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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on approaches that acknowledge and make explicit the role of emotion in the entrepreneurship education classroom. As entrepreneurship educators, the authors are aware of the affective impacts that entrepreneurship education has on the students and the authors continuously reflect on and support the students through, what is acknowledged in practice, an emotionally charged experience. With this in mind, the authors outline how a variety of disciplines engage with the role of emotions and how an interdisciplinary approach to the topic can support pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach: The authors synthesise relevant arguments from four discrete disciplines: neuroscience; psychology, education and entrepreneurship, which have not previously been combined. The authors argue that the role of emotion in learning generally, has been investigated across these disparate disciplines, but has not been brought together in a way that provides practical implications for the development of pedagogy. Findings: By synthesising the findings from four bodies of knowledge that engage with emotion, entrepreneurship and education, the authors start to develop a theoretical model based around the concept of the emotional ecology of the classroom. Practical implications: The role of emotion in entrepreneurship education is an emerging topic and the authors' synthesis of research supports further investigation. The authors' insights will support educators to develop classroom environments that acknowledge relationships between students and between students and educators. Such engagement could help educators and students to appreciate, acknowledge and address the emotional aspects of entrepreneurship education. Originality/value: The paper starts to develop new theory around emotions in entrepreneurship education, developing the idea of the emotional "ecology" of teaching environments and highlighting how this might support future research agendas.

This paper explores the organisation of scholarly articles in educational studies in the UK through an analysis of the outputs of six key journals. Using citation networks and text analyses it examines connections that are made between papers, journals, authors and the themes discussed in the six journals. Scholarly papers are particularly suitable for this kind of analysis because of the expectation that authors "locate" their work within existing knowledge, making explicit connections between their contribution and the field (or discipline) in which they are working. This analysis utilises these connections in order to understand how papers in disciplinary and non-disciplinary journals relate to one another in terms of the bodies of knowledge on which they draw, where papers are then cited, and the degree to which authors cross disciplinary boundaries or remain within their "parent" discipline. (Contains 10 tables, 7 figures and 10 notes.)

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

This paper investigates the relationship between staff research and teaching in doctoral education with a special reference to disciplinary variations. The relationship between staff research (the 2001 RAE scores) and the effectiveness of doctoral education as perceived by students is analysed. On the whole, little relationship between departmental research performance (the Research Assessment Exercise scores) and effectiveness of doctoral education is found in Education and Chemistry, especially in the aspects of supervision. The results of research environment are more complex. Although the general findings--the absence of a significant relationship between research and teaching--apply to both Education and Chemistry departments, doctoral education is more favourably perceived by doctoral students in Chemistry than in Education. Finally, a theoretical diagram of Teamwork and Individualist research training structures in Ideal and Degenerative types is created to discuss these findings.

"Women at Work," a collection of 15 essays, contributes to our understanding of women's working lives and presents a useful opportunity to view British evidence in this field. Although women's absolute lifetime earnings will always be lower than men's, educated women may enjoy a greater advantage than men and face less market discrimination than women with less education. (MLH)

Comments on the Green Paper on the future of higher education in Great Britain by Sir Keith Joseph, the Secretary of State for Education and Science, in 1985. Challenge to the conservative complacency of universities; Analysis of the British government's policies on education; Implications on higher education.

The article focuses on developments relevant to education in Great Britain as of October 1973. Nigel Grant, reader in education at the University of Edinburgh, joined the Editorial Board of "Comparative Education" magazine. The eight session of the Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education was held in June 1973, which focused on "The Educational Needs of the 16-19 Age Group." UNESCO released its latest publication "Present Problems in the Democratization of Secondary and Higher Education." The Schools Council and the Standing Conference on University Entrance published the Working Paper 46, entitled "16-19: Growth and Response, 2. Examination Structure" and Working Paper 47, "Preparation for Degree Courses."

