University Reform Research Articles

Recontextualising graduate employability in support of pedagogical reform in public universities in the Kurdistan Region‐Iraq

AbstractIn light of the high graduate unemployment rate and migrant crisis, graduate employability in the Kurdistan Region – Iraq is an ever more pressing issue. Reducing the issue of graduate employability to a skills gap between Kurdish graduates and the private sector labour market is too simplistic and dismisses other sociocultural and structural factors that are external to graduates and higher education institutions (HEIs), and which impact the former’s employability. Through a qualitative study and using Bourdieu’s (1977) habitus as an explanatory framework for the analysis, this article aims to recontextualise graduate employability by exploring five stakeholders’ perceptions of what impacts graduate employability in the region. The findings uphold previous labour market reports that there is a skills gap, but also reveals other sociocultural and structural factors that also impact graduate employability. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) has introduced a programme of pedagogical reform in KRI’s public HEIs and is in the process of training its academic practitioners in the tenets of Freire’s (1970) critical pedagogy. This article supports the implementation of Freire’s critical pedagogy in KRI’s public HEIs as a critical pedagogy can address the skills gap while also creating spaces for students to explore, question, analyse and evaluate the sociocultural and structural factors that impact graduate employability in KRI.

Exploration of Computer Teaching Reform in Colleges and Universities under the Background of Informatization

Abstract Computer teaching in colleges and universities under the background of informationization is developing rapidly, but the teaching mode still has more serious problems, and computer teaching reform needs to be emphasized. This paper first proposes solutions to the problems of computer teaching in colleges and universities. Secondly, it uses hierarchical analysis to construct a computer teaching evaluation system model, then carries out educational information data mining through the DMOTE method, and uses C4.5 to optimize the model of DMOTE. Setting up a controlled experiment to analyze the students’ performance after receiving teaching reform, most of the students in the experimental group scored in the two segments of 80-89 and 90 or more, accounting for 60%, and the number of students scoring less than 60 points was less, only 6%. After the reform of the computer model, the students’ performance improvement is more obvious, and the reform effect is good.

Critical community engagement and the Latin American ethos: contributions to a Global South dialogue

The advancement of the concept of community engagement as a reference for university-society relations invites us, particularly those of us from the Global South, to reflect on our history and traditions. We understand community engagement as a disputed concept throughout history that can potentially house an ethical-political-pedagogical project that questions traditional university models. Observing its historical development and tensions in Latin America invites us to go beyond particular projects, giving an account of a regional movement that continues to inspire university reform processes connected to projects for transforming society. This article presents the history that constitutes the Latin American community engagement ethos, its prevalence in critical community engagement, and some experiences that illustrate a living paradigm still under construction that responds to the continent’s needs. It concludes with an invitation to review the critical traditions of community engagement and promote the dialogue of experiences in the Global South.

Perceptual and cognitive infiltration of piano lessons for college students under the concept of digital health

Abstract In this paper, firstly, according to mental health education, the research on the perception penetration of the piano course is illustrated from the two directions of body perception and mind perception. Secondly, it researches the music feature extraction in the piano course, obtains the amplitude, wavelength and frequency of the music feature according to the piano string vibration equation, then applies the short-time Fourier analysis to identify the music feature and reconstructs the piano timbre by using the identification result, which provides technical support for the design and realization of the piano course teaching system. Then, the overall design direction of the piano course teaching system is determined according to the teaching needs of the piano course in colleges and universities, and then the core module of the piano course system is realized. At the same time, the teaching of piano courses is empirically analyzed through statistical analysis. The results show that there is a significant difference between piano course teaching and the degree of perception and cognition in piano course teaching (F=4.194, p<0.05), there is a significant difference between piano course teaching and the degree of cognition (F=4.243, p<0.05), and there is a significant difference between piano course teaching and interpersonal relationship (F=5.391, p<0.05). This study not only has a promoting effect on piano teaching in colleges and universities but also improves the guiding value of piano curriculum reform in colleges and universities.

