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This paper discusses the implementation of exemplar essays within an undergraduate first-year diagnostic radiography module to encourage active learning and the development of academic literacies. Nine essays ([approximately]400 words each) were provided over six sessions, using lecturer-guided discussion to explore the academic virtues and pitfalls demonstrated alongside assessment criteria. Exemplars were based upon a fictitious baking profession to illicit student interest and eliminate the risk of imitation or plagiarism. The quality of essays varied, with overt examples of common mistakes in spelling, essay structure and selection of appropriate literature. Upon completion of the sessions, and prior to summative assessment, students were surveyed with regard to their opinion of the teaching intervention. Feedback was obtained from 65% of the cohort (n=31/48), who reported an improvement in essay writing confidence. Students found the marking of the essays in class useful and the baking analogy was well received. Not all students found the classroom activities engaging though, with some wishing greater interactivity due to boredom and repetition. Furthermore, there was a slight reduction in pass rates and average marks across the cohort when compared to the previous module delivery. Nevertheless, there was a substantial increase in students attaining marks of 80% or more. This study highlights exemplar essays as a low-tech, low-cost option to increase assessment literacy but accepts the wide diversity in student learning preferences and experience. The efficacy of exemplar essays cannot be guaranteed, and teaching staff must be cognisant of individual student learning needs.

The rise in technology-rich learning environments is reflective of a global trend in higher education (HE), recently accelerated because of necessary digital teaching and assessment practices embraced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study facilitated through focus groups and an interview explores the teaching and learning experiences of tertiary level students in the COVID-19 era. Data from 24 students based within a UK Higher Education Institution highlights how an expanded digital environment can optimise conditions for some students to independently practise and apply what they are learning at their own pace. Digitally enhanced opportunities to interact with teaching staff and learning resources also increased the options for these students to experience themselves as competent members of the HE community. This was particularly relevant for first-year students new to the processes and practices of tertiary education. In contrast, third year students with more experience of HE appeared less reliant on the provision of online learning resources. Participants also identified some potential problems associated with the enhanced flexibility of online teaching and learning resources in relation to students' ability to be self-regulated. This paper rationalises the need for educators and educational and learning developers who teach and undertake scholarship in teaching and learning to consider the sociocultural context of the student and their learning environment when designing teaching activities and curricula. The data presented here highlight the need for a clearly defined framework to underpin the integration of digital technologies with on-campus activities.

Artificial intelligence can support increasingly complex conversational interactions and also has the potential to interpret meanings from free text input and make recommendations based on patterns in data. There are important opportunities to apply this to real-world problems faced in access to education. In this paper, we summarise existing research and trends linking disability support and technology, then report on a survey conducted with students with disclosed disabilities (n = 138) to explore what systems might need to do to effectively understand disabled students in their own words, and provide suggestions of technologies, strategies and resources that could be relevant to overcoming barriers to learning. Through thematic analysis, five approaches that students used to talk about their disabilities are identified(medical, functional, support, experiential and administrative), and three major types of suggestions they make around what supported them and may be useful to others are also identified (external tools, university support and practices, concerns and solutions). The survey approach and the findings of the analysis provide a potential foundation for the effective design of systems that could crowdsource a knowledgebase around disabilities, hold conversations to understand disabilities and barriers and make relevant recommendations to individuals as to how they could overcome these barriers.

Chinese students studying abroad have been increasing rapidly in the past decades and become a significant financial contribution to receiving countries. Accordingly, understanding their enrollment choice is essential to facilitate college marketing and admission strategies. Though the decision process is believed to be different from domestic students, empirical analysis of Chinese students' enrollment choices is still lacking. This paper fills the void by examining the influential factors of Chinese students' enrollment choice with novel student-level data. We find that in addition to factors domestic students typically consider, such as financial aid and academic quality, Chinese students particularly emphasize college ranking, reputation, and location in their decision process. Furthermore, unlike domestic students who usually prefer colleges with proximity to home, Chinese students' location preference is linked to job prosperity. We also find that the impact of the factors varies for students from different regions of China, which can be attributable to uneven economic development within the country.

