This article analyses the determinants of job satisfaction amongst Spanish academics, paying particular attention to the impact of research productivity and differences across graduation cohorts. Research productivity is a very relevant factor in explaining job satisfaction in academics in different stages of their career. Interesting differences…

This article reports on a study that examined the readiness levels of students in the South African context. Particularly, the study explored the differences between various students' academic proficiency, support mechanisms, motivational levels and overall integration with the university. A quantitative approach was used and 117 full-time…

Student absenteeism at higher education institutions (HEIs) is a cause for concern as it has implications for students' academic performance and therefore graduation rates. Graduation rates to some extent influence funding to which universities are entitled. This study aimed to establish the contextual factors that influenced student absenteeism…

The purpose of this study is to explore international students' study anxiety in a mid-sized public four-year university in Southeast Texas by comparing their existing study anxiety along lines of nationality, gender, age, major, degree, and stage of education. The subjects were selected using a convenience sample during the Spring of 2013. The…

Faulty group processes have harmful effects on performance but there is little research about intervention protocols to pre-empt them in higher education. This naturalistic experiment compared a control cohort with an inducted cohort. The inducted cohort attended a workshop, consultations, elected a leader and used tools (a group log and group…

The objective of this paper is to examine the attitudes of administrative leaders and administrative employees concerning the training courses provided, as well as the impact of training on employee job performance at Yarmouk University in Jordan. The study is carried at a Malaysian small and medium enterprise (SME). Findings indicated that…

Are geography students good "environmental citizens?" Has this improved over time with increasing emphasis on sustainability within higher education? This paper compares environmental attitudes and behaviours of geography students at different stages of their degree and over a seven-year period. The findings show that although geography…

Sustainability is an increasingly important issue in higher education, both in the UK and internationally. Although environmental sustainability is the most frequently identified of the three pillars of sustainability (social and economic sustainability being less widely understood), there has been little previous research which has quantitatively…

The teaching of classical Greek dramas is integral to drama education at the University of Pretoria. In the past few years these dramas increasingly faced the danger of becoming "foreign"/irrelevant to modern day students. The introduction of performance practice to teach these dramas brought a whole new dimension to teaching and…

Retention and continuation are key challenges for educators in higher education; understanding the issues that make either a positive or negative impact on student success and drop-out is therefore pivotal. Previous studies have concentrated around the issues contributing to students' decisions not to continue with their course of study. In…

The research reported here follows previous articles in this special issue which detail a national study involving a team of researchers across four higher education institutions in New Zealand. A key theme that emerged from a collection of questionnaire, interview and observational data was the central importance of teacher-student and…

This article describes the need for research on the health status of college students. It reviews selected research that focuses on health instruction and university students and provides suggestions for the design of future research. (Author/JAZ)

The integrated Aimhigher programme was established in 2004 to widen participation in higher education by raising the aspirations and developing the abilities of young people from underrepresented groups. In order to explore the extent to which young people subsequently made a successful transition at 16 and intended, or had decided, to continue…

A representative sample of first-time, full-time freshmen attending 17 Kansas community colleges in fall 1985 were tracked through spring 1990. Eight separate surveys were mailed to between 50 and 100 freshmen at each college, receiving a final response rate of 82.8%. Study findings included the following: (1) 71% of the respondents who initially…

Factors that influence voluntary withdrawal from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are investigated. A survey based on a cohort of students admitted for the first time in fall 1977 was conducted with a response rate of approximately 50 percent. Major and minor reasons for not returning to the university are tabulated for males and…