University Knowledge Research Articles

Knowledge and Attitudes towards Cervical Cancer Screening amongst University of Botswana Female Students

Background:Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Botswana. More than two-thirds of cases occur in HIV-infected women, in a nation with a high HIV prevalence of 17%. Even though cancer screening is free in health facilities, cervical cancer screening is low. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of University of Botswana female students on cervical cancer screening.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among University of Botswana female students to elicit information about their knowledge and attitudes on cervical cancer screening.Results:A total of 335 students completed the questionnaire and all reported that they were aware of cervical cancer. The awareness was mostly through brochures, posters and other printed material. Regarding cervical cancer risk 315 (94%) attributed cervical cancer to smoking and 301 (89.9%) to early sexual debut. The majority of students 329 (98.2 %) were aware of cervical cancer screening. Papanicolaou (Pap) smear was the most popular screening test reported by 160 (47.8%) of the respondents as compared to Human Papilloma Virus testing (HPV) reported by 106 (31.6 %) of the respondents. The overall Pap smear screening rate was 92 of 335 students (27.5%). Those who perceived themselves to be at risk of contracting cervical cancer 203 (60.6%) where 1.8 times more likely to go for Pap smear than those who perceived to be safe, (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] 1.834; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]; 1.094-3.067), (P = 0.02).Conclusions:Pap smear screening uptake is low amongst University of Botswana female students. The likely reason for this could be because students do not perceive themselves to be susceptible to cancer so the lesser the likelihood of engaging in preventive behaviours. There is urgent need for university based cancer education campaign on cervical cancer screening benefits and incorporating these campaigns into the existing university medical services to increase uptake of screening programs offered.

The Study on the Relationship between University Faculties’ Job Stress and Organizational Commitment in China

With the global evolution of knowledge competition, university faculties play an important role in the development of knowledge and technology in colleges and universities, and multiple job responsibilities made faculty’s job suffering from more demanding and stressful. University faculties are the backbone of the university, and high faculty turnover rate has detrimental effects on the development of university. This research obtain 209 questionnaires from university faculties of Zhejiang province, and the relationship among job stress, job satisfaction, job engagement and organizational commitment is analyzed by structural equation model system. The results show that the job stress of the university faculties has positive direct effect on the job satisfaction, but also has the negative indirect effect on the job satisfaction. The job engagement has positive direct effect on the job satisfaction. All of the job stress, job engagement and the job satisfaction have the effect on organizational commitment, job satisfaction has positive direct effect, job stress has a positive indirect effect, and job engagement has a positive direct effect indirect effect.

Looking at the Skeleton of University Research Performance A Pilot Study on an Italian University

Though university research performance is very much depending on the specific structure of its collaboration patterns between internal and external colleagues, extant studies did not focus on this aspect. Aimed at filling in this gap, this pilot study investigates into the inner structure of an Italian medium-large sized university, and shows a number of features concerning university knowledge production and transfer, like the high heterogeneity of productivity and collaboration propensity among colleagues, departments and disciplinary areas, topological properties common to other kinds of socio-economic networks, and high positive collaboration between direct and indirect collaboration and impact factor.

University spillover before the national innovation system reform in Japan

This study examined whether and how university knowledge affected industrial R&D in the period when university-industry collaborations encountered institutional barriers in Japan. Estimation results of the regional knowledge production function using panel data (1983-1997) revealed that university research in a region positively affected valuable innovations in the region, measured by US patents filed by the Japanese firms, with a five-year lag. University-industry joint research did not act as a conduit of university spillover, which suggested that informal channels, such as voluntary transfer of academic inventions in return to donation, worked in the pre-reform period. Intermediaries as part of regional innovation policy, such as local public technology centres, increased valuable innovations not through intermediation of university-industry joint research, but through technology diffusion, such as technical consultation.

