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A curriculum vitae can establish scholarly achievement, but it says much less about how a future professor will treat students, colleagues, or institutional authority. This systematic integrative review examined (1) evidence on integrity, personality, ethical conduct, performance, and counterproductive work behavior; (2) institutional consequences of harmful faculty conduct; (3) Pakistan-specific evidence on governance and faculty workplaces; (4) job-relevant selection methods; and (5) a context-sensitive recruitment framework. Searches across ERIC, PubMed/MEDLINE, Crossref-based discovery, publisher platforms, scholarly web sources, HEC material, and Pakistani repositories were documented through 6 September 2026. Two disputed full texts were reassessed against publisher records on 30 October 2026 and included because they provided directly relevant university or academic-staff evidence. The core corpus therefore contains 34 peer-reviewed studies and five contextual policy/regulatory sources. Quality was appraised descriptively with design-sensitive criteria adapted from MMAT, and findings were synthesized narratively and through a coded framework because designs and outcomes were heterogeneous. The evidence supports treating academic capability and observable professional conduct as complementary considerations while rejecting private-morality or similarity judgments. The proposed dual-screen framework is not validated and should be evaluated for incremental validity, fairness, assessor agreement, and implementation burden. Limitations include heterogeneous evidence, limited Pakistan-specific studies, cross-sectional designs, possible publication/language bias, incomplete retention of historical search/export and early-screening records. E.M. independently rechecked all retained and corrected records on 5 November 2026; no discrepancies were identified.

Digital technologies have become central to how university students in the Arab region learn, communicate, and engage academically, yet the relationship between digital engagement and academic performance remains contested and only partially theorized. This paper develops an integrated conceptual framework in which digital culture (students’ social media use, intensity of use, and digital learning adoption) is theorized to influence academic performance indirectly through digital literacy (technical, cognitive, and socio-emotional competence), alongside a direct path. Two regionally grounded boundary conditions are proposed: Internet access, which moderates the conversion of digital engagement into competence, and problematic social media use, which moderates the conversion of competence into achievement. The framework integrates five theoretical traditions (the digital natives thesis, the Technology Acceptance Model/UTAUT, Ng’s tri-dimensional digital literacy model, digital divide theory, and Griffiths’ components model of addiction) into a coherent structure that reconciles the region’s fragmented findings. Developed through a narrative, theory-synthesis review, the framework offers three contributions: a mediation-based account of how digital engagement becomes academically valuable, a theorization of the Arab digital divide as a moderating condition, and practical guidance for digital-literacy interventions in universities. The paper concludes with implications, limitations, and a path to empirical validation.

In recent years, the concept of emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) has become increasingly prominent in both academic and public discourse. A “perfect storm” of conditions in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era has catalysed a global rise in school absenteeism, with a substantial component attributed to EBSA. Escalating rates of EBSA are well documented for school-aged learners; however, an emerging trend of university-level avoidance indicates that emotionally rooted non-attendance extends beyond formal schooling. This entry article explores the shifting language around EBSA and conceptual and theoretical understandings of this burgeoning phenomenon. Traditional school systems, as well as higher education institutions, typically relegate the socio-emotional and psychological needs of learners while prioritising academic achievement and qualification success. Consequently, the school environment can become stressful and overwhelming for some learners, affecting attendance behaviours. Nonetheless, it is increasingly recognised that EBSA is influenced by the interaction of multiple individual, familial, school, and wider systemic factors. Clearly, the complex and interacting risk factors associated with EBSA necessitate a multi-component, multi-stakeholder response, underpinned by an emotionally healthy schools (EHS) ethos that places the mental health and wellbeing of learners at the heart of educational provision. The current paper offers a critique of the extant literature, highlighting evolving perspectives and key challenges. Furthermore, it suggests an integrated heuristic framework to prompt ongoing discourse and help inform future directions in this highly topical area of EHS research.