University Research Policy Research Articles

Mismatch in perceptions of the quality of supervision and research data management as an area of concern: Results from a university-wide survey of the research integrity culture at a Belgian university

ABSTRACT Researchers of KU Leuven, a large Belgian university, were invited to complete a bespoke questionnaire assessing their attitudes toward research integrity and the local research culture, with specific emphasis on the supervision of junior researchers. A total of 7,353 invitations were sent via e-mail and 1,866 responses were collected (25.3% response rate), of which 1,723 responses are reported upon here. Some of the findings are relevant to the broader research community. Whereas supervisors evaluated their supervision of junior researchers almost unanimously as positive, fewer supervisees evaluated it as such. Data management emerged as an area of concern, both in terms of reviewing raw data and of data storage. More female than male professors emphasized open communication and supported their supervisees’ professional development and personal well-being. At the same time, fewer female professors felt safe to speak up than male professors. Finally, researchers who obtained their master’s degree outside Europe evaluated their supervision and KU Leuven’s research culture more positively than researchers with a master’s degree from KU Leuven. The results of the survey were fed back to the university’s board and several bodies and served as input to update the university’s research policy. Faculties and departments received a detailed report.

Understanding Research Engagement Among Academics in the Philippines Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract: This study evaluates the Theory of Planned Behavior’s ability to predict and explain academics’ research engagement behaviors using structural equation modeling. The results of a survey of 412 academics from the Philippines show that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly and positively predict intention to engage in research, and intention predicts actual research behavior. The model showed acceptable goodness of fit: SRMR = 0.5, CFI = .94, NFI = .9, RMSEA = .05. The findings provide support for the use of the Theory of Planned Behavior in understanding and predicting research-related behaviors. The results of the study have implications for university research policies and programs.

Everybody's Business to Know About Space: Cross-Disciplinarity and the Challenges of the New Space Age

Many commentators have suggested that we are witnessing the advent of a ‘New Space Age’. In addition to the opportunities presented, this New Space Age also brings challenges, many of which are unprecedented, invariably complex, and which are not readily amenable to easy or previously developed tailor-made solutions. Cross-disciplinary approaches have been suggested as a means toward which solutions to such space-related problems may be reached. This qualitative study draws on interviews with 30 policy-makers, industry body representatives, academics, and practitioners to investigate the ways in which cross-disciplinary approaches can contribute to solving the problems presented by the New Space Age. Findings indicate that the type of cross-disciplinary research approach adopted brings with it discernible costs and benefits, as well as palpable differences in the nature and extent of the contribution made to space research, space policy, and space exploration. Conclusions inform both public policy and university research policy, the literature on research collaboration between disciplines, and the effectiveness of cross-disciplinarity in the context of advancing the space sector.

Policy Support and Research Productivity among Lecturers in Ugandan Public Universities: Case of Kyambogo University

In today’s competitive global higher education market, research productivity has become a dominant criterion for determining the university’s effectiveness. Besides, high-quality research benefits individual academics, their departments and institutions by raising their global rankings, recognition and prestige, with multiple accruing benefits. However, in a situation of low research output from Ugandan public universities, there is urgent need for increased organisational support to facilitate lecturers in conducting this cardinal university function. This mixed-methods study was, therefore, intended to evaluate the effect of the university research policy on lecturers’ research productivity in Kyambogo University, one of the biggest but relatively new public universities in Uganda. A correlational survey design guided the study using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. A sample of 127 PhD-holding lecturers, three faculty deans, Directors of Quality Assurance and Human Resource, the University Bursar and the University Librarian participated in the study. Data collected using questionnaire and interviews were analysed using structural equation modelling for quantitative data while thematic content analysis was used for qualitative data to establish relationships between the variables. The findings revealed moderate policy support for research productivity with a mean value of 3.07, a positive and significant relationship between the variables with a beta value of .416 and a P-value of .000. The study recommended the formulation and implementation of favouring and supportive policies to increase lecturers’ research productivity in public universities. The findings will likely be used to inform university managers on generating practical policy interventions to boost research productivity among lecturers in public universities.

Ethics and Confidentiality: Reflections and Lessons Learned Post-Parent and Bruckert v R and Magnotta

AbstractIn May 2012, a former research assistant contacted the Montréal police about an interview he had conducted with Luka Magnotta for the SSHRC-funded research projectSex Work and Intimacy: Escorts and their Clientsfour years previously. That call ultimately resulted in theParent and Bruckert v R and Magnottacase. Now, a decade later, we are positioned to reflect on the collective lessons learned (and lost) from the case. In this paper, we provide a lay of the Canadian confidentiality landscape before teasing out ten lessons fromParent c R.To do so, we draw on personal archives, survey results from sixty researchers, twelve key informant interviews with qualitative sociolegal and criminology researchers, and documentary analysis of university research policies. The lessons, which range from the clichéd, to the practical, to the frustrating, have implications for the individual work of Canadian researchers and for the collective work of academic institutions.

