Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Higher education policies in Nigeria'

Cyberbullying is a growing phenomenon, causing concern among students, parents, and professionals in the educational community. Although no federal law specifically addresses cyber-harassment in higher education, institutions have a legal obligation to address all claims of harassment, regardless of the location or platform in which the harassing behavior occurs. Recent court cases are setting precedents for obligatory institutional response and potential penalties for lack thereof; conversely, institutions are left to their own devices to employ and develop policy statements and sanctions that prohibit or discourage cyber-harassment behaviors. As the legal and political environment regarding bullying and cyberbullying behaviors continues to evolve, universities are challenged to administer policies and procedures that address misconduct that occurs in physical and virtual environments.

Qualitative by design, this study examines the perspectives, insights, and understandings of those individuals responsible for developing and operationalizing policies in the areas of cyber-harassment. Accordingly, participants in this research study provided key insights regarding strategies, best practices, and challenges experienced by policy administrators when developing and implementing cyber-harassment, prevention and mitigation policies and programs. Participants’ perspectives provided an insightful understanding of the complexities of interpreting legislation and the implications associated with higher education policy.

Today 17 elite private colleges in the U.S. have offered no-loan policies, which replace student loans with grants, scholarships and/or work-study in the financial aid packages awarded to all undergraduate students eligible for financial aid. Generally, the goal of these policies is to increase the socioeconomic diversity of campuses and to reduce the amount students borrow to finance their education. However, since the 2007–2008 credit crisis two colleges eliminated their no-loan policies for all students on financial aid and several restricted the policies to their lower-income students on financial aid. Therefore, this qualitative case study explored the financial implications of no-loan financial aid at private elite liberal arts colleges.

Leaders from various offices involved in planning and implementing no-loan policies at four colleges were interviewed: two campuses that maintained their full no-loan policies after the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and two that did not. The leaders were interviewed to understand how no-loan policies were financed and managed; how they affected operating budgets and other academic priorities; and how they were communicated to college constituents.

Findings from this study provided a more nuanced understanding of why some schools maintained and others retracted no-loan financial aid. Contrary to reports in the news, endowment losses, while symbolic of financial distress, were not the only reason that schools retracted no-loan policies. Endowment losses in the context of other internal and external budget pressures resulting from the credit crisis and Great Recession led to this decision. Each college in this study made a series of tradeoffs in how to balance mission and market pressures in a new budget reality where all three of their primary revenue sources were constrained. These competing priorities included how to increase faculty lines and compensation, reduce teaching loads, fund capital projects, reduce student loan debt, and distribute scholarship aid to ensure proportional socioeconomic diversity on campus. Higher education policymakers and leaders can use this study’s findings to improve institutional policies and practices in higher education finance.

In their seminal 1995 article, Barr and Tagg encouraged higher education to think differently about undergraduate education and suggested that a new paradigm be adopted that focused less on what is taught and more on what is learned. Dubbed the learner-centered paradigm, this reframing of education challenges long standing practices and removes the instructor as the literal and figurative center of the classroom, requiring that students take a more active role in their education and in the creation of knowledge.

Despite the fact that empirical research consistently finds that practices congruent with the learner-centered paradigm greatly benefits students, full-scale adoption of the paradigm has been slow across the higher education landscape. The SCALE-UP program that emerged out of North Carolina State University, however, has provided institutions with a model for how learner-centered teaching techniques can be leveraged in large enrollment courses and hundreds of institutions across the globe have successfully adopted this program.

In this multiple case study of two large, public institutions that have adopted SCALE-UP, this study provides insight into how faculty implementation of learner-centered teaching and learning practices is influenced by organizational structures and policies and how they can encourage and support faculty transition to a learner-centered practice. Findings suggest that these included policies and structures that involve: 1) institutional leadership; 2) finance and academic departmental influence and configurations; 3) faculty training and development programs; 4) physical facilities; and 5) incentives to learn, develop, and maintain new practices.

