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The United Kingdom's (UK's) Research Excellence Framework of 2014 was an expensive high stakes evaluation which had a range of impacts on higher education institutions across the country. One component was an assessment of the quality of research outputs where a major feature was a series of panels organised to read and rate the outputs of their peers. Quality control was strengthened after the Research Assessment Exercise of 2008, but questions still remain about how fair it is to rate all papers on the same scale by raters who may vary in both their reliability and their severity/leniency. This paper takes data from a large department in which 23 senior staff rated the outputs from 42 academics. In total, 710 ratings were recorded. The analyses, using the Rasch model, showed that: a single scale described the data well; most raters were reliable although two were idiosyncratic; there was, however, a noticeable variation in the severity/leniency of the raters, which should be taken into account in the overall assessment. Suggestions for future exercises include a pre-appointment procedure for panel members and statistical adjustments for the severity/leniency of raters.

This article explores the factors affecting the content of universities' mission statements. We conceptualize missions as identity narratives, a type of symbolic representation of an organization. Based on the literature on organizational identity we argue that universities need to address two major challenges when crafting their mission statements, (i) to pursuit legitimacy in spite of multiple and competing expectations, and (ii) to properly balance similarity and distinctiveness from other universities. We identify factors that affect this strategic effort and develop hypotheses that we test in the empirical context of the United Kingdom's higher education system. Results show that (i) among competing expectations, universities choose claims that are plausible to external constituents and consistent with the values of internal members, and that (ii) they adopt claims similar to universities belonging to the same organizational form while differentiating from geographically closer universities in order to reduce competitive overlap.

This paper is a response to Cotton, Miller and Kneale's 2017 paper on the current state of higher education research within UK universities. It seeks to contribute to the debate surrounding the inclusion of pedagogic research (PedR) via SoTL in the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the context of researchers who reside within a disciplinary context. The inclusion of PedR in the REF continues to be contentious, despite recommendations in the Stern Report which could make its inclusion more feasible. This paper focuses on PedR which is conducted, published and disseminated by academics situated within Life Science departments, rather than Schools of Education. The twenty-one teaching-focused academics in this study discussed their commitment to PedR integral to their academic identity, the challenges they faced in carrying out PedR, and their thoughts on REF 2014. Their opinions and conclusions give food for thought on decisions regarding inclusion of PedR in REF 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential earnings premium associated with a doctoral degree (PhDs, ISCED9) over postgraduate degrees (PGs, or Masters, ISCED7) in the UK. We assess this premium using a decade-worth of UK Labour Force Survey data (2011–2020). To explore the possible endogenous choice of post-graduate tracks, this paper deploys linear regression, (ordinary least squares, OLS), propensity score matching (PSM), and inverse probability weighting (IPWRA) to estimate the pay premium under varying identifying assumptions. The estimates show a positive return in terms of gross hourly pays in all models, along with a relevant role of managerial positions and degree of specialisation in employment position. Therefore, although a PhD is arguably mostly driven by taste for scientific pursuit, a PhD has on average also an economic pay-off. However, much of it depends on one's capacity to acquire leadership positions – the most relevant factor disentangling those fulfilling or not their potential in terms of wages. We also provide a cost–benefit analysis over a life course showing that such a premium is overall modest, but subject to positive spikes for those in Science & Technology (STEM disciplines), getting managerial positions, and for women. Our findings suggest investigating further those personal and organisational factors that are conducive of unleashing highly educated potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that current approaches used to assess and monitor student engagement in UK higher education are failing to fulfil their potential by superficially helping institutions to appear professional and innovative yet failing to accurately measure and improve engagement. Drawing on service management literature including (Public) Service Dominant theory, this paper argues that current strategies are failing to deliver for three main reasons. They do not capture the full value students derive from their engagement experience, they underplay the impact of peers within the ecosystem and they do not effectively engage employees. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these omissions for further research and practice. [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]

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]

