Higher Education Research Institute Research Articles

A bibliometric analysis of quality assurance in higher education institutions: Implications for assessing university's societal impact

This study aims to provide a bibliometric overview of quality assurance (QA) research in higher education institutions (HEIs) from 1993 to 2022 and to identify significant trends. Scopus was utilised to retrieve data from 321 selected articles from 191 different sources. The methodology included science mapping with bibliometric indicators such as citations, co-citation analysis, and bibliometric coupling. Analysis of the data was done using VOSviewer and R-package using Biblioshiny. The findings indicate an increase in the number of articles and authors per paper that highlight QA key issues, the most promising QA practices, and the topics for future research. This study has significant importance to orient HEI's QA process towards the assessment of the university's societal impact.

Impact of government evaluation and accreditation processes on the research output of universities in developing countries: an X-ray of the young Ecuadorian academia

Ecuador is a unique case study, where strict evaluation and accreditation processes have been recently established (i.e., early-2010s) mainly based on the experience of their peers and that of developed countries. Interestingly, the development of quality assurance indicators for research output received special attention. The current study systematically explored the research output of the Ecuadorian higher education institutions (HEIs) after only one decade of being subjected to multiple rigorous evaluation and accreditation processes. Peer-reviewed documents in the Scopus Database from 2006 to 2021 were statistically analyzed in terms of the number of documents produced (i.e., books, book chapters, journals, and conference proceedings), citations, H-index, quartiles, and impact factors (i.e., SRJ, SNIP, and Cite Score), at both country and single-university levels. The influence of the multiple evaluation processes and external factors (e.g., relaxation of regulations, COVID) on the research output trends were comprehensively and chronologically discussed. Accordingly, a statistical answer to the following research questions was attempted: where is the Ecuadorian research output currently standing after these evaluation and accreditation measures? Furthermore, where is it heading? This investigation would assist in creating and adjusting policies targeting sustainable research in HEIs in Ecuador and other countries in similar early research development.

Bringing quality management to perspective in higher education institutions’ research output: A focus on selected private universities in Nigeria

Bringing quality management research into perspective is a critical need in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of most developing nations, including Nigeria. The existing literature has not sufficiently explained the relationship between total quality management implementation and the research performance in the educational industry, especially from a developing economy perspective. Therefore, this study investigated total quality management (TQM) and the research output of HEIs in Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive design to draw insights from research-based faculty members of three reputable Universities in Nigeria and adopting the PLS-SEM analysis this study established the relationship between components of TQM tools, values, and methodologies on the research output of HEIs. Our study found that dimensions of TQM, specifically TQM tools and values were found to relate positively with HEI's research output. Our study suggests that implementing total quality management, especially through its various tools, values, and methodologies will be beneficial to improving HEIs' research outputs.

A Systematic Review on Teacher Digital Literacy in Higher Education

In order to conduct a conceptual review, and to discover the topics and categories of research, this study firstly searches the Google Scholar database, and then conducts a specific analysis of the 17 publications, hoping to explore the overall research that constitutes the topic of digital literacy for teachers in the university setting, to understand whether the concept needs to be continuously defined. The relative theoretical framework and key components to guide teacher digital literacy in the context of higher education have not yet been formed. It is necessary to continue to review the concept and key components of digital literacy for teachers in higher education in the future, providing a perspective for digital transformation research in higher education institutions.

The Impact of Developing Scientific Research in Higher Education Institutions on Achieving Sustainable Development under the Corona Pandemic

The research aimed to identify the impact of developing scientific research in higher education institutions on achieving sustainable development under the Corona pandemic. The descriptive analytical method was used and data was obtained through a questionnaire that was distributed to a sample (210) employees randomly selected from four Palestinian universities: Al-Azhar University, Isra University, University of Palestine and Gaza University. The study results revealed that the application of developing scientific research and sustainable development in the universities under study received a high degree of respondents’ assessment. There was a direct statistically significant relationship between the scientific research development and the level of promoting sustainable development in the universities. There were also no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of promoting sustainable development in these universities due to the variable of the university, while there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of promoting sustainable development in the universities due to the variable of gender, in favor of females, as female faculty members seek to prove themselves as other faculty members who are no less competent in this field. The study concluded with a set of recommendations, including the need to establish a national authority for scientific research to be concerned with the quality and evaluation of scientific research in universities and subscribing to foreign databases and sources that provide help to researchers.

