Evaluating the Efficiency of Research in Academic Departments: an Empirical Analysis in an Italian Region

This paper investigates the efficiency of university departments in science, technology and medicine in an Italian Region (Lombardy). The aim of the paper is twofold: (i) to analyse the changes in productivity in recent years (from 2004 and 2007); and (ii) to detect factors that are potentially affecting efficiency. The research benefited from a new and unique dataset (called QuESTIO) developed by the Lombardy Regional Government. Using facilities and academic staff as inputs and research grants and publications as outputs, the research activity of academic departments was modelled. The methodological approach for computing efficiency scores is (DEA) Data Envelopment Analysis; Malmquist indexes have been used to measure changes in productivity, while Kruskal‐Wallis tests were employed to study the potential determinants of efficiency. Two main results were obtained. First, the academic departments improved their efficiency but, at the same time, the efficiency frontier worsened. Second, external and measurable factors (such as scientific sector, proportion of tenured staff, location, etc.) have a limited impact in explaining efficiency differentials. The policy implications of both results are discussed.     

Recent Developments in the Funding of University Research

The UGC norm-based allocation of 1986, the current proposals for the rationalisation of departments, and the proposals of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils (ABRC) for R, X and T class universities are assessed against the actual operations of productive science departments and their patterns of expenditure on research as revealed born a recent sample survey. It is concluded that the UGC's norm-based allocation did not in any systematic way secure increases related to current research activity except for those cases where this came from the student number-based teaching element. Only the creation of larger departments seems likely to increase research output, and often that will best be achieved by increases in student numbers and their associated funding. Institutions similar to T class universities can be achieved by encouraging the recruitment of students at the expense of the public sector, but the distribution between R and X class universities is unsustainable.     

History and Research Assessment Exercises

While it is recognised that Research Assessment Exercises stimulate activity and that successive history panels have sensitively developed appropriate procedures, nonetheless there is much unease among university historians about the impact of RAEs on their subject. This paper argues that such concern reflects characteristics of the discipline that make selective funding of university departments of history especially awkward. Historians study as individuals and as specialists, not in departmental teams. Resources-especially time free from teaching and administrative burdens-have not been equally distributed between university departments, and in consequence RAEs in history are likely simply to confirm the wisdom of past funding decisions. The identification of 'international excellent' historians is particularly problematic. And distortions arising from the tendency of university managements to treat RAEs as a game rewarding the tactically astute exert a damaging influence: good research will not be achieved by bullying historians to produce a monograph for every RAE.     

A time allocation study of university faculty

Many previous time allocation studies treat work as a single activity and examine trade-offs between work and other activities. This paper investigates the at-work allocation of time among teaching, research, grant writing and service by science and engineering faculty at top US research universities. We focus on the relationship between tenure (and promotion) and time allocation, and we find that tenure and promotion do affect the allocation of time. The specific trade-offs are related to particular career paths. For example, full professors spend increasing time on service at the expense of teaching and research while longer-term associate professors who have not been promoted to full professor spend significantly more time teaching at the expense of research time. Finally, our results suggest that women, on average, allocate more hours to university service and less time to research than do men.     

Transitions in the manifestations of the research culture of Spanish universities

Universities must adapt to the challenges of social competitiveness and its new demands but there is still little evidence of how these changes are perceived by the academics. This paper provides insight on this matter and analyses the research culture of five Spanish universities from the perspective of the different academic bodies. A qualitative methodology was employed in the study based on 43 in-depth interviews with institutional leaders (vice-rectors and managers), responsible for research activity, (directors of research centres) and individual researchers (doctoral and postdoctoral researchers). The results point to a clear change in the institutional mission that moves from an institutional model where teaching and research cohabitate together towards another where research activity intensifies. The manifestations of the new research culture is characterised by the quest for efficiency and competitiveness at all levels and bodies. Despite the changes in the university model, participants perceive that the traditional and new models coexist and affect the university structure, the functioning of the centres and departments and the dynamics of the research teams which causes dissatisfaction of the researchers that in this context have to deal with the increasing pressure to publish and obtain external funding to assure ‘survival’. The research culture is also characterised as one that moves towards the scarcity of support measures for training, the confusion perceived between the political discourse and academic practice and the attempt to reposition the university in a social context, through redefining its role and fostering transfer activities.     

Adopting Web‐Based Learning and Teaching: A case study in higher education

Most universities worldwide are becoming distance education providers through adopting web‐based learning and teaching via the introduction of learning management systems that enable them to open their courses to both on‐ and off‐campus students. Whether this is an effective introduction depends on factors that enable and impede the adoption of such systems and their related pedagogical strategies. This study examines such factors related to adopting a learning management system in a large multicampus urban Australian university. The research method used case study approaches and purposively selected the sample consisting of innovative teaching academics from across the university, who used web‐based approaches to teach both on‐ and off‐campus learners. The data were analyzed using a combination of Rogers’ theory of diffusion of innovations and actor‐network theory and revealed a series of enabling and impeding factors faced by pioneering technology‐adopter teaching academics, some of which are technology related while others are policy related and common to large multicampus institutions. The study found that safe adoption environments recognizing career priorities of academics are a result of the continuous negotiation between the evolving institution and its innovative and creative staff. The article concludes with a series of conditions that would form a safe, enabling, and encouraging environment for technology‐adopter teaching academics in a large multicampus higher education setting.     

