Mission Of Higher Education Research Articles

A diamond-quality teaching modelling in higher education: an AAU perspective

In this manuscript, the authors designed a novel model of quality teaching called the 'diamond-quality teaching model' (D-QTM). The novelty of this model is that it explicitly adds the teacher's dispositional quality modelling dimension to complement the three known pedagogic dimensions: intellectual quality; environmental quality; and significance of learning outcomes. This explicit addition of dispositional quality modelling assures that quality teaching will not only affect what students can 'academically' achieve, but also what they can 'practically' do and be; making teaching both informative and transformative. The five well-known components of emotional and social learning (SEL) were adopted as the cluster elements of the dispositional quality modelling dimension. These elements are expected to bring the affective domain to the teaching-learning process and enhance the cognitive and psychomotor domains. By this addition, each of the four D-QTM dimensions in the model comprises five key elements that further define and clarify the nature and function of the model in terms of teaching/learning dynamics. All the models presented in this manuscript are designed based on research in the concerned fields and within the spirit of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 2021 vision and the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) mission of higher education.

Working in partnership: The role of Peer Assisted Study Sessions in engaging the Citizen Scholar

This article argues that peer learning, specifically Peer Assisted Study Sessions, supported by academic tutors, is a valuable part of the agenda to emphasise the social mission of higher education. This study draws on data collected at two time points from respondents who were trained as Peer Assisted Study Sessions leaders. The data reveal that peer learning interventions nurture specific proficiencies and attributes of the Citizen Scholar, particularly creativity and innovation, design thinking and resilience. This study focuses on how Peer Assisted Study Sessions leader respondents conceptualise and articulate their own learning, relating it to the development of these specific proficiencies and attributes. It also offers insight into how Peer Assisted Study Sessions leaders foster the skills of citizen scholarship for those participating in their sessions.

Enhancing Graduate Employability in Cameroonian Universities Through Professionalization in the Context of the ‘Licence–Master–Doctorat’ Reform

The adoption of Bologna Process ideas through the ‘licence–master–doctorat’ system has set in motion reforms in the Cameroon higher education (HE), including the issue of graduate employability. Based on text documents and interviews, this article examines the employability agenda with a focus on its conceptualization, its operational strategies, and its consequences for universities in Cameroon. The findings show that graduate employability is enhanced in Cameroonian universities through a combination of strategies under the catchword ‘professionalization’ — that is, preparing students with skills and competences for specific professions. Conceptualizing professionalization, this article shows that the adoption of BP ideas did not bring in completely new elements in the employability agenda; it merely inspired local reforms and solutions which led to the reinforcement and diversification of the existing professionalization agenda that has been one of the missions of HE in Cameroon. This article focuses on the creation of professional degree programmes as an operational strategy for enhancing graduate employability. As a consequence of the conceptualization and operationalization strategies adopted, we identified mismatches between policy objectives and policy outcomes.

Poverty of Spirit within Party and Hookup Culture: Undergraduates' Engagement with Johann Metz

In his work Poverty of Spirit, Johann Metz depicts Jesus Christ as embodying three aspects of poverty of spirit required to become fully human: (1) an affirmation of interdependence on God and others, (2) self-love (accepting human finitude and one's unique calling), and (3) love of neighbor as self. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 150 students’ reflections on poverty of spirit within the context of party and hookup culture, this article explores the challenges US undergraduates face in following Christ's path of full humanity. Undergraduates’ own insights issue an urgent call to Catholic universities to respond proactively to the dehumanization, injustices, and forms of violence present in party and hookup culture. At stake is the integrity of Catholic higher education's mission to care for the whole person and form students into men and women “for others” who are committed to justice, solidarity, and the common good.

Charting Ahead: Navigating Threats and Challenges to the Urban-Serving Research University Mission

The higher education context that our CUMU institutions must navigate is complex and begets challenges resulting from the distinct mission our institutions seek to uphold. The implications of these challenges give rise to impacts on everyone within the institution and consequently our constituents within the cities we seek to serve. Bringing together literature, emerging research, and points from discussions at the 2016 CUMU conference, this paper analyzes challenges and their implications and highlights the strategies being employed to navigate them. We consider the tensions inherent in the urban-serving university identity, the cost of serving urban regions, and the state structures that provide funding. All of these tensions have implications for commitment to mission, access for historically marginalized students, and the experiences of faculty within the institution. We also discuss strategic initiatives and efforts that reflect collaboration, strategic alignment, and innovation. This work is of value for those working within urban-serving universities, those who work to uphold their mission in higher education, and policy makers that shape the context of these institutions’ work.

