Our purpose is to empirically examine whether gender, age, work experience, and attendance of a course on ethics affect the ethical perceptions of Portuguese accounting students and analyze the influence of some individual factors that may affect their ethical decision-making. Additionally, we consider the degree of importance assigned to a list of personal traits and their relationship with those factors. We concluded that gender influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to initiative/entrepreneurship, obedience, and responsibility; age influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to integrity; work experience influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to obedience; and attendance of a course on ethics influenced the degree of importance attributed to independence. For each of these factors, the influence did not prove to be statistically significant in decision-making. Similarly, the study identified some reservations regarding attitudes the students’ peers might have, and when asked about this, they had negative opinions, believing their colleagues would have lower ethical standards. Our results add to the literature, especially because, in Portugal, little has been done to understand which factors may affect students’ ethical decision-making processes. We expect to bring added value to stakeholders, teachers, and scholars engaged with these matters.

This paper reports on the impact of the implementation of active and collaborative practices in ICT (information and communication technologies) classrooms. Both of these approaches convey a lot of responsibility from the teacher to the students and the hoping, as backed up by the literature, is to promote deeper learning and reasoning skills at a higher level. The question is: how do you do all that? This research describes a specific environment that makes use of collaborative tools, like wikis and forums within an e-learning platform and of specific CRM (customer relationship management) software. In order to analyse how this learning environment gets learners actively involved in learning and working together in productive ways, students were surveyed by responding to questionnaires. Several cause- effect relations underlying the teaching-learning methodology and the students’ performance are discussed

The study presented in this article aims at understanding the relevance of mobility initiatives to the internationalisation efforts of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). By building upon relevant literature, 17 propositions related to this contribution were identified. Empirical evidence from a concrete case of a European university was then used to evaluate those propositions. Data was collected from individual interviews to 19 outgoing faculty and from focus groups with 32 incoming students, resulting in the identification of the promises and pitfalls of mobility. The study concludes that HEIs must define clear strategies and carefully manage their mobility activities to maximise the potential benefits for internationalisation. Based on this main implication, it presents a set of managerial recommendations that may be relevant for those involved in administering or promoting international mobility programmes at universities, governments or international organisations, and for researchers in higher education.

The switch to distance and online learning is a central issue for the European Education Area in Higher Education. To help prepare the future of digital education, the academic community of the University of Aveiro (UA, Portugal) has been called to debate learning experiences, to prepare forward-looking training systems, and to share practices. With this framework as a background, this chapter has a double objective: to present a teachers' professional development program designed for the empowerment of digital teaching and learning processes and to report two teaching experiences incorporating the key ideas of the program and designed to serve STEM publics (a professional training course and a pre-service teachers' course). An additional objective is to present a future research proposal within an informal context for STEM students. The study will provide relevant insights regarding e-learning in STEM education at the UA and the impact of transformational strategies on the community.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the quality and accreditation of management education by examining the fit between the characteristics of current management academics in Portugal and recognised accreditation standards. For purposes of comparison, the authors use both general Portuguese teaching accreditation standards and specific international standards for management education. Design/methodology/approach: – The authors analyse indicators of staff career positioning, tenure status, full time vs part-time, age, degree qualifications, field of training, level of academic inbreeding, internationalisation, research activity, professional activity, and the number of hours taught per week. The authors also examine the relationship between them, in light of accreditation standards, for all academic staff teaching in management degrees submitted for compulsory accreditation by the Portuguese accreditation agency. Findings: – The reality found in this study shows gaps between the actual attributes of management academics and what can be considered appropriate attributes, according to the general consensus found in the literature and which is duly mirrored in common “qualified faculties” accreditation standards by Portuguese and international standards (AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS). Research limitations/implications: – The findings relate to the Portuguese situation and the analysis developed should be extended to other contexts. Also, while the data, which were collected through a census, has a wide national scope, it only covers one academic year. Practical implications: – This work has policy setting implications for degree accreditation and for developing capacity during the transitional periods when universities implement the mandatory minimum standards. It can also help universities to benchmark themselves against their peers as a diagnostic tool for elaborating improvement plans. Social implications: – The massification of higher education has led to legitimate concerns about the quality of the services provided, and consequently accreditation procedures were devised to restore trust. However, policy makers must be aware of the impacts of their actions, namely the effects of degree accreditation, as their goals need to be achieved with the minimum negative impact on academic work. Originality/value: – The authors work sheds light on the characteristics of those who teach management and how they align with the current accreditation policies that affect academia globally and, in the process, presents empirical evidence from Portugal, which is at a relatively early stage in the accreditation process.