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In 2017, China released its building list of First-class Universities and First-class Subjects (Double First classes), which should get great support for development for many years into the future. This paper examines the academic performance of eight universities that are currently listed as having First-class Subjects of economics, in international papers and domestic papers, and compares their academic performance with another eight non-listed universities. The comparison shows that in general only three listed universities have obvious advantages among the 16 sample universities, while four listed universities do not show advantages, with one of them unexpectedly lagging behind. In contrast, several non-listed universities perform obviously better among the sample universities. In addition, several other aspects of this Double First-class list are also found to be less objective, scientific, or rigorous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valorization of skills in English higher education policy-making is a long-standing refrain, informing both rhetoric and investment from government and shaping university behaviour. Critiques of the 'skills agenda' are equally established, on grounds of its contested evidence base, manner of implementation and even its very definition. This paper draws on Bacchi's 'What is the Problem Represented to Be?' (WPR) approach (Bacchi, in: Bletsas, Beasley (eds) Engaging with Carol Bacchi: strategic interventions and exchanges, The University of Adelaide Press, Adelaide, 2021a; Bacchi and Goodwin in Poststructural policy analysis: a guide to practice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016) to examine how the UK Department for Education's nascent Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) policy represents, and therefore in Bacchi's sense produces, problems in the English tertiary education system. Through its WPR analysis of a significant contemporary shift in the English funding system, this paper demonstrates how the LLE policy replicates but also extends certain key features of the skills agenda and the dominant presuppositions of current English higher education policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancing the assessment of undergraduate and graduate student learning outcomes is essential for the future of higher education. After illustrating the value of this research area, this article examines contemporary limitations and the need for taking stock and charting promising directions. It introduces six papers which look at foundational issues, contexts, applications and implications. The article emphasizes the need for ongoing reviews in this field to clarify policy relevance and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a general understanding that higher education has characteristics of an "experience good" because the quality cannot be determined before receiving the service, which induces information asymmetry. In response to reducing the asymmetry, external assessment tools like international accreditations have emerged in higher education, which is especially evident in the field of business and management research. Quality is an integral part of reputation and legitimisation, so business schools actively engage in the accreditation race. In order to ensure legitimacy in the higher education market, business schools pay special attention to their intellectual output. It is reflected in the development of academic policies designed to encourage publication activities. It is pivotal to analyse how international accreditations contribute to the research performance and impact of business schools. The results of the study provide evidence that AACSB accreditation contributes to the research performance, however, it does not contribute to increasing the impact of the papers. Since the signalling research-based reputation is important for business schools, the study places attention on further examination of determinants of impactful research as international accreditation only determines the growth of quantity not the quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the contributions to the journal Higher Education Policy, celebrating its twenty-fifth birthday. It describes and analyses the themes addressed by the authors and the institutional background of the 1,172 contributors to the 812 papers. The analysis confirms the focus of the journal on higher education policy, governance and management, and its truly international character with contributions from across the globe on issues at stake in a vast range of countries and institutions. In addition, the paper analyses patterns regarding highly cited contributions to the journal and closes with words of thanks and recommendations for those intending to submit a paper to the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous higher education institutions apply a full costing system in their accounting model due to the imposition of formal agents (governments/funding institutions), or by suggestion of informal agents (associations). This paper analyzes whether the rationale applied by these agents to justify the use of the full costing rather than the direct/variable system is consistent with the theoretical bases underlying both costing systems. Methodologically, we review the mainstream literature that explores the links between the management accounting model and the use of its informative outcomes for the decision-making in higher education institutions. We conclude that there exists a gap between the theory-based statements and the information needs of these institutions. Remarkably, the full costing system falls short of adequateness for these institutions, which need information for their managerial decision-making process rather than for other industries' decisions such as stock valuation. Thus, this paper contributes to a critical view on the use of full costing systems and calls for redirecting current practices towards other more effective partial costing systems. Our findings have implications for academic, managers and policymakers interested on the implementation and improvement of managerial accounting in public higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities are rethinking their teaching and research programs and their whole third mission in response to the framework provided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But how do universities walk the talk? What are the main strategies and activities undertaken by universities to implement the 2030 Agenda? While the higher education literature has documented the growing number of practices and strategies around SDGs, there have been few attempts to synthesize these scholarly resources. Moreover, the knowledge base revolves around an array of activities, which makes the literature seem fragmented. To fill this gap, the present paper conducts a systematic literature review and derives a method of categorizing activities that can support further knowledge growth. We classified 130 selected papers based on the type of university activities considered (research, teaching, third mission, and managing operations) and the level of the implemented action (macro, meso, and micro). Subsequently, we identified the main gaps in the literature and discussed future research avenues for addressing higher education's role in accomplishing SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a corpus analysis of academic integrity policies from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worldwide, exploring how they address the issues posed by technological threats, such as Automated Paraphrasing Tools and generative-artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT. The analysis of 142 policies conducted in November and December 2022, and May 2023 reveals a gap regarding the mention of AI and associated technologies in the available academic integrity policies. Despite the growing prevalence of these tools in the 6-month period since the release of ChatGPT, no HEIs had produced revised academic integrity policies. Content analysis of 53 guidance documents produced by HEIs suggests an overall positive focus of Gen AI tools, yet advises caution. This study suggests a modification to Bretag et al.'s (Int J Educ Integr 7, 2011) exemplary academic integrity model, introducing "Technological Explicitness" — emphasizing the need to include explicit guidelines about new technologies in academic integrity policies. These results underscore the urgent need for HEIs to revise their academic integrity policies, considering the evolving landscape of AI and its implications for academic integrity. This paper argues for a multifaceted approach to deal with the issues of integrating technology, education, policy reform, and assessment restructuring to navigate these challenges while upholding academic integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated project-based governance (PBG) in China's higher vocational education (HVE) with a main research question asking how PBG works in China's HVE. Using case study as a research strategy, the paper examines the application and effect of the PBG model on Chinese HVE within the analytical framework of PBG-based agency theory. Twenty-three faculty members from both administrative and academic departments in College Plateau (pseudonym) were recruited to participate in a person-to-person interviews. They were expected to share their observations and perspectives on the PBG model as applied to HVE. As supplementary materials, the Chinese government's policy documents and statistics, as well as institutional policy documents, were also looked at for a brief discussion of governance of China's HVE. The results showed that the PBG model has greatly challenged the traditional administrative, distribution and personnel systems, as well as the college-enterprise cooperation model, and academic performance of higher vocational colleges (HVCs). These changes have brought higher academic achievements and greater social resources to College Plateau. However, they have also caused many negative effects, such as homogeneity of organizations and the Matthew effect among HVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines if universities in the UK mediate the impacts of spatial inequalities on earnings disparities among similar graduates and provides new evidence on the persistent income inequality at the neighbourhood level, using the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey data on the population of individuals graduating from universities in 2012/13. The results suggest that graduates from neighbourhoods with the highest university participation rate, on average, have higher earnings than those from the lowest-participation neighbourhoods, holding demographic features and university-related factors constant. The earnings gap by the neighbourhood quality remains substantial so that males from the lowest-participation neighbourhoods with a degree from the Russell Group barely earn higher incomes than their peers from the highest-participation areas who attended a less prestigious university. These results imply that universities in the UK do not fully level the playing field in terms of earnings disparities among graduates from different neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research has explored the relationship between professors and the academic capitalist regime. Nevertheless, this literature has mainly focused on fields heavily engaged with industry at top-ranked research universities in English-speaking countries. In this paper, we analyze the link between faculty promotion policy and professors as agents who introduce (or resist) the academic capitalist regime in the Colombian context. In order to cover heterogeneity among professors and higher education institutions, we consider two dissimilar academic departments at one public university. This multicase study examines how Colombian professors translate faculty promotion policy into actions on both intra- and inter-department levels. The findings indicate that the unique context of each academic department fostered or hindered professors in moving toward "the ideal professor," as promoted by the analyzed policy. In terms of academic capitalism, regardless of the academic department, professors did not internalize the inclusion of profit motive as part of their research activities. However, some professors were guided by prestige behavior through (but not limited to) the academic journal publishing market. This article concludes by highlighting the need to incorporate prestige behavior as part of the theory of academic capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue has chosen the major focus to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected higher education development and governance. The collection of articles in this Special Issue is organized with three key sub-themes, namely, student mobility, teaching and student learning, and university governance. Papers selected in this Issue were presented at different international conferences examining how the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019 has affected higher education development from international and comparative perspectives. During the international research events, authors contributing their papers to this Special Issue indeed benefitted from the exchanges and dialogues from international peers. Drawing insights from the papers collected in this Special Issue, this introductory article concludes by drawing the implications for future development of international education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduate outcomes are becoming increasingly prominent within higher education (HE) policy, driven by national governments keen to demonstrate 'value for money'. The majority of HE policy in this area uses narrow economic metrics, such as employment status and salary, often derived from national surveys of graduates. This paper uses critical realist philosophy to develop a set of foundational concepts (graduate functionings, graduate capabilities and graduate outcomes) that illuminate the key characteristics and mistakes of this HE policy. It is shown that the narrow