Junior Academic Staff Research Articles

Academic collaboration in Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions: from a senior-junior staff support perspective

This study examined the level of collaboration between senior and junior academic staff in Higher Education Institutions in the Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. We employed a convergent parallel mixed research design and collected data from 203 teachers, four department heads, and four academic deans using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The researchers also employed frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviations, independent sample t-test, and one-way analysis on variance to analyze and interpret the quantitative data. The qualitative data on the other hand, was analyzed thematically using reflexive thematic analysis. The results show that the collaboration between senior and junior faculty members is too weak and limited to information exchange and material-sharing practices. The study also shows that independent variables such as gender and level of qualification did not affect senior and junior staff collaboration, while age and teaching experience affected it. We recommend the concerned bodies in higher education institutions to establish a system that entertains a genuine collaborative culture between senior and junior academic staff, following an integrative approach among different groups and considering all the challenges in realizing such an effective collaboration.

Global impacts of scientific publications by academic staff: a case study of College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

Abstract Background: The impacts of scientific research by an individual or institution are measured using various bibliometric indices such as the h-index and citations index among others. Objective: The present study assessed the global impacts of scientific publications by academic staff of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri (CMS-UNIMAID) using selected bibliometric indices. Methodology: The data (demographic data, research experience, and the number of publications) of the 202 academic staff of CMS-UNIMAID were obtained from the records submitted for the 2019/2020 annual appraisal. The h-index, citations index (CI), number of documents (ND), RG score, research interest (RI), citation/item, and citation/year of the staff were extracted from Google Scholar, Publons, ResearchGate, and Scopus using authors search until 25th December 2020. Staff and publication online visibilities were determined. Descriptive statistics were prepared for all records obtained and subjected to appropriate inferential statistics. Results: The mean age and research experience of the staff were 45.4±9.2 and 13.9±9.6 years, respectively. The majority (p<0.05) of the staff were male (85.1%), had a PhD/Professional Fellowship (61.4%), and were senior academic staff (53.5%). A total of 4940 publication entries were submitted for the appraisal. Only 2.5% of the staff were visible on all platforms with staff online visibility of 63.9, 55.5, 15.8, and 5.0% (p<0.05) on Scopus, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, and Publons, respectively. Male staff (68.0%) were more visible (p<0.05) than their female counterparts (40.0%) on Scopus while senior academic staff were more visible (p<0.05) than junior academic staff on all platforms except Publons. Publication online visibility was highest (p<0.05) in Google Scholar (78.4%) and ResearchGate (65.9%) than Publons (28.0%) and Scopus (25.1%). The mean h-index, CI, and ND were 8.3±1.1, 401.8±97.8, and 36.2±4.9, respectively on Google Scholar and 5.0±0.4, 166.4±25.6 and 9.0±0.9, on ResearchGate. Publons showed means h-index, CI, and ND of 5.0±0.3, 77.2±13.7, and 25.6±2.1, respectively while Scopus showed 4.0±1.6, 144.4±95.3, and 14.5±6.2, respectively. In addition, the means RG score and RI were 10.0±0.7 and 113.1±15.4, respectively while the means citation/item and citation/year were 3.9±1.7 and 10.7±6.8, respectively. Conclusions: Low bibliometric indices indicate poor global impact of scientific publications from CMS-UNIMAID. Concerted efforts are required to improve the quality of research and publication through adequate funding, infrastructure, and mentorship among others.

Perspectives of the academic employees on university social responsibility: a survey study

PurposeThis study aims to investigate differences and similarities in the approach to understanding university social responsibility (USR) among the academic and university administrative staff.Design/methodology/approachThe quantitative research was conducted on a group of 1,160 respondents from the chosen university. The survey contributes to the discussion about the needs and expectations regarding USR. The data were subjected to reliability verification and statistically tested.FindingsThe study revealed that academic and university administrative staff pay attention to different aspects of USR. The differences appear in expectations of the senior and junior academic staff and when scientific disciplines are taken into consideration. It may suggest that not only the level of research performance but also the structure of academic staff can be a driver for corporate social responsibility benefits.Practical implicationsResearch results can be helpful for proper designing of socially responsible activities regarding different groups of employees and enable a better understanding of the needs of employees regarding the creation of socially responsible activities at the university.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by presenting the academic and university administrative staff’s attitude towards USR, giving better insights into their expectations and needs. Research findings contribute to the more grounded discussion on the topic and can be used by organizations to set goals and priorities for USR.

