Search

Flipped classroom approaches have increasingly been adopted in the Australian higher education sector. However, current research on this approach is predominantly quantitative and focused on domestic students. Little is known about the flipped classroom learning experiences of undergraduate international students in Australia. This paper sets out to investigate undergraduate international students' challenges in a flipped classroom environment, based on thirty-two semi-structured interviews with undergraduate international students at an Australian university. We identified several challenges, including language issues, barriers to autonomous learning, as well as technical and technological challenges. International students in our study also provide constructive recommendations to improve the design of the flipped classroom. This paper contributes new insights into the nuances of undergraduate international students' challenges in a flipped classroom environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textbooks are artifacts. They are made, used, interpreted, and understood in a wide range of ways. In this sense, regardless of its theoretical assumptions, textbook analysis is an evolving and pioneering task as textbooks bring about manifold knowledge, relationships, and emotions. When exploring the texts, images, and functions in and beyond the textbooks, researchers would recognize textbooks as interactive subjects in the social world rather than simply as content carriers. Although content analysis has long been employed as a methodology for textbook analysis, there are multiple pathways to investigate textbooks. The paper pays specific attention to interpretivist methodologies that may allow researchers to see the textbooks' interactive performance and impacts on others and researchers themselves. First, the paper reviews and pieces together previously established approaches and orientations of textbook studies. Second, the paper attempts to build a broad framework for analysing textbooks based mainly on Prior's and Cooren's arguments about reconceptualizing documents and texts, respectively. Third, the paper explores the implications of the analysis mentioned earlier and examines two interpretivist research methodologies, including symbolic interactionism and autoethnography, to open up the possibilities of rethinking textbooks as active social agents in human life instead of repositories of information and ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in knowledge society by providing and disseminating knowledge. In this regard, academics have been encouraged to collaborate with society, leading to the emergence of new modes of knowledge production. Several institutional and individual factors have been identified as determinants of the academic engagement. Hence, using data from a survey delivered to a representative sample of Portuguese academics, this paper analyses the influence of different modes of knowledge production, institutional diversity and individual characteristics on distinct dimensions of academic engagement (Formal Research Collaboration; Informal Dissemination of Knowledge; Commercialization of Knowledge; and Teaching-related Activities and Supervision of Students). We propose as research hypotheses the existence of an influence of individual academics' values, identity and types of knowledge on the engagement with society, addressing them using a linear regression. Results suggest the influence of CUDOS, (i.e. communalism, disinterestedness and organized scepticism) and PLACE, (i.e. proprietary, local, authority, commissioned and expert) on academic engagement, although this influence differs according to distinct dimensions. The findings also reveal differences according to the type of institutional affiliation. Moreover, the study confirms the relevance of individual characteristics in explaining different forms of academic engagement, such as gender, discipline and seniority. Since the results do not align entirely with the theory, this paper may be of particular relevance to launch a discussion around the type of engagement higher education institutions intend to promote and how far their own characteristics and those of their academics may influence such engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, government policies that target the rapid internationalization of Japanese higher education have provided new career opportunities especially for scholars with experience of studying and teaching abroad. This autoethnographic paper draws on such "migrant" faculty's engagement in formal curriculum development to illustrate their active negotiations within the micro-level processes of internationalization of a Japanese University. More specifically, the analysis focuses first on the enactment of agencies to negotiate diverse understandings of "culture" and "discipline" in the process of building a "Japanese Studies" curriculum. The paper then draws on those negotiations to show how those agencies were transformative; namely how they impacted on and challenged the framing and the practice of the official framework of "Japanese Studies" at University X. This study aims, therefore, to shed light on the ways individual migrant faculty members of diverse backgrounds, may constructively contribute to internationalization processes of higher education when such faculty's active interactions are carefully looked at and sought for, beyond established and often imagined cultural, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains an action research response to the need for knowledge democracy in research projects between academics in global North and global South countries. It argues that if unspoken assumptions about knowledge creation are left unexamined, such collaborations can replicate forms of 'epistemic injustice'. The paper is premised on the belief that such collaborations should be based upon practical acknowledgement of plurality in the domain of knowledge and upon the right and responsibility of people to contribute to research conceptualisations and questions as equals. The article focuses on the facilitation processes applied during an initial, five-day strategic planning meeting for athree-year Erasmus Mundus research project, in which academics from universities in Spain, Portugal, Peru and the UK participated, and the conceptualisations and strategic direction of the project were established. The authors draw upon their experiences as project co-designers and joint co-ordinators. We conclude that if international research projects are to promote knowledge democracy, processes need to be established in which relevant concepts and objectives can be articulated and the research questions established by all partners, in order to accommodate multiple perspectives. The insights offered also have relevance for collaborations between multiple stakeholders inside and outside of academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative case study examined a group of undergraduate students' motivations towards extracurricular research in a Hong Kong university. Drawing upon data from semi-structured interviews, this study analysed the students' motivation change from the cognitive, social, and affective perspective. The findings revealed that the students were externally and internally motivated to join informal research activities and that their motivation change was intertwined with their cognitive learning, social interactions, and emotional experiences