CREATING AN INSTITUTIONAL ECOLOGY THAT SUPPORTS RESEARCH

“Research capacity has large influence on a nation's competitiveness and its economic strength. Institutions can make a significant difference in the research productivity of their faculty Indeed, research shows that institutional affiliation is an important predictor of productivity over time. What this suggests is that effective scholars thrive in a certain kind of academic "ecology." The purpose of this paper is to describe several key features of this environment and to pay special attention to what will be required to cultivate the next generation of researchers." --

University/industry partnerships: promising practices from the field

Over the several years I have led a research team from the University of Pennsylvania and Nazarbayev University along with my co-principal investigator from Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, Dr. Aida Sagintayeva. Together our team has visited 25 universities in seven cities in Kazakhstan learning more about how these institutions and their leaders are responding to higher education reforms. I’d like to offer some reflections on partnerships on the basis of what we’ve seen

The Promise and Peril of Parallel Governance Structures

A recent survey of 146 postsecondary institutions found that 55% formed change task forces in the past 5 years. This article presents a detailed case of one private college that utilized task forces as a key strategy during a comprehensive change effort. Analysis describes the promise and peril of these innovative decision-making structures. Unburdened by day-today operational issues, the task forces focused on the change agenda, provided a change friendly environment, and became powerful change coalitions. The case shows how parallel governance structures devolve into shadow governance structures. Included are factors that determine how task forces enhance or compromise shared governance

“There Is No Way Without a Because”: Revitalization of Purpose at Three Liberal Arts Colleges

This paper describes the renewal of mission at three liberal arts colleges. Based on interviews with 77 participants and the review of more than 2,000 pages of institutional documents, the study explores how groups of individuals responded to an institutional crisis by seeking a more satisfying institutional life. The paper draws parallels between these efforts at mission-centered change and socio-cultural movement theory

CREATING AN INSTITUTIONAL ECOLOGY THAT SUPPORTS RESEARCH

“Research capacity has large influence on a nation's competitiveness and its economic strength. Institutions can make a significant difference in the research productivity of their faculty Indeed, research shows that institutional affiliation is an important predictor of productivity over time. What this suggests is that effective scholars thrive in a certain kind of academic "ecology." The purpose of this paper is to describe several key features of this environment and to pay special attention to what will be required to cultivate the next generation of researchers." --

Motivation, Personality and Academic Achievement: Does Academic Motivation explain Variation in Academic Achievement beyond Personality and Intellect?

This item is only available electronically.Obtaining a good education particularly a tertiary education has links with many important lifestyle and health outcomes but requires students’ to be significantly self-motivated. This study aimed to explore the relationship between motivation and academic achievement to determine whether motivation constructs have incremental validity over conventional predictors of academic achievement. Participants were surveyed using measures of intelligence, trait and facet measures of personality and academic motivation. Correlational analysis and linear regression were used to explore the data to identify what type of relationships existed between variables. Facet measures of Conscientiousness and intrinsic motivation showed higher correlations with academic achievement than trait measures. Motivation measures did not show incremental validity over intelligence and Conscientiousness though amotivation accounted for an amount of variance found significant in other studies indicating the present study suffered from low statistical power. The main significant influences on academic achievement were intelligence and Conscientiousness facet achievement striving with low motivation having more influence on achievement than high motivation. While results should be generalized cautiously they indicate first year students’ with low intelligence, Conscientiousness and high amotivation are at risk of lower academic achievement with interventions targeting Conscientiousness and amotivation the most likely improve academic achievement.Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201