Abstract:

In the rapid advancement of the Industry 4.0, academics face challenges none of their retired seniors would have had. One of the challenges is the diversified role the academics perform in preparing their students for the future workforce yet to be predicted in Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0). Boyer’s (1990) Model on the Scholarships of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has long been referred to in discussing academics’ varied roles. Various academics’ key performance indicators (KPIs) were decided by university top management based on the SoTL model. In the present study, the academics’ perceptions of their roles while preparing students for the IR4.0 were identified through a series of focus group interviews and document analysis. A total of sixteen senior academics serving in four universities; two public universities and two private universities were involved as the respondents. The document analysis included documents such as the academics’ course information, sample assessments, and academic publications. The analysis was done thematically based on the Constant Comparative Method (Taylor and Bogdan, 1998). Trustworthiness measures included member checks and an inter-rater evaluation. The salient findings included a vast difference in the perceptions of their roles between the academics in the public and private universities. While the academics in the public universities seem to claim they have varied responsibilities, their fellow academics in the private universities seem to suggest a more focused set of responsibilities. The findings from the present study have implications on the future training needs for the academics in facing their challenges to produce graduates for the future workforce and IR4.0. Besides that, references could also be made to the present study’s findings in developing relevant policies and guidelines for aspects such as academic career path and promotion in the higher education institutes in line with the SoTL.

Keywords:

Boyer’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), academics, higher education, professional development, training needs.