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University of Canterbury, as an institution, had developed strong educational resilience during and after the 2010–11 earthquakes. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand shut down all university educational facilities in March 2020, with education migrated online. Within this unique context, this research aims to (1) investigate civil engineering students' perceptions about the benefits and challenges of online learning during the lockdown period, (2) identify significant factors that contribute to effective online teaching and learning, and (3) provide the implications of this research for future emergency remote teaching (ERT). A survey was designed and administered to measure students' perceptions of online learning during the lockdown. A total of 192 completed responses were collected from both undergraduate and Master civil engineering students. In addition to typical online learning challenges, students also experienced unique challenges, such as social and emotional isolation, anxiety, depression, and uncertainty. This paper suggests that teaching presence be brought to the forefront of ERT. Future research directions were recommended to better understand ERT by linking it to the Community of Inquiry framework and enhance tertiary education institutions' resilience to handle a future crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents student perceptions of higher education science and engineering learning communities derived from a cross-case analysis of four case studies across the New Zealand university and polytechnic sectors. Here we explore student expectations and experiences of the higher education sector and canvas their views as to the infrastructure and resources in their institutions of study, and how they see their learning serves their careers' aims. Student perceptions of pedagogies employed in their institutions along with their preferred pedagogies follows, including staff-student interactions and consideration of the importance of practical skill development. The paper finishes by considering student perceptions of support structures and an analysis of their understanding of aspects of the nature of science (NoS) and engineering. The research findings suggest the students feel they become more independent and responsible for their own learning, enjoy smaller class sizes and interactive learning activities such as practical work and tutorials, and they stressed the importance of establishing good relationships with their teachers. Polytechnic students were more positive about their learning and felt the practice features of their learning led to enhanced career prospects. Students from university and polytechnic sectors were aware of formal learning support structures but only used them as a last resort, instead they first worked with peers and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The release of the 2014 REF results in the UK is a timely reminder that many national governments have aimed to increase the research productivity of universities, by introducing performance-based research systems. This paper examines whether there is a relationship between attitudes to these research systems and research productivity, using interview data from three universities in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It concludes that attitudes are not strongly related to productivity, and that only a better understanding of system limitations will help to improve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents research on the returns to tertiary education for individuals who graduated between 1997 and 2008 with bachelor degrees from universities and polytechnics in New Zealand based on their experiences post study. It examines data on their post-study earnings drawn from two longitudinal datasets linking administrative data on individuals' tertiary education records to their earnings. An advantage of this research is that it reports on differences in the earnings of those who studied in specific fields of study at polytechnics and universities. The data are used to help shed light on the importance of reputational capital in reproducing social classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents staff perceptions of higher education science and engineering learning communities derived from a cross-case analysis of four case studies across the New Zealand university and polytechnic sectors. First we report staff expectations and experiences in terms of infrastructure and resources, and their own careers. Staff perceptions of the diversity and differences in learning styles of their students are next, followed by the importance of practical skill development, pedagogies employed and their rationale, along with scaffolding and supporting of learning. The paper concludes by considering the nature of science (NoS) and engineering, and what messages about the NoS are presented by higher education staff. The research findings suggest that staff face conflicting demands on their time, with requirements for research and administration affecting their teaching roles. Lecturers report considerable diversity and students often ill-prepared for higher education study, and consider that students are required to learn a huge amount of information. While some staff attended courses in teaching, they feel unable to apply their learning in order to enhance student learning because of concerns that time spent doing so would reduce the amount of time available to deliver content. Class sizes were identified as having considerable impact on student learning and lectures offer little opportunity for active student engagement. Practical classes are highly valued, being seen as crucial for learning practical techniques and problem-solving. Small classes and practical classes provide opportunities to develop good working relationships with students. Lecturers felt that students need to become more independent and self-reliant in their learning, and that they needed to be supported in this process at the institutional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether it is possible to isolate independent effects of external quality audit (EQA) and concludes that effectiveness evaluations have a stronger foundation when the combined effects of university governance and management initiatives and government initiatives are examined together with EQA. The issue of how successful these influences are is addressed in relation to changing the processes of a university in enhancing learning outcomes, teaching and research outputs. The paper looks at the subject of how to measure