The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of student participation in various aspects of college and university governance in contrast to the extent to which selected administrative officers would allow them to participate. 1. To determine what the opinion of the university officials is on the general scope of student involvement in university affairs and institutional governance. 2. To determine the extent to which students are and should be involved in areas of administration including general governance, as viewed by the officers included in this study. 3 . To compare the latitude of freedom that students should have in the opinion of the selected officers regarding class attendance, and academic and nonacademic life of the pupils with the extent of freedom that students are allowed under the existing institutional policies. 4. To determine the degree of autonomy that students should have in the opinion of the officers in the sample, regarding use of student activity fund as against the degree of autonomy that is given to students under the present school policies. 5. To ascertain if university officials responding to the questionnaire think that greater involvement in the total institutional governance would reduce tension on college and university campuses.There is a general agreement among the responding officers that students must be allowed to get more involved in a variety o~ curricular and extra curricular activities both on the campus and off the campus. The study found that in some administratively organized important councils and committees, particularly administrative boards (Board of Trustees/Board of Higher Education) and Budget Committees students are not allowed to participate in any recognizable degree. Most school officials in this sample group were willing to give the students more voice in these areas of school administration than the institutions presently allow. The freedom that students have under the present policy rules of these selected institutions with regard to the criteria developed for student performance, planning a field of study and class attendance etc. , is both restrictive as well as limited in many institutions included in this study. The views of the responding officers obtained through the questionnaire revealed that they were willing to give students more voice in these areas of governance. In an attempt to find out the degree of autonomy that students have and should have in the use of student activity fund, it was found that considerable autonomy is provided under the present institutional policies, so that students could use the allocated appropriation with great freedom. There was general agreement on the part of the administrative officers with the existing policies and practices. So far as the reduction of tension around the campus was concerned officials believed that greater overall student involvement in college/university governance would reduce it to some extent, but in no case would this solve the problem of student protest and demonstrations on campus totally.

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This qualitative study explores the factors influencing safety and security in Ersboda from the perspective of individual residents. By focusing on the thoughts and experiences of seven inhabitants, the aim is to gain deeper insights into the challenges and opportunities facing the area. Safety and security are vital elements in creating an environment where residents can live and thrive without fear or worry. Considering these aspects, the study seeks to enhance understanding of how quality of life in Ersboda can be improved. Additionally, the research aims to delve into the social dynamics and perceived safety within the community. Through qualitative methods such as interviews, the study provides a platform for residents to express their views, experiences, and concerns, which can inform and shape future efforts to enhance safety and security in Ersboda.  Drawing on qualitative interviews with residents, the study reveals a significant variation in opinions regarding safety and security in the area, highlighting the subjective and complex nature of these concepts. While some respondents view safety as a feeling of freedom and stability, others emphasize the importance of actual protective measures such as police presence and surveillance cameras. Commonly, residents stress the significance of community spaces and social connections in fostering a sense of security. Additionally, the study explores the prevalence of social unrest, particularly among youth, and its impact on the perceived safety of the neighborhood. The findings underscore the role of technology, media representation, and community collaboration in addressing safety concerns. Overall, the study offers insights into the multifaceted nature of safety and security in Ersboda and provides recommendations for enhancing community well-being and safety measures.

Automated event extraction from free text remains an open problem, particularly when the goal is to identify all relevant events. Manual extraction is currently the only alternative for comprehensive and reliable extraction. Therefore, it is required to have a system that can comprehensively extract events reported in news articles (high recall) and is also scalable enough to handle a large number of articles. In this dissertation, we explore various methods to develop an event extraction system that can mitigate these challenges. We primarily investigate three major problems related to event extraction as follows. (i) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the automated event extractors? A thorough understanding of what can be automated with high success and what leads to common pitfalls is crucial before we could develop a superior event extraction system. (ii) How can we build a hybrid event extraction system that can bridge the gap between manual and automated event extraction? Hybrid extraction is a semi-automated approach that uses an ecosystem of machine learning models along with a carefully designed user interface for extracting events. Since this method is semi-automated it also requires a meticulous understanding of user behavior in order to identify tasks that humans can perform with ease while diverting the more tedious task to the machine learning methods (iii) Finally, we explore methods for displaying extracted events that could simplify the analytical and inference generation processes for an analyst. We particularly aim to develop visualizations that would allow analysts can perform macro and micro level analysis of significant societal events. / Ph. D.

