Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
The Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice (JHETP) is dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of academic and intellectual knowledge by publishing, through a blind, refereed process, ongoing results of research in accordance with international scientific and scholarly standards. Articles should combine disciplinary methods with key insight to contemporary issues central to students, faculty, administrators, and industry specialists. Articles of regional interest are welcome, especially those dealing with lessons that may be applied in other regions around the world. Accepted manuscripts should make strong empirical and/or theoretical contributions and highlight the significance of those contributions to the higher education field.​
Copyright by North American Business Press
Beyond the Brand: Utilizing the “Dud Index” for Academic Impact
Google Gemini is a modern large language model (LLM) that has quickly become a “super tool for superusers.” Similar to garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) in statistics, in the hands of an expert user, Gemini is a tool indissoluble with speed and accuracy of answering important research questions. Knowing how to frame expert questions to prompt the LLM is essential. I ended up asking Gemini nine carefully crafted questions that evolved as Gemini answered each of my previous questions, respectively. By the time question #9 was answered, a “Dud Index” had been firmly established and justified. With the use of Gemini, I was able to developed a utility threshold to identify where journal “prestige” masks a lack of “utility.” This helps identify Type 1 Errors (False Positives: High rank but low impact) and Type 2 Errors (False Negatives: Low rank but high impact. Facts support the claim there is a Type 1 Error (Prestige Trap): ABDC Rank is A/A*, but the Dud Index is > 35%. Facts support a Type 2 Error (Hidden Gem): ABDC Rank is B/C, but the Dud Index is < 15%. Implications for business school deans and tenure review committees are critical and discussed regarding academic impact policies that inadvertently hurt faculty.
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
Factors Influencing Women’s Access to Education in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo: An Empirical Analysis
This study analyzes the factors affecting women’s access to education in North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, where prevailing customs and practices often limit their educational opportunities. Using a qualitative approach based on interviews, discriminant analysis and multinomial logistic regression were conducted to identify the variables that discriminate against and/or explain women’s access to education. The results indicate that parents’ level of education, the type of union between parents, parental income, and the religious affiliation of the head of household significantly influence the level of education attained by women.
Recalibrating the Modern University Presidency: Structural Transformation, Leadership Preparation, and the Case for Enterprise Level Competence
The contemporary university presidency is undergoing structural transformation. Declining public confidence, shorter tenures, reduced state funding, heightened accountability, growing fundraising pressures, governance strain, commercialization demands, and political polarization are reshaping executive leadership. This study uses a structured integrative literature review with staged thematic synthesis to examine how these pressures alter the institutional environment and whether leadership preparation has adapted. Evidence draws on peer-reviewed scholarship and high-credibility sector data on trends in public trust, tenure, state finance, and philanthropy. Findings show a shift from internal stewardship to cross-domain leadership under volatile conditions. Six core domains emerge: strategic systems leadership, financial and resource orchestration, relational legitimacy, political intelligence and narrative leadership, entrepreneurial ecosystem integration, and adaptive resilience with ethical stewardship. Case illustrations indicate these domains are operational requirements, not aspirational traits. The study concludes that recalibrating presidential qualifications and preparation systems is essential. Without alignment between expectations and leadership development, institutions risk persistent turnover, weakened governance legitimacy, and declining public trust.
Level of Satisfaction of Undergraduate Students With the Academic and Administrative Services Provided by the University of Panama, Veraguas Regional University Center, 2025
The aim of the research is to analyze the level of satisfaction of students at the University of Panama, Veraguas Regional University Center, with the academic and administrative services it provides. The research has a non-experimental design based on a quantitative approach. The study is exploratory and descriptive; a questionnaire was developed based on the approaches of Do Santo, (2014) and Álvarez et al., (2015). It was found that 89.89% of the students surveyed were dissatisfied with academic services and 34.20% were dissatisfied with administrative services. They suggested updating the methodology applied, the teacher evaluation process, and improving customer service.
