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This paper draws attention to empirical work on widening access to understand the silence on race matters in English higher education. This work repurposes a critical race theoretical framework that offers a glimpse of how the issue of unequal access to higher education has been framed in the research field. It is argued here that the framing of widening access reveals a persistent colour-evasiveness that is dominant. The findings show that widening access policy has not benefitted students of colour as they are not accessing higher education with the same kind of success as their white peers. The paper concludes for a call for race-conscious interventions to remedy the continued race inequity in accessing highly rejective institutions based on the evidence gathered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, while conceptual in nature, is informed by both research and practice. Exploring the "engagement interface" as the site for student engagement (SE), we offer a conceptual contribution in engaging with the Kahu and Nelson (2018) model by bringing in a fuller understanding of SE grounded in the higher education context rather than being uncritically transplanted from a compulsory education context. This involves consideration of the multiple facets of SE as well as the dynamic, shifting and multilocal nature of the construct. The paper then proceeds to enhance the details of the model, grounding them in a finer-grained reading of the literature and relating educational constructs to the model's proposed "mechanisms" in a conceptually substantiated way. This further extends Kahu and Nelson's aim of illuminating the "black box" of SE. Our third contribution is to practice by proposing tactics: informed by the literature, we invite practitioners to consider ways in which they can increase the likelihood of facilitating engagement with, and by, students more constructively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 80,000 children in England were being looked after in Local Authority care in 2020 and a further 40,000 people were defined as 'care leavers'. Although a significant body of research highlights the prevalence of educational low achievement in the care experienced population, official government figures show that around 13% of care experienced pupils progress to higher education by the age of 19. In a climate of 'widening participation' in which universities encourage inclusion and student diversity, this research invited students with a care background to discuss their experiences of settling into university life. Data was collected using in-depth interviews with 42 students from four universities and an online survey completed by 192 students in 29 universities in England and Wales. Findings revealed that although care experienced students overcome significant challenges to progress to higher education, over half considered dropping out. Others reported feeling isolated and inadequately supported, both financially and pastorally, by their institution. This paper uses a lens of resilience to consider the environmental factors that impact upon student transitions, and concludes that universities must act to balance inequalities in order to appropriately welcome and appreciate care leavers for the skills and experience they bring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A previous meta-analysis found that active learning has a positive impact on learning achievements for college students in STEM fields of study. However, no similar meta-analyses have been conducted in the humanities and social sciences. Because major dissimilarities may exist between different fields or domain of knowledge, there can be issues with transferring research findings or knowledge across fields. We therefore meta-analyzed 104 studies that used assessment scores to compare the learning achieved by college students in humanities and social science programs under active instruction versus traditional lecturing. Student performance on assessment scores was found to be higher by 0.489 standard deviations under active instruction (Z = 6.521, p < 0.001, k = 111, N = 15,896). The relative beneficial effect of active instruction was found to be higher for some course subject matters (i.e., Sociology, Psychology, Language, Education, and Economics), for smaller (≤ 20 students) rather than larger class or group sizes, and for upper level rather than introductory courses. Analyses further suggest that these findings are not affected by publication bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a large sample of students from a Dutch university to describe variations in academic performance following a change in the strictness of academic dismissal policies. The research setting includes one moment in which the performance threshold for academic dismissal has been changed, keeping constant other characteristics of the educational system. Using a descriptive approach, we show that after the threshold has been raised the number of credits earned by academically weak students increases. A higher threshold level also brings their study effort forward in time, as evidenced by a decrease in the number of no-shows and an increase in the number of credits earned during regular exams. We also show that some students perceive the minimum performance level as a target level. The evidence suggests that variations in the implementation of academic dismissal policies affect students' tendency to procrastinate, especially among weaker students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the intersection of income and race in structuring access to higher education among students that participate in a national high-stakes exam in Brazil. Our objectives are (i) to estimate the probability of students coming from different income strata, racial groups, and performance levels to access higher education and (ii) to decompose income and racial effects into direct (net of educational performance) and indirect effects (through educational performance). Our data comes from a panel of high school graduates tracked between 2012 and 2017 and allow us to describe the following findings. Firstly, the probability of entering higher education is always higher among candidates from higher income strata. Second, there is a convergence in admission probabilities across the performance scale. Third, the admission curve across a performance scale is much steeper among applicants from low-income strata compared to richer students. In all of these results, students self-identified as black, brown, or indigenous (BBI) are less likely to transition to higher education than whites, even though they are in the same income and performance strata. We suggest that students from privileged socioeconomic backgrounds benefit from alternative entry strategies, such as paying tuition at less competitive private colleges. For students from low-income strata, the main alternative for entering higher education is through high academic performance. By decomposing racial effects, we show the cumulative effect of racial stratification; the gap between white and BBI students is both related to higher propensity of transitioning to higher education and higher educational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early career academics face a rapidly changing higher education sector and too little is known