Public Sector Higher Education Research Articles

Exploring Heads’ Perspective on Social Justice for Students in Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan

Equal opportunity does not imply equal treatment: rather it means fair treatment (Ghosh, 2012). Fair treatment and providing equal opportunities to enhance individual’s capability, irrespective of any personal or societal differences, can contribute in providing excellence in education that leads to social justice. The objective of the study was to explore heads’ perspectives of students’ equitable access to educational resources, equitable participation and equitable outcomes in higher education. The study had also explored heads’ perspectives on students’ personal barriers to social justice and equity. To explore the perspective of heads on social justice for students in universities, data had been collected from 17 leaders working in higher education, by using multistage sampling technique. An interview protocol was developed to explore the perspective on social justice connected to leaders for bringing improvements in education so that all students get equal opportunities to excel in education. The results presented less positive situation of social justice and equity in public sector higher education. The study recommends that the education system needs to consider social justice and equity to ensure heads’ commitment to social justice and equity principles, leading to equal opportunities for making students’ capability better in higher education institutions in Pakistan.

The Effects of Social-Withdrawal Characteristics Among Older Academics: An Indonesian Case Study

Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, sees a significant increase in its aging population each year. This demographic shift is reflected in the country’s public higher-education sector, where the number of older academics has been growing substantially in recent years. However, older people’s social participation is often limited due to certain forms of withdrawal, such as shyness, avoidance, and unsociability. This research report aims to explore the impact that these social-withdrawal characteristics among older people may have on data collection and policy-formulation processes in public universities in Indonesia. To gather data for this study, an online questionnaire was employed. The results of this study suggest that older people’s social-withdrawal characteristics can have two effects. First, older individuals are often reluctant to participate in research, particularly as online questionnaire respondents, which can result in a lower response rate. Second, our study found that most older academic staff were unwilling to request or demand specific services or facilities from university administration, making decision-makers unaware of the needs of their older staff and aging issues in general. As a consequence, university administration may not consider instituting an aging policy at their institution, as they believe that older workers do not require special attention. This lack of awareness can have serious implications for the well-being of older academic staff and the overall effectiveness of university policies.

Social Media Advertising Persuasion on Mature Students’ Buying Behaviour: A Neural Network Validation Approach

The primary purpose of this study was to examine social media advertising's persuasive power on mature students' purchasing behaviour. Social Media (SM) has become an integral part of daily life as a source of inspiration, entertainment, shopping, news and information. SM has a profound impact on consumer behaviour. Furthermore, SM allows companies to communicate better with their consumers and strengthen their associations. The advertising world has not been spared by social media influence. Companies are now more careful with social media advertising, significantly predicting consumer responses and behaviour and avoiding unexpected blunders to prevent a viral consumer backlash on networking sites. This quantitative study aimed to test two hypotheses regarding social media advertising persuasion on mature students' buying behaviour. First, an online survey was conducted using Google Forms to collect data from mature students studying in a private higher education institution in England. Second, we validated the regression results using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach. Data were quantitatively analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 and RStudio. The hypothesis testing results showed time spent on social media to be significantly associated with social media advertising persuasion. Furthermore, the neural network results confirmed the logistic model and suggested that mature students who found social media advertisements useful, persuasive and helpful in making decisions were more likely to purchase products online. In conclusion, social media advertising is one of the major driving forces behind user purchases of goods and services in the current environment. Social media advertising was collectively analysed and did not consider the number of different social media types, which could be investigated individually. Furthermore, this investigation only considered mature students in the private higher education sector. However, other traditional students in the public higher education sector with their attitudes toward social media advertising persuasion and their purchase behaviour could also be examined. Keywords: Social Media Advertising, Persuasion, Buying Behaviour, Mature Students

Perceptions of Organizational Politics among Public Sector University Faculty

The fact that politics exist in Pakistani associations is true for the education sector too. This research distinguished whether maintaining, moving higher in a brief time frame, in the hierarchy of a higher education institution, is through belongingness or is it through labour and capability. This study investigated the existence of politics among the teachers of public sector higher education institutions and is structured around the Perceptions of Organizational Politics (PoPs) developed by Kacmar and Carlson (1997). The data was collected in two phases: the first phase included the collection of quantitative data from 367 university faculty and in the second phase 15 university Deans/ HoDs were interviewed for triangulation. The data collected was analyzed using SPSSv-22.0. The results of the research established that politics exists at the university level and that seats of learning are not exempted from the evil of politics; teachers act the same way as workers in any other organization. The research likewise brought to the fore a solid relationship between workers' apparent contentment with regards to pay and advancement and organizations' compensation and advancement guidelines.

