Bradford Scholars

Bradford Scholars is the University of Bradford online research archive. Access is free to anyone interested in research being conducted at Bradford. In the repository you will find a range of materials from journal articles and conference papers to research reports and theses.

Contact the repository team via openaccess@bradford.ac.uk with any queries about Open Access or how to deposit your research papers.

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Recent Submissions

  • PublicationOpen Access
    Education and Extremism: Examining Political Socialization in Pakistani Madrassas
    Khan, Aslam; Bluth, Christoph; Kelly, Rhys H.S.
    Education is not only a means to acquire knowledge; it plays a fundamental role in shaping individuals and societies. It fosters holistic societal development by instilling moral values, enhancing cognitive abilities, and fostering social and political awareness. Within the educational context of South Asia, a controversial educational system exists: the madrassa. Since the 9/11 attacks, madrassas have become associated with extremism and terrorism, leading to intense scholarly and media scrutiny and debate. Amidst numerous assertions about the role of madrassas in promoting extremism, this research endeavour aims to demystify the connections between madrassas, political socialization and extremism. Focus group discussions were utilized to obtain relevant qualitative information from students across six madrassas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The data collected were subjected to thematic analysis to derive fruitful conclusions. This facilitated the identification of recurring patterns and emerging themes. Subsequently, the findings underwent thorough review, interpretation, and discussion, juxtaposed against relevant literature to ensure academic rigour and depth of analysis. The study revealed several significant findings, notably the widespread dissatisfaction among madrassa students with the current political system in Pakistan, accompanied by a strong desire for comprehensive reform. Most students expressed a firm commitment to fostering political change through nonviolent and democratic means within the existing framework. However, a minority of students exhibited extremist ideologies, highlighting the nuanced ideological landscape within madrassas. Overall, the study elucidates the complex relationship between political socialization and education within madrassas, offering valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and researchers to deepen their understanding of the subject.
  • PublicationUnknown
    Customer Delight in Continuing Education: An Empirical Study of Alumni and Learners' Perceptions
    Azar, Charbel; Wallace, James
    Background: Customer delight is best defined as the reaction of customers when they receive a service or product that not only satisfies them but also provides unexpected value or unanticipated satisfaction. It has gained considerable attention during the last two decades as a key strategic differentiator for positioning an organisation ahead of its competition. The effects of delight on the bottom line of financial performance have been studied in numerous industries but not in continuing education. Aim: This study aims to understand and evaluate delight, its drivers, and its effect on loyalty in a continuing education setting, as well as to determine its importance and specific components in predicting loyalty in that setting. Method: This study employed a mixed methods research design with three distinct but connected steps. a) a Reflexive Thematic Analysis, which established the understanding of the concept and identified measurements and antecedents; b) a Delphi Method, which reinforced an understanding of it and created a conceptual model; and c) a quantitative analysis which tested the model with students and alumni. Findings: The research thoroughly examines various factors and antecedents, including staff behaviours, communication strategies, creativity, and complementary services. It illustrates delight's antecedents and importance in fostering and driving loyalty. Furthermore, it advances Delight's theory by affirming that surprise, joy, and esteem are all exhibited dimensions. Conclusion: By recognising the significance of delight as a driver of loyalty, educational institutions can strategically manage their performance to enhance student retention and referral.
  • PublicationUnknown
    Investigations into the influence of sleep, tiredness, time of day, and caffeine on cognitive testing
    Khan, Maria R.; Lesk, Valerie E.; Walters, Elizabeth R.
    Cognitive assessment is widely used to evaluate one’s cognitive capabilities. However, subtle external factors may affect the accuracy of test results, if not controlled for, at the time of testing. This thesis investigated the effects of a range of sleep variables, caffeine intake, prior to cognitive testing and current subjective tiredness ratings on several cognitive tests in cognitively-healthy adults. For each study, articipants completed a sleep, tiredness, and caffeine questionnaire and undertook cognitive testing online. Findings revealed that participants reporting a smaller time difference between their subjective preferred time of day (ToD) and the actual ToD of taking part in the cognitive tests performed significantly better on tasks of working memory and false memory, whilst high subjective tiredness and poor sleep quality reduced associative memory performance. Caffeine helped improve performance on a false memory task the further away from one’s preferred ToD of testing the participant was performing. Further investigations extended this using a within-groups repeated measures design and revealed that compared to taking part at one’s chosen nonoptimal ToD, participating in cognitive tasks at one’s chosen optimal ToD significantly improves performance on a range of memory domains. Datasets were combined to establish a novel algorithm based on the finding that age, sleep quality, and the time difference between taking part at one’s subjective preferred ToD and the actual ToD of taking part best predicted cognitive performance. The findings have important implications for clinical, research, legal, educational, sports, and occupational sectors where these variables could be impacting cognitive performance.
  • PublicationUnknown
    India Pakistan Strategic Relations: The Nuclear Dilemma
    (2020-05) Bluth, Christoph; Mumtaz, U.
  • PublicationUnknown
    The Nuclear Challenge: US-Russian strategic relations after the Cold War
    (2019-11) Bluth, Christoph
    A comprehensive and timely analysis of strategic nuclear arms policy in the United States and Russia and examines the collaborative efforts to reduce nuclear weapons through arms control and render nuclear weapons and fissile materials in Russia secure. He concludes that the end of the Cold War has created new and unprecedented dangers and that these dangers require a greater political will and cooperation which have so far been lacking.
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