Students’ Multiple Perceptions of English Teaching Model Reform in Colleges and Universities under Cognitive Coupling Networks

Abstract On the basis of linear multiple regression methods such as PLSR and ICR, this paper introduces the kernel function to kernelize these linear multiple statistical regression methods, derives the KPLSR and KICR algorithms, and gives the specific implementation process. Then kernel-based multiple regression methods are applied to analyze the English teaching mode using a cognitive coupling network. According to the students’ learning data under the English teaching mode of cognitive coupling network, then the students’ learning situation and other precise calculations and statistics, so as to truly reflect the student’s learning status, presenting the students’ learning process in need of an urgent solution. Finally, the correlation between students’ multi-sensory learning styles and English performance is analyzed, and the results show that visual, auditory, kinesthetic, experiential, and independent styles all show a significant positive correlation to the total English performance, with correlation coefficients of 0.416, 0.158, 0.349, 0.339, and 0.327, respectively, among which the correlation coefficient of the visual type of perception is the largest.

Exploring Compatibility Issues Between International Faculty and Their Host Environment: A Case of a Local National University in Japan

Purpose The number of international faculty members in universities is increasing worldwide, and Japan is no exception. However, despite this quantitative expansion, these faculty remain peripheral. Though recent studies have identified various challenges faced by international faculty, they have focused on international faculty's individual experiences and have lacked perspectives from the host institution. To more accurately understand the challenges facing international faculty, this study aims to uncover compatibility issues between these faculty and their host environment. Design/Approach/Methods In this study, I adopted a qualitative case study approach targeting a local national university in Japan. Seven international and six Japanese faculty members were interviewed. Findings The analysis revealed various issues underlying the problems faced by international faculty, including new challenges arising from recent national university reforms. The compatibility issues they experienced can be categorized into the following six areas: organizational goals, systems and practices for hiring and evaluating faculty, division of roles between international and Japanese faculty, organizational support for international faculty, organizational culture and atmosphere, and Japanese society's overall system and values. Originality/Value This study responds to a crucial academic need to understand the host institution's perspective on international faculty recruitment by providing new evidence of the challenges facing international faculty and their host institution in a low-resource environment in the midst of reforms.

Examining the relationship between adult education participant engagement and learning effectiveness using statistical analysis

Abstract In this paper, firstly, the process of building a statistical analysis model is studied in detail, the process of calculating the structural equation is described, and the structural equation algorithm is improved. A correlation model was created based on three dimensions: cognitive involvement, behavioral involvement, and affective involvement. After analyzing the model’s reliability and validity, it was modified to examine the correlation between learning engagement and effectiveness. The results showed that the overall effects of behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, and affective engagement on key competencies were 0.978, 0.769, and -0.819, and the overall effects of behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, and affective engagement on basic knowledge were 0.668, -0.569, and 0.586. The correlation between learning engagement and learning effectiveness was significant. This paper’s study has significant implications for educational reform in colleges and universities and for students to enhance their learning effectiveness.

Women’s Experiences of Academic Tenure at a Women’s University in Pakistan

The study aims to understand how teachers and academic leadership have experienced the implementation of the Tenure Track System (TTS) as a new educational reform in a female university. Although the need for change in education has been widely researched, the dynamics of how the international academic reward system affects women working in a women’s university, especially in the context of developing countries, have mostly been ignored in the literature. This case study is based on the experience of interventions in the university reward system at a public university for women established in 1922. It provides unique insights into how the participants perceive the change process and the unintended side effects of these policy-level changes on the personal and organizational culture and structure levels. The results reveal that participants overburdened themselves with administrative, teaching, and research work but could have voiced their concerns more assertively. The study concluded that TTS faculty had been marginalized in the university based on their compensation and TTS is struggling to foot its ground as a main academic reward system. The faculty on TTS at large felt frustrated and alienated.

