Staff Selection for Professors at Universities of Applied Sciences

This study examines the circumstances and unique features of research activity at Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS), highlighting the various demands and interests of various stakeholders. Utilizing a case study approach based on an extensive literature review, data was gathered regarding the preferences and expectations of various UAS stakeholders, both present and future, in order to identify any gaps or conflicting needs that need to be taken into account in an all-encompassing research strategy. Guideline-based interviews with experts, the management board and researchers at the IMC Krems were conducted. The findings demonstrate how competitive and dynamic the UAS sector is, with a focus on applied research and teaching activities. UAS are characterised by a relatively broad range of research topics with moderate relative specialisation, application orientation and close collaboration with local stakeholders. The majority of research funding at UAS comes from third-party funds or commissioned research, because the institution lacks basic research financing. Main opportunities for UAS are seen in dissertation rights for this sector and basic funding from the federal government to have more open-topic research. The findings of this study should encourage UAS to critically evaluate their research organisation and align it with their core mission: teaching and applied research.

Globally, higher education sector is increasingly called upon to demonstrate accountability, quality, and alignment with both national and international development priorities. In Ethiopia, Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) face a critical challenge in establishing equitable and relevant career progression systems for academic staff. A key policy concern is the misalignment between the missions of UASs, focused on practical, application-based learning, and the traditional academic promotion systems. Current guidelines inadequately recognize faculty contributions to teaching, research, and professional engagement, which limit academic staff motivation to accomplish with their full potential. Addressing this gap through a revised policy framework is essential for enhancing faculty development and institutional performance. To inform these adjustments, the proposed policy stems from international best practices, particularly from Osnabrück UAS in Germany and Savonia UAS in Finland. Osnabrück’s "Tandem Professorship" model integrates academic research with industry experience, ensuring that candidates meet both academic and professional criteria. Similarly, Savonia UAS implements a dual-track system, enabling professionals from industry to teach while completing mandatory pedagogical training. These cases emphasize the importance of creating promotion systems that bridge academia and professional practice, reinforcing the relevance and impact of UASs in applied research and workforce development. Accordingly, the proposed policy adjustment in Ethiopia seeks to achieve three main goals: aligning UASs’ missions with professional promotion criteria; enhancing the quality of education and research through a capable and motivated academic workforce; and strengthening university-industry linkages to reflect real-world standards. The adjustment calls for three core areas: setting minimum requirements for professional engagement, refining indicators and promotion points, and outlining implementation stages. Through this comprehensive and globally informed policy shift, Ethiopian UASs can establish a dynamic and practical promotion framework that contributes meaningfully to national development goals.

The universities of applied sciences (UAS) provide several values for the society and economy of a country. Besides education of high level professionals, transfer of knowledge from research to applications in industry or as new start-up companies is an important task. This is done in different ways in the various disciplines. In Life Sciences, a key industry branch in Switzerland, innovation is a competitive success factor and research findings from UAS/Life Sciences contribute to the valorization of new technologies to products, services and to business performance. In order to foster awareness for the innovation need of industry, UAS install processes and support for transfer of research and technology results to marketable applications. Furthermore they may facilitate contacts of researchers and students with entrepreneurs in order to animate start-up founding as a true alternative to being employed. Access to coaching and entrepreneurial training completes the essential basis.

Recent studies in late adolescents (age 17+) show that brain development may proceed till around the 25th year of age. This implies that study performance in higher education could be dependent upon the stage of brain maturation and neuropsychological development. Individual differences in development of neuropsychological skills may thus have a substantial influence on the outcome of the educational process. This hypothesis was evaluated in a large survey of 1760 first-year students at a University of Applied Sciences, of which 1332 are included in the current analyses. This was because of their fit within the age range we pre-set (17–20 years' old at start of studies). Student characteristics and three behavioral ratings of executive functioning (EF) were evaluated with regard to their influence on academic performance. Self-report measures were used: self-reported attention, planning, and self-control and self-monitoring. Results showed that students with better self-reported EF at the start of the first year of their studies obtained more study credits at the end of that year than students with a lower EF self-rating. The correlation between self-control and self-monitoring on the one hand, and study progress on the other, appeared to differ for male and female students and to be influenced by the level of prior education. The results of this large-scale study could have practical relevance. The profound individual differences between students may at least partly be a consequence of their stage of development as an adolescent. Students who show lower levels of attention control, planning, and self-control/self-monitoring can be expected to have a problem in study planning and study progress monitoring and hence study progress. The findings imply that interventions directed at the training of these (executive) functions should be developed and used in higher education in order to improve academic achievement, learning attitude, and motivation.