about what helps them flourish in the profession. This paper responds to that gap by reporting research undertaken in a single or intrinsic case study of one Australian university. We invited participation from a full cohort of 1019 academics in one large College. Of those, 41 early career academics or ECAs and 45 more senior academics or MSAs engaged in a 50-question survey. Of those, 18 ECAs and 16 MSAs who had flagged interest then completed an in-depth interview. We learned about: ECAs' work; what they and MSAs think impedes and enables that work; work-life balance; and experiences of mentoring and career development. We also asked for their perspectives on the future. We found remarkable agreement across the two cohorts that mirrors concerns expressed in a growing, internationally significant literature. Members of both cohorts appealed for strengthened organisational and sectoral commitments to caring career pathways and sought more certainty in challenging times. Our findings led us to conclude that academics have high hopes that universities and those in higher education policy settings can address work overload; enhance professional development across all duties; make leaner systems and processes; have more realistic expectations about research; and better value academics' profound commitments to higher education. Those findings accord with other results reported in comparable jurisdictions around the world and add weight to an increasingly compelling case to recentre and refocus on people in university organisational cultures and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses register data to study how a particular age reward feature affects admission into two highly competitive study programs: medicine and law. The Norwegian admission system to higher education is centralized, and applicants compete in two quotas: one quota almost entirely based on grade point average from upper secondary education and one quota where students can compete with improved grades and where being older automatically increases the chance of acceptance, by awarding age points. For these study programs, we find that the admission system creates a waiting game, as gaining admission in the second quota is nearly impossible without accumulating a substantial amount of age points. If age predicts completion in higher education, this waiting game might be justified. However, if anything, we find the opposite to be true. Our paper suggests that age should carry less weight in admission decisions and that countries and/or higher education institutions should carefully consider how their admission system affects student incentives and how applicants are selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information on academic performance rates—what percentage of the enrolled credits a student can pass in one academic year—showed traditionally a relatively low students' academic performance at Spanish public universities. However, over the period 2008–2014, the academic productivity of undergraduate students at public higher education institutions improved considerably. In this period, Spanish universities experienced changes related to the structuring of the educational curriculum—the homogenization of undergraduate university degrees—and the policy of tuition fees. In relation to the latter, the entry into force of the Royal Decree-Law 14/2012 (the so-called Decreto Wert) allowed universities a considerable increase in tuition fees. Using data for Spanish public universities for the academic years 2008/2009 and 2013/2014, this paper studied to what extent this educational law contributed to the improvement of the academic performance of undergraduate students. Using a stochastic frontier analysis for panel data, this paper showed that the increase in undergraduate tuition fees (first enrolment) acted as a catalyst in reducing the inefficiencies of the Spanish public university system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the changing context of universities, organisational structures for teaching and research problematise academic roles. This paper draws on a critical realist analysis of surveys and interviews with academics from universities in England and Australia. It identifies important academic work, not captured simply in descriptions of teaching or research. It shows that many academics, who are not research high flyers nor award-winning teachers, carry out this essential work which contributes to the effective functioning of their universities. That work is referred to as academic artisanal work and the people who do it as academic artisans. Characteristics and examples of academic artisans are presented, and the nature of artisanal work is explored. Implications for higher education management and for future studies are discussed. The paper points to an urgent need to better understand the complex nature of academic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctoral graduate research performance (DRP) is recognized as one of the most critical indices for evaluation of the success of doctoral education. Doctoral graduates with high research performance directly reflect a higher ability in academic research and academic achievement. Consequently, identifying which factors influence DRP is potentially of great value. This topic is also challenging because of difficulties in identifying the impact factors on research performance and the feasibility of the relative data collection. This paper first examines the relationships between the indicators and DRP. After a review of previous literature, the focus is on the doctoral graduates' individual factors, advisor factors and learning performance. Data is collected from graduated doctors from the Science Schools of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Contrary to expectations, our findings indicate that, based on the Chinese context, learning performance does not appear to be strongly associated with research performance. Individual factors (status of academic origin) do have significant effect on DRP. The advisor factors (including academic status, academic experience and allocation of energy) show a relatively strong association with DRP, in terms of both the number of publications and the impact factor of Science Citation Index (SCI) cited journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student-teacher relationships play an important role in both teacher and student experiences in higher education and have been found to be linked to learning, classroom management, and to student absenteeism. Although historically conceptualised in terms of immediacy or distance and measured with reference to behaviours, the growing recognition of the role of emotions and of power—as well as the development of a range of multidimensional models of social relationships—all suggest it is time to re-evaluate how student-teacher relationships are understood. This paper develops a theoretical model of student-teacher affective relationships in higher education based on three dimensions: affection/warmth, attachment/safety, and assertion/power. The three-dimensional model was tested using the Classroom Affective Relationships Inventory (CARI) with data from 851 students. The data supported the use of this multidimensional model for student-teacher relationships with both two- and three-dimensional models of relationships being identified as appropriate. The