This paper focuses on how female academics in UK universities use dress to construct their professional identity. The paper draws on the current literature on dress, body and academic identity and uses a theoretical framework of Goffman's work of performance and Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and habitus to explore these women's attempts to construct themselves as professionals. The aim of this paper is to give insights into these women's perceptions of 'what it takes to dress to impress' for the 'professional project' within a constantly shifting university workplace environment. The themes of analysis include issues such as the challenges of being a female academic and establishing yourself in the class, using dress to establish a feeling of belonging in the department and institution as a whole and a critique of how the various aspects of dress are incorporated in this idea of visual gratification of the 'consuming' students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining academics 'engagement with non-academics in industry, public agencies and charities, this paper examines gender gaps between men and women. Using a large-scale survey of UK academics, we find that although there is difference between women and men in the commercial areas of engagement, with men being more active in this domain than their women colleagues of a similar age and experience and of the same rank, discipline, and university, this pattern is reversed for academic engagement with the third sector, with women more likely to engage with charities, regardless of career stage and research field. We explore the gendered nature of academic engagement, and discuss policy implications arising from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pursuit of inclusion in elite universities has been widely explored from a structural lens concerned with issues of access faced by traditionally underrepresented students and staff. Building from a sociological institutionalist approach, this paper proposes the concept of 'agentic inclusion' to capture the growing valorisation of universities' agency in the pursuit of inclusion, and the underlying shift from inclusion as 'structural pursuit' to inclusion as 'organisational commitment'. Drawing on primary data mapping the presence of inclusion offices, units and teams across 124 UK universities as of 2018, and secondary data such as student and staff inclusion statistics, I show that elite universities are leading in the organisational display of inclusion, irrespective of the actual levels of inclusion across traditionally underrepresented students and staff. The findings call for further research into the gap between universities' organisational commitments to inclusion and inclusion at the structural level and inform several policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a methodology to support the Curriculum Design and Development (CDD) process with the aim of aligning competences provided by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with the ones required by companies. The proposed methodology stems from the identification of companies' training needs and aims at classifying a set of specific competences that are derived through a desk analysis of the existing academic offer. The novelty of the proposed methodology is represented by the introduction of quantitative indicators used for competences' classification which may support decision-makers in the individuation of the expected learning objectives of the curriculum. The proposed approach has been developed and tested in the context of a European Project (TrainERGY – Training for Energy Efficient Operations) involving four European countries (Italy, Poland, UK and Greece), whose objective was the definition of a transnational curriculum oriented to qualify better practitioners involved in energy efficiency operations in SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the factors affecting the representation of females on governing bodies of UK universities. Applying resource dependence and stakeholder theory, the paper argues that it is in the interests of the organisation that there should be an equitable gender balance on the governing bodies of universities. Using data from university websites and the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the authors observe the proportion of female members of UK university boards to be 32%, higher than the corporate sector and similar to Parliament, but unsatisfactory, given that it fails to reflect the percentage of female staff and students at UK universities. The principal findings of the research are that a gender imbalance persists across the sector with some differences between different types of university. For example, there are lower levels of overall female board membership for ‘New’ (post 2000) universities, but lower female outsider members in pre-92 universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation Y can be taken to be the group of people born between 1977 and 2000. The aim of this paper is to investigate the initial career entry and long-term career employment expectations of UK undergraduate Generation Ys, in order to inform employability skills development in higher education. The empirical research comprises 26 focus groups with 172 undergraduates of this generation in 2 universities in the UK. The focus group participants are found predominantly to have high expectations of their employment in enjoyment, opportunity and progression. Overall, the respondents appear enthusiastic and optimistic, with a positive work ethic and healthy mindset. Fundamentally, recognising and appreciating undergraduate Generation Ys’ opinions on their employment expectations enables development of their employability skills while they are in university. The paper sets out implications for higher educational stakeholders including students, graduates and employers on the development of employability skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Internationally, there has been considerable literature on the predictors of academic performance in higher education. However, the empirical findings are still limited in Cambodia; therefore, this paper was conducted to examine the determinants of academic performance of 329 undergraduate students selected