Since its establishment in 2014, the Chinese major at Thomas More University of Applied Sciences in Belgium has been dedicated to promoting the study of the Chinese language and culture within the country. Recognising the distinct challenges faced by Belgian students due to differences in nationality, culture, grammar, and native language, this paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the difficulties in learning Chinese, a language fundamentally different from phonetic-based languages, with a particular emphasis on the complexities of Chinese character study. Based on a questionnaire survey of 105 Belgian students, the author has developed a set of tiered teaching methods that cater to different literacy levels and address the specific needs of students at various learning stages. These innovative methods, tailored to the learning characteristics of Belgian students, not only offer a roadmap for overcoming challenges in writing, recognising, understanding, and memorising Chinese characters but also serve as valuable references for Chinese language educators worldwide.

This paper describes and critically evaluates the new online setting encountered when the MA in Conference Interpreting at the Institute of Translation and Multilingual Communication at TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, was forced to move completely online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pedagogical and interactional challenges of the pivot to remote online teaching are first contextualised and discussed, before the results of a longitudinal survey of staff and students are presented and analysed. The transition to remote online teaching brought into sharp relief the fact that pedagogical concepts and lesson plans cannot simply be transposed directly from face-to-face to online teaching, particularly regarding issues around interaction between all participants. Peer-to-peer interaction was perceived to suffer most in this context. What was particularly striking about the results of the survey was that the success of remote online teaching in conference interpreting depended on small groups, individualised and personalised learning and feedback, and reliable and user-friendly technical solutions. A strengthened pedagogical focus on remote interpreting proved to be an unintended benefit of the transition.

In order to achieve long-term and sustainable success as a company, international markets must be taken into consideration. Universities of Applied Sciences are therefore called upon to take international management topics into account in their curricula. The first part of this chapter documents the results of a study that analyzed the extent to which the business faculties of Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences meet this requirement in their bachelor’s degree courses. This part is based on an analysis of publicly accessible module descriptions of the business administration curricula. The results show that three patterns can be recognized: A first group of Universities of Applied Sciences tackle the issue of internationalization by providing degree programs in English with a clear international focus. A second group of universities does not offer a bachelor’s degree entirely in English, but offer a significant number of modules related to internationalization, including “compulsory modules”, “compulsory elective modules (specialization)”, and “other compulsory elective modules. And a third group of universities have no or very few modules with a clear reference to internationalization. In a second part of the paper, the integrated approach of the Internationalization Cube, which was implemented at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and its impact is presented.

This article analyses and compares two texts produced via neural machine translation (NMT). It describes potential problems concerning lexical, syntactical and textual aspects and potential strategies for legal translation from English to German with reference to a blog text on criminal law authored by a US law firm. The text is part of the teaching material in a legal translation course of the Master’s program in Multilingual Specialized Communication and Specialized Translation (MA FKÜ) at the Institute of Translation and Multilingual Communication (ITMK) at the TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences. For this purpose, translations produced by DeepL and ChatGPT (more specifically the didactic interface used at the TH Köln, THKI GPT-Lab) are analysed with a focus on specific legal questions and the issue of legal comparison which is fundamental to legal translation. Finally, this comparison leads to a recommendation on the use of these tools.

An overview is given by several authors on various activities in research and development at the University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil.

In this article Lithuanian Higher Education System and preparation of accounting specialists in Lithuanian Higher Education institutions is described. The article gives a clear view about „Accounting" study programme structure, content, study subjects' relation in full time and part time studying and consistency of subjects distribution within the curriculum in Paneveźys University of Applied Science.

The lecture will present a test of the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) network at the University of Applied Sciences (FHTW) Berlin based on Cisco VoIP phones model 7970G as an example in test of security policy of VoIP networks to find out the security gaps and to support improving security of the FHTW's VoIP campus network. Configuration options of the VoIP phone used at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin will be presented. The finding, installing and configuring products for testing the security of VoIP network and VoIP phones have to be dicussed and the security test of Cisco VoIP phones presented offer ways for make more secure configuration and steps to improve the overall security of VoIP networks. The presented results are backed by the long term ERASMUS TN co-operation between the University of Applied Sciences Berlin and the University of Rousse.