economic metrics used in policy are graduate functionings not graduate outcomes—they describe how graduates function in the world, rather than how HE influences these functionings. Using graduate functionings to assess the quality and value of HE is an ontological mistake. This judges HE institutions by what graduates do, which may or may not be influenced by HE, rather than considering what HE institutions actually contribute and change. This means that HE policy risks producing inaccurate and misleading conclusions. The paper concludes by recommending how policy could adopt these foundational concepts to better assess the quality and value of HE, offering more appropriate accounts of how HE impacts graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in the mid-1980s, European governments have increasingly implemented performance-based funding systems for higher education. While a focus on the transnational pressures that contributed to the widespread adoption of performance-based funding in Europe accounts for the impetus for performance-based funding policies, it fails to address how and why the resultant performance-based funding policies are as distinct and different as they are. In this paper, I argue that an institutional logics perspective offers a theoretical account of the performance-based funding policy formation process. I use the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, and France as case studies. I contend that in these three cases, different local logics drove the performance-based funding policy formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soviet higher education had a distinctive institutional landscape. It combined two institutional types in a uniform model that embedded higher education in the national economy. This paper focuses on the post-Soviet system-level changes in the institutional landscape in all 15 countries of the former USSR. It shows that over last three decades the Soviet two-type institutional model evolved into a three-type model, with the specialized university as a new institutional type. Highlighting the instruments of horizontal and vertical differentiation for each country, the paper explains how structural reforms and market forces led to the rise of the university/multiversity form of institution, and the strengthening of vertical stratification at system level. The comparative analysis shows that there have been different patterns of transformation in the 15 countries, shaped by unique combinations of structural reforms and marketization policies, with certain countries having made more distinctive steps away from the Soviet institutional model. There are now 15 formally different systems of higher education which poses further questions for comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the approaches employed for attracting international full-degree students in three countries on the periphery of Europe/the European Economic Area: Norway, Poland and Portugal. These countries, considered semi-peripheral regarding international student recruitment, have shorter traditions for incoming mobility than countries that are major recruiters and which have been the focus of previous research on attracting international students. The paper analyses national policies and strategies, focusing on their emergence, rationales and instruments. The study is comparative, aiming to find commonalities and differences in the approaches of these countries further to the changing global environment in higher education. The major finding is that semi-peripheral countries appear to employ different strategies and resort to other comparative advantages than the largest student recruiters, exploiting political, cultural or geographical aspects rather than educational assets. The findings highlight the need for these countries to identify their distinctive attraction capacities and assets, as well as to be purposeful in choosing their target recruitment regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the precariousness of an academic profession in contemporary Slovakia and Poland. Although some of the patterns have been previously studied, this analysis sheds new light on the problems of Polish and Slovak academia as seen by foreigners, who, according to official policy, are expected to contribute to the excellence of Polish academia. In reality, low wages and underfinanced universities often make their work very difficult. The analysis is focused mainly on the issues related to low salaries and ways that allow foreign-born employees to secure extra income necessary to maintain the desired standard of living. Even if, for some interviewees, local salary is sufficient to live in CEE, other academics have higher demands because of their family situation (e.g., "international children"), extra travel expenses for private purposes, or spending on bilingual education in Poland or Slovakia. Foreign-born academics living in Poland and Slovakia compensate for low salaries in three distinct ways discussed in the paper — by taking various academic and non-academic extra jobs, acquiring external funding from their home country's government, or relying on family economic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connectivity in both its tangible and intangible forms is a fundamental feature of all aspects of university life though often overlooked in much of the relevant literature. Using the metaphor of the couloir, this paper will examine features of university design and organisation which contribute to this connectivity, in its various senses, across the institution. A typology of connectivity features is proposed, setting efficiency of movement against possibilities for social interaction, with another axis contrasting open/public against closed/private spaces. Universities, which everywhere have both public and private dimensions, seem to have features that occupy a central place in this typology, highlighting the multifaceted nature of connectivity in university life. The significance of connectivity should inform a range of institutional policies affecting space design and use as well as methods in teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the contradictory results on the effect of social background on choice of field of study (field stratification) in expanded higher education systems. We predicted that the contradictory results stem from variations in institutional selectivity and curricular policy. Based on two surveys conducted in 1999 (4146 students) and 2014 (7384 students) in the Israeli expanded higher education system, this paper analyzes changes in the ratio of continuing-generation college students in fields of study offered by institutions with varying degrees of selectivity. The results show a decrease in the selectivity of the second-tier institutions in the second analyzed period, accompanied by an increase in field stratification. We suggest that this increase stems from the differential curricular policies of second-tier higher education institutions. In the second period, the second-tier institutions initiated labor market-oriented programs for the less popular