Allocation of Academic Workloads in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at a South African University

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the results of a statistical analysis of the weekly working hours of academics in a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at a South African university. The aim was to quantify, analyse and compare the workload of academic staff. Seventy-five academics self-reported on their workload by completing the workload measuring instrument. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in the total working hours per week in terms of gender, schools, academic qualifications and positions. However, there were statistically significant differences in the hours spent performing core academic activities such as teaching and learning, administration and management, research and postgraduate supervision, and community engagement and services to the scholarly community. The results indicated inequalities in the workload allocation of academic staff, with some staff members being underutilized and others significantly over worked.     

The academic achievement of students in a New Zealand university: Does it pay to work?

There is growing concern about the detrimental effect of term-time employment on university students’ academic success. We report results from an online survey of 1837 students of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, whose responses were later matched to their academic records for a semester. The majority of employed students reported working out of financial necessity. There was no difference in grades between employed and non-employed students, but hours worked had a direct negative linear effect on the grades of employed students. Subsequent analysis suggested that employed students might have had significantly higher grades than the non-employed subsample if they had not worked. Mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between hours worked and academic performance were identified, and a model of the work–achievement relationship developed. Universities could do more to accommodate the reality of part-time work by their students.     

University‐Industry Research Partnerships in Australia: Extent,benefits and risks

While official reviews have concluded that Commonwealth Government programs to encourage university - industry research links have been largely successful, studies are needed to explore the extent and nature of such partnerships, and their effects within universities. Further, sections of the academic community and major media warn that industry links and university commercialisation efforts threaten traditional research and scientific values, and accepted norms of academic life including academic freedom. Survey data reported in the paper show that, on balance, industry - research links are working reasonably well for Australian science and technology academics. Some 36.7% of respondents in our sample drawn from three major Australian universities received industry research support and this group tended to be better qualified, more senior and more productive in research than academics without such partnerships. Respondents generally were well aware of both the benefits and risks of industry funding. On the positive side, respondents identified the main benefits as the provision of additional resources, support and enhanced career opportunities for students, opportunities to apply basic research results to industrial problems, less red tape than with government funding, and enhanced university prestige. On the negative side, respondents were concerned about threats to research autonomy, undesirable consequences associated with the commercialisation of knowledge, the low intellectual level of some contract work, reduced time of talented researchers available for teaching, and pressures on researchers to spend increased time on commercial activities.     

Activities and Attitudes of Retired University Staff

A national sample of 1662 academic and academic related university staff, who had retired 3-5 years earlier, completed a postal survey about their current employment, research, other academic activities, and the academic resources available to them, and about their attitudes to retirement, and the extent of their leisure, voluntary, and other caring activities. Over two-thirds of academics and four-fifths of academic related staff had retired early. Younger staff were more often currently employed, but the employment rate amongst academics aged 66-73 was very much greater than in the general population. The extent of research and other academic activities was related to university rank rather than age, with professors and readers more committed, and less involved in leisure activities. The most frequent reasons for early retirement were dissatisfaction with changes in the universities and financial inducements. The majority said they were more contented because of retiring, and most would not have wanted to retire later than they did, but concerns were expressed about the failure of universities to give adequate status and resources to retired academics. There was some evidence that women were discriminated against in retirement.     

Personality-based faculty workload analysis

Faculty workload analyses have been with us for many years, but no study has ever grouped faculty by personality type or by academic rank. This paper examines the results of a study in which faculty at a large state university were classified according to Holland's theory of vocational choice. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that faculty members of the five Holland types not only differed on four self-reported measures of faculty effort, instruction, research, public service, instiutional-professional activities (all measured in hours per average week) but that the findings were supportive of Holland's theory. In addition, analysis by rank showed that while total hours per week were not statistically different among the ranks, hours in instructional and institutional-professional activities varied greatly but hours in research and public service did not. The conclusion is that changes in instructional workload will not affect research or public service activities of faculty members.     