In the summer of 2014, Professor Mike Collins – one of the four founding members of the Leisure Studies (LS) Association – submitted a paper to LS that offered a retrospective review of the first 30 years of the journal (1982–2012). Sadly, whilst the paper was under review, Professor Collins passed away. Mike’s commentaries have always been significant; we include this piece in this particular issue of the journal because it underpins the range of articles we have selected that we feel address some of the central tenets of ‘leisure’. Held alongside the Editors introduction, this article speaks as much as anything else to the state of the field, its futures and its potentialities. Serving as a companion piece that looks to the multiple pasts, genealogies and histories of leisure (and indeed LS), we, the Editors, offer below a necessarily abridged and posthumous version of Professor Collins’ original submission to the journal. Any omissions, errors, mis-representations and mis-understandings are the result of our own editorial hand for which we unreservedly apologise. We hope we have been able to keep the spirit, critique and engaging style that, no doubt, Mike would have presented in a final version of this manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the peer-reviewed literature relating to the education of children from armed forces families (service children) is presented. In England, service children have been identified by the Office for Students as an under-represented group in higher education. However, their educational journeys through compulsory education and towards higher education are relatively under-researched. Exploring literature from countries with similar educational, linguistic and armed forces cultures enables opportunities for researchers in the United Kingdom to be highlighted. The review identified a general lack of peer-reviewed research into educational outcomes for service children, a lack of consensus on the impact of service life on children, and a tendency to focus on the barriers and challenges arising through service life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional view since the early 2000s has been that participation in higher education (HE) is a risky pathway for disadvantaged young people in England; the social risk of entering an alien environment combines with the financial risk of rising costs and questionable long-term returns. This riskiness has been constructed as a major barrier to participation. However, national administrative data cast doubt on whether this analysis still holds true. Despite significant rises in tuition fees, the proportion of disadvantaged young people entering HE has continued to rise, with advantaged groups seemingly being more price-sensitive. Data from recent qualitative studies has also suggested that young people are now less attuned to risks. This paper considers whether circumstances in wider society have shifted perceptions of risk. The volatility resulting from the global financial crisis appears to have repositioned HE as a less risky option than early entry to the labour market, especially with more jobs becoming 'graduate', while the social risk has declined as HE has diversified. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives from Beck, Boudon, Simon and Kahneman to argue that many disadvantaged young people now view HE as a form of 'insurance' against an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor learning experiences in Higher Education (HE) provide students with the opportunity for emotional development, cognitive development and learning. Despite this, the literature exploring the impact of emotive outdoor learning experiences on students’ development and learning is scarce. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the key factors important for the delivery of outdoor learning experiences in HE. The paper will also incorporate the authors personal experience of delivering emotive outdoor learning in HE (visiting Holocaust sites with undergraduate students). Broad recommendations for the future design and delivery of emotive outdoor learning experiences is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Koskela and Howell (2002) suggest that the traditional methods of educating project managers are becoming outdated. In order to respond to this, universities need to adapt the way that project management skills are taught in order to produce graduates with the necessary skills to work within the modern project management industries, in cross-functional inter-professional teams. This paper explores the concept of utilising an integrated approach to project management and supply chain management education within a UK University Business School, in order to develop the project managers of tomorrow with the skills needed to gain employment in an increasingly complex field. Both graduates and employers rank skills which are common to both project and supply chain management highly, such as procurement, quality and risk management (McArdle K., Gunning J.G., and Spillane J.G., 2012) highlighting the need to train these two related professions in an integrated manner. Corsini et al (2000) suggest that the traditional silo approach to education most commonly adopted in universities is producing graduates which are technically competent but do not have the knowledge or expertise to work within cross functional teams. As this is a fundamental part of the Project Manager role, this paper presents the rationale and developments on integrating two large modules at a UK University Business School with the aim of providing students with knowledge and skills which are more appropriate for work within cross-functional, inter-professional teams. The innovative use of an integrated assessment across these modules will provide students the opportunity to work and reflect on a real project, as well as exposure to taught sessions to ground the underpinning concepts that link the specialisms of project and supply chain management together. Challenging established methods of assessment will allow these two innovative modules to better prepare students for inter-professional working as well as developing many of the key soft skills needed to be a successful project manager. This paper will discuss the issues and challenges with adopting such educational methodology, and will be of interest to all within the project management training sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to debates on graduate migration, by discussing graduate migrants' career trajectory development, using structure-agency perspectives to explore career path management in a host country. Drawing on qualitative research with Polish graduate migrants in the UK, it demonstrates