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In this thesis, I examine the perceptions of university staff and postgraduate students to explore the relation between policy and practice of English as the Medium of In-struction (EMI) in Pakistani universities. The theoretical framework of the study comprises literature on language in education policy, language in education goals, the status of English and World English. Findings from qualitative and quantitative data collected from students and staff in two public universities are compared to identify the perceptions of issues concerning EMI for postgraduate study. The findings indi-cate that although EMI is accepted as compulsory in Pakistani universities for post-graduate study, it is not fully implemented. The evidence supports the view that multi-lingualism, cultural diversity and ethnicity present challenges to the country’s national integration and the formulation and implementation of an effective language policy. The perceptions support the view that in Pakistan, English is required for socio-economic development and higher education and symbolises liberal values. However, the views signifying pride in local culture and national language highlight a potential conflict between modernity and tradition. The findings show a number of practices that indicate a pragmatic approach to implementation of the English medium policy. It appears that not only do postgraduate students express their preference for using Urdu in classroom but highly qualified university teachers’ views, under the plea of covering up their own deficiencies in English, show an inclination towards using Urdu in the classroom to accommodate students from diverse educational backgrounds. University faculty consult and provide reading material in English but postgraduate students find language and content of curriculum challenging because of their need for English language and lack of familiarity with foreign culture and philosophical ideology. Postgraduate students experience academic challenges arising from EMI which are demonstrated by their hesitation to speak English in classroom, difficulties of understanding teachers’ lectures, confusion of interpreting reading texts and stress of academic writing. The university teachers claim that their postgraduate students use memorisation as a strategy to get through the examinations rather than working ar-dently towards the development of academic skills. The responses suggest that solu-tions may lie in the area of reducing the anxiety that postgraduate students experience as a consequence of their language learning difficulties. The participants express their preference for using Pakistani English (PakE) in the study context. Motivation might act as an effective strategy to assist students to overcome their language problems. These views suggest that universities can enhance the communication skills of postgraduate students through the inclusion of English language proficiency courses in their curricula to support language development and possibly avoid foreign language anxiety. The professional development programmes should train University staff with strategies for teaching postgraduate students using EMI. It would seem advisable that the University can encourage the use of PakE by giving it recognition as an acceptable variety of English in the University context.

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Home purchases are the pinnacle of the American Dream and have a large impact on the American economy as a whole. With rising tuition costs and a greater necessity for a post-secondary degree, the student debt balance in the United States has swelled to over $1 trillion. Graduating with education debt can create a huge financial burden and force graduates to postpone big-ticket purchases like houses, particularly in tough economic times. In this paper, I examine the change in the effect of student loans on college graduates’ likelihood to purchase homes after the 2008 financial crisis. Using data from the 2007 and 2010 Survey of Consumer Finance reports, I apply probit and linear probability regression models to examine the effect of education loan dollar value on graduates’ likelihood of having home equity. The results are statistically significant and in 2010, the effect of student debt decreases by approximately five percentage points for every $10,000 increase in loans. The findings provide evidence to support the research hypothesis that the effect of student debt on home purchases became increasingly negative post-recession.

