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This paper draws upon the experiences and perceptions of ten university vice-chancellors in the United Kingdom on the challenges they face in providing leadership and strategic direction for their institutions into the twenty-first century. The paper reveals the perceptions and spoken words of these leaders as they identify the key challenges shaping higher education, their strategies for addressing these challenges, their struggle to maintain the core mission of universities and finally, implications for the future of higher education.

The interview with Disabled People Against Cuts campaign group illuminates ways that disabled people in the UK are campaigning on and off the streets against neoliberal austerity measures and, more widely, against the capitalist city. As the development of cities was structured by capitalism, disabled people have, in so many material, organisational and symbolic ways, been excluded by a capitalist city not built in their image. Welfare capitalism brought many gains for disabled people, but neoliberal capitalism has been ripping them away in the most brutal and demeaning of ways. Disabled people have been pushed to the margins in both industrial and post-industrial cities that have sought the most productive waged labour and ideal bodies. As such, the capitalist city disables people, and thus by default the city that disabled people must fight for is an anti-capitalist city based on use value. As the interview with DPAC demonstrates, disabled people are fighting both collaboratively and confrontationally, rolling their way into new spaces and working collectively to model what a future society could look like. It is therefore argued that disabled people's protests present a core challenge to the capitalist city, and thus their presence in both urban street movements and academic debate is crucial for any radical Right to the City movement. Disabled people are calling for an ableing city shaped to meet the needs of its inhabitants, rather than its inhabitants being coerced into shaping themselves to fulfil the needs of the capitalist city. As such, the city that disabled people call for is not just for them, but for anyone who is segregated, excluded or dispossessed by the capitalist city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon the experiences and perceptions of ten university vice-chancellors in the United Kingdom on the challenges they face in providing leadership and strategic direction for their institutions into the twenty-first century. The paper reveals the perceptions and spoken words of these leaders as they identify the key challenges shaping higher education, their strategies for addressing these challenges, their struggle to maintain the core mission of universities and finally, implications for the future of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: It is important that allied health professionals (AHPs) are prepared for clinical practice from the very start of their working lives to provide quality care for patients, for their personal well-being and for retention of the workforce. The aim of this study was to understand how well newly qualified AHPs were prepared for practice in the UK., Design: Systematic review., Data Sources: Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC and BEI were searched from 2012 to 2024. Grey literature searching and citation chasing were also conducted., Eligibility Criteria: We included primary studies reporting the preparedness for practice of UK graduates across 15 professions; all study types; participants included graduates who were up to 2 years postgraduation, their supervisors, trainers, practice educators and employers; and all outcome measures., Data Extraction and Synthesis: A standardised data extraction form was used. Studies were quality assessed using the Quality Appraisal for Diverse Studies tool. 10% of articles were independently double-screened, extracted and quality assessed; 90% was completed by one researcher., Results: 14 reports were included (9 qualitative, 3 mixed-method and 2 quantitative). Six papers focused on radiographers, three on a mixture of professions, two on paramedics, and one each on physiotherapists, clinical psychologists and orthotists. An important finding of the review is the paucity and low-medium quality of research on the topic. The narrative synthesis tentatively suggests that graduates are adequately prepared for practice with different professions having different strengths and weaknesses. Common areas of underpreparedness across the professions were responsibility and decision-making, leadership and research. Graduates were generally well prepared in terms of their knowledge base., Conclusion: High-quality in-depth research is urgently needed across AHPs to elucidate the specific roles, their nuances and the areas of underpreparedness. Further work is also needed to understand the transition into early clinical practice, ongoing learning opportunities through work, and the supervision and support structures in place., Prospero Registration Number: CRD42022382065., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)