proposed measures was thus decreased government funding. In the given context, public universities were pressured into designing new strategies to cope with decreasing government funding. This paper examines the productive efficiency of public universities as a potential strategy. Using a concept of cost efficiency in production economics, cross-sectional data, correlation analysis, and regression analysis, this study explores the scope of allocative efficiency for public universities. Finally, this study recommends the intensive use of non-teaching staff in order to cope with any budgetary challenges.

Which came first: the money or the rank?

Global university rankings are provided by several organisations based on various cri- teria, most of which are, directly or indirectly, related to the wealth of the university. The main objec- tive of this work was to examine the effect of money on rankings and vice versa. First, we examined the relationship between global university rankings and professors' salaries and found an asymptotic trend for all ranks of professors across the top 200 US universities, but no trend for the top Canadian universities. Second, we examined the relationship between global university rankings and univer- sity income and found a positive trend for UK and Canadian universities. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the funding (as well as autonomy and support of the state) of a university and its position in global rankings are related. We maintain that European universities in several coun- tries will not make it into the top 100 list unless their autonomy and public funding are increased. Instead, the recent decrease in public funding of universities in many European countries, as a result of the economic crisis, threatens to push these institutions further down the ranking lists.

Consequences of Changes in Public Universities Funding on Applied Financial Management Tools

The purpose of the paper is aimed at research on implementing a full cost method in public universities in the Czech Republic as a new tool of financial management applied as the consequences of changes in public funding of public universities. The first part sets out the reasons why it is important for universities to know the full cost and it further identifies the main barriers to the implementation of the full cost method. One part is focused on explaining the difference between total cost and eligible project expenditures. Another part is devoted to an explanation of the nature of the full cost method, the results of own research conducted on the implementation of the full cost method in the Czech Republic, mainly there is a recommended procedure and warning on the difficulties in implementing the full cost method and there is also explained why it is important to keep the link between sources, activities and costs. This paper includes as well the confrontation with the results of research performed by the European University Association in Europe. The final part presents results of investigation and outlines possible topics for further discussion or research.

Introduction: STS and Neoliberal Science

In this special issue, we focus on the particular impacts of neoliberalism as a regime of scientific management. Drawing on a wide range of studies from other fields, as well as the four cases in this issue, we argue that while there are important differences in how neoliberalism has been implemented across nations and disciplines, there are a set of key principles and common outcomes that can serve a heuristic function for STS scholars attempting a more careful examination of neoliberalism. These common outcomes include: the rollback of public funding for universities; the separation of research and teaching missions, leading to rising numbers of temporary faculty; the dissolution of the scientific author; the narrowing of research agendas to focus on the needs of commercial actors; an increasing reliance on market take-up to adjudicate intellectual disputes; and the intense fortification of intellectual property in an attempt to commercialize knowledge, impeding the production and dissemination of science. Taken together, these shifts suggest that the impact of neoliberal science policy and management extends far beyond the patent system into the methods, organization, and content of science. We thus urge STS scholars to undertake a detailed exploration of exactly how the external political—economic forces of neoliberalism are transforming technoscience.

The Welfare Effects of Discriminating between In-State and Out-of-State Students

This paper considers the decentralized funding of public universities in a federation when students and graduates are mobile. In particular, I discuss whether local governments should be given the right to differentiate tuition fees between in-state and out-of-state students. I develop a model of decentralized decision makingwhich allows me to draw conclusions about how such a price-discrimination affects welfare and the number of students in a federation. It is shown that local governments differentiate fees if allowed to do so and that this reduces the mobility of students and federal welfare. To assess the impact of differentiated fees on thenumber of students in the federation this paper extends previous work by endogenizing the number of students. The model predicts that when differentiated fees are used less individuals decide to attend university.

Funding universities for efficiency and equity: research findings versus petty politics

The present paper starts by discussing the principles of public funding of universities. The size of the social returns to investment in education gives an indication regarding the most efficient use of resources, while the difference between the private and the social rates relates to issues of equity. The available evidence is contrasted to higher education funding policies in several countries. It is concluded that there is a divide between the research findings regarding efficient and equitable financing, and the actual public funding of universities. The reasons for this divide are discussed in the context of political economy, rent‐seeking by several stakeholders and, above all, vote‐seeking by politicians.

Global Position and Position Taking: The Case of Australia

From 1990 to 2003, Australia’s share of the global market in cross-border degrees grew from 1% to 9%. Full fee-paying foreign students now constitute one quarter of enrolments, and education is Australia’s third largest services export. Positioned as an Anglo-American system on the edge of Asia, Australia has differentiated itself from the United States and United Kingdom on price, location, safety, and climate, not academic content. The supply side keys to growth are deregulation and prolonged reductions in the public funding of universities. However, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University survey of research performance finds that Australia is less strong in research than cross-border degrees. Australia’s policy may have negative implications for its longer-term global standing and limit the range of position-taking strategies available to its universities. These themes are explored in the context of the emerging worldwide market and Australian policy changes that have enhanced institutional stratification.