fields, thus opening them to first-generation students. In popular and lucrative fields, some of them regulated by professional associations, the second-tier institutions kept to the traditional orientation of the programs, and attracted less qualified continuing-generation students. We discuss the implications of the findings on social stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pedagogical benefits of active learning environments such as simulations within university teaching have been widely acknowledged. This paper starts from the premise that simulations can derive benefits when used as an effective university outreach tool to widen participation in and raise aspirations towards entering higher education. We argue that European Union (EU)-related simulations involving students in secondary education can increase their interest in studying European politics and, more generally, political science and international relations at university level. This is seemingly particularly the case with students predisposed to pursuing a degree in these fields. The paper uses data gathered via a pre- and post-simulation questionnaire completed by pupils attending six secondary schools in 2016 who all participated in one of the three simulations included in the study. Empirical investigation reveals three major effects of simulations. First, the simulations can increase participants' interest in pursuing university degrees in fields cognate to EU politics. Second, simulations can increase participants' self-assessed knowledge of EU politics. Third, simulations can increase the importance participants place on understanding the workings of the EU. Taken together, these findings support our claim that EU-related simulations may be used as outreach tools to increase interest in pursuing EU-related subjects at university level. Such an increase is desirable despite—or perhaps precisely because—of the ongoing Brexit process, as the understanding of and engagement with EU politics will remain relevant for current and future generations of British students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese higher education has been actively developed in recent decades as a major engine of national prosperity. This investment has spurred substantial and growing interest in understanding student and graduate outcomes. After discussing this policy context, the paper deploys an international lens to analyse evaluation mechanisms being used and developed in China. Specific initiatives are discussed to particularise each mechanism and to help link them with international developments. The paper's final section reviews China's apparent progress in this field and concludes by considering the growing role of technology in future policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to explore and understand contemporary structural developments in Slovak higher education (HE). This work examines the pre-conditions, policy rationales and organisational forms of a new phenomenon: the formation of university umbrella structures. The paper conceptually uses the theoretical backdrop of sociological institutionalism and examines how the powerful concept of university mergers is translated and adapted into the context of Slovak HE. The analysis also attempts to answer the question on whether emerging university umbrella structures are only an organisational semblance of plausible policy imitation or if they are actual steps in a long way towards full organisational mergers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the heated debates on the implementation and its massive impact on the lives of Filipino people, only a dearth of research has been conducted to investigate the free college education project of the Duterte administration. Informed by corpus-based investigation of discourse, this paper critically compares news articles on the free college tuition discourse written by seven English online newspapers in the Philippines. The findings revealed that thematizing key public officials in the Manila Times, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Philippine Star highlighted strong regard on the sources of information and the attribution of full authorial responsibility to information sources. CNN and Rappler's focus on educational institution news themes depicts the thematization of the indispensable role of key agencies as implementers and venues for implementing the free college education project and the indispensable stance of these public higher education institutions. The Manila Bulletin and the government-owned Philippine News Agency's strong rendition of free college tuition as a subject matter simply focused on state-of-affairs, where the absence of authorial sources may lower the credibility and trustworthiness of the news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature suggests an increased risk of cybervictimisation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores student and staff experiences in a higher education community as victims of cyberbullying and cyberstalking during the COVID-19 lockdowns. An online semi-structured questionnaire was administered to self-identified students and staff victims within a higher education context. By analysing victim responses, within a qualitative framework, this research identifies perceptions, impacts and support mechanisms. The findings offer insights for the development of effective practices and policies to mitigate risk factors and foster resilience. This research addresses the need for comprehensive understanding in the face of emerging digital challenges and future traumatic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education professional associations (HEPAs) are well-established agents of knowledge production and have been influential in shaping higher education policies and practices. In the context of US international higher education, HEPAs have contributed to the rise of 'internationalization' as a discursive practice. Proposing an analytical framework that takes up Foucauldian analysis of discourse and studies in governmentality, this paper examines a corpus of ACE and NAFSA reports in order to trace the emergence of internationalization and its lines of transformation as both a regime of truth and a regime of practice in the context of US higher education over the last 30 or so years. The findings of this study illustrate that since its emergence in the 1980s, HEPAs have participated in the transformation of internationalization from a discourse of exchange to a discourse of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though various measures of mobility rate for colleges, e.g. bottom-to-top mobility rate, status maintenance rate, and middle-class mobility rate, have been introduced, they have rarely been reviewed together to see the whole picture of intergenerational mobility, particularly in non-Western societies. This paper fills this gap and characterises mobility rates for 17 different college tiers in South Korea using the Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey for 37,552 graduates from 2007 to 2010. It documents two main