University-industry partnership for pedagogy : some principles for practice

Industries demand a closer alignment of university learning curriculum to real work tasks to better meet the needs of organizations and learners. Both, industries and learners prefer the learning challenges to be based on the exigencies of work to precisely reflect real work circumstances that overtly add to business outcomes. However, such alignment is often complicated and challenging for academics and workplace managers alike. It demands partnerships between universities and industries, similar to arrangements forged for the vocational education and training sector. Such partnerships should allow active participation by learners, academics, workplaces and university administrators to move beyond a teaching orientation to a demonstrably effective learning arrangement through work integrated learning. This paper draws on a case study that negotiated a partnership between a non-government organization and an Australian university to design and facilitate a boutique curriculum that met the needs of learners and their workplace. Data were collected from interviews with participants, a focus group of the interviewees, and feedback from university staff involved in the course delivery. The paper presents a set of principles for universities and industries for partnership to enhance the alignment of academic curriculum to meet organizational and individual learning needs through work integrated learning.

A Longitudinal Examination of Bidirectional Associations between Subjective Sleep Characteristics and Psychosocial Functioning among University Students

A number of studies have found a significant link between sleep and psychosocial functioning among university students. A critical examination of this literature, however, indicates that one important gap within the literature is the need for longitudinal studies that specifically test for bidirectional associations between these two constructs. The main purpose of my dissertation was to address this gap by conducting three studies that examined bidirectional associations between sleep and psychosocial functioning among a sample of university students. Participants were 942 (71.5% female) undergraduate students enrolled at a Canadian university, who completed survey assessments annually for three consecutive years, beginning in their first year of university. In the first study, I assessed bidirectional associations between two sleep characteristics (sleep quality and sleep duration) and three psychosocial functioning variables (academics, friendship quality, and intrapersonal adjustment). Results based on cross-lagged models indicated a significant bidirectional association between sleep quality and intrapersonal adjustment, such that more sleep problems predicted more negative intrapersonal adjustment over time, and vice versa. Unidirectional associations indicated that both higher academic achievement and more positive friendship quality were significant predictors of less sleep problems over time. In the second study, in which I examined bidirectional associations between sleep and media use, results provided support only for unidirectional associations; such that more sleep problems predicted increases in both time spent watching television and time spent engaged in online social networking. In the third study of my dissertation, in which I examined social ties at university and sleep quality, results indicated a significant bidirectional association, such that more positive social ties predicted less sleep problems over time, and vice versa. Importantly, emotion regulation was a significant mediator of this association. Findings across the three studies, highlight the importance of determining the direction of effects between different sleep characteristics and various aspects of university students’ psychosocial functioning, as such findings have important implications for both methodology and practice. A better understanding of the nature of the associations between sleep and psychosocial functioning will equip students, parents and university administrators with the tools necessary to facilitate successful adjustment across the university years.

Advancing e-learning policy and practice : influences on academics’ adoption, integration and development of multimodal e-learning courses

Tertiary education is increasingly a contested space where advances in Information Communications Technologies and their application to technology-mediated e-learning environments have forced university administrators and educators to dislocate themselves from traditional correspondence modes of student engagement. Compounding this paradigmatic shift within the traditional sphere of distance education pedagogy are multiple and conflicting pressures on academics to develop flexible, engaging, cost-effective and sustainable interactive learning resources that incorporate both multimedia and hypermedia. This chapter reports on a study that examined factors that influence educators’ decision to adopt and integrate educational technology and convert traditional print-based distance education materials into interactive multimodal e-learning formats. Although the broader study was conducted in a single Australian university and investigated pedagogical, institutional and individual factors, this chapter restricts its focus to solely the pedagogical motivations and concerns of educators. It is argued that findings from the study have significance at the institutional level, particularly in terms of developing an underlying pedagogical rationale that can permeate the e-learning culture throughout the university, while at the same time, providing a roadmap for educators who are yet to fully engage with the e-learning format.

The relationship between academic library usage and educational performance in Kuwait

University libraries play an important role in contributing to student and faculty members’ academic achievement. This study examines perceptions of university library usage to consider factors that influence achievement of students, academics and administrators. A thorough review of relevant literature examined approaches to determining user satisfaction of students and faculty, and factors that influence library usage. It highlighted the value of usage on educational performance. It enabled development of a theoretical framework leading to the Factors of Academic Library Usage (FALU) model, which was developed to investigate the effect of usage factors. FALU was tested in Kuwait university libraries. The study used validated questionnaires from 792 students, 143 academics and 121 administrators to measure five library factors. Interviews were conducted across the three University libraries. The findings are useful in measuring the correlation between the current academic library usage and educational performance.

