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Publish or perish is the cautionary aphorism reminding academics to produce academic work for career longevity. For communities historically excluded from tertiary institutions, this aphorism can also signify a responsibility to ensure their voices are heard. Tertiary institutions recognise the importance of fostering productive writing opportunities; and writing retreats are a valuable approach. This article demonstrates the importance of writing retreats from the perspective of Indigenous postgraduate scholars in Australia. Two writing retreats were held off-campus in 2018-2019. To identify the impact of the writing retreats, we (the participants in the retreat) used an active participatory approach to explore our experiences using data collected from Yarning circles and written critical self-reflections. We identified three key themes: (1) writing retreats as supportive spaces for academic writing, (2) the development of an ongoing community of practice and (3) the importance of managing cultural risk in Indigenous programs. The findings demonstrate the importance of providing culturally grounded opportunities that support Indigenous scholarship.

In light of widening participation initiatives internationally, including those in Australia, much has been written about equity policies in education. There is a growing body of research related to the outcomes of such policies and the experiences of non-traditional students, including those from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds and students who are First Generation and/or First in Family, as well as other equity groups. This paper presents data related to a less researched effect of widening participation: the experiences of and impact on academic staff and those providing support services to students. We focus particularly on students from LSES backgrounds. Qualitative data were collected through focus groups with academic and student support staff in a large regional Australian university, with several themes emerging. In this paper, we investigate staff experiences related to diversity in student cohorts, drawing on Bourdieu's concept of capital. Results show that the academics are supportive of LSES students and sensitive to the range of student backgrounds in their courses, including differences in cultural capital and students experiencing extreme hardship, but the support provided is affected by staff gender. It is evident that staff endeavour pedagogically and pastorally to support students, often at personal cost. There are workload and welfare implications evident for staff, institutions and funding.

In the wake of many emergent challenges facing higher education institutes (HEIs), this paper investigates the role of student empowerment in achieving desirable academic and experiential outcomes. Drawing on the self-determination and ownership theories, the study explores how students' satisfaction and perceived learning can be improved through their involvement in various activities within and beyond classrooms. It is further posited that such involvement encourages empowerment and fosters psychological ownership, which is critical for meeting the aforementioned holistic outcomes. The study deploys a mixed-method research design and uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyse the data collected from the sample of 428 students. Besides supporting the majority of the proposed hypotheses, the results establish psychological ownership to be a crucial link between student empowerment and educational outcomes. More significantly, the findings demonstrate the importance of carefully considered and planned involvement practices in achieving such outcomes. To this end, the paper discusses and offers several recommendations and implementation pathways that could potentially serve as a playbook for the instructors and administrators at various HEIs.

Meaningful student participation is essential to realizing democratic ideals within the university. However, existing structures for involving students within university governance suffer from a variety of shortcomings, leaving scholars calling for ways to make student participation more inclusive, effective, and thoughtful. To address this challenge, this article draws on deliberative democracy as both a theoretical framework and a source of practical innovation. In doing so, it explores the ways in which student participation in university government both does, and could, contribute to universities' 'deliberative capacity'--that is, their capacity to host inclusive, authentic, and consequential deliberation on shared issues. By evaluating the most prominent forms of student participation against these democratic ideals, the article offers a deliberative democratic critique of student participation that coheres, builds on, and gives new significance to existing criticisms. In response, the article then introduces deliberative mini-publics as a democratic innovation which, while of increasing significance in the public sphere, has been neglected in the university context. Drawing on empirical literature to account for universities' unique institutional realities, the article ultimately demonstrates mini-publics' potential to bolster deliberative capacity in university governance, both in terms of introducing deliberative inputs into decision-making and by cultivating the abilities and environment which support deliberative governance more generally. In all, by bringing together higher education and political scholarship, this work advances theory on student participation and university governance and offers novel directions for university practice.

The flipped classroom has become a popular pedagogical approach in higher education with its capability to promote students' active engagement in higher-order tasks; nevertheless, studies have shown that the flipped classroom is not always successful. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors including student characteristics as well as learning and teaching factors that influence students' affective and motivational outcomes in flipped classrooms in higher education. A total of 350 university students in 12 different flipped classrooms completed survey instruments at the end of the semester that assessed their experience with flipped classrooms, emotional experiences, and motivation. Results indicated that enjoyment was predicted by the perception of preview materials, teacher facilitation, and participation in learning activities. Boredom was predicted by the perception of preview materials and participation in learning activities. Self-efficacy was significantly explained by both student characteristics and learning and teaching factors. Further discussion and implications are provided.

