scholarly journals Barriers to Doctoral Degree Attainment: Problems of the Period after Postgraduate Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
B. I. Bednyi ◽  
G. L. Voronin ◽  
A. A. Mironos ◽  
N. V. Rybakov
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Academic Degree ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Managerial Decisions ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

Increasing the effectiveness of postgraduate programs is now becoming one of the most important issues in ensuring the economic development of the state. As a rule, Russian postgraduate students, who are aimed at getting an academic degree, fail to defend their theses during their postgraduate studies, and they need additional time to complete their work. The purpose of this research article is to identify and analyze the key problems faced by Russian postgraduates seeking to submit their dissertations for defense. Our investigation comes to be original in two aspects. First, in contrast to other empirical studies of postgraduate school, the authors’ attention is focused on the barriers to attaining a degree, which arise not in the course of study, but after graduation. Second, the analysis is based on interviewing those graduates who have successfully overcome these barriers and defended their PhD theses. The empirical base of the study is online questionnaire surveys of Russian PhDs (Candidates of Science) who have recently completed their postgraduate studies, as well as administrative and managerial workers responsible for postgraduate students’ training and certification. The quantitative data obtained indicate that the presence or absence of a dissertation council in an organization wherein postgraduate students are trained is one of the key factors determining the pace and effectiveness of the postgraduates’ proceeding to an academic degree. In general, the results of the study make it possible to conclude that the difficulties at the final stage of preparing a dissertation are largely due to the imperfection of the mechanism for pairing the systems of state scientific certification and scientific and pedagogical personnel postgraduate training. Thus, we discuss possible organizational and managerial decisions of how to bring these systems closer and improve the performance of postgraduate studies. This paper might be of interest for higher education researchers, as well as for scientific, pedagogical and administrative workers involved in the management of personnel training and higher scientific qualifications certification.

Use of reference management software among postgraduate students in Greece

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062199641
Author(s):  
Ilias Nitsos ◽  
Afrodite Malliari ◽  
Rodopi Chamouroudi
Keyword(s):  
Student Discipline ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Management Software ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
The University ◽  
Degree Level

The use of reference management software in the context of academic work and research is the main subject of this study. The study focuses on the extent to which postgraduate students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, one of the largest Greek universities, make use of – or avoid using – reference management software tools to organize their bibliographic databases and to automate the process of creating references and citations. The study also tries to find out which are the key factors for their choices and whether certain background characteristics affect their behavior. It should be mentioned that no previous studies have been conducted in Greece regarding the use of reference management software in the academic environment. An online questionnaire was sent to the postgraduate students at the University and a result set of 545 responses was collected and analyzed. The majority (almost two-thirds) of the respondents identified themselves as non-users and one-third identified themselves as reference management software users. Among the latter, Mendeley was found to be the software used by more than two-thirds of the users and was followed by EndNote and Zotero. It is worth mentioning that Mendeley is the software officially recommended by the University’s central library to its users but most of the students (more than 60%) were not aware of this fact. In terms of background characteristics, the analysis revealed, among other things, statistically significant relationships between degree level, student discipline and preferences, reference management software features, and potential future use of reference management software.

Deciding where to stay: An exploratory study into the accommodation choice decision-making process of German leisure travellers

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Daniel Spoerr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Travel Behaviour ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Choice Decision

The decision of which hotel to book is a highly complex one and has attracted considerable scientific scrutiny over the years. A growing number of empirical studies is focusing specifically on the decision-making process and the key factors in tourists' accommodation choices. This paper presents new insights into the decision-making process of different subgroups of German tourists in particular. To gather the data, an online questionnaire was used, completed by 501 respondents. Based on an evaluation of 27 statements about the different phases in the decision-making process, the subjects' preferences were determined. Non-parametric tests were applied to establish whether there were statistically significant differences with respect to socio-demographic variables and travel behaviour. Several unexpected effects were established, for example, that social networks only play a marginal role in the decision-making process of German leisure travellers in general. Clear effects of gender, age, and accommodation type were also found. These results are critically discussed and used to derive implications for practitioners.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Interaction between Scientific Supervisors and Graduate Students at the University and at the Academy of Sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
E. V. Biricheva ◽  
Z. A. Fattakhova
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Advanced Training ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
High Employment ◽  
The University ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The effectiveness of work and relationship of postgraduate students with their supervisors seem to be an urgent issue in the context of contemporary transformations of the Russian system of training highly qualified personnel. The article assesses the understanding of the purposes of graduate school by both “sides”, the specifics of the interaction between mentors and their mentees, the leading difficulties and ways to overcome them. Since in our country postgraduate programs are implemented not only at universities, we also compared situations at a university and in an academic community considering the case of the Ural Federal University (UrFU) and scientific institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). Empirical methods for collecting initial data were applied both at UrFU and at UB RAS and included interviewing scientific leaders and questioning graduate students. A series of in-depth interviews with mentors led to the formulation of research hypotheses and allowed the elaboration of an online questionnaire for graduate students. As a result, we may state the prevalence of the “external” obstacles that reduce the effectiveness of the interaction of young scientists with their scientific leaders; in general, the relationship between them looks quite harmoniously. Among the most pressing problems we have identified (1) disorientation about the concept of postgraduate studies without obligatory defense of the thesis (especially at university); (2) low productivity of the “educational” postgraduate studies; (3) lack of advanced training for supervisors in the field of management in science; (4) high employment of professors; (5) side mentoring and (6) the lack of plans for writing a dissertation. The solution of this set of problems seems to be based, first of all, on a new regulatory framework at the federal level, revising the types and volumes of workload of graduate students and their supervisors, fixing the need to write a dissertation during the course of study, regulating the requirements for scientific supervisors and guaranteeing them advanced training in the field managerial competencies. The positive practice of employing all graduate students at academic institutions, at least for a fraction of the rate, may also help universities in increasing the motivation of graduate students to defend their PhD thesis and build their future career at the university.