in the research process. The paper concluded with practical implications on supporting and sustaining undergraduates' motivations in extracurricular research activities to benefit their academic studies and future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether a broad undergraduate curriculum prepares students well for academic and professional specialization is a much‐debated question. This discussion is particularly relevant in the context of European liberal arts bachelor's programmes, which recently re‐emerged as an exception to the continental norm of specialized undergraduate curricula. While liberal arts proponents contend that the broad foundation of knowledge and generic skills provided by this educational model facilitate specialization rather than hindering it, critics point to the relative lack of disciplinary depth. To investigate this problem, the paper looks at three specialized master's programmes at Maastricht University—in international business, psychology, and neuroscience. It compares the academic performance of two groups of students in these programmes: graduates from University College Maastricht, a liberal arts institution, and their peers with discipline‐focused bachelor's degrees in a matching field. Results from probit and OLS regression models show that there are no major differences between the two groups in terms of dropout rates, GPA, and master's thesis grades. Despite having less subject‐specific knowledge, university college graduates proved to be prepared equally well for specialized master's studies as their counterparts with a matching disciplinary background. These findings suggest that an undergraduate curriculum that offers more breadth and flexibility does not represent an obstacle to further specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal values influence goals and motivate actions. The case study reported in this paper explored whether an understanding of values would provide a useful framework to guide the co‐creation of the undergraduate cognitive psychology curriculum at a UK University. A design team composed of staff and students ran two co‐creation workshops to explore underlying values. These values were translated into curriculum ideas which were then shared via an online survey to students and staff for feedback. The activities revealed a set of values that were salient when imagining future curriculum designs: feeling stimulated, choice and autonomy, developing competence, feeling safe and secure, community and fairness. In addition, a deeper value layer was visible which reflected participants' orientations to learning and education. We describe our process for eliciting values and the intertwined and iterative relationship between value elicitation and a co‐created curriculum. We also reflect on the position of co‐creation within the value landscape of higher education and the social dynamics of staff‐student partnerships. We argue that whilst using values to frame co‐creation allows for deeper insight into how to embed curriculum re‐innovation, it is important to attend to the value system of co‐creation and those who do not participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although transdisciplinarity has taken hold in many areas, it is still a concept in its early stages of development in Latin America. We see an emergent opportunity to contribute to the current discussion on transdisciplinarity and its institutionalization at universities. Our specific interest in this paper is to disentangle the conditions under which transdisciplinarity is developed in Latin American contexts and how it can be better implemented within those contexts. Our study focuses on the context of "Latin American Public Universities." We examine the following research questions: (i) How is transdisciplinarity conceptualized in university policy and what are the conditions for its institutionalization? (ii) What lessons can be drawn more broadly from the role of university policy in the process of institutionalizing transdisciplinarity? To address these questions, we take the Universidad de Chile as a case study and apply a qualitative methodology of content analysis of university policy documents in the period 2006–2021. Grounded on empirical data, we elaborate on the concept of "situated transdisciplinarity" that emerges from the interplay between practices and policy at the Universidad de Chile and serves as a tool for future institutionalizing processes. We conclude that the concept of "situated transdisciplinarity" can orient transdisciplinary research policy, by problematizing discourses and perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patents are essential for university technology diffusion to society; however, patent quality in universities, especially in Latin America, has been poorly studied. We create a quality index for patents granted to regional universities by using patent quality variables as patent production, technical relevance, use of top knowledge, technological scope, cooperation, and internationalization. Results show that, on average, Brazilian universities had higher quality than their peers in other countries and that Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá occupies the first position of the ranking for 2016. The main contribution of this paper is to create the first Index for patent quality at universities in the region, and for what we know, the first country aggregated measure of patent quality for universities. This nobel measure is related to research quality in Scopus and Web of Science databases and can be used to complement international university rankings to measure a dimension not previously used by those rankings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of environmental transformations on organizational identity in universities has been addressed from different perspectives, yet considering micro-dynamics and impact on actual practices of academic work has been neglected. This article addresses this gap by analyzing how institutional field prescriptions relative to an environmental transformation have been internalized into organizational members' practices and what effect it has on the collective understanding of organizational identity. Our analytical context is represented by two schools at the biggest Dutch higher education organization. While most studies emphasize contestation and fragmentation with multiple interpretations of organizational identity within the same higher education organization during or as a consequence of environmental transformations, the analyzed case presents contrary results. Organizational members were consistent in describing their own organizational practices across schools. The stable and shared identity is strengthened via anti-identity through two distinct mechanisms: the process of socialization and contrasting to academia. Additionally, we show how through a third mechanism (association to the professional field) organizational members draw on the institutional field prescriptions to legitimize their teaching and research practices. Thus, this paper demonstrates that organizational identity can be stable and non-fragmented even when higher education organizations face and implement changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recent reforms of higher education (HE) across Europe have involved reconfigurations of internal governance structures, little research has been conducted on the characteristics and practices of governing bodies