Higher Education Sector Research Articles

Mapping evidence of postgraduate research supervision experiences at higher education institutions in Africa: A scoping review protocol

Background The evolving landscape of the African higher education sector necessitated by global higher education reforms and the need for research informed responses to address contextual challenges is partly dependent on effective postgraduate research supervision. A wide range of postgraduate research supervision models and practices are documented globally. In the African context, the experiences of postgraduate research supervision are not clearly understood from the experiences of all stakeholders. Aim The proposed scoping review aims to map evidence on the range of postgraduate research supervision experiences at higher education institutions in Africa. Methods The methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley will be used to conduct the review. Relevant articles will be sourced from different electronic data bases namely; ERIC, Web of Science, EbscoHost and Scopus. A combination of search terms and Boolean operators will be used to obtain the relevant articles based on the inclusion criteria stipulated within the Population, Context and Concept (PCC) framework of study identification for this review. Results Studies reporting on postgraduate research supervision experiences from the perspective of academics, students and support staff in the African higher education context will be included. The results may also provide insights postgraduate supervision experiences from varying postgraduate research disciplines. Conclusion The findings will provide consolidated empirical evidence on experiences of postgraduate supervision in the African higher education context, thereby providing holistic insight on postgraduate research supervision practices, models currently used, implementation challenges and highlight research gaps. This may inform recommendations that advance knowledge within this field, particularly in the African higher education context.

The adoption of information technology governance frameworks by universities in Gauteng province, South Africa

Lately, there has been a rise in personal and commercial use of computer devices, be it mobile phones, laptops, or any other computing devices, not forgetting the network, networking peripherals, and software that these devices function with. That being said, it has led organisations and institutions of higher learning to establish and adhere to Information Technology governance frameworks set out by the government and the higher education sector. White and Greiner (2022) defined Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as an Information Technology (IT) service management framework that outlines best practices for delivering IT services. Kidd (2019) defined Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT) as an IT management framework developed by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) to help businesses develop, organize, and implement strategies around information management and IT governance. The aim of this study was to investigate whether ITIL and COBIT, as IT governance frameworks recommended by the higher education sector in South Africa, were adopted by ICT departments in universities in Gauteng province, South Africa. Data collection was done using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent via email to 52 potential respondents from all the higher institutions in Gauteng. A total of 41 questionnaires were returned. The questionnaire for both ITIL and COBIT frameworks was designed using Google Forms. The study findings showed that universities in Gauteng have adopted ITIL and COBIT as ICT governance frameworks recommended by the Higher Education sector in South Africa. The study's results are crucial for university administrators as they might improve comprehension of the factors affecting the adoption, administration, and utilization of ICT resources to enhance the university's capacities

Impact of job insecurity, job stress and negative emotions on counterproductive work behaviour among academic employees in Ghana

The antecedents of counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) in the higher education sector have remained unexamined in available literature. Moreover, the impact of job insecurity, job stress, and negative emotions on the occurrence of CWB within the academic context have hardly been interrogated. This study therefore, aimed at investigating the impact of job insecurity, job stress and negative emotions on CWB and further examining the mediating role of job stress and negative emotions in the occurrences of CWB among academics. Data was collected from 716 academics in Technical Universities in Ghana using self-reported questionnaires with close-ended questions and a convenient sampling technique. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted to verify the measurement structure of the constructs. Structural Equation Model was employed to test the hypotheses in the conceptual model. The result showed a statistically significant direct effect of job insecurity, job stress and negative emotions on the occurrence of counterproductive work behaviour among academics. It was further revealed that there is a positive relationship between job insecurity and job stress, with job stress partially mediating the relationship between job insecurity and counterproductive work behaviour. Furthermore, negative emotions acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between job stress and counterproductive work behaviour. The findings have implications for higher education institutions in taking steps to address job insecurity, job stress, and negative emotional experiences of academics to mitigate counterproductive work behaviour among academics.

