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Universities engage in international collaboration for a number of reasons. In the global North, which is characterised by wealth and power, universities increasingly use international collaboration for competitiveness and marketisation. In contrast, the global South engages in collaboration to strengthen research and build knowledge capacity. Prior studies argue that trust, mutual benefits, and achieving shared understandings and ways of working are important for sustainable collaboration. However, the studies generally examine what makes a "good" collaboration well after collaboration has been initiated. The contribution of this study is therefore to exemplify the relationship-building process between academics from an Ethiopian and Swedish university. The study is based in "co-operative inquiry" and uses data collected in April 2019 from questions composed by each set of academics, which were deliberated during their initial meeting. Their experiences of enablement and constraint in research collaboration and their motivations for pursuing a new collaboration are in focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to develop an improved teaching evaluation questionnaire based on students' learning experiences and selected teacher characteristics identified as indicators of teaching quality. Teaching evaluation questionnaires are commonly designed either based on agreed indicators of teaching excellence, students' suggestions of characteristics of excellence, or dimensions identified from interviews conducted with excellent teachers. In this study, however, students' evaluation of their own learning experiences in learner centered classes and a hypothesized framework derived from the literature were used to develop the items for the questionnaire. Students attended to courses designed in a learner centered paradigm and evaluated their learning experiences. Based on the hypothesized framework and students' reflections of their experiences, items were designed and validated at various levels. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 24-item Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching Questionnaire (SELTQ) that comprises four factors: assessment and feedback; course organization and presentation; student self evaluation; and students' level of engagement. As opposed to the questionnaire widely used in higher education institutions in Ethiopia that focuses on the evaluation of selected teacher characteristics, the new measure enables students to evaluate teaching in terms of their own learning progress. (Contains 1 table.)

This study was conducted in two public universities in Ethiopia to assess the impact of conceptions of teaching and learning on the evaluation of teaching quality. Students' and teachers' approaches to teaching and learning and their conceptions of the meaning of teaching have been examined. Results indicated that both teachers and students predominantly perceive teaching as transmitting knowledge and assessment as recall of factual knowledge. For the students, the mean values for teaching as transmitting knowledge and assessment as recall of facts were significantly correlated. The experiences and conceptions of both teachers and students reflect a teacher-focused approach to teaching and learning. The teaching evaluation questionnaire also reflects teacher performance as indicator of effectiveness. Improving the measure should be considered as a means of changing teachers' and students' conceptions of teaching and learning.