from a university in Cambodia. Based on the findings from the multivariate regression analysis, a number of variables, namely high school grade, English ability, class attendance, study effort, academic self-efficacy, and family socio-economic status were found to be positively associated with academic performance. Term-time employment and family size had an adverse impact on academic performance. However, there was no sufficient evidence to indicate age, gender, household location, parental education, parental involvement, and teaching evaluation to have predictive power on academic performance. Hence, the study concluded that the personal backgrounds played the potential role in predicting academic performance of undergraduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 'new' workplace landscape in the higher education sector leads to employees questioning their fit within the current organisation. This paper presents the findings of an organisational climate study within a South African Higher Education Institution and highlights multi-generational perspectives. The theoretical contribution of this paper is a confirmation of the multi-level as well as the interactionistic nature of the macro (organisational climate), the meso (P–O fit) and micro (turnover intention) variables, as impacted on by the differences between the generational categories. Findings suggest that when thinking of leaving the employ of the university, Generation X considers the congruence between the demands of the job and compensation whereas Generation Y and Baby Boomers consider complementary fit and treatment by the direct manager as instrumental. The study is concluded with practical recommendations to reduce employees' turnover intention to ensure a productive and effective workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the subjective experiences of PhD holders from Switzerland and the UK who pursue careers beyond academia. Drawing on the concepts of organisational culture and culture shock, we examined the challenges that characterise this passage from academia to non-academic workplaces. With an exploratory aim, we analysed 32 semi-structured interviews conducted with PhDs engaged in non-academic careers in private, public, or parapublic sectors for ten years or less. It emerged that, when they entered non-academic workplaces, half of our participants devoted a large portion of their time and energy to understanding a new organisational culture, including their workplaces' daily functioning, the values shared within their organisations, and the statuses to which they were assigned. This puzzling experience, which we define as organisational culture shock, was reported more frequently by those who entered non-academic workplaces directly after the PhD and those with little or no work experiences prior to the PhD. These findings contribute to the ongoing global conversation about how to prepare PhDs for careers beyond academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the institutional impact of sustainability league tables on current university agendas. It focuses on a narrative critique of one such league table, the UK's ‘Green League Table', compiled and reported by the student campaigning NGO, ‘People & Planet’ annually between 2007 and 2013. Through a Kafkaesque perspective, this paper offers the proposition that such league tables could be acting as an institutional hegemonic mechanism for social legitimacy, through the desire by universities to show that environmental issues are effectively under control. Espoused eco-narratives of the ‘carbon targets imperative’ and ‘engagement' can serve as a form of deception, by merely embracing the narrative as a rhetorical device. Moreover, they can serve the exclusive, particularistic self-interests of a growing legion of ‘carbon managers’, ‘sustainability managers’ and ‘environmental managers' in satisfying the neo-liberal institutional drive from their vice chancellors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper challenges the dominant discourse that Higher Education (HE) choice is a consumer choice and questions assumptions underpinning government policy and HE marketing. HE choice is largely viewed as a rational, decontextualised process. However, this interpretivist study found it to be much more complex, and to be about relationships and managing a transition in roles. It focuses on parents, an under-researched group, who play an increasing part in their child's HE choice. It finds that they experience this process primarily as parents, not consumers and that their desire to maintain the relationship at this critical juncture takes precedence over the choice of particular courses and universities. The role of relationships, and in this context relationship maintenance, is the main theme. This is experienced in two principal ways: relationship maintenance through conflict avoidance and through teamwork. These significant findings have implications for the way governments and universities consider recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present results from an extensive survey of United Kingdom (UK) university academics investigating satisfaction with senior managers and university governance: the Senior Management Survey (SMS). In total, 5888 academic staff across the United Kingdom Higher Education (HE) sector completed the survey, and results were used to construct a league table of staff satisfaction with management. This table is a stark indictment of the current state of the UK HE sector, showing a mean satisfaction score of 10.54%. The SMS also collected qualitative data, and we extend the league table's insights using these data. Thematic analysis revealed seven major themes: the dominance and brutality of metrics; excessive workload; governance and accountability; perpetual change; vanity projects; the silenced academic; work and mental health. We conclude with a discussion of how this