Role Of Higher Education Research Articles

Toward a Vision of Sustainable University: Linkages between Commitment and Practices

Sustainability management plays a significant role in higher education. Development of a sustainable university involves integrating environmental, social, and economic considerations into various aspects of its operations, including campus infrastructure, curriculum, research, and community engagement. This urgently requires a strong commitment as a driving force behind sustainable initiatives, guiding actions, decisions, and investments toward achieving sustainability goals. IPB University as one of the most prominent universities in Indonesia is not only committed to becoming a sustainable university but also consistent in developing strategic plans to pursue its vision. Guided by this vision, IPB University has specifically established the Sustainable Campus Development Office (SCDO) to devise comprehensive sustainability plans outlining its goals, targets, and strategies for reducing environmental impact, promoting social equity, and ensuring economic viability. While it is still on progress, this commitment has played a significant role in encouraging sustainability practices at the university. It provides a foundation for leadership, governance, resources allocation, curriculum integration, student engagement, community partnerships, monitoring, reporting, and continuous improvement toward achieving sustainability goals. In addition, the university has established several sustainability values as guidance and indicators for maintaining sustainable practices. Integrating values and commitment is thus critical to realizing sustainable practices from generation to generation.

Ethics and Values Matter: The Role of Higher Education

Human existence is a process of learning and development aimed at achieving wisdom, and education has been regarded as the ultimate value system since the birth of culture and way of life for this reason. Education is more than only the acquisition of skills or the gathering of knowledge or news about a topic of interest from others or from other parts of the world. It is not limited to the abilities of obtaining information received and preserved via knowing, or just the exploration of existential problems and familiarization with previously acquired knowledge or data, or with a system of knowledge - but also with the goal of comprehending this cognition. Knowledge is involved with the comprehension of a collection of propositions or concepts. Knowledge can be theoretical and practical, fundamental and abstract, and it may exist in any time period: past, present, and future. However, cognition is always done in the present. Past memories and future prophecies are also remembered in the present, as the ideas flash or surface in the mind. These flashes act as an impetus for our quick determination, allowing us to decide whether or not to undertake anything. However, for the purpose of brevity, I'll lump the two, knowledge and cognition, together under the heading of knowledge. Education fosters the development of talents from all three faculties, as well as wisdom in their right application for the benefit of people and society for creating value and ethics. The goal of NEP 2020 is also having important role in higher education teaching to encourage systematic and focused discoveries and practices that benefit society. Society views higher education institutions as catalysts for the transformation of knowledge into wisdom. The quality, morals, and ethics of higher education institutions are increasingly important in integrating young people into society. A country like India has a large young population, and they are the frontiers of the Indian government's Made in India Initiative. It has been well mentioned that the actual philosophy of education is in the combination of ethics, virtues, values, and the validity of human life, thus it is vital to improve ethical values, philosophical thinking, study, research, and moral growth in the Indian education system.

Resilience rewritten: Ann’s journey from adversity to entrepreneurship

Research methodology None. Case overview/synopsis The case study follows Ann’s journey towards entrepreneurship, focusing on the challenges she faced and how early educational interventions influenced her life decisions. Despite numerous obstacles, Ann’s perseverance, bolstered by her family’s support and her passion, led to her successful reintegration into academia and the launch of an entrepreneurial venture in the UK. Her story highlights the dilemma of balancing educational attainment with entrepreneurial aspirations, especially for at-risk students. Ann’s experience prompts critical discussions about the intersection of education and entrepreneurship, the importance of experiential learning and the role of mentorship in realizing business ideas. The nurturing environment of her business school, through guest lectures and real-world success stories, played a significant role in shaping her academic and professional outlook. This case raises essential questions about the role of higher education in fostering entrepreneurial skills and integrating experiential learning within academic curricula. Ann’s journey exemplifies the power of resilience and determination in overcoming systemic and entrepreneurial challenges, particularly for women facing similar struggles. Her story illuminates the multifaceted process of turning a personal experience into an entrepreneurial opportunity, emphasizing the critical role of mentorship and support networks in developing a viable business idea. Complexity academic level This case study is best suited to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in management and business-related courses that focus on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education. The case study is relevant in various business disciplines as it informs students of the process and challenges related to business start-ups and acquiring related capabilities. Instructors are encouraged to have students read the extensive reference list provided at the end to broaden their understanding and knowledge of entrepreneurship, including its processes, context and practices.