Bibliometric Analysis of Higher Education Restructuring

The spread of competitive elements and the well-being of human capital increase productivity capacities in scientific content. Research and development activities are prioritized in higher education, international trends and modern paradigms are taken into consideration. In the study, a visual map of the studies prepared on the restructuring of higher education on a global scale was prepared and it was aimed to determine the trends in the literature with bibliometric analysis. Between 2002 and 2022, a total of 585 articles in the Scopus and WoS database were identified and analyzed by keyword analysis, cooperation network analysis, social network analysis methods. The most commonly used keywords were "higher education, education, university, restructuring and neoliberalism", the largest clusters defined in the network were "higher education, humanities, education policy", and the smallest cluster was "higher education policy". Among these clusters, the largest cluster is the "higher education" cluster, the average year of the publications cited jointly is 2011, and the newest issues are "humanities and higher education policy". According to the timeline map, there was a focus on the keywords "higher education, curriculum, neoliberalism, China, student, administration". In the early days, the focus was on "higher education, curriculum", then "higher education policy, innovation, management, organizational change, university reform, savings", and after 2020, the keywords "Covid 19, pandemic, distance education, student". The keywords with the most citation explosions were initially "Eurasia", in the middle "management, higher education, student", and after 2020, "student, Covid 19, human". The highest explosion of citations occurred from the word "Eurasia" between 2005 and 2009.

Practice of PE Teaching Reform in Colleges and Universities Under the Background of Multimedia Internet

Multimedia network technology refers to multimedia network teaching based on text data communication, which can make better use of sports resources in college physical education teaching. Multimedia technology combines computer and video technology. It refers to the combination of two or more sounds and images to form a system that can transmit information. When the initial key changes slightly, the hash bit change rate of the scheme is greater than the threshold value of 0.451, which shows that the hash algorithm in this paper has good key sensitivity. The more sensitive the perceived hash is to the change of the key, the more difficult it is for the attacker to estimate the key, and the better the security of the hash key. Therefore, the above experiments can prove that the hash algorithm in this paper is safe. The appearance of sports network distance education in this paper provides a broader stage for schools and makes greater contributions to the improvement of the overall physical quality of citizens in the whole society.

Analysis of Teaching Management and Reform in Universities from a Multidimensional Perspective

Analysis of Teaching Management and Reform in Universities from a Multidimensional Perspective

Exploring the path of reforming college mental health education curriculum based on big data technology

Abstract Big data technology’s quick advancement and widespread use provide fresh perspectives on how to change the mental health education curriculum at colleges and institutions. This study builds a prediction model for the college mental health education curriculum using big data technology, examines the prediction model’s development process, and builds a model assessment index using the SVM support vector machine technique. Second, it assesses the development status of the mental health education course reform in colleges and universities by looking at three elements of the mental health education courses in colleges and universities: the teaching strategy, the learning environment, and the student’s learning habits. Finally, using big data technologies, we investigated how college students’ happiness with their learning in mental health education courses was influenced by the mediating role of these courses and evaluated regression analyses of both holistic and partial teaching approaches. According to the findings, a comprehensive teaching approach had an 86.5% negative impact on student’s mental health under the direct effect, with a standard effect value of −0.134. Under the indirect impact, the standardized effect value of a holistic teaching approach on students’ mental health was −0.019, and the effect proportion was 12.7%. This demonstrates the significance of big data technologies for the establishment of a new mental health education curriculum in universities.

The efficacy of dance teaching reform and CBT in treating recurrent depression among college students

BackgroundWith the increasing pressure of modern society, the incidence rate of depression among college students is gradually increasing, especially recurrent depression. Currently, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the mainstream treatment methods for depression. At the same time, dance, as a comprehensive physical and mental exercise, has also demonstrated its potential therapeutic value in the field of mental health. This study explores the therapeutic effects of combining dance teaching reform in universities with cognitive behavioral therapy.Subjects and MethodsThe experiment selected 100 confirmed recurrent depression college students from a certain university and randomly divided them into two groups. A control group of 50 individuals only received standard cognitive behavioral therapy; The experimental group of 50 participants participated in a 12-week dance course while undergoing CBT. Treatment effectiveness was evaluated through the Self Rating Depression Scale and Beck Depression Questionnaire.ResultsAfter the study, both groups showed significant improvement in depressive symptoms. The experimental group showed greater improvement in emotional regulation, self-efficacy, and social skills than the control group. In addition, the recurrence rate of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group.ConclusionsDance, as an activity of integrating body and mind, can effectively enhance the therapeutic effect of cognitive behavioral therapy. For the special group of college students, combining dance teaching reform in universities with cognitive behavioral therapy may be an effective strategy, which can improve treatment effectiveness and reduce the recurrence rate.AcknowledgementA Strategic Study on the Protection and Inheritance of the “Evil Dragon Dance” in Zhijiang, Huaihua, Hunan Province from the Perspective of Intangible Cultural Heritage. (No. 22A0652).