University knowledge transfer: exploring organisational structures to create strategic alignment

Whilst knowledge and technology transfer unarguably present an important source of wealth for a nation and an important component of a modern university's offering to society, the management of this activity is complex and as a result, many economies struggle to realise their expectations. Academics and commercial organisations are quick to blame inflexible and bureaucratic university transfer offices and administrators for this shortfall. This paper takes an approach of exploring the structural arrangements of knowledge transfer offices across various countries to identify if different structures help overcome different strategic and operational challenges involved in university-industry knowledge transfer. The findings identify that interdependent and complex management practices coupled with equally complex organisational architectures lead to issues of conflicting pressures and ambiguous governance. Furthermore, this research illustrates a number of 'structural' solutions that universities have adopted to try to side-step some of the problems.

University spillover before the national innovation system reform in Japan

This study examined whether and how university knowledge affected industrial R&D in the period when university-industry collaborations encountered institutional barriers in Japan. Estimation results of the regional knowledge production function using panel data (1983-1997) revealed that university research in a region positively affected valuable innovations in the region, measured by US patents filed by the Japanese firms, with a five-year lag. University-industry joint research did not act as a conduit of university spillover, which suggested that informal channels, such as voluntary transfer of academic inventions in return to donation, worked in the pre-reform period. Intermediaries as part of regional innovation policy, such as local public technology centres, increased valuable innovations not through intermediation of university-industry joint research, but through technology diffusion, such as technical consultation.

Knowledge Transfer Offices in the Context of Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship

Paper will present aspects of the knowledge transfer offices (KTO) from the EU Knowledge Transfer Study report through the prism of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE). It will also add the argument, based on the existing literature that in fact, knowledge couldn’t be managed but only the information resources can. This paper contributes to the on-going research Secondary Experience which main aim is to explore avenues for designing an information system that will support better use of the existing scientific papers between universities and their environment, including public, private and civil sector. There is a limited number of the EU wide research on the EU universities Knowledge transfer offices but existing one is sending not very promising results. In the last EU, a report addressing KTO not even one hypothesis addressing KTO related policies is accepted, and one of the hardest parts in conducting research was to find the contacts of the KTO’s. It is aligned with results from the master thesis of one of the authors where sources of information were analysed in terms of the transparency of the projects and their funding related information among 466 universities in the Danube region. That alerted us and opened up a completely new set of questions. In this paper, we use secondary data as content for our research.

Converting university knowledge into value: how conceptual frameworks contribute to the understanding of the third mission role of European universities

Converting university knowledge into value: how conceptual frameworks contribute to the understanding of the third mission role of European universities

University knowledge transfer: exploring organisational structures to create strategic alignment

Whilst knowledge and technology transfer unarguably present an important source of wealth for a nation and an important component of a modern university's offering to society, the management of this activity is complex and as a result, many economies struggle to realise their expectations. Academics and commercial organisations are quick to blame inflexible and bureaucratic university transfer offices and administrators for this shortfall. This paper takes an approach of exploring the structural arrangements of knowledge transfer offices across various countries to identify if different structures help overcome different strategic and operational challenges involved in university-industry knowledge transfer. The findings identify that interdependent and complex management practices coupled with equally complex organisational architectures lead to issues of conflicting pressures and ambiguous governance. Furthermore, this research illustrates a number of 'structural' solutions that universities have adopted to try to side-step some of the problems.

Converting university knowledge into value: how conceptual frameworks contribute to the understanding of the third mission role of European universities

The importance of universities in the movement of western economies from industrial to knowledge-driven economies is increasingly recognised, there has been a greater focus by policy makers and academics on the university's role. Resultantly, a number of conceptual frameworks have been created to capture this changing role, however, there remains a lack of clarity as to how the modern university engages a set of external stakeholders, resulting in a 'tangling' of conceptual frameworks explaining this 'third mission' paradigm. This article untangles these third mission concepts highlighting four areas of variance: the focus on public versus private good, the relation to university-business cooperation and entrepreneurship, the relation to theory and the stakeholder perspective taken by the frameworks. In doing so, it provides insight into how universities interact externally to convert their knowledge into value and make a case for a proactive approach to the third mission by university managers.