Small institutions with special missions through the lens of women's colleges

AbstractThe universe of small institutions includes “special mission” institutions. Although these institutions share several similarities, each plays a special and distinct role in higher education, providing a unique culture and experience for their students. They include women's colleges, Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Hispanic‐serving institutions (HSIs), Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), faith‐based institutions, and military colleges, among others. Through the lens of women's colleges, the author will highlight these institutions and their important role in higher education.

Public sentiment and ethical considerations of ChatGPT in higher education: Insights from data analytics of conversations on platform X

In today’s fast-paced digital world, generative AI, especially OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has become a game-changing technology with significant effects on education. This study examines public sentiment and discourse surrounding ChatGPT’s role in higher education, as reflected on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Employing a mixed-methods approach, we conducted a thematic analysis using Leximancer and Voyant Tools and sentiment analysis with SentiStrength on a dataset of 18,763 tweets, subsequently narrowed to 5655 through cleaning and preprocessing. Our findings identified five primary themes: Authenticity, Integrity, Creativity, Productivity, and Research. The sentiment analysis revealed that 46.6% of the tweets expressed positive sentiment, 38.5% were neutral, and 14.8% were negative. The results highlight a general openness to integrating AI in educational contexts, tempered by concerns about academic integrity and ethical considerations. This study underscores the need for ongoing dialogue and ethical frameworks to responsibly navigate AI’s incorporation into education. The insights gained provide a foundation for future research and policy-making, aiming to enhance learning outcomes while safeguarding academic values. Limitations include the focus on English-language tweets, suggesting future research should encompass a broader linguistic and platform scope to capture diverse global perspectives.

Human-AI Collaboration: A Student-Centered Perspective of Generative AI Use in Higher Education

The increasing adoption of generative AI (Gen AI) has made it even more important to investigate how education and learning is transformed. The paper investigates the evolving relationship between humans and AI in performing learning and knowledge-intensive tasks. Based on mixed data collected from business school students, the article explores the evolving relationships between human and AI in knowledge collaboration. The article sets out to address how Gen AI usage affects students’ behavior, their academic work and their attitudes towards AI. It investigates how students use Gen AI in an academic context to support students’ work processes. Our analysis draws on collaborative learning theories and revisits the automation-augmentation paradox in the context of management education. The aim is to address the following research questions: How does collaboration with AI affect student academic work? And how do students in higher education use Gen AI for academic work? We present insights into students’ perception of benefits and drawbacks of using Gen AI, their attitude towards Gen AI, knowledge tasks in which they collaborate or delegate to Gen AI and we discuss the potential risks associated with the use of Gen AI. Students are collaborating with AI using ChatGPT for expanding knowledge on academic themes, summarizing concepts, theories, and generating ideas for research topics and methods. Time saving, enhanced productivity and user-friendliness of the tool were identified as the main benefits associated with Gen AI, whereas the risk of plagiarism, its inaccuracy in responses and the need for prior knowledge were identified as the main drawbacks. While our findings underscore the potential of Gen AI to significantly enhance student learning experiences, they also underscore the importance of exercising caution and awareness of associated risks to automate learning. This study seeks to enrich our comprehension of AI's transformative role in higher education, with a specific focus on the student-centered perspective.

ChatGPT in Higher Education: A Comprehensive Study of the Literature. Friend or Foe?

