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This paper proposes a new application of Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) for estimating the student performance gap and how this can be used to assess changes of teaching quality at the individual unit-of-study level (module-level). Although there have been other examples in the literature that assess 'efficiency' in student outcomes, this is the first study that proposes the use of SFA specifically at the module level and with the goal of creating an aggregate measure of 'quality', thus avoiding the known issue of the statistical inconsistency of unit-specific SFA estimates. A case study is presented on how the approach can be applied in practice, with discussion on potential implementation issues. This paper is targeted to academics and policy makers that are interested in the quantitative assessment of student outcomes and specifically to those who want to assess how changes in module structure and/or delivery have affected said student outcomes.

This paper investigates the phenomenological experiences of academic acculturation of selected non-British post-doctoral academics with a retrospective focus on their experiences as PhD students. The participants came from different disciplines and countries of origin to pursue several years of postgraduate research in different British higher education institutions. The typical, yet distinct, experiences of an exceptional group of early career academics offer invaluable insight into the joys, excitement, puzzlement and challenges that international students often encounter as they embark on studying and living in a foreign country such as the UK. Using Urie Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological theory of human development, our paper presents a theoretical perspective that can help elucidate and offer a greater understanding of what appear to be complex incidences in international students' experiences. These incidences can, arguably, be crucial to the success or failure of students' sojourns.

This paper argues that a precondition for good studying and learning in undergraduate study is a reasonable student workload. Ways in which workload can be measured, in advance of presentation, are outlined. Suggestions on how to regulate student workload and some implications for curriculum and course design are presented. (GLR)

This paper is a response to Cotton, Miller and Kneale's 2017 paper on the current state of higher education research within UK universities. It seeks to contribute to the debate surrounding the inclusion of pedagogic research (PedR) via SoTL in the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the context of researchers who reside within a disciplinary context. The inclusion of PedR in the REF continues to be contentious, despite recommendations in the Stern Report which could make its inclusion more feasible. This paper focuses on PedR which is conducted, published and disseminated by academics situated within Life Science departments, rather than Schools of Education. The twenty-one teaching-focused academics in this study discussed their commitment to PedR integral to their academic identity, the challenges they faced in carrying out PedR, and their thoughts on REF 2014. Their opinions and conclusions give food for thought on decisions regarding inclusion of PedR in REF 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining work experience with degree-level study is seen as a key differentiator for securing employment upon graduation in a competitive employment market. The positive benefits of sandwich courses, where up to 12 months is spent working in industry, are widely acknowledged in academic literature though data analysis tends to focus on cohorts in single subject areas with course-based factors possibly influencing outcomes. This paper explores the benefits of work placements on a cross-cohort basis with an institutional level study empirically analysing over three academic years the outcomes for placement students in comparison to non-placement students. The study found that completing a sandwich work placement is associated with improved academic performance in the final year of study. Placement students are also more likely to secure appropriate graduate-level work and higher starting salaries upon completion of their degree in comparison to non-placement students.

This paper explores disciplinary patterns of assessment and feedback, using data from the Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment project. Its central research question concerns the effect of disciplinary assessment patterns on student learning. Audit data from 18 degree programmes at 8 UK universities showed variations in assessment patterns across three disciplinary fields: Humanities, Professional and Science courses. There were variations in assessment demands; in the quantity of feedback and in the proportion of examinations. Statistical analysis of Assessment Experience Questionnaire data (n?=?762) explored whether these differences influenced students' perceptions of learning across the disciplines. Findings showed that there were no significant differences in students' perceptions of learning from examinations. Humanities students evaluated the appropriateness of their assessment lower than other discipline groups; professional students were less clear about goals and standards. The researchers propose explanations for these findings and suggest avenues for further research.

