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This study investigates the extent to which support facilities are available, accessible and satisfactory and the relationship between support facilities and academic adjustment among first-year university undergraduates.

This research adopted a survey research design. A simple random sampling technique was used to select six faculties at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria. Six hundred first-year students took part in the study. The Support Facilities and Academic Adjustment Questionnaire (SSAAQ) was adapted and used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation and the t-test were used to analyse the data.

The study revealed that the extent of the availability of support facilities is low, accessibility is moderate while the extent of satisfaction is high in the study context. Significant positive relationship exist between support facilities and academic adjustment, in favour of female first-year undergraduates. The challenges faced by first-year undergraduates were highlighted.

Nigerian students are confronted with accessing important components of support facilities at tertiary institutions. These student face additional hurdles in accessing support facilities at universities because of their socioeconomic status but were not explicit in identifying the exact nature of the challenges they experience. There is dearth of literature regarding the extent of availability, accessibility, as well as the challenges encountered by first-year students and their satisfaction in accessing the university’s support facilities, vis-à-vis its relationship to their academic adjustment in the university amidst gender differences. This current study fills this gap in the literature.

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of greenery on residential mobility within purpose-built student housing facilities in Northern Ghana.

This research employed a structured questionnaire and utilized an experimental block design, encompassing 124 comparative greened and non-greened student housing facilities, with a total of 995 resident participants. The impact of greenery on residential mobility was analyzed using a repeated sales model and t-test analysis.

Results revealed that residential mobility was significantly higher in non-greened student housing facilities than their greened counterparts. The study further indicated that the presence of greenery had a substantial effect on residential mobility, attributed to residents' preferences for the ecological, social and economic benefits associated with greenery, rather than merely infrastructure considerations.

Enhancing the aesthetic appeal, economic viability, safety, security and health benefits of greened student housing facilities while managing the influence of greenery on infrastructure was found to affect residential mobility. The findings suggest that improving occupancy rates in these facilities through the incorporation of greenery could yield higher rental income and better cash flows for investors involved in student housing operations.

This study highlights the ecological, social and economic advantages of greenery for residents. While the benefits of greenery in residential contexts are increasingly recognized, the specific impact of greenery on residential mobility within the Sub-Saharan African context represents a novel contribution. The application of neighborhood effects theory to the examination of greenery benefits and residential mobility in this region adds a new dimension to existing research.

University students’ lecture theatre concentration levels are significantly related to indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and the self-reported concentration levels of university students during the winter at University College London (UCL), UK.

A questionnaire survey and physical measurements were used to assess the IEQ factors affecting students’ concentration levels.

The lecture theatre design factor was the most significant factor influencing students’ concentration levels, and the facility environment was more important than the thermal environment, indoor air quality, and acoustic environment in influencing students’ concentration levels in this winter investigation at UCL, UK. Additionally, students prefer a colder thermal environment. The concentration level of students was positively correlated with the indoor air quality and negatively correlated with the acoustic environment.

Based on model application, this research could provide lecture theatre IEQ design. This research additionally provides an acceptable indoor thermal environment temperature range based on a large sample, which can be used to calibrate a student performance benchmark.

As this study evaluates the IEQ factors that influence the concentration levels of university students, interior designers and engineers should consider the rational layout of these factors. Therefore, this study may provide a reference for the interior environmental design of lecture theatres in educational buildings.

This study aims to convey lessons learned from two sustainability initiatives at Norway’s largest university. This contributes to knowledge-based discussions of how future, sustainable higher education institutions (HEIs) infrastructures should be envisioned and planned if the fundamental uncertainty of the future development of learning, researching and teaching is acknowledged.

This study was submitted on 24 January 2023 and revised on 14 September 2023. HEIs, particularly when they are engaged in research activities, have a considerable environmental footprint. At the same time, HEIs are the main producers and disseminators of knowledge about environmental challenges and their employees have a high awareness of the urgent need to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. In this study, the gap between knowledge and environmental performance is addressed as a question of infrastructural change, which is explored in two case studies.

The first case study presents limitations of ambitious, top-down sustainability planning for HEI infrastructures: support from employees and political support are central for this strategy to succeed, but both could not be secured in the case presented leading to an abandonment of all sustainability ambitions. The second case study exposes important limitations of a circular approach: regulatory and legal barriers were found against a rapid and radical circular transformation, but also more fundamental factors such as the rationality of an institutional response to uncertainty by rapid cycles of discarding the old and investing in new equipment and facilities.