Background: The field of crisis management has been researched extensively in the last two decades, with a focus on man-made organizational crises in large corporations (Mitroff et al., 2001; Pearson et al., 1993; Weick, 1988). Crises, as phenomena, are very complex events with a low probability of occurrence (Pearson et al., 1998), which subsume multiple layers in their construction causes and manifestation. In the recent years, the number of crises has increased dramatically, with either natural, technological or human causes and each of us can name at least a few dozen examples. Crises are no longer an aberrant, rare, random, or peripheral feature of today’s society. They are built into the very fabric and fiber of modern societies" (Mitroff et al., 2001, p.5). Aim: The purpose of the present research paper is to enhance the understanding of the importance of crisis management for organizations, where the crisis can be triggered by a political unrest situation. Our empirical study will address the issues of how the Gulf Agency Company Egypt team identified, responded and learned from the organizational crisis they were faced with, due to protests against the formal regime of Hosni Mubarak, in the beginning of 2011. Methodology: The goal of our research paper is firstly using existing theory and previous knowledge which will serve as the bricks of our academic construction. Further on, the GAC Egypt case study will be the principal empirical tool that will support and prove or contrast the theoretical roots. In this way, we plan to make use of already existing theory, while in return bringing our own contribution by our results and empirical findings. Completion and results: Our results entail that there are numerous gaps between what the literature on crisis management presents and the organizational procedures in GAC Egypt. In this respect, our findings lead us to notice the absence of an official crisis management plan, minimal perception of credible early signals, weak top management support correlated with a high degree of employee empowerment, as well as the learning outcomes for the organization.

Vast disparities exist between China’s rural and urban areas. Throughout the history of Communist Party rule, ever-widening rural-urban inequality, problems with migration to the cities, and the threat of rural unrest have afflicted the countryside. Efforts by previous administrations have largely failed to solve the nation’s rural problems. China’s current leaders are determined to tackle these issues by means of a change in the direction in policy: the new focus is on sustainable development and social justice rather than rapid economic growth. At the same time, the central government hopes to strengthen the Communist Party’s power base and reduce potential threats to its ongoing reign. While the new policy direction is expected to improve the standard of living of China’s rural people and reduce social conflict in the short term, it may be insufficient to bring peace and satisfaction among the people in the long term.

The South African higher education sector is currently facing many challenges. Factors such as a decrease in government funding, mergers and student unrest compel higher education institutions to apply effective strategies for funding and recruitment of quality students. Higher education institutions are forced to focus on restructuring and repositioning themselves, build a strong brand, communicate their image and to sustain their position in order to ensure a competitive advantage. In order to be locally relevant and globally competitive, higher education institutions need to become more marketing-oriented. In a restricted financial environment, higher education institutions will have to assess and reassess marketing strategies aimed at attracting quality first year students. A proper assessment of the importance of the choice factors students consider when selecting a higher education institution as well as the usefulness of the information sources they consider, will enable institutions to allocate funds, time and resources more efficiently and effectively. A quantitative study with a self-administrated questionnaire was used to allow students to complete the questionnaire during class lectures. Non-probability convenience sampling was used and a sample of 1241 students responded from six higher education institutions: the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology, University of Johannesburg, University of the Free State, University of Kwa–Zulu Natal and the North-West University. The sample consisted of 64 percent females and 36 percent male students. The ethnic orientation distribution was as follows: 46 percent Caucasian, 41 percent Black African, 9 percent Indian, 3 percent Coloured and 1 percent students of other ethnic groups. The main goal of this study was to investigate the relevant importance of the choice factors, as well as the usefulness of the information sources, that first year Economic and Management Sciences students at selected higher education institutions in South Africa considered when they decided to enrol at a specific higher education institution. The findings indicated that some choice factors were more important to students than others, as well as the fact that students from different gender groups, ethnic groups, language groups and institutions differed in the importance they attached to the choice factors. The top ten choice factors respondents regarded as important in the selection of a higher education institution are: quality of teaching, employment prospects (possible job opportunities), campus safety and security, academic facilities (libraries and laboratories), international links (study and job opportunities), language policy, image of higher education institution, flexible study mode (evening classes and use of computers), academic reputation (prestige), and a wide choice of subjects/courses. The findings also revealed that information sources directly from a higher education institution, such as open days and campus visits, university publications and websites are the most useful to students, while information from mass media such as radio, television, magazines and newspaper advertisements are not as useful. The findings give marketing educators an indication of the importance of choice factors considered by prospective students in selecting a higher education institution, and enable higher education institutions to use their limited funds more efficiently to attract quality students, create a unique position and gain a competitive advantage. Based on the usefulness of information sources and the importance of choice factors considered, student focused marketing communication can be developed. This should aid students to make more informed decisions about the higher education institution they wish to attend. The study also add to existing theory in the fields of services marketing, higher education marketing and consumer behaviour, especially the field of outlet selection, as the institution can be viewed as the outlet for buying education. Information obtained from this study also contributes to the available research and literature on this topic and could be used by other researchers as a basis for future research. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Marketing Management / PhD / Unrestricted