Higher education in business school environments is increasingly focused on how to best equip students with the skills necessary for leadership in the global workplace. This paper examines the impact of two particularly important cognitive capabilities--task reflexivity and intercultural sensitivity, on academic performance in an MBA programme. It was hypothesised that in an intercultural learning environment, task reflexivity would be associated with higher academic performance, and that this relationship would be mediated via intercultural sensitivity. Questionnaire data from 77 MBA students was analysed alongside academic performance. Results demonstrated that task reflexivity was indirectly related to academic performance through intercultural sensitivity. These findings suggest that engagement in task reflexivity enables students to develop greater levels of intercultural sensitivity, allowing them to reap the positive effects of diversity in their peer group for their own learning and performance. Limitations and practical implications of the research for professional practice are discussed.

It has been widely claimed that UK students from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds but nevertheless having the potential to benefit from a degree programme are being denied higher education places because of their relatively poor paper qualifications. As a consequence, the claim continues, students from independent schools have an advantage in the competition for such places. Universities have responded to such claims, and incentives from the government to do so, by introducing widening participation programmes, but very little research has been done which explores whether students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are admitted to elite universities perform as well as their counterparts with better entry qualifications. Using a large data set from one university, this article explores performance by students at A-level and their first and final university years. Students from independent schools performed better at A-level than those from state schools, but not at their university examinations, other things being equal. (Contains 5 tables.)

Performance assessment is permeating increasingly diverse domains of higher education, even in areas previously perceived to be too complex and idiosyncratic to quantify. The UK's attempts to assess 'research impact' within the Research Excellence Framework (REF) are illustrative of this trend and are being closely monitored by several other countries. A fundamental rationale for employing narrative case studies to assess impact within REF, rather than taking a (less resource intensive) quantified approach, was that this would allow for the variation, complexity and idiosyncrasy inherent in research impact. This paper considers whether this promise of narrative flexibility has been realised, by analysing a combination of REF impact case study reports and interviews and focus group discussions with actors involved in case study production. Informed by this analysis, our central argument is that the very quality which allows narratives to govern is their ability to standardise performance (albeit whilst retaining a degree of flexibility). The paper proposes that REF impact case studies position narratives of impact as technologies of governance in ways that restrict the 'plot line' and belie the far more complex accounts held by those working to achieve research impact. This is partly because, as research impact becomes institutionalised within universities' measurement infrastructures, higher education institutions become impact gatekeepers, filtering out narratives that are deemed overly complex or insufficiently persuasive, while perpetuating particular approaches to recounting tales of impact that are deemed likely to perform well. Crucially, these narratives not only describe impact but actively construct it as an auditable phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, there has been considerable literature on the predictors of academic performance in higher education. However, the empirical findings are still limited in Cambodia; therefore, this paper was conducted to examine the determinants of academic performance of 329 undergraduate students selected from a university in Cambodia. Based on the findings from the multivariate regression analysis, a number of variables, namely high school grade, English ability, class attendance, study effort, academic self-efficacy, and family socio-economic status were found to be positively associated with academic performance. Term-time employment and family size had an adverse impact on academic performance. However, there was no sufficient evidence to indicate age, gender, household location, parental education, parental involvement, and teaching evaluation to have predictive power on academic performance. Hence, the study concluded that the personal backgrounds played the potential role in predicting academic performance of undergraduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the subjective experiences of PhD holders from Switzerland and the UK who pursue careers beyond academia. Drawing on the concepts of organisational culture and culture shock, we examined the challenges that characterise this passage from academia to non-academic workplaces. With an exploratory aim, we analysed 32 semi-structured interviews conducted with PhDs engaged in non-academic careers in private, public, or parapublic sectors for ten years or less. It emerged that, when they entered non-academic workplaces, half of our participants devoted a large portion of their time and energy to understanding a new organisational culture, including their workplaces' daily functioning, the values shared within their organisations, and the statuses to which they were assigned. This puzzling experience, which we define as organisational culture shock, was reported more frequently by those who entered non-academic workplaces directly after the PhD and those with little or no work experiences prior to the PhD. These findings contribute to the ongoing global conversation about how to prepare PhDs for careers beyond academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an X-efficient mixed economy, the benefits of benign competition would be striven for in the public sector. Adapting the classical theory of trade to the contemporary British economy, where manufacturing industry does not flourish, Britain would have a large comparative advantage in higher education and many other services. Graduation data provide a satisfactory output measure for higher education. When output measures are set against input measures, Britain compares very well with other nations in higher education. A comparable international league table for manufacturing would show Britain's overwhelming comparative disadvantage in that field. The recent Green Paper's higher education 'demand' figures are inadequate; even its own annex on performance measures gives an 8% earnings related social return to higher education. There is strong evidence to show that over the decade up to 1982 the real teaching cost per degree declined sharply, i.e. a direct improvement in national X-efficiency. It is desirable to make higher education less dependent on public funding,' an alternative funding plan is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses issues related to the proposals included in the White Paper regarding changes in the sectors of higher education in Great Britain. Distinction between indicators of administrative performance and indicators of academic performance; Distrust of the government in the networks of professional associations which have regulated and managed areas of public and intellectual life; Main dangers in academic performance.

