University Research Articles

Exploring the Role of the Student Affairs Office in Enhancing the Cultural and Social Experiences of International Students in China

Many universities are hosting and enrolling international students as an important aspect of their internationalisation mission of higher education. However, many international students experienced significant problems adjusting into a host culture and social milieu. Informing this qualitative study were 45 international students in a top-tier comprehensive research university in Southeast China. The study focuses on the experience of international students towards the role played by international Fu Da Yuans (Counsellors) in enhancing the students’ cultural and social experiences at the university. The results indicate that the four most significant adjustment issues for international students are the language challenges, social interaction with Chinese students, cultural orientation programmes, and counselling services for international students. Building on the U-Curve adjustment theory (Oberg, 1960), the study revealed the importance of international Fu Da Yuans to provide cultural and social support to international students for easy adjustment into a new culture and social setting. The study bears practical implications to providing international Fu Da Yuans with important insights that can help to create an environment conducive to enhancing the cultural and social experiences of international students.

Жанр энциклопедии в социокультурном контексте 500-1250 гг. (истоки возникновения, этапы становления)

The paper aims to analyze the origins of the genre of encyclopedia as a literary and cultural phenomenon which has its own historical background. The scientific originality of the research lies in the fact that it analyzes the development of encyclopedia as a popular science literature genre, its transformation from the systematic presentation of knowledge to the alphabetic organization of articles. Encyclopedists, being the compilers of knowledge of the period under consideration, created reference works, first of all, as educational sources. As a result, the study presents the stages of encyclopedism development from the first ancient encyclopedic works to the medieval systematic encyclopedias which served as training manuals for the students of comprehensive university faculties.

Preference for Solitude and Mobile Phone Addiction Among Chinese College Students: The Mediating Role of Psychological Distress and Moderating Role of Mindfulness.

Background: With the increasing incidence of mobile phone addiction, the potential risk factors of mobile phone addiction have attracted more and more researchers’ attention. Although various personality trait factors have been proven to be significant predictors of mobile phone addiction, limited attention has been paid to preference for solitude. Considering the adverse impacts of preference for solitude in the context of collectivistic societies and its possible negative effect on mobile phone addiction, this study was designed to examine the relationship between preference for solitude and mobile phone addiction, and to test the mediating role of psychological distress and the moderating role of mindfulness in this relationship.Methods: Data were collected through convenience sampling from a comprehensive university in China. A total of 927 Chinese college students (371 males and 556 females), aged from 16 to 24 (Mage = 19.89 years, SD = 1.22), participated in this study. Their preference for solitude, psychological distress, mindfulness, and mobile phone addiction were measured using well-validated self-report questionnaires.Results: Correlational analyses, sobel test, SPSS macro PROCESS (Model 8) and simple slopes analyses were used for major data analysis. Results showed that preference for solitude was significantly and positively associated with mobile phone addiction, and this link could be mediated by psychological distress. Moreover, the indirect effect of psychological distress in this link was moderated by mindfulness, with this effect being stronger for college students with lower levels of mindfulness. However, mindfulness can not moderate the direct relation between preference for solitude and mobile phone addiction.Conclusion: The present study broadened our knowledge of how and when (or for whom) preference for solitude is related to mobile phone addiction. Education professionals and parents should pay special attention to the psychological distress and mobile phone addiction of college students with high levels of preference for solitude, particularly for those with lower levels of mindfulness.

The Roles and Responsibilities of Graduate Education Deans: Mapping Current and Future Job Challenges

Graduate education is changing, driven by social issues, expectations, and technology. Leaders of graduate education play important roles in understanding these changes. The purpose for conducting the study was to profile the professional setting of the graduate dean, exploring the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of the position. Using a research-team developed instrument, graduate education leaders were surveyed. Descriptive findings of the study included the nomenclature of titles who held full time appointments and had an academic background in the liberal arts. The roles and responsibilities of these respondents were reported as a group and separated by research and comprehensive universities.