Employability is a key concern for students and it is of increasing importance to universities with the inclusion of employability outcomes affecting performance in league tables and in the Teaching Excellence Framework. Universities typically teach employability either by embedding it within a course curriculum (embedded approach) or via the career services (parallel approach). This article explores the ratio of United Kingdom (UK) psychology departments adopting an embedded approach vs a parallel approach to employability and investigates how psychology students within a parallel department engage with their careers service. A survey of 258 undergraduate psychology students finds low levels of engagement with career service events, typically less than 50% attendance, despite increases in attendance over the course of student's degree. These findings highlight how many students, in a parallel department are simply not attending events designed to help them explore their career options or assist them navigating the application process.

The development of the knowledge and skills of students can only be complete when the tenets of civic engagement are inculcated in them to respond to the needs of society. However, due to the weakening role of higher education institutions to develop a university ethos that stimulate civic interest and participation among students, it has become necessary to examine the aspects that enhance civic engagement. Using social cognitive and transformative learning theories, we examined six major aspects namely, civic knowledge, civic skills, civic culture, cultural diversity, social responsibility and students as partners to reveal the sets of relationships and antecedents that enhance civic participation among students. We relied on a mixed method approach for gathering and analysing data from students in an HEI setting in Ghana (n = 261). Results revealed that cultural diversity experience, social responsibility and students as partners represent important aspects for stimulating civic participation among students in HEIs.

Creating the conditions that foster student engagement, success and retention remains a perennial issue within the higher education sector. Traditionally satisfaction has been prioritised in assessing student success. A more expansive, holistic and ontological perspective of the student experience that takes into account who and what students are becoming is required. This study develops a holistic approach to measuring student engagement. It models and measures two antecedents to engagement, namely involvement and expectations, four dimensions of engagement, namely affective, social, cognitive and behavioural engagement, and their relative and differential impact upon five specific student and institutional success outcomes namely, institutional reputation, student wellbeing, transformative learning, self-efficacy and self-esteem. A survey with a sample of 952 tertiary students enrolled at a major Australian tertiary institution was employed. A structural model was then specified to assess the structural relationships between the constructs. The results show that student expectations and involvement have an important seeding role in student engagement. Affective engagement was the most important determinant of institutional reputation, wellbeing, and transformative learning. Behavioural engagement determined self-efficacy and self-esteem. Cognitive and social engagement were necessary but not sufficient conditions for student success.

The concept of student partnership has attracted increased attention during the last decade, often due to an assumption that it can mitigate neo-liberal agendas and practices in teaching and learning. A review of definitions and understandings of student partnership models shows that most of the research conducted on this topic has been based on normative assumptions, with less focus on how partnership practices play out in different contexts. In this article an analytical framework for analysing student partnership is introduced and tested through an empirical analysis of collaborative practices in centres for teaching excellence in Norwegian higher education. The key findings are that the diversity and dynamics of student partnership depend on the context in which they operate, but more importantly how different practices of partnership play out in parallel in those educational contexts. The result is often a mix of hybrid practices related to different conceptualizations of student partnership.

In the last three decades, inclusive disability legislation has led to an increasing number of students with disabilities entering higher education. However, barriers to the full participation of students remain. This article presents evidence from studies conducted in two Italian universities. Drawing on the Capability Approach, the goal is to analyse the experiences of students with disabilities and to assess their capabilities in academic life. Participatory research methods were adopted using structured focus group discussion techniques. Fifty students with different types of disability participated in the study. Two major findings emerged from the data: (a) the essential value, in the experience of the students, of being able to use educational spaces, move around off campus and socialise with others; and (b) the tendency of capability achievements to vary according to context and type of disability, especially for students with visual disabilities, who experience relatively lower levels of mobility and respect.

