There is an expectation that medical students in the UK will be able to demonstrate conversancy with social science relevant to medicine and health, including the means by which the relevant bodies of knowledge are generated through the use of social science research methods. This paper explores the structural and pedagogical challenges and…

Research mentor training (RMT), based on the published "Entering Mentoring" curricula series, has been shown to improve the knowledge and skills of research mentors across career stages, as self-reported by both the mentors engaged in training and their mentees. To promote widespread dissemination and empower others to implement this…

This article describes a collaborative self-study undertaken to identify the source of academic writing difficulties among graduate students and find ways to address them. Ten faculty members in a college of education came together to define the problem and to analyze data gleaned from faculty and student surveys, course documents, course…

The problem explored is the relatively low research output at a merged Higher Education Institution (HEI). The re-landscaping of how HEIs operate, has impacted on merged institutions, especially those of a comprehensive nature, that are facing the challenge of improving research output. This article is based on research conducted for a Master's…

The Management of one college at Unisa initiated a structured mentoring programme to develop researchers, among others. This article reports the views of 43 mentees of the programme one year after implementation. The research design was a survey. The items in a questionnaire were influenced by the self-efficacy theory and the constructivist views…

Reports on recent survey of 266 faculty views on undergraduate information skills in university setting, which covered evaluation of students' library skills; use of card catalog, bibliographies, and reference tools; assignments requiring student use of library resources; faculty explanation of literature tools in field; and librarian role in…

Results of survey measuring university faculty attitudes toward bibliographic instruction indicated that: frequency of respondent's library use related positively to decision to offer bibliographic instruction and its delivery by librarians; part-time faculty were less aware of library services than full-time faculty; 29 percent of faculty…

A successful undergraduate research experience depends on a good mentor/ teacher. Surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions reveal that students and their mentors agree that research learning is very different from classroom learning. They do however disagree about some of the dynamics and priorities of the mentoring relationship. (Contains…

Comparison of 296 pharmacy practice faculty and 57 department heads concerning scholarship found differences between the groups in age, experience, tenure, and workload. Administrators found the department environment more supportive and resources more satisfactory than did faculty. The groups produced about the same amount of scholarly work.…

Across OECD countries, governments, policy makers and university managers are examining the future of higher education and questioning the role of educational research. These discussions are taking place against the backdrop that knowledge production and the contribution of higher education to the economy and the prestige and standing of nations…