The Role of Crowdfunding for New Funding Challenges in Public Universities: An Italian Case Study

This article aims to understand how the public higher education sector is dealing with new challenges, like sustainability in services provision and delivery, which means to fulfil all the functions of a university. In order to fulfil their mission and be sustainable, the public higher education sector should start an innovation process, through which they can improve their resilience to socio-economic changes. Obviously, this involves new conditions in terms of service production, which can turn into co-production, collaboration within and outside the university’s organizational borders, and, eventually, partnerships with other organizations. This research studies in deep all these topics by investigating the case study of an Italian university, which has developed its own crowdfunding platform in order to sustain its functions. The results show some of the changes within the public universities’ fundraising culture. Moreover, though the results relate to the context of analysis, it would be interesting to develop this study by comparing public universities located in different countries.

Inclusion in Times of Covid‑19: The Case of International Students in South Africa

The Covid‑19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to the teaching, learning and research functions of universities around the globe. It has also impacted their internationalisation efforts in significant ways. From the perspective of South Africa’s public higher education sector, this article reflects on how international students at the country’s universities have been affected by national and institutional responses to Covid‑19. It highlights the specific challenges and constraints international students faced in light of Covid‑19 related restrictions such as travel bans, university closures and the national lockdown. In doing so, several aspects of the international student experience are explored, specifically regarding travelling home, communication, accommodation and immigration. The article also addresses the issue of remote learning and academic continuity, arguing that international students, especially those who were outside the borders of South Africa, are at risk of being left behind. It advocates for the inclusion of international students in national and institutional considerations and plans for the successful completion of the 2020 academic year. The article recognises that, in the absence of coordinated national responses, institutional approaches to the treatment of international students have differed from one university to another. Such differences can be linked to the differentiated nature of the South African higher education sector, where the capacity of institutions to deal with Covid‑19 related challenges and to respond comprehensively to the needs of different groups of international students varies in accordance with the availability of relevant structures, systems, digital platforms and other resources. As a reflective practitioner account, the article draws on the experience of the authors in higher education internationalisation as well as on the collective experience of a community of practice of the International Education Association of South Africa, which represents the majority of public universities in the country.

How and why are digital badges being used in higher education in New Zealand?

Digital technologies, as mediators and facilitators of learning, are altering tertiary education; how and when it occurs, what it entails, who has access, and how capabilities and skills are acknowledged. Digital badges are one such technological tool. Created to acknowledge competency, skill or achievement they have been adopted for a variety of purposes including to motivate learners, recognise achievement and accredit learning. Internationally, the use of digital badges is growing; however, much of the existing literature addresses the potential of digital badges while there is a relative paucity of empirical research, particularly in the Australasian region. This research explored the use of digital badges within New Zealand’s public higher education sector. Using a mixed methods approach (national survey of staff followed by interviews), results revealed over half of the institutions were using badges or planned to in the future. Identified benefits included displaying achievement, motivating learners and evidencing learning. Challenges were also noted, including faculty members’ lack of knowledge about badges, inconsistent use and lack of formal regulation of badges. The findings suggest that badge use is at the early adoption stage and provide valuable insights from which to develop future practice.

The impact of high-performance human resource practices on the research performance and career success of academics in Saudi Arabia

PurposeThis paper explores the impact of high-performance human resource practices (HPHRPs) on the research performance and career success of academics.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data was collected from 586 faculty members in the five largest public universities in Saudi Arabia.FindingsThe findings suggest that the HPHRPs of internal mobility and recognition had a strong impact on faculty members' career success and that these relationships were mediated by research performance. In addition, the study also found that the HPHRPs of training and recognition positively influenced research performance, while, surprisingly, the HPHRPs of participation in decision-making were found to have a negative effect on faculty members' research performance.Originality/valueThis study is original in combining research in human resource management (HRM) and career studies to develop a model that explains academic research performance and career success from the lens of HR practices. The results also provide leaders in Saudi Arabia's public higher education sector with empirical data on the impact of HPHRPs on academic research performance and career success.