and their impact on performance. In particular, more empirical evidence is required on the composition of the board of directors, whose role and responsibilities in strategy making and monitoring of university activities have been significantly strengthened. This paper focuses on the issue of diversity in board composition, which has gained increasing attention in the corporate literature but has largely been ignored in HE. Since most studies of diversity in HE have been fragmented, a configurational approach is followed to examine the combinations of diversity of directors that lead to high board performance in universities. Drawing from the literature and considering the characteristics of university governance, four conditions are identified: age, gender, educational background and provenance. The method of fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used to investigate the cases of 18 medium-sized state universities in Italy. The analysis revealed that no single condition is necessary or sufficient, while there are two paths that lead to board effectiveness: low educational background diversity and high provenance diversity combined with high age diversity, and low educational background diversity and high provenance diversity combined with low gender diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the temporary-permanent wage gap experienced by Italian graduate workers. To evaluate the wage gap along the entire wage distribution and account for heterogeneous effects of temporary employment, we apply the Recentered Influence Function (RIF) regression approach. The results suggest that the monthly net wage earned by Italian highly educated workers having a temporary contract is lower than that of their 'permanent' counterparts even after controlling for a plethora of individual and job characteristics. More than 50% of the wage gap is due to unobserved characteristics. The field of study, more than the location of the University, explains this discrimination effect due to contractual arrangement. Although the latter is verified along the entire distribution, major effects arise among high-paid and low-paid jobs depicting a U-shape pattern. Results are robust to self-selection, endogeneity, and gender controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last three decades, the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in employability skill development has been emphasised in UK national policy. Within the same time frame, internationalisation has emerged as a key strategy in higher education (HE), nationally and globally. However, the connection between the internationalisation of higher education and developing graduate employability is an understudied area of research. This paper addresses an identified gap in extant literature by examining the intersection of internationalisation, employability and the international student experience. The paper focuses on non‐EU international students' perspectives which is neglected in dominant discourses on employability. Thematic analysis of data collected from 36 semi‐structured interviews with students from 11 non‐EU countries reveals the importance international students place on employability development opportunities during their study abroad. The findings highlight how international student agency is enabled or constrained within the affordances of international HE, and the implications for employability policy development in an increasingly internationalised context of the delivery of higher education. In conclusion, the implication of the findings is considered in view of the constraints on mobility brought on by COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the 1908 Oxford Report, a founding document for the Workers' Educational Association, as a window onto the internal contradictions of the university adult education movement, an issue that has been neglected by historians of education. Examining the early history of the WEA shows that while the movement was inspired by Oxford Idealism and set itself the aim of democratising higher education, it also drew support from people who intended to professionalise the university by introducing the principles of trained expertise and selection by merit. The confluence of Idealism and professionalism resulted in a ground-breaking but inconsistent educational programme outlined in the Oxford Report. This paper suggests that the attempt to simultaneously democratise and professionalise higher education was untenable and foreshadowed later tensions within the WEA movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through this point-of-departure paper we aim to prompt discussion and action around redesigning university learning to help students tackle climate-related challenges in a personally and societally meaningful way. We use the lens of assessment to draw attention to how discipline areas without an explicit environmental or climate science focus can play a fundamental part in prompting climate action. We draw on the very limited number of studies to date of assessment related to climate learning and on an illustrative example of teaching and assessing leadership practices for confronting climate change to make recommendations with relevance for all curricula. We reflect on assessment tools, approaches, strategies, and good practice that not only gauge the level of learning at individual and whole cohort level but also prompt meaningful learning to take place through the way they are designed, with potential impact outside the campus walls and beyond the end of formal university study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's age of knowledge and technology, societies are changing fast, on both macro and micro levels. Hardly anyone could have predicted several years ago such an acceleration of change and its impact on society, and in particular, on higher education. In Europe as well as globally, higher education has been undergoing many changes for more than two decades. In many countries, the number of higher education institutions has increased, mass education has replaced more elite systems, universities have adopted different agenda, and research has become more competitive. In this new context, doctoral education has also needed to be redefined in order to better respond to societal and academic challenges. Doctoral education—a crucial segment of higher education and the main link between the European Higher Education Area and the European Research Area—has been receiving continuous attention for more than 15 years. This paper provides an overall view on changes in doctoral education in Europe, the background of this change process, and the context that led to these major changes. The main analysis will be presented from a European academic context perspective, but it will also reflect a global perspective. It will provide an analysis of all the milestones and consider the relevant policies and recommendations on the supranational level and their reflection on the national level. While taking the reader on a 15‐year journey of the doctoral education system in Europe, a brief look to the future of doctoral education will be sketched as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, contentiously for some, universities have developed generalist skills lists and associated curricula in response to government demand for more ‘employment-ready’ graduates. Such training usually includes writing and communication. In Australia and the UK, guidelines designed to