The recent increase in the number of higher education institutions adopting block teaching has prompted questions about the appropriateness of assessment methods that were commonly used in a semesterised delivery model. This paper explores student and faculty perceptions of summative assessment methods in a block and blend mode of delivery at a higher education institution in the United Kingdom. In this study, we used a convergent mixed methods approach to explore student and faculty perceptions of different assessment methods as accurate evaluations of learning using surveys, combining Likert-type and open-ended questions. The findings highlight how traditional, single assessment methods occurring at the end of a block were perceived as less accurate in evaluating learning when compared to multiple smaller assessments that occur throughout a block. The thematic analysis revealed the latter was perceived as allowing for a broader range of skills to be evaluated while simultaneously facilitating effective workload management and timely feedback. These outcomes indicate the need for assessment redesign that considers the characteristics of a block and blend mode of delivery and illuminates the shared perception of students and faculty that multiple smaller assessments are more accurate evaluations of learning. Further research with larger, more diverse samples, accommodating for different fields of study, could further our understanding of effective assessment methods and inform our practice in a block and blend mode of delivery.

Entrepreneurs play a crucial role in fostering innovation and fuelling economic growth. China has recently sought to increase entrepreneurial intention in university students by providing entrepreneurship education based on the model deployed by universities in Western cultures. Additionally, a longstanding challenge for universities has been the wellbeing of their students. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this issue, leading to enhancing the wellbeing of university students being declared a global priority. Consequently, by drawing on a framework of conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to conceptually develop and empirically validate a model for enhancing entrepreneurial intention and wellbeing in university students. The data were collected in December 2022 and January 2023. A total of 952 undergraduate students completed the questionnaire, with 476 responses from China and 476 from the UK. Findings indicate (i) positive associations between self-perceived academic performance and individual entrepreneurial intention, whereby self-perceived employability mediates the relationship, (ii) positive associations between serious leisure and wellbeing, whereby self-perceived employability mediates the relationship, and (iii) the country moderates the association between (a) serious leisure and wellbeing, and (b) serious leisure and self-perceived employability, whereby the association is stronger for China than for the UK. The theoretical contribution comes from constructing and empirically validating a model, evidencing alignment and divergence by country concerning acquiring specific personal resources via self-perceived academic performance, serious leisure, and self-perceived employability. Practical and policy implications arise from suggesting how higher education institutions can support their students to enhance individual entrepreneurial intention and wellbeing.

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".

This paper reports the findings of a mixed-methods study which investigates the socio-cultural impacts of UK gendered school sport uniform and the role uniform plays in shaping female school sport experiences. Drawing on an extensive analytical survey with over 400 women of all-ages and 8 interviews with women aged 18-24, it explores how school sport uniform directly impacts female sporting experiences and participation in physical activity, and how uniform policy could be changed to promote greater female sport participation. Gendered school sport uniform continues to operate as a socio-spatial mechanism that names, frames and positions young people in heteronormative school sport spaces. This paper assesses how gendered school sport uniform contributes to the disciplining of the 'ideal feminine body' in schoolgirls and the construction of behavioural gender binaries in sport. The data reveal gendered sport uniform influences the development of a 'fear of masculinisation' in sport and common athletic-feminine identity tensions in teenage girls. The research finds gendered school sport uniform plays a major role in the high drop-out rates of teenage girls in school sport and offers practical insight into how policy could be changed to promote inclusivity, comfort and greater female sport participation. This paper proposes redesigning traditional gendered school sport policy to focus on 'enabling' participation has huge potential to transform female embodied and psychological experiences of school sport and increase school sport participation and enjoyment.

Whilst the practitioner field around current student communications has developed in recent years, most published research still focuses either on prospective students, theoretical benefits of student communications or usage of individual channels of communication. This paper contributes to policy and practice by providing the first UK-wide look at current students' communications preferences and behaviours through a meta-analysis of 17 student communications surveys (total students surveyed 20,134). Results show that students expect their universities to utilise a range of channels (including email, social media and student portals) -- i.e. an integrated marketing theory approach. Most students feel that they receive the right level of information; however, overall satisfaction with communications has decreased in recent years. This paper provides recommendations for practice, as well as a template to improve consistency in future institutional student communications evaluations.