Steering the mind share: technology companies, policy and Artificial Intelligence research in universities

ABSTRACT Research on Artificial Intelligence, especially in the field of machine learning, has exploded in the twenty-first century. AI research in universities has long been funded by a combination of government and corporate sources. The funding of AI research in the contemporary university includes technology companies as both funders and generators of research areas. This paper looks at the links between technology companies and AI research in three areas: first, the ways in which technology companies influence both the content and practices of AI research in universities; second, how university research policies enable conditions that blur traditional boundaries between corporate and academic AI research; and third, how an ethos of ‘open science’, that is increasingly corporatised, moves ideas about AI from universities to companies. We conclude that technology companies influence AI research within established feedback loops in the transformed relationships between economy, society, research, and the contemporary university.

Effectiveness of University Research Policy in Promoting Research Engagement among Accounting Academics in Public Universities in KwaZulu-Natal

Wiseman Nzuza, Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya
 Durban University of Technology, South Africa
 zwelihlen@dut.ac.za, lawrencel@dut.ac.za
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1st Author:
 Mr Zwelihle Wiseman Nzuza is a lecturer at the Durban University of Technology in the Department of Management Accounting
 Email address: zwelihlen@dut.ac.za
 Physical and Postal Address:
 PO Box 1334 Durban University of Technology
 Durban
 4001
 
 2nd Author:
 Dr Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya in a senior lecturer at the Durban University of Technology in the Department of Public Management & Economics
 Email address: lawrencel@dut.ac.za
 Physical and Pos
 It has been frequently observed that many academics with an accounting background are not research-oriented, whereas academics from fields in science and engineering believe strongly in research. At the present moment, public universities from KwaZulu-Natal are failing to grow accounting research outputs to at least minimum requirement of 0.50 units per year per lecturer as required by the South African government. University research policy (URP) is the main tool that can be used to promote research engagements of the academic staff. Therefore, the aim of the study was to identify the effectiveness of the URP in promoting accounting academics research engagement, with specific reference to the KwaZulu-Natal public universities. This study was census, descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative in nature. With quantitative data gathered from a sample of 82 accounting academics. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 was used to determine statistical results. The study found that the URP is effective in terms of promoting the engagement of accounting academics in research activities and that it is highly significant. Based on the findings, the research concludes that the URP is valuable to grow accounting research outputs beyond existing limitations. 
 Key Words: university research policy, accounting academic staff

Scientific production of Vice Chancellors for Research in Peruvian universities with a medical school.

To determine the scientific production of Research Vice-chancellors at Peruvian universities that have medical schools, as well as their academic degrees as an indirect way to evaluate their suitability for the position they hold. We searched all Peruvian universities that register medical schools. Of these, the scientific production of the universities registered in SCOPUS was identified in September of the 2016. The scientific production of the vice chancellors of investigation of these faculties of medicine was determined through the search of its scientific publications registered in SCOPUS and those reported in the National Registry of Researchers in Science and Technology. Academic degrees were obtained from the database of the National Superintendence of Higher University Education. The sample included 28 research vice chancellors. Only 4/28 had any publications. The average number of articles published by the vice chancellors of research was 1.71, the number of citations 23.1 on average and the H index 0.64. Besides, 22 Vice-chancellors of research had the degree of doctor, four had the degree of bachelor and two the degree of master. The scientific production of research vice chancellors is poor. The required academic grade requirement for the position is not met in all cases. It is likely that, having no research experience, his leadership in directing a university's research policies may be questioned.

Academic Evaluation: Universal Instrument? Tool for Development?

Research agendas and academic evaluation are inevitably linked. By means of economic incentives, promotion, research funding, and reputation academic evaluation is a powerful influence on the production of knowledge; moreover, it is often conceived as a universal instrument without consideration of the context in which it is applied. Evaluation systems are social constructions in dispute, being the current focus of international debates regarding criteria, indicators, and their associated methods. A universalist type of productivity indicators is gaining centrality in academic evaluation with profound effects on the content of research that is conducted everywhere. Specifically, evaluation systems based on this type of indicators are sending negative signals to scientists willing to conduct research on contextualized agendas, particularly those negotiated with non scientists. On the basis of theoretical and empirical studies documented on the specialized literature and extensive personal engagement with university research policy in Uruguay, we argue that the consolidation of evaluation practices of alleged universal validity deteriorates and discourages a type of research which is undeniably important in developing contexts.

Detecting structural change in university research systems: A case study of British research policy

The university research environment has been undergoing profound change in recent decades. Aiming at international competitiveness and excellence, a variety of polices have been designed and implemented in many countries. However, evidence-based analysis of policy effects is scarce. This paper develops methods for evaluating the effect of university research policy on university system research input-output dynamics. We assume stable dynamics between inputs and outputs, and that effective policy change introduces external interventions and therefore structural changes into the system. Our proposed method involves three steps: modeling system dynamics, detecting structural change, and mapping policy change. Examining the case of the United Kingdom, we identified three structural changes in 1990, 1994, and 2001 respectively. The first change corresponds to the second round of the Research Selectivity Exercise (RSE), and the latter two changes may be caused by the database effect. The British case is a provocative demonstration of this method, which could be further developed to provide evidence-based analysis for policy learning and a foundation for cross-case comparison.