support the development of skills programmes describe research training as ‘generic skills’ and/or ‘discipline-based’. This framing effectively precludes a discussion of academic literacies perspectives on curriculum development and pedagogy for research training. In a review of some key insights from academic literacies and consideration of their implications for research training, the article discusses why academic literacies are not skills-based, strictly generic or informed by the students' discipline. The article suggests a reframing of the terms of research skills discussion to accommodate academic literacies perspectives. This would involve recognition of curriculum and pedagogy that aims to introduce the complex and diverse written genres, research purposes, rhetorical conventions, language functions and cultural norms that students are working with, an approach supportive of both effective student writing and subject learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates, in an Australian university student sample, the score equivalence of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) norms for which are based on the US standardization sample versus the Woodcock Johnson III (WJ III) cognitive test battery, normed for the Australian population based on a standardisation sample aged between four and twenty-one. Mean IQ scores in the two instruments were compared in sample scores of all and those restricted to 21 years or younger. Additionally, corresponding broad ability scores were compared. Tests were assigned in blocked random order to 164 (141 aged 21 years or younger) participants (M = 20.38, Mdn = 19, SD = 5.19). Thirty-eight (32 aged 21 years or younger) undertook both tests. Scores from all, and the subset aged 21 years or less were analysed. The mean WAIS-IV FSIQ were significantly higher than mean WJ III GIA in both independent and repeated measures analyses. Effect sizes, measured with population SD of 15, were d = 0.34 and d = 0.53 in the independent and repeated measures study. Considering the potential impact of the observed effect sizes in high-stakes decision for the Australian population, we appeal for further research on local norming. KEY POINTS What is already known on this topic: When used in Australia, the WAIS-IV scores are based on the US standardization data, while the WJ III has been normed for the Australian population. Local and current norming of tests is essential for valid and fair use of a cognitive abilities test. WAIS-IV scores are routinely used to make high-stakes decisions in Australia. What this paper adds: Empirical evidence that the current WAIS-IV scores and WJ III scores in Australia are not equivalent in a sample of university students. If the observed effect sizes were to hold in the critical cut-off regions used for making high-stakes decision, a substantial number of eligible beneficiaries will be affected. Though the samples in this study are restricted, the partial random sampling, consistency, and effect size warrant more comprehensive study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduate internships have gained popularity among students, universities, governments and firms since the creation of the European Higher Education Area. However, empirical research on the relationship between internships and labour market performance of graduates is still scarce, particularly in Spain. This paper examines whether internships improve job attainment in the short run (first employment after graduation) and in the medium/long term (employment 4 years later). We use the first Spanish University Graduate Job Placement Survey (2014) to estimate linear probability models and probit models. A novel econometric technique is also implemented to evaluate the sensitivity of our findings to omitted variable bias. We disentangle the internship effect on (i) the time it takes to find the first job; (ii) the vertical, horizontal and skills matching with the first job; (iii) being employed in the medium/long term; (iv) the vertical and horizontal matching with the current employment; and (v) wage quintiles of the current job. Our results show that internship experience facilitates the university-to-work transition for Spanish graduates. Although the effects of internships on being employed do not vanish in the medium/long term, there is weak evidence of positive effects on matching four years after graduation and no effects are found on wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates a typology of universities in which each university is characteristically associated with (i) diverse missions, (ii) different ways of producing knowledge and (iii) contrasting pedagogical configurations. Four university forms are identified, analysed and illustrated, namely the expert university, the non-elite university, the entrepreneurial university and the revolutionary university. It is suggested that the typology and the analysis of university forms offered here provide insight into the current positioning of universities in relation to the wider world and have potential in prompting new forms of university for the twenty-first century. The paper further advances another possible university for the future, namelythe complex university. The complex university is part of and respectful of diverse ecosystems. It creates new frameworks to understand the world and, in that way, supports social transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities should place delivering societal benefits centrally within their strategic decision-making. But this comes at a time when universities face extensive pressures to transform every aspect of their institutional existence, raising questions about whether the third mission can ever truly be a strategic objective for higher education. To understand this tension, this paper explores the ways in which national higher education policies frame the strategic latitude that universities enjoy to engage with regional partners in teaching and research activities. Presenting case studies from the Czech Republic and Norway, the paper reveals that the space for regional engagement is squeezed at every stage as universities seek to implement national directives whilst remaining true to their regional roots. We conclude by arguing better understanding the regional mission requires better understanding the processes by which regional engagement is framed as un-prestigious by wider policy fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers questions of ‘employability’, a notion foregrounded in the Green and White Papers on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The paper first questions government imperatives concerning employability and suggests a series of mismatches that are evident in the rhetorics in this area. This summary opens up elements of what I am calling the first ‘folly’ in the field. The second section of the paper considers recent research with individual academics engaged in employability activity. This research suggests another series of mismatches in the aims and outcomes of ‘employability initiatives’ and opens up a further series of ‘follies’ in the day-to-day practices of academics and students’ responses to them. The third section of the paper turns to academics’ reports of student behaviour in relation to the outcomes of their degree. This section develops an argument that relates to the final ‘folly’ associated with the current focus on employability. I argue that students’ focus on outcomes (which at