The widespread use of technology has facilitated many changes in the education sector including higher education. Academic institutes are concentrating their efforts on measuring the level of student engagement and participation in online learning environments for student success. This paper analyses student log data to quantify the effectiveness of online presence on student performance in a blended course using frequency and duration as indicators. The analysis shows both frequency and duration having a statistically significant impact on the students' final marks. The study proposes a multiple linear regression model using these measurements to predict the final mark of students in a blended learning environment. The predictive regression model, explained through the use of two new models; Online Measurable Presence Model (OMPM) and Slingshot model, can be used to determine the effectiveness of student online presence for success in a blended higher learning environment in the Pacific.

Student cohorts in higher education are rapidly diversifying. Approaches to student engagement in teaching and learning must evolve to meet the changing needs of these diverse groups of students equitably. Student-staff partnership is an approach to student engagement embracing the diverse experiences of both students and staff. Growing evidence shows significant positive outcomes for students and staff. Practice, however, is dominated by small scale initiatives, limiting opportunities for equitable engagement. In institutions where partnership has been scaled-up, little research has explored these institutional partnership schemes. Our research addresses this gap by exploring institutional approaches to partnership across 11 universities in the United Kingdom. Results provide important lessons for improving equity in access to partnership schemes and the need for broader conceptions of scaling up partnership.

This study considers patterns of participation according to gender in post-mass higher education from the perspective of higher education expansion in Taiwan. Becker's "D" coefficient ("D") is used to detect the patterns of gender parity in a 'critical mass' field in higher education. The study compared participation in STEM and the humanities in terms of gender parity. ARIMA was used to build the best-fit model to project the future trends of "D" in both programs. The findings suggest that more females are entering higher education and that there are little gender differences in those entering STEM programs. The gender gaps shown by "D" in the humanities and in STEM are narrowing rapidly in both the elite and mass stage, but the gap in the universal stage shows little change. The findings provide patterns of gender parity in different programs to interpret the effect of higher education expansion.

Children who spend time in the care of their local authority, usually due to neglect or abuse within the birth family, tend to experience significant educational disruption and have lower educational outcomes, on average, than other young people. However, little is known about those subsequently participating in higher education, who comprise just under one percent of the student body in England. The paper synthesises three contrasting datasets to map participation patterns among care-experienced young people for the first time. Considerably more enter higher education than previously thought, but they remain significantly less likely to participate than other young people. Furthermore, they tend to enter later, with less prestigious qualifications and to lower status institutions. The paper concludes by discussing key differences between the datasets, reflecting on difficulties with identifying and recording care-experienced students which may account for an apparent lack of progress in encouraging their participation despite concerted policy efforts.

This paper proposes to explore the marketing communications that university websites use for promoting their public engagement (PE). The aim is to propose best practices that could guide universities towards community-orientated strategies advancing, in this way, the university PE agenda. This research explores this construct by means of a website content analysis on a sample of 50 American universities and elaborates a PE index with which to evaluate university PE. Moreover, the paper individuates the best practices from 10 universities that demonstrate a high PE index for each approach of university PE online individuated in the literature. The evaluation of engagement activities can provide units and departments with valuable suggestions for improving the stakeholder engagement. Moreover, the universities can provide self-evaluation of their level of PE addressing their resources and competencies to fill their gaps.

Drawing on Ajzen's (1991. "The Theory of Planned Behavior." "Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes" 50 (2): 179-211) theory of planned behavior and entrepreneurship education (EE) theory, this article examines the role of student associations in developing students' entrepreneurial intentions (EI) at early educational stages. This study addresses the scarcity of research on extracurricular activities and on early university experiences of EE and their influence on EI. Based on survey data collected from 237 first-year undergraduate business school students and a partial least squares analysis, we provide empirical evidence on the value of student associations in increasing the EI of first-year students through their impact on entrepreneurial attitudes, which are instrumental in the formation of EI. The results have important implications both for educational practice and for public and private organizations interested in promoting entrepreneurship. They support the value of including practical training in education programs.

This paper explores one of the enduring small mysteries of student life -- why do women participate in study abroad programs more than men? To answer this question, original data collected from seniors and recent graduates of a sample of liberal arts colleges in the US were analyzed. Results show an intractable gender gap persisting, even after common explanatory factors are explored, although these factors also point to the problem as one of "gender and class", not gender per se. It concludes with a discussion of the meaning of cultural enrichment and venturing away from home for elite college women (elite women's "venture capital"), and a call for future studies that pay attention to the ways race, gender, and class intersect to produce particular meanings of study abroad participation.