This paper presents a qualitative, high-quality State-of-the-Art (SotA) extended literature review on integrating ChatGPT, an advanced and contemporary natural language processing model, a sophisticated AI-powered chatbot that OpenAI developed in higher education. Snyder (2019, p.1) emphasised that "a literature review as a research method is more relevant than ever”. According to Barry et al (2022, p. 663), "the fundamental purpose of SotA literature review is to create a 3-part argument about the state of knowledge for a specific phenomenon: This is where we are now. This is how we got here. This is where we could go next”. This 3-part argument will underpin this study. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to transform various sectors, including education, integrating AI-powered tools like ChatGPT to enhance teaching and learning has become a topic of significant interest. This study explores the diverse applications of ChatGPT in higher education, including pedagogical practices, student engagement, intelligent tutoring systems, personalised learning, language learning support, academic research, feedback, grading, and administrative support. Additionally, it identifies the challenges and ethical concerns this technology poses, focusing on bias, privacy, data security, reliability, accountability, accuracy and the balance between human interaction and artificial intelligence. Analysing the literature on ChatGPT’s role in higher education presents future directions for implementing it in higher education settings, ushering in an era of exciting possibilities. The research concludes that higher education institutions should provide clear and transparent guidelines for their staff and students on using ChatGPT responsibly for academic purposes to mitigate any ethical concerns.

"One Center, Two Integrations, Four Dimensions" Course Teaching Model Construction: A Case Study of the "English for Specific Purposes" Course at Inner Mongolia University of Technology

With the deepening of globalization and changes in vocational education demands, the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course plays an increasingly important role in higher education, especially in cultivating students' professional English skills and cross-cultural communication abilities. However, traditional ESP teaching models overly emphasize theoretical knowledge, neglecting students' individual needs, which leads to poor learning outcomes. In response, this paper proposes a "One Center, Two Integrations, Four Dimensions" teaching model, centered on students, which integrates professional knowledge with language skills and organically combines online and offline teaching. The aim is to comprehensively enhance students' language proficiency, professional competence, cross-cultural communication skills, and innovative thinking. This paper details the design concept of this teaching model and its implementation path in the "English for Specific Purposes" course at Inner Mongolia University of Technology, as well as a diversified evaluation system and a resource integration plan involving collaboration between teachers and industry experts. This study provides new theoretical and practical references for optimizing the teaching model of ESP courses.

Transitioning identities in professional education: an appreciative enquiry

ABSTRACT Higher education lecturers who have moved into teaching on professional education programmes from careers in professional practice are an under-researched group. Questions related to self-concept combined with wider social and sectoral issues relating to perceptions about the nature and purpose of higher education can affect the development of their new professional identity. Building on previous research into the experiences of new and developing academics, the research reported here sought to gain an understanding of the experiences and dispositions that contribute to shaping professional identity for those who have moved from professional practice into teaching roles in higher education within an education and social work faculty. Utilising an Appreciative Inquiry model, the objective of this research was to better understand participants’ professional perspectives and needs. Findings are organised around three areas: i) the importance of values and goals as catalysts for identity change, ii) the role of social and professional perceptions that impinge on (in)security of identity, and iii) the sense that academic identity development is an iterative and elastic process. These findings suggest the need for future research that engages with exploring how best to promote and nurture productive and satisfying academic careers for those moving between professional and professional education contexts.

On Pipelines and Precarity: Competing Narratives on the Roles and Functions of Postdocs in South African Higher Education

It is broadly understood that postdoctoral research fellows (hereafter postdocs) play a significant role in higher education’s research outputs, teaching and learning, and the rating and ranking of an institution. Largely shaped by the neoliberal turn(s) in higher education from the late 1970s and 1980s, postdocs have become an indispensable yet precarious labour force that higher education institutions have come to rely on. In the South African context, research on postdoc fellowships is relatively new, with limited scholarship focusing on the narratives and voices of these marginalised scholars. In this article, I purposively recruited and interviewed 23 former and current postdocs in three research-intensive universities in South Africa as well as a university vice dean of research, and a former senior official of the Department of Higher Education and Training. I also consulted and analysed various South African higher education policy documents and ministerial articulations regarding postdocs in the country. Through the use of in-depth semi-structured interviews, two competing narratives emerged from the data—that is, the deeply rooted and entrenched idea of the postdoc system as a pipeline for novice researchers to transition into established scholars, and the idea of the postdocs as precarious scholars whose academic labour is insecure, unstable, and exploited in the university. I conclude the article with some broad systemic implications on the role and function of postdocs in South African higher education, and the need for more research to understand these marginalised scholars.

