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Higher education institutions in the UK are required, by law, to make anticipatory reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities. Inclusive teaching practice, if adopted across the sector, would ensure that the needs of students with disabilities are considered and provided for, before they even arrive on campus. This paper sets out the background and key findings from an institutional research project at a UK university that aimed to discover if academic staff's attitudes would be problematic or conducive to the implementation of inclusive teaching practice. The paper concludes that there is little evidence of widespread “resistance” but rather, the research discovered a prevailing belief in the rights of students with disabilities to education, albeit a belief which is limited in its practical application in the classroom. The paper also reports on a number of recommendations made to the case study university as a result of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk-based regulation is a relatively new mode of governance. Not only does it offer a way of controlling institutions from the outside but it also provides the possibility of making an organisation's achievements visible/visualisable. This paper comments on a list of possible risks that higher education institutions have to face. In a second step, it is discussed that a higher education institution changes when a framework of risk-based regulation is adopted. The paper then illustrates how governance changes when the risk-based regulation approach is transferred from a UK context to an overall European one with differing traditions of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has often been used to evaluate efficiency in the context of higher education institutions. Yet there are numerous alternative non-parametric measures of efficiency available. This paper compares efficiency scores obtained for institutions of higher education in England, 2013–2014, using three different methods: the original Charnes et al. method and two slacks-based methods (SBM-Min and SBM-Max) developed by Tone. The findings suggest that results are highly sensitive to methodology chosen. Hence caution is required in applying the results in any policy context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UK higher education system is increasingly pre-occupied by matters relating to student retention and progression to completion (Longden 2002c). There is an active debate on the possible causes with primary influences on the student experience which drives the student towards the decision to leave higher education. These influences are articulated through a political and empirical language but are poorly developed within a theoretical framework capable of providing an integrated understanding of the process. Pierre Bourdieu's theory using cultural capital and social reproduction provide a useful and important alternative conceptual framework to the interactionist model developed by Tinto (1993). Bourdieu's theory has had some application in the US (Berger 2000). This paper tentative explores the contribution that Bourdieu's theory has for understanding student retention within the context of UK higher education. It draws on transcripts of student experience of early departure from full time undergraduate study to evaluate this alternative `lens' for interpreting retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the passage of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act the British system of higher education formally moved from a binary to a unitary structure. However, ever since successive governments have argued for a diversified model of higher education within which institutions should pursue contrasting goals. This article offers an interpretation of the key ingredients of institutional diversification and constructs alternative structural models of higher education. It proceeds by exploring the changing structure of British higher education since the creation of the unitary model. The argument is that there has been a steady emergence of flexible sectors, which both converge and diversify. However, there is a danger that the 2011 White Paper, rather than sustaining flexible sectors, could intensify the nascent shift in the direction of stratification marked by increasing differentiation between sectors as they converge internally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part-time study is one of the foci of the widening participation agenda in the UK. The experiences of part-time students, however, have received remarkably little attention from scholars, especially in a comparative context. This paper explores existing historical data going back over a decade to identify the main themes of part-time experience at a number of UK higher education institutions and how it compares and contrasts with the full-time experience. The surveys use the Student Satisfaction Approach. The main themes emerging from institutional survey data over time are the work/family/study balance, assessment and feedback, access to learning and catering resources, and students' financial situation. There is sometimes a question of identity, but unlike many studies of part-time student experience, which focus on aspects of disadvantage, social, and cultural capital, the data for this paper indicate that many part-time students have a sense of themselves as being ignored or at worst marginalised in contemporary higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set in a context of increasing competition and changing dimensions of internationalisation, the paper offers an analysis of one institution's approach to changing its strategy and practice in the light of both the external context and the internal drivers to internationalise. The research methodology was based on OECD/IMHE's Internationalisation Quality Review tool (1999). The findings provide insights into strategy development and internationalisation and how both are experienced by students and staff. While the detail is drawn from one UK institution, comparisons at a more general level are made with institutional approaches to internationalisation in other UK institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, through a review of recent literature and policy documents, highlights: the rates of participation in higher education in the UK; the widening participation