Search

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]

This paper provides an analysis of the literature on transnational education to identify the key challenges and success factors for the sustainable operation of transnational higher education (TNE) programmes as perceived by key stakeholders. Probing the stakeholders' perspectives and applying a systematic approach, this study analyses 227 English-written articles retrieved from the Web of Science database published from 2000 to 2021. Key challenges identified include difficulties in managing the TNE programmes, ensuring quality assurance, adapting the curricula to the local contexts, accommodating offshore students' learning styles, creating studying environments for TNE students equivalent to those in the home institutions, ensuring preparedness of the academic staff, and facilitating the knowledge transfer in the host countries. The analysis also highlights six factors for the sustainable development of TNE programmes, including the effectiveness of the operations, the internationalization of the curricula, the transnational experience of the students, the development of the transnational staff, the existence of a proper regulatory framework in the host countries, and the development of a global systematic data collection for quality assurance. In addition, the evidence collected suggests that while the transition from domestic into a foreign programme can be rewarding, it demands appropriate planning and implementation.

Academic work environments are becoming progressively more digitalised and focused on performativity and commodification, increasing the potential to force an unwanted merge of the boundary between work and non-work domains. This study aimed to explore academic wellbeing and the role played by factors related to work-life merge. Data were collected from a cross sectional survey of 605 Australian and 313 UK academics, who were found to have a short version Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Score of 21.47 ± 4.11 and 21.35 ± 4 respectively, which is significantly below population norms. Australian men's scores were significantly lower than Australian women (20.7 ±.31, p =.007). Job strain was evidenced by excessive work hours, high levels of intrusive work-related thoughts, reduced physical activity and a self-perception that work-life merge adversely affected psychological and physical health, and mostly only occurred to meet work demands. Action by government education and university leaders is urgently required to identify policy and management practices that are contributing to this ongoing health concern. The establishment of national and university based advisory groups and consideration of a data warehouse to curate a public dataset on the wellbeing of staff within universities could assist in ensuring the outcomes of any action are continually assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, as in the UK, much of the skills debate in research education has reflected a deficit model, whereby candidates are deemed to be in need of supplementary training. In response to the demands of employers and governments, most universities have added employability skills to postgraduate curricula, while simultaneously boosting their efforts in relation to the enhancement of academic skills. Using an analysis of three conceptual frameworks identified in the literature, this article endeavours to reframe the skills debate by developing the concept of 'contextualised performance'. A key characteristic of this relational construct is the enactment of skills in a variety of authentic settings and challenging circumstances. The article concludes by establishing links with literature on curriculum and pedagogy, with a view to enriching discussion around what it means to assess the capability of graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent elimination of binary higher education systems in the United Kingdom and Australia have common causes (increased secondary school retention, trend toward government regulation and away from autonomy, academic improvement of polytechnics). However, changes made in the systems are different and will affect educational opportunities, teaching quality, and research differently. (MSE)

Research into higher education has shown that for those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans* and/or Queer (LGBTQ), universities are places where both direct and indirect discrimination is experienced. This paper reports the findings from a systematic search and review on gender and sexual diversity in professional practice placements. This was part of a broader project exploring the way that students were supported and educated to provide appropriate support for LGBTQ people using their services and whether students who identified as LGBTQ experienced specific issues regarding the (non)disclosure of their gender or sexual diversity in placement settings. Three primary themes were identified. Environment: which relates to the way that homophobic and transphobic discrimination is experienced in professional practice. Influence: the importance of faculty on the environment as both a positive and negative force. Interventions: how students support LGBTQ people who use their services and how educators intervene with students who identify as LGBTQ. Our review showed how students in all included disciplines report feeling under-prepared for the realities of working with LGBTQ people in practice. However there are examples of positive practices which can support LGBTQ students through navigating disclosure of their own identities, as well as enabling all students to act as advocates and allies for the LGBTQ service users and peers/colleagues that they will inevitably work with and alongside, throughout their careers.

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.

Scholarly studies of international student mobility programs have increased during the last two decades, particularly following the Bologna Declaration. Nevertheless, a systematic review of international student mobility programs and the outcomes and benefits derived from participation in such programs has not been undertaken. This paper provides a comprehensive review of studies examining the various outcomes of student participation in short-term international mobility programs and identifies under-researched areas such as employment and career outcomes. A future research agenda based on the review is outlined, along with recommendations for improving research designs in order to increase our understanding of the short- and long-term outcomes of international student mobility programs.

This article discusses the persistence of a gender gap among university-based academics, despite the development of equity policies and "family-friendly" initiatives. Over four decades of research are reviewed from the liberal states of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA and the UK, including my own qualitative interviews in Canada in 1973 and in New Zealand in 2008. The paper summarizes some of the structural, relational and interpretive factors contributing to the perpetuation of the gender gap. I argue that academic work has been influenced by similar global trends visible in other workplaces and that academics share the prevalent patterns of gender relations contributing to the gender gap. Despite over four decades of social change, including policy initiatives to improve the status of academic women, this article shows that the gender gap continues in these countries for similar reasons.

