Dynamics in the Pursuance of Higher Education’s Mandate Amidst Workload Policy: The Optimism for Academics’ Career Growth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.99.13148Abstract
The paper explores multiple challenges encountered by academics in an attempt to fulfil the mandate of higher education institutions in Uganda of; teaching, research and service to community. Whereas teaching is the core function of any university, research and the third mission had majorly been used to inform most personnel decisions, thereby threatening not only quality but academics’ enthusiasm and growth. Two HEIs; Makerere University and Uganda Management Institute (UMI), were purposively selected to unravel the underlying dynamics using a descriptive design. It was revealed that university teaching was the most gratifying profession, and a cardinal role why universities exist, but research was a prerequisite for exception instructional delivery, evidence based teaching, institutional and individual visibility. Similarly, masterly through research was provided effective service to the community. Nonetheless, as individual academics strive to balance the three roles of teaching, research and service, the policy on minimum workload that majorly focuses on teaching load, has remained a hurdle, thereby jeopardizing academics’ career growth and progression. Paradoxically, even those who have endeavored to publish, suffer not only serious burnout and lack of adequate time to prepare for teaching, but their contract renewals that are constantly in jeopardy due to workload deficits. These stringent benchmarked evaluation tools, have threatened not only individual and institutional profiling, but also, diminished professorial collegiate. Further, it is recommended that institutions review their workload perimeters to take into consideration other aspects such as; number of students one has supervised, program development and review, representation on professional bodies and leadership.
References
Anderson, D., Johnson, R. & Saha, L. (2002). Changes in Academic Work: implications for universities of the changing age distribution and work roles of academic staff. Canberra: Department of Education, Science & Training (DEST).
Attema, A. E., Brouwer, W. B. F., Exel, V., & Job. (2014). Your right arm for a publication in AER? Economic Inquiry, 52(1), 495–502.
Barifaijo, K.M. (March, 2020). The Minutiae in evaluating and recompensing academics’ activities in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Uganda. The Ugandan Journal of Management and Public Policy Studies,
Barifaijo, K.M. (2017). Higher Education-Community Partnership: Extricating Value Addition with specific reference to student internship. KIURJ, ISSN. 2413-9580, Volume 6, July, 2017 – Pg. 23-32;
Barifaijo, K.M., Bigabwenkya, S, Namara, R., Andama, F. and Bongomin, W. (2016). Community Service Functions of Higher Education Institutions and Socio-Economic Development in Uganda. The Journal of Management and Public Policy Studies. ISSN 2076-7049, Volume 11, Number 1.
Barrett P. and Barrett L. (2006). Balancing Workloads: A timely issue. Leadership foundation for Higher Education. Issue Ten, University of Salford, http://www.lfhe.ac.uk
Biagioli, M., & Lippman, A. (2020). Gaming the metrics: Misconduct and manipulation in academic research. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Card, D., & DellaVigna, S. (2020). What do editors maximize? Evidence from four economics journals. Review of Economics and Statistics, 102(1), 195–217.
Civera, A., Lehmann, E. E., Paleari, S., & Stockinger, S. A. E. (2020). Higher education policy: Why hope for quality when rewarding quantity? Research Policy, 49(8), 104083.
Donmoyer,R.(2011).Why writers should also be reviewers. In T.S. Rocco & T.Hatcher (Eds.),The handbook of scholarly writing & publishing (pp.230-250).SanFrancisco,CA:Wiley.
Epstein, E.H. 2011). Writing with authority: Pitfalls and pit stops. In T.S.Rocco &T. Hatcher (Eds.), The hand-book of scholarly writing & publishing (pp.91-101). San Francisco,CA:Wiley.
Freudenberg, B. (2012). Show me the evidence: how the scholarship of learning and teaching is critical for modern academics. Journal of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association, 7(1), 171–190.
Haven, T. L., Bouter, L. M., Smulders, Y. M., & Tijdink, J. K. (2019). Perceived publication pressure in Amsterdam: Survey of all disciplinary fields and academic ranks. PLoS ONE,14(6), e0217931.
Heckman, J. J., & Moktan, S. (2020). Publishing and promotion in economics: The tyranny of the top five. Journal of Economic Literature, 58(2), 419–470.