results. First, mobility rates are higher for males than for females in all three measures, indicating colleges in South Korea are less effective as a social ladder for females. Second, many selective colleges are more likely to play a role as a glass floor than a social ladder due to their lower low-income access, and 'selective public' colleges are the engines of upward social mobility for students from the bottom three quintiles. Though people believe education is the single greatest hope to achieve upward social mobility, these findings cast doubt on the idea that college attendance alone can promote social mobility. This paper does not necessarily identify causal relationships that can be manipulated to improve mobility rates; however, it documents various patterns of interest to policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incentivizing academic publications in internationally-indexed journals is a current topic of national debate especially in non-anglophone countries. To boost the dissemination of Chinese research results, the central government and higher education institutions had introduced various schemes to encourage international publications. However, a significant policy change took place when the Chinese government recently announced a break with SSCI supremacy conventions in research evaluation systems. Based on semi-structured interviews with five university managers and 30 academics in humanities and social sciences in five universities in China, this study examines the responses of both institution managers and individual scholars to the latest national guidelines. A qualitative analysis shows mixed attitudes among both HSS managers and individual academics towards the policy change: supportive but with doubts about the policy practicality as well as concerns about ensuing pressures to be generated by new evaluation systems. The findings suggest the policy change will not significantly affect HSS academics' pursuit of international publishing in a short term. It will, however, lead to some adjustments in the existing institutional evaluation regulations. The findings can contribute to the understanding of HE policy influence on academics as well as its potential implications for the global trend of anglicized academic publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the seminal contribution by Gornitzka and Maassen on hybrid steering approaches in higher education as a foundation, this paper offers three main contributions. First of all, an analysis is provided of how the concept of hybrid steering approaches has been used since 2000 in the higher education literature. Second, the paper delivers a theoretical underpinning for the existence of hybrid steering in higher education stemming from institutional theory and policy analysis. Third, the paper deepens and broadens the concept of hybrid steering emphasizing the permanence of hybrids, their potential homogeneity and convergence over time. Furthermore, their relation to multi-level governance arrangements as well as interaction between global scripts and national filters is addressed. In the conclusion, several avenues for future research are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, more than 70 million people globally are classified as displaced and another 25.4 million are classified as refugees. Among refugee populations, only 3% will access higher education (UNHCR in Tertiary education, 2020. https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/tertiary-education.html). Those left behind include the resettled refugee population in the USA, who are simultaneously included and excluded from higher education (AACRAO in Supporting Syrian refugee access to US higher education, 2016. https://www.aacrao.org/resources/newsletters-blogs/aacrao-connect/article/supporting-syrian-refugee-access-to-u-s–higher-education). This paper argues that while many higher education institution (HEI) initiatives do address this issue, a lack of awareness and absence of a standardized protocol itemizing the specific needs of this population further excludes them from accessing and succeeding in higher education. This paper first outlines the specific needs of resettled refugee students and the barriers they face trying to access higher education. Second, it examines how HEIs in the USA have worked to promote the access, inclusion, and success in higher education of refugee students who have already been resettled in the USA. Third, it provides policy recommendations for additional support mechanisms that should be considered for students from refugee backgrounds. The findings, conceptualized within a capabilities and social justice perspective, indicate that initiatives established by HEIs with external partners have the potential to provide access channels for resettled refugees to enter tertiary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education estates are large and valuable assets that affect diverse stakeholders. Despite recent growth, data on university estates has received little concerted attention from national and international statistics bodies. This paper examines and contrasts the evolution of universities and their estates in the UK and Poland, in the light of the degree of central government control versus institutional autonomy. Given increased international competition for students, staff and research funding, the paper argues that universities and their stakeholders would benefit from more transparency, the development of an agreed set of estate definitions, standards and regular statistical reports. Data based on agreed standards would provide a basis for comparative analysis and help to run better university estates and facilities, thereby enhancing HEI efficiency, effectiveness and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their common historical roots, two higher education systems in Latin America differ dramatically in their financing mechanisms. In Argentina, the national government completely subsidizes undergraduate programs in public institutions, while Chile relies mostly on tuition fees charged to individuals attending public institutions. Through quantitative and qualitative secondary sources, this paper shows that class interests (structural approach) and economic policies (ideational approach) played a major role in explaining comparative policy outcomes in these nondemocratic regimes. The article makes an explicit contribution to the understanding of comparative policy choices in nondemocratic regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was the first to analyze the magnitude, temporal evolution, and decomposition of socioeconomic segregation in Chilean higher education, over the period 2009 to 2017, in which relevant policies aimed at strengthening inclusion and equity in the system were introduced. Two segregation indices, the dissimilarity index and the square root index, are used to meet these objectives. The results show high and persistent segregation for high socioeconomic status students, in contrast to the moderate and decreasing segregation levels seen in the low and middle socioeconomic