statactivist research can be used to bring about change in management and governance of UK HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The private higher education (HE) sector in the UK is subject to little oversight or regulation. Consequently, it remains a largely unknown quantity. Yet, the UK government is keen to foster the growth of private providers as a means of stimulating competition across the entire HE sector that will purportedly lead to 'a greater choice of more innovative and better quality products and services at lower cost' (DBIS 2016a, 8). We document the landscape of private higher education provision in the UK to assess whether private providers are likely to be able to perform the role envisaged for them by government. We analyse data for 802 private providers in the UK collected from provider's websites and other publicly available sources in 2017. A latent class analysis indicates that the sector can be broken down into four distinctive types of providers: (1) for-profit providers principally offering business/IT courses at sub-degree level (c.50%) (2) or at bachelors or masters level (c.10%), (3) not-for-profit providers offering other kinds of specialist provision at bachelors and masters level (c.27%), and (4) longer-standing for-profit providers including those with their own degree-awarding powers delivering courses mainly at masters level (c.13%). Three of the four provider types offer little in the way of traditional bachelor degree provision, and the most common provider type is subject to virtually no regulatory oversight and highly vulnerable to 'market exit'. These findings cast doubt on the capacity of private HE providers to replace or enhance publicly funded HE provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value for money of UK undergraduate degree courses is under increasingly critical scrutiny. Understanding the level of learning achieved by students on any particular course has therefore become of paramount importance as an indicator of teaching quality. The change to the learning that a student undertaking a course has acquired can be expressed as being their 'learning gain' and this paper applies a course level lens to investigate this using an innovative bottom-up approach which considers both the distance travelled by each student (explicit knowledge), and also their journey travelled (tacit understanding). Benchmarking learning gain data was collected from undergraduate marketing students, and gaps in perceived learning were identified. Changes to the teaching were implemented to address issues identified, and data was collected from the next cohort of students for comparison. Students reported significant improvements in learning after the changes in teaching had been implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication skills are highly sought after by employers, as industry reports repeatedly show. At the same time, those reports also reveal that many employers are dissatisfied with their newly hired graduates' communication skills. In addition, increasing globalisation has led to the call for 'global graduates' who can function well in culturally diverse contexts. Considering both aspects, it is important, to explore which factors help foster students' global communication skills. This paper investigates this issue, testing the impact of potential factors identified from previous literature. Data was collected from 2359 students in seven different institutions located in five different countries. A linear regression model was tested to identify those factors which most contribute to global communication skills development. Results show that motivation to improve communication skills and the experience of social and academic integration into the campus community made the most significant contribution to participants' higher levels of global communication skills development. Besides, students who were presented with relevant opportunities and support from their respective institution and those engaged with foreign languages also demonstrated higher levels of global communication skills development. The paper concludes that for students to acquire the communication skills needed for working successfully in diverse contexts, and hence to become 'global graduates', it is essential that they venture out of their comfort zones and engage with the diverse campus community. At the same time, this engagement requires universities' guidance and support to help maximise the learning gains from such intercultural encounters.

This paper examines the potential earnings premium associated with a doctoral degree (PhDs, ISCED9) over postgraduate degrees (PGs, or Masters, ISCED7) in the UK. We assess this premium using a decade-worth of UK Labour Force Survey data (2011-2020). To explore the possible endogenous choice of post-graduate tracks, this paper deploys linear regression, (ordinary least squares, OLS), propensity score matching (PSM), and inverse probability weighting (IPWRA) to estimate the pay premium under varying identifying assumptions. The estimates show a positive return in terms of gross hourly pays in all models, along with a relevant role of managerial positions and degree of specialisation in employment position. Therefore, although a PhD is arguably mostly driven by taste for scientific pursuit, a PhD has on average also an economic pay-off. However, much of it depends on one's capacity to acquire leadership positions -- the most relevant factor disentangling those fulfilling or not their potential in terms of wages. We also provide a cost-benefit analysis over a life course showing that such a premium is overall modest, but subject to positive spikes for those in Science & Technology (STEM disciplines), getting managerial positions, and for women. Our findings suggest investigating further those personal and organisational factors that are conducive of unleashing highly educated potential.

