Humanities, Arts And Social Sciences Research Articles

Work-integrated learning in the humanities, arts and social sciences: where to from here?

ABSTRACT Amidst increasing pressures on Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) disciplines regarding graduate career readiness, this study examines HASS student participation in work-integrated learning (WIL) and its impacts on employability and short-term employment outcomes, using data from the Australian Graduate Outcomes Survey from 2020 to 2023. The research examined the extent of participation across WIL types (work-based, non-workplace and global) and its influence on graduates’ perceived employability and employment outcomes (full-time employment and perceived overqualification), while investigating demographic differences using descriptive analysis and logistic regression models. Results indicated rising WIL participation yet identified disparities by activity type and among student groups. Work-based WIL (e.g. internships) was the most effective type for enhancing employability and facilitating transitions into professional roles and work aligned to degree study. Non-workplace WIL (e.g. projects), while beneficial for skill development, showed limited impact on immediate employment outcomes and there was relatively low participation in global WIL (e.g. industry study tours) across all discipline groups. The study illuminates the need for more inclusive WIL programmes and flexible models to accommodate diverse student needs. Recommendations for HASS faculties include integrating career development learning, optimising industry engagement and providing targeted support for underrepresented groups. By aligning WIL experiences with emerging labour market opportunities, HASS faculties can prepare graduates for successful careers, addressing both individual aspirations and broader economic needs. Future research regarding WIL in HASS could focus on postgraduate participation and industry perspectives on scaling programmes to ensure initiatives effectively bridge the gap between academic learning and professional practice.

Academic entrepreneurship in the humanities and social sciences: a systematic literature review and research agenda

The predominant empirical focus of academic entrepreneurship research has been in the science, technology and engineering domains. To date there has been a limited research and empirical focus on academic entrepreneurship in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS). This is against a background of the growing societal and policy recognition of the important contributions and impact of HASS based research. The purpose of this paper through a systematic literature review is to examine the current state of academic entrepreneurship research in HASS. Our systematic literature identified four key themes namely, actors,barriers,mechanismsandmeasurementandevaluation. From this, we develop and outline a research agenda for academic entrepreneurship in HASS.

Co-authorship between doctoral students and supervisors: motivations, reservations, and challenges

ABSTRACT Co-authorship between doctoral students and their supervisors is a mostly occluded practice, generalised according to the candidates’ disciplines. There is limited understanding of the practice, particularly in humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS) disciplines. This study explores HASS doctoral students’ and supervisors’ perceptions towards co-authorship during candidature. Focus is given to participants’ motivations, perceived challenges, and reservations about engaging in supervisor-candidate co-authorship. Surveys of 121 doctoral students and 126 supervisors representing 12 HASS disciplines across 18 Australian universities revealed divergent interpretations of co-authorship: although many viewed it as a collaborative process, more than a third of supervisors approached it through the lens of ‘divide and conquer’. Such findings raise important ethical and pedagogical concerns, highlighting the need for clearer terminology and guidelines. We respond to this ambiguity by proposing a new term, ‘collaborative co-authorship’, reconceptualising supervisor-candidate co-authorship in a way that clarifies perceptions towards the practice and presents it as a pedagogical approach to apprentice doctoral students to become fully-fledged academics. It is our hope that this reconceptualisation will equip stakeholders at individual, institutional, and national levels to engage more confidently and intentionally with collaborative co-authorship through PhD candidature.

The impact of employability on Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences degrees in Australia

In Australia, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) faculties are under pressure to demonstrate that their degrees result in employable graduates. Employability has become a key strategic goal of all universities and is driving federal government funding changes. We surveyed 17 Directors of Learning and Teaching in HASS across Australia’s 37 public universities to ascertain their views on how employability has affected HASS. Our thematic analysis of questionnaire results reveals a highly complex and, at times, contradictory picture of the relationship between HASS and employability.

