Stress is a common eventual emotional feeling which varies from the youngest to the eldest worldwide and any person engaged in any profession can face stress. In Sri Lankan context, students' stress is an unpreventable phenomenon which is seen in their lives often. This study attempts to identify the latent factors on the undergraduates' stress since not many researches had been conducted on this regard so far in Sri Lankan context. A well-structured questionnaire was administered to a sample of 384 third year undergraduates in the academic year of 2014/2015 from four faculties: Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS), Management Studies and Commerce (FMSC), Applied Sciences (FAS), Medical Sciences (FMS) in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura using stratified random sampling and systematic random sampling techniques. The results highlight that the chi-square analysis for two-way categorical data, confirmed that level of undergraduates' stress was significantly influenced by family related and personal variables .Improving the existing counselling and introducing a unit course regarding this can be recommended.
Education for sustainable development is seen as a process of equipping learners with the right understanding and knowledge, skills and abilities required to work and survive in a way that safeguards the environment and the socioeconomic wellbeing, both in the present and future generation. To this extent, the study aimed to analyze perceptions of bachelor of education trainees on education for sustainable development in line with; Curriculum and sustainable development; Lecture delivery practices and sustainable development; Campus operations and facilities for sustainable development, and Community outreach/ services and sustainable development. Descriptive survey design was employed for study. The study was conducted at the University of Nairobi, Kenya targeting fourth year Students in the Science Pre –service teacher education programme. One hundred and eighty-three (183) trainees participated in the study. Data was obtained using a questionnaire. Quantitative was analyzed by use descriptive statistics while qualitative data was thematically analyzed based on specific objectives. Despite focus on elements of sustainable development in the curriculum, there was limited allowance for individual research project, entrepreneurship practices, field study visits, and limited trainee preparation to teach in a multicultural setting. There was commendable incorporation of case studies in the programme, significant peer support and mutual features and incorporation of global dimension of sustainable development in the curriculum. Lecture delivery practices focused on specific content but failed to encourage thinking and reasoning processes. The major perceived institutional obstacles to achievement of education for sustainable development were: limited hands on activities, inadequate learning support materials for both academic and research activities, limited link with the community to make learning more practical and limited allowance for studentinitiated projects. The study concluded that there is need to review teacher programme to align with holistic perspectives of sustainability which consider the wellbeing of social, ecological and economic sub systems.
The cohesion of Vision, Culture and Image (VCI) of a company greatly affects its brand strength where the greater the coherence of vision, culture and image, the stronger is the brand. Organisational employees are important contributors to the creation of corporate brand value ie when employees and organisation embrace the defined purpose of the organisation, they would be more committed to align their energy and initiatives to meet that purpose. Internal branding, the process of building the corporate brand from within the organization, can shape employees attitude and behavior in line with the organisation’s desired public image or brand. E mployees are organizational biggest competitive advantage and th ere is a strong need to better understand the brand identity management process from the employees’ perspective. It is highly essential for organizations to align their HR practices with brand values as it has been shown that employees have a more positive attitude towards the brand when there is HR involvement in internal branding. Of critical importance is the role of frontline service employees, who have direct and close contacts with customers. F ailure to properly hire, train, motivate and track performance of frontline service employees who have strong influence on customers perception of the bank, will have huge negative impact onorganisation’s branding effort.