agenda and the potential impact of key financial changes in the funding of higher education, particularly for students from lower socio-economic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the Fachhochschul sector is regarded as the most significant success story of the last decade in Austrian higher education. This new sector was legally established in 1993 (FHStG) and started to enrol students in 1994. For the academic year 2000/01, there were 55 Fachhochschul courses offered with a further 15 already planned. The sector has about 9,000 students, and has already produced 2,600 graduates. In only a few years it has built up a high reputation amongst students, employers, and the general public. This paper looks back to the early 1990s, when the Fachhochschul policy was designed. It reconsiders some of the arguments and conflicts which at that time were stirred by this reform and its focus is on the influence which was exercised by the British polytechnics. The paper will argue that the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) served as a role model for the Fachhochschulrat (FHR), which is a cornerstone for the Austrian Fachhochschul sector and it will discuss why – against the odds – this policy transfer was successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With particular reference to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, this paper analyses interpretations of the collegiate tradition. It examines past interpretations of the tradition, the pressures that have led to its reformulation and assesses the likelihood of its survival in the future. The paper assumes that both academic demos and intellectual collegiality should be central characteristics of any institution that intends to call itself a university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To standardise protocols and knowledge so that they could draw on a borderless workforce, the information technology and telecommunications industries developed a new class of industry certification in the 1990s. As of mid-2000, approximately 2.5 million of these certifications had been earned by approximately 1.65 million people worldwide, half outside the US. These credentials are awarded by third-party examination, with three commercial testing firms operating at 5000 sites in 140 countries. Students prepare for the examinations in a variety of ways, including course work at commercial schools with both physical facilities and virtual presence in dozens of countries. This paper focuses on the status of IT certification in six countries (Australia, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and the UK), and the behaviour of six major certifying authorities (Microsoft, Cisco, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Novell). It highlights (1) the ways that these certifying authorities behave in the countries at issue, (2) variations in opportunities for students to prepare for certification, by country, and (3) flexibility in the languages of instruction/preparation and the languages of examination in the IT certification system. Because this certification system lies outside formal tertiary systems, it is not subject to government data-gathering in any country, hence we know little about the backgrounds of those who seek/earn these credentials. The paper suggests and encourages three lines of research inquiry (basic descriptive tasks, comparative curriculum studies and assessment studies) that can enlighten the role of this growing parallel universe in tertiary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a small-scale longitudinal study of ‘local’ leadership roles at two UK universities. The research explored perceptions of the leadership provided by a specific group of staff who held roles for enhancing learning and teaching. Based on ethnographic design principles, the study was based at one UK higher education institution with another as a comparator. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with ‘local’ leadership role-holders and their colleagues. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with academic managers. Analysis of the data was based on grounded theory and thematic analysis. The discussion and conclusion suggests that, to maximize the impact of these roles, the leadership aspects of them should be made explicit, recognized by colleagues at all levels and supported by leadership development. Further investigation into local leaders’ career progression may provide valuable insights for the relatively limited body of knowledge and practice of leadership within professional teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on research conducted across an English higher education partnership to investigate the ways in which student voice was engaged in further education colleges offering university awards through partnership arrangements. Such collaborations are characterised by the marginal presence of higher education students in an environment that is dominated by further education structures, culture and practice. This provides challenges for both colleges and universities in developing higher education student identity and appropriate mechanisms of student engagement that comply with expectations within the higher education sector but also recognise the contextual situation of students within the college environment. It is argued that student partnership collaboration can be a positive driver in an increasingly marketised global environment, where student voice and feedback mechanisms are at the forefront of quality assessments and institutional reputation. An ideal types framework is suggested as a heuristic device for the evaluation of college strategies of engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews recent culture-change in British higher education (HE) and an increasing emphasis on academics evidencing, in meaningful and measurable ways, the value and contribution of their work to national societies. Discussion focuses on what is purported to be a shift from a focus on academics rationalizing the benefits of their work in terms of public engagement to a more contentious signifier of research worth, “impact”. The primary argument herein is that an impact agenda, framed in terms of assessment and by the upcoming Research Excellence Framework 2014, has not eclipsed an engagement initiative for HE in the UK but actually provided greater credence and tacit momentum. Where public