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This study examines the research output of female staff and the factors that affect their research productivity in the Nigerian university system. The study was carried out with a view to promoting strategies that will enhance productivity and increase the research output of female staff in Nigerian universities. The study adopted a survey research design. The purposive sampling method was used in administering questionnaires to 381 female academic staff from twelve randomly selected universities in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. The study revealed that female research output was generally low: 59.5 per cent of female academics published one paper annually; 23.6 per cent published up to two papers; 1.1 per cent published three papers; and 15.8 per cent did not publish on an annual basis. Although most female academic staff published annually, most wished to increase their publication rate. The study's results found that marital status, religion, academic position and number of hours of lectures per week had an impact on their ability to carry out research and publish the results. The study concluded that female academics made contributions that are more significant to teaching than research and that the Nigerian university system needs to develop strategies to enhance female research output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ongoing debate in the literature on the efficiency of higher education institutions concerns the indicator for research output for use in empirical analysis. While several studies have chosen to use the number of publications as this indicator, others rely on the amount of research grants. The present study investigates whether both measures lead to a similar assessment of universities. In addition, the number of publications belonging to the 10% and 1% most frequently cited papers in the corresponding subject category and publication year are evaluated. We show that there is a high correlation of efficiency values between the estimations using these indicators. This correlation is slightly higher when the efficiency values result from a data envelopment analysis than when they are determined with a stochastic frontier analysis. The results of this study provide helpful guidelines for researchers evaluating the efficiency of universities and are valueable for decision-makers in science policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether three bibliometric indicators—the journal impact factor, citations per paper and the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative's list of 'ranked journals'—can predict the quality of individual research articles as assessed by international experts, both overall and within broad disciplinary groupings. The analysis is based on data obtained from a Mock Research Quality Framework (RQF) exercise conducted by Monash University during 2006-07 in which external assessors rated research articles for their quality using a five-point scale. Although a significant relationship exists between all three bibliometric variables and the overall Mock RQF assessor quality scores, only a relatively small amount of the variance (generally <20 per cent) could be explained. There is some evidence that the relationship is stronger within some disciplinary groupings than others. The findings suggest caution should be exercised when using these indicators as proxies for research quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most Australian universities have among their goals to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at their institutions. In the Australian higher education context, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are seriously under-represented, particularly in business education compared to other disciplines. An understanding of why a larger proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students do not choose to study a discipline that provides promising employment opportunities, is fundamental to improving the status quo. This paper reviews the literature to identify key barriers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ participation and engagement in business education. Apart from multiple general barriers to participation in higher education, factors specific to business as a profession and as an academic discipline are also considered. The paper then discusses a number of strategies Australian educational institutions could pursue when seeking to increase participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business. Drawing on the review, the paper concludes with recommendations for higher education institutional policy to further improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation and engagement in business studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author reflects on the massive number of authors willing to publish their works in "Journal of Higher Education Education Policy and Management." He notes the record breaking number of journal papers passed from authors for the journal. He mentions the increased issues published by the journal from 2004-2008. Furthermore, he also states the sources from previous issues.

Many universities divide their academic workloads according to a model of 40 per cent teaching, 40 per cent research, and 20 per cent administration and service. Increasing demands on academic time, however, make this balance hard to achieve, since teaching and administration frequently impinge on research time. Moreover, regular academic activities may not fit into the workloaded time available. This paper presents evidence from a 3 month case study of a single academic in an Arts department at a research-intensive Australian university who has a 40:40:20 workload and is encouraged to publish an average of two high quality journal articles a year. Based on the study's findings, a more realistic workload model would be 40 per cent teaching, 25 per cent research and 35 per cent administration, with an adjustment in the amount of quality research outputs expected. A new model should also balance face-to-face teaching time with teaching-related activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressures to link higher education to the workplace and industry environment have created a radically different climate for postgraduate research education, and, as universities struggle to accommodate new ways of structuring doctoral degrees and new ways of producing knowledge, there are indications that many traditional structures and management processes are under pressure to change. There are also suggestions that the emergence of new degrees could provide opportunities for innovative practices in the design of new curricula, new assessment methods and new types of supervision. As part of an empirical study, this paper will report on two doctoral programmes that explicitly link the theory and scholarship of the academy with the practice and professional knowledge of the workplace and community environment. The paper will explore strategies for managing research in this new environment for doctoral education, investigate the claims about new practice and discuss three aspects pertaining to the development of knowledge and new doctoral identities in these two programmes: context, supervision and pedagogy, and knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Australian universities have prioritised improving discipline performance on the national research assessment – Excellence for Research in Australia. However,a culture of secrecypervadesExcellence in Research for Australia(ERA). There are no specified criteria for the assignment of ratings on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘well above world standard’ (5) to ‘well below world standard’ (1). No rationale is provided to institutions for their discipline ratings and university staff on the ERA panels sign confidentiality agreements. However, what is available to universities are the research strategies that each university documents to improve its ERA performance in its Mission-based Compact, a government funding agreement. