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Publications are used widely as a measure of academic quality. Many investigators have difficulty publishing in this competitive field. After coming across a religious lecture on the "Fourteen Crutches for Mediocrity", our team adapted this approach to life to the science of publishing: (1) what is the problem of doing it?; (2) there are worse!; (3) everybody does it!; (4) why exaggerate?; (5) I will do it tomorrow!; (6) maybe if …; (7) it is not used anymore!; (8) be a cousin not a brother!; (9) I need to be thanked!; (10) don't eat your own head, let it be!; (11) I can't possibly accomplish it!; (12) I don't feel like doing it!; (13) I am fed up!; (14) I am not worthwhile! These crutches jeopardize good research and thoughtful learned publications.

The purpose of this study was to identify the academic quality assurance practices that should be employed to attain teaching excellence at selected private higher education institutions in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study adopted a qualitative interpretive research design and utilized one-to-one, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 participants. The sample was purposefully selected and comprised six faculty members, four program directors, one senior academic staff member, and one junior non-academic administrator, from three private higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Findings revealed four categories of practices: a) Must-keep practices, b) Must-modify practices, c) Must-add practices, and d) Must-avoid practices. Some of the practices relating to quality assurance that the study identified are maintaining important evaluation-related practices while providing feedback for improvement, closing the loop, educating all employees about and increasing their reengagement in quality assurance practice, and reducing paperwork and work duplication. This study concludes by recommending that higher education institutions employ the strategies discussed in the findings to promote teaching creativity and to improve the quality of teaching and learning, to achieve teaching excellence. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.11.13

El artículo analiza el origen, razones y circunstancias que motivaron la creación del programa de la Licenciatura en Dirección de Empresas de Entretenimiento, dentro de la Facultad de Comunicación, en el marco de su 50 aniversario. Con una mirada hacia el pasado y presente, revisa las aportaciones que el programa ha hecho a la industria, a través de la formación de profesionales en entretenimiento. Inicia con una breve descripción sobre el entretenimiento en el siglo XXI y enfatiza las características del egresado de la licenciatura para, finalmente, ofrecer una radiografía tanto del programa como de la infraestructura tecnológica que ha hecho posible que esta licenciatura sea hoy –a casi 12 años de su apertura- uno de los programas más reconocidos en nuestro país por su calidad académica.

This paper discusses about strengthening the management of academic quality. Oneof the educational problems faced by the Indonesian, these are the low quality ofeducation at every level and unit of educations, especially at primary and mediumeducation. The various attempts have to improve the quality of national education,for instance: developing national or local curricula, increasing teacher’scompetences through training, procuring books and learning tools, improvingeducational facilities, infrastructures, and improving the quality of the school’smanagement. However, the indicators of the education’s quality do not show thesignificant improvement. Some schools, especially in cities show the quite encourageimprovements in the quality of education. But, part of them is still apprehensive,especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The teachers and education’smanagement have experiencesin many things.

Al-Qarawiyyin University's independence in terms of finances had been a significant and influential factor in making it possible for the university to maintain its high quality. Therefore, this paper aims to examine and analyse the financial sources for the development and operation of this university. It reviews and analyses historical data through relevant literature and documents. Waqf played a significant role in providing financial assistance to the university's communities and in strengthening its academic quality. There were four significant types of waqf sources which were the individual fund, the collective waqf fund, the Sultan fund and the alumni fund along with different other types of charities, i.e. sadaqah. This article adds new knowledge by examining the financing experiences of the world's oldest university. It is expected that the instance of Al-Qarawiyyin University may contribute to finding out a solution for the funding crises in contemporary institutions. This review is hoped to constitute a significant contribution to scholarship in general and act as a suggestion for solving the contemporary funding crisis of higher educational institutions. Keywords: Al-Qarawiyyin University, financing higher education, Morocco, Waqf. Cite as: Hoque, M. N., & Abdullah, M. F. (2021). The world's oldest university and its financing experience: A study on Al-Qarawiyyin University (859-990). Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(1), 24-41. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss1pp24-41