Being based on qualitative methods, the case studies do not claim representativity for HEIs worldwide or even in Norway. Many of the factors described are contingent on their specific context. The goal, instead, is to contribute to learning by presenting an in-depth and context-sensitive report on obstacles encountered in two major sustainability initiatives.

Research reporting on sustainability initiatives too often focuses descriptively on the plans or reports the successes while downplaying problems and failures. This study deviates from this widespread practice by analysing reasons for failure informed by a theoretical frame (infrastructural change). Moreover, the juxtaposition of two cases within the same context shows the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to infrastructural change particularly clearly.

The study investigates the connections that university buildings and campuses establish with their environments and the effects of their environments on universities. Many factors influence the location of universities in a particular region. The initial university settlement and the subsequent facilities needed by university branches, colleges, or faculties are related to each other by the time parameter Istanbul, a historical city that is also Turkey’s largest, hosts several state and founding universities. This study investigates the connections between the urban areas where university campuses in Istanbul are located within the city and the specific characteristics of universities.

We evaluate the data on university locations in the city to determine the relationships between their establishment date, size, type, place of location in the city, and unique characteristics. The analysis is based on data for occupancy rate, satisfaction level, university ranking, and space area per student.

Results: Campus areas are affected by the availability of public transport and other amenities in urban areas. There are also interactions between meeting students’ satisfaction, university ranking, and public perceptions of the university and campus location in the city.

This study investigates the connections between the urban areas where university campuses in Istanbul are located within the city and the specific characteristics of universities.

Through its advanced computational capabilities, cyber–physical systems (CPS) proffer solutions to some of the cultural challenges plaguing the effective delivery of facilities management (FM) mandates. This study aims to explore the drivers for the uptake of CPS for FM functions using a qualitative approach – the Delphi technique.

Using the Delphi technique, the study selected experts through a well-defined process entailing a pre-determined set of criteria. The experts gave their opinions in two iterations which were subjected to statistical analyses such as the measure of central tendency and interquartile deviation in ascertaining consensus among the experts and the Mann–Whitney U test in establishing if there is a difference in the opinions given by the experts.

The study’s findings show that six of the identified drivers of the uptake of CPS for FM were attributed to be of very high significance, while 12 were of high significance. Furthermore, it was revealed that there is no significant statistical difference in the opinions given by experts in professional practice and academia.

The study’s outcome provides the requisite insight into the propelling measures for the uptake of CPS for FM by organisations and, by extension, aiding digital transformation for effective FM delivery.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, evidence from the literature suggests that no study has showcased the drivers of the incorporation of CPS for FM. Hence, this study fills this gap in knowledge by unravelling the significant propelling measures of the integration of CPS for FM functions.

This study aimed to design a user-participatory methodology to investigate the post-occupancy sustainability of reused historical buildings and to apply it to a case study.

This study was designed in four stages. In the first stage, the sustainability parameters and sub-parameters were determined in the reused historical buildings based on the literature. The second stage included a field study in which the current situation of the study area was analysed, and the users were reached using the survey technique. In the third stage, the data obtained from the user participation were analysed with importance performance analysis (IPA) and an IPA matrix was created. The fourth stage included an evaluation of the results of the analysis and the development of recommendations.

IPA is a supportive method for ensuring the sustainable use of historic buildings. According to the data obtained from the IPA, it was seen that the functional sustainability of the building was achieved to a great extent. At the same time, there were deficiencies in technical and environmental sustainability. In terms of aesthetic sustainability, it was observed that the importance and performance values given by the users were generally consistent with each other.

The originality of this study is that the performance of the reused historical buildings in the process of use was monitored with appropriate parameters, and a user-participated method was proposed that allows improvement suggestions to be developed in line with the results obtained.

This paper aims to examine the effect of push and pull factors motivating international students to study abroad as two pre-departure factors to their mobility decision; and the effect of two post-departure factors – cultural distance and academic/university environment – on international students’ adjustment.

Data were collected from 339 international students studying in Egypt. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the effect of the independent variables on two facets of adjustment, the cultural adjustment and the academic adjustment.

