scholarly journals Appointing and Removing Academic Staff in Public Institutions: The Level of Autonomy at Kyambogo University, Uganda

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Ayebare Justin ◽  
Kisige Abdu ◽  
Gitta Eric ◽  
Betihama Jackson ◽  
Kimoga Joseph

Many governments, the university sector and the European Commission have recognized that increasing university autonomy represents a crucial step towards modernizing higher education in the 21st century. This study which was conducted at Kyambogo University highlights that in practice, public authorities still play a central role in the regulation of higher education systems more especially in the appointment and dismissal of academic staff. Despite the fact that the ministry has moved away from direct state control towards more “indirect” steering mechanisms, universities often continue to lack autonomy in many crucial areas, particularly in terms of filling staff positions. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the level of institutional autonomy in academic staff appointment and removal at Kyambogo University. The researchers analysed each dimen¬sion of university autonomy in terms of appointment and dismissal of academic staff. We found out that appointment and removal of the academic staff in Kyambogo University was not in line with what is provided for in the Human Resource Manual and national guiding Acts, Laws and Standing orders. We recommend that since universities have a unique duty to perform that requires specific skilled staff, they should be given autonomy in the appointment and removal of these staff.

Author(s):  
I. Vlasova

Academic freedom, institutional autonomy and respect for the rule of law in relations between public authorities, higher education institutions and students are essential to democratic societies, and can be considered as the fundamental values of the European Higher Education Area. The European Governments have recognized the university autonomy as a precondition for the successful development of higher education. The European Commission notes as a priority the creation of a new framework for universities that are characterized by increased levels of autonomy and accountability. The Council of the European Union confirms this approach and establishes a direct relationship between autonomy and the ability of universities to meet the expectations of society. International experts emphasize the direct link between the institutional capacity of higher education institutions, the ability to identify and develop their own institutional profile and the autonomy of universities. The necessity and role of autonomy in the sphere of higher education is determined. Autonomy of higher education institutions plays an important role in the strategic positions and declarations at the European and world level. It is confirmed by the relevant documents. The autonomy of universities (institutional) consists of the academic, financial, organizational and personnel autonomy. The level of university autonomy in Ukraine and European countries is analyzed on the basis of its components. Author designates that universities are the most independent in solving issues of personnel, academic, organizational and financial autonomy. Ukraine takes a position almost at the end of the «middle-low» cluster of systems, which testifies to the areas existence in which autonomy is limited.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-416
Author(s):  
Tao Xiong ◽  
Qiuna Li

Abstract The debate on the marketization of discourse in higher education has sparked and sustained interest among researchers in discourse and education studies across a diversity of contexts. While most research in this line has focused on marketized discourses such as advertisements, little attention has been paid to promotional discourse in public institutions such as the About us texts on Chinese university websites. The goal of the present study is twofold: first, to describe the generic features of the university About us texts in China; and second, to analyze how promotional discourse is interdiscursively incorporated in the discourse by referring to the broader socio-political context. Findings have indicated five main moves: giving an overview, stressing historical status, displaying strengths, pledging political and ideological allegiance, and communicating goals and visions. Move 3, displaying strengths, has the greatest amount of information and can be further divided into six sub-moves which presents information on campus facilities, faculty team, talent cultivation, disciplinary fields construction, academic research, and international exchange. The main linguistic and rhetorical strategies used in these moves are analyzed and discussed.


Education ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Temple

Universities are distinctive as organizational forms in having emerged in early medieval Europe and then spread around the world while remaining recognizably similar. The management of early universities appears to have been based on what has become known as the “collegial” model: shared decision making by the more senior academic staff, with rotating functional responsibilities fitted into normal teaching duties. In England, Oxford and Cambridge colleges (and to some extent the universities they constitute) continue to exhibit this pattern. Early universities were clearly able to take decisions that could be described as “strategic”: commitments to major building projects, for example. As universities began in the 19th century to expand in size and numbers in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere, more senior permanent managerial posts were created to support the underlying collegial arrangements: the University of London’s first paid administrator, the registrar, was appointed in 1838. But it was the expansion of higher education, particularly in western Europe and the United States in the second half of the 20th century, which created the modern profession of higher education management. In most countries in the 21st century, higher education is either state directed or steered at a distance by state agencies (even when actual ownership is private). Yet typically institutional autonomy is publicly prized, often by the same governmental agencies that seek to limit it. This tension, between governmental control (both finance and politics are involved) and institutional autonomy (which is associated with high academic achievements internationally), mean that the skills demanded of university managers are of a distinctive character, and have some broad similarities across countries and cultures. These include the ability to recognize that university academics do not generally see themselves as employees of an enterprise in the usual sense and demand (with varying degrees of success) substantial autonomy in how they carry out their duties. The tension between what academics may see as reasonable demands for individual autonomy and the requirements of operating an organization employing thousands of staff, along with tens of thousands of students, has become more acute in recent years. It should be noted that while the categories chosen for the listing of works in this article would be generally understood by most scholars of higher education, there are considerable conceptual overlaps, as the various category topics inevitably influence one another: strategy cannot be wholly divorced from finance or governance, and so on.


