RESEARCH NEWSLETTER
OFFICE OF THE PROVOST - RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION QUARTERLY EDITION
September 30, 2021 | Issue 32
IN THIS ISSUE
• Accelerating Master and PhD Level Nursing Education ... 2
• CCR5: a Receptor at the Center Stage in Infection ... 3
• Oncogenic HPV strains for cervical cancer prevention ... 4
• Evaluating the effectiveness of public health policies in absence of experimental data ... 4
• Periostin in allergy and inflammation .. 6
• Revisited to the COVID19 and Agile Governments ... 7
• Water Policy, Management, and
Economics Workshop ... 15
• GSPP professor published in prestigious journal ... 16
• Co-creating culturally relevant social science research ethics in Central Asia by mediating local and global influences ... 17
• GSB Digest Series ... 19
• Online Teaching of Business Principles to 500 Students ...22
• SMG Students Achievement ... 27
• Can the common air pollution lead to early Alzheimer’s disease? ... 29
• On the Rhetorical Exempla as Analogical Argument ... 32
• SSH professor pubslished two books .. 35
• Research Performance via SciVal... 36
• Funding Opportunities ... 37
• New publications ... 39
School of Medicine News
ERASMUS+ CAPACITY BUILDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION GRANT ACCELERATING MASTER AND PHD LEVEL NURSING EDUCATION
PREPARED BY PAOLO COLET, NANCY STITT, MASSIMO PIGNATELLI The NUSOM Nursing Faculty continue to advance the
agenda of nursing research and to modernize the nursing profession and nursing higher education in Kazakhstan.
With the successful implementation and completion of the
“Promoting the Innovation Capacity of Higher Education in Nursing during Health Services Transition” (ProInCa) project (2017-2021), where the university served as a
country coordinator, NUSOM, once again is collaborating on another international research project.
Together with Kazakhstani and European universities, NUSOM co-developed a country-wide research project proposal entitled Accelerating Master and PhD Level Nursing Education Development in the Higher Education System in Kazakhstan (AccelEd) for 2020 to 2023 through a Capacity Building in Higher Education (CBHE) Erasmus+ grant, for which the project received a grant amounting to € 999 764.
The overall goal of AccelEd (2021) is to:
Strengthen nursing education on Master level and establishing and launching PhD nursing science in Kazakhstan through changes in policy, legal framework, and institutional structures, involving ministries, universities, healthcare institutions, associations (both in healthcare and education), and international nursing communities. Specifically, five overarching objectives are in place to achieve this goal:
1. To strengthen nursing science in Kazakhstan through the capacity building of teaching staff based on contemporary issues in global nursing.
2. To build the capacity of nursing faculty in nursing research methodologies by joining to a broader international community of nursing researchers.
3. To create sustainable structures and systematic processes for cooperation on nursing research between medical universities and healthcare institutions in order to foster evidence-based nursing.
4. To initiate structural and institutional changes in managing Master and PhD level nursing education and quality assurance of post-graduate education in nursing adapting to best European practices.
5. To strengthen the role of nurses in the healthcare system of Kazakhstan and promote the development of nursing science and research on PhD and higher levels.
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To highlight the second objective, NUSOM is serving as a co-leader with Lithuania University of Health Sciences (LSMU) on advancing research methodology, which focuses on building the capacities of teachers in nursing at master’s and doctorate levels.
The other Kazakh-EU university partnerships in AccelEd are:
• Astana Medical University and Åbo Akademi University (Finland)
• Karaganda Medical University and JAMK University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
• Kazakh National Medical University and Utrecht University Medical Centre (Netherlands) The project is in its first year and several activities have already been conducted such as a January 2021 kick-off meeting, systematic review training with Joanna Briggs Institute along with series of masterclasses addressing benchmarking best practices with clinical and educational collaboration, best practices in thesis or dissertation committee and management, and development of an advanced qualitative research methodology course. Further information about this project can be found at https://project-acceled.com/.
The Nursing Education faculty at NUSOM have had prior experience within the Erasmus+ CBHE funded projects. Prior to AccelEd, the ProInCa research project at its completion, was assessed and reviewed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in August 2021.
ProInCa was awarded the highest rating, “very good,” on implementation and achieving its goals.
REFERENCE:
AccelEd. (2021). What is AccelEd? Retrieved from https://project-acceled.com/
CCR5: A RECEPTOR AT THE CENTER STAGE IN INFECTION
Following the invitation by Frontiers in Immunology (Impact Factor 7.6; Q1 Immunology; Q1 Immunology and Allergy) to launch a Research Topic as Guest Editor, Dr. Luca Vangelista (Associate Professor and Director of the Master in Molecular Medicine at NUSOM) accepted the task and assembled the Research Topic
“CCR5: a Receptor at the Center Stage in Infection”. In concert with Frontiers editorial office, Dr. Vangelista invited three more Guest Editors to manage the Research Topic. The initial contact by Frontiers in Immunology was a follow up to the success of a Mini Review (free full text download available here) published by Dr. Vangelista and Dr.
Sandro Vento (a former colleague at NUSOM) on the importance of CCR5 for a wealth of pathological conditions (the paper ranks top 3% of Frontiers in Immunology for views and downloads and top 6% for citations, including papers published in top tier journals such as Science, Nature Immunology, EMBO Journal and Cancer Research). Frontiers encouraged Dr. Vangelista to cover a topic inherent to CCR5 impact on disease, hence Dr. Vangelista opted for the relevance of this receptor in infection. Presently, the Research Topic has one published article on machine learning prediction of COVID-19 severity with CCR5 as an important predictive biomarker, one manuscript being evaluated and 11 more manuscripts expected for submission. Dr. Vangelista is also assembling a manuscript for submission to the Research Topic. The Research Topic can be visited via the following link.
ONCOGENIC HPV STRAINS FOR CERVICAL CANCER PREVENTION
Assistant Professor Gulzhanat Aimagambetova and her research team are working on the project “A molecular epidemiological study to determine the prevalence of oncogenic HPV strains for cervical cancer prevention in Kazakhstan” (110119FD4528, 2019- 2021).
This is the first study to explore the prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes causing cervical cancer in the regions across Kazakhstan. In a light of the WHO strategy on cervical cancer elimination by 2050, this is an important step for Kazakhstani healthcare system as the cervical cancer incidence is growing during the period of 2009-2018. It may contribute to the improvement of the national cervical cancer screening program and help on the way of implementation of the national HPV vaccination strategy. The work results were recently published in Q1 journals:
1. Aimagambetova G, Babi A, Issanov A, et al. The Distribution and Prevalence of High-Risk HPV Genotypes Other than HPV-16 and HPV-18 among Women Attending Gynecologists’
Offices in Kazakhstan. Biology (Basel). 2021;10(8):794. doi:10.3390/biology10080794 2. Babi A, Issa T, Issanov A, et al. Prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus infection
among Kazakhstani women attending gynecological outpatient clinics. Int J Infect Dis.
2021;109:8-16. doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2021.06.006.
EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC HEALTH POLICIES IN ABSENCE OF EXPERIMENTAL DATA: AN APPLICATION OF
“INTERRUPTED TIME SERIES” TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF A NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH STRATEGY
Evaluating the impact of public policies is essential for accountability, to characterize the adequacy of the proposals and their achievement of the stated objectives. The usual designs for assessing the efficacy of clinical interventions, such as clinical trials, cannot typically be applied to evaluate the impact of public policies. Evaluating the effectiveness of public policies implies a counterfactual analysis to determine if the observed changes are due to the implementation of those policies: comparing what happened with what would have happened in the absence of the intervention, considering that an experimental design, in these cases, would be unfeasible or unethical.
Interrupted time series (ITS) analysis has been proposed as a robust design to evaluate the impact of interventions when their implementation occurs at a concrete moment in time. For this, it is necessary to have the observed data of the variable of interest during a period (time series) that includes measurements both before and after the application of the intervention, which is the moment of interruption of the series. The effects of the intervention are assessed by changes in the level and slope of the time series, as well as by the statistical significance of the different model parameters. Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a disease characterized by elevated plasma glucose
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levels due to a deficit in insulin production, a failure in its action, or a mixture of both. Patients with DM present with vascular alterations as a consequence of sustained hyperglycemia. Dysregulation in lipid metabolism, arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, and other factors such as age or male sex also contribute to the 2-4 times increase in the cardiovascular risk of these patients which implies increased risk of stroke, acute coronary events, and lower-limb amputations.
This excess risk represents reduced quality and length of life of patients with DM and are responsible for enormous direct and indirect costs.
Although a large body of evidence has shown the efficacy of several treatments and practices to reduce this burden a marked variability has been documented in its implementation, indicating a substandard level of DM care currently delivered. This situation has led to the need to develop interventions and policies to improve the care in DM.
The Spanish Ministry of Health approved in 2006 the Strategy for Diabetes Mellitus of the National Health System (SDM-NHS) as part of the Quality Plan for the National Health System. In line with scientific evidence and international standards, the SDM-NHS proposed to strengthen cardiovascular risk management as a critical component of DM management. This implies the assessment of long-term indicators, including hospitalization from stroke, myocardial infarctions, or amputations, to evaluate DM quality improvement strategies.
An ITS study was performed with a segmented regression analysis to identify the structural changes of the time series and the associated relative risks (RR) to compare trends in hospitalizations in DM patients for the following 3 dependent variables (Yt), before and after the approval of the SDM-NHS :
• Hospital discharge rates of amputations in lower limbs (LLA).
• Hospital discharge rates for stroke.
• Hospital discharge rates for acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
As the SDM-NHS was approved in 2006, the study period selected was 2001-2015.
Data were examined to identify possible underlying trends, their stability over time and the existence of seasonality, performing a descriptive pre-strategy (2001-2006) and post-strategy (2007- 2015) analysis specifically for each of the indicators analyzed. Subsequently, the general model of segmented regression was proposed for a change in slope and level in each result variable, defined by the following formula:
Yt = β0+ β1∙n1+β2∙ intervt+ β3∙ (n1∙
intervt)
where, β0 represents the baseline value when n1=0; β1 represents the change in the dependent variable for each increase of 1 unit in n1 (i.e. the trend o slope previous to the intervention); β2 represents the change of level in the period of time immediately after the and β3 represents the change in trend (slope) after the intervention (i.e. the difference in the slope pre and post-intervention).
In case of a model with only change in slope, the variable intervt was excluded, while for models of change on level, the (n1∙ intervt) was excluded. These situations were explored for each of the 3 dependent variables (the previously mentioned indicators). Autocorrelation, that is, the independence between the observations, was controlled by including seasonality in the models (sines and Fourier cosines) and through the graph of the residuals and the partial autocorrelation function. Over-dispersion was evaluated to determine in each case the use of Poisson or Negative Binomial models.
The findings of this work indicate a substantial and favorable evolution of the incidence of chronic macrovascular complications after the approval of the SDM-NHS. There was an immediate change in the level of the trend in the stroke hospitalizations rate (previously already decreasing), a change both in the trend as in the level of the same in the rate of hospitalizations for AMI and a change in the trend of LLA, which becomes descending after the approval of the SDM-NHS.
The major criticisms of ITS is that it presents limitations regarding internal validity. Nevertheless, typical threats to internal validity, like maturation (given that the data were adjusted) or testing, would probably not have any effect in this case. However, the possible influence of events that occur simultaneously in time or the effects associated with changes in the data collection could not be ruled out.
Although the observational nature of this study does not permit attributing those reductions to the implementation of the SDM-NHS and investigation with more granular data may be required to offer adequate healthcare standards all over the course of the disease, ITS analysis has proven to be a suitable instrument for the evaluation of public policies in complex interventions like the SDM-NHS when experimental studies are not feasible.
González-Touya M, Carmona R, Sarría-Santamera A. Evaluating the Impact of the Diabetes Mellitus Strategy for the National Health System: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis. Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Jul 12;9(7):873. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9070873
PERIOSTIN IN ALLERGY AND INFLAMMATION
In a recent review by Assistant Professor Eva Riethmacher published in a Q1 journal she and her colleagues have been focusing on the function of periostin in allergy and inflammation, specifically taking into account the isoforms identified so far.
Periostin is a matricellular protein that has several documented and multi-faceted roles in health and disease. The involvement of periostin has been well described across a spectrum of
allergic, inflammatory and fibrotic conditions including inflammatory conditions of the respiratory tract (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, allergic rhinitis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis), systemic sclerosis and scleroderma, atherosclerosis, fibrosis, renal interstitial fibrosis, hepatic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease and others.
E. Sonnenberg-Riethmacher, M. Miehe and D. Riethmacher: Periostin in Allergy and Inflammation. Frontiers in Immunology, 12(3448) (2021) doi:10.3389/fimmu.2021.722170
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REVISITED TO THE COVID19 AND AGILE GOVERNMENTS:
COMPARISON OF TAIWAN, SOUTH KOREA, SINGAPORE AND HONG KONG
Eduardo Araral1 Hyesong Ha2 Alfred M. Wu1 ABSTRACT
We describe how Taiwan, S. Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong have so far controlled the spread of COVID-19 compared to other countries. We argue that their agile governments are central to their containments and mitigating negative economic impacts. We attribute their agility to their experience with similar epidemics, as well as their capacities to deploy digital, behavioral, organizational, legal, political and financial solutions. Outcomes are uncertain but agility and capacity will be the key.
LESSONS FOR PRACTITIONERS
• Describes how Taiwan, S. Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong have so far controlled the spread of covid-19 compared to other countries
• Shows how agility of governments in these tiger economies is central to covid-19 control and mitigating its economic aftermath
• Attributes agility to their experience with epidemics and capacities to deploy digital, behavioral, organizational, legal, political and financial solutions.
Keywords: agile government, crisis, COVID-19, Singapore, Taiwan, S. Korea, Hong Kong INTRODUCTION
The performance of Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong in controlling the spread of COVID-19 are well known. These tiger economies acted quickly and aggressively to deploy massive contact tracing, testing and isolation measures (S. Korea, Singapore, Taiwan) and widespread early use of masks, physical distancing and the closure of schools and establishments (Hong Kong). In a comparison of 150 countries world-wide across 24 indicators, the tiger economies were ranked in the world’s top ten in terms of their performance in COVID- 19 control (Figure 1 and Figure 2). The health measures taken by the tiger economies are well documented (Quigley, et al, 2020).
