Graduates’ Voices: The Link Between University Graduates’ Study and Job Experiences in East Africa

Studies on what programmes graduates studied while at the University, and how this ties in with employment; “Graduate tracer studies”, have now spread worldwide. Such studies help inform and revitalize university programmes thus; they improve quality of higher education and learning since they provide important feedback results for use. In addition, this paper argues that graduate tracer studies also help to analyse how competencies acquired by the graduates during their university study relate to their jobs, and how such can help in understanding of the relevance of university programmes to the job market. Basically, we attempt to answer if and how university training produces competencies applied at work, or if there is a mismatch between training and work? The paper is discussed within the context of two connecting variables; study outcomes at university and the job situation. The paper answers two research questions thus; how is the graduates’ transition to the labour market? and, what competencies are utilised by graduates at work? From a graduate tracer study conducted at Moi University and results analysed from 10 graduate tracer studies done in East Africa, we argue that graduates offer feedback that universities can intrinsically use to improve study programmes including curricula, service and administration, but they importantly, provide results that link study to work environments. There is a strong relationship between the field of study undertaken by graduates and their work.  Graduates from Moi University and from East African Universities reported robust competencies acquired from their studies that are important for work. The paper concludes that graduates obtain from university studies, essential competencies that are relevant for work on the job market. The paper informs the East African higher education landscape about how graduate tracer study results are useful, and in specific terms, how universities in the region are training graduates for relevant competencies they use on the job market. Keywords: Graduate Tracer Studies, UNITRACE, Competencies, Employment and Work. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-18-12 Publication date:June 30th 201

Conducting Graduate Tracer Studies for Quality Assurance in East African Universities: A Focus on Graduate Students Voices on Quality Culture

The purpose of this paper is to propose a guide for graduate trace studies (GTS) to be adopted by universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) in East Africa. Their essential role notwithstanding, graduate tracer studies present viable opportunities through which quality assurance (QA) can be institutionalized and mainstreamed in activities of HEIs in East Africa (EA). Moi University is embracing graduate tracer studies triggered by the DAAD UNITRACE initiative much for the reason of generating from immediate users of university academic services, nuanced and evidenced information requisite for improvement of university education and service programmes. This paper is presented as a proposal for a GTS guide for East Africa higher institutions of learning (HEIs) that if accepted shall benchmark through GTS methodology and results for use to entrench a culture of quality assurance at universities. The objective of this paper thus, is to propose a methodological guide for graduate trace studies suitable for East Africa Universities. Using experiences, methodologies, results and lessons of a pioneer graduate tracer survey conducted at Moi University, the paper posits a seven staged GTS guide that fits the needs for East Africa. Information feedback, recommendations and evaluative proposals made by graduates about their experiences during degree study and transition to the job market immensely help to improve the quality of education and services at the University (table 1). This paper should arouse our desire to initiate and entrench GTS as means by which we can achieve quality assurance at universities and HEIs in East Africa. Originality and value of this paper lies in its first ever proposal for a guide for GTS suitable and domesticated for East Africa. Key Words: GTS Guide, Methodology, Results Utilization, Quality Assurance, Higher Education Institutions

Phenotyping of Sorghum Lines for Resistance to African Stem Borer (Sesamia Calamistis)

Stem borer (Sesamia calamistis) is a serious insect pest of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) resulting in grain yield losses ranging between 15-80%.  However, genotypes showing complete resistance to these borers have not been identified in Nigeria. Utilization of resistant varieties in combination with other methods of control would offer a sustainable strategy for S. calamistis management in sorghum production. The objective of this study was to validate the acclaimed resistance in the materials received from Kenya and India in Nigerian environment and to screen and ascertain the status of some Nigerian Sorghum to Sesamia calamistis. Eighty-eight sorghum lines were artificially infested with the eggs of the stem borers at two different environment (Field and Screen House) using alpha-lattice design, consisting of 11 plots in eight blocks, replicated twice. Data were collected on leaf feeding, number of dead-hearts, cumulative stem tunnel length, number of exit holes, and selected agronomic traits.  There were significant (p<0.01) differences among the test genotypes for all the traits measured. Based on the selection index, 15% of genotypes were categorized as resistant, 42%  as moderately resistant,33 as moderately susceptible and 10% as susceptible.13 genotypes showed resistance across the environments (field and screen house): ICSB464, ICSL71086, SSV20041-2YELLOW, ICSL71018, ICSR94032, ICSV700, ICSL71193, ICSR94030, ICSL71253, ICSL71268, ICSL71023, ICSL71061 and ICSL71137 were resistant with selection index ranging from 0.0 to 0.5. These sorghum lines with various resistance to S. calamistis could be used as source of resistance and as parents in sorghum improvement programme in breeding for resistance to stem borer. Keywords: Genotypes, novel source of resistance, Sesamia calamistis, Sorghum bicolor DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/11-18-04 Publication date:September 30th 202