This paper investigates the phenomenological experiences of academic acculturation of selected non-British post-doctoral academics with a retrospective focus on their experiences as PhD students. The participants came from different disciplines and countries of origin to pursue several years of postgraduate research in different British higher education institutions. The typical, yet distinct, experiences of an exceptional group of early career academics offer invaluable insight into the joys, excitement, puzzlement and challenges that international students often encounter as they embark on studying and living in a foreign country such as the UK. Using Urie Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological theory of human development, our paper presents a theoretical perspective that can help elucidate and offer a greater understanding of what appear to be complex incidences in international students' experiences. These incidences can, arguably, be crucial to the success or failure of students' sojourns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates 'brand me' presentations as a method for developing employability-related self-confidence (ERSC). Measurements of ERSC were taken at three points in time from a sample of 105 full-time business and law students at a UK university. These were analysed alongside student feedback, assessment artefacts, and semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers. Findings indicate that ERSC increases over time, skills are learnt, and new behaviours are developed. We contribute to sustainable graduate employability literature by empirically demonstrating theoretically proposed links between career management learning and ERSC. Furthermore, we show that self-confidence may be a situated behaviour, rather than a fixed trait, which generates practical suggestions for career management teaching. We join the teaching excellence debate by demonstrating a method to measure learning gain in higher education. We also add to research methods knowledge by adapting an evaluation framework from the Human Resource Development field for use in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates computing students' entrepreneurial intentions, motivations, recognisable barriers and encouragements towards entrepreneurship, with a focus on gender. Two universities, one in Australia and one in the UK (n = 247), were used as locations for the research to consider two distinct contexts. In each university there were similarly high levels of interest in entrepreneurship among computing students, however some significant differences in responses were found, especially between male and female participants. Job flexibility was a strong motivation for the UK-based female participants; while female participants at the Australian university identified internal barriers (such as lack of confidence and experience). Enablers to entrepreneurial activity were identified, including access to incubators and academic support. Directing such support towards computing students, while recognising gender differences, could increase interest in, and take-up of, entrepreneurship. Recommendations are made regarding how universities can best support would-be entrepreneurs and encourage inclusive entrepreneurship into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring impact from university research is increasingly seen as important, not least because of its use in resource allocation processes by governments. These measurement approaches, however, often take 'wide and shallow' economic effect-based views that are ex-post, linear and uni-directional. Consequently, research collaborations between universities and external stakeholders are often ignored, particularly when stakeholders are local or community-based and the research focus is on social rather than purely economic ends, because impacts of these projects are less easily measured, and are more likely to have narrower (though deeper) effects spatially. Using an illustrative case study, this paper shows that there are mechanisms able to measure broader concepts of impact, specifically ones where impacts also occur through the PROCESS of undertaking the research itself (as opposed to just as a RESULT of it), highlighting ways in which this type of analysis could be utilised for future evaluation of research collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores how postgraduate students make course selection decisions in the digital era. An exploratory study with seven postgraduate student focus groups (UK, EU and International) gained a detailed insight into this important change. The availability of information, from an increased use of digital media had a significant impact on Higher Education postgraduate decision-making. The results found a circular decision-making approach with evidence of rational and emotional decisions where students do not always commence with a wide choice set. Online forums, Word-of-Mouth/electronic Word-of-Mouth from past/existing students, family and friends are important influencers, as students considered postgraduate study from one month to four years prior to starting a course. We identified 5 different application pattern categories, together with highlighting the importance of evaluating the students' pre-purchase experience during the application process. The research highlights the need for universities to continually engage during the decision-making process and to evaluate pre-purchase experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical literature on institutions emphasizes the importance of logics – shared rationalizations – in determining many aspects of organizations. In this literature, universities are often discussed as an example of an institution with a particularly strong and cohesive logic, one rooted in notions of academic excellence and the pursuit of universal knowledge. However, more recent literature has argued that multiple institutional logics often compete and conflict with one another in a single organization. In this paper, we use the notion of competing logics to examine how academics in the United Kingdom understand the university as an institution. We perform a factor analysis on questionnaires completed by academics to identify overarching rationalizations of universities. Our analysis suggests three competing institutional logics characterize universities: autonomy, utilitarianism and managerialism. We show these multiple logics produce competing models of the university as an institution, and we discuss the practical and theoretical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies entrepreneurial intentions in undergraduate students and the obstacles perceived by the students in the process of starting their own business. Using a sample of 1053 undergraduate students from