theoretical development of a multidimensional model and the empirical development of an instrument with which to explore these dimensions has important implications for higher education teachers, administrators and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the benefits of overseas tertiary education for international postgraduate students enrolled at a research-intensive university in Malaysia, an emerging yet under-researched Asian education hub. The study is based on 55 semi-structured qualitative interviews with international students and academic and professional support staff. Our analysis identified three sets of benefits linked to specific economic, educational, social and cultural pull factors: academic success, building knowledge and skills, and contributing to home country on return. Our analysis illustrates the interplay between macro and meso-level actors and policies in shaping the micro-level experiences of international students. The paper contributes new insights into vital nuances in the nature and lived experience of the key benefits of international education relating to academic success and time, language learning and friendship, and employability and ‘giving back’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much university students learn in their studies is highly debated and important to understanding the value of higher education. Yet, information on learning gains at this level are scarce. Our paper contributes to the debate by using unique data for Brazil to estimate absolute test score gains across various fields of study in higher education and to assess whether students who attend certain categories of programs (public/private, research/non-research, highly selective/less selective) make greater relative gains than in others. Our results suggest that students in STEM fields tend to have higher absolute achievement gains compared to students in humanities and pedagogical programs, and that in a few fields, such as civil engineering and history, the relative gains for students in highly selective programs in that field of study are significantly higher than if they had attended somewhat less selective programs. However, students attending lowest quintile selective programs in a field of study have consistently lower gains across a range of study fields than similar students attending programs just one quintile higher. The results have important implications for the equity effects of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom the topic of the comparability of academic qualifications features prominently on the agenda in higher education. The paper summarises the debate and highlights key issues. It offers specific reflections on the experience of one university as it seeks to address the topic of postgraduate qualifications, disentangle the many strands of a complex and multi-faceted set of questions and further strengthen internal quality processes in order to meet the growing demands by external bodies and interest groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lecture capture tends to polarise the views of academic staff. Some view it as encouraging non-attendance at lectures. Others view it as a valuable adjunct, allowing students to revisit the lecture experience and providing opportunities for clarification and repetition of key points. However, data supporting either of these stances remains scarce. Irrespective of these views, a more pertinent question pertains to the impact of lecture attendance and the use of recordings on student achievement. Findings remain unclear due to methodological issues, inconsistent findings, and a lack of differentiation of students by year of study. This paper investigated the impact of attendance, lecture recording, and student attainment across four years of an undergraduate programme. For first year students, attendance and recording use were positive predictors of performance. For weaker students, supplementary recording use was beneficial but only better students use of the recordings helped overcome the impact of low attendance. For second year students, attendance and recording use were positively correlated with, but no longer predictive of, achievement. There was no relationship for honours year students. We found no compelling evidence for a negative effect of recording use, or that attendance and recording use were related. We suggest focusing on improving lecture attendance through monitoring whilst also providing recordings for supplementary use, particularly in first year. Finally, our findings highlight the need to consider third variables such as year of study and first language when conducting and comparing lecture capture research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has been very successful in recruiting international students. The Australian government regularly reports students' high levels of satisfaction with their educational experiences; however, there is also evidence of some dissatisfaction with regard to social and educational experiences. This paper explores the extent to which universities are meeting the social and educational needs of international students by analysing their experiences through the two dominate rationales in international education, namely neoliberal and cosmopolitan rationales. It discusses findings from a project examining the perceptions and experiences of international students at a large metropolitan Australian university. The study was conducted in two phases: an online questionnaire, followed by focus group interviews. The findings indicate that while international students might rate their overall satisfaction as high on questionnaires, deeper analysis through focus groups highlights the lack of social integration and belongingness that international students perceive. These results challenge universities to innovate their practices in order to develop and integrate cosmopolitan experiences that not only may benefit students but also assist in sustaining the neoliberal rationale of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on the diversification of the higher education workforce has tended to focus on broad brush changes to patterns of employment and working conditions. What has been less remarked is ways in which individuals are negotiating the structures and stretching the parameters within which they work, including experience outside higher education. Thus, academic work is also seen in the context of broader opportunities, for instance extended networks that enable individuals to construct new forms of professional capital. Arising from these conditions, two empirical studies, on which this paper draws, demonstrate the emergence of what might be termed itinerant identities. The triggers for these are seen as arising, on the one hand, from a spirit of exploration, that is an intrinsic interest in entering new areas of activity, and, on the other, from a desire for a greater sense of security by keeping a range of options open. The two motivations are not mutually exclusive and are likely to depend on individual circumstances and career stages. It would also appear that, in space outside higher education, individuals may find some of the freedom and autonomy they may feel that they have lost as a result of increased structural requirements including, for instance, workload models and performance assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, most