This study explored the perceptions of a US university campus climate by international students and analyzed strategies that they used to socially and academically integrate their campuses. The sample consisted of international students who have at least completed two years of their college education. Individual interviews and focus group were used for data collection. A combination of content analysis and constant comparison method were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that self-determination has influenced the intercultural strategies of integration used by international students on a US university campus. The study includes recommendations for student services personnel to help international students' social and academic integration beyond the first two years in college.

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.

Students' achievement emotions have an impact on learning and academic success. Therefore research on learning and teaching in higher education should not only focus on cognitive outcomes but on students' emotions, as well. The aim of our quasi-experimental study was to analyze students' achievement emotions based on the control-value approach in different instructional settings. An intervention was carried out with two teachers and 217 students referring to self-determination theory. We tested the influence of a student-oriented versus a teacher-centered approach on students' experience of self-determination and their achievement emotions. The results show a generally high level of students' positive achievement emotions. As expected, more autonomy and participation are experienced in student-oriented settings, but not more positive and less negative emotions than in teacher-centered settings. Main quantitative results are being discussed in terms of theoretical and methodological implications.

Drawing on entrepreneurship education (EE) theory, this article examines the role of learning and inspiration in developing students' entrepreneurial intentions in the First Year in Higher Education. This addresses the paucity of research on early university experiences of EE and their influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Using a longitudinal survey of business students at a British university, the authors identify four scenarios related to the participation/non-participation in EE and subsequent increase or decrease of entrepreneurial intentions. A sub-set of those surveyed are interviewed (n = 49) to better understand how their university experience has influenced their entrepreneurial intentions. Findings suggest that the influence of EE is variable, in some cases even leading to a decrease in entrepreneurial intentions. The results contribute to theories of EE and intentions in the early stages of higher education. The authors discuss implications for theory and practice.

This study extends our knowledge on co-creation of value in higher education. The paper examines the relationship between support, co-creation of value and students' satisfaction, as well as moderating factors including mode of study and fee status, via 979 survey responses from undergraduate students. Analysis using partial least squares found support to be important in determining co-creation of value and, in turn, student satisfaction. Results indicated that student satisfaction is positively influenced through students accessing support mechanisms and their active involvement in co-creation of value activities. Our findings further reveal that fee-paying students are more satisfied when they participate in co-creation activities and access support mechanisms. No significant differences between transnational and domestic students are found.

The proportion of first-generation international students at US institutions ranges from one-tenth to one-half of the total international student body. First-generation status is an underexplored, and potentially significant, demographic factor in international students' adaptation to college. Researchers used structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine how faculty interaction out-of-class, engagement with cultural variation in-class, and students' interest in cross-cultural interaction relates to sense of community and co-curricular engagement among first-generation (n = 508) and non-first-generation (n = 955) international students', respectively. The primary contribution of this study is providing evidence for the importance of interactions with professors out-of-class and engagement with cultural variation in-class on international students' sense of community and co-curricular engagement, especially first generation students. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Fostering agency as a core component of professionalism is seen as a critical task of higher education. However, the tools for assessing university students' agency, and the pedagogical and relational resources needed for its development, are lacking. The present study describes the theoretical foundations and factor structure of the newly developed Agency of University Students (AUS) Scale, which assesses students' course-specific agency. In the factor analysis, 10 factors emerged. Four of these--Interest and motivation, Self-efficacy, Competence beliefs and Participation activity--are seen to represent individual resources of agency. The other four factors--Equal treatment, Teacher support, Peer support and Trust--represent relational sources of agency. Finally, Opportunities to influence and Opportunities to make choices represent contextual sources of agency. The psychometric properties and uses of the scale are discussed.