Less well known are the many other important measures that governments have to implement with urgency given the uncertainties of a rapidly evolving crisis. Governments, for example, also have to worry about the procurement, production, stockpiling and allocation of masks, personal protective equipment, testing kits, ventilators, oxygen, medicines, among many other scarce medical supplies that every other country wants to secure. Singapore and Hong Kong, highly vulnerable to disruptions in supply chains for food and other essentials have to work hard to ensure that they are kept open. Singapore and S. Korea have to significantly expand the capacity of their health facilities as well as increase the number of medical professionals to meet a surge in demand. Singapore has to take extra measures to rehouse,
1Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
2Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University
Graduate School of
Public Policy News
test, isolate, treat and feed thousands of its foreign workers living in dormitories. It also has to enforce physical distancing and stay at home order for at least 80% of its working population for at least a month. On top of these health control measures, the governments also have to quickly roll out and implement targeted measures to help hundreds of thousands of workers, households and businesses affected by the crisis and figure out how to keep the economy running.
We focus on the role of public administration in COVID-19 control. We show how the agility of governments in these tiger economies played a central role in controlling its spread in the first three months of the crisis. We suggest that this agility is the result of their experience with epidemics, as well as their capacities to deploy digital, behavioral, organizational, legal, political and financial solutions. The scope of responses needed for public health and the economy, the sense of urgency to respond, the need for large scale coordination across agencies and the private sector and the uncertainty for how long the crisis will last has put to test the capacity and agility of public administration systems all over the world.
Figure 1: Comparison of COVID-19 CONTROL (April 10, 2020)
Source: Forbes Magazine, 2020
US
Figure 2: Daily cases of infections (scale 10,000)
Source: Financial Times Research April 15, 2020
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We first describe how these East Asian Economies responded to the COVID-19 crises compared to the US and Europe. We then explain the dimensions of agility observed in these countries (regions). We conclude that the capacity and agility of governments would be a key determinant of the outcomes of COVID-19.
COMPARISON OF RESPONSES
A distinguishing feature of the responses of the tiger economies is that they acted quickly and aggressively to control the first wave of the contagion. At the onset of the outbreak in China, four tiger economies quickly banned flights, first from the original epicenter in Wuhan and subsequently, all flights from China. Except for Singapore, citizens of Hong Kong, Taiwan and S. Korea started the widespread use of masks at the onset and do physical distancing. Most notably, Taiwan, S. Korea and Singapore performed massive contact tracing, testing, isolation and treatment. While Taiwan and S. Korea did not impose a national lockdown, Hong Kong early on shut down schools, government offices and non-essential establishments. Singapore was initially regarded as a gold standard for managing the outbreak with its targeted containment strategy but have to subsequently impose a circuit breaker in 7 April to deal with outbreaks from local and imported cases and foreign workers living in crowded dormitories. The circuit breaker policy comprised hard measures with enforcement and penalties including mandatory quarantine for all international travelers, ban on transit passengers, penalties for those who travel abroad they won’t be covered with free treatment, mandatory wearing of face masks outside of homes, physical distancing, shutting down of non-essential businesses including schools, massive contact tracing, testing and isolation, among others.
TAIWAN
As of this writing, Taiwan only had 393 cases and 6 fatalities, one of the lowest in the world as a proportion of the population. For over a month now, it registered zero infection and did not have to resort to a lockdown. Taiwan’s story is interesting and well documented (Wang, et al.
2020). It took a contrarian view to the advice of the WHO in early January that there was no evidence of human to human transmission. Taiwan was skeptical, having learned its painful lessons from SARS in 2003 where 150,000 people were quarantined and 181 died. Its close proximity to China, where 2.7 million mainland tourists visited the island in 2019 and dense air and sea transport connectivity, heightened its risk awareness. Taiwan’s contrarian view and heightened risk awareness made a significant difference in its ability to control the contagion. Based on this assessment, Taiwan quickly designated covid-19 as an infectious disease as early as January 15, ahead of most economies outside China.
This allowed the Taiwanese government to roll out 124 control measures (Wang et al, 2020). It gave the government powers to quarantine infected individuals, get its citizens to wear masks, wash hands, observe physical distancing and most importantly, compel companies to ramp up production of medical supplies. Taiwan banned flights from China as early as February 5 and followed up quickly on epicenters (S. Korea, Italy). Taiwan has managed to control the contagion from imported cases because of its early and stringent quarantine measures for arrivals which limited community contagion. The government ordered local companies to ramp up production of masks eventually producing 2M a day for a population of 23M. The government initially banned exports and systematically rationed the masks using digital identification to prevent panic buying and hoarding. Taiwan subsequently donated 10 million masks to other countries. Taiwan’s deployment of digital technologies for contact tracing is also well-known. It deployed GPS tracking for at risk cases, SMS alerts, data analytics and use of national digital ID to ration masks and integration of travel, insurance and medical records. It helped that Taiwan has a universal health insurance coverage which motivated people to step forward and test.
SOUTH KOREA
As of this writing S. Korea had 10,600 confirmed cases, 8,042 recovered and 234 fatalities (Worldometers, 2020). S. Korea was once an epicenter of COVID-19 (Daegu City) but has since effectively controlled its spread. S. Korea’s internationally recognized performance can be attributed to its tracing, testing and treatment strategy. Massive contact tracing depended on its capable civil servants, aided by advanced digital infrastructure and innovative solutions.
Once a case is confirmed, extensive tracing is done using all information from smartphone GPS, credit card, transportation, CCTV, etc. (Brookings, 2020). This anonymous information is publicly disclosed through a government website and social media portals. The focus of tracking was on the super spreader ‘Case 31’, a member of a megachurch.
S. Korea has tested 8,200 for every million people (US is 447 and UK is 2,100 per million). The government’s ability to do mass testing depended crucially on two things. First, public-private cooperation made it possible to conduct mass diagnostic tests. Early in Jan. 27, public health authorities requested 20 local medical companies to develop test kits and supplies which made the country self-sufficient compared to New York and major cities in Europe. The private sector and regional governments deployed decentralized testing methods such as drive-through tests or telephone booth. Second,the well-established national health care system enabled people to quickly access diagnostic tests. Finally, the government took a differentiated treatment strategy by categorizing patients by risk and focusing limited medical resources on the high-risk patients (The Diplomat, 2020). For example, while low-risk patients such as the young or those with asymptomatic or mild symptoms are isolated into dormitories supported by private sector, the high-risk ones such as the elderly or those with severe or critical symptom are hospitalized in the negative pressure rooms. The S. Korea case clearly demonstrates a capable and agile government response to COVID-19.
HONG KONG
Hong Kong’s approach towards COVID-19 is piecemeal and gradual in nature. Given its mass protests in 2019, the Hong Kong government has been careful about its relationship with the central government of in Beijing which was reluctant to release the information of Wuhan outbreak to the outside world. The Hong Kong people were also skeptical of the government’s administrative capacity in handling the virus spread.
