Academic Leadership

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonu Narayana Swami ◽  
Tobedza Gobona ◽  
Joe Joseph Tsimako
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Academic Leadership ◽  
Research Quality ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Academic Leaders ◽  
University Of Botswana ◽  
The University

Academic Leadership involves managing people in higher education and also elsewhere. Academic leaders could emerge due to their committed and continued pursuit in research; quality assurance; strategies adopted; marketing abilities; contributing education to wider community; developing new programmes and timely reviewing them. The research is aimed at reviewing the literature that exists in this field and to find out the degree or state of academic leadership that exists within the University of Botswana (UB) and how far UB academic leadership has impacted on its vision and mission statement. Primary data was collected through administering a questionnaire within UB on selected five strata of graduate students, academic staff, lower, middle and top management. Respondents were happy with the Academic Leadership in the areas of motivation, professionalism, sense of belonging, building consensus and communication skills.

Scholarly Communication in a Digital Environment: Populating the Institutional Repository of the University of Botswana

Libri ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olugbade Oladokun
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
University Of Botswana ◽  
The World ◽  
The University

AbstractThis paper examines the numerous benefits of digital scholarly communication made visible through institutional repositories (IRs) that have become trendy in institutions of higher learning in developed countries of the world. In line with its vision to be a leading centre of academic excellence in Africa and the world, the University of Botswana (UB) established its own IR known as the UB Research, Innovation and Scholarship Archive (UBRISA). This paper discusses the challenges of profiling digital scholarly communication on UBRISA, a technology brimming with potential but which UB staff has largely ignored. The consequences of this neglect are seen in the paltry submissions to it during its four years of existence. The paper explains the implementation policy, and the involvement and functions of a tripartite team that drives UBRISA. The paper notes that the problem of tardiness experienced in populating the digital repositories of other institutions is also deeply rooted in UB. It shares some failed efforts made to populate UBRISA through the instrument of the performance management system – an annual contract which the academic staff members sign at the beginning of the year. The paper then analyses the efforts of the Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) that worked with UB in training its staff regarding the operation of the IR, and also established a workflow process for vetting, describing and uploading content to the IR so that UB scholarship could become more visible to the world. Some recommendations are also offered.

scholarly journals Astronomy Courses for Adults in Sydney, Australia

1990 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 360-362
Author(s):  
J.W. O’Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Time Activity ◽  
Part Time ◽  
The University ◽  
Education Courses ◽  
Astronomy And Astrophysics ◽  
Sydney Australia

The University of Sydney has been associated with adult education courses for the general public for at least 70 years and astronomy has often been a part of this activity. Since 1976, these courses have been conducted by a succession of graduate students from the Astronomy and Astrophysics departments within the university. The courses were a part-time activity conducted with limited resources, but served as useful teaching experience. This arrangement continued until the end of 1987 when I left the university. I am pleased to report that this activity is considered sufficiently important to be continued by the permanent academic staff.Here I seek to briefly report on these astronomy courses by describing those that I conducted at the university over the last five years. I should firstly acknowledge the work of Dr. Graeme White in particular, for his earlier courses and continuing interest. Also, this discussion should be placed in context by recognizing that other astronomy courses are run in Sydney by professional and amateur astronomers through local evening colleges and other organizations. These vary in format, with many of the amateur-run courses emphasizing the practical aspects of sky observing. The displays and facilities provided by the Sydney Observatory also play an important role. Each activity helps to meet the demand in the Sydney region for astronomical education and thereby undoubtedly serves the interests of Australian astronomy.

Design of innovative technologies and modeling in the educational process of the University

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Sergeeva
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Design And Technology ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
Model Design ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Organizational Functions ◽  
The University

Textbook designed to assist teachers of higher and secondary professional educational institutions. Revealed the foundations of innovative development of pedagogical education, the peculiarities of the project-organizational functions of the academic staff of the University, presented the specifics of the model design and technology innovative research activities in the educational process. It will be useful to undergraduates, graduate students, assistants, teachers and lecturers in the implementation of project and research activities with students.