The descriptive studies showed differences in level of adjustments, where the academic adjustment was higher than the cultural adjustment. Moreover, the SEM results have confirmed the significant role of all studied variables on general cultural adjustment; and all variables except for the push factors, on interaction cultural adjustment; and the effect of only push and academic environment on academic adjustment.

This paper is an attempt to extend the work on international students’ mobility via identifying the main pre-departure and the post-departure factors affecting their decision to study in Egypt and the interplay of those factors in shaping their level of adjustment. This study is among a relatively limited attempts in the field that would link push and pull motivational factors to level of adjustment and via detecting the effects on two different adjustments dimensions: the cultural and the academic dimensions; and within an under researched context as Egypt.

Using the social model of disability and social cognitive theory, this study aims to examine Students With Disabilities (SWDs) and facilities accessibility to dismantle exclusion in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.

Three sets of data were collected for the study, first, detailed inventory and actual measurements of basic accessibility to infrastructure (ramp, staircases, handrails, drop-kerb and toilets), estimating barriers and breakers and checking conformity with The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) standards. Second, perceptual data was collected from SWDs through questionnaire administration on 56 SWDs based on consent and willingness to partake in the survey, and finally, 5 key informants were selected for interview. Data collected were analyzed using mean index, cross-tabulation and content analysis.

The study revealed that accessibility to buildings and facilities is a major problem faced by SWDs within the campus, and this is attributed to insufficient provision of facilities such as ramps, drop kerbs, tactile, traffic/auditory signals, crossing aids in the campus physical environment. Also, no building on campus is disability friendly, with barriers such as step and stair landings, circulations and narrow corridors within the campus buildings and no provision for disabled priority seating, toilets and elevators among others. These accessibility limitations contribute greatly to the disadvantage and marginalization faced by SWDs, leading to deprivation and exclusion.

Creating an inclusive environment, especially for SWDs, requires access to adequate and standard barrier-free facilities within university campuses. These barriers create accessibility limitations and contribute greatly to the disadvantage and marginalization faced by SWDs, leading to deprivation and exclusion, in the form of fatigue, restriction from educational opportunities, frustrations and hinder the right to freedom of movement, unequal participation and lack of access to various facilities such as health. Hence, disabled-friendly design components play a vital role in creating inclusion within the campus environment.

The study focuses on the minority and less privileged students whose voices and fundamental human rights have been trampled upon indirectly through exclusion in policy formulation. This has to a large extent hampered their access to public buildings such as classrooms and libraries, which may transcend to affecting their academic excellence. A study of this nature aimed at breaking exclusion for proper accessibility to school infrastructure, which will aid the achievement of SDG4.

This study aims to report the quality of Bangladesh's science and technology universities (STUs) in ensuring sustainable employment of graduates during the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) by assessing their vigilance in skill development activities and exploring students’ perspectives on the university.

This research used mixed methods: a close-ended five-point Likert scale questionnaire to understand students’ perspectives and a thematic analysis of the interviews of students, faculties, policymakers and relevant stakeholders. The data was collected through a random sampling method where 1,000 university students took part in the quantitative analysis along with other respondents for the qualitative portion. The analysis was done with a 99% confidence level and a 4.5% margin of error.

Bangladesh's STUs still have a long way to go to ensure quality education and generate sustainable employment for their graduates. The universities' preparation to comprehend the 4IR is not at the expected level. In addition, despite students' favourable perception of universities as providers of qualified labour, there is a significant mismatch between supply and demand.

This research has some limitations regarding time and resources. Due to the limited number of responses from a few universities, this study's findings might only apply to some of the STUs of other countries. This study provided several recommendations for providing quality education to the STUs of Bangladesh.

The findings of this study indicate that there is still a crucial gap between the initiatives of STUs and the employment market, which prevents graduates from offering the necessary skills to achieve sustainable employment. The findings also support the idea of significant changes in the approach of these universities to address the mentioned issues.

This study suggests collaboration among social actors, relevant stakeholders, STU authorities, education experts and government officials to ensure a demand-based curriculum for the students. The relevant stakeholders should come forward to ensure advanced technologies and internet connectivity in the STUs.

The data set used in this study is significantly large and varies in the number of institutions, departments and socioeconomic backgrounds of the students, faculties, policymakers and various stakeholders. Furthermore, the capacity of scientific and technology institutions to guarantee sustainable employment through quality assurance in education has also not been recently evaluated in Bangladesh.