Academic literature on the topic 'Higher education aims and objectives'

Over the last two decades more attention has been paid by the governments of developed and developing countries to the role of higher education in general and universities in particular. Their major concern is the growing demand for higher education and the growing expenditure of that sector. These two reasons led to an inquiry into the role of higher education institutions, their objectives and their effective use of the resources allocated to them. The need to achieve better understanding and definition of the role of higher education institutions and effectiveness requires better understanding of the institutional objectives and their measure of achievement by the various constituencies involved in the institutions' activities. This study aimed to investigate the different objectives and to examine the appropriateness and degree of achievement of measures of a set of institutional goals in four Arab Universities. The study approach used included a literature survey of studies conducted on higher education institutions in Europe, North America and the Arab States and the collection of data by a questionnaire. The population sample represents administrators and faculty members in the four Arab Universities. Mean scores were used to generate the ranking of the objective areas, in terms of their perceived preferences among the four universities and among the respondent groups. Also, the analysis of variance technique was used to ascertain which of the objective areas and their measures received divergent views among the four universities and among the respondent groups. The analysis of variance technique was followed by Duncan's New Multiple Comparison test to identify pairs of factors which differ significantly, to help in the interpretation of the findings. The study revealed that there were differences in respondent ratings of the objective areas, their measures and degree of achievement among the four universities but not among the different respondents categories. The findings of the study provided the conclusion that: only in some objective areas were priorities perceived differently by the universities and by respondent groups; homogeneity exists among the respondent groups on the appropriateness of the measures and the degree of achievement of these measures; close correlation appears to exist between the ratings of the objective areas and their associated measures; and, finally, there was consensus among the respondents that all universities were performing poorly on the most highly rated objective areas. The results and conclusions of the study were utilised to draw up some recommendations which might be useful to decision-makers in achieving their institutional objectives.

<p>During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, not only physical assets were eroded but more importantly, human capital were destroyed and left the country living hardly on qualified personnel at almost all levels of the economy to play a meaningful development role. While capacity building is needed in many sectors of the economy, it is especially important in the education sector. This study focuses on one particular issue namely to what extent sending academic staff for training in foreign countries can effectively contribute to capacity building in Rwandan higher education institutions (HEI). Various options exist to improve a strategy to build capacities in higher education institutions<br>amongst others is the training of human resource which is the most important of all.</p> <p>In order to investigate the above, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Techniques such as documentation, semi-structured interview, questionnaire and direct observation were also used in order to reach the research objectives. With regard to the main question of this study, findings reveal that funding academic staff for foreign training is believed to effectively contribute to capacity building in Rwandan higher education. As respondents explain, academic staff sent for training in foreign countries acquires new knowledge that is needed to build the country. This gained knowledge is spread all over the country through teaching at universities where most sectors of the country find their human resources. Being open minded, trained academic staff will be able to update his knowledge and therefore train in turn his students accordingly. However, findings inform also that Rwandan HEI are faced with multiple problems amongst others the problem of defining the real institutional needs for appropriate training. In this regard, findings suggest that for the training to be effective in Rwandan HEI there is a need of putting in place appropriate mechanisms and assessing institutional needs before training a person and training according to those specific needs in order to help the process of capacity building being more effective.</p>

