A quantitative investigation addressing the award gap in UK higher education; who does it really impact?

Increased participation of students from diverse educational backgrounds in the UK higher education sector has resulted in a differential award gap between white students and students of colour. Based on the notion that such inequalities are not the student's fault; it is suggested that structural determinants will also be responsible. The theoretical framework used to explore these issues utilises Archer's morphogenetic cycle, Bourdieu's concept of habitus, and Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems. In doing so, it examines the influences of structural conditioning, social interaction, and agential action that are implicated in a student's final award. Using central administrative data from Manchester Metropolitan University, the research employs a critical realist approach and a reflexive quantitative methodology to examine the data. Both approaches are relatively innovative within the discipline of quantitative methodology, but they were required so that the researcher could acknowledge their positionality and locate themselves at the centre of the investigation. In the first instance, it was necessary to reject the term 'BAME' since it was believed that it could mask disparities among the identities that fall within the label's umbrella. Doing so revealed differences existed with Black students being 61% less likely to be awarded a first-class degree; and Asian students being 42% less likely. However, analysing the effects of socio-demographic, economic, previous academic achievements, and participation in extracurricular activities (ECA), demonstrated additional statistically significant differences. Participation in ECA into the model showed a moderated improvement in award for Asian students but no significant improvement for Black students. While the current research adopts a top-down approach by utilising the university's central administrative data, it is recommended that a more nuanced approach be implemented, grading on a more granular level, to understand where in the system students begin to receive lower grades that ultimately result in the award gap. Equality within the system can never be assumed. The hope is that identifying all structural barriers to achievement, whether they reside in the system or in an individual's educational background, could result in a better system where all students, regardless of their educational or cultural background, can benefit from attending university

Pembangunan akhlak menurut karya ulama silam: tumpuan terhadap Al-Risāla Al-Qushayriyya: Development of akhlak in writings of the ancient scholar: a focus on Al-Risāla Al-Qushayriyya

Akhlak merupakan salah satu daripada asas utama dalam ajaran Islam. Malah, di antara tujuan perutusan Rasulullah SAW ialah menyempurnakan akhlak selain daripada menyeru manusia untuk mentauhidkan Allah SWT. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk memperkenalkan Imam al-Qushayriyy sebagai tokoh tasawuf dan menjelaskan prinsip pembinaan akhlak menurut beliau berdasarkan karya yang berjudul al-Risāla. Ketokohan al-Qushayriyy dalam bidang tasawuf tidak dinafikan lagi terutama sumbangannya dalam membuktikan keselarian ajaran tasawuf dengan prinsip dasar syariah. Malah, karyanya al-Risāla ini merupakan magnum opus yang menjadi penanda aras bagi ahli tasawuf ke arah pembentukan akhlak. Hasil kajian menunjukkan al-Qushayriyy menekankan aspek penyucian jiwa (tazkiyyat al-nafs) dalam pembinaan akhlak. Antara kaedah penyucian hati yang dinyatakan ialah taubat, mujahadah, khalwat dan uzlah, warak, zuhud, diam, lapar dan meninggalkan syahwat serta zikir. Manakala aspek akhlak yang diketengahkan oleh beliau ialah sabar, malu, berakhlak mulia, dermawan dan murah hati, persahabatan serta menjaga hati guru.  Prinsip-prinsip ini dihuraikan oleh al-Qushayriyy dengan bersumberkan kepada ayat-ayat al-Quran, hadis, petikan kalam para sahabat dan ulama. Berdasarkan prinsip yang dikemukakan ini difahami bahawa pembentukan akhlak mempunyai hubungan langsung dengan penyucian jiwa dan dikukuhkan lagi dengan bimbingan para guru

Relationship between love for knowledge, excellent Muslim personality and human transformation capital: a model built with structural equation measurement (SEM)

The concept of love for knowledge is very relevant in building a great civilization. It is not only relevant, but should be given a serious emphasis because ilmu (knowledge) and amal (practice) are the core of human excellence. The purpose of the study was to model out the relationship between love for knowledge, excellent Muslim personality and Human transformation capital. The study was conducted on 767 students of the Institute of Higher Education around the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Structural Equation Modeling Analysis has been used for the purpose of identifying the role of human transformation capital as a mediator in determining the relationship between love for knowledge and excellent Muslim personality. The results of the analysis show that there was a significant positive relationship between love for knowledge and the excellent Muslims. While the transformation of human capital was found to function significantly as a partial mediator between love for knowledge and excellent Muslims. In other words, love for knowledge will affect the excellent Muslims and transform the human capital. It is recommended that these three important aspects become the fundamental values of success to develop a greater Islamic civilization