Andalusia universities, this study explores attitudes, capacities and social environment to determine the profile of university's entrepreneurs. The results of the structural model show that motivational factors determine entrepreneurship university students, while environmental or regional factors indirectly determine undergraduates' choice of employment status. We also find that personal variables and attitudes related to the desire for self-realization have the greatest influence on the entrepreneurial intention university students. In addition, the findings from the regression analysis exhibit that financial obstacles, the lack of experience and training are the main barriers students perceive to starting their own business. The results contribute to theories of entrepreneurship education and intentions in the context of higher education. The authors discuss implications universities and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable research in the higher education literature exploring the substantial values of eLearning and collaborative learning as distinct practices, few empirical studies have yet addressed the need for an integrated approach toward implementing eLearning and collaborative learning practices in a professional education development context. This paper documents a successful three-year project case entitled, Corpcommsynergy, which integrates eLearning and collaborative approaches in an e-platform implemented in undergraduate and postgraduate corporate communication courses at a Hong Kong university. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative content analysis methods to investigate how learners perceive this integrated approach and identified significant factors influencing their learning experience. Results suggested high feasibility and effectiveness of designing and implementing Corpcommsynergy and identified two significant factors: (1) design and facilitation of online courses; and (2) perception and participation of students affecting the effectiveness of collaborative eLearning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of academic literacies research has enhanced our understanding of university writing as contested, institutionally situated practice with important consequences, particularly for students as they learn to negotiate the writing demands of university study. Less empirical attention has been paid to the practices of subject academics as they guide, set, and assess student writing. This paper is based on an ethnographically oriented study of 14 UK university teachers in diverse institutional and disciplinary contexts. Data presented illustrate the ways in which competing discourses of writing as ‘skills’ and as ‘learning’ are played out in individuals’ practices, in their institutional contexts. Analysis shows how a dominant discourse of writing as ‘skills’ becomes associated with particular ideas about the value of writing work, how and by whom it should be done, and points to consequences for students, teachers and for the role of academic writing in teaching and learning at university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the vast majority of countries women are a significant minority in senior academic positions, and as of 2013 only 17% of vice chancellors (VCs) of UK universities and 12% of German Universities were women. This paper discusses findings from a study consisting of interviews with eight female VCs of British and German higher education institutions. The paper takes a feminist poststructuralist approach to look at the ways in which characteristics of ‘ideal’ leaders in academia are discursively produced in a myriad of gendered ways, and looks at the influence of dominant academic cultures, status of institutions and national policy landscapes. From an analysis of the findings we argue that in addition to increasing the numerical proportion of women leaders in academia, work also crucially needs to be done to challenge academic cultural practices and dominant gendered conceptualisations of the ‘leader’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper maps the main dimensions of differentiation among institutions and ‘faculties’ (subject areas within institutions) of higher education in the United Kingdom. It does so through a principal components analysis based on the characteristics of applicants and entrants. A single status dimension accounts for a quarter of the variation, and is associated with the social class, educational background, age (under 21) and non-local origin of students. This dimension is very stable over time and across England, Wales and Scotland. It is robust in the face of alternative specifications. The paper argues that this institutional hierarchy is deeply embedded in wider social structures and reflects the social reproduction role of higher education. Other, somewhat less stable dimensions, are associated with students' ethnic background and domicile. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the impact of London-based higher education institutions (HEIs) on the English economy. When we treat each of the HEIs as separate sectors in conventional input-output analysis, their expenditure impacts appear rather homogenous, with the apparent heterogeneity of their overall impacts being primarily driven by scale. However, a disaggregation of income by source reveals considerable variation in their dependence upon public funding and ability to draw in income/funding from external sources. Acknowledging the possible alternative uses of the public funding and deriving balanced expenditure multipliers reveals large differences in the net-expenditure impact with the source of variation being the origin of income. The institutional multiplier is driven by the ability to attract external funding, which would typically favour research-intensive institutions. However, the impacts of students’ consumption expenditures are also significant. In terms of ranking of multipliers the overall results are mixed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents findings from an interpretative phenomenological analysis with 20 students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who were accepted onto a Foundation Year in Oxford University. It explores the factors that impacted on their decision to apply to a prestigious university and student's views on their transition to the prestigious university. The analysis highlighted four key factors: (1) The complex relationship students had with their schools and the wider education system; (2) The strong sense of agency they showed in overcoming a range of systemic and structural barriers; (3) Social relationships with family members, peers and the wider community; (4) The importance of the Foundation Year model in supporting transitions to the university. The identified