Leading Research Universities Research Articles

Addressing inconsistency in use of the LMS

Inconsistency in the use of the learning management system (LMS) by academic staff is a source of dissatisfaction among university students in the UK. One solution is to establish a set of minimum standards (or baseline) for LMS use within an individual institution. Another is to supply templates – frameworks for LMS course sites – with a view to providing students with a seamless experience in their interactions with the LMS. This paper describes how the issue of inconsistency was addressed at a leading research university in the UK through an exploratory project, WebLearn Improved Student Experience (WISE). The widespread devolution of responsibility for site management to administrative staff, together with the ‘maverick’ creation of course sites by those academics who chose to engage with the WebLearn LMS, had resulted in unevenness in students’ access to learning materials. The project team engaged in close collaboration with 19 departments in order to achieve the immediate purpose of improving uptake of, and consistency in, their LMS presence. The ultimate aim was to develop a support package comprising LMS templates and ‘best practice’ guidelines that would enable departments in the future to achieve the same objective, either unsupported or with minimal assistance from the central team of learning technologists. The project was evaluated using a modification of the Innovation Histories method, which included interviews with 13 participants. The evaluation findings additionally threw into relief the complex social and cultural factors at play that can inhibit a consistent student experience in an institutional LMS.

Unleashing Culture and Creativity Power in European Education Processes

The European educational system stands in a unique position at the crossroads of training, research and innovation, in shaping sustainable and resilient economies, and in making its territories greener, more inclusive and more digital through culture and creativity. This paper is the result of a one-year collaboration between the Alma Mater Studiorum — Università di Bologna and the Jagiellonian University, under the umbrella of the EIT Culture & Creativity (EIT C&C), in the interim co-chairing of the Direction linked to the Action Program 1 Talent Scaler, to define activities and strategies for the operationalization of the Strategic Objective 1 about Education. This involvement opened up the possibility to activate a fruitful international cooperation with all the members of Una Europa, the alliance of Europe’s eleven largest leading research universities that aim to create a truly European inter-university environment, a University of the Future.

A Virtual Transcultural Understanding Pedagogy: Online Exchanges of Emic Asian Cultural Concepts

Abstract This paper describes the principles and applications of a teaching/learning/research method of a “Virtual Transcultural Understanding Pedagogy” (VTUP) based on the conditions for prejudice reduction and the principles of Team Learning and Exploratory Practice. The pedagogy was implemented in a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project involving Japanese, Malaysian, and Chinese students enrolled in an online graduate seminar course conducted via Zoom at a leading research university in Japan. This seminar aimed to achieve a transcultural understanding of key emic cultural concepts through online interviews and collaborative writing using English as a lingua franca. Reflections on the exchanges that provide evidence for transcultural understanding are presented, thereby supporting the VTUP method. The contributions of the unique teaching/learning/research methodology to transcultural understanding and suggestions for implementing this pedagogy are discussed.

Research excellence and productivity for global impact at an African university

ABSTRACT The South African government announcement on revisiting the Policy for the Recognition of Higher Education Institutional Types has caused anxiety and ambivalence among Universities of Technology (UoTs), institutions that lack a solid foundation for conducting leading research. Most underperforming UoTs feared a possible downgrade or de-classification from being universities to becoming university colleges by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), potentially triggering attrition of experienced academic staff and students to prominent research-intensive universities. Paradoxically, this ambivalence has also stimulated renewed public interest and discourse on the constitution of research excellence and productivity for greater impact and their significance in UoTs contexts, as universities compete for academic existence, space and relevance amid highly demanding multiple stakeholders in the global community. Addressing specific aspects of research excellence and productivity, this conceptual paper employs Institutional Theory, secondary data of research productivity and the researcher’s reflective insights to locate specific disciplinary areas where one UoT (hereinafter called ‘Protea University’) demonstrated formidable strength and research excellence areas it downplayed that require improvement. The study also proposes concrete strategies for transitioning this university to become a world-class leading research university in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. The study proposes differentiated academic promotion criteria, research impact-lead international collaborations, benchmarking of the research practices and habits of research-intensive universities, innovation and consultancy-driven third-stream income generation and advancement of science communication as areas this UoT can build on to promote its image, reputation and drive of becoming a leading university on the African continent.