Retractions of COVID-19 literature in both preprints and the peer-reviewed literature serve as a reminder that there are still challenging issues underlying the integrity of the biomedical literature. The risks to academia become larger when such retractions take place in high-ranking biomedical journals. In some cases, retractions result from unreliable or nonexistent data, an issue that could easily be avoided by having open data policies, but there have also been retractions due to oversight in peer review and editorial verification. As COVID-19 continues to affect academics and societies around the world, failures in peer review might also constitute a public health risk. The effectiveness by which COVID-19 literature is corrected, including through retractions, depends on the stringency of measures in place to detect errors and to correct erroneous literature. It also relies on the stringent implementation of open data policies.

Students are an important asset in the world of education also an institution and therefore also need to pay attention to students' graduation rates on time. The ups and downs of the percentage of students' abilities in classroom learning is one important element for assessing university accreditation. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor and evaluate teaching and learning activities using the KNN Algorithm classification. By processing student complaints data and seeing the results of previous learning can obtain important things for higher education needs. In predicting graduation rates based on complaints, this study uses the K-Nearest Neighbor classification algorithm by grouping data k = 1, k = 2, k = 3 with the smallest value possible. In experiments using the KNN method the results were clearly visible and showed quite good accuracy. From the experiment it was concluded that if there were fewer complaints from one student it could minimize the level of student non-graduates at the university and ultimately produce good accreditation.

In this article, we analyse reforms of academic quality assurance in light of organizational theory using the case example of Finnish higher education. Our purpose is to shed light on the processes...

Accurate prediction and early identification of student at-risk of attrition are of high concern for higher educational institutions (HEIs). It is of a great importance not only to the students but also to the educational administrators and the institutions in the areas of improving academic quality and efficient utilisation of the available resources for effective intervention. However, despite the different frameworks and various models that researchers have used across institutions for predicting performance, only negligible success has been recorded in terms of accuracy, efficiency and reduction of student attrition. This has been attributed to the inadequate and selective use of variables for the predictive models. This paper presents a multi-dimensional and an integrated system framework that involves considerable learners' input and engagement in predicting their academic performance and intervention in HEIs. The purpose and functionality of the framework are to produce a comprehensive, unbiased and efficient way of predicting student performance that its implementation is based upon multisources data and database system. It makes use of student demographic and learning management system (LMS) data from the institutional databases as well as the student psychosocial-personality (SPP) data from the survey collected from the student to predict performance. The proposed approach will be robust, generalizable, and possibly give a prediction at a higher level of accuracy that educational administrators can rely on for providing timely intervention to students.

Background The external academic accreditation is a quality assurance and auditing process that focuses on the structure, process, and outcome of the education. It is an interrupting and highly demanding process in terms of effort, time, financial, and human resources. However, it is unclear in the literature how much of these external quality assurance practices impeded in the accreditation processes would reflect on the other end of the learning pathway, including student satisfaction. Methods A retrospective quantitative secondary data analysis, with a before-after comparison research design, was performed to evaluate external accreditation’s impact on students’ mean satisfaction score within two accreditation cycles at King Saud University (KSU)-Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program. Results The overall average students’ satisfaction scores pre-and-post the first accreditation cycle were 3.46/5 (±0.35), 3.71 (±0.39), respectively, with a P-value of P-value of 0.04. Compared to the first accreditation cycle, the improvement of the mean score of students’ satisfaction rates was not sustained beyond the year corresponding to the post-second accreditation cycle. Conclusion Both accreditation cycles were associated with an increased score in students’ satisfaction. The preparatory phase activities and navigation through the self-study assessment while challenging the program’s competencies are essential triggers for quality improvement practices associated with accreditation.

This study aims to determine how accounting learning uses e-learning during the Covid-19 period as an effort to increase student understanding and academic quality. The data analysis technique used in this study is to use a form of pattern matching analysis. The results of the research obtained based on data analysis said that the e-learning infrastructure used in UMSIDA, especially the Accounting study program, was good, the e-learning ceiling used in UMSIDA was moodle. In the e-learning learning process at UMSIDA, there are content standards that must be met. Learning accounting using e-learning during the Covid-19 period can be used as an effort to increase student understanding and academic quality, it's just that there needs to be a commitment between students and lecturers.