Past research revealed that International Branch Campuses (IBCs) are simultaneously under two types of isomorphic pressures. On the one hand, they are obliged to conform to the institutions of their host countries, which lead them towards homogenising with the local Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), hence deviate from their parent unit's model. On the other hand, they are required to maintain their parent unit's identity across borders. By adapting to the local context, IBCs gain legitimacy in their local milieus and thus reduce tensions with local stakeholders. By maintaining similarity with their parents, they differentiate from the local competitors and therefore better compete in the market place. This paper addresses the duality (between adherence to the parent's and local expectations) by studying six important Australian and British IBCs in two major higher education (HE) hubs in South East Asia. We identify the determinants of the IBCs' strategic choices and their responses to institutional pressures. The analysis suggests that IBCs have maintained a high level of similarity with their parent units in terms of curriculum, but not so much in terms of staffing. We argue that staffing will continue to be the biggest strategic challenge faced by IBCs.

There has long been the suspicion amongst staff in Art & Design that the ratings given to their subject disciplines in the UK's National Student Survey are adversely affected by a combination of circumstances – a ‘perfect storm’. The ‘perfect storm’ proposition is tested by comparing ratings for Art & Design with those for a selection of other subjects chosen because they share some features that might lead to lower ratings on the survey. Data from a small-scale qualitative study are used to throw light on what might lie behind the sector-wide statistics. The comparisons suggest that there is some validity in the ‘perfect storm’ proposition. More broadly, the article points to the need for sophistication in interpreting findings from the survey, irrespective of the subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper empirically examines the impact of academic research on high-tech manufacturing growth of 28 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and emerging countries over the 1991-2005 period. A standard research and development (R&D) expenditure based measure is found to be too general to capture the input in high-tech research. To overcome this problem, a novel proxy for high-tech research investment--the supercomputer capacity--is proposed. Empirical evidence strongly supports this choice of variable. It is also found that academic R&D exerts a larger growth effect on high-tech output than its industry and government counterparts, but only the impact differential between academic and government R&D is statistically significant.

This paper provides a citation network analysis of the publications in "Studies in Higher Education" from 1976 to 2013 inclusive. This represents the entire history of the journal to date. It analyses the most published authors, most cited authors and most discussed topics using keywords. 1056 articles were taken from Web of Science[superscript SM] as a source of primary data. These articles were determined to have 32,738 references. A small percentage of these articles, 218 articles, had 1030 keywords. A data visualisation and manipulation software, Gephi, was used to provide a visual representation of the associated citation networks. We compare the results with other higher education citation analyses published elsewhere--a small, but growing area of research. Results indicate that the five most published authors throughout the journal's history are Richardson, Kember, Becher, Boud and Elton. The five most cited authors are Entwistle, Marton, Ramsden, Biggs and Becher. The five most discussed topics, using keywords, excluding higher education, are "doctoral education", "assessment", "phenomenography", "student learning" and "identity", with a number of subordinate topic clusters amongst these. Results derived from this exercise are helpful in illuminating the evolving concerns of the journal and its readership, and providing a demonstration of a rigorous analytical technique for assessing journal citation data in the future.

This paper describes the impacts of work-integrated learning (WIL) curriculum components on general employability skills--professional work-readiness, self-efficacy and team skills. Regression analyses emphasise the importance of the "authenticity" of WIL placements for the development of these generic outcomes. Other curricula factors (alignment of learning activities and assessments with integrative learning, and the provision of supportive environments) also impact on generic outcomes. We explore three competing hypotheses for explaining the relationships between learning outcomes and authenticity on the one hand and the alignment of learning activities and assessments with integrative learning outcomes on the other: overlapping, proxy protective factor and mediation. We conclude that mediation is a plausible explanation for the observed relationships, based on an invocation of "availability heuristics" and "priming" to explain how these factors work together. Findings will have implications for the design and management of WIL curricula in universities.