diverse attitudes towards career trajectories of those who obtained their degree from home country universities, and enrolled into some form of further education in the host country. This paper outlines three Polish graduate types in the UK, based on the time, type and motivations for further training in the UK. These are: Continuers, Switchers and Late Awakeners. It argues that graduates have become accustomed to life's uncertainties, and recognise the need to take diverse and flexible routes to advance their careers, including further education and various types of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The broad aim of this paper is to track the evolution of adult literacy policy in the UK across three decades, highlighting convergences between policy phases and the promotion of democratic learning spaces. It is anchored onto the argument that, although it is generally accepted that democratic learning spaces are perceived as beneficial to adult literacy learners, policy has often deterred its promotion and, therefore, implementation. The paper identifies three block phases of adult literacy development: the seventies to mid-eighties, the mid-eighties to mid-nineties and the mid-nineties to the Moser Committees. The features of each of these phases are highlighted to map out convergences and divergences to the ethos of democratic learning spaces. The paper argues that, with the evolution of policy in adult literacy, the ethos of democratic learning space continuously diminished, such that as policy evolved year on year, the principle of democratic learning space found itself at counterpoint to policy. We draw on two theoretical frameworks, the NLS view of literacy and Bourdieu's capital framework to explain these divergences and conclude that the dominant perception of literacy and the prioritised capital in the context of policy appear to limit the vestiges of democratic learning spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the threats that Brexit poses for the higher education sector. These threats are: loss of research funding from EU sources; loss of students from other EU countries; the impact on the ability of the sector to hire academic staff from EU countries; and the impact on the ability of UK students to study abroad. The paper suggests ways in which these threats could be mitigated, but argues that this mitigation may be limited in the absence of an agreement on freedom of movement in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on degree-level education in Geography is concentrated on 'western' countries such as the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. This paper, in contrast, includes a strong focus on Turkey. Its aim is to compare the development of Turkish education in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with the UK experience. While identifying some common features, the paper also highlights important differences, particularly the extent to which Engineering, rather than Geography, has led GIS education in Turkey. The paper examines the reasons for this, and in reflecting on the possible relevance to Turkey of the UK experience, it sets out some potentially valuable ways forward in which Turkish Geography could strengthen its role in GIS provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) on academic identity within the context of a UK-based research-intensive higher education institution. TEF is the latest in a series of changes that have impacted upon the UK's HE sector and it is highly likely to have a significant impact upon academic identity. Collecting evidence through sixteen qualitative interviews, findings show that while TEF may not alter the broad substance of what it means to be an academic in terms of engagement with research, education and citizenship activities, it has the potential to have profound implications in terms of exacerbating conflicts within identity. This paper argues that negative work outcomes result where role conflicts, and mismatches between expectation and reward, create difficulties in realising our desired versions of ourselves. Theoretical contributions relevant to debates around identity conflict are discussed, with practical contributions exploring the importance of resource allocations and the need to align expectations and rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions in the UK are required, by law, to make anticipatory reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities. Inclusive teaching practice, if adopted across the sector, would ensure that the needs of students with disabilities are considered and provided for, before they even arrive on campus. This paper sets out the background and key findings from an institutional research project at a UK university that aimed to discover if academic staff's attitudes would be problematic or conducive to the implementation of inclusive teaching practice. The paper concludes that there is little evidence of widespread “resistance” but rather, the research discovered a prevailing belief in the rights of students with disabilities to education, albeit a belief which is limited in its practical application in the classroom. The paper also reports on a number of recommendations made to the case study university as a result of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK construction industry's output is the second largest within the European Union and is the country's largest employer. Within the UK, over two million people work in this sector and the latest national statistics predict a continued expansive growth as far as the year 2011. However, the construction industry is experiencing serious skills shortages and tends to lack an ethnic diversity of workers. Recent research has shown that although Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students in the UK are relatively well represented within most of the built environment disciplines within higher education (HE), very few ethnic minority graduates are actually entering the industry compared to their White counterparts. The majority of employers in the industry are facing ongoing recruitment difficulties and this increased loss of BME graduates exacerbates the skills gap. It can be stated that research into these issues within this sector is limited, especially with regards to individual, cultural and ethnic based factors. The European Social Funded BME in Construction project is attempting to identify the potential barriers and enablers (including culture) that contribute to the under-representation of BMEs within the construction industry. This paper outlines the findings from Company Directors, Human Resources Managers and employees that identify the potential cultural barriers that lead to the