Canadian University Research Policy at the Turn of the Century: Continuity and Change in the Social Relations of Academic Research

Claire Polster examines recent changes to the academic environment and the federal government's recently discovered enthusiasm for academic research. The last five years have seen the creation of the Tri-Council Code of Research Ethics, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Advisory Council on Science and Technology Expert Panel on the Commercialization of University Research, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and Canada Research Chairs. Polster considers how these policies will affect the reorganization of academic researchers' activities, and concludes that the injection of federal funds may accelerate differentiation and hierarchy within and between Canadian universities, possibly triggering resistance on the part of the academics who compose them.

University Research Policy in Norway - Walking the Tightrope between Internal and External Interests

European Journal of EducationVolume 35, Issue 4 p. 385-402 University Research Policy in Norway – Walking the Tightrope between Internal and External Interests Ingvald Marheim Larsen, Ingvald Marheim Larsen Norwegian Institute for Studies in Research and Higher Education, Oslo, NorwaySearch for more papers by this author Ingvald Marheim Larsen, Ingvald Marheim Larsen Norwegian Institute for Studies in Research and Higher Education, Oslo, NorwaySearch for more papers by this author First published: 16 December 2002 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-3435.00035Citations: 15AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume35, Issue4December 2000Pages 385-402 RelatedInformation

Output-Financing at LUC

LUC's research council stimulates research by allocating a part of its funds based on results. The output-financing scheme is presented and its role in the university's research policy is explained. It is shown how this works in practice. An important aspect is that not only articles in JCR-covered journals are included but also other publications. This scheme together with a full-scale scientometric study forms two important aspects (short term versus medium term) of the university's research evaluation exercise. Its success is largely due to a general acceptance by the scientists.

The use of bibliometric data for the measurement of university research performance

In this paper we present the results of a study on the potentialities of “bibliometric” (publication and citation) data as tools for university research policy. In this study bibliometric indicators were calculated for all research groups in the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Leiden. Bibliometric results were discussed with a number of researchers from the two faculties involved. Our main conclusion is that the use of bibliometric data for evaluation purposes carries a number of problems, both with respect to data collection and handling, and with respect to the interpretation of bibliometric results. However, most of these problems can be overcome. When used properly, bibliometric indicators can provide a “monitoring device” for university research-management and science policy. They enable research policy-makers to ask relevant questions of researchers on their scientific performance, in order to find explanations of the bibliometric results in terms of factors relevant to policy.

Trends in Education and Earnings, 1950-70: A Structural Analysis

Using aggregate data for occupations, this study examines changes between 1950 and 1970 in the relationship between (1) level of education and level of earnings and (2) inequality of education and inequality of earnings. As a heuristic device the findings are considered in the context of free-market (human capital/functionalist) and structural (job competition/market segmentation) explanations of inequality. The results of the analysis provide support for elements of both explanations. Consistent with the structural position, we find that in spite of the frequently observed overall stability in inequality of earnings over the three time points, there are sizeable increases in inequality of earnings among some lower SES occupations and at the same time decreases in inequality of earnings among some higher SES occupations. The fact that the effect of education on relative level of earnings shows no consistent pattern over time would also support the structural over the free-market perspective. On the one hand, in support of free-market theories there is a stronger effect over time of level of education on the absolute level of earnings, and inequality of education on inequality of earnings. In addition the significance of the proportion of nonwhite workers in an occupation for both level of earnings and inequality of earnings declines between 1950 and 1970. Sociologists have long been familiar with the fact that average levels of both education and income rise as societies develop industrially (Lenski; Treiman). How economic and technological change affect the relationship of these signal dimensions of stratification, however, is still unclear a decade after Treiman's observation that this indicates a significant gap in stratification theory. Over the past fifteen years there has been much re*Revised version of a paper presented at the Seminar on Social Stratification and Intellectual Skills sponsored by the Research Committee on Social Stratification of the International Sociological Association, 1980. This research was partially supported by operating grants from the University Research Policy and Grants Committee of the University of Calgary and the Graduate School of the State University of New York at Buffalo. We wish to thank Sambhu Nath for his expert programming assistance. ? 1982 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/82/020436-55$02.00

French science policy and the changing role of the university

The role of university research in France is examined in the light of recent science policy shifts and structural changes at both the national and university levels. The efforts of the government to develop a science policy and to make that policy serve social and economic goals have eroded the traditional conception of the individual university scientist autonomously pursuing his own research on funds routinely channeled through the administrative hierarchy. The growth of contractfunding, the proliferation of public sources of financing, the elevation of higher education affairs to ministerial status, the call for universities to devise distinctive research profiles and policies, the shifting, overlapping responsibilities of national agencies and departments, and the general leveling off of public expenditure in R&D -all these are factors contributing to increased tension in the university research community. The interaction of these developments with persistent patterns of behavior and influence of the university scientific community in local and national decision-making has produced a series of contradictions and conflicts in university research policy which recently announced decisions are unlikely to dispel.

University Research Policy — Structure or Results?

University Research Policy — Structure or Results?