A Journey towards Collaborative Culture Development: How to Be Weightless Despite Academic Gravity

In science, gravity refers to the universal force of attraction acting on and between all matter. No one on earth can escape the force of gravity. In a similar vein, the stringent requirements of publications, research grants, and research output in the academic world can be metaphorically described as “academic gravity,” the force of which pushes university academics to struggle and strive in pursuit of excellence just to survive in the changing landscape of higher education governed by neo-liberalism and managerialism. This article describes the journey of a junior academic staff member in an Asian university as he coped with various difficulties in establishing a collaborative culture in his department (i.e., the Faculty of Education). Working with a senior colleague (Sunshine-mother hereafter) in the same department, Author 1 began to recognize the importance of collegial collaboration in teacher education generally and in his academic life specifically. However, although he tried his utmost to develop a culture of collaboration amongst his colleagues, he struggled to cope with the tension and stress exerted by academic gravity (i.e., publication production and the pursuit of tenure). Drawing on data collected from a teaching development project and adopting a reflective autobiographic approach, this article delineates the collaborative relationship between Author 1 and Sunshine-mother, exemplifying the important roles that coaching and a free rein (i.e., weightlessness) play in the development of junior teacher-educators under the strong pressure of academic gravity.

Proactive strategies for countering the detrimental outcomes of qualitative job insecurity in academia.

Against the backdrop of various and sometimes unexpected transformations of working conditions, qualitative job insecurity has become increasingly prevalent in academia and beyond. As a result, there is a great need for identifying factors that may mitigate its detrimental outcomes on employee well-being. To do so, the current study aimed to investigate the role of two proactive participation strategies-participatory decision-making and job crafting-as a means of counteracting the effects of qualitative job insecurity on burnout, work engagement and job satisfaction. The study was based on a sample of higher education employees in Belgium and Switzerland (N=915). To test the hypotheses, moderation analyses were conducted in the overall sample and across different staff categories (i.e., senior and junior academic staff, administrative employees). Around 30% of the tested moderation effects were statistically significant, revealing that the negative outcomes of job insecurity were less salient at high values of the moderators. In particular, our findings suggest that encouraging participative decision-making may serve as a means to maintain academic employees' job satisfaction and prevent burnout in turbulent times. Moreover, job crafting may be additionally targeted at preserving work engagement, even though its moderator effects were not universal.

Job Satisfaction among Senior and Junior Academic Staff: A Technological Assessment from Malaysia

The academic profession is one of the most ambivalent among the highly educated occupations (Morey 1992). Academic staff job satisfaction and academic staff retention is two related factor which has an effect on school effectiveness (Noordin and Jusoff, 2009). The present study investigates the different ways in which junior and senior academicians view the relation between job satisfaction and the organizational climate in an academic institution in Malaysia. This study adopts a quantitative research methodology. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire circulated among 168 lecturers follows the technique of stratified random sampling. The study suggests that there is a difference in the way senior and junior academics perceive on the organizational climate and gives several recommendations in this regard.

Institutionalisation of internal quality assurance: focusing on institutional work and the significance of disciplinary differences

The study suggests that institutionalisation of a comprehensive and systematic approach to internal quality assurance of higher education institutions inspired by the Bologna Process has regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive dimensions. It includes development of structures and procedures for quality assurance, as well as boosting of the socio-political and cognitive legitimacy of the new approaches to quality assurance and the extent to which new approaches are taken-for-granted. Institutionalisation is primarily pushed forward by administrative and junior academic staff. They use the Bologna Process and the European Standards and Guidelines for furthering institutionalisation of internal quality assurance but also rely on the already institutionalised activities related to quality for demonstrating that the new approaches to internal quality assurance are not entirely alien. The study shows that disciplinary differences matter. In the hard-applied fields the regulative elements seem to be not very important, while in the soft-applied fields the regulative aspects are a necessary condition for further institutionalisation. Furthermore, in cultural-cognitive terms, the hard-applied faculty focuses on quantification and technical aspects of internal quality assurance, while the soft-applied field stresses procedural elements and is more prone to adopt a qualitative approach.