Rediscovering law students as citizens: Critical thinking and the public value of legal education

In a series of publications over the last decade, Australian National University Professor Margaret Thornton has documented a disturbing change in the nature of legal education. This body of work culminates in a recently published book based on interviews with 145 legal academics in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada. In it, Thornton describes a feeling of widespread unease among legal academics that society, government, university administrators and students themselves are moving away from viewing legal education as a public good which benefits both students and society. Instead, legal education is increasingly being viewed as a purely private good, for consumption by the student in the quest for individual career enhancement.

Support services for higher degree research students: A survey of three Australian universities

A survey was conducted across three Australian universities to identify the types and format of support services available for higher degree research (HDR, or MA and Ph.D.) students. The services were classified with regards to availability, location and accessibility. A comparative tool was developed to help institutions categorise their services in terms of academic, administrative, social and settlement, language and miscellaneous (other) supports. All three universities showed similarities in the type of academic support services offered, while differing in social and settlement and language support services in terms of the location and the level of accessibility of these services. The study also examined the specific support services available for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students. The three universities differed in their emphases in catering to CALD needs, with their allocation of resources reflecting these differences. The organisation of these services within the universities was further assessed to determine possible factors that may influence the effective delivery of these services, by considering HDR and CALD student specific issues. The findings and tools developed by this study may be useful to HDR supervisors and university administrators in identifying key support services to better improve outcomes for the HDR students and universities.

Conceptions of Quality and Approaches to Quality Assurance in Ontario’s Universities

Many international, political, and economic influences led to increased demands for development of new quality assurance systems for universities. Like many policies and processes that aim to assure quality, Ontario’s Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) did not define quality. This study sought to explore conceptions of quality and approaches to quality assurance used within Ontario’s universities. A document analysis of the QAF’s rationale and structure suggested that quality was conceived primarily as fitness for purpose, while suggested indicators represented an exceptional conception of quality. Ontario universities perpetuated such confusion by adopting the framework without customizing it to their institutional conceptions of quality. Drawing upon phenomenographic traditions, a qualitative investigation was conducted to better understand various conceptions of quality held by university administrators and to appreciate ways in which they implemented the QAF. Three main approaches to quality assurance were identified: (a) Defending Quality, characterized by conceptions of quality as exceptional, which focuses on administrative accountability and uses a hands-off strategy to defend traditional notions of quality inputs and resources; (b) Demonstrating Quality, characterized by conceptions of quality as fitness for purpose and value for money, which focuses on accountability to students and uses centralized engaged strategies to demonstrate how programs meet current priorities and intended outcomes; and (c) Enhancing Quality, characterized by conceptions of quality as transformation, which focuses on reflection and learning experience and uses engaged strategies to find new ways of improving learning and teaching. The development of a campus culture that values the institution’s function in student learning and quality teaching would benefit from Enhancing Quality approaches to quality assurance. This would require holistic consideration of the beliefs held by members of the institution, a clear articulation of the institution’s conceptions of quality, and a critical analysis of how these conceptions align with institutional practices and policies.

La réforme de l'université au Maroc vue par les acteurs universitaires : une étude de cas de l'Université Maohammed V, Rabat-Salé