engagement “pre-impact” was viewed by sections of the academic community as frivolous, faddish and tokenistic, it is now elevated as an integral component of impact-capture work and in plotting the pathways between research producer and research intermediary/end-user/collaborator. Where “impact” is a statement of the value of academic work, engagement is the method of its articulation and the means by which impacts are mobilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom, the higher education landscape has undergone a transformation since the late 1980s as seen in the 'massification' of higher education and the 'quality revolution'. These changes have resulted in an increased sense of accountability, to principle stakeholders: the government, the taxpayer and students themselves. This paper looks at the structures for student involvement in governance in the UK higher education system, the relationships between student unions and these structures and the role of student feedback questionnaires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The raison d'etre of higher education institutions is to educate individuals, undertake research, and disseminate knowledge into the public domain. Changing values and norms in HEIs, partly as a product of “managerialism”, as well as increased competition for funding and other environmental factors, have moved autonomous institutions towards more business-like and private-sector ideals. These factors have different effects on the different “traditional” and “new” universities that operate within the higher education sector in the UK. This paper utilises the results of a UK survey of universities to determine the impact of these changes in universities. Results of a quantitative survey indicate that staff members in “traditional” universities feel strongly pressured to be research-recognised but that academic decisions are made by academics, whilst “new” universities viewed higher education as a business. Interestingly, both groups felt pressured to improve student numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the way lecturers observe, feel restrained by and cope with quality management systems that have been implemented in the higher education systems of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. As two sides of the same coin, quality enhancement and quality control are of increased significance in European Higher Educaction Institutions (HEIs), particularly through the Bologna Process. We are interested in the way that both enhancement and control blend into the current systems, and we are concerned for too much dominance of control, as has been suggested in recent managerial literature. Analysis of 40 interviews in both countries among researchers and lecturers in traditional and universities of applied sciences showed many similarities. It is not so much the general idea of quality management that is being turned down by the respondents. They see the benefits quite clearly. Still, the general belief is that quality management in its current shape and character does not fit with the work of the individual academic, neither their teaching nor their research. The respondents worry for and resent the consequences of increased emphasis on quality assurance and control. The developments concerning the quality management of their HEIs are perceived in terms of quality assurance by the UK respondents. Instead, the Dutch are more occupied with finding ways to “how to deal with” such developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the strategic pressures which are reinforcing and accelerating the professionalisation of the policies and procedures for the admission of undergraduate students to higher education (HE) in the UK. It reviews the assumptions and practices which have, until fairly recently, dominated the ways in which students are admitted and then surveys new models which are emerging as higher education institutions (HEIs) seek to respond to the demands of a mass HE system and pressures for greater social inclusiveness in the student body. These models in turn create new needs, both human and technical, which the HE system has begun to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing relationship between institutional governance and management in the united kingdom arising from the second report of the committee on standards in public life, the United Kingdom National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, and from significant increased government expenditure on higher education is examined. The framework of accountability within which higher education institutions operate is related to these reports. The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council's (SHEFC) perspective of the role of the governing body is examined and contrasted with bargh, scott and smith's research on governing bodies. Both SHEFC's perspective and Bargh et al.'s research are also contrasted with, and related to, a number of National Audit Office (NAO) reports and also to Professor sizer's investigation and the nao report into allegations of misconduct at glasgow caledonian university (1998). Finally, the paper draws conclusions on the changing relationship between governing bodies and managements, on the requirement on governing bodies to demonstrate that they are appropriately constituted and operate effectively as corporate bodies, and on how these are reflected in the SHEFC code of good practice and good practice benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses reports within the issue on topics including the way the relationships in the British higher education sector are changing and the situation in South Africa following the influential Report of the National Commission on Higher Education where a new governance framework is being established.

