Faculty productivity in Zambian higher education in the face of internationalization: Unpacking research, publication and citation at the University of Zambia

This paper is based on a study that aimed at examining and interrogating the extent of faculty productivity in Zambia in terms of research, publication and citation with specific reference to the University of Zambia (UNZA). The paper invokes the Network Theory of Internationalisation of Higher Education founded by Johanson & Mattsson (1988).The research design used in this article is a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. The sample size total was 254, of which 244 were academic staff and 10 were key informants from management. Qualitative data was analysed according to emerging themes, while quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of this paper seem to suggest that faculties at UNZA were highly involved in research (applied and basic) at 75%, but with poor incidences of transforming research into publication and innovation. Only 38% of respondents published articles annually (increasing to 62% within two years) in local and international journals. While respondents who had published books in the last two years was as low as 19.5%. UNZA productivity output in terms of citation was relatively poor, below the expected standard of h-index and citation index of a flagship university which has a track record of more than 40 years of operation as a fully-fledged comprehensive university. Results primarily showed that the UNZA had an average h-index of 4.50 and a citation index of 156.87 which are significantly lower than the world averages of 17.50 and 971, respectively. The paper finally argues that, UNZA like most of the flagship and comprehensive universities in Africa, are quickly transforming from a teaching university into a research university based on the influence of the global North whose research agenda is central – at the expense of teaching. In order to improve on research productivity, this paper recommends that UNZA deliberately identify relevant industries, and global and regional partners to genuinely collaborate with as a way of leveraging resources and expertise. There is also a growing desire by universities in the global South to work closely together as way of improving their own productivity capacity in terms of research, publication, citation and redefine the concept of internationalization to fit the global South. Key words: Faculty, Productivity, Research, Publication, Citations, University of Zambia How to cite this article: Masaiti, G., Mwila, K., Kulyambanino, C. & Njobvu, T. 2021. Faculty productivity in Zambian higher education in the face of internationalization: unpacking research, publication and citation at the University of Zambia. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. 5(1): 66-86. DOI: 10.36615/sotls.v5i1.153. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Research Productivity and Its Relationship to Library Collections

Objective – The purpose of this study was to explore in the current academic library environment, the relationship between library collections data (collections’ size, expenditures, and usage) and faculty productivity (scholarly output). The researchers also examined the degree to which new and existing library metrics predict faculty productivity. Methods – Demographic data (e.g., faculty size, student size, research and development expenditures), library budget data (e.g., collection expenditures), collection use data (e.g., full-text article requests and database searches), and publication output for 81 doctoral granting universities in the United States were collected to explore potential relationships between research productivity, collection use, library budgets, collection size, and research expenditures using partial correlations. A hierarchical multiple regression was also used to ascertain the significance of certain predictors of research productivity (publications). Results – A correlation existed between the number of publications (research productivity) and library expenditures (total library expenditures, total library material expenditures, and ongoing library resource expenditures), collection size (volumes, titles, and ebooks), use of collection (full-text article requests and total number of references in the articles), and research and development expenditures. Another key finding from the hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that full-text article requests were the best predictor of research productivity, which uniquely explained 10.2% of the variation in publication. Conclusion – The primary findings were that full-text article requests, followed by library material expenditures and research expenditures, were found to be the best predictor of research productivity as measured by articles published.

Ethical Climate and Faculty’s Trifocal Functions of State Universities and Colleges (SUCS) in Region XII, Philippines

This study determined the prevailing ethical climate in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region XII and its relationship to the faculty’s three mandated functions; including instruction, research and extension. The descriptive method of research utilizing the correlation analysis was used in this study. This was conducted in four SUCs in Region XII, namely: Cotabato City State Polytechnic College in Cotabato City, Sultan Kudarat State University (ACCESS) in Tacurong City, University of Southern Mindanao in North Cotabato, and Cotabato Foundation of Science and Technology in North Cotabato. The respondents were the 268 selected faculty members taken through random sampling method. The researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather the data pertaining to the ethical climate and faculty’s trifocal functions. The findings generated: The prevailing ethical climate in professional values has the mean of 4.59 described as ”excellent”, work ethics is “excellent” with the mean of 4.79 and cultural values is also “excellent” with its mean of 4.52; the faculty productivity in instruction is “excellent” with its mean of 4.79, “poor” in research with the mean of 2.23 and “good” in extension with the mean of 3.06; The ethical climate in terms of professional ethics with.942 manifests very high positive relationship, work ethics with.897 denotes high positive relationship, and cultural values with.864 also show high positive relationship with faculty productivity in their trifocal functions. The study concluded that the ethical climate influenced the faculty productivity. The faculty professional ethics, work ethics and cultural values contributed significantly to the faculty productivity in their university trifocal functions.