Design and Assessment of Survey in a 360-Degree Feedback Environment for Student Satisfaction Analysis Applied to Industrial Engineering Degrees in Spain [Scholarly Article - Educ. Sci, February 2023]

Title:

Design and Assessment of Survey in a 360-Degree Feedback Environment for Student Satisfaction Analysis Applied to Industrial Engineering Degrees in Spain

Authors:

Francisco-Javier Granados-Ortiz 1,2, Ana Isabel Gómez-Merino 2, Jesús Javier Jiménez-Galea 2, Isidro María Santos-Ráez 2, Juan Jesús Fernandez-Lozano 2, Jesús Manuel Gómez-de-Gabriel 2 & Joaquín Ortega-Casanova 2

 

1 Department of Engineering, University of Almería, 04120 Almeria, Spain 

2 School of Industrial Engineering, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain

 

Published:

Educ.Sci, 13(2), 13 February 2023

https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/13/2/199

 

Abstract:

The number of students enrolled in engineering studies in Spain is in decline, mainly due to the difficulty in passing the subjects, whose factors may be linked to the science-related content of the subject, a very demanding evaluation system or a lack of active participation of students. The main objective of this study is to provide the student with a 360-degree feedback tool and a survey, from which lecturers can extract the degree of satisfaction of students in its application in a standardized way in scientific-technological activities of BSc/MSc in industrial engineering to quantify learning and motivation. The involvement of students in the assessment process was carried out in three phases: peer-assessment (among students), self-assessment (student himself) and hetero-assessment (teaching staff). After that, a survey was designed, which was validated through confirmatory factor analysis. Ninety-nine percent of the students valued this evaluation experience very positively with respect to the objectivity of the criteria used in the methodology and the material provided by the teaching staff. The fact that only 37.5% of the students considered this experience very favorable for their learning and self-training shows the importance of the teaching staff in their learning process and suggests a need to find complementary improvements to this evaluation system in industrial engineering degrees.

 

The transition from higher education to first employment in Spain [Scholarly Article - European Journal of Education, September 2022]

Title:

The transition from higher education to first employment in Spain

 

Authors:

Encarnación Cordón-Lagares, Félix García-Ordaz & Juan José García-del-Hoyo

 

Published:

European Journal of Education, 16 September 2022

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ejed.12525

 

Abstract:

This article explores the determinants of the transition from higher education to work, analysing the time it takes college graduates to obtain their first job in Spain. To estimate the exit rate to employment of university graduates, we use parametric and nonparametric analysis of duration models. We have incorporated unobserved heterogeneity using frailty models to account for misspecification or omitted covariates. The results show that after graduation, men are more likely to obtain employment than women. Our results also show that graduates of private universities gain their first jobs sooner than graduates of public universities. Furthermore, we found that those graduates who have previous work experience and those who start looking for a job before the end of their degree programme are likely to obtain a job sooner. In addition, Arts and Humanities graduates have the greatest difficulty in finding work. Finally, the results suggest that graduates who have international experience and those with expert knowledge of communication are more likely to obtain employment. 

 

Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain - Scientists in Spain Just Got a Step Closer to Building a Practical Quantum Repeater [SingularityHub, June 2021]

Title:

Scientists in Spain Just Got a Step Closer to Building a Practical Quantum Repeater 

 

Author:

Edd Gent

 

Published:

SingularityHub, 14 June 20214

https://singularityhub.com/2021/06/14/scientists-in-spain-just-got-a-step-closer-to-building-a-practical-quantum-repeater/

 

From the article:

A quantum internet could play a key role in tying together many of the most promising applications for quantum technologies. The main impetus for quantum communication networks today is security, because a feature of messages encoded in quantum states is that reading them changes their content, alerting the receiver to any eavesdropping.

