Analyzing Ways to Promote Research in Social Sciences in Georgia’s Higher Education Institutions
01 January, 2014
0
The overall purpose of the project was to analyze main causes of absence of social science researches in Georgia’s HEIs, and develop strategic recommendations to the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia (MES), Parliamentary Committee, donor organizations, HEIs and academic research institutions for promoting research in social sciences.
Project-Specific objectives were as follow:
• Investigate the state of research in social sciences at university, donor organization and state policy levels by studying the hindering and assisting factors (i.e. regulations, financial issues, human resources, etc.) for fostering social research processes at HEIs.
• Produce the policy paper aimed at identifying major problematic areas, assessing progress achieved overthe last 4 years and proposing the recommendations for facilitating the process.
• Advocate the recommendations to the MES, Parliamentary Committee, HEIs, academic research institutions anddonor organizations.
The following directions in social sciences were examined: sociology, psychology, journalism, international relations and political sciences. Research time frame will be last 4 years (2010-2013) and the comparison, where applicable, was done with the ASCN study “An assessment of the research capacities in the social sciences and humanities in Georgia” conducted in 2009. Project research applied to the following methods:
The first track - desk research was conducted which studied the scientific outputs in social sciences produced at 12 universities and 4 academic research institutions.
The second track - survey research, covering 12 universities, 4 academic research institutions and 7 donor organizations, took place. Questionnaires were designed to measure faculty’s/institutions’ academic and administrative personnel’s attitudes/opinions, experiences, plans, opportunities, expectations and their evaluation of the state of research in social sciences. Questionnaires were also, sent to the donor organizations in order to identify challenges, problems in this direction. Survey research facilitated descriptive research based on a large number of observations. Therefore, researchers could produce descriptive and explanatory accounts of the behaviour. (125 respondents from 12 universities and 4 academic institutions, 25 respondents from 7 donor organizations).
The third track - focus groups and in-depth interviews were conducted. These methods were complementary to validation of the survey research findings and provided the opportunity to increase the confidence in the robustness of the results. 16 focus groups were held at HEIs faculties and academic research institutions; 24 in depth interviews were held with the representatives of the universities, academic research institutions, donor organizations and ASCN research project leader. (16 focus groups with faculties of 12 HEIs and 4 research institutions, 24 in depth interviews with the representatives of the 12 universities, 4 academic research institutions, 7 donor organizations and ASCN research team leader).
The forth track - the quality of the research methods academic courses taught at the HEIs were investigated. The research was held according to the specific measurements of the variables and the comparative analysis of the syllabic was conducted. This study was contributed to the creating the broader picture of reality based on which the final product, policy paper, was introduced.