under-representation of BMEs within the UK construction industry. This paper concludes by putting forward a series of recommendations aimed at HE and the UK construction industry to facilitate the entry of BMEs within the industry and identifies areas of further and expanded research that are required over the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the origins of the concept of personalisation in public sector services, and applies it to school education. The original conceptualisation stressed the need for ‘deep’ rather than shallow, personalisation, if radical transformation of services were to be achieved. It is argued that as the concept has been disseminated and implemented through policy documents, notably the 2005 White Paper, it has lost its original emphasis on deep personalisation. The focus in this article is particularly upon gifted and talented students whose education provides the best case example of how the theory of personalisation might work in practice. Two examples of the lessons in a sixth form college are used to illustrate the character of personalised pedagogy in practice. The implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of design for learning has arisen as education faces up to the implications of modern pedagogy, student diversity, and the affordances of information and communication technologies. This paper examines some of the benefits and issues for teachers in further and higher education surrounding the idea of learning design and its practical implementation in blended learning. It looks particularly at questions of documenting and representing learning designs so that they can be communicated to others. It explores the differing requirements of representations at various stages in the planning and sharing process, and for different communities of users, finding that multiple perspectives on a learning design are usually necessary. However, few representations to date have succeeded in capturing the essence of a good piece of teaching. Ways of representing designs as dynamic processes, rather than static products, may need to be developed. The paper is based on the outcomes of work with practising teachers during the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded Models of Practice Project, part of JISC's Design for Learning Programme, which runs from 2006 to 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The United Kingdom (UK) has recently published secondary education value added measures. This paper examines whether the approach used could also offer a possible method for measuring value added in higher education (HE). Design/methodology/approach - Previous attempts to measure HE value added in the UK, such as comparative value added (CVA), met with criticism relating to their estimation of the "expected" degree class (DegCL). This paper examines whether the recent experiences in secondary education give any insights into solving this problem. Findings - The paper identifies that the techniques applied in secondary education are remarkably similar to those used by CVA, and it argues that they appear to suffer from similar pitfalls. It is shown, through a statistical analysis, that in practice a whole range of factors have a significant influence on degree performance. Research limitations/implications - The data set used in the statistical analysis of HE performance is relatively old. Future research could repeat this study with recent data. Practical implications - The development of an accurate measure of value added in HE will need to apply measuring techniques that are significantly more sophisticated than those used for UK secondary education. Originality/value - The value of this paper is that it identifies key issues that will need to be addressed before a credible measure of value added can be developed for HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between quality and management in higher education. It considers the nature of management, the meanings ascribed to management and related concepts such as leadership, and the appropriateness of these concepts in the context of higher education. These preliminary considerations provide a basis for considering the connections that may exist between management performance and institutional performance. In addressing these issues, the paper aims to confront such questions as: what part does management play in ensuring high quality institutional performance? to what extent can judgements about management performance be separated from judgements about institutional performance? and so on. This necessitates consideration of how these hinds of performance can be judged, and the paper offers frameworks for analysing judgements of institutional and managerial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new perspective for higher education policy research. It introduces the concept of policy object to designate the discrete preoccupation(s) of a policy text (e.g. a new governance regime, a quality system, or new degrees) and suggests that actor conceptualisations of the policy object intersect with other elements in the policy process to shape enactment and outcomes. First, the policy object concept is described. It is argued that the policy object does not have an objective existence and two concepts are proposed to explain it: ontology and enacted ontology. The former refers to what actors believe the policy object is, a socially-construed context-determined conceptualisation, whereas enacted ontology refers to what the policy object becomes further to enactment under the influence of ontology. Second, the paper presents the findings of a comparative study of master degrees further to the Bologna process in different national and institutional settings to illustrate the policy object approach. This research puts forward arguments to suggest that the policy object could be an important variable to consider in policy research. This somewhat different lens, inviting fine-grained attention to a specific policy object (its ontologies and enacted ontologies), could bring additional insight into policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares access to full-time undergraduate higher education (HE) by members of less advantaged social classes and ethnic minorities across the four ‘home countries’ of the UK. It uses data on applicants to HE in selected years from 1996 to 2010. In all home countries students from intermediate and working-class backgrounds retained a broadly level share of a rising total participation in HE, while ethnic minorities increased their share. Intermediate- and working-class students were more likely to study within their own home country, as were ethnic-minority students in England, but minority students