Background: Digitization (analog-digital conversion) and “Digitalization” (digital communication and the impact of media on contemporary social life) and “Digital transformation” (transformation processes) are frequent keywords nowadays. However, it is noticeable that the terms and are often not understood. In a preliminary survey, teachers were asked about their concepts about both terms as well as of the terms “digitization” and “digitalization”. Uncertainty about these terms and the phrase age of seems to be widespread. A fundamental clarification of the terms and is an important basis for education and discourse. Understanding these terms and current developments is necessary to make decent sound decisions, e.g. regarding the handling of technology. Technical education serves not least the overarching educational goal of developing autonomy. Thus, it is an important goal for teachers to build technical content knowledge. The following is a proposal to make the terms and accessible and understandable for technical education teachers using the example of audio technology. Teachers worked out the proposed audio-technical stations and illustrative material within the framework of further training, especially in dialogue with the experts of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Interviews were analyzed using objective hermeneutics, and it was investigated whether and to what extent the materials and dialogue had supported the teachers in clarifying the terms and and improved technical content knowledge.Within the framework of project-related contributions (PgB, 2017 - 2020), various universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education in Switzerland are implementing cross-university MINT projects to train and further educate teachers. The aim is to encourage children and young people - especially girls and young women – to take a greater interest in MINT topics via the teachers. This requires teachers to have the appropriate content knowledge. This kind of knowledge can be acquired through phenomenological processes. However, there are few proposals for phenomenological access to technology for teacher training. Purpose: The present study developed training content for technical education teachers in primary schools and aims to make the terms and accessible and understandable for them. The proposal was assessed by the teachers regarding the question if it was suitable to acquire knowledge and create understanding. Sample/Setting: The approach was tested with 21 teachers from primary schools in the context of a teacher training program that was part of a PgB MINT education project of the PH FHNW (https://www.fhnw.ch/de/die-fhnw/hochschulen/ht/mint-bildung). In a preliminary survey, teachers were asked about their concepts about digitization and digitalization. After a one-day teacher training course, which was conducted by lecturers from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts (School of Education and University of Technology), open interviews were conducted with the teachers, in which they were asked to assess the training with regards to building up an understanding of the terms and digital. Design and Methods: The preliminary statements and the statements made by the teachers in the final interviews were analyzed using objective hermeneutics It was thus possible to monitor whether and to what extent the training course had supported the teachers in clarifying the terms and digital. Results: The educational training Audio technology to clarify the terms analog and digital improved teachers understanding of the terms “analog” and “digital”. This could be a first crucial step to approach broader concepts of digitization, digitalization and transformation. Conclusions: Even though the training course aimed at teachers, it seems to be possible to transfer some of the contents directly into school lessons. It seems worthwhile to develop further examples of phenomenological approaches in combination with Wagenschein’s principles of genetic, socratic and exemplary learning to understand analog and technology. Keywords: analog and technology; phenomenological access, socratic-genetic-exemplary learning, audio technology Received: February 2020. Accepted: June 2020.

Future oriented libraries can make use of the current start-up trend. An orientation towards new and unorthodox target groups can lead to an enhanced extension of demand and can emphasize the status of libraries. The library of the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is considering to involve a new target group, start-up founders amongst their alumni. To that end, a survey was carried out and evaluated in cooperation with the Institute of Information Science at the TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences in form of a bachelor thesis, which this article is based upon. Here, a structured pre-analysis tries to determine the demand of this specific target group (founders) and develops a concept to serve the demand of this target group specifically. The example of the case study illustrates a method for target groups specific information demand and also checks the consequences for libraries and their services who venture out of their regular clientele.

Research conducted by teacher educators is considered important for their professional development, their actual teaching practice and their body of knowledge. However, for many teacher educators in Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in the Netherlands, research is a new challenge. A survey was conducted among 508 such teacher educators exploring their perceptions towards research. They were questioned about the aims of research within a UAS, their perceived capabilities to conduct research and their need for support. Subsequently, 10 teacher educators were interviewed to elaborate on the findings and to gain further insight. Research is considered vital for their professional development, and their development is seen as an important means to improve the quality of the curriculum for teacher education. Teacher educators emphasise the need for communities of inquiry in which they can collaborate on research, improve their skills, develop a shared language and contribute to the body of knowledge in teacher education.

Sustainable Innovation in the Dutch Construction Industry: Entrepreneurs as Agents of Change