Institutional hierarchies and research impact: new academic currencies,capital and position-taking in UK higher education

Abstract

Globally, performance-based research funding aims to support the most deserving academic institutions and researchers. However, overcoming entrenched assumptions about quality is a persistent challenge for higher education research policies worldwide; traditionally powerful institutions tend to maintain dominance. Research impact as a performance criterion presents an opportunity for position-taking through success according to non-academic criteria. Could impact-oriented research funding challenge institutional hierarchies? The UK university system presents an instructive case study for exploring this question. However, exposing the effects of such performance-based funding on institutional stratification requires focusing on the interface between institutions and disciplines. A Bourdieusian analysis of 53 cases of research-based impact on higher education policy/practice revealed the differential capital that researchers from more and less ‘prestigious’ universities mobilise when generating research impact. By uncovering how impact reinforces disparities in research power between UK institutions, the study contributes to understanding of sectoral reproduction through discipline-level mediation of research policy.     

From unbundling to market making: reimagining,reassembling and reinventing the public university

ABSTRACT

In Britain and New Zealand the neoliberal assault on universities has shifted from new public management and funding models to the special status of the public university. The project aims to complete neoliberal business initiated 25 years ago by more fully marketising and financialising universities, starting with ‘unbundling’ and outsourcing and culminating in new forms of privatisation, rent-extraction and rebundling. This paper analyses two documents commissioned beyond government to create political momentum for this project: Avalanche is Coming and The University of the Future. These both capture the zeitgeist of reform while simultaneously creating the university futures that they portend. We examine the market-making work they perform in reimagining and reinventing universities ahead of policy reform. We argue that claims made to support fundamental restructuring of public universities lack substance or evidence. Rather, each is underpinned by different configurations of ideology and self-interest that together envelope universities in new agendas of marketisation, financialisation and privatisation. We suggest that in this latest restructuring of public universities critics should pay more attention to the work of consultancies and think tanks alongside the micro-details of market making. By doing so, they too might reimagine public universities, but for a different political project.     

Japan’s English-medium instruction initiatives and the globalization of higher education

This article analyzes a recent initiative of Japan’s Ministry of Education, which aims to internationalize higher education in Japan. The large-investment project “Top Global University Project” (TGUP) has emerged to create globally oriented universities, to increase the role of foreign languages in higher education, and to foster global human resources. The TGUP identifies 37 universities: 13 as “top global universities” intended to compete in the top 100 university world rankings and 24 “global traction universities” intended to lead the internationalization of higher education in Japan. Despite the substantial funding behind this initiative, little research has been conducted to evaluate the potential impact of this policy on language planning in higher education in Japan. This paper addresses this gap in its exploration of the TGUP, including key changes from previous internationalization policies. It then presents an analysis of publicly available documents regarding the policy, collected from all 37 of the participant universities. Findings indicate a positive departure from older policy trends and the emergence of flexible, unique forms of English language education in Japan’s universities.     

Framing “world class” differently: international and Korean participants’ perceptions of the world class university project

This study analyzes how the world class university (WCU) project in Korea is perceived by participating international scholars and Korean principal investigators by conducting focus group interviews and utilizing semantic network analysis. While international scholars and Korean principal investigators agree that the success of WCU depends on mutual collaboration, the expansion of qualitative evaluation, and effective student education, their core interests and values differ. International scholars place much weight on core educational values that are tied with students and research. On the other hand, Korean principal investigators take greater interest in the administrative side, including formal evaluation, regulation, and attendance for the required number of class days. This difference in assessing the WCU project emerges as an obstacle to mutual understanding and collaboration. Rather than judging which group’s frame of reference is better or more relevant, our analysis focuses on offering a context-specific understanding of frame while avoiding the cliché of “cultural difference.” Lastly, the analysis of frames offers some useful implications for the Korean higher education research and policy community.     

University mergers in Russia from the students’ perspective: uncertainty and loss of identity

University mergers are a common practice in higher education systems around the world. Merger-related aspects such as the transformation of organizational and administrative structures, the impact on the internal funding allocation mechanisms, or changes in academic strategies and profiles, are well researched. However, the role of students in university mergers and their understanding of these processes are hardly investigated. The aim of this study was to identify how students are affected by merger processes. Through the conceptual framework, integrating university organizational identity theory and studies of the human side of mergers and acquisitions, this article encompasses six institutional cases in Russian higher education. These cases were selected to illustrate different scenarios of university mergers and accordingly to analyze the variety of student experience in changing universities. The project’s data included the results of document analysis, analysis of the merged universities’ representation in the public space, interviews and focus-groups with university administrators and with students who studied during the process of university merger. It highlights such perceived effects of mergers as anxiety and perceived unfairness due to post-merger changes, activization of we-they opposition between the students of merged universities, loss or transformation of organizational identity, and clash of university cultures.