Hong Kong’s story highlights its experience with SARS in 2003 and other epidemics, the central role of public health experts and the well-established norms of wearing masks and physical distancing among the population. In fact, in a study published in Lancet (Cowling, et. al. 2020), the low incidence of infection in Hong Kong can be attributed to the early and widespread use of masks in the population, personal hygiene and early physical distancing (the closure of schools, government offices and limits to business establishments).
On 4 January, days after the first reported outbreak in Wuhan China, Hong Kong’s health authority raised its alert to serious and three days later raised it to its highest level. This led to the closures of schools and government offices and bans on large-scale events. On contact tracing, Hong Kong had done an excellent job in 2003. Following the same protocol, in fighting COVID-19, Hong Kong has introduced some high-tech tools to effectively carry out contact tracing. For example, in SARS 2003, the data system of the health authority was integrated with the Major Incident Investigation and Disaster Support System (MIIDSS) at the Police Headquarter in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Department of Health, 2003). The system could match different versions of names, addresses and other details of confirmed cases, therefore, case clusters could be readily identified. This system could help investigators at the health authority to carry out prompt investigation afterwards. In late February 2020, the same system has been reactivated.
Furthermore, electronic wristbands accompanied by StayHomeSafe app were distributed to people arriving in Hong Kong to ensure that they are following the city’s two-week quarantine and medical surveillance measures. The wristband drawing on geofencing technology can help the
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government detect non-compliant behavior. The quarantine measures for arrivals from mainland China significantly helped slow down the spread of COVID-19.
SINGAPORE
Singapore’s capacity to deal with COVID -19 was forged out of its experience with SARS in 2003 and subsequently with other epidemics. Singapore acted fast and early. On 4 January, the Ministry of Health of Singapore had noticed one suspect case with travel history to Wuhan. It elevated its response to code orange on February 7th, the second highest on its alert system. As a small city state – Singapore took a whole of government approach similar to Taiwan and S. Korea. Practically its entire public administration system was mobilized - from the health ministry as lead agency, immigration (enforcement of quarantine rules), environment (enforcement of physical distancing, public sanitation), labor (roll out support to workers), foreign affairs (to repatriate citizens abroad, secure supply chains), education (home schooling), finance (financial package equivalent to 11%
of GDP), central bank (support for affected borrowers), defense (rehousing and testing for foreign workers), law (bankruptcies and domestic abuse), housing (disinfection of public housing estates;
rehousing foreign workers), communication (supply of free educational and entertainment content on TV and the web) and trade (for supply chain, food security and control of panic buying). Like Taiwan and S. Korea, having experienced SARS, Singapore stockpiled medical supplies and ramped up production of testing kits (and even donated to neighboring countries). Like Taiwan and South Korea, the same leadership of the SARS campaign in Singapore was mobilized again to lead the covid-19 campaign, ensuring that institutional memory and lessons learned were not lost and significantly cutting the time for on the job training.
Like Taiwan and South Korea, Singapore repurposed its established digital capacities to develop supplementary solutions (trace together app) for its human driven contact tracing, coordinate mask collection (gowhere), drones for crowd control, citizen reporting of violations of circuit breaker, temperature / health declaration online and a digital national ID system that facilitated the immediate roll out of financial support to workers, households and businesses. To preserve privacy from intrusive tracing and monitoring, government explained how the requirements of its Personal Data Protection Act is observed.
Digital innovations were complemented with the deployment of behavioral insights. For example, the decision to deploy calibrated and targeted containment measures early on (as against the hard lockdowns that many panicked cities and states imposed) was partly due to the risk of behavioral fatigue of the population resulting from a prolonged crisis (Low, 2020). A hard lockdown would badly hurt the economy, would be fiscally costly and therefore unsustainable. To encourage citizens and foreign workers to come forward for testing and treatment, the government promised free testing and healthcare. It helped considerably that Singapore has significant financial reserves to respond to the contagion and its economic aftermath, a result of years of saving for the rainy days.
In sum, Singapore’s public administration approach to covid-19 control comprised a whole of government approach, policy implementation driven by key performance metrics (2 hour human driven contact tracing) and aided by digital solutions, use of behavioral insights in policy design, implementation and communication, risk-based, evidence informed cost – benefit analyses (targeted measures, population health vs. economy tradeoffs), extensive community engagement and credible enforcement with stiff penalties, Singapore style. All of these measures came second nature to the Singapore bureaucracy. As of this writing, Singapore is tackling the spread of the virus in cramped dormitories of foreign workers but overall, compared to other countries and cities, it has done relatively well for a globally connected, densely populated city.
THE US AND EUROPE
In contrast, the US and most Western European countries (Spain, France, UK, France, Sweden) were caught unprepared and acted too little, too late. In the US, the first case of the virus was reported on January 20 in Washington State. Trump was in a state of denial for over two months - before declaring a national emergency on March 13. Trump initially rejected the use of face masks,
quarreled with State governors over procurement of masks and lifting of state lockdowns, shifted blame to China and WHO, gave false hopes for an untested drug and encouraged his armed supporters to oppose lockdowns. It was only on April 12 that Trump declared a major national disaster in all 50 states after it was apparent that it has gotten out of hand. A fact-check by CNN, however, showed that none of Trump’s promises to control the virus (mass testing, availability of medical supplies) were realized on time as promised (CNN, 2020).
In the European Union, member states lost precious time quarrelling with each other over stockpiling and shipment of supplies, border closures and subsidies to less well-off members.
Brussels had little authority on health issues. In the UK, experts criticized the government over its bungled response – toying with the idea of herd immunity, not requiring wearing masks, lax enforcement of physical distancing with bars remaining open and large public events being allowed (The Guardian, 2020).
AGILITY
We have argued that a common distinguishing feature of these four countries (regions) is the agility of their public administration to respond quickly, aggressively and, so far, effectively to the health challenges of COVID-19. We identify several common factors associated with the agility of public administration in these four countries (regions).
The first factor is their common experience in repeatedly dealing with epidemics such as SARS, MERS, H1N1 and Ebola. This acute sense of vulnerability overtime is a key factor in the development of their capacity to deal with pandemics and to prepare for COVID-19. One evidence of this capacity is the zero-fatality rate among medical personnel in all four countries (regions) in contrast to most hard-hit countries which have to scramble for supplies for their medical staff.
The first lesson therefore is nothing beats hands on experience in large scale crisis management.
Second, agility in crises management, and especially health pandemics, require capacity to decide quickly and reliably – in both strategic and operational terms. This requires the availability of reliable information to decision makers to enable them to decide on their next moves in a very fluid and uncertain context especially because of the very high transmissibility and asymptomatic nature of COVID-19. The capacity to collect, process, present and interpret data is vital in this situation. Likewise, the capacity to effectively contact trace thousands of individuals, test tens of thousands (more than 500,000 in South Korea as of this writing), effectively monitor and enforce quarantine orders for hundreds of thousands (at least 200,000 repatriates in Singapore) requires significant digital capacity. In South Korea, this involved use of privacy preserving facial recognition systems to alert the population of infected cases and GPS tracking for home quarantine. In Hong Kong, this involved wearing digital bracelets to enforce home quarantine measures. In Taiwan, this involved digital ID’s to ration masks and along with Hong Kong, the integration of information on health, insurance and travel which made patient case management more efficient.
