Search

The current UK university system is based on the traditional home-university model of transition that has customarily seen students moving away from home to study for their degree. However, within the current massified and marketised conditions of higher education the number of students choosing to commute to study whilst living at home is increasing annually. This may be driven by a number of pressures, including the costs of university life, part-time work, family responsibilities and/or personal confidence. \ud Whilst commuting to study may be a financially rational decision that provides commuter students with a different way of attending to meet their distinctive learning needs, research suggests that commuter students may also experience emotional and social challenges that may influence their personal and professional development, which in turn may impact on their ability to access and contribute to graduate employment. \ud This paper explores the potential benefits and challenges experienced by commuter students and suggests that their personal circumstances and the tensions between home and university life may influence the likelihood of, and their ability to, develop personally and professionally in the way that graduate employers expect and desire. Consequently, commuter students may secure fewer graduate roles than their peers opting for the traditional home-university model of transition and employers may miss good candidates who possess the different but equally valuable employment skills and experience that commuter students are able to offer. This paper may be of interest to universities, current undergraduates and potential employers seeking the personal and professional development of future graduate employees.

The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonishing events or facts — that may await HRD. Participants were asked to identify an HRD issue for the future and then pose questions that placed surprise up front and that could indicate a vulnerability for HRD. Two scenarios are developed for the year 2028 and events leading to this year. In the first, S1, human behaviour within organizations is defined by machines and machines prescribe why, what and where work is needed, who does it, when, and how work is done. Thus programmes of learning are pre-determined by machines. In the second, S2, aritificial intelligence proves to be incapable of adapting to the extreme events of solar activity affecting satellites and internet communications globally. HRD rebuilds trust in the collective human ability to work together collaboratively to restore a team ethic and rebuild. The scenarios are discussed and a recommendation is made for HRD research to consider the direction and value of their work and how progress in academic life might be reconstituted to allow more attention to be given to key areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonishing events or facts — that may await HRD. Participants were asked to identify an HRD issue for the future and then pose questions that placed surprise up front and that could indicate a vulnerability for HRD. Two scenarios are developed for the year 2028 and events leading to this year. In the first, S1, human behaviour within organizations is defined by machines and machines prescribe why, what and where work is needed, who does it, when, and how work is done. Thus programmes of learning are pre-determined by machines. In the second, S2, aritificial intelligence proves to be incapable of adapting to the extreme events of solar activity affecting satellites and internet communications globally. HRD rebuilds trust in the collective human ability to work together collaboratively to restore a team ethic and rebuild. The scenarios are discussed and a recommendation is made for HRD research to consider the direction and value of their work and how progress in academic life might be reconstituted to allow more attention to be given to key areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Purpose: to consider and evaluate the student and supervisor experience of doctoral supervision (dyadic and triadic) and specifically the value of using coaching and mentoring approaches (process and relationship) in supervisory practice.\ud Design/methodology/approach: phase one is a mixed methods study exploring the use of coaching and mentoring in doctoral supervision on traditional and taught doctoral programmes in one UK university business school. The focus is on developing a conceptual model for doctoral supervisory practice for the transfer of learning and the improvement of practice. Phase two will be a collaborative action research study in a range of UK university business schools to use, reflect on and refine the conceptual model of supervision.\ud Findings: the initial findings from phase one will be reported on at the conference presentation.\ud Research limitations/implications: we have tentative agreements from four UK university business schools for phase two (subject to ethics approval).\ud Practical implications: students and supervisors participating in the research will benefit from having the opportunity to review and improve their practice; the participating business schools will have the opportunity to review and potentially revise their doctoral student and supervisor training; and a business school’s reputation for high quality doctoral supervision could be enhanced.\ud Social implications: could potentially benefit numerous future students and supervisors across a wide range of UK university business schools.\ud Originality/value: there does not appear to be any previously published research on the use of coaching and mentoring in doctoral supervision in UK university business schools for the transfer of learning and improvement of practice.

Previous research into professional identity has argued that training institutions shape professional \ud formation. This research focuses on professionals who have undertaken a work based approach and \ud explores the interrelationship between practitioners’ own narrative of professional identity and that \ud encoded within the narrative of the standards of a professional HR/HRD body. The findings begin to \ud question the traditional understanding of the inter-relationship between the narrative of the professional \ud body and individual HR/HRD practitioner narratives of identity suggesting that neither the professional \ud body nor the mainstream educational institution are the major players in the development of professional \ud identity.

Recently students have increasingly chosen to live at home whilst studying; over 25% of UK undergraduates (440,000) are now “commuter students”. It is widely accepted that commuter students obtain poorer outcomes and academic experiences than their campus-based peers. This roundtable discussion explores challenges faced by commuter students’ and seeks to establish and share recommendations to enhance academic experiences and outcomes.