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the similarities and differences in the research strategies that universities with different performance profiles employ. Following an analysis of the strategies, substantial commonality was identified in strategy use. However, what was different was how universities employed these strategies and the associated contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research is at the forefront of knowledge and, hence, wealth generation, so it is timely to consider a neglected category of the research workforce, the research assistant. The research assistant has traditionally been part of the fabric, if not the structure, of university research efforts but despite the extent of the contribution, the breadth of skills and the depth of qualifications often brought to the position of research assistant, there is no overt professional pathway articulated for these research workers. Equally, there is an implicit, if not overt lack of recognition of the research assistant role in processes of knowledge generation. This lack of recognition is reflected in the difficulty of defining the research assistant role and articulating how it differs across disciplines. This paper considers the research assistant in the current research landscape and culture of Australian universities, providing background to a wide‐ranging empirical study of the research assistant workforce exploring the experience of the research assistant and the significance of the research assistant role in knowledge generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disputes in Australian universities cost millions of dollars each year that could be spent more fruitfully on core activities such as research and teaching. This paper uses three case studies to examine what we know about disputes and dispute resolution in Australian universities. The impact of changing higher education funding and policy on disputes in universities is examined. Finally, the paper considers how conflict handling in universities might be improved. It looks, in particular, at proposals for a national university ombuds and the use of alternative methods of dispute resolution and integrated conflict management systems in Australian universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the performance of national higher education systems in 48 countries as measured with 20 variables grouped under the four headings of Resources, Environment, Connectivity and Output. Rankings within each module are then combined into an overall ranking that is topped by the United States followed by Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark. Relationships between different attributes are explored. Countries ranked highest on output tend to be ranked highly on resources. Research output is correlated with government funding, especially expenditure on research and development (R&D). The impact of the policy and regulatory environment is also examined. The weakest national systems are those with low government funding but high government control. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports findings from the first national Australian study of the predictive validity of the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT). Background on tertiary admissions procedures in Australia is presented, followed by information on STAT and the research methods. The results affirm that STAT, through the provision of baseline and objective data, offers a valid and efficient means for ensuring that people who are capable of success at university are able to gain admission. They affirm the importance of taking an evidence-based disciplinary perspective to university admissions. Implications for the development and use of the assessment are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing pressure for university researchers to secure 'end-user' support for their research projects. Yet the ways in which this imperative affects humanities researchers, operating in a science-centric funding environment, have not yet been fully explored. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study into the experiences of humanities researchers in securing competitive national funding for research involving collaborations with the private and public sector. It also provides quantitative data as to the funding behaviour of one of Australia's peak research funding bodies, the Australian Research Council (ARC). The findings clearly show that humanities researchers struggle to secure support for their research. There is also evidence to suggest that, despite rhetorical support from the ARC that it values research which provides cultural benefit, it too particularly prioritises research that promises economic advantages for both the project's partners and wider community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the selected findings of a recent research project centred on one new university in England (Charles et al., 2007). The project aimed to explore the experiences of 44 disabled students who fell into one of two distinct groups: those in local further education eligible to apply to higher education (HE), and those who were already in the HE system. A number of themes emerged from the group interview data, but here the focus is on personal identity and how the institution has an impact upon individuals' sense of self through its management of disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many academics do not view community engagement as a priority in their work. Yet, in an increasingly competitive funding environment, there is evidence that many benefits arise from the creation of university-community partnerships. This paper describes a study that documents the experience of seven academics successfully establishing community partnerships. Specifically, it examines the processes by which partnerships are established and implemented using Sargent and Waters's framework of academic collaboration. It also explores the perceived benefits of partnerships to the academics and the university. Findings indicate that a range of benefits result from such partnerships in terms of research, teaching and community recognition. They also suggest that, while Sargent and Waters's framework