Staff Exchanges Research Articles

Collaboration between a child telephone helpline and sexual and reproductive health and rights organisations in Senegal: lessons learned

This study identifies lessons learned from a collaboration between a child telephone helpline and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) organisations in Senegal established in the context of an SRHR programme for young people. We assessed how helpline operators are equipped to address sexual health and rights issues with young people, what the relevant skills of operators are, and to what extent referral to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service providers took place. A documentary review, a vignette study and interviews with six key informants and all seven operators took place. The collaboration led to promising initiatives, such as the provision of SRH training, the exchange of staff, referral to SRH service providers. However, the counselling advice provided by operators was not always in line with the rights-based approach and responses were influenced by underlying norms concerning young people’s sexuality. Additionally, concerns about confidentiality were noted. The collaboration was an innovative attempt to respond to young people’s limited access to SRHR information and services but there is a need for more in-depth training of helpline operator’s skills and the development of a standardised rights-based counselling manual.

Cooperation between nursing homes and intellectual disability care services : State of affairs in Flanders

Considering the increasing life expectancy of people with intellectual disabilities (ID), the importance of cooperation between services for people with ID and elderly care services has been stressed in Flanders and the Netherlands, as well as internationally. However, the prevalence, intensity and content of such acooperation are yet unknown. In order to gain information to address this issue, an online-survey was delivered to directors of all nursing homes in Flanders (n= 781). 229 surveys were completed.In more than 75% of the nursing homes, people with ID were among the residents over the past decade. However, at the same time alack of expertise has been identified as abarrier to provide them optimal care and support. Hence, the respondents point out that acooperation with ID care services could be beneficial. Nevertheless, those partnerships only arose in aquarter of the nursing homes so far, primarily for the purpose of exchange of expertise. Intersectoral multidisciplinary consultations and intersectoral care team consultations have been taking place as well, be it mainly in the context of apersons' transition from an ID care service to anursing home. Until now, radical cooperations which involve an exchange of staff, seem to be rather rare.

Decolonisation and the organisation of the international workforce: Dutch multinationals in Indonesia, 1945–1967

This article deals with one particular aspect of economic decolonisation: the inclusion of local managers in the companies of the former colonial powers, in this case, the promotion of Indonesians to managerial and supervisory positions in Dutch multinationals. The Indonesian government blamed Dutch companies for being too slow in training and promoting local managers, and Dutch historiography agreed with that judgement. The replacement of expatriates by local managers, however, should be considered in the broader context of the diverse functions of expatriates. This article argues that for multinationals the use of expatriates is essential for creating a social network that enables knowledge transfer and control. The local subsidiaries profited from the transfer of knowledge and expertise; becoming part of that international network through exchange of staff is more important than getting rid of all expatriates.

INTEGRATION OF DROHOBYCH IVAN FRANKO UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC STAFF INTO THE EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL SPACE IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

In recent years international cooperation of the Department of General Pedagogy and Preschool Education at Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University and partner departments at universities of Poland, Austria, Belarus, Germany, Belgium etc. has been expanding. Close contacts have been established between the universities. The main areas of international cooperation comprise joint research work; exchange of academic staff (research, participation in conferences); preparation of joint publications.The attention has been focused on the implementation of joint research projects, scholarships, preparation of joint publications, exchange of teachers (classes, workshops) and senior academic staff (research, participation in conferences). Postgraduate students and teachers of the Department take part in international projects and scholarship programs. Their efforts are aimed at preparing projects and maximizing potential in talented youth. Overall, over the past years thirteen members of the Department of General Pedagogy and Preschool Education have received international scholarships, participated in international projects and academic internship programs. The international Polish-funded Ukrainian-Polish research project «Career Prospects for Pedagogy Graduates in Poland and Ukraine» has successfully been completed.In recent years 12 collections of academic papers, 4 monographs in English, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian have been produced. A number of studies have been conducted within joint projects and presented in joint Ukrainian-Polish research publications. The prevalent topics are history of upbringing and education, formation of national identity, theories and methods of education, training of teachers, issues of comparative pedagogy.It is noted that the academics of the Department take an active part in organizing committees, submit and edit conference materials. The conference topics are varied and wide-ranging, sometimes circular. «Comparative Pedagogy in the Context of International Cooperation and European Integration» conference materials (2010, 2011, 2013, 2015) were published in seven collections of academic papers, a monograph «Modernization of Education in Modern World: Traditions and Innovations».A promising area of cooperation with universities in Austria and Poland is the implementation of a number of educational programs.