Transformational leadership supports higher education to frame their attitudes to shift their university forward. It has four leader higher education characteristics. Of these, idealized influence is defined as leader’s behavior and the follower’s attributions about the leader. Inspirational motivation refers to the ways by which transformational leaders motivate and inspire those around them. Individualized consideration represents the leader’s continuing effort to treat each individual as a special person and act as a mentor; who attempts to develop their potential. Finally, intellectual stimulation represents the leader’s higher education effort to stimulate followers to be innovative and creative to define problems and approach them in new ways. It is considered that who demonstrate these leader higher education characteristics of transformational leadership have effects on satisfaction leader University UII Yogyakarta and better performance at university. Therefore, this study purposes to discover the level of transformational leadership that higher education demonstrate at higher education during their administrative practices on daily basis. Results reveal that university demonstrate high level of characteristics of transformational leadership in terms of idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation behaviors.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence internationally mobile students’ decision making regarding their choice to study in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach The existing literature on student motivation was examined, particularly factors relevant to the two key jurisdictions. Subsequently, a qualitative study was conducted to verify and expand upon these factors. Findings This study found a high degree of overlap between the two jurisdictions. However, Taiwan-based students emphasised elements such as the political climate, and the opinion of family, friends and peers, whereas academic quality and the perception of authority figures featured more for Hong Kong-based respondents. Practical implications The similarities and disparities between the two jurisdictions provide insights for decision makers, as well as avenues for further research. Originality/value This paper builds upon prior research into international student destination choice by exploring students’ decision-making process through qualitative research; thus, highlighting previously unexplored factors.

El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo principal determinar las expectativas laborales de los estudiantes de la carrera de Educación Inicial en la Universidad Metropolitana (Caracas-Venezuela) para contribuir al proceso de mejoramiento continuo de la calidad académica. Para ello se diseñó una investigación no experimental de tipo descriptivo conformada por dos variables: características de los estudiantes de educación superior y expectativas laborales. Tras la aplicación de una encuesta mixta (preguntas abiertas y cerradas) se analizaron los datos de manera cuantitativa y cualitativa. Los resultados más resaltantes señalaron el deseo de los sujetos de convertirse en agentes de cambio y desempeñar su rol docente (90,24%) a pesar de considerar que la carrera no es valorada por la sociedad venezolana, la mayoría de la muestra indicó que han desarrollado habilidades de sensibilidad social, fomentada directamente desde la Universidad Metropolitana y se mostró que el 47,62% como expectativa laboral principal a la Gerencia Educativa, lo cual pareciera indicar las altas expectativas laborales pues existe la proyección en el escalafón más alto de la jerarquía educativa. Se concluyó que estudiar las expectativas laborales de los estudiantes de educación superior contribuye al mejoramiento de los pensum de estudio lo cual se traduce en un mejor servicio y aumento de la calidad académica, en el marco que conocer la realidad del sector social-laboral en conjunto con los intereses, necesidades y expectativas de los sujetos, favorece la inserción en el mercado laboral.

Churches often validate their ministry training through Higher Education (HE) institutions in order to assure the academic quality of their awards. Although academic progress is carefully assessed, and churches have long debated formational aspects of ministry training, there has been little quantitative work that examines whether exposure to HE changes the faith of students. This study reports on the effects on various aspects of faith (such as beliefs about the Bible, biblical literalism, morality, exclusivity, quest orientation, and dogmatism) of a ministry programme delivered to Anglicans and Methodists that was validated by a United Kingdom university. A sample of 91 students completed questionnaires at the start and finish of their period of study, which ranged from one to three years. There was no evidence of systematic change in any of the tested variables that coincided with the period of study.

