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Nowadays, universities increasingly consider reputation as a key component for improving quality and rankings. A positive reputation opens doors to added value and diverse opportunities. This paper aims to explore Middle Eastern higher education managers' perceptions of university reputation components.

Given the significance of this concept in Middle Eastern universities, a descriptive phenomenological qualitative approach is adopted to identify these key components. The study includes interviews with university managers, and data are collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically.

The findings reveal that, from the perspective of higher education managers, university reputation is influenced by four main components: university management and leadership, quality and performance, identity and image and social responsibility. These components are tailored to the context of Middle Eastern countries.

Practical implications are clearly laid out in the form of four key themes for higher education managers in Middle Eastern countries to manage reputation.

The study’s outcomes can be used as a guide for university managers in developing countries to change the situation in their favor and achieve great success in the competitive condition of universities by planning and making policies in this direction. Also, the managers of higher education in the Middle Eastern countries can take advantage of the components of this study to improve the quality and quantity of their universities and take an important step towards increasing the university’s reputation at the international level.

Female leadership is a still largely unexplored aspect of the higher education (HE) field. While it is known that barriers to entry exist, few studies have addressed female leadership and have investigated what makes a female academic seek leadership, what their experiences are and how they perceive their positions and the associated responsibilities. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this lacuna as it provides a qualitative account of female academic leaders’ perceptions regarding their positions in the Middle East (ME) context. It also outlines their main tasks as administrative and academic leaders.

Data collection and analysis took place according to grounded theory principles, as outlined in this study. Participants were selected according to theoretical sampling principles, access and willingness to participate.

The findings illustrate a core concept, the female academic leadership mindset in the ME, and three emergent concepts that address the main shared perceptions, which are leadership experiences and expectations, differential treatment and work-life balance. The first discusses the different types of leadership and how female leaders experienced their positions, the second addresses the perceived differential treatment female leaders experience and the last addresses the dual pressure of work and home responsibilities that many female leaders have to deal with. Interestingly, several participants felt that fellow females were often unsupportive, which might also provide an explanation as to why women still experience obstacles.

This study provides in-depth exploratory accounts of female leaders in various Middle Eastern HE sectors, and gives insight into leadership-related perceptions. Furthermore, it explores the effect of the Middle Eastern cultural context on aspects of female leadership.

The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has largely transformed the higher education ecosystem and shifted the modes of delivery around the world. The rapid shift from traditional face-to-face teaching to online delivery was accompanied by a set of significant challenges. In Lebanon, the situation was exacerbated by a plethora of political, economic, and humanitarian crises. Even the most well-prepared Lebanese higher education institutions were facing an insurmountable challenge to maintain education quality under extremely strenuous circumstances and limited resources. The challenges included the absence of clear quality assurance mechanisms, problems associated with limited internet connectivity due to frequent electric power outages, the lack of teacher and student preparedness for online delivery, and the absence of online-ready curricula. Nevertheless, Lebanese universities were able to make the necessary adjustments for their students to complete their education using available resources and minimal training. The current chapter explores the challenges faced by private and public universities in Lebanon and the approaches utilized to overcome tremendous limitations. We discuss the lessons learned during the process of adopting online and hybrid classroom learning, and the opportunities for growth that were brought about by unforeseen circumstances. We also introduce the changes needed on the institutional, national, and regional levels to prepare for the post-pandemic era in higher education.

This study aims to illustrate an interactive project in an advanced accounting course at a Middle Eastern higher education institution, which introduced students to practical/applied financial and managerial accounting and sustainability reporting and created an element of cognitive dissonance with regard to their financial reporting-biased prior knowledge.

Groups are formed that create fictitious companies and then prepare an annual report for this company. Part of the project is a critical reflection on the experience afterwards. Students needed to critically reflect on their learning experience as part of the project assessment to fulfil the required learning outcomes, as constructive learning needs reflection.

This project introduced students to practical/applied financial and managerial accounting and sustainability reporting and created an element of cognitive dissonance with regard to their financial reporting-biased prior knowledge. While some students considered the project on financial/managerial accounting and sustainability reporting a beneficial undertaking and felt their disciplinary worldview challenged, others thought it was interesting but still preferred to remain with the primarily financial focus of their discipline.

