scholarly journals Factors Influencing College Choice of Nepalese Undergraduate Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-244
Author(s):  
Prem Prasad Silwal ◽  
Raj Kumar Baral

   Background: College choice decision remains one of the major issues for the students and parents especially during the time of admission. Objective: Understanding this problem, this research, taking colleges of Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University as the samples, assesses which of the characteristics― institutional, marketing, and social are more dominant in this decision. Method: The study, based on the primary survey; uses the questionnaire to collect data among the management students of bachelor’s level in Lalitpur and Kathmandu district, shows that academic program, quality of education, and social factors are the key factors that impact college choice decision. The study employs convenient sampling techniques. The tendency of students to make college choice decisions depends on the colleges’ academic programs that they have concentrated. Result: The results suggest that college should focus their eyes to apply different types of academic programs, adopt quality education in terms of appointing highly qualified faculties and even contribute certain margin to social support, employability of the students over the market and position of enrolment of the students in higher education. These characteristics enable the colleges to run and sustain in the long run. Conclusion: To mitigate the moderating impact on college choice, the variable gender is used, however, its impact on the relationship of college fees and college choice is not supported by the study.

2021 ◽  
pp. 105678792110648
Author(s):  
Sohail Dahdal

This paper examines the involvement of sixteen undergraduate students across four disciplines in a practice-led research project to create the “Once Upon a Time in Palestine” XR documentary by exploring how they performed when given complex challenges, to create this novel and complex practice-led research project. The students were trained and mentored but also were trusted to work under minimal supervision. This created a high level of engagement with the expectation of high-quality output and presented the students with opportunities not afforded to them within the rigid structure of their academic programs. This paper examines the engagement of the students, and their willingness to learn new technologies and apply this learning to produce high quality output under tight deadlines with minimal supervision and the value of interdisciplinary collaboration across multiple fields of study. The paper concludes that while there was a steep learning curve, the students were able to achieve high-level engagement and produce professional results within the specified deadlines, using the latest technological advances in the field, while learning new skills outside their academic program and also enhancing the outcome of the successful project.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Farid Shamsudin ◽  
Aeshah Mohd Ali ◽  
Rosni Ab Wahid ◽  
Zulkifli Saidun

Purpose:  This study conducted to classify factors of fixed Higher Education Institution (HEI) characteristics influenced students' decision making to enroll at private HEI and social media application as an external factor exclusively in Malaysia phenomena. The main focus of this research was to determine the relationship between independent variables (academic programs, tuition fees, location, institution rankings, institution facilities, employment opportunities, social media application) influence dependent variable (decision making); and to determine the major factor that influence students' decision making to enroll at private HEI. Methodology: The underpinning theory applied in this study was Theory Reason Action (TRA) for social media application, while Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) applied for academic programs, tuition fees, location, institution rankings, institution facilities, and employment opportunities. Five hundred (500) questionnaires distributed at selected private HEI around Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Respondent was an undergraduate student semester one the year 2018 only. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24. Results: Findings indicated result for direct effect revealed decision making were significant in the relationship between tuition fees, location, institution ranking, institution facilities, employment opportunities, and social media application thus hypothesis H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, and H7 accepted. Implications: Therefore, the only academic program was insignificant with decision making thus hypothesis H1 rejected. While the major factor that influences students' decision making to enroll at Private HEI in rank number one was employment opportunities H6 (β = .301; p = .000 < .05). Thus, Results of direct effects indicated there is a relationship between employment opportunities and students’ decision making to enroll at private HEI.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stylianos Karagiannis ◽  
Emmanouil Magkos