Objetivo. Determinar los factores relacionados con la producción científica en docentes de una Escuela de Medicina. Métodos.El diseño que descriptivo, prospectivo y transversal. La muestra de 65 docentes universitarios obtuvo en noviembre del 2014, quienes fueron encuestados previo consentimiento informado. Los datos se recolectaron en cuestionario. Resultados. Se incluyeron 65 (100 %) docentes, promedio de edad 47 +- 8 años (rango: 33-62). Hubieron 60 (92,3 %) varones. El 98,5 % (64) consideraron que es importante la comunicación de los resultados de investigación, y el 6,1% publican en revistas indexadas. Los docentes entre 30 a 49 años (80 %) realizaron la mayor cantidad de publicación en comparación a quienes tuvieron 50 años de edad o más (20 %) (OR= 5,0; IC 95 %: 1,4-17,3; p < 0,011). Los principales factores motivacionales con la producción científica fueron: el incremento de la calidad académica profesional 44,6 % (29), la generación de nuevos conocimientos 43,1 % (28) y el logro de una satisfacción personal 7,7 % (5). Los factores desmotivacionales fueron: falta de tiempo disponible del docente 49,2 % (32), desconocimiento de la metodología de investigación científica 13,6 % (9), y falta de apoyo económico 12,3 % (8).Conclusión. El principal factor relacionado con la producción científica fue el tener una edad menor a 50 años y los factores motivacionales más frecuentes fueron: el incremento de la calidad académica profesional y la generación de nuevos .

This article attempts to illustrate the definition of quality in higher education by using a literature research in four different aspects, including quality learner, quality environment, quality content, and academic quality. Several questions are then raised to consider further study in this area.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB In this comment, we share our experiences from organizing the ICTA2020 Virtual Conference on Low-Carbon Lifestyles and argue that virtual events have potential to become the new norm among academics. We present an overview of tools that can be used and support our arguments with results from a feedback survey that was filled out by the participants of our conference. Main challenges for virtual conferences are the facilitation of informal spaces for social interaction and the prevention of 'screen fatigue'. Advantages are that they can increase societal outreach, improve the academic quality of discussions, create new opportunities for networking, and provide an inclusive environment.

Since the founding of the University of Bologna in 1088, the quality and societal impact of university-based research has steadily risen and is widely expected to continually improve in the future. But, while the effectiveness of university teaching over this same period has improved through the adoption of laboratory instruction, the seminar method, tutorials, and more valid and reliable means of assessing students, the qualitative enhancement and continuous development of instruction compared to research appears less certain. Why does this difference exist? I will argue the cause is to be found in the limitations of universities’ traditional collegial culture and in the failure of recent national efforts to improve academic quality to effectively address academic norms and values.

Aims: Dormitories as the second home of students are very decisive in increasing their academic quality. Unfortunately, dormitories of the universities in Iran are not safe due to a large number of causes. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the level of safety of the dormitories at Kashan University of Medical Sciences using the audit method. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted by the safety audit checklist at Kashan University of Medical Sciences. The checklists were completed by observation, interviewing, and document control. The safety status index (SSI) was then used to evaluate the safety of the student dormitories. The SSI was then graded based on the three scales of undesirable (below 50), moderate (50–75), and desirable (above 75). Results: According to the results, the highest percentage of noncompliance with the safety dimensions and the different parts of the dormitory building was related to the safety signs (99.12%) and warehouse (83.95%), respectively. Furthermore, the lowest percentage of noncompliance with the safety dimensions was related to housekeeping and surface safety and public safety (33.3%). Such a noncompliance was related to staircases (53.84%) in different parts of the dormitory building. Conclusion: This study showed that the safety was not desirable in the dormitories studied. Therefore, it is recommended that a safety and health management system should be established to both improve the level of safety and eliminate the deficiencies in the student dormitories.

The aim of this study was to measures the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction. There are 384 respondents were selected from 19 universities of Khyber Pakhtunkwa (Pakistan). The proportionate stratified sampling method was used for the collection of data. The collected data was analysed using SPSS and AMOS packages. Exploratory Factor, Confirmatory Analysis and Parallel Analysis were also performed. Structural Equation Modelling technique was used to investigate the relationship among variables under investigation. Findings of the research reveals that majority of the respondents were satisfied with the dimensions of HEdPERF model in universities of Khyber Pakhunkhwa (Pakistan). The dimension academic was ranked the most important dimension of service quality. Thus, this unique finding implies that universities should nurture the academic quality rigorously in order to enhance students’ satisfaction without ignoring the remaining dimension of service quality.

