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The need to enhance student support is evident in higher education (HE) curricula. In addition to the complications created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the current strategies used in academia are criticised for their lack of appropriate student support in HE. The study focused on the themes under Section 4 of the National Student Survey (NSS): availability to contact tutors, receiving good advice and guidance and availability of good advice. The study aimed to provide recommendations for enhancing academic support by developing drivers that need implementation during course delivery.

A documental analysis and a qualitative survey were adopted for this study. A documental analysis of 334 mid-module reviews (MMRs) from levels three to six students in the built environment (BE) discipline. Critical themes identified from the MMRs were fed forward in developing a questionnaire for academics. A sample of 23 academics, including a Head of school, a Principal lecturer, Subject leads and Lecturers, participated in the questionnaire survey. Content analysis is adopted through questionnaire data to develop drivers to enhance academic support in BE. These drivers are then modelled by interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to identify their correlation to NSS Section 4 themes. A level partition analysis establishes how influential they are in enhancing academic support.

The study identified nine drivers, where two drivers were categorised as fundamental, two as significant, four as important, and one insignificant in enhancing academic support in HE. Module leaders’/tutors’ improving awareness and detailing how academic support is provided were identified as fundamental. Differentiating roles in giving advice and the importance of one-to-one meetings were identified as significant. A level partitioning diagram was developed from the nine drivers to illustrate how these drivers need to be implemented to promote the best practices in academic support in HE.

The identified drivers and their categories can be used to set prioritised guidelines for academics and other educational institutions to improve students’ overall satisfaction.

Novelty from the study will be the developed drivers and the level partitioning diagram to assist academics and academic institutions in successfully integrating academic support into HE curricula.

This study aims to explore the gaps concerning the organizational operant resources (OORs) of logistics service providers (LSPs) expected in outsourcing relationships. The study considers the views of both manufacturing firms (M-firms) and LSPs in India and DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) seeking gaps within and across regions.

This research employed a survey targeting executives from large M-firms and LSPs in both India and DACH. The perceptions about the importance and improvement expectations of 17 OORs are analyzed. A modified version of importance-improvement analysis (A-B), a novel comparative A-B analysis (CABA) method, has been proposed to identify the importance and improvement gaps in OORs between M-firms and LSPs within and across India and the DACH region.

There are more gaps between M-firms and LSPs in India compared to DACH. Cross-country comparisons reveal that LSPs in India and DACH have similar perceptions concerning the OORs, but M-firms in India have significantly higher improvement expectations than those in DACH.

This study proposes an analytical approach that enables managers to identify improvement areas and better align with their outsourcing relationship partners. It also highlights aspects that need to be considered while entering emerging markets such as India.

The analysis approach using CABA is novel. Also, among the cross-country studies, this is the first to compare outsourcing relationships in India with the DACH region while involving both users' and service providers' perspectives.

This study aims to explore the perception of students from conflicted groups studying nursing together regarding the intergroup encounter. Specifically, this study focused on Jewish and Arab students in a nursing undergraduate program at an Israeli college. This study focused on the association between two factors [students’ cultural intelligence (CQ) level and their satisfaction with the support provided by the college] and the degree of closeness or social interaction Arab and Jewish students experience.

Accordingly, 362 students completed three anonymous questionnaires during December 2022, focused on (1) CQ (2) satisfaction with the academic setting and (3) experience of intergroup social interaction.

The results revealed that (1) Arab students (minority group) demonstrated higher CQ than Jewish students, especially regarding awareness of cultural differences and motivation for intercultural encounters. (2) Arab students experienced the intergroup encounter with Jewish students as closer and warmer than Jewish students did. (3) Despite being a minority group in Israel, Arab students’ satisfaction with the college’s support was higher than that of Jewish students. (4) Satisfaction with the support provided by the college was the main factor associated with the sense of social interaction, having a higher correlation with it than the degree of CQ.

Fostering CQ through curricula alone is insufficient in shaping intergroup experiences of students studying together in a divided society. To encourage social interaction between students in academia in divided societies, educational institutions need to ensure their students’ sense of support is high.

