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A capacity-building programme between a veterinary school in the UK and the veterinary school in Sri Lanka was developed. Scholarships for two distance learning MSc programmes were offered to Sri Lankan veterinarians: 'Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health' and 'Livestock Health and Production'. In addition, scholarships were offered to academic staff members at the veterinary school to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate in Veterinary Education. A blended learning approach was taken, though the majority of learning was by distance. This study used a case-study approach to assess the programmes' impact at different levels: individual, institutional, institution's students, the profession, the public and animals. Previous students were interviewed and current students participated in a focus group. Staff of the Sri Lankan university were interviewed. Data were transcribed and qualitative content analysis conducted. Participants had achieved personal satisfaction, gained new knowledge and skills and progressed professionally. These impacts translated to societal impacts including disseminating understanding of One Health, improving animal welfare laws and assisting the development of the undergraduate veterinary curriculum. The graduates from the blended learning programmes are experts at the centre of a new community of practice and have the ability to inspire future generations of Sri Lankan veterinary surgeons.

Serious gaps are found when evaluating the recognition and inclusion of gender aspects in transport strategies, research and innovation. Similar issues can be spotted in the transport labor market, where only 22% of workers are women at the European level. The roots of these limitations are in the low participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) studies and, therefore, in the traditionally male-dominated transport field occupations. Stemming from the European project TInnGO, the current paper proposes a descriptive analysis to evaluate the gender gaps in educational provision and research in ten European countries. Specific indicators, such as percentages in the gender composition or the presence of university courses dealing with mobility and transport, have been defined and their availability in different countries is verified. In addition, a desktop review of practices for encouraging and supporting women in STEM studies is operated, underling characteristics such as the kind of initiative, the methods and tools used, the target group or the type of promoter. The results of this activity show that a wide network of associations and mentoring operates in various European nations, mostly targeting secondary school students, trying to make females aware of their potentialities in a deeply gender-biased field like the STEM one.

Education holds promise as a vehicle for sustainable global development and human capacity development, as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. International education has become a prominent feature in contemporary times on the educational landscape as students become increasingly mobile in pursuit of their right to education. This study investigates the key factors that motivate international students to undertake better quality education at higher education (university) level, particularly in Europe, and the underlying gender preferences for study destinations within the framework of push-pull factors. The study collected responses of 288 individuals from 84 countries who had undertaken some form of education in Europe through the European Commission-funded Erasmus Mundus (EM) Scholarship. Responses were collected through an online platform, Survey Monkey. Outcomes of the study revealed that Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands, and Spain are the most popular destinations for pursuing higher education in Europe. The United Kingdom is the most preferred destination for female students while Germany is the most preferred destination for male students, with slight changes for other countries. Key motivating factors for international education were found to be scholarship opportunity, better quality of education, and availability of the relevant study program. The least influencing factors were found to be the commonality of language, suitable environment (eg climate, temperature), geographical proximity, the scope of migration, and social cost.

Student drop-out in higher education is an increasingly important issue across Europe, but there are substantial disparities between countries and institutions which suggest that variations in policies and practices may influence student retention and success. Numerous schemes have been devised to increase student retention, frequently focusing on non-traditional groups. Retention efforts include scholarships and bursaries, enhanced monitoring and support measures, and specialist teams of staff or peer mentors. Theoretical understanding of the withdrawal of non-traditional students typically draws on social and cultural capital concepts (Bourdieu, 1986), which may have led to a rather deterministic approach to student success. Research with non-traditional students on two distinct but related projects at a UK university led us to consider the concept of resilience in helping to understand student retention and success. This paper discusses the concept of resilience and--drawing on our experiences of using a resilience framework for analysis of risk and protective factors in these two projects--considers how it might be of use in supporting student retention in the wider European context.

Aidan Chambers' "Breaktime" (1978) is famous for its unique narrative style and sexual content. This focus has obscured another significant aspect of the novel: the role of social class in "Breaktime" and Chambers' working-class background have rarely been explored. Chambers was an example of what Richard Hoggart calls "the scholarship boy," a working-class boy educated in a grammar school in mid-twentieth-century Britain. In this article, Haru Takiuchi argues that Chambers' scholarship-boy experiences are crucial for understanding "Breaktime." For his analysis of the cultural and psychological aspects of class that concern representations of scholarship boys in British children's literature of the 1960s and 1970s, he draws on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of class habitus, more focused studies of class in Britain and research into the experiences of scholarship boys. Using material from the author's archive supplemented with interviews, Haru Takiuchi highlights Chambers' unique representation of the scholarship boy and social class in the book.