In Search of the Self: Reconciling the Past and the Present in Immigrants’ Experience by Larisa Fialkova and Maria Yelenevskaya (review)

Reviewed by: In Search of the Self: Reconciling the Past and the Present in Immigrants’ Experience by Larisa Fialkova and Maria Yelenevskaya Irena Vladimirsky (bio) Larisa Fialkova and Maria Yelenevskaya, In Search of the Self: Reconciling the Past and the Present in Immigrants’ Experience (Tartu: ELM Scholarly Press, 2013). 282 pp. Bibliography. ISBN: 978-9949-490-80-6. The book of Larisa Fialkova and Maria Yelenevskaya is based on personal narratives of ex-Soviet immigrants to Israel and Germany and their experiences. More specifically, it relies on a series of interviews and untraditional sources such as Internet forum discussions and artifacts of Russian-speaking media and consumer culture (such as store signs or advertisements) (P. 16). The authors pursue a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes folklore theory, legal anthropology, linguistics, social psychology, and sociology. It is suggested that the experience of ex-Soviet immigrants is formed by an overlapping of three spheres: traditional Soviet culture, traditional Jewish culture, and the dominant culture of the host society (secular Jewish or protestant German). The Introduction provides the reader with a general idea of the field of folklore studies and outlines the scope of the problem of post-Soviet immigration in Germany and Israel. The two societies cannot be regarded as melting pots, but rather [End Page 427] as “salad bowls” where each group of immigrants preserves its own ethnic customs and practices. In Israel, Russian-speaking immigrants composed nearly 21 percent (about 1,300,000 out of 6,200,000) of the country’s population. Unlike the previous wave of immigrants from the region, recent repatriates did not fully integrate into the host society (Pp. 15–17). It is somewhat different in Germany: German culture is perceived by Jewish immigrants from post-Soviet countries as more prestigious than the Soviet and Jewish cultures, and so they are trying harder to join it. Chapter 1 of the first part of the book (dedicated to the case of Israel) examines immigrant narratives regarding two main topics: the concept of space and the feeling of being a stranger within Israeli society. The authors analyzed interviews with 143 respondents who repatriated to Israel in 1989−1999 as adults, and 10 interviews with respondents who were brought to the country as small children (P. 25). Before coming to Israel, most respondents strongly identified themselves as city dwellers. On the basis of their past experience, they perceive the modern city as a place that provides the best opportunities for work and study, the site characterized by well-planned and attractive city landscapes, developed public transportation, entertainment venues, and high security. Israel is one of the most urbanized countries in the world, but the difference between the cities in the center of Israel and those located on the periphery is enormous. Whereas peripheral towns in the eyes of many symbolize stagnation, cities in the center are perceived as symbols of multiple opportunities (P. 45). Ex-Soviet immigrants brought with them traditional Soviet stereotypes about the center and periphery, and the cultural hierarchies of prestige associated with them. Thus, Jews from the Caucasus or Central Asia are perceived as inferior to their “European” counterparts (Pp. 38–40), but within the general Israeli population they are still viewed as superior to the Jews from Ethiopia or ethnic groups such as Arabs and Bedouins. Mobility is another factor of classification along the center–periphery gradient. The best sites of culture and entertainment are located in the central cities and opened in the evenings or on Shabbat (Saturday). Poor public transportation and lack of economic resources (owning a car) complicate the chances for young immigrants to enjoy the attractions of a big city (P. 64). Although over the past years central cities in Israel have lost their former reputation as strongholds of higher security (becoming a frequent target of missile and terrorist attacks), they are still perceived by post-Soviet immigrants as more desirable places to [End Page 428] live. Composing a substantial part of students and junior academic staff in Israeli colleges and universities, they strongly believe that the presence of a college or a university in the city considerably elevates its status (P. 51). True to their self-perception as representatives...

Developing Academic Staff for Effective Teaching: A Focus on Sharing of Expertise in Universities in Nigeria

Aims: This study was to examine the extent of sharing of teaching skills among professors and junior academic staff in universities in Nigeria. Study Design: This study was a descriptive design. Place and Duration of Study: The study took place in universities in south west, Nigeria, within ten months. The average time for the face to face interview was approximately 30 minutes. Methodology: A qualitative research was employed using semi-structure interview, observation and participative observation. A sample of twelve professors were purposively selected based on years of experience as professors, while sixteen academic staff of senior lecturer and below were sampled from four universities in south west, Nigeria, making a total sample of twenty eight. Five research questions were raised and answered. Research questions were subjected to descriptive analysis. Results: The finding of the study showed that professors shared the teaching skills in both formal and informal forms; however formal way was more prominent. It also revealed that the professors showed high level of willingness to share expertise by responding positively

Academic Work in Canada: the Perceptions of Early‐Career Academics

AbstractThis paper analyses junior academic staff's (assistant professors) perceptions of academic work in a highly decentralised Canadian ‘system’. Drawing on recent work by the authors on Canadian university tenure processes and remuneration, the paper compares the perceptions of assistant professor respondents with senior (associate full professor) peers to the Canadian component of the Changing Academic Professions (CAP) survey. The analysis suggests that junior academic staff perceive the academic workplace as reasonably positive and supportive. In addition to relatively high levels of satisfaction, institutional support and remuneration, the findings suggest that there are minimal substantive differences in levels of work and work patterns between junior and more senior academic staff, a finding at odds with the general literature and common sentiment, which suggests junior staff work longer hours. The differences that do emerge appear to be more modest and nuanced than is popularly characterised.