face value suggests they have internalized the importance of employment) is contributing to the production of graduates who do not have the dispositions that employers – when interviewed – say that they want. The highly performative culture of higher education, encouraged by the same metrics that will be extended through the TEF, is implicated then innotpreparing students for the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With inequality persistent across geopolitical contexts, 'transformation' continues to be expediently cited in the rhetoric of higher education institutions. Illuminating alike issues worldwide, the paper critically examines race, inequality and oppression among the black and women academics who were selected as recipients of post-apartheid academic development programmes at an historically white institution in South Africa. Utilising a report-and-respond approach, participants initially responded in a questionnaire to definitions of notions of transformation espoused within The Integrated Transformation Plans of South African universities. This was followed by non-deterministic small group discussions of the researchers' interpretations of those responses. The recipients' lived experiences provide deep insights, from within, into the misalignment between those discourses espoused and those practiced, which have implications for transforming the institutional culture of the dominant in-group. Emerging ahead of the implementation of a self-regulatory tool for higher education institutions across that national context, many of the participants called for structural accountability mechanisms in the face of their frustration with current ineffectual approaches. A concern about institutional responsiveness to research findings of such critical studies is raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the effect of merger on university efficiency. In a first stage analysis, efficiency scores of English universities are derived for a 17-year period using the frontier estimation method data envelopment analysis. A second stage analysis explores the effect of merger and other factors on efficiency. We find that mean efficiency for the sector has varied from around 60% to 70%, but that the efficiency levels of the vast majority of individual higher education institutions (HEIs) are not significantly different from each other. Merged HEIs have an efficiency which is around five percentage points higher post-merger than non-merging HEIs holding all else constant; but we find that the efficiency impact of merger does not last long (not more than a year) after the merger. The transitory nature of the efficiency gain is an important finding which should be noted by politicians and managers considering a policy of merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper consolidates evidence and material from a range of specialist and disciplinary fields to provide an evidence-based review and synthesis on the design and use of serious games in higher education. Search terms identified 165 papers reporting conceptual and empirical evidence on how learning attributes and game mechanics may be planned, designed and implemented by university teachers interested in using games, which are integrated into lesson plans and orchestrated as part of a learning sequence at any scale. The findings outline the potential of classifying the links between learning attributes and game mechanics as a means to scaffold teachers' understanding of how to perpetuate learning in optimal ways while enhancing the in-game learning experience. The findings of this paper provide a foundation for describing methods, frames and discourse around experiences of design and use of serious games, linked to methodological limitations and recommendations for further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper tackles the matter of teaching in higher education and proposes a concept of 'horizons of teaching'. It firstly offers an overview of the considerable empirical literature around teaching-especially conceptions of teaching, approaches to teaching and teaching practices-and goes on to pose some philosophical and social theoretical considerations that open further the territory around teaching in university. Against this background, we propose the concept of 'horizons of teaching'. Horizons of teaching provide a context in which it makes sense for teachers to give themselves to the teaching enterprise and to go on giving themselves to teaching. Horizons include diverse and intricate layers at both micro- and macro-levels that interact in a permanent and dynamic way; they involve persons and collectivities; and they concern structures and agency. The paper concludes by proposing that horizons of teaching configure and delineate curricula and the pedagogical relationship in a way that might contain a revolutionary potentiality in recasting teaching in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England and Australia, higher education institutions are required to widen participation in higher education by including students from under-represented and non-traditional groups. Widening participation is most effective when it starts early – during compulsory education and other forms of pre-tertiary education. Higher education institutions are providers of pre-service and in-service teacher education, and therefore have the potential to ‘join the dots’ between teacher education and widening participation. Two approaches are identified: recruiting more diverse cohorts of students to teacher education through targeted, relevant and engaging pre-entry experiences in schools and communities with low rates of progression to higher education, and preparing all teachers to better support the tenets of widening participation through their professional roles in schools, colleges and communities. This paper focuses on the former, using a structural theoretical lens to understand low participation by particular groups of students. This framework is used to analyse two empirical examples, one from Australia and one from England. The paper concludes by recommending a more systemic approach to widening participation through teacher education, and makes practical suggestions informed by theory, practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nature of reflective writing through the experience of the researchers in running a series of writing workshops with a group of higher education practitioners working in a UK further education college. The focus here is on reflective writing, which was chosen to start the sequence of workshops, as it was perceived as a form of writing with which the participants would be familiar, given its role in the education and development of teachers within the sector. Our assumption was that this familiarity would facilitate the writing process and participants would readily respond by engaging in reflective writing. However, in practice this proved not to be the case, despite being introduced to a variety of different forms of writing over a series of workshops, it took the participants longer than we expected to begin to write. This led us to question our assumptions about the starting point for the writing workshops and what they might achieve. The paper draws on field notes made during the writing initiative and data gathered through focus groups and interviews with the participants, as well as extracts of their writing to examine their experiences. Different conceptualisations of reflective