Макрофінанси – новий тренд досліджень у фінансовій науці

Introduction. Financial science like any other social activity area is constantly evolving. This is manifested in a deeper study of theoretical concepts and the use of innovative financial instruments and technologies and in identifying new research areas on financial phenomena. In recent years, Ukrainian financial science has focused on the problems of public finance and the development of the financial infrastructure of society. At the same time, Western financial thought is actively developing research in the field of macrofinance, positioning macrofinance as a new direction not only in theory but also in practice. Problem Statement. This research is driven by the need to identify and quantify the relationships and interdependencies between individual macro-level components, to assess risks and their impact on the macro environment, and prevent crisis phenomena on this basis. Purpose. The aim is to characterize macrofinance as a new trend in financial research. Methods. The research is based on the exploratory methodology. Results. The article characterizes three main trends in the development of macrofinance as an independent direction in financial science and practice: the emergence and development of a new direction in research, the growth of educational programs in foreign universities with the keyword “macrofinance” and the creation of project groups and departments in leading research universities; the allocation of the macrofinancial aspect in the practice of financial management. Conclusions. The need for practice explains the popularity of macrofinanceas a separate area of research. In Ukraine, it is already necessary to build a theoretical basis for macrofinance as a separate research area, which is necessary to integrate Ukrainian financial science into the world community. The experience of developing the practical foundations of macrofinance in Western Europe should signal to Ukraine that it is necessary to gradually create a regulatory framework for equal cooperation with Western countries in macrofinance. Ukrainian higher education institutions should study the proposals of leading Western universities regarding educational programs and courses, which will ensure the modernization of domestic educational programs in finance and increase the opportunities for academic mobility of students and professors.

How to Maintain Sustainable Research Productivity: From Talents Mobility Perspective

Maintaining sustainable progress in knowledge and technology is essential in building a sustainable society. The transnational or transregional mobility of talents is one of the important channels for the flow and sustainability of knowledge and technology. Based on the social network theory, we attempt to investigate whether scholars’ mobility experience will effectively improve their future scientific research productivity. Empirical studies were conducted based on the academic curriculum vitae of faculties in a leading research university in China from 2008 to 2023. The results suggest that the mobility experience of scholars does not have a significant influence on the total number and quality of papers when we consider both domestic and international publications due to diversified publication channels in the social science disciplines. However, in terms of the number of papers published in international journals and international collaborations, the existence of mobility experiences in their past education or working experience has a significant positive impact on scholars’ later research productivity. In addition, scholars flowing through joint training programs at their doctoral phase tend to produce more co-authored papers. This research provides a reference for the wellbeing and sustainable productivity of university scholars, which is essential in higher education and social environments, and provides universities in developing countries with inspiration for building a sustainable academic talent flow system. It is important to note that this empirical study mainly focuses on researchers and publications in the social sciences, and the behavioral pattern and impact on research outputs might be different for scholars in the natural science disciplines. Due to the limitations with regard to data acquisition, this paper has not further discussed building an international academic network, which needs more in-depth research in the future.

Exploring the identity development of PhD graduates transitioning to non‐researcher roles

AbstractIn this study, we explore the identity development of PhD graduates transitioning into non‐researcher roles. Through the conceptual lens of identity‐trajectory theory and based on interviews with 26 PhD graduates from three leading research universities in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, we analyse their identity‐trajectory development after their transition to non‐research employment. The findings show that PhD graduates develop their identity trajectories based on their existing sense of researcher‐self through a variety of practices that involve intellectual, networking and institutional dimensions. Individual agency plays a key role in overcoming structural constraints in the workplace, yet its level varies according to one's willingness to pursue a non‐research career. The findings highlight the fluidity in identity development and the role of the researcher‐self as a positive legacy of doctoral training, including for PhD graduates taking non‐researcher roles.

Higher Education in the United States:Laissez‐Faire, Differentiation, and Research

AbstractThe U.S. higher education system stands out in three dimensions. First, it has the highest number of leadingresearchuniversities. Second, it displays significantdifferentiation: multiple types of institutions offer services that differ in cost, prestige, etc. Third, it has alaissez‐faire/free‐market orientation: private and public entities are free to open schools and compete; essentially all schools enjoy substantial autonomy. This paper makes the case that these features are systematically related. The development of the American higher education market—which allowed market forces to operate and lacked centralized planning—contributed to the emergence of differentiation and a set of leading research universities.

