Student Funding Research Articles

From vision to action: Next steps in designing PhD programs of the future.

Declines in PhD enrollment, funding and support for PhD students, and the quality and quantity of the nursing research pipeline has fueled the concern about providing high-quality education in research-focused nursing doctoral programs. To address the challenges and opportunities facing research focused PhD education, the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing convened an invitational summit, Re-Envisioning Research-Focused PhD Programs of the Future, of research-intensive institutions. Both as a dissemination strategy and as an effort to engage perspectives from other Schools with PhD programs, we presented a summary of the Penn Summit discussion at the AACN Doctoral Education Conference (AACN Doctoral Conference). Focused discussions at both events further identified opportunities for research focused PhD programs, including recruiting undergraduate students, establishing research-focused partnerships, creating clear evaluation methods. AACN Doctoral conference participants also discussed the need to discuss and identify competencies, common subject areas, and financial resources for PhD students and graduates. This synthesis of discussions, considerations, and challenges affecting research-focused doctoral programs of nursing serve as a basis and catalyst for further discussion and action to ensure PhD research focused programs are preparing successful nurse scientists of the future.

STUDENT FUNDING AND UNIVERSITY ACCESS AFTER THE GREAT WAR: THE SCHEME FOR THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF EX-SERVICEMEN AT ABERYSTWYTH, LIVERPOOL AND OXFORD

ABSTRACT This article makes a fresh contribution to the literature on student funding and its history by drawing attention to a pioneering government initiative, launched in the aftermath of the Great War. From the winter of 1918–1919 until 1923, the Scheme for the Higher Education of Ex-Servicemen provided grants to university students in England and Wales. We argue that it amounted to a major educational reform venture: it supported students on an unprecedented scale, covering fees and maintenance across a broad range of courses and institutions. In order to produce an in-depth analysis of this scheme and its local operation, we have drawn on archival evidence from the Board of Education, the University of Liverpool, the University of Oxford and the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Our discussion addresses the application process, means-testing and funding decisions as well as the profiles and experiences of grant recipients. The scale and impact of the ex-service scheme raises wider questions about the societal value accorded to higher education within the context of reconstruction after the Great War.

Applications open for ACS Bridge sites; travel awards available

The ACS Bridge Program, which is part of the ACS Bridge Project, is accepting proposals from institutions to become ACS Bridge sites. Bridge sites receive funding for up to 3 years to support underrepresented minority (URM) students as Bridge fellows. Applications are due by Sept. 1. Applications are also being accepted for the ACS Bridge Travel and Career/Professional Development Award. These awards provide funding for undergraduate and graduate URM students to attend scientific conferences and other professional development events. Each award will cover up to $1,500 in eligible expenses for graduate students and up to $1,000 in expenses for undergraduate students. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis. The ACS Bridge Project, supported by the US National Science Foundation and the Genentech Foundation, aims to diversify the graduate student population in the chemical sciences. For more information, .

Alignment of a PhD program in nursing with the AACN report on the research-focused doctorate in nursing: A descriptive analysis.

Those involved in preparing the next generation of nurse scientists face numerous challenges, including but not limited to: relatively older age at completion of doctoral studies, insufficient funding for full-time PhD students in nursing, inadequate funding for nursing research, and the limited number of well-funded mentors in nursing doctoral programs. These issues have limited the number of students enrolled in PhD nursing programs and graduates to supply the research faculty of the future and generate nursing science. This phenomenon persists despite numerous calls to increase the number of PhD doctoral students and graduates and expedite the PhD process without compromising educational integrity. This article describes the BSN-to-PhD Pathway and the Accelerated (3year) Pathway to the nursing PhD at an established research doctoral program that required a shift in the approach to student recruitment, curriculum development, and timely progression. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

AI, quantum information emphasized for NSF graduate student funding

The National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is one of the most high-profile awards for graduate students, providing 1,600 students a year with their own funding as...

Effects of the Performance-Based Research Fund and Other Factors on the Efficiency of New Zealand Universities: A Malmquist Productivity Approach

Universities and academic institutions play a very crucial role in nation development through the production of highly competent manpower. The eight universities in New Zealand have been recognized as some of the top academic institutions in the world. However, the rankings from different international organizations are declining and are hardly likely to rise. Government policies in funding allocation are being blamed for the universities’ regress as they operate with an insufficient amount of funds. This study uses the Malmquist Productivity Index model to examine the technical efficiency, technological change, and productivity performance of the eight universities. This model uses a variety of inputs (number of academic and non-academic staff and total enrolment) and outputs (number of degree and postgraduate graduates, total graduates, and total operating revenue from the Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS) funding system and the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF), etc.) obtained for the period 2013–2018. The overall results show that the average catch-up and frontier-shift efficiencies of the universities are roughly in a “no-change” scenario, meaning that the universities did not make any progress over these years. The Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) also shows a stable result, with average final values slightly higher than 1, wherein only five universities reached an actual productivity score of 1. It is recommended that the universities improve their internal factors, including personnel, equipment, facilities, and student services, while taking accounts of external aspects, such as rapid growth in technological environments and innovations, to achieve sustainable organizational progress and improved productivity. The re-assessment of government policies for funding allocation is also suggested. This research paper offers insights into the New Zealand universities’ productivity performances for the past few years. This could be used as a reference for other purposes.