Purpose: In this case study, we offer an analysis of feedback from a student experience survey completed by Black undergraduate students who received proactive, targeted coaching and mentoring support during 2021-2022. All the students were studying at a large higher education institution in the United Kingdom which offers a broad range of degree courses by distance learning. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports on the intervention delivered and analyses the student experience of being offered, and receiving, proactive coaching and mentoring. It is based on the responses of 102 students who engaged with the experience survey after having self-selected to receive the intervention. What follows is an analysis of their experiences using a qualitative in vivo approach based on word frequency in students' free-text comments. Findings: The findings presented are that, in this intervention, students who self-select to receive coaching and mentoring support experience tangible (self-reported) behaviour changes with potentially longer term benefits for their studies. These include improved self-confidence and self-efficacy, increased proactive help-seeking behaviour, greater recognition of strengths and achievement and personal growth and self-awareness. Originality/value: In presenting this case study, we aim to contribute to the growing corpus of practitioner case studies and research papers that show the benefits of coaching and mentoring in higher education and -- more specifically - why coaching and mentoring can be a worthwhile targeted intervention for students from underrepresented backgrounds. This lends support to the growing consensus that students with positive, proactive help-seeking behaviours perform better than students not able to access support (Byrne et al., 2014). We conclude the case study with some practical implications for providers looking to provide targeted support to students.

This paper focuses on the epistemic inequality of international students as a "new" inequality that is under-represented in the current debates about decolonisation (albeit shaped by colonial discourses depicting international students as in deficit and incapable of meeting the standards of (colonial) universities). In this theoretical context, the paper reflects on a multi-modal digital methodology used in a research project that aimed to understand how international students deploy their epistemological resources to learn the curriculum. The paper describes selected artefacts submitted by the students around which their epistemic frames were expressed, suggesting where these may be concealed by epistemological situatedness of the lecturers. Based on the analysis of these artefacts, the paper develops and interrogates an epistemology for support towards interrogating the role of our own epistemological binaries in adversely affecting students' epistemic frames in the curriculum. As such, it contributes to a gap in the literature around decolonial pedagogy, and its role in tackling educational inequalities.

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.

Through the method of tracing-and-mapping, this paper traces the history of how menstruation has been conceptualized in English education policies since 1928, as well as how such conceptualizations have positioned young people. It explains how education policy in England has conceptualized menstruation as a (cis girls') biological process; a controllable problem; and a process that can be instructed on and learned. The paper unfolds how such conceptualizations positioned young people as passive non-agents. It also draws on feminist relational materialism, critical menstruation studies and childhood studies to experiment with different articulations of menstruation and agency. It concludes by reimagining menstruation education and young people's role in addressing menstrual stigma.

This exploratory study reports findings from an "arts-based service-learning" (ABSL) programme where student musicians facilitated "therapeutic community music" (TCM) (Aigen, 2012) for, with, and alongside children and seniors in different community settings. The data primarily comprised student musicians' reflective logs and feedback forms and were analysed through a quality of life lens (Raphael, 2002). This paper discusses the student musicians' reported experiences of belonging (Raphael, 2002). Belonging manifested itself in physical, social, and community aspects. For example, facilitating TCM within a circular format helped the student musicians experience deeper social interactions and a greater sense of inclusion. Moreover, the sense of belonging became a resource for developing resilience, expressing creativity, building professional networks, and experiencing the possibilities of their careers. The study concludes with implications for embedding ABSL in higher education programmes to support learning, enhance well-being, and promote community.

The epistemological beliefs of students are an important area for higher education research. This paper firstly reports on a research review concerning the impact of epistemological beliefs on academic outcomes. This review indicates that students' epistemological beliefs are an influence on their engagement with learning and academic success, and that educators should consider them in developing learning experiences. This issue became particularly pertinent in the context of a global pandemic that necessitated an international trend in moving to online distance education, where student disengagement is more likely to occur. However, research into distance education students' epistemological beliefs emerged as an under-researched field. Consequently, an empirical questionnaire study was conducted with data collected from 550 distance education students. A principal component analysis indicated that particular epistemological beliefs were significantly associated with students' enjoyment of studying online. Their beliefs regarding the role of fun in online learning materials and activities are discussed, and the usefulness of considering fun and epistemological beliefs as factors within distance learning in higher education is highlighted. [Note: The page range (213-232) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 213-231.]