Experiential Learning for Sustainability in Accounting: Leveraging ERPsim and Case Study Pedagogy
As sustainability reporting standards evolve, accounting and finance students must be prepared to apply ESG concepts in enterprise systems and decision‑making. This study introduces an experiential design integrating the ERPsim Logistics Sustainability Game with an adapted EYARC “Solar Energy” case in a Managerial Accounting course to strengthen understanding of sustainability in logistics, supply chains, and financial reporting. Grounded in experiential learning theory, the design enables students to use managerial accounting tools while making real‑time decisions in a live SAP ERP environment. Post‑simulation survey results show improved ESG comprehension, higher engagement, and strong support for integrating sustainability into ERP‑focused curricula.
The Shadow Culture of Higher Education: Exploring Educational Pathways for Undocumented and DACA Students
This qualitative case study employed validation and organizational theories to explore the nuanced ways in which a private university validates, supports, and promotes the success of undocumented and DACAmented students. The findings revealed that an institutional “shadow culture” exists to mobilize access to resources, community, and foster success to degree completion. The authors theorize that students are validated and affirmed by resources and support services faculty and staff establish and sustain within the shadows of the institution.
AI in Healthcare Curricula: Preparing Future Healthcare Professionals for AI in the Workplace
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping healthcare delivery, offering new capabilities in diagnostics, treatment planning, patient management, and administrative efficiency. As these technologies rapidly expand across clinical and operational domains, healthcare professionals must be prepared to navigate both opportunities and challenges. This paper examines the need for integrating AI education into healthcare curricula to ensure graduates are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and ethical awareness required in an AI-driven workplace. Drawing on current research and emerging best practices, the implications of AI adoption for professional roles and competencies are highlighted, as are the barriers to effective curriculum design and strategies for embedding AI literacy within medical and health sciences education. Higher education institutions play a critical role in shaping the healthcare workforce’s readiness by fostering both technical fluency and critical reflection on AI’s societal impact. The manuscript concludes with recommendations for aligning curricula to support future healthcare professionals as competent, adaptive, and responsible users of AI technologies.
Rethinking Assessment Practices for Multilingual Learners: Bridging Theory and Classroom Evidence in Mathematics Education
Mathematics assessments in higher education are often treated as neutral measures of student understanding, yet assessment design strongly shapes what multilingual learners (MLs) can demonstrate. Linguistic complexity, implicit curricular and cultural assumptions, and representational demands embedded in assessment tasks can obscure mathematical reasoning and compromise validity. This mixed empirical and conceptual study examines how common mathematics assessment practices function as barriers for MLs—not because of mathematical rigor, but because of avoidable design features. Analysis of assessment tasks, practitioner observations, and professional learning artifacts identifies three recurring barriers: linguistic density and ambiguity, hidden curricular and cultural assumptions, and representational overload. Situated within scholarship on language, validity, and equity in mathematics education, the findings illustrate how construct-irrelevant variance is introduced through assessment design in postsecondary and teacher preparation contexts. This article reframes assessment challenges for MLs as design issues rather than learner deficits and advances practical, design-oriented strategies to support more equitable and instructionally useful mathematics assessment.
WhatsApp as a Vector of Language Change: Indications from Igbo Aboriginal Students in South-Western Nigerian Universities
Social media, especially WhatsApp, are increasingly shaping language use among young Nigerians at the expense of indigenous languages. This study examines the effect of WhatsApp on the use of the Igbo language among Igbo university students in southwestern Nigeria and how it may contribute to the endangerment of the Igbo language. The study draws on Media Ecology Theory, Technological Determinism Theory, and a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative surveys and interviews to examine how students engage with language on WhatsApp and whether the platform nurtures or undermines linguistic sustainability. Findings show that WhatsApp holds vast potential for the development of the Igbo language, which is currently neglected. The use of the Igbo language is principally confined to cultural or domestic contexts, while English language and Nigerian Pidgin are used in everyday media discussions. The absence of user consciousness that WhatsApp offers language-specific features contributes to the decline. Also, this reduces the intentional use of digital conversations, which hastens endangerment. The study concludes that the absence of deliberate effort to place the language in digital platforms, such as WhatsApp, increases the risk of extinction. It recommends the growth of online-centered language groups and university-centered programmes to accelerate the prominence and usage of the Igbo language.
