University Academic Programmes Research Articles

Do universities have the articulation of college programmes in mind when reviewing their academic curricula?

In order to articulate academic programmes from college to university effectively, the curricula of the two institutional structures must be aligned. Studies show that this is not always the case, despite the existence of national and sectoral policies that are intended to promote alignment. In grappling with this reality, this study explored the level of interface of academic programmes between TVET (technical and vocational education and training) colleges and a comprehensive university in South Africa. It also investigated whether, and the extent to which, university policies and actors considered college programmes during their curriculum-review processes. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to gather qualitative data. It was found that, instead of considering college curricula, curriculum review was driven by professional bodies, market demands and relevance. Moreover, institutional actors did not have the required agency to engage with the current misalignment of college–university academic programmes or curricula. The implication is that, while necessary, university policies for promoting academic curricula for articulation and programme interface are not adequate for resolving the problem of the misalignment between college and university curricula. To facilitate the interests of agents in articulation, the articulation officers at institutions of higher learning must ensure that articulation policies are in place in departments and that curriculum designers and related stakeholders are imbued with articulation principles during the review and realignment of curricula.

Mentorship for early career academics in a long-term problem- and project-based university academic development program in Denmark: views of subject and pedagogy mentors

ABSTRACT The study explored the viewpoints of two groups of mentors – subject and pedagogy – on their roles in a 12-month problem-based learning (PBL) academic development program at a Danish university. Q methodology analysis from 49 mentors revealed consensus on certain generic characteristics of good mentorship, namely active listening, constructive feedback, and mutual respect. Significantly distinguished collective opinions on good mentorship were identified through three factors: 1) providing advice using one’s own teaching experience, 2) probing mentee self-reflection and responsibility, and 3) co-creating and mediating. While most pedagogy mentors were loaded on Factor 2, emphasizing a social-constructivist approach centred on mentees, subject mentors’ views differed across all three distinct collective opinions. Factor 1 participants consisted mainly of subject mentors who have had no pedagogical background, with some reporting similar views to pedagogy mentors. Factor 3 included five female subject mentors who highlighted the importance of knowledge co-creation, reciprocity, and peer learning – an approach called for in the mentorship literature. The results suggest that structured mentorship preparation programs are needed, in addition to professional learning communities, for pedagogical and subject mentors to work collaboratively.

Enhancing Students’ intercultural competences through University Academic Training

The present paper aims to exhibit the benefit of intercultural educational courses in enhancing University students’ global understanding, tolerance, and inclusive social engagement. The paper displays the academic description, objectives, and implementation of the practices of the intercultural educational courses. The courses are inserted as major modules in undergraduate college studies. The case study analyzed within this experiment relates to the module entitled “Intercultural Communication”, which is part of a program that runs over three years entitled “Applied Languages in Culture” at Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco. The paper analyses quantitatively and qualitatively the attitudes and performances of undergraduate students having trained in how to succeed in communication in extreme intercultural contexts where different religions, traditions, and beliefs are encountered. Homework tasks, tests, exams, cultural exchange, and student-oriented surveys are analyzed and studied. The results produced by the immersion of intercultural courses in the university academic programs reveal that the graduated students succeed not only in being well integrated in their own cultural community but also in raising their chances of being hired in touristic companies where people from different cultures meet and interact. Such is the case of the graduates in intercultural communication taking place in Marrakech, which is a highly renowned touristic city.

Optimization in University Student Timetables: A Comprehensive Literature Review

The University Course Timetabling Problem presents a complex optimization problem as it seeks to meet the diverse requirements and constraints of a university's academic program through efficient timetabling. The objective of this research is to conduct comprehensive review of existing studies on optimization approaches in optimizing university timetable problems. The aim of the comprehensive studies is to further analyse the existing studies to discuss comparative studies to compare the performance of the approach methods in satisfying the constraints involved in university timetabling. The methodology used for this paper is systematic literature review which brought three main themes such constraints, optimization approaches, and datasets involved in University Course Timetabling Problem. The result shown that the majority of approaches involved hybrid approaches. In conclusion, this comprehensive review summarizes the constraints, optimization approach and datasets involved University Course Timetabling Problem in higher educational institutions of ASEAN countries.