Investigating Open Access Publishing Practices of Early and Mid‐Career Researchers in Humanities and Social Sciences Disciplines

AbstractAlthough open access (OA) to research outputs has been proven to improve research readership, citation, and impact, the uptake of OA in some disciplines has remained low. In this paper, we investigated and compared OA publishing practices of early career and mid‐career researchers in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) disciplines in Canada. The descriptive survey design with the use of online questionnaire was employed. Participants were drawn from a group of 15 public research universities via their openly available emails on university websites. Survey data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings show that in the last three years, 74.1% of mid‐career researchers have published in OA journals, compared to 63.1% of early career researchers. However, OA publishing of monographs (21.3%) and conference proceedings (29.9%), as well as the frequency and extent OA publishing remains low among all participants. ANOVA results (F [2, 218] = 3.683, p = .027, 𝜂2 = .033) showed that 3.3% of the variance in researchers' OA publishing frequency can be attributed to their disciplines. Overall, OA publishing among researchers in the HASS disciplines is still low. Hence, there is a need to identify factors that facilitate or hinder HASS researchers' OA publishing.

ATS-STEM: Global Teaching Methodology to Improve Competences of Secondary Education Students

Previous studies agree on the benefits of improving the relevant competences in students by applying globalized learning methodologies and projects in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). However, few studies have focused on whether including other subjects in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) in these projects improves high school students’ perceptions on improvement in these skills. The objective of this work was to study the effect of participation in interdisciplinary teaching projects (STEM and HASS), which promote globalized and project-based learning, on the perception of self-efficacy of secondary school students in basic competences for learning. It also analyzes the modulating role of gender on said perception. High school students from Galicia participated in this study. Both before and after participating in teaching projects according to the MODEL of the ATS-STEM project, they completed a questionnaire on self-efficacy in the eight key competences for STEM learning defined in the model: disciplinary STEM competences, problem solving, innovation and creativity, communication, critical thinking, metacognitive skills, collaboration and self-regulation. The results showed an improvement in all the competences evaluated (although only the men showed an increase in collaboration). Nevertheless, there was a lower perception of competence in women than in men in discipline competences, problem solving and metacognitive skills. Therefore, the benefits of interdisciplinary ATS-STEM learning experiences on the self-efficacy perceived by high school students were confirmed, although the results continue to show a gender gap.

Open access in the humanities, arts and social sciences: Complex perceptions of researchers and implications for research support

Adoption of open access in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) is a work in progress, with lower engagement in HASS than most of the natural sciences. HASS research impacts how we live, how we learn and how we see ourselves, and research institutions should encourage and enable their HASS research communities to increase the prevalence of open access research outputs. Six experienced HASS researchers at a single academic institution in Perth, Australia, were interviewed to explore their perceptions and experiences of open access, and any barriers that they had encountered. Thematic analysis was used to code the transcribed interviews, and generate themes. This study found a wide variance in the adoption of open access practices among HASS researchers. Some participants are publishing via APC-based gold open access (in DOAJ listed journals), while other participants encounter multiple barriers to sharing more of their work as open access. Confusion about aspects of open access is evident. Even among participants who support open access, some have had poor experiences of open access publishing. This research also found that some participants hold extremely complex opinions on open access, which directly influence participants’ behaviour depending on which perspective they are considering. These perspectives are: research supervisor, editorial role at journal, funding assessor and global citizen. Within HASS a diversity of behaviours exists around open access, and research institutions need to tailor their research support services around open access and scholarly publishing for different communities of researchers.

Linguistic diversity and doctoral assessment: exploring examiner treatment of candidate language

ABSTRACT Overseas students who have learned English as a second or foreign language (L2) form a prominent subgroup of research students in Australian universities. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the linguistic experiences of this population in connection with thesis examination and in comparison with first language users of English (L1). Drawing on a two-phase design, we utilised an archived corpus of de-identified PhD examiner reports (n = 2117) that incorporated demographic data on candidate language background to determine if there were significant differences in examiner emphasis between L1 and L2 English speakers in three Broad Fields of Study (BFOS): Health; Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS); Science and Engineering. We found some significant differences in content emphases in examiner comments between L1 and L2 candidates by BFOS but no significant differences in examiner recommendation or committee decision between these groups. This suggested examiners were accommodating language differences. To explore this more closely, we identified 27 reports where examiners had surmised an L2 background and examined these informed by Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT). The case analyses confirmed that rather than rejecting or responding negatively to non-standard language, overall, examiners were accommodating of unconventional style (where meaning is not impaired) taking considerable effort to instruct the candidate in instances where intelligibility was obstructed. The findings are particularly apposite in light of widening postgraduate participation by students from linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Vectors of knowledge exchange: the value of industry engagement to HASS PhDs