college students use the Internet when preparing for exams or homework. Yet, research has shown that undergraduates' information literacy skills are often insufficient. In this paper, we empirically test the relation between information-seeking strategies and grades in university. We synthesise arguments from the literature on information-seeking behaviour and approaches to learning in tertiary education. Building on the distinction between deep- and surface-level learning, we develop a classification of online search strategies and contrast it with traditional information behaviour. Multivariate analyses using a two-wave online survey among undergraduate students at a German university indicate that using advanced online information-seeking strategies is a significant and robust predictor of better grades. However, there are notable differences between subject groups: Traditional information behaviour is still crucial in the humanities. Advanced search strategies are beneficial in all settings, but only one in four students uses these early on, while this share increases to around 50% over the course of studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of mindset interventions has been designed to tackle the educational gap and improve the academic achievements of underperforming students. These interventions often target small student samples in experimental or homogeneous educational settings. This paper will explicitly emphasize the role of context in the relationship between growth mindset and academic achievement in order to optimize the potential impact of mindset interventions. Based on the Self-System of Motivational Development, we offer a framework which allows for investigating the mediating function of growth mindset between the contextual factors of "minority background" and "academic validation," as well as students' levels of academic adjustment and academic outcome. Our data, drawn from survey research (N = 1549) in a Belgian university, indicate both an inverse, negative effect of mindset on academic outcomes—with little impact of context on mindset—as well as positive effects of academic validation on academic outcome among minority students. These results suggest that academic outcome depends on more than whether students are located on the positive or negative side of the mindset spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many UK higher education business schools, the continued recruitment of UK, EU and international students is crucial for financial stability, viability and independence. Due to increasingly competitive funding models across the sector, many institutional leaders and administrators are making decisions typical of highly marketised consumer environments. Thus, this paper explores academics’ perceptions of the impact of consumerisation in UK higher education business schools. To achieve this, 22 business school academics were interviewed within three UK higher education institutions (HEIs) in the North of England. Participants had a minimum of three years teaching experience. Data was analysed using template analysis taking an interpretive approach. The findings indicate that academics perceived the introduction of tuition fees to have been the catalyst for students increasing demonstration of customer-like behaviour: viewing the education process as transactional, with the HEI providing a ‘paid for’ service. It is argued that these changes in UK higher education have created tensions between university leaders and academics, creating genuine dilemmas for those with decision-making responsibilities who must balance academic integrity and long-term institutional financial viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the developments and challenges of higher education in developing countries. Using a thorough qualitative interview of deans, directors and heads of Department of the University of Ghana, this paper draws on their analysis to discover unexplored issues that affect the universities in developing countries. The study identifies weakness in institutional policies and infrastructure deficiency of higher education in Ghana as key challenging factors. Findings also show congestion of students in academic facilities of learning, teaching overloads and lack of research facilities as key factors hampering academic development in higher education. Therefore, the work advocates for the development of policies that take into account the institutional realities in the field of higher education. Governmental policies aimed at enhancing higher education in developing economies must first improve the existing institutional set up for their chance of success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers relationships between approaches to learning, learner identities, self-efficacy beliefs and academic achievement in higher education. In addition to already established survey instruments, a new scale, subject area affinity, was developed. The scale explores the extent to which students identify with their area of study and imagine being part of it in future. The new scale showed strong psychometric properties when it was tested on a sample of 4377 students at a research-intensive university. The new scale correlated positively with both the deep approach and self-efficacy scales. The new scale also correlated negatively with the surface approach scale. K-means cluster analysis identified seven distinct groups of students who espoused interpretable combinations of approaches, self-efficacy and subject area affinity. Cluster membership was associated with differences in academic achievement. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing awareness of the significance of intellectual pluriversality worldwide in response to Western epistemic dominance in higher education. Yet, such a call has not been met by research that identifies concrete actions and structured efforts to promote diversity and the inclusion of knowledge. This article focuses on how to integrate Chinese and Western cultures and knowledge through the case of an exemplary Chinese scholar, Fei Xiaotong. It reviews Fei's scholarly writings, biographies, and interviews with him by others, as well as the literature on him, to study his life experiences, perspectives, and research. A fundamental cultural appreciation attitude, engagement with multiple knowledges, and conducting of culturally oriented research agendas are the three key elements to demonstrate how he grew into a scholar with high achievement in integrating Chinese and Western knowledge. Finally, it discusses the implications of the three elements and possible challenges in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries with a school-entry cutoff date, individuals born right after the cutoff are almost 1 year older than individuals in the same school cohort born right before that date. Abundant research has documented that, as a result of that extra year of maturation and skill accumulation, older students in a cohort outperform their younger peers. It is also well-established that this effect peaks at the initial stages of the educational career and wanes as students grow. However, it remains unclear whether or not the age at school entry affects final educational attainment. In this work, we use Spanish census data to assess whether individuals born right after the school-entry cutoff (January 1) are more