La necesidad de fortalecer la internacionalización de la educación superior en el Ecuador se convierte en una meta importante para poder mejorar la calidad académica , para la elaboración del artículo se ha utilizado una metodología explicativa y descriptiva, mediante las técnicas de recopilación de información en diferentes fuentes secundarias de informes y otros artículos, se trata de explicar como la internacionalización ha sido importante para el desarrollo de la educación en muchos países. Se da un vistazo a las formas que existen para la internacionalización de la educación superior y los retos a que se enfrentan, revisando las nuevas tendencias educativas que nos hacen ver como la internacionalización de la educación se ha convertido en una práctica para el crecimiento económico de muchos países y la importancia para fortalecer la calidad de la educación superior en el Ecuador.

This review X-rays the issue of illegitimate (predatory) academic publishing of books, monographs, journals and conference proceedings which is a topical issue globally as a result of the damage it does to academic quality and the society. It looks at the dilemma faced by researchers in developing countries in terms of publishing research results. It tries to give clear descriptions of the qualities of legitimate and illegitimate academic publishers and academic conference organizers. It suggests several solutions and protocols for addressing illegitimate publishing at the levels of individual researchers; institutions and learned societies; government and society; and international and regional groups with due attention paid to country-specific conditions and academic inequalities between the developed and developing world. Since the issue affects both researchers in developed and developing countries, a sustainable global action at the highest levels of government is advocated in the drive to reduce illegitimate academic publishing to the barest minimum globally.

Due to increasing demand for higher education around the world, concerns regarding the quality of education in higher education institutions have increased. The aim of this study was to determine p...

Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Qatar expanded research funds over the past two decades. The use of competitive calls required researchers to prepare and submit proposals for team-based projects or time-limited research units. Identification of national priorities and societal challenges sought to rally research toward real-world problems, while larger grants encouraged a wider range of research activities and greater levels of ambition. Yet, the incentives within hiring organizations still determine how researchers allocate their time and effort, including whether they even seek external funding or collaboration. Selection and evaluation criteria privileged collaboration with distant, scientifically proficient partners abroad, in order to connect with global networks and rise in international rankings of academic quality. Moving forward, countries need to consider how funding opportunities shape the size and organization of distinct research efforts, and which arrangements are best suited to making meaningful progress on different problems of societal and scientific interest.

Academic quality is defined as the equivalent to academic standards related to student learning outcomes, which consist of specific levels of knowledge, skills, and abilities achieved by students participating in a program. The achievement of academic standards is accommodated by implementing both internal and external quality assurance practices. Internal quality assurance refers to policies and practices used by the higher education institutions to monitor and improve the quality of their education, while external quality assurance refers to policies and practices set up by external parties to assure the quality of higher education institutions and programs. Petra Christian University has built and implemented its internal quality assurance since 2009 based on its unique quality culture. After its ten-year journey and the achievements that Petra Christian University has reached in 2019, the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and Society 5.0 are challenges ahead that Petra Christian University has to face.

The demand for higher education of all types has increased substantially around the world. This has motivated higher-education institutions to expand and improve their services by placing greater emphasis on academic quality and student experience in order to increase student retention and graduation rates. A growing number of educational institutions around the world have adopted undergraduate research because it has been shown to be a high-impact educational practice for students. However, there are many ways to utilize undergraduate research depending on several factors such as learning domain, academic discipline, and field of study as well as learning objectives sought. Therefore, there are different models of undergraduate research being used around the world by colleges and universities. As undergraduate research continues to become more international, higher-education institutions are learning from each other about how best to adopt it within their own institution.

