Search results

A research project exploring emerging student needs explored six aspects of student life: living, learning, working, playing, connecting and participating. Participating is explored here. This aspect focuses on the ways that students may become active citizens by participating in civic life. Insights are gained as to how students may engage with universities and governments and how they will contribute to the public sphere. Themes such as voting, (h)activism, transparency and digital strategies to improve governance are explored. This paper aims to summarize two scenarios about the Participating domain from the Student Needs 2025+ project and highlight implications for the future of higher education.

A modified version of the University of Houston’s “Framework Foresight” method was used to explore the future of six aspects of future student life.

The ability of students and citizens to innovate and affect change should not be underestimated. The maker movement and the “life hacking” meme are symbols of the hidden societal energy available to governments to improve the world and solve our pressing issues. For this to be effective, the role of the hacker, and hacktivism in general as a form of civic participation, should be reframed as a positive contributor of change. The relationship between governing bodies and activism is at a crossroads. The current age of interconnectivity offers tremendous potential for governing bodies to include civil contributions and innovation in a powerful, net-positive way. However, the status quo is so often the opposite and those who are being governed are perceived as a threat. There is a need for key players and leaders to creatively act according to innovative paradigms and principles that strategically reconcile the hacked and the hacking for the greater good of society.

In terms of research limitations, the paper is focused on the needs of students and does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis of all of the issues influencing higher education. It views the future of higher education through the lens of students and their emerging needs.

This paper explores student life in its totality as a way to more accurately identify student needs in the future.

This study analyzed the state of broiler production in Senegal after nearly two decades of poultry import restrictions. It provides a synopsis of the Senegalese broiler value chain and evaluates the performance and economics of different broiler farm types.

A multi-stakeholder workshop and interviews were conducted with key informants to investigate the structure and activities of the Senegalese broiler value chain. The typical farm approach (TFA) was used to construct and analyze “typical” farms that represent the most common broiler production systems in Senegal.

The current situation in the Senegalese broiler value chain is favorable for hatcheries, feed mills, producers and poultry traders. However, the slaughterhouses are not faring well. The farm economic analysis demonstrates that typical medium-scale broiler farms are performing well, due to the use of high-quality feed, chicks and good husbandry. Additionally, the analysis revealed that feed and day-old chick (DOC) costs are the most significant in conventional broiler production in Senegal. Despite the high costs of feed and DOCs, broiler production is profitable for typical farms.

Athough this study provides detailed insights into broiler farm economics in Senegal, it does not include typical integrated large-scale broiler farm-types. Based on our findings, we can predict that such farm types may be more efficient and have lower production costs due to the use of high-quality inputs (chicks and feed), and economies of scale. However, future studies will need to verify this prediction.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, only a few unpublished studies on broiler farm economics in Senegal exist. These studies only provide a basic analysis of the cost of production and profitability, with little consideration of various production systems. Contrastingly, this study provides a detailed economic analysis of different types of conventional broiler farms in key production regions.