To combat climate change and safeguard a liveable future, humanity needs fundamental and rapid social change. The purpose of this paper is to show, why and how climate communication can play an important role to nurture the public engagement needed for this change, and to explore, what higher education for sustainability can learn from climate communication.

The scientific evidence base on climate communication for effective public engagement is summarised into 10 key principles, including “basing communication on people’s values”, “conscious use of framing” and “turning concern into action”. Based on the author’s perspective and experience in the university context, implications are explored for sustainability in higher education.

The study provides suggestions for teaching (e.g. complement information with consistent behaviour by the lecturer, integrate local stories and provide students with basic skills to communicate climate effectively), for research (e.g. make teaching for effective engagement the subject of applied research), for universities’ third mission to contribute to sustainable development in the society (e.g. provide climate communication trainings to empower local stakeholders) and greening the campus (develop a proper engagement infrastructure, e.g. by a university storytelling exchange on climate action).

The study provides an up-to-date overview of climate communication research, which is in itself original. This evidence base holds interesting learnings for institutions of higher education, and the link between climate communication and universities has so far not been explored comprehensively.

This paper aims to shed light on an essential role that “female directors” on boards of companies in sub-Saharan Africa play towards corporate financial performance enhancement. The study observes how board gender diversity moderates the relationship between earnings management (EM) and financial performance of firms in sub-Saharan Africa from a dynamic perspective.

The study’s sample comprises 105 companies listed on the respective stock markets of nine sub-Saharan African countries. The data are collected from annual reports over the period 2007–2019, a total of 1,166 firm-year observations. Panel data models are used in the analyses.

The study finds that the performance effect of EM is contingent on board diversity and this finding persists even after controlling for dynamic endogeneity, simultaneity and unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity inherent in the EM and performance relationship.

The findings should be understood within the context that, only available annual reports and audited financial statements that were filed with respective capital markets of the nine surveyed countries are used as source of information.

The current study is unique, in that, it is the first panel multi-cross-country investigation within Africa to introduce gender diversity in the study of the relationship between EM and firm performance. It therefore extends the agency theory by using gender diversity as a moderating variable in the EM–firm performance nexus.

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting (i.e. determinants) the continuance of mobile learning adoption in an informal setting among higher education learners from a rural region in the Philippines. It assesses the extent of the determinants of mobile learning adoption continuance and their interrelationships and the role of a personality trait (e.g. locus of control) on its determinants.

This study used a rigorous literature review method that led to a mobile learning adoption continuance model. This proposed model analyzed the perceptions of higher education learners’ experiences on mobile learning adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. informal setting). The data collection was self-administered using an online survey from a convenience sample size of 434 using adapted questionnaire instruments. The study used factor analysis by using a structural package for social sciences (SPSS) and analysis of the moment of the structure. The effect sizes of the direct effect, simple and serial mediation and interaction effects in a path model were analyzed by using user-defined estimand and orthogonalized approaches.

The findings indicate that the effect of perceived security risks along with perceived functional benefit and learner value affect the mobile learning adoption continuance. The perceived learner value mediates the perceived functional benefit relationship on mobile learning adoption continuance. Perceived security risk indirectly affects mobile learning adoption continuance through perceived functional benefit and learner value. In addition to this, the internal locus of control strengthens the positive relationship between perceived functional benefit and mobile learning adoption continuance. However, it dampens the positive relationship of perceived learner value.

The study provides an essential foundation on the mobile learning adoption model that focuses on its continuance. This model integrated perceived security risks, functional benefits and learner value aspects of continuance intention that higher education institutions may consider in their mobile learning initiative. It further provides evidence to intensify the important moderating role of locus of control that intervenes on the determinants of mobile learning adoption continuance.

The paper aims to explore the anxiety of university students. The authors note that the rhetoric of the snowflake is frequently invoked in lay discourse to characterise a generation of young people as overly sensitive. This misleading conceptualisation is potentially stigmatising.

