The Master´s thesis analyses financial situation of the entrepreneurial entity. It includes analysis of financial ratios and selected bankruptcy models, based on whose steps leading to assurance of stability and prosperity of entrepreneurial activities were proposed.

Diploma Thesis called “Methodology Suggestion for the Choosing of Insurance Products for Individuals” deals with Procedure design of selected insurance products for natural persons with regard for their insurance needs and costs. In order to see the differences between clients' real needs and what insurance companies offer I have compared insurance companies statistics with question-forms' results. The question-forms were focused on the needs of clients in insurance. After that I have designed a procedure and algorithm of choice of suitable insurance products for cost optimization for each assurance

The aim of this study was to examine the role of distance education in providing access to quality postgraduate education in Ethiopia, using the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) as a case study. It draws on the development of distance education and it further explores the distance education programme delivery system in Ethiopia on the postgraduate level. In addition, the study explores the policy gap between conventional and distance education in relation to international postgraduate distance education. The study, specifically, focuses on the Master of Arts in Rural Development (MARD) programme offered by IGNOU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in terms of the opportunities it provides for alternative access to postgraduate education. It also explores the quality and quality assurance strategies employed in distance education. Two instruments were used to gather relevant data, namely: interviews and document analysis. The structured interviews were conducted with MARD graduates and current students at IGNOU in 2012. Other semi-structured and structured interviews were conducted with the dean and department head, programme coordinator, tutors, the institution‘s top-level managers, the course and materials dispatching officer and administrator as well as with policy-makers at the Ministry of Education (MoE). Furthermore, interviews were conducted with higher education experts and other MoE senior officials in foreign relations and those involved in cross-border private higher institutions. Senior officials from the Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) were also interviewed, such as the deputy director and senior officials who are responsible for quality audit and accreditation for both private and public higher education as well as the external quality auditors. A total sample size of thirty respondents participated in the study and the respondents were purposefully selected from diverse areas. The data gathered, using a qualitative method, was analysed. The selected relevant documents for the study were also thoroughly analysed and agreed with the interview findings. The study established that distance education has the potential to contribute significantly to the provision of higher education in Ethiopia. As the main findings of the study revealed, there is recognition of the MARD programme by the participants, especially the graduates in terms of the fulfilment of certain quality elements which is largely due to the promotion they received after the completion of the programme. The MoE participants indicated an acceptance of IGNOU in terms of it increasing access to higher education, even though it seems to be unrealistic to state that the quality of postgraduate distance education at IGNOU at this level is of the highest standard. Nevertheless, the quality indicators or elements at IGNOU regarding student support services and the quality of course materials and assessment methods are clear evidence that indicate that IGNOU is addressing the issues of quality enhancement and improvement. There are, however, a number of factors which can affect the realisation of the potential of distance education programmes in Ethiopia. These are considered in terms of the operations of international providers of postgraduate studies and their role in meeting the increasing demand for quality human resource development in the country. In view of the findings and provided that the necessary conditions are met, it is possible to provide postgraduate studies in distance education programmes in Ethiopia in an efficient and successful manner. This requires careful planning and the alignment of the policy framework with the conventional system of higher education. The study further reveals a range of strengths and weaknesses in the postgraduate level distance education programmes offered by international providers and by IGNOU, in particular. The main areas of emphasis include the national education policy and its implications for distance education development and the entire institutional and pedagogic system of the cross-border institution; the focus of which includes course material development; the provision of various student support services; as well as the integration of ICT and assessment and evaluation methods. In the light of the above factors the study also identifies some strategies that can be used to develop and increase the effectiveness of these programmes. A significant strategy identified in this study recommends the need to decentralise services into different regional administrative centres. There is, therefore, a need to have comprehensively stocked libraries and quality student support services at the regional centres with adequate facilities for distance students including services, such as ICT, access to reference materials and counselling. Frameworks for assuring quality in open and distance learning, identified by Latchem and Jung in Asian Open and Distance Learning universities (ODL) (2007) and Lockhart and Lacy (2002) and an Assessment model used in the United States‘ distance education context were adopted for the purpose of analysis in this study. Latchem and Jung (2007) examine the various quality assurance approaches employed in Asian Open and Distance Learning universities (ODL). They make suggestions on how to achieve a culture of quality in distance education which is relevant in the context of developing countries, such as Ethiopia. The following three quality indicators were used as tools of analysis: coherence, efficiency and the impact of distance education. These indicators are identified by Perraton (2000:199) and are drawn from the quality criteria specific to distance education. They were adopted as a framework that could be applied to quality distance education in responding to human resource development in Ethiopia. The study reveals that access to postgraduate studies in the conventional face-to-face system in Ethiopia is still a problem for some students and workers. Therefore, it is recommended that international postgraduate distance education providers should collaborate with local private and public contact higher education institutions in order to provide alternative access to higher education via the distance education mode. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