This article investigates the value of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) candidates’ prior industry networks and experiences as they intersect with doctoral study, as assessed by a group of HASS PhD graduates. While the phenomenon of industry engagement in PhDs across HASS and STEM is widely recognised, the value of these relationships to the PhD experience is less understood. This is particularly the case in HASS PhDs given the opportunities afforded to this predominantly mature-aged cohort of pre-existing professional networks. In our previous work on this topic, we showed that engaging with industry throughout the HASS PhD research lifecycle is widespread, and that networks may have their genesis prior to commencement and persist into careers post-graduation. In this article, we subject these networks to finer-grained analysis. Based on 16 in-depth interviews, we investigate the value HASS PhD graduates ascribe to their industry networks pre-, during and post-graduation. Our analysis suggests industry engagement during the PhD contributes value in two key ways: by facilitating candidate learning, in the form of research design and data collection related activities, and for knowledge exchange. These insights are further enhanced by development of a novel analytical model that measures the extensiveness, or continuity, of industry engagement across the PhD lifecycle. Comparative analysis reveals a correlation between enduring industry engagement and academic careers post-graduation, suggesting additional value in the form of a highly industry integrated HASS academic labour force. Our findings suggest HASS PhDs can function as an important and hitherto under-recognised industry engagement vector, contributing added value to the research process with multiple potential beneficiaries.

Interdisciplinary Educational Approach STEM and HASS Knowledge Fields Using ICTs Support. Case of an Application for a Pilot Experiment

This paper investigates the possibility of a holistic interdisciplinary and cross-thematic educational approach of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences) knowledge fields. The interdisciplinary educational approach of STEΜ and HASS knowledge branches, set out to resolve complex issues in an innovative way, can assist the development of the students into active and knowledgeable citizens so they will be able to face actual problems whose nature is always interdisciplinary. There is reference in elements which advocate the necessity of this holistic cross-thematic approach and additionally theories and techniques are established which are able to support it. Main characteristic of this development is its support with ICTs. Characteristics of a relevant educational scenario are presented. The scenario is implemented as a pilot experiment and relevant results can be extracted. The scenario is recommended as prototype due to its special interdisciplinarity, the educational techniques that were utilized, and its design procedure based on principles of Educational Management & Engineering and due to the positive results from its pilot implementation. Relevant conclusions are projected.

Interdisciplinary Educational Approach STEM and HASS Knowledge Fields Using ICTs Support. Case of an Application for a Pilot Experiment

This paper investigates the possibility of a holistic interdisciplinary and cross-thematic educational approach of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences) knowledge fields. The interdisciplinary educational approach of STE? and HASS knowledge branches, set out to resolve complex issues in an innovative way, can assist the development of the students into active and knowledgeable citizens so they will be able to face actual problems whose nature is always interdisciplinary. There is reference in elements which advocate the necessity of this holistic cross-thematic approach and additionally theories and techniques are established which are able to support it. Main characteristic of this development is its support with ICTs. Characteristics of a relevant educational scenario are presented. The scenario is implemented as a pilot experiment and relevant results can be extracted. The scenario is recommended as prototype due to its special interdisciplinarity, the educational techniques that were utilized, and its design procedure based on principles of Educational Management & Engineering and due to the positive results from its pilot implementation. Relevant conclusions are projected.