groups. Besides, the decomposition exercise posits the universities as the focus of segregation in this system, where both the institution and the degree program constitute relevant factors in understanding the unequal distribution of high socioeconomic status students. These results invite an in-depth look at the mechanisms that hinder social integration in this area, with a particular emphasis on the segregation of the highest socioeconomic status students, whose place in this system promotes their academic and social differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using sociocultural theory as the theoretical stance and autoethnography as the tool, this paper explores how transnational, lived experiences and political, economic policies in higher education have re/shaped a transnational intellectual's identities and mobility. Instead of simply confirming transnationals' identities are multiple, complex, and recurring during the transnational process, this paper fills a gap in the existing literature by informing that transnational identity development can be used as an analytical tool to advocate for social justice and to develop teacher education programs in different international settings. It also indicates that sustainability of the multiple identities requires critical thinking and intellectual agency. Finally, the paper proposes a conceptual framework to study transnational identities and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two to three decades, many universities around the world have seen an increase in both organizational autonomy and performance-based accountability. While these developments have attracted considerable attention, relatively little remains known about how, within this transformed governance context, academics themselves practice their autonomy as researchers. Focusing on the case of one highly research-intensive university situated in Australia, this paper explores how academics from various disciplines understand and experience their practical autonomy in their own research in both its strategic and operational dimensions. Drawing on analyses of semi-structured interviews with 18 experienced academics, we find that academics' practical autonomy is only loosely coupled to the autonomy they formally have. We further find that the practical realization of autonomy is closely associated with having adequate levels of resources such as funding (strategic autonomy) and time (operational autonomy), with the former being more important for scientists, while the latter was more important for those in the humanities and social sciences. Increasing levels of bureaucratization (humanities and social sciences) and the increasingly narrow thematic focus and strategic orientation of the major funding schemes (sciences and social sciences) were perceived as constraining these academics' practical autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics all over the world are feeling the increasing pressure to attain satisfactory research performance. Since research is not the only activity required of academics, though, the debate on how it may be coupled with other knowledge transfer activities like teaching, patenting, and dissemination has been captivating scholars interested in higher education. The literature is surprisingly silent about the interplay between research performance and other roles and tasks that faculty are expected to carry out, namely academic citizenship, intended as the service that they provide to their institution, to the scientific community, and to the larger society. Through a negative binomial regression conducted on 692 Italian academics in management, this paper investigates both the direct and moderating effect exerted by academic citizenship on the relationship between research performance in two subsequent evaluation exercises, thus advancing our knowledge of the relationship between research and service. Findings show that institutional service acts as a pure moderator, discipline-based service is a quasi-moderator, while public service exerts only a direct negative effect on research performance. In light of the emergent interplay between research and service, the necessity to boost reflection on academic citizenship is discussed and suggestions for its acknowledgement and advancement are formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Government's Green Paper (BIS in Fulfilling our potential: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice. BIS, London, 2015), White Paper (BIS in Success as a knowledge economy: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice. BIS, London, 2016a) and Higher Education and Research Bill (, 2016) appear to be premised on a normative student ideal in UK higher education policy. This ideal student presupposes a transactional model of student engagement, which relies on the accumulation of knowledge capital by a systemic subject. The current government vision forms part of a long-term shift away from the discourse of social democracy since the policies of the 1960s. This shift towards neoliberal political economy is reflected in the legislation to establish the Office for Students, United Kingdom Research and Innovation and the Teaching Excellence Framework (BIS 2015, 2016a; BIS in Teaching excellence framework: technical consultation for year two. BIS, London, 2016b). Rather than adding to the transactional view of student engagement based on the neoliberal student ideal, this article explores the democratic idea of a higher education multitude in which there might be a more nuanced pedagogic and socio-technical understanding of student engagement for further policy developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies agency theory to explore the contractual relationship between higher education institutions (HEI) and HEI-contracted for-profit education agents in international student recruitment, bridging a gap in the existing literature by investigating the underlying issues surrounding these relationships. Building on insights and findings from previous studies related to this topic, our analysis shows that HEI-education agent relationships are often undermined by goal conflicts and information asymmetries that significantly constrain the possibilities for optimal contractual options to monitor and incentivise agents. The present analysis shows that hybrid governance models that include elements from both behaviour- and outcome-based contracts are often most efficient in managing HEI-education agent relationships. The paper critically evaluates how insights from agency theory can help to mitigate these problems and identifies specific inherent frictions that may make government interventions desirable in overseeing the use of education agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional integration agreements have oriented toward common educational exchanges within the region. In previous research, Jane Knight's functional, organizational, and political approaches model (FOPA) has been proven to capture a large spectrum of the main aspects relevant to the study of the regionalization of higher education. Knight's