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In 2016 the Government invited English local authority employers of social workers and university providers of social work qualifying programmes to apply jointly for funding to become social work teaching partnerships. This was in response to its concerns about the limited engagement of local authorities with qualifying training programmes. It was also part of the Government's strategy to ensure that students qualified as social workers with what it considered to be the right knowledge and skills and to improve their recruitment, retention and development and overall quality of practice. Following an evaluation of one partnership, this discussion paper addresses the evolution of these arrangements as found in consultations with representatives of 10 social work teaching partnerships (held 2017–18), the four original pilots and the six others that were subsequently funded. Drawing on a synthesis of the partnerships' reported experiences, this paper reports the variations in their approaches and sets out the challenges they faced and addressed, contextualising this in the policy landscape in which they were introduced and operated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research exploring how working-class women experience UK Higher Education (HE) work has made evident recurring themes around social segregation and corresponding difficulties with feeling they belong. This paper develops this work by exploring the ways in which UK, HE based working-class women lecturers talk about their sense of belonging. It was found that, in contemporary UK HE, lecturing work is located within a marketised space where caring for students is central and the deployment of emotional labour to seen to be a necessary requirement to meet those demands. In addition, this labour is understood to be work that working-class women can readily take up, and as one of the few vehicles to enable feelings of value and belonging. However, this work is also devalued, unaccounted for and potentially harmful to those who do engage in it, therefore shoring up/ reinforcing a class and gender stratified UK academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how storying can be used to uncover experiences of student belonging throughout their time in Higher Education. It adopts a framing of belonging that is fluid and which recognises shifting notions of belonging over time. A focus on storying is particularly useful for understanding belonging as it enables university staff to listen carefully and with empathy to what matters to students, what shapes their experiences, and how to communicate these in a way which invites positive action. Through storying with undergraduate student articulations gathered through a survey, interviews and focus groups at a university in the UK, the paper identifies the multifaceted and connected spaces of belonging, temporalities and relationships that come to affect student belonging. Ultimately the paper argues for the collective responsibility of staff and students to create a space of belonging for all, rather than the prevalent discourse which often puts the onus on an individual to "fit in". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an increasing number of British universities are now requiring/encouraging mathematics applicants to have taken ‘extension papers’ such as the Mathematics Admissions Test (MAT), Advanced Extension Award (AEA) and Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP), current students were asked how useful they were in preparation for their degree. The MAT was most commonly described as good preparation for undergraduate mathematics, whilst most participants who had taken the AEA were indifferent regarding its usefulness. Participants were positive about STEP, commending its similarity to undergraduate-style assessment and its challenging questions. The students’ views suggested that those wishing to be well prepared for tertiary mathematics should take one of these papers, preferably STEP. However, whilst universities may not necessarily wish to require applicants to pass extension papers, it may be beneficial for universities to recommend students to take them in order to improve their mathematical thinking and expectations of undergraduate mathematics study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on issues raised by the White Paper on the future of higher education from the perspective of the post-92 universities, established by the Act of parliament in 1992 in Great Britain. Failure of the White Paper in recognizing realities of shape and structure of educational system; Vision of future of higher education offered by the White Paper.