quality and whether there is value in the use of a research‐led, evidence‐based approach. Through a case study the authors seek to identify the impact EQAs have had on one institution, the University of Otago, in New Zealand, over the past 10 years, as an illustrative example of what is occurring nationally, with relevance to the global level. The authors have developed a model which contextualises the role of external and internal influences in university performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the socio-economic and ethnic origins of students attending university in New Zealand and examines the effects of these origins on academic performance and progress. A broad conclusion is that social and ethnic origins have a very significant effect on the likelihood of students entering university, but it is only ethnic origin which bears any relation to academic performance once students have made the decision to attend. Based on case-study interviews, the paper suggests that parental influence is the major positive force in students' decisions to enter university. Even in a relatively classless society social origins still exert a powerful influence on educational aspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If any engineering courses are unlikely to be transferable between Australasian and overseas universities, one could argue that civil engineering capstone design courses with a strong practical engineering focus would be the least likely. This analysis considers two capstone design courses in the US and New Zealand. The analysis examines the approaches each university has taken to improve design education through simulating professional practice. The two approaches are superficially very different with different course structure and course requirements. In addition the emphasis on site and project, and the consequent dependence on country-specific matters related to regulation and codes, would lead one to expect low transferability. Closer analysis shows that the learning objectives of the courses are relatively similar and that the relationship between site and design are key for both. The challenges faced by the two approaches have much in common, reflecting similar student experiences, and so high transferability. The paper provides details on learning objectives and challenges faced at the two programs to aid others who wish to analyse capstone design experiences across multiple universities. The conclusion is that transferability between these two design experiences is high. The implication is that, through similar forces for educational change in both countries, internationalisation of engineering education is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teaching in Higher Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses several papers published within the issue including one on the challenges for higher education in Japan of global neoliberalism, another regarding the issues surrounding Chinese higher education and a paper on the relationship between neoliberal globalisation and New Zealand universities.

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

For the past 30 years, beginning with the seminal work of Herbert Marsh in Australia and New Zealand, institutions of higher education have developed internal practices and procedures to collect and analyse student evaluations of teaching and learning. However, the question remains: has this development resulted in the achievement of institutional goals that maximise learning across all teaching contexts? As is the case in many other countries, a recent review of Australian national student evaluation data failed to conclude that student evaluations have improved overall teaching. However, these data have made student perceptions of teaching and learning more salient in the minds of tertiary educators. Certainly, teaching staff are aware of the impacts of student evaluations on informed decision-making, such as the continuation or discontinuation of courses, and on their promotion processes. This paper will review student evaluation practices according to criteria used in change theories, such as the transtheoretical change model (TTM). TTM construes organisational change as a process involving progress through a series of five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. This paper will focus on organisational and behavioural outcomes that can be linked to the use of student data. It will recommend strategies for better aligning evaluation results to the stages of change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Students are considered to be the main 'customers' in universities and polytechnics and increasingly they seek to have their needs met. This is one of the main reasons for persistent calls for the improvement of teaching in higher education. Tutors play an important role in the delivery of undergraduate education, although they are often perceived as a 'neglected' or 'invisible' group. This paper assesses students' perceptions of tutors and the factors that contribute to their learning in a New Zealand university. Survey questionnaires were administered to management students at the end of their course, to gather information on their perceptions of tutor effectiveness and to reflect on their overall tutorial experiences. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken of the data collected. The results supported the initial hypotheses that the learning environment, positive and constructive feedback and stimulating tutorials improve student learning and lead to higher levels of student satisfaction with their learning experiences at university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a major national study of higher education science and engineering learning communities in New Zealand. The scope of the research project along with a description of the methodology and method used in the study together with rationale for the study and research approach adopted are provided here. Details of the theoretical framework and a discussion of paradigm that underpinned the study are presented. A discussion of issues of reliability and validity and measures taken to maximize these also is presented. The paper begins with an overview of the New Zealand compulsory education sector and traces the now multitudinous pathways into higher education nationally. It thus provides a valuable context for this national study of higher education science and engineering learning communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two earlier papers in this special issue detail staff and student perceptions of their higher education science and