Interdisciplinariedad y transdisciplinariedad: perspectivas para la concepción de la universidad por venir

<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;" align="justify"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">El presente trabajo expone unas reflexiones sobre la situación actual de la universidad en cuanto institución social de altos estudios; particularmente en el hecho de que ésta ha enfatizado en el enfoque disciplinar conllevando a la fragmentación del conocimiento, la poca vinculación entre la institución y su contexto social, entre otros. Tal situación, representa un obstáculo para lograr una verdadera transformación en el contexto universitario. </span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">Con base en lo anterior, el enfoque metodológico asumido en la investigación es de tipo documental, por ello se realizó una revisión bibliográfica a los efectos de establecer un estado del arte sobre el tratamiento teórico que se ha dado al tema lo que contribuyó </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background: transparent;">con el planteamiento de una serie de reflexiones en torno a las perspectivas que permitirán dinamizar el proceso educativo en la universidad por venir, el cual es el propósito de esta investigación. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Razón por la cual, se plantea la interdisciplinaria como vía para alcanzar la transdisciplinariedad como referentes que coadyuven en la concepción de la universidad por venir, desde la cual se asuma la ciencia, la técnica y el humanismo para contribuir con el fortalecimiento de los valores humanos y del capital social de la región, a través de una formación transdisciplinaria, integrando los conocimientos universitarios con la pluralidad de saberes éticos, ecológicos, políticos, culturales, cotidianos, históricos y sociológicos.</span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%;" align="justify"><span style="color: #000000;"><br /></span></p>

The Impact of ICT in Public and Private Universities in Sudan

This paper examines the impacts of ICT in public and private Sudanese universities. We verify the first and third hypotheses that the use of ICT facilitates connection, networks and collaboration within public and private universities in Sudan, with local, regional and international institutions. We support the second hypothesis that the use of ICT enhances access, production and dissemination of knowledge in Sudanese universities. We support the fourth hypothesis that the use of ICT introduces ‘creative-destruction’ effect by providing opportunities for knowledge production, building connection and organizational changes; but simultaneously also creating hazards to knowledge production and building disconnection for those who do not share the knowledge in public and private Sudanese universities. We show that the most important advantageous related to the use of Internet for enhancing production, creation and transfer of knowledge include increasing digital knowledge for academic and researchers, rapid quantitative and qualitative increase in transferring information, development of new models for disseminating and distributing electronic information, and increase free access to electronic publications for academic purposes. We find that top problem related to the use of Internet is the lack of regular budget for universities libraries to pay for licenses and access to scientific and technical information.

University Knowledge Transfer Offices and Social Responsibility

Numerous studies and reviews about University Knowledge Transfer Offices (UKTO) have been written, but there are few that focus on Social Responsibility (SR). We present a systematic review of the research on both fields. We consider not only logics from agency theory and resource-based view, but also the dynamic approach from institutional theory, as they aim to generate sustainable economic and social value. The evolution of Knowledge Transfer Offices depends on their role as brokers of collaborations among different stakeholders, according to their mission and capacity to confront the innovation gap. We follow the line of SR viewed as a response to the specific demands of large stakeholders. Building upon recent conceptualizations of different theories, we develop an integrative model for understanding the institutional effects of the UKTO on university social responsibility.

To Enhance the Level of Students Affairs Management by Target Navigation

University has entered into a new era, in terms of educators, how to improve their abilities at students affairs management has become an important of university student affairs management. University students are in a critical period of ideological maturity, they will not only be imparted knowledge in university, but also they should be provided with excellent services and scientific management from school. With Target Navigation, diversified and multiple demands of students can be meet.

