Educational Policies Committee Program Proposal, College of Engineering, May 15, 2015 - PhD Degree in Aerospace Engineering

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at USU seeks to offer a new PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) degree program in Aerospace Engineering to complement the current MS in Aerospace Engineering and the current MS and PhD programs in Mechanical Engineering

Students’ Perception about MPhil Leading to PhD Program in Library and Information Science: A Case Study

This paper reports findings of three focus group interviews conducted to obtain students’ perception about MPhil (Master of Philosophy) leading to PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) program in Library and Information Science (LIS) at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. The results represent four open-ended questions of discussion that comprise, (a) students’ opinion about the admission policy and procedure of this program, (b) students’ reflection on program of the study, (c) students’ view on the coursework curriculum and its relation with writing a research dissertation, and (d) students’ opinion about the availability of required facilities. The key findings reveal that this academic program is a great opportunity for the LIS professionals. Being in initial stage, it has certain skill related challenges ahead. Hence, preparing LIS students for the future leadership roles does involve teaching them technology skills, practical research skills, communication skills, and management and leadership skills. Further, the availability of required facilities needs improvement

Heutagogy and Researcher Education: Unleashing the Power of the Novice Researcher’s Agency

Novice researchers become experienced researchers by developing their skills in varied contexts, typically within higher education institutions as part of their university degrees. This chapter focuses on the novice researcher who progressively develops their research capacities during the process of completing a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy degree) within a higher education institution or university. Four established areas of research about the education of novice researchers, also known as research training, are examined: 1) the pedagogy of supervision; 2) threshold concepts of PhD candidates; 3) the Researcher Skill Development Framework; and 4) research metaphors. From these fields of research, practical recommendations are extricated to articulate how higher education institutions can promote learner agency, according to heutagogical principles, within the candidate’s doctoral journey. During this chapter, researchers are viewed as learners and the purpose of the chapter is to explore how the agency of these learner-researchers can be recognised and promoted, in practical terms, within the tertiary education sector

Characteristics of Clinical Shoulder Research Over the Last Decade: A Review of Shoulder Articles in \u3cem\u3eThe Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery\u3c/em\u3e from 2004 to 2014

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine characteristics and trends in published shoulder research over the last decade in a leading orthopaedic journal. Methods: We examined all clinical shoulder articles published in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery from 2004 to 2014. The number of citations, authorship, academic degrees of the authors, country and institution of origin, topic, level of evidence, positive or nonpositive outcome, and inclusion of validated patient-reported outcome measures were assessed for each article. Results: Shoulder articles that included an author with an advanced research degree (MD [Doctor of Medicine] with a PhD [Doctor of Philosophy] or other advanced degree) increased during the study period (p = 0.047). Level-I, II, and III studies were more likely to have an author with an advanced research degree, and Level-IV studies were more likely to have MDs only (p = 0.03). Overall, there was great variability of outcome measures, with at least thirty-nine different validated or nonvalidated outcome measures reported. Conclusions: Over the last decade, there was an improvement in the level of evidence of shoulder articles published in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery that corresponds with recent emphasis on evidence-based medicine. A consensus is needed in shoulder research for more consistent application of validated patient-reported outcome measurement tools

The research crisis in American institutions of complementary and integrative health: one proposed solution for chiropractic profession.

A crisis confronts the Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH) teaching institutions in the US. Research infrastructure is needed to build and sustain productive research programs and retain their own research faculty. In most health professions, this infrastructure is largely built through research grants. In CIH, most educational institutions are funded through student tuition, which has historically also had to be the source for building their research programs. Only a limited number of these institutions have emerged as National Institute of Health (NIH) grant-funded programs. As a result, the American chiropractic institutions have seen a retrenchment in the number of active research programs. In addition, although research training programs e.g., NIH's K awards are available for CIH researchers, these programs generally result in these researchers leaving their institutions and depriving future CIH practitioners of the benefit of being trained in a culture of research. One proposed solution is to leverage the substantial research infrastructure and long history of collaboration available at the RAND Corporation (https://www.rand.org) This article presents the proposed five components of the RAND Center for Collaborative CIH Research and the steps required to bring it to being: 1) the CIH Research Network - an online resource and collaborative site for CIH researchers; 2) the CIH Research Advisory Board - the governing body for the Center selected by its members; 3) the RAND CIH Interest Group - a group of RAND researchers with an interest in and who could provide support to CIH research; 4) CIH Researcher Training - access to existing RAND research training as well as the potential for the Center to provide a research training home for those with training grants; and 5) CIH RAND Partnership for Research - a mentorship program to support successful CIH research. By necessity the first step in the Center's creation would be a meeting between the heads of interested CIH institutions to work out the details and to obtain buy-in. The future success of CIH-directed research on CIH will require a pooling of talent and resources across institutions; something that the American chiropractic institutions have not yet been able to achieve. This article discusses one possible solution

Oral History Interview with Arnoud De Meyer: Conceptualising SMU

This is an abridged version of the original interview. Please contact the Library at [email protected] for access to the full version of the transcript and/or audio recording.</p