Social unrest, terrorism and other forms of political violence events are highly unpredictable. These events are driven by human intent and intelligence, both of which are extremely difficult to model accurately. This has resulted in a scarcity of insurance products that cover these types of perils. Links have been found between the incidence of political violence and various economic and socioeconomic variables, but to date no relationships have been identified in South Africa. The aim of this study was to address this. Firstly, by identifying relationships between the incidence of social unrest events and economic and socio-economic variables in South Africa and secondly by using these interactions to model social unrest. Spearman’s rank correlation and trendline analysis were used to compare the direction and strength of the relationships that exist between protests and the economic and socio-economic variables. To gain additional insight with regards to South African protests, daily, monthly, quarterly and annual protest models were created. This was done using four different modelling techniques, namely univariate time series, linear regression, lagged regression and the VAR (1) model. The forecasting abilities of the models were analysed using both a one-step and n-step forecasting procedure. Variations in relationships for different types of protests were also considered for five different subcategories. Spearman’s rank correlation and trendline analysis showed that the relationships between protests and economic and socio-economic variables were sensitive to changes in data frequency and the use of either national or provincial data. The daily, monthly, quarterly and annual models all had power in explaining the variation that was observed in the protest data. The annual univariate model had the highest explanatory power (R2 = 0.8721) this was followed by the quarterly VAR (1) model (R2 = 0.8659), while the monthly lagged regression model had a R2 of 0.8138. The one-step forecasting procedure found that the monthly lagged regression model outperformed the monthly VAR (1) model in the short term. The converse was seen for the short-term performance of the quarterly models. In the long term, the VAR (1) model outperformed the other models. Limitations were identified within the lagged regression model’s forecasting abilities. As a model’s long-term forecasting ability is important in the insurance world, the VAR (1) model was deemed as the best modelling technique for South African social unrest. Further model limitations were identified when the subcategories of protests were considered. This study demonstrates that with the use of the applicable economic and socio-economic variables, social unrest events in South Africa can be modelled. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Absa Chair in Actuarial Science (UP) / South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) Risk Research Platform, under coordination of the North-West University (NWU) / Insurance and Actuarial Science / MSc Actuarial Mathematics / Unrestricted

In the wake of a ship's rebellion that left the aircraft in the hands of authorities and its crew either imprisoned or hospitalized, former Captain Alberta Ramira finds herself in need of work and out of a ship while law enforcement finishes investigating the incident. She joins the "ferkeeps," a unit of law enforcement tasked with making sure expectant mothers are healthy and abstaining from substances that could be harmful to their unborn children. Although Ramira is initially unhappy with her temporary new job, she quickly becomes enmeshed with her colleagues, especially one, Turi, for whom she develops feelings. That sense of camaraderie presents a challenge when she is approached by one of the investigators offering the immediate return"”and upgrade"”of her ship if she will only testify against her colleagues for enabling drug use and trade among their clients. Meanwhile, Niagara, recovering from her physical and emotional wounds from the ship's rebellion, is whisked away at the behest of her mother, colony chancellor, on a luxury spaceship carrying diplomats to the colony's capital on Terra for the upcoming legislative session. Under constant guard should anyone threaten the chancellor's daughter, Niagara has to forget the norms of her last four years as an indentured sailor and brush up on her social graces. But when the indentured on that ship rebel, she has to use both halves of herself to strike a compromise between indentured and the captain to ensure they all reach Terra safely. As Ramira and Niagara struggle against the social and civic structures in more civilized climes, Vicky heads for the wilds of Eden, plunging into a perilous forest in search of an expert on the language and culture of the aliens who previously occupied the planets in the colony. The trees and vines are hard enough to cut through without strange and bloodthirsty animals and insects lurking nearby, and despite her most careful efforts, Vicky is seriously wounded. She finds help, though, in a commune of colony deserters hiding in the center of the forest. The expert she was looking for is there, too. Vicky must decide if she will stay safe in the commune, cut off from her family and friends but free of the obligations waiting for her within the colony's reach, or brave the forest again to return to civilization.