Foresighting organizational learning equilibrium in European universities

This article presents a short journey into the realm of foresighting exploration and exploitation of knowledge. Universities aim to achieve a prolific balance between research, education and third mission activities. Presently, the rate of change (and especially exogenous change) have reached a level that has given researchers and managers alike reason to reflect upon and be concerned about whether this balance could or should be maintained in the future. The increase in levels of change will necessarily require a momentum of organizational learning within the university. This applies whether the aim is to maintain the balance or to shift the balance in a well-planned manner. In this article, we use a classical organizational learning model to envision and simulate how a primary driver (mutual learning) in the balance between exploration and exploitation of knowledge in universities may evolve over time. Using 2010 as baseline and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) as contextual development path, the simulation process highlights parameters of organizational performance and competitive advantages such as learning rates, turnover and environmental turbulence stepwise at year 2015, 2020, 2025 and 2030. Prototypical European universities are contrasted with hypothetical organizations exposed to even more vibrant environments.

Uma "perspectiva parcial" sobre ser mulher, cientista e nordestina no Brasil

Resumo: Este artigo propõe compreender como mulheres cientistas estão inseridas na produção de conhecimento científico e tecnológico em universidades públicas federais específicas da Região Nordeste do Brasil. A realização de entrevistas e observações diretas nos seus cotidianos de trabalho tornaram possível a construção de reflexões alicerçadas nas experiências sociais de mulheres cientistas pertencentes a dois grandes ramos de saberes: humanidades e as ciências supostamente "exatas". Por meio desta abordagem, situada e parcial, sobre a inserção e permanência de mulheres nas ciências contemporâneas, pudemos observar a conservação de antigas questões que ainda se colocam como prementes na compreensão feminista e de gênero das ciências.

University knowledge exchange and the SKIN Project

Abstract In this article, we present a rationale for investigating the role and contributions of universities to growth and sustainable development within the framework of the Europe 2020 Strategy (EU2020). To this extent, the literature suggests that the contemporary universities’ mission in the knowledge society relies on their capacity to promote knowledge exchange. This allows expansion of the degree of intervention of universities in society and broadening of the institutional and policy frameworks within which they operate, opening to a wider range of possible contributions of social science and humanities to the EU2020 objectives, which are not limited to education and research policies. We present the Short supply chain Knowledge and Innovation Network (SKIN) project (H2020-2016)1 as an example of a systemic approach to university-business-society dialogue, based on the role of universities as “knowledge hubs” (Yusuf, 2008) and aimed at promoting knowledge exchange and multi-actor cooperation. One of the main challenges of the project relies on the capacities of the involved actors to cooperate and, thus, on the mechanisms activated in order to ensure such collaboration. To this extent, the role of humanities and social sciences, in particular multidisciplinary and participatory research, is crucial for the success of the process of knowledge circulation within and for society.

THE EUROPEAN CONCEPTION OF THE UNIVERSITY KNOWLEDGE WITHIN THE BOLOGNA-INITIATED COMPETENCE-BASED CURRICULUM MODERNISATION: REPERCUSSIONS AT THE NATIONAL POLICY LEVEL IN ESTONIA AND LITHUANIA

