Higher Education Partnerships Research Articles

Higher education in the sustainable development goals framework

AbstractAgenda 2030 for sustainable development focuses attention on lifelong learning opportunities for all. The new targets expand on their predecessors, the Millennial Development Goals, by both widening and deepening the scope of system‐wide quality education systems. Whilst the Millennial Development Goals focused attention on universal primary attainment, the Sustainable Development Goals introduce tertiary education into the global development agenda. Higher education was an important consideration in the 2000 Dakar framework, but it was not included as a target. Instead, it appeared indirectly as a supportive pathway to other goals such as youth skills or quality teacher. Now, higher education plays a key role as a means to achieving Goal 4 on education: inclusive, equitable and quality education for all. This article evaluates the introduction of higher education into the development agenda and the introduction of the SDGs into the parallel but fragmented multilateral and university agendas. It concludes by specifying two factors that are essential if higher education is to play a revitalised role in the sustainable development framework: publicly‐funded research and regional higher education partnerships.

Transnational Higher Education Partnerships and the Role of Operational Faculty Members: Developing an Alternative Theoretical Approach for Empirical Research

For too long, transnational higher education (TNE) has been linked to discourse predominately focused upon strategic implementation, quality assurance, and pedagogy. While these aspects are important when designing and managing overseas provisions, there is a lack of research focusing on the social interactions that influence the pace and development of TNE partnerships. This gap is particularly evident at the operational phase of TNE partnerships. This conceptual article therefore offers an alternative way in which to research TNE partnerships, in relation to the interactions of faculty members delivering at the operational level. It provides an integrated theoretical framework, comprising of three different theoretical approaches to provide a conceptual tool in which to investigate and evaluate TNE partnership development. The article concludes that by understanding how relationships develop between faculty members tasked with delivering TNE, international partnerships can be significantly strengthened in terms of their progression and value.

The effects of boundary spanning on the development of social capital between faculty members operating transnational higher education partnerships

ABSTRACTThis paper explores social capital development between operational faculty members delivering Sino-British transnational partnerships. Research focuses on two Sino-British ‘joint programme’ partnership case studies in order to investigate boundary spanning and the development of social capital between UK and Sino academics involved in programme delivery. Since social capital is posited as a central facet in the development and institutionalisation of successful partnerships, understanding how to grow, nurture and maintain productive levels of social capital between operational academics could significantly improve and strengthen transnational partnerships. Findings suggest that boundary spanning is a useful tool, enabling individuals to interpret, transmit and filter knowledge, facilitate resource transmission and represent their organisations, building cohesion and commitment between stakeholders. The research concludes that boundary spanning can improve social capital between operation faculty members, and that senior leaders at higher education institutions should consider it as a tool with which to manage and evolve their international educational partnerships.

Public–Private Partnerships in Higher Education in Uzbekistan

This article examines the introduction of public-private partnerships in higher education in Uzbekistan and highlights the main tools of public-private partnerships in the field of educational services.

DEVELOPING A CIVIC EDUCATION PROGRAMME FOR OLDER PEOPLE: LESSONS FROM IRELAND

AbstractTouchstone is a civic engagement programme that aims to develop the skills and capacities of a diverse population of older people to engage in community and, potentially, age-friendly initiatives. This paper reviews the experience of developing Touchstone in Ireland as a short course with the potential to generate participant-directed projects. We highlight the value of collaboration between higher education and community partners, presenting insights from a mixed-methods evaluation of two Touchstone courses involving 50 people aged 50 and over. Drawing on pre- and post-course questionnaires, two focus groups, and a range of observational data, the paper highlights opportunities and challenges emerging from development of the Touchstone programme. The paper concludes with an assessment of the potential role for higher education in Ireland and other countries in embedding age-friendly initiatives, founded on meaningful active engagement of ageing adults, within local communities.