A Business Model for Private Higher Education in a Digitalized Era

The higher education sector is embroiled in a continuous digital transformation process, resulting in a significant need for an innovative business model need for an innovative business model. Private universities are required to survive amidst competition in this digital era. The need for an innovative business model is reinforced by the fact that Student Satisfaction (SS) still needs to improve at Private Universities in West Java, Indonesia. This research develops a Smart University Image (SUI) as a novelty in a new business model to increase SS. In addition, SUI was developed because brand image theory was deemed insufficient and inconsistent from a semantic or functional standpoint when applied to a smart university (SU). The SUI dimensions developed are Cognitive, Conative, Emotive, and Collaborative. This research also aims to develop and test the SUI model synthesized from Relationship Marketing. A quantitative method is used in this research using proportional purposive sampling data collection techniques. The questionnaire distribution was based on the criteria of respondents who were second and third-year students at private universities (PU) in West Java, Indonesia, and were classified as SU. The data analysis used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), partial model test, and Sobel test to determine the strength of the mediation role in this research model. The findings of this research state that the SUI relationship significantly affected SS, which means it is appropriate to be applied to new business models in the higher education sector. The recommendations from this research findings are that private universities need to develop business models that apply high technology to create student engagement and SS in the framework of a smart university.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION: A POLICY FRAMEWORK PERSPECTIVE

As an increasing number of South African universities begin to consider and implement artificial intelligence systems, there is an accompanying concern about the ethical aspects that these innovations could have on society. Public discourse and scholarly research that raise concerns about AI’s impact on important societal systems, such as political and gender biases, are numerous. Current policies on higher education in South Africa are silent when it comes to how AI ethical implications may be addressed. The paper explores higher education’s current focus on AI and what external policies say about ethical AI and related technologies in the context of their applications.Robotic process automation, as one of the earlier forms of AI, is being used in South African higher education to automate administrative operations. Through a combination of a policy analysis method and case study approach, we analyze the policy framework. The paper then shows how the policy neither explicitly addresses ethical AI nor critical ICT applications like artificial intelligence and mimics systems. The paper concludes that policy framework development for addressing ethical challenges related to AI should become an immediate priority. These findings emerge from an ongoing empirical study on the South African higher education sector regarding artificial intelligence. This study contributes to policy formulation in higher education to stimulate an ethically responsible AI environment. The study’s research focus on South African higher education provides a gap in current literature that is mainly focused on AI policy developments in developed nations, which currently do not have a comparative acceleration of AI and related technologies.

Analysis of risk factors faced by Chinese international students based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model

IntroductionChina has contributed the most international students to the global higher-education sector for over a decade. Existing research has indicated various risk factors faced by international students. However, few studies have examined the risks experienced by Chinese international students. Two research questions were investigated in this study: (1) Which risk factor has the greatest impact on Chinese international students when studying abroad? and (2) Which risk factor is most frequently experienced by Chinese international students when studying abroad?MethodTo address these questions, this study proposes a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model for evaluating the risk factors faced by Chinese international students. The model comprises six second-level factors and 22 third-level indicators, which was empirically examined by data collected through 556 questionnaires. The analytical hierarchy process and factor analysis were employed to calculate the index weight of second-level factors and third-level indicators.ResultsThe results reveal that the risk factor, psychological discrepancy, has the greatest impact and is most likely to be experienced by Chinese international students. The paper provides an integrated research perspective to study the risk of international students.DiscussionThe paper discussed the factors that impact the risk faced by Chinese international students. The risk faced by Chinese international students was found to be high. Psychological discrepancy, academic choice, and cross-cultural adaptation were the three risk factors that were most likely to be experienced by Chinese international students. Psychological discrepancy, barriers to study, and unforeseen incidents had the highest impact on total risk. Therefore, attention should be paid to these risk factors to avoid the occurrence of risk and its negative impacts.