Development and Validation of a Multicultural Consciousness Instrument

Developing multiculturally competent citizens is at the forefront of the espoused mission of higher education. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self-report instrument to measure traditional-age (18-to 24-year-old) college students’ multicultural consciousness (e.g., awareness of self, knowledge of difference, and interpersonal disposition). Results validate the construct of multicultural consciousness and the instrument using confirmatory factor analysis.

An object-oriented approach to education policy research: Deepening the analysis through an activity-theoretical and critical discourse analytic framework

Abstract This paper responds to current conceptual interest in the policy object as a unit of analysis in education policy research. The theoretical perspectives of activity systems theory and critical discourse analysis are combined in a transdisciplinary framework to provide a fine- grained analysis of policy deliberation and a broader methodological apparatus with which to study discourse and activity. The value of this framework is illustrated through analysis of a policy-oriented text produced by a UK higher education mission group (the University Alliance) in the period preceding the UK general election in 2015. The analysis demonstrates how artefacts are deployed to mediate the policy object and illuminates how the group is claiming space in the policy sphere to challenge traditional constructions of research excellence which deprivilege this group. The emancipatory contribution of this form of strategic critique for policy communities is discussed.

FROM "MY WORK" TO "OUR WORK": A RETURN TO THE MISSION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In the rapidly changing and complex global lives and careers our students confront, the mission of higher education should be to focus on higher order learning. E-portfolios allow for the portability of learning across institutions, time and place; the centrality of student ownership and co-creation of their learning; the flexibility and inclusiveness of the panoply of learning in all its manifestations and guises; and the equity e-portfolios bring to the learning process when all students can see themselves and their accomplishments in a framework of educational attainment. Innovation in technology now allows higher education to integrate the teaching and learning process into something greater than its constituent pieces; something with meaning beyond the moment in which it occurs. Digital learning, and in particular, e-portfolios have the potential to create the ability to engage students in liberal education - intentional, integrative, creative, indeed entrepreneurial student-authored/ faculty guided and mentored education we must have to honor our higher education mission and to prepare a democratic society where all of our people can flourish.

Book Review of "Higher Education Reform: Looking Back – Looking Forward"

Zgaga, Pavel, Teichler, Ulrich, Schuetze, Hans. G., and Wolter, Andrae (Eds.) (2015). Higher education reform: Looking back - looking forward. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Pages: 430. Price: 72.95 USD (hardback and eBook).This substantial book is the eighth volume in the Higher Education Research and Policy (HERP) Peter Lang series, which employs comparative international perspectives to study higher education systems in transition within rapidly changing environments. series intends to explore the impact of such wider social and economic processes as globalization, internationalization and Europeanization on higher education institutions.... The four editors are firmly anchored in Central Western Europe scholarly experience and traditions. Their substantial jointly authored Introduction concludes that are many more challenging questions for higher education research than appear at first sight, before going on to explain the genesis of this book in the series of Higher Education Reform (HER) workshops held annually from 2003 in the three northern continents. Today there are many book-of-the-film type volumes that, part of the contemporary HE research business, reproduce from an often heterogeneous set of conference papers presented (heterogeneous to capture wide contributor participation) a loosely linked and not overly satisfying volume. This book is different. It draws not on last year's fest. Instead it is written thoughtfully and selectively from papers first aired at the 2011 and 2013 HER workshops in Berlin and Ljubljana.A test of success in terms of series purposes is the choice of Section themes, and the coherence provided by the editors who briefly introduce each of the five Sections. These address in turn: (A) Changing Contexts and Directions (chapters by Peter Scott and two of the editors, Teichler and Zgaga); (B) Changing Environments and Missions of Higher Education (with two European chapters and one each on the Chinese and Japanese systems); three chapters that vigorously critique new managerialism under (C) Academic Freedom: A Story Whose Ending is Uncertain. A natural sequel is (D) Globalization, Privatization and the Future, from North America, especially Mexico; and five chapters on Higher Edu- cation and Lifelong Learning. These sustain the well sourced and grounded character of the earlier Sections, concluding with a discussion of conflicting narratives on MOOCS - a subject approaching which my eyes tend to glaze over yet for me, personally and not to detract from the quality and utility of others, the most novel and stimulating chapter of all. The quality and connectivity of the whole volume make it an excellent book. There is no attempt to draw the threads together with a concluding chapter, but notwithstanding the book achieves a balance of diversity and connectivity around the Section themes. In an age of e-publishing, social media blogging, think-tank papers and other more or less scholarly material including heterogeneous conference papers struggling to present as thematic books, it is tempting to conclude that the age of the substantial hardback copy is dead. This volume suggests otherwise.Different user-readers will find different chapters more or less close to their interests. My own preoccupation and often frustrated irritation of recent years pivots around lifelong learning, both as a loose, easily trivialised and often pitifully reduced idea for which carelessness of words and meanings are much at fault, drew my attention to the final Section. I also have inexhaustible fascination with chronic tension: between general trends and unique national and regional contexts; between aspiration and observation; between the internal somewhat closed world of the university and the raging demands placed on higher education by a distressed globe across all aspects of cultural, social and economic life and its eco-systems. …

