Abstract: Sweden has succeeded to maintain a high level of
growth and development and has managed to sustain highly ranked
position among the world’s developed countries. In this regard,
Swedish universities are playing a vital role in supporting innovation
and entrepreneurship at all levels and developing Swedish knowledge
economy. This paper is aiming to draw on the experiences of two leading
Swedish universities, addressing their transformation approach to
create entrepreneurial universities and fulfilling their objectives in the
era of knowledge economy. The objectives of the paper include: 1) Introducing the Swedish
higher education and its characteristics. 2) Examining the
infrastructure elements for innovation and Entrepreneurship at two of
the Swedish entrepreneurial universities. 3) Addressing the key
aspects of support systems in the initiatives of both Chalmers and
Gothenburg universities to support innovation and advance
entrepreneurial practices. The paper will contribute to two discourses: 1) Examining the
relationship between support systems for innovation and
entrepreneurship and the Universities’ policies and practices. 2)
Lessons for University leaders to assist the development and
implementation of effective innovation and entrepreneurship policies
and practices.
Abstract: This paper shows the general perceptions of Spanish
university stakeholders in relation to the university’s annual reports
and the adequacy and potential of intellectual capital reporting. To
this end, a questionnaire was designed and sent to every member of
the Social Councils of Spanish public universities. It was thought that
these participants would provide a good example of the attitude of
university stakeholders since they represent the different social
groups connected with universities. From the results of this study we
are in the position of confirming the need for universities to offer
information on intellectual capital in their accounting information
model.
Abstract: The environmental, cultural, social, and technological
changes have led higher education institutes to question their
traditional roles. Many declarations and frameworks highlight the
importance of fulfilling social responsibility of higher education
institutes. The study aims at developing a framework of university
social responsibility and sustainability (USR&S) with focus on South
Valley University (SVU) as a case study of Egyptian Universities.
The study used meetings with 12 vice deans of community services
and environmental affairs on social responsibility and environmental
issues. The proposed framework integrates social responsibility with
strategic management through the establishment and maintenance of
the vision, mission, values, goals and management systems;
elaboration of policies; provision of actions; evaluation of services
and development of social collaboration with stakeholders to meet
current and future needs of the community and environment. The
framework links between different stakeholders internally and
externally using communication and reporting tools. The results show
that SVU integrates social responsibility and sustainability in its
strategic plans. It has policies and actions however fragmented and
lack of appropriate structure and budgeting. The proposed framework
could be valuable for researchers and decision makers of the
Egyptian Universities. The study proposed recommendations and
highlighted building on the results and conducting future research.
Abstract: Indonesian higher education has experienced
significant changes over the last decade. In 1999, the government
published an overall strategy for decentralisation and enhancement of
local autonomy in many sectors, including (higher) education.
Indonesian higher education reforms have forced universities to
restructure their internal university governance to become more
entrepreneurial. These new types of internal university governance
are likely to affect the institutions’ leadership and management. This
paper discusses the approach and findings of a study on the
managerial leadership styles of deans in Indonesian universities. The
study aims to get a better understanding of styles exhibited by deans
manifested in their behaviours. Using the theories of reasoned action
and planned behaviour, in combination with the competing values
framework, a large-scale survey was conducted to gather information
on the deans’ behaviours, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived
behavioural control. Based on the responses of a sample of 218
deans, the study identifies a number of leadership styles: the Master,
the Competitive Consultant, the Consensual Goal-Setter, the Focused
Team Captain, and the Informed Trust-Builder style. The study
demonstrates that attitudes are the primary determinant of the styles
that were found. Perceived behavioural control is a factor that
explains some managerial leadership styles. By understanding the
attitudes of deans in Indonesian universities, and their leadership
styles, universities can strengthen their management and governance,
and thus improve their effectiveness.
Abstract: The adaptation of social networking sites within
higher education has garnered significant interest in the recent years
with numerous researches considering it as a possible shift from the
traditional classroom based learning paradigm. Notwithstanding this
increase in research and conducted studies however, the adaption of
SNS based modules have failed to proliferate within Universities.