Towards Building Direct Educational Partnership: The Foundation of Shanxi University in 1902

The foundation of Shanxi University is a prime example of the collaborative efforts in higher education between the Chinese and British in late Qing China (1842–1912). Both sides made compromises, with the Chinese adapting their ideas of educational sovereignty, and the British agreeing to work under the supervision of the local government. Such a collaboration was made possible by the individual personalities of the two founders and their visions for China’s higher education. The dual structure of the university, with one department to teach Chinese learning and the other to teach Western learning, showed that, at a local and personal level, these officials and missionaries opted for direct cooperation, despite the myriad changes and upheavals following the Boxer Movement. In addition, by allowing foreign missionaries into critical roles in a government university, the principle of ti-yong dualism was gradually being adapted. The formation of Shanxi University not only demonstrates the dynamics of the Sino-Western educational relationship and the roles individuals played in it, but also stimulates reflection on China’s contemporary cross-border partnerships in higher education

On Becoming and Being Faculty-Leaders in Urban Education and also Being African- American...Seems Promising

Seven African-American women and men faculty members at a Southeastern urban research universityreflect on their collective experiences of creating an intellectual community and spearheading an urbanteacher education initiative within their School of Education . Employing a qualitative self-study and projectreflection approach, the authors situate themselves within the historical trajectory of the African-Americanstruggle for education, emphasizing the problems and promises confronting contemporary urban educators.Highlighting their role in launching the Training and Retaining Urban Student Teachers (T.R.U.S.T.)Initiative in the Birmingham City Schools, the authors conclude that the future of urban education ispredicated on the capacity of contemporary African-American educators to forge effective alliances firstwith one another, and then with other partners in higher education, urban school districts, the localcommunity, and national educational organizations.

A Framework to Explore Roles Within Student-Staff Partnerships in Higher Education: Which Students Are Partners, When, and in What Ways?

A Framework to Explore Roles Within Student-Staff Partnerships in Higher Education: Which Students Are Partners, When, and in What Ways?

A Systematic Literature Review of Students as Partners in Higher Education

“Students as Partners” (SaP) in higher education re-envisions students and staff as active collaborators in teaching and learning. Understanding what research on partnership communicates across the literature is timely and relevant as more staff and students come to embrace SaP. Through a systematic literature review of empirical research, we explored the question: How are SaP practices in higher education presented in the academic literature? Trends across results provide insights into four themes: the importance of reciprocity in partnership; the need to make space in the literature for sharing the (equal) realities of partnership; a focus on partnership activities that are small scale, at the undergraduate level, extracurricular, and focused on teaching and learning enhancement; and the need to move toward inclusive, partnered learning communities in higher education. We highlight nine implications for future research and practice.

Early career teachers’ research literacy: what does it look like and what elements support its development in practice?

This article reviews the effectiveness of two projects: NQT and Beyond; Developing Resilience in Learning and Teaching, and the underpinning conceptual framework (PLSP) in supporting early career teachers’ (ECTs’) development of their research literacy. Evidence of effective integration of research into practice is illustrated through reference to six articles each presenting an individual ECT project, alongside data from a total of 80 ECTs. Thematic analysis of ECTs products from the projects (critically reflective portfolios; resilience pedagogy implementation/analysis) identified three over-arching themes impacting ECTs’ research literacy. These inter-related themes included: (i) adequacy of the pedagogic/project design (i.e. authenticity, relevance, manageability, accessibility, tools to support critical reflection/self-evaluation; focused incremental feedback; modelling research through investigation of beliefs and values); (ii) self (i.e. readiness; energy to effect change; confidence in being able to apply ideas; willingness to act as a broker/change agent; ability to identify and make use of opportunities); (iii) self-in-context (i.e. time and space to effect change; opportunities to use ideas in real contexts; support from pupils, colleagues and senior management; access to a range of support networks). The importance of sustaining ECT research literacy and reconfiguring school – higher education partnerships to facilitate this are emphasised.