writing are identified and their implications are explored in relation to the participants’ engagement with writing and their experience of professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study investigates factors motivating universities to engage in international degree collaboration. The Finnish-Russian university framework is used as the locus for studying international collaboration. The paper employs resource dependency and institutional, stakeholder and market push and pull perspectives in a conceptual model explaining the drivers of international degree collaboration. The research focuses on the interaction of the various factors that motivate partners to seek international degree cooperation, possible sources of conflict, and issues of compatibility and complementarity. In particular, the study compares the roles of different stakeholders and the institutional contexts of Finland and Russia. The motives of the Finnish and Russian universities included in the study were found to be generally compatible, yet different enough to complement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes time to first degree at German universities. The database is the 'Absolventenpanel' 2001, a panel study conducted by the 'Hochschul-Informations-System.' The German university system is characterized by a long duration of study; the regular time is often exceeded. One potential reason might be the high proportion of students reporting part-time work during their studies. This paper focuses on the relationship between the working status of German students and their time to degree. Besides that, additional individual characteristics and parental background are included. Analysis is carried out for ten fields of study separately. The descriptive analysis reveals a positive correlation between the amount of part-time work and the duration of study. In the empirical analysis, the Cox proportional hazards model is applied. The results confirm that part-time work has an increasing effect on time to degree. These results and the aspect that mainly socially underprivileged students are engaged in part-time working during their studies should be considered in the political discussions of tertiary education financing and the Bologna process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is increasingly recognised that higher education institutions have to play a critical role in the progression towards a sustainable development, the question of what fields and issues universities should attend to in their attempt to become more sustainable remains subject to debate. In recent years, sustainability assessment tools have begun to play a prominent role in strategies to reorient higher education institutions systematically and holistically towards sustainability. In the course of their further advancement, sustainability assessment tools have not only become instrumental facilitators of change processes towards sustainability, but also established implicit normative standards by framing the overall understanding of what fields and issues a sustainable university should engage with. So far, researchers in the field have paid little attention to the understandings of a sustainable university that are underpinning and informing sustainability assessment tools. This paper addresses this gap. Based on a comparative analysis of indicators and criteria, as well as introductory passages in supporting documents of twelve sustainability assessment tools, the authors sketch the dominance and marginalisation of different fields and issues. In doing so, the paper contributes to building the capacity for a more sophisticated and reflexive engagement with different approaches to assess and evaluate sustainability in higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's rapidly expanding university system aims to balance quantity and quality through a variety of measures, including internationalization. This paper employs data from a survey of 1264 students from 39 higher education institutions in order to understand students' view on institutional approaches to internationalization. The data show that 'the Project 985' universities (elite research universities in China) have used internationalization to sustain two objectives: elite education and innovative research for quality, because there are high levels of agreement on three indicators with internationalization of these universities: student and faculty mobility, internationalizing curriculum and program, and international research collaboration and partnership. In 'the Project 211' universities (second-tier research universities), the data show that internationalization activities are highly related to curriculum reforms and faculty mobility. While the other degree-offering universities provide less opportunity for internationalization, the non-degree-offering institutions find their distinct way for institutional internationalization by providing more 'international internship' opportunities. Our analysis also indicates that institutional internationalization is disciplinary oriented. In disciplines like law and art, students do not think that many activities are taken for internationalization by their institutions, while such disciplines as economics, management, and education have a higher level of internationalization. The paper will explain these findings in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search continues for a Chinese research university model that can balance quality and quantity in research and teaching. This paper argues that finding one depends upon deepening internationalization, defining educational sovereignty, and expanding university autonomy. The paper does this by examining selected aspects in the development of the research university systems of the Chinese mainland and China's Hong Kong, particularly with respect to the governance of research and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity lies at the heart of doctoral study – a mysterious learning process which culminates in Ph.D. students’ metamorphosis into doctors. This paper explores the identity-related experiences of six international Ph.D. students enrolled at an Australian university by examining how different individuals, events and interactions contributed to (or disrupted) their sense of themselves as researchers and scholars. Analysis of the participants’ learning narratives revealed significant disparities in the agency they exercised and the opportunities and support they received, ultimately suggesting that those individuals endowed with the most cultural capital experienced the most favourable identity trajectories. Accordingly, the paper argues that greater efforts are needed to support non-traditional doctoral candidates in their journey to become confident scholars and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Higher education research frequently refers to the complex external conditions that give our old-fashioned universities a good reason to change. The underlying theoretical assumption of such framing is that organizations are open systems. This paper presents an alternative view, derived from the theory of social systems autopoiesis. It proposes that organizations, being open systems, are yet operationally closed, as all their activities and interactions with the environment are aspects of just one process: the recursive production of themselves, according to a pattern of their own identity. It is their identity that captures exactly what can and