Law education reform in universities on reducing college students’ learning anxiety

BackgroundWith the rapid development of society, the learning anxiety of college students is gradually increasing. Law education emphasizes rational thinking and behavioral norms, enabling college students to establish a correct outlook on life. Therefore, law education should be an important part of psychological health interventions for college students.Subjects and MethodsThe study selected 120 students with learning anxiety and randomly divided them into two groups. One group is a blank group, which only uses traditional legal education. The other group is the experimental group, which adopts an educational approach that combines psychology and law to reform. The experimental period lasted for one semester, and the course arrangements of the two groups were consistent. Before and after the experiment, a questionnaire survey was conducted using the Self Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS). Based on the experimental results, the psychological relief of anxiety in the two groups was analyzed.ResultsThe number of students in the blank group who had mild, moderate, or severe learning anxiety before the experiment began was 64, 53, and 3, respectively. In the experimental group, there were 62, 54, and 4 students who had mild, moderate, and severe cases of learning anxiety, respectively. After the test, there were 71, 47, and 2 students in the control group who had mild, moderate, or severe learning anxiety, respectively. In the experimental group, there were 81, 27, and 0 students who did not have learning anxiety, respectively. The number of students with mild to severe learning anxiety increased.ConclusionsThe integration of psychological reform in law teaching can effectively alleviate the learning anxiety of college students.AcknowledgementThe Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.3132022297); National Social Science Fund of China (No.21CFX055).

Effectiveness of combined herbal medicines on bipolar disorder among university students during teaching course reform

BackgroundThrough interviews and questionnaire surveys on emotional factors in college students’ learning, it was found that there is a common prevalence of mania such as weak integrative motivation and strong anxiety, which to some extent affects learning efficiency. This study aims to observe the therapeutic effect of the combination of engineering management teaching reform and innovation in universities and traditional Chinese medicine on students’ mania.Subjects and Methods The subjects of this study were 120 randomly selected students from a certain school and college, who were evenly divided into two groups. The experimental group received reform teaching combined with traditional Chinese medicine treatment, while the control group received traditional teaching. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a rating of five levels ranging from “very suitable for me” to “completely unsuitable for me”, with a score ranging from 5 to 1. After the questionnaire was collected, SPSS was used to analyze the reliability of the data.ResultsThe results showed that the average value of anxiety factors in the control group exceeded 3.00. The average value of students’ learning confidence is below 3.00, and 57.8% of students believe that they lack self-confidence. The average value of anxiety factors in the experimental group is below 3.00, and 80% of students believe that they have mastered knowledge through teaching and feel relaxed and confident in the classroom.ConclusionsThis study indicates that students have manic affective disorders with weak integrative motivation and strong anxiety. Classroom teaching mode is optimized, importance is attached to the cultivation of integrated motivation, timely attention is paid to students’ emotional status, students can overcome mania, and learning emotions and outcomes can be improved.AcknowledgementThe 2021 Henan Province New Humanities Research and Reform Practice Project (No.2021JGLX095); 2021 Henan Province Higher Education Teaching Reform Research and Practice Project (No. 2021SJGLX527).

Research and strategy of university education and teaching reform based on intelligent education platform

Abstract Exploring the path of college education and teaching reform is the way to improve the quality of college teaching and promote the development of college education. Based on big data technology, this paper proposes a wisdom education cloud platform, which is used to realize the comprehensive utilization of teaching resources for users. Based on the personalized teaching resource recommendation demand of users, a recommendation algorithm of high-order preference propagation based on a heterogeneous knowledge graph is jointly constructed by using a meta-path and knowledge graph based on a heterogeneous information network so as to realize the personalized recommendation of the platform to users and simulate and analyze the platform. In terms of platform performance, the random write and sequential write rates of the platform reach 4765 rows/s and 3218 rows/s, respectively, and the data transmission time is reduced by 68.35% and 69.35% compared with that of NetEase Cloud Classroom and Tencent Classroom, respectively. In terms of satisfaction, the platform in this paper has improved by 5.41% and 6.7% compared with NetEase Cloud Classroom and Tencent Classroom, respectively. This shows that the intelligent education cloud platform can be the exploration direction of education teaching reform in colleges and universities.