Third, the ability and agility to get things done depends on, among others, the organizational structure of public agencies (hierarchical, matrix), their coherence (bureaucracy vs. military) and crucially, their degree of autonomy (regular bureaucracies vs. relatively independent state- owned agencies and statutory boards). Fukuyama (2013) has argued that what distinguishes the quality of governments in general is the capacity and autonomy of their public administration.
The governments of the tiger economies are well known for their professional capacity and innovation. Their public education, health care, airports, seaports and mass transport are of world class standards but this may not necessarily translate to effective and rapid response in crisis situations. The coherent structure and training of military is most suitable in crisis situations. The militaries of Singapore and Taiwan were deployed for contact tracing. In Singapore, they were also deployed to pack masks, perform massive testing of foreign workers in cramped dormitories, organize logistics for food, as well as to rehouse the tens of thousands of essential workers in ships, army camps, stadiums and hotels. This urgent and massive effort requires organizational coherence, logistics, training and discipline for which the military has been designed for.
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Fourth, leadership matters in crisis situations but the ability of leaders to deliver depends on the size of the country, its political system (federal vs. unitary, presidential vs. parliamentary, central vs. local governments), the political capital of the government and the capacity of its civil service.
Taiwan and S. Korea both have presidential – parliamentary systems which generally have more decisive powers in times of crisis situations. The central governments in S. Korea and Taiwan managed to secure the cooperation of their regional/local governments, in part because their leaders belong to the same political parties. Hong Kong and Singapore both have parliamentary systems and both have relatively small territories and populations and a single layer government.
In the US, the federal government has to squabble with state governments over the procurement and stockpiling of medical supplies and powers over lock downs. In Europe, states quarreled over border closures, procurement and stockpiling of medical supplies and the financial package to mitigate the impacts of the virus. As usual, rich countries were reluctant to subsidize poorer ones.
The governments of Taiwan, S. Korea and Singapore, except Hong Kong, enjoyed high levels of political capital. In Singapore, for example, 67% of its citizens trusted the government (2019 Edelman Survey). In South Korea, doctors and scientists enjoy a high degree of trust compared to politicians. In Taiwan, the trust rating on the President’s handling of the covid-19 was 68%. The ruling parties of S. Korea and Taiwan were returned to power with wide margins in their recent polls. High levels of trust give governments space to maneuver and deploy unpopular solutions such as circuit breakers in Singapore and intrusive digital solutions in Taiwan and S. Korea. In contrast in Hong Kong, health workers threatened to protest over government handling of cases from mainland China. Trust in government in crisis situations depends in large measure on its ability in crisis communication – that the government is on top of the situation, that it is telling the truth and that it can reassure an anxious population. In addition, trust in the competency of the civil service is crucial as well. The elite civil servants in these former tiger economies are generally trusted by their populations because they are perceived to be professional, highly educated, recruited on merit, not corrupt and well paid (Hong Kong and Singapore).
Fifth, agility in crises situations pretty much depend on the scope of powers delegated to public agencies, including especially powers on emergency procurement of essential medical supplies, ordering businesses to produce and or ramp up production of medical supplies and buy up excess production, ability to order lockdowns, flight bans among others. The tiger economies had no problems of shortages of testing kits, masks and personal protective supplies for their medical staff compared to the US and EU.
Finally, government capacity - financial, political capital, cognitive, logistical - in crisis situations can be easily overwhelmed. Civil society enhances the agility of societies in crisis situations. In Taiwan, the media and civil society quickly framed the emerging reports in Wuhan China as a crisis which prompted government to act quickly. In Singapore, NGOs and academics pointed to the challenges faced by foreign workers in cramped dormitories. Grassroots organizations were widely mobilized for mask distribution and helping vulnerable populations. In Hong Kong, the media and civil society pressured government over the scope of its financial support to workers and households and social welfare NGOs mobilized to help the vulnerable.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, there is no certainty on the final outcomes of COVID-19 as a rapidly evolving crisis.
What is certain is that a capable and agile public administration would matter to the final outcomes of this catastrophe.
WORKS CITED
• Brookings, 2020. Combating COVID-19: Lessons from South Korea
• CNN, 2020. A timeline of Trump promises and predictions on coronavirus -- and how they stack up against the facts
• Cowling, et al. 2020. Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19 and Influenza in Hong Kong: An observational study. The Lancet
• Forbes Magazine, 2020
• Fukuyama, Francis. 2013. What is Governance? Center for Global Development Working Paper No. 314.
• Hong Kong Department of Health. 2003. Contact Tracing in SARS.
• Low, D. 2020. How Singapore Can Draw Right Lessons from the corona virus crisis.
• Quigeley, et al. 2020. Are high performing health systems resilient against the COVID-19 epidemic? The Lancet, Vol 395. Issue 10227, p. 848-850. March 14, 2020.
• The Guardian, 2020. UK Government’s Coronavirus Response.
• The Diplomat, 2020. A Democratic Response to Coronavirus: Lessons from South Korea
• Wang, et. al. 2020. Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan. Big Data Analytics, New Technology, and Proactive Testing. Journal of American Medical Association. JAMA. 2020;323(14):1341-1342.
doi:10.1001/jama.2020.3151
• Worldmodeters.info, 2020. Coronavirus Update (live)
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DR. MAXAT KASSEN PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE IN A PRESTIGIOUS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL WITH HIGH IMPACT FACTOR
SHARED BY DR. MAXAT KASSEN
Dr. Maxat Kassen, Assistant Professor of the Graduate School of Public Policy at Nazarbayev University, has recently published an article in a famous international peer-reviewed research journal: Technology in Society (Q1 journal. Impact Factor 4.192). The article titled
“Understanding decentralized civic engagement: Focus on peer-to- peer and blockchain-driven perspectives on e-participation” aims to understand the potential of blockchain phenomena to promote decentralized decision making and autonomous civic engagement in governance, i.e. engagement which is not initiated and managed by the public sector.
This phenomenon has been often used as a popular slogan in various public speeches to highlight the importance of genuine civic interests in governance around the world, yet offering very limited options on how to promote such involvement. The advent of the digital era has facilitated the development of a plethora of digital participatory platforms that could presumably help to boost the effective engagement of civic communities in decision-making processes in an explicitly decentralized manner and, more so, the demand for such decentralized e-participation services is increasing during the current Covid-19 crisis. However, there is a real shortage of studies that directly focus on the analysis of such autonomous cases and all the more so from real life contexts in their natural settings. In this regard, this paper aims to fill the gap by analyzing the phenomena from an intrinsically peer- to-peer networking perspective, which could be observed today in popular autonomous civic engagement initiatives that have been launched in recent times in the area.
The full article can be read by the following academic reference:
• Kassen, M. (2021). Understanding decentralized civic engagement: Focus on peer-to- peer and blockchain-driven perspectives on e-participation. Technology in Society, 66, 101650.