Definition: Personal development refers to the process of increasing one's self-awareness, associated increases of self-esteem, increasing skills, and fulfilling one's aspirations. The current paper reflects on these elements within the doctoral journey, for PhD students within the UK Higher Education system. The paper makes particular reference to frameworks to encourage and capture personal development needs and supervision or coaching styles that may be used to encourage a continual reflection of personal development throughout the doctorate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a Foucauldian theorisation and an in-depth study with eight disabled student activists in England, this paper explores how persistent marginalisation and ableism in higher education has triggered a wave of activism among disabled students, who, just before the advent of the pandemic, had organised a structured movement, Disabled Students UK. We employ Foucault's ideas of the care of the self and others to discuss the formation of disabled students as activist subjects fighting discrimination in English higher education, in a moment in which the intersection between inclusive policies and austerity measures exposed the ableism rooted in academic practices. This paper promotes discussion on the nurturing relationship that exists between the individual and the community in constituting disability activism and disabled activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore my experience around teaching a digital game design and making postgraduate course in an intercultural setting in the UK Higher Education. I focus on how locality and disciplinary aspects create and mediate hierarchies of knowledges and practices that shape this kind of course, and how the intercultural setting studied here affords critical interrogations about the supposed universal nature of game design, as a field and as a practice. In particular, I examine an educational approach adopted in this course centred on the critical pedagogy notion of ‘cultural work’ and on philosophy of technology, rejecting mechanistic approaches to game design and making in favour of thinking with and through tools and processes. Through interviews with former students around their expectations about learning game design and making and their (changing) perspectives during this course, I explore how such an approach can create educational experiences for both students and game educators to build different (i.e. more critical and diverse) knowledge and practice foundations for those who will be working in/with games in the future as well as developing new vistas for understanding game design and making not as universal but as practices heavily informed by specific contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to generate knowledge about relevant evaluation topics that align with and represent the unique character of the midwifery programme for students living in the rural and remote areas of Scotland. Design/methodology/approach: The first two central concepts of Practical Participatory Evaluation (P-PE) framed the research design: the data production process and (2) the knowledge co-construction process. The data were collected using a semi-structured approach via online discussions, dialogues and email-based consultation among programme stakeholders. A structural analysis was performed: the units of meaning (what was said) were extracted, listed and quantified in units of significance (what the texts were talking about), from which the key topics for evaluation emerged. Findings: A community of 36 stakeholdersengaged in the discussions, dialogues and consultations. The stakeholders identified 58 units of significance. Fifteen subthemes were constructed in five main themes: student profile, student well-being, E-pedagogy, student journey/transition from being a nurse to becoming a midwife and learning in (an online) geographically remote and isolated area. The themes, or topics of evaluation, are dynamic functions and underlying mechanisms of the commonly used evaluation measures student progress and student evaluation. Research limitations/implications: This P-PE is a single-site study, focusing on a unique programme consisting of a specific group of students living and studying a specific geographic area, affecting the transferability of the findings. Originality/value: In collaboration with stakeholders, parameters to evaluate the uniqueness of the programme in addition to higher education institution routinely collected data on student progress and satisfaction were systematically identified. The themes highlight that if student progress and satisfaction were the only evaluation parameters, knowledge and understanding of the contributing factors to (un)successfulness of this unique online midwifery programme could be missed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on interviews with British passport holders who moved to the United Kingdom to start University, this paper explores slang and accent as sonic spatial identities. The paper analyses the inclusions and exclusions in belonging as articulated by British mobile young people through their sonic spatial identities. In doing so, the paper extends wider conceptual debates on embodied belonging by arguing for a need to further explore the sonic as a register of belonging. It argues that research on sonic spatial identities needs to be more attuned to mobility in order to explore and challenge wider discourses of exclusion. The article concludes by offering suggestions as to how to develop research in belonging and identity on an everyday sonic register. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers critical reflection as a pedagogical strategy in UK higher education at a moment of an amplification of populist, reactionary discourses. It draws on written reflections of foundation-level students in a case study cohort and offers insights into their lived learning experiences and perceptions of the value of reflection. This is situated within the UK 'Brexit' context, alongside a proliferation of far-right populist voices, emboldened supremacies and rising fascism. Accompanying this has been a normalisation of reactionary 'anti-social justice' discourses. It is vital that HE practitioners recognise, pre-empt and interrupt such discourses, developing pedagogies and curricula in response. Yet there are inherent challenges in a climate of 'post-truth' anti-intellectualism. This paper argues that critical reflection contributes a useful approach to learning, fostering development of students' personal, intellectual and political capacities to navigate this complex socio-political terrain and engage with social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Departments of Arts and Humanities globally face increasing financial threat from falling enrolment, rising costs, and 'strategic realignment' at university level. In the UK, in particular, cuts to the Arts and Humanities sector are becoming endemic, with complex ramifications for prospective students as well as academic and professional staff. In light of these structural and ideological challenges, this paper proposes a revisiting of the philosophical work of Richard Rorty. Rorty has argued compellingly for the morally educative importance of the arts as well as the distinct gift of a liberal education more generally. Ultimately, however, we argue that Rorty's liberal ideals are radically threatened in the present context of neoliberalism and that they have been particularly problematised in philosophical and literary work since Rorty's death in 2007. The theoretical writings of Lauren Berlant as well as the literary fiction of Nicole Flattery and Natasha Brown are our key exemplars here. Through our analysis of these texts, we interrogate what we might desire of education beyond the liberal paradigm underpinning Rorty's thought; and we sketch a framework for the Arts and Humanities perhaps more responsive to the crises of our contemporary age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Routine outcome monitoring (ROM), including the use of feedback, has become a much vaunted method in psychological therapies but is little used in university/college counselling and mental health services, perhaps because its adoption raises questions for many practitioners and service leaders. There is a need for both clinical‐ and research‐based statements to clarify the reasoning and rationale for ROM. This paper aims to present and respond to common challenges of and reservations about using ROM in student counselling and/or mental health services. Method: The article poses 15 questions and issues about the adoption of ROM drawn from the literature on this topic and further refined by practitioner‐ and researcher‐members of a consortium comprising service leads, practitioners, and researchers working in the field of student counselling in the UK. The questions address nine themes: (1) the purpose and yield of ROM; (2) the burden of measurement; (3) the impact on clients and process of therapy; (4) consistency with therapeutic theory; (5) client groups and settings; (6) concern from practitioners; (7) equality, diversity, and inclusion; (8) implementation; and (9) relationship with the paradigm of practice‐based evidence. Findings: Responses to each of the 15 questions are provided from a methodological, evidence‐based, and clinical perspective. Conclusions: The responses provide practitioners with the necessary information to enable them to make informed decisions as to the value, or otherwise, of adopting ROM, including feedback, in the delivery of counselling interventions, and generating evidence created from clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review tracks the last 50 years of the journey towards the inclusion of disabled students in Higher Education (H.E.). It provides a critical overview of the impact of evolving U.K. policy aimed at widening participation for disabled H.E. students. The overview spotlights the historical, ideological and political influences on policy and practice and illuminates the underlying causes of the social injustices still experienced by disabled H.E. students. Despite a government commitment to inclusive practices, data reveals disabled H.E. students are among those most at risk of withdrawing from university and have lower degree outcomes than non-disabled students (OfS. 2021. Access and Participation Resources: Findings from the Data. , 19). The article illustrates how the prevailing models of disability have influenced definitions of disability and inclusion. It highlights tensions between the Government's accountability agenda and inclusive practice ideals. The paper reviews U.K. studies of inclusion of disabled H.E. students. It unearths barriers, particularly concerning stigma, disclosure, and social inclusion, rooted in historical misrepresentations of disability remaining intact in contemporary society. Implications for H.E. institutions and policymakers are highlighted. Recommendations for researchers include research aligned with disabled people's lived experiences and further investigation of barriers relating to attitudes of non-disabled students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines staff perspectives on institutional representations of a range of areas of diversity and inclusion in a key post-compulsory education sector: that of UK Higher Education (HE). The paper focuses on comparing representational statements made by institutions with the reality of their lived experiences as perceived by staff. The paper first reviews literature around key issues of promoting and progressing in these areas, and how these areas are represented by institutions and the sector as a whole. It presents and discusses data from a survey (n = 300) to show strong agreement with representational statements as mirroring those of institutions, yet statistically significant differences between representations and the reality of lived experiences, particularly in relation to the lived experiences of staff. These data are discussed in the light of progress made by institutions, and the challenges faced in translating representations into real lived experience. Suggestions for institutions and policy makers are made to help better align reality with these representations in the UK Higher Education sector and, theoretically, for post-compulsory education sectors elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jonathan Shay argued that social, relational, and institutional contexts were central to understanding moral injury and conceptualised moral injury as a normative response to the betrayal of an individual's understanding of what is right by