Using as a starting point in the recent work of Mountford-Zimdars et al., the authors analyse attitudes towards expanding higher education (HE) opportunities in the UK. The authors propose that the approach of Mountford-Zimdars et al. is flawed not only in its adoption of a multivariate logistic regression but also in its interpretation of results. The authors make a number of adaptations, chief among them being the use of an ordered probit approach and the addition of a time dimension to test for changes in attitudes between 2000 and 2010. The authors find that attitudes towards HE expansion have intensified during the decade 2000-2010, but the authors uncover no evidence that this is due to graduates wanting to "pull up the ladder", as suggested by Mountford-Zimdars et al. The authors argue that evidence of a widespread desire to reduce access to HE can most likely be explained by social congestion theory, internal institutional disaffection and rising tuition fees.

This article critically analyses the impact of reforms to the student financial support system in English higher education. Comparative analysis of financial support mechanisms and patterns of outreach engagement with groups underrepresented in higher education show a marked deterioration in the levels of cash support available and an increasingly focus on the brightest poor students (in the form of merit aid) at the expense of the generality of poorer students since the new support programme came into place. This can be seen as part of a wider policy shift away from generic widening participation to the targeting of specific cohorts to raise the attainment level of intakes or to meet recruitment shortfalls. The findings are located in a context of a (near) trebling of tuition fees, stagnation in overall student numbers and the promotion of market mechanisms, all of which can be seen as a challenge to the notion of social justice through the higher education system.

The great influx of international students into UK universities has led to internationalisation becoming an important issue. Previous studies have focused on the integration of home and international students, illustrating a lack of intercultural interaction. Yet there has been a lack of research investigating international students' networks and how these networks evolve over time. The study reported in the current paper sought to fill this gap. The research findings were interpreted through the lens of community of practice (COP) and social networks (SN) theories. Findings confirmed that international students have four distinct types of network. The class did not evolve towards a single cohesive network, rather there were changing clusters of relationship. The findings showed that although co-national factors are important at the beginning of students' learning, they are not always the main influences shaping student networks. The findings are significant for both institutions and teachers.

The authors have compared students discussing multiple-choice quizzes during peer instruction with and without the initial thinking period before discussion. Video clips of students engaged in peer discussion in groups of three of varying group combinations, a total of 140 different students in all, were compared to students' own experiences extracted from group interviews (16 students in groups of four and a total of seven interviews) and survey results (109 responses). The initial thinking period was found to increase argumentation time during discussion, consistent with students' own experiences. However, while students felt that the initial thinking period increased participation and contribution of ideas among all group members, the authors only found significantly improved discussion for two out of three group members, those already most active. The research did not find any statistically significant difference for the least active students with or without the inclusion of the initial thinking period.

In this article, we consider the functions of students' unions (SUs) through a UK case study. First, a functional classification of educational representation; wider representation; delivery of commercial services and faciliating a student community is outlined. Second, we specify a theoretical framework in terms of neo-liberalism and therapeutic ideas of education. Third, we discuss recent SU functional changes. Fourth, we interpret those changes through the theories outlined above. Our contribution to scholarship is threefold; first we study the evolution of UK SUs. Second, we apply theory to interpret these changes. Third, we generate findings that could be applied to develop a comparative international literature.

This paper explores the transitions that a group of students, admitted from further education colleges as part of broader widening access initiative at a Scottish research-intensive university, made across the lifetime of their degrees. It investigates how they negotiate their learning careers beyond the first year, and how they (re)define their approaches to independent learning as they progress to the later years of their courses. Evidence is drawn from 20 students who were interviewed during each of their three or four years of study to provide a longitudinal account of their experiences of engagement and participation at the university. We draw attention to three ways in which the students made transitions across the course of their degrees: to increased knowledge of the conventions of academic writing; to enhanced critical skills; and to practical strategies to prioritise learning.

In response to the emphasis on the benefits of enhanced multicultural educational experiences of international students in higher education, this study examined international students' perceptions of the influence of multiculturalism on the study programs in Malaysian public universities. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The respondents were 794 international students from 11 Malaysian public universities. Results show that international students perceive that the content of the courses had little consideration for including topics from countries of international students. In addition, the results reveal that the presence of international students in the study programs can be one of the factors to encourage lecturers to bring updated contents from international materials. Furthermore, the results reveal that motivation for learning, encouragement for active participation, and improvement of intellectual atmosphere in the study programs can be enhanced by the presence of international students. Practical implications for universities are provided.

