Search results

An interview with Milton Friedman in 1996 ‐ presents his reflections on some of the important issues surrounding the evolution of, and currrent debates within, modern macroeconomics. A world‐renowned economist and prolific author since the 1930s, Milton Friedman has had a considerable impact on macroeconomic theory and policy making. Associated mostly with monetarism and the efficacy of free markets, his work has ranged over a broader area ‐ microeconomics, methodology, consumption function, applied statistics, international economics, monetary theory, history and policy, business cycles and inflation. In the interview discusses Keynes’s General Theory, monetarism, new classical macroeconomics, methodology, economic policy, European union and the monetarist counter‐revolution.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how including the Greek financial crisis in teaching introductory macroeconomics benefits students.

The methodology is based on the responses of a recent survey administered to students at a university in Greece.

An eclectic approach that distinguishes various economic theories and methodologies, mainly neoclassical and Keynesian, can provide a pedagogical way of teaching introductory macroeconomics, allowing students to use their everyday personal experiences in determining the most “suitable” theory in explaining the crisis.

To the author’s knowledge, such an exercise of discovering students’ perceptions of teaching an introductory macroeconomics Substitute with course during the global financial crisis has not yet been attempted.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the type of mathematics skills developed at secondary school an effect on students’ later success in business studies. At many business schools in Norway, more students are applying than there are places available. The ranking of applications depends on the grade point average (GPA) level, irrespective of the level or type of mathematics studied at secondary school, where the students are free to choose practically orientated or theoretical mathematics.

A quantitative analysis (regression model) was applied using data for undergraduate students enrolled in business studies over a three–year period (2012–2014).

Students with a non-theoretical background in mathematics obtain systematically lower grades on many courses, especially in core business school subjects. Ranking applicants to business studies courses based on their GPA scores irrespective of their level of mathematics may lead to the admission of less able students.

There is little information available concerning why students choose different paths in mathematics at upper secondary school, but the decision students make has an influence on their grades in business courses.

By requiring more knowledge of theoretical mathematics, students’ performance at business school will improve. Changing the admission criteria could improve the quality of graduates and reduce the dropout rate.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors affecting the academic outcome of real estate students in a specialized Federal University in Nigeria. Furthermore, this paper investigates the phenomenon of publication bias in the extant literature as such evidence poses severe threats to the validity of empirical findings on factors affecting the degree outcome of undergraduate students.

The standard statistical approach adopted was to examine whether the reported coefficient estimates from ten empirical studies (105 observations) are independent of their standard errors by employing both ordinary least squares (OLS) and weighted least squares (WLS). In this paper, this approach enabled evidence of publication bias in the cited literature to be refuted. In addition, data were also collected on the academic measure and demographic information of 449 students who graduated between 2005 and 2011. For the purpose of analysis, the study utilized a stepwise logistic regression technique to examine the factors impacting on the degree outcome of real estate students.

The results of the OLS and WLS regression indicate that there is no significant evidence of any empirical effect of publication bias in the extant literature. The results of the logistic regression also revealed that grade point average, gender differences, prior knowledge of real estate discipline and potential difference in year of enrollment impact on students’ academic performance in terms of their ability to graduate at first attempt. In addition, factors such as age, marital status, high school grade and geopolitical/ethnic background of undergraduate real estate students do not influence their opportunities to graduate at first attempt from the university.

This paper focuses only on one specialized university of technology offering a bachelor’s program in real estate in Nigeria, so as to remove any extraneous factor(s) that could be present in the other institutional settings where students have completed such program. Extending similar study to tertiary institutions in Nigeria that share similar geographical characteristics and institutional settings can produce far-reaching generalization.

This paper contributes to the scanty literature on factors affecting the academic performance of students in an undergraduate real estate program in Nigeria. A scientific element of novelty in this paper is the evidence of the absence of the underlying effect of publication bias in the extant literature on students’ academic outcome in tertiary institutions. Findings from this study serve as the basis for university officers to monitor significant transitions in real estate students’ academic progress, so as to identify those who are unlikely to graduate at first attempt early at the entrant level. Generally, the outcome of this research could provide faculty and admission officers in tertiary institutions with complementary information in arriving at an informed decision in a non-discriminatory admission process.

Postsecondary institutions use metrics such as student retention and college completion rates to measure student success. Multiple factors affect the success of first time in college (FTIC) and transfer students. Transfer student success rates are significantly low, with most transfer students nationwide failing to complete their degrees in four-year institutions. The purpose of this study is to better understand the degree progression patterns of both student types in two undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs: computer science (CS) and information technology (IT). Recommendations concerning academic advising are discussed to improve transfer student success.

This study describes how transfer student success can be improved by thoroughly analyzing their degree progression patterns. This study uses institutional data from a public university in the United States. Specifically, this study utilizes the data of FTIC and transfer students enrolled in CS and IT programs at the targeted university to understand their degree progression patterns and analyzes the program curricula using network science curricular analytics method to determine what courses in the curriculum require more assistance to retain students.

The major findings of this study are: (1) students’ degree mobility patterns within an institution differ significantly between transfer and FTIC students; (2) some similarities exist between the CS and IT programs in terms of transfer students' degree mobility patterns; (3) transfer students' performance in basic and intermediate level core courses contribute to differences in transfer students' mobility patterns.