Exploring Doctoral Students’ Thoughts about the Use of Artificial Intelligence for Learning
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom is a timely concept that needs more exploration to understand its impact. Therefore, we investigated this concept with four doctoral students in the United States and their written reflections about such topics. Participants were involved in a graduate-based mentoring program, where the directors of the program introduced the concept of AI-based tools as part of their monthly reflection work. Coding was conducted on the reflections with four themes prevailing: Ethical Concerns, Quality Work, Time-consuming, and Time-saver. Sample participant reflections, as well as implications for future research, were also detailed.
Critical Race Study of Intergroup Dialogue Facilitator and Student Experiences in Virtual Learning
This qualitative case study examined how virtual intergroup dialogue (IGD) courses at a Mid Atlantic university impacted teaching and learning of power, oppression, and justice. Utilizing case study methodology and Critical Race theory (CRT), the research team explored the teaching and learning experiences of four facilitators and three students who taught or participated in IGD courses related to topics of race, gender, socioeconomic status, and religion and spirituality. Findings from the study highlighted challenges that facilitators and students faced while navigating a dominant ideology on a historically white campus, various social identities and educational backgrounds, and sharing a commitment to social justice outside the classroom with those of differing viewpoints. This study is significant because it is one of the first of its kind to document teaching and learning of participants in a virtual IGD course, examined through a CRT lens.
A Multi-Factor Model of Student Achievement: Examining the Interplay of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Factors in Higher Education
This study examines the determinants of student achievement in a required undergraduate finance course at a mid-sized private university. Drawing on 500 observations, the analysis integrates cognitive (intelligence) and non-cognitive (effort, motivation, interest, support, and mentoring) factors within a single framework. The study addresses a gap in the literature by testing multiple predictors simultaneously and demonstrating that certain interactions— particularly between GPA and mentorship—yield especially substantial gains in performance. The findings underscore the importance of holistic interventions that target both cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions of student success.
Conscious Branding, Archetypes, and Consumer Identity: A Jungian Framework for Symbolic Meaning, Cultural Individuation, and Ethical Marketing
This paper develops an analytical-psychological framework, grounded in Jungian depth psychology, for understanding branding as a symbolic and archetypal process within contemporary consumer culture. Brands are conceptualized as modern mythic narratives through which collective psychological tensions are culturally expressed, displaced, and negotiated. Through an interpretive analysis of Nike, Apple, and Dove, the study demonstrates how archetypal constellations—the Hero, the Creator, and the Caregiver—structure brand meaning and invite symbolic participation in identity formation and aspirational self-construction. Integrating cultural branding theory and symbolic consumption research, the paper reframes consumer engagement as a dialogical process of projection and potential reflection rather than a purely behavioral outcome. Drawing on Jung’s concepts of persona and shadow, it clarifies how brand identities function as public masks that express aspiration while simultaneously concealing contradiction and ambivalence. Ethical implications are examined through this tension, highlighting how symbolic power may intensify unconscious identification or foster reflective awareness. A final neuro-symbolic discussion offers a strictly heuristic analogy between individuation and integrative regulatory processes without neuroscientific reductionism.
Humanizing AI Feedback: Enhancing Self-Efficacy and Creative Agency in Design Education
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in higher education, however, little is known about how AI feedback can be designed to support the relational and affective dimensions of studio learning. This mixed-methods pilot study examines an AI feedback system intentionally crafted with empathic and partnership-oriented features to assist senior design students in a studio course. Drawing on social-cognitive theory and feedback literacy, we propose an AI-Empathic Feedback Design model that positions AI as a relational co-participant in studio feedback processes. Twenty final-year design majors used a prototype tool providing qualitative critiques, sentiment-aware prompts, and progress dashboards over a 15-week semester. Pre/post self-efficacy scores increased from 3.40 to 4.10 (Cohen’s d ≈ 1.20), and students engaged in more iterations than a historical cohort. Thematic analysis highlighted enhanced creative confidence, heightened psychological safety, AI as a collaborative partner, and recognized limits of automated critique. While not designed for causal inference, the study shows how empathically framed AI feedback can foster mastery experiences, social persuasion, and low-risk experimentation in design learning.
