The purpose of this research is to highlight the valuable perspectives of Malaysian academics in the agenda for accessing productivity achievement and some other factors affecting it. This research is also about the National Education Philosophy (NEP) in terms of how successful its implementation on Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Malaysia is. The researcher draws eight major conclusions in answering the main research questions. The thesis argues that the most productive role among the academics is teaching, compared to research and administration. Also, different factors give significant effect to different academic roles. Only about 59% of the professors were thought to have been appointed on merit (deserve their appointment). About 35%, 30% and 12% of the respondents have fair, good and very good knowledge about NEP respectively. All NEP elements are considered well implemented, where each of them has an average rating of more than 3 in an increasing scale of 1-5 (least to most). The most frequent constraint among the academics for NEP to be implemented in HEI is the significant burdens that are time-consuming faced by them. There is a significant relationship between implementation success of NEP and administration productivity. Lastly, there is a significant relationship between the perspective of academics concerning professorial appointments and the successful implementation of NEP in HEI. However, the last two have modest correlation values in general. It is shown in the thesis that this is pioneering research because it is the first that has been conducted on a large scale involving academics in a single country. Furthermore, it is also the first research that has been conducted on academics in Malaysia by using an online survey questionnaire, an invention of a new procedure in Social Science research. The response rate of 42.43% looks very promising in comparison with similar procedures in the past. This study is also the first to look at the impacts of elements of NEP and their implementation in HEI in Malaysia. The study reveals the outcomes of academics' productivity by looking at their roles and the factors which affect their productivity, and the impacts of NEP in HEI alongside the possible constraints that could bring valuable positive indicators of the performance of current HEI in Malaysia as a whole.

Millions of young people transition from K-12 education to higher education each year. Many meet university entry requirements effortlessly, and yet there are also many who must further demonstrate sufficient readiness for higher learning despite having gained entry into university. For these “transition” students, higher education institutions have increasingly created pathway programmes in order justify letting lesser prepared students through their gates, but with intention to assist them up to speed academically. This thesis documents a research case study conducted on the Academic Pathway to Undergraduate Studies (APUS) (pseudonym) programme at Urban University Malaysia (pseudonym). The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of academic literacies, as a teaching and learning approach within the APUS programme in better preparing students for further study at the university. The articulations of APUS students on their ability to employ academic literacies post APUS were gathered as a means of gaining one perspective on the programme’s effectiveness. A third aspect of the study is the practitioner reflection done in order to locate possible curricular (or other) improvements to the programme based on the study’s findings. Academic literacies was used as the theoretical foundation for the study as it is also the current pedagogical framework for developing essential academic competencies within the programme. This study utilised a documentary analysis approach and student interviews as the two primary research methods, triangulated against a literature review. The study has produced five main findings revolving around misalignments in the learning outcomes of certain modules and between disciplinary assessments. A second finding shows that APUS students perform less well academically than their non-pathway disciplinary peers across all disciplines. It has also found that Computer Science-stream of the module find that the academic literacies component of the programme lacks relevance to their disciplinary learning. Despite the unearthing of these gaps within the programme, APUS students still find that the programme is helpful overall in their personal projections of what future academic competencies post-transition will be needed in order to be successful in completing a full undergraduate degree programme. The study concludes with several strategic recommendations for change to the programme.

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Like in many other countries, a concerted effort is being made to create ’world class’ universities in Malaysia. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the effort at upgrading the performance of Malaysian universities. Two interrelated arguments are developed in the thesis. One is that the public policy framework created to improve the status of Malaysian universities is an example of what Sabel and Zeitlin (2011) call Experimentalist Governance (EG). The thesis sets out how national public policy has established a broad central framework for improving university performance, including goals and targets, but also has provided individual universities a degree of discretion with regards to how they go about achieving these designated national goals and targets. The thesis assesses the extent to extent the policy framework has encouraged the national policy centre and local universities to work together in collaboration to produce a system of learning by monitoring’. The second argument is that in endeavouring to upgrade their performance, most universities have sought to deepen the intellectual capital of their organizations. Stiles and Kulvisaechana, (2003) argue that an organization can be considered to be improving its intellectual capital when it introduces successfully integrated and complementary human capital, social capital and organizational capital arrangements. The thesis concludes by assessing to what extent Malaysia has moved towards the goal of creating world class universities.