Immunology's Twinning Triangle

Immunology's Twinning Triangle

Is There a Need for One Health Surveillance (OHS)?

The study reports the results of an electronic survey to identify surveillance stakeholder attitudes towards One Health Surveillance (OHS) and a workshop held at the 2014 ISDS conference to identify strategies from improving surveillance. The majority of respondents reported that OHS is valued and needed. Many respondents reported that improving surveillance is of medium to high priority, but that improvements would be difficult to make. Practical approaches for moving forward included cross domain staff exchanges, tools for data integration and reporting diseases across domains.

Passion, People, Risk and Opportunity: The Case for Public Service Leadership in Reforming the Federation

Passion, People, Risk and Opportunity: The Case for Public Service Leadership in Reforming the Federation

At home in the world

Since 2011, the academic libraries at Linnaeus University, Sweden and University of Colorado Denver, USA have collaboratively created a programmatic approach for staff exchanges and associated projects. This initiative occurred within the larger framework of university internationalization goals and cultural competency requirements. In addition, both libraries were experiencing significant workplace changes, including newly designed facilities, programs, and services, which required that staff members learn to see their organizations and understand their roles in new ways. As the exchange program evolved, formal comparison studies complemented informal exchange observations about similarities and differences between the two library organizations. Resulting insights altered traditional worldviews and professional assumptions of both host and exchange participants. In addition, cultural competencies were further exercised through collaborative projects that benefit the increasingly diverse faculty and student constituencies at both home institutions. Concluding reflections suggest considerations for organizations considering international exchanges for staff members “at home in the world.”

Navigating Uncertainty: The Survival Strategies of Religious NGOs in China

This article looks at the strategies religious non-governmental organizations (RNGOs) with strong transnational linkages use to maintain a continued presence in mainland China. It does so by utilizing neo-institutional theory as an instrument for analysis, with an emphasis on outlining the coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures RNGOs face. One of the key findings of the study is that there is creative circumvention of isomorphic pressures by working with local agents, fostering trust with the local government, and keeping a low profile. Moreover, RNGOs dealt with the uncertain institutional environment in China through staff exchanges, denominational supervision, tapping into global platforms, and undergoing a professionalization process.

Navigating Uncertainty: The Survival Strategies of Religious NGOs in China

This article looks at the strategies religious non-governmental organizations (RNGOs) with strong transnational linkages use to maintain a continued presence in mainland China. It does so by utilizing neo-institutional theory as an instrument for analysis, with an emphasis on outlining the coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures RNGOs face. One of the key findings of the study is that there is creative circumvention of isomorphic pressures by working with local agents, fostering trust with the local government, and keeping a low profile. Moreover, RNGOs dealt with the uncertain institutional environment in China through staff exchanges, denominational supervision, tapping into global platforms, and undergoing a professionalization process.

Professionalism in library and information science

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the current trends, needs and opportunities of professionalism in librarianship in Nigeria. The broad purpose of the paper was to investigate the level of professionalism in librarianship and to ascertain the current status, trends and opportunities within the profession among academic librarians in Nigeria. Five specific research questions were formulated which are: to examine how librarians value librarianship as a profession, to elicit the efforts made by librarians with regards to professional development, to ascertain methods of acquiring current competencies within the profession, to investigate the role of professional bodies in promoting professionalism and excellence within the library and information science (LIS) profession and to proffer strategies to enhance professionalism and excellence among librarians in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – Descriptive survey design was adopted in the study across both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The area of the study was the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka Anambra State. Population of the study comprised a total of 63 librarians in the two universities. All librarians were sampled because of the small sample size. The instrument for data collection was oral interview and questionnaire which contained 53 items derived from the research questions and built on a four-point scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree, (A) Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). The criterion mean was 2.50. Therefore, any calculated mean below 2.50 was adjudged a negative score, while any mean from 2.50 and above was regarded as a positive score. Findings – The study revealed the challenges facing professionalism and excellence within the LIS field as lack of funding for professional development, lack of sponsorship to workshops and conferences, lack of uninterruptible internet facility and a dearth of professional mentors in the South East zone. Other problems gathered from a scheduled interview with some senior professionals in the institutions revealed that most librarians are still facing the challenge of imbibing and utilizing emerging skills in the LIS professions such as digital archiving and data mining skills for their day-to-day activities. Originality/value – Recommendations arising from the study were proffered such as the creation of staff development programmes by management; collaboration and partnership by libraries within the zone; acquisition of training through workshops and conferences irrespective of sponsorship by the institutions; and teaming of academic librarians to enhance their visibility and publication output. International staff exchanges and opportunities for sabbatical leave, which hitherto was not common in the South East Zone, were recommended. Among other recommendations also were building of consortia with libraries in the country; LIS professional bodies helping to create visibility and prestige of the LIS profession; and, finally, to scale up the image of the profession the marketing of library products through profiling of patrons and furnishing them with required information has not only become necessary but critical.