Visualizing Beyond the Mask: Black Collegians Cultivating Safety Through Joy
This nationwide study examined how 25 Black undergraduate and graduate students defined and constructed the meaning of safety and joy on their campuses. Through our newly developed Critical Socioecological Framework for Racialized School Safety (CSFRSS), we address students’ experiences of cultivating joy within a liberatory framework, given that these students have historically been underserved and invalidated in academic spaces deemed unsafe. Using the study’ s data, we found that 1) feeling authentic–particularly within Black racial identity–was rooted in how students determined feeling safe, and 2) even in their unsafe academic spaces, students could cultivate joy due to their Black communities.
School Management Factors Affecting Student Quality: A Case Study of the Thai Triam Udom Suksa Pattanakarn School Group
The research objectives were to study the factors of school management and their guidelines that affect learner quality. The sample was drawn from one of Thailand’s 19 Triam Udom Suksa Pattanakarn (TRIAMPAT) group schools which have an enrollment of 30,644 students and 1,404 educators. Using a mixed research methodology and stratified random sampling 246 teachers and administrators were selected from 1,404 educators. This included 19 school administrators, 56 deputy administrators, 19 academic supervisors, and 152 teachers from eight learning groups. Descriptive statistics included the percentage, mean, and standard deviation used. Stepwise multiple regression and content analysis were also used. The results revealed that two factors affect institutional management and have a statistically significant effect on learner quality. These were the learning resource, media, technology, innovation, and research (x5) factors and the curriculum and teaching-learning system (x6) factors at the 0.01 level, with a predictive coefficient (R2 ) of 0.35. This indicates that x5 and x6 together predicted the quality of learners in the TRIAMPAT school group by 35%.
Copyright (c) 2022 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
The Leonard Bernstein Music Method Education Model: Young People’s Concerts for Thai Primary Students
The research aim was to study teaching and learning conditions and an educational concert based on Leonard Bernstein Music Method (LBMM) for primary students in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The sample consisted of 180 Grade 5-6 students and four music teachers. Tools used for data collection consisted of a teacher interview form and an educational concert plan. Two revised educational concert plans from the Lennard Bernstein ‘Young People’s Concerts ‘were adopted for the analysis. Efficiency results from the two concerts were rated well above the 80% cutoff, with the classical music performance activity having a process efficiency value (E1) of 77.83, and the resultant efficiency value (E2) was 81.61. From the classical instrument types, the process efficiency (E1) was 77.88, and the resultant efficiency (E2) was 81.56. The study concluded that when the four steps and eight principles are followed, there is a straightforward procedure for organizing learning activities. The study expands and details the findings.
To address the crisis of low retention and graduation rates at two-year colleges, public policy has focused on accountability and evidence of achievement based on outcomes. Further, online learning environments and their tools have caused a major paradigm shift in the policies, practices and learning processes of higher education. However, research on the use of technology for educational purpose and the use of the LMS tools for learning outcomes is still limited. This mixed-methods action research study (MMAR) explored the use of LMS assessment tools among faculty teaching English Composition at a community college. The aim was to increase their use for informed decision-making on student outcomes through faculty-led workshops. Based on the findings, the V-FLC was able to develop a plan for further and sustained use of the tools and make recommendations to the division for wide-scale adoption and use. This study’s findings also contribute to the existing literature addressing faculty needs and the role of grass root leadership in LMS tool use to inform assessment practices.
Introduction to English Composition (Eng 101)
Virtual Faculty Learning Committee (V-FLC)
Information and Communication Technologies in the Daily Life of Elementary School Teachers: An Attitudinal Framework
Within the framework of the inclusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in primary education classrooms in the City of Toluca, State of Mexico, this research proposes an analysis on the social construction of meaning that teachers make about technology. The focus is mainly on the universe of meaning in which teachers relate to technology, for which it is sought to obtain from teachers a story about how ICT is meant by them. This communication deals in particular with the element that precedes the possible action and thought around any entity in the universe of meaning: attitude. For the formation of our attitude towards an entity, favorable or not, positive or negative, a previous representation of it is required. The analysis is developed under the structure of three general indicators: What do you think about the technologies? Do you like to use technologies in your daily life? and Do you like to work with technologies?
