Reflections from Ege University Medical School’s clinical internship mentoring program (2011–2018)

Objectives Ege University Medical School initiated system based integrated clinical internship in 2011. The need for a mentor who would closely monitor and guide the student in knowledge and skill gains for every clinical internship block and who would be an academic role model was well established. The aim of this study reports the results of the clinical internship mentoring program in the Ege University Medical School. Methods The Clinical Internship Counseling Committee reviewed similar programs in the literature, conducted focus group discussions, determined the wishes and needs of the students, and developed a mentoring program. Results The program was initiated by announcing the student-mentor matches and the procedure which was based on meetings of the student-mentor at the 1st, 8th and 13th weeks of the integrated internship. This meeting was designed to be a time for the mentor to guide the student to achieve the internship goals, to establish his/her internship progress file and to be an academic role model. At the final evaluation of the mentor, communication between student and the progress in the establishment of the internship progress file contributed to the 5% of the final internship success grade. Conclusions Evaluation of 7 years of experience led to the agreement that the goals of clinical internship program should be integrated into the newly established “Student Mentorship Program” that starts at the 1st year of the medical school.

Politicisation of Administration and Implications for Knowledge Generation in South Africa : A case of a Black University

The subject of the politics of knowledge is not uniformly understood by both scholars and practitioners. Much work in this regard is based on Northern angled perspectives, which are deficient in abilities to capture the essence of African reality. On the basis of qualitative materials and interdisciplinary discourse analysis, this article’s focus is on the politicisation of university administration in South Africa. Taking cue from my previous works on this subject, I have identified and discussed additional three central factors which impair scientific knowledge generation and development in South Africa and Africa as a whole. Among others, these factors include bureaucratisation of academic administration, academic jealousy and gangsterism and shortage of academic role models. Theoretically and in order to foster epistemic justice, this study has drawn from Afrocentricity as an alternative contextual lens to paint a qualitatively rich picture of the phenomena under study.

Re-thinking the Academic Role in the Circular Economy Discourse

The article discusses the debate that calls the academy and the generation of scientific production to contribute to the substantial contributions of public policy from the areas of the Circular Economy - CE, especially for industrial sectors that have a high economic and environmental impact. The bibliometric review (30 years) allows arguing the limitations in the contributions to face the challenges posed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the regulation and political instrumentation. The results show investigative biases in the institutional order of the food packaging industry that has massified production towards the consumption of single-use glasses (SUG). The discussion states that the generation of knowledge should re-evaluate social responsibility without bias in thematic trends. Finally, it is proposed that academic contributions should focus on the review of incentives for efficient production that minimizes the massive consumption of materials.

‘Beanz Meanz Professional Learning’: Beginning a Pedagogical Reflective Sketchbook1

I was attempting to write a traditional text-based article defining what I have come to term a ‘Pedagogical Reflective Sketchbook’. The aim was to consider what insights might be gained from existing research on teachers’ use of reflective sketchbooks ‐ and similarly named books ‐ for their professional learning, leading to my definition of a Pedagogical Reflective Sketchbook. However, I told myself (aloud) ‘I can’t say what I want to say in words’. Although not a totally surprising revelation, it was a call to action. I, therefore, began to develop my own visual musings centred on the analogy of being like a Michelin-starred chef serving baked beans on toast ‐ a pedagogical frustration in my current academic role. In order to better understand a Pedagogical Reflective Sketchbook, it made perfect sense to begin one, in keeping with the spirit of my research intentions. This visual essay explains more…

Algaepreneurship as academic engagement: Being entrepreneurial in a lab coat

There are many ways in which scientists can engage in entrepreneurial activities. The context of this article is a Swedish research group in marine ecology, which became increasingly involved in entrepreneurial activities. This article focuses on the what, why and how of entrepreneurship as part of an academic role. The study was conducted as an interactive research process, involving activities as well as interviewing participants in the project. Theories of identity work, role identity and passion were used to analyse this context. Two distinct but simultaneous processes were identified: first, when scientists engage in commercial entrepreneurial activities and react by reaffirming their roles as academics and, second, when scientists engage in entrepreneurial activities in a broad sense, fulfilling environmental and social goals (this is compatible with their scientific passion connected to their academic role identity). This article shows that scientists can be entrepreneurial while working with social and environmental responsibility with no conflict between their entrepreneurial activity and their role as an academic.

Steered by Numbers: How Quantification Differentiates the Reform of a German University

Quantification theories assume that numbers govern and steer a policy field or an organisation. In order to steer successfully, however, the local interpretation of numbers takes centre stage as the meaning of numbers—and thus the way how actors respond to them—varies between systems or sectors. Empirically, this article reviews how a German university makes sense of political numbers and their implicit steering signals, and how quantification alters its organisational structures and reshapes the roles of academics. The article analyses the translation process distinguishing between three levels: the political discourse on university reform; the organisational adaptations; and the effects they have on the professional academic role. The article finds that the university has highly differentiated strategies to respond to the ‘governance by numbers,’ and that it has established independent number-based steering systems. We also find that such differentiation of programmes makes the university management more flexible, helping it deal with anticipated goal conflicts and unwanted allocative effects, but it also places serious strain on—and potentially overburns—the coordination provided by the university’s central administration. We also find that academics have started to align their behavioural strategies towards fulfilling their organisational goals and that they tend to deviate from professional expectations. Discussing these differentiated strategies, this article shows how the differentiation of governance approaches also contributes to the university becoming an ‘organisational actor.’ These preliminary findings suggest the need for and potential direction of further investigations.