Cultivation of Students' Creative and Entrepreneurial Ability in Film and Animation Major under the Background of Culture and Venture Industry

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'">With the rapid development of the cultural industry and the continuous influence of innovation and entrepreneurship, the output of high-quality film and animation professional innovation and entrepreneurial talents is an urgent need for talents in the social and film and television animation industry, a prerequisite for the prosperity of the cultural and creative industries, and also a powerful country in China. The basic guarantee of soft power. However, the talents for innovation and entrepreneurship in film and television animation specialized in western universities are faced with the problems of low quality, insufficient quantity, unbalanced distribution of regional and film and animation industries, and so on, which have become the “bottleneck” that restricts economic and social development. This paper puts forward the idea of innovation and entrepreneurship education based on the cultivation of film and television animation talents, and distinguishes the innovation and entrepreneurship education implemented by film and TV animation and comprehensive colleges and universities relying on management and business studies, and clarifies the typical characteristics of film and TV animation innovation and entrepreneurship education: innovation for the United States, entrepreneurship and entertainment , the coupling of innovation, entrepreneurship education and professional education.</span>

“No Space for Humanizing Us:” Men of Color Identifying Institutional Needs at a Rural University

Men of color are not persisting or graduating from college at similar rates as their same-aged peers. This qualitative study seeks to understand how men of color understand and experience college at a rural comprehensive public four-year university on the west coast. This study draws on focus group and interview data from 23 Black, Latino, and Asian American men whose enrollment status at the rural university varied from first-year undergraduate to graduate students. Using the notion of sense of belonging as the theoretical lens, we find that students highlighted the importance of peer groups and the need for vulnerable spaces on campus to explore their gender identity. With the findings from this paper, we aim to help student affairs professionals better understand how to support men of color in rural universities.

Building Capacity at Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI): Transforming the Educational Experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Students

ABSTRACT This study examines how Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) build capacity for student success. By contrasting a community college on the West Coast and a regional comprehensive university on the East Coast, new pathways are forged to recognize the critical role that federally-funded AANAPISIs play in supporting Asian American and Pacific Islander students. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also offered to advance the operations and understanding of AANAPISIs.

Closing the Doors of Opportunity: A Field Theoretic Analysis of the Prevalence and Nature of Obstacles to College Internships

Background: Internships for college students can enhance their grades, skills, and employment prospects, but finding and completing an internship sometimes requires considerable resources. Consequently, before postsecondary institutions consider mandating this high-impact practice, more evidence is needed regarding the various obstacles students face as they seek an internship. Focus of Study: The purpose of this study was to document the prevalence and nature of obstacles to securing a college internship and how these factors interact in the lives of particular students. Field theory is used to highlight the ways that structural inequalities and forms of capital serve to facilitate or constrain access to an internship experience. Population: The participants in this study included students attending five postsecondary institutions—three comprehensive universities, one historically Black college and university (HBCU), and one technical college in the U.S. states of Maryland, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Research Design: This concurrent mixed-methods study included the collection of survey (n = 1,549) and focus group and interview (n = 100) data from students who self-selected into the study. Given that this is a descriptive study, the aim was to document student experiences with obstacles to internships using varied sources of data. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected via an online survey (with a 26% response rate) and in-person focus groups or interviews at each campus. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis, social network analysis, and logistic regression techniques and interpreted in ways that highlight the situated and critical role of capital and structure in shaping opportunity and behavior. Findings: Among the 1,060 (69%) survey respondents who reported not having had an internship, 638 indicated that they had in fact wanted to pursue an internship but could not because of the need to work, a heavy course load, insufficient positions, and inadequate pay. The role of financial, social, and cultural capital also impacted students differentially depending on their majors, socioeconomic status, race, and geographic location, highlighting how context and enduring systemic forces—and not solely the possession of capital(s)—intersect to shape students’ abilities to pursue an internship. Conclusion: Internships are not universally accessible to all college students and instead favor students who have access to financial, social, and cultural capital while also being positioned in particular majors, geographic locations, and institutions. Before actively promoting internships for their students, colleges and universities should secure funding to support student pay and relocation costs, identify alternative forms of experiential learning for working students, and engage employers in creating more in-person and online positions for students across the disciplines.

