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Increasingly across many UK higher education institutions staff and students are questioning and challenging systemic inequalities that affect racially minoritised groups in their learning and sense of belonging within the curriculum. Students are calling for inclusion of diverse sources of knowledge and perspectives, especially from scholars of colour and from the Global South, to enrich what is currently perceived to be a Eurocentric canon. One way to promote more culturally aligned pedagogy is through diversifying reading lists. This article presents findings from two pilot studies that explored the reading lists in one department in social sciences and one in the humanities at the University of Kent, UK. Applying critical race theory as a guiding framework, the first part of the article examines the ways in which a diverse curriculum must include the voices of the marginalised. It then describes the methods: a desk-based review of the reading lists, interviews with academics to inform the work, disseminate the findings, instigate further action and identify future needs, and student focus groups. Crucially, the project resulted from the collaboration between students and staff, and across departments and disciplines. We found that reading lists in both departments overwhelmingly comprised items by White male authors. Students and staff both reflected on the importance of not only curriculum diversification but also barriers to diversification and decolonisation. The article discusses the impact of this project, which has led to a Diversity Mark process, and the Diversity Mark Toolkit, which can be used in any discipline when putting together reading lists to create a more culturally competent curriculum. It concludes by considering other systemic changes needed, with particular attention to changes needed in library services and collections.

Although students are increasingly cast as consumers wanting 'value for money', this study empirically investigated whether students actively seek value for money. In Study 1, 1,772 undergraduates at a mid-ranked English university were asked open-ended questions about what they had wanted from their university learning experience and how that had turned out. Hopes were coded as fulfilled or unfulfilled. Responses were searched for key words related to 'value for money'. Less than 2 per cent of students referenced 'value for money'. Those students were significantly more likely to have unfulfilled hopes. In Study 2, 185 first-year science students were asked open-ended questions about why they chose their subject and their programme, and what they had wanted from their learning experience in that programme. None referenced value for money. Students' reasons for choosing their subjects and programmes were analysed. 'Value for money' does not do justice to students' hopes for university or their programme.

Imperatives to eliminate racial inequalities in higher education (HE) have led to calls for diversification of curricula. Qualitative evidence is growing about racially minoritised students' perceptions of their curricula and its impact on them. Yet there are no specific instruments to facilitate evaluation of curricular diversification and its impact on students. We examined the relationship between students' perceptions of the cultural sensitivity of their curriculum and their engagement, as measured by students' interactions with their teachers and their interest in their programme of study. To do so, we conceptualised and developed a new set of four Culturally Sensitive Curriculum Scales, making a significant, original conceptual and methodological contribution. A racially diverse sample of second through postgraduate students primarily in arts, humanities and social sciences (N = 262; 189 F) rated the cultural sensitivity of the curriculum of their programme, their interactions with teachers, and their interest. Racially minoritised students (n = 157) perceived their curriculum as less culturally sensitive on all four dimensions, reported fewer academic interactions with teachers, and had lower levels of interest than White students (n = 100). Each of the four Culturally Sensitive Curriculum Scales was significantly related to academic interactions with teachers and to interest. Regression analyses showed that all dimensions of cultural sensitivity mediated effects of ethnicity on interactions with teachers. Two dimensions of cultural sensitivity (Diversity Represented and Challenge Power) mediated effects of ethnicity on interest. Therefore, ensuring curricula are diverse and critical may support racially minoritised students' engagement, potentially contributing to reducing achievement gaps. Further implications are discussed.

With increasing emphasis on employability in higher education (HE), there is an urgent need to understand how HE influences students' career interests. Vocational psychological interest literature has assumed that career interest is stable from adolescence to adulthood. Newer conceptions of interest, drawn from developmental-educational perspectives, instead emphasise the mutability of interest and the ways in which the environment can support its development. This study makes a novel contribution by extending a developmental-educational theory of interest to illuminate how students' career interests develop during university and influences on those career interests, suggesting ways to enhance development. We surveyed the 2019 bachelor's graduating class (n = 663) at a mid-ranked UK university offering both applied and pure programmes. Graduates indicated whether their career interests had changed during university, described their career interests 'when they started university' and what they were 'now', and explained what had affected their career interest during university. Most (61%), regardless of pure or applied studies, reported that their career interests had changed. Consistent with interest theory, the most common type of change was refinement within a Standard Industrial Classification (30%), followed by shifts to a different SIC (19%), becoming more decided (12%), or rejecting a plan, leaving them unsure (5%). The most common influences on career interests were the curriculum (46%), placements (14%), work experiences (7%), and co-curricular activities (6%). We conclude that career practitioners and academics need to consider the central role of disciplinary curricula in career learning and emphasise opportunities for work experiences in and outside the curriculum.