The study explored the conceptual views of "critical mass", alongside micro experiences, of women, at a practice level, on a doctoral preparation programme which was implemented within the South African Development Community (SADC) and Ethiopian contexts. At the strategising level of policies, insufficient attention has been paid to the presence of women on doctoral preparation programmes and how individual women, in mutually aligned life circumstances with other women, and men, might advance gender equality outcomes. There are also theoretical gaps in relation to grand strategies in complex development contexts, such as gender and doctoral education, in terms of attending to how women access and/or experience these programmes. Using programme evaluation documents and participant observation, the research showed that viewing gender-targeting strategies differently opens up the possibilities for nano advances to be made, even in worlds of big complexities.

The engagement and retention of commencing students is a longstanding issue in higher education, particularly with the implementation of the widening student participation agenda. The early weeks of the first semester are especially critical to student engagement and early attrition. This study investigated the perceived early transition needs of three cohorts of commencing students in their first three weeks of university study in a Health Faculty. A short survey was developed based on a systematic understanding of student transition and supplemented by open-ended qualitative data. The results showed a stable, consistent pattern of early transition needs across the cohorts, with commencing students expressing most concern about accessing resources, balancing work, family and study commitments, establishing peer relationships, and understanding the requirements and standards for early assessment tasks, particularly group tasks. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for early co-curricular and curricular interventions to enhance early student engagement and retention.

There is a growing need to design learning experiences in higher education that develop collaborative and mediated social writing practices. A wiki way of learning addresses these needs. This paper reports findings from a case study involving 58 postgraduate students who in small groups participated over eight weeks in a mediated collaborative writing project with and through wiki contexts. The project was not assessed but designed for task-based domain learning. Evaluation of the project was conducted using data drawn from multiple sources collected before, during and after the project. Findings show that participation in the project had a positive relationship with student exam performance, and web familiarity. Patterns of individual and group wiki project participation, and sex differences in participation, are discussed.

Since 1994, the eyes of the world have been on South Africa, observing with interest the societal reconstruction project, upon which the country had embarked. In this project, higher education is both the terrain and the perceived instrument of change. In this higher education system and its mission, the academic profession is pivotal--especially, the new up-and-coming generation of academics, who have entered the profession since 1994. Using data from the International Changing Academic Profession Survey of the academic profession, this article focuses on this new generation of South African academics: their teaching; their research and service activities; their biographical details; their international profile; their relations with institutional management; and their job satisfaction. The results of this analysis reveal that while the new generation is present in terms of numbers, they also face three challenges. These pertain to three critical areas, namely research productivity, internationalisation, and the creation of a satisfying work environment, amidst signs of seriously harmful managerialism. The article concludes with recommendations as to how to approach these challenges.

A tool used in student-centered education is discussion among students in small learning groups. The Western origin of student-centered education, coupled with cross-cultural differences in communication styles, may detract from its cross-cultural applicability. This study investigates how in student-centered education, students' cultural backgrounds are expressed in discussions and shape students' discussion behaviors and skills. A comparative case study using problem-based learning as a student-centered model was conducted in three medical schools located in East Asia, Western Europe and the Middle East. Four cultural factors were found to potentially cause students, especially those in the non-Western schools, to refrain from speaking up, asking questions, and challenging others in discussions. Six contextual factors mediated the influence of the cultural factors. The findings were incorporated in a conceptual model. The conclusion seems justified that student-centered education is feasible in different cultural contexts, but across these contexts, processes and outcomes are likely to differ.

This paper analyses the current state of student representation in Russia as deeply rooted in the institutional structure of the Soviet higher education system. The study traces the origins of existing institutional arrangements for student representation at the level of university governance and analyses how representation practices have been transformed in post-Soviet Russia. It combines a historical review with a qualitative analysis of the current state of the professional student union ("profsoyuz studentov"), which is one of the most widespread organisational forms of student representation in Russia. The data were collected through a series of 30 in-depth interviews with student activists and university administrators from four state universities in Tomsk, in addition to an analysis of documents regulating student representation.