Cette étude est consacrée à l’université publique marocaine. Elle se situe dans le champ de l’enseignement supérieur public. Les chercheurs du secteur universitaire au Maroc qualifient la gestion de l’enseignement supérieur de centralisée, bureaucratisée, rigide et incapable de trouver des réponses efficaces à la société. L’université publique marocaine vit une crise : elle a fait l’objet de nombreux critiques sur la nature des services universitaires. Sur le plan académique, elle est inappropriée pour faire face à la demande sociale en matière de l’enseignement universitaire. Sur le plan interne, elle est inadaptée à cause de dysfonctionnement pédagogie, organisationnel et administratif. L’université publique n’a pas été apte à s’adapter au secteur privé en créant des débouchés viables pour ses diplômés. Devant la gravité de la situation de l’enseignement supérieur public marocain, une Commission Royale Spéciale a été créée, dont le mandat était de trouver une meilleure façon de rationaliser le système universitaire. C’est ainsi qu’en 1999, la Commission a établi une Charte nationale de l’éducation et de la formation. Les premiers éléments de la nouvelle réforme ont été mis en application dès la rentrée universitaire 2003-2004. Cette nouvelle réforme est perçue comme un moyen d’améliorer le fonctionnement des établissements universitaires publics. Son objectif principal est de réformer d’une manière globale le système universitaire public. Dans les recherches qui se sont intéressées à la réforme de l’université publique marocaine, nous avons constaté qu’il y a une absence de documentation en ce qui trait aux réactions des acteurs universitaires et professionnels face aux orientations de cette réforme. Dans le but d’apporter des éclaircissements, nous nous sommes fixé un double objectif : déterminer, à partir de la perception d’acteurs universitaires, les effets des orientations de la nouvelle réforme et de ses modalités; connaître les changements organisationnels et leurs exigences. La stratégie de recherche répondant le mieux à notre double objectif était la recherche exploratoire. La démarche que nous avons privilégiée fut celle d’une première étude avant l’implantation de la nouvelle réforme et d’une autre après trois semestres de son implantation. Les questions qui ont soutenu notre recherche sont les suivantes : les attitudes des acteurs universitaires ont-elles été modifiées par l’introduction de la nouvelle réforme? Si oui, dans quel sens ont-elles été modifiées? Est-ce que la nouvelle réforme a modifié les pratiques pédagogiques et financières dans le sens indiqué par la charte? Quelles formes de contribution des acteurs universitaires peuvent-ils apporter à une implantation efficace de la nouvelle réforme? Parmi les quatorze universités publiques que compte le Maroc, nous avons choisi l’Université Mohammed V de Rabat-Salé. Cet établissement est l'une des universités les plus anciennes au Maroc. Elle est caractérisée par un nombre significatif de départements qui ont un potentiel de recherche et une réputation nationale. Aucune université ne dispose d’autant de facultés et de différentes disciplines : lettres, sciences, économie, droit, médecine et pharmacie, médecine dentaire, ingénierie, technologie et autres. La démarche méthodologique retenue est axée sur des entrevues auprès des acteurs universitaires et professionnels de trois facultés : 1) faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines, 2) faculté des Sciences juridiques, économiques et sociales, 3) faculté des Sciences. Celles-ci sont considérées comme des facultés pilotes par rapport à la nouvelle réforme. Nous avons entrepris deux séries d’entrevues : la première en 2001 avant l’implantation de la nouvelle réforme de l’université et la deuxième en 2005 après son implantation. Nous avons mené au total quarante-cinq (45) entrevues qui se sont déroulées en deux périodes : la première a eu lieu entre décembre 2000 et janvier 2001 et la deuxième entre décembre 2004 et janvier 2005. Lors de la première série d’entrevues, notre protocole était composé de questions spécifiques portant sur les initiatives inhérentes à la mise en application d’un système modulaire, sur les procédures pour restructurer la formation universitaire publique, sur le développement de projets spéciaux et de matériel didactique en rapport avec le nouveau système pédagogique et sur les propositions et les procédures pour la participation de l’université au marché du travail. Nous avons aussi posé des questions concernant les aspects financiers. Enfin, pour mieux comprendre le contexte, des questions portaient sur les évaluations et les recommandations de la nouvelle réforme de l’université publique. Au cours de la deuxième période d’entrevues, nous avons recueilli des données sur le soutien du département au pilotage des objectifs de la nouvelle réforme universitaire, le soutien des instances professionnelles à l’avancement de la réforme, la coopération des enseignants au plan de l’avancement des pratiques pédagogiques et les conditions nécessaires à une implantation efficace. Les réponses obtenues auprès des acteurs universitaires et professionnels ont été soumises à une analyse de contenu. Nous avons opté pour le modèle politique comme cadre conceptuel de notre recherche. Ce modèle nous a aidés à montrer l’importance des acteurs universitaires et professionnels dans les démarches pour l’application de la nouvelle réforme. Il nous a aidés également à comprendre comment les caractéristiques de la communauté universitaire peuvent faciliter ou bloquer la réussite de la réforme en cours. Cette recherche montre dans quelle mesure les objectifs de la nouvelle réforme fixés par la Commission Royale Spéciale sont en voie de réalisation. En ce sens, notre recherche pourrait être utile au plan national marocain : elle pourrait aider les responsables politiques et les administrateurs universitaires à prendre des décisions appropriées au processus d’implantation de la nouvelle réforme universitaire.

