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While much work has focused on pedagogical innovation processes within universities, less has been said of the processes and cultures which foster and give rise to creativity within higher education and the ways in which faculty members are encouraged to develop their pedagogy across disciplines and within their departments. This paper examines the ways campus spaces at a UK university are utilised by staff for peer learning and the barriers and affordances for innovation and creativity in educational practice. Utilising an interdisciplinary design, this paper suggests that the various spaces available to university teaching staff are able to be further utilised to support creative practice and peer learning, presented as four design principles: innovation happens in everyday spaces, communal spaces need social functions, forums have different scales, and collaborative spaces require a collective culture. The normalising of a culture of innovation requires both physical and behavioural adjustments to the use of space, suggesting that both faculty and institutions need to work together to reimagine spaces for faculty peer learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature of societal regulatory control systems developing an analytical framework drawing from Jurgen Habermas' notion of "steering" and an understanding of "performance management systems". It seeks to provide a conceptual language of "relational" and "transactional" approaches to regulation both generally and in relation to higher education (HE). The paper aims to illustrate that different types of regulation are related to the different contexts in which they are developed. Design/methodology/approach - The paper undertakes an in-depth analysis of regulatory frameworks and financing at a general level and in the specific context of HE in England in order to analyse the nature of the processes of steering both empirically and conceptually. The paper ends with some evaluatory reflections on the conceptual framework and in relation to the regulatory processes of HE in the England following this change. Findings - The paper argues that the societal regulatory requirements, of a "relational" or "transactional" form use financing as central tools of "steering", both generally and in HE. In HE two dominant institutional steering media are identified: regional Funding Councils, (in England, the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE)) and the Research Councils (RC). Regulation of funding flows from the two bodies is described using the conceptual framework developed. HEFCE's regulations are more "relational" in nature relative to the RCs more "transactional" systems. Located in two different Government departments until June 2007, these two funding organisations were then brought together to form the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS); they are now (since June 2009) part of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (DBIS). Originality/value - The paper provides a conceptual framework by which to understand regulation more generally and demonstrates the significance of this framework by providing new insights into the changing societal regulatory context of HE in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the usage of institutional and non-institutional technologies to support learning and teaching in UK higher education. Previous work on disruptive technology and disruptive innovation has argued that users prefer simple and convenient technologies, and often repurpose technologies from designers' intentions; this paper evaluates its data in relation to this argument. The paper uses a structured observation as its research instrument; seven participants (three lecturers and four students) were given one of two tasks. Results showed the participants using a narrow range of technologies, and showed a preference for non-institutional over institutional technologies. The paper argues that there is a misalignment between the technologies provided by higher education institutions (HEIs) and the technologies used in practice by students and lecturers, and further argues that disruptive technology and disruptive innovation comprise a useful means of assessing the likely success, in terms of usage, of a technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores two universities' strategies of impact and engagement and their perceptions by local economic and policy stakeholders in a post-industrial city of Scotland. The concept of structural embeddedness is used to unpack the logics and repertoires of action of local universities and to relate discourses and actions to the nature and intensity of the relationship between universities and the local context. In contrast with the dominant knowledge and innovation research paradigm presenting universities as key drivers of regional economic development and competitiveness, the paper suggests multiple and at times contradictory levels of impact of universities depending on their capacity to embed themselves in regional development strategies and socio-economic regeneration programmes. The conclusion suggests that the nature and returns of universities' local engagement approaches are determined by their position on the higher education market as much as by their embeddedness in the local economy, culture and polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces the UK Open Textbook project and discusses its success factors with regards to promoting open practice and open pedagogy. Textbooks remain a core part of educational provision in science. Open Textbooks are openly licensed academic textbooks, wherein the digital version is available freely, and the print version at reduced cost. They are a form of Open Educational Resource (OER). In recent years a number of openly-licensed textbooks have demonstrated high impact in countries including the USA, Canada and South Africa. The UK Open Textbooks project piloted several established approaches to the use and promotion open textbooks (focusing on STEM subjects) in a UK context between 2017 and 2018. The project had two main aims: to