Welfare Status of Rural Women Agro-processors’ Participants in the Development Partnership in Higher Education Project in Osun and Oyo States, Nigeria

This study investigated the effect of participation in Development Partnership in Higher Education (DELPHE) project on welfare status of rural women processors in Osun and Oyo states. Data were collected using structured questionnaire on respondents’ socio-economic characteristic, participation in the project activities, constraints faced in their processing activities and welfare status. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the two states for this study where the project was executed. Then stratified sampling technique was used to select respondents from participating communities to give a sample size of two hundred and sixteen (216) respondents from four and two local government areas from Osun and Oyo states respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Results showed that mean age of respondents was 43.9±12, 63.4% had high level of participation, and lack of credit facilities (0.60) was indicated as the most severe constraint faced by respondents in their processing activities. The majority (83.3%) of respondents had high welfare status. Welfare status was significantly influenced by participation (r=0.424). The study recommends that non-governmental organizations should replicate other intervention programmes among rural women processors in other rural communities to ensure sustainable agricultural development.

Міжнародне співробітництво та соціальне партнерство як механізми забезпечення якості культурологічної освіти

The article focuses on the problems of modern higher education in Ukraine and the EU. A special attention is paid to issues of the mechanisms for internal Quality Assurance of education and for increase of the role of the humanities inboth Ukraine and the EU. As such mechanisms are considered international cooperation and social partnership inhigher education. The paper describes the positive experience ofrealization of international cooperation and social partnership in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in the framework of the HESDeSPI project (2010-2013), the participants of which were European universities (Armenia, Georgia, Italy,Latvia, Moldova, Portugal, Ukraine), employers from Kyiv and Simferopol, government, public and administrative agents (especially Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Ministries of partner countries), and students. Special attention is given to the tasks of the project, the stage of its implementation and the results, which had a significant impact on the formation of curricula for bachelors of cultural studies (2011) and masters of cultural studies (2015) at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Kyiv University. These mechanisms helped project-team first of all to determine the set of professional competences of bachelors of cultural studies and masters of cultural studies, and then to form these professional competencies of students in the educational process. Thus, it can be argued that the mechanisms of international cooperation and social partnership allow the exchange of experience in the modernization and reform of the higher education system with the EU universities, provide staff mobility in order to exchange teaching and scientific experience, provide information on the labor market in the cultural sector, help to introduce new academic disciplines and progressive teaching methods, organize training and practices. These actions allow graduates to be ready to the demands of the labor market and allow our higher education to meet the high quality standards of the European Higher Education Area.

Partner Positioning: Examining International Higher Education Partnerships through a Mutuality Lens

Scholarship on international higher education partnerships is often framed by strategic management and organization theories. These approaches are useful, but can minimize how power dynamics and positioning of partners impact engagement and outcomes. This study uses qualitative inquiry to examine 60 international higher education partnerships through the lens of mutuality in order to emphasize how partners negotiate and navigate power. Partnerships were comprised of a university in the U.S. and in the Majority World with the goal of addressing international development challenges. Findings emphasize the process of partnership creation, navigating cross-cultural contexts, partner positioning and partnership dynamics, and stakeholder engagement.

Multi-stakeholder Partnership in Teacher Education and Development

While there is a growing interest in offering international teaching practicums to pre-service teachers as an approach to developing teachers' global perspectives on education, however, understanding of the impact of such practice on the host communities is insufficient or absent. This study collected data from multiple sources and, using the Theory of Change framework, examined the impact of pre-service teachers' international practicum on the school and community development in Kenya. Through exploring the context of host communities, the perceptions of Kenyan educators, and the changes that have occurred in Kenyan schools and communities, this study revealed positive development changes in Kenyan schools as the result of hosting pre-service teachers. A model of forming multi-stakeholder global partnership in higher education was presented to make the international teaching practicum a reciprocal professional development opportunity for educators in both sending and receiving countries.