Assessing the alignment of university academic programs with the requirements of Saudi Arabia’s data and business analytics job market

Businesses use data to enhance operational performance, creating demand for professionally trained data/business analytics graduates. Universities offer a variety of academic programs in response to the increasing labor market demands. Yet, research on how well educational offerings adapt to market demand is scant. This paper aims to evaluate how well university curricula match Saudi Arabia’s marketplace needs. A content analysis was conducted to compare universities’ analytics programs with a sample of internet job postings over a 12-month period. The results were evaluated quantitatively to assess the alignment between academia and industry. This information is of value to industry, universities, and learners.

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Work Practices of Teaching and Administrative Staff in Public Universities in Ghana: A Qualitative Case Study

The outbreak of COVID-19 revealed the unpreparedness of many people and institutions to deal with crisis situation. The pandemic has brought about changes in the operations of both teaching and non-teaching personnel in institutions. The objective of this study was to explore the aftermath impact and challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the work of faculty members and administrators in a public university context. Employing a holistic case study design using a qualitative research approach, the study recruited 54 senior members (teaching and non-teaching) from five colleges, 18 Faculties/schools, and nine directorates senior members using a multi-stage selection techniques. The study found key challenges of administrative staff due to the pandemic to include staff unreceptiveness, role ambiguity, supervision issues, lesson plan and delivery issues, assessment issues, poor trainee disposition, trainee unpreparedness, among others. Participants also intimated that the pandemic has resulted in shifts to remote learning, requiring administrative support in the provision of Information communication Technology (ICT) services to ensure students’ access to the necessary technology, among others. A majority further mentioned measures such as strengthening institutional alert and response capacities through the creation of pandemic task forces, diversifying university academic programmes to attract massive student enrolments support, institutionalizing the use of blended learning modes among others to mitigate the adverse effects of future pandemics. These measures, according to the interviewees have been effective especially because they have resulted in flexible work and learning, which helps to improve institutional productivity and the finances of the university in the face of dwindling government subventions. The study concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many challenges for teaching and administrative work in public universities and so these universities have to put in place effective measures to mitigate the adverse effects of future pandemics.

Trends in curriculum studies on the philosophical foundation of university Law programs in Latin America

This literature review article aims to make a theoretical approximation of the state of the art for the study entitled «Analysis of the curricular foundation of law programs in Latin America». This, with the aim of identifying the philosophical tendencies that underlie the curricular studies of university academic programs and in thecontext of the curricular studies that are carried out in law programs. The methodology used in this research is developed through a qualitative approach that seeks to understand the reality expressed by human acts, through a hermeneutic method that seeks to understand said acts expressed as texts as an integrated whole. As a result, it was possible to show that curricular studies related to the philosophical foundation in curricular design are not common, since these studies focus mainly on the search for relevance and curricular coherence. Most studies of curricular design in legal pedagogy focus on training by competencies that respond to social, market and self-realization demands of individuals.

Sustainability as an Emerging Paradigm in Universities

This article aims to review the perspective of sustainability adoption in universities through two dimensions: firstly, from the educational and research process, and second, from their global positioning in terms of the performance of their university campus. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis was carried out, referring to publications dating from 2006 to 2020, using the terms “Sustainability, green universities and curricular sustainability” as search keywords. In addition, an analysis of eight global university rankings was made, gathering information from their official websites on their evaluation fields, indicators, and volume of Ibero–American universities cataloged. The result is that, since 2007, the number of publications on this topic has increased, showing that the participation of Latin American in publications is very low (3.69%). Furthermore, only 12% of Latin American universities are included in world rankings. Sustainability has hardly been integrated into university academic programs; likewise, it is observed that the traditional world ranking of universities mainly take into account factors related to teaching and research, without considering criteria related to sustainability. Moreover, it is essential to develop policies that encourage universities to develop sustainability strategies in their academic and institutional processes in general, as well as in the global university evaluation systems, in order to value sustainability adequately in both in academics, research and institutional performance.

