East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development (EASHESD)

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Browsing East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development (EASHESD) by Author "Atwebembeire, Juliet"
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    Management practices and the quality of teaching and research in private chartered universities in Uganda
    (Makerere University, 2019) Atwebembeire, Juliet
    This study examined the influence of management practices on the quality of teaching and research in private chartered universities in Uganda. Specifically, the study explored the influence of staff participation, monitoring of staff performance and staff development on the quality of teaching and research. The study was triggered by the increasing concern about the quality of graduates and the research output of private higher education institutions in the country. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to carry out the study. Four private chartered universities were selected using disproportionate stratified random sampling, based on their foundation status, to participate in the study. Data were collected from 181 lecturers using the survey method. Deans, Heads of Department, Quality Assurance Officers, Directors of Research, senior officers from the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and student leaders were interviewed. Document review and observation methods were used for validation and complementation of information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations and regression analyses, and content analysis methods. Results demonstrated a significant contribution of staff development and staff participation on the quality of teaching and research. However, there was no sufficient evidence to show that monitoring of staff performance significantly influences the quality of teaching and research. The results further revealed that staff development initiatives such as induction, mentoring and training were generally lacking in all the universities studied. Findings also suggested that performance monitoring was oriented towards judging and controlling rather than enhancement of professional growth and development. The findings further revealed that staff participation in activities that would enhance the quality of teaching and research such as planning, budgeting and setting targets were inadequate. However, the results showed that some of the universities have come up with internal measures to improve the quality of their teaching and research such as creating special categories of lecturers to facilitate the research function, putting emphasis on field learning to develop students’ practical skills and providing internal platforms on which lecturers can publish their research work. Therefore, the researcher concluded that the use of favourable management practices would enhance the quality of teaching and research. The study thus recommends that private universities develop more user-friendly methods of performance monitoring such as agreeing on targets, giving constructive feedback on performance and rewarding staff basing on performance reviews. Since most private universities are resource-constrained, they should create collaborations among themselves to support each other especially in the area of research and also to benchmark from each other best practices. A model of shared governance should be adopted for effective and efficient management of the private universities.
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    Performance monitoring and quality teaching and research in private universities in Uganda
    ( 2018) Atwebembeire, Juliet
    This study assessed the influence of performance monitoring on quality teaching and research in private Universities in Uganda. Specifically, the study investigated how performance tracking, performance reviews, performance dialogue, and consequence management influence quality teaching and research. A positivist approach and cross sectional survey design were adopted for the study. Four chartered private Universities were selected using disproportionate stratified random sampling, basing on the foundation status. Data were collected from 181 lecturers, 5 Deans, 23 Heads of Department, 3 Quality Assurance officers, 3 Senior Officers from the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and 39 Student Leaders using a questionnaire, interviews, documents reviews and observation methods. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses, collaborated with content analysis were used to analyze the data. Study findings revealed a positive contribution of performance monitoring to quality teaching and research. The study concluded that staff performance monitoring practices in private universities are coercive and unsustainable in enhancing quality teaching and research. Therefore, the authors recommend that managers in the sampled private universities should use a variety of participatory-oriented performance monitoring mechanisms where targets are agreed upon, constructive feedback is provided on staff performance and staff are rewarding based on performance reviews.
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    Staff participation and quality teaching and research in private universities in Uganda
    (IISTE, 2018) Atwebembeire, Juliet
    This study explored the relationship between staff participation and quality teaching and research in private Universities in Uganda. The study was triggered by the persistent criticisms about the low quality of university graduates and the poor research output from the private universities. The study was approached from the positivist research paradigm and a descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was specifically used to conduct the study. Data were collected from four private chartered universities and the respondents included 181 lecturers, 23 heads of department, 5 Deans, 3 quality assurance officers, 3 Directors of research, 3 senior staff from National council for higher education (NCHE) and 39 student leaders. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and content analysis were used to analyze the data collected. Study findings revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between staff participation and quality teaching (r =0.457, P=0.000<0.05) and, staff participation and quality of research (r =0.562, P=0.000<0.05). Thus, it was concluded that the level of staff participation in planning, implementation of the planned activities, and decision making, partly corresponds to improved quality teaching and research, other factors notwithstanding. Therefore, the researchers recommended that in order to enhance quality, the private universities and the NCHE need to develop comprehensive policies that can be based upon to enhance staff participation in planning and decision making on activities that directly enhance the quality of teaching and research.