likely to complete post-compulsory education, a university degree and post-graduate education. We also assess if the age at school entry affects the probability of completing education in a STEM field of study. Our findings indicate that males born after the cutoff accumulate more years of education than males born before that date, but are less likely to complete their education in a STEM field of study. Interestingly, the effect concentrates among the youngest and oldest students in each cohort, is less intense for higher levels of education and disappears among females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from approximately 342,000 course-taking records collected from 4406 college students enrolled at Taipei Tech during the 2009–2012 academic years, we examine the impact of multidisciplinarity on students' academic performance. Our study contributes to the literature in three ways. First, by applying natural language processing (NLP), we analyze course descriptions of 375 subject areas from the Classification of Instructional Programs and measure the pairwise distances among them. Second, based on the course-taking records and the subject area distribution, we measure each student's degree of multidisciplinary learning using a proposed weighted entropy formula. Third, using the proposed multidisciplinary index, we find that the impact of multidisciplinary course-taking experience on individual students' academic performance varies across academic fields. In the college of engineering, the college of electrical engineering and computer science, and the college of mechanical and electrical engineering, a higher level of multidisciplinarity is associated with a higher average weighted GPA in core courses. However, a positive association does not exist for students in the college of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To inform interventions against academic cheating among college students, the study tests the moderating role of the construct of perceived behavioral control as originally proposed yet seldom tested in the Theory of Planned Behavior, and further tests the cultural boundary conditions for this moderating role with a focus on the four horizontal-vertical individualism-collectivism orientations. Using multicampus survey data collected from 2293 Chinese undergraduate students, the moderation analyses suggest a significant and negative joint effect of perceived behavioral control with the construct of subjective norm and a positive yet insignificant joint effect with the construct of attitude towards cheating. Further moderated moderation analyses identify a pattern from comparing the four significant three-way interactions: the positive effects of attitude towards cheating and subjective norm on academic cheating are stronger under the conditions of a combination of low subjective norm with low horizontal individualism and horizontal collectivism, respectively. The study contributes to a nuanced understanding of the utility of Theory of Planned Behavior in predicting academic cheating and supports a multivariable intervention approach that closely integrates administrative measures with students' attitudinal and normative beliefs with a concern for the subtle yet significant influences of cultural orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Honours undergraduate degree in Australia is unlike that in most other countries. It has taken on a particular significance as a qualification, as a pathway to and a pre-requisite for direct entry into doctoral programs. This paper explores the outcomes of a study that suggests that the aims, outcomes, curriculum, pedagogical practices, purposes and enrolment patterns of Honours vary substantially across disciplines and university types. It addresses the questions about the diverse nature of Honours programs and questions what this diversity means for Australian higher education in the context where global standardisation of awards is rapidly occurring. Honours is seen variously as a qualification, an experience, or a program. These variations are discussed and it is demonstrated that Honours globally has not one, but many meanings. These meanings are often poorly understood within, and outside the academy. These multiple meanings create confusion about what Honours stands for and inhibit communication about the role and purpose of Honours both within Australia and in a global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores conceptions of curricular and extracurricular in UK higher education. Reporting on a case study of staff understandings of the extracurricular we argue that our data highlight the lack of debate about curricular matters. We found that there was considerable blurring of boundaries in conceptions of the curricular and extracurricular and argue that this is related to the lack of any stable or explicit conception of the curriculum in UK higher education. The paper highlights issues of recognition and non-recognition of the sorts of cultural capital which flow from traditional and other forms of extracurricular activities (ECA) and points to the continued gendering of caring and its valuing. Recognition of capital from within diverse communities and derived from activities which have not been traditionally conceptualised as ECA might contribute to graduate outcomes, but there are limitations to a politics of recognition. We argue that account also needs to be taken of the materiality of student lives and the constraints they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many theories on college retention recognize the significance of student satisfaction as a positive factor in students’ persistence. Yet, there are few theories that address the relationship of degree program satisfaction to study behaviour and dropout. This paper explores the impact of degree program satisfaction on academic accomplishment and dropout. The impact of degree program satisfaction was studied within a multitheoretical framework. The results of the study show that student accomplishment not only depends on differences in academic ability but also on degree program satisfaction. Decreased degree program satisfaction appears to diminish both study motivation and study behaviour. The authors discuss some implications for current educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our common understandings of the public/private distinction in higher education are drawn from neo-classical economics and/or statist political philosophy. However, the development of competition and markets at the national level, and the new potentials for private and public goods created by globalisation in higher education, have exposed weaknesses in the traditional notions of public/private. For example, (1) the statist notion that higher education is always/already a public good blinds us to its role in producing scarce positional private goods, even in free systems; (2) because there is no global state, both statists and neo-liberals model the global higher education environment simply as a trading environment without grasping the potential for global public goods in education – goods that are subject to non-rivalry or non-excludability, and broadly available across populations, on a global scale. Yet higher education in one nation has the potential to create positive and negative externalities in another; and all higher education systems and