what cannot be sustained in their continuous self-production. Examining the organizational identity of universities within the theoretical framework of autopoiesis may hence shed new light on their resistance to change, explaining it as a systemic and social phenomenon, rather than an individual and psychological one. Since all processes of an autopoietic system are processes of its self-production, this paper argues that in the case of traditional European universities, the identity consists in the intertwinement of only two processes: (1) introducing continuous change in the scope of scientific knowledge and (2) educating new generations of scholars, who will carry on this activity. This surprisingly leaves at the wayside seemingly the most obvious 'use of the university': the adequate education of students for the job market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a dialogical encounter between northern-inspired theorisations of gender and Vietnam's historical and cultural differentiation identified through the presence of matriarchy in ancient societies and its popularity in folklore and contemporary politics. The article draws on interviews with 12 senior women from 8 universities in Northern and Southern Vietnam. Three main themes are explored: (1) the Vietnamese woman as ‘general of the interior’; (2) the ‘woman behind the throne’; and (3) ‘behind a woman is another woman’. These themes illustrate the distinctiveness of a historically produced Vietnamese gender order as reflected in current university women's experience. By providing insights into the complex dynamics of Vietnamese women's ‘informal power’, as evident in both spheres of home and university, the paper presents a discussion of forms of Vietnamese femininity that contributes to re-theorising Connell's concepts of ‘hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper begins with the argument that within modern-day society, engineering has shifted from being the scientific and technical mainstay of industrial, and more recently digital change to become the most vital driver of future advancement. In order to meet the inevitable challenges resulting from this role, the nature of engineering education is constantly evolving and as such engineering education has to change. The paper argues that what is needed is a fresh approach to engineering education – one that is sufficiently flexible so as to capture the fast-changing needs of engineering education as a discipline, whilst being pedagogically suitable for use with a range of engineering epistemologies. It provides an overview of a case study in which a new approach to engineering education has been developed and evaluated. The approach, which is based on the concept of scholarship, is described in detail. This is followed by a discussion of how the approach has been put into practice and evaluated. The paper concludes by arguing that within today's market-driven university world, the need for effective learning and teaching practice, based in good scholarship, is fundamental to student success. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Higher education in Europe has undergone remarkable transformations over the last two decades. Germany is a very interesting case in point here. While the country was labeled as a laggard in the process, over the last decade the pace of higher education reforms in Germany has grown considerably. This paper will focus on the by now visible effects of these remarkable transformations, which have led to numerous consequences that go beyond the explicit intentions of policy-makers. Unintended consequences resulting from rapid institutional change will be discussed with regard to research, third-mission activities, and structural reforms concerning governance and organization. It can be assumed that, due to a variety of such unintended consequences, also in other European countries the next decade will be shaped by efforts aiming at reforming the reforms, re-regulating the significant changes brought about during the last two decades. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the necessary linkages to three related interdisciplinary research areas, from which both higher education research and policy-making will benefit, and a summary of the main points of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify key challenges facing Japan's higher education since the early 1990s and their impacts on major research themes. In this paper key challenges include those resulting from the decline in the 18-year population, the cultivation of high-quality university graduates, the incorporation of national universities, the diversification of higher education systems, and globalization and internationalization of higher education. The paper concludes by arguing that challenges facing Japan's higher education and research are unquestionable and considerable. Because several challenges are different from that of any other countries, Japan has to find out solutions to tackle them by its own efforts. Furthermore, in response to these challenges, there has seen an evident transformation in a vast majority of higher education research institutes and centers from a purely academic-based research to more practical and operational research. Besides, at a policy level, numerous research themes and agenda have been developed and implemented by the Japanese government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifelong learning (LLL) as part of the third mission agenda of higher education institutions (HEIs) has been prioritized yet understudied, especially regarding the implementation of supranational and national LLL strategies in institutional third mission arrangements. Addressing this limitation, the current paper aims at analyzing strategic approaches toward the institutionalization of LLL in the Czech Republic (CR) and Norway (NOR), with implications for HEIs in the Vysočina region (CR) and Agder region (NOR). More specifically, we comparatively explore the underlying characteristics of system-level LLL strategies and the extent to which those spill into the development policies of Vysočina and Agder as carried out by the regions' HEIs and regional administrations. Utilizing a mixed approach methodologically and conceptually building on models of LLL by Schuetze and Casey (2006), our findings show different national approaches and aims of LLL; NOR is a close-to-open society model, and CR is closer to a human capital model. Nevertheless, LLL practices are rather similar in both countries, and they do tend to be only partial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a prolegomena to discussions about a differentiated Confucian MBA curriculum. We draw upon Kant’s notion of individual autonomy and our observations of practice to argue that there are three models extant for the MBA degree. One of these, that which emphasizes leadership, holds considerable potential if it develops in the context of a genuinely Confucian university. This distinctive MBA—which could emerge in China—would express Confucian metaphysics and thus actively embrace China’s history, philosophy and culture. It would manifest as a genuine alternative to the western, globalized, neoliberal MBA. A Confucian MBA would promote a concept of leadership that emphasizes cooperation and other Confucian ‘values’ (in their full sophistication and complexity) while minimising the role of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a societal perspective on academic leadership by exploring the preoccupations of academics as citizens rather than as employees, managers or individuals. It uses a listening post methodology to ask ‘what is it like to be a citizen of an academic institution in contemporary Britain?’ Three listening posts, comprising 26 participants from 15 higher education institutions, were conducted and analysed. A number of common themes were identified, including a sense of ambiguity and ambivalence about one's relationship with the employing institution and a concern about the fragmentation of academic identities. Whilst this paper contributes towards debates about the marketisation of higher education and the implications for leadership and management practice, its main contribution is to challenge dominant individual and organisational perspectives on leadership by exposing an alternative discourse, based on citizenship, which may offer new opportunities for engagement in the civic life of universities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This commentary introduces David Kirk's paper entitled ‘Making a career in Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy in the corporatized university: Reflections on hegemony, resistance, collegiality and scholarship’, which was presented in the 2012 Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) ‘scholar lecture’ at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference. We briefly describe the origins of the scholar lecture and its link to the PESP special interest group of BERA and then make a few introductory comments about the lecture, highlighting a number of points of tension that the paper raises for us. [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]

This paper reports on the introduction of a ‘clinical model’ of teacher education at the University of Glasgow in 2011. The account is set against the backdrop of a review of major contemporary developments in teacher education. The common focus in this work is on such themes as the key function of the practicum, on ‘teaching schools’ and on the roles and responsibilities of the various players in teacher professional learning. The context for reform of teacher education in Scotland is described, showing how the opportunity for a radical intervention arose. The distinctive features of the Glasgow model are set out and a summary of the findings of the internal evaluation carried out at the University is offered. Issues identified include challenges of communication, the nature of professional learning and the cultural embeddedness of existing practices. In the light of this initiative, the paper then reviews insights gained concerning the relationship between policy, practice and research in teacher education, before concluding with comments on the future of research in teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Educational developers are engaged in identifying and resolving tensions in their working roles that are often portrayed as multi-faceted and ambiguous. Similar uncertainties exist when individuals undertake research as insider members of the communities that are the subject of their research. They also experience significant ambiguity around their role that has an impact both on the research process and on their own identity. This paper proposes that there is much to be learnt from this experience that may help to explain ambiguities in the educational developer’s position, both in their working roles and when undertaking their own research. In this paper, I explore my own experiences of being an educational developer and insider researcher and discuss the dilemmas that arose, with the aim of enabling others to reflect on their own positions and understand the insights, risks and opportunities presented by insider research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the last decade, emerging technologies and transformative practices have diffused into higher education social systems in ways that formal leadership styles are increasingly stretched to both keep abreast of and to manage. While many scholars have argued for the importance of the role of leadership styles in shaping the strategic direction of institutions, there is a paucity of research on the role that informal leaders, and more particularly opinion leaders and change agents, can play in enabling wide-scale adoption of innovations in higher education institutions. This paper focuses on the ways in which leadership in higher education can best extend their influence to accelerate the diffusion of transformational educational practices using emerging technologies by leveraging informal leaders. To illustrate how this could be achieved, we report on a study of 22 public higher education institutions in South Africa involving 259 participants who responded to an online survey. The survey focused on the uses of emerging technologies to transform the teaching and learning practices and the nature of institutional support such initiatives received. The findings reveal that for emerging technologies to be diffused in institutional social systems, more transformative and less transactional leadership is required. The paper proposes a model for accelerating the diffusion of emerging technologies in higher education institutions and concludes that leveraging informal leadership is particularly critical in accelerating the uptake of emerging technologies practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that global university rankings can be understood as a mechanism upholding Taiwan's interests in light of cross-national analysis of university ranking and recent discussion on regionalisation of higher education in Asia. To draw an analytical framework, it begins by delineating a conceptualisation of university ranking, in which ranking exercises are seen as a form of institutions in the globalised field of education politics and policy. In anticipation of the emergence of the Greater China higher education region, the paper suggests that global university ranking can be used as a zoning technology to form an imaginary line of cultural and academic sovereignty, and to affect university strategies and government policies. This analysis not only explains how global university rankings can be used to uphold interests of Taiwan's higher education, but also sheds light on the way to constitute subjectivity in the process of regionalisation of worldwide higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the proposals for the introduction of ‘technical degrees’ in English higher education institutions advanced by the Labour Party’s Liam Byrne in a document entitled ‘Robbins Rebooted’ which was published in August 2014 by the Social Market Foundation. The context and rationale for the proposed technical degrees is discussed, identifying assumptions and implications of the proposed policy. Drawing on studies of related workforce development and higher vocational initiatives, potential problems that could arise with the implementation of the policy are outlined. This leads on to a discussion on whether the curriculum that technical degrees would offer would be an adequate preparation for work and whether the qualifications in themselves would achieve as much credibility as alternative routes through higher education. In the event, the opportunity to introduce technical degrees in the form advanced by Byrne did not arise, as the Labour Party lost the general election in 2015 and did not return to office. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]