Search results

Purpose – This chapter argues that institutions should take a strategic, integrated approach to enable all students to progress successfully beyond their first degree, to additional education or training or to the labour market.

Methodology/approach – The chapter reviews the literature about the progression of students from equity groups to the labour market and postgraduate study and the explanations for lower rates of success. The remainder of the chapter explores what institutions in England are doing to facilitate equality of outcomes for graduates from equity groups, based on analysis of the Widening Participation Strategic Assessments (WPSAs). Each WPSA was coded, and query reports were read and re-read to identify common approaches and themes.

Findings – Literature finds that graduates from diverse backgrounds and equity groups have poorer progression outcomes than other students. The WPSAs show that the majority of institutions are addressing employability but not progression to postgraduate study. On the basis of mainstream approaches to engaging students and developing their employability, the chapter presents a seven-point strategic approach to enhancing the progression and success of graduates from a diverse student body.

Research limitations – There are limitations associated with analysis of the WPSAs and that there is so little consideration of progression to postgraduate study.

Practical implications – This chapter proposes that institutions adopt an integrated and strategic approach to enhancing the progression and success of students.

Social implications – This approach addresses progression inequalities.

Originality/value – This chapter provides original insights into progression to postgraduate study for diverse students.

Purpose – This chapter answers the question ‘what does a transformed institution look like’ by presenting a framework for institutional transformation to mainstream diversity. It exemplifies the framework by assessing how well English higher education institutions (HEIs) are doing with respect to mainstreaming. Relevant examples of change from the case studies are identified.

Methodology/approach – Reports from two institutional change programmes in the United Kingdom and the European Universities Charter on Lifelong Learning are synthesised to create a framework for change to mainstream diversity. The framework is used to assess the progress of English HEIs. This analysis is based on data from a thematic review of the Widening Participation Strategic Assessments (WPSAs) prepared by each of the 129 English HEIs. Each WPSA was coded up. Query reports were read and re-read to identify common approaches and themes.

Findings – The 12 item framework for mainstreaming diversity demonstrates that institutions need to attend to both infrastructure (policies, processes and procedures) and the institutional culture (the understandings and implementation of a strategy). The analysis suggests that English HEIs are making good progress towards this challenging agenda of change.

Research limitations – The WPSAs are a subjective account of WP, and claims have not been checked. Furthermore, WPSAs were written at a specific time and so only provide a snap-shot of institutional approaches to diversity.

Practical implications – This chapter assists institutions to think about, plan and evaluate institutional transformation.

Social implications – This approach puts diversity at the centre of HEIs.

Originality/value – The chapter provides an original framework to assist institutions to assess their progress with regard to institutional transformation to engage a diverse student body.

Purpose – This chapter provides an overview of the book and discusses student diversity and institutional responses.

Methodology/approach – The chapter draws together literature and conceptual thinking about what student diversity is. It then analyses the drivers for increased diversity within higher education in the case studies in this book. Alternative approaches to diversity are presented, drawing on a synthesis of approaches identified in the literature. Finally, the chapter provides a summary of the other chapters and the associated case studies.

Findings – The chapter finds that diversity incorporates difference across a number of dimensions: education, personal disposition, current circumstances and cultural heritage. There are a wide range of reasons prompting institutions to recruit a diverse student population: a commitment to social justice, expansion and access to new markets, tapping the pool of talent, enhancing the student experience, national and/or regional policy, funding incentives, conforming with equality legislation, institutional research and personal commitment of staff. Institutions can respond to diversity in different ways. The idealised types are: altruistic (no institutional change), academic (little or no change), utilitarian (special access and additional support mechanisms) and transformative (positive view of diversity resulting in institutional development).

Research limitations – This chapter draws largely on the author's work in England and the United Kingdom and the case studies presented in this book.

Practical implications – This chapter is important as an introduction to the book, and providing frameworks to think about diversity.

Social implications – The framework for institutional change assists institutions to critically consider the response they make to a more diverse student population.

Originality/value – The paper provides original perspectives to conceptualising and responding to diversity.

The purpose of this paper is to identifying, discussing and analyzing the existing education and training programs related to quality management system (QMS) in Spain.

Exhaustive search of the education system database was used to map the multifaceted of Spanish education system and professional training in addition to their relationships with the labor market. Thereafter, a thorough scan of the existing training related to management system standards was used to classify them into different subgroups as well as identifying possible education and the professional trainings related to QMS.

The overall results showed that general education in Spain and in particular related to QMS can be classified into four different groups including: official university, unofficial university, official non-university and unofficial non-university. Moreover, this study observed that the general concern about the employment and earnings in Spain has led the local, autonomous communities and national government to launch specific measures designed to both continue to increase the quality of the workforce with the QMS backgrounds and to ease the difficulties encountered when entering the labor market.

This study is the first to analyze and map the multifaceted character of Spanish education system and professional training related to QMS. The findings of this study may be useful for organizations trying to evaluate their QMS efforts, thus, engage their people in order to face the competitive challenges that lie ahead.

This paper aims to assess the use of electronic journal resource at the University of Dar es Salaam. The study involved the postgraduate students in the School of Education at the University of Dar es Salaam.