This article reviews 37 empirical studies, selected from 363 articles and 20 journals, on assessment feedback published between 2000 and 2011. The reviewed articles, many of which came out of studies in the UK and Australia, reflect the most current issues and developments in the area of assessing disciplinary writing. The article aims to outline current studies on assessment feedback. These studies have explored undergraduate students' wide-ranging perspectives on the effectiveness and utility of assessment feedback, the divergent styles of assessment feedback of lecturers and tutors in various disciplines, teachers' divergent interpretations of assessment criteria and confusion about the dual roles of assessment feedback, and the divergences between teachers' beliefs and practices. The review includes analysis and comparison of the research methods and findings of the studies. It identifies a research space for assessment feedback and outlines implications for further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the growing need to profile the required competencies of entry-level business graduates and to evaluate the extent to which they are generic across international boundaries and discipline areas. Two hundred and ninety-one Australian and UK business academics examined the relative importance of a broad set of graduate competencies. Results indicated three distinct profiles of preferred business graduate ‘types’ for both Australian and UK academics: the ‘Manager’, ‘People Person’ and ‘Business Analyst’. The composition and membership sizes of each profile were similar for both samples of business academics and broadly align with research on required managerial competencies. The reality of achieving the profiles is discussed. Findings indicated only limited variations in competency requirements by discipline and country of origin, suggesting non-technical competencies are generic across culturally similar countries and that discipline makes little difference in academics’ determination of business graduate competency profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growth and evolution of professional doctorates in Australia, the UK and other parts of the English-speaking world has been widely reported and discussed. Recently, forms of doctorate have emerged that are not geared to specific professions or disciplines, and that are used by senior practitioners as vehicles for professional development and for addressing complex work issues. These transdisciplinary, candidate-centred, research-and-development programmes can collectively be referred to as work-based doctorates. Although stemming from more than one tradition, they are evolving towards a set of common practices that reflect the transdisciplinary model of work-based learning used in some UK and Australian universities. Evidence is beginning to indicate that these doctorates have significant value in terms of organisational benefit and individual professional development, and, although they still occupy disputed territory within the university, they are capable of being conceptualised and implemented in a way that is intellectually rigorous and robust. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of the doctorate and the desirable outcomes of doctoral education are the focus of debates in the UK, the USA, Australia and other Organisation for Economic Development countries. Part of that reconceptualisation of the doctorate includes a growing international interest in university–industry research, which, as a consequence, has become one of the emergent features of contemporary doctoral programs. This article, which draws on findings from a research study in an Australian university, focuses on the impact of university–industry research on the process and practice of doctoral supervision, and in particular the pedagogical, epistemological and institutional issues being faced by doctoral supervisors. Doctoral supervisors interviewed were positive about the benefits of university–industry research, but they also identified areas of changing practice and of dissonance. Individual personal skills were an important feature in developing positive collaborative partnerships. Given current national and international priorities for a nexus between university and industry research, this study illustrates the need for a stronger pedagogical, epistemological and institutional framework that is mutually beneficial for both universities and industries in research partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of an overall massification of higher education, enrollments in doctoral programs are expanding. At the same time, doctoral studies are subject to much scrutiny and reform in Australia, the UK and the United States. This work examines policy documents related to doctoral reform from these countries in order to offer a critique of their functionalist underpinnings. Central to doctoral reforms is the growth of the professional doctorate, which is proposed as an alternative to conventional PhDs that better prepares graduates to participate in non-academic careers. In this work, the professional doctorate is examined from the dominant perspective of human capital theory. Alternative theories emphasizing conflict and competition in higher education are offered. Credentialism and the corporatization of higher education may provide more nuanced explanations of the growth of the professional doctorate. The article concludes with some thoughts on the impacts of policy on those whose lives are ultimately shaped by it: students and graduates who may be disappointed to find that human capital theory does not deliver on its promise of status and prosperity for society's most highly educated workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a review of the literature concerned with leadership effectiveness in higher education at departmental level. The literature derives from publications from three countries: the UK, the USA and Australia. Surprisingly little systematic research has been conducted on the question of which forms of leadership are associated with departmental effectiveness. The analysis of the studies selected resulted in the identification of 13 forms of leader behaviour that are associated with departmental effectiveness. The findings are considered in relation to the notion of competency frameworks and, in the conclusion, their general implications are explored in relation to the notion of substitutes for leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional doctorates now form an established alternative to the PhD, both in the UK and Australia. Recent developments have seen the emergence of what some commentators call second-generation doctorates, more closely geared to the needs of professional practitioners. The current culmination of this development is represented by what might be termed practitioner doctorates, based on development projects which result in substantial organizational or professional change and (to paraphrase the widely used criterion for a PhD thesis) a significant contribution to practice. These programmes pose a challenge to traditional notions of doctoral work based on research. They can, however, be conceptualized in a way that is both robust academically and represents a high level of adequacy for the complex and far-reaching problems encountered in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to review and critique the current state of information literacy education, and propose a way forward. Key developments in the UK, USA and Australia are reviewed, including standards and models of information literacy. The place of information literacy in the higher education curriculum is discussed. Problems with current practice are identified, in particular, prescriptive guidelines which encourage a surface learning approach; delivery by librarians who may lack both educational training and power to influence the curriculum; and poor assessment methods. Alternative approaches are highlighted. A case study of a credit bearing information literacy class, offered by the authors to undergraduates at Strathclyde Business School, is analysed, to argue that information literacy can stand alone as a subject of study, with appropriate learning and teaching methods. The article concludes by proposing models for the information literate student and the information literate university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]