With globalisation and the rise of the knowledge economy, there has been an increase in demand for higher education worldwide, which has resulted in the proliferation of private higher education institutions (PHEIs). Within this context, issues of quality and quality assurance processes, guided by national policies and frameworks, have become increasingly important. In South Africa, programme accreditation is one form of external quality assurance. Literature reveals several gaps in the understanding of the management of quality assurance in the private higher education sector, and the topic of programme accreditation in relation to PHEIs in South Africa has received scant attention. The research question for this study was: How do PHEIs manage quality assurance as they engage in the process of programme accreditation in South Africa? Exploratory, qualitative research methodology was deemed the most appropriate for this study and twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with quality assurance managers at ten PHEIs in Gauteng. The conceptual framework, adapted from Zaki and Zaki Rashidi (2013), lists eight parameters relevant to the management of quality assurance within PHEIs in South Africa. The findings of this study indicate a general lack of sound governance and management structures at PHEIs, an absence of institutional capacity, and academic leadership that is often deficient. The availability of relevant higher education resources within PHEIs remains a challenge. Concerning external quality assurance, the complexity of quality assurance and higher education legislation and various process-based challenges are some of the most common barriers for South African PHEIs. Recommendations are presented. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Education Management and Policy Studies / M Ed / unrestricted

Today, the Web of Data evolved to a semantic information network containing large amounts of data. Since such data may stem from different sources, ranging from automatic extraction processes to extensively curated knowledge bases, its quality also varies. Thus, currently research efforts are made to find methodologies and approaches to measure the data quality in the Web of Data. Besides the option to consider the actual data in a quality assessment, taking the process of data generation into account is another possibility, especially for extracted data. An extraction approach that gained popularity in the last years is the mapping of relational databases to RDF (RDB2RDF). By providing definitions of how RDF should be generated from relational database content, huge amounts of data can be extracted automatically. Unfortunately, this also means that single errors in the mapping definitions can affect a considerable portion of the generated data. Thus, from a quality assurance point of view, the assessment of these RDB2RDF mapping definitions is important to guarantee high quality RDF data. This is not covered by recent quality research attempts in depth and is examined in this thesis. After a structured evaluation of existing approaches, a quality assessment methodology and quality dimensions of importance for RDB2RDF mappings are proposed. The formalization of this methodology is used to define 43 metrics to characterize the quality of an RDB2RDF mapping project. These metrics are also implemented for a software prototype of the proposed methodology, which is used in a practical evaluation of three different datasets that are generated applying the RDB2RDF approach.

An zwei sächsischen Lößstandorten wurden sorten- und fruchtfolgespezifische Anbauvergleiche zur Minderung des Befallsrisikos mit Ährenfusarium und nachfolgender Mykotoxinbildung durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dokumentieren den deutlichen Einfluss der Vorfrucht und der Minimierung von Ernterückständen auf das Fusariumrisiko. Die Ertragsdifferenz zur Rapsvorfrucht lag im Vergleich zu Mais und Winterweizen im Versuchsjahr 2007 zwischen 10 bis 18 dt/ha. Ein Anstieg der Risikofaktoren führte zu nachlassenden Wirkungsgraden bei den fungiziden Maßnahmen gegen Ährenfusariosen. Weder wenig anfällige Sorten noch Fungizidbehandlungen in der Blüte garantieren bei optimalen Infektionsbedingungen die Einhaltung der gesetzlich festgelegten Mykotoxinhöchstmenge. Gute Ergebnisse zeigten das im Projekt geprüfte Schnelltestverfahren zur Deoxynivalenolbestimmung sowie die Vorerntebemusterung.

In this research I investigate the problem of education quality at the faculties of Social Sciences at four Georgian Public Universities. The findings of research are derived through interviewing of professors and document analysis of Georgian legislation concerning higher education and European-level frameworks supporting the enhancement of education quality. I deal with the problem of quality using the mixture of theories. I divided researched topics in three parts: Ideological, Institutional and personal-level. The majority of theoretical claims were disproved in the local context of Georgia. Education quality and knowledge production are multi-faceted problems at Georgian Public Universities, Faculties of Social Sciences and it mainly is related to the scarce state resources allocated to HEIs in general in Georgia.