promote the adoption of open textbooks in the UK; and to investigate the transferability of the successful models of adoption that have emerged in North America. Through a number of workshops at a range of higher education institutions and targeted promotion at specific education conferences, the project successfully raised the profile of open textbooks within the UK. Several case studies report existing examples of open textbook use in UK science were recorded. There was considerable interest and appetite for open textbooks amongst UK academics. This was partly related to cost savings for students, but more significant factors were the freedom to adapt and develop textbooks and OER. This is consistent with a range of research that has taken place in other countries and suggests the potential for impact on UK science education is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress files, involving personal development planning (PDP), are becoming a feature of many higher education systems internationally. In the UK they will become mandatory for all undergraduate students from 2005. This presents a major implementation challenge, because while reflection has been a cornerstone of practice in some areas of higher education for a considerable time, its generalisation as national policy changes its discursive location. The paper presents findings from a case study of the implementation of PF in one UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). It reports on how staff in one institution understand PF in the context of national policy, and on how they interpret the challenges they face in facilitating reflection for all students. The paper argues that pedagogical innovations take on a different meaning when applied to the system as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This year sees the 40th anniversary of the first policy paper regarding the use of computers in higher education in the United Kingdom. The publication of this paper represented the beginning of the field of learning technology research and practice in higher education. In the past 40 years, policy has at various points drawn from different communities and provided the roots for a diverse field of learning technology researchers and practitioners. This paper presents a review of learning technology-related policy over the past 40 years. The purpose of the review is to make sense of the current position in which the field finds itself, and to highlight lessons that can be learned from the implementation of previous policies. Conclusions drawn from the review of 40 years of learning technology policy suggest that there are few challenges that have not been faced before as well as a potential return to individual innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intentions with which hands-on simulations are used in vocational education are not always clear. Also, pedagogical-didactic approaches in hands-on simulations are not well conceptualised from a learning theory perspective. This makes it difficult to pinpoint the added value that hands-on simulations can have in an innovative vocational curriculum that not only aims at developing technical and procedural skills, but also at developing competencies and professional identity. This paper introduces a more explicit conceptual discussion regarding the opportunities for using hands-on simulations in innovative curricula. A systematic literature review aimed at positioning hands-on simulations in relation to other work-related contexts, based on their learning environment characteristics and outcomes, shows that certain constructivist characteristics and outcomes are underexposed in empirical research about simulations. The results of an additional in-depth analysis of literature specifically focusing on two fundamental characteristics of constructive vocational learning (i.e. authenticity and increasing students’ ownership) propose ideas about how hands-on simulations can have added value to innovative curricula. This paper concludes with concrete strategies for designing and implementing hands-on simulations from the social constructive learning theory with the aim of stimulating not only technical and procedural skills, but also competencies and professional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper centres on the tensions between the introduction of plagiarism detection software (Turnitin) for student and tutor use at undergraduate level and the aim to promote a developmental approach to writing for assessment at a UK university. Aims to promote developmental models for writing often aim to counteract the effects of the structural organisation of learning and assessment in higher education. This paper will discuss the potential for the implementation of plagiarism detection software to operate as a ‘change artefact’, creating opportunities for a departure from the habits of practice created by the demands of writing for assessment and the potential for the emergence of enclaves of good practice in respect of writing development. Tutor and student qualitative responses, gathered via questionnaires and focus groups, were analysed in order to investigate the effectiveness of this initiative. In this inquiry, plagiarism detection emerges as a dominant theme within regulatory discourses of malpractice in higher education. The promotion of writing development via a tool for regulation and plagiarism detection seems to be a mismatch and the extent to which Turnitin can operate as a change artefact to promote developmental approaches to writing for assessment in higher education is questioned. The suitability of plagiarism detection software as a tool to promote writing development will be discussed in light of the findings from this inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the 1980s higher education (HE) in the UK has been continually developing to meet the needs of a changing economy. An economy now based largely on knowledge and its transfer, rather than manual skills and labour, has led to an emphasis by the government on increasing the number of adults with high level skills to contribute to economic success. The widening