A bibliometric analysis using a newly developed model and a customizable research tool: A case study of researcher mobility in Sweden.

Researcher mobility is an integral part of the way research is conducted and of a researcher's career. Its effects on collaboration networks, research impact and knowledge flows drive countries and institutions to quantify and understand this activity. The purpose of this study is to test a new researcher mobility model which was developed and prototyped as a customisable research tool to provide a unified perspective on mobility at macro (national), meso (institutional) and micro (individual) levels. The approach includes multidimensional perspectives, including temporal, geographical, sectoral, directional mobility, that could be used for benchmarking and trend analyses. The model quantifies research mobility volumes and qualifies the mobility flow additional researcher characteristics and productivity indicators. We tested the tool among Sweden's higher education sector, observing researcher mobility patterns between 1992-2021. Results show a high degree of variability in researcher mobility patterns across institutions, especially when considered by career age. Larger higher education institutions in Sweden tend to see a high level of inter-university mobility: most of the Outflow researchers have international mobility and were affiliated with organisations from diverse sectors. Smaller universities are more adapted to attract early- and retain late-career researchers. One university was identified as an incubator for early-career researchers that go on to high levels of mobility. Another university achieved higher mobility rates by facilitating short-term mobility abroad. The study highlighted a shift in the countries of destination for the Inflow early-career researchers: fewer were affiliated with USA, UK or Japan, while other countries became more prominent (China, Germany, Netherlands, Spain) and new destinations emerged (Brazil, India, Iran). The study emphasized that visiting researchers are consistently more productive, and their research impact is generally higher. With the help of our advanced model, we present a detailed picture of mobility in Sweden and demonstrate the power of this customisable tool.

Mind the gap: re-thinking digital skills in journalism education in Germany

ABSTRACT This study explores the intersection of technological advancements in the media industry and the realities of journalism education, aiming to align discussions on digital transformation in journalism with educational practices. An online survey of 228 young journalists from Germany was conducted to assess their editorial tasks, perceptions of technological change, and digital skills acquired during their journalism studies in the higher education sector. The findings indicate that content creation and writing are considered highly important by the majority of young professionals, with significant emphasis placed on integrating social media into their work. There is a broad acknowledgment of growing technical requirements, including mobile journalism, data journalism, and new content channels like blogs, newsletters, or podcasts, which reflects a shift towards a multi-skilled profile for journalists. However, the study also highlights that many journalists reporting insufficient exposure to critical digital skills such as search engine optimization, user metrics, data journalism, and coding. This indicates a need for journalism education programs in Germany to better address these emerging trends and prepare students for the demands of the digital media landscape.

Responsible but powerless: staff qualitative perspectives on cheating in higher education

Teaching staff play a pivotal role in the prevention, detection and management of cheating in higher education. They enact curriculum and assessment design strategies, identify and substantiate suspected cases, and are positioned by many as being on the ‘front line’ of a battle that threatens to undermine the integrity of higher education. Against this backdrop, the experiences of teaching staff with contract cheating were investigated by a large-scale Australian survey across eight universities. This paper reports on the qualitative findings from the survey’s only open-text question: “Is there anything else you would like to tell us?”. Of the 1,147 survey respondents, 315 (27.5%) completed this item. Respondents most commonly described contract cheating as a systemic problem, symptomatic of an increasingly commercialised higher education sector. Staff narratives revealed their distancing from, and powerlessness within, their universities, yet clear feelings of responsibility for a problem they struggle to address. Responses did not echo much of the existing literature in reflecting the construct of integrity as a battle between staff and students, but instead framed cheating as an unfortunate, ancillary issue of transactional teaching and assessment practices. This data illustrates a need to re-centre the educative role of teachers when designing institutional strategies that address contract cheating.