Mass Higher Education in Russia: Features of Dynamics

The article considers the massification of higher education in post-Soviet Russia and shows its special aspects against the background of the studentship history in our country from 1917 to 2017. The main cause of the boom in the sphere of higher education at the turn of the century is the social and economic transformation of the society. The emergence of private universities and fee-based education in the public sector of higher education provided opportunities for broad segments of society. The unmet demand for higher education has resulted in an upsurge in the interest to higher education among the society. The similar boom and wave-like dynamics may be traced regarding postgraduate training due to long lasting deficit. The paper presents the results of comparing student body dynamics in universities, postgraduate and doctoral schools and shows the boom synchronicity at the levels of universities and postgraduate schools.

Subservient to the upper echelon: how information systems managers practice strategic alignment in the public higher education sector

ABSTRACT This article presents a taxonomy that is grounded in the findings of a Strategy-as-Practice (SaP) study undertaken within the public higher education sector. Two cases, operating under the auspices of Ireland’s Institutes of Technology (IIT), were chosen to explore how the alignment of business and information systems (IS) strategies is practiced by IS managers in the public higher education sector. We applied a methodology within the interpretive paradigm that integrates three research pillars comprising integrative framework for SaP, constructivist grounded theory coding and case research methodology. The taxonomy we develop reveals that the IS manager is a functional manager tasked with reducing costs and gaining efficiencies, while being excluded from direct involvement in the development of IS strategy and prevented from liaising directly with the organization’s principal IS services provider. The IS manager depends largely on being able to successfully lay down some mechanisms and practices in his/her efforts to align business and IS strategies. Our study makes a theoretical, practical and methodological contribution to the strategic alignment body of knowledge.

The Branch Effect: Understanding Multi-Campus Enrollment and Student Success

Higher education research pertaining to student descriptions and successes has classically been directed toward traditional four- and two-year institutions while those institutions referred to as “branch” campuses have been largely ignored. Our research used a cohort methodology to track a single group of students for six years to compare a branch to main campus of a large (>15,000 students) Midwestern university relative to demographic, academic, socioeconomic, and institutional variables. Overall, the branch campus was characterized by older students, a lower percentage of minorities, similar ratio of male to female, lower average high school GPA, a higher percentage of first-generation students, and a higher percentage of Pell-eligible students when compared with the main campus. Interestingly, both graduation rate as well as time to graduation of branch students was found to be less than main campus students—independent of all other factors in general linear modeling analysis that indicted both a 7% reduction in graduation probability but almost a one-year reduction in time to graduation tied to 100% enrollment at the branch campus. Variations observed in the effect of campus enrollment suggest additional work be conducted on this portion of the public higher education sector to better understand these relationships on a broader scale.

Determinants of effectiveness in public higher education-students’ viewpoint

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of effectiveness in public colleges of Punjab (India) from the students’ perspective and the impact of these determinants on the satisfaction level of students. The study further explores the difference in the overall satisfaction of students’ toward college effectiveness on the basis of demographic variables.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a survey approach. The sample comprises of 369 students from 19 public/government general degree colleges of Punjab (India). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) has been used to explore the determinants of public colleges and structural equation modeling (SEM) has been used to analyze the impact of these determinants on the satisfaction of students. t-Test and ANOVA have been used to examine the difference in students’ satisfaction on the basis of their demographic variables.FindingsThe research instrument has been tested for both reliability and validity. The findings showed that the eight determinants of the satisfaction of students toward public colleges, namely academic environment, college administration, students support services, learning material, infrastructure facilities, placement services, extracurricular activities and financial administration. These, eight independent variables have been entered into SEM. The SEM model shows that infrastructure facilities, academic environment, learning material, college administration, extracurricular activities and financial administration have a positive and significant impact on the students’ satisfaction. On the basis of demographic variables, significant differences in overall satisfaction have been found for gender and level of education.Practical implicationsPublic higher education sector in Punjab suffers from many limitations. Students are the internal customers of educational institutions and their satisfaction toward higher educational institutions will make every learner’s mind and policymakers in the field of education think seriously about bringing reforms in the higher education sector in Punjab.Originality/valuePunjab, a well-known state of northern India is a leader in providing higher education. But, it is a fact that public higher education sector in Punjab has been facing many challenges. Student satisfaction is the central goal of any institution and this research helps to develop new insight in the quality of public higher education.

