Africans coming to the United States of America to go to school traditionally have the ultimate goal of getting the best education and going back to their respective countries. That was my goal when I left Nigeria many decades ago! However, considering the socio-economic and political upheavals in African nations, one is forced to rethink the…

This qualitative study focuses on Director and Dean experiences during equity-focused program and initiative (PI) implementations at California Community Colleges (CCCs), as these leaders face the challenge of managing faculty, staff, and budgets, while also working toward the objectives of senior leadership. Despite a reliance on middle-level…

This qualitative study examines the perceptions of faculty and administration of the value of service-learning in the promotion and tenure process at Minnesota State University, Mankato, a midsized, Midwestern public university. The study aims to determine the answers to three main questions: what barriers and logistical issues do faculty face? Is…

American higher education is in crisis. Persistent opportunity and achievement gaps limit college access and completion for low-income and underrepresented students. Fewer students are completing their studies on-time, thus prolonging their entry into better paying, career-focused employment. Meanwhile, the cost of attending college and related…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of institutional pressures on the decision to implement (or not) quality assurance in the private higher education sector, specifically private business schools which do not receive any type of public funding. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology for this study is qualitative.…

Sustainable research culture is impetus for the realization of educational institution's mission and vision. Academic leaders such as president, dean, and research director must act into power and think of strategy and programs so that their faculty members will be inspired to conduct research and publication. This study aims to discover the best…

Even after thirty years, assessment within higher education continues to remain a demand among accrediting bodies and the public, but the role of assessment has been less transformational than envisioned. While literature includes various barriers to assessment, there is a gap around building a culture of assessment within higher education. This…

Service teaching, through which core courses or modules are provided by a department other than the one administering the degree, occurs in universities worldwide, but there have been many reports of student dissatisfaction with their service-taught courses. The experiences of service teachers have received little attention and may help to suggest…

This article reports on a study of 384 decanal appointments and reappointments and examines Canadian university deans' demographics and career paths. The study focused on four variables: gender, race, experience, and provenance; and analyzed variations across faculty and university types. The findings show that the great majority of Canadian…

Learning and teaching leadership by Associate Deans has struggled for effective acceptance in universities for decades. Various Government reviews, policy changes, and reward and recognition systems have been implemented to encourage universities to focus on learning and teaching leadership, and to assure quality outcomes in a changing global…

The International Human Rights Program was established by the Faculty of Law in 1987 with a mission to advance the field of international human rights law. The program first offered experiential learning opportunities for students through summer internships and volunteer working groups. This report concerns events surrounding the decision by the…

There is a wide-spread perception that universities reorganise their academic units frequently, although there is little beyond anecdote to support this. Similarly, the literature contains some speculation about what affects the success of such efforts, but there is almost no data to support various views. This study assesses the perceptions of…

This qualitative narrative study is the first attempt to examine the experiences, motivations, and career pathways of foreign-born academic leaders who serve as deans at U.S. research universities. We interviewed 13 foreign-born deans from 10 different countries representing six disciplines. Participants in our study did not follow a predetermined…

The focus of this study is on identifying the relationship between core competencies of the department chairperson and the stakeholder ratings of these competencies. As a mid-level leader, the department chairperson has direct influence on the majority of decisions impacting the university as it pertains to students, faculty, curriculum,…

Two year colleges are often characterized as America's "democracy colleges" implying a difficult to implement dual mission of democratizing education for all, and advancing the democratic purpose of civic engagement. Although such goals may be explicit in a college's mission statement, how faculty or their deans receive that mission is…