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This paper aims to introduce a conceptual model for the shaping of the innovation district under the anchor approach by extracting the specifications of the fourth-generation university.

This study selected 550 resources and reduced them to 190 to achieve the most appropriate resources. This study used a meta-synthesis analysis approach using a text-mining method due to the multidisciplinary and voluminous nature of contents.

The results first reveal the shaping process and the components of innovation districts, which are: innovational urban infrastructures, knowledge economy and competitiveness and academic development. Second, this study also shows the specifications of a fourth-generation university to shape innovation districts.

This study also informs the policymakers and researchers internationally about the implementation requirements of a fourth-generation university and the shaping mechanisms of an innovation district.

This paper is pioneer about two concepts, first, it shows the shaping process of an innovation district, providing a large-scale insight about the components and second, this illustrates for the first time the specifications of a fourth-generation University practically as an anchor institute to shape innovation district.

In Nigerian university libraries, government allocations are the main source of revenue supporting library operations. However, the level of government support differs between federal and state institutions. This is despite the reality that all universities provide similar levels of education and graduates who competitively compete with one another for employment. This inequality prompted a study to identify the various sources of funds supporting academic libraries and to determine which were the most useful. Among the discoveries was that the budget is used as a long‐term development plan, helping the librarians prioritize their needs. The results of this survey suggested several courses of action, ranging from lobbying from more government support to increasing philanthropic outreach.

Social participation of university refers to the creation of knowledge and participatory processes with local communities in solving community problems in order to achieve sustainable development. Identifying the university's social participation strategies was the main purpose of the present study.

In order to achieve this aim, the qualitative method was used. The study area is Semnan province and Semnan University. The statistical sample included two groups of internal beneficiaries of the university (including staff, deputies and faculty members of the university) and external beneficiaries of the university (including managers and experts of local organizations, education, province and municipality). The sampling was purposefully performed based on the theoretical saturation criterion, holding an interview with 29 participants. Data analysis was performed in three stages of open, axial and selective coding.

The results of the research showed that the university can participate with its local community in developing the university vision according to the needs of the local community, holding workshops and scientific conferences, concluding joint research contracts, expert and researcher exchange, environmental leadership training, participatory management and teamwork, indigenous manpower, institutionalizing regional participation, solving community issues and problems, creating associations and non-governmental companies in the community, mission orientation, directing education and research towards solving problems and meeting the real needs of the province according to land management, supervising research activities, conducting comprehensive studies in the field of mineral potentials, organizing workshops for farmers' awareness, monitoring the employment of graduates, creating and developing new fields according to the needs of the province and region, educating citizens and cultural zing to reduce production and segregate household waste, opening the university's social space for the growth and supply of youth, educating the province's handicrafts to housewives, especially in the deprived areas, sensitizing programs in the field of environmental protection, and reviewing educational content based on the community needs.

Biosocial and economic policy of universities was another result of the present study. The university intends to make citizens aware of social and environmental problems and to provide the necessary education in the fields of air pollution, soil salinity, drinking water supply, cultivation pattern refinement, agricultural mechanization, and waste and waste management. The university should also promote entrepreneurship among students and faculty members and attract economic resources to the university through innovation and commercialization circles, and develop the province's economic infrastructure in various fields of tourism, agriculture, industry and mining.

Most educational institutions worldwide have suddenly switched to online instruction due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and English language teaching took its part in this transition. The immediate transition from face-to-face to fully online instruction affects its effective implementation, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia where online learning is in its early stage. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate postgraduate EFL students’ perceptions and practices of online learning.

This study uses a descriptive survey design. Using simple random sampling, 91 postgraduate EFL students were selected from four universities. Online questionnaires were employed to collect data. To analyze the data, both descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (one sample t-test) statistics were used.

The findings of the study indicate that the students had favorable perceptions of online learning. Despite the students' positive perceptions, the results of the study showed that the practice of online learning in the universities was limited; especially the practice of synchronous online learning was low.

The results suggest that the concerned bodies at the universities should consider implementing a blended (both synchronous and asynchronous) learning system to deliver an online learning approach.

This is one of the first studies in a higher education context in Ethiopia, which tries to investigate the postgraduate EFL students' perceptions and practices of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper is original because it investigated the status of online learning during the pandemic in a developing country like Ethiopia; it provides a real and convincing idea of a new way of learning in the post-COVID-19 context. The study can also be useful for related future research in the context of a pandemic-like COVID-19.

A decision support system (DSS) is a flexible, interactive, computerized approach intended to support administrators in their decision making activities and which is capable of providing direct, personal support for complex, managerial decisions. This paper presents an overview of DSS's major characteristics which can integrate the intellectual resources of individuals with the capabilities of the computer to improve the quality of decisions. Following a discussion of its capabilities, the various components of a DSS (database, model base, hardware and user‐system interface) are examined as well as the development tools needed. Examples of the applications of DSSs in two universities provide insight into the benefits a DSS can bring to educational administration. Finally, the paper considers various development and implementation issues pertaining to a decision support system in academic administration.