This paper reports a study coauthored with second-year undergraduate students that examines student experiences of undertaking real-life, client-set marketing assessments with an equality and inclusion remit. Students were set a marketing assessment with an explicit social justice focus, thereby prompting them to reflect on their own backgrounds and unconscious biases whilst addressing issues of societal injustice. This study explores the impact on students of closely engaging with this material and how the assessment, which involved them interviewing experts and developing actionable recommendations, altered their views and career plans. Data were generated via focus groups with students who undertook the assessment, supplemented by some alumni and client interviews. The findings are presented as a "3A" framework of Awareness, Application, and Action: first, the assessment raised "Awareness" of broader societal issues and fostered transformation in terms of personal views; second, students developed core skills and networks they could "Apply" in their future careers; and third, "Action" describes the way students felt empowered to make a positive difference to their client and wider society. The 3A model provides simple design principles that educators could implement if they want to introduce transformational experiences based on social justice issues into the marketing curriculum.

To prepare their students for the increasingly demanding workplace of the 21st century, business schools resort to using experiential learning techniques to make explicit connections between knowledge and experiences students already have, encouraging them to make their own interpretations. In this case study, 50 multilingual students participated in a LEGO Serious Play (LSP) intervention for one academic semester. Due to the continuous rise of the numbers of international students in management schools in the UK in the post-COVID-19 era, researchers and lecturers indicate that additional support is often deemed necessary to promote social justice for multilingual and multicultural students and support their well-being. These students used LSP to make better sense of the assessment criteria and the theories they had to use to respond to the instructions and prepare a group paper and a group oral presentation in terms of a module on intercultural management. Findings revealed that these English as a Second Language (ESL) students were inspired by the use of LSP as it allowed them to reflect on the theories and apply them in creative ways fostering collaboration and creative problem-solving. Students initially felt uneasy to engage in this new approach but then enhanced their performance in their group oral presentations by 35% as they were able to improve their second language competence and intercultural awareness. The article concludes by discussing implications for using LSP with multilingual ESL students to help them overcome linguistic and cultural barriers, offering suggestions for the effective use of game-based techniques in Higher Education.

There is increasing interest around the use of microcredentials for upskilling, employability, professional development, and reaching a wide range of learners. However, little discussion exists around the use of microcredentials to contribute towards broader qualifications and accreditation. This paper investigates the use of a series of microcredentials contributing towards a broader Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) qualification. Using a descriptive case study approach, we explore the initial development of this qualification. We also discuss PGCAP learners' experiences of microcredentials study, drawing on the results of a survey. In doing so, we present both the merits of microcredentials from the learners' perspectives but also some of the pedagogical and practical considerations involved.

Climate education is becoming a key educational issue of our time. This also brings with it increased demands for educational research in this area. One important question is how climate attitudes are constructed to support students' willingness to act towards climate change. In this paper, we explore how participatory, holistic and community-based learning approaches influence the construction of climate attitudes in school students from the Czech Republic, Portugal, and the UK (n=473; M=13.49 years). Students' perceptions of different educational strategies were nearly the same across countries. Girls perceive holistic, values-based teaching more strongly. Of the strategies studied, holistic education has the greatest influence on the formation of climate attitudes ([beta]=0.34 for climate change beliefs, [beta]=0.32 for climate change intentions), and community-based teaching has a partial influence ([beta]=0.13 for climate change intentions). It is thus the use of holistic and community-based educational approaches that is key to the successful implementation of climate education.

This paper explores student reported informal peer-learning in a business degree cohort at a UK community college. Literature on conceptualisation and debate regarding peer-learning is examined along with established typologies with respect to equality, mutuality and structure. Following this a critical review of evidence-based studies is undertaken. Crucially we propose a framework of conceptual, functional and experiential themes of peer learning, linked to aspects of student diversity in such courses/institutions. This framework is applied in our questionnaire study investigating the perceptions of second- and third-year students about peer learning. The main findings are that the thematic directionally distinct peer-learning seems not to be prevalent but that across themes and settings some students are more generally engaged in peer-learning than others. The content-based theme of two-way peer-learning that is strongest is guidance in making sense of subject literature; the weakest is guidance on environment aspects of business, e.g. economics. The settings of strongest peer-learning are reported to be those of in-class activities plus group assessment work. The main teaching recommendation is therefore greater deployment of in-class activities that require collaborative learning and require peer learning. The main recommendations for further research include more open explorations of student peer engagement where students can specify significant in-class events and experiences.

