WhatsApp instant messaging has potential to bridge information divides between educators and students. Its capacity to create personalised environments was harnessed to share collectively generated educational resources among previously disadvantaged students (PDS) students at a South African university. Data analysis combined mobile instant messagingmediated (WhatsApp) interactions among students and educators and student evaluations of WhatsApp"s value using blogs. Results suggest that students conceived WhatsApp as a lever for bridging access to peer-generated resources, heightening on-task behaviour and promoting meaningful context-free learning.
Orientation: The use of transformational leadership in the implementation of merger and incorporation policy in the higher education sector is well documented in other parts of the world and not in countries in transition like South Africa.research purpose: The objectives of this study were to establish an understanding of 'transformational leadership' and to determine the extent to which it was employed by leaders in an institution of higher education which had incorporated another institution.
Motivations for the study:The study provides a starting point, not only for the successful implementation of higher education changes in the future but also the building of leadership commitment and alignment to the proposed changes in the sector as well as the development of institutional leadership teams to take responsibility for any other transformation processes.
The South African higher education sector introduced structural changes, which resulted in the creation of universities of technology, (hereafter referred to as UoTs). There, however, has the not been any known studies that investigated organizational culture and job satisfaction among academic professionals at these new types of institutions in the country. This study’s main objective was to determine perceptions of organizational culture and their impact on job satisfaction among academic professionals at a University of Technology in the Free State Province, South Africa. The study’s respondents had positive perceptions of the organizational culture with academic professionals showing satisfaction with co-worker relations, supervision support and the work itself, as well as moderate satisfaction with the available advancement opportunities. Academic professionals were, however, dissatisfied with the salaries they were receiving. A significant correlation between overall organizational culture and job satisfaction was found.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2015 Global Report (GEM, 2015), South Africa (SA) had the lowest youth entrepreneurial propensity of only 23.3 per cent. Among the sub-Saharan African countries surveyed, Uganda recorded the highest youth entrepreneurs with 55.6 per cent of the youth population involved in nascent, new or established businesses. South Africa had the lowest youth entrepreneurship participation of only 12.8 per cent, and recorded the highest level of non-entrepreneurial youth with 63.9 per cent of the youth population (GEM, 2015). According to Puuka (2014), SA has not yet unleashed its entrepreneurial potential. Despite the importance of small-and medium-sized enterprises for the economy and job creation, SA's established business rate is only 2.3 per cent-the second lowest in the world. South Africa needs new job creators to solve the job crisis. A new philosophy and approach to education in general are required; more specifically in a higher education subsystem of universities of technology in SA that is designed to lead to work opportunity-enhancing outcomes. The Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT), SA has, in line, with its Vision 2020 that focuses on producing quality social and technological innovations for socioeconomic developments set a goal of transforming CUT into an innovative and entrepreneurial university, and of becoming a robust agent for socioeconomic development in the city and the region. This article gives an overview of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem established at the University, the city and the region; the creation of an increasingly robust innovation and entrepreneurship pipeline; and initiatives that started in 2012 in the field of curriculum innovation, and innovation and entrepreneurship education later in 2014. These initiatives, together with international examples cited, show that universities could pursue the path to innovation and entrepreneurship education with DE JAGER, H.J.
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