Main Functions Of Universities Research Articles

Institutional commitment to community engagement in South African academic libraries

The paper sought to examine institutional commitment to community engagement (CE) in South African public university libraries. The research approach adopted was qualitative using three methods, interviews with Library Heads (LHs), focus groups discussions with Librarians and content analysis of the libraries' strategic plans. Data were collected, analysed and interpreted thematically using ATLAS.ti and according to the objectives of the study. Findings revealed that most libraries in South Africa reflect CE in their strategic objectives. However, having CE in the strategies objectives does not often translate to its funding and assessment by the universities. This points to a dissonance between policy and implementation. The study recommends that South African academic libraries should strive to utilise more quantitative and qualitative methods to assess their CE initiatives. Similar to other main functions of universities, such as teaching, learning and research; government should consider introducing a competitive funding model for the CE mandate to stimulate practical, academic and research interest in this niche.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH IN THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL SPHERE SPECIALISTS TRAINING (THE CASE OF ZHYTOMYR IVAN FRANKO STATE UNIVERSITY)

The article considers the issues of providing services to students of higher educational institutions on the basis of student-centeredness in modern conditions of social development. The aim of the article is to analyze the importance of educational components of students’ free choice for the process of implementing a student-centered approach on the example of social workers’ professional training at Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University. To achieve this goal, the article uses general scientific methodological approaches (system, competence), as well as the following research methods -abstract-logical, analysis and synthesis to clarify the concepts of «student-centered idea», «idea of anthropocentrism», «educational component», etc. Results. The use of student-centeredness has a history, the essence of which is that the student is the main object and subject of the educational process. The main functions of universities at the present stage of reforming higher education can be realized within the actualization the idea of student centeredness.A unified perception of the idea of student-centeredness among the participants of the educational process has not yet been developed, although student-centeredness presupposes high-quality professional training of future specialists. The article considers the Regulations on the accreditation of the educational program Social Work, according to which the training of students should be carried out, as well as the modernization of the educational program, improved curricula. The staff of the Department of Social Technologies focused on the possibility of forming an individual educational trajectory as one of the manifestations of the student-centered idea. Due to it, the curriculum included a block of «Elective Components» of the educational program, which contains three options for elective courses, starting from the third semester. The choice is made in accordance with the Regulations on the procedure and conditions for choosing academic disciplines by students at Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University. The article considers the specifics of teaching educational components «Social support of student youth» and «Management of social work», namely: subject of study, purpose, tasks, basic knowledge, skills, information volume of these educational components.Conclusions. Thus, student-centrism is one of the main principles in the process of education, which provides for the right of their own choice from the list of proposed disciplines.