The European 'knowledge economy' policies and higher education policies and reforms associated with the Bolognian process, as largely driven by efficiency concerns, have continually stressed the failures of European universities to meet efficiency targets. This has provided the justification for a radical European-wide modernisation of the higher education curriculum which has uniformly introduced a competence (outcomes)-based curriculum rationale to all European universities as a strategic device to enhance the efificiency and relevance of the university curriculum. Within the competence-based curriculum rationale, c ompetence has been designated as a major component within the university curriculum, whereas knowledge, traditionally being the main educational category of the university curriculum and a fundamental pillar of the university research, has been increasingy given a scarce mention in the European policy documents dispite the common European policy discourse on the 'knowledge economy' and 'knowledge society' and a new prominence of knowledge that these notions imply. Accordingly, t he European assumptions about the nature of the university curriculum knowledge have had significant implications for the way university knowledge and the role of university have been defined at the national policy level in the light of the curriculum change. Thus, it becomes important to examine the explicit and implicit epistemological stances behind the Bologna-initated competence-based curriculum modernisation and their repercussions throughout the national higher education policies. The aim of this paper is to examine the way the European assumptions about the nature of the university curriculum knowledge as implied within the Bologna initiated competence-based curriculum modernisation reverberate throughout the national higher education policies in Estonia and Lithuania. The objectives of this study are to examine the ongoing Bologna-initiated university curriculum modernisation as based on the competence framework and its assumptions about the nature of the university curriculum knowledge and to map the way the European policy assumptions about nature of the university curriculum knowledge as implied within the curriculum modernisation reverberate at the national policy level in Estonia and Lithuania. The research methods served are qualitative research methods, namely, an overview of research literature and a content analysis of the official strategic European policy documents and Estonian and Lithuanian national policy documents. The main results of the study are the following: situating the phenomenon of the competence-based curriculum modernisation within a broader socio-economic and political context and, in doing this, providing the basis for a better understanding of the driving forces generating this curriculum change; discerning the main patterns of the Bologna-initiated higher education curriculum modernisation and its underlying assumptions about the nature of the university curriculum knowledge and the role of universities both at the European and national levels; providing insights about the way the higher education curriculum modernisation has been taken-up at the national policy level in Lithuania and Estonia; revealing the lack and the need for educational arguments as informed by curriculum theory to complement and challenge the currently predominant economic rationale underpinning the higher education curriculum modernisation in Europe. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.10.14534

A quantitative exploration of the statistical and mathematical knowledge of university entrants into a UK Management School

Mathematical and statistical skills are increasingly important for securing fruitful employment in the modern world. Regardless of the increasing demand for such skills by employers, witnessed at present is a drop in the mathematics and statistics knowledge of university entrants. This paper uses a British university as a case study and exploits the induction week to collect primary data on the mathematical and statistical knowledge of entrants into two degree programmes. The data is then analysed using statistical techniques to identify the current patterns relating to the mathematics and statistics knowledge of students with a view to developing appropriate methods for enhancing their mathematical and statistical knowledge. Our findings indicate statistically significant differences in the mathematical and statistical knowledge of students entering this British university based on the chosen degree programme, gender and educational qualifications.

University Knowledge Spillovers, Geographic Proximity and Innovation: An Analysis of Patent Filings Across U.S. Counties

The literature suggests that knowledge production intensity depends upon the geographic proximity of knowledge and information sources. On the other hand, there have been arguments that the rapid development of communication technologies would reduce the importance of proximity to the production of knowledge. That is, distance would not matter. In this paper, we propose a measure for university knowledge spillovers as a gauge for the importance of proximity to knowledge creation. Using a cross-section of 3110 United States counties in recent years - 2009 to 2011 - we empirically test the relationship between knowledge spillovers and innovative activities as measured by patent filings. We use university research and development (R&D) expenditures in STEM fields as the foundation for our metric of knowledge spillovers and a decay function to reflect the diminishing influence of those expenditures as the distance from the university increases. Using patent counts to measure the local technological innovation as our dependent variable, we test knowledge spillovers as spherical scores of university R&D expenditures as our explanatory variables of interest using three distance thresholds - 50, 100 and 250 miles. We also control for the private R&D intensity and regional social and economic characteristics, including a county’s employment density, educational attainment, proprietorship rates and venture capital inflows. We find that the influence of university knowledge spillovers can reach as far as 250 miles, but evidence that spillovers decline with distance is not unambiguous. Research intensive counties exhibit different spillover effects from counties without research anchor institutions. We find evidence that counties with higher concentrations of R&D expenditures and concentrations of science and engineering programs will exhibit higher patent rates.