This paper explores the impact of short immersive residentials at a radical institution for staff currently working in a mainstream one; in this instance, at Schumacher College for those at the nearby University of Plymouth (UK). Schumacher is an independent, alternative college offering residential courses in "transformative learning for sustainable living". Using a qualitative research design, we explore the potential of a University staff Scholarship Scheme partnering with Schumacher to catalyse change towards sustainability in the university's curriculum and pedagogy. Our findings suggest that whilst many of the scholarships realised their anticipated potential to effect change, there was no simple correlation between the scholars' learning and experience at Schumacher and their subsequent personal and professional change. However, since the Plymouth-Schumacher route offers a promising pathway to bring innovation and fresh ideas into thinking and practice, the paper also explores how the mainstream and the radical could interact to better effect, drawing on wider thinking on the principles, challenges and tensions of pursuing sustainability, partnership, institutional learning and change. (Contains 4 notes, 1 figure, and 2 tables.)

This article introduces the notion of the "educational franchise" of Australia's public universities established in the mid-nineteenth century. In his recently published study of the public university and social access in the United States, John Aubrey Douglass suggests that from the mid-nineteenth century a social contract was formed between American public universities and their social and political constituencies: institutions open to all who could qualify for admission, offering a relevant curriculum and related closely to public schools systems. The idea of the "public university" was not unique to North America. Across the Pacific, the settler societies of Australasia were creating public universities from 1850--a decade before the Morrill Act which provided the land grants for many public universities in the USA. The Australasian universities also emerged almost simultaneously with the establishment of secondary schools in each of the colonies. This article explores questions of social stratification, meritocracy, social class and gender with a strong focus on the interaction between universities and schools. The social contract in Australia was developed as a form of educational franchise first granted to urban males principally of middle-class background, but of diverse social and religious origins, and then increasingly extended to those in the emerging public school system, those of rural and regional background, and then to women. The main focus of the article is on the University of Sydney, Australia's first public university established in 1850. Drawing on an extensive student biographical database we have compiled, the article examines how the "educational franchise" operated in the colony of New South Wales in the period 1850-1890. (Contains 70 footnotes and 5 figures.)

This article details a mixed methods study conducted during the 2007-2008 academic year at the National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei Taiwan. It contributes to discourse examining the opportunities and challenges of international student enrollments in institutions of higher learning around the globe. In scope it details an empirical study exploring the dispositions of NCCU international students in terms of their academic and social spheres. Trends in Taiwan reflect traditional East Asian patterns; substantial numbers of university students from Taiwan studied in the United States and Britain while very few incoming international students chose the island nation as a host destination. In recent years the influx of international students to Taiwan has increased significantly, rising from 6,380 in 2001 to 21,005 in 2007 (Ko, http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/02/12/2003400913, 2008). The use of both quantitative and qualitative methods provided clarity and extended critical interpretations of the issues and dilemmas surrounding the international student experience in Taiwan. Results indicate that the capability of the NCCU as a host institution to sustain and attract increasing numbers of incoming international students is linked to factors such as the unique opportunity to study traditional as opposed to simplified Chinese characters, the availability and accessibility of Taiwan government sponsored scholarships, and the high standard of the NCCU Mandarin Studies program. Implications suggest that universities committed to internationalization are called to address the realities--both positive and negative--of operating as globally competitive institutions. As such, attracting the right kind of international students at the NCCU and determining standards for their contribution to campus life are more important goals than the total number of international students.

The UK government wishes to increase participation in higher education to 50%, with a key target group being students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds. At the same time, top-up fees have been introduced. Following the fierce parliamentary debates which threatened to derail the passage of the Higher Education Bill 2004, an amendment was introduced requiring universities to spend some fee income on bursaries, monitored by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). English universities now offer a bewildering array of bursaries and scholarships and benefits in kind worth some 350m pounds a year. Eligibility may depend on family income, exam performance or subjects studied. Student finance is made even more complicated to navigate by the choices to be made between student loans, commercial loans and earning by working, and difficulties understanding when and how these will be paid back. The failure of eligible individuals to claim income-related benefits they are entitled to has been a long-standing concern within social security policy. This article uses theory from the literature on benefit take-up to explore as a case study the probable effectiveness of the English student financial support system on increasing access to higher education. We conclude that despite OFFA's claims for it, the current system is unsatisfactory for attracting students from lower-income backgrounds, and suggest the implications for action for policy makers and managers.