The purpose of this paper is to draw a map of the general features of epistemological and critical concerns in contemporary Islamic philosophy. This study will not be confined to the domain of academic philosophy or to those who are professionals in the field of philosophy.

The paper adopted the critical rational approach in dealing with contemporary Islamic philosophy in the Arab world. The scope will include scholars from different fields of epistemology who tried to present a “vision” of the attitude that should be adopted in facing the challenges of the age and the problems of the nation on the epistemological level or the political, economic and social levels.

There is a need for a philosophy of action and progress rather than a philosophy that is based on abstract ideas and theories and of words/rhetoric. The ethics required to accomplish this ought to identify the attributes of the citizen who can reach self-actualization through legitimate means based on a progress agenda with theoretical and philosophical foundations.

Because a critical rational approach can be dealt with from different perspectives, this paper will adopt the classification of the principal intellectual trends: the reformist, secular and liberal.

This paper covers a long time span to determine whether the philosophical projects have been effective.

This paper, which criticizes the philosophic projects that are theoretically unsound and that do not address real social problems (like poverty), argues the need for a philosophy of progress and action. This will lead to devising an agenda that addresses the challenges the society is facing and to finding alternative and creative solutions resulting in development.

Using narratives from leading international academics and commentators, the authors chart four, possible, “universities of the future” models and discuss how current university management issues can enable or hinder them.

Deploying a Gioia methodology analysis of “University of the Future” narratives, the authors derive 12 categories of institutional properties and, ultimately, four distinct models.

The authors identify how current, classic and polytechnic institutions can adapt their operations and service delivery in order to transition into future-ready business models.

The authors interpret the opinions and predictions from world-leading experts in the higher education field in order to present the first, to our knowledge, typology of aspirational university models.

Universities play a central role in scientific development and progress in societies, so, the need for supporting new businesses in universities becomes very important that science and technology park-based incubators can meet it. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize the factors influencing strategic management of university business incubators (UBIs).

Present research prioritizes the factors influencing strategic management of incubators using analytic network process (ANP). The authors gathered data from UBIs affiliated with science and technology park of Guilan, located in city of Rasht (Iran) using the ANP questionnaire during year 2017.

Factors influencing strategic management of incubators comprised of four main criteria and 14 sub-criteria. The criteria and sub-criteria were ranked based on their importance. Results show that “talented managers” has the highest importance for strategic management of UBIs.

This study offers a novel analysis and contribution to the knowledge of ranking UBIs with a multi-criteria decision-making technique. Results of this research show the relative importance of criteria and sub-criteria, which contributes to further improvement of incubator management. University managers and incubator directors can utilize the findings for better resource allocation and aligning the strategies of incubators with macro strategies of the country.

The need for stakeholder theory has been widely highlighted in the literature to develop solid strategies for a large organization. However, there is still a lack of user-friendly visualization tools and no unique approach exists to identify and engage stakeholders. This paper aims to propose a general methodology to co-design the sustainability ecosystem at the local scale, to explore it and to assess the impact of a large organization within the identified ecosystem.

The methodology consists of two main processes: identifying an ontological map of the sustainability topics network and designing the local sustainability stakeholders ecosystem. Both processes are based on a nodes identification phase and a nodes prioritization phase. The identification phase was achieved by engaging 160 citizens, for the topics network and nearly 40 relevant stakeholders, for the stakeholders’ ecosystem, with a collaborative participatory mapping process. The prioritization phase was conducted because of three indicators, i.e. the closeness, the betweenness and the eigenvector centrality.

Betweenness centrality results to be the best indicator to assess the importance of a stakeholder with respect to the whole network, while eigenvector centrality highlights the quality of the already engaged stakeholders of an organization, as it mainly depends on the number of links of the first order neighbors. On the contrary, the closeness centrality, when applied to a small network, seems to be not appropriate to assess the centrality of a stakeholder.

This approach revealed some criticalities in the mapping process, as in the weighting link procedure. Further investigations are needed to generalize the approach to a dynamic one, to allow real-time mapping and to develop a robust interconnection among centrality degrees and the power, interest and legitimacy concept of stakeholder theory.

Obtained results for a case study, i.e. the position of the University of Turin Green Office within the City of Turin sustainability ecosystem, are discussed showing how social network analysis centrality degrees can be used to quantitatively assess the role of an organization within a stakeholders’ ecosystem.

Centrality analysis allows identifying emergent topics/stakeholders within a network of words/actors that, at a first sight, should not be considered by decision-makers and managers.

A new methodology for stakeholder identification and prioritization is proposed exploiting online data visualization tools, participatory mapping and social network analysis.

Discusses experiences on the development and use of horizontal and vertical prototypes. Explains the difference. Resolves that horizontal prototypes can be developed with ′little effort′, but end users are reluctant to become involved in the development process. Contrastingly resolves that vertical prototypes appear to stimulate constructive response. Reasons that developers should be aware of the tacit knowledge which plays an important part in users′ work practices and should be involved early in the development process. Proposes three techniques to meet the requirements – participation, simulation and evaluation.