A virtual Convention on Students’ Quality Circles
Diversity and Internationalisation
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- 2.1 Deploying Diversity as a tool for Internationalisation
- Student Quality Circles
- 3.1 SQC convention in 2014
- 3.2 Technology options for talks and lectures
Diversity and InternationalisationInternationalisation provides an opportunity for domestic students to gain international exposure, otherwise the society can suffer by not having their youth prepared for the realities of the modern world. The international element can be taught and developed through relevant curriculum, but nothing can beat the experience of the people you learn from and those you learn with. In Bourn’s words: “Enabling graduates to develop the appropriate knowledge, skills and values to be effective in a globalised world would seem to be a necessary component of being ‘world-class’, an aspiration of so many higher education institutions.” (Bourn n.d.: 4) At Kingston University we have representation of students from over 100 countries. These international students make a significant financial contribution towards the university. “Changes in government policies and the social and economic context within which universities operate have resulted in increasing pressure for them to […] internationalise their curricula” (Leask 2000, 1). Although UK is not in a competitive position on a financial basis, as the cost of a degree in the UK is relatively very high for overseas students, they can easily compete on basis of quality, by making education a pillar of society and human development. 2.1 Deploying Diversity as a tool for InternationalisationIn order to effectively deploy this resource of diversity for internationalisation and competitive advantage of Kingston Business School, we need to create and develop an atmosphere of inclusion. The main purpose for creating such environment is to connect students from different backgrounds which will enable them to share ideas and enhance collaboration. Technology can play a vital role in terms of bridging this gap, the recent development of “Groups for Schools” on Facebook or similar platforms can be used to share lecture notes, assignments and even discuss classes. Mentoring is another good practice to gain full value from the diversity of the students. Simply stated, mentoring should create relationships that are cross gender, cross cultural and cross ethnic in nature (Guillory, 2002). There has been some great work done at Kingston University and still going on in terms of Student Quality Circles. This provides a great opportunity for peer support, and getting real information about what actually is required by the students. This bottom up approach also brings a real challenge for executives as they need to sit down with students and experience diversity from a different point of view, which will ultimately enable them to increase the organisation’s competitive advantage for future success. A practical example of such approach, The London School of Economics and Political Sciences, which has over half of its students from outside the UK, is successfully using a Student Mentoring Scheme where existing students help newly arriving students adapt to change easily. The international convention on Students’ Quality Circles in 2014 will provide an excellent opportunity to internationalise through social events. This event will provide an opportunity for home students to mingle with their international counterparts. With technological opportunities provided by the new Business School building, we can organise a low cost event for a larger audience, specifically targeting few of the top Non-EU countries which are sending overseas students to the UK. The world we are living in is increasingly instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. We are experiencing a revolution, and information is at the heart of it. This rapid global change requires a continuous improvement process, which means an ongoing effort to improve efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility. In order to better prepare our new generation for the future, these changes require us to shift our priorities from only providing the academic excellence, but also looking for ways to make the education more value based. The Student Quality Circles as part of the total quality management programme at academic level can make the education system more meaningful, by shaping the attitudes and personalities of the citizens of tomorrow. 3.1 SQC convention in 2014The convention on Students’ Quality Circle in 2014 is part of a series of conventions held to focus on the need to adopt the Quality Circles approach to develop academic study and meet the demands of the new millennium. The QCs approach is an initiative to develop the “Total Quality Person”, and empower the students to find innovative solutions to their problems, while working as a team. These kinds of programmes have great potential to develop the spirit of teamwork, build fundamental shapes of character and ultimately make us Total Quality Persons. Looking at the history of SQC conventions, we can see that in all of the past conventions physical presence was the primary way of participation. We are facing the challenge of holding this convention in 2014 at Kingston University with very limited resources in terms of physical presence of the audience. We need to consider the socio technical approach and organise a virtual convention, and not just a conventional physical event which would be restricted to a rich elite. 3.2 Technology options for talks and lecturesThere can be many different approaches in terms of which technology to be used for the event. We can learn from past events that there tend to be two distinct tracks of activities within the same convention. 3.2.1 Creating customised Live streaming Firstly there are a succession of keynote talks and special lectures by visiting dignitaries. Mostly these lectures or talks involve communication in one direction, and require less interaction from the audience. In this case we can use the option of live web streaming in order to make those lectures available to the world. During the research it has been found that there is no independent website for the SQC movement. It will be wise to consider the option to create a very specific website about the movement and we can also use the similar site for our activities in 2014 convention. We can provide the option of leaving comments as the viewers are watching, which will give the opportunity to get some feedback in terms of the quality of the streaming and also if they have specific questions they need to ask from the speaker. 3.2.2 Use of YouTube The second option we have available is the medium of YouTube. It also provides the option of live streaming, and has been used widely across the world. We can create a specific channel on YouTube which we can use for live streaming, and later on store all of the lectures and case studies for the purpose of future use as a part of an ongoing process of learning. The technological facilities provided by the new Business School building will administratively make this kind of arrangements very easy. It can be argued that such arrangements have not been used in the past on such a large scale, and we have no idea about the reliability of such services. In order to address this issue a pilot study can be launched. We could arrange one or two lectures to be delivered in the forthcoming conferences in Mauritius and Lucknow by using the options discussed above. We can then collect feedback from the students as well as academics, about their opinion for such technology to be used for future events. Directory: sites -> default -> files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations files -> Nstructions for Acquiring Excess Equipment online, through the 1033 Program files -> Occupational health and safety files -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program files -> International programs roel profile files -> Fermi Questions a guide for Teachers, Students, and Event Supervisors Lloyd Abrams, Ph. D. DuPont Company, cr&D/ccas experimental Station Wilmington, de 19880 files -> Personal Information Name: Maha Al-Ammari Nationality: Saudi Relationship Status Download 242.73 Kb. Share with your friends:
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