 

The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook [Scholarly Article - South European Society and Politics, February 2021]

Title:

The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook 

 

Authors:

Elisabetta De Giorgi 

Assistant Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences (DiSPeS) of the University of Trieste

&

José Santana-Pereira

Assistant Professor at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute’s Department of Political Science and Public Policy, and Researcher at CIES-Lisbon University Institute

 

Published:

South European Society and Politics, 3 February 2021

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13608746.2021.1872152

 

Abstract:

The analysis explores government, party system and political attitudes as dimensions revealing Portugal’s exceptionalism during its post-bailout period (2015–19) vis-á-vis three other South European countries, Greece, Italy and Spain. It shows that government stability was greater in Portugal, no party system revolution took place and political trust recovered more quickly than in the other countries. In contrast, Portugal is not dissimilar from the other cases regarding the prevalence of populist attitudes, even though populist actors did not achieve electoral success before 2019. The article includes an update on political attitudes and government-opposition relations during the covid-19 pandemic and introduces the other articles in this collection.

Even Earth's largest-ever sharks needed nurseries for their babies [Nature, 25 November 2020]

Title:

Even Earth's largest-ever sharks needed nurseries for their babies

 

Published:

Nature, 25 November 2020

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03304-2

From the article:

The prehistoric shark Otodus megalodon was an awe-inspiring beast, measuring up to three times the length of the modern great white shark. But even the mightiest of predators were babies once.  

 

Carlos Martínez-Pérez at the University of Valencia in Spain, Humberto Ferrón at the University of Bristol, UK, and their colleagues compared megalodon teeth recently collected at two quarries in northeastern Spain with records of teeth found at eight other sites around the world. A disproportionate number of teeth gathered at five of the nine global locations were from young sharks, suggesting that those sites represent megalodon ‘nurseries’.

Is a Universal Basic Income Program Worth the Costs? [Reason, 4 June 2020]

Title:
Is a Universal Basic Income Program Worth the Costs?

Author:
Veronique de Rugy

Published:
Reason, 4 June 2020
https://reason.com/2020/06/04/is-a-universal-basic-income-program-worth-the-costs/

From the article:
"Spain is the latest country talking about adopting a universal basic income, or UBI, program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many libertarians, including myself, have always been open to the idea of moving away from traditional welfare programs to cash payments. That said, I have never come around to endorsing the concept, which suffers from very serious flaws. Unfortunately, the proposed Spanish program would suffer from these same flaws and add a few others to the mix."

Scholarly Article (2020) - The influence of technology‐mediated and in‐person communication on student satisfaction: The moderating role of national culture

Title:
The influence of technology‐mediated and in‐person communication on student satisfaction: The moderating role of national culture

Author:
Maja Šerić

Published:
European Journal of Education, 7 January 2020
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.12375

From the abstract:
"This article analyses the effects of technology‐mediated (i.e., social media) and in‐person communication (i.e., non‐verbal cues) on student satisfaction in a higher education context. Data were collected among 221 college students from the University of Valencia (UVEG) in Spain and analysed from the perspective of the respondents' national culture."

Scholarly Article (30 January 2020): Higher education segregation in Spain: Gender constructs and social background

Title:
Higher education segregation in Spain: Gender constructs and social background

Authors:
Garcia-Andreu, Hugo [et al.]

Published:
European Journal of Education, Volume 55, Issue 1.
First published: 30 January 2020
https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12377

From the abstract:
"The waning influence of ascriptive factors on occupational status has been related to the expansion of higher education systems and economic modernisation. The theory of Effectively Maintained Inequality observes that the horizontal stratification of university degrees is a strategy of social differentiation used mainly by the most advantaged social class to access the occupations that are better valued in the labour market. This article verifies the effectively maintained inequality theory by means of a statistical analysis of selected degrees, differentiated by gender and social class, carried out in a Spanish university during the period of expansion and consolidation of the higher education system."

Short Article: Spain eyes reforms as 'intellectual gaint' heads to ministry (Left government wants post-austerity funding revival & better careers for academics)

Title:
Spain eyes reforms as 'intellectual gaint' heads to ministry

Author:
John Morgan

Publised:
Times Higher Education, 13 January 2020

From the article:
"Spain's new left-wing coalition government comes to power planning to restore university funding after austerity and introduce wide-ranging sector reforms, with 'intellectual giant' and critic of 'statist uniformity' Manuel Castells chosen as universities minister."

To read this article:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/spain-eyes-reforms-intellectual-giant-heads-ministry