factors have two key implications: (1) a need to engage in system-wide structural reform that empowers students to develop an agentic approach to HE choices and (2) a need for prestigious institutions to ensure that schools and teachers are empowered with cultural capital and knowledge of the admissions processes to support students' applications in an equitable way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the process of evaluating the economic and societal impact of research undertaken in university settings. In this paper, we explore the accounts of senior academics and user-assessors, populating disciplinary sub-panels spanning the humanities and social sciences, convened to judge and 'score' the impact claims of researchers from UK universities as a new component of research evaluation within the specific context of the UK's performance-based research funding system (PBRFS), the Research Excellence Framework (REF). We perceive from their accounts the emergence of a new and liminal space in the production of scholarly 'distinction' that is unlike archetypal modalities of academic excellence. Analogously, we identify an emotional and intellectual vulnerability in the review process and the loosening of the structures reviewers traditionally call upon in making value-determinations that simultaneously facilitate their role as impact evaluators and create new modalities in scholarly distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper examines the rise of a new category of professional support staff whom we refer to as 'audit-market intermediaries' in the context of a rapidly changing regulatory and funding environment in British higher education. We explore the roles they play in articulating environmental changes in research-intensive universities related to the auditing of teaching via demands for quality assurance and the marketisation of higher education via the rise of the student as a fee-paying consumer. The qualitative data reveals the internal and external sources of legitimacy and power of the audit-market intermediaries as well their contestation. We show how these actors serve as mediators of audit and market forces undertaking institutional work by translating, amplifying or buffering-related pressures within the university; and point at the relevance of the specific organisational context for understanding differing patterns of their institutional work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores social capital development between operational faculty members delivering Sino-British transnational partnerships. Research focuses on two Sino-British 'joint programme' partnership case studies in order to investigate boundary spanning and the development of social capital between UK and Sino academics involved in programme delivery. Since social capital is posited as a central facet in the development and institutionalisation of successful partnerships, understanding how to grow, nurture and maintain productive levels of social capital between operational academics could significantly improve and strengthen transnational partnerships. Findings suggest that boundary spanning is a useful tool, enabling individuals to interpret, transmit and filter knowledge, facilitate resource transmission and represent their organisations, building cohesion and commitment between stakeholders. The research concludes that boundary spanning can improve social capital between operation faculty members, and that senior leaders at higher education institutions should consider it as a tool with which to manage and evolve their international educational partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research into the ways that schools engage in university application processes. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from 1400 Year 13 students from 18 independent and state schools in England and 15 in-depth interviews were carried out with school teacher higher education (HE) advisors. The analysis compares independent and state schools with respect to: the types of higher education institutions (HEIs) that students applied for; the way the HE application process was managed in their schools; and how teacher advisors explained and managed the processes and outcomes for their students. Informed by Bourdieu's relational sociology, our discussion focuses on how schools in the two sectors mobilise different forms of capital in the competitive processes of university application. We also use the notion of doxa to explore how these micro-institutional processes and teacher advice relate to observed differences between state and independent sector students' HE destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The roles universities are seen to play have changed significantly over the last 25 years. The concept of higher education has, and, continues to morph from a distanced, unengaged ivory tower to a highly engaged community-based concept. Yet there is little in the literature about how universities viewed as 'anchor institutions' support organisations. Further, there is an omission of specific detail about the impact of universities on SMEs; they are mentioned but only in broader terms. This empirical study is based on the results of a leadership and business development intervention for 50 UK SMEs. The intervention was facilitated and delivered by a North East University we recognise to be an 'anchor institution'. The study is longitudinal and embeds innovative composite measurement within a value creation framework with a specific focus on identifying how a North East anchored institution creates impact and value for SME owner-managers. Findings include leadership salience to SME owner-managers, increases in SME turnover and significant gross value added. This study contributes to understanding about what the role of a university, as an anchor institution, is in terms of role, SME impact and value creation, with potential for international application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the idea of the entrepreneurial university and how it differs in diverse regional and institutional settings. From the analysis of university engagement in a regional economic development programme in fifteen city-regions in England (UK), this study identifies three roles that entrepreneurial universities play in regional economic development as growth supporter, steerer, and driver. The roles vary depending on regional characteristics, the university's motivation and its capability to engage in third mission activities and the constellation of active stakeholders working towards regional development. In addition to advancing the concept of entrepreneurial universities, this paper explores the contemporary policy trend towards placing a stronger emphasis on universities as drivers of regional economic development.

