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1 – 10 of 45Michael G. Mullen and Debra Salvucci
For undergraduate-only, AACSB-accredited business programs, establishing a student managed investment fund (SMIF) can be an enormous, but potentially worthwhile, undertaking…
Abstract
Purpose
For undergraduate-only, AACSB-accredited business programs, establishing a student managed investment fund (SMIF) can be an enormous, but potentially worthwhile, undertaking. Resources are often very limited – especially for faculty where their time is already consumed by teaching, administrative and publishing requirements. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the five-year experience at Stonehill College and suggest considerations for undergraduate institutions seeking to establish such programs.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a retrospective on the experience of designing and implementing a SMIF-based academic program. Student education and professional skill development should be the primary outcomes evaluated with such programs. Included are brief perspectives on the program from its alumni with commentary on perceived value in one to four years following graduation.
Findings
The experience to date suggests that establishing a SMIF at a smaller, undergraduate-only institution is challenging. For a SMIF to generate educational returns commensurate with its cost, it needs to be part of a comprehensive, academic-driven program that garners broad support by the business faculty and administration of the college. Personal reflections by its program alumni suggest that it can be a very meaningful academic and experiential learning opportunity.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is focused largely on the experience of one institution. Further insights may be attained by a broader, unbiased analysis of institutions where SMIF programs have succeeded or failed to meet similar objectives.
Practical implications
The authors suggests that the creation of a SMIF program at smaller, undergraduate-only institutions faces unique challenges relative to larger, more well-endowed universities. These challenges can be overcome but not without a broad internal commitment. These programs, if done in a comprehensive way, can significantly impact student outcomes.
Originality/value
The retrospective offers up-to-date insights on the value and challenges of starting a SMIF program at smaller-sized, undergraduate-only academic institutions.
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Lafayette College is a small, private, undergraduate‐only, liberalarts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. The college′s curriculum isdistinguished by the rare combination, on an…
Abstract
Lafayette College is a small, private, undergraduate‐only, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. The college′s curriculum is distinguished by the rare combination, on an undergraduate campus, of degree programs in both the liberal arts and engineering. The full‐time student enrollment is approximately 2,000, with faculty and administrative staff numbering approximately 500.
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Katharine McGowan, Latasha Calf Robe, Laura Allan, Elinor Flora Bray-Collins, Mathieu Couture, Sarah Croft, Antonio Daling, Amy Farahbakhsh, Susan Grossman, Sara Hassan, Paul Heidebrecht, Nicole Helwig, Michelle Jackett and Jessica Machado
The purpose of this paper is to explore multiple Canadian educators' experiences with the Map the System (MTS) competition, designed to foster and grow systems thinking capacity…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore multiple Canadian educators' experiences with the Map the System (MTS) competition, designed to foster and grow systems thinking capacity among students exploring complex questions. The challenge has been an opportunity for social innovation programs (from the nascent to the established) across Canadian post-secondaries to engage both with their own communities and with social innovators internationally, connecting social innovation spaces as part of their third mission. Across the organizations, students valued the interdisciplinary and systems thinking qualities, and organizations benefited from the external competition, there remain questions about organizational engagement in social innovation as a deeply transformative process internally.
Design/methodology/approach
All Canadian post-secondary institutions who participated in the 2020 MTS competition (17) were invited to a digital roundtable to discuss their experiences. Ten were able to participate, representing a range of post-secondaries (including large research institutions, undergraduate-only universities and colleges). To facilitate discussion, participants met to discuss format and topics; for the roundtable itself, participant educators used a google form to capture their experiences. These were summarized, anonymized and redistributed for validation and clarification. To reflect this collaborative approach, all participant educators are listed as authors on this paper, alphabetically after the organizing authors.
Findings
For students participating in MTS, they have built both their interdisciplinary and systems thinking skills, as well as their commitment to achieving meaningful change in their community. But MTS arrived in fertile environments and acted as an accelerant, driving attention, validation and connection. Yet while this might align with post-secondary education’s third mission, educators expressed concerns about sustainability, internal commitment to change and navigating tensions between a challenge approach and collaborative work, and internal work and national competition limitations. This complicates the simple insertion of MTS in a post-secondary’s social innovation-related third mission.
Research limitations/implications
This study was limited to Canadian post-secondaries participating in MTS, and therefore are not representative of either post-secondaries in Canada, or all the MTS participants although Canada is well represented in the challenge itself. Additionally, while the authors believe their approach to treat all participants as authors, and ensured multiple feedback opportunities in private and collectively, this is a deliberate and potentially controversial move away from a traditional study.
Social implications
More than half of Canadian universities (a subgroup of post-secondaries) had at least one social innovation initiative, but questions have been raised about whether these initiatives are being evaluated internally, or are triggering the kinds of transformative internal work that might be an outcome. Understanding the impact of MTS one example of a social innovation-related initiative can help advance the broader conversation about the place (s) for social innovation in the post-secondary landscape – and where there is still significant work to be done.
Originality/value
As Canada has only participated in MTS for four years, this is the first inter-institution consideration of its related opportunities and obstacles as a vehicle for transformational social innovation. As well, educators talking openly and frankly to educators reinforces the collaborative quality of social innovation across the post-secondary landscape.