Women repressed? We think not! The intimacy between erotic capital and career ascent in Pakistani academia

ABSTRACT Positioning itself against the assumption that Pakistani women are repressed in the country’s male-dominated academic spaces, our study flags the strategic deployment of erotic capital by some women academics for career advancement. It reveals the hitherto unexplored involutions of gender and sexuality in Pakistan’s higher education sector, examining how certain women navigate social sensitivities and double standards to leverage self-sexualization as a means of professional survival amidst masculine power structures. While acknowledging the objectification of women academics, this paper challenges the perception of them solely as victims of sexual abuse and reveals how they use their understanding of gendered dynamics to secure promotions and power. Drawing on qualitative data, our study uncovers how such practices undermine merit-based growth and further disadvantage women already marginalized in Pakistan’s patriarchal academic canvas. By tactfully deploying erotic capital, these individuals create a self-serving path to success, potentially eroding collective progress for women academics. Without aiming to stoke controversy or stereotype women negatively, ths paper breaks the silence on injustices arising from erotic politics in academia. It calls for protective measures to address inequities caused by manipulative practices, advocating for a more equitable and merit-based environment in Pakistan’s higher education sector.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on e-learning adoption in an emerging market: a longitudinal study using the UTAUT model

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic provided unprecedented impetus to the evolution of the e-learning learning ecosystem by compelling students to adopt e-learning systems. This paper aims to use the UTAUT model to provide insight into the differences in factors influencing the adoption of e-learning systems before and after the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This longitudinal study uses two surveys conducted among graduate students in the city of Bengaluru in India. One prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and a second in its aftermath. PLS-SEM is used to analyze both data sets to draw insights into the constructs that influence Behavioral intention to adopt e-learning systems. The moderating effect of gender is also analyzed. Findings Pre COVID-19, Facilitating Conditions, Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy (quadratic behavior) were dominant factors influencing the adoption of e-learning technologies. Post pandemic, Performance Expectancy and Social Influence are drivers of e-learning adoption. Effort Expectancy and Facilitating Conditions grouped as Ease of Use is a significant driver of e-learning adoption post pandemic. Gender is found to not have a moderating influence. Originality/value The unique longitudinal study of the differences in factors influencing students’ intention to adopt e-learning pre- and post-COVID-19 can prove useful to policy makers in the higher education sector. Academics can use the post-pandemic e-learning model’s findings in multiple contexts such as generational cohorts, educational contexts and social contexts.

Leveraging intellectual capital and knowledge management to drive innovation and organizational performance

In the evolving landscape of higher education, identifying key drivers of organizational performance is crucial. This study investigates the impact of intellectual capital on knowledge management and innovation and how these factors collectively enhance organizational performance. Conducted among top leaders at 21 state universities in Indonesia, this quantitative research used structured questionnaires validated by prior studies. The high response rate strengthens the reliability of findings analyzed using SPSS for descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS 3.0 for hypothesis testing. The results indicate intellectual capital significantly influences knowledge management and innovation, which in turn positively affect organizational performance. Intellectual capital enhances both knowledge management and organizational performance, while effective knowledge management fosters innovation, further contributing to improved performance. The novelty of this research lies in its comprehensive integration of intellectual capital, knowledge management, and innovation within the context of higher education, providing empirical evidence of their interconnectedness and collective impact on organizational performance, which has been largely unexplored in previous studies. This study’s practical implications encourage strategic investments in intellectual capital and knowledge management, ultimately contributing to improved organizational performance and providing valuable insights for policy and decision-making in the higher education sector.