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The purpose of this study was to make sense out of the voices of women leaders in Higher Education (HE) about their journey towards developing their own leadership identity. Despite the growing body of literature on women in leadership, few studies have empirically investigated the leadership of women â their experience in their journey towards developing their own leadership identity. It is against this background that this study was conducted about the experiences of women in leadership and how they make sense about their journey. In view of empowering other women to become agents of change in constructing their own paths towards idiosyncratic approaches to leadership the women who took part in this study had to narrate their own experiences and achievements. The focus was also on providing direction to potential women leaders in terms of constructing their own paths in empowerment towards innovative and unique leadership in Higher Education. The study had to reflect on how women leaders at two Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) gained mastery over their own careers and how the obstacles and experiences contributed to their growth and success, with a view to contributing to the development of women in HE and their taking up leadership positions. The study was carried out using the qualitative research method to collect data. The study consisted of eight women participants who are currently in leadership positions at two universities. For focus group interviews four women from the two universities were selected as participants in the survey. For personal interviews four women from two different universities were also selected. The narratives of the women who participated in the focus group and personal interviews as a way of collecting data, made it simple for them to tell the story of their experiences in their journey in leadership positions. Purposive sampling was used to select all the participants. The women who participated volunteered and their identity was kept confidential. The internal and external determinants that emanated from women story-telling were used as themes for this study. The themes used were the ones that shaped the womenâs identity formation and gave them directives on how to make their voices heard. In their story-telling women indicated that they had had mentors from their community and family; some regarded their fathers as mentors, others their teachers, some had to stand up and become mentors to others. The following objectives were used to make sense of the situation of identity formation in leadership positions: ï· To explore identity formation and the development of a female leadership identity in particular ï· To explore the empowerment challenges that female leaders encounter in developing their own identity in taking up leadership positions ï· To make sense out of the voices of women leaders in Higher Education about their journey towards their own leadership identity. The focus of the study was on the voices of women in leadership positions in terms of their empowerment and making sense of their own leadership identity. The study was conducted in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The interpretive, qualitative approach was used to collect data. Data collected from both interviews were analyzed using the seven properties of sense-making. This approach has the potential to identify problems that at first appear to have nothing to do with the interface between leadership in institutions. The model is suitable when the goal is to make a successful improvement of an existing interruption that occurs when women become leaders where their individual identity has been interrupted to the extent that it resulted in silencing their voices. This will provide a direction to potential women leaders in terms of constructing their own paths in transforming the existing expectations towards innovative and unique approaches to leadership in HE. The study findings show that even though women in leadership positions still face challenges, they have developed their own strategies for making their voices heard. Women know well that authenticity in leading like women is the strong indicator of causing their voices to be heard. The findings indicate that all women identities are influenced by the environment and they also influence the environment. Women as leaders have to extract cues to be able to make sense of the situations they find themselves in. The findings suggest that in both institutions barriers to women advancement still exist, and those barriers are silences which end up making womenâs voices not to be heard. A lack of power in women is seen as structural barriers inherited in the academic environment. Women as leaders realize that even though they lack power by not being in top positions where decisions are made, they regain power by empowering themselves and other women, by networking and being ambassadors. The lack of power is due to a gender-based construct. Gender is seen as a pervasive symbol of the power relation. Women have a time in their lives when they become pregnant and take maternity leave. This affects the progression of womenâs academic careers and networking. There are other factors that contribute to a lack of power to women, such as personal and psychological barriers and climate issues (Ramphele 2008). A number of factors contribute to keep women out of Higher Education leadership. Women are seen by society as people who fulfil the caring and reproductive roles. There should be a revision of the social structure of the institutions so that women as leaders should be empowered. When woman are empowered, the whole nation is empowered. There are a number of women empowerment projects in South Africa and women are given opportunities and recognition. Yet in HEIs, it seems the entry and recognition of women is minimal. This led the researcher to embark on research on the empowerment of women in the context of academia, considering women as agents of social change that have the capacity to foster structural changes.

This study was undertaken against the backdrop and importance of leadership in the postgraduate supervision environment in universities of technology (UoTs) in South Africa. Although many higher education institutions (HEIs) realise the importance of postgraduate supervision and research, universities need to implement effective leadership strategies in order to address external competitiveness, challenges and complexities in the learning and teaching environment. The literature review provided guidelines for HEIs in terms of postgraduate supervision in a complex and challenging academic learning and teaching environment. These institutions are governed by law and have experienced numerous changes in policies and procedures, coupled with funding pressures, a demand for higher pass rates, more enrolments and outputs, and improved communication processes, as well as the challenge of managing the postgraduate student-supervisor relationship within a challenging South African higher education context. The new higher education dispensation brought on by the merger and incorporation process that occurred some years ago, whereby former technikons became universities of technology, challenges South African HEIs to revisit their in-house postgraduate supervision environment within a relatively new and young research milieu so as to attend effectively to a more diverse adult student population. The purpose of this study was to develop a model for supervisory leadership in the postgraduate supervision relationship and research environment within the Faculty of Management Sciences of a South African UoT. This research was based on a pragmatic approach to gain insight into the views and experiences of postgraduate supervisors in terms of leadership in the supervision environment. A mixed-method design was used, incorporating a developmental phase, a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, which combined qualitative and quantitative research methods that provided valuable data collected from respondents from four UoTs in South Africa. The significance of the study lies in the development of a leadership model for postgraduate supervisors in the supervision environment in South African UoTs. The study incorporated the views and perceptions of respondents within the higher education context in South Africa. The model is not only based on sound theoretical principles (as discussed in the literature review), but also provides a practical model that could be used by novice postgraduate supervisors within the developing research environment, and affords an opportunity to enhance the research capacity of UoTs in South Africa. The study could be applicable to other UoTs in South Africa.

