Efficiency Analysis of Graduate Alumni Insertion into the Labor Market as a Sustainable Development Goal

The assumption that greater education levels of a given population leads to better employability levels thanks to higher education institutions (HEI) is widely known. However, most of the research related to HEI is focused on the determination of efficiency levels from an eminently academic perspective. The objective of this research is to carry out a comparative analysis of the efficiency degree of Latin American universities in terms of labor insertion for their graduate alumni, in order to evaluate the Sustainable Development Goal 8 related to decent work and economic growth. The data enveloping analysis (DEA) methodology was implemented. Main results showed different levels of labor efficiency among the studied institutions that were classified into eight groups of universities. Likewise, it was noted that Latin American university students showed employment levels above those of workers with lower levels of education and training.

Assessment of Virtual Reality as a Didactic Resource in Higher Education

Given that the university teachers with more experience in the use of virtual reality are those corresponding to the areas of Health Sciences and of Engineering and Architecture, this article analyzes the assessment these teachers make about virtual reality as a teaching resource in their respective disciplines. The study uses a questionnaire that assesses the technical aspects and future projection of virtual reality, its drawbacks and the perception of the different dimensions of the participants’ knowledge about virtual reality and its didactic employability. The questionnaire was answered by a sample of 423 university teachers of different genders, ages, academic level and teaching experience, whose teaching activity is developed in various Latin American universities in the area of Health Sciences or in the area of Engineering/Architecture. Their answers have been analyzed descriptively and Spearman’s r statistics and the Multifactor ANOVA test have been used to verify the existence of significant differences in their evaluations for the different variables considered, cross-referencing them with the field of knowledge. Within the main results, gaps by area, years of teaching experience and academic level in the participants’ evaluations have been identified and discussed.

Brazilian Universities – Problems, COVID-19 & Efforts

It is necessary to know the state of the brazilian universities. In this paper the general objective was determine the situation of brazilian universities: Problems, COVID-19 & efforts. Methodology, in this research, 36 documents have been selected, carried out in the period 2016 - 2021; including: scientific articles, review articles and information from websites of recognized organizations. The keywords used in the searches were: Brazilian universities and COVID-19. Results, brazilian universities stand out for the great effort they make in the training of researchers, as well as in the publication of numerous scientific articles and patent registration. Each year they manage to rank better in the Latin American and international rankings. Conclusions, brazilian universities have been affected by the pandemic, largely due to the ineffective response of the current government. Therefore, it is necessary for the university community to work in coordination to overcome this critical situation. Brazilian universities are an important example for the rest of Latin American universities, due to their outstanding position in international rankings and their continuous effort in scientific research. Es necesario conocer el estado de las universidades brasileñas. En este trabajo el objetivo general fue determinar la situación de las universidades brasileñas: problemas, COVID-19 y esfuerzos. Metodología, en esta investigación se han seleccionado 36 documentos, realizados en el período 2016 - 2021; incluyendo: artículos científicos, artículos de revisión e información de sitios web de organizaciones reconocidas. Las palabras clave utilizadas en las búsquedas fueron: universidades brasileñas y COVID-19. Resultados, las universidades brasileñas se destacan por el gran esfuerzo que realizan en la formación de investigadores, así como en la publicación de numerosos artículos científicos y registro de patentes. Cada año logran posicionarse mejor en los rankings latinoamericanos e internacionales. Conclusiones, las universidades brasileñas se han visto afectadas por la pandemia, en gran parte debido a la respuesta ineficaz del gobierno actual. Por tanto, es necesario que la comunidad universitaria trabaje de forma coordinada para superar esta situación crítica. Las universidades brasileñas son un ejemplo importante para el resto de universidades latinoamericanas, por su destacada posición en los rankings internacionales y su continuo esfuerzo en la investigación científica.

POETRY, AS A METHODOLOGICAL RESOURCE IN TEACHING ENGLISH

This work has a sui generis origin in its editorial structure. In its first part, it brings together several academic articles related to the concepts of poetry, methods, forms, and advice on poetic writing and translation. While, in its second part, it includes a lyrical, transgressive, profoundly existential content. This unique style of mixing poetry with scientific articles is useful for unraveling and understanding the verses and especially the English translation, turning the exercise of this work into a transdisciplinary fusion of collective efforts to achieve a poeticacademic goal. In a globalized world, the Academy has broken space-time, as barriers of distance and communication, adding to the English language as a means of two-way interconnection between universities across the planet. This layout conceived that the poetic and academic contents of this work are from Spanish to English. In some cases, Latin American universities have an outstanding debt with their students regarding English teaching. For the above, this book by academics from the Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo (Unach), manages to contribute one more piece to the puzzle of learning the English language, in an innovative and formative way. Poetry, as a methodological resource in teaching English, is an original and innovative poetic and academic work. The book contains two parts. The first part includes three articles with content designed to become a support, help, and consultation on poetry and its different forms of writing in English. The second part contains 93 poems in English, with high provocative and mystical content, making it attractive to all readers who want to study different poetic points of view. All texts produced in this book are translated into English, looking in this way, to awaken interest in learning this language, in some cases, and in others, as an academic material to review the literature of William Shakespeare.

Assessing university guidance and tutoring in higher education: Validating a questionnaire on Ecuadorian students

This study was intended to explore and confirm the factorial structure and to analyze the psychometric properties of an instrument for university guidance and tutoring, apply it, and detect differences between sociodemographic variables. A total of 1,048 students from five universities in the province of Manabi (Ecuador) participated. The study was divided into two phases with differentiated samples. An exploratory phase, made up of 200 subjects (19.1%), and another confirmatory phase, made up of 848 (80.9%), where the questionnaire was also applied. The results supported the three-factor structure of the instrument called “Questionnaire for the Assessment of Guidance and Tutoring in Higher Education” (Q-AGT), with of a total of 21 items. The indices of goodness of fit, reliability and internal consistency of the model were considered satisfactory. The application of the questionnaire did not show statistically significant differences in the assessment of university guidance and tutoring between men and women, with a high value given by both sexes to the importance of tutoring, the demands and the competences of the teaching staff in the university. The differences were mainly found between universities and branches of knowledge. Among the main conclusions, what stands out is the achievement of a valid and reliable instrument to measure the development of guidance and tutoring in Latin American universities. This contributes to the assessment of university guidance and tutoring as a strategy for the integral development of the student- personally, academically and professionally- and as a possible protective factor against academic dropout.