Starving to be a student: The experiences of food insecurity among undergraduate students in Nova Scotia, Canada

Household food insecurity (HFI) exists when access to food is inadequate or insecure due to financial constraints, and is an issue of increasing concern among postsecondary students who face barriers to food access due to precarious finances. The goal of the current study was to explore the experience of HFI among university students in Nova Scotia (NS), including barriers and facilitators, and potential policy solutions to the issue from the perspective of students. Twelve semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with students experiencing HFI from across NS. Phenomenological analysis was undertaken, using Radimer’s model of HFI as a theoretical framework. Key aspects of the experience of food insecurity in this sample included all four dimensions of Radimer’s model of HFI: quantitative, qualitative, psychological, and social. The main contributing factor to student’s difficulties accessing food was inadequate and precarious finances. Students highlighted various coping mechanisms, such as utilizing food banks, budgeting their money, and buying food in bulk. This study is an important next step to a better understanding of the experience of student HFI in NS, building on previous quantitative research. Findings suggest that while the experience of HFI has many similarities with the experience in other populations, students experience tensions between independence and reliance on their family and have unique struggles related to government financial supports. The findings point to necessary policy changes related to student funding programs, and suggest that relying on campus food banks to solve the issue of HFI among students is inadequate.

FRAUD AND WHISTLEBLOWING IN THE MANAGEMENT OF STUDENT FUNDS

The aim of this study was to find out whether there is the potential for fraud and whistleblowing in the management of student funds as a way to detect fraud in universities. The type of research used in this study was descriptive qualitative research. Data collection was done through interviews, observation, and documentation. This study was conducted at one of universities located in Central Java by describing several variables including fraud, whistleblowing and management of student funds.. The data was analyzed using fraud triangle framework and the fraud scheme based on the ACFE classification. The results of this study show that in the management of student funds there was the potential for fraud, such as misuse of financial statements and corruption. There was indication of fraud, but it did not happen. Potential for whistleblowing was not found because they assume that if fraud occurs it is better to discuss it in a family manner and will not report it.

Pencegahan Fraud Pada Pengelolaan Dana Organisasi: Perspektif Theory of Planed Behavior

This study aims to analyze and evaluate factors that influence students' intention to take whistleblowing actions against fraud in managing the organization's funds as an effort to prevent fraud. Students know that fraud has occurred but were unable to report due to friendship conflicts. This study seeks to fill the reseach gap, is looking at the phenomenon of student decision making in reporting fraud on managing student funds through the whistleblowing mechanism using Theory of Planned Behavior and incorporating moral norms into it. The results indicate that students' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control had obstacles to support the intention to take whistleblowing actions. However, only moral norms that students trigerred the moral basis in making decision to report or not to report. Though, most of the respondents stated that they had the intention to carry out whistleblowing. Thus of the four factors that influence student intentions and behavior in conducting whistleblowing actions moral norms were the most significant factor, which means students with only a strong moral norms will whistleblowing.

Comment on Asbury and Wai (2019), “Viewing Education Policy through a Genetic Lens,” Journal of School Choice

ABSTRACT Asbury and Wai (Journal of School Choice, 2019) perform a valuable service by summarizing much available behavior–genetic research on academic achievement. However they consider that no specific policies stem from the research body at this time. Here we do propose a policy based on some of our research using twins, namely that available funding for students struggling with learning to read be targeted to them individually rather than allocated to schools per se. We briefly canvass some practical issues, such as the variety of funding mechanisms, best-practice intervention techniques, and identification of struggling readers. We also outline a general research strategy for uncovering factors contributing to educational attainment that takes behavior-genetic research as its starting point and drills down from there, and advocate including genetically-sensitive methods in a growing list of quantitative research techniques in education.

Learning Problem for the Special Education Students: Funds and Infrastructure

Special Education is a program designed specifically to meet the diverse needs of special students. For special education students who are placed separately, appropriate techniques have been used in the learning and teaching process. In addition to appropriate learning techniques, infrastructure has also been provided to facilitate the learning process of these special education students. Infrastructure is a facility provided for development purposes. The objectives of this study were to analyze special education facilities for students with special needs, to identify sufficient and current teaching and learning infrastructure for special needs students at SK Kuala Kubu Bharu, to identify appropriate and relevant funding for students with special needs for educational purposes and their infrastructure, and understand the implementation of SK Kuala Kubu Bharu's PPKI on infrastructure and funding for special needs students. The method of this study is semi-structured interviews. Students in the special education school studied are having problems with sufficient and increasing infrastructure. After all, infrastructure is a condition or environment that every school needs to meet in order for its students to be able to use the facilities, especially those students who attend the school are students with disabilities or disabilities.