Since their emergence a decade ago, global university rankings have become a powerful force in higher education internationally. The majority of research studies on global rankings have examined the effects at institutional and national levels. This study offers a valuable perspective on the ways rankings (and other international benchmarks) are deployed at the intra-sector level, by UK higher education ‘mission groups’, to support different policy positions. The concept of object in activity theory is used to problematize the analysis. Critical discourse analysis is used as a methodological orientation to study the ways global rankings mediate the object in this context. The findings contribute to the current debate on whether rankings are promoting isomorphism in higher education sectors nationally, illustrating a differentiated engagement with rankings in the UK context. The relevance of the findings for policy-makers and institutional managers is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UK higher education sector has entered a period of turbulence, as the consequences of the UK leaving the European Union (EU) hit home. Higher education institutions are bracing themselves for what will no doubt be a period of substantial change, uncertainty and challenge. The complexity of the intricate relationships linking EU member states, as well as the EU institutions and their member states, appears to have been misunderstood and understated in the UK, by both the political class and the general public, at the time of the June 2016 referendum. If information is indeed power, its current unavailability is a concern, given that the UK government's plans to remain firmly embedded within the European Research Area and the Erasmus+ programme remain non-committal. In what can be described as a game of high politics between the EU and the UK government, the fate of research and higher education collaboration will be sealed by high-level inter-governmental agreements decided behind closed doors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of policy changes, nearly all university colleges in the UK have been redesignated as universities. This transition was studied in one such institution using semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of six academic staff and the transcripts subjected to a thematic analysis. This analysis identified three themes: staying in the past, developing as a university and awakening to challenges. A cultural framework was used to help interpret the results of the analysis which highlights how the traditions of the institution have influenced the speed and direction of the cultural change process. Another key finding from the analysis was that very few of the leadership strategies commonly used to support a process of transition appeared to be employed. The article concludes by offering insights about the change processes relevant to leaders of other institutions in the process of changing, or seeking to change, status in similar or related ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study is on how one higher education institution included the United Kingdom Professional Standards Framework, developed by the Higher Education Academy, as a strategic benchmark for teaching and learning. The article outlines the strategies used to engage all academic (and academic-related) staff in achieving relevant professional recognition under the framework and highlights the need for such a project to be driven by visible and consistent commitment from senior management. A survey of participants highlights the benefits to be gained by entrants to the profession from participation in an accredited course, and by more established professionals from the individual entry route. While a significant proportion of participants expressed scepticism about the benefits of work towards recognition, findings indicate a significant degree of peer development underpinning activities which enhanced individual and group confidence, supported developing practice on an ongoing basis and were believed to be relevant to students and other stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the light of the forthcoming policy shift to full-cost fees for English undergraduates, this study examines the impact of fee changes on how students weigh up their university choices. Conjoint analysis is used to examine the importance that students attach to various attributes of a university. It also explores differences across subsections of the student population in terms of patterns of utility. A key finding is that students from families where there is no history of attending university will experience more disutility from the higher fees. Other patterns in utility are identified including differences between social classes and between genders. The implications for “inclusiveness” in higher education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women remain outsiders in university leadership and management. The literature indicates that discipline base, career mobility, experience outside academia, selection processes, and gender stereotyping may impact on women becoming senior managers. This article reports on research with current and former Vice-Chancellors, senior managers, and recruitment firms to identify skill requirements for effective leadership and management. Our research indicates gender is an issue in higher education leadership, in recruitment and selection, exclusion from male camaraderie, and preference for transformational leadership. This research will produce a skills benchmark to assess future leadership positions and hopefully cut across current gender bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing expectations are being placed on higher education institutions to ensure the economic relevance of research and knowledge creation as well as developing the skill needs of workers in modern knowledge-based societies. In the UK, workplace learning has long been a feature of higher education in certain subject areas, and in the late 1990s the idea of work experience for all students re-emerged as a significant issue. Various studies have considered the relationship between work placement experiences during higher education and students' subsequent transition into employment after graduation, but there has been less recent research exploring how the placement experience translates into academic development. This article presents some of the findings of a study on the effects, as perceived by undergraduates themselves, of work experience placements on aspects of learning as well as employability. The majority of placement students indicate personal and intellectual development and report increased levels of confidence and enhanced motivation towards study. However, national data show a continuing decline in the numbers of UK students taking up placements, and the study suggests that more general moves towards flexibility within undergraduate programmes may be contributing to this decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]