These articles include such topics as: affirmative action and black student dropouts; declines in black faculty nationwide; the travails of a small black college; the first black woman to head a U.S. medical school; African American college athletes; black college Web sites; why early decision programs are bad for blacks; and Bob Jones University looks to recruit black students. (SM)

Examines the effect of the British educational scholarships created by the 1921 Corn Production Acts (Repeal). Points out that the act enabled sons and daughters of agricultural laborers to attend secondary schools in order to obtain agricultural education. Concludes that the scholarships helped the rural youth, the agricultural economy, and the educational community. (SLM)

There are longstanding concerns relating to clinical academic training pipelines, with evidence for multiple barriers and enablers to clinical academic career progression. We sought to assess the extent to which these and other factors apply to academic training in clinical oncology in the United Kingdom. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken using a bespoke, pre-piloted online electronic questionnaire that was distributed to clinical oncology specialty trainees and consultants who had at any point between January 2013–January 2024 commenced an academic post whilst in training. Collated information included demographic data, location and stage of training, research experience and ambitions, research skill confidence and academic career progression. Seventy eligible responses were included, representing 84% (n = 16/19) of UK training deaneries. Thirty-seven (53%) of the respondents had obtained their certificate of completion of training (CCT) whilst 11% (n = 8/70) and 40% (n = 28/70) were at specialty trainee level and respectively pre- or within-/post-doctoral studies. Of 34 post-CCT respondents, 58% (n = 20) had ongoing research commitments but this reached 30% of their overall activity for just 30% (n = 10). Barriers to academic progression included clinical training requirements, post availability and limited mentorship. Most (60%; n = 35/58) undertook doctoral studies in their final two training years. A majority of respondents lacked confidence in radiation oncology (RO) skills relevant to their career ambitions, with 60%, 40% and 30%, respectively, confident in RO clinical research outcome evaluation, in vitro radiation analyses and using RO animal models. These data provide a granular, long-term analysis of academic clinical oncology training at a national level; identifying poor progression to research independence underlined by limited confidence in RO research skills and multiple barriers to academic career progression. These data provide areas in which policy makers, research funders and training programmes can focus to improve academic training in clinical oncology. • Clinician scientists are vital to the continued development of radiation oncology. • This work explores viewpoints on clinical oncology clinical academic training. • There is poor progression to senior clinician scientist roles. • Clinical training, postgraduate exams and limited funding impact progression. • Even senior clinical academics lack confidence in key research skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the role of apprenticeships as a pathway to nursing careers and the associated ethical challenges and opportunities. Topics discussed include the evolution of apprenticeships, concerns about apprenticeships being seen as inferior to traditional nursing education, and the potential for apprenticeships to create a highly skilled and diverse nursing workforce.