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the impact of the extended degree program on the students admitted to these programs. The extended degree program offers students an alternative access route to higher education institutions. The program is aimed at students from former disadvantage school environments that have the potential to be successful in their studies. The literature review shows that the programs are successfully implemented over the world. The literature also indicates that if learners are longer exposed to a specific subject, they perform better in this subject. This statement is specifically investigated in this study because it is one of the extended degree program`s building blocks – give students more exposure to a specific subject and they have a better chance to achieve success in that subject. In answering the main research question “What impact does the extended degree program has on both the student and institution.”, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data used in this study were the final marks and throughput rates of students. Qualitative data was obtained through interviews with students in the program. Although the findings of this study are context specific, it contributes to the growing knowledge and better understanding of the impact that the extended degree program has on the student and university. The two main findings of this work were: i) The academic performance of students in the extended degree program improved in relation to the performance of students in the mainstream. ii) The performance of students in the extended degree programs justifies the existence of the programs at the University of Stellenbosch.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die impak wat die verlengde graadprogram het op studente wat tot hierdie programme toegelaat word. Die verlengde graadprogram bied ʼn alternatiewe toegangsroete aan studente tot hoëronderwysinstellings. Die programme is gemik op leerders uit ʼn voorheen benadeelde skoolomgewing wat die potensiaal toon om suksesvol in hulle studies te wees. Die literatuurstudie toon dat die programme met sukses oor die wêreld geïmplementeer word. Die literatuur toon ook aan dat leerders wat langer aan ʼn spesifieke vak blootgestel word, beter in die vak presteer. Hierdie stelling is spesifiek in die studie ondersoek, want dit is een van die verlengde graadprogram se boustene – gee studente langer blootstelling aan ʼn spesifieke vak sodat hulle ʼn beter kans het om sukses in die vak te behaal. Om die hoofnavorsingsvraag “Watter impak het die verlengde graadprogram op beide die student en instansie.” te beantwoord, is beide kwantitatiewe- en kwalitatiewe data ingesamel. Kwantitatiewe data wat gebruik is in die studie is die prestasiepunte en deurvloeisyfers van studente. Kwalitatiewe data is verkry deur onderhoude te voer met studente in die verlengde graadprogram. Alhoewel die bevindinge van dié studie konteks spesifiek is, dra dit by tot die groeiende kennis en beter verstaan van die impak wat die verlengde graadprogram het op die student en die universiteit. Die twee belangrikste bevindinge van hierdie werk is: i) Die akademiese prestasie van studente in die verlengde graadprogram verbeter ten opsigte van studente in die hoofstroom. ii) Die prestasie van die studente in die verlengde graadprogramme regverdig die voortbestaan van die programme aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch.

This project is to encourage citizens over 60 years of age, active and in relatively good health to continue in higher education. Academic classes in universities, colleges, and elevating classes in vocational and technical schools and elderhostel programs are available.

The purpose of the study was to examine the role of academic middle managers (AMMs) in the planning and implementation of curriculum change in private higher education institutions in Botswana. This study employed a mixed methods research approach which utilised a structured questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guide to gather data on AMMs‟ role in the planning and implementation of curriculum change in PHEIs in Botswana. SPSS version 21 was used for analysing quantitative data while thematic analysis was used for analysing qualitative data on the role of AMMs in the planning and implementation of curriculum change in PHEIs. The study showed that the role of AMMs in the planning and implementation of curriculum change in PHEIs was too complex and demanding because they spent most of their time on daily administrative routines instead of on core academic activities such as planning and implementing curriculum change in their departments. The AMMs in the PHEIs under study operated more like managers in academic departments than academics in management. As a result the study showed that AMMs faced more challenges than opportunities in their planning and implementation of curriculum change in PHEIs. The major challenges AMMs faced in the planning and implementation of curriculum change were a highly controlled and strict work environment, role conflict, lack of autonomy, role strain and heavy workloads which limited the time AMMs spent on the core business of managing curriculum change in their departments. The study also highlighted some of the strategies albeit a few, which, despite the numerous challenges AMMs faced, are used to try and make the planning and implementation of curriculum change by AMMs was to some extent successful. The study provided insight on the influence of AMMs biographical characteristics as well as the influence of AMM job requirements (such as having a detailed job description and having authority over curriculum matters) on how AMMs enacted their role in curriculum change. Based on the results of the study, a model to assist AMMs in the effective planning and implementation of curriculum change was proposed.

This observational study involving intact groups and convenient sampling examined learning communities at four North Texas Community Colleges. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference in cathectic learning climate, inimical ambiance, academic rigor, affiliation and structure among students in learning communities and freestanding classes. Learning communities are gaining nationwide popularity as instruments of reform in Higher Education. Recent studies have discussed the benefits of learning communities to student, faculty and institutions. As learning communities are gaining popularity, especially at the community college level, there is a need to determine if the learning communities are significantly different than freestanding classes. The College Classroom Environment Scales, developed by Winston, Vahala, Nichols, Gillis, Wintrow, and Rome (1989), was used as the survey instrument for this study. Using SPSS 10.1, a multivariate analysis of variance, (Hotelling's T2) was performed on five dependent variables: cathectic learning climate (CLC), inimical ambiance (IA), academic rigor (AR), affiliation (AF), and structure (ST), which yielded a significant difference. The independent variable was learning community compared to freestanding classes (group). Follow-up independent t tests were also conducted to evaluate the differences in the means between the two groups and to explore which dependent variables contributed to the multivariate difference, which resulted in significant differences in inimical ambiance, affiliation and structure. The researcher concludes that learning communities make a difference for some learners, but not necessarily all and that more research needs to be conducted to find the answers to the questions concerning the efficacy and sustainability of learning communities in higher education.

