Relationship Between Academic Freedom and Institutional Commitment As Perceived by Faculty Members at Palestinian Universities

Abdel Naser Qadoumi's picture
Type: 
Thesis
Year: 
2008
Students: 
Dana Lutfi Hamdan
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Abstract: 

This study sought to find out if there was a relationship between academic freedom and organizational loyalty as perceived by members of the faculty at Palestinian Universities and explain if this would-be relationship differs according to variables of sex, college, academic rank. The population of the study was all faculty members at An-Najah National University, Bir Zeit University and Al-Quds University (Abu Dees) and the Arab-American University in Jenin. The total number was 1,498. A sample of 300 faculty members was chosen randomly. To achieve the study objectives, the researcher developed two questionnaires measuring academic freedom and organizational loyalty respectively.The two instruments consisted of 58 items. The study tried to answer the following two questions and test the following hypotheses: 1.What’s the degree of academic freedom exercise by the faculty members at Palestinian universities? 2.What is the degree of organizational loyalty of the faculty members at Palestinian universities? There are no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in the relationship between academic freedom and organizational loyalty, as perceived by the faculty members, and years of experience and college. After collection of data and analysis, it was found that the degree of academic freedom exercised by the faculty members at Palestinian institutions of higher learning was averaged. The total degree of response was 67.6%. In contrast, the total degree of organizational loyalty was high (78.4%). There was no statistically significant relationship at α = 0.05 between the academic freedom and the organizational loyalty of the faculty members at the Palestinian university. There were also no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in both academic freedom and organizational loyalty of faculty members which might be attributed to the sex variable. In addition, it was found that there were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in both academic freedom and organizational loyalty of faculty members which might be attributed to academic rank variable. Furthermore, there were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in both academic freedom and organizational loyalty of faculty members which might be due to the experience variable. Finally, no statistically significant differences were found at α = 0.05 in both academic freedom and organizational loyalty of faculty members which might be attributed to college variable. In the light of these findings, the researcher has the following recommendations: 1.Conducting a study on the reasons for the low decision making, on the degree of the exercise of academic freedom by the faculty members, and finding appropriate solutions for them. 2.Giving faculty members more academic freedom in various areas in order to be aware of exercising this academic freedom. 3.Making efforts to keep the qualified faculty members and prevent brain drain due to economic circumstances. 4.Conducting similar studies on the relationship between academic freedom and organizational loyalty of faculty members at other Palestinian universities. 5.Giving faculty members more support and help, thus increasing their organizational loyalty and their feeling of academic freedom. 6.Highlighting the importance of academic freedom and organizational loyalty which will accordingly increase their contributions and loyalty to the university.