     

Changing lives: improving care leaver access to higher education

ABSTRACT

Australian and international research documents the limited access of young people transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC) to further and higher education. This paper examines the processes, outcomes, and key findings of the Raising Expectations project, a collaborative university and industry approach to promote higher education among care leavers at two Australian universities. That approach was informed by the co-authors' previous research, including interviews with enrolled care-leaver students. The paper highlights the relevance of that research in the design and implementation of Raising Expectations. Our findings reiterate the importance of policy and practice reforms informed by rigorous research, particularly involving the voices and agency of care leavers. We outline strategies adopted by the participating universities resulting in a fourfold increase in enrolments, growth in school outreach activities, and significantly improved retention rates. The paper also highlights barriers to higher education access and success, through care-leaver student interviews and policy analysis. These interviews revealed the need for better university outreach and information to prospective care-leaver students, improved support for enrolled care-leaver students, and better capturing of data by universities and governments. The paper also highlights policy barriers to the greater expansion of care-leavers at university, especially in the absence of extended state care.     

Avoiding to fit a square peg into a round hole: a policy framework for operationalising open distance education in dual-mode universities

Abstract

Although education policies in many African countries refer to the need for distance education to widen participation in universities, they have not articulated guidelines on how they plan to develop systems and structures that will support it. The purpose of this study was to develop a policy framework specific for distance education provision in conventional universities. A two-step approach was utilised to guide the process of the development of the framework. The first step was to analyse national education policies, which provide the educational vision of the country. The second step was to analyse distance education policy frameworks in order to provide specific criteria that need to be met when providing distance education. Futures research methodology was employed to look at policy interventions with the aim of identifying probable development in education that may influence distance education practices within the conventional university context.     

建设中国开放大学的国家政策文本分析

以文本分析或话语分析的手法切入政策研究,已经成为国际上政策研究领域的一种常用方法。政策文本分析是理解中国开放大学政策的基本手段,也是促进我国开放大学建设政策研究和政策执行的重要途径。2012年6月21日,教育部连续签发三个重要批复:同意在中央广播电视大学基础上建立国家开放大学的批复,以及同意北京广播电视大学、上海电视大学分别更名为北京开放大学和上海开放大学的批复。这三个具有代表性的政策文本集中展示了国家教育部门对新型大学建设目标的总体设计,包括建设路径和发展策略的整体设定,对中国开放大学在教育活动、教育体制、教育机制、教育观念等方面给予了指导性定位。概括地说,就是回答了中国开放大学该由谁来办、怎么办、办成什么样的政策问题。这是中国开放大学建设的政策依据和行动纲领,只有准确把握政策目标和行动线路,才能有效推进中国开放大学的历史进程。     

Creating world-class universities: Implications for developing countries

Many countries are now creating world-class universities (WCUs) as essential parts of their higher education reform agendas, and as national goals. It is legitimate to ask whether every county that aspires to build a WCU can do so—especially developing countries. To answer this question, this paper provides a three-step framework. The first step in building a WCU is to understand its characteristics. The second is for the country to systematically assess whether it has the capacity to create a WCU by rationally appreciating the challenges it would face in creating one. Third, it must understand, given the challenges discovered in the second step, what to do to create a WCU. Considering this framework, only a few developing countries have the potential to foster a WCU. Thus it is difficult for many universities in developing countries to enter an existing market already occupied by well-developed education systems and universities.     

Towards a public policy for the research university in Portugal

Following a model that conceptualizes the functioning of the university, a set of principles to define a public funding methodology for the research universities is proposed, within the context of the Portuguese higher education system. This set of principles is presented on the basis of the analysis of the contemporary mission of the university, giving particular relevance to the research activities that are developed at universities. The positioning of research universities in the science and technology system is valorized, and the set of principles aims at contributing to develop a science policy that gives to the university the relevant role that is required in the emerging knowledge-driven economies.     

政府支持力度对我国研究型大学的影响——以20所研究型大学为样本

本文从进入"985"工程建设序列的研究型大学中随机抽取20所大学作为样本,通过多元回归分析,验证政府投资力度、政策支持力度、国家级专项投入力度与大学发展状况之间的关系,揭示政府支持力度对我国研究型大学的影响,并提出相关的政策建议.     

Tracing assessment policy discourses in neoliberalised higher education settings

This article explores assessment policy in two European universities with different political, historical and social backgrounds: the University of Glasgow and Tallinn University. The University of Glasgow is a well-established Russell Group university in the UK; Tallinn University is a relatively new university in post-Soviet Estonia, shaped by very recent neoliberalisation processes. By applying a Foucauldian theorisation and Faircloughian methodology, this article approaches assessment policy as not only relating to institutional contexts but also national and global policy environments. The article argues that the assessment policy in Glasgow relates to globally dominant neoliberal discourses of accountability and excellence. These discourses have turned assessment into a complex technology of government that manages educational processes as well as academic and student subjectivities. While Tallinn University is shaped by neoliberalism at strategic levels, the policy documents in Tallinn still indicate a strong sense of local tradition where regulations have a modest impact on academic freedom and assessors’ disciplinary power over students.     