Many universities around the world rely on student instructors—current bachelor’s and master’s degree students—for tutorial teaching, yet we know nothing about their effectiveness. In a setting with random assignment of instructors to students, we show that student instructors are almost as effective as senior instructors at improving their students’ short- and longer-run academic achievement and labor market outcomes. We find little heterogeneity across different course types, student characteristics, or instructors’ personal academic quality. Our results suggest that the use of student instructors can serve as an effective tool for universities to reduce their costs with negligible negative effects on students.

The objective of the research is focused on the understanding of the effect of the improvement plans executed by the accreditation of Engineering careers under the SINEACE model in the perception of quality of the university service by using the Net Promoter Score as an indicator. An exploratory study was carried out in four consecutive years, which evidenced the satisfaction of educational quality by the students, before and after the accreditation process. The results obtained allow us to affirm that there was a significant increase in student satisfaction (P-value = 0.017), being possible to conclude that there is an effect of the processes implemented under the model of career accreditation and the satisfaction of students on academic quality.

Introduction: School dropout is a problem that affects higher education and the schools that are part of this educational system. School dropout has increased over time and is closely connected with students’ Quality of Academic Life. Objectives: To test the factorial structure of the Questionnaire of Academic Experience for Portuguese higher education students. Methodology: Quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational study. A student socio-demographic background questionnaire and Almeida Soares and Ferreira’s Academic Experiences Questionnaire (QAE) (2002) were used as data collection instruments. The sample consists of 891 students aged between 17 and 40 years, with a mean age of 19.68 years (± 2.34 years). Results: The QAE designed by Almeida, et al. (2002), after validation, was composed of 35 items. Confirmatory factorial analysis demonstrates the validity of its structure in five dimensions: personal, study, interpersonal, career and institutional. Statistics on Quality of Academic Life have an average index of 60.46%; ± 10.02 sd. Female students show higher rates in dimensions such as: personal quality of life, profession/career, study, institutional, and overall quality of life. Male students show higher mean values in the quality of life, interpersonal and career dimensions Conclusions: The results of the present study support the psychometric adequacy of the QAE Almeida, et al. (2002) designed for the Portuguese population, indicating that it can be used in tests conducted in this field of knowledge. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Environmental forces influencing the future of higher education in the U.S. threaten to undermine the desirable role of faculty as arbiters of academic quality. For online learning to live up to its potential, institutional policies can return academic authority to faculty over degree programs in all modes and support the importance of education in promotion and tenure processes. Accreditation agencies traditionally have been a service to the institutions and the administration at higher education institutions; they will also have to become an equal service to the consumer of higher education. Consumerism will force all those concerned with the quality and utility of a higher education to focus on the quality and effectiveness of the instructors.

If school choice programs are to provide any degree of equitable access to educational opportunities, then useful information about academic quality needs to be available to all participants, not just those who hob knob with the school board members or chat with the superintendent over the backyard fence. This study draws upon a unique data set to identify two information sources (parent websites and school choice enrollment guides) associated with low-income and minority families’ selection of higher quality schools in Denver. The study also highlights two types of information lacked by low-income and minority families who ended up selecting lower quality schools.

Aim University and college students in wealthy countries may be vulnerable to financial food insecurity. If food insecure students have suboptimal health, their ability to learn and excel in their education could be compromised. This Canadian study examined the relationship of food security status to diet and self-perceived health and academic quality among students receiving emergency food hampers from the Campus Food Bank at University of Alberta. Methods A convenience sample of 58 students completed a survey. Results Of participating students, 10.3% were food secure, 44.8% were moderately food insecure and 44.8% were severely food insecure. Overall, 32.8% rated their general health as fair/poor, 27.6% rated their mental health as fair/poor and 60.3% indicated at least one adverse academic outcome of not having enough money for food. Compared to other participating students, students with severe food insecurity had a greater likelihood of fair/poor general health (odds ratios (OR) 4.03, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.10–14.78); fair/poor mental health (OR 4.96, 95% CI 1.28–19.19); being unable to concentrate in class or during an exam (73.1% vs 40.6%, χ2 = 6.12, P = 0.013); relying on food hampers (34.6% vs 9.7%, χ2 = 5.57, P = 0.018); and, consuming fewer daily fruits, vegetables and legumes (2.12 vs 2.97 cup equivalents, P = 0.009). Conclusions Food insecurity compromises students’ health, diet and academic quality. Campus food banks are not the solution to student hunger. Governmental and university-based programmes and policies are needed to improve the food security situation of university students.

