Factors Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Risk among Employees at a Portuguese Higher Education Institution

This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and to assess the CVD risk (CVDRisk) in a sample of workers at a specific workplace: a higher education institution in Portugal. Data were collected using a questionnaire (e.cuidHaMUs.QueST®) with 345 HEI workers from June 2017–June 2018 with a high response rate (93.3%). Two constructs of risks for CVD were considered: (i) metabolic risk and hypertension (CVDRisk1); and (ii) modifiable behavioural risk (CVDRisk2). Logistic regression analyses were used to establish a relationship between risk indexes/constructs (CVDRisk1 and CVDRisk2) and groups of selected variables. The most prevalent CVD risk factor was hypercholesterolaemia (43.2%). Sixty-eight percent of participants were in the construct CVDRisk1 while almost half of the respondents were in CVDRisk2 (45.2%). The consumption of soft drinks twice a week or more contributed to a significantly increased risk of CVD in CVDRisk1. Lack of regular exercise and lack of daily fruit consumption significantly increased the risk of CVD in CVDRisk2. The challenge to decision makers and the occupational medical community is to incorporate this information into the daily practices of health surveillance with an urgent need for health promotional education campaigns in the workplace.

Attitudes towards infopreneurship among information science students at a higher education institution

This study aimed to explore the attitudes of students of a higher education institution towards infopreneurship. The study emanated from observations that the widespread use of information technologies has created a new sector in the labor market – infopreneurship. The study adopted the case study research design based on focus group discussions to establish the students’ attitudes towards infopreneurship. The participants for the focus groups were students of the Information Science department at the University of Technology, Cape Town. Data collection during the focus group discussions was based on unstructured interviews. Quantitative data analysis was applied based on data reduction from codes to categories. An enterprising attitude (26.4% code frequency) dominated the positive responses while negative attitudes were mainly reflected by a critical attitude (20.8% code frequency) towards infopreneurship. While it appeared that positive attitudes were more prevalent than negative attitudes, there were notable observations that the respondents were critical or neutral towards the essence of infopreneurship in the South African context. It was found that the belief that infopreneurship is not a viable form of employment was still prevalent. Some respondents believed that employment means working for someone. They felt that there is greater respect in being employed than engaging in infopreneurship. Some respondents, however, appear to have stronger entrepreneurial orientations and felt that infopreneurship offers the best employment opportunities. The study recommends changes in higher education curricula and the creation of a stimulating environment for infopreneurship.

ADAPTATION OF STUDENTS TO RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES BASED ON THE USE OF THE UNIVERSITY HACKATHON ECOSYSTEM

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. For student youth the process of entering the profession and harmonization of interactions with professional environment and future professional activity is the key moment of life activity. This process, according to the majority of modern researchers, is a certain complexity and contradiction both for students and for higher education institution, as well as social institutions and organizations acting as social customers.METHODS. The study of the process of adaptation of student youth to research and professional activity was carried out on the basis of the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design. Assessment of students' expectations regarding studies, the level of students' awareness of the future professional and scientific activity was carried out with the help of the University Hackathon Ecosystem toolkit. Processing of the obtained results of the survey was carried out on the basis of the "Methodology of research of students' adaptability to dual education in higher education". The methodology includes two scales: adaptability to professional activity and adaptability to research activity.FINDINGS. The following directions of training are distinguished: professional, social and research, as well as stages of adaptation to professional training: learning identification, learning-professional activation, professional-value reflection. Integration of these directions allows us to organize activities that ensure formation of necessary professionally important qualities (competences) in students (graduates), agreed with potential employers and demanded by the corresponding profession. The conducted experiment on the basis of Hackathon-ecosystem of the university was carried out taking into account the directions of training and their corresponding adaptation criteria: professional direction – activity-result and motivation-value criteria; humanitarian – communication-professional criterion; research – personal-creative criterion.CONCLUSION. Students' adaptation to future professional and research activities can be defined as one of the most urgent social problems at the pre-production stage. This is due to the fact that the student spends one of the main periods of his life in a higher education institution, since it is at this time he is formed as a professional and as a person, masters the necessary competencies in order to achieve a certain professional and research level. At this stage the professional intentions of the individual and the requirements of the profession come into alignment, i.e. there is an adaptation to professional and research activities.

ORGANISATIONAL APPROACHES TO THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN THE MARKET OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. Social responsibility is a system of innovative working relationships that acts as an essential technology that enhances the effectiveness of a higher education institution with employees, partners, customers and the community, and ultimately contributes to its prosperity and civil society. Social responsibility should focus on enhancing the image of the higher education institution, recognising its successes in society by civil institutions and individual citizens. This will increase the social value of the higher education institution, its competitiveness, sustainability and efficiency, allowing society to use the resource voluntarily provided by the higher education institution to balance organisational and social interests.METHODS. The methods used to conduct the research were: interview, expert. The questions selected for this study were taken either from the literature or from individual interviews. The literature helped to identify important dimensions of the concept of social responsibility. The interviews helped to identify new points and possible dimensions to contextualise organisational approaches to shaping the social responsibility of higher education institutions.FINDINGS. Organizational approaches to the formation of social responsibility of higher education institutions in the market of educational services are proposed. Mechanisms to increase socio-commercial value of socially responsible higher education institutions are argued: creation of public institutions to identify, formulate public interests and present them to corporations; selection of social projects taking into account stakeholder expectations.CONCLUSION. In order to increase the efficiency of using the principles of social responsibility in HEIs, to improve their ratings, students' competitiveness in the labour market and their involvement in the task-setting and decision-making process, it is necessary to develop a programme of corporate social activity, which can become the basis for developing the HEIs' development strategy. The formation and adoption of such a strategy should be based on the interests of all stakeholders, based on the core values of the university to achieve the indicators at micro-, meso- and macrolevels.

Digital competence of future teachers in a Higher Education Institution in Paraguay]

La globalización de la tecnología ha provocado que gran parte del comportamiento social cambie, así como también en la forma de aprender y a enseñar. El objetivo fue analizar la percepción de los futuros docentes sobre su competencia digital en cuatro dimensiones (TIC, pedagógica, aspecto, ético y legal y formación profesional docente) que cursan los últimos años de en una Institución de Educación Superior en el Paraguay. Se utilizó una metodología cuantitativa de tipo no experimental correlacional, con un total de 330 participantes. Los resultados evidenciaron una formación muy básica a básica de competencia digital y se encontró que, a mayor formación en las TIC, mayor es el desarrollo de la competencia digital; así también, existe una relación significativa entre el género y las dimensiones (pedagógica, TIC y aspecto, ético y legal) y, no se encontró correlación entre la edad y las dimensiones de la compencia digital. Se concluye que existe una necesidad de formación continua en competencia digital de los futuros docentes