Diaspora and peer support working: benefits of and challenges for the Butabika-East London Link.

The International Health Partnership ('the Link') between the East London NHS Foundation Trust and Butabika Hospital in Uganda was set up in 2005. It has facilitated staff exchanges and set up many workstreams (e.g. in child and adolescent psychiatry, nursing and psychology) and projects (e.g. a peer support worker project and a violence reduction programme). The Link has been collaborative and mutually beneficial. The authors describe benefits and challenges at individual and organisational levels. Notably, the Link has achieved a commitment to service user involvement and an increasingly central involvement of the Ugandan diaspora working in mental health in the UK.

Противники или союзники? Крымская война и британско-российское техническое сотрудничество на Урале

This article studies one aspect of British-Russian cooperation between the 1840s and 1850s, involving the exchange of technical staff. The research is based on clerical records and act sources, deposited in archival materials of central and local governmental bodies of the Russian mining industry. The specific features of cooperation are illustrated by examples of service of Englishmen at Ural factories. The author analyses circumstances of recruitment and conditions of work of high-qualified engineers as well as of ordinary masters. During the period in question, Englishmen were the most requested specialists because they were thought to possess advanced technological experience and knowledge. Such a perception extended to all, not just to the representatives of professions requiring the highest education and qualification. In the second half of the 1840s – early 1850s, a team of shipbuilders led by the engineer, James Carr, worked in the Ural plants. During this period the Russian government actively invited mechanics, hammer workers, molders and masters of puddling. Englishmen often were appointed to higher positions to deal with the technical part of Ural state factories. The exchange of experience was carried out during the common work of British and Russian engineers and masters as well as in the process of training. The paper displays the ambiguity of such interaction and difficulties, which arose due to faults of either one or the other side. The sources, documenting recruitment and dismissal of foreigners, describe cases when the hiring of invited specialists did not bring the expected results. The author reveals the reasons and consequences of failed attempts of using British technological experience at Russian plants. Among them include technical unpreparedness of the Ural industry, the inconsistency between the qualification of foreigners and the tasks for which they were invited and finally insufficient awareness of the Russian side concerning the recruited technicians’ professional skills. Biographies of English specialists (engineers, mechanics, etc.) are considered in the context of international conjuncture, which at the time was characterized by an increase in tension in English-Russian relations and the upcoming war. The paper demonstrates that the attitude of some British men towards their service in the Urals changed for the worse because the Crimean war had begun. Others continued their contract work in the Urals in spite of the military confrontation between Russia and England. The activity of British technical specialists in the Urals was a reflection of peculiarities in English-Russian relations, in which cooperation in economic and technological spheres could coexist with a drastic deterioration of political relations.

Toward successful commercialization of university technology: Performance drivers of university technology transfer in Taiwan

Abstract The transfer of university technology 2 to industry involves a multitude of mechanisms which can be broken down into an even larger number of activities. These mechanisms and activities include launching technology-oriented start-ups, and providing the following: collaborative research, contract research, consulting services, technology licensing, graduate education, advanced training for enterprise staff, exchange of research staff, and other forms of formal or informal information transfer. Taking Taiwan's universities as a research base, this study intends to identify the critical drivers affecting the performance of university technology transfer. The Fuzzy Delphi method, interpretive structural modeling (ISM), and the analytic network process (ANP) are employed sequentially to derive the relative importance of the various performance drivers. Human capital and institutional/cultural resources are the two most emphasized resources for the improvement of university technology transfer in Taiwan. Some policy implications are derived on the basis of these results.