Australian and international mature students: the daily challenges

In this paper, we explore the learning climate and possible obstacles faced by mature students enrolled in Australian universities. More specifically, using the Experience Sampling Method devised by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, we chart the daily activities of Australian and international students and examine these for factors which may facilitate or detract from their studies. Our sample comprised students who had taken mathematics as part of their first‐year load. Most were thus enrolled in science and related courses. Multiple data gathering methods were used. These provided coherent synopses of the participants' activities, lifestyles, motivations, and attitudes to study that allowed us to focus on individual as well as group experiences.     

Socialization of Doctoral Students to Academic Norms

Using the framework for graduate and professional student socialization developed by Weidman, Twale, and Stein (2001), this study addresses socialization of doctoral students to the academic norms of research and scholarship. Data are presented about the perceptions doctoral students in a social science discipline (sociology) and in educational foundations at a major research university have of the scholarly and collegial climates of their departments. Data on students' social relationships with faculty and peers as well as their reported participation in scholarly activities are also reported. A multivariate analysis provides support for the framework, affirming the importance of social interaction among both students and faculty as well as collegiality among faculty for creating a supportive climate for doctoral study that also has the potential to provide a strong foundation for subsequent academic and/or research careers by stimulating students' research and scholarly productivity.     

Protecting academic freedom in changing times: the role of Heads of Departments

In changing times for higher education that are dominated by a neoliberal ideology, we set out to uncover how Heads of Departments (HoDs) perceive their role with respect to supporting their staff and their academic freedom. Freedom to pursue academic research is seen as key to the generation of new knowledge yet it is potentially constrained by funding regimes and university accountability systems. As HoDs operate at the interface between university systems and individual academic projects, how they perceive their role can have a profound influence on the working environment of their departmental staff. The research study is located in two successful departments in a research intensive university in England. The study shows that the HoDs were not captured by the neoliberal discourse and aimed to protect their staff so they could ‘get on with their work’. In so doing they interpreted university demands to the best advantage of their departments but were not active in challenging university driven changes, thus raising questions about the effects of accommodating to change, so risking incremental change, and of how less successful departments might be able to protect their staff and their academic freedom.     

In search of the feeling of ‘belonging’ in higher education: undergraduate students transition into higher education

ABSTRACT

Previous research that evaluated first year students’ transition into university found that the values of ‘being, belonging and becoming’ were important in particular within the first few months and within the first year of university. From our previous work, we reported that three things matter to students: the academic staff they work with, the nature of their academic study and the feeling of belonging. This paper provides a further illumination to our work by reporting on the qualitative data collected in the same study. The study included 530 students from five cohorts over a five-year period. As part of the Student Experience Evaluation instrument, open-ended questions probed students about their early experiences of belonging and transition into university. This original research uses rich data to illuminate the scales and items from previous quantitative data analysis to explore ‘belonging’, triangulated with research from the field. This paper is timely due to increased emphasis placed on learning and teaching with the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework. Student satisfaction is not a simplistic measure and this study articulates the complexity of student belonging in Higher Education.     

Television and the quality of family life

One hundred seven adults' family activities and experiences were studied via the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). Respondents carried automatic paging devices and were randomly signalled to fill out self‐reports over the period of one week. While some scholars have claimed that communication during television viewing is nonexistent, talking occurred during 20 percent of family television time. Respondents who watched more television also spent more time with their families and reported feeling as well affectively while with family members as did light viewers. However, family viewing experiences were reported as being more passive than family activities generally. Heavier viewers also reported lower levels of activation during non‐TV family activities than did light viewers. Implications are discussed.     