As universities prioritise employability, there is increased attention to promoting students' career decidedness. In this mixed method, cross-sectional study, we explore whether and how students' interest in their academic subject affects their career decidedness. Using surveys of 428 undergraduates studying sciences in a UK university (60% F, average age = 19.9) and case examples from follow-up interviews with 15 students, we examine students' interest development and its relation to their career decidedness and their desire for meaningful, interesting work. Findings showed that most students who were studying science in university had a well-developed interest that had motivated their choice of programme, and their subject interest and career decidedness were linked. Regression analyses indicated that students' interest in their subject was a significant predictor of career decidedness, mediated by students' desire to pursue that interest in their career. Open-ended comments on the surveys suggested that decidedness was informed by coursework, proactive career exploration, work experience, interest, feasibility, and familial contacts. Interviews confirmed these factors and illustrated how they contributed to students' career decidedness. We propose implications for academics and career counsellors who might help students refine their interest by considering connections between their academic subject, interest, and related career options. We argue that educators and policy-makers need to reframe employability interventions and think beyond teaching students skills or attributes that lead to employment. Educators can start with students' interest in their subject and support students' exploration of how they can continue to pursue that interest in various careers.

Higher education (HE) in many countries has been characterized by increased marketization, external accountability, and managerialism. This article examines how academics feel about and respond to HE reforms in Cyprus, a country whose HE sector is heavily commercialized and affected by austerity measures. We analyzed interviews with twenty-three Cypriot academics in four universities, who had been working in business schools from 3 to 29 years. Interviewees described experiences of being an academic in Cyprus, highlighting contextual factors that triggered emotional events in their day-to-day lives. Integrating previous literature, we present six different behavioral responses to the events they described, including compliance, resistance, and flight. We explain how academics chose different responses at different times based on their interpretations of value congruence/incongruence, their felt emotions, and the need to comply with emotional display rules. Considering these elements together highlighted the emotional labor associated with various behavioral responses. The study contributes theoretically by showing how values, perceived emotional demands within particular events, and emotions influence behavior, including different types of emotional labor. We suggest that further research on academics' responses to HE reforms should focus on particular events and on particular contested academic values, such as autonomy or collegiality.

Engagement with primary sources is a key feature of arts and humanities subjects, particularly classics and ancient history. Recent instructional trends emphasise integrating skills with content, particularly in the first year of higher education. We investigate how successfully first-year university students used a variety of sources in an integrated skills and content course, through analysis of 84 final essays. Most students used four to nine sources in a 1500 word essay, but only one type of ancient source. The findings express the need to move from debates about whether to integrate skills or not, to greater discuss "how" key discipline-specific skills are integrated into content-based courses. Cognitive apprenticeship theory, and a thematic approach used in museum education, are used to reflect on the findings and discuss how teachers might better support students in this key aspect of the discipline.

In medicine, concern about preserving the humanity, empathy, and moral reasoning of prospective doctors during their medical education has spawned the field of medical humanities. Building on the logic of the medical humanities, I propose an educational humanities to support the relational, emotional, and ethical bases of teaching practice. After a brief review of other attempts to bring the humanities into the preparation of educational professionals, I illustrate two main ways that such a field could contribute to teacher education, using poems as examples. Drawing on the way in which the medical humanities expand dominant discourses about medicine, I show how poems can highlight alternative narratives about students' experiences, particularly through the use of metaphor. Those alternatives may offer better foundations for fruitful and satisfying relationships between teachers and students. Second, I illustrate the use of poems as emotive case examples of ethical dilemmas of practice. I show how discussion of such poems offers a substantive, theoretically grounded approach to the teaching of values, rooted in recognition of the complexity of ethical decision-making in practice.

