The success of the most competitive companies throughout the world, including higher education institutions, lies in their highly skilled employees on which these institutions spend millions to retain. Literature reveals the cost of losing best employees to be enormous – beyond monetary quantification. Also worth noting is that the loss of one competent employee to a competitor institution strengthens the competitor’s advantage. This case study analysed human resources turnover data, and interviewed academic managers and employees in order to examine the possible employee retention factors for a higher education institution in South Africa. The findings reveal different institutional interests between institutional managers and employees. The former are concerned more about profits, business sustenance and justification for spending, while the latter are driven by introverted interests such as development, monetary rewards and personal fulfilment.

Law that regulates management of higher education institutions has been increasing in recent years in both Saudi Arabia and England. The Higher Education and Universities Act (HEUA) 1414 A. H. (1993 A. D. ) and the Regulation for Organising the Affairs of Teaching Staff (ROATS) 1418 A. H. (1997 A. D. ) in Saudi Arabia arose as major upheavals in the organisation of Higher Education and Universities. Similar developments have occurred in England in response to the Education Reform Act (1988) and the Further and Higher Education Act (1992). All these developments in both countries have deeply effected the legal position of the university as well as the affairs of the academic staff and other university members. This research seeks to show the laws that now apply to universities in both countries and to provide for all academic and administrative members of the university. In addition, the scope of this thesis is to compare the laws of universities and to show the advantages and disadvantages of such laws in relation to both legal and administrative affairs at these universities. Particular emphasis is placed on the organisation of the academic staff and on how the disciplinary procedures in both countries focus on natural justice.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / International ranking systems provide are an opportunity to higher education institutions (HEIs) to establish a global reputation. However, seeking that recognition comes at a significant cost. By focusing on particular indicators in the ranking systems, HEIs and governments may neglect other aspects of higher education. When choosing certain indicators over others, policymakers are confronted with an opportunity cost when allocating resources to improve rank. The nature of this cost and the relative importance of the indicators remain unclear. This study seeks to (1) contrast the policy pressures from international rankings against regional dialogues on higher education policy , (2) determine interaction between the ranking indicators of HEIs in Continental Europe, East Asia, and the Anglo-Saxon world, (3) reveal the relative importance of indicators as predictors for the overall rank of HEIs in these regions , (4) provide suggestions as to how HEIs could implement strategies to improve their standings in the rankings, and (5) consider how these findings from the ranking systems compare with regional trends in higher education policy dialogue. / 2031-01-02

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master in Technology: Public Relations Management, Durban University of Technology, 2010. / The National Plan for Higher Education (2001) provides a framework for achieving the vision of a single co-ordinated higher education system. In order to meet the goals of this plan, various technikons and universities had to merge. Pityana (2004: 4-5) points out that, in addition to opportunities, various challenges have also emerged from these mergers. One such challenge is that higher education institutions may find themselves in tensions with their partners which may result in disagreements that could lead to crisis situations. Marconi (2005: 262) argues that, in crisis situations, the pace of the conflict accelerates dramatically. This means that the affected parties have to react very quickly or risk having their ability to protect their interests substantially reduced, hence the need for a crisis communication plan. Implicit in this plan is the importance of communication. McCusker (2006: 108) maintains that, often in crisis a situation, communication gets distorted. As a result, rumours often supplant real facts. Thus, clear communication needs to be pre-planned and increased during a crisis. This dissertation, therefore, sets out to investigate the role of communication during the planning and management of crises at higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal. It reports on preliminary results of in-depth interviews conducted at higher education institutions in KwaZulu- Natal and offers recommendations so that crises planning and management may be improved upon.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This thesis sought to understand the various ways in which Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania, as a teaching and research institution, engages with its communities. This was prompted by the increasing calls upon the universities, both locally and globally, to become relevant to the communities through community engagement. Although the idea of community engagement has emerged and continues to gain momentum in higher education, there have been different understandings and shifts in the ways in which universities are practising community engagement. The study is located within the broader debates in the literature, which sees community engagement as a contested concept in terms of its exact practices and outcomes, particularly in relation to the university’s core activities of teaching, learning and research. With the contextual nature of community engagement, a case study design was deemed to be suitable for this type of study. Data collection instruments comprised of document reviews, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. From the data collected and analysed, there are three key findings in this study. Firstly, community engagement in the Tanzanian higher education system in general has moved from predominantly supporting communities to incorporating some aspects of teaching, learning and research, as well as economic pursuit. This is illustrated in practices such as national service programmes, continuing education, volunteering, field practical attachment, community-based research, commissioned research and consultancy, participatory action research, experiments and technology transfer. Secondly, whereas some of the practices are fading away in some Tanzanian higher education institutions, those that are active at SUA fall within both the Land-Grant (one-way) and Boyer’s (two-way) models of community engagement. Thirdly, there are no deliberate efforts by SUA to institutionalise community engagement as a legitimate activity that enriches teaching, learning and research. As such, there are loose and discontinuous linkages between community engagement and SUA’s teaching, learning and research, attributed to a weak institutional approach to community engagement.