The Perceived Impact of Leadership Practices of Academic Leaders on Student Success in a Higher Education Institution in South Africa

The research reported on in this paper was motivated by the need to investigate student complaints in the higher education sector in South Africa regarding the poor quality of teaching and learning which has resulted in low student success rates in many institutions in the country. To mitigate poor student success rates, higher educational institutions in South Africa need to consider implementing effective leadership practices of academic leaders to support students in their academic journey. This study identified how academic leaders leadership practices are perceived by students in a higher education institution in South Africa, and to identify which leadership practices are more impactful in supporting student success. According to Hoadley, Christie and Ward (2009) and Hallinger (2011), leadership practices are indeed aligned to academic performance. Grajfoner (2024) suggests that effective academic leadership is a key contributor to attaining academic excellence. However, Bryman (2007: 14) asserts that “one of the key problems in Higher Education is that not enough is known about exactly what makes an effective leader and what, in turn, may make them ineffective”. The theoretical framework upon which the study is based was developed by Mukan, Hawryluk and Stolyarchuk (2015: 42), who suggest that “leadership is a derivative quality of people collaborating, co-operating and supporting each other. It is characterized by openness and is a dynamic, inclusive, collegial process that occurs in a particular context”. In this research, a quantitative study was conducted using a purposeful sample selected from the target population of students at a higher education institution in South Africa. The final sample included 78 undergraduate students from the selected institution. The analysis undertaken in the study revealed that perceived leadership practices of academic leaders do have an impact on student success and that student success is not based on any one element of leadership practice alone; instead there are various perceived dimensions of leadership practices that play a role in promoting student performance. The findings of the study highlighted three key leadership practices that impact on student success, namely engagement, support and communication.

Pedagogical Presence as a Mediator of Tertiary Students’ Unconscious Conflicts During Learning

This paper explores the notion of presence pedagogy in the private higher education sector, drawing on contributions from social constructivism and psychoanalysis, specifically the concept of affective containment. Higher education is a space that, by its nature, invokes feelings of defensiveness, uncertainty, weakness and anxiety in students, who arrive in the tertiary space carrying their own unconscious conflicts that interact with the external world. These unconscious processes culminate in behaviours and interactions that influence learning and relational dynamics with their educators. This theoretical paper presents an explanation of the unconscious, but observable processes that neoliberal students transition through in the learning process and offers a position that can usefully serve educators in negotiating and containing these unconscious processes. This paper offers the argument that presence pedagogy can be usefully employed as a method for the educator to perform the role of ‘container’ of these unconscious processes. Presence pedagogy is conceptualized as an educator’s capacity to be reassuring and attentive to their students and draws on relational practices such as an ethics of care to enact appropriate psychological and pedagogical care for the student in learning contexts. This paper proposes that presence pedagogy can usefully mediate students’ unconscious conflicts to settle into a productive place of learning, where the tensions between inner worlds and external demands are contained by the educator and adapted into meaningful learning experiences. By dovetailing an ethics of care with core constructivist tenets, educators can simultaneously hold the student, and the line, forging productive learning experiences while maintaining boundaries and professionalism. In so doing, the student is ‘contained’, and anxieties are mediated to facilitate a learning experience in which anxiety is tolerated and processed by both student and educator. This is not an easy task, nor without risks and limitations, but this paper offers imaginings of how a presence pedagogy might be enacted in a contact private tertiary environment to meaningfully engage with students’ unconscious conflicts in the learning space.

Development of the quality improvement collaborative questionnaire (QuIC) to explore quality improvement partnerships to teach pre-registration nursing students