This paper explores the experiences of senior HRM/D managers and strategic line\ud managers who have engaged with a Work Based Learning (WBL) programme, and\ud builds on earlier work by Nichol and Williams (2012) who explored the professional\ud identity of HR/HRD practitioners. The paper seeks to understand the personal\ud impact of this combination of work place yet externally derived learning process on\ud self-identity since this will have lessons for the learners, for the organisation, and for\ud providers of such programmes. The basis of this qualitative, interpretive, paper is a\ud series of one-to-one semi-structured interviews with senior practitioners from across\ud the public, private and not-for-profit spectrum. Analysis and interpretation are guided\ud equally by themes arising from the data and by a priori knowledge of existing\ud theoretical frameworks. The concepts of self-identity operate at multiple levels, which\ud Lord and Brown (2004) refer to as the Individual, Interpersonal and Collective levels\ud of our ‘Working Self Concept (WSC)’. Their model demonstrated how successful\ud leadership processes occur indirectly through follower self-identities, and this current\ud research adapts that model to argue that the WBL process similarly needs to align\ud with participants’ self-identity in order to ensure success. There is evidence of\ud positive impacts on self-views at all levels with affective and behavioural changes\ud that enhanced performance as a result of engagement in WBL. Increased\ud confidence in their own value to their respective organisations, and improved belief\ud in the legitimacy of their accumulated knowledge skills and experience enabled them\ud to further contribute to organisational goals.

Purpose\ud The aim of the study is to explore the role of confluent learning in supporting the development of change management knowledge, skills and attitudes and to inform the creation of a conceptual model based upon a priori and a posteriori knowledge gained from literature and the research.\ud \ud Design/methodology/approach\ud The research adopts qualitative approach based on reflective inquiry methodology. There are two primary data sources, interviews with learners and the researchers’ reflective journals on learners’ opinions.\ud \ud Findings\ud The confluent learning approach helped to stimulate affective states (e.g. interest and appreciation) to further reinforce cognitive gains (e.g. retention of knowledge) as a number of higher order thinking skills were further developed. The instructional design premised upon confluent learning enabled learners to further appreciate the complexities of change management.\ud \ud Research implications/ limitations\ud The confluent learning approach offers another explanation to how learning takes place, contingent upon the use of a problem solving framework, instructional design and active learning in developing inter- and trans-disciplinary competencies.\ud \ud Practical implications\ud This study not only explains how effective learning takes place but is also instructive to learning and teaching, and human resource development (HRD) professionals in curriculum design and the potential benefits of confluent learning.\ud \ud Social implications\ud The adoption of a confluent learning approach helps to re-naturalise learning that appeals to learners affect. \ud \ud Originality/value\ud This research is one of the few studies that provide an in-depth exploration of the use of confluent learning and how this approach co-develops cognitive abilities and affective capacity in the creation of a conceptual model.

This working paper is the second in a series of working papers presenting the on-going findings from a longitudinal research project grounded in exploring the experience of doctoral supervision and developing practice. In the first paper and phase one of this research study, Cook, Nichol and Loon (2014) explored the existing context for doctoral supervision and, drawing from literature on the problematic nature of doctoral supervision and coaching and mentoring, considered the value of drawing on coaching and mentoring models in formulating alternative paradigms for doctoral supervision. This paper reports the findings of phase one, a mixed methods study of experiences of doctoral supervision with supervisors and students in one UK university business school, from which the Collaborative Action Doctoral Supervision conceptual model emerged. The paper also introduces phase two, a collaborative action research study with doctoral supervisors and students who are applying, reflecting on and developing further this doctoral supervision model. We are aiming to answer the question of whether the use of coaching and mentoring in doctoral supervision enables the transfer and sustainability of learning from the doctoral supervision session to outside the experience and improves the quality. Is the doctoral supervisor coach, mentor or master?\ud \ud Key words\ud Doctoral supervision, coaching, mentoring, collaborative action research.

This paper explores the experiences of senior HRM/D managers and strategic line managers who have engaged with a Work Based Learning (WBL) programme, and builds on earlier work by Nichol and Williams (2012) who explored the professional identity of HR/HRD practitioners. The paper seeks to understand the personal impact of this combination of work place yet externally derived learning process on self-identity since this will have lessons for the learners, for the organisation, and for providers of such programmes. The basis of this qualitative, interpretive, paper is a series of one-to-one semi-structured interviews with senior practitioners from across the public, private and not-for-profit spectrum. Analysis and interpretation are guided equally by themes arising from the data and by a priori knowledge of existing theoretical frameworks. The concepts of self-identity operate at multiple levels, which Lord and Brown (2004) refer to as the Individual, Interpersonal and Collective levels of our ‘Working Self Concept (WSC)’. Their model demonstrated how successful leadership processes occur indirectly through follower self-identities, and this current research adapts that model to argue that the WBL process similarly needs to align with participants’ self-identity in order to ensure success. There is evidence of positive impacts on self-views at all levels with affective and behavioural changes that enhanced performance as a result of engagement in WBL. Increased confidence in their own value to their respective organisations, and improved belief in the legitimacy of their accumulated knowledge skills and experience enabled them to further contribute to organisational goals.

Measures of impact of Higher Education have often neglected the Chinese student view, despite the importance of these students to the UK and Chinese economy. This research paper details the findings of a quantitative survey that was purposively distributed to Chinese graduates who enrolled at the University of Worcester on the Business Management degree between 2004-2011 (n=49). Analysis has been conducted on their skill development throughout their degree, their skill usage in different employment contexts, the value of their degree, and gender differences in skill development and usage. Discrepancies between skill development and usage, between males and females, and with previous research findings are discussed. Future research directions are also specified.