Adopting a Strategy for Enhancing Generic Skills in Engineering Education

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia Krassadaki ◽  
Kleanthi Lakiotaki ◽  
Nikolaos F. Matsatsinis
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Generic Skills ◽  
Team Working ◽  
High Level ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

It is remarkable how often academic staff discover students' weaknesses in expressing their thoughts in written and oral contexts, and in team working. To examine these weaknesses, a study was conducted in 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 of students taking an engineering course. Students self-reported an initial high level of weakness in both communication skills (writing and speaking), while expressing higher levels of confidence in their team working skills. This suggested that there was significant potential for improvement in both forms of communication skills and a lower potential for the improvement of team-working skills. On that basis the Technical University of Crete organized short training workshops based on experiential learning methods, during the academic year 2012–13. Other factors taken into account were the lack of awareness of such skills in traditionally-organized Greek universities; the inability to redesign all courses, currently dependent on a content-based curriculum, on a competency basis; and findings in the international literature, which highlight specific generic skills of engineering students as essential to their studies and future career prospects. The aim was to enhance the three skills of writing, speaking and team working. Participation was voluntary and open to students from all schools in the university. This paper assesses this initiative and analyses the contribution of the workshops to skills development.

scholarly journals Assessing the Need of Islamic Economics Curriculum In the Nigerian Universities: The Case of Bayero University, Kano

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-69
Author(s):  
Aliyu Dahiru Muhammad ◽  
Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullahi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Staff ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Bachelor Of Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Analytical Skills ◽  
University Curriculum ◽  
Logistic Regressions ◽  
The University

The persistent deterioration of trust among managers of the economy in one hand and the declining confidence level of the public on economic and financial institutions in the country calls for the need to assess the type of economic graduates Universities in Nigeria produce. In other words, does our Universities produce economists that are skillful in the industry but lacks ethical as well as moral values? To answer these questions there is need to examine the University curriculum so as to know the existence or otherwise of courses that enhance skills and those that enhance values. The objective of this study therefore is to assess the need for Islamic economics curriculum that contains sufficient courses for not only building graduate economic and analytical skills but also the courses that are relevant for ethical development of a graduate. Bayero University Kano, though not an Islamic University per se but is well rooted in the values of Islam historically and in the programmes the University offers to students from various field of Islamic revealed knowledge. The paper being exploratory in nature gathers data from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data was gathered from survey of the respondents that include both academic staff and students of the Department of Economics, B.U.K. The secondary data will be sourced from books, contemporary articles, conference proceedings, reports and curriculum of the department as well as Islamic economics curriculum from relevant Universities in the Muslim world. Based on logistic Regressions, the findings from this study show that there is need for Islamic economics curriculum to improve the ethical and moral stand of the students, especially after graduation. The result paves way for updating economics curriculum for the Bachelor of Science Economics and sheds some lights to other Universities that share the same characteristics with Bayero University Kano.                                                                                                                                                                            ,                                  

scholarly journals Gender Inequality In Academia: Evidences From Nigeria

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiana O. Ogbogu
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Academic Development ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Southwestern Nigeria ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Recruitment And Selection ◽  
The University

Universities and other institutions of higher education in Nigeria see themselves as liberal and open-minded. They support social movements that encourage principles of democracy and social justice, yet their mode of governance is male dominated and patriarchal. This study, therefore, identified the causes of gender inequality in academia and the implications on the academic development of females in the university system. This study was considered necessary because of the observed anomaly in the composition of academic staff in Nigerian universities. Data for the study were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data were obtained through the in-depth interview of sixty (60) purposively selected male and female academic staff occupying key positions in three (3) Federal universities located in southwestern Nigeria. The study revealed that the recruitment and selection practices in the universities neither stressed male ideology nor discriminated against women; rather merit was the yardstick for acceptance into the profession. It was found that lack of mentoring, poor remuneration, womens lack of interest in academia, family responsibilities, the lengthy period of training, and the ideology that women should have low career aspirations due to traditional roles ascribed to them, accounted for the observed disparity in academia. The implication of this disparity on the academic development of women is the general reduction in their research output and the perpetuation of their low status in academia. The study concluded that appropriate institutional adjustments and affirmation action programmes are necessary to meet womens demands of equality and improve retention.

