Experience Admas

VOLUME 3 NO. 1 APRIL 2012 VOLUME 3 NO. 1 Research, Publications and Dissemination Practices in Admas University College Experience Admas Research, Publications and Dissemination Practices in Admas University College Research and Publications Office Admas University College Partial view of the bazaar Partial view of the bazaar • Undergraduate program students from any governmental and/or private higher education institutions are highly encouraged to participate in a national annual students’ multidisciplinary research conference organized and sponsored by AUC. For this, the UC allocates more than 150, 000.00 (one hundred and fifty thousand birr) every year. • Admas University College publishes a number of Publications regularly. Some of these include: Experience Admas: a biannual newsletter which entirely focuses on the good practices that Admas wants to share for others. Horizon: a quarterly newsletter presenting various issues under different sections like ‘News Highlight’, ‘Current Issues’, ‘Department Window’, ‘Opinions and Views’, as well as ‘Here and There’. Admas Quality: a biannual newsletter which basically focuses on quality matters. Fenote Admas: a special newspaper to be distributed to graduating students, parents, invited guests and members of the Univer sity College community on free basis during students' graduation ceremony. This newspaper has different sections which present various national and international issues. Proceedings of National & International Research Conferences, Monthly Seminars as well as Bi-Annual Academic Discussions: Admas University College regularly organizes research conferences, monthly seminars, and bi-annual academic discussions every year and publishes them in standardized proceedings. Admas Monthly: In order to update the internal staff regarding various activities in all the campuses of the University College, a flyer named ‘Admas Monthly’ is published and distributed on monthly basis. Leaflet: The RPO publishes and distributes its brochures to students, customers, private and government offices, higher education institutions and other relevant organizations all over the nation. Journals: Admas University College every time invites young and experienced researchers to contribute their scholarly deeds for the different journal publication (Journal of Education, Informatics, Business Faculty and Admas Development Journal). Hence, in order to publish all these publications at different times, Admas allocates more than 300,000.00 (three thousand hundred birr) every year. • Once the different publications are ready, the University College distributes to Government and Private Higher education Institutions, MoE, Minister Offices, NGOs, other Government and Private Offices etc; and, for effective accomplishments of this task, the University College utilizes more than 50, 000.00 (fifty thousand birr) every year. Moreover, the agreement held with the Ethiopian Postal Office contributes in the dissemination process. 2. Arranging Different Fora In Admas University College, there are a number of academic fora on different matters. To mention some: • Annual National Research Conferences Forum: AUC invites researchers from all corners of the country to participate in its Annual National Research Conference; and, every year Admas organizes national research conference. For example, previously the University College has organized five consecutive annual national research conferences (excluding this year national conference); there were more than 300 participants coming from different government and private organizations in each of the conferences. • Annual International Research Conferences Forum: The same thing is practiced for the international one; however, the difference is on the nature of the participants; that is, in the later, the University College invites international researchers and participants from all over the globe. • Monthly Seminars Forum: As addressed above, every month, there is at least one seminar presentation by staff members; this encourages the staff to be highly triggered to participate actively in the seminar presentations every month. • Biannual Academic Forum: In addition to the monthly seminar, there is also a biannual academic discussion on different academic topics. This is a more organized discussion where every staff of the University College participates actively. • Students’ Multidisciplinary Symposium Forum: As indicated above, Admas invites undergraduate program students from any governmental and/or private higher education institutions of the country to participate in a national students’ multidisciplinary research conference organized and sponsored by AUC every year. For example, the third students’ multidisciplinary research symposium will be organized at the end of this academic year. 3. Orientations and Trainings Different and continuous orientation and training programs are going on in AUC. The University College regularly organizes orientations and trainings to staff focusing, for example, on knowledge, skills and practices of research and related matters. 4. Contractual Agreement Whenever a new academic staff joins Admas, it is a must to sign the contractual agreement with the University College. On top of this, it is clearly indicted in the agreement that there is an issue requires the new staff to spend at least 25% of his/her working hours on research and related matters. Moreover, one of the major issues included in instructors’ performance evaluation is their actual involvement in research and related matters. 