Engaging academically with China in Africa – the institutional approach of the University of Botswana

In 2006 the University of Botswana adopted the Policy on Internationalization which had three objectives: 1) to expand international student and staff exchanges; 2) to expand international research co-operation; and 3) to enhance the internationalisation of all curricula. As a result of the policy, the University has developed a number of academic partnerships in East Asia since 2006. The policy made a commitment to increase the number of university partnerships, not only in the traditional areas of Europe and North America, but particularly within Africa and with key economic powers in Asia, which were identified as China, India, Japan and South Korea. The most intensive academic engagement within East Asia has taken place with China and a strategic institutional approach has been adopted to develop this engagement.

Mentoring librarians for scholarly publishing

This paper illustrates the experiences of the University of Namibia (UNAM) Library in demonstrating that librarians in its employment are, indeed, academic staff by research and publications and by performing academic support functions for researchers, students, faculties and centres. This was tested through the UNAM Library capacity building project initiative in partnership with the Helsinki University (HU) Library and Tampere University (UTA) Library, in Finland. The learning objectives of this collaborative project were to improve competencies of UNAM Library staff so that they are able to function expertly and competently in an academic environment and to evidently assert their position as academic staff. The approach applied in this collaborative capacity building project included staff exchanges to share best practices; joint seminars, meetings and mentorship programs with research as a cross cutting issue in all the areas. Staff members were encouraged to think critically about what they have learned, how it contributes to their work at UNAM and to develop their research skills. One of the highlights of this collaborative project is a book with the title Empowering People – Collaboration between Finnish and Namibian University Libraries. The book provides evidence to the librarians themselves as well to the university community that research and scholarly communication is equally a part and parcel of the librarians’ work.

The role of private conservation in saving biodiversity in Australia

The role of private conservation in saving biodiversity in Australia

Teaching Political Science Research Methods in Hungary: Transferring Student-Centred Teaching Practices into a Subject-Focused Academic Culture

This article discusses the challenges of moving towards student-centredness in East-Central Europe through the example of Hungary’s subject-focused academic culture and the (re-)design of a political science research methods course at the University of Szeged for Spring 2012. Although countries participating in the Bologna Process undersigned the importance of student-centredness, few countries have actually yet moved in this direction. In addition, we know very little about how these instructional methods work outside the Western democratic context. I show that research into teaching is an important means to improve the process of education and that there are specific problems in transferring student-centredness into post-Communist higher education settings. Finally, I argue that knowing one’s teaching context is vital for planning student-centred courses effectively, which would be greatly fostered by experiencing other teaching contexts through early-career teacher exchanges. The European Commission has recently affirmed its commitment to staff exchanges, but such opportunities are only likely to be beneficial if they go beyond the current 6-week long exchange scheme that the Erasmus programme offers.

Lifelong Learning: Teaching Turkish Students about Languages in Contact (Romanian and Turkish) within Erasmus

The Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission includes a sub-programme for higher education funding projects at different levels of education and training, among which Erasmus. The purpose of the study is to show how Erasmus funds cooperation between higher education institutions across Europe, supporting professors to teach abroad and to receive training. The main source of evidence is our own successful experience as a teacher of English within the Erasmus staff mobility for teaching in Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Turkey). Staff exchanges have beneficial effects both for the people participating in the programme and for the home and host institutions.

Agricultural Research and Innovation Systems in Transition

summaryAgricultural Research and Innovation Systems in TransitionAgricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS) are in transition in many countries from a linear, top‐down approach towards more flexible and interactive arrangements. This transition to a system more responsive to changing demands seeks to improve the adoption of innovation in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the agri‐food sector. This article focuses on the research and innovation components of the AKIS to analyse the main developments of recent years and their drivers. It concludes that the diversity of institutional arrangements and priorities is likely to persist as they are path dependent and respond to different socio‐economic contexts. This article suggests how national governments could foster innovation in the agri‐food sector by considering a whole range of policies and improving their coherence. One suggestion is that the European Union play a role in coordinating (basic) science and research infrastructure, manage spillovers between EU regions, as well as promoting market‐based instruments, support capacity‐building and international exchange of staff, provide information using modern Information and Communication Technologies and guidelines for the evaluation of AKIS, and create a forum to exchange experiences.