Higher education institutions in research and development are important foundations of the knowledge economy. By tracking a leading local university’s faculty publication records, including employment and contribution to academia, they have mapped out a way for universities to increase their global rank and increase their efficiency.
“Any organisation encounters many situations where it needs to decide who it should recruit, select, retain, or terminate, and how sure it is about its employment decision,” said Dr Rashed Alzahmi, Assistant Professor at the College of Business and Economics.
The paper, authored by Dr Alzahmi and Dr James Ryan, is entitled ‘Building the UAE’s Knowledge Economy’: Tracking Research Performance Differences of Faculty who are Retained or Separated from a leading UAE University’. “It illustrates how innovations in bibliometric measures of research performance provide useful information of the evaluation of faculty turnover in higher education institutions in the UAE, and potentially around the world,” Dr Alzahmi said. “In any kind of organisation, people stay and people leave, whether voluntarily or when they are made redundant, so we compared the three categories.”
In the past five years, data on the turnover was collected, as to the number of faculty who voluntarily left, stayed and those who were terminated. Other factors were then looked at, including their contribution to research, the number of publications they published, and the amount of times their articles were cited. Their comparison allowed to determine their value added. The study involved 619 faculty scattered across different colleges and gender. Around 455 were still employed, while 114 resigned and 50 were terminated.
“We found the sample of terminated faculty to be significantly lower than that of both retained and resigned faculty, but interestingly, no significant differences were found to exist between those who decided to voluntarily leave and retain,” he said. “This means the employment decision the university made was not wrong, but it lost qualified people who decided to leave voluntarily.”
Compared to industry, the turnover rate in academic was higher. “We calculated the number of publications and citations for each faculty member, the impact factor, and the impact of their research on society,” Dr Alzahmi said. “We used different factors to measure and analyse that in order to determine if differences in research performance, as measured by the bibliometric indicators, could be identified between different groups of current faculty, resigned faculty and terminated faculty.”
The paper won first prize for Best Academic Research Award in Human Resources in The Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR) research awards. The United Arab Emirates University won three awards in the FAHR Awards for Best Academic Research in Human Resources. “From a practical perspective, the research illustrates how decision and policy-makers in universities might use readily-available information to examine the relative success or failure of employment practices, relating to the recruitment, selection, retention and termination of research faculty in their institutions,” he added.
The next step will involve broadening the scope of the study to include more regional universities. A Dh200,000-grant was submitted and is currently in the initial approval stage. “The research is important because it will add value,” Dr Alzahmi said.
“Universities can learn how to have to best people on board and retain those with a higher contribution to the knowledge economy, as they are the ones who might resign. Without them, we lose qualified people so maybe universities should work on giving more options, enhance staff retention policies, and better packages to keep those qualified people.”
About the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) – The National University
Founded in 1976 by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, UAEU is a comprehensive, research-intensive university enrolling about 14,000 Emirati and international students. As the UAE’s flagship university, UAEU offers a full range of accredited, high-quality graduate and undergraduate programs through nine Colleges: Business and Economics; Education; Engineering; Food and Agriculture; Humanities and Social Sciences; IT; Law; Medicine and Health Sciences; and Science. With a distinguished international faculty, state-of-the art new campus, and full range of student support services, UAEU offers a living-learning environment that is unmatched in the UAE.
As a research-intensive university of international stature, UAEU works with its partners in industry to provide research solutions to challenges faced by the nation, the region, and the world. The University has established research centers of strategic importance to the country and the region which are advancing knowledge in critical areas ranging from water resources to cancer treatments. UAEU is currently ranked #5 in the Arab world, and #350 globally per the QS rankings
UAEU’s academic programs have been developed in partnership with employers, so our graduates are in high demand. UAEU alumni hold key positions in industry, commerce, and government throughout the region. Our continuing investments in facilities, services, and staff ensure that UAEU will continue to serve as a model of innovation and excellence.
For further information contact:
University Outreach Department
Tel: +971 (0)3 713 5977
Email: uod@uaeu.ac.ae
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