With increasing evidence highlighting the link between psychological factors such as self-esteem, self-efficacy and optimism on employability outcomes, this paper reports an evaluation of a unique student experience initiative called 'Life Design' developed to support the professional and personal development of undergraduate students. First year undergraduates engaged in a two-hour workshop involving interactive exercises designed to foster self-reflection, self-efficacy, and career optimism. The impact of this workshop on validated self-report measures of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and optimism, alongside career-related outcomes was explored using a prospective longitudinal design. Analyses revealed a significant immediate and sustained increase in self-esteem following Life Design, but no impact on self-efficacy or career optimism. Certainty of career developing steps increased at a later follow up, but no changes to career prospect confidence or career choice certainty were reported. This paper highlights the benefits and wider challenges of delivering and engaging students in initiatives designed to enhance employability.

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.

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.

A significant, if relatively small, body of literature provides a picture of PGR mental health and wellbeing, and key factors influencing this. However, little has been written on interventions, practices and changes to institutional support for PGRs, how these impact on wellbeing, and what factors influence their success. This paper summarises and synthesises research that has evaluated interventions or institutional changes aimed at supporting PGR mental health and wellbeing. A rapid systematic review methodology identified 21 papers, which evaluated interventions or practices to support PGR wellbeing, gathering data from 1066 students, 33 staff members (mainly supervisors) and 11 recent graduates. The papers included were diverse but limited and therefore did not offer strong evidence for the effectiveness of specific approaches. However, they provided valuable insight, which we conceptualise in a model of approaches to enhancing PGR wellbeing before exploring barriers to implementation of interventions, and recommendations for research, policy and practice.

Within the context of a competitive UK Higher Education (HE) environment, this paper explores the transitions made by former or current practitioners who are now university academics, referred to in this study (and others) as 'pracademics'. Drawing together the concepts of pracademia, academic selves and professional identity, this paper makes a tri-fold contribution. First, this case study examines pracademics' perceptions from a post-1992, UK-based higher education institution (HEI) through collaborative reflexivity. Secondly, it suggests how pracademics' professional self-identities can be fluid and context-dependent. Thirdly, it explores affinities and tensions between academia and practice, and identifies opportunities for building links between them. In doing so, the research makes a number of specific recommendations. The authors advocate for the recruitment of academics with practitioner experience and the facilitation of their effective transition into and within the HEI environment.

This is a conceptual paper that examines the origin and development of universities and their current role in global society. There has been an unprecedented and exponential growth of technology and artificial intelligence capabilities over the past ten years which is challenging current working practices and affecting all areas of society. The paper examines how this role may change to match the new demands placed on them by a digitally enabled society that has greater leisure time. The design of the paper is first to detail some of the changes in work practices that are taking place and how these will impact on society. It then offers several ways in which universities could modify their role to respond to these emerging challenges. This could include new courses, new organisational structures and new pedagogical practices. The paper provides a platform for discussion and debate around the strategic vision and direction of travel for higher education.

This paper examines how universities reconcile the need to project themselves as successful global competitors with the need to respond to national policy expectations, particularly around equality. It does so through a comparative analysis of the language used in the publicly available documents of universities in England and New Zealand. While a discourse of ‘distinctiveness’ is employed across the board by universities to denote superiority, there are differences in the extent to which differently ranked universities signify their preparedness fully to embrace economic priorities. The analysis reveals the sidelining of ‘equality’ and its replacement by a discourse of ‘diversity’ and ‘potential to succeed’ which is more compatible with elitism than with social justice. The language of ‘distinction’ and ‘diversity’, it is argued, supports a logic of accumulation - for both institutions and students - in which those who are already advantaged are likely to reap the greatest rewards from a competitive educational market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the UK Quality Assurance Agency, the adoption and use of learning outcomes has been complete across UK higher education since 2007, when it declared that ‘most departments and institutions have fully adopted the principles of learning outcomes’. And yet, the evidence from the ground to support this statement is currently lacking. The issue of learning outcomes has been a topic of debate, which runs far deeper than the most recent criticisms. So far there have only been sporadic and limited attempts at researching exactly how learning outcomes are used by both teaching staff and students. Whether they indeed support student learning through the constructive alignment model put forward by Biggs, or whether they are simply another bureaucratic hoop to jump through which has no impact on the learning process. This paper aims to add to the increasing evidence base by presenting the findings of research carried out amongst early career, probationary staff at a research-led institution in the UK, and hopes to contribute to wider debates which will eventually influence policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]