Highlights from the First Student-Run Orthopedics Clinical Research Showcase at Wayne State University School of Medicine

The Orthopedic Surgery Interest Group Clinical Research Showcase took place on December 3, 2019 on the campus of Wayne State University School of Medicine as the first such student-run event of its kind since the school was established in 1868 as Detroit Medical College. The Clinical Research Showcase was developed by the student leadership of the Orthopedic Surgery Interest Group (Arif Musa, Emily Lau, Martin Weaver, and Collin Bennet) with the support of the Office of Medical Student Research Programs, which was established in 2017. Medical students were encouraged to submit abstracts for poster and podium presentation with the latter taking place in the Margherio Conference Center (Figure 1). The goals of the showcase were to promote student engagement in research, develop skills such as abstract writing and poster design, receive valuable feedback from judges, and foster inter-disciplinary collaboration. These goals were based on previous articles that have documented the impact of peer-led symposia as a valuable learning experience and means promote student involvement in research endeavors [1-3.] It was explicitly stated in the call for abstracts that medical student were welcome to submit abstracts of completed, ongoing, and planned research in any medical discipline. The research showcase was supported by the generous Office of Medical Student Research whom provided dinner and funding for several students’ posters to be printed.

Beyond risk and return: What motivates environmentally friendly or harmful student fund investments in Germany?

For the sustainable development of the energy and agricultural sectors, it is necessary to have financial investments carried out by private households. Therefore, this study examines individuals investing in funds ranging from environmentally friendly (wind energy, organic farming) to environmentally harmful (mineral oil / natural gas). First, we analyze the relative importance of return, risk and durations, and the aspect of sustainability in the decision-making process about financial investments. Second, the intention to invest in environmentally friendly or harmful investment fields is analyzed according to economic, environmental self-identity, as well as personal norms concerning individual contributions to the climate targets of the Paris Agreement. We applied a choice-based conjoint experiment in a laboratory with 226 participating students primarily studying Business (n = 117) in Germany. The results show that the annual returns and risks are the most important attributes for the fund decisions of students followed, by the investment fields. Subjects prefer investments in wind energy. However, organic farming investments were not in great demand. Personal norms (Paris Agreement) are positively linked to investment intentions for organic farming and negatively linked to investment intentions for mineral oil / natural gas. Wind energy investment intentions are not explained by self-identity or personal norms (Paris Agreement).

Will the return of financial support for students improve nurse recruitment?

Emeritus Professor Alan Glasper, from the University of Southampton, discusses a government initiative to increase the number of nurses in the NHS through the reintroduction of student funding.

Neoliberal methods of disqualification: a critical examination of disability-related education funding in Canada

ABSTRACT Funding for post-secondary students with disabilities in Canada is an under-studied yet pressing policy issue that affects up to 15% of students currently enrolled in post-secondary institutions across the country reflecting, at the same time, trends in educational accommodations occurring on a global scale. This article presents new data and combines these findings with a qualitative policy review to expose how funding levels in Canada have remained static over a 20-year period as a result of changes to key funding programs. We show how access to these insufficient funding programs is based on application processes that are shaped by the careful management of knowledge and information, underpinned by a desire to keep spending low. We then analyze the implications of these funding practices for disabled students and situate their effects within the neoliberal cultural project that eschews transparency while increasing individualization and self-responsibilization – encouraging disabled students to embody market rationalities as a way of maintaining their presence in academia.

Impact of funding on academic performance: An exploration of two South African universities

Empirical evidence on the relationship between student funding and academic performance is unclear. Some studies have found a positive relationship, some have suggested a negative one, while others maintain that there is no relationship between them. Acknowledging that a range of factors, other than funding, impact on student success, in this paper, we aim to contribute to a small, but emerging, body of literature on the relationship between student funding and academic performance, proxied by the average individual academic mark for the year. We applied descriptive and inferential statistics to a dataset of 29,619 students registered at two South African universities for the 2018 academic year. The results highlight that in an examination of the impact of being funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in a bivariate context, it is possible to find a negative relationship with performance. However, at an aggregate level and controlling for the impact of other variables, a positive (albeit weak) and statistically significant correlation between being NSFAS funded and average academic performance emerges.