from Northern Ireland and Scotland were much more likely than white students to study elsewhere (usually England). Some aspects of the admissions process appear to have been ‘unfair’ to lower class applicants; this was the same across the UK although the relative success of applications from colleges and independent schools, which might accentuate or mitigate inequalities, varied across the home countries. In England and Wales, ethnic-minority applicants were less likely to be offered a place but they compensated (only partially in the case of older universities) by gaining entry through clearing; in Scotland they were as likely to be offered a place but less likely to enter HE. The paper discusses the potential of such comparisons for benchmarking and for policy learning. It concludes that the similarities between the home countries are more substantial than their differences, and that administrative and political devolution in the 1990s has had little impact on inequalities in HE. There is no evidence of a significant impact of the divergence between market policies in England and the more social-democratic policies of the devolved administrations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose - This practitioner paper aims to question basic assumptions about management education and to argue that a new paradigm is needed for UK business schools which embraces an oft neglected, yet economically vital, stakeholder group, namely family businesses. It seeks to pose the question of why we have forgotten to teach about family business management in the management portfolio. Design/methodology/approach - The paper adopts a stakeholder approach, building on nominal stakeholder theory to justify a change to the teaching paradigm in business schools. It builds on discussions in the extant literature about failures of business schools to address modern needs. Findings - The authors find that business schools in the UK need to begin to engage with family businesses through embracing the next generation from families in business. Policy needs to be developed that will support the next generation in a positive way by teaching about the family in business. Originality/value - The paper aims to stimulate discussion about key stakeholders and prompt review of neglect of this key area of business study in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the issues experienced in the delivery of a business challenge to a cohort of business undergraduate students at the University of Glamorgan. The challenge involved initiating and running a "real" business and returning a profit within a week. The students worked in groups of up to eight and were given start up capital. The paper seeks to evaluate the impact of the business challenge in terms of changing entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, and to examine the skills competencies acquired by the individual students. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs a mixed method approach to examine the respondent experience. The basis of the investigation involved a semi-structured questionnaire undertaken on completion of the challenge. In total, in excess of 50 students completed the research instrument. The questionnaire enabled the authors to quantitatively explore the overall impact of the business challenge by student age and gender. In addition, the semi structured design enabled the authors to explore the qualitative "rich data" of individual student experience based on their reflections. Findings – The findings reveal a positive impact in terms of enhanced attitudes towards the attainability and attractiveness of an entrepreneurial career. The findings reveal that the business challenge provided the students with a significant enhancement in generic enterprise skills including team working, leadership, communication and specific business skills such as sales and marketing behaviour. The students valued the opportunity and personal responsibility offered by the business challenge to apply their theoretical knowledge in a real world context. Several individuals reported that the positive experience with their business venture meant that they wished to continue the business alongside their graduate studies. Originality/value – The paper contributes to a limited literature in assessing the impact and benefit of business challenges. It will be of value to enterprise education providers in organising and planning such activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the changing nature of a range of information technology (IT) application skills that students declare on entering an accounting degree over the period from 1996 to 2006. Accounting educators need to be aware of the IT skills students bring with them to university because of the implications this has for learning and teaching within the discipline and the importance of both general and specific IT skills within the practice and craft of accounting. Additionally, IT skills constitute a significant element within the portfolio of employability skills that are increasingly demanded by employers and emphasized within the overall Higher Education (HE) agenda. The analysis of students' reported IT application skills on entry to university, across a range of the most relevant areas of IT use in accounting, suggest that their skills have continued to improve over time. However, there are significant differential patterns of change through the years and within cohorts. The paper addresses the generalizability of these findings and discusses the implications of these factors for accounting educators, including the importance of recognising the differences that are potentially masked by the general increase in skills; the need for further research into the changing nature, and implications, of the gender gap in entrants' IT application skills; and the low levels of entrants' spreadsheet and database skills that are a cause for concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is now widely held as a transcendental ideal of town and country planning, yet the way in which it is taught in planning schools remains problematic. This arises from a range of factors, including the all-persuasive nature of sustainability and the lack of solid examples of success through implementation. The issue of how best to promote learning for sustainable development in planning has arguably intensified in the last two years in the case of the Royal Town Planning Institute-sponsored 'fast track' one-year Masters, which has reduced the opportunities for students to engage in wider (and perhaps even deeper) concepts, including that of sustainable development. This paper explores this through discussion of a specific project developed at Queen's University