institutions can benefit from collective systems e.g. that facilitate cross-border recognition and mobility. The paper sets out to revise public/private in higher education. Rather than defining public/private in terms of legal ownership, it focuses on the social character of the goods. It argues that public/private goods are not always zero sum and under certain conditions provide conditions of possibility for each other. It proposes (a) units in national government that focus specifically on cross-border effects; (b) global policy spaces – taking in state agencies, individual universities, NGOs and commercial agents – to consider the augmentation, distribution of and payment for global public goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the way the national higher education entry examinations in Greece are used to determine entry into the 100 percent government-controlled state tertiary education system. The database refers to the population of all secondary education graduates taking (or not taking) the June 2000 national secondary school examination. There is considerable achievement variation across regions and types of school. Poor districts, evening schools, and state schools are associated with lower achievement. Private schools are associated with higher achievement, even controlling for parental schooling and wealth. Regardless of the student's achievement in the national examinations, entry each year is mainly determined by the number of available places. Given the fact the state cannot afford to provide free access to all those who want entry, the non-university cycle has expanded rapidly to accommodate a greater number of students into ``higher education technological institutes'' that are most frequently not the candidates' first choice. Thus, the fable of Procrustes is revived in modern Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study assessed the associations among higher-order thinking skills (reflective thinking, critical thinking) and self-monitoring that contribute to academic achievement among university students. The sample consisted of 196 Iranian university students (mean age = 22.05, SD = 3.06; 112 females; 75 males) who were administered three questionnaires. To gauge reflective thinking, the 'Reflective Thinking Questionnaire' designed by Kember et al. (Assess Eval High Educ 25(4):380-395, 2000) was utilized. It includes 16 items measuring four types of reflective thinking (habitual action, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection). To assess critical thinking, the 'Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal'(2002) was utilized. It comprises 80 items and consists of 5 subtests (inference, recognizing unstated assumptions, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation). Self-monitoring was measured via 8 items of the self-regulation trait questionnaire designed by O'Neil and Herl (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA, 1998). The results demonstrated that critical thinking and all components of reflective thinking positively and significantly predicted achievement with habitual action having the lowest impact and reflection exhibiting the highest influence. Self-monitoring indirectly exerted a positive influence on achievement via understanding and reflection. It was also found that among the four subscales of reflective thinking, reflection and critical reflection predicted critical thinking positively and significantly. Self-monitoring had a positive and significant impact on critical thinking. It also significantly and positively influenced understanding as well as reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University rankings have been widely criticized and examined in terms of the environment they create for universities. In this paper, I reverse the question by examining how ranking organizations have responded to criticisms. I contrast ranking values and evaluation with those practiced by academic communities. I argue that the business of ranking higher education institutions is not one that lends itself to isomorphism with scholarly values and evaluation and that this dissonance creates reputational risk for ranking organizations. I argue that such risk caused global ranking organizations to create the Berlin Principles on Ranking Higher Education Institutions, which I also demonstrate are decoupled from actual ranking practices. I argue that the Berlin Principles can be best regarded as a legitimizing practice to institutionalize rankings and symbolically align them with academic values and systems of evaluation in the face of criticism. Finally, I argue that despite dissonance between ranking and academic evaluation, there is still enough similarity that choosing to adopt rankings as a strategy to distinguish one's institution can be regarded as a legitimate option for universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the popularity of the flipped classroom, its effectiveness in achieving greater engagement and learning outcomes is currently lacking substantial empirical evidence. This study surveyed 563 undergraduate and postgraduate students (61 % female) participating in flipped teaching environments and ten convenors of the flipped courses in which the student sample was enrolled. Results suggest that higher education students can be differentiated based on their preferences for elements of a flipped classroom, resulting in two clusters of students: those who embrace most aspects of a flipped classroom environment as well as prefer it (labelled 'Flip endorsers') and those who are close to neutral on some elements of a flipped classroom environment but who especially do not endorse the pre-learning aspects (labelled 'Flip resisters'). Flip endorsers were found to have more positive attitudes towards the course activities (both pre-class and in-class) and to have felt more involved and engaged in the content. These findings shed some light on the types of students who might prefer flipped classrooms, but more importantly identify those who are likely to resist a change to a flipped classroom environment. The findings also suggest that although students may find the flipped classroom more difficult, student outcomes and active participation in class activities do improve when course convenors (a) use a theoretical perspective to inform their flipped teaching strategy, (b) integrate assessment into the design of their flipped classroom, and (c) flip the entire course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study probed the conceptualization of (in)authenticity in teaching and the way it could be enacted in pedagogical practices. The participants were a purposive sample of 20 Iranian university teachers. Data were collected using in-depth interviews, field notes, and observation. The collected data were analyzed through the lens of hermeneutic phenomenology. The results revealed that authenticity in teaching consisted of themes of being one's own self, pedagogical relationships, contestation, and ultimate meaning which were enacted in the participants' practices through their sense of responsibility, awareness of their possibilities, understanding of pedagogical relationships, self-reflection, critical reflection, and critical hope. Inauthenticity was also conceptualized as teacher-centered classroom manifested in the monologic discourse and traditional assessment which could confirm the