Education-focused roles represent a large and rapidly increasing share of the academic workforce in UK higher education. This expansion has resulted in the emergence of dedicated career tracks running in parallel with established teaching and research routes. Role descriptors and promotion criteria for these roles typically require evidence of scholarship. Despite their establishment, academics on these tracks face considerable challenges in pursuit of career advancement due to the varied definitions and expected outputs from scholarship. This exploratory study analysed the role descriptors and promotion criteria of 48 mid-sized UK universities. The findings point to significant differences between the titling of roles on education-focused career pathways, definitions of scholarship, expectations in terms of impact and the relationship of scholarship vis-à-vis pedagogic research. These differences risk creating boundaried careers for those who pursue, education-focused roles, reinforcing notions of hierarchy in academic pathways within the Academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What’s happening in nursing across the globe [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clay Minerals Group (CMG), the first of the Special Interest Groups of the Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland, was inaugurated in January 1947. The CMG, together with its Belgian equivalent (originally the Comité Belge pour l'Etude des Argiles, later the Belgian Clay Group, now defunct), formed the world's first organizations dedicated to clay mineral research. The CMG celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022. The Group's aims are to stimulate interest in clay mineralogy, to facilitate an exchange of information between members by providing facilities for reading and discussing papers on research on clay minerals (and allied topics) and to expedite their publication and to encourage practical applications of such research, and these have remained reassuringly the same throughout its history. A founder and active member of both the European Clay Groups Association and the Association Internationale Pour L'Etude des Argiles, the CMG has promoted clay science through the publication of the highly regarded journal Clay Minerals and a series of influential book titles, organizing international and national scientific conferences and meetings, the George Brown Lecture series, providing bursaries and grants to assist researchers and hosting the Images of Clay archive. The initial and sustained success of the CMG has been largely due to the labours of many officers and committee members, some of whom have been recognized for their science and service with awards from the Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland and elsewhere. By maintaining this effort, the evident, continuing demand for clay mineral research to assist with changing societal needs should ensure the relevance and health of the CMG for the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long held that the emergence of the human resource management (HRM) as a science, has spelt the effective demise of the domain of industrial relations (IR). Likewise, (core) HRM has faced challenges to its academic legitimacy from the multiple adjoining domains of Critical HRM, Critical management studies and Strategic Human resource management. Through a mixed methods historiography, this study aims to demystify the paradigmatic developments and diffusions around this discourse. The Scopus database is used to systematically retrieve 293 peer-reviewed articles. These are subjected to bibliometrics and content analysis techniques. It is observed that the Critical HRM paradigm has lately become most impactful as concerns citation data, while IR has waned in influence by the same indicator. The USA and UK emerge as the two countries that are leading scholarship in the HRM discourse overall. An institutional theoretic explanation is offered for the paradigmatic diffusions observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent Continental European scholarship has identified a problematic Anglocentric bias running through the field of comparative plural policing studies. It has sought to counter this bias by emphasizing a series of divergent plural policing trajectories between the more market-friendly countries in the Anglosphere and the more state-centric countries in Continental Europe. While acknowledging the significance of this corrective, we argue that it tends to overemphasize the levels of divergence between these two regions. We substantiate this claim by examining the rise of the private security industry and its regulation by the state in the UK (representing the Anglosphere) and Belgium (representing Continental Europe). Interpreting historical and contemporary data through Sabatier and Weible's advocacy coalition framework, which focuses on the cut and thrust of democratic politics, we observe how in both countries this important dimension of the plural policing landscape is characterized not by counterposed market-friendly and state-centric trajectories, but rather by a complex mix of state–market interactions. In other words, the dynamics of private security regulation are more state-centric in the UK and more market-friendly in Belgium than recent Continental European scholarship suggests. Moreover, we illustrate how, under conditions of post-financial crisis austerity, the overarching pattern is, if anything, one of convergence towards a common set of political dynamics. This is an important finding that not only makes an original contribution towards private security regulation scholarship but also encourages us to question the nature of Anglocentric bias within comparative plural policing studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2022 a survey of the languages research community in the UK was undertaken, with 536 responses (150 PhD students, 386 post-PhD researchers), complemented by 29 interviews across all career stages, as part of a Future of Languages Research Fellowship funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This article reports findings from that survey, presenting data on research expertise, funding applications and successes, engagement with government and other stakeholders, and future directions and areas for development. Presenting the perspective of researchers themselves, our study adds to our understanding of the current state of languages research in UK Higher Education, complementing other sources including the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the British Academy & University Council of Modern Languages (UCML) 2022 report on trends in language learning in Higher Education, and providing useful data for international comparisons. The article concludes with recommendations for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal scholars in the United Kingdom (UK) rarely adopt a quantitative approach to addressing socio‐legal questions. Reasons for this are typically grounded in the nature of general education, legal education, and research training. In this article, we argue that an intellectual debate on capacity building needs to consider the conditions that have limited the production of quantitative work both within and beyond our discipline. This article draws on an empirical analysis of published socio‐legal articles to understand the nature of quantitative scholarship and evidence an increasing body of work that reflects a flexible approach to data collection and analysis. Moving beyond the tribalism often associated with the qualitative/quantitative divide, we draw attention to the shift away from understandings of quantitative work as hypothesis testing towards those that are accepting of the importance of critical reflection and exploration of nuance. It is hoped that the article will prompt further discussion about capacity building to develop and sustain good‐quality quantitative socio‐legal scholarship in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses romantic literary studies has much to learn from recent scholarship in economic history. Topics discussed including ways to understand the connections between Romantic literary and cultural formations; Britain's social and demographic conditions, its technological development, and its colonial, mercantile, and ecological relations; and economic transformation in British Romantic writings.