Developing Creativity in the Higher Education on the Relationship between Community Art and Whole Child Approach

Under the umbrella of the VUCA-world and growing international competition creativity plays a more important role in higher education. In this context, divergent thinking, fluency, flexibility, problem-sensitiveness and originality are key factors for work, life, and literacy. In the first part of the article we will discuss the philosophical phenomena of this process, which comes from John Dewey’s ’learning by doing’ principle. In fact, rethinking higher education comes to the front in the 21st century, changing teaching education in order to develop creativity with various innovative ways. In the second part of the article Visual Arts, especially Community Art, will be in focus. This promotes communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and innovation, especially project-based learning via Totem Project, which was implemented at J. Selye University from November to December 2022. The aim of the project was community building and creativity development. Building a community is based on collaboration amongst students and teachers (the project had 50 members in total and consisted of 100 working hours) in order to develop creativity, team-building, and collaborative professionalism via sharing aims and expectations, building community and trust, respect and listening. The Totem Project started to map prior knowledge on community in order to develop engagement and creativity at three levels: individual, team, and organizational levels. Finally, at the end of the paper, conclusions will underline some open dilemmas and questions.

Investigating the Psychometric Properties of a Personality Questionnaire among University Lecturers in Malaysia

This study investigates the psychometric properties of a personality questionnaire developed for university lecturers in Malaysia, assessing the Big Five personality traits: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. A sample of 30 lecturers from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) was examined, with the questionnaire showing strong internal consistency, reflected in a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.959. Demographic variables, including gender, age, marital status, and academic qualifications, were analyzed to provide further context for the findings. The results validate the questionnaire as an effective tool for assessing personality traits among Malaysian academics, offering valuable insights into how these traits may influence teaching effectiveness and professional behavior. This study contributes to the development of tailored psychometric tools in the Malaysian academic context and provides a foundation for further research into personality and its role in higher education.

The Role of Higher Education in Humanistic Education for Students

Human values are a core value for every human being. Humanity will help people live together peacefully, will help people find the meaning of their lives. To effectively educate humanities for students, first of all, each school must be a truly humane environment, must innovate the educational mechanism and method. At the same time, it is necessary to find the compatibility of the value standards taught in the school with the natural development law of society to strengthen the belief in values in students. Therefore, research to continue educating and spreading humanity to students today is extremely necessary in both theory and practice, in order to contribute to building and nurturing generations of Vietnamese students who are perfect in personality with national and humanistic values suitable for the development of the new era.

Refocusing education: understanding higher education institutions’ needs for human resource development in Azerbaijan

ABSTRACT Research on the capacity of universities to produce skilled graduates in developing post-Soviet countries is limited. It was reported that innovative companies in Azerbaijan face challenges in recruiting university graduates with the necessary cognitive and technical abilities. Referring to the perspectives of faculty members, university leaders and representatives of the Ministry of Science and Education, the current study explored the factors that were thought to influence the capacity of universities to develop human resources for the modernizing labour market. The study's results also align with the broader discourse on higher education's role in economic development and offer insights for improving alignment between educational outcomes and labour market needs in developing countries like Azerbaijan. While the management style of educational programmes and the faculty members were recognized as influential aspects of quality provision and assurance for skilled human resource development, university managers expressed a desire for greater support and autonomy from macro-level institutions, such as the Ministry of Science and Education, particularly in curriculum design and fostering more effective university-industry partnerships.

Strategic intentions of higher education for sustainable development goals: Qualitative evidence from universities in Türkiye

AbstractAlthough the literature on the role of higher education in sustainable development is extensive, a notable gap remains in universities' intentions to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the contexts they pay attention to, and the measurement tools they use in different country samples. Aiming to contribute to this gap with the sample of Türkiye, a country with minimal progress on SDG reporting, this study conducts a three‐tiered content analysis on 121 state universities' strategic plans. The prominent results show that universities in the country prioritize SDGs 8, 16, 9, 11, and 4, with 40% or higher proportions. Besides, there exists a lack of strategic targets set by any universities for SDGs 1, 10, 12, 14, and 17. While most universities pay attention to sustainability on institutional and societal aspects, with 45% or higher proportions, environmental concerns are determined to be low, and there exists a high diversity among the measurement tools with 12 types, with all 30% or lower proportions. The results present supportive evidence from Türkiye to the existing literature, particularly on Western countries' SDG prioritization, and thus, to the insight that the similarities and differences in SDG prioritization in different countries samples emerge from the geographical and regional affinities rather than educational levels. Finally, the need to promote and foster SDG reporting initiatives to make universities' SDG contributions more systematic and consistent appears to be a critical managerial implication for Turkish higher education.