Oklahoma Public Comprehensive Universities: The President’s Role in Financial Management and Fundraising

Among the top challenges facing Oklahoma public comprehensive university presidents is the quest for adequate funding of their institutions, including adequate levels of support from state resources. Low levels of public support by the state have become a pattern, rather than an anomaly and statewide reductions in appropriations for higher education funding have had a disproportionate effect on Oklahoma’s public comprehensive universities because they have fewer diversified revenue sources. This pattern has forced presidents to become more adept at budgeting, financial management, fundraising, and finding the resources necessary for their institutions to not only be successful, but to simply survive. Study findings indicated that Oklahoma public comprehensive university presidents spend most of their time on budgeting andfinancial management, followed closely by fundraising. The study concluded that few presidents have a background in financial management and fundraising, and most of their experience in these areas was acquired in their previous role prior to becoming president or while on the job.

Theorizing Practice and Practicing Practice – Public Folklore in US Higher Education

Abstract Higher education learning programs in folklore and ethnology should include training for the mastery of ICH and public folklore practices that are integrated with core curricula, grounded in theory and designed to build comprehensive professionalization of these disciplines. It should theorize practice and include engagement in actual projects with impacts beyond the classroom. A disjunction between theory and public practice which persisted for decades is now being addressed in graduate programs in ethnology and folklore, reaching towards what Bourdieu calls the “reconciling of theoretical and practical intentions”. The theories, issues and practices of public folklore currently and potentially taught in the United States suggest approaches that can be used for ethnology and ICH training. Topics can include cultural brokerage, intervention, heritage policies, cultural representation theories, dialogism, cultural sustainability, recontextualization, activism and advocacy, how community is defined, ethics and informed consent along with topics in heritage studies and the study of tourism. Practices taught can include multiple modes of presentation, media production, archiving, organizational and financial management, folklore in education and community engagement. Graduate training should include the intellectual history and contemporary dimensions of intervention in ongoing cultural practices transformative for communities and relationships of practitioners to their traditions. Folklore should be viewed as a practicing profession integrating comprehensive university training and reciprocal relationships between knowledge production in universities and the public sphere.

Planning, Implementing, and Assessing an OER Faculty Learning Community: A Facilitator’s Lens

A librarian-led Faculty Learning Community (FLC) focused on Open Educational Resources (OER) can be a practical, low risk way to sustain campus-based OER programs during and after initial start-up. Creating a space for sharing teaching successes and challenges is an important goal in the iterative journey toward open. The experiences and trust fostered in an FLC can help grow awareness of and commitment to adopting, deepening, and expanding a culture of openness. FLCs provide an opportunity to lean into open that enhances cross-campus relationships, identifies gaps, and emphasizes collegiality while moving toward enriched teaching and learning. They provide a launching point for sharing pedagogical practice, and a valuable venue for new ideas. Key strategies for planning, implementing, and assessing a multidisciplinary OER faculty learning community are highlighted. Practical advice is emphasized to support successful outcomes that can be easily replicated. Ten top takeaways are summarized from a year spent facilitating an OER FLC in a four-year, public, comprehensive college that included the shift to online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it concludes with suggested next steps for continuing the OER conversation among faculty, students, librarians, instructional designers, teaching and learning center staff, administration, and other stakeholders.