This paper reports the key findings from two student surveys undertaken at our institution in the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22. The research was based on the Bretag et al. (2018) student survey undertaken in various Australian universities. After discussions with both Bretag and Harper, we adapted the questions to our context -- a Russell Group university in the UK -- but included similar questions to enable a comparison, and to find out if there were common themes. The main aim of the surveys was to understand our students' awareness of what is meant by the term 'academic integrity', defined as 'being honest in your work, acknowledging the work of others and giving credit where you have used other people's ideas/data' https://secretariat.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/109/2022/12/academic_integrity.pdf. The responses provided an important insight into student attitudes to academic integrity, their understanding of academic malpractice, and their awareness of the penalties if found to have plagiarised, and if found guilty of contract cheating (Medway et al., 2018; Morris, 2018; Harper et al., 2019). The surveys also identified what students would find useful in developing their understanding of academic integrity, and this underlines the importance of consulting our students. Key findings include gaps in the information provided to students, the need for regular and timely reminders of the principles of academic integrity, and the need for guidance to be written using student-friendly language. The findings informed our recommendations in terms of teaching and learning at School/Faculty level and to policy at University level, to further support student success. In the context of the key issues raised by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) Academic Integrity Charter (2020), we discuss examples of best practice currently undertaken at the University of Leeds, on-going discussions regarding developments, and our recommendations for further embedding a culture of academic integrity. We argue that all students should have the same baseline experience and therefore promoting this ethos is the responsibility of all staff who teach and support students.

This paper is a critical discussion about how the curriculum contributes to the sense of belonginess within Higher Education (HE), and how the ongoing aim of decolonisation needs to incorporate a more consistent intersectional lens with the curriculum within psychology. Psychology as a discipline has been criticised for its focus on primarily conducting research with people from countries that are Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD; Henrich et al., 2010). This approach has neglected a number of social groups within the wider literature and has indeed marginalised the voices and experiences of many. Through the topic of decolonisation, there has been the discussion of the importance of belonging and belongingness, but the intersectional experiences of various social groups within the curriculum has been neglected. In summary, this discussion reveals that there are several key ways in which curricula and decolonial research can contribute to belonging: 1) communication of what (who) is important; 2) consideration of student learning needs; 3) appreciation of course content that is salient to students; 4) demonstration of alignment with a wider range of philosophical approaches; 5) promotion and celebration of cultural differences which allow students to be themselves; and 6) inclusion of a wide range of factors within teaching that contribute to belonging, for example the importance of place.

This paper aims to explore how social work students can support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ+) young people in schools. Drawing on the reflective practice portfolio documents of four students who worked with LGBTQ+ young people in a school as part of a social workers in school (SWIS) student placement project, the article uses thematic analysis to identify how the students were able to support young people identifying as LGBTQ+. The article subscribes to a poststructuralist theoretical framework which sees gender and sexual identities as multiple, fragmented and constructed in relation to others and within the systems of knowledge and power that exist in schools. The article demonstrates the benefit to schools of having social work students on practice placement. The students' own reflections critically contemplate the way in which they were able to spend more prolonged periods of time with young people than the teachers could, both with individuals and LGBTQ+ groups. The students' reflective portfolios show the value of the school placements to their own development of knowledge and skills

This paper explores eight Kazakhstani postgraduate students' reflections of their international educational experiences in the UK after their immediate re-entry into Kazakhstan. Special focus was on their language identity development after their one-year stay in the UK. It was informed by Benson et al.'s ([2013]. "Second Language Identity in Narratives of Study Abroad." London: Palgrave Macmillan) three-dimensional model of L2 identity: (a) identity-related aspects of L2 proficiency, (b) linguistic self-concept, and (c) L2-mediated aspects of personal development. The qualitative data collected from a written narrative and three subsequent rounds of individual semi-structured interviews suggest that most participants had lofty goals in the first period of their study abroad. They gradually became aware that full immersion in the host country could take a long time, and accordingly, they set concrete goals. The analysis of the data also revealed that the participants exercised their agency in displaying their development of sociopragmatic competence and a global citizenship identity, by respecting different opinions and accepting cultural differences. Nevertheless, some of them experienced racism based on their usage of English and presumed ethnicity. This study underlines the significance of introducing pedagogical interventions in all phases of study abroad to avoid student sojourners' unrealistic or impractical goals and empower their language identities.

