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The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the participation in commercially- and socially-oriented Academics' Societal Engagement (ASE) activities, partnership choices, and funding preferences of academics working in public and private universities from Chile and Turkey. Chile represents a private-dominant higher education system (HES), while Turkey is public-dominant. This article presents the results of an international survey, the Academic Profession in Knowledge-based Society (APIKS), applied to academics from over 20 countries, including Chile and Turkey.

Through a quantitative analysis the authors analyse how the dominant institutional type influences ASE activities, partnership choices, and funding preferences.

Results from the analysis show that being part of a public or private university does not solely explain the activity type that academics engage with. Moreover, the rate of Chilean academics participating in ASE activities is more than twice that of Turkish academics regardless of the public-private distinction.

Further research about the academic life and ASE activities using a qualitative approach can complement this study. Applying further in-depth interviews to obtain more information from external partners can provide different perspectives and help to better understand the ASE activities. Additional analysis could compare external activities by higher education institution (HEI) type regarding vocational/technical centres since the Chilean and Turkish private HEIs included in this study received a mix of public-private funds and are considered not-for-profit, so extending this research to include for-profit private HEIs may be worthwhile for additional comparison.

More support and funding for the development of commercially-oriented ASE activities is recommended for Chile and Turkey's HES. In Turkey, a law-update in 2017 facilitates the establishment of technology transfer offices (TTOs) as companies within universities (Author, 2019). Though it is too early to know its effects, a positive contribution is anticipated. Centred Chile's private dominant HES, it would be appropriate for this type of system to also create different support structures to incentivise socially-oriented external activities and partnership opportunities. As done in other universities, the establishment of a community engagement office may provide professional guidance for partnership creations. Regardless of a country's HE public/private dominance, diverse sources of funding and support mechanisms can also be created to strengthen organisational and financial autonomy facilitating academics' participation in ASE activities. For example, universities can develop institutional policies to support academic establishment, lead or join in administration of non-governmental organisations, or form institutional media to deliver academics' viewpoints of social issues to the larger and non-academic audience. University managers should also empower the connection between academics and industry and business sector through different organisational structures such as Research Office, Science Park Incubators, Career Centre, while guiding and financially supporting academics' research commercialisation by their TTO experience and sources.

The literature has studied the public-private higher education distinction in vast aspects, however, no empirical studies have explored it concerning ASE. Chile and Turkey propose interesting cases since they represent opposite ends considering the public-private predominance of higher education systems. Turkey exhibits a heavy public predominance, whereas Chile has a significantly strong private system.

This study aims to determine the design factors that may affect the design of disabled students. Additionally, this study assesses and compares the reality between the public Jordanian universities’ built environment and international universities based on the Americans with Disabilities Act checklist – version 2.1 – to provide an accessible built environment for physically disabled people. Furthermore, this study examines the satisfaction degree of physically disabled people with the built environment in selected universities. Besides, this study examines the relationships/interrelationships between the students’ demographic factors, design factors and the degree of the disabled students’ satisfaction.

This research used different data collection methods to answer the research questions: literature review, observation and questionnaire. Additionally, this study used different analytical and statistical methods, such as comparative analysis between the local cases and the selected international case study based on the Americans with Disabilities Act checklist, version 2.1, descriptive analysis and Pearson r correlational statistics.

This research found that the Jordanian public universities did not apply all required design factors to achieve a high degree of the built environment of accessibility and provide all the requirements and needs of physically disabled students like international universities. Additionally, half of the physically disabled students respondents were satisfied with the availability and quality of pathways, ramps, doors and corridors, non-slippery materials, elevators, accessible entrances, entrances doors, methods of openings, adequate spaces for wheelchair students at the configuration of the entrance and the availability of railing. In contrast, they were unsatisfied with the availability of parking and bathrooms for each gender and signage systems. Moreover, this research found no significant differences between gender and educational level and all factors that may impact the students’ satisfaction with campus environmental design. Furthermore, this research found that there was a strong to very strong positive linear association and a significant correlation/intercorrelation between the availability and the design quality of parking, entrances, doors, lobbies and corridors, bathrooms, signage systems and information, ramps, elevators and stairs and the disabled students’ satisfaction degree.

This research tends to help disabled students participate entirely and independently in the built environment and all aspects of society, involve them within the community and facilitate their access to universities’ urban space. This research considers guidelines and checklists for architects and policymakers to apply through all design and retrofitting processes to meet disabled students’ requirements. This research provides a vital understanding of the needs of disabled students in educational spaces to create a barrier-free campus environment.

Inclusive design is a relatively new architectural concept. It provides means to ensure access and equal participation in the built environment, offers the opportunity to improve and design new equivalent solutions in architecture simultaneously and covers the way for a broad clarification of equality. Applying the concepts of inclusive design is a step toward eliminating the barriers imposed on the built environment in public universities and creating an accessible built environment. In addition, this research can guide future research in other institutions.

Despite the presence of people with disabilities in higher learning institutions, facilities provided for both accommodation and classrooms prove to be ineffective in fulfilling their expectations. However, the existing measures have tended to be rigid and unable to incorporate the ever evolving user experiences from constantly enrolling students in public campus buildings. The paper is premised on the notion of social inclusivity of the built environment in public universities through user experiences, measured through a qualitative lens.

The study was qualitative and deployed a case study strategy. Respondents were purposively identified and subjected to in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focused group discussions. The full realisation of the sample frames was determined by data saturation. Data from responses was thereafter sorted, coded and categorised through a systematic thematic analysis. Some responses reactions were reported verbatim. The anonymity of the respondents was observed though through the use of pseudonyms.

This paper has indicated respondents' experiences regarding social inclusivity of the institutional built environment and thematically categorised them in six areas: complaints mechanism and feedback, pre- and post-enrolment experiences, namely; complaints mechanism and feedback, pre- and post-enrolment experiences and social support as a property management policy. Others include, representation in university decision-making organs, perceptions regarding disability and its needs and distribution of facilities and site works. It recommends that property management practices should be re-oriented to ensure the sustainability of learning facilities for the disabled, taking into consideration the ever-evolving needs and preferences of PWD user students with disabilities.

Linking the social and human rights models to actual experiences of property occupiers is unique. The author believes that it will, in addition to the existing models and strategies, improve on a better achievement of inclusivity of building use used by all categories of members of the society.

The purpose of this article is to revisit the concepts of city singularity and identity, as well as the concept’s related topics (i.e. place identity, place attachment and place dependence). The aim is to investigate the impact of development projects on people's preferences for old and contemporary features in modern cities. The evidence for this can be seen mainly at historical sites such as Heliopolis in Cairo, Egypt.

The authors investigated how development projects affect place identity and city singularity through a three-step process. As a first step, an online questionnaire was administered to experts to assess the characteristics that shape the identity of local districts. In the second and third steps, interviews were conducted, followed by online surveys directed at Heliopolis residents and non-residents. The weight of people’s preferences was determined using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM).

The results highlighted people's preferences to consider when developing projects at historical sites. Based on these preferences, the authors’ concluded remarks provide insight into some considerations for developing projects in historic places.

The added value here is surveying people’s preferences about development projects in historical places. The physical and social components interplay contributes to city identity and singularity. Based on these preferences, this investigation offers valuable insights into enhancing historical site development.