Purpose This paper aims to highlight the potential of using capture the flag (CTF) challenges, as part of an engaging cybersecurity learning experience for enhancing skills and knowledge acquirement of undergraduate students in academic programs. Design/methodology/approach The approach involves integrating interactivity, gamification, self-directed and collaborative learning attributes using a CTF hosting platform for cybersecurity education. The proposed methodology includes the deployment of a pre-engagement survey for selecting the appropriate CTF challenges in accordance with the skills and preferences of the participants. During the learning phase, storytelling elements were presented, while a behavior rubric was constructed to observe the participants’ behavior and responses during a five-week lab. Finally, a survey was created for getting feedback from the students and for extracting quantitative results based on the attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction (ARCS) model of motivational design. Findings Students felt more confident about their skills and were highly engaged to the learning process. The outcomes in terms of technical skills and knowledge acquisition were shown to be positive. Research limitations/implications As the number of participants was small, the results and information retrieved from applying the ARCS model only have an indicative value; however, specific challenges to overcome are highlighted which are important for the future deployments. Practical implications Educators could use the proposed approach for deploying an engaging cybersecurity learning experience in an academic program, emphasizing on providing hands-on practice labs and featuring topics from real-world cybersecurity cases. Using the proposed approach, an educator could also monitor the progress of the participants and get qualitative and quantitative statistics regarding the learning impact for each exercise. Social implications Educators could demonstrate modern cybersecurity topics in the classroom, closing further the gap between theory and practice. As a result, students from academia will benefit from the proposed approach by acquiring technical skills, knowledge and experience through hands-on practice in real-world cases. Originality/value This paper intends to bridge the existing gap between theory and practice in the topics of cybersecurity by using CTF challenges for learning purposes and not only for testing the participants’ skills. This paper offers important knowledge for enhancing cybersecurity education programs and for educators to use CTF challenges for conducting cybersecurity exercises in academia, extracting meaningful statistics regarding the learning impact.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
А. И. Стребков ◽  
А. И. Мусаев

The present article concerns with the modern state of things of the conflict resolution specialists’ training in the US universities. The analysis is based on the informational and promotional materials which were picked up from the 11 American universities’ websites. The aim of the analysis was the examination of the four sections, which are: the orientation of the academic program, the content of the program or the scope of the skills, the main methodology of the academic program and the educational technologies. Together with the analysis of the US universities’ academic programs the article provides the comparative analysis of these programs with the Russian academic programs. On the back of this comparative analysis the authors come to the comprehensive conclusion according to which the specialists’ training in the field of the conflict resolution and peacebuilding in the US does not have significant differences from Russian ones and is carried out within one international academic trend in regard to its main features which are: the orientation, content, educational methodology and technologies. The key distinction of the Russian training from the American one is that the Russian academic tradition does have the core subject matter around which the whole academic program is being developed and which is the conflict. This subject matter is being taken in its entirety and the conflict resolution is considered as the closing stage of the conflict studies specialists’ training whereas the academic programs of the US universities embrace the conflict resolution as the subject matter of the academic training and therefores leaves beyond the scope of the training both the theory of the conflict and the forms practice of its manifestation in a number of the programs. The letter is peculiar to both short-term academic programs and the full-time two-year academic programs as it is accepted in the educational space of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, the authors of the article make up the conclusion of the coinciding major educational methodology which guides the academic programs of the American and Russian universities and which is developed on the principles of the interdisciplinarity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna L. Morrissey ◽  
Joseph A. Beckett ◽  
Ross Sherman ◽  
Lisa J. Leininger

As undergraduate students prepare to enter the workforce and become engaged members in their communities, it is necessary for universities to provide students with opportunities and resources to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to be successful in their professional, personal, and social pursuits. Experiential learning is one approach that may be used to facilitate and strengthen the learning process for undergraduate students. Grounded in experiential learning, Kinesiology-specific service learning and internship programs can help students develop the skillset needed to be successful in their major and future careers. To best facilitate students’ learning, it is imperative that such academic programs build collaborative, sustainable and genuine campus-community partnerships. This paper presents a series of practical and successful partnership-building strategies from three unique institutions.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmila Sokorutova ◽  
Natalia Prodanova ◽  
Inna Ponomareva ◽  
Oleg Volodin

PurposeThe most important problem for higher education in the post-COVID period is the production of highly qualified specialists for the labor market. The purpose of this study is to determine effective criteria for assessing the quality of training of future specialists and the adequacy of their readiness to solve real problems of the future specialty.Design/methodology/approachA study was carried out among students in order to determine some of the most important characteristics of them as future specialists. Based on the survey results, non-academic indicators were identified that participants perceive as significant for a highly professional employee. The empirical study included 300 undergraduate students from four universities (66% women and 34% men aged 20–21). All participants represent full-time training.FindingsThe survey showed that the participants identified the ability to learn and personal development as the most significant personal qualities.Originality/valueMany criteria for assessing the quality of training of specialists in different professional fields have not been precisely defined. Several ways of solving this problem can be proposed: developing criteria for assessing quality in hiring; revising the methods of work of universities; presenting to students the criteria for development in the profession or adopting international criteria for assessing pedagogical quality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amat Jaedun ◽  
Muhd Khaizer Omar ◽  
Badrun Kartowagiran ◽  
Edi Istiyono