新时期高校教学秘书应该具备的岗位意识

教学秘书是联系学校教务管理部门与具体教学单位之间、领导和教师之间的纽带,是沟通教师与学生之间的桥梁,处在教学运转的中心枢纽位置。新时期高校教学秘书不仅要充分认识这项工作的重要性,还要努力提高自己各方面的综合素质,掌握现代教育管理理论,提高教学管理技能,增强服务意识、协调意识、敬业意识、责任意识、效率意识、信息意识、创新意识、研究意识等必要的岗位意识,以胜任日益复杂化、综合化和规范化的教学管理工作。     

Developing Design through a Creative Problem‐Solving Process: A Group Community Art Project

For the past few years, creativity has gradually become an important element in the national cultivation of talent in Taiwan. Although traditionally art education is closely linked with creativity, the academic research on general art education is very insufficient. Therefore, the goal of this research is to investigate how creativity could be cultivated in curriculum planning for general art education at technology universities as well as what students’ learning process was when they participated in a course's creative activity. The research applied the theory and steps of creative problem‐solving (CPS) on a general art course to design a group practical activity combining with the local community. This involved converting the steps of creative problem‐solving into different stages of group design activities with the goal of constructing a design process equivalent to the process of problem‐solving. The main research results revealed that students could experience the problem‐solving process through group design activities and develop their divergent and convergent thinking at the same time. Moreover, the cooperative learning model is the most appropriate teaching strategy for students from non‐art‐related departments when cultivating their creativity.     

中国古代游牧民族与农耕民族在经济上的互补与非平衡需求

中国古代游牧化与农耕化间关系的基础是经济上的互补性，这种互补性关系的形成是由不同化所分布的自然环境决定的。而不同生态环境下生计方式的差异又决定着互补关系的内容及其发展方向。历史上游牧民族与农耕民族间在经济上互补关系的主要内容有朝贡贸易，互市贸易以及战争这种非正常的互补形式。但是，在经济互补关系的实际运行过程中，双方在产品需求方面是一种“非平衡需求”关系，而这种关系又往往成为互补关系中各种矛盾的诱因。     

Transformations in learning and teaching through Initial Teacher Education

In England, little research has been carried out into how pre‐service secondary English teachers transform what they know as they learn to teach. They are seldom asked to reflect explicitly on the connections between the pedagogy of their undergraduate studies and their pedagogical experiences as student teachers. The initial teacher education committee of the National Association for the Teaching of English decided to explore these connections by asking student teachers on English Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in five different university departments of education to respond to a series of questions at the start and end of the academic year 2004–2005. The questions fall into four broad areas: student teachers' experiences as learners at undergraduate level and developing ideas about teaching; the nature of the subject English; tensions encountered during the PGCE course; new learning about teaching. The purpose of this article is to discuss some patterns emerging from the research. The most prominent of these is student teachers' realisation that good teaching comes from teachers seeing themselves as learners. We argue that ‘reflexivity’ ( Moore, 2004 ) is a valuable way to help student teachers begin to understand this transformation from learner into learning teacher.     

MEASUREMENT OF UNIVERSITY OUTPUT: MODEL AND CASE STUDY

A model for measuring output of university departments is developed. The model includes teaching, research and other activities. The weighting factors for each activity is given. The model is applied to the departments of the College of Commerce of Kuwait University. Discussions and recommendations are presented.     

Allocation of academic staff in universities

This article is concerned with allocation of academic staff between departments in a university. The article considers general principles of staff allocation and then goes on to consider specific techniques for university staff allocation. Practical problems likely to be associated with implementing the results of a given method of staff allocation are also discussed. Finally the question of decentralised decision-making and possibility of allowing some freedom of choice between appointment of academic staff and other resources is considered.     

Quality enhancement for accountability and transformation: A framework for the future

This paper examines the performance of Thai public universities in terms of efficiency, using a non‐parametric approach called data envelopment analysis. Two efficiency models, the teaching efficiency model and the research efficiency model, are developed and the analysis is conducted at the faculty level. Further statistical analyses are also performed to examine the difference in performance between two types of public universities, namely the government universities and the autonomous universities. Then, the differences in efficiency between university locations and types of faculties are examined. The results indicate that the autonomous universities outperform the government universities in terms of research efficiency. In addition, the universities in provincial areas and the faculties in the health science group are efficient in terms of teaching. Recommendations are also provided for the university administrators to improve the performance of public universities in Thailand.     