We propose a new instructional theory, the Domain of Validity (DoV) Framework, which offers a new way forward for designing teaching for conceptual change, while also resolving conflicts between existing theories related to common, difficult-to-change conceptions students have about particular scientific topics. We propose that knowledge consists of two connected elements: a model and a domain of validity (or DoV). Foregrounding the notion of DoV for given models allows us to reconceptualise and diagnose many problematic preconceptions as examples of an oversized DoV. Mapping the different elements of knowledge -- both the model and its domain of validity -- allows teachers to pinpoint precisely the cognitive conflict that students need to confront in a conceptual change approach to teaching. We highlight the instructional implications related to these scientific learning difficulties and conclude by proposing particular teaching strategies based on this new framework, emphasising the domains of validity of particular scientific models.

Through an extended commentary on the empirical articles in this special issue 'Signature Assessment and Feedback Practices in the Disciplines' we elaborate the concepts of signature assessment and signature feedback practices by developing a new taxonomy of their elements. We propose that signature assessments focus on conceptual, epistemological, social, material and/or moral dimensions of the discipline. We also propose four discipline-specific sources of feedback information, particularly highlighting what we are calling consequential feedback, which can be generated by users of disciplinary knowledge or objects. Finally, we identify three levels of feedback timings that can support students' use of feedback information: rhythms, cycles, and spirals. Based on gaps in the literature in relation to this taxonomy, we identify areas for further empirical research that will advance understanding and application of signature assessment and signature feedback practices.

This paper presents the experiences of mature students at a satellite campus of an English higher education institution. Twenty students over age 25 who fit various widening participation criteria were interviewed at four points during their first two years of bachelor's level study at a higher education (HE) centre in an area underserved by HE. Three aspects (familial, aspirational and social capital) of Yosso's model of community cultural wealth emerged as assets supporting students' success. Staying in their home communities allowed them to benefit from family and community networks, and their aspirations for their children fuelled their motivation. The study extends critical race theory to mature mostly white working-class students in English HE, contributing to policy debates about the role of satellite centres in supporting widening participation agendas. HEIs need to consider the capitals that mature students bring with them to their studies and how those support persistence.

This paper focuses on academic development for Syrian academics in exile. Academic development first emerged in resource-rich, global North environments including the UK, the USA, Australia, and Scandinavia nearly 50 years ago as reported by Gosling ("International Journal for Academic Development," 14(1):5-18, 2009), and the majority of research studies in this field focus on activities in global North, resource-rich, institutional settings. Yet academics in resource-poor, [post-] conflict and post-colonial contexts face different challenges and circumstances, and have different academic development needs. This paper extends the conceptual and contextual scope of this field by investigating the experiences and academic development needs of Syrian academics in exile, and interrogating the concept of academic development within that context. It establishes the background context of Syrian academia in exile, before summarising the nature and aims of the Council for At Risk Academics (Cara) Syria Programme. It then outlines the study's methodology, before presenting the findings of a thematic analysis of a multi-level data set. It then interrogates the concept and normative terrain of academic development in light of these findings, and proposes a model for academic community development to support academic communities in exile, and marginalised academic communities more widely.

Transnational academic mobility is of growing importance in higher education. Yet, the acculturation for individual academics is challenging. Taking a phenomenological approach, we interviewed twenty foreign-born academics, who had been living and working in the UK for at least one year, and analysed their emotional experiences of acculturation by chronological stages. Then, using Gross's (Gross, J. J. 1998. "Antecedent-and Response-Focused Emotion Regulation: Divergent Consequences for Experience, Expression, and Physiology." "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" 74 (1): 224-237; Gross, J. J. 2014. "Emotion Regulation: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations." In "Handbook of Emotion Regulation," 2nd ed., edited by J. J. Gross, 3-20. New York: Guilford) model of emotion regulation, we analysed how participants used emotion regulation processes throughout their adaptation to their new environments. The study makes an original contribution firstly by applying a model of emotion regulation not previously used in researching academic life. Secondly, this study shows that, unlike stage theories, acculturation is not experienced primarily in linear stages, but as an ongoing process during which immigrant academics actively work on changing the things that challenge them. Thirdly, the findings emphasise the contributions rather than deficits of immigrant academics. Implications for supporting immigrant academics' acculturation are discussed.