engineering learning communities for the New Zealand university and polytechnic sectors (Campbell et al. 2008; Cronje and Coll 2008). These findings suggest the students in these communities gradually come to share some of the views and values of the learning community as a whole; we can argue they become gradually enculturated into this learning community. The extent to which this happens, how it happens and the implications are considered here. The research findings suggest students are rapidly enculturated into their higher education learning communities and quickly take on board the culture developed by lecturers and tutors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets the scene for this special issue of Research in Science & Technological Education, dedicated to understanding higher education science and engineering learning communities. We examine what the literature has to say about the nature of, and factors influencing, higher education learning communities. A discussion of issues in, and synthesis of, research into higher education learning communities completes the paper. This paper clearly identifies a need to better understand higher education learning communities: their nature, influential factors and forces that shape our higher education learning communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little research on care in higher education, and yet for many of those who teach in higher education institutions, care is an important part of their work. Care in the compulsory education sector has traditionally been linked to the feminine, and this paper considers whether this is also the case in higher education. It investigates how care is conceptualised and gendered in the literature and in narratives of teaching staff from New Zealand universities. It finds that there is much more to care than traditional models offer, and shows how this complexity of care challenges gendered stereotypes. It concludes that a broader understanding of care can help break the link to the feminine and acknowledge the value of care in higher education and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, centralised systems of student evaluation have become normative practice in higher education institutions, providing data for monitoring teaching quality and for teacher professional development. While extensive research has been done on student evaluations, there is less research-based evidence about teachers’ perceptions of and engagement with student evaluations, the focus of the research reported in this paper. An interpretive approach framed the study in which data were gathered through questionnaire and interview responses from teaching staff at three New Zealand tertiary institutions. Results highlighted the general acceptance of the notion of student evaluations, recurring ideas about the limitations of evaluations and significant gaps in the way academics engage with student evaluation feedback. Recommendations for enhancing teacher engagement with student evaluation are made to optimise the potential for student evaluations to inform teaching development and to improve students’ learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a model of practice for analysing the internationalisation of higher education, and for better providing teaching service and support to both the internal and external other. It is derived from the theoretical analysis of the rationales, concepts and developments of the internationalisation of higher education, and from a New Zealand case study that exemplifies the current trend in the internationalisation of higher education-a shift from aid to trade. In the paper, the author examines the impacts of globalisation and the knowledge economy on the shifting currency of the rationales. The paper concludes that, because of increasing numbers of resident immigrant students, 'the international (other)' is no longer beyond national borders but is within them. Therefore, universities would do well to revisit neglected social and cultural dimensions in the provision of higher education services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Performance-Based Research Fund introduces research assessment and links this with the state funding of institutions of higher education in New Zealand. There has been considerable support from the university sector for this initiative in the belief that it will divert funding from polytechnics and other tertiary education organisations. This sectoral support borrows a thirdway rhetoric of rewarding excellence also used by Government, but becomes problematic at the point where institutional shares are determined. The paper explores how a rhetoric of rewarding excellence in research is subordinated to a new mangerialist thrust for efficiency and greater productivity from academics. The methodology of the Performance-Based Research Fund is analysed as providing an imperfect local driver for the global phenomenon of new managerialism in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy analysis studies conducted in various countries have highlighted strengths and weaknesses in university academic integrity policy documents that outline expectations for student conduct while undertaking scholarly work. Missing from the literature is a review of such policies currently in place at the eight public universities in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using publicly accessible documents from each university, this study conducted a content analysis based on five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policies: access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support. Results revealed that the majority of universities had policies built on principles that aligned with both educative and punitive approaches to academic integrity. While most institutions presented detailed policies, the documents showed room for improvement with regard to access and support. The study offers suggestions for enhancing the academic integrity policies of Aotearoa New Zealand universities and calls for continued internal review and revision as one step towards an improved culture of academic integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research reported here follows previous articles in this special issue which detail a national study involving a team of researchers across four higher education institutions in New Zealand. A key theme that emerged from a collection of questionnaire, interview and observational data was the central importance of teacher-student and student-student relationships, as part of the learning communities. Both teachers and students highlighted the