High retention rates, low levels of academic literacy and inundated support services show that students enrolled at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are experiencing difficulty coping with the demands of tertiary study and reaching their academic goals. Literature shows that a significant number of students who are attending HEIs experience barriers to learning, both intrinsic and extrinsic. The aim of this study was to determine the opinions of lecturers at one University of Technology regarding their role in supporting students experiencing barriers to learning. The researcher used a mixed methods approach to collect data with the aim to describe the phenomenon accurately. Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model provided a theoretical framework for this study as it emphasizes the importance of the interaction between the development of an individual and the systems within the individual’s social context. A purposive sampling strategy was employed, and self-structured questionnaires were given to lecturers who teach first year to post-graduate students at the University of Technology. After the statistical analysis of the quantitative data, fifteen lecturers were randomly chosen to participate in individual semi-structured interviews. The transcriptions of the interviews were coded and themes were identified. Using the constant comparative method of data analysis, the researcher aimed to explain the results of quantitative data analysis. The key findings revealed that lecturers feel inadequate to deal with barriers to learning; mainly owing to a lack of training and that they are mainly of opinion that their duty is to refer students for support. / MEd (Learner Support), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

High retention rates, low levels of academic literacy and inundated support services show that students enrolled at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are experiencing difficulty coping with the demands of tertiary study and reaching their academic goals. Literature shows that a significant number of students who are attending HEIs experience barriers to learning, both intrinsic and extrinsic. The aim of this study was to determine the opinions of lecturers at one University of Technology regarding their role in supporting students experiencing barriers to learning. The researcher used a mixed methods approach to collect data with the aim to describe the phenomenon accurately. Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model provided a theoretical framework for this study as it emphasizes the importance of the interaction between the development of an individual and the systems within the individual’s social context. A purposive sampling strategy was employed, and self-structured questionnaires were given to lecturers who teach first year to post-graduate students at the University of Technology. After the statistical analysis of the quantitative data, fifteen lecturers were randomly chosen to participate in individual semi-structured interviews. The transcriptions of the interviews were coded and themes were identified. Using the constant comparative method of data analysis, the researcher aimed to explain the results of quantitative data analysis. The key findings revealed that lecturers feel inadequate to deal with barriers to learning; mainly owing to a lack of training and that they are mainly of opinion that their duty is to refer students for support. / MEd (Learner Support), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Magister Curationis - MCur / Service-learning (SL) is regarded as a teaching and learning method combining community participation with content-based class discussion and reflection. It involves a teaching and learning assessment process with community members. It therefore combines theory-based knowledge learnt at a Higher Education Institution (HEI) and the learning experiences produced through community engagement. National guidelines developed by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) are available for higher education to institutionalise service-learning (SL) in South African HEIs, but widespread inconsistencies with the implementation of these guidelines have been reported. This thesis is informed by a previous study conducted at an HEI in Western Cape that identified constraining factors required to institutionalisation SL within an academic programme. The aim of this study was to determine the institutional support needed for embedding service-learning in nursing at a Higher Education Institution in the Western Cape. A quantitative, descriptive, cross sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of 60 nurse educators (lecturers and clinical supervisors). All-inclusive sampling was used because of the small number in the population. All questions were statistically analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 24) to provide descriptive statistics. The data was summarized, and the descriptive statistics were presented as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation.

