Academics’ societal engagement in Switzerland and Austria : a replication study attempt

Sommer-von Schönberg, Katharina; Geppert, Corinna; Pausits, Attila; Probst Schilter, Carole; Reisky, Florian; Wassmer, Christian

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Peer review (abstract)
Title:	Academics’ societal engagement in Switzerland and Austria : a replication study attempt
Authors:	Sommer-von Schönberg, Katharina Geppert, Corinna Pausits, Attila Probst Schilter, Carole Reisky, Florian Wassmer, Christian
et. al:	No
Conference details:	APIKS-Conference Krems 2023, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria, 1-3 September 2023
Issue Date:	2-Sep-2023
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	378: Higher education
Abstract:	Theoretical Framework/Definition of Concepts: Our study focuses on differences in academics’ societal engagement (ASE) in Switzerland and Austria, where we examine public universities and universities of applied sciences (UAS). We draw on a published analysis based on APIKS data, the paper “Academics’ Societal Engagement in Diverse European Binary Higher Education Systems: A Cross-Country Comparative Analysis” (Götze, Carvalho & Aarrevaara, 2021) and attempt to replicate the analysis with data from Austria and Switzerland. In our study, we have three main research interests: (1) We want to test whether it is possible to replicate the analysis model of Germany, Finland, and Portugal. (2) We want to discuss how our results differ from the original study (Götze et al. 2021) regarding a) the main effect of the type of higher education institution on ASE (hypothesis block 1), b) the correlation between publication productivity and ASE (hypothesis block 2), and c) the correlation between research time and ASE (hypothesis block 3), and try to find explanations in terms of the quality of the datasets and country characteristics. (3) We further develop the model of the original study by including additional dimensions that we consider important for our country contexts, such as the expectations of the higher education institutions to be active in ASE, and previous full-time or part-time employment outside academia. Methodology: We use the APIKS data from Switzerland, collected in 2018/19 and Austria, collected in 2021. The Swiss dataset consists of 1411 completed surveys. In the analysis, we included participants from universities (N = 708) and from UAS (N = 548). Respondents from universities of teacher education were excluded, so that the dataset used for the replication study consists of 1256 respondents (UAS: 44% female and 18% senior academics; university: 45% female and 20% senior academics). The Austrian dataset consists of 5261 completed surveys (N = 3677 participants from universities and N = 1584 from UAS). At the Austrian universities, 57% were male and 20% were senior academics; at UAS, 51% were male and 17% were senior academics. Data Analysis and Conclusions: We aim to replicate the analysis of Götze et al. (2021), which was based on structural equation modeling with a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) and with weighted least square mean and variance adjusted (WLSMV) estimators. The dependent variables consist of three latent variables from 17 measured ASE-activities. In line with the original study, we use the concepts of research-related (techno-commercial) ASE, dissemination ASE, and teaching related (training-related) ASE. Independent variables are the type of university, gender, age, academic rank, discipline, publication productivity, authorship, and research time. In a second step, we include additional variables in the model, namely the expectations of the HEI to be active in ASE and previous full-time or part-time employment outside academia. In our presentation, we would like to discuss the methodological challenges and possible explanations for our findings.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/28607
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	President's Office
Organisational Unit:	Higher Education Development
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Rektorat und Ressorts

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Sommer-von Schönberg, K., Geppert, C., Pausits, A., Probst Schilter, C., Reisky, F., & Wassmer, C. (2023, September 2). Academics’ societal engagement in Switzerland and Austria : a replication study attempt. APIKS-Conference Krems 2023, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria, 1-3 September 2023.

Sommer-von Schönberg, K. et al. (2023) ‘Academics’ societal engagement in Switzerland and Austria : a replication study attempt’, in APIKS-Conference Krems 2023, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria, 1-3 September 2023.

K. Sommer-von Schönberg, C. Geppert, A. Pausits, C. Probst Schilter, F. Reisky, and C. Wassmer, “Academics’ societal engagement in Switzerland and Austria : a replication study attempt,” in APIKS-Conference Krems 2023, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria, 1-3 September 2023, Sep. 2023.

SOMMER-VON SCHÖNBERG, Katharina, Corinna GEPPERT, Attila PAUSITS, Carole PROBST SCHILTER, Florian REISKY und Christian WASSMER, 2023. Academics’ societal engagement in Switzerland and Austria : a replication study attempt. In: APIKS-Conference Krems 2023, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria, 1-3 September 2023. Conference presentation. 2 September 2023

Sommer-von Schönberg, Katharina, Corinna Geppert, Attila Pausits, Carole Probst Schilter, Florian Reisky, and Christian Wassmer. 2023. “Academics’ Societal Engagement in Switzerland and Austria : A Replication Study Attempt.” Conference presentation. In APIKS-Conference Krems 2023, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria, 1-3 September 2023.

Sommer-von Schönberg, Katharina, et al. “Academics’ Societal Engagement in Switzerland and Austria : A Replication Study Attempt.” APIKS-Conference Krems 2023, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria, 1-3 September 2023, 2023.