Leading University Change: A Case Study of Meaning-Making and Implementing Online Learning Quality Standards

ABSTRACT This case study reports the collaborative meaning-making process and strategies for organizational change used by a diverse leadership team at a regional comprehensive university. The purpose of the study was to engage in continuous learning and improvement by producing knowledge for informing action; that is, to learn from analyzing the first phase of implementation in order to continue to improve, understand, and perhaps adjust in order to contribute to institutional change. Initiated by outcomes from a 2017 regional accreditation review and the recent development of a Global Campus, administrators, faculty, and instructional design and technology staff were charged with developing standards for quality university distance education. This study addresses lived experiences in the story of institutional change by reporting critical events, tensions, and turning points experienced by the leadership team relative to a change framework applied to distance education in a higher education setting. Over a two-year period (2018–2020), the team piloted, communicated, and refined plans as they began implementing the first of four phases in their quality assurance plan, including assessing 751 course syllabi for entry-level design standards. Findings indicate the process of enacting change also began shifting the culture of the university for purposes of quality assurance, consistency, and shared understandings of rigor. In this article, the team describes and discusses their framework using Kotter’s Change Model, their process, and their outcomes related to organizational change in higher education. Discussion addresses starting points for other higher education stakeholders involved in pursuing quality distance education.

Using digital canvas to facilitate student questioning in large lecture classes: a mixed-methods study

ABSTRACT A lack of student questioning is faced by many universities, where a large lecture is a common practice. Emerging technologies bring about possibilities to fill this gap. This study followed constructivist learning theory and used a digital canvas as a Digital Question Board (DQB) for students to freely pose questions and respond using mobile technology. A mixed-methods study with a quasi-experiment was conducted to investigate its effect. The study was conducted in two sections of an introductory research methodology course in a large comprehensive university in eastern China (n = 253). The pre–post quasi-experiment lasted six weeks. The data from surveys, observation, and online posts (log data) revealed that when the instructor discussed student questions after every 20–30 min in large lecture classes, students with DQB access had a significantly higher frequency of questioning than those without a DQB. The presence of the DQB enriched the types of questions and responses and encouraged mostly on-task learning questions. With technology, students employed a non-linear, constructivist questioning process and actively contributed to the co-construction of knowledge.

Relationship Between Childhood Left-Behind Experience and Quality of Life Among Chinese University Freshmen: Place of Origin Matters

Background: Childhood left-behind experience (LBE) has a long-term detrimental effect on the mental health of Chinese University students, but it remains unclear whether childhood LBE negatively impacts the quality of life (QOL) of University students and whether the LBE–QOL association differs between students of rural origin and students of urban origin. This study examined the LBE–QOL relationship and the interactive effect between LBE and place of origin on QOL among Chinese University freshmen.Methods: By using a two-stage random cluster sampling approach, a total of 5,033 freshmen were recruited from two comprehensive universities. The students completed an online, self-administered questionnaire that included sociodemographic variables, a 2-week physical morbidity assessment, and assessments of depressive symptoms, academic stress, and QOL. The Chinese six-item QOL scale was used to assess QOL. Multiple linear regression was used to test the independent LBE–QOL association and the interaction between LBE and place of origin.Results: Students with childhood LBE had significantly lower QOL scores than those without LBE (60.1 ± 13.1 vs. 64.3 ± 11.7, p < 0.001). After adjusting for the potential confounding effects of other sociodemographic variables, 2-week physical morbidity, depressive symptoms, and academic stress, childhood LBE was significantly associated with a lower QOL score (β: −3.022, p < 0.001) and the LBE–place of origin interaction was still significantly associated with the QOL score (β: −2.413, p < 0.001). Overall, compared to non-LBE, LBE was associated with a QOL score decrease of 5.93 among freshmen of urban origin and of 3.01 among freshmen of rural origin.Conclusion: In Chinese University freshmen, childhood LBE is independently associated with poor QOL, and the LBE–QOL association is greater among freshmen from urban backgrounds than among freshmen from rural backgrounds.