Resources for Content-area Teachers Educating ELLs: A Literature Review

Educating English Language Learners (ELLs) is a rapidly growing need in K-12 schools. While often viewed as a homogeneous group, in reality this population is varied in terms of prior knowledge, access to formal education, age, and native language. Despite these differences, students must be taught first social, and then academic, English in order for them to be successful in their classes and graduate. While in previous decades, ELLs were isolated from the mainstream population, common education practices now integrate them into their grade-level classes. However, while working with this high-need population, mainstream content-area teachers often lack the time, professional knowledge, and/or resources to adequately help. This literature review, focusing primarily on resources for content-area teachers in grades 7-12 from a variety of settings, examines the challenges they face and how some of those challenges can be mitigated. Primarily, the problem must be acknowledged while support is given to teachers to plan and modify their lessons to help older learners who are at basic English proficiency levels. Additionally, students’ prior knowledge and experiences must be incorporated into lessons, especially when making connections and in recognizing the funds of knowledge students have. An overreaching problem in the field, however, is that studying how to help older learner ELLs is an area that is drastically lacking, and there is definitely room for more focused research on this topic.

Die Finanzsituation von Studierenden unter verschiedenen Institutionen der Studienfinanzierung – ein internationaler Vergleich

Abstract Market, state, and the family of students are important sources of student funding. An empirical analysis for 25 countries in the European Higher Education Area reveals that in 80 % of countries, there is a pattern according to which students who depend on self-financing through the market reach the highest level of total monthly income. Their fellow students, who financially depend on their families, have a median income level and students who are mainly funded by the state have the lowest revenue. The significant differences in revenue between the three groups of students also involve financial problems of varying degrees.

Rethinking biology teaching at the University of Namibia

The University of Namibia students today are very diverse. This is largely due to differing cultures, learning styles and levels of emotional and social maturity. Acknowledging this diversity will help avoid the “common sense” based predisposition of higher education teachers to treat every student the same. Diagnosing student needs and crafting learning experiences in response to revealed diagnoses is therefore imperative. In this study, second year Biometrics students were profiled with a focus on the social, economic, political and psychological aspects of their lives. Data from Sixty five (65) Biometrics students from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Namibia were recorded using a two-part questionnaire. The first part of the questionnaire comprised personal and socioeconomic questions and the second part was a VARK questionnaire. The VARK questionnaire was used to determine a person’s sensory modality preferences. The percentage of the students who fell into the four modalities, that is, visual, aural, read/write, kinaesthetic or multimodal was determined. The most popular learning style was multimodal (61.3%). In addition, there was a significant relationship between the race of the student and their mode of transport to the University campus (Chi-square, p<0.001) with most of those who walk to campus and those using buses or taxi being black. A highly significant association existed between race and student funding (Chi-square, p<0.001), with the majority of black students on NSFAF funding (40). This study reveals the government’s commitment to the funding of higher education since the majority of the previously disadvantaged black students are funded by NSFAF. The internationalisation of Namibian higher education and cross-border provision of higher education have increased student diversity, hence the need to respond to such diversity in our academic practice. We therefore recommend the tracking of these students until they finish their degree program to see if application of the knowledge acquired through this study will improve student learning and performance.

Animal science Down Under: a history of research, development and extension in support of Australia’s livestock industries

This account of the development and achievements of the animal sciences in Australia is prefaced by a brief history of the livestock industries from 1788 to the present. During the 19th century, progress in industry development was due more to the experience and ingenuity of producers than to the application of scientific principles; the end of the century also saw the establishment of departments of agriculture and agricultural colleges in all Australian colonies (later states). Between the two world wars, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was established, including well supported Divisions of Animal Nutrition and Animal Health, and there was significant growth in research and extension capability in the state departments. However, the research capacity of the recently established university Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Science was limited by lack of funding and opportunity to offer postgraduate research training. The three decades after 1945 were marked by strong political support for agricultural research, development and extension, visionary scientific leadership, and major growth in research institutions and achievements, partly driven by increased university funding and enrolment of postgraduate students. State-supported extension services for livestock producers peaked during the 1970s. The final decades of the 20th century featured uncertain commodity markets and changing public attitudes to livestock production. There were also important Federal Government initiatives to stabilise industry and government funding of agricultural research, development and extension via the Research and Development Corporations, and to promote efficient use of these resources through creation of the Cooperative Research Centres program. These initiatives led to some outstanding research outcomes for most of the livestock sectors, which continued during the early decades of the 21st century, including the advent of genomic selection for genetic improvement of production and health traits, and greatly increased attention to public interest issues, particularly animal welfare and environmental protection. The new century has also seen development and application of the ‘One Health’ concept to protect livestock, humans and the environment from exotic infectious diseases, and an accelerating trend towards privatisation of extension services. Finally, industry challenges and opportunities are briefly discussed, emphasising those amenable to research, development and extension solutions.