Magister Curationis - MCur / Background: Service-learning links academic acquisition with community-based work within a partnership framework, which is underpinned by values such as respect, reciprocity, relevance and reflection. This pedagogy has its roots in the northern hemisphere, but has become popular with higher education institutions across the globe. According to Butin, service-learning became institutionalised in the USA after a critical mass of service-learning champions was reached in the 1990s. Hence, the majority of higher education institutions are now subscribing to the national organisation, Campus Compact, which is committed to broadening the footprint of service-learning in this sector. Within the South African higher education sector, “service-learning” as a term became known in 1996. There is, however, wide-spread disagreement as to what is meant by “service-learning”, or exactly what it is meant to accomplish. As a result, education institutions must define it for themselves. A School of Nursing at a university in the Western Cape has defined service-learning during a baseline study that was conducted at the school and this particular definition is, therefore, regarded as a work in progress. Aim: The aim of the study was to refine the preliminary service-learning definition developed during the baseline study by identifying the main concepts that should be included in the definition of service-learning for this School of Nursing.

Knowledge management and organisational learning have received much attention in recent times, owing to the increased recognition which has been accorded knowledge as a source of organisational success and sustainability. Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in striving to understand how the two notions can be harnessed in order to attain that success. However, while it seems clear that both knowledge management and organisational learning have the same goals, that is to nurture and harness knowledge resources, the concepts have tended, in the past, to be regarded independently of each other, with parallel strategies having been implemented for each. Such an imposed separation has, at times, resulted in resource duplication and unsatisfactory outcomes for the organisations concerned. The current study examines the nature of the relationship between knowledge management and organisational learning in higher educational institutions in Uganda, with the aim of providing a unified framework for understanding how the above-mentioned knowledge-based concepts relate to each other. A mixed methodology approach was applied to achieve the set objective. Quantitative data were collected using questionnaires from 270 respondents, employed at six higher educational institutions (comprising four universities, one management development institute, and one business school). Qualitative data, in contrast, were collected by means of interviews which were conducted with 13 key informants from three different institutions. Analytical techniques of correlation analysis, regression analysis and canonical correlation analysis were applied to the quantitative data, while content analysis procedure was applied to the qualitative data. Empirical evidence confirmed that knowledge management and organisational learning have an interdependent relationship, which is manifested in two main dimensions, namely the institutional strategic focus and people (human resources) focus. Based on such dimensions, the study proposes a re-conceptualisation of the linkage between knowledge management and organisational learning, aimed at evolving the two concepts into a single organisational knowledge sustainability concept in higher educational institutions. Such a joint concept emphasises the effective utilisation of existing knowledge, while, at the same time, focusing on the importance of continuous learning for acquiring new knowledge to meet future organisational knowledge requirements. In addition, empirical evidence from this study show that knowledge management practices play an important role in promoting learning at various levels of the organisation. The study concludes that knowledge management has not been fully integrated in the strategic agenda of most higher education institutions in Uganda and much internal knowledge is not properly harnessed for the benefit of such institutions. The study recommends that, in the current information age, higher education institutions in Uganda should prioritise both knowledge management and organisational learning by implementing strategies aimed at exploiting existing knowledge, as well as at exploring new knowledge. Lastly, recommendations for future research are presented.