The Importance of Supporting Students’ Sense of Meaning and Purpose as Part of Supporting the “Whole Student”

The data that informed this paper was from a pilot project in a New Zealand university exploring first-year students’ thoughts and perceptions related to different aspects of spirituality (Wright, 2019). This project drew in particular on research into student spirituality conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) among more than 100,000 college students in the USA between 2004 and 2007. The Otago project employed a survey instrument based on the HERI one, modified in a minor way (some linguistic changes to suit the NZ context). In addition to the HERI format, a number of open-ended questions were added to the survey to add some richness and depth to the quantitative questions. This paper will address the question of what the survey respondents’ perceptions and experiences were with particular regard to the interests in their sense of meaning and purpose in life. Also, the question will be addressed of what universities could do to focus more on the “whole student”, especially during the first year and enhance their holistic sense of wellbeing.

Scarcely visible? Analysing initial teacher education research and the Research Excellence Framework

In the UK, the Research Excellence Framework is a mechanism used for ranking the quality of research in higher education institutions. While there has been analysis of the entire Research Excellence Framework, and of the Education unit of assessment more generally, analysis of how research on initial teacher education featured in the Research Excellence Framework has been minimal. In this article, we report on Phase I of an 18-month project that mapped the extent to which initial teacher education-focused research was included in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. Employing a novel methodology and a theoretical framework based on policy as text and discourse, we identify a sample of 12 higher education institutions that provided initial teacher education programmes and returned outputs to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. Analysis of over 1,600 outputs suggest that in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework only 5.5 per cent of these were focused on initial teacher education. We discuss the methodological approach, some headline findings and areas for future research, arguing that these add evidence to the literature of initial teacher education-focused research and, in doing so, can inform policy at the levels of schools, higher education institutions, Research Excellence Framework and the government. We conclude that although the Research Excellence Framework only concerns the UK, similar exercises are becoming increasingly prevalent globally, and therefore the extent to which research on initial teacher education was marginalised in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework is of interest to all concerned with teacher education.

Scientific production of the Universidad Abierta Interamericana: Bibliometric analysis in the Scopus database

Background: The tension between teaching and research in higher education institutions arises from two different processes: the massification of access to it and the increase in social expectations regarding its research. Methods: A descriptive bibliometric study was conducted based on the application of a set of indicators. Documents indexed in the Scopus database published between 2012 and 2021 were included, regardless of type. Results: The results of the analysis of the 336 documents, which represent the total scientific production of the Inter-American Open University in the period from 2012 to 2021, reveal a significant growth in academic production, with an increase of 336%. The Inter-American Open University has demonstrated a wide scientific production in various thematic areas according to the categorization in Scopus. It stands out especially in Medicine, with 158 published documents, which represents 47% of the total number of documents of the university. 27.7% of the documents have been produced in international collaboration, which demonstrates the active participation of the university in research networks at a global level. Conclusion: The Inter-American Open University has experienced a remarkable growth in its scientific production during the period studied, reflecting its continued commitment to research and the advancement of knowledge. These findings highlight its commitment to the generation and dissemination of knowledge, as well as the importance of collaboration and the impact of research on the scientific community.

