Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

L’internazionalizzazione di un curriculum accademico è un processo globale volto al miglioramento complessivo della qualità dei curricula attraverso l’aggiunta di una dimensione interculturale e internazionale. L’internazionalizzazione del curriculum è riconosciuta come un processo altamente contestualizzato che viene accolto e interpretato in modo diverso a seconda delle discipline accademiche o dagli ambiti territoriali. Precedenti ricerche comunicano che si tratta di un processo in cui il personale accademico svolge un ruolo critico e il loro continuo impegno è necessario alla sua riuscita. Sono state individuate molte sfide nel reclutamento del personale addetto all’internazionalizzazione dei programmi di studio. Negli ultimi anni, l’internazionalizzazione dell’educazione superiore è divenuta una priorità strategica per i politici e la leadership istituzionale in Israele. Le risorse sono state dirette allo sviluppo di strategie istituzionali per l’internazionalizzazione, con l’obiettivo di aumentare la mobilità degli studenti e del personale, e migliorare la qualità dell’insegnamento e della ricerca. L’internazionalizzazione del curriculum è vista come parte integrante di questa tendenza. Sebbene in Israele vi siano ricerche sul processo di istituzionalizzazione dell’istruzione superiore, in questo campo esistono pochi studi sul processo di internazionalizzazione del curriculum. L’obiettivo di questo studio è quello di esplorare il processo di internazionalizzazione del curriculum in tre dipartimenti accademici in un’università israeliana e registrare l’impegno del personale accademico in questo processo, prestando particolare attenzione alle loro risposte, motivazioni, interpretazioni e attuazioni. Lo studio utilizza, come lente teorica, il quadro concettuale di Leask (2015) per l’internazionalizzazione del curriculum, in cui il processo di internazionalizzazione è posizionato all’interno di un ambiente estremamente complesso e influenzato da molteplici strati di contesto. La ricerca adotta un approccio partecipativo con un disegno di ricerca qualitativa, costruito intorno a tre casi di studio. Quest’ultimi sono triangolati utilizzando tre canali di dati: interviste approfondite, analisi di programmi dei corsi, canali informali. Un totale di 17 partecipanti provenienti da tre dipartimenti accademici sono stati intervistati e le trascrizioni delle interviste sono state analizzate tematicamente. Inoltre, 15 programmi dei corsi sono stati sottoposti ad analisi documentale, utilizzando gli Indicatori dell’Internazionalizzazione del Curriculum, strumento sviluppato come parte dello studio. I risultati della ricerca dimostrano che l’internazionalizzazione del curriculum funge da catalizzatore per la progettazione di programmi di studio per individui e team accademici in un istituto di istruzione superiore in Israele. Lo studio segnala che gli accademici sono motivati ad avviare il processo anche nel caso in cui non vi sia una necessità evidente, come la presenza di studenti internazionali nel campus. Inoltre, questo lavoro mostra modalità contestualizzate di coinvolgimento nell’internazionalizzazione del curriculum in tutte le discipline, sostenendo ed estendendo le ricerche precedenti in questo settore. Nella fattispecie, lo studio offre importanti spunti di riflessione sul processo di internazionalizzazione del curriculum, suggerisce miglioramenti al quadro di Leask (2015), e formula diverse raccomandazioni pratiche che sono rilevanti per il singolo ambito dell’istruzione superiore in Israele, ma che potrebbero estendersi anche oltre. / Internationalising an academic curriculum is a comprehensive process directed towards the overall improvement of curricula quality through the addition of intercultural and international dimensions. Internationalisation of the curriculum is recognised as a highly contextualised process which is received and interpreted in many different ways across academic disciplines and regional settings. Previous research also reports that it is a process where academic staff play a critical role and their continuous engagement with it is necessary. Many challenges in recruiting staff to engage in internationalisation of the curriculum have been raised. Internationalisation of higher education has become a strategic priority of policy makers and institutional leadership in Israel in the past few years. Resources are directed towards the development of institutional strategies for internationalisation, with the goal of increasing student and staff mobility and raising the quality of teaching and research. Internationalisation of the curriculum is seen as an integral part of this trend. Although there is research on the process of internationalisation in higher education in Israel, little research exists on the process of internationalisation of the curriculum in this space. The objective of this study is to explore the process of internationalisation of the curriculum in one Israeli college across three academic departments and record the engagement of academic staff in it focusing on responses, motivations, interpretations and enactment. The study uses Leask’s (2015) conceptual framework for internationalisation of the curriculum as a theoretical lens, where the process of internationalisation of the curriculum is positioned within a super complex environment and impacted by multiple layers of context. The research assumes a participatory action research approach with a qualitative research design, constructed around three case studies. The case studies are triangulated using three data channels: in-depth interviews, analysis of syllabi documents and insider, informal channels. A total of 17 participants from three academic departments were interviewed and interview transcripts were subjected to thematic analysis. In addition, 15 syllabi documents were subjected to document analysis, using the Internationalisation of the Curriculum Indicators tool which was developed as part of this study. The results of the research demonstrate the role of internationalisation of the curriculum as a catalyst for curriculum design for academic individuals and teams in one higher education institution in Israel. It shows that academics are motivated to embark on the process even in a case when there is no obvious need such as the presence of international students on campus. In addition, it shows contextualised modes of engagement with internationalisation of the curriculum across the disciplines, supporting and extending previous research in this area. Specifically, the study offers important insights into the process of internationalisation of the curriculum and suggests enhancements to Leask's (2015) framework and makes several practical recommendations which are relevant for the unique space of Israeli higher education and possibly beyond.