Academic Success and Stories of Resiliency: African American Female Students Navigating the College Terrain

Many educators have become accustomed to using the deficit model of thinking to illustrate the challenges faced by African American students, frequently interpreting their academic struggles as personal failures and lack of resilience. In 2007, a public university in Southern California established the Learning Habits Project (LHP), a study designed to assess the ongoing efforts of university academic programs and to provide data on fostering student success through successful learning habits. This study documented the strategic approaches that foster academic success and resilience employed by 19 African American female college students. Viewed through the lens of Black Feminist Standpoint and Resiliency theories, the results of this study can be used to guide students and educators seeking to improve academic success and resiliency in higher education.

Classification of University Departments of Industrial Engineering in Colombia: A DEA Application without Explicit Inputs

The article describes the use and applicability of Data Envelopment Analysis without Explicit Input (DEA-WEI) to evaluate the performance in SaberPRO tests of 82 industrial engineering programs in Colombia during 2016-2018. The results obtained can be used as an instrument to strengthen the quality assurance processes in higher education. As a result of applying the DEA-WEI model, the universities could be classified into five homogeneous groups, each with different characteristics. This grouping can be used as a strategic tool for the higher education institutions since it was possible to identify the other institutions' reference universities. In the current environment, evaluating a university's academic program's performance and its comparison with other universities is an essential issue for students, state control agencies, and universities to improve their indicators for accreditation processes. This classification can serve as a comparative measure of the educational quality offered by each university. In some countries, these classification results serve as a reference for allocating resources by the State for financing infrastructure and research projects. In Colombia, one of the indicators of quality in higher education is the standardized tests called SaberPRO, taken by all students in the last year of any academic program.

Pitching Research®… Evolution into a Programmatic Framework… Self-Reflection and the Story so Far

Faff’s (2015, 2021a) “pitching research” framework (PRF) founds an innovative, interactive and digitalised educational program to learn Research Process, emphasising the core principles of responsible science. This program provides an adaptable, self-paced and asynchronous framework for research-enabled students to learn how to: retrospectively evaluate, communicate and critique existing research; and prospectively plan, communicate with an expert mentor and (potentially) execute the essential elements of a new research idea. The program has developed a suite of MOOC-like teaching-learning modules/tools. It can: be calibrated for many levels of study; be sequentially graduated for increasing levels of mastery; and support flexible modes of engagement. The primary ethos underpinning this program is one of collaboration and sharing. Indeed, the phenomenal global reach of the program is demonstrated by a: central contemporary website; dedicated separate grants/competitions portal with 2800+ registered users across 50 countries; delivery of 300+ pitching research workshops across 50+ countries and 37 Australian universities; significant international adoption of the pitching research framework by university academic programs, conferences and colloquiums. This has resulted in the development of an impressive member-based global network (the “InSPiR2eS” network) to create, enhance and leverage extensive collaborative educational partnerships, thereby, accelerating higher quality research student-learning opportunities. To illustrate such exciting opportunities, I also showcase the latest major PRF initiative – the inaugural InSPiR2eS Global Pitching Research Competition (IGPRC) in Section 6. See the 3-minute video abstract here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G68k7EYpl48.

СОЗДАНИЕ НАСТОЛЬНОЙ ИГРЫ КАК СРЕДСТВО РАЗВИТИЯ МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОМПЕТЕНЦИИ СТУДЕНТОВ ВУЗА

The paper analyzes the project-based method as a means of developing the intercultural competence of university students in the course of learning a foreign language. The application of this method is caused by the high requirements of the university academic programs and the necessity to search for pedagogical technologies, methods, and approaches that contribute to the imitation of real communication situations in the course of studying a foreign language by students of non-linguistic specialties. The author describes the project-based method as an approach in teaching undergraduates of the academic program “Advertising and public relations” to make a creative project. The paper presents the results of a survey regarding the students’ preferences in the forms of educational activities used in class; describes the students’ experience in creating a board game as a creative project for the Foreign Language course. The stages of the project activity – preparatory, technological, and final – are described in detail, the meaning of each stage is explained, a detailed description of the exercises used at all stages is given. The author paid particular attention to the criteria for evaluating the project activities. The paper presents the results of monitoring that identifies the level of students' proficiency in lexical, cultural, and historical material on the given topic before and after the implementation of the project-based method. The author underlines the potential of the project-based technique in enhancing the existing intercultural awareness and cognitive interest of the students, improving their skills of learning new information as well as lexical, cultural, and historical material.