The Role of Higher Education in Regional Development

The Role of Higher Education in Regional Development

Shaping tomorrow's managers: The influence of university education on economics students' attitudes toward corporate social responsibility and labor unions

AbstractUniversity education significantly shapes individual values and views, influencing future managers' approaches to CSR and labor relations. This study, employing a survey and experimental vignette methodology, examines the impact of university education on economics students' attitudes toward CSR and organized labor. Our results indicate that while overall attitudes toward CSR remained stable, students showed a slight shift toward profit orientation when faced with real‐life managerial scenarios. There was also a decline in support for labor unions over the academic year, possibly due to neoliberal perspectives in teaching. A key finding is the emergence of a profit‐oriented mindset among economics students, reflecting broader managerial considerations. The study underscores the importance of examining how theoretical knowledge translates into practical decision‐making contexts and suggests the need for a nuanced understanding of CSR and labor union attitudes among economics students, thereby contributing to the discussion on higher education's role in shaping future business leaders.

Interrogating the Academy: Higher Education Transformation for the Public Good beyond Diversity in Race and Gender

This article draws on findings from a qualitative study of academics’ role in higher education’s contribution to the public good based on 15 interviews with academics from two universities in South Africa. I argue that if higher education in South Africa is to transform for the public good, the transformation of the university academic staff needs to be taken seriously and move beyond diversity of race and gender. The findings of the study that underpins this article suggest that the attributes of academics must be considered in initiatives that seek to transform the academy. This has implications for meaningful transformation because diversity, in terms of race and gender, does not necessarily translate to transformation in practice. Based on these findings, I suggest what these attributes may be through the concept of “public good academics,” which the academics I interviewed associated with being progressive, reflexive, critically conscious, and socially competent. I conclude that public good academics are aptly positioned to engage in transformational practices. Therefore, the personal attributes of academics do matter and should not be ignored in our thinking and conversations about transformational practices in higher education, especially in South Africa—a country with a history of colonialism and apartheid that has shaped the higher education landscape.

Shifting geopolitics of the European higher education space

ABSTRACT Given recent major geopolitical events in the European region, such as Brexit and the launch of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this article explores recent and under-researched shifts in the geopolitics of the European higher education space, focusing specifically on the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The analysis is informed by the critical geopolitics approach and relies on interviews with stakeholders in the four countries that established the EHEA (Germany, France, Italy and the UK), key recent EHEA official communications, and a thematic analysis of these datasets. The analysis has revealed three major recent overlapping shifts in EHEA geopolitics: regarding its borders, identity and values. These findings are significant, highlighting the existence and dynamics of the phenomenon of higher education geopolitics in Europe and addressing an under-researched area in the literature on European geopolitics and the role of higher education in it.

Политэкономическая оценка продвижения системы образования в России в условиях становления цифровой экономики

The article reviews a political-economic analysis of the growing dynamics of the education system in Russia, using the example of higher education in the creative solutions of the digital economy. The author examines the economics of education from the political economy view. The evolution of targets in higher education is presented. When comparing definitions of higher education targets, they provide two mutually related, but competing functions of higher school: the role of higher education in the teaching workforce for all economic sectors and the general intellectual growing of a creative, socialized personality. The nature of economic interests in the higher education system is determined. Market economy and democratic society principles imply models of competitive harmony in economic interests of higher education. The educational product is analyzed from the principle of diglossia as a public and private benefit. In the near future, a combination of fee and free higher education in Russia is inevitable. However, the share of fee-paying educational services of universities will dramatically increase. The analysis confirms academic steps to create a scientific product in the digital economy. Competition of universities in the market of scientific products for receiving profitable contracts with firms and corporations stimulates universities to increase their rankings. The conclusion shows the inconsistency of the dynamics of the development of the education system of Russia in the digital economy. An important contradiction is in the prevalence of political decisions free from long-term socio-economic consequences.