dialogical nature of authenticity in teaching. For the participants of the present study, authenticity involved the constant process of becoming that deepened their understanding of themselves and others. Further findings are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dimensional comparisons—i.e., comparisons between achievements in different domains—have to date been examined particularly between students' achievements in different school subjects. Numerous studies have documented that dimensional comparisons between mathematical and verbal achievements significantly affect students' mathematical and verbal self-concepts. However, dimensional comparisons also take place and affect self-evaluations in other contexts. The present study is the first to examine indications of dimensional comparisons between faculty members' research and teaching achievements. For this purpose, we extended the reciprocal I/E model, which describes the relations between mathematical and verbal achievements and self-concepts over time, to the domains of research and teaching. We examined our generalized reciprocal I/E model in a sample of 681 faculty members from German universities by considering their research and teaching achievements and self-concepts at four measurement points over two years. Results of cross-lagged analyses indicated positive dimensional comparison effects: The participating faculty members reported higher (lower) research and teaching self-concepts after high (low) achievement not only in the same domain, but also in the other domain. This core finding has important implications for our knowledge of the impact of dimensional comparisons in the formation of domain-specific self-concepts, as well as for the debate about the research–teaching nexus, as it suggests a strong link between research and teaching in terms of self-assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider whether certain countries are particularly adept (or particularly poor) at getting children from disadvantaged homes to study for a bachelor's degree. A series of university access models are estimated for four English-speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the USA), which include controls for comparable measures of academic achievement at age 15. Our results suggest that socioeconomic differences in university access are more pronounced in England and Canada than Australia and the USA and that cross-national variation in the socioeconomic gap remains even once we take account of differences in academic achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for the creation of more socially mobile societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on academic achievement is a heated issue that involves all the higher education contexts. This paper attempts to provide an indicator that can make the measurement of university student performance easier and that can be easily applied to different systems, making comparisons more fair. The Italian University System is used as a starting point to make several considerations on the current measures and to build up a new performance indicator. Then, a generalization for other marking systems is shown and finally a quantile regression is performed to investigate some determinants of the new performance indicator, also with respect to the current one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though there is an increasing number of degree-mobile students in Europe, not much is known about the effect of student employment on academic performance and study progress for international students. International students broadly engage in student employment during their studies. They differ in several characteristics from native students (e.g., by financial situation, language skills, and time spent on studying) and are a heterogeneous group (e.g., by country of origin, educational background, and intention to remain in the destination country). This study explores whether student employment and different dimensions of employment (e.g., study-related employment, employment amounts) affect the semester grade point average and the share of achieved credit points per semester. Using the first four semesters of a longitudinal study of international students in Germany and hybrid panel models (n = 1625), the study shows that students with a higher study-related employment tendency across semesters have, on average, better semester grades. When estimating the within-student effect, it is demonstrated that changes to student employment and different employment dimensions do not change the semester grades. In contrast, starting employment or increases in employment amounts (e.g., more hours per week) decreases the share of achieved credit points per semester. However, only specific student groups (e.g., students studying mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering) experience a delay in their study progress due to higher employment intensities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the perceptions of ERASMUS agents' of Polish students' participation in the EP. We provide a Bourdieusian analyse of the cultural and social capital acquisition of students based on the qualitative data, collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Erasmus agents, of a European research project. We argue that: Polish students' participation in the EP has a positive impact on their academic achievement, cultural, social and linguistic capital, but, at the same time, it has a negative impact on degree completion of students as they get highly paid jobs, which prevent them from fully developing their cultural capital; ERASMUS Tourism has its value and place in the EP, because it provides students with the opportunity to develop their cultural, social and linguistic capital; and a Bourdieusian analysis of the experiences of ERASMUS students provides a better understanding of the impact student participation in the EP on their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities in many countries increasingly value talent, and do so by developing special honors programs for their top students. The selection process for these programs often relies on the students' prior achievements in school. Research has shown, however, that school grades do not sufficiently predict academic success. According to Renzulli's () three-ring model, student characteristics relating to intelligence, motivation and creativity are the most important predictors of excellent achievements in professional life. In this paper, we will investigate whether honors students differ from non-honors students in terms of these characteristics. By means of a questionnaire, more than 1,100 honors and non-honors students at Utrecht University were asked to assess themselves on six characteristics: intelligence, creative thinking, openness to experience, the desire to learn, persistence, and the drive to excel. The results showed that the honors students differed significantly from the non-honors students in terms of the combined variables as well as for the separate variables, with the exception of 'persistence'. The strongest distinguishing factors between honors and non-honors students appeared to be the desire to learn, the drive to excel and creativity, whilst there was little difference in terms of intelligence and persistence. However, the profiles of these differences varied according to the study