Thesis (M.A. ( Information Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study aimed to examine the extent of awareness and the adoption of Open Access (OA) publishing for the purpose of scholarly communication by academic staff at the University of Limpopo (UL). The study was guided by Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory (1) to measure the level of awareness of academics on the availability and use of OA resources; (2) to determine the adoption and usage levels of OA publishing as a platform for information sharing by academics in scholarly communication; (3) to establish academics’ attitudes towards the use of the OA publishing platforms; and (4) to identify perspectives of academic staff with regards to challenges and benefits presented by OA publishing. A dominantly quantitative research approach was adopted using a google forms questionnaire with closed ended questions to collect data from 250 academics at the University of Limpopo. Academics were selected using the systematic simple random sampling method. To ensure the survey instrument’s reliability and validity, the researcher conducted a pilot study through a web-based survey. A descriptive statistics method of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data. The study established that the majority (82%) of academics were aware of OA publishing platforms. The internet and subject librarians were the main communication channels through which they became aware of OA publishing. The study also found that there was minimal the adoption and usage of OA publishing among academics. Their attitudes towards OA and their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of OA. The general attitudes of academics about OA were positive, signifying the acceptance of this scholarly communication mode. However, some of the challenges encountered in adopting and using OA publishing include slow internet connectivity and access, publication charges by some publishers, lack of skills to publish online, power interruptions, lack of policies on OA, fake and predatory v publishers and OA articles not being peer-reviewed. These were reported as problems that directly or indirectly hinder academics from publishing in OA platforms. The study recommends the institutionalisation of OA publishing at UL to improve research output dissemination. An area for further research will be to establish more insights regarding the feasibility of OA development and possible ways of dealing with article processing fees. Keywords: Open Access publishing, scholarly communication, Academic staff, Institutional Repositories, Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory, University of Limpopo.

The main purpose of this thesis is the comparative analysis of the funding of public universities with the focus on the issues of the coefficients of economic difficulty. At the beginning of the thesis the education is provided in universities set into the Czech educational system. Furthermore the thesis is targeted on the history of the Czech higher education and its development since its founding and establishing to the present status. In the theoretical part the basic concepts of funding and financing public universities and the history of the coefficient of economic difficulty, which is compared from different perspectives in the analytical part, are explained. The aim of this thesis is the comparison of the values of the coefficients of economic difficulty in selected public universities, while taking into account the development of the share of personal and non-capital costs in the main function, the number of students and the number of academic staff. The target of this thesis is the comparison of the values of the coefficients of economic difficulty in selected public universities taking into account the development of the share of personal and non-capital costs in the core business, the number of students and academic staff. The result is a proposed amendment to the values of these coefficients and the level of the amount of funding provided to public universities in the Czech Republic.

