Building research capacity and capabilities in Fiji: are we there yet?

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 265-271
Author(s):  
Jyotishna Mudaliar ◽  
Bridget Kool ◽  
Janice Natasha ◽  
Judith McCool
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Access And Quality ◽  
The University ◽  
Local Investigator ◽  
Research Capacity Development

Introduction: A barrier to local investigator-led research in low income settings, is the limited availability of personnel with appropriate research skills or qualifications to conduct the type of research required for evidence-informed policy making to improve access and quality of health care. In response to this, Fiji National University’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences in Fiji, collaborated with academics based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand to deliver a series of research capacity development workshops in Fiji. Methods: Participants who attended any of the nine workshops (n=123) were contacted via email to take part in a brief survey regarding their perceptions of the effectiveness of the research capacity building workshops. Of the possible 123 participants, 80% (n=76) completed the questionnaire.  Results: Findings demonstrate that the majority of participants reported that they had gained research skills from the workshops (75%) including proposal development skills (68%) and knowledge of appropriate research methods (59%). Furthermore, 70% agreed that the workshops built their research confidence.  Since attending a workshop, 18% of respondents had successfully applied and received funding for research grants and/or fellowships.  Barriers to conduct research included workload (75%), lack of research knowledge, experience or skills (51%), and lack of institutional support (41%). Suggestions for future workshops included: more focus on data analysis, regular courses rather than ‘one offs’, and preparation of research findings (e.g. publications). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that research workshops of this nature may increase individual research capabilities but sustained, locally led initiatives, backed by institutional and supplementary technical support are essential.

Neoliberal Reforms in Swedish Primary Health Care: For Whom and for What Purpose?

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Dahlgren
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
High Income ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Access And Quality

The conservative government that came to power in Sweden in 2006 has initiated major market-oriented reforms in the health sector. Its first health care policy bill changed the health legislation to make it possible to sell/transfer public hospitals to commercial providers while maintaining public funding. Far-reaching market-oriented primary health care reforms are also initiated, for example in Stockholm County. They are typically presented as “free choice models” in which “the money follows the patient.” The actual and likely effects of these reforms in terms of access and quality of care are discussed in this article. One main finding is that existing social inequities in geographic access to care not only are reinforced but also become very difficult to change by democratic political decisions. Furthermore, dynamic market forces will gradually reduce the quality of care in low-income areas while both access and quality of care will be even better in high-income areas. Public funds are thus transferred from people living in low-income areas to people living in high-income areas, even though the need for good health services is much greater in the low-income areas. Certain policy options for reversing the inverse law of care are also presented.

scholarly journals Service Quality Assessment at the Learning Resourse Center in Can Tho University, Vietnam

2021 ◽  
pp. 82-92
Author(s):  
Thi Trang Huynh ◽  
Mai Huynh Nguyen ◽  
Bang Duy Vo
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Mekong Delta ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Library Services ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
High Level ◽  
The University

This paper reports the findings of assessing the quality of services offered at an academic library in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Using the quantitative approach, 31 criteria of updated LibQual model were considered in this research. Data collected in this study include online survey of 386 students from different courses and majors in the university. Research findings indicate that students were satisfied with all library services at a high level. The findings also reveal that there were 4 groups of factors influencing students’ satisfaction. They were Service Affect, Information Control, Library as a Place and Copyright. Of the four influential factors, Service Affect was identified as the strong factor while Information Controll was found to be the minor. Some implications for administrators and librarians are also provided with particular regard to the assessment of the quality of library services.

School-Based Health Centers: Improving Access and Quality of Care for Low-Income Adolescents

PEDIATRICS ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. e887-e894 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Allison ◽  
L. A. Crane ◽  
B. L. Beaty ◽  
A. J. Davidson ◽  
P. Melinkovich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Health Centers ◽  
School Based ◽  
Access And Quality ◽  
School Based Health Centers

scholarly journals Supporting capacity for research on malaria in Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. e000723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Greenwood ◽  
Oumar Gaye ◽  
Moses R Kamya ◽  
Gibson Kibiki ◽  
Victor Mwapasa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Training ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Research Support ◽  
Systematic Assessment ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Training And Research ◽  
The University ◽  
Research Capacity Development ◽  
Made In

Substantial progress has been made in the control of malaria in Africa but much remains to be done before malaria elimination on the continent can be achieved. Further progress can be made by enhancing uptake of existing control tools but, in high transmission areas, additional tools will be needed. Development and evaluation of these new tools will require a substantial cadre of African scientists well trained in many different disciplines. This paper describes the activities undertaken by the Malaria Capacity Development Consortium (MCDC) to support the careers of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows undertaking research on malaria at five African universities. A systematic assessment of constraints on PhD training and research support systems was undertaken at each partner African university at the beginning of the programme and many of these constraints were remedied. The success of the programme is shown by the fact that 18 of the 21 PhD students recruited to the programme completed their theses successfully within a 4-year period and that all 27 scientists recruited to the postdoctoral programme were still working in Africa on its completion. The work of the consortium will be continued through Career Development Groups established at each partner university and at an affiliated institution at the University of Nairobi and through the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science award from the Wellcome Trust made to one of the African partners. Lessons learnt during the MCDC programme may help the planning and execution of other research capacity development programmes in Africa.