E-portfolio practice for student wellbeing in higher education: A scoping review

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, technological transformation in higher education was promoted globally. While e-portfolios are not necessarily new as an educational approach, their significance as an alternative online assessment model increased during this rapid, compulsory shift from face-to-face learning into distance learning modes (Rodriguez et al., 2022). Meanwhile, amidst the unprecedented pedagogical and technological changes, mental health issues are an alarming concern. Students in higher education face stressors impairing not only academic performance and social life but also mental health and wellbeing (Davis & Hadwin, 2021; Hartl et al., 2022; Prasath et al., 2021; Stallman et al., 2022). The significance of developing collaborative, safe and supportive digital environments has been increasingly emphasized by educators and researchers in higher education institutions and universities around the world. However, no previous study has mapped existing studies on the impact of e-portfolio practice on student wellbeing. In that context, the aim of the study was to map and assess published empirical studies on the contribution of e-portfolio practice to student wellbeing in higher education. Our leading research question was: What is known from the existing research literature about the contribution of e-portfolio practice to student psychological wellbeing? A scoping review was conducted using the methodological framework of Arksey and O’Malley (2005). A systematic and comprehensive search of ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science, Wiley Online Library and Google Scholar databases was performed for studies published between 2012 and 2022. Eligibility criteria were agreed upon among the writers before the review started. One of the authors assessed eligibility in two stages and extracted data using Covidence Software. Where doubts arose, the authors came together to reach an agreement at the full text review stage. The review included 23 papers based on empirical findings and discussions. Five thematic groupings around student wellbeing were identified among the included papers: motivational outcomes, self-perception outcomes, identity outcomes, social outcomes, and self-efficacy outcomes. E-portfolio practice, when designed to allow creativity and communication, seems to contribute positively to student wellbeing in higher education. When it is regarded as summative assessment, on the other hand, it might affect student wellbeing negatively as a stressor. Most of the students have a positive perception of e-portfolios on their personal development, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and motivation. There is also a minority of students reported to see no value in e-portfolio practice and perceive them as a waste of their time. Future research should investigate how and what kind of e-portfolio learning design can help with building resilience and wellbeing among higher education students. More empirical research is needed to develop an instrument to measure the impact of e-portfolio practice on student psychological wellbeing as well as retention and success.

Can enabling entrepreneurship ecosystem improve commercialization of research in South African Higher Education Institutions?

An entrepreneurship ecosystem entails a community of practice that displays the characteristics of creativity and innovation, risk-taking, a strategist, and an active participant in identifying opportunities and making decisions among others in the organization. The ecosystem can be key when Higher Education Institutions are engaged in the transformation process of commercialization. The paper intends to explore whether an entrepreneurship ecosystem can stimulate the commercialization of the research process in a sustainable way. The qualitative thematic review methodology is employed to achieve this aim. The commercialization process is viewed in an entrepreneurship ecosystem by looking at the entrepreneurial institutions, stakeholders involved, and the sustainable business model. It is recommended that adopting an entrepreneurial ecosystem for commercialization of research in Higher Education Institutions can play a crucial role in building their structures to be economically active; addressing graduate unemployment; providing recovery strategies to reboot businesses in communities, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic; and position themselves as entrepreneurial institutions.

OLIY TA'LIM MUASSASALARIDA ILMIY-INNOVATSION MARKAZLAR TASHKIL ETISH VA RIVOJLANTIRISH YO‘LLARI

The article proposes innovative ways of creating research laboratories (centers) for the development of scientific and innovative research in higher education institutions. The study also explains the basic criteria and conditions for selecting relevant research and innovation topics, the sources of funding to create research laboratories, the mechanisms of gradual employment of qualified scientific personnel in the laboratory and the use of a credit-module system.

ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЕ КАЧЕСТВА ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ В УСЛОВИЯХ МОДЕЛИ «УНИВЕРСИТЕТ 3.0»

The article analyzes institutional models of ‘a modern university’, tasks, functions and features of higher education institutions in the context of the “University 3.0” concept, which envisages integration between commercialization of educational achievements, science, innovation and research in higher education institutions, as well as modernization and development of higher education system in our republic, as well as internationalization of the academic education network. The stages of change for transition to a university - entrepreneurship (3.0) depending on transformational processes observed in the current higher education system, have been justified. Opening of venture funds and banks ensuring secured benefits and introduction of a mechanism for providing special incentives to residents who deal with commercializing existing innovative developments and accommodating residents with innovative research and production centers (Technoparks) established at universities, has been recommended on the basis of advanced universities.