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Graduate School of Education
CO-CREATING CULTURALLY RELEVANT SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH ETHICS IN CENTRAL ASIA BY MEDIATING LOCAL AND GLOBAL INFLUENCES
By Elaine Sharplin
Regulation of human subject research ethics has evolved over the last 70 years in response to abuse of research participants, particularly in the bio-medical sciences. Now, international and national regulations are legislated in many countries, especially in the biomedical fields.
Contemporary research ethics, are based predominantly on four principles of beneficence, autonomy, respect and justices, as developed by Beuchamp and Childress (2001) and encapsulated in the US Common Law and the Helsinki Declaration (WHO, 2001). However, criticisms have been made of the western ethnocentrism of the principles and conflict with cultural practices in diverse cultural contexts.
For this reason, the Graduate School of Education (GSE) is leading a research project, funded by a Nazarbayev University Collaborative Research Grant (№ 021220CRP0922) to develop an understanding of the contemporary context of social science research ethics in Central Asia. The project led by Professor Elaine Sharplin aims to develop research ethics protocols which may increase capacity for nationally, regionally and globally impactful knowledge production in the social sciences.
The reform agendas in the three countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the sites for this research, recognise the current under-development in research and knowledge production.
This has led to the establishment of national research and knowledge production goals. Research cultures in post-Soviet and similar countries are commonly under-developed, favour positivist research paradigms, and lack protocols for human subject research (Jonbekova, 2018; Robinson- Pant & Singal, 2013; Shamatov, Schatz & Niyozov, 2010; Strosberg, Gefenas, Loue & Philpott, 2013).
Moreover, most researchers in Central Asia “work on the global periphery” (Suyarkulova, 2018), struggling to participate equitably in global knowledge production.
The research team argues that a factor limiting the dissemination of impactful social science researsh is the fact that research practices do not align with dominant global norms, particularly in relation to research ethics. Thus, there is a critical need for cocreating research and policy cultures that are relevant to the needs and future of the region, but commensurate with global principles.
Data collection for the project will commence in October with the first stage of an online survey being disseminated to social science researchers in higher education institutions across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The survey aims to develop an understandning of existing research ethics processes available in research institutions, and to gain insight into the attitudes and knowledge of social science researchers.
In 2022, the research team will be seeking volunteers to participate in interviews about experiences of ethical research in the social sciences, and in particular views about the most appropriate ways of conducting ethical social science research in Central Asia. The research aims to develop research ethics protocols, which may increase capacity for nationally, regionally and globally impactful knowledge production.
If you would like additional information about the research or if you are interested in completing a survey or interview, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]
The full research team includes: Aigul Zhakupova (Co-Principal Investigator), Ainagul Ismaniglova, Gulmira Rakisheva, from Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau State University (KSU), Kokshetau, Kazakhstan;
Myrza Karimov, University of Central Asia (UCA), Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Bakhrom Mirkasimov, Westminster International University of Tashkent, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Abror Juraev, Bukhara State University, Uzbekistan; Zakir Jumakalov, Kazakh Women’s Teacher Training University, Kazakhstan and Elaine Sharplin (Co-Principal Investigator), Neil Collins (Co-Principal Investigator), Lynne Parmenter (Principal Investigator), Aziz Burkhanov Adil Ashirbekov, Gulzhanat Gafu, Roza Sagitova Aipara Berekeyeva, Markhabat Ramazanova; Zarena Syrgak and Raigul Albildina from Nazarbayev University.
REFERENCES
• Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2001). Principles of biomedical ethics. Oxford University Press, USA.
• World Health Organisation (2001). Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 79 (4), np.
• Jonbekova, D. (2018): Educational research in Central Asia: Methodological and ethical dilemmas in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 50(3), 352–370.
• Robinson-Pant, A., & Singal, N. (2013). Researching ethically across cultures: Issues of knowledge, power and voice. Compare Special Issue, 43(4), 417-421.
• Strosberg, M.A., Gefenas, E., Loue, S., & Philpott, S. (2013). Building research ethics capacity in post-communist countries: Experience of two fogarty training programs. Journal of Empirical Research in Human Research Ethics, 8(5), 28–39. https://doi:10.1525/jer.2013.8.5.28.
• Shamatov, D., Shatz, E., & Niyozov, S. (2010). Peer-review publications for improving scholarship in Central Asia. American University in Central Asia Academic Review, 1(11), 172–179.
• Suyarkulova, M. (2018). Renegade research: Hierarchies of knowledge production in Central Asia. Open Democracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/renegade-research/
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Graduate School of Business
BUSINESS DIGEST SERIES
July- September 2021
The Business Digest Series summarizes short pieces of research from GSB faculty, highlighting the key take-aways and policy implications, relevant for the wider business community and policy makers. The latest two digests zoom in on the role of family social experiences on employees thriving at work and on the role of private corporations to mandate Covid-19 vaccination. A summary follows below, the full digest is downloadable from the GSB website (LINK).
Business Digest 2021/05, by Mayowa Babalola,
Business Digest 2021/06 by Gabriele Lattanzio,
This digest explores the differential effects of both negative (viz., family incivility, i.e., a low-intensity deviant behaviors with ambiguous intent that violate the norms of mutual respect within the family) and positive (viz., family support, i.e., i.e., the availability and quality of helping relationships from family members) family social experiences on employee thriving at work. Drawing from work-home resource theory, we consider family incivility as a contextual demand that impairs the completion of work-related activities (termed family–work conflict, FWC). We argue that this reality, in turn, creates an emotionally stressful experience that inhibits thriving at work. We also examine an enrichment pathway whereby family support, as a contextual resource, promotes positive resource transfer in the work domain (termed family-work enrichment, FWE). This, in turn, creates an enriching experience that enhances thriving at work.
This digest reflects on the economics of Covid-19 vaccination mandates in corporations. Since the recent surge in new Covid infections in the U.S., 37 publicly traded U.S. corporations have taken action, reintroducing masks, and, in a few instances, vaccination mandates. These initiatives have ignited a heated moral, legal, and scientific discussion concerning if and to what extent private corporations should engage in these practices. The identified lack of market support for corporate vaccination mandates imposes a recalibration of the current academic and political debate concerning if and how private corporations should engage in this practice.
Indeed, even if a compelling moral case rooted in eventual evidence supporting the positive social welfare implications of corporate vaccination mandates can be identified, it is crucial to recognize that managerial incentives are still not sufficient to pressure firms to adopt this socially oriented policy.
BEST PAPER PRIZE 2020 OF THE JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES
NUGSB Faculty Akpeki (Ona) Akemu has won the best paper prize of the Journal of Management Studies for 2020. The paper reference is: Cornelissen, J., Akemu, O., Jonkman, J. G. F., & Werner, M. (2020). Building character: The formation of hybrid organizational identity in a social enterprise.
Journal of Management Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12640. JMS is an FT50, ABDC A*
journal. It is also a NUGSB A* journal also.
Congratulations!