Procedures, criteria and decision-making in doctoral admissions: the case of China’s leading research universities

This study examines the procedures, criteria, and decision-making in doctoral admissions at China’s leading research universities. A content analysis was performed on doctoral admissions texts (N = 312) from 264 faculties of C9 League universities, representing China’s elite research-intensive universities. The results show that the admissions procedures tend to highlight previous research and academic merit, which is to be expected for entry to doctoral studies but nonetheless seems to presuppose that all PhD students will follow an academic career path. Several standard practices were found to ensure the rigour and fairness of admissions procedures, such as the adoption of a centralised rather than a decentralised model, the setting of written examinations as a default assessment method, and the highlighting of tangible past achievements, especially pre-doctoral research outputs. There is a lack of supervisor engagement in admissions decision-making, which hinders them from evaluating applicants’ potential and degree of fit with their interests. The findings provide evidence of the multiple logics and discourses involved in doctoral admissions in China and offer practical implications for improving the admissions system.

The contribution of universities to the production of basic scientific knowledge in Russia

Modern Russia inherited the Soviet scientific system, in which the university sector was rather weakly involved in research activities. However, by now the situation has changed significantly. The Russian government has actively stimulated the development of science in universities. It is shown in this article that the contribution of the university sector to the production of scientific knowledge has grown significantly and is already comparable with the contribution of the research sector in a number of indicators. The results of scientific research in both sectors—university and research—are published in journals of a comparable level, and the levels of citation of these publications are also comparable. Note that in economics, psychology and psychiatry, and social sciences, the university sector dominates. In addition, researchers from universities are more involved in international scientific collaboration. However, the sector itself is heterogeneous. Its main scientific achievements are related to the results obtained in leading research universities.

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Multiple perspectives on group work in a multilingual context

Abstract Group assignments are widely used in higher education for a range of educational reasons. Although there is a large body of research on the merits of group work and factors that may contribute to successful group work, less is known about students’ and teachers’ perspectives, particularly when groups are composed of students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The current qualitative study investigated students’ and teachers’ perspectives on group assignments in a Master of Applied Linguistics program offered by a leading research university in Australia. The program has predominantly English as an additional language (EAL) students. Teachers and students in four graduate subjects that involved group assignments were interviewed for their views and reflections. Analysis of the interview data revealed similarities and differences in perspectives in five main areas – group work benefits and challenges, group formation and assessment, and the need for pre-implementation training. The findings highlight the need for teachers to promote open discussion about the purposes and merits of group work, both pedagogical and social.

Internalizing Sustainability into Research Practices of Higher Education Institutions: Case of a Research University in Taiwan

The research and innovation activities at higher education institutions (HEIs) are considered essential in driving forward sustainability in order to facilitate future decision-making. However, a systematic approach regarding sustainability research through administrative efforts is still lacking in HEIs worldwide. Therefore, this manuscript aimed to explore contradictions embedded in the activity systems that hamper the internalization of sustainability research in HEIs. The current study conducted semi-structured interviews with faculty members at a leading research university in Taiwan. The lens of activity theory was used to explore and analyze tensions rooted in the activity systems involved in research and innovation. We found that resources to undertake sustainability-related research have not been allocated in a desirable manner. Moreover, the stakeholders are lacking agency, motivation, and perceived urgency to play their roles in supporting sustainability-related research through their practices. The propositions concluded from this study would help the involved actors to reconfigure their activity systems to make a contribution toward sustainability. This study also serves as a fundamental step towards conducting future empirical studies in contextual theory building directed at co-creating value through sustainability-related research and innovation practices.