Reforming higher education from within: Lessons learned from other mature sectors of the economy

Transformative organizations are innovative, adaptable, contextually aware, and cross the divide between leaders and their employees to provide products and services at prices that appeal to their customers. Such enterprises continuously adapt, maintain competitive advantages, hire the right people, strategically prioritize goals, and effectively manage performance to achieve outcomes. Effective leadership is characterized by dedication to operational soundness, product innovation and reliability, embracing leading edge technologies to improve performance and service delivery, and after sale service quality to inspire customer confidence and loyalty. Community colleges, colleges and universities who apply these lessons will be better positioned to meet the expectations of their students and other stakeholders. Institutional business models must align with institutional priorities in delivery of the basic educational mission in higher education. The original research for this paper draws upon broad professional experiences in the private sector, a 29-year career as an executive in the banking industry, 4-years as system president of a large urban community college, and 10 years as Clinical Professor of Administrative and Policy Studies.

Universities, knowledge exchange and policy: A comparative study of Ireland and the UK

This paper aims to provide one of the first cross-country empirical analyses of the intensity and diversity of knowledge exchange activities by academics. Focusing on the wide perspective of knowledge exchange, the results are based on two large-scale surveys with academics in the UK and Ireland and compare them in terms of: modes of interactions, types of partners, motivations and impacts of interactions, constraints on interactions and mission of higher education perceived by academics. It is found that academics in both countries are involved in a wide range of activities, with intellectual property activities being the interactions that they are least frequently engaged in. However, academics working at Irish and UK universities show distinct patterns of interactions with private sector companies and public sector organisations. Our analysis calls for caution over one country seeking to borrow policies from another without understanding the specific context of the higher education sector.

The Purposeful Graduate: Why Colleges Must Talk to Students about Vocation. By Tim Clydesdale. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. xxiv+334. $27.50.

<i>The Purposeful Graduate: Why Colleges Must Talk to Students about Vocation</i>. By Tim Clydesdale. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. xxiv+334. $27.50.

Institutionalized Discontent.

Examining past experiences of student activism at Berkeley this article suggests that the present storm of political correctness sweeping American universities represents more than just another of the periodic crusades that have disrupted academic life over the years. The current wave of activism is different largely because the ever-present minorities of militant faculty and student activists have gained significant reinforcements in their struggle to transform the culture and mission of higher education. Over the last several decades federal regulations and funds have created an alternative bureaucracy within universities that is devoted, not to the core academic mission of teaching and research, but to improving the social climate of university life. The legitimacy and power of the social climate bureaucracy depend on heightening the perception that academic life involves a dangerous environment, from which students need protection – a service provided through creating safe spaces, helping students to recognize micro-aggressions, training them in sexual assault prevention, conducting sensitivity training for faculty and the like. Devoted to heightening this perception of the university campus as a hostile environment, the climate bureaucracy has become a source of institutionalized discontent.