Nowadays, marketing activities of HE institutions are increasingly important as they operate within their competitive and regulated environment. HE institutions have borrowed service industrial concepts to focus on the services they provide to students. They need to identify and implement tools to further understanding of the issues that impact on students' experiences. Apart from, focussing specifically on the learning experience in the sense of formal learning (where most of the past research has concentrated on), studies have also shown that support services are just as important in influencing students' learning experience. Hence, one of the support services, programme administration (PA) has become increasingly important due to the diversity of programmes offered and it contributes to the learning experience of students as well as indirectly impacting upon institutions' competitiveness. In order to enhance the learning experience of students and to manage the service encounter between students and programme leaders (PLs), it is argued that there must be an understanding of the service encounter behaviour (SEB) of the interacting parties and more importantly from a dyadic perspective since a service encounter is a two-way interpretive process. Thus, this research is set in the HE context, focussing particularly in PA, exploring the SEB (the situational definition and situational roles) of student-PL from a dyadic perspective (from student's and employee's perspective) to improve the management of service encounters as well as to enhance the learning experience of students. The conceptual framework is based on Czepiel et al. (1985) concept of a service encounter emphasising that it is purposeful where tasks need to be completed within a set of rules constrained by the nature of service and the behaviour bounded by roles assumed by the interacting parties. To manage a service encounter, the SEB of the interacting parties needs to be understood and from a dyadic perspective paying attention to roles represented by each participant. This research has borrowed literature from the social psychology discipline i.e. Mead (1934) SI perspective of role and McHugh's (1968) situational definition to further understanding of the dynamism of interactions to gain further understanding of the SEB (role expectations and role response of the interacting parties). Taking the social constructionist epistemology, this research seeks to understand the meanings student- PL construct when interacting and how these meaning have led to specific SEB. By adopting the interpretivists' paradigm embedded in symbolic interactionism, the researcher tries to interpret the underlying meaning of students'-PLs' SEB from a dyadic perspective. Qualitative case study methodology is employed using the critical incident technique (CIT) as a method to elicit student-PL experiences in service encounters, helping them to focus on specific situations when recounting their SEB. To make sense of these data, narrative analysis is used to interpret the constructions of students¬PLs in their interactions. The study has included 42 participants (26 students and 16 PLs) from 4 private colleges in Malaysia. It has yielded 63 service encounters categorised into 11 types of service encounter, covering most of the situations where a student would approach their PLs in a typical semester. The findings have indicated that defining a service encounter is significant and is functional in shaping the situational roles to be represented, thereby influencing the outcome of the situation. It has shown that even though service encounters can be similar, different situational roles can lead to different outcomes. These key findings are evidenced in a SEB guide, giving a bundle of possible situational roles in identified service encounters. These outcomes have implications for students, PLs and the management as well as future research.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the relationship between experiences with diversity offered in an international university in Malaysia and the ways students and staff view integration. The problem that promoted this study arose from the researcher’s own experience of being an international student with difficulties in integrating in a multi-cultural environment in the university. Two outcomes are investigated in this study, the meaning of the term ‘integration’ as viewed by the students and staff and the conscious effort that is being implemented by authority and the students themselves towards achieving an optimal level of integration. This research intends to investigate the gap between the ideal level of integration and the existing level, and offer solution towards bridging the gap. Although several studies have been conducted in the past that extol the benefits of being educated in a more racially diverse environment, it is a relatively new area of educational research especially in the South Asian context and in Malaysia. Malaysia is on its way to becoming a hub for international students. The policy-makers in Malaysian higher education realize that with the influx of foreign students comes the issue of integrating these students and faculty that have come from other countries. This study had been designed to bridge the gap that exists between the local and international students and with the local community outside the campus. Findings from the study along with the theories from the literature review present the current scenario on integration and the recommendations suggest a way forward for the institution to reduce inter-group prejudices and foster optimal integration in the campus. The thesis begins with an introduction to the current scenario and summarizes the meaning of the term integration, race and ethnicity and its relevance to the concept of internationalisation as proposed by exponents in this field of research. The thesis then elaborates on the context of the study with the focus on Malaysian Higher Education policies and policies on internationalisation as drafted by the University of Nottingham and the relevance of such policies towards the study. The researcher explores literature found in this field of work and selects three theories to form the foundation of the study. The chapter on the literature review explains the theories in detail and how these three theories have been used to explore the current study. The research methodology is explained with the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus being chosen as a single case study to help focus attention on the case. A mixed method was used in designing the research, combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods in different ways, where both distinctive approaches contribute towards an understanding of the phenomenon. Quantitative research was conducted with 291 students from various departments in the second and third year of their studies and qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 participants comprising students and members of the teaching and administrative staff. The findings were analysed using SPSS version 20 and NVivo software. The analysis of the quantitative data was further discussed and the data showed that more than half the participants lacked clarity on the meaning of the word integration and its significance in their lives. Students and staff members showed a lack of clarity and understanding of the policies promoted by the university to foster integration. Students preferred being in their homogeneous race groups when it came to their academic activities. They also preferred spending their leisure time with students of their own race. The students were appreciative of the fact that the faculty respects every student equally and tries consciously to mix the races in assignment groups. The study revealed the complexity of the perception-practice dynamic, and the multi-faceted factors which influence student perception and behaviour in relation to optimal integration. Taking the findings from relevant literature and the results of the present study into account, recommendations for the university have been formulated regarding student integration. The recommendations consist of a clear vision and realistic goals in terms of integration. Recommendations also consist of promoting intercultural exchange through inculcating diversity in the curriculum and promoting intercultural interaction between international students and the local community outside the university campus and to carefully monitor integration and react appropriately to changes. The thesis ends with a conclusion summarizing the key findings, the significance of the study, limitations of the study and the scope for future research. The study recommends interventions to be used at different stages to measure and monitor the impact of such interventions towards creating optimal integration in the university and reduce the prejudice prevalent amongst racial groups in the campus at present.