Lecturing is often touted as a means to inspire students' interest, despite evidence that most lectures fail to do so. This study examines triggers of students' situational interest during lectures. Students (N = 706) in 12 different individual one hour first year lectures in a UK university were surveyed at the end of the lecture. They described the moment they were most interested; rated a series of 5 point Likert scale items on their situational and individual interest, and features of the content, presentation and teacher's behaviour during that moment; and provided demographic characteristics. Simultaneous regression analyses showed that novelty, cognitive activation, cognitive incongruity, and utility value all positively predicted situational interest. Students' level of individual interest and their perceptions of their teacher's enthusiasm, approachability and knowledge were the strongest predictors of situational interest. Overchallenge was negatively associated with situational interest.

Although teaching is emotionally and ethically demanding, higher education teachers' emotions, values and sense of moral purpose are under-researched. This study examines 66 case examples of teachers' emotional experiences to see whether and what kinds of moral concerns underpin those emotional moments. Analysis was based on Graham, Nosek, Hadit, Iyer, and Ditto's ([2011]. "Mapping the Moral Domain." "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" 101 (2): 366-385. doi:10.1037/a0021847.) moral foundations theory, which posits five main moral concerns: care/harm, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. Care/harm and authority/respect were the most common single moral concerns underpinning these emotional experiences, though there were examples of all five moral concerns within the set. Approximately one-third of the cases referenced multiple moral concerns, suggesting the complexity of both emotional and ethical demands in teaching. Implications for research, teaching, and educational development are highlighted.

With increasing calls for authentic assessment in higher education, the reference point for authenticity has been questioned. Typically, researchers define authenticity in relation to purposes of higher education, which are contested. Advancing the notion of educational authenticity rather than professional, societal, disciplinary, or developmental authenticity, we shift the reference point from outcomes to the process of meaningful student engagement. To illuminate features of educational authenticity in assessment, we surveyed students about their most interesting, engaging assessment and analysed 302 explanations why that assignment was so engaging. While many students cited real-world connections, consistent with most authentic assessment literature, more described having choice in some aspect of the assignment. We examined how choice, not typically a defining feature of authentic assessment, and real-world connection mattered to students and promoted meaningful engagement. Understanding and designing for educational authenticity can lead to various, valued outcomes highlighted in existing authentic assessment literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the special issue entitled 'Beyond academic development as institutional practice: advancing community-led approaches' and offer critical commentary that advances the concept and practice of academic community development. Through repeated readings of the 10 articles from diverse contexts included in this issue, we draw out four main themes highlighting why and how academic communities beyond single institutions support academic development. First, we revise the initial conceptual framework of 'academic community development (ACD)', which focused the call for papers, presenting six dimensions rather than the previous three continua. Then, we consider the degree of 'institutionalisation' of this range of initiatives. From that analysis, we derive a typology of ACD initiatives. We then consider a) what common interests have been served by these communities, and whose they are; b) the focus of these communities in relation to the revised conceptual framework; and c) the essential ingredients for success. We emphasise that communities leverage assets in ways that traditional needs-based academic development often does not. We conclude with implications for typical academic development work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that assessment and feedback practices in higher education need to be transformed to better address three purposes: promoting learning, assuring assessment rigour, and communicating students' employability. To address shortcomings in the current assessment and feedback culture, we propose programmatic assessment (PA), a new approach to assessment developed initially in medical education and now applied to a range of other professional fields. We outline eight recommendations that synthesise the key principles underpinning PA. Then, drawing on experience with PA in various professional fields in the Netherlands, we describe and illustrate four action steps for programme teams to take to implement programmatic assessment. We highlight implications of such a shift for leaders and professional services staff before concluding that PA can transform higher education by creating a more productive culture of assessment and feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, based on case study analyses of two interdisciplinary programmes in a research-intensive university in the UK, focuses on the challenges involved in designing, coordinating, and leading interdisciplinary postgraduate curricula, including workload, student heterogeneity, and difficulties in achieving coherence. Solutions and approaches developed within these case study programmes are also highlighted. This study raises awareness of the complex nature of interdisciplinary curricula so that it may help academics proactively develop better strategies and approaches to address common challenges. It also synthesises disparate literature into a framework for investigating curricular coherence.