Mentoring programmes for academic staff at the Polytechnic of Namibia

Mentoring enables staff to acquire skills needed to progress successfully in their work environments. The main objective of the study was to establish if staff members at the PoN are interested in the concept of introducing mentoring programmes. Policies adopted by tertiary educational institutions play a key role in determining the future of an institution. The enquiry employed a case study approach because it dealt with a specific institution in Namibia. A triangulation method was utilised to solicit information from academics, administrative and support staff by conducting semi-structured interviews with HoDs and sectional heads. A closed-ended questionnaire was distributed to 230 staff members of which 130 responded, which gave a considerable satisfactorily response rate of 65%. Research proved conclusively that formal mentoring programmes be introduced for academic staff members. A total of 86.9% of staff members supported the idea of introducing mentoring programmes. Therefore, the researchers recommended that the PoN should introduce an effective formal mentoring programme for junior academic staff members. The study only involved Namibians and permanent resident staff that have been employed at the institution, and hence excluded non-Namibians, who are appointed on contract. It will be in the best interest of PoN that a study should be conducted to investigate the views of non-Namibians regarding mentoring programmes. In future when formal mentoring programmes are introduced, a study should be conducted regarding effects of mentoring programmes on junior staff member’s job performance. This paper offers PoN management an insight into the views of employees regarding mentoring programmes. The value of this paper is that it would benefit the institution, which finds it difficult to attract and retain qualified people, due to higher salaries being offered in private and other public sectors. Developing staff through mentoring programmes will uplift the nation, which has a skills shortage and encourage more young talent to take up a career in academia. Key words: Mentoring, career, programme, retention.

An academic foundation programme in trauma and orthopaedic surgery

There have been substantial recent changes to the structure of clinical academic training. In its 2004 white paper, Science and innovation: working towards a ten-year investment framework, the government issued a call for improvements in clinical research in the NHS, to ensure that scientific advances would translate to genuine improvements in patients' care. In response to this, the UK Clinical Research Collaboration was set up to enhance the partnership between government, industry and medical sectors. They identified three current major problems in clinical academic training: lack of a clear entry route and career structure; lack of flexibility in job content and location; and a shortage of suitably structured posts on training completion. In 2004, 10% of academic posts were unfilled and there were 23% fewer junior academic staff than three years previously.

Academic Tenure and Employment in the Uk

In this paper, my aim is to describe the growth of the academic profession in the UK, and to give an account of the security of tenure—or lack of it—of academic staff. In the early part of this century, while tenure was common among the professoriate, junior academic staff experienced considerable job insecurity. Although tenure for academic staff gradually became the norm, there are considerable doubts about how cast-iron tenure was, if put to the test as in the Edgar Page case. Recent employment trends in UK universities have been characterized by casualization and the statutory phasing out of tenure. In this article, the UK means England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; Britain generally means England, Scotland and Wales.

The legislator and the German university

All the European countries which have changed their laws governing higher education within the last 10 years, including West Germany, did so as a result of the student uprisings in the late 1960s. Yet, the students' contribution to the content of this legislation was minor : it confined itself to the demand for a " democratisation " of the university, in the sense of equal representation of the constituent groups on all university bodies. That this formula for democratising the internal structure of the university met so little resistance is not because of a particularly persuasive case put forth by students. The grounds for the ease of the victory lay in the old Ordinarienuniversitat , a university governed by full professors. It was the basic fiction of a "corporate" German university, as a "community of teachers and students", which was merely carried forward into the " democratised " Gruppenuniversitat a university governed by representatives of the various constituent groups. Without so much as changing a sentence in a law or university charter the concept of the legal status of the German university shifted fundamentally in the period 1945-67. The new laws were based on a model, which in the years before 1967 was enthusiastically labelled by professorial opinion as the only one capturing the "essence" of the German university. Mistaken concepts were followed by mistaken actions. Professor Helmut Schelsky gave his book, Abschied von der Hochschulpolitik , the sub-title, ". . . or the University as the Target of Failure."1 As those who failed the university he lists the following : first, the professors; second, the students and junior academic staff; third, the various governmental departments; and finally, the politicians and the public. A discussion of higher educational legislation must necessarily be focused on the role of the legislators. However, their accomplishments, whether successful or not, are only understandable when placed in the context of the efforts of the other parties: the professors and the governmental departments.