Supporting law students’ skills development online – a strategy to improve skills and reduce student stress?

Law students internationally suffer from a high level of psychological distress compared with the general and student populations, and anecdotal evidence suggests that students developing skills without adequate support experience significant stress and anxiety. This article considers an initiative at one Australian law school to develop a degree-wide structured online skills development programme as a means to both improve student skills acquisition and reduce student stress. The project implements, through the use of learning technology, the principles proposed by McKinney for making small changes to law school teaching, informed by self-efficacy theory, which can have powerful results

Influencers of effective partnership working between voluntary community sector organisations in Liverpool

With the election of a Coalition Government in May 2010, the concept of “partnership” has never been so prominent in public policy. This builds on a foundation of partnership working playing an increasing role in the policy arena following on from ‘New Labour’s Modernisation Strategy’ and initiatives such as area regeneration partnerships. Partnership working has become the recognised solution to addressing entrenched complex social issues, such as poverty, based on the recognition that a single public agency cannot address the complexity of social problems alone. Furthermore, the Voluntary Community Sector (VCS) is becoming of greater concern to policy makers with the recognition that the sector plays a fundamental public service delivery role, especially to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. This remit is likely to increase with the publication in October 2010, of the Coalition’s Government strategy for Voluntary Community Sector organisations, which places the sector as central to transforming public service delivery and building the Government’s civil society vision. However, it is well-established that the public sector as a whole is facing in mounting finanical pressure and all public agencies will be required to deliver both greater efficiencies and service improvements. Against a background of increasing partnerships, a more visible role for the VCS, and significantly reducing resources, VCS organisations will increasingly have to work together to achieve their aims and maintain service delivery to vulnerable people. Therefore, this research will seek to understand the drivers and factors influencing partnership working between VCS organisations, through undertaking a comprehensive literature review and primary research. An ‘interpretivist’ paradigm underpins a case study approach with five VCS organisations in Liverpool. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with key managers from the Case Study organisations supported by a limited amount of documentary evidence. The primary research data will be analysed to identify key themes and the outcomes explored in the context of the literature. An analysis of specific factors influencing partnerships will be undertaken to improve our understanding of effective partnerships between VCS organisations

The Neighbourhood Links Project: Interim Evaluation Report, July 2012

An interim service evaluation study to identify the key elements of the Neighbourhood Links Project, funded by Big Lottery and delivered by TorrAGE in North Devon, that improve the quality of life and well-being of older residents (aged 60+) in one district in North Devon

Establishment of risk control mechanisms for farmers' microcredit in China's rural areas: the case of HN Province

