scholarly journals Crisis Communication at Higher Education Institutions in South Africa: A Public Relations Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-151
Author(s):  
S. B. Hussain

The higher education sector has undergone dramatic restructuring through incorporations and mergers. This restructuring has led to the breakdown of apartheid racial divides and provided a vision of a single coordinated higher education system. 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. 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. Implicit in this is the importance of communication. Often in a crisis situation, communication gets distorted; as a result rumors often supplant real facts. Thus, clear communication needs to be pre planned and increased during a crisis. The aim of this research is to investigate the role of communication during the planning and management of a crisis at higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal. A qualitative methodology was employed in this study. It reports on the preliminary results of in-depth interviews that were conducted at the four public higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal. Themes emanating from the literature review were used to develop an interview schedule which comprised of open-ended and closed-ended questions.

Author(s):  
Lisa Grassow ◽  
Clint Le Bruyns

This article focuses on the #FeesMustFall (FMF) movement and the question of a human rights culture. It provides evidence from the specific context of FMF at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, which exposes human rights abuses and violence to the dignity of protesting students. To advance a human rights culture within the higher education sector in the context of FMF, the article highlights the role of theology – ‘indecent theology’ (as espoused by Marcella Althaus-Reid) – in revealing the problem and promise of higher education institutions in the quest for a more liberating and responsible society. It is only through interrogating the narratives that sustain the current university structures – and continue to oppress the poor and the marginalised – that South Africa will be able to begin to construct a society that is respective of the rights of all.


Management ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-222
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Pisarska

Summary The aim of this study is to recognize the external conditions for establishing cooperative relations between public higher education institutions. At the same time, these conditions constitute the context in which a cooperative relation is or is not established. The article points out that establishing such relations is intentional. It is the external conditions (context) and benefits of adjusting to them that are of key importance for their creation and, in the long run, foe their maintenance. The study focuses on the possibilities of cooperation between public higher education institutions in the legal form of a federation. The study was based on the results of reviewing the literature and current legal acts regulating the higher education system in Poland.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (525) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
S. V. Labunskaya ◽  
◽  
M. V. Sobakar ◽  

The article is aimed at determining approaches to the identification and formation of evaluation indicators as to the production, availability and use of intangible resources, including intellectual ones, as a result of innovative changes in the activities of higher education institutions and their reform on an innovative basis. The role of introduction of innovations in the higher education system for improving the innovative capacity and competitiveness of enterprises and the national economy as a whole is defined. Based on the analysis of statistical data, the need to reform domestic higher education institutions on an innovative basis is identified. The role of implementation of the key performance indicators (KPI) system for identification and evaluation of intangible assets of both intellectual and information nature as a result of innovative changes is substantiated. A general approach to assessing the results of innovations on the basis of giving a tuple look to the model for computing KPI indicators is proposed. The analysis of strategies of innovative development of leading higher education institutions of Ukraine for the implementation of innovative changes is carried out. The identified innovations are grouped into the main types according to the Oslo classification: product-related, technological, marketing and organizational. Each type of innovation is considered in the plane of educational, scientific and international activities. The main directions of innovative changes for each of these groups are allocated and technologies for innovative changes are determined. It is noted how the changes in question affect the formation of the intellectual resource of higher education institutions and business environment entities.


2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-324
Author(s):  
Robsan M. Egne

The contribution of education to the overall development of a nation becomes evident especially through higher education. This is because higher education is considered a key to delivering the knowledge required for ensuring sustainable development. Studies reveal a strong positive correlation between higher education participation rates and levels of development, as high levels of education are essential for designing and producing new technologies, and enhancing innovative capacities for the development of a society. While the reforms of higher education in high-income countries have received much attention, relatively little is known about the change dynamics in higher education system in developing countries. Therefore, with this research I want to contribute to a better understanding of higher education system in Africa, from the perspective of the type of pedagogy being practiced frequently and its consequences in producing competent graduates for the world of work by taking Ethiopian public higher education system as a case. To this end, data were collected from selected higher education institutions’ officials and instructors using questionnaire and interviews. The collected data were analyzed using mixed method. Findings of the study revealed that despite the offering of on-job pedagogical science trainings in the sample universities, little progress has been made in terms of applying student-centered pedagogy. Most of the instructors in the institutions still predominantly use traditional teaching methods. It is recommended that instructors in higher learning institutions should use critical pedagogy. Keywords: higher education, pedagogical science practice, progressive pedagogy, traditional pedagogy, transformative pedagogy


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (Spring) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Ielyzaveta Shchepetylnykova ◽  
Samantha Alvis

Globalization creates increasing interdependence between countries’ economic, political, and social processes leading to rise of global challenges and opportunities. Developed countries became important players in tackling the world's biggest issues. Governments traditionally turn to higher education institutions for their teaching, discovery, and outreach expertise to address global challanges. U.S. universities engage in a variety of international activities. However, role of international development activities of U.S. colleges and universities in their comprehensive internationalization has been lacking sufficient attention of scholars. This article investigated contribution of international development activities to comprehensive internationalization of U.S. public higher education institutions through analysis of qualitative data. The findings of the study demonstrate the contribution of international development activities to comprehensive internationalization efforts of public universities through advancement of their education, research, and service missions. 