HASS PhD graduate careers and knowledge transfer: A conduit for enduring, multi-sector networks

Rising worldwide scrutiny of the PhD has focused on issues such as return on investment and career outcomes. This article investigates PhD graduate careers and knowledge transfer looking at the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS). Firstly, our extensive literature review of PhD graduate outcomes reveals limited knowledge of HASS careers and a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) bias. Secondly, our case study of graduates suggests HASS PhDs provide a vital conduit for end-user engagement and knowledge transfer. Our findings deepen knowledge about the careers of HASS PhDs by revealing pre-existing professional networks may be harnessed to inform end-user relationships throughout candidature and post-graduation. Contrary to dominant assumptions, these networks may endure even for graduates in the academy. This under-recognized phenomenon demonstrates the multi-sector knowledge transfer capacity of HASS researchers with implications for their research capability and career development needs and perceptions of the value of their research.

Stories of moving on HASS PhD graduates’ motivations and career trajectories inside and beyond academia

It is widely accepted that the academic job market is very limited and unlikely to expand any time soon, yet enrolments in PhDs continue to rise. If the PhD is no longer preparation for academia, where do these graduates go on completing their degrees? This study of Australian PhD graduates in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) explores motivations to undertake a research degree, their experiences of academia, and their current employment. These personalised narratives reveal the impact and value of doctoral education on the employment trajectories of HASS PhD graduates in non-academic careers. These stories uncover both the ‘cruel optimism’ and positive employment outcomes experienced by HASS doctorate holders. It is argued that commencing PhD candidates should be encouraged from the outset to seriously consider their doctorate as preparation for careers beyond academia; rather than being ‘failed academics,’ these graduates succeed as high-level knowledge workers.

Scholarly Communication Practices in Humanities and Social Sciences: A Study of Researchers’ Attitudes and Awareness of Open Access

Abstract This paper examines issues relating to the perceptions and adoption of open access (OA) and institutional repositories. Using a survey research design, we collected data from academics and other researchers in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) at a university in Australia. We looked at factors influencing choice of publishers and journal outlets, as well as the use of social media and nontraditional channels for scholarly communication. We used an online questionnaire to collect data and used descriptive statistics to analyse the data. Our findings suggest that researchers are highly influenced by traditional measures of quality, such as journal impact factor, and are less concerned with making their work more findable and promoting it through social media. This highlights a disconnect between researchers’ desired outcomes and the efforts that they put in toward the same. Our findings also suggest that institutional policies have the potential to increase OA awareness and adoption. This study contributes to the growing literature on scholarly communication by offering evidence from the HASS field, where limited studies have been conducted. Based on the findings, we recommend that academic librarians engage with faculty through outreach and workshops to change perceptions of OA and the institutional repository.

Advocating for Patient Care Literacy

The value of the arts and humanities in becoming an "educated" pharmacist is reviewed in this commentary. The term "patient care literacy" is defined as becoming a more humane pharmacist. This implies not only using heads but HARTSS (humanities, arts and social sciences) for developing the necessary skills. A conceptual framework for curricular reform that focuses on using the arts and humanities is proposed for advancing patient care literacy. Methods for enhancing use of arts and humanities for developing pharmacy graduates is specifically proposed. The need for more empiric research to demonstrate the value of the arts and humanities in developing a patient care literate professional is highlighted.

Transforming Humanities and Social Sciences in the East African Community Universities: From Endangerment to Sustainability

This study was conducted in eight universities within the East African Community (EAC). Its objective was to investigate the endangerment situation of the Humanities in order to suggest some lessons for Rwanda in transforming the teaching of these subjects. The endangerment was measured in terms of stakeholder salience, declining student enrolment, government budget-cuts as well as the devalorisation of these disciplines and negative society perceptions towards them. The study investigates the causes and consequences of this endangerment and shows how the embattled disciplines can be helped to survive. It draws on the stakeholders’ theory of salience to argue that less salient stakeholders in universities can have their saliency strengthened through policy. Humanities are disciplines holding the key towards solving a set of complex social problems in the current globalised world because they offer a sure channel of imparting analytical and critical thinking skills, effective argumentation and negotiation skills. It is argued that if left unchecked, the current devalorisation of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) in favour of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) will eventually lead to a non-holistic education with inadequate skills for all categories of students, including science ones. Graduates need these skills to cope with challenging social demands in their workplace.