GSB MASTER OF FINANCE STUDENTS DECLARED 1ST RUNNER UP AT THE ASIAN FINTECH BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
On August 26, a NUGSB team with MSF students Fayez Najib, Ruslan Baitlessov, and Pedro Mantilla under the supervision of Dr. Tom Vinaimont was declared 1st Runner Up at the Asian FinTech Business Plan Competition organized by IFTA (Institute of Financial Technologists of Asia, Hong Kong). The NUGSB student team wrote and presented a business plan for the launch of SatuPal, an app the team envisions to integrate automated valuation for buying and selling of small- and medium-sized businesses with valuations made by experts. The judges of the Asian FinTech Business Plan Competition stated that «the idea behind SatuPal has high potential and [they] look forward to hearing about the project being implemented.» IFTA invited all universities in Hong Kong and Singapore and selected universities in Japan, China, Korea, and Kazakhstan to send in teams of 3 to 5 graduate students to participate in the competition. Congratulations to the NUGSB student team for being selected by the judges as 1st Runner Up and best wishes going forward with the implementation of SatuPal!
PRESENTATIONS OF GSB FACULTY IN CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS
David De Remer presented his work on «How Economic Interests Explain the Pattern of Subsidy Restrictions» on September 9 at the European Trade Study Group held in a hybrid format in Ghent University from September 9-11.
Joep Konings presented his work on «The impact of government support for R&D on firm level R&D spending and productivity» at the Flemish Government Department of Economics, Science and Innovation in Brussels on August 23.
ACCEPTED AND FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS IN TOP PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS 2021
In 2020 the Graduate School of Business experienced a top year in terms of research output, with 16 published articles in renowned top peer-reviewed journals, various book chapters, and policy reports. With still three months to go to the end of the year, GSB has already more publications in 2021 than in 2020. An updated list is provided below, with additional seven publications highlighted in bold since June 2021.
Ona Akemu
1. Cornelissen, J., Akemu, O., Jonkman, J. G. F., & Werner, M. (2020). Building character: The formation of a hybrid organizational identity in a social enterprise. Journal of Management Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12640. (5-year impact factor:5.8)
Mayowa Babalola
2. Being Ignored by loved ones: Understanding when and why family ostracism inhibits creativity at work, Journal of Organizational Behavior (5yr impact factor: 5.0)
3. Walumbwa, O., Christensen, A. L., Babalola, M.T., Kasimu, P., Garba, O. A., & Guo, L (in press).
A closer look at how and when family-supportive supervision influences work interference with family: The roles of family-role overload and task crafting. International Journal of Human Resource Management. (Scopus Q1, Impact Factor = 3.040)
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Mayowa Babalola
4. Ren, S., Babalola, M.T., Ogbonnaya, C., Hochwarter, W., Akemu, O., & Mintah, P. (in press).
Employee Thriving at work: The long reach of family incivility and family support. Journal of Organizational Behavior. (ABDC Ranking A*; ABS Ranking 4; Impact Factor = 8.174). https://
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.2559
5. Riisla, K. Wendt, H., Babalola, M.T., & Euwema, M. (2021). Building cohesive teams: The role of leaders’ bottom-line mentality and behavior. Sustainability, 13(14) 8047. (Scopus Q1; Impact Factor = 3.251). https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/8047/html
Doron Israeli
6. Unexpected Distractions and Investor Attention to Corporate Announcements, Review of Accounting Studies (5 yr impact factor: 5.0)
7. Stock Price Management and Share Issuance: Evidence from Equity Warrants, The Accounting Review (5 yr impact factor: 5.8)
8. The Real Side of the High-Volume Return Premium, Management Science (5 yr impact factor:
5.5) Marek Jochec
9. «How Do Limit Orders Affect the Disposition Effect on Highly Liquid Markets - Experimental Finance Evidence» in the Journal of Behavioral Finance (Q1, A-journal in ABC list), together with Hana Dvorackova and Tomas Tichy (published 2 Sept. 2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/154 27560.2021.1973006
Joep Konings
10. The Return on Information Technology – Who Benefits Most? Information Systems Research (5 yr impact factor: 5.6)
Thierry Post
11. Nonparametric Tests for Optimal Predictive Ability, International Journal of Forecasting (impact factor: 3.96)
12. Risk Arbitrage Opportunities for Stock Index Options, Operations Research (5 yr impact factor:
1.7)
13. Stochastic Bounds for Reference Sets in Portfolio Analysis, Management Science (5 yr impact factor: 5.5)
Chandra Shekhar Pathki
14. Pathki, C. S., Kluemper, D. H., Meuser, J. D., & McLarty, B. D. (2021). The Org-B5: Development of a Short Work Frame-of-Reference Measure of the Big Five. Journal of Management (5 yr impact factor: 8.8). https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063211002627
15. Vadera, A. K., & Pathki, C. S. (2021). Competition and cheating: Investigating the role of moral awareness, moral identity, and moral elevation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 1– 22. (5yr impact factor: 5.0) https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2545
16. Puranik, H., Vough, H. C., & Pathki, C. S. (2021). Oops, I did it (again)! The emotional experience, interpersonal responses, and relational consequences of social gaffes in the workplace. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 1– 21. (5yr impact factor: 5.0) https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2546 Narendra Singh
17. Intertemporal Product Management with Strategic Consumers: The Value of Defective Product Returns, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (5 yr impact factor: 4.09)
18. «Is Your Retailer a Friend or Foe: When Should the Manufacturer Allow Its Retailer to Refurbish?»
Production and Operations Management (POM) (impact factor:4.965) Bektermir Ysmailov
19. Interest Rates, Cash and Short-Term Investments, Journal of Banking and Finance (5 yr impact factor 3.07).
ONLINE TEACHING OF BUSINESS PRINCIPLES TO 500 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS – OUR EXPERIENCE
Moldir Kaiynbayeva and Tim Wawn1 INTRODUCTION
While the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the lives of many people and brought drastic changes to the way we live, the adoption of new technologies and ways of doing things forced on us by the pandemic has also brought some positive benefits.
Kazakhstan is one country where technology improvements in the delivery of government, court, banking, retail, and education services have benefited citizens. For most Kazakhstani citizens, it is now far easier to obtain government documents, undertake online transactions and learn online than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now even possible to get married and divorced online!
In this article, we talk about changes in the education sphere, based on our personal experience of teaching online the BUS101 Core Course in Business to undergraduate students at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business.
BACKGROUND ON BUS101 CORE COURSE IN BUSINESS
The BUS 101 Core Course in Business (“BUS 101”) ran for the first time in the Fall 2020 semester and is now a compulsory subject for all undergraduate students at Nazarbayev University (“NU”).
It was Nazarbayev University Provost Ilesanmi Adesida who originally initiated the idea for BUS 101.
Based on his experience at other leading international universities, Provost Adesida believed that all NU students should develop some basic business, accounting, finance, and entrepreneurship skills as part of their undergraduate education.
We believe there are 4 main reasons why it is important for all undergraduate students to have some understanding of business fundamentals:
• Business plays an important role in society and most students will be dealing with businesses in their careers, whether they work in a business, for the government, as a teacher or as a researcher. Understanding the language of business, which is a key component of the Accounting and Finance module of BUS 101 can therefore help equip students for their future careers.