新型省部共建高校模式的发展取向与职能发挥

省部共建高校的新发展促进了高等教育的合理布局,有利于解决高等教育合理布局和协调发展,有利于获得政策、资金、项目等支持,应瞄准地方和行业重大需求,引领区域高等教育快速发展,推动区域社会经济文化进步,积极探索高校与部委合作的新模式。     

Donors and higher education partners: a critical assessment of US and Canadian support for transnational research and sustainable development

Linking key policy themes of interest in the published literature on development studies and comparative education, the article initially explores the potential benefits and risks of partnering transnationally for contextually informed research and sustainable development from the perspective of Southern and Northern higher education institutions. Higher education partnerships recently supported by the development-assistance agencies of Canada and the United States are compared and critically assessed according to the internationally relevant themes of external and internal funding, the involvement of additional partners and funders, and project duration. Comparative analysis of datasets compiled from AUCC- and HED-managed sources that encompass 74 CIDA-supported and 186 USAID-supported university partnerships active during 2007–2009 shows that CIDA awards tend to be substantially larger in amount and longer in duration than most USAID awards and that participating universities have contributed impressive cost-share resources. The concluding section draws out wider implications of study findings for North–South higher education partnerships with sustainable-development objectives and for the literature on the possibilities and limitations they embody.     

Do values drive the plan? Investigating the nature and role of organizational values in university strategic planning

Strategic planning is a common practice at higher education institutions. Furthermore, it is assumed that identifying organizational values is an essential part of the planning process. Values are often construed as foundational elements of strategic thinking that serve to ‘drive the plan’. However, there is little conceptual or applied evidence to support the effectiveness of coupling organizational values articulation with strategic planning processes. The author reports on a study that was designed to effectively conceptualize organizational values, and foster a deeper understanding of organizational values application in higher education administration. This research involved a textual analysis of strategic planning documents pertaining to organizational values from Canadian universities. Research results offer concrete ways to conceptualize and apply organizational values within university settings. The results serve as a foundation to explore small-group-focused approaches to both policy creation and evaluation pertaining to the articulation of organizational values in university administration.

     

高校社会捐赠：概念、类型与策略优化

我国高校办学经费历来以政府财政拨款为主,难以有效解决教育经费短缺问题。社会捐赠作为办学经费有益补充,我国高校社会捐赠主要有校友捐赠、企业捐赠、财团捐赠、乡贤捐赠、网络众筹等多种类型,社会捐赠为缓解国家财政经费投入压力提供了重要资金支持,但高校社会捐赠事业缺乏相关政策支撑与专业管理制度,高校自身普遍缺乏吸引力等状况很大程度上影响了高校社会捐赠的持续良性发展。为此,完善捐赠配套政策和外部政策激励、强化筹资运行保障、推动文化环境建设以及提升自身办学声誉是新时期高校社会捐赠高质量发展的重要策略。     

Public university governance in China and Australia: a comparative study

There are several common trends and challenges in the higher education (HE) system around the world, like expansion and diversification of HE, fiscal pressure and orientation to markets, demand for greater accountability and great quality and efficiency (e.g. The financing and management of higher education: a status report on worldwide reforms, 1998; Internationalisation of higher education and global mobility 43-58, 2014; Global policy and policy-making in education, 2014; Higher Education Policy 21:5-27, 2008). These trends and changes have reshaped university governance as well. Public universities are the main institutions to carry out HE in Australia and China. The engagement between Australia and China in HE sector has become closer and closer in recent years. To conduct better and further cooperation and collaboration between Australian and Chinese universities, it is critical to understand and acknowledge the differences in two nations’ university governance. Moreover, by conducting this comparative study of two nations, it also helps us to figure out the changes in university governance over times under the global trends and the interactions between global and local factors. This comparative study focuses on the university level and attempts to identify the differences of university governance in Australian and Chinese public universities in three dimensions, state-university relation, university internal governance and university finance. This paper sketches the university governance in Australia and China and finds that the relationship between government and university is looser in Australia than that in China and Australian universities enjoy more autonomy and power than Chinese universities; as to university internal governance, Australian universities use a more business-oriented management mechanism; funding associated with full-fee paying international students has become very important for Australian HE while Chinese government funding has been decreasing as well but funds from international students play a minimal financial role.     

高校经济管理实验教学中心建设与效果的实证研究——基于实验教学示范中心申报材料的分析

通过对高校经济管理实验教学示范中心申报材料的分析,发现不同类型、不同层次、不同区域及不同建设经费来源的高校在实验中心建设及成效方面存在显著性差异。研究还发现,建设经费渠道显著地影响着高校经管类实验中心的建设及成效。因此,高校应因地制宜,根据自己的实际情况来进行实验中心的建设;同时,要努力拓宽建设经费渠道,以便更好更快地建设经管类实验中心。     

Evaluative research: a case study of the Teacher Induction Pilot Schemes project 1

This paper uses an earlier conceptual framework in order to promote a dialogue between funding agencies and researchers about the problems and limitations of evaluating the implementation of a major national project in teacher education concerned with the induction of beginning teachers. Eight propositions highlight the principal issues associated with the evaluation contract, with changes in the evalution task team and policy over time, the research‐design, the need for negotiations, the impact of the research upon the action and the difficulties of drawing unambiguous conclusions. It is argued that policy makers, funding bodies and researchers in both developed and developing countries should recognise them as natural features of such projects and should take account of them in the training of researchers and in the monitoring of projects.