Background Quality improvement partnerships between healthcare organisations and higher education require further research to explore their potential to provide a valuable education experience for pre-registration nursing students. Aims Develop and validate a questionnaire for nurse academics to evaluate quality improvement content in pre-registration nursing curricula and the extent of partnership with higher education providers in developing this content. Conduct a pilot test of the questionnaire. Study design Use a content validity approach. Methods The Australian higher education sector was the setting and participants were nurse academics with knowledge of the quality improvement content taught in pre-registration nursing courses. The quality improvement collaboration (QuIC) questionnaire was informed by the literature and sent to ten quality improvement and higher education experts for content validation. Each question was scored on a Likert scale for relevance and clarity. The QuIC questionnaire was distributed by email to the 37 higher education organisations offering pre-registration programmes in Australia. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the questionnaire data. Results Eight experts completed the content validity questionnaire in full, with the QuIC questionnaire achieving an excellent content validity score of 0.94 for relevance and clarity. The QuIC questionnaire was completed by 24 participants. The results indicated that quality improvement education partnerships are only used occasionally in Australia. The education methods used to teach this content were case studies (online cases n = 11, 46%; patient cases n = 9, 38%) and the development of quality improvement education materials (n = 7, 29%). Conclusions The QuIC questionnaire demonstrates excellent relevance and clarity, and is the first in the literature to address the constructs of quality improvement education and partnerships. The pilot results provide insight into quality improvement education methods used in Australia and the presence of partnerships. These results may be used to assist in the implementation of quality improvement education partnerships into curricula across the health professions.

‘Non-stop wokeism’: facilitating social justice teacher education amidst epistemic oppression and popular misogyny

ABSTRACT This paper considers a social justice teacher education (SJTE) course that is intellectually and emotionally demanding, time-poor, and yet aimed at generating relations of reparative coexistence. Interspersed with feminist testimony, the article exposes intensities of course facilitation as a female academic at a sandstone university amidst: 1) a worldwide rise in ‘anti-woke’ populism, and 2) a higher education (HE) sector that is epistemically hostile. Combining the concepts of affective infrastructure and discomfort, the paper develops a genealogy of Australian HE as a backdrop for analysis. Within this field, bodies are affected by and affect discomforting pedagogical encounters. The paper argues that SJTE is crucial work that is carried unevenly and that alongside honing the affective craft of SJTE, awareness be raised concerning ways in which HE institutions make this work harder and riskier for some. Affective solidarities are offered as one means of ‘staying with’ the unavoidable discomforts.

The Perceived Impact of Leadership Practices of Academic Leaders on Student Success in a Higher Education Institution in South Africa

The research reported on in this paper was motivated by the need to investigate student complaints in the higher education sector in South Africa regarding the poor quality of teaching and learning which has resulted in low student success rates in many institutions in the country. To mitigate poor student success rates, higher educational institutions in South Africa need to consider implementing effective leadership practices of academic leaders to support students in their academic journey. This study identified how academic leaders leadership practices are perceived by students in a higher education institution in South Africa, and to identify which leadership practices are more impactful in supporting student success. According to Hoadley, Christie and Ward (2009) and Hallinger (2011), leadership practices are indeed aligned to academic performance. Grajfoner (2024) suggests that effective academic leadership is a key contributor to attaining academic excellence. However, Bryman (2007: 14) asserts that “one of the key problems in Higher Education is that not enough is known about exactly what makes an effective leader and what, in turn, may make them ineffective”. The theoretical framework upon which the study is based was developed by Mukan, Hawryluk and Stolyarchuk (2015: 42), who suggest that “leadership is a derivative quality of people collaborating, co-operating and supporting each other. It is characterized by openness and is a dynamic, inclusive, collegial process that occurs in a particular context”. In this research, a quantitative study was conducted using a purposeful sample selected from the target population of students at a higher education institution in South Africa. The final sample included 78 undergraduate students from the selected institution. The analysis undertaken in the study revealed that perceived leadership practices of academic leaders do have an impact on student success and that student success is not based on any one element of leadership practice alone; instead there are various perceived dimensions of leadership practices that play a role in promoting student performance. The findings of the study highlighted three key leadership practices that impact on student success, namely engagement, support and communication.

The Professional Development Practices of Community College Presidents: A National Study

The length of a college president’s tenure is under six years, meaning that boards and institutions are increasingly grappling with the turnover associated with senior leaders. This turnover is seen in all sectors of higher education, especially in community colleges where the changing roles of these institutions are particularly pronounced. The purpose for conducting the study was to describe the professional development practices of community college presidents in hope of identifying efforts that might help to lengthen presidential tenures. Drawing on a national survey of 500 community college presidents, 159 usable responses were received and point toward the reliance on national conferences and self-direction as the primary methods that presidents use to remain current in their roles.