This paper commences its contribution by analyzing the various
models and theories proposed in literature and amalgamate together
various effective aspects for the inclusion of social technology within
e-Learning. A three phased framework is further proposed which
details the necessary considerations for the successful adaptation of
SNS in enhancing the students learning experience. This proposal
outlines the theoretical foundations which will be analyzed in
practical implementation across international university campuses.
Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the influence of quality
of education and quality of research, provided by local educational
institutions, on the adoption of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) in managing business operations for companies in
Saudi market. A model was developed and tested using data collected
from 138 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of foreign companies in
diverse business sectors. The data is analyzed and managed using
multivariate approaches through standard statistical packages. The
results showed that educational quality has little contribution to the
ICT adoption while research quality seems to play a more prominent
role. These results are analyzed in terms of business environment and
market constraints and further extended to the perceived effectiveness
of applied pedagogical approaches in schools and universities.
Abstract: The explosion of the World Wide Web and the
electronic trend of university teaching have transformed the learning
style to become more learner-centered, which has popularized the
digital delivery of mediated lectures as an alternative or an adjunct to
traditional lectures. Despite its potential and popularity, virtual
lectures have not been adopted yet in Jordanian universities. This
research aimed to fill this gap by studying the factors that influence
students’ willingness to accept virtual lectures in one Jordanian
University. A quantitative approach was followed, by obtaining 216
survey responses and statistically applying the UTAUT model with
some modifications. Results revealed that performance expectancy,
effort expectancy, social influences, and self-efficacy could
significantly influence students’ attitudes towards virtual lectures.
Additionally, Facilitating conditions and attitudes towards virtual
lectures were found with significant influence on students’ intention
to take virtual lectures. Research implications and future work were
specified afterwards.
Abstract: Everyday life is and will be influenced depending on
the developments that society undergoes throughout the history.
Particularly, countries undergoing transition from one system to
another sustain the greatest impact in trying to embrace the modern
system. Kosovo society had the fortune to experience a change,
which began in late 1999 to continue up to date. One of the
'developments' of the time with the evolution in Kosovo society was
the transition from the traditional education system into the modern
one. This transformation began immediately after the war, to
continue even today. It was started by internationals, which governed
and administered Kosovo society, including education. There was a
great 'evolution', because almost the entire system was 'changed'.
Among other things, for the first time it was enabled the opening of
private schools from the lowest level up to the colleges and
universities. This paper will address: how much was ready the society
to embrace such a 'cultural' change in education, respectively, how
much were prepared teachers for such changes; as it was actually
thought to be a modern education system, how much was it according
to international standards; what are the results and current situation in
Kosovo education.
Abstract: The implementation of e-assessment as tool to support
the process of teaching and learning in university has become a
popular technological means in universities. E-Assessment provides
many advantages to the users especially the flexibility in teaching and
learning. The e-assessment system has the capability to improve its
quality of delivering education. However, there still exists a
drawback in terms of security which limits the user acceptance of the
online learning system. Even though there are studies providing
solutions for identified security threats in e-learning usage, there is no
particular model which addresses the factors that influences the
acceptance of e-assessment system by lecturers from security
perspective. The aim of this study is to explore security aspects of eassessment
in regard to the acceptance of the technology. As a result
a conceptual model of secure acceptance of e-assessment is proposed.
Both human and security factors are considered in formulation of this
conceptual model. In order to increase understanding of critical issues
related to the subject of this study, interpretive approach involving
convergent mixed method research method is proposed to be used to
execute the research. This study will be useful in providing more
insightful understanding regarding the factors that influence the user
acceptance of e-assessment system from security perspective.
Abstract: Recently, universities are increasingly consuming
energy to support various activities. A large population of staff and
students in Malaysian universities has led to excessive energy
consumption which directly gives an impact to the environment. The
key question then ascended “How well is an energy management
(EM) been practiced in universities without taking the Critical
Success Factors (CSFs) into consideration to ensure the management
of university achieves the goals in reducing energy consumption.
Review on past literature is carried out to establish CSFs for EM best
practices. Thus, this paper highlighted the CSFs which have to be
focused on by management of university to successfully measure the
EM implementation and its performance. At the end of this paper, a
theoretical framework is developed for EM success factors towards
sustainable university.
