Academics’ Perceptions of Quality in Higher Education in Turkey

Quality in education is one of the main concerns for governments in order to make sure the students will be able to meet the work power needs of the sector, and be able to get a job that meets their expectations in career when they graduate. In other words, it can be summarized with two words; input quality and output equality. The study aimed to investigate Turkish academics’ perceptions about the quality in higher education in Turkey. The study adopted survey method based on quantitative data. The participants comprised 53 academics from different universities in Turkey, and they were selected randomly on voluntary basis. The data were collected in distance using “The Questionnaire of Academics’ Perceptions of Quality in Higher Education” adapted from Rossner (2008) as a Google Form. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. The results revealed that majority of academics in Turkey were in favor for accreditation, they were in the opinion that the curricula content should be designed in accordance with the 21st century skills and market needs, and certified programs should be offered to students in an educational environment where even academics should be observed by field experts to make sure about the quality of educational practices.

COVID-19, the global education project and technology: Disrupting priorities towards rethinking education

This paper argues that the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic created a space to reconceptualise education and rethink priorities. Although no one will deny the devastating impact of the pandemic, humans have been able to continue with various projects, including the global education project, largely made possible through unprecedented technology advancement, as well as the uptake of technologies that advanced pre-COVID-19. In many ways, the clear distinction between human and technological (being non-human) practices has blurred to a point where the mere nature of human projects such as the global education project has become post-human. While different schools of thought on the nature of “post-human” exist, we use it to refer to what we are becoming together, a comprehension and awareness of the connectedness between humans and their natural and technological environment and the ethical concerns that come with it. COVID-19 provides an opportunity to reconsider the connectedness, complexities and dynamics of the world, and what we (humans, nature, Earth, technology) are becoming. Based on a literature survey and critical refection on the state of the global education expansion project at the time of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we suggest the following changes to the ways quantity, quality and equality in education are conceptualised. The employment of technology should be added in the conceptualisation of input quality. Flexibility, support and connectedness should be built into the process quality equation. Most importantly, ecology should also be added as a product of education, and not merely a contextual influence in education.

FindingNemo Library 2: Modified RAD004 v1

This sub-protocol is designed to prepare library from extracted ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) DNA to obtain ultra-long (UL) reads on Nanopore sequencers. The UL library protocol we tested here is based on ONT's rapid kit, i.e., SQK-RAD004, a transposase based adapter ligation kit. This Modified RAD004 protocol consistently produced N50 > 100 kb from a good input quality of UHMW DNA, for when ULK001 is not accessible/available. Transposase-based reaction is done in a large volume of up to 1 ml. The working principle of the RAD004 kit is shown in the diagram below:

FindingNemo Library 1: Modified ULK001 v1

This sub-protocol is designed to prepare library from extracted ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) DNA to obtain ultra-long (UL) reads on Nanopore sequencers. The UL library protocols we tested are based on ONT's rapid kit, i.e., SQK-ULK001, a transposase based adapter ligation kit. Modified ULK001 protocol consistently produced N50 > 100 kb from a good input quality of UHMW DNA and is our recommended route for best output as it is also the most-cost effective. Transposase-based reaction is done in a large volume of up to 1 ml. The working principle of the ULK001 protocol is shown in the diagram below:

Variation in quality of maternal input and development of coda stops in English-speaking children in Singapore

This study examines the effects of input quality on early phonological acquisition by investigating whether interadult variation in specific phonetic properties in the input is reflected in the production of their children. We analysed the English coda stop release patterns in the spontaneous speech of fourteen mothers and compared them with the spontaneous production of their preschool children. The analysis revealed a very strong positive input–production relationship; mothers who released coda stops to a lesser degree also had children who tended to not release their stops, and the same was true for mothers who released their stops to a higher degree. The findings suggest that young children are sensitive to acoustic properties that are subphonemic, and these properties are also reflected in their production, showing the importance of considering input quality when investigating child production.

Input Quality Upgrading from Tariff Reduction and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Ethiopian Manufacturing

Using a panel of firms from Ethiopian manufacturing census covering the period 2000–2016, this paper investigates how openness to trade help firms' input quality upgrading which further contribute to productivity gains. We estimate the quality of imported inputs at the firm level, and firm-level productivity using the Levinsohn and Petrin method. Then we estimate the effect of input tariff cut on input quality and further measure how input quality through input tariff reduction affect firms' productivity at different stages of regression. Our results suggest that input tariff reduction is associated with firms’ input quality upgrading and further with improvement in firms’ productivity.The effect of tariff cut is more pronounced for input-importing firms, and our result implies that the effect of input tariff cut motivates firms to participate in foreign input markets and helps upgrading input quality, thus contributing to firm productivity. Hence, further input trade liberalization measures should be designed to help key strategic manufacturing sectors. Besides, strategies have to be put in place to integrate the manufacturing sector into the global supply chain to reap more productivity gains. JEL codes: D22 D24 F13 H32 L15 L23

Measuring Relative Effectiveness of Service Quality Factors Affecting Quality of Higher Education in India

The existing competitive environment in the education sector in India has forced higher education institutes to adopt ‘students as a customer' approach in educational delivery. The extant literature supports seven dimensions of service quality namely input quality, curriculum, academic facilities, industry interaction, interaction quality, support facilities, and nonacademic processes. The objective of the study was to measure the relative effectiveness of service quality factors as perceived by the Indian students. Focus group interviews were conducted with a group of technical and management students. Stratified judgmental sampling was used for the data collection. In the current study, it was observed that the factor of program quality plays a more dominant role than the factor of quality of life in determining the service quality in institutes of higher education. It is further observed that in the sub-dimension of program quality, the factor of curriculum and academic facilities are relatively more dominant than the factor of input quality.