Globalisation and rapid environmental change have created many challenges for public and private organisations across Iraq as a developing country, particularly in the higher education sector. This includes, for example, decreases in government funding; increased demand for higher education; a need for economic transformation, and related competitiveness of organizations. Such challenges require exceptional leaders and strategic planning in order to take action to improve. In Iraq, the higher education sector is still one of the main foundations in progressing the knowledge economy. Studies into leadership style, strategic planning processes, and the importance of leadership and organisational culture to an organisation’s success have been used to assist both public and private Iraqi colleges in responding to the challenges they face. Although, some studies have examined the interaction between leadership and strategic planning, and leadership and organisational success, there has been no empirical study that has investigated how these three variables interact together. Thus, this study aimed, firstly, to identify the current leadership styles and strategic planning processes in the colleges and the challenges they faced, and to gain an understanding from the perspective of the senior leaders themselves as to how they might best respond to the current situation. Secondly, based on the participants’ experiences, knowledge and perceptions, the study aimed to identify implications for both practice and policy to help improve the colleges’ outcomes. The study involved a mixed-methods approach and was conducted in two stages. During the first stage, the researcher gathered quantitative data by administering a survey package to 129 leaders (deans, associate deans, and heads of departments) across both public and private colleges in the capital city of Baghdad. During the second stage, the researcher gathered qualitative data to more deeply explore the survey results by conducting individual interviews with a sub-sample of 21 leaders from both college types (ten public and 11 private). In the data analyses stages, both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied to compiling tables and charts, and to test hypotheses, by employing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Microsoft Excel, and NVivo. The results of study showed that both transformational and transactional leadership styles played a varied and vital role in the colleges’ strategic planning processes, and in turn their success. The fact that private colleges were ‘for profit’ and public colleges were ‘not for profit’, as well as their contrasting funding models, highlighted key differences between the two college types’ leadership and general modus operandi. While it was found that both transformative leadership and transactional leadership styles were necessary to address the challenges colleges faced in the Iraqi educational context, the impetus for change extended far beyond the need for professional development of leaders. The embracing of information communication technologies, and reliable Internet was seen as necessary in all aspects of the colleges’ work and provision for teaching and learning, and students’ success. This applied to both college types along with the need for closer adherence to government regulations and more focused government coordination of colleges’ administrative functions. Furthermore, implications for making successful improvements to practice also identified the need to manage the challenge of sociocultural influences on the appointments and promotions of leaders. It was concluded that a greater emphasis on teamwork and provision of incentives for staff, along with a ‘boost’ to pedagogy and practice, which could be provided through the adoption of information communication technologies and appropriate professional development strategies, would enhance the colleges’ ranks and the status of their qualifications. Also, theoretically, the study offers a value-add to leadership, strategic planning process, and organisational success literature in the form of a conceptual model that links these variables in the context of Iraqi higher education sector.
The study aims at:
1- Identifying the contemporary educational approaches in teaching arts.
2- The effectiveness of using the visual thinking strategy in photography subject for the first year students in the institute of fine arts/Holy city of Kadhimiyah.
The study sample is made of (30 ) first year students (in the institute of fine arts/in Holy city of Kadhimiyah) distributed into two groups, an experimental group made of (15) students and a control group having the same number of students in order to conduct the test. The test for the visual thinking strategy in the subject of photography has been designed and the validity and reliability for the research tool have been verified. In order to demonstrate the results of the
Multi-belled piles are piles with enlarged ends; these piles have one or further bells at the lower third part of the pile. These piles are suitable for many soils with problems such as softening clay, the variation of groundwater table, expansive soils, black cotton soil, and loose sand. The current study reviewed the behavior of belled piles in multi-layer soils subjected to axial compression and pullout loading. The review covered the experimental and theoretical works on belled piles in multi-layered soils. These piles were subjected to static and dynamic loadings in compression and pullout cases. Most theoretical results focused on software such as PLAXIS 3D. The axial load applied on the piles comes from the upper
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Abstract:
The six Arab Gulf states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE) play a vital role, especially with its geographical location and natural resources (oil and gas) as well as other cultural and civilizational elements, in achieving global economic balance and more specifically global energy security, naturally because of these countries have a comparative advantage in the field of fossil energy (oil and gas), thus this sector becomes more attractive for local and international investments alike. Being the energy sector a leader sector in the economic development process, and the basic factor to achieve savings and financial surpluses in thes
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Susceptibility to the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has recently been associated with ABO blood groups in patients of different ethnicities. This study sought to understand the genetic association of this polymorphic system with risk of disease in Iraqi patients. Two outcomes of COVID-19, recovery and death, were also explored. ABO blood groups were determined in 300 hospitalized COVID-19 Iraqi patients (159 under therapy, 104 recovered, and 37 deceased) and 595 healthy blood donors. The detection kit for 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) RNA (PCR-Fluorescence Probing) was used in the diagnosis of disease.
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Many international studies indicated that the polymorphisms of some genes disturbed the folate homocysteine (Hcy) metabolism and increased the vulnerability to Down syndrome (DS). We aimed to measure the serum levels of folate and Hcy in DS children and compare the levels with age and sex-matched apparently normal healthy children. We also aimed to study the A80G polymorphism of the gene reduced folate carrier (RFC1) in the DS children as a risk factor. Forty children with DS (24 were boys, and 16 were girls) with the age range between 5-13 years, and 26 normal healthy children (16 boys and ten girls) were included in this study. The results show that the highest genotype in the control group was AG (53.85%) followed by AA and GG (30.
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This qualitative study was conducted on eight types of commercial baking yeast which available in local markets to estimate their fermentation activity as affecting the Bread industry and the impact of the salt added to DoughLeavening, The results showed a great variation in the fermentation capacity of yeast samples (their role in swelling the dough), most notably the sample value Y3 and least sample Y7 and reached 80% and 20% respectively, and the value of Leavening by using the two types of yeast with addition of three levels of salt (0 , 1 and 2%) have 20.0 , 19.7 and 15.7 of the sample Y3, compared with 10.5 , 10.3 and 8.8 of the sample Y7 for each of the levels of salt respectively, reflect
... Show MoreNowadays, university education stands in front of both students who feel they are weak and teachers who are addicted to using traditional and dependent teaching. This has led to have negative repercussions on the learner from different aspects, including the mental aspect and the academic achievement process. Therefore, the present research is concerned with finding a new teaching method that adopts the motivation by the fear of failure technique. Thus, the study aims to examine the effect of adopting this method on students’ academic achievement. To achieve this aim, an experimental method was used, and an achievement test was built for the curriculum material of level two students. The pretest test was applied on 17 male and female s
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