Tertiary Education and Management

Both internationally and withinSouth Africa the failure rates at universitiesare presently high and throughput andgraduation rates are low. It is thus imperativethat the cognitive and non-cognitive predictorsrelated to identifying learners who willsucceed academically are explored. This paperfocuses on two potentially importantnon-cognitive predictors, namely motivationalorientation and the use of learning strategies. Learners are described according to theseconstructs, and the relationship of theseconstructs to academic performance is alsoexplored. In addition, the patterns ofperformance of the learners are explored. Using a convenience sampling technique,learners from a first year psychology classwere surveyed using the Motivated Strategiesfor Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Academicperformance was measured using the percentagescore learners earned at the end of their firstsemester. The statistical analysis wasdescriptive and correlational in nature. Important trends and relationships arereported. The implications of the findings forthe admission and development of first yearhigher education students are discussed.

In order to obtain an accreditation, the university management must implement a quality assurance system and be able to document that quality policy and procedures are followed and acted upon as appropriate. One element in this system is monitoring students’ satisfaction. In this paper, we describe a method of acquiring the necessary information to enable school managers to efficiently summarize a substantial amount of information to detect issues of concern. The collection of information is performed in a systematic and consistent manner. It allows rapid feedback to students and staff, and is an integrated component of the quality assurance system. As successive evaluations are completed, school performance can be monitored, facilitating the development of strategies for continuous quality improvement. Finally, the context in which the evaluation is implemented as well as benefits and drawbacks are discussed.

Brazilian higher education institutions face a complex and challenging environment as the national market in education is becoming more competitive. International investment, a decrease in the population of potential students, and the proliferation of innumerable small institutions add to this complexity. Organizations are becoming flatter and the key managers within them are deans. Although deans are required to act as managerial experts, they are usually selected from the teaching body of the institution. In this paper, a group of deans from a large private institution gave their self-assessment of their academic and managerial skills. The results revealed that they tend to have a high perception of their managerial skills, even though they have no previous managerial experience or formal training. This underlines that senior academic administrators cannot simply assume that deans, by the nature of their work environment, are proficient in managerial skills; neither that they can easily identify inadequacies nor have them self-corrected. To accomplish the necessary institutional changes to face the complexities of the current globalized education market, a new assessment culture has to be implemented in the academic environment.

This article investigates strategies for internationalisation at technical universities in the Nordic countries. The study explores the institutional rationales for internationalisation, the stories told in the strategy documents, the importance of leaders, faculty, administration and students for implementation of the strategy, and barriers and key components of successful internationalisation. We studied the strategic work with inter-nationalisation across 27 technical universities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. This work reflects both global trends of competition and the traditional Nordic model of cooperation. Overall, the universities incorporated internationalisation in their strategies in order to increase quality in research and education, and to establish strategic partnerships and networks. There is a shift in rationales from a more traditional approach of internationalisation to a new integrated form.

This paper explores social media marketing strategies applied by Canadian universities as a tool for institutional branding, recruitment and engagement of home and international students. The target sample involves the total population of Canadian university-status institutions (N=106). Qualitative data were collected from two major social networking websites, Facebook and Twitter, over the span of six months to provide a comprehensive picture. Additionally, student enrolment data were compiled with the purpose of associating social media implementation with fluctuations of student enrolment. Results reveal that the Twitter platform is generally much more popular to carry conversations, but that Facebook remains the preferred website for university-initiated postings; most of these university-led postings, whether on Twitter or Facebook, relate to campus/student news and events. Findings point to institutions as only one of many message generators, while students and a host of third parties have become the dominant ones.

A major requirement for transformation contained in the new education policy in South Africa is that the graduate outputs of the higher education system should match the needs of a modernizing economy. This paper addresses the organizational aspect of university-industry relationships that is an element of the transformation. In empirical terms, it reflects upon the policy of the North-West University in South Africa, as embodied by means of the introduction of the Business Mathematics and Informatics (BMI) curriculum and research. Empirical results indicate that the number of students who opted for mathematics had increased dramatically. The majority of graduates delivered by the BMI programme are employed in the financial sector, both nationally and internationally. This paper indicates that the organization of university-industry relationships enforces a difficult institutional balancing act that attempts, on the one hand, to meet the benchmark of international scientific indicators, and on the other hand, “fitness for purpose” in the local context.

This study uses survey data and administrative records collected over a three-year period to examine the gap between the amount of time students invested and the amount they were expected to invest in academic activities. The sample includes 2232 first-year and final-year undergraduate students at an elite research university in Kazakhstan. The study measured time allocation gap in terms of the degree to which the total amount of time invested in academic activities fell short of the expected amount (class attendance and out-of-class study time combined), given the student’s credit load. The study found that, on average, undergraduate students (first and fourth year) allocated 35% less time to academic activities than expected under ECTS standards or 28% less time than expected under Carnegie standards. Using a quasi-experimental research design (propensity score matching), the study found that time allocation gap had a negative impact on undergraduate academic performance.