借鉴英国职教经验 探索高职发展道路

英国的职业教育经验主要是：重视职教立法；坚持“以学生为中心”的教育理念：普通教育与职业教育相互结合；教育部门与企业界密切合作；大力推行国家职业资格制度：在课程改革方面，倡导“能力本位的教育与培训”。借鉴英国经验提出“一个目标、两个依靠、三级平台”的办学模式和建设三支队伍的思想。即以准确的培养目标定位统揽教育教学的全过程：依靠行业组织和行业研究会办学；建立“校企互动”的人才培养模式；通过搭建工具学科、专业基础理论和专业技能三级教学平台，按照不同的要求分层次开展教学活动，确保学生的素质达到培养目标设定的要求；建设“理论型”、“技能型”和“双师型”三支各具特色、互为补充、相互促进、共同发展的教师队伍，形成实现培养目标的生力军。     

Ideologies and the measurement of academic effectiveness

Relationships between ideologies and organizational effectiveness indicators are examined for a sample of 35 university departments. Most differences in research and teaching effectiveness across different fields can be attributed to dissimilar ideologies. Implications for effectiveness evaluations involving university organizations are discussed, and questions are suggested for empirical investigation.     

Student learning and perceptions of the academic environment

This paper examines the effects of the organisation of curricula, teaching, and assessment on student learning and looks at the different demands which different academic environments make on their students. After a brief review of research into learning contexts in higher education, data from a course perceptions questionnaire are presented. The principal dimensions which students themselves use to characterise academic environments are identified. The perceptions of students in six departments at one British university are compared; it is concluded that students in different subject areas see themselves to be studying in markedly different environments. The results also suggest students' evaluations of the teaching and the courses in each department. Data from the course perceptions questionnaire are supported and amplified by a preliminary analysis of results from semi-structured interviews of students in the six departments. The most important factor to emerge from the item analysis — the degree to which students feel that their teachers provide a facilitant atmosphere for learning — is confirmed. Students' perceptions of their departments and their teachers are shown to exert important influences on their approaches to learning. It is also suggested that a student's perception of a particular learning task influences the level at which he tackles it.     

Improving instruction of veteran physics professors

In spite of the abundance of publications describing university faculty development programs and activities, little is known about the effectiveness of such programs on specific disciplines or subject areas. The fact that differences have been identified in the dimensions on which students of different university departments rate their teachers suggests that instructors of different departments need different types of programs for teaching improvement. This article describes a study that has looked into methods for improving instruction of university physics full professors with many years of teaching experience. Two methods for this aim were examined for effectiveness: a workshop and individualized consultation, both augmenting students' midterm ratings of their instructors. Analysis of pre- and postworkshop questionnaires reveals impressive improvement on the majority of items, particularly those of specific teaching techniques discussed in the workshop, but not on the global ratings of the teacher. The special consultation procedure has been shown to bring about substantial increase on overall teaching performance. We conclude that veteran teachers are often unable to improve significantly their overall teaching performance when provided with midterm feedback from students' questionnaires or when participating in a workshop for teaching improvement. Improving their instruction requires substantial and continuous expert consultation as well as investing substantial time and efforts of their own.     

The Teaching Practices Inventory: A New Tool for Characterizing College and University Teaching in Mathematics and Science

We have created an inventory to characterize the teaching practices used in science and mathematics courses. This inventory can aid instructors and departments in reflecting on their teaching. It has been tested with several hundred university instructors and courses from mathematics and four science disciplines. Most instructors complete the inventory in 10 min or less, and the results allow meaningful comparisons of the teaching used for the different courses and instructors within a department and across different departments. We also show how the inventory results can be used to gauge the extent of use of research-based teaching practices, and we illustrate this with the inventory results for five departments. These results show the high degree of discrimination provided by the inventory, as well as its effectiveness in tracking the increase in the use of research-based teaching practices.     

Academics’ Views of the Relative Roles and Responsibilities of Teachers and Learners in a First‐Year University Course

University teachers often see first‐year as a training ground for students, acculturating them to university expectations and requirements following their secondary school experience. By later years, students are typically expected to know what is required of a ‘university student’. However, the assumption behind this is that different academic staff hold similar views of university teaching and learning and that those teaching first and later years would be in agreement on what is expected of a student at different levels — an assumption which was implicit in the university department described in this article.

The aim of this article is to present the range of views shown by academic staff within one department about the relative roles and responsibilities of staff as teachers and of students as learners at first‐year level. This is of interest because, at least in this department, the degree of variation which was found was unexpected, generating unrealistic expectations and assumptions about students. This led‐to‐the generation of departmental strategies for improving communication about such issues amongst staff, with the intention of making differing views explicit. The lesson which may be of general value is the importance of ensuring structured opportunities for staff within departments to share their views and expectations about teaching and learning.