This study surveyed 15 teachers from an elementary school in Southern California regarding their perceptions of their use of the computer lab as an educational tool to develop student higher order level thinking skills, and compared the results to the actual computer lab activities they assigned. Data regarding actual computer lab practices was collected over a period of one school year. This data was analyzed and categorized by using Bloom's Taxonomy descriptors. Each computer lab activity was scaled and given a value using these descriptors of higher order thinking skills. Results indicated a difference between teacher's perceptions and skills targetted in assigned computer activities.

This dissertation adopts a realist meta-perspective on a body of the scholar's own research papers written between 2005 and 2011, all either published or in press and offered for reference in the Appendices. The six papers represent the point of departure for the thesis; they are the phenomenon for further investigation into 'what must be the case' for the research events to have emerged as they did. One aspect of this study, therefore, is an auto ethnographic account of conducting research in the field of Academic Development within varied settings and over a given time frame. But alongside this personal history it narrates cycles in the Academic Development movement in South Africa over 30 years. Margaret Archer's Social Realist principle of analytical dualism (1995) is used to disaggregate the emergent properties within these histories and to enable an analysis of the underlying mechanisms that generated them. It refers to three social domains. Firstly, it describes the material structures - the institutional environments, policies, roles or professional conditions - in which the projects were conceived. Secondly, it identifies the cultural registers that the profession was drawing on - such as theories, beliefs or discourses. Thirdly, it draws attention to the agency of individuals and communities in the field as they independently activated or mediated these various conditioning structures and registers. So the study is a systematic examination of the parts and the people in research stories, of the complex interrelationship of structural and agential elements, and of how together they have generated particular forms of knowing and kinds of knowledge in Academic Development. Drawing from this 'history-within-a-history', the study makes some claims for 'what must be the case' for substantial knowledge to flourish in a newly emergent, hotly contested and relatively unstable field. It argues that Academic Development has few shared epistemological foundations and boundaries, and its roles and functions are shifting and diverse. It describes the tensions in the field between those who have been inclined to understand it as primarily concerned with redress or equity in the postapartheid state, and yet others who have prioritised Academic Development as an efficiency project within higher education. But there is a third discourse emanating from those in the profession who have consistently argued that neither of these approaches can succeed without drawing on stronger theoretical foundations. This study endorses the view that Academic Developers need to identify more coherent ontological and epistemological frames for their research work. This has important implications for building the kind of substantial knowledge base that could be more influential in addressing the troubled terrain of South African higher education. The study refers extensively to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) and to Mervyn Peake's 1946 illustrations of these children's stories, finding in these texts powerful analogies and metaphors for principles in realist philosophy and theory, and for describing a researcher's journey towards a more assured identity in the curious field of Academic Development.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores the notion of (higher) education transformation in relation to logically necessary conditions which guide the concept. These logically necessary conditions (constitutive meanings) include: equity and redress, critical inquiry, communicative praxis, and citizenship. I explore how instances of these logically necessary conditions manifest in institutional plans at the universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and the Western Cape. My contention is that these institutional plans seem to be tilted towards the exclusive implementation of performance indicator measures which might undermine deep educational transformation. In turn, deep educational transformation requires that logically necessary conditions be framed according to an African philosophy of educational transformation. KEYWORDS: Higher education, education policy, transformation, conceptual analysis, logically necessary conditions.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie proefskrif word die konsep (hoër) onderwystransformasie ondersoek soos dit logies in verhouding staan tot die voorwaardes wat die konsep rig. Hierdie logiesnoodsaaklike voorwaardes (konstitusionele betekenisse) sluit in: gelykheid en regstelling; kritiese ondersoek; kommunikatiewe praksis en burgerskap. Ek stelondersoek in oorlhoe voorbeelde van hierdie logiese-noodsaaklike voorwaardes in die institusionele planne van die universiteite Kaapstad, Stellenbosch en Wes-Kaapland manifesteer. Volgens my lyk dit asof hierdie institusionele planne neig na die eksklusiewe implementering van maatreëls wat optrede aandui wat in-diepte opvoedkundige transformasie mag ondermyn. Aan die ander kant vereis in-diepte opvoedkundige transformasie dat logies-noodsaaklike voorwaardes binne 'n Afrika filosofie van opvoedkundige transformasie vertolk moet word. SLEUTELBEGRIPPE: Hoër onderwys, opvoedkundige beleid, transformasie, konseptuele analise, logies-noodsaaklike voorwaardes.