threefold framework allows for an analysis of the role of different actors, institutions, programs, systems, networks, and agreements in those challenges. However, this model has only been applied to the study of African and Asian regions, while the regionalization of higher education in South America has remained understudied. The advent of the Educational Mercosur (SEM — Sector Educativo del Mercosul) in 2006 and other affords from ALBA-TCP, UNASUR, Pacific Alliance, and CAN present an opportunity to test the FOPA framework in South America. This paper analyzes the meaning, concepts, and processes occurring in the regionalization of South American higher education. The result is a "panoramic screenshot" covering educational initiatives that promote regionalization in the region. The higher education agenda is visibly present in the scope of the South American regionalism. In conclusion, the paper identifies key questions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though government funding has shrunk, Nepal's higher education (HE) sector has expanded in the last three decades in terms of the establishment of new institutions and the implementation of a series of projects funded by the World Bank. Using neoliberal instrumentalism as a theoretical framework and critical policy sociology as a methodological tool, this paper analysed key policy documents produced by the World Bank and the Government of Nepal for implementing three most recent HE projects in Nepal. The paper argues that a new version of human capital theory, which stems from neoliberal instrumentalism in education, has guided HE policies and practices of Nepal. Though a number of reform strategies are implemented with the aim of increasing performance and competition, the HE sector has become increasingly unresponsive to the needs of Nepali communities and societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While interdisciplinarity has been widely addressed in higher education policies and university strategies across countries, universities and colleges are struggling with the implementation at the programme level. For instance, extant literature implies many barriers to establishing interdisciplinary degree programmes (IDPs). However, there is a lack of both conceptual understandings and empirical investigations on how these barriers can be resolved through appropriate management. Our paper addresses this research gap by constructing an analytical framework for understanding the cause of barriers in the context of establishing IDPs and managerial approaches to overcome them through the lens of managing organisational innovation, and applying it in an empirical study of two cases of establishing IDPs at a Finnish research university. Our study yielded four conceptualised and tested propositions on key factors that middle-level university managers should consider for both preventing and resolving barriers to establishing IDPs. It suggests that while managers should plan IDPs that largely fit the institutional environment and bring foreseeable benefits to participants in the programmes, the art of their management lies in leveraging all relevant resources to enhance institutional compatibility, to change peoples' perceptions about profitability and to empower other participants' agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a dissonance between the formal role of head of academic department represented in institutional discourses and the reality of heads' working practices. This paper provides insight, from the perspective of heads, about how the role is experienced and enacted in one institution. Data are derived from 20 semi-structured interviews with heads of department in a teaching-focussed university in the UK. The findings show that there is autonomy in how individual heads structure, manage and lead their departments, and so the role is performed in significantly different ways. Nevertheless, for all heads, the development of a clearer institutional mission, vision and strategy had meant that the scope for strategic initiatives at departmental level was more circumscribed, and there was a significant issue for many heads about how to make the time and space available for this aspect of the role, given the competing operational demands. Derived from these findings, the paper informs practice by making recommendations about how heads of department may operate more effectively. We suggest that a mesopolitical lens, exploring how social practices are shaped by specific disciplinary and departmental contexts and cultures, may provide a productive perspective on the role of middle leaders and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of universities' engagement in peripheral regions, taking into account both endogenous (university) and exogenous (regional peripherality) characteristics. The paper aims to deconstruct the university - periphery interplay in the form of a novel analytical framework and to pilot the framework empirically. The pilot mapping of six Norwegian and Czech universities onto the peripheral regions resulted in two implications. First, due to regional lag effects on the industrial - post-industrial development scale and institutional profiling, universities' regional role is contingent on path dependencies, suggesting that both exogenous and endogenous characteristics should be given equal consideration. Second, the universities' positioning in peripheral regional surroundings produces some variants in which universities' engagement is not pivotal for improving regional attributes. This is either because of the incapacity of unlocking the path-dependent effects of regional periphery structures or because of limitations in research capacity, constraining the respective regions' progress to the knowledge/service society paradigm. Further explorations of these issues may create an impetus for comparative studies on the role of universities in regional development, particularly with respect to peripheral units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite new empirical insights on the topic, the role of the universities in regional development is far from clear. Some regions with strong universities manage to benefit from technological spillovers, while others fail to develop strong industry-university connections, which leaves the research potential of the university largely unutilized. This paper investigates the role played by universities in the development of industrial clusters in two peripheral regions in Norway and the Czech Republic. In so doing, we contrast between a more and a less successful case scenario shedding light on key contextual factors, including the importance attributed to top-down versus bottom-up approaches. The paper contributes with new empirical insights on the role of higher education institutions in regional cluster development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities around the world are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the corona virus. There has been global devastation of the entire education sector with long-term closure of schools. The health crisis and