This study introduces the concept of “mobility patterns” and examines student degree mobility patterns of both FTIC and transfer students in a large public university to improve the advising process for transfer students regarding courses and identifying secondary majors.

The purpose of the paper is to determine possible grouping of similar MBA programmes offered by 45 British and French business schools accredited by the Association of Master Business Administration (AMBA) as of January 2006.

The study uses the statistical co‐plot method reported in a similar study of leading full time MBA programmes in the USA. The method is used to map/group the schools according to both core and elective units offered by the business schools.

The paper outlines the features of the six groups of MBA programmes found (Cluster 1: Manchester and Bath; Cluster 2: Warwick, Lancaster and London; Cluster 3: five top French business schools and Cranfield; Cluster 4: two French schools – Grenoble and Audiencia‐Nantes; Cluster 5: two French schools – ENPC‐EAP and IEP; Cluster 6: the remaining UK MBA programmes). The differentiating characteristics of core and option units offered by business schools in each cluster are described and discussed.

The study makes a contribution under the application area of international business education (specifically the design of MBA programmes), as well as in the area of statistical analysis by using co‐plot cluster analysis, an approach not used before when comparing UK and French Business schools to explore aspects of curriculum design.

The paper aims to offer a new perspective on the strictly microeconomic nature of all of Islamic economics. Writers in this field continue to work in the mainstream tradition without noticing the micro‐interface of the theoretical nature of Islamic economics. This paper aims to address this issue.

The paper provides a comparative study of received literature in the history of economic thought and contrasts the ethical foundations of Islamic economics from the mainstream dichotomy between microeconomic and macroeconomic parts.

There is a cogent microeconomic foundation of Islamic economics for the economy‐wide treatment of ethical economic issues and problems including the policy framework.

This is a theoretical exploration. The empirical part is yet to be expanded upon.

The paper has practical implications for graduate students on policy formulation and economic theorizing, by making them analytically aware on the extensive relevance of microeconomics in the building block of ethical content of economic theory, policy and institutions.

The paper presents original thinking along lines of microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic theory from the social and ethical vantage points of Islamic economics and finance that writers in this field should not ignore. The paper is meant for serious students and academics of economic theory and ethical social policy embedded in the economic treatment.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the relevance of the real estate curricula being offered by the two universities in Botswana to industry.

This is a cross-sectional study in which a designed questionnaire was administered to the practitioners in real estate obtained from the membership list of the Real Estate Institute of Botswana (REIB), final-year students and former graduates of the Bachelor of Land Management programme using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. This resulted into the total population of 150 elements. Students for the Bachelor of Commerce in Real Estate (BCom RE) at Ba Isago and BSc Real Estate programme at the University of Botswana were excluded from the population because they did not have graduate degrees yet; therefore the study sample was drawn from the identified population at 90 per cent confidence level with a 10 per cent margin of error. The sampling frame composed of 122 registered property valuers and managers, 14 alumni and 14 final-year students of Land Management (150). The sample size of 60 was determined at 90 per cent level of confidence with a 10 per cent margin of error. The questionnaire was administered through e-mail using a contact list from the REIB to their members. It was also e-mailed to the alumni and physically administered to the final-year students as well. A 60 per cent response rate was achieved.

It was established that the three programmes offered at the two universities in their current form are relevant to the industry. The overall average scores out of 5 for these programmes were 4.14 for BSc Real Estate – UB, 4.10 for Bachelor Land Management – UB and 3.97 for BCom RE – Ba Isago University College. By using analysis of variance, the study further established that there were no significant differences between the two programmes that are offered at UB and the one at Ba Isago University College. This was established by looking at the computed F-test (0.89) and the critical F-test (2.36). Since the computed F-test was less than the critical F-test value, it was concluded that there is no significant statistical differences among the three programmes being offered in the two universities.

The major limitation in this study was the use of an e-mailed questionnaire to the property practitioners and alumni of the Land Management programme which is characterised by a low response rate.

Since the three overall mean scores are close to and above 4.00, it means the current programmes offered at the two universities are relevant to the industry.

The research results might be useful to the society and should be used to enhance the social uplifting of society by contributing to the decisions that are made which might affect the society as a whole.

This is the first study to be conducted in Botswana which was meant to establish if the real estate programmes offered in the two universities were relevant. It is the first study to compare and evaluate the relevance of the contents of three real estate programmes locally.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information is provided about each source, and the paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper aims to find out what conditions are needed to enhance higher education curricula towards employability from the perspective of different stakeholders in the graduate labour market.

An empirical study was developed, using a qualitative approach, based on semi-structured interviews with higher education institutions (HEIs) and labour market players, in the north region of Portugal. The data were analysed through content and descrip\tive analysis with NVivo.

The results show a set of constraints that hinder the match of higher education curricula with employability, namely, (1) the weak connection between HEIs and employers and (2) the curricular structure, which is characterised by a heavy theoretical component and a weak approach to the soft skills required by the current labour market. Possible solutions, with implications for educational policy, are given throughout the study.

The geographical scope and the nature of the study suggest that some precautions are required when generalising results. However, the literature on other areas in Portugal strengthens the findings and compensates for the sample's limitations.

This study combines the perspectives of the different individual stakeholders involved which, when taken as a whole, provide some recommendations for tailored curricula towards employability. Other studies in Portugal address each of these issues individually, without a connection between all the different perspectives.