5. Competitions Every time, Admas University College exposes its staff for National and International ‘Call for Papers’ and other competitions. For example, a team of researchers from Admas University College has won the research grant competition in 2009 funded by the European Union; consequently, the team has got fund and conducted the research on Textile industry; and the team successfully did the research and submitted the full paper to the European Union and the University College. 6. National and International Links AUC strongly believes that creating links with national and international governmental as well as private institutions is advantageous for a number of reasons. The University College, therefore, creates links with different institutions both at national and international levels; a lot of Memorandum of Understandings are signed. III. Publications and Disseminations 1. Publications: As indicated in the above section (No. 1, F), AUC publishes different types of journals, newsletters, flyers and other publications on regular basis. Research, Publications and Dissemination Practices in Admas University College Research, Publications and Dissemination Practices in Admas University College PAGE VOLUME 3 NO. 1 Research is one of the major centers of attention of higher education institutions. Similarly, as it is very central to Admas University College’s vision, the UC has shown enthusiasm towards the encouragement and endorsement of researches, publications and related activities and the vibrant research and publications office of Admas University College is showing a steady advancement in effectively handling research and publications related activities. In line with its duties and responsibilities which is clearly stipulated in the UC’s legislation, the office has been coordinating a number of research and publication activities for the last many years; a lot of activities are still going on within the office thereby contributing for the successful realization of its annual plan in particular and the University College’s overall vision in general. I. Infrastructure and Staffing The research and publications office of AUC has its own annual plan developed in line with the UC’s five years strategic plan. For the effective accomplishment of its annual plan, the office has its own room staffed with all the necessary infrastructures and other important human recourses; there are more than adequate laptops and desktops, printers, scanner, photo copier machine, high speed internet service, CDMAs, cell phones and fixed line telephone services and many other important office equipments. Moreover, it has one director, adequate experts and other additional staff members. There is also an editorial board composed of eight experienced permanent staff. The board has briefly stated duties and responsibilities indicated in the ‘Editorial Board Policy/Guideline Strategy’. On top of these, there is also Research and Publications Standing Committee which is directly accountable to the University College’s senate. This committee is responsible to work on research and publication related activities. Similarly, there are also research and publication committees under the different faculties, colleges, campuses, and departments of the UC. In addition to the annual plan, the office has a “Research and Publications Strategy/ Policy/ Guideline” containing all the relevant information and directives regarding how different activities are processed and accomplished. The different tasks and activities done by the office are evaluated quarterly. In addition, based on the performance evaluation results, different corrective measures are being taken. II. Research Culture Focusing on boosting the research culture in Admas University College, a lot of activities have been implemented on regular basis. To mention some: 1. Annual Budget To run the different activities of the RPO, the UC allocates sufficient amount of annual budget: • More than 10,000.00 (ten thousand birr) is allocated for a single research paper so that whenever staff members conduct a research, the UC provides the allocated fund as soon as possible. Moreover, there is a practice that any staff of the University College, in time of conducting a research, is going to be exempted three credit hours per research. • For Annual National Research Conferences, more than 200,000.00 (two hundred thousand birr) is allocated every year. • In addition, more than 300,000.00 (three hundred thousand birr) is allocated every year for effective organization of International Research Conferences. • AUC encourages and coordinates every staff to prepare a seminar at least once in a year. Therefore, there is a practice of organizing at least one seminar presentation in a month. Hence, every month, the UC allocates more than 3500.00 (three thousand five hundred birr) for the conduction of seminar presentations in addition to delivering other facilities. • 2. Disseminations: The UC strongly believes that the different publications are one way of disseminating information for different stakeholders. Hence, the University College regularly distributes all its publications. The recipients of the publications include: A) Internal Recipients • All Offices • All Campuses • All Libraries • Documentation Center etc B) External Recipients • All private and governmental Higher Education Institutions • Major offices (like Higher Education Relevance and Quality Assurance Agency) • Minister Offices • NGOs • TVET Agencies • TVET Colleges etc There is an identified dissemination list of the recipients. On top of this, there is also confirmation practice from all the recipients. IV. Material Preparation Whenever there is a need to develop materials (teaching and/or supplementary materials or even any other type), staff members are highly encouraged to do it. The University College or even the staff initiates the process; moreover, in the Editorial Guideline, there is a way how such process are handled.