Decolonisation is a socio-political movement which challenges Eurocentrism and post-colonial notions of power. This has numerous implications for higher education institutions (HEIs), where the content and delivery of curricula may be seen as products of colonial legacy. The decolonisation agenda has increasing support from students, the academy, and regulatory bodies, which together are invoking HEIs to act. This paper reports on research undertaken within a UK HEI, which benchmarked the extent to which programmes followed characteristics of (de)colonised curricula. A survey, based on existing open access resources, was completed by 99 staff and 290 students across four schools. Findings suggest differences in how curricula are perceived by staff and students, and between white and minority ethnic student groups. Given growing global interest in decolonisation and associated social justice themes, this research has important applications for other HEIs.

This research explores the experiences of Beth, a university student in the UK, as she comes to be labelled as 'dyslexic', and as she has her diagnosis taken away. Through use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and discourse analysis, the research seeks to understand how Beth made sense of these experiences, and to explore the discursive 'life' of dyslexia within this sense-making. The discussion in this paper proceeds chronologically through Beth's story, from 'struggle', to 'legitimation' to 'derogation', and concludes with a call to recognise the role of diagnosis in the field of special educational needs (SEN) from a social constructionist and relational perspective.

Bullying is a considerable problem among school students, and school-wide positive behaviour support interventions are regarded as helpful in addressing it. One approach is the CATZ Cross-age Teaching Zone anti-bullying intervention. The present study assessed the social validity of the CATZ anti-bullying intervention among a sample of 9-15-year-olds in a pre-post experimental design (N = 817, of which 546 experienced CATZ). Overall, participants expressed moderately positive views of the CATZ anti-bullying intervention, and these became significantly stronger following direct experience of it. Among participants who experienced the CATZ anti-bullying intervention, social validity ratings predicted a greater willingness to engage in it in the future. Alongside the extant data for its effectiveness, our findings support the wider use of the CATZ anti-bullying intervention in schools, and suggestions for how this might be brought about are discussed.

Both challenges and opportunities are inherent with a growth in Chinese international students in UK Higher Education. However, teachers from the West may not understand the differences in Chinese educational practices, which can lead to negative stereotyping of these students as passive and problematic. This paper rejects this deficit perspective, focusing on the views of Chinese students as to what might need to change about the UK teaching and campus environment to improve their learning experience. Two focus groups were held with Chinese social science Masters' students in a UK university. Some of their key requests included to reduce class sizes; to provide more guidance around study skills; to offer more timely and accessible information; to provide a more flexible range of services and learning support; and to create more social time with staff and other students. The discussions particularly brought out the importance of 'relational pedagogy'. These requirements will need more staff time and institutional flexibility which will necessitate adequate funding. The authors conclude that, despite Chinese students' significant contribution to the local economy and to University finances, there does not seem to be a commensurate investment in protecting their wellbeing and ensuring they receive a quality education. We consider it is important to listen to and act on the students' suggestions outlined here if UK Higher Education is to remain the destination of choice for many Chinese and other international students.

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is an international initiative for the harmonisation of higher education (HE) systems in 49 countries. Literature about UK's participation in the EHEA is limited, and the role of EHEA's membership for the UK, particularly after the end of the Brexit transitional period, has not been researched. The originality of the study reported in this paper is in addressing this gap by exploring the perspectives of key UK HE actors on the strategic significance of UK's memberships in the EHEA post-2020 for the UK. The paper draws on the theoretical ideas of rational choice neo-institutionalism, differentiated Europeanisation and internationalisation, and a thematic analysis of 19 official communications of key stakeholders and six in-depth interviews with their representatives. The findings contribute to filling in a significant gap in the literature about Bologna in the UK in making a distinction between its two memberships in the EHEA and the differences and complexities of the roles they play in constructing UK's overarching agenda in HE particularly in the post-Brexit context. The article has also contributed to the literature about Bologna more widely, presenting an investigation into differentiated Europeanisation that has been taking place within one unique post-EU country.

The Prevent Duty requires universities in the United Kingdom to identify and report students who might be seen as 'vulnerable' to radicalisation. Since its introduction in 2015, the duty has been subject to increasing empirical research in the education sector. However, there has been limited research that specifically explores Muslim students' perceptions of Prevent in British universities. This paper directly addresses this gap in research by drawing upon the qualitative experiences of 25 university students who self-identified as 'British Muslims'. Individual, semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Analysis. The findings demonstrate the securitisation of higher education and 'policing' of Muslim students. The paper draws on Pantazis and Pemberton's use of the 'new suspect community' thesis in order to examine participants' views and experiences. When analysing the data, three particular themes are especially prominent: as a tool of 'surveillance', Prevent hampers freedom of speech, threatens student activism and forces Muslim students to hide their Muslim identity to avoid being labelled as 'radical' or 'vulnerable' to terrorism. It will be concluded that the 'surveillance' function of Prevent is problematic on the grounds that it renders universities 'modern-day panopticons'.