value of developing a personal dimension to their relationships that engendered a greater sense of access and loyalty to that community. Contextual factors such as approachability of teachers, class size and teaching environment appeared to be important to relationship building and enculturation in higher education science and engineering learning communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attends to the affective-political dimensions of doctoral aspiration. It considers why doctoral students continue to hope for an ‘academic good life’ in spite of the depressed and precarious features of the academic present. The article emerges from 2013 research with ten doctoral students in the Arts and Social Sciences, at a research-intensive university in Aotearoa New Zealand, and accomplishes two primary objectives. Firstly, it contributes to scholarship that considers how visual methodologies might inform accounts of contemporary doctoral education. And secondly, it extends queer theorizing of affect in higher education studies, with the goal of understanding how doctoral aspiration might be reimagined through an engagement with Lauren Berlant’s ‘Cruel Optimism’ (2011). I propose that Berlant’s analytic framework helps to explain why students retain attachments to even problematic objects, like PhDs. I conclude the article by tarrying with the question of what to do about doctoral aspiration now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘New’ vocational disciplines often struggle for acceptance in the academy. The marginalising of these disciplines impacts on their teaching and learning environment often to the detriment of staff and students. This study focuses both on the role academic writing plays in this marginalisation and how the teaching of such writing is affected by the positioning of these disciplines. Using semi-structured interviews the perceptions of 27 lecturers teaching postgraduate hospitality programmes in the UK were explored. While lecturers expressed concern that traditional academic writing requirements do not serve the best interests of the discipline or the students, they feel they are powerless to make changes to improve the situation. The academic enculturation process appears to be a one-sided affair, where the discipline adopts practices simply because they are part of long-standing academic traditions and not because they serve the needs of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Improving student retention and academic performance is a key objective for higher education institutions, and finding effective interventions for assisting with at-risk students is therefore important. In this article, we evaluate a proactive pastoral care intervention that was trialled in an introductory economics course in New Zealand. We first identified students at high risk of failure, and then randomized these students into two treatment groups and a control group. The first treatment group received an email with information about academic support, while the second treatment group received the email as well as a personal telephone call to follow-up. In evaluating the impact of the intervention trial, we found that the first intervention did not significantly improve student outcomes, but the second intervention improved outcomes in one of the two semesters evaluated. Overall, the initiative was a qualified success. It is both simple and cost-effective and should be considered for wider implementation and further evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Māori, the indigenous population of New Zealand, are gaining university qualifications in greater numbers. This article describes the history of Māori university graduates, their current situation and the implications for indigenous futures. Section one provides a brief overview of historical policies and practices that, similar to those used on other indigenous populations, resulted in the widespread exclusion of Māori from university education until the 1970s and 1980s. Section two describes findings for Māori university graduates (n = 626) from the Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand (GLSNZ). Results show that nearly half (48.4%) were the first member of their immediate family to attend university. Humanities/education (50.8%) was the most common domain of study followed by commerce (17.7%), science/engineering (15.4%), health sciences (10.9%), law (2.8%) and PhD study (2.4%). More Māori graduates were females (71%). One-third of graduates were parents, and being a parent was associated with a lower likelihood of studying science and engineering compared to those participants without children. The most common areas/fields that participants wished to work in post-graduation were education and training (28.3%), health care and medical (17.4%) and government (11.8%). Despite increases in higher education participation and completion, parity remains an issue. Similar to previous indigenous research findings, Māori are under-represented as graduates (7.1% of the total sample) and in particular as postgraduates (5.8%) considering that Māori constitute 14.9% of the New Zealand population. Contemporary indigenous graduates are critical for indigenous development. Over the next 10 years, the GLSNZ will follow graduates and provide insights into Māori graduate outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A body of literature asserts that group work can be beneficial in enhancing learning and in developing specific skills among students. This research builds on the literature and on Gardner’s (2006a) five notions of mindsets: disciplined, synthesising, creation, ethical and respectful, as a descriptive framework to explore and understand the benefits and skills learnt or developed through group work. Gardner describes mindset as a way of thinking and acting. A qualitative research project was undertaken in a New Zealand university using in-depth interviews with post-experience students. The findings suggest that, though the post-experience students do possess skills that enabled them to integrate diverse perspectives, make new connections with shared knowledge and evaluate critically, they often lack specific mindsets that are critical in organisations that rely on group work to enhance their productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report the development and piloting of an evaluative instrument and process for monitoring the environmental literacy (EL) of undergraduate students in one large research-led university in New Zealand. The instrument addresses knowledge, affect and competencies in the general area of EL in line with this institution’s adoption of EL as a graduate attribute (or in a US context, a general-education learning outcome, and something to be fostered throughout a student’s education). The instrument and associated processes were designed to fit within conventional institutional mechanisms that manage student feedback on the quality of teaching. The instrument was tested with more than 600 students from more than eight programmes over the course of a year and its use stressed that students were anonymous within the survey. We conclude that evaluating (or in a US context, assessing) the extent to which students acquire EL is an achievable objective and is a reasonable expectation for any higher education institution that claims to foster this attribute. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Internationally, quality assurance schemes persist despite long-standing dissatisfaction and critique of their impact and outcomes. Adopting a critical systems perspective, the article explores the relationships between the knowledge, power and meanings that stakeholder groups bring to the design and implementation of quality assurance systems. The analysis shows that such systems are designed to serve the external accountability purposes of government and agencies outside the university who are responsible for designing the systems. Academics inside the university are affected by quality assurance systems but uninvolved in their design. The knowledge and power distance and differences of meaning between the system designers and academics result in quality assurance systems that are unable to contribute to the improvement of teaching and research in the university. The article proposes interconnected but clearly differentiated definitions of quality assurance and quality improvement that can inform systems design aimed at more than meeting external accountability demands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A significant body of work has emerged over the last 10 years investigating the experiences of international university students. These studies have covered various challenges faced by some groups of international students relating to culture, language and integration and have been prompted by the increase in international students studying in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. A smaller strand of research has also begun to focus on the experiences, perspectives and reactions of academic staff who have seen the composition of their cohorts change substantially over recent years in terms of numbers of international participants. This article reviews relevant literature in this field, reporting on a questionnaire study based at two UK post-92 universities. Respondents associated a range of traits with international students and suggested that the increasing number of international students enhanced the environment, but also required a higher level of support. This study also found that staff resorted to informal methods when developing means of adapting their practices to the increasing number of international students, preferring discussion with colleagues and students themselves to formal development programmes or advice from specialist departments such as student support. The article concludes that in order to encourage diversity in a meaningful way, universities need to recognise the challenge of increased numbers of international students and support staff accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the research findings on the nature of learning communities for science and engineering higher education students and staff in New Zealand. The research focuses on the involvement of lecturers and tutors who were part of the teaching staff in New Zealand's higher education. Several problems of university lecturers on students are presented such as student ill-preparedness and practical classes instead of lectures. University students believe that being independent and responsible are needed to survive in these learning institutions. Teacher-student and student-student relationships was important factor in the learning process. Relationship building in these learning communities facilitated student enculturation.

The research literature on student retention is voluminous and longstanding. However, a unified theory of retention remains elusive; instead a variety of explanations and approaches have been developed. This article uses two discourses, integration and adaptation, to make sense of the findings from a survey of teachers who taught students enrolled for the first time in seven tertiary institutions in New Zealand. While the article reports results from the survey, it focuses particularly on how tertiary teachers understand diversity; whether and how they accommodate diversity in their teaching. It offers some critical reflections on these teachers' views about diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership often becomes a topic of analysis when discussing challenges faced by higher education in an increasingly accountability-driven world. This article examines leadership practices in one New Zealand higher education context. Rather than examining the traits and practices of strong leaders, however, it explores the effectiveness of a community-centred distributive approach to leadership. It asks what role distributive leadership might play in higher education today and how effective it might be in preserving collegial cultures. The article first theorizes distributive leadership and associated concepts such as accountability, activity systems and power. Then, using a critically reflexive process, it presents three vignettes in a case study of distributive leadership in practice to assess its effectiveness in maintaining collegiality. Finally, in the article, I tentatively answer the research question by discussing how distributive leadership might mitigate the effects of an accountability-driven higher education world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses current educational reform documents pertaining to the role, nature and scope of tertiary education in New Zealand. The argument posited here is that these reform proposals, while signaling a welcome paradigm shift in the values that underpin higher education policy, risk marginalizing the notion and the pursuit of higher learning in the university sector. This claim is based on an analysis of how teaching in higher education is conceptualized in the reform documents, the import and status given to such an ideal, and how its realization is provided for in the practical implications of the espoused policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]