Occupational Therapy Research: Building Capacity

2003 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 224-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth White
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Occupational Therapists ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Building Capacity ◽  
Opinion Piece ◽  
Apply Research ◽  
Research Findings

At a time when the need for the generation and application of occupational therapy research has never been greater, this opinion piece explores the agenda that currently has an impact on the profession's research capacity. The opportunities available to all occupational therapy personnel to develop research skills and apply research findings to enhance their practice are identified and the support offered to members by the College of Occupational Therapists is described.

scholarly journals Individual characteristics that may influence UEL staffs’ research roductivity

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. first
Author(s):  
Vu Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Anh Tuấn Nguyễn ◽  
Thi Que Huong Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Research Productivity ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Inferential Statistics ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Institutional Leadership ◽  
Research Orientation ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Study Offer

Promting research has always been identified as a focus in the activities of the University of Economics and Law (UEL), which has been oriented as a research-oriented university. This article aims to examine the relationship between UEL staffs' individual characteristics and their research productivity, as regards publications on international and domestic journals. This study helps to gain un understanding of the correlation between these individual characteristics and research productivity. The study was conducted through quantitative analysis with descriptive and inferential statistics with 96 observations (i.e., 96 UEL staffs). The data from the questionnaire was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics including exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Poisson regression analysis. The results show that research skills and orientation, autonomy, and commitment in research as individual characteristics were positively correlated with research productivity. Therefore, promoting UEL staffs' research productivity requires the enhancement of their research skills as well as facilitaing their research orientation, autonomy and commitment. The findings from the study offer implications to institutional leadership on the strategies to increase the their staffs' research productivity, focusing on developing scientific research capacity and professional development, and paying attention to individual characteristics and publications as research outputs, one of the key components for the university to be considered as a research-oriented university.

scholarly journals Effects of the brazilian university policy of targeting the poor

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 663-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo de Carvalho Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Labor Force ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Private Universities ◽  
University Policy ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
Tax Exemptions ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
The University

This paper analyzes theoretically the effects on the quality of the labor force of the introduction of the program called ProUni (Programa Universidade para Todos), adopted by the Brazilian government in 2005. This program consists of giving tax exemptions to private universities that provide scholarships to students coming from low income families. The analysis suggests that the quality of the labor force can either increase or decrease depending on two crucial variables: the shape of the university sector's supply curve and the level of preparation to face university studies of the students who are targeted by the program vis-à-vis the non-targeted ones.

scholarly journals ACADEMIC RETENTION, RESEARCH CAPACITY, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Saheed Rufai ◽  
Hafsah Olatunji ◽  
Bello Musa
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Retention System ◽  
Antecedent Variable ◽  
Development Orientation ◽  
Academic Retention ◽  
Research Capacity Development

There is a shift of interest towards the current pace of development in Africa especially with regard to science and technology. The rate at which advancements are being recorded in this and other sectors has not been encouraging, as evident from official records. Scholars and researchers in various disciplines have correlated development to education and identified close associations between the level of performance of any citizenry or manpower, and the quality of its education. Accordingly, the quality of life and experience on the African continent has, to an appreciable extent, been characterised as the output variable and the quality of education including that of the teachers, as the input variable. The antecedent variable, too, which in this context is the totality of experience that informs educational directions in Africa, is arguably a product of the input variable.  Consequently, the tertiary educational level especially the university system, unlike both the primary and the secondary, may be more strongly associated with the quality of performance. This may be explained through the dominant thinking that the tertiary system is primarily concerned with the production of manpower for various sectors. While there is evidence of research into this question, there is insufficient evidence of research into the interplay of the academic retention system and research capacity development orientation in African universities. This paper is an attempt to investigate that hitherto underrepresented dimension. The study employs a combination of the historical method and analytic philosophy. Its significance lies in its potential to expose, with evidence, the association between the dominant academic retention system and research capacity development orientation in African universities, as well as the implication of such an association for sustainable development in Africa. The study ultimately offers an ameliorative proposal for revitalizing an outcome-oriented research capacity development system in African universities.

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