This paper explores Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) knowledge and behavioural differences of university students in the United Kingdom and Malaysia. The researchers also explore gender as an indicator of students' SDG awareness and behaviours as few studies to date have explored this area. This study employed a sustainability consciousness questionnaire (SCQ) that was developed to measure SDG knowledge based on the UNESCO framework for sustainability behaviour. Questionnaires were distributed to 156 university students in the UK and Malaysia. Malaysian university students reported higher scores for understanding SDG content and scope and the specific SDGs of their country compared to British students, although British students have been receiving formal education on SDGs. University students in the UK were also unable to transform their SDG knowledge into sustainability behaviours, although they had a certain level of understanding of the topic covered by the SDGs. Malaysian university students exhibited a closer relationship between SDG knowledge and sustainable behaviours given the sufficient institutional and policy support and customised university programs. SDG knowledge and sustainability behaviours were the same for male and female students in both countries. In conclusion, integrating SDG knowledge into university education will inevitably lead students to work towards SDG goals in the future. This can be achieved with proper planning of the university curriculum and the enforcement of educational policies.

The approach that students take in their studies at university is critical not only for their academic success but is equally important in life-long learning for their career and professional development. Heutagogy is the study of self-determined learning and it is important that we appraise how students in higher education are developing their metacognitive awareness in how they learn and study effectively. Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary research area that involves the scientific study of the human mind. It helps provide new knowledge in relation to areas such as memory, problem solving, knowledge transfer and understanding of complex topics. Cognitive science has demonstrated that re-testing oneself on material when learning, enhances and promotes greater retention of knowledge compared to re-reading the material. Learning that is distributed or spaced out over multiple study sessions also allows for greater retention of knowledge in the longer-term compared to 'cramming' of information. To evaluate the use of effective study approaches and habits across three different levels of study in an undergraduate pharmacy programme, a survey study was employed. A paper-based survey was completed by first-, second- and third-year undergraduate pharmacy students (n=192) during class sessions. Although there was some evidence of metacognitive awareness such as using testing (retrieval practice) with practice problems; across all years, suboptimal study approaches such as rereading, copying notes and cramming were endorsed. A schedule of deadlines shaped the organisation of study and time management for most students. Self-testing was predominantly used to test learning rather than an approach used during learning. There was evidence of a difference between the cohorts in relation to decisions for prioritizing studying, returning to review course material and re-reading. The evidence from this study demonstrates that learners would require training on metacognitive awareness and effective study strategies to enable their self-determined learning capabilities to evolve. The linear progression through a programme of study alone will not achieve this. There is a need to embed and emphasize effective strategies for learning into curricula and for faculty to utilise metacognitive awareness in their teaching.

The paper compares the effectiveness of in-person and virtual engineering laboratory sessions. The in-person and virtual laboratory sessions reported here comprise six experiments combined with short tutorials. The virtual lab combined enquiry-based learning and gamification principles. The integration of the virtual labs with in-person teaching created a blended learning environment. The effectiveness of this approach was assessed based on: (1) the student feedback (i.e., a questionnaire with open-ended questions and Likert scale feedback); (2) the students' engagement with the virtual lab; and (3) the impact on the academic performance (i.e., class test results). The students reported greater confidence in the understanding of theory in the virtual lab than the in-person lab. This is interesting given that the instruction for the virtual lab and the in-person lab of one experiment is identical (i.e., same instructor, same enquiry-based learning techniques, and same explanations). The students also appreciated the ability to complete the virtual lab anytime, anywhere, for as long as they needed, and highlighted the benefits of the interactivity. The median class test scores of the students who completed some or all the virtual lab experiments was higher than those who did not (83-89% vs. 67%).