This thesis aims to address the practical and institutional problems in the development of farmers' microcredit to ultimately contribute to achieve sustainable development. The author, based on his long-term work experience in rural finance, analyzes the current situation of microcredit in rural areas and presents a set of mechanisms for risk management and scientific pricing of farmers’ in the framework of the construction of an iterative model with the support of statistical analysis. To be specific, based on improving farmers' scheduled repayment rate and a study of farmers' microcredit factors, criteria are formulated for selecting credible borrowers among farmers; Making full use of the decisive role of the market, an effective risk management model is gradually formulated that helps to foster a credit-based financial service environment in rural areas. Besides, software engineering is utilized to optimize and control farmers' microcredit risk management and scientific pricing of credit products. The study suggests that the farmers' microcredit risk control mechanisms established can effectively enable farmers' microcredit financial institutions to function as a main market player, while overcoming theoretical and practical difficulties in microcredit for farmers. Four suggestions are also presented. First, ensure that farmers enjoy the "right of approval" when applying for loans; second, transfer the "right of pricing" loan interests to farmers; third, transfer the "right of salary distribution" and risk control of loans to loan officers; and fourth, entrust the "management right" of loans to the system.Esta tese tem como objetivo abordar os problemas práticos e institucionais no desenvolvimento do microcrédito dos agricultores para, finalmente, contribuir para alcançar o desenvolvimento sustentável. O autor, com base em sua experiência do trabalho de longo prazo em finanças rurais, analisa a situação atual do microcrédito em áreas rurais e apresenta um conjunto de mecanismos para a gestão do risco e a determinação científica de preços para o microcrédito dos agricultores no quadro da construção de um modelo interativo com o apoio da análise estatística. Mais especificamente, com base na melhoria da previsão da taxa de reembolso do microcrédito pelos agricultores e em um estudo dos fatores condicionantes desse reembolso, são formulados critérios para selecionar mutuários confiáveis entre os agricultores; Fazendo pleno uso do papel decisivo do mercado, é formulado gradualmente um modelo eficaz de gestão de risco que ajuda a promover nas áreas rurais um ambiente favorável de serviços financeiros baseados no crédito. Além disso, a engenharia de software é utilizada para otimizar e controlar a gestão de riscos de microcrédito dos agricultores e a determinação científica dos preços dos produtos de crédito. O estudo demonstra que o mecanismo de controle de risco de microcrédito dos agricultores assim estabelecido pode efetivamente permitir que as instituições financeiras de microcrédito funcionem como um participante principal do mercado, ultrapassando dificuldades que a teoria e a prática têm revelado no microcrédito para os agricultores. Quatro sugestões são ainda apresentadas. Em primeiro lugar, garantir que os agricultores desfrutem do "direito de aprovação" quando solicitam empréstimos. Em segundo lugar, transferir para os agricultores "direito de determinação do preço" da taxa de juro do empréstimo. Em terceiro lugar, passar o "direito de distribuição salarial" e o controle de risco dos empréstimos para os agentes de crédito. Em quarto lugar, confiar ao sistema o "direito de gestão" dos empréstimos

implications to CRM and public policy

Thesis(Doctoral) --KDI School:Ph.D in Public Policy,2017With the advent of the Internet and Mobile Communications, the nature of communication has changed significantly over the past few decades .The promotion of technologies among the common people has been found to be an important element of public policy to reduce the digital divide. The rapid advancement of information technology (IT), automation systems and data communications systems leads to improvement of intelligent transport systems (ITS). ITS covers all branches of transportation and involves all dynamically interacting elements of transportation system, i.e. transport means, infrastructure, drivers and commuters. However, few researches have been carried out in the context of public sectors, especially that involving ITS. The purpose of this study is to investigate the justice dimensions that influence satisfaction and public confidence in the context of ITS and to explore implications to Citizen/Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and public policy. This study investigates the following research questions: i) Do levels of perceived justice (distributive, procedural and interactional) in ITS environment affect levels of satisfaction/dissatisfaction? ii) Do levels of satisfaction form ITS affect levels of public confidence? iii) Do levels of dissatisfaction form ITS affect levels of willingness to complain? iv) Do levels of dissatisfaction form ITS affect levels of complaining behavior? v) Do levels of complaining behavior in ITS environment affect levels of satisfaction with complaint handling when the complaints are resolved based on three dimensions (distributive, procedural and interactional)of justice? vi) Do levels of willingness to complain in ITS environment affect levels of public confidence? vii) Do levels of satisfaction with complaint handling in ITS environment affect levels of public confidence? The findings of this study imply that ITS users are more importantly perceive to equity and equality issues, or distributive justice. The employment of ITS should not be limited to the technical aspects of ITS, but should focus more attention on the subjective domain of justice. The results of this study also have important implications for public complaint handling in terms of increasing public satisfaction with ITS, which is crucial for CRM.Part I: Exploring Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Public Confidence in the ITS Environment; Implications to CRM and Public Policy Part II: ComparingSatisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Public Confidence in the ITS Environment in Public and Private Transportation Part III: Implementation Strategy of ITS in Developing CountriesdoctoralpublishedA. K. M. Anisur RAHMAN