국내대학 인증평가와 주요 세계대학 순위평가의 연계 방안 연구

[Purpose]As we enter the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, characterized by intensified global competition, the importance of high-quality education and research capabilities has grown significantly. However, there is a projected significant decrease in the number of college admissions due to a declining school-age population, which has led to increased interest in university evaluation systems that influence university reform and government support policies. Nevertheless, recent South Korean universities have experienced declines in some rankings in global university evaluations, and their efforts to enhance international competitiveness are facing limitations.
 [Methods] In this study, I examined indicators from the South Korean domestic university accreditation evaluation known as the “3rd Cycle University Institutional Accreditation”, as well as evaluation indicators from major global university rankings such as QS and THE. I compared the evaluation indicators of QS and THE world university rankings and calculated their similarities. Additionally, detailed indicators between university institutional accreditation evaluations and major global university rankings were compared.
 [Results]The similarity between university institutional accreditation evaluations and major global university rankings(including sustainability evaluations) is very low. However, in the “University Performance and Social Responsibility” domain, which is closely related to global university rankings, there is a high potential for linkage. As a result, I have derived “strengthening indicators” with the aim of enhancing the international competitiveness of universities and indicated “linkage indicators”.
 [Conclusion]By aligning the indicators of legally binding the university accreditation evaluations with those of major global university rankings, it is anticipated that the preparation for domestic university institutional accreditation and the preparation for global university ranking assessments can be conducted simultaneously, thereby assisting in improving universities' international competitiveness and enhancing their internal competitive capabilities.

Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education in Vocational Colleges

Innovation and entrepreneurship education is an inevitable choice for the education reform of vocational colleges. This article analyzes the necessity of constructing an innovation and entrepreneurship education system in vocational colleges and the problems in innovation and entrepreneurship education in Jiangsu vocational colleges. It proposes to build an innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum system that integrates expertise and innovation, improve the practice system of innovation and entrepreneurship education, and establish an evaluation system for innovation and entrepreneurship education with the characteristics of vocational colleges.

Research on the New Model of Student Education Management in Vocational Colleges

Vocational colleges are an important type of higher education in China. Higher vocational education aims to adapt to social needs and designs students’ knowledge, ability, quality structure, and training plans based on the cultivation of technical application skills. Emphasizing both theoretical teaching and practical training, graduates have the skills to work directly. At this stage, vocational education in China is in an important period of transformation and development. In order to better adapt to the rapid development of society, many vocational colleges have carried out management system reforms in student education management, with the aim of cultivating more high-quality and skilled talents that meet the needs of social development, and providing higher quality vocational education services for the country and society. In the process of physical education reform, due to regional and other factors, many reform models cannot adapt to the current situation of student education management in vocational colleges in the new era. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously explore new models suitable for vocational colleges. Based on the background of the physical education reform in vocational colleges, this article uses methods such as literature research and visits to analyze the current situation of education management in vocational colleges, the problems and possible reasons that exist in student education management in vocational colleges. This article discusses the possible new models of student education management in vocational colleges from the perspectives of repeated management methods, management concepts, management mechanisms, and evaluation systems, and elaborates on their new paths. Efforts are made to improve the management mode of student education in vocational colleges, innovate the management mechanism of vocational colleges, and actively explore the improvement of the management mode of student education in vocational colleges.

Research on the Implementation Difficulties and Optimization Measures of Project-based Teaching in Maritime English

In recent years, project-based teaching has become the focus of national vocational education curriculum reform, and has also become an important teaching form in the curriculum reform of major maritime vocational colleges. The project-based teaching reform of maritime English has achieved significant breakthroughs and results after implementation, but there are still many problems in teaching practice. This article analyzes the implementation difficulties of project-based teaching in maritime English and proposes corresponding optimization measures to address these difficulties, providing reference for effectively deepening the reform of maritime English teaching in vocational colleges.