Belfast, facilitated by a grant from the UK Higher Education Academy. Working with a local community, this entailed a group of students working on their Masters thesis collectively addressing issues of sustainable regeneration in a small Irish market town. The design of the project draws heavily on the concepts of enquiry based learning, experiential learning and action competence, which are seen as being central to improving education for sustainable development (ESD). The paper explores the benefits of such an approach and discusses the ways in which this experience can help enhance student's experience of ESD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the extent to which diversity in the backgrounds of students and diversity in the forms and characteristics of universities combine to produce diversities in learning experiences and outcomes. It draws on a recent major national study in the UK which has been investigating how student learning is mediated by a series of social and organisational factors. Fifteen case studies of student experiences in different universities lay at the heart of the study and provide extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence about the realities of diversity in UK higher education. The paper reports both diversities and commonalities in the student experience and its outcomes, some of which challenge the predominantly hierarchical and reputational conceptions of diversity and differentiation currently dominant in debates about UK higher education. The student 'voice' on these matters as reported here does not fully coincide with current policy priorities and 'voices'. Student perceptions of the ways in which they have changed as a result of the experience of higher education embrace a range of factors within which the social and the personal are at least as important as the academic. Although the focus in this paper is on student learning on undergraduate degrees in the biosciences, business studies and sociology, a model of university learning contexts and settings is presented which may have wider applicability to achieving a better understanding of higher education's increasing diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current situation of academic LIS research, specifically in the UK and to provide some thoughts considering the future of the discipline. According to the opinion of the authors, this situation is characterised by a lack of cohesion, the need for justification of academic research in terms of its immediate applicability to the professional education of practitioners, and a disjuncture between the information profession and information research. The paper attempts to offer introductory thoughts regarding these circumstances. Design/methodology/approach - The current situation is briefly reviewed and commented on from the authors' viewpoint. Aspects of Pierre Bourdieu's study of the university as a hierarchically structured field of forces are considered. Some reference is made to previous literature. Findings - The paper advances the view that the role of academic US research, debate and theory formation needs to be strengthened and that this needs to be reflected in the curriculum more strongly. Originality/value - The paper attempts to highlight consistently overlooked contributing factors, and thus aims to shift the perspective towards role and position of LIS research within academia, rather than vis-à-vis the professional education it is connected to. It aims to stimulate discussion of the current situation, of how it can be perceived, and of ways to address it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the ways in which UK higher education (HE) has become increasingly commercialised and commodified in the post-1980s. It critiques the strategies adopted by successive UK governments to reinvigorate the relationship between educational and economic life, and to facilitate a more corporate and entrepreneurial spirit within the academy in line with the pressures of a 'knowledge-based economy'. Arguing for a more critical exploration of teaching and learning within HE, the paper presents evidence from work carried out by the Reinvention Centre for Undergraduate Research, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching in Learning (CETL) which adopts a research-based learning approach to teaching and learning at undergraduate level.1 Within the context of ongoing debates surrounding the relationship between teaching, learning and research in UK HE, the paper advocates a reinvention of curriculum design through an engagement with the broader principles of critical pedagogy, and in so doing, presents a critical engagement with the commercialisation of HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is inspired by, and constructed around, a number of fundamental questions that are relevant to teacher educators working within the context of the government policy initiatives and implementations that are influencing Higher Education in the UK at the present time. Using teacher education practices as sites of inquiry, and a number of figures from the work of Deleuze, the paper investigates approaches to teaching and learning that are described as having an aesthetic and ethically sensitive character. Mindful of such approaches and of the pervasiveness of policy influences, the paper also encourages a careful and thorough re-thinking of the theory and practice of teacher education as a terrain of complexity, multiplicity and interconnectedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘independent learner’ is a key construct within discourses of educational policy and practice in the UK. Government policy statements stress the importance of developing learner independence, and higher education pedagogical practices tend to rest on the assumption that students are independent learners. This paper draws on research with undergraduate students in a post-1992 university to offer a critical appraisal of the discourse of the independent learner. The paper examines students’ perceptions of independence in both their first year of undergraduate study, and in the later years of their degree courses. Support for learning and issues related to asking for help are discussed. Whilst students tend to both expect and want to be independent, it is suggested that dominant constructions of the independent learner are gendered and culturally specific, and as such are inappropriate for the majority of students in a mass higher education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging skills development is a key part of the UK Government’s strategy. This emphasis on skills has led to changes in Higher Education, where there is an increasing recognition of the need to