scholarly journals Education for Sustainability in Practice: A Review of Current Strategies within Italian Universities

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 5246
Author(s):  
Giulia Sonetti ◽  
Caterina Barioglio ◽  
Daniele Campobenedetto
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Practical Factors ◽  
Sustainable Universities

Universities play a crucial role in the short-term implementation of education for sustainable development goals (SDGs). The fourth SDG aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Indeed, SDG4 is not intended as a goal in itself, but rather, a tool to achieve different goals and explore the best practices, via deductive-theoretical or inductive-experiential methods. Still, current literature on education for SDGs does not always consider the infrastructural and practical factors affecting the success or the failure of the practices mentioned above. The main purpose of this paper is to organize and describe a set of ongoing education for sustainability strategies that took place from 2016 to 2019 in Italian universities. Eighteen best practices have been collected after a national call by the Italian Network of Sustainable Universities (RUS), that aimed to map the current landscape of SDGs-related actions. Data have been analyzed based on the qualitative description provided by each university, according to four criteria: trigger, course type, approach (top-down/bottom-up) and declared mission. Results are depicted as a map of the current Italian higher education system, where a predominant mission (teaching) and a prevalent driver (top-down) have been found as the frequent features of SDGs educational initiatives. Further developments highlight the value of this first country-wide mapping of the Italian Higher Education Institutions implementing SDGs in their activities, that can avoid the isolation of individual experiences and, most importantly, can suggest some comparability and transferability criteria for similar cases.

scholarly journals Research on Curriculum Reform of Local Undergraduate Universities under the Background of Transformation and Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Yan Ma
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Innovative Strategy ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Continuous Innovation ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Social Positioning ◽  
Development Goals

<p>In the era of continuous innovation of higher education, in view of the social positioning of various institutions of higher learning, the role and responsibility of the differentiation, so the local ordinary undergraduate colleges and universities have regional characteristics. To strengthen the innovation of the local ordinary undergraduate course colleges and universities, higher education can shift focus to cultivate applying professional knowledge and skills to do a special talent of professional social practice and students can use their own technology in the working practice and ability for practical talents. This is our country's higher education system on the level and type of the main development goals. The transformation and development of local undergraduate universities should be carried out from theory to practice. This paper tries to explore the reform and innovation in teaching curriculum from the innovative strategy of local universities.</p>

A Fourth Wave of Education for Sustainability (EfS) in Higher Education

2017 ◽  
pp. 1167-1186
Author(s):  
Mike Brown
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Local Sustainability ◽  
Sustainable Universities ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
Fourth Wave

Education for Sustainability (EfS) in Higher Education (HE) is described as developing through three waves. These are overviewed in this chapter and given due acknowledgement but are shown to fall short of what is needed going forward. Consequently, a fourth wave of EfS in HE is proposed. The fourth wave of EfS in HE needs to be directed at the collaborative project of constructing “sustainable universities” (Sterling, Maxey, & Luna, 2013). The concept of “neo-sustainability” (Farley & Smith, 2014) is adopted as the basis of this next wave, as is the three nested rings model of sustainability. The argument for a strategy to educate the HE educators is outlined. It is suggested that contemporary global and local sustainability issues need to become part of student engagement within all HE courses. Finally, effort needs to be exerted by HE lecturers to develop pedagogical practices that align to the aims and principles of EfS.

Web-Based Instructions

2010 ◽  
pp. 302-326
Author(s):  
Mohammed Saleh Al Balawi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Faculty Attitudes ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Insight Into

Factors affecting faculty decisions in the conventional university setup in Saudi Arabia for participating or not participating sin Web-based instruction (WBI) were investigated in this study. Incentives and barriers to WBI, faculty attitudes, and participants’ demographic information were also explored. The study was aimed to investigate the attitudes of the faculty members at three Saudi universities toward WBI in an effort to describe the current status of WBI in the Saudi higher education system. In addition, results of the study could also provide the Saudi universities and the faculty with insight into factors affecting adoption of WBI. Finally, since there have been few implementations of WBI across the country, it was important to explore how WBI is currently used in Saudi universities and to determine critical factors that could affect the implementation of WBI.

scholarly journals Research as a Base for Sustainable Development of Universities: Using the Delphi Method to Explore Factors Affecting International Publishing among Vietnamese Academic Staff

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trung Tran ◽  
Thao-Phuong-Thi Trinh ◽  
Cuong-Minh Le ◽  
Linh-Khanh Hoang ◽  
Hiep-Hung Pham
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Delphi Method ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
International Publishing

In recent years, the Vietnamese government has put significant effort into the internationalization of research in the higher education system via the use of international publications (i.e., publications indexed by citation databases such as ISI Web of Science and Scopus) in evaluating their academic staff and doctoral students. Academic staff in Vietnam, who traditionally have low numbers of international publications, have thus been pushed to improve their competencies in order to meet the new requirements for research productivity. However, we have little understanding of the factors influencing international publication as perceived by Vietnamese academic staff. This study aims to fill the gap by using the Delphi method. Academic staff with at least one international publication were invited, via purposeful sampling, to participate in a two-round Delphi survey. The survey revealed 14 key factors, which were further classified into three dimensions: “policy-related factors,” “capability-related factors,” and “networking-related factors”. These factors were the key determinants in the success of international publishing, according to the study participants. The findings provide implications for policymakers and university leaders for enhancing the research capacities of Vietnamese universities, forming a basis for the sustainable development of the higher education sector in Vietnam.

Is Indonesia Producing Enough Business Graduates to Assist its Development Aspirations?