A combination of questionnaires for postgraduate students and interview for the reference librarians was used, whereby 100 postgraduate students and six reference librarians were involved in the study. SPSS and content analysis were used to analyse the data.

Major findings of the study reveal that majority of the students reported using electronic journal resources for various purposes including working on the assignments, research proposal writing, literature review, research report writing, current awareness, leisure and for extra exploration of ongoing scientific debates through peer-reviewed papers. The challenges encountered in the use of electronic journal resources include power outage, inadequate bandwidth, slow download speed, inability to access the resources from home, lack of training, lack of awareness, limited access to computers and difficulty in searching. Finally, the recommendations for improving the use of electronic journal resources are provided.

This is the first time an effort has been made to assess the use of electronic journal resources by postgraduate students in the School of Education at the University of Dar es Salaam. The study could be used to assess the postgraduate students’ need for electronic resources at the University of Dar es Salaam and other users in higher learning institutions.

This study empirically analyse the lived and individual experiences of internet use time among postgraduate students in a period where the line between the virtual and real is blurred. The infusion of the internet in higher education has not only facilitated the production of new knowledge but has also led to reports of internet addiction among many users during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. This study aims to evaluate the level of internet addiction among postgraduate students and the supportive information services role that librarians could provide.

In this study, 279 postgraduate students completed a quantitative survey targeted at all the postgraduate students at a university campus in South Africa. Data was collected using an adopted internet addiction test questionnaire. The data was descriptively and inferentially analysed.

As many as 61 (22.7%) are always online, with most of the respondents, 112 (41.6%) spend 10 h or more on the internet daily. Laptop computers at 44.7% emerged as the primary electronic device used by postgraduate students for accessing the internet, surpassing the prevalence of mobile phone usage. On internet addiction level, internet use time had a statistically significant relation with problematic internet use levels in respondents. These results suggest that the increased uncontrolled internet use could negatively interfere with productive academic work of postgraduate students. However, based on the inferential statistical results, it can be concluded that academic use of the internet does not contribute to increased levels of internet addiction. The study recommends that librarians should provide literacy education and resources on how to use the internet safely and responsibly, including tips on setting boundaries, managing time online and productively using online information resources.

The study assesses problematic internet use among postgraduate students and provides suggestions on supportive information services that librarians could provide in an era where many library information services provision and higher education are hinged on the internet.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the use of library spaces by postgraduate students at the North-West University in South Africa.

A survey research methodology was used in which both online and print questionnaires were used to gather data.

The major findings of the study were that postgraduate students frequently visited the libraries to make use of the quite study spaces, which include the research commons and the study carrels. The study further found out that postgraduate students rarely visited the libraries for the purpose of consulting librarians regarding their studies. Challenges expressed by the students include insufficient workstations, poor internet and Wi-Fi connectivity and limited seating capacity. The benefit of the study is that it will help librarians and the university administrators to better understand the postgraduate students space needs, as well as the challenges being encountered.

This biggest limitation of this study was a lack or low response rate by certain faculties, which mitigated against comparing the use of spaces by faculty.

The results of this study re-affirm the need for postgraduate spaces. University libraries that seek to build postgraduate spaces in the future need to ensure that an adequate number of computer workstations are supplied and Wi-Fi and bandwidth are improved. University libraries that already have postgraduate spaces should consider adding more workstations and improving bandwidth and Wi-Fi connectivity in those spaces. These results further point to a need for libraries in Africa and elsewhere to consider having more quiet study spaces for postgraduate students while reducing the number of group study spaces.

The results of this study point to a need for libraries and university authorities to periodically review library spaces as a way to ensure their continued optimal usage. They also point to a need for more funds to further enhance the library spaces for postgraduate students’ use.

South African libraries are faced with challenges including the addition of 15 per cent value added tax to print and online resources. In this environment, libraries are expected by university authorities to demonstrate return on investment. This study, therefore, is located within the realm of determining return on investment for the funds spent by universities to build dedicated postgraduate library spaces. This study will further benefit librarians and the university administrators by helping them to better understand the postgraduate students space needs, as well as the challenges being encountered.

The purpose of the present study is to take an overview of the use of computers, internet, computer skills and information searching behaviour on the web as well as the OPAC in a university setting among students at the postgraduate level from rural and urban backgrounds in a comparative analogue.

This survey‐based study utilized the questionnaire as its major data collection instrument. However, the interview method and general observations were also used, whenever required, to supplement the data and make the information more explicit. The data, thus collected, were analysed with the aid of SPSS statistical software. The Chi‐square test was also performed to identify significant comparability among urban and rural background students.

The study revealed that most postgraduates (95.5 per cent) belonging to rural areas were computer literate. Further, most of them had accessed the web for communication purposes and for locating general and academic information. The results showed no significant differences between rural and urban students for the use of computer and internet, usage patterns of OPAC like search engines and the ease of OPAC use and their expectations from OPAC. The only significant differences found among both groups were for their reactions during unsuccessful searches. Thus, the background of users at the postgraduate level does not significantly affect the use of computer and internet, information searching behaviour patterns on the web and library systems, especially OPAC.

This is a pioneering work to examine whether postgraduates from differing backgrounds searched for information required by them differently through varying information channels for academic purposes in a university library system in India.