Impact of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on Professional Development and Educational Needs of Library Professionals in the Universities of Kerala

The shift from print to digital information has a high impact on all components of the academic library system in India especially the users, services and the staff. Though information is considered as an important resource, the use of ICT tools to collect and disseminate information has been in a slow pace in majority of the University libraries This may be due to various factors like insufficient funds, inadequate staff trained in handling computers and software packages, administrative concerns etc. In Kerala, automation has been initiated in almost all University libraries using library automation software and is under different stages of completion. There are not much studies conducted about the effects of information communication technologies on the professional activities of library professionals in the universities in Kerala. It is important to evaluate whether progress in ICT has had any impact on the library profession in these highest educational institutions. The aim of the study is to assess whether the developments in information communication technologies have any influence on the library professionals’ professional development, and the need for further education and training in the profession and evaluate their skills in handling developments in ICT. The total population of the study is 252 including the permanently employed professional library staff in central libraries and departmental libraries in the main campuses of the universities under study. This is almost a census study of the defined population of users. The questionnaire method was adopted for collection of data for this study, supplemented by interviews of Librarians to gather additional information. Library Professionals have a positive approach towards ICT applications and services in Libraries, but majority do not have the opportunities to develop their skills and competencies in their work environment. To develop competitive personnel in a technologically advanced world, high priority must be given to develop competence in ICT applications, library management and soft skills in library professionals, by the University administrators and Library associations. Library science schools and teaching departments across the country have to take significant steps to revise library science curriculum, and incorporate significant changes to achieve the demands and challenges of library science profession.

Performance appraisals in Australian universities- imposing a managerialistic framework into a collegial culture

As a result of federal government pressure in the late 1980’s Australian universities now find themselves embracing managerial practices at the expense of their traditional collegial practices. The application of managerialism into the
university sector has seen the inculcation of business practices, including the widespread application of performance appraisals, into an environment which has in the past, been self-regulatory. Performance appraisals as a tool of managerialism, have provided university administrators with a mechanism which provides a sense of compliance with private sector practices. But has it worked? This paper examines the nature of performance appraisals and its usage within one university and questions how successful the introduction of such practices has been. In doing so, it identifi es areas of further research.

Changes in higher education and valuing the job : the views of accounting academics in Australia

In a previous article (Bellamy et al., 2003), the authors reported on survey research that investigated reasons why academics from business disciplines enter and remain in academia, and the conditions they deem necessary to creating ideal work satisfaction. For both entering and remaining, as well as in achieving ideal work satisfaction, the most important factors were found to be autonomy and flexibility, with teaching and research the next most important factors. In a subsequent analysis of the data, reported in this article, the authors identify and explore significant differences between accounting academics and other business academics in the relative importance placed on these key factors. The findings may be used to inform policy makers and university administrators of the importance of discipline differences when identifying key factors for recruitment and retention of accounting academics specifically, and business academics generally.

The research-teaching nexus : what do national teaching awards tells us?

This article addresses two questions that are part of a broader debate about the relationship between teaching and research: are outstanding university teachers engaged in research and are they disseminating their teaching expertise to other university teachers? We address these questions through an analysis of the research and publications of the 2005 winners of the competitive, national awards for university teaching in Australia. The analysis indicates that outstanding university teachers are active researchers, but are unlikely to publish about their teaching or improving teaching practice in universities. The findings have policy implications for the separation of teaching and research within and between universities, and raise questions about the contribution of teaching awards to the wider improvement of university teaching. As such, the article issues a caution to policy makers and university administrators against making pre‐emptive decisions about the relationship between teaching and research based on questionable assumptions.

Attributes of effective business teachers: perceptions of students enrolled in highly rated units

This study employs a widely used attributes of effective teachers framework to guide the coding of written feedback of students (n =169) enrolled in highly rated (top 25 per cent) business units at a large Australian University. This framework also underpins the theoretical interpretation of the data. By focusing on student feedback about effective business teachers, the aim of this study is to identify the most important attributes of these teachers from the perspective of satisfied student. The data is part of a larger survey of student evaluations of teaching and units. Findings from the analysis of feedback from highly-satisfied students reveals that the top five attributes of effective business teachers are related to classroom performance – creative and interesting, knowledgeable, effective communicator, sensitive and persistent, and enthusiastic. The findings provide insights to teachers, students and university administrators. A recommendation for future research is provided.

Negotiating, Communicating, Collaborating: A Sociocultural View of Online Program Development

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-05