Determinants of Trust in Higher Education

The article addresses the factors that influence students’ trust in the teachers, faculty administration and university administration. Establishing trusting relationships at the university leads to a number of positive effects: for example, it facilitates cooperation between members of educational organization, making them more united, open to communication and motivated; it is a prerequisite for academic excellence, high-quality higher education and loyalty. This is the reason of the researchers’ interest to this topic. However, the factors influencing students’ trust in teachers and university management have yet to be defined. This paper examines the individual, socio-economic and institutional characteristics of student trust. The emphasis is placed on subjective factors – the perception and assessment by young people of what happens with them in the learning process. It is shown that students’ trust in the teachers and university management is positively correlated with their justified expectations (satisfaction), regarding higher education, and negatively correlated with the course of study. The influence of gender is significant when students trust in the administration of the faculty, while the influence of family income is significant when they trust in the administration of the university. Moreover, the last two factors are regionally specific: their effects are significant only for the trust of students studying at Moscow and St. Petersburg universities.

The possibilities of quantitative analysis of the relationship between the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the institutional characteristics of the countries of the world

The interrelation of the severity of the epidemiological situation in a particular country and its institutional characteristics (including the level of health care, quality of management, the level of public trust, cultural characteristics, etc.) is considered. As a result, using the developed index of the severity of the epidemiological situation, the institutional characteristics that most affect the effectiveness of the measures applied were determined. It was figured out that of the 16 characteristics considered, only two (the level of employment and trust in the government) have a medium statistical correlation with the severity of the pandemic. Three more characteristics (prevalence of secular-rational values, degree of urbanization, GDP PPP per capita) have a correlation close to the medium. The remaining characteristics (including health care costs, government efficiency, etc.) have either a weak correlation wiыth severity, or actually do not have it. The results obtained indicate insufficient use and reassessment of existing institutional capacities at the initial stage of the pandemic, as well as insufficient reliability of morbidity and mortality statistics in a number of countries. In conclusion, based on the analysis of statistical indicators, recommendations are given to improve the effectiveness of the use of institutional capacity to counter epidemiological threats, improve this potential, increase the effectiveness of protective and restrictive measures that reduce the severity of the epidemiological situation.

Determinants of smallholders’ adoption of mobile phones for vegetable marketing in Vietnam

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that shape the adoption of mobile phones for vegetable marketing by Vietnamese smallholders. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was given to 185 smallholders randomly chosen from 345 vegetable smallholders in the Vinh Thanh district of Vietnam. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and a binary logistic regression were applied to analyse the data. Findings The research results show that the smallholders’ adoption of mobile phones for vegetable marketing is significantly affected by their number of extension contacts, distance from smallholders’ homes to local markets, community-based organisation participation, gender, training/credit programme participation, age, education level, income and farm size (χ2 = 143,111, p < 0.000). Practical implications A combination of factors related to socio-economic, situational and institutional characteristics of smallholders should be considered when promoting smallholders’ uptake of mobile phones for vegetable marketing in developing nations. Originality/value This research provides useful insights into the determinants of mobile phone adoption for vegetable marketing by smallholders and highlights areas that need to be considered when designing policies to improve the uptake of information and communication technologies in developing countries.

Assessing the Students’ Perception of the Quality of Dental Program offered in Saudi Arabia

Background: In Saudi Arabia, dental students' program evaluation is highly focused on improving dental education quality, so that an effective workforce could be developed for the nation. Objective: This study aims to assess the students' perception of the quality of dental program offered at Saudi dental schools. Methods: All final year students of the selected Saudi dental schools (N=4) were included as the population of this study. The students were administered a questionnaire named “Dental Program Evaluation Survey.” The survey consisted of four dimensions, with 31 Likert scale items and one global item studying the dental students' satisfaction towards the programs offered at Saudi dental schools. The responses obtained using the survey were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS 20.0. Results: The results demonstrated that the dimensions, such as faculty characteristics, institutional characteristics, the efficacy of the program, and program changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were perceived as “High Quality.” The cumulative percentage of most of the items was graded as “Acceptable.” Overall, 89.2% of students were satisfied with the quality of the programs offered in their dental schools. A significant difference was found in students' perception of the dimensions and overall satisfaction with respect to their gender and dental schools. Conclusion: Overall, the students were highly satisfied with the quality of the dental program offered in Saudi Arabia. This study would help policymakers in developing appropriate strategies that can enhance and sustain the quality of dental program offered at Saudi dental schools.

Graduates’ Unemployment and Associated Factors in Ethiopia: Analysis of Higher Education Graduates’ Perspectives

Higher education institutions are responsible for providing their graduates with relevant job skills that will allow them to compete in the labour market. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with graduate unemployment in Ethiopia. The data were collected, analysed, and interpreted using a quantitative design. Using Cochran’s sampling formula, 359 graduates from five regions were selected as the sources of primary data. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyse the data because it is a good model for computing the interaction between more than two independent and dependent variables. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.947 indicated that the instrument’s reliability is adequate. The study revealed that the independent variables that correlate with graduates’ unemployment are demographic characteristics, curriculum, institutional characteristics, graduate characteristics, and economic and labour market conditions. These findings imply that HEIs and governance bodies should reconsider the sector’s policy and strategic directions in terms of graduates’ employability output. As one of the major improvements, the study also recommends creating an enabling environment for employers to thrive, while higher education institutions adjust their curricula to meet the needs of employers.