Research in the field of statistics education grew out of research in psychology, mathematics, education and more recently, in technology. Thus research in the field of statistics education has become an interdisciplinary area of inquiry and studies related to this topic appear in publications across different disciplines. Many researchers are unfamiliar with the work being done outside their own disciplines, and if familiar, find it challenging to build on the published knowledge since relevant studies might use different definitions, research questions and research methodologies. Concerns like these emphasise the need for an adequate mapping and organisation of research studies pertaining to statistics education. Another concern revealed by studies that focus on the teaching and learning of statistics is that students are unable to reason correctly about important statistical concepts after formal, traditional teaching. Many researchers agree that the use of specific technology tools can help to improve students' understanding and reasoning of particular concepts. However, there seems to be a lack of empirical research on the effect of the use of technology tools on students' understanding of and reasoning about statistical concepts, and in particular, the concept of statistical inference. Thus, more research is needed in this regard. The purpose of this interdisciplinary study (higher education studies and statistics) was two-fold. First, the researcher undertook an extensive document analysis in order to reveal the current developments, trends and patterns in the field of statistics education research. Documents were explored in a non-interactive way by means of a qualitative content analysis design. The sample of documents included 138 articles appearing in three leading statistics education journals and 24 doctoral dissertations in statistics education, published in the period 2005 to 2009. The content analysis yielded rich data describing the field of statistics education research according to themes and topics of the research covered in the documents; methods and methodologies employed in the research; theories and statistical concepts covered; and the prominent countries and disciplinary settings where statistics education is studied. Results from the document analysis shed light on the emphasis in statistics education research, on areas in need for future research and on understanding the development of statistics education research (including the use of technology). This research can serve as a valuable resource for new and current researchers in the field. Second, as a consequence of the first investigation, the researcher conducted an empirical investigation to determine whether there is a relationship between computer-aided teaching and learning (CAT/L) and students' performance and statistical reasoning related to the concept of statistical inference. The empirical study was preceded by an extensive literature review on the use and effectiveness of CAT/L in statistics education. The empirical investigation further endeavoured to determine whether the use of a CAT/L tool had a positive effect on students' learning experience, enjoyment of statistics and attitude towards statistics. The empirical study was located within a quantitative paradigm, with some qualitative enhancement. By using a quasi-experimental design, comparisons between a treatment (n=36) and control group (n=80) of statistics students at a higher education institution, were made. The treatment group used Excel as a computer-aided technology tool and the two groups were assessed through tutorials, semester tests and the CAOS test (designed to assess students' statistical reasoning skills). A survey was completed by the treatment group at the end of the semester. Data were analysed by conducting univariate (one-way ANOVA) and multivariate (ANCOVA) analyses. In addition, the coefficient of determination and adjusted means were examined, while data mining with decision trees and a stepwise model selection procedure were also used in the data analysis. The results revealed that the use of technology in an introductory statistics module had a substantial and statistically significant positive effect on academic performance, but only a modest, but statistically significant positive effect on statistical reasoning. In addition, results from a survey design (questionnaire), used to gather quantitative and some qualitative information regarding the experience of students exposed to CAT/L, indicated that learning with the intervention was well accepted and successful and that students' attitude towards statistics and CAT/L changed from mainly negative to mainly positive, As a whole, this study can be seen as a contribution to the advancement of the scholarship of teaching and learning in general, and of scholarship in statistics education in particular. In accordance with the research findings and limitations of the empirical study, recommendations are made for future research as well as ways in which the findings could be disseminated as widely as possible.