Understanding the (Sub)Baccalaureate Origins of Latina/o Doctorates in Education, Humanities, and Social Science Fields

Data from the 1980s suggested that small private colleges were the primary entry point to U.S. higher education for Latinas and Latinos who later earned doctorate degrees. However, I show that in the first decade of the 21st century, large percentages of doctorates originated at public universities and community colleges. I suggest that since the 1980s, we may have witnessed a shift in Latina and Latino higher education trajectories, which fits a larger historical pattern in American society—whereby women, racial, ethnic, and religious groups were once excluded but over time made their way into mainstream public education. At a time when public colleges and universities are responding to budget cuts and policy changes by becoming less accessible to low-income and minority students, policy makers should consider the importance of a well-funded, accessible public sector of higher education for preparing the next generation of Latina and Latino scholars.

Zastosowanie metod zarządzania strategicznego w sektorze publicznym – mapa grup strategicznych wydziałów nauk społecznych

The paper discusses the potential for using the map of strategic groups in the public higher education sector. In addition, empirical verification was performed – by drawing a map of strategic groups based on data from 33 faculties which represent the social sciences. In this article, the authors have used the approach proposed by Warning, whereby higher education institutions strive for a strategic compromise between teaching and research (additionally we divided research into “theoretical” and “practical” activities). Grouping of faculties was done basing on the Ward method and using the Euclidean distance. The procedure allowed us to distinguish six strategic groups. In addition, the authors hypothesize the correlation between the efficiency of faculty performance and their strategic choices. One could find that the most efficient faculties are those which are different from “stuck-in-the-middle” faculties, namely those with distinctive emphasis on “theoretical” or “practical” research.

Incorporating the Tuning Approach in Higher Education curricular reforms and course design in Tanzania for enhancing graduates’ competencies: stakeholders’ views

Available documentary and researchevidencesreveal that the majority of Tanzania universities’ graduates (public and private universities) lack competencies or technical skills (employability skills) required for the job market and by potential employers, despite massive curricular reforms implemented in the public higher education sector since the early 1990s. Lack of employability skills which consequently leads to graduate unemployment or un-employability is attributable to the fact that curricular reforms and design in Tanzania public universities undertaken by lecturers and professors do not incorporate basic Tuning principles of competence-based teaching and learning which puts emphasis on competencies and skills by identifying generic and specific competencies during course design or curriculum reform. This study using the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)’s School of Education sought to: (1) explore faculty and students’ views on the application of the Tuning approach in curricular reforms and degree/course design as a mitigation of university graduates’ unemployment and un-employability, (2) solicit stakeholders’(academic staff and students) perceptions of Tuning approach and its relevance in higher education curriculum reforms and design to make higher education more competence-based, and (3) find out students perceived causes of graduate unemployment and un-employability and whether the application of Tuning approach in curriculum reforms and design in universities can be a solution to graduate unemployment. Findings from the study reveal that both faculty and students concur that application of Tuning approach in higher education reforms and curricular design could enhance graduates competences and skills and reduce graduate unemployment.Published online: 30 November 2017

LINKAGES AND LEAKAGES OF HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR IN MALAYSIA

This study examines the direct and indirect linkages and leakages of private and public higher education in Malaysia using input-output analysis. This study found that real estate, printing, wholesale and retail business as well as utilities are the sectors most closely inter-connected with higher education. The results of forward and backward linkages also show weak inter-industry links of the higher education sector with the rest of the economy. The public higher education use a larger amount of imported inputs compared to private higher education implicating a higher leakage from public higher education sector. Higher education in Malaysia can therefore said to take on a social role rather than an economic one. The structural change of education sector indicates an increase in the contribution of primary inputs and a dramatic decline in the consumption of intermediate inputs in education sector over time. Keywords: Input-Output Analysis; Linkages; Leakages; Higher Education.