Copyright (c) 2021 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
Fostering Higher Academic Performance in African American Youth Through Enhanced Self-Efficacy: The Importance of Integrated Racial-Ethnic Identity
Although the dimensions that constitute racial-ethnic identity (REI) interrelate to affect psychosocial and academic outcomes, few studies have explored the nature (e.g., directionality) of these interrelations in understanding a strong and healthy REI among African American youth in relation to psychosocial and academic outcomes. In the current study, we applied path analysis to investigate the potential mediation effects of private regard in translating the effects of racial centrality and public regard to affect African American youth’s academic performance through self-efficacy. Using a nationally representative sample of African American youth, findings suggest that racial centrality and public regard correlate to affect private regard, controlling for neighborhood safety and sociodemographic backgrounds. Private regard in turn, associated with self-efficacy to affect academic performance measured by GPA. These results indicate the need to investigate the potential mediation effects among REI dimensions to understand the nuanced pathways REI dimensions configure to form a strong and healthy REI to affect psychosocial and academic outcomes among African American youth.
Learning Arabic Vocabulary: The Effectiveness of Teaching Vocabulary and Vocabulary Learning Strategies
This paper intends to contribute to the research field of vocabulary learning from an Arabic language acquisition perspective. After a brief introduction, the paper deals first with some linguistic, Arabic-specific considerations within the vocabulary teaching theoretical framework and then presents a research project, the scope of which is the monitoring of students’ vocabulary proficiency in two subsequent terms, where vocabulary instruction differed in focus on teaching methods. Specifically, the paper outlines the frequency ranges of the words taught during the course, accounts for the methods chosen to measure the students’ vocabulary proficiency and compares and discusses the results.
Copyright (c) 2020 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
Developing and Using Disruptive Technologies in Agricultural Education
This paper looks at different technologies that are being used currently in agricultural education at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia through the lens of ‘disruption’ as a positive force. The paper describes tools and systems that have been developed, tested and implemented to engage students and provide an interesting, educative interactive experience. These tools include Internet of Things (IoT) multisensory mesh networks and associated data dashboard developments for biophysical monitoring, drone technology design and build for agricultural management, and augmented reality simulations as blended learning experiences. These tools have all been used in teaching from 2018-2020.
Student Participation and Peer-To-Peer Learning Processes in Primary Education
This study considers the influence that classmates have over a student’s learning process in an individual sport. “Others” are defined as classmates who become educational agents and establish mechanisms of educational influence during learning processes through peer-to-peer relationships. From the perspective of the teacher researcher, the goal of changing and improving the author’s own teaching practice is presented as the starting point for the design, validation and implementation of a support-recall-projection (SRP) proposal for intervention. The data analysis showed that the proposal contributed to the development of independence, decision-making, teamwork and respect for each person’s pace of learning among primary education students in physical education.
A Critique of ‘Early School Leaving’, ‘Drop Out’ and ‘NEET’ From the UK, Denmark and Norway: Marginalisation and Co-created Education Research Project
The European Marginalisation and Co-created Education (MaCE) project co-created proposals for an equitable education system through participative action research with students and young people. Academics and university students co-researched between one and five young people’s educational experiences each using an ‘Indirect Approach’ (Bunting and Moshuus, 2017) This paper presents a critical contextual overview of ‘Early School Leaving’, introduces the Indirect Approach, and presents the findings from the first year of research across three countries in the light of the Equalities Literacy Framework. Conclusions are drawn from suggestions made by young people and researchers.
Lessons for the Future of the Bologna Process and the Internationalization of Higher Education
The progress of the case study countries, Portugal and Spain, toward change in higher education provide important lessons for policy reforms at the national level. Domestic political attributes that incentivize reforms are supportive leadership at national and institutional levels, dedicated funding, and government structure. The case study research identified that the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) for degree structure in the EHEA was established in 2007 in both Portugal and in Spain. The three explanatory variables -- economic pressures from globalization, domestic politics from intergovernmentalism, and ideational processes from the EU supranational governance through Europeanization – have promoted international policy coordination and institutional change in higher education in the region of Europe. The EHEA model has influenced other world regions to adopt similar policy reforms in higher education. The ties of Portugal and Spain with countries in Ibero-America come from shared cultural and historical experiences.