Transnational partnerships in higher education in China: The diversity and complexity of elite strategic alliances

Transnational partnerships between universities can illustrate the changing political, social, and cultural terrain of global higher education. Drawing on secondary data analysis of government educational statistics, university web pages, and a comprehensive literature review, this article focuses on transnational partnerships with particular reference to China in order to illuminate the diversifying relationships between networks of global universities. International partnerships develop in historical, geographic, social, and cultural contexts and the analysis of Chinese universities’ partnerships across different social, cultural, and geopolitical contexts indicates that, even within the elite groups of universities, transnational partnerships are diverse and complex. This article aims to demonstrate that the spread of internationalization in the form of transnational partnership is not uniform but is influenced by complex contextual factors, some of which are accentuating inequalities in the system.

Ensuring Equality in Higher Education Partnerships Involving Unequal Universities in Divergent Contexts

This contribution investigates whether international higher education partnerships, as presently constructed, are truly equal. The inquiry is inspired by the inequality evident in the divergent profile of universities collaborating in some higher education partnerships. The article proposes a higher education partnership model which is based on the notion of substantive equality.

Challenging assumptions about values, interests and power in further and higher education partnerships

This article raises questions that challenge assumptions about values, interests and power in further and higher education partnerships. These topics were explored in a series of semi-structured interviews with a sample of principals and senior higher education partnership managers of colleges spread across a single region in England. The data suggest that common assumptions evident in the literature and professional discourse about the hegemony of higher education institutions in partnerships with further education and sixth form colleges may be misplaced. Questions are also raised about an exclusive focus upon shared values in educational partnerships, and it is suggested that greater clarity about the focus of educational partnerships can explain how successful partnerships can negotiate which values and interests are shared and which are not – an approach that can be a useful modus operandi in the increasingly competitive educational markets in which universities and colleges operate.

Factors affecting the academic performance of optometry students in Mozambique.

The Mozambique Eyecare Project is a higher education partnership for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a model of optometry training at UniLúrio in Mozambique. There are many composite elements to the development of sustainable eye health structures, and appropriate education for eye health workers remains a key determinant of successful eye care development. However, from the first intake of 16 students, only 9 students graduated from the program, whereas only 6 graduated from the second intake of 24 students. This low graduation rate is attributable to a combination of substandard academic performance and student dropout. The aim of this article was to identify factors affecting the academic performance of optometry students in Mozambique. Nine lecturers (the entire faculty) and 15 students (9 from the first intake and 6 from the second) were recruited to the study. Clinical competency assessments were carried out on the students, semistructured individual interviews were conducted with the course lecturers, and a course evaluation questionnaire was completed by students. The results were combined to understand the complexities surrounding the optometry student training and performance. One student out of nine from the first intake and three students out of six from the second were graded as competent in all the elements of the refraction clinical competency examination. Analysis of data from the interviews and questionnaire yielded four dominant themes that were viewed as important determinants of student refraction competencies: student learning context, teaching context, clinic conditions and assessment, and the existing operating health care context. The evaluations have helped the university and course partners to better structure the teaching and adapt the learning environments by recommending a preparatory year and a review of the curriculum and clinic structure, implementing more transparent entry requirements, increasing awareness of the program, and improving Internet infrastructure.

ICT at African Universities

Many African nations and regional bodies are recognizing the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in promoting social and economic change, generating both significant opportunities and challenges for African universities. This article focuses on experiences in the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) Educational Technology Initiative (ETI) to present a picture of what is taking place at African universities, providing examples of successes and failures and their wider implications for practitioners in the field of e-learning.

Who gets left behind? The fate of the unrepresented in the wake of US–India higher education partnerships

The promotion of US–Indian higher education partnerships affects those students who are most marginalized. This article explores the development, implementation, and reception of such partnerships to meet the needs of students who remain on the borders of educational access in India. This article addresses the ways higher education policies systematically universalize the marginalization of certain students, explores the impact of how policies of partnerships will address the needs of such students, and seeks to explore how administrators in higher education institutions see the growth of such partnerships shifting the status quo of privilege and power. Through the evaluation of policy papers, historical documents, media reports, survey data and informal conversations with stakeholders, the findings will address the underlying consequences and effects on higher education policy development in India. This article seeks to deconstruct the directions such relationships might take and consider the impact on students who remain on the periphery of higher education in India.