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kym Fraser
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Business Graduates ◽  
Business Degrees ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Detrimental Impact ◽  
Education Business

Business plays an important role in most economies around the world, but businesses rely on the higher education system to supply an adequate number of qualified business graduates. In nations such as the USA, the UK and Australia, business degrees are the most popular university qualification; and the growth in the number of Chinese students undertaking business degrees in universities outside their home country over the past decade has been astronomical. In contrast, for Indonesia there has been a decline in the number of business degrees being undertaken abroad and at home. Indonesia has set a number of ambitious development goals and if these are to be achieved, there will need to be increasing activity from the business sector. Therefore, it is argued, questions should be raised about the current declining rate of student numbers in higher education business degree courses, and about whether the trend will have a detrimental impact on the future development aspirations of this highly populated country.

scholarly journals THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF GENDER, CAREER, MORAL MINDSET ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES AND READINESS FOR EMPLOYABILITY AMONG ENGINEERING COLLEGES GRADUATES IN OMAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-30
Author(s):  
Masoud Rashid Al Hinai ◽  
Abul Bashar Bhuiyan ◽  
Nor Azilah Husin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Graduate Attributes

The Omani higher education system has enlarged noticeably since 1970 both in the number of students and in the infrastructure.  As a result, there has been a wide investment to provide quality higher educational institutes capable of providing suitable graduates to fulfill the requirements of both public and private sectors with a focus on females to assure equal gender educational and career opportunities chances. Therefore, graduates’ readiness for employability has become a major issue for Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in Oman due to the growing concern from governments and industries on the quality of the graduates.  Therefore, the main objective of the current study is to develop a conceptual framework for the graduate readiness for employability and incorporates the graduate attributes including human capital attributes, social capital attributes, individual attributes, institution-related attributes, and active learning attributes moderated by gender, career, and moral mindset among Engineering Graduate in Oman. The study uses available sources of existing literature based on the four main keywords ‘higher education’, ‘graduate attributes ‘or ‘readiness for employability, and ‘skills gaps in Oman’. The study also justified by the following theories which are human capital; education and economy development; behavior theory; and motivation theory. The literature utilized for this study covers the latest literature (from 2013 to 2020) extracted from Google Scholar, ProQuest, and Scopus, and other online resources. Based on the summary findings, the study develops a framework that analyses the effects of influential factors on the graduate readiness for employability that will be considered as an empirical study on the graduates of the engineering colleges in Oman. Moreover, the study also concluded that there are moderating effects of gender, moral mindset, and career mindset on the influence factors and the graduate readiness for employability among Omani engineering colleges’ students. The results of the study will fill the gap in understanding the main factors affecting the attainment of graduates’ readiness for employability skills in Oman. The study recommends justifying this conceptual framework by empirical data from the Engineering Graduate in the Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and draw a policy guideline for ensuring of readiness of engineering graduates for employability in the HEIs in Oman.

scholarly journals Dropout Policy in Czech Higher Education: Can Universities Serve Several Masters?

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Václav Švec ◽  
Aleš Vlk ◽  
Šimon Stiburek
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Third Mission ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Nature

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the way higher education institutions adapt to environmental pressures. These pressures can be represented either by various demands or by specific policies. Dropout policy is examined on a Czech case study in order to demonstrate that at the end of the day, higher education institutions respond mainly to the most pressing challenges of an economic nature in the most rational way. As a result, their traditional mission (teaching, research, the third mission), and mainly the social function of the higher education system, may be at stake. At the same time, this study illustrates how difficult it is to introduce any higher education policy without thorough evaluation of other policies in place and of various factors affecting institutional behaviour.

scholarly journals APPLICABILITY OF INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES IN UZBEK HIGHER EDUCATION TO IMPROVE QUALITY AND COMPETITIVENESS

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 342
Author(s):  
Pulatkhon Lutfullayev
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Education System ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
International Projects

Further reforming the higher education system is one of the hot topics in current political life in Uzbekistan. It is in the threshold of a rapid and long term change and improvement process in order to raise quality. In this regard, the international best practices of quality improvement are seen as a key task and objective before the practitioners and managerial staff. How the best practices can be adopted and applied in practice are still under discussion. Therefore, in this article is discussed the problematic issues of quality improvement in the background of the recent developments and policy reforms in higher education system in Uzbekistan. The major components of quality assurance such as adopting the best practices in teaching, research, managing higher educational institutions, and applicability of strategic management tools are argued. Moreover, the possibility of adopting the best practices in the field of internationalization such as student and teacher exchangeand working in international projects are reviewed. Each discussion is mixed with recommendations of and implications from the author.

scholarly journals Digitalization in international and mass education: A model proposal for Turkey

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 911-933
Author(s):  
Hikmet Salahaddin Gezici ◽  
Yasin Taşpınar ◽  
Mustafa Kocaoglu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
International Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mass Education ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Turkish Higher Education ◽  
The World

There is a debate as to whether internationalization should be a target or a means to achieve goals with broader perspectives. Digitalization, on the other hand, is a de facto trend that permeates all communicative, economic and social areas. For this purpose, the study aimed to examine literature on the field and the findings of the researchers on the issue were included. The research also discussed the internationalization and digitalization efforts carried out in the world and in Turkey. An internationalization model proposal for the Turkish higher education system is presented in outline, taking the best practices around the world into account. Model involves a digitalization-oriented education approach that aims to increase the opportunities for students to get support from their families and to minimize their socio-economic difficulties. The contributions of a massification provided by digitalization to international education have been revealed in this study. Keywords: digitalization; education; internationalization; massification; Turkey.  

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