This article investigates attitudes to societal impact of research as an entry point into understanding academic identities. Conceptually, we position academic identity at the intersection of global scientific fields and national science policies. We argue that the degree of alignment or misalignment between the two can create coherent academic identities, or on the contrary, tensions in academics' identity. Empirically, we use the disciplines of philosophy and anthropology as proxies for scientific fields in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). The study is based on sixteen semi-structured interviews with mid-career philosophers and anthropologists in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and an analysis of how societal impact is positioned in the two national evaluation systems. We conclude that 'coercive' national impact policies (like the one in the UK) are less likely to be aligned with global disciplinary norms in the SSH and therefore create tensions in academic identity; these can undermine academics' agency and be counterproductive in terms of reaching policy objectives. By contrast, 'enabling' national impact policies (like the one in the Netherlands) are conducive to more coherent academic identities that are better aligned with disciplinary notions of societal impact. By discussing academic identities in a comparative context, the study highlights the struggles of reconciling disciplinary and national notions of societal impact. To realise the potential societal impact of academic research, we recommend that impact is integrated into a wider ecosystem of interactions where policy-driven notions are aligned with disciplinary norms and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses longitudinal student data to determine the influence of social class, academic performance and other individual factors such as gender, ethnicity and age on entry on the possibility of obtaining highly paid placements in elite professions. Focusing on subject-relevant placements, the findings here strongly support the meritocratic recruitment and rewarding process for such work experience schemes. Prestigious and highly paid placements in elite professional firms are not filled by socially privileged upper-middle-class students but the academically 'brightest' students from a wide range of social and individual backgrounds. Excellent academic performance has been interpreted by elite firms as equivalent to high levels of employability skills and productivity. Finally, there is evidence to suggest that well-paid placements can facilitate socio-economic mobility of working-class students who are academically driven and aspire to gain work experience with elite professional firms despite limited economic resources at their disposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates students' perceptions of computer-based learning environments, their attitude towards business statistics, and their academic achievement in higher education. Guided by learning environments concepts and attitudinal theory, a theoretical model was proposed with two instruments, one for measuring the learning environment and the other for measuring student attitude. Data were collected from 453 postgraduate business students in a UK university. Factor analyses were carried out to validate the instruments, whilst structural equation modelling was employed to validate the proposed model. The results demonstrate the importance of students' perceptions of subject integration within the learning environment and the relationship between their perceptions of cohesiveness, task orientation, and anxiety. The findings show that attitude towards statistics is significantly related to achievement, explaining almost 40% of variation, whilst perception of the learning environment (indirectly) explains about 29% of the achievement. Implications for teaching business statistics in higher education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Motivated by an increasing number of international students in UK higher education, this study investigates the effect of year-long placements on the academic performance of 268 accounting and finance students enrolled between 2006 and 2009. The results show differences between UK and international students although both statistically and significantly increase their final-year marks and their chance to obtain a good degree (first or 2.1) following placements. UK sandwich students outshine international sandwich students in the final year, while UK full-time students significantly underperform international full-time students in the first year only. The academic performance of UK students can be partly explained by prior academic achievement and gender but that of international students is not related to any of these individual factors. There is evidence of self-selection among UK sandwich students since they outperform UK full-time students at all levels, while no such a pattern is found among international students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study