The project was undertaken to allow students to engage with their disciplinary material, both conventional and sustainability reporting-related, in a constructive learning manner.

Using document analysis and surveys this chapter presents a case study about a new master’s degree program in library and information science and its curriculum which was developed cooperatively from 2009 through 2012 by four EU higher education institutions for, and with, universities in three former Soviet countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Events that led to the collaboration are presented along with how faculty members were taught to teach new courses. It also discusses findings and results of an assessment of impact and satisfaction levels of the project. Stated project objectives and anticipated outcomes were compared with student expectations in order to provide a better understanding of the critical factors that might determine success of the new program. Although the project’s documentation was extensive, analysis and conclusions from it were limited to education and knowledge transfer goals of the program. Results from the study shed light on how to adjust course content to better meet student expectations and how to implement ongoing evaluation of courses at the international level. Since cooperation between institutions is always highly demanding, in particular when it is among institutions from different countries, the evaluation of this project will be of interest to anyone trying to improve cooperative agreements for educational purposes. Low response rates to the surveys limit the conclusions on general indications of effectiveness. This chapter provides only an early look at the impact of the program, and outcomes analysis based on a larger sample remains to be done.

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to examine the ambiguity surrounding course learning outcomes and how they are perceived by faculty members in four private universities, while simultaneously investigating the dominant teaching perspectives, practices and assessment techniques. In parallel, theory of constructive alignment was shared with faculty members and students as a possible teaching-learning model.

This study is a qualitative multiple-case study designed based on Yin’s (2009) case study protocol and Stake’s (2006) cross-case analysis report. In the process, 52 faculty members were interviewed, and 38 of the 52 were observed teaching, plus 15 of 52, faculty members participated in separate focus groups about constructive alignment. Further, 18 students were interviewed in separate focus groups to find out how they perceive effective teaching and constructive alignment.

The findings showed why faculty members misunderstood the course learning outcomes. Both faculty members and students withheld similar perceptions when it came to efficient teaching; however, they disagreed regarding the utility of constructive alignment as a proposed teaching-learning model. The 52 faculty members were mainly knowledge transmitters and this contradicts with the notion of the learning outcomes, which is student-centered. In addition, they are not familiar with the teaching-learning theories or with the various pedagogical tools that may render learning constructive.

The fact that this study is a multiple-case study automatically implies that the results cannot be generalized within the larger higher education context. Nevertheless, the research findings can help to clarify the reasons hindering the proper implementation of the learning outcomes in other institutions, as it can serve as a guide to improve all the detected weaknesses, which may be applicable in other contexts. It can also aid administrative bodies at the different institutions in dealing with the obstacles that restrict the workability of the learning outcomes.

Teaching in higher education must be nurtured through continuously investing time and effort in supporting faculty members to develop their teaching-learning skills to suit the changing profiles of students to render learning a durable experience.

The study is unique in how it combined Yin’s protocol with Stake’s cross-case analysis report. Additionally, the classroom observation instrument was, to an extent, a precedent in terms of higher education research in the Lebanese context. Further, the results obtained added to the results of previous research, i.e. the reasons why the learning outcomes were not functional. Plus, a cyclical/retrograding motion learning model emerged in the process, and the practicality of the theory of constructive alignment in the Lebanese context was questioned.

The purpose of this paper is to confirm the factorial structure of SERVPERF based on an exploration of its dimensionality among Syrian universities’ students. It also aimed at assessing the perceived service quality offered at these universities.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted targeting students at Syrian universities. Using a pilot sample of 40 students, the authors developed their hypotheses. Thereafter, based on a sample of 259 students, the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and one-sample t-test.

The findings revealed that SERVPERF in the Syrian universities’ context was a three-factor instrument consisting of the three dimensions: faculty-individualized attention, support staff helpfulness, and support staff empathy. Moreover, the findings showed that students at Syrian universities hold negative perceptions toward all of the three service quality dimensions provided by their universities.

Given the imperative need for universities to monitor and improve the quality of their services, this study can help Syrian universities’ administrations understand the perceptions of their students toward services offered, which can help them formulate effective marketing strategies.