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Dennis Bline and Xiaochuan Zheng
This study empirically investigates whether graduate degrees (MBA, MSA and MST) earned by candidates affect their performance on the CPA exam. By examining more than half million…
Abstract
This study empirically investigates whether graduate degrees (MBA, MSA and MST) earned by candidates affect their performance on the CPA exam. By examining more than half million first-time exam sittings taken during the period 2005–2013, the authors find that candidates with a graduate degree performed better on each section of the CPA exam than those who only have an undergraduate degree. In addition, the authors find that the type of graduate degree also has an effect on the CPA exam performance. While candidates with an MBA degree generally performed better on the BEC section than those with an MSA or MST degree, those with an MSA degree performed best on the AUD and FAR sections; and those with an MST degree exceled on the REG section. This study contributes to the existing literature on the determinants of CPA exam success. In addition, this investigation provides valuable insights to candidates, academics and regulators. The findings of this chapter should be useful for academic administrators as they revise their accounting curricula to prepare for the new CPA licensure model. Furthermore, the results of this study should benefit accounting regulators in determining education requirements for future CPAs.
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Caroline F. Timmers and Cees A.W. Glas
The main purpose of this paper is to describe the development of an instrument designed to measure information‐seeking behaviour of undergraduate students during study assignments.
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this paper is to describe the development of an instrument designed to measure information‐seeking behaviour of undergraduate students during study assignments.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature research, internal consistency and reliability computed with Cronbach's Alpha (α), Factor Analyses with Varimax rotation, and item response theory form the approach to examining the subject.
Findings
Four scales were found within a 46‐item survey on information‐seeking behaviour: a ten‐item scale for applying search strategies (α=0.68), a 14‐item scale for evaluating information (α=0.74), a six‐item scale for referring to information (α=0.81) and a 12‐item scale for regulation activities when seeking information (α=0.75).
Originality/value
The four scales for information‐seeking behaviour can be used to monitor and evaluate this behaviour of students in higher education.
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To explore the belief that digital technology has created a steep and irreversible decline in traditional library use, particularly in borrowing from public and higher education…
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the belief that digital technology has created a steep and irreversible decline in traditional library use, particularly in borrowing from public and higher education library print collections, with a concomitant effect on familiar patterns of reading and reflection. If digital technology has led to a fundamental change in the way young people in HE process information, should traditional assumptions about library use and educational reading habits be abandoned?
Design/methodology/approach
This is a comparative analysis of statistics of library use available in the public domain in the USA and UK.
Findings
That reading habits shown in the use of public libraries are arguably conservative in nature; and that recent statistics for the circulation of print stock in US and UK university libraries indisputably show year on year increases, not decreases, except where the digitisation of print originals has provided a generous supply of effective digital surrogates for print holdings. The nature of reading has not changed fundamentally in nature. But where copyright law permits large‐scale provision of digital collections to be derived from print originals, these will readily displace borrowing from print collections, leading to lower circulation figures of hard copy items.
Research limitations/implications
This paper asserts that the restrictive nature of UK copyright law, which is demonstrably backward by international standards, is a major factor inhibiting university teachers from helping their students migrate from print to digital media. This assertion should be researched in greater depth, with a view to using such research to influence the development of future intellectual property legislation in the UK.
Practical implications
Because of the essentially conservative nature of reflective reading for educational purposes, digitisation programmes offer an important way forward for academic library service development. Library managers should not underestimate the persistent demand for traditional reading materials: where such materials are provided in digital or print formats, in most cases the digital formats will be preferred; but where high quality educational resources are only available in print, there is no evidence that the format of alternative digital media is in itself sufficient to lure students away from quality content.
Originality/value
This paper questions some of the more casual assumptions about the “death” of traditional library services.
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Mary Ann Walker and Helen Westneat
Optical storage media can facilitate the type of research done in academic libraries. This article describes InfoTrac, a database on laserdisc, and reports on its reception at the…
Abstract
Optical storage media can facilitate the type of research done in academic libraries. This article describes InfoTrac, a database on laserdisc, and reports on its reception at the University of Dayton.
Virginia B. Levsen, Nancy Goettel, Frank Chong and Roy Farris
Business schools are increasingly emphasizing diversity in their courses as well as in their student populations. Additionally, most schools pay lip‐service to increasing…
Abstract
Business schools are increasingly emphasizing diversity in their courses as well as in their student populations. Additionally, most schools pay lip‐service to increasing diversity in their faculty compositions. But how well are business schools meeting the goal of a diverse faculty? The purpose of this research was to examine this issue through the analyses of the results of a survey sent to 71 schools of business across the USA. The survey examined ethnic backgrounds, asking for the number of Caucasians, Blacks, Hispanics, Asian‐Pacific peoples, and American‐Indians on faculties. Gender and the position in the school, i.e. dean, associate dean, director, professional, were also collected. Diversity varied between the positions held by faculty but not by the number of years in administrative positions. Significant differences between public and private schools were not evident based on these variables.
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Game centers are increasingly being started at various universities around the world. The paper explores and expounds on the incorporation of an official university center that…
Abstract
Game centers are increasingly being started at various universities around the world. The paper explores and expounds on the incorporation of an official university center that has a mission on the study and making of games and simulations. To focus this discussion, the paper looks at the ideas and initiatives that led up to the successful creation of the Applied Media and Simulation Games Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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