Postgraduate Students’ Perceived E-Learning Acceptance

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-60
Author(s):  
M. R. K. N. Yatigammana ◽  
Md. Gapar Md. Johar ◽  
Chandra Gunawardhana
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Relative Advantage ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Acceptance Model

E-learning is a method of delivering knowledge using information technology and electronic media for the remote users. The advantages of e-learning method can be fully achieved with the postgraduate studies as majority of the postgraduate students are engaged in learning while they are working and also geographically dispersed due to the family and work life thus physically appearing for the lecture sessions are difficult to them. This paper attempts to develop a framework to measure the postgraduate students’ perceived technology acceptance by developing a modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which replaces perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in the original model of TAM with relative advantage and complexity and incorporate other variables of trialability, observability, compatibility, psychological wellbeing and social influence of the students. The developed model is validated using 30 postgraduate students from Sri Lanka and thus this model can be used in future researchers to measure the perceived e-learning acceptance of postgraduate students.

scholarly journals Testing a self-assessment tool for HP competencies with participants of training courses in Austria

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Lang
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
Training Programmes

Abstract Background High quality health promotion (HP) depends on a competent workforce for which professional development programmes for practitioners are essential. The “CompHP Core Competencies Framework in HP” defines crucial competency domains but a recent review concluded that the implementation and use of the framework is lacking. The aim was to develop and validate a self-assessment tool for HP competencies, which should help evaluate training courses. Methods A brief self-assessment tool was employed in 2018 in Austria. 584 participants of 77 training courses submitted their post-course assessment (paper-pencil, RR = 78.1%). In addition, longitudinal data are available for 148 participants who filled in a pre-course online questionnaire. Measurement reliability and validity was tested by single factor, bifactor, multigroup, and multilevel CFA. A SEM proved for predictive and concurrent validity, controlling gender and age. Results A bifactor model (X2/df=3.69, RMSEA=.07, CFI=.95, sRMR=.07) showed superior results with a strong general CompHP factor (FL>.65, wH=.90, ECV=.85), configurally invariant for two training programmes. On course level, there was only minimal variance between trainings (ICC<.08). Structurally, there was a significant increase in HP competencies when comparing pre- and post-course measurements (b=.33, p<.01). Participants showed different levels of competencies due to prior knowledge (b=.38, p<.001) and course format (b=.16, p<.06). The total scale had good properties (m = 49.8, sd = 10.3, 95%-CI: 49.0-50.7) and discriminated between groups (eg by training length). Conclusions The results justify the creation of an overall scale to assess core HP competencies. It is recommended to use the scale for evaluating training courses. The work compensates for the lack of empirical studies on the CompHP concept and facilitates a broader empirical application of a uniform competency framework for HP in accordance with international standards in HP and public health. Key messages The self-assessment tool provides a good and compact foundation for assessing HP competencies. It provides a basis for holistic, high quality and sustainable capacity building or development in HP.

A Qualitative Analysis of Factors Affecting the Successful Completion of Postgraduate Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 152-161
Author(s):  
Abdul Munir Ismail Et.al
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Successful Completion ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
Research Findings

The study aims to highlight the current learning approaches used by postgraduate students to complete their postgraduate studies on time, as studies have shown many students have failed to finish their studies as planned. In particular, this study focuses on factors and methods that are perceived to be most effective by students to help them complete their studies on time.  Methodology: Thisstudy was based on a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews. The study sample consisted of 14 postgraduate students and one lecturers as respondents. The research instrument was based on interview questions to elicit relevant information on their demography and learning practices. Data were collected and organized into four themes and were subsequently analyzed descriptively.     Findings: The findings showed that face-to-face discussions were the most popular practice adopted by the respondents. The findings also showed several factors had significant impacts on student learning, such as interpersonal relationships between students and supervisors, commitment, financial commitment, and moral support, which needs to be taken into account in helping students to complete on time.     Significance: The research findings can inform all the stakeholders, notably students, supervisors, and administrative officers, factors that have profound impacts on postgraduate students’ efforts to graduate on time.