program. While Law and Humanities honors students differed from their non-honors peers in terms of their drive to excel, Physics honors students were primarily more eager to learn than their non-honors peers, while the LA&S honors students scored higher on creative thinking than non-honors students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In New Zealand, Māori (indigenous New Zealanders) and Pacific students tend not to attain the same levels of educational success as Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent). Addressing this problem is a particular challenge in the sciences. The kaupapa (values-base) of Te Rōpū Āwhina (Āwhina) is to produce Māori and Pacific professionals to contribute to Māori and Pacific development and leadership through the creation of an inclusive off- and on-campus whānau (extended family) environment where high expectations, aspirations and achievement, collective success, and reciprocity are normalised. This paper reviews theories and practices of recruitment and retention relevant to Māori and Pacific students at tertiary level, presents the rationale for Āwhina in the Faculties of Science and Architecture and Design at Victoria University of Wellington, and assesses the impact of the whānau. Based on analyses of quantitative measures of student achievement, and biennial surveys of student responses from the first 6 years of Āwhina, it is suggested that the results are consistent with improving Māori and Pacific graduate and postgraduate achievement and retention. Potential implications for efforts to reduce disparities in tertiary education in New Zealand and elsewhere are summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first glance, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's current multi-billion dollar investment in its social sector, especially in setting up new schools and universities, seems to have as its primary aim the preparation of the Kingdom for a future that is not dependent on its oil resources which are predicted to run out in less than a 100 years. However, there is another consideration that warrants examination in the current context. KSA is also positioning itself to assume a dominant role firstly among the Gulf countries, secondly in the Arabic world and thirdly globally. The two ambitions are obviously intertwined but are likely to have distinct impacts on the international academy. To this end, the Higher education sector has seen unprecedented growth both in student numbers and infrastructure due to the expenditure of massive amounts of money. More than 13 billion dollars is pumped into education and of this Higher Education receives more than two billion annually. However, because the main concern for KSA's Higher Education development is to maintain its Arabian base whilst striving to become internationally relevant, the funds are applied in a centrally controlled manner that aims to balance the two ambitions. In practice, the gender-based segregation is one issue that continues to be an unresolved and contested complication. This paper argues that ultimately international competitiveness is likely to be impact significantly and possibly irrevocably on Saudi cultural traditions and religion norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the implementation and evaluation of quality management systems within the higher education sector in Brazil. It is based on Institutional and Neo Institutional theories and presents the case of the Federal University of Pelotas, to discuss higher education institutions’ options in a context of wide and complex environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of an Australian qualitative study ( N = 45) concerned with the way that employers, academics and students perceived connections between international experience and graduate employability. Drawing on the literature, the authors argue that increasing globalisation and internationalisation has heightened the need for graduates with the ability to operate in culturally diverse contexts. Universities have focussed upon exchange as part of internationalisation to prepare students for work but there is still limited literature on the nature of the relationship between international experience, more broadly and graduate employability. The findings suggest that all stakeholders identify clear connections between international experience and employability given outcomes associated with the forging of networks, opportunities for experiential learning, language acquisition and the development of soft skills related to cultural understandings, personal characteristics and ways of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines differences between the decision-making of marginal and nonmarginal students about participation in higher education (HE). We distinguish between two kinds of marginality: being ‘borderline’ on account of prior achievements in school and being ‘unsure’ after taking prior achievement into account. We identify a significant minority of students in their final year of schooling who are unsure about participation in higher education even though they have prior school achievements typical of entrants to HE. Being ‘unsure’ is found to be unrelated to socioeconomic background, but it is associated with significantly different attitudes towards the potential benefits and risks of participation, different levels of knowledge about financial support that is available and different approaches to information search about participation in HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty doctoral students and 34 faculty members were interviewed in departments identified as having high and low doctoral student completion rates at one institution in the United States in order to examine the cultural contexts and structures that facilitate or hinder doctoral student completion. This paper outlines the differences in understandings of doctoral student attrition by role and by department using attribution theory. Implications for policy, practice, and further research are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to determine whether there are significant gender differences in academic performance among undergraduate students in a large public university in Turkey based on three indicators; university entrance scores, performance in the English preparatory school and in the program the student is majoring in. The paper finds that a smaller number of female students manage to enter the university and when they do so, they enter with lower scores. However, once they are admitted to the university, they excel in their studies and outperform their male counterparts. This result holds after controlling for the field of study and individual attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interface between work and family at different types of institutions from the perspective of women faculty who are on the tenure track and who are mothers of young children. Such a perspective provides insight into institutional variation on academic life in general, and for new faculty as mothers in particular. A macro view of the findings points to two major concerns: time (and lack thereof) and its impact on the “ideal worker” norms that shape what it means to be a good mother and good professor at different institutional types; and, the idea of “choice” as an illusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]