Responding to AI

The influence of artificial intelligence “has enormous implications for higher education” (Bearman, Ryan & Ajjawi, 2023, p. 369). Those of us teaching in the higher education sector have felt this profoundly: after the rapid uplift in digital teaching and learning practices in response to COVID 19 we are required, yet again, to respond to a new set of challenges brought about by the impact of AI. As an example, chatbot technology is calling into question the reliability of the traditional essay as a valid assessment tool (Stokel-Walker, 2022), requiring significant critical reflection and reevaluation of assessments from teaching academics to ensure course learning outcomes are met. This presentation outlines how a teaching specialist academic working in an initial teacher education (ITE) programme at a South Australian university carried out one such redesign. The focus of the re-design was a ‘unit/year plan’ assessment task for a final year curriculum specialization topic. The redesign aligned with the two guiding principles from TEQSA’s Assessment reform for the age of artificial intelligence (Lodge et al., 2023). The first of these guiding principles: ‘Assessment and learning experiences equip students to participate in a world where AI is ubiquitous’ (p. 2) points to the importance of educating students around AI use relevant to their learning. The second guiding principle: ‘Forming trustworthy judgements about student learning in a time of AI requires multiple, inclusive and contextualised approaches to assessment’ (p. 3) underscores the ongoing necessity for universities to have effective means by which to measure student learning outcomes, especially in accredited courses. The redesign of the assessment task both acknowledged the potential of AI for use in the professional space, and simultaneously sought to ensure assessment validity through the inclusion of an interview with the pre-service teachers. Overall, the redesign of the assessment task incorporated three components. Firstly, a brief introductory module about discipline-specific uses of AI was incorporated into the online course content. Secondly, pre-service teachers were ‘permitted’ to utilise available AI platforms in the creation of their planning task. Thirdly, the assessment process was adapted to include an oral presentation (Gulikers, Bastiaens & Kirschner, 2004) conducted as a panel interview in which each pre-service teacher could provide evidence of the pedagogical perspectives underpinning their plan and subsequently demonstrate the successful achievement of topic learning outcomes. The purpose of the panel interview was to assist assessors in forming a judgement about pre-service teachers’ pedagogical understanding and application, in line with relevant criteria from Matheis and John’s Comprehensive Authentic Assessment Model (CAAM) (Matheis & John, 2024). Autoethnographic reflections on the first delivery of the redesigned assessment are provided, including alternative approaches for future iterations. The learnings from the teaching initiative outlined in this presentation contribute to the growing discussion about how we can develop the capacity of our pre-service teachers as skilled and critical practitioners who can utilize AI as a valuable tool for their ongoing professional practice.

Uganda’s post-colonial privatisation policy in higher education: an integrative literature review and case study analysis

Globally, the trend toward privatizing higher education has been accelerating, driven by economic and policy shifts. Uganda has aligned with this movement, becoming one of the African countries implementing privatization to enhance accessibility and efficiency in its universities. However, the benefits and challenges of higher education privatization in Uganda remain underexplored. This study assesses them through two private universities as case studies. An integrative literature review identified challenges in Uganda’s privatization policy. This was followed by qualitative interviews with sixteen (16) stakeholders (students, n = 10; parents, n = 3; employers, n = 3) to assess its impact on accessibility, quality, funding, and employment. Semi-structured interviews involving students, parents, and employers revealed that although the policy led to the massification of higher education, it also led to the commodification and academisation of education, whereby business principles have been imported into the country’s higher education sector, thus focusing more on profit maximisation other than quality education delivery. The study recommends that the Ugandan government and policymakers, such as the Ministry of Education and Sports and the National Council for Higher Education, do more to safeguard the education system from being too commercialised, commodified, and over-marketised.