Open access enabling courses have experienced growth in Australia. The growth is evidenced in student enrolments and the number of public and private institutions offering such courses. Traditionally these courses have provided a second chance to many students from various equity groups who have been unable to access tertiary education due to poor academic achievement in high school or lack of post-secondary education. In recent years, open access enabling courses have attracted both young and mature-age students from mid and high socio-economic backgrounds, and international students. Open access enabling courses are similar to final year of high schooling and enable students to access degree courses. These courses are not regulated and not part of Australian Qualifications Framework and nor are they subject to any external accreditation or assessment. This paper argues that in the quest to achieve equity aspirations in the absence of appropriate regulation and accreditation in a rapidly expandin...

Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has begun to propose a neologism – the educational concept of ‘intrinsic development’. On the occasion of the 2012 Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress, President Jinping Xi again called upon people to promote the intrinsic development of higher education. During the past 25 years, Chinese higher education has gone through drastic changes and reforms, but regrettably the idea of intrinsic development has not been expounded or defined adequately, let alone properly practised. Based on actual developments in the past and on the present situation, the author of the present article aims to examine the concept of intrinsic development and how it has been neglected or even betrayed in reality. The author concludes that the core idea of the intrinsic concept lies in improving the academic quality and level of Chinese higher education instead of worshipping the dazzling numbers of papers published and projects undertaken, in the natural growth of education from the inside instead of the quantitative expansion pushed by outside forces, in building the higher institutions and the disciplines with distinctive features instead of pursuing universal ‘comprehensiveness,’ and in developing a higher education in accordance with its internal and intrinsic laws instead of submitting to external forces, whether they are political, economic, or commercial.

The present study aimed to explore the teaching quality of Greek accounting studies by examining the students’ experience from their accounting studies at higher education institutions (HEIs) in relation to demographic characteristics. An exploratory factor analysis, from a sample of 268 students’ questionnaires, identified four constructs, reflecting good teaching, generic skills, appropriate assessment and clear goals, and standards. The students’ scores on all scales showed satisfactory levels of internal consistency. A reduced version of the CEQ in Greek is proposed as a measure of students’ perceptions of the academic quality of programs in Greek higher education accounting studies, and its four dimensions are suggested as significant predictors of students’ satisfaction.

Frontline is a fast-track training scheme for social workers in children’s services in England, which aims to attract ‘outstanding’ graduates who may not previously have considered a career in social work. This implies that students recruited onto the Frontline programme will be of a higher academic quality than those on mainstream social work courses. This article presents findings from an independent evaluation of the Frontline pilot stage which compared the pre-training characteristics of Frontline participants with those of social work training enrolments in England for 2013–14, derived from Higher Education Statistics Agency data, the Frontline participant database and a questionnaire administered to postgraduate students in five ‘high-tariff’ universities. Frontline participants have significantly better prior academic qualifications than students on mainstream programmes. They are significantly younger, more likely to have parents who are graduates and more likely to have attended private schools. The Frontline programme has fewer minority ethnic students than mainstream programmes. Frontline’s objective of attracting those who may not have previously considered social work as a career has featured recruitment of a more socially advantaged and less diverse group of entrants. How likely Frontline trainees are to stay in the profession remains to be seen.

Our research focuses on the limits of the Balanced Scorecard. The aim of the work is to provide a basis for in-depth study on the limits of the balanced scorecard. According to Tranfield et al. (2003) [1] we are tackling the topic through a systematic review of the literature. We reviewed articles published in 48 journals, in 3 different subject area of Academic Journal Guide (ABS) 2015: 27 Accounting journals, 17 General Management and Employment Study journals and 4 Strategy journals. This ensured an academic quality of these articles and for each subject area we chose amongst some of the 3, 4 and 4* journals. The contributions of research to the field and the lessons learned from these studies are discussed. Knowledge gaps in existing balanced scorecard research are identified, leading to consideration of several ideas for future research.