The role of emotions in learning and teaching has largely been neglected in educational literature, particularly in higher education. Yet there are signs of increased interest in emotions in recent literature. This paper argues that emotions are a vital aspect of relationships. How we feel with and about others is central to the quality of those relationships. Thus, emotions matter in college teaching and learning as an aspect of enriching social and relational experiences that support student development. This paper discusses four key relationships in higher education: students with subject matter; students with teachers; students with other students; and students with their developing selves. For each key relationship, key literature is referenced, and suggestions for enhancing practice are offered.

This qualitative study documents three main strategic models used by Russell Group Careers Services to support students' preparation for graduate careers. It is framed against the backdrop of a challenging graduate labour market, discussions of employability in the literature and the policy assumption that universities are responsible for developing students' employability. First, we classify the strategies used at Russell Group universities through a content analysis of Careers Service websites. We then select three case studies representing contrasting patterns of provision. Interviews with Careers Service directors and staff at the case study institutions provide the rationales behind these three different strategies, which we describe as "Hands-Off," "Portfolio" and "Award." Drawing on 17 interviews and analysis of participation data provided by the Careers Services, we compare and contrast the approaches. The first case fills gaps in an esteemed academic system in which most students already have social capital. The second case focuses on segmenting their market to directly serve varied student needs. The third case emphasises partnership with academics and embedding career development within the curriculum. We take a critical perspective on these strategies in relation to major theoretical conceptions of employability found in the literature. Finally, we suggest implications for practices within Careers Services and further research in this underdeveloped field.

What aspects of student character are expected to be developed through disciplinary curricula? This paper examines the UK written curriculum through an analysis of the Quality Assurance Agency's subject benchmark statements for the most popular subjects studied in the UK. It explores the language, principles and intended outcomes that suggest students are expected to embrace or embody particular affective outcomes, values or virtues, or demonstrate social responsibility. The statements emphasise cognitive/intellectual skills, with little attention to the development of personal virtues or values. However, when present, the richest expressions are embedded in the values of the particular discipline, rather than presented as "transferable skills". The paper presents three examples of virtues that underpin particular disciplines, including empathy as expressed in languages and related studies and art and design; social justice and courage as expressed in social work; and humility as expressed in biosciences and sociology. Implications for higher education policy are suggested.

Mainstream higher education research on leadership largely overlooks the leadership of teaching and learning. This paper presents a model of leadership that integrates various elements needed to create universities that intentionally promote holistic student learning and development. The model links organisational development, the development of leaders as people who are in relationship with other members of the community (transformative leadership), and knowledge of teaching and learning. Through a creative synthesis of these various literatures, it proposes what is needed for sound "educational" leadership in higher education. The paper highlights the content and context of leadership, emphasising not leadership or even leadership in higher education generally, but leadership "of" teaching (by explicitly including knowledge and evidence related to teaching and learning) "for" student learning.

This paper reviews a range of challenges and tensions experienced when using portfolios for learning as well as for summative assessment in the context of continuing professional learning in academic development programmes. While portfolios are becoming increasingly prominent, the details of how they are used are under-examined; they are often simply assumed to be an appropriate tool. However, it is important that, as practitioners, we are able to justify our own assessment practices and convey our expectations to our participants, who may be unfamiliar with the demands of a reflective portfolio. In this paper we explore some of the appeal as well as the difficulties of using portfolios, many of which arise from the fact that portfolios are often simultaneously used for summative and formative purposes. We suggest how the challenges sometimes experienced with portfolio assessment can be addressed by course conveners.

This think-aloud study examined the process seven academics used in reasoning through a colleague's biochemistry course portfolio. Interview data indicated that participants used a normative, case-based reasoning approach, comparing reviewees' practices to their own experiences, their colleagues, and prototypical or traditional practices. They considered contextual factors and pre-existing knowledge of the teacher and context, justifying final decisions based on appropriateness and achievement of educational goals. (SM)

Adapted the scoring matrix, a method used to facilitate community participation in planning and monitoring development projects, to a university course in participatory resource management. Suggests the matrix is an example of how discipline-specific tools can be adapted to serve the dual purposes of promoting experiential learning of discipline-specific skills and evaluating student learning. (Author/DB)

Examined eight academic historians' educational beliefs in the context of their department, the university, and the history of the discipline, discussing similarities about goals for history education; perceptions of students; roles as teachers; and classroom patterns. Despite commonalities, there were key differences among educational beliefs about the nature of discipline; student learning goals; teaching approaches; and analysis of student difficulties. (SM)