Counselling in Times of the Coronavirus and Beyond

An effective classification and coding system has been designed, developed, and implemented in one of the world’s mega universities, named IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University). This system classifies and categorises the various courses of each programme depending upon the nature and description of the courses involved. A suitable and acceptable numbering convention system has been structured for the academic programmes and courses involved. The codes assigned are found to be quite versatile and helps to quickly identify the course level, discipline, and revision version, etc. Also colour codes have been provided in the coding system presented since colours are found to be the unique and commercial medium that appeals to all visually and sensitizes mind quickly and differently. The classification and coding system presented takes care of any ambiguity that may arise while providing data and information, and communicating with internal and external agencies/stakeholders that include learners, teaching, and administrative university staff. The system presented would also be quite helpful for (a) Study material printing division of the university in sorting effectively and quickly supplying the study material to the learners, and, (b) Examination division of the university in quickly and efficiently scheduling the examination datasheets without and overlapping. The classification coding system acts as an effective quality management information tool to make an informed decision to resolve the various day-today challenges in managing and monitoring the university academic programmes and courses. Further, the presented system would facilitate to improve the overall working efficiency of the university education system and help to provide quality education system to its learners. Keywords: Open and distance education; Coding

An Effective Classification and Coding System for Managing and Monitoring the University Academic Programmes and Courses

An effective classification and coding system has been designed, developed, and implemented in one of the world’s mega universities, named IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University). This system classifies and categorises the various courses of each programme depending upon the nature and description of the courses involved. A suitable and acceptable numbering convention system has been structured for the academic programmes and courses involved. The codes assigned are found to be quite versatile and helps to quickly identify the course level, discipline, and revision version, etc. Also colour codes have been provided in the coding system presented since colours are found to be the unique and commercial medium that appeals to all visually and sensitizes mind quickly and differently. The classification and coding system presented takes care of any ambiguity that may arise while providing data and information, and communicating with internal and external agencies/stakeholders that include learners, teaching, and administrative university staff. The system presented would also be quite helpful for (a) Study material printing division of the university in sorting effectively and quickly supplying the study material to the learners, and, (b) Examination division of the university in quickly and efficiently scheduling the examination datasheets without and overlapping. The classification coding system acts as an effective quality management information tool to make an informed decision to resolve the various day-today challenges in managing and monitoring the university academic programmes and courses. Further, the presented system would facilitate to improve the overall working efficiency of the university education system and help to provide quality education system to its learners.

Working Practices of Journalists: Humans or Robots

The article presents the results of a research aimed at studying the significant changes in journalistic practices, namely, their partial replacement by automated systems, algorithms, and robots. The necessity of understanding and adapting to these changes comprises the topicality of the research. The research included a random sampling survey of 103 Russian journalists from various mass media. The survey showed that all the respondents use smart services and automated systems at all stages of their work - from making the choice of the topic, and its development, to analyzing marketing efficiency indicators of its promotion. Each stage of working practices requires a different extent of smart technologies involvement, as well as a different set of digital tools. All this proves the authors hypothesis that smart technologies are gradually replacing most routine processes involved in journalists work. In the contemporary commentariat there is no common view on benefits of text generating algorithms and auxiliary automated systems. However, many respondents, who are actually advanced users, believe that these facilitate their work, help to fast-track the relevant processes and avoid errors in routine processes which could be made by a human. The authors recommend taking into account these data when developing university academic programs on Journalism and training programs for professionals in this sphere.