The success in implementing the demand-driven approach in Vocational High Schools (VHS) can be realized by understanding the misalignment that occurs between graduate skill competency and workforce demand by the industry. This study aims at describing the precedence between the VHS graduates and the businesses/industrial sector (BS/IS) portraying from the regional potential perspectives. The research data was collected from documents and survey forms distributed to (BS/IS) within the research population. The document analysis was employed to collect information on programs offered at VHS, existing VHS students enrollment, and the value of Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in studied provinces. An online survey was distributed to all VHS graduates and BS/IS employers. The content validity was carried out prior actual study to ensure the validity of the instrument. A descriptive analysis was performed to gather information pertaining to developed research objectives. The precedence of the academic programs with the GRDP was determined based on 5% of criteria differences. The results found that there is a misalignment between the academic programs and the VHS students enrollment towards the region job potentials in each province in Indonesia. In addition, the research also found that the competency of VHS graduates related to the theoretical knowledge, the job characteristics, and the workforce skills were at moderate level. The implication of the study offers salient notion on minimizing the precedence that occurs between the supply and demand in the form of graduates supply to workforce and at the same time, fulfilling the workforce requirements demand by the industries. It is suggested on the capabilities of educational institutions in tweaking into demand-driven approach in making sure the academic program is relevant and sustainable.


Author(s):  
Cynthia Houston

Developing a community of learners and leaders in school librarianship is fundamental to effective practice in professional preparation programs. As more and more school librarian preparation programs go online, staying focused on community building and collaboration becomes the key challenge to the best practices ideal. The Internet provides excellent tools and resources for developing online professional communities, as well as opportunities for academic programs to create social landscapes that students will engage in after they finish their academic program.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 454-467
Author(s):  
Bijaya Kumar Sundaray ◽  
Pragyan Sarangi ◽  
Soumendra Kumar Patra

Purpose In light of growing concerns related to the psychological vulnerability during the pandemic, this study aims to examine the impact of fear or trauma of COVID-19 on stress, anxiety and depression among management students. Additionally, the study also explores the possible strategies adopted by professional students to cope with the pandemic situation. Design/methodology/approach With an approach to establish a probable concrete relationship between fear with the level of stress, anxiety and depression, the data for the study was collected from 1,408 management students through a structured questionnaire designed in Google Form and administered through WhatsApp. The survey was carried out in the month of July and August 2020 during the lockdown period. Correlation and structural equation modeling have been used to examine the relationship among the test attributes. Findings The results from the study discovered that “fear of COVID-19” has a significant and considerable impact on the increased level of anxiety and stress among the professional students, but the observations did not demonstrate a significant influence of the “fear” on “depression.” The responses reveal that students have developed anxiety and felt stressed mostly due to uncertainty in the upcoming academic plans, disturbances in their regular academic routines and concerns about their future careers. Further, the findings have portrayed that students have adopted both protective and avoidance coping strategies to overcome the adverse consequences of the pandemic. Research limitations/implications The study gives an insight on the psychological vulnerability of the management students and their capability to overcome such sudden disruptions due to pandemics. This research could thus, serve as a reference to the policymakers, universities and institutions while planning out programs and schemes, which would encourage the aspiring managers to overcome the crisis and prepare themselves to befit the vibrant corporate world. Originality/value Several studies exist on the impact of the pandemic on undergraduate students in different universities. However, there are a dearth of literature, which reflects the psychological vulnerability of professional graduates especially management students who are on the verge of starting their professional career.


Author(s):  
Charlie C. Chen ◽  
R. S. Shaw

The continued and increasing use of online training raises the question of whether the most effective training methods applied in live instruction will carry over to different online environments in the long run. Behavior modeling (BM) approach—teaching through demonstration—has been proven as the most effective approach in a face-to-face (F2F) environment. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 96 undergraduate students who were taking a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 course in a university in Taiwan. The BM approach was employed in three learning environments: F2F, online synchronous and online asynchronous classes. The results were compared to see which produced the best performance, as measured by knowledge near-transfer and knowledge far-transfer effectiveness. Overall satisfaction with training was also measured. The results of the experiment indicate that during a long duration of training no significant difference in learning outcomes could be detected across the three learning environments.


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