Following the trend of many comparable countries, Australian universities are now part of a massified system which is a significant contributor to the national economy. The commercial university is solicitous as to its product and its position in the market, but must also navigate the regulatory environment. Uncontrollable aspects of the university, including staff and student organisations, can threaten the marketable image of the university corporation and its relationship with government. This paper considers the creation and regulation of student organisations in Australia. In Australia's federal system some state legislation accorded student organisations a legitimate place in university governance; most universities accepted the role of student organisations as beneficial to both students and the university itself. Since the 1980s, however, the financial leverage of the federal government purchased increasing intervention in universities, and this extended to the rearticulation of the role of the student organisations in 2006. The reorientation of the university sector has been facilitated by a reconfiguration of important relationships in the sector--between universities and students on the one hand, and universities and student organisations on the other. The contractualisation of relationships in the sector enables the modelling of the university on the commercial enterprise, creating other techniques of control, within a wider regulatory system steered by funding arrangements. The resulting depoliticisation of student organisations is part of a wider process of disengagement of universities from public critique and its embrace of commercial forms of governance generally.

The transition from one-party rule and other forms of authoritarianism to multiparty democracy in the 1990s has had a profound impact on the organisation and role of student politics in Africa. Against the background of student involvement in African politics in the twentieth century, leading up to student participation in Africa's "second liberation" in the early 1990s, the paper analyses the organisation of student governments, student representation in institutional and national governance, student unionism and the emergence of political parties in student politics in the 2000s. Proceeding from Munene's argument regarding a shift in oppositional politics in Africa away from students to multiparty politics, this paper finds that party politics is also increasingly implicated in African student politics with varied results. The paper concludes by proposing a tentative framework for understanding the impact of high levels of resource exchange between student leaders and political parties on student representation.

This paper analyses the 2011 Chilean student movement, the most relevant social mobilisation in Chile since the restoration of democracy in 1990. Based on available material and secondary sources, it describes the main features of this student movement, analyses the key components of the students' discourse and its relationship with the Chilean market-oriented educational system, and identifies its impact on the field of higher education. The paper argues that this student movement was a process of expressing accumulated grievances against some neoliberal features of Chilean education. Since this movement is also linked to the emergence of a new generation of higher education students, it identifies relevant characteristics of current students' organisations and protests. Finally, the paper discusses hypotheses for interpreting the recent student movements. This case is informative not only for those concerned with student participation, but also with the potential downsides of market-oriented educational policies.

This article briefly overviews the student movement working for political democratisation during the authoritarian governments in South Korea. The article focuses on how student activism has changed as a reflection of political developments from the dictatorship through to the civilian democratic governments. Further, it analyses how tuition-fee levels differ according to the organisational power of student unions within universities. The organisational power is represented by the student union's political orientation where strong political orientation implies that the student union holds stronger negotiation power in tuition-fee setting. The empirical analysis leads to in-depth discussions on student movements and tuition fees in Korea.

Student representation in Poland has a relatively short but turbulent history. This article offers an historical appraisal of the development of student representation at the national level in the context of rapid and deep structural changes in Polish higher education. Based on a desktop analysis of official documentation, legislation, ideological declarations and background (first-hand) information provided by student leaders, the article reconstructs the establishment of the first independent self-governing student organisation in the country. In so doing, the paper pays particular attention to the emergence, institutionalisation as well as legitimacy challenges facing student bodies either as formalised organisations or more bottom-up (loosely coupled) structures resembling social movements. In addition, the paper sheds light on the Student Parliament's role in the policymaking process, most notably as regards the recent neoliberal reforms. The article's final section speculates about the future of student representation in Poland and suggests avenues for future research.

This article has two major objectives: to describe the structure of the student movement in Canada and the formal role of students in higher education governance, and to describe and analyze the "Maple Spring," the dramatic mobilization of students in opposition to proposed tuition fee increases in Quebec that eventually led to a provincial election and the fall of the government. Based on an analysis of documents, news reports, and a small number of interviews with student leaders, the article will analyze what became the largest student protest movement in Canadian history.