a more senior/authoritative "other". Using the conceptual lens of moral injury, this paper investigates academic staff experiences of HE during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores the rapid transition back to face-to-face teaching that took place in autumn 2020. To collect data, we used an online survey that opened in January 2021 and ran until the end of March 2021. A total of 663 complete questionnaires were received across the survey period. The questionnaire was comprised of ten topic-related questions, each of which included follow-up sub-questions and also invited participants to write in additional information. The majority of participants felt that during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had acted in ways that put their own health and wellbeing at risk. Of those who had acted in ways that put their health and wellbeing at risk, they believed that their senior management were the most responsible for them acting in such ways, followed by the UK government. Qualitative data showed a systemic absence of leadership in the sector during the time, a sense of betrayal of staff and students by senior management and the government, and feelings of compulsion to act in ways which put lives at risk. On the basis of these results, we argue that there could be synergies between the situation facing healthcare staff and academics during the pandemic. Many of the experiences of HE academic staff during the pandemic reported to us in this research are resonant with the concepts of betrayal and moral injury and resulted in affective responses which we understand here in relation to feelings of guilt, shame, and anger, leading ultimately to poor mental health and wellbeing. This paper discusses implications for the HE sector going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how mobility is experienced differentially in international education, through a comparison of two ostensibly very distinct student groups. Both groups have non-UK citizenship and have studied, or are studying, for a British higher education degree – one in the UK, the other in Hong Kong. Through a dual focus on the materialities and mobilities within international higher education, we consider the extent to which physical mobility across borders is a defining feature of the experiences and outcomes of those engaging in international education. We argue that combining perspectives of mobilities and materialities challenges simplistic dichotomies of im/mobility amongst students and unsettles the boundaries between onshore and offshore international education. Our paper provides a more granular and nuanced understanding of the relationship between im/mobility, international higher education and social reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fair access and widening participation currently occupy a prominent position in the UK higher education agenda, but these terms remain ambiguous. In this paper we identify two prominent strands of policy in the government's approach to access and the widening of participation and contrast these with a third, more progressive perspective. The academic strand seeks to attract 'gifted and talented' young people into an unreformed higher education system. The second strand, which we term the utilitarian approach, posits a need for reform. However, this is undertaken largely to meet the requirements of employers and the economy. In contrast, a transformative approach values diversity and focuses on creating a system of higher education that does not place the burden of change upon potential entrants. This framework is used to explore some of the implications of the government's White Paper The future of higher education. First, the purpose of higher education is discussed, with particular reference to the distinction between economic and social objectives. Second, the government's view of the structure of the higher education sector is examined, by scrutinizing the notion of institutional differentiation and the role of the access regulator. We conclude that within a more differentiated higher education sector different aspects of the access discourse will become dominant in different types of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I critically explore the ideological underpinnings of pedagogical and political practices in UK Higher Education (HE). I first map out the political and pedagogical features of community psychology and then describe the Millennium Volunteers project at the University of Northumbria—a scheme that integrates voluntary placements into undergraduate degree programmes, reflecting on the political and pedagogical premises upon which it is based. I consider the political context and recent social policy trends in UK HE. Through exploring the ideological underbellies of community psychology and Millennium Volunteers I describe the tensions created once both are situated within a HE student's learning and a lecturer's teaching portfolio. I reflect on how each appears to share similar wish lists but conclude that a surface comparison of the pedagogical practices of each can leave unrecognized serious ideological, ethical and political differences that can cause disruption at the interfaces of staff, students and HE institutions. I recommend making the political and ideological assumptions behind pedagogical practices and education policy initiatives more transparent to both students and lecturers alike and outline the reasons for doing so. I conclude by reflecting on implications for the widening access agenda in the present political climate from the standpoint of a community psychologist. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to stimulate the nascent research agenda on the environmental sustainability of the ongoing mushrooming of international student mobility (ISM). The higher education (HE) system in the UK and elsewhere is increasingly predicated upon the hosting of international students. Whilst this drive towards internationalisation undoubtably has multiple benefits, little attention thus far has been paid to its potentially very considerable environmental impact. The drive for internationalisation within HE thus potentially sits at odds with ambitions and strategies to promote sustainability within the sector and beyond. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews with 21 students and representatives of 14 university international offices offer insights into how the environment features in the decisions that young people and HE institutions make with regards to partaking in and promoting education-related mobility. Findings: The results find that students take environmental considerations into account when undertaking education-related mobility, but these aspirations are often secondary to logistical issues concerning the financial cost and longer travel times associated with greener travel options. At the institutional scale, vociferously championed university sustainability agendas have yet to be reconciled with the financial imperative to recruit evermore international students. Originality/value: This paper identifies a thus far neglected contradiction within HE whereby the sustainability agenda that it so rightly espouses is potentially undermined by the drive towards internationalisation. The paper uses the anthropause concept to consider the future environmental sustainability of ISM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about how best to support students' transition from school to university have re-emerged periodically since at least the 1970s. This paper focuses upon one aspect of this transition: how to develop the quantitative skills students acquire at school throughout the first year of their degree. We report on an attempt to inject pedagogic innovation into the teaching of quantitative methods to first-year geography undergraduates at a large Russell Group university in the UK. More specifically, we report on moving to a pedagogic approach of student-centred, inquiry-based learning, which uses quantitative methods to investigate the issue of air pollution. We explore whether "statistical anxiety" is still a common experience of undergraduate geographers and the extent to which pedagogical innovation can help to alleviate this. Although the focus is on UK Geography, the paper has wider relevance to anywhere geographical research methods are taught. [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]

The evaluation of research to allocate government funding to universities is now common across the globe. The Research Excellence Framework, introduced in the UK in 2014, marked a major change by extending assessment beyond the 'quality' of published research to include its real-world 'impact'. Impact submissions were a key determinant of the £4 billion allocated to universities following the exercise. The case studies supporting claims for impact are therefore a high stakes genre, with writers keen to make the most persuasive argument for their work. In this paper we examine 800 of these 'impact case studies' from disciplines across the academic spectrum to explore the rhetorical presentation of impact. We do this by analysing authors' use of hyperbolic and promotional language to embroider their presentations, discovering substantial hyping with a strong preference for boosting the novelty and certainty of the claims made. Chemistry and physics, the most abstract and theoretical disciplines of our selection, contained the most hyping items with fewer as we move along the hard/pure – soft/applied continuum as the real-world value of work becomes more apparent. We also show that hyping varies with the type of impact, with items targeting technological, economic and cultural areas the most prolific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an assessment of the White Paper on higher education in the Great Britain. Existence of problems in Higher education in the Great Britain; Proposal by the White Paper for higher education fund; Objectives of the White Paper in analyzing the importance of higher education in the Great Britain.

This paper reflects on the importance of 'time spent' in understanding the international student experience. Short‐term mobility programmes (involving stays of between 1 week and 2 months) attracting less privileged students, such as the relatively new Turing Scheme in the United Kingdom, have been hailed as a potential 'solution' to the fact that, traditionally, wealthier individuals have been far more likely to engage in study abroad. However, we do not yet know how short‐term and longer duration programmes compare in terms of the value they confer to students (in relation to their experiences and outcomes). How likely is it that short‐term mobility at undergraduate level is as valuable, according to different measures, as mobility lasting 6 months to several years (as with degree mobility)? This paper reviews some of the evidence to date on shorter duration mobility, addressing how value in international study is constructed and conferred and how this relates to 'time spent'. The paper concludes by arguing that the picture is mixed: although short‐term mobility will be beneficial to students, those engaging in longer term exchanges (usually more privileged students) are likely to derive greater benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Persistent critical issues in built environment higher education (BEHE) curricula may need to be addressed by improving course organisation and management. In addition to the implications of the COVID pandemic, issues such as inadequate communication and lack of contemporary and innovative practices integrated with course delivery have resulted in a gap for Course organisation and management. The purpose of this study is to recommend a set of drivers that can assist academics and academic institutions in improving course development, organisation and management in the BEHE context. Thus, the study focused on three themes: course organisation and administration, timetabling and course communication. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic approach was taken to obtain data, where a documental analysis and a close-ended questionnaire were adopted as data collection instruments. The documental analysis considered 334 mid module reviews (MMRs) generating data from architecture, construction management, civil engineering, surveying and real estate students. Content analysis was used to identify critical themes within the MMRs and develop a closed-ended questionnaire. Twenty academics from each discipline completed the questionnaire. Eight drivers were developed from the data obtained from both MMRs and questionnaires. Content analysis and interpretive structural modelling were applied to identify the relationship between the drivers. Finally, these drivers were categorised by their level of influence and reliance to highlight how they contributed to improving course organisation and management. Findings: The study revealed eight drivers that can improve course organisation and management in the BEHE context. The study found that using virtual learning environments and communication are fundamental in course organisation and management. Practical implications: This research paper suggests drivers to improve how academics and academic institutions organise and manage courses. The study recommends eight drivers that could be used as a guideline and a best practice as per the level partitioning diagram developed to enhance the course organisation and management in BEHE. Originality/value: The study proposes a set of drivers to improve course organisation and management in BEHE curricula. Furthermore, insight into how these drivers influence and rely on each driver and their relation with the national student survey theme are novel contributions to the current body of knowledge. The paper further clarifies how they should be implemented for successful course organisation and management, thus, improving the quality of courses in higher education curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to better inform environmental management at universities by applying and validating the policy integration processes theory through a case study of Manchester Metropolitan University. Design/methodology/approach: Social network analyses were used to identify, differentiate and categorise working networks of individuals and departments and the interconnections between them. Findings: In an organisation, networks can be developed and active at departmental level but not at individual level. High numbers of departments can be doing work related to sustainable development whilst having low and medium levels of interconnections between departments. Influence of stakeholders throughout the network suggests levels of sustainable development policy integration at individual and departmental. Practical implications: New insights provide evidence for universities' environmental managers of the need of developing and implementing strategies that involve individuals' work between departments by providing incentives, supporting capacity building and staff empowerment. Originality/value: This paper applied and validated the theory of policy integration processes, showing that work at individual level and between departments needs more attention. [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]

Positioning strategy and ranking are critical issues in an increasingly competitive higher education landscape. Unless there is conceptual congruence between positioning strategies and rankings, the signals may become diffused and confusing for prospective students. This paper seeks the congruence between positioning strategies and ranking. Since without a validated typology of positioning strategies, such congruence cannot be sought, this paper firstly aims to develop an empirically derived typology of positioning strategies for HEIs. The population consists of HEIs in the UK. Content analysis was used to analyze the WebPages of HEIs to identify positioning bases, and congruence and contradictions between those positioning bases and ranking were identified by correspondence analysis. As a result, a new positioning typology consisting of eight bases, which are top of the range, campus life experience, internationalization, teaching excellence, research quality, graduates prospects, location, and value for money, was identified. In conclusion, HEIs are categorized into three different groups as Leaders and Challengers, Followers, and Nichers and Cost Leaders, and recommendations about how to guarantee congruence between positioning strategy and ranking were made. HEIs should choose positioning bases in line with their rankings since congruence strengthens the position in the minds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academy in Britain has witnessed the rise of a "decolonial turn", which ironically is set against the backdrop of persistent racial disparities amongst staff and students within higher education. Taking the cases of the disciplines of history and geography and drawing from qualitative interviews and focus groups among students and academics in these disciplines, this paper examines "decolonising" as– (a) a "new" language being articulated by various actors within the neoliberal university; and (b) an emergent praxis at the levels of learned societies, university departments and beyond, to address racialized inequalities and coloniality. This paper outlines some key tensions and challenges faced by "decoloniality" at both conceptual and practical levels, and overall suggests the need for an anti-racist collaborative effort to make meaningful "decolonial" changes within higher education in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback is a dialogic process in which diverse individuals are involved. In internationalised higher education, individuals with different feedback literacies are likely to participate in feedback dialogues and interactions across feedback cultures. Such intercultural interactions can be challenging; some degree of intercultural competence is needed for dialogues between cultures to be effective and appropriate for all involved. This paper brings together feedback and intercultural competence research, exploring whether developing intercultural competence specific to feedback contexts can support more effective dialogues. Narrative interviews and audio diary methods were employed over a 9-month period of time to explore the role of intercultural competence in feedback dialogues across feedback cultures. Changes over time were captured through the longitudinal design of the study. Findings show that knowledge and awareness of diverse feedback practices and cultures, intercultural critical reflection, intercultural emotional management, alongside a set of skills and attitudes towards diversity of feedback practices can impact on facilitating intercultural feedback dialogues. A framework of feedback intercultural competence is proposed, and further research is encouraged to expand upon this exploratory