В условиях существенного сокращения финансирования образования возникает задача сохранения потенциала преподавательского корпуса вузов. Автор, рассматривая профессиональную деятельность преподавателей российских вузов, выявляет инновационный потенциал как личностную готовность представителей преподавательской общности к потенциальной возможности использования внутренних ресурсов. В работе полноценно представлена визуализация структуры инновационного потенциала преподавателей вузов. / In case of a substantial reduction of funding for education arises the problem of maintaining the capacity of the academic staff. The author considers the professional activity of the academic staff and identifies innovative potential as personal readiness of the academic community to the potential use of internal resources. Innovative potential of the academic staff is visualized through its structure.

This study aimed at exploring the level of job satisfaction among academic staff members in Ethiopian public universities. For this purpose, a conceptual framework incorporating group of constructs, namely university policies and support, working conditions, student achievement, and demographic factors was developed based on the literature reviewed in the study. A descriptive survey research design was employed in the study to collect and analyse quantitative data obtained from participants. Clustered and systematic random sampling techniques were used in the study to choose 400 academic staff members from eight public universities. A questionnaire comprising closed- and open-ended questions, and Likert scale items was adapted in order to gather data from the participants. Descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were used to analyse the relationships between all the study constructs with the help of IBM SPSS, version 25. The study revealed that there were significant differences among different demographic groups, and positive relationships between job satisfaction and its defining constructs. The study also found that most of the academic staff members were dissatisfied with their jobs. Female academic staff members were more significantly dissatisfied with students‟ discipline policy, university governance and support, their salary, workload, communication, and students‟ achievement than male academic staff members. Male academic staff members were, however, more significantly satisfied with the promotion policy and more significantly dissatisfied with reward than the female academic staff members. The study revealed that academic staff members significantly differed in the level of job satisfaction corresponding to their age and qualification. The study also indicated that academic staff members significantly differed in the level of job satisfaction corresponding to their work experience and academic rank. Significant correlations between the eight constructs and job satisfaction of academic staff members were also found in the study. Finally, the study recommended directions for policy amendment and implications for practice and future research relevant to the issue under study. / Educational Studies / D. Phil. (Education)

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of access to and use of library electronic resources and their implications on remote users at the National Open University of Nigeria. Specific objectives were formulated to: find out the different types of electronic resources available in the NOUN Library; investigate academic staffs’ and students’ level of awareness of electronic resources available in the NOUN library; explore the various types of electronic resources used by academic staffs and students of NOUN; find out how academic staffs and students access and use electronic resources in NOUN library; analyze the policies that enable access to and use of electronic resources by academic staffs and students at NOUN; find out the perceptions and attitudes of academic staffs and students toward the electronic resources available in the NOUN library; and identify the challenges associated with access to and use of electronic resources by the academic staffs and students of NOUN. The study adopted a quantitative research approach and survey research method was employed. The study targeted 1,680 population samples of which include 1,513 Students, 140 Academic staffs, and 27 Academic Librarians. Probability (Stratified random and systematic) sampling and nonprobability (purposive) sampling methods were adopted. Two sample frames were used: Students - classified into subgroups (Level) in each selected study centers and Academic staff - classified into subgroups (academic staff/academic librarian). Online (Google form) self-administered closed-ended questionnaire was sent to participants’ email. Data collected were analyzed through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). This finding revealed that electronic journals and electronic books are readily available in the NOUN library. Academic staff most likely, interact with the library staff or visit the library to be aware of library electronic resources, however, the students struggled to be aware through personal efforts. NOUN library creates awareness through the email and notice boards. The academic staff and students access and use the library electronic resources for various multidimensional purposes, however, there is a low patronage of these electronic resources by academic staff and students as less than 40% of academic staff and students access and use the library electronic resources. Electricity outage, low internet connectivity speed and high cost of access to internet were presented as challenges encountered while accessing and using electronic resources. Recommendations: the library management should develop awareness programmes that is appropriate for an ODL university community through the use of modern communication tools, and emphasy should be on the use of electronic resources in the university curriculum. / Information Science