Role of University Rankings in the Context of Lack of Resources

In the contemporary context, educational sector faces many challenges which are reflected in specific institutional reactions. Rankings specific to higher education systems are a real phenomenon. Management teams at all levels understand differently the role of being active towards rankings – from a national support and institutional scope, to a lack of interest from both levels. Methodologies of different rankings are also different. In fact, participating in a ranking or another is something to be decided by the university management. The mission of this chapter is to reveal the role of rankings in the contemporary context of resource decreasing. Some answers will improve the decision-making process related to rankings, as well as to other institutional changes adopted in higher education institutions. The existence of rankings cannot be denied. Understanding the role of rankings is one of the most important premises for a correct strategic development of the higher education institutions.

Building a Culture of Trust in Higher Education Institutions

Higher education institutions worldwide are evolving in a so-called quality assurance era in which quality standards are defined and implemented. Quality assurance has, in fact, two sides: one declarative, or formal, reflected into documents, proofs, and even statistics well prepared, and one practical, or informal, that behind all legal issues, the quality of processes is real. The contradiction between the two sides of the quality assurance contributes a false perception of quality and unethical institutional behavior. Higher education institutions can become ethical or more ethical through their people—management, academics, students, alumni, researchers. In other words, the culture of quality needs to be rebuilt towards trust. The objective of this chapter is to provide a clear insight to the contemporary state of higher education institutions' behavior and context to contribute to the building up of new quality management based on a trust in the area of education, research, and social development.

Investigating the Role of Data-Driven Decision-Making Within School Improvement Processes

This chapter provides a detailed literature review exploring the importance of data-driven decision-making processes in current Australian school improvement processes within a context of evidence-based organizational change and development. An investigation into the concept of decision-making and its effect on organizational culture is conducted as change and development are considered to be the new constants in the current discourse around continuous school improvement in schools. In a close examination of literature, this chapter investigates how key factors such as collaboration, communication, and organizational trust are achieved through data-driven decision-making within continuous school improvement processes. The critical role of leadership in sustaining data cultures is also examined for its direct impact on continuous school improvement processes based on evidence-based organizational change and development practices. Future implications of data-driven decision-making to sustain continuous school improvement and accountability processes in Australian schools are discussed.

Stakeholder Approach for Quality Higher Education

Higher education is not necessary for economic growth and development is a general presumption, the belief being literacy and primary education is. Increased concerns for ‘Education for All', also led to overall neglect of higher education in many developing countries. But given the inter-dependence of one layer of education on the other, higher education becomes critically important for developing and sustaining a good quality primary and secondary education. It is also a necessary feature for economic growth, development and sustenance. Higher education system suffers from a yawning gap in funds, outdated regulatory mechanisms, poor quality, and low efficiency. Liberalization of sector to attract large scale investments is the key to access, affordability, and equity. However, the core issue still remains ‘quality in higher education'. This chapter through in depth literature review and content analysis delves into stakeholder approach for quality higher education, which would hopefully not only optimize the higher education impact but also guarantee quality higher education.

The Impact of Knowledge and Attitude of SGB Members Toward Adoption of Social Justice and Democracy

The purpose of this literature study was to investigate the impact of the knowledge and attitude of School Governing Board (SGB) members towards adoption of social justice and democratic practices for quality education in South African public schools with special reference to the language policy. Findings indicated that that bias is still a challenge in the institutions of learning in South Africa in terms of the implementation of the language policy by the members of the SGB. It was also found that increasing the level knowledge of the members; SGB members regarding social justice and democratic principles and practices with special reference to the South African language policy will change their attitude and behavior geared towards improved implementation of the same policy. It is also concluded that effective implementation of change management models can also coordinate the link between knowledge development, change of attitude and behavior towards effective implementation strategies of the language policy.

A Fuzzy Approach for Ranking of Student's Expectation From a Technical Institute

Due to high competition and less employability in the technical education sector, quality in technical education has turned out to be most extreme imperative criteria to deliver better educational services. For this reason, it is required to screen the expectation of the customer of the education sector for fulfilling their needs. With aim of this, this article first illustrates the identification of the customer of the education sector, then their expectations from an institute and finally a detailed ranking of each expectation which has been done. For the ranking of student's expectations, various authors have used a number of multi-criteria decision-making methods, but the vagueness of the result was not being handled in their research. Therefore, in this study, a fuzzy approach has been used to rank the various expectations of customers. The result of the study indicates that among all student expectations, the job-oriented expectation is the most important expectation and further, an ergonomics-based expectation and a sports-based expectation are the least important expectations of the students.

ICT in Chinese Higher Education

A recent report from China Internet Network Information Center indicates that by the end of June 2015, 668 million Chinese have used the internet, which places China as the country with the most internet users in the world. As more Chinese get online, the internet has been integrated into providing education in China, where the age group using the internet the most often is between the ages of 20 and 29. Many of these youth are higher education students. With 34.6 million students the Chinese higher education system is the largest in the world, in which a significant proportion of the students' learning has been impacted by information and communication technology (ICT). The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of how the development of ICT in China has influenced higher education, what opportunities ICT offers for higher education, and what challenges Chinese face in further developing higher education with ICT.

The Determinant of Student Satisfaction in Academic and Administrative Services in Private Universities

Students are the primary stakeholders of the university, so the article evaluated the factors that influence student satisfaction in the university. The study employed descriptive statistics and one sample t-test was used to analyse the data. Reliability test was also done using Cronbach's Alpha and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure (KMO) of Sampling Adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity. A quantitative sample of 1,750 students was drawn from seven (7) selected universities in Tema, Ghana and two hundred and fifty (250) questionnaires were distributed to each university. The findings highlighted various levels of satisfaction. It was observed that all the factors such as classroom environment, textbook and tuition fees, student support facilities, business procedures, relationship with teaching staff, knowledgeable and responsive faculty, staff helpfulness, feedback, and class sizes drives student satisfaction. The paper attempts to develop insights into dimension of student satisfaction in academic and administrative services in private universities in the Tema metropolis.

Human Capital as a Determinant of Long-Term Economic Growth

This chapter aims to investigate the importance of human capital as a key success factor to economic growth and modern economic reforms as well as exploring determinants of human capital. Then factors influencing human capital accumulation as well as case studies are discussed to illustrate the influence of human capital to economic growth and reforms. Together with economic reforms, supportive education and human capital development policies, some countries could generate a dramatic technology and economic development. Currently, human capital even becomes crucial because of this technological progress. Thus, modern economic reform needs more intense human capital accumulation to cope with more advanced technology. In this chapter, we investigate the role of human capital accumulation by education and migration process in economic reforms and development of three countries with completely different conditions of economic development.

Stifled Teacher Efficacy

The chapter proposes that the honing of teacher efficacy is a necessary prerequisite for the implementation of post-method pedagogy (PMP). The application of PMP requires an autonomous practitioner who undertakes an experimental approach to teaching English as a second language. Hence, it is justifiable that teachers would need a high self-assurance in their capabilities to make comprehensive judgments regarding their selection, and effectual employment of teaching practices. The chapter examines how teacher agency is negated by three factors – practitioners' operation as passive implementers of dicta, a product-focussed school context that discourages teachers' self-directed instructional approaches, and teachers' overreliance on teaching resources such as the textbook. Finally, the chapter provides PMP criteria for teachers' effective engagement of textbooks which practitioners could competently apply providing they have achieved their efficacies.