The focus of the paper is to consider the ways in which the cultural complexity inherent in multinational student groups is thrown into relief when participative methods are used. Participative approaches are a means of encouraging students to learn from each other's ideas and experience and, from a critical perspective, as supporting democratic values. The authors draw on their reflections of working with multinational student groups and on former students' projects in which they examined their own and fellow students' learning experiences. Theoretical frameworks which illustrate contrasting perspectives are considered for their potential contribution to our understanding of the sociopolitical processes involved in the participative, multinational classroom, and to supporting students and tutors in working with such complexities.

This article aims to position students' classroom questioning within the literature surrounding affect and its impact on learning. The article consists of two main sections. First, the act of questioning is discussed in order to highlight how affect shapes the process of questioning, and a four-part genesis to question-asking that we call CARE is described: the construction, asking, reception and evaluation of a learner's question. This work is contextualised through studies in science education and through our work with university students in undergraduate chemistry, although conducted in the firm belief that it has more general application. The second section focuses on teaching strategies to encourage and manage learners' questions, based here upon the conviction that university students in this case learn through questioning, and that an inquiry-based environment promotes better learning than a simple "transmission" setting. Seven teaching strategies developed from the authors' work are described, where university teachers "scaffold" learning through supporting learners' questions, and working with these to structure and organise the content and the shape of their teaching. The article concludes with a summary of the main issues, highlighting the impact of the affective dimension of learning through questioning, and a discussion of the implications for future research.

The UK higher education system receives the second largest number of Chinese overseas students in the world. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data used in this study show that the total number of Chinese graduates (at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels) increased from around 6000 at the beginning of the twenty-first century to more than 20,000 in 2009. This paper addresses the issues of whether and how patterns of participation and attainment of Chinese graduates have changed over the last decade. The findings show that (1) increasing proportions of Chinese students graduate from the Russell Group universities; (2) alongside subjects such as science, engineering and business, a growing popularity of social science among Chinese students is emerging; (3) compared to home students and other international students, Chinese first-degree graduates persistently achieve lower attainment levels. The conclusions highlight possible explanations for these patterns and directions for future research.

The paper questions the prevalence of "green students" and their impact on decision-making in sustainability programmes in Australian universities. While the universities studied provide numerous opportunities for student involvement in sustainability programmes, comparatively few students actually become involved, making student impact on decision-making in these programmes low. University employees are the primary drivers of university sustainability programmes, with the "green student" not highly visible in these universities. The paper concludes by suggesting that all four universities in the sample could enhance their sustainability programmes by adopting a more evidence-based understanding of student attitudes towards sustainability.

This article outlines the main cases for and related objections against student representation in university governance found in the relevant literature, and proposes a way in which variations in student representation within institutions may be understood and justified. It contextualises the modern origins of student representation in the experience of university democratisation of the 1960s and early 1970s. By means of a review of scholarship, it outlines the various "good reasons" for and against student representation in relation to the most prevalent justifications: i.e. the politically-realist, consumerist, communitarian and democratic and consequentialist cases for student representation. The article then outlines how these complementary and contradictory positions may serve as a complex set of criteria or "lens" for analysing and justifying the representation of students in various domains of university decision making.

Student engagement has become a key feature of UK higher education policy and analysis. At the core of this is a notion of engagement characterised by dialogue and joint venture. The article explores this by considering the role of student representation in university governance. It focuses on the system of course representation that is a feature of most British universities. Using a small-scale, exploratory study of key stakeholders within one UK institution, it examines the context within which such representation operates. Analysis suggests that a complex interaction between cultural, social, individual and structural factors shapes the nature of representation. It concludes that enhancing engagement requires institutions to resist managerialist impulses to regulate and control course representation. Instead, they should respond flexibly and reflexively to create an environment for meaningful engagement between students and staff.

This article provides a systematic analysis of 13 in-depth interviews of disabled students from universities in Northern Ireland. Undertaken as part of the Uni4U initiative, the findings presented describe barriers experienced by students with disabilities to participation in higher education. The students provided comments concerning their current service provisions, barriers they have experienced and suggestions for improvements to the service. Examination of the findings leads us to three recommendations: first, that a network of communication should exist that encourages dialogue between all parties with an interest in the well-being of the student, with the student at the heart of these discussions and involved in all decisions; second, that attention must be paid to staff development especially with regard to mental health issues; and, finally, that in the long term, the aim of institutions should be to move away from individual 'reasonable adjustments' to inclusive education for all.