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.

Sustainable development goals research in higher education institutions: An interdisciplinarity assessment through an entropy-based indicator

Since 2015, the United Nations has urged higher education institutions (HEIs) to adopt an interdisciplinary approach towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In other words, universities are encouraged to transcend any single disciplinary perspective in exploring sustainable development issues. This study examines the importance of driving the scientific production of HEIs towards the SDGs as a concrete institutional contribution to sustainable development. While bibliometric tools for the SDGs are currently emerging, the existing models have not focused on interdisciplinarity or on their usefulness as decision-management tools to drive SDG-related research at a micro-scale (i.e. the institutional level). This study proposes a novel multi-step methodology. It develops an initial case study, which applies information system design theory (ISDT) to map and assess interdisciplinary research into each SDG at an Italian generalist university (University of Turin). Utilising a quantitative text analysis, we examined a database containing over 30,000 entries representing the university’s SDG-related scientific production from 2015 to 2019. Subsequently, we conducted a social network analysis (SNA) of co-authorship to measure interdisciplinarity for each SDG. We defined interdisciplinarity as collaboration among researchers in diverse disciplines. We employed a modularity algorithm to select bottom-up clusters of researchers from diverse departments. Finally, we analysed the identified clusters to propose an Interdisciplinarity Sustainability Index (ISI) capable of identifying the most investigated and interdisciplinary SDGs. Ultimately, our results enable the quantification of interdisciplinary SDG research via the proposed methodology. The study helps to visualise inter-departmental collaborations and thus informs university managers’ efforts to identify and coordinate compatible research groups to bridge inter-organisational boundaries.

Building Capacity for Research Ethics: Policy Insights For Nepal

Knowledge and skills in research ethics are essential for conducting ethically responsible research. Despite some local policies, strategic guidelines, and manuals on the antithesis of research misconduct, researchers’ adherence to research ethics, especially ethically responsible conduct of research, is still critical in developing countries like Nepal. This study explores the policy provisions to develop researchers’ capacity on research ethics in Nepal. With the aim, we identified ten key documents related to research ethics from the University Grants Commission (UGC), Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST). We analysed the provisions using the adapted version of Cooke’s framework for research capacity development. The result shows that although there are provisions for capacity development for scientific research, none provisioned that the higher education research institutions need to take action for developing early career researchers’ capacity on research ethics. Further, this review depicts several structural, institutional, and procedural limitations that make the condition difficult to adopt and implement those policies, strategic guidelines, and manuals.

Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors.

Despite calls for improved data-collection efforts tracking transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, there have been no reports of TGNC continuation in STEM majors at the university level. Using national, longitudinal data from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, we analyzed the experiences of 20,910 students who indicated an initial intent to major in a STEM field and found that TGNC students (n = 117) continue in STEM majors at a rate ∼10% lower than their cisgender peers. This gap persists despite TGNC students’ high levels of academic ability and academic self-confidence. Through multilevel regression modeling, we found this difference is not explained by experiences that have predicted the likelihood of cisgender students leaving STEM. The only significant predictor of STEM attrition for TGNC students in our model was whether they sought personal counseling; TGNC students who more frequently sought personal counseling were 21% less likely to remain in STEM majors. Overall, TGNC students leave STEM at rates similar to or higher than other minoritized groups, building the case for a multifaced, intersectional approach to addressing diversity and equity in the preparation of the future STEM workforce.

