Does GATS’ Influence on Private University Sector’s Growth Ensure ESD or Develop City ‘Sustainability Crisis’—Policy Framework to Respond COP21

No

Comments

Response

The article descriptive analysis of an interesting situation needs revisions and additions.

Thank you so much for your kind time to read the paper and encourage us to develop further for the betterment of this work. Indeed, your suggestions are substantially important for the development of this work and for which we are grateful. We have made corrections as a whole by blue colour.

A road map or overview in the introduction would give readers a better sense of what is coming. Thus, I believe this must be added.

This suggestion has been incorporated. Refer to page 2 (lines 80-87) and page 5 (lines 213-217) in blue colour text.

In order to move my average ratings to high, it would behoove the authors to discuss the implications more widely. Put another way, what does this mean more widely for other universities, public and private? As part of this discussion, can the authors offer recommendations from which others, including public universities or other kids of institutions, can profit?

This suggestion has been incorporated. Refer to page 13 (lines 604-632) in blue colour text.

Some sentences are long; I suggest they be broken down and/ or edited. The use of acronyms in the introduction is inconsistent. Terms should be spelled out first (lines 16, 22). Also, some acronyms, such as COP21 are not spelled out starting with the title and then others line 25 or 26, for example.

This suggestion has been incorporated. Refer to revised acronyms in blue colour text in the whole manuscript.

Also, look at word choice....however is in both lines 542 and 553.

This suggestion has been incorporated. Now all SDGs and ESD are constant in the whole manuscript. Refer to revised corrections SDGs and ESD in blue colour text.

No

Comments

Response

The article is relevant and interesting and addresses a very significant topic. The research design is not well described. It would be important to describe the objectives of the study, the working hypotheses.

Thank you so much for your kind time to read the paper and encourage us to develop further for the betterment of this work. Indeed, your suggestions are substantially important for the development of this work and for which we are grateful. We have improved the research design (page 5, lines 224-226), added objectives (page 6, lines 275-283) with working hypotheses H1 and H-2 (page 6, lines 293-301) in blue coloured text. It should be noted that due to the qualitative nature of our work, hypotheses that we have developed are commonly referred to as propositions and they were encoded and tested by ATLAS.ti software).

In the data analysis section, the use of qualitative data analysis software is suggested.

The correction has been incorporated based on the qualitative nature of this paper. Due to the qualitative study, developing standard regression or a common statistical probability model was not applicable. However, scientific interpretations were devised to analyse secondary data using GIS software that explained night light intensity, heat and greenery indices via numbers. These are presented in graphic form to translate the ‘sustainability crisis’. On the other hand, primary data collected by the Delphi method were tested by ATLAS.ti software to determine their significance. Refer to pages 9-10 (lines 431-441) and footnote 8 (page 9) and added new Figure 8 by ATLAS.ti on page 20 in blue colour text.

The implications and conclusions should be directed to the objectives of the research and taking into account the data obtained.

This suggestion has been incorporated. And, the implications and conclusions have been revised based on study aim. Refer to page 13 (lines 604-632) and page 13 (642-649) in blue colour text.

Adding similar research results that are consistent with ours would be an improvement purpose.

This suggestion has been incorporated and added similar findings. Refer to page 10 (lines 482-483), page 11 (lines 501-502), page 12 (lines 568, 576 and 592) in blue colour text.

No

Comments

Response

The article is informative and interesting to read. It deals with the topical issue of tackling the sustainability crisis, the key to which is carbon neutrality. In the article, the authors state that both policy framework and innovation are fundamental in order to verify that the sustainability crisis is solved. They claim that during the establishment of the private university sector in developing countries sustainability crisis and carbon neutrality targets were not on the governments’ economic development agendas and as a result private university have taken advantage of the sustainability crisis. The article establishes a relation between the global sustainability crisis and the private university sector in emerging market economies. The authors present a study which examines the effect of private universities’ expansion on urban sustainability by using a qualitative method for assessing primary and secondary data; the parameters used to calculate the sustainability crisis are the indices for night light intensity, heat, and greenery. The authors conclude that the policy needs to be revised in order to meet the carbon neutrality target.

Thank you so much for your kind time to read the paper and encourage us with our work.

However, the presented manuscript does not offer a sound statistical justification of the conclusions made. The presence of a number of graphs and diagrams, in my opinion, is not sufficient to support the formulated conclusions and statistically substantiated hypotheses are needed.