Institutional characteristics of education systems and inequalities: Introduction II

The second special issue of International Journal of Comparative Sociology (IJCS) on the role of education systems as institutional settings on the reproduction of inequalities includes three papers that focus on stratification of the education system as key driver of educational inequalities, the role of digital inequalities in the school and beyond, as well as how students navigate through the institutional setting of the Taiwanese education system. While we already elaborated on the research program, conceptual framework, and methodological challenges in the first introduction (published in January 2021), we will deal with the current state-of-research in this second introduction.

The consequences of US technology changes for productivity in advanced economies

Since at least the mid-2000s, many advanced economies have experienced low productivity growth. This development is often related to declining productivity gains at the technology frontier, which is largely determined by the US. We challenge this explanation by studying the effects of US technology shocks on productivity levels in advanced economies. We find positive but small spillovers of US technology shocks. For many countries, the elasticity of their productivity with respect to a 1% increase in the US technology level is significantly lower than 1. Thus, the recent US productivity slowdown must have had a limited effect on productivity developments in advanced economies. Nevertheless, after 5 years, the degree of productivity spillovers varies across countries. Therefore, we analyze the role of institutions in shaping these results. Our findings suggest that isolated institutional characteristics are not able to explain the observed various spillover degrees.

Mobility and accessibility paradigms in Dutch policies: An empirical analysis

To promote sustainable urban development, transport policies need to change from a car-oriented mobility planning paradigm to an accessibility-based paradigm, integrating land-use and transport policies. This paper uses the concept of planning paradigms to describe the current status of municipal transport planning and problem framing. The dominant transport planning paradigm of 172 Dutch municipalities is determined, based on a conceptual framework with 24 mobility and accessibility planning criteria. Statistical analysis is then conducted to find linkages between the planning paradigm and transport, land-use, and institutional characteristics of the municipalities. We show that the mobility planning paradigm still dominates Dutch municipal transport planning, and the accessibility planning paradigm is mostly found in large cities and highly urban municipalities. However, we do find indications of slow change in the transport planning paradigms in Dutch municipalities, as older policy documents are more (car) mobility focused than newer policy documents. Further research is necessary to examine the evolution of the paradigm shift in municipal transport planning over time and what factors promote the realization of such a paradigm shift.

Representing the Disadvantaged

The limited attention Congress gives to disadvantaged or marginalized groups, including Black Americans, LGBTQ, Latinx, women, and the poor, is well known and often remarked upon. This is the first full-length study to focus instead on those members who do advocate for these groups and when and why they do so. Katrina F. McNally develops the concept of an 'advocacy window' that develops as members of Congress consider incorporating disadvantaged group advocacy into their legislative portfolios. Using new data, she analyzes the impact of constituency factors, personal demographics, and institutional characteristics on the likelihood that members of the Senate or House of Representatives will decide to cultivate a reputation as a disadvantaged group advocate. By comparing legislative activism across different disadvantaged groups rather than focusing on one group in isolation, this study provides fresh insight into the tradeoffs members face as they consider taking up issues important to different groups.

Characteristics associated with delays in decision to transfer injured patients

Introduction The regionalized nature of trauma care necessitates interfacility transfer which is vulnerable to delays given its complexity. Little is known about the interval of time a patient spends at the sending hospital prior to when the transfer is initiated—the “decision to transfer” time. This primary objective of the study was to explore the impact of patient, environmental, and institutional characteristics on decision to transfer time. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of injured adult patients who underwent emergent interfacility transfer by a provincial critical care transport organization over a 31-month period. Quantile regression was used to evaluate the impact of patient, environmental, and institutional characteristics on the time to decision to transfer. Results A total of 1128 patients were included. The median decision to transfer time was 2.42 h and the median total transport time was 3.12 h. The following variables were associated with an increase in time to decision to transfer at the 90th percentile of time: age >75 (+2.47 h), age 66–75 (+3.70 h), age 56–65 (+1.20 h), transfer between 00:00 and 07:59 (+2.08 h), and transfer in the summer (+2.25 h). The following variables were associated with a decrease in time to decision to transfer at the 90th percentile of time: Glasgow Coma Scale 3–8 (−2.21 h), respiratory rate >30 (−2.01 h), sending site being a community hospital with <100 beds (−4.11 h), or the sending site being a nursing station (−5.66 h). Conclusion Time to decision to transfer was a sizable proportion of the patients interfacility transfer. Older patients were associated with a delay in decision to transfer as were patients transferred overnight and in the summer. These findings may be used to support the implementation of geriatric trauma triage guidelines and promote ongoing education and quality improvement initiatives to decrease delay.