This paper came to be one of the first studies that attempted to assess the perceived quality of services offered through the Syrian higher education system. Additionally, this study pioneered through drawing a factorial picture for SERVPERF at the Syrian Arab context.

In the two consecutive surveys conducted by the authors in 2015 and 2018, it was found that out of a total of 810 and 1008 Indian higher educational institutions, only 54 and 63 institutions (6.67 and 6.25%) were led by women, 725 and 934 institutions (89.51 and 92.7%) were led by men and 31 and 11 (3.83 and 1.1%) were reported to either have no information about their leaders or those posts were vacant (Banker and Banker, 2017; EduShine Report, 2015 and 2018). The current study is a follow-up attempt so that the knowledge around the status of women academic leaders in Indian higher education (2021) can be upgraded. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

The qualitative exploratory research approach was followed for conducting the study.

It was found that out of the current total of 1151 Indian higher educational institutions, still only 110 (9.55%) are led by women, 1031 (89.57%) are led by men and for 10 institutions (0.86%) data on leadership is unavailable. Important contextual inferences have been made in the discussion section followed by the concentrated literature around the possible reasons for such low representation of women leaders in the global higher education sector.

One possible limitation of this study is that it does not provide an idea about why there is the highest women leadership in central institutions and the lowest in INIs. Taking the contextual factors into consideration, an extended exploration could have been made of different facilitators and barriers for each type of Indian HEI. The author invites future researchers to conduct this inquiry and come up with certain remedies, which is also one of the limitations of this study. Different enablers and disablers can be found through different primary and secondary research.

Increased women leadership will bring diversity in the institutions' modus operandi and impact their culture in a great way. It is the prime responsibility of women to break the glass ceiling and come out of their shells. Family responsibilities contribute to their career stress in a great way, and women may balance their personal and professional lives by creating a sound support system in their family. Utilizing domestic help services will liberate them partially from their routine and unimportant duties. This will allow women to focus on more important work related to their careers. Trending nuclear families is also one of the major contributors to low women leadership; joint family pattern may benefit women to nurture and build their career keeping their sanity intact. Institutional decision makers and other stakeholders at work will be sensitized toward different barriers experienced by not only women leaders but also women in lower positions. Men at work across the levels are responsible for creating a more inclusive and conducive workplace for women. Inclusive workplace policies will render women equal opportunities and fair rewards. Ensuring unbiased and prejudice-free work culture will have a positive impact on the self-efficacy level of women which can be validated through their performance.

Slow and steady efforts consciously made by both men and women in the workplace for the betterment of women may progressively help overcome the social preconditioning at a macro level.

All the studies reported in this paper have been sequentially conducted and are unique in the Indian higher education system.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of human resource development (HRD) education in Middle Eastern countries. In particular, the authors discuss the current state of HRD education, country readiness and challenges that hinder HRD progress in Middle Eastern countries. They argue that HRD programs need to prepare young employees for leadership roles through adapting constructivist pedagogy, including problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity.

The design of this paper followed a qualitative approach. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with five HRD experts in Middle Eastern countries and conducted integrative literature review and secondary data analysis.

Data analysis provided an overview of HRD education, looked at options individuals interested in HRD education might have, provided views on constructivism vs instructivism as education pedagogies and discussed cultural factors that impede critical reflection in the workplace.

To understand how to introduce constructivist elements to instructivist learning cultures, and to sustain it, HRD scholars in the Middle Eastern countries need to diminish the misalignment between instructional philosophies of trainers, trainees and national or institutional systems.

Understanding how policy, resources, infrastructure and culture influence learning expectations is vital to introducing innovative training activities or scaling them up to other workshops and systems.

This research sheds light on HRD education in the Middle Eastern countries; provides an overview of employment challenges and opportunities to improve workplace learning; and provides scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders interested in HRD with suggestions to develop successful workforce education.

This monograph is devoted to the countries of Eastern Europe, which are experiencing the dramatic changes following on from the fundamental developments of the last few years. These countries, Albania, Bulgaria, Czecho‐slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Yugoslavia, are likely to become members of a greater Europe in the future. Their economic and educational systems are examined and the structures of their management training systems are described.