is useful in describing the collaborative process, a number of refinements are required to adequately account for university-community partnerships. Implications of these findings for universities are discussed, including the need for tertiary institutions to adopt engagement as a 'core value' and to better reward and support academics for developing and maintaining community partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that research assessment is of increasing importance as an instrument of New Public Management and within the context of efforts to establish a European Research Area. Specifically, it compares the procedures of research assessment in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany in an attempt to distil basic design options for such procedures. It is suggested that this general model may be utilised to assist reviews of currently practised procedures and for the development of new ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The roles of universities have evolved over the last twenty years. Universities were once regarded as focusing on two key roles - teaching and research - which were exogenous to, and independent from, specific economic and social development imperatives. Today, it is increasingly recognised that universities perform important roles as enablers, even leaders, of regional economic and social development and in regional innovation systems; which has been captured in the notion of a third role for universities. This paper explores the nature of the third role of universities in the Australian setting as it applies to human capital formation. The roles of universities in this regard is categorised as being either generative or developmental in nature, based on the triple helix model of university, industry, government relations and the emerging literature on university engagement. This categorisation is explored using three case studies of non core-metropolitan universities. The study explores the nature of the roles performed by the universities in human capital formation and considers possible explanations of variation in the roles performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a model of leadership within tertiary education based on research into expertise and institutional distinctiveness. It builds on row contrasting styles of institutional development. Firstly, in the traditional university (higher education) sector, promotion to senior management positions has tended to be based on academic prowess, largely relating to research capability. The result is senior academic leaders who may not be well suited to line or operational management. By contrast, in the traditional polytechnic (vocational education and training) sector, promotion to leadership positions has tended to be based more on perceived managerial qualities, and the resultant leaders may be more inclined to be good managers without displaying overt academic leadership, A model of shared academic management and leadership focused on departmental/school level, based on research into the nature of professional expertise, is therefore proposed which brings together the strengths of both of the above styles. This model develops the responsibilities of both the academic leader and the operational manager and explores their symbiotic relationship. The performance of associated administrative functions is also considered in regards to the overlap between the administration occurring in these roles and that of designated office administrators. The implications of this model on organisation structure and culture and on staff promotion and career development are also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study abroad has a long-standing tradition in higher education. Apart from the pursuit of knowledge that cannot be confined by the boundaries of nation-state, sending local talents to study abroad has also been a strategy to build capacity in a developing/emerging nation like Malaysia. This article focuses on the stories and experiences of Malaysian in adjusting and adapting to the local situation as academic staff when they returned to Malaysian universities after their doctoral study abroad. Through thematic analysis and guided by Structuration Theory, this article illustrates structural constraints in the form of research governance, practices and cultures, as well as agency manifestations of these returnees to overcome and address these constraints and challenges. These stories and experiences are important to understand and to make recommendations to improve the governance, practices and culture of universities especially in developing/emerging systems globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This argument in this study is that the descriptive dimension of the concept of education hub, which focuses on the importance of connectivity in enhancing the competiveness of a place, is inadequate in addressing the educational values in globalising higher education. Therefore, it attempts to initiate a normative dimension of education hub through an empirical account of the experience of a group of Myanmar university students in Hong Kong and an engagement with the ideas of cosmopolitanisation and the notion of higher education as a ‘transnational’ human right. By considering these stories from Myanmar, this study reveals the adoption of the internationalisation of higher education in promoting transnational justice and development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses two questions relating to research: (1) what is the best environment in which to carry out research and (2) what is the best way to manage employment in order to maintain this environment? It focuses on research management in UK higher education, but attempts to generalise beyond a specifically national context. The article discusses how existing practice has evolved and highlights several problems that have arisen. It draws on the experiences of researchers at the University of Sheffield to explore the consequences of current practice and to make recommendations for research management in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology transfer managers are a new group of specialist professionals engaged in facilitating transfer of university research discoveries and inventions to business firms and other research users. With relatively high academic qualifications and enjoying higher salaries than many other comparable university staff, technology transfer managers tend to have been recruited from outside the higher education sector, having had significant commercial and public‐sector experience. On average, they spend longer hours in work activities per week than research office managers, being heavily involved in identification and marketing of intellectual property (IP), patenting and licensing IP to existing and start‐up companies. Overall, they are highly critical of the management of their own universities, both generally and with regard to research commercialization, and give relatively low effectiveness ratings to the efforts of both Commonwealth and State governments to support research commercialization and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]