participation agenda is an example of the government drive to increase the numbers and range of people attending university. It is within this context that the term innovation has grown in currency. A growing student population requires learning and teaching methods to be developed, adapted and changed to address the diversity of needs within it. Innovation in learning and teaching therefore may become vital to the success of an institution. But what encourages staff to innovate? The majority of this paper will discuss the context for the focus on innovation in HE in terms of its contributing factors, such as changing economic needs and the government agenda to widen participation. Brief discussion at the end will be given to one faculty's initiative to encourage staff to innovate within their own practice. This initiative presents the potential benefits of creating opportunities for staff to present, exchange and discuss new ideas as a stimulus to taking the first step in innovating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on three research projects (undertaken in 1997–99, 2002 and 2004–05) that have examined innovation in learning and teaching methods in UK higher education. The first two of these focused on such matters as departmental and institutional cultures and the factors that have either enabled or inhibited change. The third has begun to monitor the impact of the process of establishing Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The prospects for introducing innovations in teaching and learning in higher education are considered in relation to these wider contexts in terms of policies, structures and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government's widening participation strategy, and the concomitant development of a mass higher education system, has imposed a variety of pressures on higher education institutions. Not least of these is the changing nature of the student population, and the assumptions that can be made about its skills and knowledge base. It should not be surprising that this rapid expansion of the higher education system has resulted in declining student progression and retention rates. This paper takes a case study approach and attempts to identify the range of factors that might explain the variability of student performance on a first year undergraduate introductory statistics module. The paper concludes that there are no simple predictors of success or failure. However, there is evidence to suggest that any innovations in delivery need to take account of individual student development and that the presumption that students can rapidly become independent learners upon initial entry to higher education is an unrealistic one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student retention has emerged as a significant and expensive challenge for higher education institutes worldwide. Although several studies have been conducted on increasing student numbers and diversity in higher education institutes, studies on the relationship between student retention and entry grades are limited, particularly in the UK. The aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between entry grades and student attrition in the context of higher education in the UK. A quantitative methodology was used in this study, wherein data were derived from secondary sources, including University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) tariff points and full- and part-time undergraduate student enrolment between 2012 and 2017. The data were extracted and analyzed using Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) performance indicators. The findings indicate that there exists a clear association between entry grades and student retention for part-time students, which may aid policy makers, academics, university staff, and higher education stakeholders to develop appropriate strategies to address attrition levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations in assessment practice have become widespread in Higher Education (HE) throughout the world. Taking a case study approach, this paper examines the nature of students' assessment preferences at one English university, and compares the views of UK students with a sample of learners from a number of other countries studying at the same institution. A brief discussion of the literature is followed by a methodological overview, before turning to an examination of the study's findings with regard to the students' views and experiences of assessment. Similarities and differences in preferences are explored, and an attempt is made to account for these on the basis of the insights supplied by the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the progress made by UK higher education institutions (HEIs) to deliver the enterprise education agenda. The key areas for research included the type, content and delivery methods of graduate enterprise education being offered in the UK. Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire was e-mailed to 123 HEIs in the UK, together with a brief introduction stating the purpose of the research. These were followed up by telephone calls to request responses. Findings - The paper finds that provision of entrepreneurship education is varied, with both entrepreneurship and innovation courses on offer. Entrepreneurship education is most often offered at postgraduate level and on a part time basis. Overall, delivery methods proved to be more traditional than anticipated, with few instances of action learning or the use of technology to support learning. There were differences between pre- and post-1992 HEIs, and little attention was given to topic areas evident in relevant UK policy initiatives. Research limitations/implications - Supports entrepreneurship education, key capacities need to be addressed within HEIs, at senior and other levels, so that graduate enterprise embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and delivers the expected results of governmental focus and intervention. Originality/value - This is one of the first surveys to explore how enterprise education is delivered within UK HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates a three year programme in a UK university which recently won the Partnership Award from Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte for innovation in higher education. The programme aims to encourage students to work in groups and to reflect upon the processes and the group dynamics involved. The first part of the paper provides the context for the paper and the context in which the programme runs. An example of a case study used in the programme is described in detail and the way in which it draws together subject areas within the degree is illustrated. Finally the programme is evaluated in terms of its successes and its problem areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses speeches made by UK higher education ministers, from the election of the Conservative government in May 2015 through to September 2020. The article uses disruptive innovation as a theoretical framework through which to analyse ministers' perspectives on innovation. The methodology is content analysis with a directed approach. Fourteen speeches are analysed. Innovation is shown to serve an economic agenda, enabling students to transact their higher education quickly and subsequently function without state support. Innovation is also a flexible term offering numerous solutions, from providing economic growth; to militating against the isolationism of Brexit; to providing a route out of the pandemic. Innovation is intended to enhance economic performance and to deliver efficiency, but not to fundamentally disrupt the existing organisation of the UK's higher education sector. Innovation, as articulated by Ministers for Higher Education, comprises sustaining innovation and efficiency innovation, but not disruptive innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elaborates on the need for privatization to encourage innovation in higher education in Great Britain. Arguments used to support state involvement in higher education; Problem on the government's conception of the role of higher education in the economy.

Technology and change are so closely related that the use of the word innovation seems synonymous with technology in many contexts, including that of higher education. This paper contends that university culture and existing capability constrain such innovation and to a large extent determine the nature and extent of organizational change. In the absence of strong leadership, technologies are simply used as vehicles to enable changes that are already intended or which reinforce the current identity. These contentions are supported by evidence from e-learning benchmarking activities carried out over the past five years in universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Author's Note: This paper is the culmination of a variety of studies into the provision of higher education in Britain, and how it compares to innovations occurring in the rest of the world. While it refers to a truly British residual model of the "Donnish Dominion" (Halsey, 1995), the dominant and emerging models are drawn from an international arena, and the future model presented alludes to a global positioning of universities as they realize their corporate, virtual and global futures. Clearly, this model will have an enormous impact on the role of the academic, and the potential future student who will be studying at such institutions will have different demands, expectations and needs from those of the current student as the role of higher education changes.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wiki activities are among the most common online learning activities examined by previous research due to the collaborative learning properties wikis offer; however, students are not always satisfied with such activities. Due to this dissatisfaction, learners may finish the wiki activities but not repeat them. While wikis are primarily used to collate content, the wiki activity proposed in this study is used foremost as a discussion forum. Drawing on the value‐based adoption model, this study examines the influence of perceived benefits, enjoyment, peer interaction, ease of use, and time and effort costs to explain students' reluctance to repeat the wiki activity. Furthermore, it assesses the moderating effect of peer interaction on the other variables. A survey was conducted, and 110 valid responses obtained. The findings reveal that the need to invest a lot of time and effort into the activity is the main reason for not repeating the activity proposed, while peer interaction and enjoyment help to reduce these perceived costs. Therefore, teachers should emphasize the benefits of in‐group wiki activities with regard to not only the final learning performance but also the activities' hedonic and social value. Furthermore, teachers should offer a training session and a user's guide for each specific activity, as well as courses about the team management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent calls from the Office for Students, the regulatory body for the English higher education sector, have challenged those engaged in widening university access to 'strengthen' the outreach evidence base. Whilst focus groups have proved capable of revealing much about the learner experience and the effectiveness of outreach interventions, the established way in which they have been applied -- in capturing views and perceptions at one particular point in time -- limits what can be discovered. Adopting a longitudinal approach in the application of this research instrument -- by returning to the same group of participants at regular intervals over a number of months -- affords a chance to monitor changes in ideas and intentions, and distinguish the important from the fleeting. As the findings from three recent studies that have deployed this approach show, it can also generate richer, more detailed insights than would otherwise be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalisation and assessment and feedback are one of the main research agenda in the UK higher education. The study reports the Higher Education Academy Economics Network-funded research for international