focuses on a pan-disciplinary scheme that targeted high-achieving undergraduate students. Earlier research from the scheme argued that high achievers have discernibly different learning and personal development support needs. One of the most frequent self-reported challenges within this high-achieving group is perfectionism. This “problematizing” of perfectionism by high-achieving students may present a challenge for learning professionals. Often the traits associated with perfectionism have played a key role in previous academic successes, yet are also reportedly experienced as injurious to the student's overall well-being. A discourse of academic resilience was employed to restructure students' perceptions and subsequent management of perfectionism. Literature from the fields of psychology and education were synthesised to create a conceptualisation of perfectionism that contributed positively to student well-being. This study suggests that reframing perfectionism within a discourse of academic resilience can lead to modifications in behaviour that contribute positively to the overall student experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the academic performance differences between Chinese and UK students in a UK university using two undergraduate cohorts by uniquely exploring academic performance patterns among Chinese and UK students across a full degree study period (3 or 4 years). The results reveal a dramatic drop in performance among Chinese students from year 1 to year 2 and increasingly significant performance gaps between Chinese and UK students in the final academic year by gender, prior academic performance, degree programme, prior academic qualification and enrolment year. Among Chinese students, their final degree mark is not influenced by gender, prior academic performance, prior academic qualification or degree programme. The distinctive nature of Chinese students in higher education is clearly demonstrated here and such uniqueness warrants further work focusing on learning approaches, curriculum design and the contents of assessments, in the context of academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports on an interview study investigating the experiences of academic acculturation (a process of mutual influence and enrichment with regard to academic practice) of a group of Chinese academic staff in two research-intensive UK universities. Following a systematic content-based analysis, three major themes emerged as salient, namely: (1) different perceptions of academic practice in the UK and China, (2) the importance of disciplinary identity, and (3) the role of English and original cultural affiliations in the process of academic acculturation. The study shows that, while these academic staff took active initiatives to orient themselves towards UK academic culture, they did not perceive that culture to have changed much through their acculturation. The study also reveals that the cultural affiliation of the academic staff, perceived norms in the new academic culture, and relative proficiency in English language all have an impact on the process of academic acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated predictors of attainment in students awarded first degrees by institutions of higher education in the UK in 1995-96. Those aged under 21 or between 26 and 50 at graduation were more likely to obtain good degrees (with first-class honours or upper second-class honours), but the pattern of age-related variation was different across different subjects of study. Overall, women were more likely to obtain good degrees than men, but this trend did not occur at all ages or in all subjects. There was also a considerable variation in the proportion of good degrees in different subjects. The contingent nature of these phenomena suggests that they result from variations in teaching and assessment practices as well as from characteristics of the students themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increased use of blind-marking in undergraduate examinations, gendered patterns persist in the figures on achievement at undergraduate level in British universities. It has been suggested that in the humanities, such differences in achievement might be explained by differences in writing style according to gender. This article examines data drawn from an analysis of undergraduate students' writing in order to investigate the extent to which gender appears to impact upon their writing styles. It is argued that male and female students' academic writing styles shared more similarities than they did differences. There was no evidence to suggest that there was less use of tentative phrases in male writing, although there was some evidence to suggest that a bold style was adopted slightly more frequently by men. It is argued that the adoption of an academic style which overrides some traditionally gendered traits in writing may be particularly highly rewarded by examiners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]