Research Highlight No. (5): The Relationship Between Leadership, Freedom, and Digital Responsibility Among University Students

Continuing our series highlighting research output from Beni Suef University, today we shed light on a distinguished study from the field of educational and social sciences. Professor Dr. Mohamed Mokheimer (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Beni Suef University) and Professor Dr. Walid Mohamed Abdel-Halim (Foundations of Education, and Vice President of the National Youth Council in Egypt) have successfully published a pioneering study entitled:
“The digital age students: Exploring leadership, freedom, and ethical online behavior: A quantitative study”
In this study, the researchers addressed an important topic: How do leadership skills and students' sense of personal and public freedom interact with their level of commitment to digital responsibility and ethical behavior online?
The study employed a quantitative survey methodology involving 1226 Egyptian university students from various disciplines and academic years. The researchers used three validated questionnaires to measure:
• Dimensions of digital responsibility: participation, digital roles, data privacy, transparency, values ??and standards, accountability

• Strategic vision and leadership skills: communication and relationships, team leadership, decision-making, motivation and development
• Personal freedom in its various dimensions, particularly freedom in the public sphere.
The results showed a strong correlation between leadership skills and digital responsibility. Higher levels of strategic vision, effective communication, team leadership, and motivation were associated with more responsible student behavior on digital platforms, particularly regarding data protection, respect for societal values, and consideration of the impact of their online content. Freedom in the public sphere—that is, a student's sense of empowerment to express themselves and participate in the public digital space—was found to be the strongest predictor of digital responsibility. Students who feel freer in the public sphere tend to exercise this freedom more responsibly and ethically. Complex statistical models demonstrated that leadership skills do not mediate the relationship between personal freedom and digital responsibility; the impact of public freedom on digital responsibility remains direct and strong, even with varying levels of leadership among students. This research offers an applied framework for educational policymakers and universities to develop programs for cultivating "ethical digital citizenship" that integrate:
o Developing student leadership skills,

o And promoting responsible freedom in the public sphere,

o Instilling values ??of ethical online behavior in light of the spread of artificial intelligence tools and the challenges of misinformation and hate speech.

The importance and scientific classification of the journal

The study was published in the 2025 issue of Social Sciences & Humanities Open, published by Elsevier, an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal covering various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The journal is ranked in the first quartile (Q1) of the social sciences (miscellaneous) field and within the top 84% of social science journals. It is also indexed in Clarivate's Emerging Sources Citation Index.

Link to the article:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101325

English Brief

Researchers from Beni-Suef University have published a large-scale quantitative study on how leadership skills, personal/public freedom, and digital responsibility interact among 1,226 Egyptian university students. The findings show that stronger leadership skills are closely associated with more responsible online behavior, while public freedom (students’ sense of being able to speak and act in the public digital sphere) is the strongest single predictor of ethical digital conduct. Interestingly, leadership skills do not mediate the link between freedom and responsibility, suggesting that empowering students with responsible public freedom directly fosters ethical digital citizenship.

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101325
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