the accompanying education crisis continue, and the end of the crisis is not certain. The immediate response everywhere to the outbreak of the virus was closure of university campuses, disrupting almost all academic activities everywhere. After the immediate reaction, as a short-term response, universities began offering some core programmes in education and research by adopting digital technology. While some feel that online methods have improved overall access, many argue that they exacerbate existing inequalities in access to higher education and research among several groups of population. As the global health emergency is still continuing, it is widely noted that we need to develop, after initial immediate responses, short-term, medium- and long-term plans for developing robust higher education and research systems that contribute to knowledge development, reducing inequalities, and which can face future uncertain emergencies. The paper reviews some of the important developments that have taken place, and different perspectives that are emerging on the responses needed for the transformation of higher education in the post-COVID era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of international students studying for a degree program in China was approaching a quarter of a million in 2017, roughly ten times that in 2003. China, a developing country, has become one of the biggest destinations for international student mobility (ISM). Thus, how it has managed to achieve this within only one and a half decades, what it plans to do with such a success, and what that means for the world remain open for interpretation. This increase is an economical grow which demonstrates the country's success in governance and generosity in international aid, while it is also a result of an internationalization policy of higher education which is viewed by central government as an arena for exercising soft power in world politics. It is difficult when trying to reach a persuasive conclusion without a comprehensive review of what happened in this period via a thorough examination of ISM data in a context of rapid policy change. This paper consists of four sections to identify the key driver(s) behind this sharp rise of student numbers from overseas. The first section is an introduction with a brief review of both theoretical and empirical aspects, followed by a short discussion on methodology. The second section is a review of key policy documents impacting on the development of ISM in modern China. The third section provides a general picture of ISM policy in China by analyzing official data. The final section reflects on the findings of the present study and concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the intensely competitive international higher education sector, universities can still play a role in providing public good through building social solidarity and mobility in volatile and increasingly divided societies. This paper draws on a longitudinal narrative enquiry that follows 22 students from asylum-seeking backgrounds in Australian universities—a distinct group within the category of forced migration whose university experiences have rarely been studied. It explores the students' visceral realities and tensions as they attempt to navigate government and institutional policies and practices which fail to recognise the unique category and needs of this distinct group. The paper develops a conceptual frame comprising a critical theory of recognition (Axel Honneth) and the feminist developments of recognition (Nancy Fraser). It explores how competing discourses are being played out in Australian universities about the educational needs of students from asylum-seeking backgrounds. Finally, it critically reflects on the role of universities' policies and practices in enabling and/or constraining public good through recognising the unique needs of students of asylum-seeking backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of private higher education (PHE) in China has resulted from the increasing demand from the public for higher education, and the requirements of private businesses in the socialist market economy. This paper examines the development of the PHE in China since 1949, and in particular the commencement of the Opening-up and Reform Policy for the period 1978–2018. Drawing from national documents and transcripts of interviews with senior managers, the paper explores the challenges PHE currently faces and the policies which have addressed the challenges especially in the last 10 years. It is suggested to improve the role of the university constitution in governance practices of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When visiting universities during recruitment tours, many students and parents want to know if the student will be 'safe' while attending the institution. This paper uses a qualitative examination of security at a Canadian university to argue that the increase in security measures on campuses is driven by both the desire to provide physical security and the pressure from the increasing corporatization of academia to use security as a recruitment and retention tool. These goals can be served by the same security measures or compete for budgetary priority. Overall, this study demonstrates how the concepts of corporatization, institutional risk management, security theatre, and university branding are present in how the university designs security policies and brands itself as a 'safe' environment, and how this can leave students wanting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing education and research during pandemics has increased in importance since the onset of epidemics such as avian flu, SARS and now CoViD-19. Successful management in times of crisis ensures business continuity and institutional survival, making preparedness preceding an impending pandemic essential. Institutions of higher education (IHEs) must maintain balance between academic continuity and preventing morbidity during a pandemic crisis. To date, however, no general pandemic preparedness frameworks exist for IHEs. The aim of this paper is to report on the development of a Haddon matrix framework for IHE pandemic preparedness based on a scoping literature review of past IHE responses including pre-, during and post-pandemic phases. First, a review of previous global responses by IHEs during past pandemics was carried out. The review findings were then collated into a new IHE-centric Haddon matrix for pandemic preparedness. The content of the matrix is then illustrated through the documented responses of Malaysian universities during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting IHE Haddon matrix can be used by universities as a general guide to identify preparedness gaps and intervention opportunities for business continuity during pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented that discusses issue articles on topics including the role of entrepreneurialism in higher education, the evolution of academic and intellectual freedom in Chinese universities, and the identity of a university as an organization.