Search Results for
"Higher education"

With the sustainable development of the global construction industry and the rapid development of the intelligent building industry, colleges and universities worldwide are stepping up the training of comprehensive talents in intelligent application in the construction profession. Therefore, establishing a cross-regional and perfect construction talent training system has become a critical research and practice topic for university researchers. This study uses computational procedures to fit mathematical theories, coupled model analysis, and other innovative training framework systems. It also analyzes the problems and shortcomings in talent training from three aspects: the current status of industrialization of higher education construction at home and abroad. Combined with the current status of talent training in higher education and the different needs of various countries for architectural talents, a Chinese-style "six-stage multi-module innovation optimization" training framework and a "construction talent training model" are proposed to improve the innovation system. Through in-depth research, a talent training goal system and improvement strategy adapted to the development of China's construction industrialization have been established. The research results effectively compensate for the shortcomings of higher vocational education in this field. The framework of this study can serve as a beacon for deepening education in the construction profession in various countries around the world, guiding higher vocational education to move towards the training of high-tech and high-skilled talents. © 2025 The Author(s)

In the era of digital education, enhancing faculty members’ technology integration has become a primary concern in higher education. This study aimed to examine the relationship between faculty members’ perceptions of their deans’ technology leadership practices and their integration of technology into teaching. An online survey was conducted among faculty members of second-level colleges within higher education institutions in Wenzhou, China, ensuring a diverse and representative sample. A further sample of eight faculty members was then interviewed to supplement the findings from the survey, and to enable a deeper exploration of the underlying interactive mechanism concerning leadership practices and faculty members’ technology integration competency. The results revealed a significant correlation between various dimensions of faculty members’ perception of deans’ technology leadership and their technology integration, as well as pinpointing specific areas where deans’ leadership practices could be enhanced, including modelling citizen behaviours, strategic planning, policy orientation, feedback input, professional development and resource support relating to professional growth. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how leadership practices can shape the technological development within educational institutions, offering valuable insights for academic leaders and providing a foundation for future studies on technology integration in higher education. © 2025 British Educational Research Association.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the integration of technology into education, leading to a surge in the adoption of online learning. To promote student success, it is essential to understand the factors that affect satisfaction and engagement with online platforms. This study examined the influence of student–teacher relationships (STR), student–student relationships (SSR), perceived ease of use (PEU), and perceived usefulness (PU) on student satisfaction and engagement in virtual learning environments. By incorporating STR and SSR into the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the research aimed to comprehensively understand how interpersonal and technological factors influence these outcomes. Using the Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (TAM), a questionnaire was designed to gather data from 238 Cambodians. The findings confirmed that STR and SSR positively influenced PEU and PU. They also emphasized the significance of these relationships in influencing satisfaction and engagement in online learning. This study offers valuable insights into factors that enhance student satisfaction and engagement with online platforms, informing the development of effective technology-based learning initiatives in higher education and ultimately contributing to student success in online learning environments. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.

This study investigates the relationship between presence and learning outcomes in Virtual Reality (VR) environments, with a focus on both cognitive and affective learning. Using the Anne Frank VR House, a virtual replica of a hiding place for a group of Jewish people during World War II, 74 university students explored how the feeling of presence affects knowledge acquisition and perspective-taking. The results showed a significant positive correlation between presence and perspective-taking, but no effect on knowledge acquisition, meaning that a higher sense of presence predicted higher perspective-taking, while knowledge scores did not. These findings highlight VR's potential to create a sense of presence and thus foster emotional engagement in history education, suggesting that empathy-driven learning may be an effective way to engage students with complex socio-political issues beyond factual knowledge. © 2025 The Authors

Background: From the students’ perspective, the research evaluates their views on core competencies and their own developmental needs within pharmaceutical education, attempting to explore potential pathways for optimizing students’ core competencies. This study seeks to enhance students’ core competencies, enrich learning and development theories, and establish a basis and reference for cultivating high-caliber pharmaceutical talents. Methods: Establishing a core competency index system for pharmacy major, a survey questionnaire comprising 41 items across four dimensions (knowledge, skills, abilities, and values) was designed. Using stratified cluster sampling, 919 valid responses were collected. Descriptive statistics, variance analysis, and chi-square test were used to analyze the perceptions of pharmaceutical students on core competencies’ importance for professional growth and their satisfaction with teaching, and to examine disparities in the development of core competencies among different groups of students. Results: The study revealed deficiencies in pharmaceutical students’ core competencies regarding artificial intelligence, pharmaceutical application, medical care, etc. Differential analysis indicated that significant differences across education levels: undergraduates prioritized foundational knowledge and ethical norms, while postgraduates emphasized project-based learning and ability improvement. Students with work or project experience placed higher value on knowledge application, systematic thinking, strategic capabilities, and innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence. Conclusion: This study evaluates pharmaceutical core competency education from the student perspective, revealing their perceptions of developmental requirements. The research proposes an optimization pathway: the curriculum reform of pharmaceutical higher education should be scientific, general, innovative, practical and humanistic, thereby providing a reference for reforming pharmaceutical higher education. © The Author(s) 2025.