Interviews were conducted with tweleve young women (18–25 years) about anxiety during their transition through university and into adulthood.

The authors identified three themes: (1) students in a modern world, (2) gendered demands and (3) anxiety of adulting. Analysis demonstrated numerous, transecting and discourse-informed anxieties about modern life.

University professionals may benefit from understanding the gendered dimensions of anxiety associated with transitions to adulthood, including the increased pressures to succeed and achieve.

The arguably pejorative label of “snowflake” could negatively impact the social progress made in recognising the importance of taking care of mental health and help-seeking. This is especially concerning for females, as they have higher prevalence of anxiety conditions than males.

The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge network-based intellectual capital of corporate universities and its co-evolution process with knowledge management activities.

An exploratory and multiple case study was conducted, investigating three Chinese corporate universities. Grounded theory was used for data analysis.

This paper finds that the intellectual capital of corporate universities comprises teacher network capital, knowledge process capital and knowledge ba. The steering wheel model is established through the synergistic interaction and promotion among these three types of intellectual capital. The interaction between intellectual capital and the knowledge network within corporate universities constructs the intellectual capital network, which plays the roles of coordinator, knowledge gatekeeper and innovation bridge. The intellectual capital of corporate universities is characterized by sequential inertia. Moreover, the intellectual capital and intellectual capital network are aligned with knowledge management activities at each stage of corporate university development, interacting and following the principles of ladder evolution.

A significant contribution of this paper lies in applying the concept of intellectual capital within the fourth-stage ecosystem to a broader range of knowledge networks. By exploring the dynamics and network of intellectual capital in corporate universities, especially the role of intellectual capital networks and the synergy between intellectual capital and knowledge management activities, this study enriches the existing research on knowledge management and intellectual capital of corporate universities. Furthermore, it advances the development of knowledge management promotion in corporate universities from a new perspective of intellectual capital.

The purpose of this study explores the perspective of key informants (educators, preceptors and former students) of the Kintampo Project, on the perceived effectiveness, gains and challenges in delivering this large-scale training innovation in Ghana. The problem of mental health care neglect in Ghana is gradually improving. The Kintampo Project which trained mental health workers in Ghana has played a critical role in increasing access to mental health care.

This qualitative study explored participants' perspectives on the Kintampo Project in three broad areas: perceived effectiveness, gains and challenges. In all, 17 interviews were conducted with former students, preceptors and educators from the project. The interviews were digitally audio-recorded, transcribed, coded and analysed using deductive and thematic methods.

The participants perceived the project to have been successful in increasing the number of mental health workers in Ghana. The project provided a route for career progression for those involved. However, the Kintampo Project faced accreditation issues, low recognition, improper integration and remuneration of trained staff in the Ghana Health Service. This study points to the fact that the sustainability of mental health training in Ghana can be obstructed, because of this career path being less attractive. Further research is needed to explore how best to achieve sustainability of similar mental health innovations.

This paper shares the views of participants in the Kintampo Project.

This paper aims to explore the manoeuvring room of higher education institutions to take action to reduce emissions from academic flying. In particular, this study investigates how university staff and central actors in university management evaluate potential measures in this area.

The authors applied a single case study design encompassing an online survey directed at staff (N = 338) and 11 semi-structured interviews with key actors from management at an Austrian university. The authors used descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis to examine the data.

This study found considerable support among university staff in principle for implementing measures to reduce academic flying, but also serious concerns about the fairness and viability of some restrictive measures, especially disincentives and caps on flying. However, bans on short-haul flights were largely supported. Actors from university management saw their manoeuvring room limited by the potential resistance and non-compliance of staff, as well as by framework conditions external to the university.

Dedicated leadership is needed to facilitate broad commitment within the university and to avoid shifting the responsibility between different governance levels. Restrictive measures to reduce academic air travel will be more readily accepted if perceived as fair and viable.

Although several papers have addressed the behavioural and institutional factors that sustain extensive flying in academia, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first contributions to investigate the potentials and challenges of introducing measures to reduce air travel in higher education institutions.