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The purpose of the study is to identify the patterns of change in higher education institutions. It examines the contexts of the changing quality assurance mechanisms used by the different types of higher education institutions in England, Japan, and New York State between 2001 and 2007. The paper argues that there were no clear patterns of institutional change in terms of speed, intensity, extensiveness, momentum, trajectory, and consequence between centralized and decentralized institutions and public and private institutions. The study suggests three points for explanation why institutional types do not shape certain patterns of institutional change. The first point is that institutional change heavily relies on agents' interactions. The second point is that the ideas of centralized or decentralized and private or public per se are becoming ambiguous in the market or market-like systems. The third point is that the relationship between the central authorities and the institutions is far more significant than the types of institutions in the formation of particular patterns of institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that the major reason for the at least partial failure in the dissemination of teaching innovations lies in the uni-directional approach used and the reliance on dissemination through education, both of which are in conflict with well established change theory, which is outlined. The paper demonstrates how the Enterprise in Higher Education Initiative (EHE), using this theory at least in part serendipidously, succeeded and lists the crucial and rare features of EHE which made it successful as an agent of dissemination. Two other successfully disseminated teaching initiatives are analysed for their special features which led to success, but which it would be difficult to generalise. Recommendations are made for a radical change in the approach to dissemination, based on the lessons learned from EHE: in particular, to involve both institutions and Departments, as well as other relevant agencies, both inside and outside universities, and to appoint `Higher Education Advisers'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most national systems of higher education are confronting seemingly convergent global pressures, specific national or local issues still mark the distinct features of each system. Hence, higher education, in places, has been enmeshed in the tensions between national issues and global pressures. In China, both the global influences and internal issues have become the major driving forces for current higher education reforms. This paper explores the specific tensions between global pressures and national issues with respect to Chinese higher education in which political, economic and traditional dimensions are focused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation in higher education teaching is essential to respond to global challenges and actively improve teaching (e.g. through new technologies), necessitating the implementation of educational reform programmes that fund educational innovations. Although currently deployed strategies frequently promote networks between innovators to diffuse educational innovations, little is known about the efficiency of these networks or whether they promote innovation diffusion. This study investigates a network comprising 88 higher education teachers who received funding for their educational innovations in a German university. We collected longitudinal data by asking higher education teachers from whom they adopted innovative teaching ideas and requesting self-reports on innovative teaching climate. Our findings show that the teachers' social network had a smaller path length and more clustering than might be expected by chance. This observation might indicate that the examined educational innovation network exhibits a small-world property and allows efficient exchange of ideas among the teachers. In line with our hypotheses, the network's initial tendency toward hierarchy and homophily decreased over time in response to strategies and network interventions. In summary, this study provides initial empirical support that educational reform programmes can create efficient educational innovation networks, facilitating innovation diffusion and promoting change in higher education teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformational leadership, a type of leadership commonly promoted within higher education, has been shown to positively affect performance, collaborative behavior, and goal accomplishment. Such skills may correlate with the level of job responsibility one has been given and the technical, human, and conceptual skills needed for one to be successful. This study sought to bridge a research gap by exploring correlations between transformational leadership and skills-approach leadership with an exploration of the role of gender within perceptions. An unexpected result based on gender was found: As females achieve higher roles within the Land-Grant University System, the perception of their transformational leadership decreases while that of males increases. Transformational leadership and skills-approach leadership is discussed within the context of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the outcomes of a research study carried out during 2015-2016 at the University of Valencia (Spain) to understand the factors influencing the impact of small-scale innovation funding on teachers’ practices, the learning culture of the teaching team and the satisfaction of students’ learning. The research used a mixed-method design: a questionnaire examined the factors influencing transfer of innovation; in-depth interviews with project leaders yielded information about the adoption and transfer of funded projects; and a focus group with institutional managers provided suggestions to improve the efficiency of the innovation projects and calls. The results provide qualitative and quantitative evidence of the capacity of the scheme to deliver outcomes that enhance the teaching practices of the funded teams. The design of the innovation project, the innovation culture of the teaching team and the context of the implementation appear as factors that have a positive impact on the transfer, adoption and sustainability of an innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]