Hoogenboom B.J & Manske R.C (2012). How to write a scientific article? Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2012;7(5):512–517. PMCID: PMC3474301
Huisman, J., & Smits, J. (2017). Duration and quality of the peer review process: The author’s perspective. Scientometrics, 113(1), 633–650.
Jeans, R., & Murphy, L. (2009). Investigating academic's motivation to pursue research activity. Newport CELT Journal, 2, 17-28.
Leahey, E., Beckman, C. M., & Stanko, T. L. (2017). Prominent but less productive: The impact of interdisciplinarity on scientists’ research. Administrative Science Quarterly, 62(1), 105–139.
Martin, B. R. (2013). Whither research integrity? Plagiarism, self-plagiarism and coercive Citation in an age of research assessment. Research Policy, 5(42), 1005–1014.
Miller, A. N., Taylor, S. G., & Bedeian, A. G. (2011). Publish or perish: Academic life as management faculty live it. Career Development International, 16(5), 422–445.
Moosa, I. A. (2018). Publish or perish: Perceived benefits versus unintended consequences. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Morisano, D. (2013). Goal setting in the academic arena. In E. A. Locke & G. Latham (Eds.), New developments in goal setting and task performance (pp. 495–506). New York, NY:
Mugimu, C. B., Nakabugo, M. G., & Katunguka-Rwakishaya, E. (2007). Exploring the factors affecting staff research output and completion rates of graduate students in Makerere University. Kampala: Makerere University.
Mugimu, C.B. Nakabugo, M.G. & Katunguka-Rwakishaya, E (2013). Developing Capacity for Research and Teaching in Higher Education: A Case of Makerere University. www.sciedu.ca/wje World Journal of Education
Nackoney, C.K., Munn, S.L., & Fernandez, J. (2011). Learning to write: Wisdom from emerging scholars. In T.S. Rocco & T. Hatcher (Eds.), The handbook of scholarly writing & publishing (pp. 26-43). San Francisco, CA: Wiley.
Nakabugo, M. G., & Barrett, E. (2008). Research Capacity Development in Irish and African Institutions: an interim report of findings from a stakeholder consultation in Irish and 4 African universities. Dublin: Irish-African Partnership for research Capacity Building, World Journal of Education Vol. 3, No. 6; 2013 Published by Sciedu Press 45 ISSN1925-0746 E-ISSN 1925-0754
Niles, M. T., Schimanski, L. A., McKiernan, E. C., & Alperin, J. P. (2020). Why we publish where we do: Faculty publishing values and their relationship to review, promotion and tenure expectations. PLoS ONE, 15(3), e0228914.
Osterloh, M., & Frey, B. S. (2020). How to avoid borrowed plumes in academia. Research Policy, 49(1), 103831.
Petersen, A. M. (2019). Megajournal mismanagement: manuscript decision bias and anomalous editor activity at PLOS one. Journal of Informetrics, 13(4), 100974.
Rocco, T.S. (2011). Reasons to write, creating writing opportunities, and other considerations along the way. In T.S. Rocco & T. Hatcher (Eds.), The handbook of scholarly writing & publishing (pp. 3-12). San Francis-co, CA: Wiley.
Seeber, M., Cattaneo, M., Meoli, M., & Malighetti, P. (2019). Self-citations as strategic response to the use of metrics for career decisions. Research Policy, 48, 478–491.
Silvia, P. J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing? Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Van Dalen, H. P., & Henkens, K. (2012). Intended and unintended consequences of a publish-or-perish culture: A worldwide survey. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 63(7), 1282–1293.
Vino Paideya and Annah Bengesai (2017). Academic Support at the University of KwaZulu-Natal: A Systematic Review of Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles, 2010–2015. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 5(2) 2017, 55–74 | 2307-6267 | DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v5i2.2702
Waaijer, C. J. F., Teelken, C., Wouters, P. F., & van der Weijden, I. C. M. (2018). Competition in science: links between publication pressure, grant pressure and the academic job market. Higher education policy, 31(2), 225–243.
Wager E and Kleinert S. (2010). Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. A position statement developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010.
Weiner, B. (2012). An attribution theory of motivation. In P. A. M. Van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (pp. 135–155). Sage Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249215.n8
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Maria Kaguhangire-Barifaijo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