Land-uses as Quality of Making Successful Streets in Sulaimaniya City Centre, Iraq

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Musaab Al-Obeidy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Global Positioning System ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
City Center ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Points Of Interest ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

Although, the diverse activities and uses are one of the significant key factors to improve quality of streets, some places and shops in Mawlawi Street are disappeared or used by few number of people, while others are used by high number of people. Moreover, just some attractions and points of interest (POIs) are located in the Global Positioning System (GPS). This issues lead to lake of finding urban diversity in Mawlawi Street. This paper examines and find out the diversity of activities and uses that improves the quality of streets and makes successful streets in Sulaimaniya City Centre. It is also to identify POIs provided in GPS. The study employed a mix-methodology method. 330 questionnaire surveys, 20 semi-structured interview, and qualitative and quantitative observation, were conducted in Mawlawi Street. The results show that the diverse activities and choices are important key to make streets of Sulaimaniya City Center successful. There is also a need to define and insert many places on map for enhancing diversity. To secure the quality of the Street, this study suggests to improve the quality of goods and shops, provide night activities, and refresh some left places and shops along the Street.

scholarly journals Career and Work Readiness of Nutrition and Dietetics Trainees in Nigerian Universities

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-102
Author(s):  
Leshi Oluwatosin ◽  
Anuoluwa F Ogundero
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Diet Therapy ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Nutrition And Diet ◽  
Areas Of Interest ◽  
Nutrition And Dietetics

Beyond having a good degree, graduates are expected to have relevant skills and attributes required to compete and collaborate in a rapidly changing work environment. In recent times, the employability of Nutrition and Dietetics graduates in Nigeria has been of considerable concern. This study was designed to assess the readiness of trainees in the field of Nutrition and Dietetics from Nigerian Universities for career and work engagements. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 109 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students from twelve universities offering Nutrition and Dietetics programme across Nigeria. Data was collected using a semi-structured online questionnaire. Data obtained were background information on the students, their experiences and challenges in their academic pursuits, willingness and readiness to pursue and engage in Nutrition and Dietetics related jobs, as well as their perception of skills and competences for future career and work engagements. The data were analysed using the IBM SPSS version 20.0. About 73% of the respondents were females, mainly between ages 21 and 25 years (62.4%) and undergraduates (70%). Among the undergraduate students, 83.4% had chosen to study Nutrition and Dietetics as a result of personal interest and choice while the postgraduate trainees indicated acquisition of in-depth knowledge of nutrition (60.6%) and quest to enhance career profile for competitive advantage in job pursuits (39.4%) as the core reasons for their choice for the programme. Nearly all the respondents (96.3%) reported having enjoyed their training programs. Only half (50.5%) perceived themselves to be “very ready” and well-prepared for work and career engagement. The top three areas of interest by trainees in Nutrition and Dietetics were Clinical Nutrition and Diet Therapy (60.6%), Community and Public Health Nutrition (43.1%), and Sports Nutrition (11.0%). Three out of every ten trainees had no specific desired skills and competences. While less than half declared that they had no knowledge of the skills and competences desired by employers of nutrition graduates, two-thirds of the trainees perceived themselves as eligible for their choice of work and career. This study shows that most Nutrition and Dietetics trainees in Nigerian universities are ready and willing to start a career in the field. However, many lack the knowledge of expected skills and competences needed for career engagement.

scholarly journals Alternative Strategies to Avoid Layoff in Airlines Industry During the Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Padmalini Singh ◽  
Dilip D ◽  
Nuthan Jeevraj P ◽  
Yip Wei Hung ◽  
Daisy Mui Hung Kee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Airline Industry ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Electronic Media ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Airline Company

This research was carried out to explore the layoff situation among the Airline industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest the alternative strategies that would consider by the Airline company. The method used in this research is an online questionnaire distributed to 100 respondents as the primary data collection and the secondary data analysis from the empirical studies that can obtain from electronic and non-electronic media. The findings of this research indicated that one of the suggested alternative strategies, Furlough, is the most recommended one. However, Attrition and Hiring Freeze strategy has less recommended because of the low effectiveness of this strategy on downsizing companies. The study enables the airline company to consider the alternative strategies on their downsizing policy in order to minimize the employees and company loss.

scholarly journals Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period: Based on 33,240 Online Questionnaire Surveys Across China

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 753-767
Author(s):  
Dongdong Wang ◽  
Huaibo Wang ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Hairong Wang ◽  
Xiaoping Shen
Keyword(s):  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Teaching Activities ◽  
Healthy Development ◽  
Teaching Situation ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys ◽  
Education Administrators

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education of China issued a call for “School is Out, but Class is On”. Various regions responded to and issued relevant policies to use Internet educational resources to carry out teaching activities. In this context, we conducted a network questionnaire survey on district and county education administrators, school administrators, teachers, students, and parents nationwide. It aimed to understand the online teaching situation and the attitudes of different subjects towards online teaching during the “School is Out, but Class is On” period. Based on this, we summarized the problems existing in online teaching during the “School is Out, but Class is On” period and put forward countermeasures to better serve online teaching, to ensure the healthy development of online teaching after the pandemic, and to provide a reference for coordinating national forces to carry out online teaching in response to unforeseen public crises in the future.

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