enhance students’ employability. This paper reviews the data on the type of employer skill needs available in the existing literature with a particular emphasis on those skills required by engineering and manufacturing employers. Statistical data related to skill gaps in engineering and manufacturing in the UK and London/Thames Gateway are presented with the intention to determine whether and how these relate to the employability skills and competences listed by various organisations. The paper arrives at a number of conclusions. In summary, for the ‘engineering and manufacturing workforce skills development’ ethos to become widespread in London (and the UK in general), a lot more needs to be done to understand the needs of industry to be able to develop provision that supports Londoners (and the UK citizens in general) in gaining appropriate skills in engineering. This can only be achieved through cooperative, inclusive, transparent and centrally coordinated approaches to skills assessment, monitoring and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines aspects of the relationship between teaching and research in higher education in social science research methods, with particular reference to the subject area of Education. There are three main themes: reflections on how social science research methods should be (or are) taught; a review of current debates about the relationship between teaching and research, both in higher education and for school teachers; and finally, reporting how a group of educational practitioners (mainly school teachers) studying at Masters level experience learned about research methods. The paper is illustrated by qualitative data from a case study of student experiences of research methods teaching on a Masters degree in Education in a research-intensive UK university. It is suggested that studying the journey embarked upon by taught postgraduate students inexperienced in research is helpful in understanding how learning about research methods takes place, which in turn can assist future research methods teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Britain's higher education institutions (HEIs) face fundamental and unprecedented competitive pressures due to lower government funding (Cm 5735, The Future of Higher Education , Department for Education and Skills, 2003) and a government agenda focused on a "widening participation agenda". We employ the resource-based view (RBV) of strategy development to explore potential coping strategies. The RBV has not previously been applied to HEIs, partly because of limited relevant strategic data. The paper explores whether or not universities possess sustainable competitive advantages and concludes that they do, particularly knowledge-based, reputational, innovative and architectural related advantages. Further research is proposed into the competitive advantages of individual HEIs. The paper argues that a resource-based perspective could provide new and valuable insights for strategy development at UK universities and that these same principles can be applied in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the relationship between social engagement, particularly civic engagement, and education. It is well known that more highly educated people are more likely to engage in voluntary work in formalized settings. It has been difficult to disentangle the effect of higher education from that of family origin and occupational socialization. This paper examines the effects of tertiary education on the social and civic engagement of young people, using the British Household Panel Study. The social and civic activity of young people is observed in their late teens, before entering the labour market or tertiary education, and compared with that of the same young people in their early 20s, after completing tertiary education courses or gaining labour market experience. It was found that the social and civic engagement of young people who would enter higher education was higher in their late teens than that of their peers who did not enter. However, higher education had a small additional effect on civic engagement, for both young and mature students. The children of professionals were the social grouping most likely to be involved in civic activities. The relationship of higher education, professional occupations and family socialization is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse information management study programmes and courses given at the Nordic, Baltic, and British library and information studies schools, and also to highlight the differences that depend on different backgrounds, traditions and experiences and common features. The paper consists of three parts. The first introduces some earlier research done by the scholars in the area of information management education or helping to clarify the issue. The second provides an overview of higher education institutions teaching information management in the Baltic States, Nordic countries, and the UK. The third is an attempt to find coherence in study programmes of information management and summarise the concepts they reflect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health and welfare practitioners in the United Kingdom have experienced and continue to experience considerable turbulence as services and occupational boundaries undergo restructuring. To a significant extent such turbulence is driven by policies that promote interprofessional agendas. This paper reports on an evaluation of a higher education programme that adopted a social policy approach to the analysis of interprofessional working. The retrospective views were sought of nursing, midwifery, social work and community and youth work post-qualifying students with use of semi-structured questionnaires and focus groups. Although difficulties were encountered with the political science focus to the programme, overall the participants very positively evaluated the opportunity to engage in policy analysis in a shared learning environment. Given the highly politicised, complex and shifting environment of interprofessional working, it is suggested that the study lends support to the argument that 'policy acumen' is a central skill for contemporary health and welfare practitioners. The paper, therefore, starts to explore issues of particular relevance for educationalists involved in developing frameworks for interprofessional programmes particularly in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of teacher educators in schools and universities in England and the changes that have arisen within the field of initial teacher training (ITT) as a result of the Coalition Government’s (2010–2015) School Direct initiative. The discussion which follows and