Analisis Pengesahan Faktor (CFA) instrumen kajian cinta ilmu dan keperibadian ummah cemerlang

Kemajuan teknologi hari ini merupakan sebahagian daripada kesan Revolusi Industri 4.0 yang melibatkan perubahan dalam pelbagai aspek hidup manusia termasuk keilmuan dan keperibadian. Mahasiswa Muslim hari ini perlu dilengkapkan dengan ilmu dan kemahiran yang sesuai bagi menghadapi cabaran revolusi ini. Di samping itu, keperibadian ummah cemerlang yang berdaya saing perlu dibangunkan agar mampu memanfaatkan perkembangan ini selaku khalifah. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk menjalankan Analisis Penerokaan Faktor (EFA) dan Analisis Pengesahan Faktor (CFA)bagi menguji kesesuaian pemboleh ubah Instrumen Cinta Ilmu dan Keperibadian Ummah Cemerlang. Satu set soal selidik diedarkan kepada 415 mahasiswa Muslim dan dianalisis menggunakan ujian analisis pengesahan faktor (CFA) dengan bantuan perisisan AMOS Ver.23. Merujuk kepada modifikasi dan nilai goodness of-fit, didapati nilai fit indices adalah lebih baik setelah melalui beberapa proses perubahan. Selain itu, ujian kesahan dan kebolehpercayaan turut dilakukan terhadap model pengukuran ini. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa model pengukuran cinta ilmu yang sah terdiri daripada enam pembolehubah iaitu cinta pembacaan dan motivasi intrinsik yang mewakili cinta ilmu serta ibadah, akidah, akhlak terhadap keluarga dan akhlak terhadap masyarakat yang mewakili keperibadian ummah cemerlang.Analisis ini menunjukkan terdapat hubungan antara cinta ilmu dengan keperibadian ummah cemerlang. Maka, kajian ini mengetengahkan keperluan masyarakat dan universiti untuk memberi perhatian kepada usaha menyuburkan budaya ilmu mahasiswa dan mengembangkannya supaya nilai-nilai murni ini tidak terhad kepada manfaat individu sahaja tetapi juga orang lain

Pendekatan fiqh ta’ayusy dalam menangani konflik antara agama

Konflik antara agama merupakan perkara yang sensitif dalam sebuah negara yang mempunyai masyarakat daripada pelbagai latar belakang. Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara yang menjadikan Islam sebagai agama Persekutuan perlu berperanan dalam kerangka Islam bagi menghadapi konflik ini. Sehubungan itu, artikel ini bertujuan menjelaskan pendekatan fiqh al-ta’ayusy atau disebut sebagai interaksi harmoni dalam menangani konflik antara agama. Kajian ini dilakukan berdasarkan penulisan lalu dan disesuaikan dengan isu berkaitan konflik antara agama di Malaysia. Dapatan menunjukkan bahawa al-ta’ayusy dalam Islam mempunyai tiga pendekatan utama iaitu dialog antara agama, dakwah dan penerimaan agama lain. Selain itu, al-ta’ayusy juga tertakluk kepada beberapa syarat di mana umumnya adalah berkaitan kemuliaan agama Islam itu sendiri dan kepentingan bermuamalah dengan bukan Islam secara baik serta mementingkan keharmonian sejagat. Penerimaan terhadap masyarakat berlainan agama juga terhad kepada perkara selain daripada aspek asas agama seperti tauhid dan ibadah. Ini adalah penting agar interaksi harmoni dapat dicapai tanpa melunturkan agama dalam diri sebagaimana yang dianjurkan oleh golongan pluralisme agama. Kajian ini juga diharapkan dapat memberikan penjelasan berkenaan peranan dan kaedah seorang Muslim dalam berhadapan dengan masyarakat bukan Islam