The ‘Urbanforest’ and ‘Green space’ Classification Model in the Spatial Arrangement of Registro-SP, Brazil

The necessity of handling green areas relating to urban settings has become one of the vital environmental challenges in view of several accumulated environmental problems in the last few decades. In United States and Canada, many investments are being made for new techniques and instruments that are needed in environmental planning involving urban forest researches both in the local and national scale. However, there are few reports on urban forest classification connecting spatial characteristics, physical structures involving pattern and process. With the objective to classify urban green areas for integrated approach, this research have focused on urban pattern for an effective understanding of urban forest concept, green areas and urban vegetation types. The urban morphology in consistency with the urban forest Focus Chat (FC) recently designed has been applied to characterize spatial categories of urban vegetation involved in the urban arrangement of Registro-SP. Method has integrated zones, patterns and processes for technical analyses to contemplate the urban dynamics, occupation and land use. Categories of urban forest and vegetation types were derived for the urban planning and system management. The resulting pattern can be technically monitored in the use of suitable GIS (Geographical Information System) software for physical and environmental records.

Measuring the Impact on Farmers of Agricultural Radio and Television Programs in Southwest Nigeria

In Nigeria, as in many other countries, limited numbers of extension agents (one to 4,000 farmers) make it impossible to reach all farmers by interpersonal means. For this reason, radio and, more recently, television have been used by agricultural organizations to disseminate relevant agricultural information to larger numbers of farm families at minimal cost and to areas hitherto not accessible to extension agents on a regular basis. While prior studies have confirmed that these radio programs have large audiences, there has been less attention to the perceptions farmers hold about the specific benefits these programs proVide. The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of two long-running Nigerian agricultural programs, one for radio and the second for TV, as perceived by 198 randomly selected farmers in Oyo State of southwest Nigeria. Results indicate a very positive assessment of both specific program components and the value of the two programs for improving agricultural production across 12 perceptual dimensions

Readership of Oriwu Sun community newspaper in Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria

Community newspapers are designed to fill the information gap created by the urban-centric nature of conventional media houses. This aim cannot be achieved  without reading the disseminated messages by the target population. This study  assessed the readership of Oriwu Sun community newspaper in Ikorodu area of  Lagos state. Multistage sampling was used to select 240 respondents from three  Local Government/Council Development Areas. A structured questionnaire was  administered to elicit information on demographic characteristics, awareness,  readership status and readership scores from the sampled respondents. Data were analysed using frequency counts, chi-square and PPMC at 0.05 level of  significance. Results showed that respondents had the mean age of 39 years;  59.2% male; mostly with higher education (66.0%) and had lived in the community for about 16 years. Many of them (76.0%) were aware of the community newspaper, and 65.0% reported that local content was the main attraction for its readers while nonreaders were constrained by access (50.2%). Despite the low readership base, the community newspaper had high readership scores among the readers. Education ( χ2 = 30.147, p ≤ 0.05) and perceived size of community ( χ2 =11.286, p ≤ 0.05) were significantly related to the readership of the community newspaper. It is therefore recommended that the publishers should improve on their Oriwu Sun community newspaper distribution strategies.Key words: Readership scores, Oriwu Sun, Community newspaper and Community development

Strategic Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Of Selected SMEs Competiveness In Lagos State, Nigeria

This paper investigates the effect of strategic innovation on entrepreneurship development of selected SMEs competitiveness. The main objective is to explore the effect of strategic innovation on entrepreneurship development of selected SMEs competitiveness in Lagos State, Nigeria. Survey research design was used for the study. The study population consists of 11,663 owners/managers of SMEs in Lagos State. The Cochran formula was used to arrive at a sample size of 742. A structured questionnaire was administered with 92.6% response rate. The instrument was validated and Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficients for the major constructs were obtained for the construct validity test factor analysis. Findings revealed that Innovation strategy had significant effect on the profitability of SMEs competitiveness in Lagos State (β = 0.314, t = 8.884, p<.05).This study made a contribution to knowledge by submitting significant background to the various concepts of strategic innovation and entrepreneurship development. The study concluded that there is a positive and significant effect of innovation strategy on profitability of SMEs competitiveness in Lagos State, Nigeria. Therefore, the paper recommended that SMEs competitiveness in Lagos State should constantly engage in innovation to improve the competitive advantage it acquires against other organizations in the sector. They should constantly analyze and determine their services operations in an attempt to improve operations efficienc