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Hållbarhetsredovisning har under de senaste åren kommit att öka vilket har resulterat i en större efterfrågan på en extern part som granskar hållbarhetsrapporten. Efterfrågan av hållbarhetsgranskningar har medfört nya områden att granska i kombination med nya utmaningar för revisionsyrket. Tidigare forskning visar att det finns utmaningar med hållbarhetsgranskningen men går inte in på hur granskningarna går till i praktiken. Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur hållbarhetsspecialister arbetar vid en granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter samt vad som ligger till grund för arbetsprocessen.     Genom att utföra kvalitativa intervjuer med sex hållbarhetsspecialister har en förståelse skapats för hur en hållbarhetsgranskning går till, vilka faktorer som är mest väsentliga samt vilka utmaningar de upplever vid en granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter. Respondenterna presenterade flera aspekter som tidigare forskning inte identifierat som väsentliga faktorer att ta hänsyn till. Vidare fick respondenterna redogöra för sin känsla av komfort till granskningen vilket applicerar komfortteorin på hållbarhetsgranskning.   Studiens slutsatser är att arbetsprocessen vid en hållbarhetsgranskning inte skiljer sig markant ifrån en finansiell revision. De faktorer som respondenterna uppgav påverkar arbetsprocessen var liknande som tidigare litteratur har behandlat och centreras kring faktorer gällande det granskade företaget. Utmaningarna som respondenterna upplever involverar till stor del aspekter som har en negativ inverkan på arbetet där de också har begränsad möjlighet att påverka det. / Sustainability reporting has increased during the latter years, which has resulted in greater demand for an external part that assures such reports. The demand for sustainability assurance has created new areas of assurance in combination with new challenges for the audit profession. Previous research shows that there are challenges with sustainability assurance but does not focus on how assurance is actually performed. The purpose of this thesis is to create a deeper understanding of how the assurance providers work with sustainability reports and what influence the process.   By conducting qualitative interviews with six sustainability experts, an understanding has been gained of how sustainability assurance is conducted, what factors are the most significant and what challenges these experts experience when assuring sustainability reports. The respondents present several aspects that previous research did not identify as factors to take into account. Furthermore, the respondents gave their account of comfort for the assurance which applies comfort theory to sustainability assurance.   The study´s conclusions are that the work processes within sustainability assurance do not differ significantly from financial audits. The factors stated by the respondents that influence the work process were similar to previous literature and are centered around factors regarding the client. The challenges that the respondents experience involve mostly aspects that have a negative impact on the work and where they have a limited opportunity to affect the situation.

The advent of democracy has witnessed radical changes in the demographic constitution of the learner population in schools. Many teachers now encounter classes that comprise learners from diverse racial, ethnic, religious and language backgrounds. How do these teachers ensure quality education in such a class of diverse learners? Accordingly, this research study set out to explore quality and diversity in a class of diverse learners with particular emphasis on the role of the teacher. The meta-theoretical paradigm that directed it was a combination of constructivism and interpretivism. The methodological paradigm employed a qualitative mode of inquiry and various sampling techniques to select the participants. Convenience sampling was used to select three schools, two classes per school and five learners per teacher, while purposive sampling were used to select two teachers per school. A mix of instruments was used to collect the data, such as semistructured interviews, observations, field notes and a researcher journal. Findings from this study were fivefold. First, the training that teachers received with regard to diversity is insufficient and does not prepare them to teach a class of diverse learners. Second, the role of the teacher is complex and requires them to fulfil more than one role at a time; even though some roles are neglected, the majority of teachers focus on the role of facilitator. More emphasis should be placed on the importance of the roles and how they can contribute to quality in education. Third, teachers must follow an asset-based approach in a class of diverse learners. By using difference as a resource and an asset, teachers will be able to encourage open class discussions, involve learners in the lesson, keep their attention and use this to promote their understanding about complex topics and terms. Fourth, teachers have to make certain adjustments to their teaching style to accommodate diverse learners. It is important for all teachers to examine their own attitudes towards teaching diverse learners in order to provide the best education possible. Finally, certain quality assurance methods are in place at schools, but just how appropriate they are is debatable. New approaches must be developed and utilized to meet the needs of the current social context in South Africa to ensure that quality teaching takes place at schools. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted