Organizational agility to counter coronavirus implications in emerging Saudi universities

Objective: The study's primary goal was to uncover the reality of organizational agility in emerging universities. It also aimed to determine the statistical variances between the mean scores of the sample used in the axes of the organizational agility questionnaire for these universities. The main variables used are gender, academic position, and years of experience. Methodology: The study utilized the descriptive method. The data collection process entailed handing out questionnaires to a sample of seven hundred and forty-seven faculty members in Jazan, Bishah, Hafar Al-Batin, Shaqraa, and Najran Universities. Results: Emerging universities regularly practice organizational agility in light of the emerging coronavirus with high flexibility at moderate costs. The study's results also indicated mathematically substantial variances at the degree of viability between the male sample's average and the female sample's average in favor of the female sample in the timing and the flexibility of practices. It also indicated statistically significant variances at the degree of significance between the mean scores of the research sample, attributed to the difference in the academic position in the timing, flexibility, and cost of practices. Keywords: Coronavirus, Degree of variability Emerging universities, Organizational agility, Strategy,

Resort Architecture in Regional Perceptions

The regional aspirations of resort architecture give specific perspectives on the history of regionalism. The development of the shores of Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe, was determined by this particular regional aspiration. Iván Kotsis was a defining figure of Hungarian architecture between the world wars, and had a significant impact on the period - not only with his work as an architect, but also as a university professor and a public activist. This paper examines his activity around Lake Balaton on different scales, since it represented a peculiar perspective within the history of regional ideas. The research concludes that Kotsis’ regional perspective focused on resort architecture was an independent conception separated from both modern and local interpretations. Based on his university work and the knowledge transfer resulting from his international relations, he developed an integrated perspective on the region from an academic position. Reflecting on the problems of holiday resorts, he formed an autonomous method with which he experimented, to mediate between the universal modern approach and the local features of the landscape.

Reconstructing Professional Philosophy: Lessons from Philosophy as a Way of Life During a Time of Crises

This article reflects on the way the Covid-19 hecatomb has disclosed and unraveled the ongoing crisis of professional philosophy, and suggests some lessons that might be taken from the pandemic, urging academic philosophers to take action regarding the future of their work in philosophy departments and institutions. In the first section of the article, we highlight some lasting criticisms to academic philosophy and explore one particular nasty thorn in the side of philosophers doing the kind of work that might speak to broad audiences facing a crisis of meaning and living: the rush to publish instead of “perishing” without a secure academic position. In the next section, we discuss philosophy as a way of life (PWL) as an alternative nascent field in academic philosophy that, while garnering respect and recognition within the academy, has regained connections with a broader public desperate for ways to chart their own paths of meaningful living, especially when facing a deeply challenged and fractured world. PWL helps address the crises of meaning many in the academy face (both teachers and students) and the absence of rich philosophical reflection and communities in the broader public, which otherwise all too easily fall prey to hucksters, con-artists, and authoritarian and conspiratorial forces. We argue that this kind of wholistic critical development of PWL from the ancient world is designed to enact a prefigurative or eutopian politics. We conclude by situating our recommendations into a broader reconstruction of professional philosophy needed at this critical cultural moment.

Gender differences in the aims and impacts of research

This study uses mixed methods – classical citation analysis, altmetric analysis, a survey with researchers as respondents, and text analysis of the abstracts of scientific articles – to investigate gender differences in the aims and impacts of research. We find that male researchers more often value and engage in research mainly aimed at scientific progress, which is more cited. Female researchers more often value and engage in research mainly aimed at contributing to societal progress, which has more abstract views (usage). The gender differences are observed among researchers who work in the same field of research and have the same age and academic position. Our findings have implications for evaluation and funding policies and practices. A critical discussion of how societal engagement versus citation impact is valued, and how funding criteria reflect gender differences, is warranted.

The Sydney Jewish Museum and the Religious Studies Project with Breann Fallon

Pursuing a degree in religious studies sometimes seems to lead only to an academic position. Ph.D. candidate Breann Fallon suggests otherwise. Drawing upon her work as a Co-Editor of the Religious Studies Project and the Sydney Jewish Museum’s Educational Team, Fallon shows that there are possibilities and opportunities. Fallon candidly tells her story and how she marshaled her academic training to pursue passion projects in the broader educational economy.

Die Bewertung, Akkreditierung und die Auswahl von Professor*innen und wissenschaftlichem Personal an Universitäten in Spanien

The article outlines the evaluation, accreditation and selection of professors and academic staff at universities in Spain. First, the historical development of the selection system is outlined, in order to be able to deal with the current design of the access to an academic position at a university. The article concludes with a critical look at the current competitive system and accreditation system.

School physical education

This article has as its goal to justify and analyze the thematic propositions of the XV Seminar of School Physical Education: teachers’ autonomy and responsibilities. To do so, the theme is historically contextualized from two phases: 1) The search for legitimacy in the academia and; 2) The search for approximating teachers and their teachings. In the first one, it is possible to affirm that the seminars organized by EEFEUSP, from their very beginning and throughout the following twenty years, have presented an academic position towards the specificities and the different forms of school knowledge related to the curriculum component Physical Education, aiming at contributing to a legitimacy of the Physical Education itself in the academia. In the second phase, the question is properly and profitably addressed so to justify the seminar’s time and social place, targeting the teaching and the building of different kinds of knowledge through it. In this last phase, it is noticed an increase in the number of participants and also in the number of presentations, showing that the path chosen with locus on the teaching was right. Finally, once the analysis of the editing of the XV Seminar of School Physical Education is finished, it is put in this essay the challenge to think and project seminars to the next decade.

Community Partnership Through Knowledge Transfer Program: Assessment From the Perspectives of Academics’ Experience

The knowledge transfer program (KTP) in Malaysia was instituted to facilitate knowledge transfer, collaboration, and interaction between academics in public higher institutions and other stakeholders. These programs are divided into community or industry programs. Under the community program, academics collaborate with a community partner to utilize their research findings in the community environment. This quantitative study attempts to assess KTP based on academics’ postproject responses to online questionnaires. The participants in this study consist of 132 academics of Malaysian public universities of Rolling 1 to Rolling 4 projects between 2011 and 2016. Of 132 individuals invited to participate, 84 of them (64%) took part in the online survey. These data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan’s range test. The findings indicate that the KTP has enabled academics, irrespective of position, to deploy their ideas and knowledge in a real-world community setting. The relationship between academic position and learning experience in transferring knowledge, however, is inverse: the higher the level of an academic position, the lower the learning experience. The findings also exhibit the experience and challenges that one would expect from the involvement of academics in a community KTP.