Query: policy and academic

title: The Crossroads of Health Policy and Academic Medicine: An Early Introduction to Health Policy Skills to Facilitate Change
abstract: Despite significant health care reform in the past 10 years, health disparities persist in marginalized and low resource communities. Although there are a lot of reasons for health disparities, many of which are not related to health care, changes in health policy can lead to improved health equity. Redefining health policy as an important aspect of medical education could popularize the teaching and application of health policy competencies within academic health centers.  The Kern model was applied to develop a workshop to educate medical students on basic health policy concepts and opportunities for them to apply a health policy framework to facilitate organizational change. Specifically, the workshop helped trainees to define common concepts in health policy, to understand a framework for developing policy initiatives, and to identify areas of overlap between health policy and academic medicine. Instructional methods included a PowerPoint presentation, vignette based small group discussion, and career reflection.  The workshop was implemented at three national conferences with a total of 144 participants. Comparing pre and postworkshop survey responses, participants felt health policy work was compatible with an academic medicine career. Over 95% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that each objective had been met.  By viewing health policy through the lens of academia, trainees were able to develop a new appreciation for how health policy activities can contribute to peer reviewed publications, teaching, and leadership opportunities. Participants were better situated to integrate health policy skills in their academic or nonacademic careers.

title: Science, policy and academic freedom

title: Research policy and academic performativity: compliance, contestation and complicity
abstract: Research, a major purpose of higher education, has become increasingly important in a context of global economic competitiveness. In this paper, we draw on data from email interviews with academics in Britain to explore responses to current research policy trends. Although the majority of academics expressed opposition to current policy developments, most were nevertheless complying with research imperatives. Informed by a Foucauldian conceptualisation of audit, feminist research on gendered performativity, and sociological and psycho social theoretical resources on the affective, we discuss compliance, contestation and complicity in relation both to the data and to our own location as academics in this field.

title: Smoking, health and academic outcomes: evidence from a limited smoking campus policy
abstract: Although there is substantial literature on the impact of smoking laws, the number of studies that investigate the impact of such policies on college campuses is sparse. Using a rich data set from various waves of the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment survey for a mid sized public university in the southern United States, we investigate a possible causal link between a limited smoking policy and smoking behaviours, health and academic outcomes among college students. We employ propensity score matching methods to control for endogeneity of unobservable characteristics. Our results show a significant reduction in the propensity to smoke cigarettes and cigars following the introduction of the policy. Further, we find that the policy has increased academic outcomes; however, it has no significant effect on student health. These findings have important policy implications for schools that are considering instituting comprehensive smoking bans on college.

title: Interpersonal Relationship Quality Mediates the Association Between Military Related Posttraumatic Stress and Academic Dysfunction Among Student Veterans
abstract: Large numbers of United States service members and veterans are enrolling in colleges and universities. Many are experiencing posttraumatic stress symptoms secondary to their military service, and these symptoms are associated with academic dysfunction. However, little is known about the mechanism(s) through which posttraumatic stress increases risk for academic difficulties. The goal of the current study was to evaluate perceived interpersonal relationship quality as a mediator of this association.  The current study investigated the indirect effect of posttraumatic stress on academic dysfunction through three indices of perceived interpersonal relationship quality (i.e. family distress, family support, and social network support) in a clinical sample of 2,120 student service members and veterans. Participants were further divided into four groups based on relationship status and gender (i.e. partnered women, nonpartnered women, partnered men, and nonpartnered men) and moderation by group was examined.  For all four groups, there were significant indirect effects of posttraumatic stress on academic dysfunction through greater family distress and lower social network support. Further, the overall indirect effect of posttraumatic stress on academic dysfunction was stronger for partnered women compared with the three other groups and was attributable to the stronger path from family distress to academic dysfunction for partnered women.  Poor perceived relationship quality may be a modifiable risk factor for academic dysfunction among student service members and veterans experiencing military related posttraumatic stress. Partnered women may be especially well suited to interventions that enhance the interpersonal context of posttraumatic stress as a way to optimize academic outcomes.

title: Cognitive, motor, behavioural and academic performances of children born preterm: a meta analysis and systematic review involving 64 061 children
abstract: Preterm birth may leave the brain vulnerable to dysfunction. Knowledge of future neurodevelopmental delay in children born with various degrees of prematurity is needed to inform practice and policy.

title: Policy Principles for the Creation and Success of Corporate and Academic Spin Offs
abstract: Following a design science approach, this paper develops a framework of policy design principles for fostering technology entrepreneurship in a region. These principles are grounded in research findings and describe the factors and causal mechanisms that explain the founding and success rates of both corporate and academic spin offs. We differentiate between principles that serve the creation of spin offs versus those focusing on their subsequent chances of success. We provide an in depth empirical application of this framework to spin off policy in the regions of Eindhoven and Leuven. This application of the framework serves to assess the extent to which standing spin off policy in both regions is (1) up to date, (2) comprehensive as well as (3) sufficiently robust against 'policy fashions' Several directions for redesigning spin off policy follow from this assessment.

title: Academic policy and entrepreneurship: a European perspective
abstract: Two main trends or developments could be identified as leading toward a drastic change in the higher education sector. First, the rapid increase and importance of the industrialized and knowledge based sector led to a radical shift away from the Arts Humanities towards all fields of the natural sciences, engineering and the emergence of new fields like management and finance. Secondly, globalization and the interrelatedness of markets and the increased competition for scarce resources, in particular knowledge and human capital. This special issue of the Journal of Technology Transfer is dedicated to these challenges and issues from a mostly European perspective.

title: Sociological criminology and youth justice: Comparative policy analysis and academic intervention
abstract: This article is presented in two interconnected parts. It addresses issues that have arguably received insufficient attention in most sociologically oriented criminological research and commentary on youth justice and related policy and practice developments, both within the UK jurisdictions and in wider international contexts. First, it highlights the need to recognize the complexities of comparative policy analysis at international, national, regional and local levels. Second, in the light of such complexity, the article attempts to explore the challenges confronting social science in general and sociological criminology in particular, in efforts to critically inform policymaking processes. In conclusion, it is suggested that the possibilities for vibrant, critical and publicly engaged academic intervention in the youth justice policy sphere rest upon the mobilization of theoretically and empirically based analyses, together with research informed proposals for policy formation and practice development.

title: Aligning Research and Policy on Social Emotional and Academic Competence for Young Children
abstract: The purpose of this article is to describe current education policies as they relate to the promotion of social, emotional, and academic (SEA) development and competence for young children. Academic and social emotional competencies are described and conceptualized as developmentally linked, reciprocal processes that should be supported by education in an integrated, holistic manner. Practice or Policy: The article reviews major public policies and national initiatives that have implications for the education of young children (e.g. Head Start, No Child Left Behind, IDEA) and highlights opportunities within these policies to promote programs that can support SEA competencies, as well as the limitations of these policies. The article also includes a review of the limitations of existing resources available to educators to identify evidence based programs that support SEA competencies and concludes with recommendations for better alignment between research and policy to support SEA competencies.