students’ experience with peer assessment and feedback innovation. The Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theoretical framework is used to analyse students’ experience. The finding demonstrates that peer assessment practice enhances assessment and feedback experience for international students. However, the heterogeneity in assessors’ ability levels may affect the confidence of students in peer assessment. Independent justification for providing peer assessment or making sense of received feedback is necessary. The model of PeerMark’s ZPD is suggested to become part of the peer assessment for learning ecosystem in order to empower learning experience rather than to provoke diffidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an empirically grounded critical exploration of conflict between two associated higher education agendas - audit-driven accountability and academic innovation. Feeding into a discourse of quality, audit and power, it considers how far prevailing economic-bureaucratic models of higher education accountability might actually inhibit the long-term success of other aspects of the quality agenda, such as innovation. Insider research into innovators' experiences of constraint in one higher education institution is used to interrogate assumptions about how meaningful academic innovation can be centrally promoted, managed and accountable. Drawing on this case, the article explores what emerges as a central dynamic of tension in relation to issues of cultural capital, trust, risk avoidance, ambivalence and subversion. It suggests that such tension is properly seen as a part of the realignment of fields of academic power, in both the UK and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study concerning the development of an organizational architecture of participation that allows organization adopt and improve educational system through e-learning design in Great Britain. The primary purpose of the study is to capture the significance of e-learning for post-compulsory education improvement. The study reveals that e-strategy for education system help improve all phases of educational system including in higher education (HE) across the country. The cites that e-strategy for education system has four common goal such as capability improvement in the workforces, providers and learners, suitable of educational technology and effectiveness for educational system for learners and children.

The authors offer their thoughts on implementing the Framework Agreement among institutions of higher education in Great Britain. This process was a result of the recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education. They also discussed the implementation of this program at the Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln in England.

This article argues that three broad trends—changes in nonprofit organizations, changes in the ways they are led, and changes in the available technologies of learning—combine to challenge the long-term viability of discrete full-time programs of nonprofit management education. To explore this contention, the authors draw on several sets of evidence. First, they examine literature about these trends. Second, they draw on their research and consultancies in nonprofit management and in large-scale educational strategies. Third, they draw on their experiences of developing and teaching nonprofit management education programs in the United Kingdom. They argue that new problems have overlaid old problems in the nonprofit world. However, these are linked to broader societal trends that reflect new ways of organizing, and this shifts the focus of learning and development. Finally, they review the implications for nonprofit management education and set out some principles to guide new developments in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creating a new generation of leaders and managers has been the task of the innovative U.K. Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the issues of trust, control, professional autonomy and accountability in higher education quality assurance in the UK. The main part of this article is conceptual, but it includes results from semi-structured interviews with academic staff that were conducted at two “new university” business schools. Both institutions are broadly similar in their key characteristics and have experienced a transformation to university status in the early 1990s. The article argues that there has been a change from informal “light-touch” quality control systems based on local practices and a significant amount of trust and professional autonomy in the early 1990s to a highly prescribed process of audit-based quality control today. The article argues that accountability and transparency are important principles that academics should wholeheartedly embrace, but that the audit format adopted in the UK introduces a one-way accountability and provides “rituals of verification” (Power 1997) instead of fostering trust, has high opportunity costs and may well be detrimental to innovative teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the nature of innovation in higher education teaching and learning in Great Britain. Increasing policy and funding emphasis on improvements in teaching; Typology of teaching innovation; Background on the history of innovation since the Second World War.

ABSTRACT This article presents information gathered from the first phase of a research project involving interviews with 221 staff at 15 UK universities during 1997-98, which focused on the experiences of those who have introduced innovations in teaching and learning in higher education. In particular it examines the reasons why some staff become involved in innovation and begins an analysis of the institutional contexts within which innovation takes place. It suggests that the masons which motivated these largely individual innovators may not be sufficient to involve other staff in the process of change, given shifts in the nature of innovation (from 'individual' to 'guided' to 'directed'), the risks involved and the lack of incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]