Psychological strains and suicidality – A path model with insomnia and stress as mediators among Chinese college graduating students

ObjectiveBy exploring the roles and mechanisms that insomnia and psychological distress play in the relationship between the psychological strain and suicidality, this study aims to determine whether psychological stain increased the risk of suicide in Chinese graduating students. MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, about 601 final year undergraduates were recruited from two faculties (science and arts) in a comprehensive university, and asked to complete a paper–pencil survey using the 7-item Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), the Psychological Strain Scales (PSS), and the Kessler-10(K-10). ResultsIt was found that psychological distress as felt through aspiration strain and coping strain was the main risk factor for suicidality in graduating students, with female final year undergraduates reporting greater psychological distress than male final year undergraduates. Insomnia mediated the association between psychological strain (aspiration strain and coping strain) and psychological distress, but psychological distress only partly mediated the association between psychological strain (aspiration strain and coping strain) and suicidality. ConclusionsThis study revealed that relieving psychological strain and especially aspiration and coping strain in graduating students could reduce the risks of student sleep disturbance, psychological distress, and suicide.

Leadership for teaching and learning: Exploring a department-level educational leadership role at a Swedish comprehensive university

As excellence in teaching and learning, in combination with a focus on student performance rates, are guiding the demands placed on higher education institutions, modern universities are attributing strategic importance to leadership of teaching and learning. Previous studies on educational leadership have, nevertheless, identified significant challenges to such leadership due to lack of clear role descriptions, lack of recognition, and lack of access to professional development and support. Using empirical data from a Swedish comprehensive university, we explore the experiences of an appointed leadership role for teaching and learning, that is, the Education Leader, at the department level. Our findings show that a university-wide policy establishing the role and a support structure around it has resulted in a clearly visible and valued role across the university. Furthermore, Education Leaders experience being positioned at the heart of the department’s educational activities, performing hub-like work in relation to those they lead. However, some challenges related to the complexity of the department contexts are also identified.

Athletic Training Educators' ConferenceApril 29–May 1, 2021

Athletic Training Educators' ConferenceApril 29–May 1, 2021

Food Insecurity on College and University Campuses: A Context and Rationale for Solutions

Food Insecurity on College and University Campuses: A Context and Rationale for Solutions

Problem-oriented Teaching Mode based on Data Mining Technology in the Sports Psychology Classroom

Sports psychology is a branch of psychology and is a sports course that takes both theory and practice into account. It is not only an integral part of the talent training curriculum system of sports colleges and universities, but also a basic compulsory course for social sports majors in comprehensive universities. Sports psychology has currently become one of the significant theories in PE teaching, which not only guides PE teaching, but also helps solve existing problems in PE teaching and drives the development of PE teaching. Subject to the impact of traditional education mode and educational concept, etc., however, there are some problems in the existing the teaching of sports psychology, such as students’ low interest, poor initiative and poor educational effect. To raise students’ learning interest, this paper selected a problem-oriented modular teaching mode, and applied it to the sports psychology classroom, to improve the learning effect. In this study, we first used data mining technology to build an anxiety prediction model and then identified a problem to be solved. After that, the problem was designed and analyzed, the known problem was confirmed, new information was collected, old and new knowledge was integrated, until the problem was finally solved. On this basis, based on virtual simulation technology, an experimental simulation teaching system for sports psychology was presented. It was found through research that the problems-oriented teaching mode can significantly enhance the effect of sports psychology and PE teaching and increase students’ learning initiative. The learning effect was significantly better than that of traditional teaching methods.

‘Your luxury loft, my daily misery!’ University theatre, neighbours, and schools combat gentrification through applied theatre practices in a marginal district of Majorca, Spain

ABSTRACT This article focuses on three applied theatre projects, framed within the Theatre of the Oppressed: Neighbourhood Herstories (2018), West Majorca Story (2019), and My Life in the Borough (2019). We explore how theatre students from the University of the Balearic Islands and neighbours in the marginal district of Nou Llevant, Palma, came together to combat gentrification and recover the hitherto unvoiced history of their borough through Forum Theatre practices. We argue that the collaboration between the university theatre company and Nou Llevant school and neighbours through these three applied theatre projects resulted in community self-empowerment.