Objetivo: Identificar la percepción de los estudiantes sobre su salud y calidad de vida relacionada con la satisfacción con el medio universitario.Método: Estudio transversal en una muestra aleatoria de 352 universitarios de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco (UAM-X), en otoño de 2012. Previo consentimiento informado, se aplicó un cuestionario para obtener datos sociodemográficos, valoración de los servicios universitarios, satisfacción con sus estudios, estrés académico, problemas de salud y calidad de vida autopercibida. El análisis univariado y bivariado se realizó con los paquete estadísticos SPSS y STATA.Resultados: La media de edad fue de 21,7 (desviación estándar, DS = 4,1), el 55% fueron mujeres. El 80,2% asistió a todas las clases durante ese trimestre y el 84,1% estaba satisfecho con sus estudios; 74,4% contaba con apoyo de sus compañeros y 86,4% de profesores. El 70% valoraró positivamente las instalaciones y servicios universitarios y el 83,7% la calidad académica. El 63,9% sintió estrés en las dos últimas semanas y percibieron que éste afectó su salud. La percepción sobre su calidad de vida fue mejor en estudiantes que reportaron buen trato con profesores y compañeros, estaban satisfachechos con la calidad de la enseñanza y usaban las instalaciones deportivas (p < 0,05).Conclusiones: Se mostró que aspectos favorables del entorno universitario repercuten positivamente en la percepción de la calidad de vida de los estudiantes. Objective: To identify the perception students have on their health and life quality in relation to their satisfaction with the university environment.Method: Cross-sectional study in a random sample of 352 university students of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco Unit (UAM-X), performed in autumn 2012. After obtaining the informed consent, a questionnaire was applied to gather sociodemographic data, assessment of university services and satisfaction with their studies, academic stress, health problems, and self-perceived quality of life. Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed using the SPSS-21 and the STATA statistical software.Results: The mean age was 21.7 years (SD 4.1) and 55% were women. Eighty percent of students attended all required courses during the trimester and 84.1% was satisfied with their studies; 74.4% had support from their classmates, and 86.4% had support from their professors. Seventy percent assessed positively the university infrastructure and services and 83.7% the academic quality. Out of the total students surveyed, 63.9% felt stress the last two weeks affecting their health. Perception about their quality of life was better in students that reported good relationship with professors and classmates who were satisfied with the quality of teaching and used sports facilitites (p < 0.05).Conclusions: Favorable aspects of the university environment affecting positively the perception about quality of life in students were shown.

As the growth of online education offered by universities accelerates and spreads, universities are increasingly grappling with concerns related to widespread availability and the maintenance of academic quality. The Quality Matters at Southeastern Program fosters quality through a peer review process and offers a certification process to help assure quality in the Universitys online and blended course offerings. This report is a look at perceived impacts of the internal certification process by faculty.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to measure the influence of six university qualities, namely academic quality, academic staff quality, management quality, industrial linkage quality and facilities’ quality, on students’ total experience (STE) and emotional attachment.Design/methodology/approach– Judgmental sampling is used to collect data from a sample of 489 undergraduate students of a private higher academic institution. The data are then analyzed using structural equation modeling.Findings– This study finds that only management quality forms a significant direct relationship with emotional attachment, whereas facility quality and industrial linkage form a significant relationship with emotional attachment only when mediated with STE.Originality/value– The results provide important findings to researchers and management of higher education institutions for future research directions.

By creating a program evaluation model that assesses multiple components from several perspectives, a social work division is able to determine the quality, effectiveness, and integrity of its offerings and support its mission to develop social work students for practice. This task is critical in supporting an off-campus program’s ability to navigate change and uncertainty in higher education. This research note discusses how a small, bachelor of social work program with a dual-delivery system (traditional and community-site) used the Council on Social Work Education reaccreditation process to adapt its program evaluation to ensure academic quality and program integrity during a period of rapid growth.