the conclusions suggested are live, current and of pivotal interest to all universities with ITT programmes, as well as all schools involved in the delivery of ITT, and to all parties with a policy interest in the supply of effective teacher education. After setting the context, the discussion starts with a critical examination of ITT policy in England over the course of the last 20 years. We then consider troubling binaries inherent in teacher education and go on to explore insights from research: the importance of beliefs; the problem of enactment; and the theory/practice divide. These insights are then used to craft the enabling constraints for third-space activity designed to set in motion a hybridisation process from which a new breed of teacher educator could emerge. We suggest that university and school colleagues working together in collaborative partnership can provide a principled pedagogical path through a changing landscape of education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sustainable assessment has been proposed as an idea that focused on the contribution of assessment to learning beyond the timescale of a given course. It was identified as an assessment that meets the needs of the present in terms of the demands of formative and summative assessment, but which also prepares students to meet their own future learning needs. This paper reviews the value of such a notion for assessment; how it has been taken up over the past 15 years in higher education and why it might still be needed. It identifies how it has been a successful intervention in assessment discourse. It explores what more is needed to locate assessment as an intervention to focus on learning for the longer term. It shows how sustainable assessment can help bridge the gap between assessment and learning, and link to ideas such as self-regulation, students’ making judgements about their own work and course-wide assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I use the case of the marketisation of higher education in England to contribute to the growing interest in placing markets, and processes of market making, more centrally within economic geographical research agendas. In particular, my argument focuses on the spatiality of marketisation through the specific case of the introduction of undergraduate student fees in England from 1998 onwards. I argue that the marketisation of English higher education has operated, implicitly at least, with a territorial logic in which students fees are justified through an assumption that the value of a degree from an English university will arise from graduate salary premiums in domestic graduate labour markets. However, I demonstrate how English higher education overflows this territorial framing through the internationalisation of student choice and graduate labour markets in ways that challenge the marketisation process itself. This analysis reveals the hitherto comparatively neglected role of extra-territorial relations in marketisation and the importance of these geographies for the future marketisation of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the educational and migrational pathways which a number of middle-class women from Bangladesh took as they grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. It draws on qualitative research, conducted between July and November 2011, with highly educated Bangladeshi women who migrated to Britain in the early 2000s. French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's critique of education, as a means of middle-class social reproduction [Bourdieu, P., and Jean-C. Passeron. ([1977] 1990).Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. 2nd ed. Translated from the French by Richard Nice. London: Sage], and his notion of ‘academic capital’ [Bourdieu, P. 1984.Distinction: A social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated from the French by Richard Nice. London: Routledge; Bourdieu, P. 1986. “The Forms of Capital.” InHandbook of Theory and Research For the Sociology of Education, edited by J. G. Richardson, 241–258. New York: Greenwood] are applied to this empirical data. While the participants’ experiences of early education confirms Bourdieu's arguments, in terms of the centrality of the family's educational and cultural capital in making a qualitative difference to their children's academic achievements, the analysis of the participants’ higher education complicates this picture. Here, the paper calls Bourdieu's umbrella term ‘academic capital’ into question. The author suggests that three categories of academic capital were needed to explain the different and unequal ‘value’ of the participants’ academic qualifications before and after migration. These are – elite, standard and general. Through this exploration of these women's educational and migrational pathways, and the classed and gendered nature which many of them took, this paper seeks to further the feminist project of making Bourdieu's theories ‘useful’ in understanding contemporary issues which affect women's lives (Adkins, L. 2004. “Introduction.” InFeminism After Bourdieu, edited by L. Adkins and B. Skeggs, 110–128. Oxford: Blackwell, 3). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Demands for enhanced quality and quality control in higher education, such as those contained in the 1987 White Paper, often involve increased stress on validation. This emphasis on a peculiarly British system of peer review of courses suggests that an examination of some of the qualities of validation may be helpful in ensuring that it continues to achieve the ends expected of it. The structure of validation generally requires action at course (or department), faculty and institutional levels. Validation can operate in at least three modes: initial approval of new courses, regular monitoring of performance and intermittent but more intensive inspections of course organisation and achievement. In all three modes the basic structures function in a way that uses specific inputs, processes and outputs. Amongst the inputs are admissions, resources, staffing and curricula. The processes involve such feedback mechanisms as continuous assessment together with staff development. Training in validation skills is but rarely provided. Outputs are reviewed through final examinations, the external examiner system and outside visitations. The question which arises is whether this system is an adequate form of quality control. The conclusion is that, while it has certain methodological weaknesses, validation is a legitimate and defensible tool. But, if it is to succeed in new circumstances, more thought about its qualities and the means of developing them is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]