This suggestion has been incorporated. We have added two hypotheses in the revised manuscript and all hypotheses-based findings are justified by ATLAS.ti software. Refer to pages 6-7 (293-301), page 10 (lines 457-458) and page 12 (lines 561-564) in blue colour text.  Due to the qualitative nature of this paper, developing standard regression or a common statistical probability model was not applicable. However scientific measure are taken. This can be found in page 9 with blue colour texts. 

Regarding the English language and style, the article is comprehensible and well written.

Thank you so much for your kind time to read the paper and encourage us.

The title reflects the contents of the paper. However, I would suggest altering it a little, for example, to “Does GATS’ influence on the growth of the private university sector ensure ESD or develop a city’s “sustainability crisis”— a policy framework to respond to COP21” (the authors do not have to comply with this

recommendation).

Thank you for your suggestion. However, due to character limitations in the title (e.g., max 20 words), we prefer the original title.

In the Research Aim, Objectives and Questions subsection the authors pose two questions as study problems. Again, I would recommend that they reformulate the second one (How can policy-framework support to address city sustainability crisis to value the ESD concept) to make it clearer.

This suggestion has been incorporated. We have reformulated the second research questions.   Refer to page 6 (281-283) in blue colour text.

Some sentences (on lines 43, 126, and 354) begin with a number (consider writing those numbers with words or paraphrasing; for example, Ten respondent, etc.)

We have corrected all the minor problems raised. Refer to page 4, 6 -8 in blue colour text.

Line 136 – [14, 25, [26] (there is an extra bracket)

We have corrected all the minor problems raised. Refer to blue colour text.

148 – and role of private university (the role)

We have corrected, ‘the’. Refer to in blue colour text.

149 – concept of ESD is ensure (to ensure) that would able to confront (would be able)

We have corrected, ‘to ensure’. Refer to in blue colour text.

150 – the challenges that involved in (that were involved)

We have corrected, ‘were’. Refer to in blue colour text.

152 – of fourth industrial revolution (of the fourth)

We have corrected, ‘the’. Refer to in blue colour text.

184 – 185 – Consider revising the two sentences: Private university sector must impart to two core responsibilities in order to value the concept of ESD. Of which producing job-ready graduates, the other is to value to eco-sustainability. (the private ..; impart to two core responsibilities in order to value the concept of ESD, the first one of which is … )

This suggestion has been incorporated. Refer to page 5 (lines 213-217) in blue colour text.

192 – the inverted commas are not closed

We have corrected the inverted commas.

203 - the catchment zone are explained (is)

We have corrected, ‘is’. Refer to in blue colour text.

216 – redious (radius)

We have corrected, ‘radius’. Refer to in blue colour text.

221 – crisis’ (crisis)

We have corrected, ‘crisis’. Refer to in blue colour text.

260 - and role of the latter (the role)

We have corrected, ‘the’. Refer to in blue colour text.

333 – data originally gathered .. (was originally gathered)

We have corrected, ‘was’. Refer to in blue colour text.

334 - question was responded with reference (responded to with .. )

We have corrected, ‘responded to’. Refer to in blue colour text.

336 - and Delphi technique (the Delphi)

We have corrected, ‘the’. Refer to in blue colour text.

340 - Satellite imaging dating back to 1992 were gathered (was gathered)

We have corrected, ‘was’. Refer to in blue colour text.

347 - 6It should be noted that before 2013 the satellite imaging.. (the satellite imaging)

We have corrected, ‘the’. Refer to in blue colour text.

356 - and representative of housing association (and a representative of/ and representatives of)

We have corrected, ‘representatives’. Refer to in blue colour text.

377 - asked if respondents’ want to express (respondents wanted to express)

We have corrected, ‘respondents wanted to’. Refer to in blue colour text.

411 - explain importance of (the importance of)

We have corrected, ‘the’. Refer to in blue colour text.

454 - in its eight year (eighth)

We have corrected, ‘eighth’. Refer to in blue colour text.

460 - since the [30] contended (since [30] contended)

We have corrected, ‘the’. Refer to in blue colour text.

513 - this policy is further be supported (further be supported)

We have corrected, ‘is further supported.’ Refer to in blue colour text.

548 - so that education sector plays (the education sector)

We have corrected, ‘the education sector.’ Refer to in blue colour text.

References numbers 6, 14, 32-35 are not clearly stated

This should be added after acceptance as because of the integrity of the peer-review process, we can’t add the work of the authors (e.g., references 6, 14, 32-35). However, we can provide them on demand.

In conclusion, the authors need to add statistics in order to support the formulated conclusions.

This suggestion has been incorporated. We have revised the conclusion based on our research objectives and findings. Refer to page 13 (lines 642-649) in blue colour text.