МІЖНАРОДНІ ПРОЦЕСИ ІНТЕГРАЦІЇ ОСВІТИ І НАУКИ З ПІДПРИЄМНИЦЬКОЮ ДІЯЛЬНІСТЮ

The article reveals the current trends of innovative development of universities, features of integration in the system "education - science - production - business", considers the formation of innovative organizational structures in higher education. It is substantiated that building a modern competitive economy in Ukraine on the basis of innovation is possible only with the functioning of a full-fledged infrastructure, which should include institutes, universities, technology and science parks, innovation centers, business incubators, technology transfer centers, investment and venture funds, etc. Such structures most effectively ensure the integration of education, science and industry, promote the rapid implementation of advanced discoveries and scientific developments. The integration of science with entrepreneurship ensures the passage of the innovation cycle: a new idea – a prototype - patenting - implementation in production. The analyzed experience of developed countries shows that international processes of integration of education and science with entrepreneurship are very relevant, the dominant role in creating innovative structures belongs to leading research universities, where along with training highly qualified personnel research and innovation are implemented. Analysis of the existing infrastructure of innovation activity in Ukraine on the basis of higher education institutions shows imperfection, if not a practical lack of commercialization of knowledge and technology. This necessitates the formation of an appropriate part of the innovation infrastructure in the university. It is determined that the strategic goal of formation and functioning of technology transfer centers in Ukrainian universities, institutes and research institutions is to create a permanent system of commercial use of science-intensive products - objects of intellectual property as a result of research work of the university in domestic and foreign markets. mutual relations of universities with industry and regions, modern information technologies. To achieve this goal, university technology transfer units need to solve a number of tasks: first, to provide a systematic approach to the analysis of scientific potential of the university, expert analysis of all outstanding publications and R & D contracts "to order"; secondly, to create a bank of current developments; third, to promote the development of the infrastructure of small research and innovation firms; to organize monitoring of inquiries of enterprises, branches concerning science-intensive products; to form innovation-oriented topics of research and development in accordance with the requests ("feedback" with consumers), etc. In addition, the need to spread the practice of CTT on the basis of research universities requires further legislative support for the interaction of innovation actors, government support and encouragement to involve its participants in cooperation, creating mechanisms to intensify innovation companies and private capital.

Postdocs as Key to Faculty Diversity: A Structured and Collaborative Approach for Research Universities.

Over the past 50 years the diversity of higher education faculty in the mathematical, physical, computer, and engineering sciences (MPCES) has advanced very little at 4-year universities in the United States. This is despite laws and policies such as affirmative action, interventions by universities, and enormous financial investment by federal agencies to diversify science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM) career pathways into academia. Data comparing the fraction of underrepresented minority (URM) postdoctoral scholars to the fraction of faculty at these institutions offer a straightforward empirical explanation for this state of affairs. URM postdoc appointments lag significantly behind progress in terms of both undergraduate and Ph.D.-level STEM student populations. Indeed, URM postdoc appointments lag well-behind faculty diversity itself in the MPCES fields, most of which draw their faculty heavily from the postdoctoral ranks, particularly at research-intensive (R1) universities. Thus, a sea-change in how postdocs are recruited, how their careers are developed, and how they are identified as potential faculty is required in order to diversify the nation’s faculty, and particularly the R1 MPCES professoriate. Our research shows that both Ph.D. students and postdocs benefit from intentional structure at various levels of their respective “apprentice” experiences, a factor that we believe has been neglected. Several key structural approaches are highly effective in these regards: (1) A collaborative approach in which leading research universities collectively identify outstanding URM candidates; (2) Faculty engagement in recruiting and supporting these postdocs; (3) Inter-institutional exchange programs to heighten the visibility and broaden the professional experiences of these postdocs; (4) Community-building activities that create a sense of belonging and encourage continuing in academia for each cohort; and (5) Continuing research based on outcomes and new experimental approaches. The California Alliance, consisting of UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, and Stanford, has been engaged in such a program for almost a decade now, with most of the California Alliance URM postdocs now in tenure track positions or on the path toward careers as faculty at research intensive (R1) institutions. If this approach was brought to scale by involving the top 25 or so URM Ph.D.-producing R1 institutions in the MPCES fields, about 40% of the national URM postdoctoral population in these fields could be affected. Although this impact would fall short of bringing URM MPCES faculty ranks up to full representation of the United States population as a whole, it would vastly improve the outlook for URM students and their aspirations to take on leadership roles as scientists and engineers.

Classical research university: basic information — concept, prerequisites, development

What is a classical research university? What concepts does an institution of higher education of an innovative type include? What are the prerequisites and features of the creation and functioning of a new type of educational institution? What are the basic elements of such an educational institution? What are the features of teaching students in higher educational institutions specializing in research? How are high standards of education developed and put into practice in such educational institutions? The author will try to answer these and many other questions in this article. Based on data collected through qualitative selection and analysis of a wide range of specialized information, a number of relevant academic and professional literature, official documents, in particular laws, regulations, directives, etc., as well as a number of service information and educational portals of leading research universities of the world, a scientific study was launched on the creation, development and functioning of classical research universities in Ukraine and the world. The article outlined the prerequisites for the emergence of a classical research university in Europe. The concept of academic entrepreneurship and the relationship between it and research universities are explained. Explanations of scientific cooperation within the framework of the “triangle of knowledge” model are given, the basic features of the model are outlined. The problems of the topic and the main tasks that research universities are called upon to solve are highlighted. The essence of the components associated with the activities of the research university is revealed. The publications of scientists, thinkers and other European and world figures involved in the study of the issue of the creation and activities of research universities are analyzed.