University of Guyana Library Quality Assurance Framework: A Proposal

Quality Assurance (QA) in higher education is the process by which university academic programmes are assessed and evaluated against specific criteria. Quality assurance mechanism adopted by the University of Guyana (UG) will ultimately affect the University of Guyana Library (UGL) which is an integral part of the academic culture. Academic libraries are pressured to align quality initiatives and practices with the parent institution’s missions and goals. This research has developed a proposed QA Framework for the UGL with an emphasis on human resources and technology. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) Framework and the Institutional Theory was used to provide the theoretical foundation for the framework. The CHAT was used to design a framework that comprised six categories/nodes:- i) Tools/Instruments - Resources/Technology Availability; ii) Subject - Professional Staff Capability; iii) Rules/Control - Professional Library Standards; iv) Context - Loose/tight coupling with the University; v) Communication/Interaction - professionals, students, technology and; vi) Object/Quality of Knowledge produced/disseminated. The three major components of the Institutional Theory of isomorphic processes: coercive, mimetic, and normative were used to explain the six components/categories that form the six nodes of the framework. Using the interviewing schedules, information was acquired from former and current UGL library professionals, UG faculty and students on some aspects of the human and technological components of the UGL. The qualitative data was transformed into statistical data to derive the mean scores from the 15 respondents and to determine whether there were correlations between five nodes and the sixth node. Pearson’s correlation was used to determine if a significant relationship exists between the groups. The results showed that the independent variables loose/tight coupling has a positive relationship with the dependent variable (generation and dissemination of knowledge). This implies that the ability of the UG Library professionals to generate and disseminate knowledge has a direct relation to loose/tight coupling. Arising out of the quantitative analysis this QA Framework Proposal was developed as a guide to the UG Library.

Coeficiente para la medición isocuanta de la Eficiencia Terminal en la Escuela de Medicina Justo Sierra

El fenómeno de la eficiencia terminal ha sido objeto de estudio de varias Instituciones de educación superior en México. Muchas de ellas lo consideran un estándar de productividad y evaluación del rendimiento y calidad de los programas académicos universitarios. La Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad Justo Sierra, con el objetivo de identificar el índice de la eficiencia terminal del Programa de Médico Cirujano, realizó un estudio descriptivo de tipo exploratorio en el que se incluyeron 2,447 alumnos matriculados durante treinta y dos generaciones. Lo que sirvió para calcular la frontera isocuanta a través de la construcción de un coeficiente de eficiencia terminal y de titulación. El coeficiente de eficiencia terminal real global fue de .30 (r=0.004), y el coeficiente de eficiencia de titulación global fue de .84 (r=0.95); estos valores buscan una comparación 1:1 es decir una entrada por una salida. Este trabajo permitió identificar la frontera isocuanta en los dos coeficientes con una distancia proporcional a cada generación, lo que arrojó la intensidad del índice de eficiencias terminal y de titulación en la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad Justo Sierra.

The moderation effect of workplace experience on innovation motivation: a study of STEM faculty in Singapore

ABSTRACTWhile the topic on drivers of innovation has been intensely studied, most of the literature tends to examine motivators at a point in time with the assumption that they are stable. However, shifts in social and environmental contexts may change motivators of behaviour. In light of the discrepancy, this study uses the person–environment fit theory and examines innovation-stimulating work climate from the perspective of workplace experience. With a sample of 276 faculty members in two major universities in Singapore, we test the moderating effect of workplace experience on three motivators – peer influence, performance evaluation and resource access, and found that with increased workplace experience, the effectiveness of these environmental motivators diminished. Resource access and co-worker influence become less salient with the exception of evaluation, which remains important. The implications for university administration and academic training programs are discussed.

Valoración de la tutoría en el devenir de la formación universitaria

El documento presenta los resultados de una investigación en curso que analiza la implementación de un programa institucional de tutoría de viva voz de los participantes, centrándose en la experiencia del tutor y el tutorado en el devenir del proceso educativo en un programa académico universitario. El diseño metodológico tiene como base los supuestos del estudio de casos, fundamentado desde la perspectiva interpretativa. Los principales hallazgos señalan que, aunque la tutoría ha beneficiado al estudiantado en su transitar por el programa educativo, existen problemáticas que no son resueltas de manera efectiva con su implementación, tal es el caso de las deficiencias académicas que el alumnado trae consigo desde un nivel educativo anterior, aunada a la vulnerable situación económica del estudiantado de la región, las cuales abonan a la deserción escolar.

A Directory to International LIS Education Accreditation Processes: Part III

We will continue to look at LIS education accreditation processes across the world in Part III of this directory. This time, readers will find information on the accreditation processes for LIS education in New Zealand. Any new LIS education programs and degrees offered by universities in New Zealand, or any significant changes made to the existing structure of LIS education programs in New Zealand universities must get approval from the Committee on University Academic Programmes (CUAP). The Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) assesses the LIS education providers in New Zealand on their coverage of the body of knowledge regularly.