Assessing cognitive, social and teaching presences during emergency remote teaching at a South African university

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zayd Waghid ◽  
Lawrence Meda ◽  
Jane Adhiambo Chiroma
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Active Teaching ◽  
African Context ◽  
The University

PurposeThis study aims to examine how lecturers at a South African university navigated teaching and learning in the current educational landscape obscured by the global pandemic. The authors examine how lecturers employed a community of inquiry (CoI) in their online classrooms within the context of emergency remote teaching (ERT). The study further aims to ascertain students’ feedback concerning current ERT practices at the university toward cultivating a CoI. Doing this would offer more appropriate interventions and support for lecturers and students from, within and for an African context. If not, instructors might risk reproducing and perpetuating the same outdated pedagogies before the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method research design informed by a pragmatist paradigm was used. Primary data were collected from 40 lecturers at the university through online questionnaires of which 10 lecturers responded to e-mail interviews. The original CoI survey was distributed among 150 students in the Faculty of Education at the university.FindingsThe findings revealed that, despite the rushed and trial nature of the use of ERT, there were instances of a CoI among students. The findings further revealed that the majority of the lecturers were not adequately prepared for ERT as a result of limited experience with asynchronous and synchronous online teaching. There was evidence of an absence of a strong active teaching presence that was found to have negatively influenced the development of social and cognitive presences during ERT.Research limitations/implicationsOnly a single faculty at one university was selected in this single case.Practical implicationsThe results of the study have significant implications for faculties and academic staff who are currently teaching online in response to the teaching challenges paused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings will assist lecturers in developing appropriate pedagogical intervention strategies to enhance strong and active teaching and social presences necessary for cultivating the cognitive presences among students during ERT.Originality/valueThis is one of the first empirical studies to explore the influence of ERT on the cognitive, social and teaching presences at a university in an African context. The findings and conclusion of the study are novel as they relate to the development of appropriate pedagogical practices and intervention strategies suitable for ERT in response to the current education crisis.

The Impact of Psychological Combustion on the Performance of University and Higher Education Teachers

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-247
Author(s):  
Ruaa Ahmed Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Assistant Professor ◽  
Academic Leadership ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Academic Leaders ◽  
Guidance Programs ◽  
Work Pressure ◽  
Moral Training ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

The aim of the research is to identify the impact of psychological combustion on the job performance of university and higher institutes teachers through a study of analytical by the same academic leaders at the University of Tikrit, The research was based on the analytical descriptive method and the use of the psychometric scale and the performance scale. The research found a number of results, namely that the most academic leadership positions whose performance is affected by the levels of psychological combustion is the head of the department, and that the academic leadership in the practical colleges is the most affected by the performance of the levels of psychological combustion. Also, the female academic leaders are affected by their performance at higher levels of combustion Psychological leadership, and that academic leaders have the degree of assistant professor is affected by its performance more levels of psychological combustion, and that the academic leaders married is affected by their performance more levels of psychological combustion, and that academic leaders The age group of 30 to 40 years is the most affected by the performance of the levels of psychological combustion, and academic leaders with years of experience less than 20 years are affected by their performance more levels of psychological combustion. The research recommended that work should be done to improve the professional and social conditions of academic leaders and faculty members in colleges and higher institutes, and to prepare preventive and guidance programs that help reduce the feeling of work pressure and health monitoring of academic leaders and faculty members to ensure their health and psychological health. The faculty and raise their morale with rewards and incentives, both material and moral, training and qualification of academic leaders and faculty members to increase their ability to think creatively and how to manage time and exploitation Its best possible exploitation.

scholarly journals Developing Research Partnerships in Emerging Nations

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-119
Author(s):  
Agreement Lathi Jotia
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Research Partnerships ◽  
Central Florida ◽  
Emerging Nations ◽  
University Of Botswana ◽  
The North ◽  
The University ◽  
North And South

This article, which was built upon research linked to the development of sustainable study abroad programs in emerging nations, focuses on key challenges to true partnerships between universities in the “North” and “South.” The article begins with an analysis of challenges frequently experienced by universities from the  “North” and “South” when attempting to develop an equitable partnership based on joint grants and/or research projects. It also includes a discussion of struggles experienced by faculty (also known as “academic staff ”) at both universities who desire a more equitable relationship that will enhance the missions of both institutions. Following this theoretical analysis, the study focused on one particular partnership between two universities from the “North” and the “South” (The University of Central Florida, USA, and the University of Botswana), during study abroad programs spanning five years and funded by the U.S. State Department (2012-2015) and the Fulbright-Hays Groups Project Abroad (2011). An analysis of this partnership is particularly relevant as it focuses on the initial steps, dialogues, perspectives and actions of both institutions as they worked through a host of preconceived notions on neocolonialism and the challenges of successfully operating by another’s “rules of engagement” within a dynamic geopolitical platform.

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