• As Kazakhstan President Tokayev indicated in his Address to the Nation on 1 September 2020, Kazakhstan needs to create a diversified and technology-based economy, if it is to achieve its long-term national goals. Developing a new generation of business people and entrepreneurs is one of the 7 basic principles for Kazakhstan’s future economic course outlined by President Tokayev in his Address.
• Contrary to common perceptions, Entrepreneurship is something that can be taught and it is wrong to think that you cannot be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs can come from anywhere.
Therefore, it makes sense to expose as many students as possible to the principles of business and entrepreneurship. This is particularly true for students from STEM and other disciplines. A combination of strong technical skills plus an understanding of entrepreneurship and business is an excellent foundation for any student.
• As the COVID-19 pandemic has so profoundly demonstrated, we live in an era of great volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. An understanding of entrepreneurial principles can help us to navigate the uncertainties that we face in our lives and in our careers because, at its essence, entrepreneurship is about making decisions under conditions of extreme uncertainty.
Learning what it is like to be an entrepreneur can help us make better decisions in our lives.
1Moldir Kaiynbayeva and Tim Wawn are Instructors at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business
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BUS 101 COURSE DESCRIPTION
The BUS 101 course consists of two modules: Accounting and Finance (A&F) module and Entrepreneurship and Management (E&M) module. Each module runs for 7 weeks in a fifteen- week semester, with a one-week mid-semester break.
The Core Learning Objective of the A&F module is to impart knowledge of the fundamentals of financial accounting and corporate finance and their roles in business organizations. This part of the course aims to provide students with a solid grounding of financial statement analysis, principles of risk-return tradeoff as well as elements of corporate finance.
The Core learning Objective of the E&M module is to teach students about basic entrepreneurial and managerial concepts.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a large student cohort of around 520 students, the BUS 101 course has been delivered in a wholly online mode since its inception. This has involved students viewing pre-recorded video lectures in their own time and then attending a 50-minute tutorial or recitation in groups of approximately 40 students. Students have also been required to undertake weekly quizzes, submit team-based assignments, and a Final Group Project where they present an entrepreneurial business idea with supporting financial projections.
Two Instructors are responsible for all aspects of the A&F module of BUS 101 and another two Instructors are responsible for all aspects of the E&M module.
Table 1 below describes the assessment structure for the BUS 101 course. Due to the large student cohort and online delivery, individual assessment tasks represent 51% of a student’s final grade, and group assessment tasks represent 49% of a student’s final grade.
Table 1
BUS 101 Teaching Methods and Innovations
The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, a very large student cohort, and a small group of Instructors, has necessitated a very sharp focus on sustainable and innovative approaches to learning and teaching. While Instructors are consistently seeking to improve course delivery, based on course feedback and student performance, the BUS 101 course appears to consistently implement the NU Quality Enhancement Theme of “Sustaining Innovation in Learning and Teaching”.
Some of the methods that have been adopted to deliver BUS 101 in an online learning environment include:
• The use of prerecorded videos, mostly using ActivPresenter platform, allows students to view learning material at their own time and pace. ActivPresenter has proven to be a good tool for recording educational videos and is free to use.
• Weekly recitation sessions where Instructors meet with groups of approximately 40 students using the Zoom platform to review learning materials and discuss issues. In the E&M module, Zoom breakout rooms were used to enable students to work in their teams on group assessment
tasks. Because students are often located in different geographical locations, offering students to work together in a Zoom breakout room during recitations has appeared to work well.
• Exercises, problems, articles for discussions are assigned to students on weekends before the recitations to give them an opportunity to apply the lecture knowledge before the recitations.
Then this material is discussed with Instructors during recitations. Students can give their answers and receive feedback from the Instructors during recitations. This practice has proven to be particularly effective in increasing student engagement in the A&F module of the course.
• In the A&F module, students learn to use Excel to perform financial calculations and submit a simple financial model of their business opportunity which they have built in Excel. Students also learn to use finance websites such as Yahoo Finance to access financial statements, stock price charts, ratios, and other financial information of public companies.
• Individual online quizzes are held throughout the BUS 101 course using the Moodle platform to reinforce learning objectives and to provide individual feedback on learning progress.
• A key learning principle of BUS 101 is “learning by doing”. Thus, the primary assessment task for the BUS 101 course is a Final Group Project which requires students to work in teams to develop their own entrepreneurial opportunity, including describing their value proposition, business model and supporting financial projections. As part of the Final Group Project, teams need to prepare a written submission and a short 3–5-minute video where they pitch their idea to a panel of potential investors (represented by Course Instructors). As judged by Instructors, the best Final Group Project submitted by a team receives automatic entry into the Astana Business Campus (ABC) Incubator Program run by NURIS. This provides students with the opportunity to continue to develop their entrepreneurial opportunity once BUS 101 has ended.
In some cases, other teams may also be accepted to the ABC Incubator Program if their business idea is deemed to be promising. This connection with NURIS not only represents an excellent opportunity for students to continue to develop their business idea but also helps forge closer connections between different areas of Nazarbayev University and assists in building a true entrepreneurial ecosystem within NU.
Table 2
Example of Business Model Canvas produced by one student team for their Final Group Project2
2This Final Group Project described an innovative idea for a food recommendation service
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• Student teams are required to submit “Scaffolding Assignments” during the course which help build their Final Group Project submission. This reinforces learning objectives during the course and reduces stress for students in preparing and submitting their Final Group Projects.
• Because of the online learning environment and because groups assessment tasks represent a significant proportion of a student’s final grade, attempts have been made to mitigate “free- riding” by students in group work by requiring each team to confirm whether (in the team’s opinion) everyone in the team has made a legitimate contribution to the task submission and everyone should receive the same grade. This applies to both Scaffolding Assignments and Final Group Project submissions.
Table 3
Example of Income Statement and Calculated Investment Returns produced by one student team for their Final Group Project3
CHALLENGES AND DIFFICULTIES
As can be expected with a large student cohort operating in a wholly online environment, some challenges and difficulties have been encountered along the way in delivering the BUS course!
In Fall Semester 2020, initial attempts to hold an online quiz for over 500 students simultaneously, were not successful, with the Moodle system crashing under the load. However, Nazarbayev University CIO Chris Handley quickly responded to this situation by increasing Moodle capacity and Moodle quizzes have run smoothly since these initial difficulties.
As BUS 101 quizzes are conducted online, some students have complained that other students have been colluding in quizzes. This is a particular issue in an online environment. In order to mitigate cheating, we have introduced a system where all students undertake their quiz at the same time, answering random quiz questions drawn from a question bank (so that students do not answer the same questions) and sequential navigation rules in place (where students are not allowed to revisit questions already answered).
Some students have encountered difficulties in attending online assessment tasks such as online quizzes due to technical difficulties such as poor internet connection or other technical difficulties. In such cases, we always offer an alternative assessment task to affected students, such as a reflective journal submission which students are able to prepare offline and then submit. However, in order to avoid students taking unfair advantage of these alternative assessment tasks, students need to provide supporting evidence as to why they are unable to attend the online quiz assessment.
3This Final Group Project described an innovative idea related to medical insurance