Knapsack Problems; Methods, Models and Applications

Knapsack problem (KP) has broad applications in different fields such as machine scheduling, space allocation, and asset optimization. Meanwhile, it is a hard problem due to its computational complexity, but numerous solution approaches have been developed for a variety of KP. In this dissertation, an extensive literature review is first provided. Then, the research focuses on methods, models, and applications for two variations of Knapsack problem: Multiple Knapsack Problem with Assignment Restrictions (MKAR) and Stochastic Knapsack Problem with Penalty Cost (SKPPC).A new procedure, Largest Unutilized Capacity First Algorithm (LUCF) is developed and tested on MKAR along with other assignment procedures available in the literature. It is concluded that LUCF performs very well and it returns the best initial feasible solution among all types of greedy algorithms for the solution of the MKAR. After the generation of initial feasible solutions, a tabu-search procedure is implemented to generate improved solutions. Three versions of intensification procedures are implemented within the tabu search procedure. Experimental results show significant improvement over the initial solution quality with the tabu search procedure. That is, this approach yields a high percentage of utilization for all combinations of problems, based on the initial solution provided by LUCF.For SKPPC, for each item of the knapsack, there are several possible processing times, each with certain probability of selection. For a given knapsack capacity, a strategy is developed to assign the optimal number of items to each the knapsack. Mathematical formulations are provided for both single knapsack and m-knapsack cases. The objective value function for the single knapsack problem exhibits a convex property, which leads to an optimal strategy to assign the number of items. For the m-knapsack case, the processing time of each item will be revealed after pre-scan operations. LUCF heuristic is combined here to obtain good solutions. This approach is finally adapted to the package security inspection problem. We discuss how one can determine the optimal number of items in each knapsack and the optimal number of operators needed for inspection with the objective of maximizing operator utilization and throughput

Fadama III Beneficiaries’ Adherence to Project Guidelines in Ogun State, Nigeria

Fadama III project in Nigeria like other community driven development projects is faced with a lot of challenges in spite of the laudable goals and approach. A major challenge of the projects is non-adherence to implementation guidelines among the implementers and beneficiaries. This study therefore assessed the adherence of project beneficiaries in Ogun state to the Fadama III implementation guidelines in order to make necessary recommendations to the implementers for proper management. Ijebu division was randomly selected out of the four (4) divisions in Ogun state. Two (2) out of the six (6) local government areas (LGAs) constituting the division were randomly sampled for the study. All the eight (8) registered Fadama Community Associations (FCAs) in the two LGAs were sampled. Eight focus group discussions (FGDs) and four in-depth interviews with key informants (IDIs) were used to verify secondary data obtained from the records of the FCAs. Adherence to project implementation guidelines ranged from fair to high while adherence to procurement guidelines and Fadama users’ equity fund (FUEF) requirements needed to be improved. Beneficiaries were over expectant of the benefits accruable from the project, which led to reduction in their enthusiasm towards the project because of its slow implementation. It was recommended that the implementers should keep up their efforts at sensitising beneficiaries on the implementation guidelines of the project, re-work their strategies at addressing procurement and FUEF inadequacies among the beneficiaries and fast-track the delivery of project benefits in the communities

Development of the framework for the integration of building information modeling to higher education in Malaysia

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a new project delivery process in the construction industry that has a growing need for competent workforce and its production. The literature confirms that, only a small fraction of stakeholders in the construction industry in Malaysia are aware of BIM, and are willing to adopt its culture, despite its relevance and benefits. This is due to non-availability of adequate BIM competent workforce for employment in the industry. In order to have a constant supply of adequate BIM workforce for the construction industry, knowledge and skills on BIM must be integrated into higher education academic programs. Hence, the study developed a framework to facilitate BIM knowledge and skills integration into the construction related academic departments in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia. The methodology adopted was a mixed method approach, where qualitative data was collected through interviews of thirteen practicing professionals, whilst the quantitative data was gathered using online questionnaire survey distributed to four hundred and eighty seven educators of HEIs. Sixty three educators from six public universities and three private universities responded to the online survey. Thematic content analysis was adopted to analyse the qualitative data using MAXQDA-12, while descriptive analysis was used to analyse the quantitative data. Furthermore, the study confirmed the workmanship is a crucial problem besides the lack of BIM knowledge and skills being the most critical ones. The study made use of the summation of findings to develop a BIM Education Integration Framework (BIMEIF) for BIM to be integrated into higher education. This framework consists of four stages that run through three developmental phases and the whole process is iterated. BIMEIF has been validated by thirteen experts in BIM knowledge and skills to ascertain the applicability of the framework. The validation result positively showed that the experts are in agreement that the framework is applicable as a guide for the integration of BIM into higher education academic programs in Malaysia. The framework would enhance the collaboration between academic and industry for BIM competence workforce development. As a conclusion, BIM is a technology as well as a process that facilitates collaboration, share of information, remove rework, and reduction of cost and time overruns. These are expected to stimulate Malaysia’s construction industry towards global standards and best practices