Extrapolated from the findings that emerged through this research are a number of implications and recommendations: Support and advocacy from institutional leadership is critical for the initiation and sustainment of paradigm change, academic departments can create learner-centered cultures that encourage and support learner-centered teaching practices, provide meaningful opportunities for faculty to become exposed to the learner-centered paradigm and create ongoing training and professional development to support related teaching and learning practices, invest in the creation of physical active-learning structures, create policies and structures that provide meaningful incentives for faculty to adopt learner-centered teaching practices, and strategically connect learner-centered practices and initiatives taking place across campus.

The objective of this research was to investigate the relationships between the political change and the access policy changes in Madagascar since independence. In this study qualitative and quantitative data were used. The qualitative research consisted of eleven in-depth interviews and the collection of policy documents from 1960 to 2008. Open-ended questionnaires were utilized to collect data and to achieve the objectives of the research. Policy documents were analyzed to identify government policy changes. The main findings from the research showed that access policy changed with each major change in political leadership. Four major political periods and four respective main access policy changes were identified from 1960 to 2008. Higher education policy in general changed when there was a major change in presidential leadership. The main conclusions of this study were that access policy changes were the result of major changes in presidential leadership and that in spite of rhetoric to the contrary, universities did not have the autonomy to resist changes in access policy because of the top-down state system and the institutional financial dependence on the national government.

Secondary school students in Nigeria face challenges regarding their oral health. Few researchers have investigated oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in Nigerian populations. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of oral health knowledge, behaviors, and practices among secondary school students in Enugu State, Nigeria, in relation to their oral health status. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the health belief model. A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect data from 12 secondary schools in Enugu State, using a close-ended questionnaire as well as oral examination (dental caries and periodontal diseases) of the students who attended junior secondary (JSS) I, II, and III classes. A total stratified sample of 671 students was included in the study. Bivariate nonparametric tests and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. According to the results of the study, the levels of dental caries and periodontal diseases were relatively low. However, only one fourth of the students had received professional fluoridation, and almost 50% of the participants had never visited a dentist. Students from a missionary school had lower levels of periodontal diseases than those from public schools, with an odds ratio of 0.612 (95% CI [0.402, 0.934]). Students from JSS III class tended to have a lower level of periodontal diseases than those of JSS I class (OR: 0.567, 95% CI [0.363, 0.886]). The social change implications of this study can be the development and incorporation of oral health promotion programs into the school curriculum. These programs may increase the adoption of preventive oral health strategies by students, such as regular dental attendance, to maintain their good oral health for a life time.

Excessive college student drinking is a complex problem associated with a range of consequences including deaths, injuries, damage, health risks, legal difficulties, and academic problems. State governing boards, trustees and executives have enacted policies aimed at reducing the negative effects of excessive drinking. This study examined influences on university staff members responsible for implementation of alcohol-control policies. Deeper understanding of factors influencing alcohol-control policy implementation may help leaders improve policy making, implementation and attainment of policy objectives.

This mixed methods study utilized a sequential transformative mixed methods strategy with a quantitative survey, sequenced first, informing the prioritized qualitative multiple case study. Research was conducted at two public universities selected from a single state. In the quantitative phase students (n=1,252) completed a survey measuring student support for 33 alcohol-control measures. Staff (n=27) responsible for policy implementation completed a survey estimating student support for alcohol-control measures. Survey data informed development of the case study interview protocol. In the qualitative phase ten interviews were conducted at each case study site.

The study’s theoretical and conceptual model was based upon Pressman and Wildavsky’s (1973) implementation framework and Kotter’s (1996) eight-stage process for leading change. Findings from the quantitative phase of the study revealed strong levels of support for alcohol-control policies at both campuses while staff members generally underestimated student support for alcohol-control policies. The key findings that emerged after coding case study data included the influences of: (a) executive leadership; (b) leadership transitions and policy saliency; (c) cognition and sensemaking; and, (d) anchoring changes in culture. Student support for alcohol-control policies was found to have no direct influence on staff members responsible for implementation of alcohol control policies.