Psychological and demographic predictors of undergraduate non-attendance at university lectures and seminars

Absenteeism from university teaching sessions is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon and remains a major concern to universities. Poor attendance has significant and detrimental effects on students themselves, their peers and teaching staff. There is, however, a lack of previous research investigating demographic and psychological predictors of non-attendance alongside salient reasons students offer for their absence; it is this ‘gap’ that the present study attempts to fill. We approached 618 undergraduate university students from a single UK university studying various courses to complete a bespoke questionnaire assessing their estimated percentage attendance at lectures and seminars over the academic year. Students answered demographic questions, completed psychometric tests of perceived confidence (Perceived Confidence for Learning) and university belongingness (Psychological Sense of School Membership), and rated the degree to which possible reasons for non-attendance applied to themselves. Multiple regression analyses were carried out separately for estimated attendance at lectures and seminars. Results demonstrated that significant predictors of poorer attendance for both scenarios were experiencing a lower sense of belongingness to university; working more hours in paid employment; having more social life commitments; facing coursework deadlines; and experiencing mental health issues. Improving a sense of belonging to university and targeting interventions at students working in paid employment may be effective means of increasing attendance. Providing support for students with mental health issues, structuring courses around coursework deadlines and helping students to organise their attendance around social activities could also be advantageous.     

How Social Class Differences Affect Students' Experience of University

The present paper outlines the experiences reported by students from different social class backgrounds who have recently graduated from university. Students from manual skilled and partly skilled backgrounds were classed as disadvantaged, while students from professional or intermediate backgrounds were classed as advantaged. Data were collected from the same cohort of students on seven occasions across their university career. Students completed questions about their family background, paid employment, financial concerns, participation in recreational activities, perceptions of academic quality and perceptions of social support. Results showed that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were less likely to have parents that attended university, more likely to have been in paid employment, less likely to have participated in non‐academic activities and spent fewer evenings per week socializing compared with students from advantaged backgrounds. Also, there was some evidence of less positive perceptions of social support among disadvantaged students. However, there were no social class differences in ratings of teaching quality and all students reported high levels of financial concern. These findings are discussed in relation to proposed changes to the way higher education is funded in Britain and the implications these changes will have on recruiting students from disadvantaged backgrounds.     

大学教师学术发表的历史演变与动力机制

自17世纪学术出版制度建立开始,西方大学教师学术发表动力不断增强。现代学术研究逐成建制,为大学教师作为研究者的发表活动注入原初动力。研究型大学的出现将学术研究与发表变成了教师基本的职责行为,进而成为教师聘任中的重要评价标准。大学对学术声誉的目标追求与大学绩效主义的治理手段相结合,推动教师不断提升学术产出。学术发表对于大学教师作为谋生工具的意义进一步凸显,乃至形成“不发表,就出局”的学术文化。     

Patterns of student employment in Russia†

This paper analyses the factors of combining study and work and the factors explaining intensity of work during study in Russia, based on cross-sectional survey data. The issue of how Russian students combine work and study is analysed through the set of financial, academic, social and demographic predictors, quality of university and quality of students. These factors may have an effect on student employment and student labour supply, and help shed light on what motivates students to enter the labour market. We discovered that 64.7% of Russian students combined study and work and most of them begin working during their third year of study. Our results indicate that factors associated with the quality of students, such as studying in a top university and participating in research activities, positively affect the probability of student employment, but negatively affect the intensity of employment. Financial motivations for student employment are also significant. We found that students receiving financial support from their families are less likely to be employed during their study and work less hours. However, we found no evidence that combining study and work affects students’ academic achievements.     

First-generation students' academic engagement and retention

This study investigates differences in academic engagement and retention between first-generation and non-first-generation undergraduate students. Utilizing the Student Experience in the Research University survey of 1864 first-year students at a large, public research university located in the United States, this study finds that first-generation students have lower academic engagement (as measured by the frequency with which students interacted with faculty, contributed to class discussions, brought up ideas from different courses during class discussions, and asked insightful questions in class) and lower retention as compared to non-first-generation students. Recommendations that higher education faculty can follow to promote the academic engagement and retention of first-generation students are addressed.     