papers' initial contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers queer feminist interruptions as a way to halt, reverse and rethink internationalisation in UK higher education (HE). These points of intervention are situated within the queer development studies literature, which provides a framework for understanding internationalisation practices alongside other strategies of Western extraction, critical of claims that internationalisation is important for enhancing diversity. Throughout, the paper confronts the problematic, colonial narratives of global LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) human rights progress as framed by the global north, and how UK internationalisation strategy often reproduces or doubles‐down on these narratives. The central questions addressed are: (1) how does queer liberation help academics think differently about promoting, participating in and developing UK HE internationally? (2) What can academics learn from those working to centre queer feminist practices in their transnational research and teaching? In conversation with critical internationalisation studies scholarship, this paper contributes to ongoing research about internalisation with a queer sensitivity. As such, the paper highlights the limiting binary logics and heteronormativity in internationalisation, as well as new directions for collaboration across communities working for radical liberation on campus beyond agendas of inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The curriculums of social work education are traditionally divided, with professional and theoretical knowledge taught largely in the classrooms of academia, whilst practical skills and experience are developed mostly in workplace settings. This paper locates simulation in Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and Paulo Freire's pedagogy, considering its potential to offer social work education a third place, complementary to, yet unique and distinct from the first place of academy and the second place of placement. The authors present findings from the first stage of their evaluation of the introduction of simulation to social work curriculums at a UK university. Narrative responses are presented across six, overarching themes: the pedagogical approach; authenticity; engineered failure; applying theory in practice; developing practice skills; reflection and feedback. The data demonstrates that respondents valued opportunities for deliberate practice which enabled them to experience emotional responses and learn from their mistakes without negative consequence. Although these findings predate COVID 19, they are ever-more relevant as social work education reconsiders how to reach, teach, and engage social work students during the pandemic and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pursuit of greater research 'impact' has become embedded within Higher Education, through links to perceived value for money, and reified through institutional auditing processes. Academics are frequently encouraged to use social media to facilitate public engagement and enhance research impact, as it offers the potential to connect with more diverse, non-academic audiences. However, little is known about the relationship between the use of social media and academics' own perceptions of research impact and public engagement in practice. In this paper, an analysis of text responses from a survey of academics (n = 107) is presented. This includes what academics perceive to be examples of high-impact interactions through social media, and how this is mediated by different platforms. The findings have practical implications for social media training for academics and also suggest that institutional definitions of research impact may not account for the range of scholarly engagement social media platforms can facilitate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a research project designed to understand the work experiences and career opportunities of people working in higher education institutions (HEIs) across the UK, which received formal recognition for supporting gender equity between 2015 and 2020. The findings reveal multiple intersecting barriers to women's full engagement, inclusion, support and career success in higher education, despite the implementation of organization-based gender equity plans, and institutional inter/national recognition for advancing equity. Most axes of de/privilege that are based along lines of gender, race, ethnicity and religion are enacted as everyday sexism that resist gender equality policy. Moreover, our findings suggest that 'place' is a constitutive element of intersectional dis/advantage, not merely a context within which compounded barriers to inclusion and advancement may exist. In addition, the findings demonstrate that whilst inter-categorical intersectionality is based on the notion that all social categories (such as age, race and gender) are equally salient, the degree of importance of any category will likely depend on location or context of the phenomena being examined. Our findings therefore invite further, iterative and translocational research into the impacts of the intersections of gender, ethnicity, race and religion in spaces of higher education, particularly those with colonial legacies and presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance assessment is permeating increasingly diverse domains of higher education, even in areas previously perceived to be too complex and idiosyncratic to quantify. The UK's attempts to assess 'research impact' within the Research Excellence Framework (REF) are illustrative of this trend and are being closely monitored by several other countries. A fundamental rationale for employing narrative case studies to assess impact within REF, rather than taking a (less resource intensive) quantified approach, was that this would allow for the variation, complexity and idiosyncrasy inherent in research impact. This paper considers whether this promise of narrative flexibility has been realised, by analysing a combination of REF impact case study reports and interviews and focus group discussions with actors involved in case study production. Informed by this analysis, our central argument is that the very quality which allows narratives to govern is their ability to standardise performance (albeit whilst retaining