Search

Higher Education Institutions are expected to stimulate the innovation system and to contribute to the development of societies in a global perspective. Within this context, there is an increasing focus on internationalization. HEIs are developing institutional mechanisms to support internationalization while academics are expected to carry specific practices that allow them to improve the internationalization of knowledge production. At the same time, they are encouraged to engage with non-academic partners to co-produce and transfer knowledge, contributing, in this way, to economic and social development. Although there is some research on the impact of internationalization on academic entrepreneurship, studies on the effects in other dimensions of academic engagement with society are almost absent. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing the relationship between academics' internationalization practices and perceptions and the development of different types of academic engagement. Our analysis draws on quantitative analysis with data provided by an international survey (APIKS) and explores the Portuguese context. Findings show that the different practices and perspectives on internationalization impact differently on the way scientists engage. While there are positive effects of internationalization of research on engagement, the time academics stay abroad and the high focus on publishing in internationally high-rated journals may negatively affect academics' orientation towards the local community. This paper contributes to the debate on the role of the internationalization in the context of a knowledge-based society, considering different dimensions and a broad spectrum of knowledge-based engagement activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education landscape is continually evolving, with educators adapting to meet the needs, aspirations, and expectations of their students. Data technology and virtual-learning systems have become vital components in higher education operations, with many institutions incorporating online frameworks and innovations. The aims of the study to evaluate the effectiveness of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) using university platforms for online teaching and learning in Indonesia and Malaysia, focusing on students' perspectives. The research utilizes the CIPP, which stands for Context, Input, Process, and Product appraisal framework proposed by Stufflebeam (Journal of Research and Development in Education, 5, 19-25, 1971). The study includes all students who take English as their subject in the English Department Program, as well as English lecturers. The stratified random sampling approach was employed for data collection. Qualitative data gathered through interviews with educators from both institutions, while written papers provide additional insights. For quantitative data, a modified questionnaire with 63 items divided into six sections and five score scales were disseminated online through the Survey123 program. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the questionnaire results. Smart-PLS was utilized for barrier element analysis, using PLS-SEM for causal predictive analysis and consideration of reflective and formative factors. Figure 1 presents the conceptual model, illustrating the connections between exogenous and endogenous latent components in the study. By integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches, this research provides valuable contributions to the understanding of CLT's impact on online education in these settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to study machine learning models to determine their performance in classifying students by gender based on their perception of complex thinking competency. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 605 students from a private university in Mexico with the eComplexity instrument. In this study, we consider the following data analyses: 1) predict students' gender based on their perception of complex thinking competency and sub-competencies from a 25 items questionnaire, 2) analyze models' performance during training and testing stages, and 3) study the models' prediction bias through a confusion matrix analysis. Our results confirm the hypothesis that the four machine learning models (Random Forest, Support Vector Machines, Multi-layer Perception, and One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network) can find sufficient differences in the eComplexity data to classify correctly up to 96.94% and 82.14% of the students' gender in the training and testing stage, respectively. The confusion matrix analysis revealed partiality in gender prediction among all machine learning models, even though we have applied an oversampling method to reduce the imbalance dataset. It showed that the most frequent error was to predict Male students as Female class. This paper provides empirical support for analyzing perception data through machine learning models in survey research. This work proposed a novel educational practice based on developing complex thinking competency and machine learning models to facilitate educational itineraries adapted to the training needs of each group to reduce social gaps existing due to gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularisation of higher education supports UNESCO's aim of developing inclusive and equitable quality education to achieve the fourth Sustainable Development Goal. However, the effect of popularising higher education on economic growth and poverty alleviation remains unexplored. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of higher education and adult education within populations (popularisation of higher education) on economic growth (gross domestic product; GDP) and the poverty line using panel data from 38 countries. OLS and quantile regression were performed using data for the period 1995–2021 extracted from the OECD and World Bank databases. The results showed that the population segments with higher education had a significantly positive impact on GDP growth. Moreover, an increased proportion of the population with higher education, of working age, was found to be a contributing factor to GDP growth. Popularising higher education also played a positive role during the initial stage of social and economic development. This study also highlighted that popularising higher education play a key role to influence a country's educational development and scientific and technological innovation drives the deepening of a country's economy. It suggested that both national and local governments worldwide should pay much attention to the popularisation degree of higher education to greatly improve the innovative ability of talents and scientific and technological innovation in higher education for both the economic growth and poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the purposeful introduction of the pedagogy of student-centred education (SCE) in one educational institution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to consider its cultural compatibility. The study was undertaken in the largest higher education (HE) institution in the country where a key element of the institution's two strategic plans over a nine-year period was to blend traditional and innovative teaching methods, including student centred approaches, into programmes of study. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is used to analyse the perspectives of seven non-citizen, Western teachers, as they recontextualise their practice. Drawing on Heidegger, the study explores the philosophical nature and significance of place as a way of thinking about the world. Findings revealed aspects of the teachers' student-centred practice are challenging; the universal value of SCE is understood in relative rather than absolute terms with an overall need to diversify universal imaginings of pedagogy. Centralised curricula, high stakes final assessments and individualised performance management models ultimately determined learning experiences, leaving little room for any sustained inquiry into the recontextualisation of SCE. The study concludes that pedagogy is inescapably situated: practiced in terms of place orientated thinking. Transformation necessitates an epistemic institution where change is a public endeavour and teachers are positioned inside participatory processes with possibilities to renegotiate, rearticulate and resignify pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]