Entrepreneurial higher education institutions: Development of the research and future directions

AbstractEntrepreneurial higher education institutions (HEIs) have gained significant traction, both in theory and practice. The concept has evolved from academic entrepreneurship, which gained prominence in the 1990s, into a more comprehensive notion at institutional level and has been an influencing factor for governmental decisions and the region's economic development. This study seeks to present an overview of the evolution of entrepreneurial HEI research and provide a description of the structures characterizing it. This paper presents an in‐depth examination and analysis of the current state of research and published literature related to entrepreneurial HEIs. A descriptive bibliometric analysis coupled with content analysis is presented, incorporating citations included in Scopus' multi‐disciplinary database over the last 25 years. Two software packages—VOS viewer and Bibliometrix R were employed to probe the research questions and create visualizations of the bibliometric networks. Thematic mapping of the multifaceted research field is illustrated and emerging trends of are identified. Findings suggest that the research on entrepreneurial HEI has been pioneered by USA followed by UK and other European countries. Moreover, the research seems to be fragmented and more focused on only entrepreneurial universities. Future research needs to consider colleges and smaller institutions alongside larger universities. Also, further steps need to be undertaken to encourage and enable cross‐border international collaboration, so as to draw learning together from different national and regional contexts.

Knowledge management in the classroom using Mendeley technology

Research in higher education institutions is present in all courses, and academic instruction in research methodology is vital, with educational technologies being an essential component of this process. With the Covid-19 pandemic, there were changes in teaching, learning, and in performing scientific research in undergraduate courses. Among the technologies, the Mendeley reference management tool has become increasingly helpful in these contexts. Therefore, this manuscript is an account of workshop experiences for the use of the Mendeley tool in the teaching of Research Methodology and Scientific Methodology offered in the distance education modality in undergraduate courses at the Universidade do Contestado, Brazil. After basic instruction on Mendeley, students participating in the workshops were guided to apply the tool using Bardin's content analysis technique. This technique is usually laborious and seldom involved in literature reviews by undergraduate students; Mendeley technology makes it more accessible. From experiences with the 2020 and 2021 workshops, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is suggested that the content analysis method combined with the Mendeley technology can help students present better literature reviews, especially for final graduation projects such as course completion monographs.

Study on university research performance based on systems theory: systematic literature review

This paper reports on the systematic literature (SLR) to synthesise research on university research performance using a systematic methodology. We carried out a rigorous screening process to obtain a final sample of 59 quality papers published in 33 journals. These studies have been reviewed with a systems theory-based perspective in organisations, without neglecting to review several matters relating to significant journal publications, active researchers, the most widely used methods, and the countries where they are located. Finally, we provide suggestions for further research on research performance, especially those related to the influencing input-process-output-productivity-outcome variables. This perspective provides an effective fit with the context of research performance measurement models in universities and helps to capture the full spectrum of research institutes in universities. Thus, a new challenge arises to develop a national performance evaluation model in higher education research institutions that is adapted to the policies and strategies of each country.

A study of 25\xa0years of publication outputs in the German academic profession

In the weak evaluation state of Germany, full professors are involved in the traditional social governance partnership between the state, and the self-governing higher education institutions (HEI) and disciplinary associations. Literature suggests that formal and informal governance could trigger changes in academics’ publication behavior by valorizing certain publication outputs. In the article, secondary data from three surveys (1992, 2007 and 2018) is used for a multi-level study of the evolution of academics’ publication behavior. We find a trend toward the “model” of natural science publication behavior across all disciplines. On the organizational level, we observe that a strong HEI research performance orientation is positively correlated with journal articles, peer-reviewed publications, and co-publications with international co-authors. HEI performance-based funding is only positively correlated with the share of peer-reviewed publications. At the level of individual disciplines, humanities and social sciences scholars adapt to the peer-reviewed journal publication paradigm of the natural sciences at the expense of book publications. Considering how the academic profession is organized around reputation and status, it seems plausible that the academic profession and its institutional oligarchy are key contexts for the slow but steady change of academics’ publication behavior. The trend of changing academics’ publication behavior is partly related to HEI valorization of performance and (to a lesser extent) to HEI performance based-funding schemes, which are set by the strong academic profession in the weak evaluation state of Germany.