Copyright (c) 2019 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
Integrative Medicine and Health Training for Thai General Practitioners (GP): A SEM Analysis
The study aimed to determine which factors affected a Thai general practitioner’s (GP) intent to take integrative medicine and health (IMH) training. From the literature review, it was noted that IMH has other similar programs globally with names such as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and complementary and integrative medical procedures (CIM). Additionally, three latent variables were selected for the study and used in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) LISREL 9.10 path analysis of the five hypotheses. The SEM results for each GP’s training attendance intention (TAI) discovered that first in importance was each medical professional’s learning ability (LA), then their perception of the innovative training course (ITC), and finally, their innovative attitude (IA). Final determination was then made that all the causal variables in the model had a positive influence on TAI, with the variability of factors influencing TAI (R2) at 41%. The three causal variables determined to affect TAI had total effect values of 0.64 (LA), 0.52 (ITC), and 0.43 (IA), respectively.
complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
complementary and integrative medical procedures (CIM)
Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice
European Education: Phenomenon, Myth, or Project?
The paper discusses issues of reforming the system of higher professional education in Russia. The authors state that the main goals of organizing the European zone of higher education were alien to the Russian educational tradition and were not implemented in Russia over the past two decades. Moreover, these efforts have led to the destruction of the unified educational space of the country, a decline in the quality and accessibility of education, and the loss of value-based worldviews. Analyzing the situation, the authors of the article reveal the underlying causes of failure in the fundamental incompatibility of the socio-cultural paradigms of European and Russian education. A comparative analysis of the activities of European and Russian universities formed the basis for the statement about the necessary and reasonable formation of a national education system capable of a productive dialogue with the Euro-American civilization. The authors speak in favor of the approach would meet the Russian national features and ensure the sustainable development of the Russian educational system.
A Dynamic Model of Organizing Research Work of Graduates
The article is devoted to the training of graduates for research work. Getting a master’s degree, students develop research and general professional skills. Research work of graduates is creative. We took this into account explaining the need for a dynamic model of organizing the research work to personalize training, namely, developing individual educational trajectories for graduates. The research objective is to develop and test a dynamic, structural, and functional model for organizing the research work of the graduates, contributing to the development of their research skills. We studied the efficiency of the model on the basis of the Department of Electric Drive and Electrical Technologies and the Department of Pedagogics and Psychology of Professional Education of the Russian State Agrarian University, Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy.
A Fresh Look at the Interplay of Work Goals, Work Attributes and Graduates’ Intention to Apply for a Job
University graduates are a favorable source of human capital but due to changing dynamics of the external environment and growing uncertainties, managers of both public and private sector find it difficult to attract, recruit and retain competent graduates. Therefore there is a need to study work goals and work attributes of a new generation of workforce. To fill this void, the present study aims to explore the effect of work goals and work attributes on graduates’ intention to apply for the job. To this end, we involved (n = 270) university graduates from Pakistan and the data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0. Results show that the majority of university graduates intend to join public sector organizations upon their graduation. Our findings further indicate that work goals influence university graduates to apply for a job at different types of organizations. Finally, we discuss the limitations, future research opportunities, and implications for theory and practice in depth.
Assessing Critical Thinking Skills and Creativity Skills of Higher Education Students by Using ASSURE Models
This study aims to assess the students critical thinking skills and creative thinking skills progress by using the ASSURE learning model to implement problem-based learning for second-grade college students. The method of this study is an action research model that identifies the learning process activities start from planning, acting, observing, and reflecting process. This study supports the previous research that ASSURE Models can increase critical and creative thinking skills. Results showed that 53% of critical thinking skills students in the category had satisfactory and outstanding results. For creative thinking, 46% of students in the category had satisfactory and outstanding results.