Reimagining Civic Education in our Colleges and Universities: The Influence of Deliberation on Students Perceptions of Political Participation

The skills of public dialogue and deliberation are critical for civic engagement programs in higher education because they provide students with the knowledge necessary for addressing wicked problems in our democracy. In the 2014 – 2015 academic year, University of Houston Downtown (UHD) Center for Public Deliberation (CPD) partnered with the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) at Lone Star College Kingwood (LSC-Kingwood) to capitalize on the city of Houston’s Citizenship Month and provide a shared civic experience for students. The CPD at UHD and the CCE at LSC-Kingwood worked together to carry out a series of community deliberative dialogues over the course of the academic year. In this study, we perform a qualitative analysis of student responses on four open-ended questions we administered at four of those deliberative forum events, including two on the mission of higher education, one on energy, and one on guns on campus. Our qualitative analysis is based on responses to 195 questionnaires administered to students on three subject-specific forums. Our analysis reveals that the forums influenced and changed the ways in which students had previously experienced or talked about politics. As such, academic institutions need to think more purposefully as to how we might embed these types of opportunities for students into their civic curriculum across the span of their education so that they have opportunities to build the skills needed to help citizens build a different type of politics that is able to address wicked problems in an effective and productive manner.

Addressing Political Inequality by Restoring the Civic Mission of Higher Education

This article argues that embedding political learning into the entire undergraduate experience satisfies the civic mission of higher education. Further, institutions that serve under-represented, historically marginalized students have an opportunity to combat political and social inequality by preparing students to be active and engaged citizens. College campuses must foster a culture of caring and mutual respect to provide a support-system for students trying to complete a degree while facing challenging life situations.

From "My Work" to "Our Work": A Return to the Mission of Higher Education

From "My Work" to "Our Work": A Return to the Mission of Higher Education

REFORM OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION IN RUSSIA: A VIEW FROM WITHIN

It is known that the mission of higher education is to prepare the intellectual elite of the society, able to bring the country to the global technological and economic level. According to the ideologists of the higher education reformation in Russia, the introduction of the federal education standard should accomplish it. And «mountain» (the bureaucracy in education) gave birth to a «mouse» (Standard of Higher Education): the four-year practice of its development has shown that it gnaws a big hole in the «Rocket Science». As the direct executor of requirements of the Federal State Education Standards of Higher Professional Education in creation of new electronic teaching materials, the author has unfortunately made a disappointing conclusion concerning the form and contents of this standard. Patience of our teachers, their insecurity and belief in the invincibility of the bureaucracy in education have played a malicious joke: they became hostages of their own patience and diligence.

Developing a decomposed alumni satisfaction model for higher education institutions

The mission of higher education is both to transfer knowledge to students and to emphasise the students' total development. Higher education institutions can accomplish this mission by collecting information on student satisfaction, because understanding the students' perspectives can provide valuable information to management for allocating resources to better design education programmes. Although some attempts to quantify student satisfaction have been made through student questionnaires, these tend to be quite crude and ad hoc. As there is competitive pressure to provide quality education, this study aims to explore the determinants of alumni satisfaction in higher education. Although there is no alumni satisfaction model, the use of the customer satisfaction index (CSI) is unanimously acknowledged. The CSI provides a common set of measures to interpret customer satisfaction. Although CSI models can measure customer satisfaction, they lack the ability to diagnose areas for improvement. To address this issue, in this study we suggested a decomposed alumni satisfaction model. Decomposed models provide greater explanatory strength than pure models. Based on the results, we built several strategic management maps to help the department of a higher education institution identify areas for continuous improvement. The results showed that course design needs the most attention. Based on this result, the department took several measures to improve the quality of course design. The second survey showed that the improvement was significant, with the score for course design having the greatest improvement.

The Crisis of the Public Mission in Higher Education

The Crisis of the Public Mission in Higher Education

Current issues in Slovak Higher Education

This paper considers the problem of universities as an important determinant of development of society. It is based on the mission of higher education in the context of the current needs of society. It accentuates the essential need for quality of higher education and also highlights some of the social problems associated with the application of university graduates in practice that results from economic and societal problems as well. This is particularly due to the absence of mechanisms to evaluate and present the responsibility of universities to society. Advancing trend of declining quality of educational process and research is noticeable in connection with the worsening climate for work at universities, increasing the number of university students etc. Part of the paper is a survey of student satisfaction with their university studies. Acquired research findings highlight some problems in university preparatory from the university students’ point of view. At the same time it also points to the possibility of improving higher education in the context of the needs of society.