Transparency in higher education: An investigation of University students' perceptions in Italy and Russia

The primary purpose of this research is to investigate students' perceptions of the presence of transparency in their university teaching/learning processes.Effects of transparency in achievement, motivation, and anxiety were explored from the perspective of teachers', one's own, and peers' behaviour. The secondary objective of the study was to create a valid tool for investigating "transparency" perception in university educational practices, based on the theoretical assumption that transparency reduces performance anxiety, stimulates study motivation, and represents a universal construct across universities, countries, cultures and courses of study. A sample of 439 undergraduates from leading research universities in Russia and Italy completed self-report scales and reported demographic data. The scales showed internal consistency and structural invariance in both countries. Research results confirmed the hypothesis from which the investigation originated. Based on the findings, essential tips for future investigations of transparency perception at universities have been developed.

Conservatism Gets Funded? A Field Experiment on the Role of Negative Information in Novel Project Evaluation.

The evaluation and selection of novel projects lies at the heart of scientific and technological innovation, and yet there are persistent concerns about bias, such as conservatism. This paper investigates the role that the format of evaluation, specifically information sharing among expert evaluators, plays in generating conservative decisions. We executed two field experiments in two separate grant-funding opportunities at a leading research university, mobilizing 369 evaluators from seven universities to evaluate 97 projects, resulting in 761 proposal-evaluation pairs and more than $250,000 in awards. We exogenously varied the relative valence (positive and negative) of others’ scores and measured how exposures to higher and lower scores affect the focal evaluator’s propensity to change their initial score. We found causal evidence of a negativity bias, where evaluators lower their scores by more points after seeing scores more critical than their own rather than raise them after seeing more favorable scores. Qualitative coding of the evaluators’ justifications for score changes reveals that exposures to lower scores were associated with greater attention to uncovering weaknesses, whereas exposures to neutral or higher scores were associated with increased emphasis on nonevaluation criteria, such as confidence in one’s judgment. The greater power of negative information suggests that information sharing among expert evaluators can lead to more conservative allocation decisions that favor protecting against failure rather than maximizing success.

Concentration of Human Capital in Research Universities as the Basis of Competitiveness of Education Systems and Its Reflection in Global University Rankings

This paper presents an approach to evaluating the role of research universities in national scientific and technological development. It includes an analysis of the level of human capital concentration in the world’s leading research universities and their contribution to the making of new scientific knowledge. It shows that over the recent decades, the governments of many countries have been putting a lot of effort into building national networks of competitive world-class research universities as part of academic excellence programmes. The focus is on the experience of France (COMUE), Germany (Excellence Strategy), Republic ofKorea (Brain Korea) and China (Double First World Class). The paper shows that the key global university rankings are based on a research university model, with changes in the ranking positions indicating national governments’ efforts to concentrate human capital in leading research universities. Evaluation of the economic efficiency of the Russell Group universities (the UK) serves to show the impact of the third mission of a university on national economy and society. Leading research universities are regarded as a basis for meeting the demands of their national economies for highly qualified staff, new scientific knowledge, technology and innovation, which are vital for speeding up the rate of scientific and technological as wellas social and economic development.

English as a lingua franca in Japan: multilingual postgraduate students’ attitudes towards English accents

ABSTRACT This study examines L2 speakers’ accent attitudes in relation to their linguistic profile and current practices, recruiting 107 multilingual postgraduate students of 34 different nationalities enrolled in leading research universities in Japan. The participants completed a survey regarding their perceptions of different English varieties in English as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts. Interviews were additionally conducted to solicit in-depth perspectives on their accent attitudes and contextual accent variation. Factor analysis of the survey data generally supported the thematic trends observed during the interviews, in which three-quarters of the interviewees expressed a wish to attain native-like English accents. However, those who aspire to native-like pronunciation do not necessarily maintain negative attitudes towards others who speak with foreign accents. Rather, they appear indifferent to others’ accents and varieties of World Englishes, and they do not associate their accents with nationhood or cultural identity. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed that participants’ pressing need to sound native-like stems from not only pragmatic considerations such as better intelligibility but also their context specificities, which entail frequent high-stakes ELF interaction and arrangements for professional entry in the imminent future. These observations imply that a linguistic hierarchy still lingers in the World Englishes paradigm.