TAHAP PENGETAHUAN MAHASISWA UNIVERSITI AWAM (UA) NEGERI SELANGOR TERHADAP ILMU PERBANDINGAN AGAMA

The field of Comparative Religion is getting more attention from most scholars in the world, including Malaysia. This is parallel with the nature of the Malaysian community which is diverse. The more one knows of the knowledge in comparative religion, the more one is sensitive when interacting with the people of other religions. Hence, in the context of university students in Malaysia, how far is their level of knowledge in comparative religion? This study is going to analyse on the level of knowledge among public university students in Selangor towards the field of comparative religion. This is based on the respondents’ demography which are gender, age, state originality, secondary education, department of study and the phase of the study in university. The method employed is quantitative which used the Statistical Packages for the Social Science (SPSS) For Windows (version 22.0) and the findings are analysed descriptively. The result shows that Min distribution is a high 4.04 Overall, it is shown that the majority of the public university students have certain knowledge in the field of comparative religion.Ilmu perbandingan agama merupakan satu bidang ilmu yang semakin mendapat tempat masyarakat dunia termasuk Malaysia. Ini menepati dengan sifat rakyat Malaysia yang majmuk. Semakin seseorang itu mengetahui tentang ilmu perbandingan agama, semakin dia peka apabila bergaul dan berinteraksi dengan penganut agama lain. Namun, dalam konteks mahasiswa universiti, bagaimana tahap pengetahuan mereka terhadap ilmu perbandingan agama. Maka, kajian ini dilakukan bagi menganalisis sejauh mana tahap pengetahuan mahasiswa universiti awam di Selangor terhadap ilmu perbandingan agama berdasarkan demografi mahasiswa dari segi jantina, umur, negeri asal, sekolah menengah terakhir, fakulti dan peringkat pengajian. Metod kajian yang dilakukan adalah kuantitatif yang menggunakan perisian Statistical Packages for the Social Science (SPSS) For Windows versi 22.0 dan seterusnya hasil kajian dihuraikan secara deskriptif yang merangkumi nilai kekerapan dan peratusan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa tahap pengetahuan mahasiswa universiti awam negeri Selangor mengenai ilmu perbandingan agama mencapai taburan min yang tinggi iaitu 4.04. Ini jelas membuktikan bahawa mahasiswa universiti awam Selangor mempunyai pengetahuan yang jelas terhadap ilmu perbandingan agama

Development of anthracnose disease resistance and heat tolerance chili through conventional breeding and molecular approaches: a review

Chili (Capsicum annuum L.) is the popular spicy vegetable crops belonging to family Solanaceae. Chili peppers are known for their pungency characteristic due to the presence of capsaicinoids that classifies them into hot or sweet pepper. Chili is used as spices, folk remedies for diseases, vegetables, and coloring agent showing a diverse role in human’s life. However, its production is hampered by different biotic stress and abiotic factors. Similarly, the unavailability of high yielding varieties, high temperature, and disease incidence, particularly, anthracnose disease, are the major constraints responsible for the low production of chili pepper. The advents of molecular markers, advancement in quantitative trait loci by classical genetic analysis, and conventional breeding have shown the number of genes for many important and major traits. While the newly developed genotyping technologies and next generation sequencing have led to the discovery of molecular basis for economic important characters in the chili genome and generate large scale data for genomic resources. Based on this background, this review summarizes progress in the development of anthracnose disease-resistant and heat-tolerant chili genotypes through conventional breeding and molecular approaches. This review would help plant breeders in understanding the phenotypic and genetic make-up of capsicum genotypes and provides opportunities for pyramiding two respected genes with the help of diversified phenotypic and molecular marker evaluation

Current and prospective strategies in the varietal improvement of Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) specially Heterosis breeding

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is an herbaceous crop and plays an important role as common spices and vegetables. Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is one of the most cost-effective and agricultural vegetables in the world. The most significant characteristics of peppers, as spices and in various pharmacological uses, are pungency and oleoresin (color). Cabsicum annuum L. is widely used as a medicinal herb and in the Mediterranean diet (at the present, C. annuum var. acuminatum Fingerh. and Capsicum frutescens L. are considered synonyms of C. annuum L.). Capsicum annuum includes a wide range of carotenoids including capsanthin, capsorubin, beta-carotene, cryptoxanthin, lutein, fanthophyl, and xanthophyll, and capsaicinoid. However, it remains limited in production due to the lack of development in varieties especially under severe climatic circumstances such as drought, high temperature, or salt. Some reports were provided through distinct traditional approaches for genetic improvement. A combination of traditional and molecular breeding, especially breeding for heterosis, might be a good option for developing a novel genotype for ecologically adversely affected niche adaption. This review summarizes the current chilli breeding approaches with their drawbacks and highlights some recent classical efforts for the improvement of the crop. This would be the milestone for the breeders in the planning of a successful chilli breeding program to combat the adverse ecological condition. Thus, the information gathered in this article might be considered as the cornerstone of Chilli breeders at their ongoing and sustainable future programs as well