a degree of flexibility). The paper proposes that REF impact case studies position narratives of impact as technologies of governance in ways that restrict the 'plot line' and belie the far more complex accounts held by those working to achieve research impact. This is partly because, as research impact becomes institutionalised within universities' measurement infrastructures, higher education institutions become impact gatekeepers, filtering out narratives that are deemed overly complex or insufficiently persuasive, while perpetuating particular approaches to recounting tales of impact that are deemed likely to perform well. Crucially, these narratives not only describe impact but actively construct it as an auditable phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes ideas that emerged over the course of a 10-week symposium titled "Teaching Reproducible Research: Educational Outcomes" https://www.projecttier.org/fellowships-and-workshops/2021-spring-symposium that took place in the spring of 2021. The speakers included one linguist, three political scientists, seven psychologists, and three statisticians; about half of them were based in the United States and about half in the United Kingdom. The symposium focused on a particular form of reproducibility--namely computational reproducibility--and the paper begins with an exposition of what computational reproducibility is and how it can be achieved. Drawing on talks by the speakers and comments from participants, the paper then enumerates several reasons for which learning reproducible research methods enhance the education of college and university students; the benefits have partly to do with developing computational skills that prepare students for future education and employment, but they also have to do with their intellectual development more broadly. The article also distills insights from the symposium about practical strategies instructors can adopt to integrate reproducibility into their teaching, as well as to promote the practice among colleagues and throughout departmental curricula. The conceptual framework about the meaning and purposes of teaching reproducibility, and the practical guidance about how to get started, add up to an invitation to instructors to explore the potential for introducing reproducibility in their classes and research supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International students are a critical source of income for UK universities, and yet reports indicate that their numbers have been in decline since academic year 2010-2011. Consequently, UK universities need to work harder to attract international students than ever before. This paper uses qualitative interviews with international office staff based at UK higher education institutions together with observational research at recruitment events which took place in Hong Kong in 20l7 to demonstrate how the urban has a critical role to play in the international student migration industry. The paper showcases three urban encounters in the recruitment process: the higher education recruitment fair; the connections universities draw between themselves and other urban locations; and by considering how predeparture events mobilise the urban landscape to communicate dynamic learning experiences. The retelling and analysis of these encounters demonstrate how universities, and the UK, create, foster and embed the geographical imaginary in their recruitment processes in order to entice and encourage brand loyalty from prospective students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 20 years, the UK Higher Education sector has experienced a significant change to its funding base with a shift away from government funding, to operating within a highly competitive marketised environment. This shift has impacted the governance and management structures within the sector, with universities encouraged to adopt a more corporate and managerial style. Moreover, over this period, universities have evolved and adapted to social, economic, environmental and technological changes, necessitating a change in dialogue with the large number of internal and external stakeholders who influence Higher Education policy as well as university practices and operations. Adopting a Stakeholder and Resource Dependency Theory perspective, this paper seeks to calibrate the changing influence and importance of these stakeholders. The paper analyses a survey of 22 university secretaries (In the UK Higher Education setting, the university secretary is responsible for the effective governance of the university and for its professional services. In recent years, several UK universities have changed the title of this role from university secretary to Chief Operating Officer (COO), or to University Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, which is more common internationally.) conducted in mid-2020, and the results show that academic staff and students are seen as the most influential internal stakeholders as the quality of teaching and research is vital to the reputation and attractiveness of the university in a global market. Undergraduate home students are seen as the most influential student group due largely to the numbers enrolled, followed by international postgraduate taught students, an outcome consistent with resource dependency theory. UK and devolved governments (Devolution occurs when a central government delegates power to a region, providing it with autonomy to make legislation relevant to the area, whilst keeping it under national control. In the UK, devolved powers were granted to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the UK Westminster Government following referenda in each region in the late 1990s. The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have control over a wide range of policy areas and have the authority to pass their own legislation in relation to them. One such devolved policy area is education. Other devolved policy areas include health services, law, and the environment.) are seen as the most influential external stakeholder reflecting their role in university funding and in setting Higher Education policy and regulation, an influence that has increased over the past two decades. The influence of financial stakeholders has also grown over the past two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]