‘You just try to find your own way’: the experience of newcomers to academia

The purpose of the research reported on in this article was to explore how newcomer staff members to the academy experience their entry into the academic discourse community. To this end, a generic qualitative research design was implemented to understand the meaning newcomers have constructed about academia and how they make sense of their experience of, and participation in, the academic environment. A purposeful sample of 20 newcomers to a South African university was selected to be interviewed. Within this university newly‐appointed academics are introduced to the academic environment via a two to three‐day general induction seminar. The data‐generating method used was in‐depth, recursive interviews, in which participants were prompted to narrate and reflect on their experiences. Data was analysed inductively by seeking core consistencies and meanings (themes) within the data linked to the purpose of the research. The inquiry revealed three main findings: (1) Newcomers had to change their existing perceptions and expectations about what it means to be an academic; (2) They experienced their entry into the academic context as a highly individualised process; and (3) Most newcomers initially operated ignorantly of many of the features of the community, its discourse and the complexity of its rules of interaction. The article proposes a three‐tier mentoring model that is conceptualised from a dialogic perspective as a means to assisting novice academics in entering and progressing within academia. We argue that the proposed model could also serve as a powerful transformation agent in the university, helping to build a diverse and strong academy.     

研究型大学教师学术信息行为调查与分析

文章通过问卷调查法,以南京大学、北京大学和中国人民大学三所研究型高校为对象,对教师科研活动中学术信息需要来源、学术信息获取与检索、学术信息交流、学术成果发布和传播等信息行为进行了调查和分析,揭示了研究型大学教师科研活动中一些具有重要意义的信息行为特征,为研究型大学教师科研方式变革创新提供了现实依据。     

RETIREES RETURN TO COLLEGE: AN EVALUATIVE STUDY AT ONE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

There has been a pronounced increase in the number of older Americans attending colleges and universities under tuition waiver programs, but there have been few reported studies of their educational experiences. The present research evaluated the tuition waiver program for retirees enrolled at the University of Maryland College Park. Completed questionnaires were received from 160 of 340 retirees who had been admitted to the university under this tuition waiver program. Additional data in structured follow‐up interviews were obtained for 139 of the 160 persons who returned questionnaires. Students attending the university under this program were an active, healthy, mobile, geographically stable, well‐educated group of men and women in their early years of retirement. Their academic interests centered in the arts and humanities, especially art, music, and foreign languages. Older students in this study reported that younger students and instructors were friendly, accepting, and did not treat them as different or older. Difficulties cited by older students attending the university were parking, registration, and the academic demands of keeping up with the class and meeting course requirements. The findings of this study suggest that a tuition waiver program well serves the needs of retirees to remain intellectually active, to explore academic areas long‐postponed during their working years, and to develop new or improve existing skills and interests.     

Problem-Based Learning is Compatible with Human Cognitive Architecture: Commentary on Kirschner,Sweller, and Clark (2006)

Academic emotions have largely been neglected by educational psychology, with the exception of test anxiety. In 5 qualitative studies, it was found that students experience a rich diversity of emotions in academic settings. Anxiety was reported most often, but overall, positive emotions were described no less frequently than negative emotions. Based on the studies in this article, taxonomies of different academic emotions and a self-report instrument measuring students' enjoyment, hope, pride, relief, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom (Academic Emotions Questionnaire [AEQ]) were developed. Using the AEQ, assumptions of a cognitive-motivational model of the achievement effects of emotions, and of a control/value theory of their antecedents (Pekrun, 1992b, 2000), were tested in 7 cross-sectional, 3 longitudinal, and 1 diary study using samples of university and school students. Results showed that academic emotions are significantly related to students' motivation, learning strategies, cognitive resources, self-regulation, and academic achievement, as well as to personality and classroom antecedents. The findings indicate that affective research in educational psychology should acknowledge emotional diversity in academic settings by addressing the full range of emotions experienced by students at school and university.     

美国大学中的行政权力及其对教师学术自由的影响

大学教师的学术自由在当今社会受到越来越多的制约,除了外部社会对大学教师的学术工作提出各种要求外,大学内部的行政权力也对教师的学术自由限制得越来越多。本研究主要通过美国大学的情况,分析大学行政权力影响教师学术自由的历史、表现以及原因,目的是要从保护学术自由的角度出发,让人们更深刻地认识到当今大学行政权力在学术活动中所扮演的角色和地位,从而进一步改进大学管理及其制度,以利于大学中学术的发展。