Author(s):  
Paul Rinderu ◽  
Catalin I. Voiculescu ◽  
Demetra Lupu Visanescu

The current study, after shortly introducing the manner in which the National Strategic Reference Framework has being conceived for meeting the EU Regional and Cohesion objectives, presents in a concise manner the architecture of the Operational Programmes in Romania for the financing exercises 2007-2013 and 2014-2020. The first financing exercise has been critically analysed and a list of systemic risks is presented, in connection to the lessons learned for the new financing exercise. Further on, the paper presents the main directions under which the public higher education institutions accessed EU funds via various projects and identifies the main institutional risks for their implementation. The authors consider defining risk institutional profiles for a significant lot of public universities by introducing “soft” and “hard” sets of indicators. After assessing these profiles, recommendations for adapting the organizational structure will be depicted in order to help a softer implementation of the accessed projects.


Author(s):  
Anwar Khan ◽  
Muhammad Anwar

Higher education institutions are the strategic assets that enable a country to a hold strong competitive advantage in the modern technological era. Higher education system has dramatically changed due to the paradigm shifts brought by the twenty first century trends. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has also changed the higher education system around the world. Due to such shifts, new performance standards have been created, and the higher education institutions across the globe including Southeast Asian region are facing different challenges. To explore these challenges a non-systematic narrative review of existing literature was carried out, which helped in examining the role of higher education in the modern era. Moreover, it also helped in presenting an overview of higher education system in the Southeast Asian countries by discussing the challenges experienced by it. Finally, this chapter has explored the options available for supporting the continual development of the higher education in the Southeastern Asia.


Management ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Wyrwa

Abstract The design and the implementation of the development strategy at public higher education institutions This article focuses on identification of the model approach to designing and implementing a development strategy in a higher education institution. The main reason for taking up the topic of formulating and implementing development strategies in higher education institutions is the growing demand for developing a model of designing and implementing strategies in entities of this type. Higher education institutions are specific organizations, therefore it is not possible to apply methods of the strategic analysis, which were designed mainly for creating strategies of enterprises, in the direct way. The aim of the article is to emphasize the role of the strategic thinking in the context of the management of a higher education institution. Moreover, it is in this article on the basis of the GUS data that the information on higher education institutions, academic staff and students was summarized. It is in the study that the method of document analysis was applied. The structure according to forms, types of higher education institutions and numbers of students were analysed. The evaluation of discussed changes of discussed parameters over time was carried out.


2020 ◽  
pp. 095042222094474
Author(s):  
Jana Heilmaier ◽  
Mayyer Ling

This paper explores the role of higher education institutions in enhancing the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) ecosystem in Brunei Darussalam, particularly with regard to improving the spirit of entrepreneurship and the motivation to seek opportunities independently to propel the country’s transition economy forward. A qualitative methodology was adopted for data collection, using semi-structured interviews with Bruneian and German SME owner/managers and sales representatives. The economics perspective of the institutional framework was employed to identify the formal and informal constraints faced by SMEs in Brunei Darussalam. Recommendations are offered to inform the relevant stakeholders about the key issues faced by SMEs so that appropriate forms of guidance and benchmarking can be provided to facilitate the country’s economic development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (5(69)) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Ya. Martynyshyn ◽  
O. Feicher

The article actualizes scientific issues related to the development of effective goal-setting activities of art higher education institutions in Ukraine, which are aimed at ensuring sustainable development of art higher education and it will contribute to the development of the domestic economy in the international dimension. The priority directions of development of the system of art higher education with the subsequent formation of alternative management decisions on their successful realization are singled out. It has been noted the key role of innovative support of the organizational and economic mechanism of management of higher education institutions with art profile and bringing them in line with the progressive challenges and bold demands of modern markets of educational services and human capital. The applied significance of the article is to present management cases from European educational practice with the possibility of its approbation in the domestic system of higher art education. This will contribute to a more efficient and sound development of appropriate areas for improving organizational structures and processes, as well as appropriate subsystems of functional support of the mechanism of management of the higher education system in Ukraine.


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