Money, Power, Equity and Higher Education

In current issue of the Journal of Medical Education, Afshar in the Editorial “The Role of Private Sector in Higher Education; From Quantity and Quality to Access and Social Justice” proposed the importance of justice and quality. (1) It seems that there are some differences between two types of private sector in higher education. One type of private financial support in higher education comes purely from private sector without any contribution of public sector. The second type of private finance in the higher education especially the type which has grown recently in Iranian higher education is a type of combination between public higher education and private sector the so called international branch of the university till recent years, and nowadays called selfgoverning campus of the university. (2) In this type of private contribution to public higher education those who have no or little money must pass very hard national examination to be accepted in the university, and those who can pay the tuition fee could enter to the best schools of that university without the exam (in the first year of the project) or by loose standards or lower cut off scores. Actually, this is an instance of the double standards. One of the elements of being equitable and avoiding discrimination is to prevent undue achievement by the owners of the power such as owners of political, religious, economic, or military power, and to avoid any distinction according to race, colour, sex, language, and etc. (3) In this type of private money absorption in the higher education, while the others have no extra way to enter to the university that would lead to achievement of scientific power, the owners of the economic powers’ daughters and sons could have a special chance to achieve scientific power by the power of their parents, and there is a different criterion to enter the university based on non-scientific differences. In such situation growing student movements against commercialism of knowledge and education which is contrary to their culture and also against fair distribution of educational opportunities is probable. (4-6) In this condition the pressure of stigma on the student with lower scores in the entrance and the other examinations is not ethically acceptable either. The other problem of this type of private financial support in higher education is the matter of distinguishing the clear border between public sector incomes regarding the private one. Some similar studies in combining public and private healthcare services showed that it is the private sector that finally has income from the public one contrary to the presuppositions. (7) From another view supporters of self-governing branch (previously called international branch, while it doesn’t have real international students, faculty members or staffs) could state some benefits for private contribution to public sector higher education such as taking financial resources from private to the public, preventing capital leakage of rich people in the country to abroad. More over, It is said that “it is better to spend your money to attain knowledge and degree comparing with those who spend their talents and academic knowledge and degree to attain money in an unethical way”; namely if rich persons tend to spend their money to improve their family members knowledge and to help the scientific sector of the public, it would be appreciated as a good practice and act. on the other hand, could see some talent students or graduates who committed immoral practices such as a case in which a doctor explicitly states to the laboratory or other Para clinics colleague: “how much do I get if I send you patients?” (8) Conclusion: Entering best fields of best universities by the lower cut off scores comparing other similar applicant merely because of parents’ economic status could consider as an exemplary of unequal opportunity for equal ones. Helping public science sector of the society via paid tuitions may diminishes the ugliness of injustice, however public sector incomes clearance is essential to make public benefit claims real and documented. In the other hand stigmatization of the student with lower scores after their entrance to the university also seems to be unethical.

Effectiveness of higher diploma program for early career academics in Ethiopia

Unprecedented expansion of the public higher education sector in Ethiopia has brought about masses of early career academics (ECAs) to take up teaching and research in the sector. In recognition of a multitude of responsibilities and challenges these ECAs would face, a higher diploma program (HDP) was introduced in 2004 both for ECAs and senior academics alike. This paper analyzes this program on the basis of data collected through interviews with ECAs and secondary sources. The author also draws on his personal and professional experiences in the Ethiopian higher education sector over the last three decades. The study revealed that the HDP was initiated externally and tenuously grounded locally. It was also found out that ECAs’ teaching practice still largely draws from their previous teachers, suggesting that the HDP program has not been fully effective.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE PROCESS MATURITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA

The Department of Education, South Africa, published a white paper on the transformation of the higher education sector in 1997, to ensure that the sector would meet the criteria for the higher education agenda of the country. Governance of the higher education sector in South Africa is defined in an Act of parliament governing the sector, Act 101 of 1997, as amended. The Act defines the governance organs required. Whilst the corporate governance requirements are well defined and practiced, there is no formal requirement for the governance of information technology (IT). This paper investigates the maturity levels of IT governance processes in public higher education institutions in South Africa, using the COBIT 4.1 framework developed by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Ten of the twenty-three public higher education institutions in South Africa participated in a survey requiring 78 responses each. The empirical results of this survey on the level of IT governance process maturity will be presented and discussed to better understand the factors contributing to IT governance process maturity levels in the public higher education sector in South Africa.

The coming of post-institutional higher education

This piece offers two stories and attempts a contrast between them. These are about how UK higher education responded to the economic crisis of the 1970s, and about how it is shaping up in response to the banking crisis of 2008 and its global ramifications. The first is constructed around the rise and fall of ‘public sector higher education’ between the James Report and the Dearing Report of 1997. The second looks at the prospects of higher education’s contributions to a more fluid, flexible and responsive lifelong learning, summed up as ‘post-institutional higher education’.