Author(s):  
Melaku Masresha Woldeamanuel ◽  
Belay Sitotaw Goshu

This article empirically assesses perception of quality in higher education in Ethiopia.  The data was collected from one higher educational institution where the staffs are graduates of 31 different universities in Ethiopia. The information used in this study was obtained through administration of questionnaires. The main participants are the academic staff of the University. The total number of staff that participated in the research was 365. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select 365 teachers (302 male and 63 female) and seventeen classrooms were observed and twelve group discussions carried out with participants of Ethiopian educational roadmap. Data were analyzed by both descriptive statistics of percentages and inferential statistics of, t-test, correlation and one way ANOVA. Results indicated that teacher’ valued input indicators of quality of education more than process and output indicators. Output indicators received the lowest rating. Teachers’ practice also indicated that they apply process indicators in a reasonable manner. The results of relationship between practices of teaching learning processes revealed that, as teachers’ perception toward quality teaching learning process increases their practice of elements of constructivism also increases.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaw Owusu-Agyeman ◽  
Enna Moroeroe

PurposeScholarly studies on student engagement are mostly focused on the perceptions of students and academic staff of higher education institutions (HEIs) with a few studies concentrating on the perspectives of professional staff. To address this knowledge gap, this paper aims to examine how professional staff who are members of a professional community perceive their contributions to enhancing student engagement in a university.Design/methodology/approachData for the current study were gathered using semi-structured face-to-face interviews among 41 professional staff who were purposively sampled from a public university in South Africa. The data gathered were analysed using thematic analysis that involved a process of identifying, analysing, organising, describing and reporting the themes that emerged from the data set.FindingsAn analysis of the narrative data revealed that when professional staff provide students with prompt feedback, support the development of their social and cultural capital and provide professional services in the area of teaching and learning, they foster student engagement in the university. However, the results showed that poor communication flow and delays in addressing students’ concerns could lead to student disengagement. The study further argues that through continuous interaction and shared norms and values among members of a professional community, a service culture can be developed to address possible professional knowledge and skills gaps that constrain quality service delivery.Originality/valueThe current paper contributes to the scholarly discourse on student engagement and professional community by showing that a service culture of engagement is developed among professional staff when they share ideas, collaborate and build competencies to enhance student engagement. Furthermore, the collaboration between professional staff and academics is important to addressing the academic issues that confront students in the university.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mehmet Ali Ekemen ◽  
Gozde Inal Cavlan

<p>This study aims to reveal the antecedents of growth in Higher Education Institutions of North Cyprus, using Resource Based Approach. Research in this field is limited to developed economies and there is a need for more research in the developing country settings. North Cyprus is a unique location for this study since it is a developing country which is geographically located in between Europe, Africa and Middle East harmonizing several different cultures in its unique settings. An explanatory research design was adopted using a questionnaire survey to collect data and test the hypotheses. Data was collected from 343 respondents, consisting of 172 administrative and 171 academic staff, in five universities which have 10 years of history in higher education sector. The results of the study showed that Marketing resources, Human resources, Research and Development resources, Organizational resources and accessibility of these resources have been shown to positively influence the university growth.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Whelan ◽  
Daniel Kratochvil

TitleUniversity of Wollongong in Dubai: creating a private university in the public interest.Subject areaHigher education leadership and planning.Study level/applicabilityPostgraduate/higher education.Case overviewProfessor Rob Whelan was appointed President of the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) from the University of Wollongong in Australia (UOW). Professor Whelan brought to the job in Dubai the perspective that public‐good benefits flow from a comprehensive institution engaged with the larger community and these are led by academic staff members who produce research that serves the national interest. To apply this model to UOWD meant a thorough analysis of the organization in terms of both its culture and its broader environment. This case explores the various processes through which a new leader takes stock of an existing institution, identifies the potential for development in a particular direction, draws upon a range of stakeholders to refine the vision and develop it into a strategic plan, gains support for the plan, and then implements change through close collaboration with the institution's constituents.Expected learning outcomesThis case can be used to explore a number of issues in leadership and management including: identifying the various internal and external stakeholders in a complex organization; analysing strategies for mobilization for change, including the assessment of inclusive versus exclusive approaches; reviewing the opportunity costs of change; and assessing types of leadership.Supplementary materialsTeaching notes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
José Alfonso Jiménez Moreno ◽  
Salvador Ponce Ceballos

The article addresses the problem of accreditation of educational programs in Mexico. The importance of this type of evaluation is generated based on the policies in which higher education in Latin America is circumscribed. The objective of the research was to carry out a documentary analysis of 21 accreditation documents of seven programs of a public university over three periods, in order to classify the recommendations made by the accrediting instances; The resulting units or categories were as follows: Academic Staff, Students, Curriculum, Collaboration, Research and Program Management. The results show a lack of conceptual delimitation and compliance with international standards in the 21 documents, as well as information that suggests the university should increase the competitiveness of its programs, consolidate collegial work, strength trajectories, and meet the needs of the environment. The authors conclude that there is a need to make explicit the evaluation model that supports the accreditations. In addition, they  describe how the accreditation promotes academic productivity and the establishment of basic conditions for the organization and operation of educational programs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 9023-9029

A key role in improving the quality of higher education belongs to the executive staff, teaching employees, and academic staff as direct performers. The purpose of the article is to analyze the possibilities of advanced training of university academic staff using innovative educational technologies based on information and communication technologies (ICT). The article notes the relevance of the search for new approaches to the organization of the professional development of the higher education system employees, as well as analyzes the experience of European countries in the professional development of university academic staff. The authors specify the requirements for the meaningful components of methodical system of training at the university, the prospects of ICT use in professional activity of academic and administrative employees of the university, training areas of university staff of different professional orientation, as well as highlight innovation areas of professional development of the academic staff in Russian universities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  

The strategy of the University of Maribor pursues an inclusive, innovative and integrated higher education area that will train active, critically-thinking and responsible citizens, guarantee the quality of education and research, academic integrity, and cultivate concern for sustainable development of society. It stresses the importance of the freedom of research and institutional autonomy, development of lifelong learning, digitalisation and green infrastructure. It follows the orientations of the Rome Ministerial Communiqué of 2020 on the development of higher education in Europe, the Magna Charta Universitatum 2020 principles and the national strategic documents on higher education.


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