Abstract: The problem of psychologist training remains a key
priority in Armenia. During the Soviet period, the notion of a
psychologist was obscure not only in Armenia but also in other
Soviet republics. The breakup of the Soviet Union triggered a gradual
change in this area activating the cooperation with specialists from
other countries. The need for recovery from the psychological trauma
caused by the 1988 earthquake pushed forward the development of
practical psychology in Armenia. This phenomenon led to positive
changes in perception of and interest to a psychologist
profession.Armenian universities started designing special programs
for psychologists’ preparation. Armenian psychologists combined
their efforts in the field of training relevant specialists.
During the recent years, the Bologna educational system was
introduced in Armenia which led to implementation of education
quality improvement programs. Nevertheless, even today the issue of
psychologists’ training is not yet settled in Armenian universities. So
far graduate psychologists haven’t got a clear idea of personal and
professional qualities of a psychologist. Recently, as a result of
educational reforms, the psychology curricula underwent changes,
but so far they have not led to a desired outcome. Almost all curricula
in certain specialties are aimed to form professional competencies
and strengthen practical skills.
A survey conducted in Armenia aimed to identify what are the
ideas of young psychology specialists on the image of a psychologist.
The survey respondents were 45 specialists holding bachelor’s degree
as well as 30 master degree graduates, who have not been working
yet. The research reveals that we need to change the approach of
preparing psychology practitioners in the universities of Armenia.
Such an approach to psychologist training will make it possible to
train qualified specialists for enhancement of modern psychology
theory and practice.
Abstract: E-learning has become an efficient and widespread
means of education at all levels of human activities. Statistics is no
exception. Unfortunately the main focus in statistics teaching is
usually paid to the substitution in formulas. Suitable websites can
simplify and automate calculations and provide more attention and
time to the basic principles of statistics, mathematization of real-life
situations and following interpretation of results. We now introduce
our own web-site for hypothesis testing. Its didactic aspects, the
technical possibilities of the individual tools, the experience of use
and the advantages or disadvantages are discussed in this paper. This
web-site is not a substitute for common statistical software but should
significantly improve the teaching of statistics at universities.
Abstract: The study was conducted to produce case studies from
the Malaysian public universities stands point East Coast of
Malaysia. The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of
knowledge management on human capital toward organizational
innovation. The focus point of this study is on the management
member in the faculties of these three Malaysian Public Universities
in the East Coast state of Peninsular Malaysia. In this case,
respondents who agreed to further participate in the research will be
invited to a one-hour face-to-face semi-structured, in-depth interview.
As a result, the sample size for this study was 3 deans of Faculty of
Management. Lastly, this study tries to recommend the framework of
organizational innovation in Malaysian Public Universities.
Abstract: The purposes of this research are to investigate Thai teens’ attitude toward prostitution on the internet, to discover the causes of teenage prostitution and to study the relationship between teenage promiscuity and the causes of teenage prostitution. This study is a mixed research which utilized both qualitative and quantitative approach. The population of this study included teenagers and early adults between 14-21 years old who were studying in high schools, colleges, or universities. A total of 600 respondents was sampled for interviews using a questionnaire, and 48 samples were chosen for an in-depth interview.
The findings revealed that the majority of respondents recognized that teenage prostitution on line was real. The reasons for choosing the internet to contact with customers included easy, convenient, safe, and anonymous. Moreover, the internet allowed teen prostitutes to contact customers anywhere and anytime. The correlation showed that promiscuity was related to the trend of teen prostitution. Other factors that contributed to increasing widespread teen prostitution online included their need for quick money to buy luxurious products and to support their extravagant behavior.
Abstract: Using the technology acceptance model (TAM), this
study examined the external variables of technological complexity
(TC) to acquire a better understanding of the factors that influence the
acceptance of computer application courses by learners at Active
Aging Universities. After the learners in this study had completed a
27-hour Facebook course, 44 learners responded to a modified TAM
survey. Data were collected to examine the path relationships among
the variables that influence the acceptance of Facebook-mediated
community learning. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used
to test the measurement and the structural model. The study results
demonstrated that attitudes toward Facebook use directly influence
behavioral intentions (BI) with respect to Facebook use, evincing a
high prediction rate of 58.3%. In addition to the perceived usefulness
(PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) measures that are proposed in
the TAM, other external variables, such as TC, also indirectly
influence BI. These four variables can explain 88% of the variance in
BI and demonstrate a high level of predictive ability. Finally,
limitations of this investigation and implications for further research
are discussed.