This paper describes two successful approaches to data literacy training within the UK and the synergies and collaborations between these two programmes. The first is a data literacy training programme, being delivered by the UK Data Service, which focuses on training in basic data literacy skills. The second is a Data Fellows programme that has been developed to help undergraduate social science students gain real-world experience by applying their classroom skills in the workplace. The paper also discusses next steps in the global development of data literacy skills via the EmpoderaData project, which is trialling the Data Fellows programme in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: This paper offers a retrospective on the launch and first volumes of this journal. It describes the history of a unique period in our discipline when founding fathers in the US and UK collaborated with industry and each other to create a new field. Design/methodology/approach: The authors interviewed founding editor Professor Martin Christopher and coeditor in Chief Professor Doug Lambert, conducted a bibliometric review of the first volumes of the journal and informed the analysis by approaches taken in other retrospectives published in the journal. The authors also feature historical artifacts from the journal. Findings: The editorial focus during the early days of the journal demonstrate how the roots of the field are in cost modeling and technical work but quickly moved toward customer orientation and managerial focus. The editorial approach during the early days of the journal was on innovative research and publishing, scholarship engaged with industry, a focus on relevance and industry impact as well as leveraging research in education. Originality/value: There have been retrospectives on the journals most recent volumes but what the authors aim to do is to reflect upon the launch and the first volumes of the journal. The authors expand and further detail the timeline of the development of the logistics field. In the process, the authors identify several historical roots for topics of greater focus in logistics and supply chain management in later years. The authors also find that many of the essential approaches and lessons learned in the period leading up to the launch and shortly after the launch of the journal do not only capture the early development of the discipline it also offers an approach and model for scholarship worthy of consideration still today. On top of that, several of the lessons learned in that period hold high relevance still today and they imply part of the path forward for the discipline and the journal, the authors develop questions for future research and research and editorial strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication of the long-awaited Augar Report into post-18 education and funding provides a timely opportunity to examine the literature and evidence on the role of bursaries in widening participation (WP) in higher education. WP policies have sought to address discrepancies in the take-up of HE between different social groups, and the differential experiences (and outcomes) of students from different backgrounds, once they are at university. The effectiveness of bursaries to address this depends not only on their ability to compensate for financial disadvantage but also on the impact their provision can have on young people's attitudes and students' integration at university. This systematic review takes into account not only recent academic research undertaken in the area but also acknowledges the vast amount of research that governmental and non-governmental organisations undertake in relation to WP. The findings highlight the persistence of socioeconomic disparities in HE participation and, even amongst lower-income students who do attend, emphasise the continuing challenges they face to "fit in" to university life. Before provision of financial support can be effective, a consistent method to identify the most vulnerable groups of students is necessary. Whilst bursaries can overcome the financial barriers to participation, other non-financial challenges remain and the effectiveness of bursaries alone to promote greater diversity in HE is not yet proven. The strength-in-diversity the WP agenda aims to support will only be realised with a fairer distribution of quality and prestige across the sector and a more thorough "de-classing" of the institution of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores scholarship regarding diplomatic processes and actors engaged in recent international sport events hosted by the United Kingdom and Japan. The article points to the range of actors involved, focusing on organizing committees, and assesses the effectiveness of sports diplomacy at a range of levels that go beyond a focus on the state. It uses international sport events documentation, global media archives, and public and private comments related to the United Kingdom and Japan. The article addresses three key issues: 1) Olympic-dominant discourse: the dominance and shift in process between hosting an Olympic Games and onto other events; 2) Western-dominant discourse: the differences between Japan and the UK in demonstrating distinct "East" and "West" sports diplomacy approaches; 3) State-dominant discourse: the role of knowledge exchange and elite networks that transcend the state and involve a range of different actors, such as the organizing committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nineteenth century witnessed a major expansion in the construction of public works including canals, roads, and railways across the British empire. The question that colonial governments faced during the nineteenth century was on how to finance public works. Focusing specifically on irrigation works and the rivers of southern India, this article shows how different experiments were attempted, including raising capital and labour from local communities as well as corporate investment in irrigation works through London capital markets. The article argues that by the latter part of the nineteenth century, a definitive answer had emerged, i.e. irrigation projects on rivers would be financed through state debt. An enormous body of scholarship in Britain and India debated the relationship between public works and public debt. This article rethinks this scholarship as a technological and environmental history. The article argues that colonial modes of raising capital were dependent on speculating on Indian rivers. Historiography wise, in contrast to scholarship which takes for granted the role of the state in building large dams, it suggests that the emergence of the state as the builder of large dams was part of a more fundamental relationship between rivers, technology, and colonial capital that emerged in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review essay on recent scholarship on Rock Against Racism argues that the original scholarship on the topic misunderstood the relationship of punk rock and Rock Against Racism to the Left and to transformations in capitalism in Great Britain and beyond in the 1970s. This review offers a reinterpretation of punk rock as a rank-and-file mobilization in the realm of culture at a moment when more traditional venues for rank-and-file mobilization became unavailable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]