Transforming Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in East African Universities from Endangerment to Sustainability: Lessons for Rwanda

This study was conducted in eight universities within the East African Community (EAC). Its objective was to investigate the endangerment situation of arts/humanities in order to suggest some lessons for Rwanda to transform the teaching of these subjects. The endangerment was measured in terms of stakeholder salience, declining student enrollment, government budget-cuts as well as devalorisation of and negative society perceptions towards these disciplines. The study investigates the causes and consequences of this endangerment and shows how these embattled disciplines can be helped to survive. It draws on the stakeholders’ theory of salience to argue that less salient stakeholders in universities can have their saliency strengthened through policy. Arts and humanities are disciplines holding the key towards solving a complex set of social problems in the current globalised world because they offer a sure channel of imparting analytical and critical thinking skills, effective argumentation and negotiation skills. The article argues that, if left unchecked, the current devalorisation of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) in favour of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) will eventually lead to a non-holistic education with inadequate skills for all categories of students, including science ones. Graduates need these skills to cope with challenging social demands in their workplace.

Community Engagement in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences: Academic Dispositions, Institutional Dilemmas

Engaged scholarship is increasingly concerned with how community engagement might be institutionalized in the contemporary university. At the same time, it must be attentive to diverse academic approaches to knowledge and to the forms of engagement associated with them. Attention to this plurality is especially important in the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS). Based on a multi-method study conducted in the Faculty of Arts at a large western Canadian research university, this paper maps the demographic positions (gender, rank, and discipline) and scholarly dispositions (stances adopted toward the production of knowledge and the role of the academic) of HASS faculty and contract instructors onto the range of ways they perceive and practice engagement. Against this backdrop, we present a qualitative case study of two pairs of faculty that fleshes out the complexities and possibilities of divergent dispositions and the forms and experiences of engagement with which they are associated. We assert that understanding differentiated starting points to knowledge production among HASS academics is an important pathway to the fuller recognition and flexible institutionalization of engagement in research universities. Â

An Exploratory Analysis of Societal Preferences for Research-Driven Quality of Life Improvements in Canada

Research in the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS) tends to have impacts that enhance quality of life (QOL) but that are not amenable to pricing in established markets. If the economic value of ‘non-market’ research impacts is ignored when making the business case for HASS research, society will under-invest in it. My goal in this research was to quantify priorities and tradeoffs Canadians were willing to make between broad QOL attributes. A national sample (N = 1,612; 14,571 observations) cleaved into five distinct latent classes, each of which varied according to their preferences and willingness to pay for QOL impacts. One class, comprising 21% of the sample, placed a strong priority on QOL indicators relating to people, community, and culture, and was willing to pay, on average, $892 per household per year for improvements across a full range of QOL attributes. While willing to pay $1,393 per household per year in total, a second segment, comprising 20% of the sample, focused heavily on benefits more likely to be derived from science and technology research. Willingness to pay for specific and aggregate improvements amongst the balance of the sample was lower. Diverse preferences regarding potential QOL impacts suggest that researchers will need to consider both the source and magnitude of public benefits arising from HASS research in the future.

Who matters to universities? A stakeholder perspective on humanities, arts and social sciences valorisation

Valorisation is at the centre of many debates on the future of academic research. But valorisation has largely become narrowly understood in terms of universities’ economic contributions through patenting, licensing, spin-off formation and technology transfer. This emergent restrictive definition of universities’ societal impacts is a worrying development, overlooking the potential of universities’ knowledge in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS). Our hypothesis is that HASS disciplines’ disadvantage compared to the hard sciences (lesser policy attention and funding for commercialisation) arises because HASS stakeholders are not sufficiently salient as stakeholders to universities. Using case studies of three policy experiments, we argue that universities’ responsiveness to stakeholders does not evolve simply and functionally but in response to the networks of relationships in which they are situated. This has important implications for how stakeholder research is used in higher education research, and for the design and implementation of policies to improve universities’ societal contributions.