Abstract: Universities have different offices such as educational, research, student, administrative, and financial offices. This paper considers universities as groups of decision making units (DMUs) in which DMUs are their offices. This approach gives us with a more just evaluation of universities instead of separate evaluation of the offices of universities. The proposed approach to evaluate group performance of universities is based on common set of weights method in DEA. The suggested method not only can compare groups and measure their efficiencies, but also can calculate the efficiency of units within group and efficiency spread of groups. At last, the suggested method is applied for the analysis of the performance of universities in 14th district of Islamic Azad University as groups under evaluation.
Abstract: This study aims at identifying the practices that should be taken into consideration by audit committees as a tool of corporate governance in Libyan commercial banks by investigating various perceptions on this topic. The study is based on a questionnaire submitted to audit committees ‘members at Libyan commercial banks, directors of internal audit departments as well as members of board of directors at these banks in addition to a number of external auditors and academic staff from Libyan universities. The study reveals that the role of audit committees has to be shifted from traditional areas of accounting to a broader role including functions related to financial reporting, audit planning, support the independence of internal and external auditors, acting as a channel of communication between external auditors and board of directors, reviewing external audit, and evaluating internal control systems. Although the study is a starting point in developing a framework of good audit committees’ practices in Libya, it is believed that the adoption of its results can result in enhancing the corporate governance practices not only in the banking sector but also in the entire corporate sector in Libya.
Abstract: In the age of globalization, higher education
institutions attempt to equip students with global competence. In
response, most universities have been developing and running various
international programs. However, teacher education has been a
neglected area in this trend. Therefore, in this study, we suggest a
program that offers a dual bachelor’s degree from both universities
located on different countries, focusing on teacher education
institutions with different policies and regulations of teacher education
programs that may become obstacles to designing a dual degree
program. We discuss a possible way to get a dual degree including a
teaching certificate at a specialized college, college of secondary
education. To be specific, this research presents a way to attain two
diplomas from Jeju National University (JNU) in Korea and Boise
State University (BSU) in the U.S. It attempts to build an effective
plan for students to declare simultaneous degrees at both universities.
From the study, we find that it takes about 5 years to fulfill
requirements for the dual degree at the undergraduate level.
Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to provide a structural model of knowledge management in universities based on organizational climate. The population of the research included all employees of Islamic Azad University (IAU). The sample consisted of 1590 employees selected using stratified and cluster random sampling method. The research instruments were two questionnaires which were administered in 78 IAU branches and education centers: Sallis and Jones’s (2002) Knowledge Management Questionnaire (α= 0.97); and Latwin & Stringer’s (1968) Organizational Climate Questionnaire (α= 0.83). The results of path analysis using LISREL software indicated that dimensions of organizational climate had a direct effect on knowledge management with the indices of 0.94. The model also showed that the factor of support in organizational climate had the highest direct effect on the knowledge management.
Abstract: Research has shown that a recruitment policy devoid of gender discrimination enhances employee performance in an organization. Previous studies in Nigeria show that gender discrimination against men and women based on their ethnic, religious and geographical identity is common. This survey, however, focuses on discrimination against women on the basis of gender and performance in government universities in Lagos State, Nigeria. The model used for this study was developed and tested in which one hundred and eighty seven copies of the questionnaire that were administered to respondents as completed by the academic staff of government universities in Lagos State were retrieved. Pearson correlation and regression were utilized for the analysis of the study, and the result showed that managerial roles based on gender discrimination against women in government universities in Lagos State have affected employee job performance negatively. The study concludes that for as long as gender discrimination rather than merit remains the basis for staff employment into positions of authority in Nigerian Universities, enhanced performance is more likely to elude employees and the educational sector in general.