Addressing complex challenges requires graduates with integrative thinking, a competency often underdeveloped due to disciplinary silos in higher education. This study compared the effectiveness of structured interdisciplinary Collaborative Problem-Based Learning (CPBL), featuring explicit integration scaffolding, versus a traditional collaborative model in fostering undergraduates' integrative thinking skills. Using a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods design within an interdisciplinary course, integrative thinking was assessed pre/post via a validated performance task, complemented by qualitative data from reflective journals and focus group interviews. Quantitative analysis showed the CPBL group achieved significantly greater gains in integrative thinking. Qualitative analysis revealed that structured scaffolding (particularly a mandatory framework-building phase), navigating disciplinary differences, collaborative dynamics, facilitative instruction, and developing metacognitive awareness were key factors influencing the integration process from student perspectives. Findings indicate that a holistic, structured CPBL approach is a significantly more effective pedagogy than traditional collaboration for enhancing integrative thinking, highlighting the value of intentional design with explicit support for synthesis. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd

The purpose of this study is to: (1) evaluate the technological skills of the final-year undergraduate students, (2) how such abilities influence their likelihood of getting employed and (3) student opinions on whether a computer lab-based specialization in software training can boost employability. This study is a survey-based methodology. The sample size encompasses 140 final year students in the College of Business Administration at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University during the academic year 2023-2024. Descriptive statistical analyses indicate that most students believe they have sufficient technical skills but not enough for securing better jobs. Moreover, it is clear among them that expertise in specialized software packages enhances career prospects significantly. The research results also show a huge gap between technological competencies learners have now and what employers demand currently. In response, this study suggests that PSAU should establish software laboratories in their colleges for specialized training on software as required by the job market and workplace. The Vice Rectorate for Academic and Educational Affairs launches a program called “Graduate and Professional Skills Development Program (PSAU-GPSDP)”, which emphasizes student employability as it develops, implements, and evaluates mechanisms to enhance students’ chances of getting jobs upon graduation. The results of this study are in line with SDG No. 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG No. 4 (Quality education), and Saudi Vision 2030. Therefore, this study has practical implications for decision-makers at the Ministry of education and university levels, university professors, researchers on how employability skills of students could be enhanced in the higher education institutions. © 2025 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada.

Academic success is the main goal of higher education systems because it is closely associated with later personal and professional success. This study sought to identify the current theoretical gaps in academic success between the foundational academic success theories: Tinto's institutional departure theory, Bean's students’ attrition model, Austin's involvement theory, and self-determination theory, and the emerging academic success frameworks focused on technological integration in higher education. We employed a systematic review methodology to synthesize the findings from 21 empirical studies on current practices to identify academic success theoretical gaps. We used keywords to search three databases: ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science, to identify relevant studies. The analysis found that the 21 empirical studies did not generally reference the foundational academic success theories, but employed theoretical frameworks tailored to their specific purposes to examine their dynamic interaction between variables such as technology, affective factors, facilities, and academic achievement. These recent studies identified the positive and negative effects of technology on academic success in higher education. Emerging digital tools, such as artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, were found to significantly improve learning performance. Overall, the findings imply that there is a ‘generation gap’ between the early academic success theories and the emerging technology-based frameworks in higher education. It is recommended that researchers, institutions, and practitioners seek to bridge these academic success theoretical gaps using appropriate theoretical design interventions that closely examine the impacts of integrating technology into higher education. © 2025 The Authors

This study provides an analysis of 10 years’ worth of dropout data from two undergraduate accounting programmes - Accounting & Finance and Forensic Accounting - at a UK university. The study explores whether dropout rates are consistent for different demographic groups. Data was collected from a population of 6948 students over a period of 10 years, from 2011 to 2021. The results of this empirical analysis show a consistent pattern as to when and why the students drop out. First, the reason identified for a student dropping out of an accounting degree is mainly due to academic failure. Second, the results show that students usually drop out either early or in the final stages of each academic year, across each level of the degree programmes. Third, the study also identifies significantly higher dropout rates among specific demographic groups, based on gender and ethnicity. Fourth, the results show that there is a difference in dropout rates between the two accounting programmes. This study will help to inform and enable the development of appropriate initiatives to prevent students from dropping out of accounting degree programmes. © 2025

Several studies have examined whether students transferring from junior colleges have a sufficient educational foundation to succeed at the university level. However, a controversy has arisen because prior studies offer conflicting results. Moreover, these studies have not looked at medical transfer students. This study examined the differences in learning outcomes and career intentions (CI) between transfer students and those who began at medical universities in China (native students), focusing on student engagement. The sample data, from the 2020 China Medical Student Survey, included fifth-year (graduate year) medical students from 39 universities (6,712 native and 1,582 transfer students). A conceptual framework was constructed using the input-environment-output model and student engagement theory. Engagement was categorized into behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. The analysis encompassed t-tests, chi-square tests, multivariable linear and logistic regressions, Shapley value modeling, and path analysis. The results showed that a significantly higher proportion of transfer students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and had lower pre-entry abilities, although their self-reported engagement was higher. Thus, engagement contributed to their ability to catch up in terms of learning outcomes, with emotional engagement having significant direct and indirect positive associations with learning outcomes and CIs. Ultimately, there were no significant differences in learning outcomes and CIs between transfer and native students. The findings suggest that transfer students are more engaged despite their disadvantages and show no significant weakness in their learning outcomes or CI. This underscores the importance of preserving and enhancing access to undergraduate studies for Chinese medical students in junior colleges, thereby promoting educational equity. © The Author(s) 2025.