The purposes of this paper are to investigate Taiwanese undergraduate students' responses to a selected fictional text, and to propose a critical intercultural pedagogical approach of reading global literature in the EFL educational context based on the insights from the research findings. The authors first critically analysed Xiaolu Guo's third novel, "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers," in terms of Occidentalism, in order to unpack the ideologies underlying her representation of the British and the Chinese. The analysis of the text was conducted through a qualitative approach of critical content analysis. After that, a semi-structured interview was adopted to scrutinise Taiwanese undergraduate students' perceptions of the ideologies underlying the fiction. The analysis of the text identified three themes of British-Chinese binary opposition together with the juxtaposition of ethnocentric Occidentalism and reverse Occidentalism. The findings obtained from interviews indicated that two of the three dichotomies, i.e. individualism versus collectivism and cosmopolitan versus rooted, underlying the fictional text were commonly perceived by the interviewed undergraduates while they had diverse views on the second dichotomy, sexual freedom versus sexual reticence. Furthermore, some students? responses to the fiction signified a subtle, implicit and delicate form of reverse Occidentalism. Based on the above research findings, the authors configured a critical intercultural pedagogy for raising students' capability of decoding and deconstructing Occidentalist ideologies underlying global literature.

Through historically oriented critical discourse analysis this article considers how the messages regarding the purpose of higher education, as presented in prospectuses of four case study institutions, have been impacted by massification and marketisation in England between 1977 and 2018. The prospectuses of four higher education institutions of different status were analysed to trace how discourses relating to the value of an undergraduate degree could be identified in the prospectuses. The findings suggest that while the prospectuses presented multiple rationales as to why students should undertake degrees, there was a significant increase in focus on graduate transitions to employment and a parallel hollowing-out of information relating to course content. The study found that over the period the vocabularies drawn on to present the value of a degree have become homogenised, yet the rationales given for undertaking tertiary study became more numerous and complex, making diversity of institutional offers difficult for prospective students to differentiate.

Many students do not engage with reading the scientific literature, which is a core skill in undergraduate students. The learning environment has an important impact upon learning. It was postulated that taking reading out of the formal learning environment might impact upon students' willingness to engage with the literature, and confidence in doing so. A staff-student research partnership initiative funded by Kingston University allowed this hypothesis to be tested. Three Tea Club sessions, informal drop-in reading sessions were offered in a student-owned space within the Students' Union. Refreshments were supplied, aiming for a 'coffee house' feel. Although the numbers of students who engaged with the Tea Club were small, evaluations were positive. In particular students valued the opportunity for peer learning. However the chosen environment was too noisy. Future sessions will be offered within a different, less noisy environment with facilities for refreshments, and will be offered throughout the academic year to facilitate student engagement.

This paper reports reactions by candidates to the use of online proctoring (OLP), 'invigilation', in the delivery of high-stakes English language examinations. The paper first sets the scene in terms of the move from face-to-face to online modes of delivery. It explores the challenges and benefits that both modes offer, in terms of accessibility, fairness, security and cheating. Evidence is then presented from a survey exploring the reactions to and perceptions of OLP by candidates who had taken an English language examination via OLP. A strong endorsement of OLP was generally recorded. Feedback revealed that respondents perceived OLP to be a more personal as well as a more efficient way of taking a test. Some pertinent negative comments from a smaller number of respondents could be construed as constructive and are also discussed. The results are indicative of a broad acceptance of OLP, pointing to strong future uptake of the OLP mode of test delivery.

Single-parent families represent a significant proportion of all UK families, but literature suggests that they face challenges in accessing, participating in, and completing Higher Education (HE). This article draws on data obtained from three months of mixed-methods research in 2021 with single-parent students to explore the meanings of being a single parent studying at university in the UK in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so it considers the personal demands that the pandemic placed on single-parent students, and the avenues of support available for single-parent students in the context of the UK HE system. These issues are then analysed within a theoretical framework to argue that single-parent students occupied a simultaneous position of agency and mastery in the context of HE. The article concludes with three key recommendations for change: (1) Universities should collect data on student parents and use this data to enable tailored support via student support services; (2) Universities should work with Student Unions to ensure parent-friendly freshers activities and ongoing social/support groups for student parents; and (3) Universities should make concrete changes to campus space, including the introduction of accessible, flexible, discounted childcare on campus, parent and baby rooms, and baby-changing facilities. These three changes would significantly improve the experiences of single-parent students studying at university in the UK. [This paper was presented at Aberystwyth University School of Education Research Seminar in November, 2021.]