The pedagogical benefits of enacting positive psychology practices through a student–faculty partnership approach to academic development

Academic development that supports the enactment of positive psychology practices through student–faculty pedagogical partnership can increase faculty confidence and capacity in their first year in a new institution. When student partners practice affirmation and encouragement of strengths-based growth, processes of faculty acclimation and self-authoring can be accelerated. This article presents a student–faculty pedagogical partnership program and positive psychology practices that focus on faculty strengths and capacities as the foundation for reinforcing and revising existing pedagogical strategies and for sustaining energy for continued development. It combines collaborative autoethnographic and comparative case study approaches to investigate the pedagogical benefits of these practices.     

Improving higher education practice through student evaluation systems: is the student voice being heard?

Many higher education institutions use student evaluation systems as a way of highlighting course and lecturer strengths and areas for improvement. Globally, the student voice has been increasing in volume, and capitalising on student feedback has been proposed as a means to benefit teacher professional development. This paper examines the student evaluations at a university in Trinidad and Tobago in an effort to determine whether the student voice is being heard. The research focused on students’ responses to the question, ‘How do you think this course could be improved?’ Student evaluations were gathered from five purposefully selected courses taught at the university during 2011–2012 and then again one year later, in 2012–2013. This allowed for an analysis of the selected courses. Whilst the literature suggested that student evaluation systems are a valuable aid to lecturer improvement, this research found little evidence that these evaluations actually led to any real significant changes in lecturers’ practice.     

Greater engagement in and responsibility for learning: what happens when students cross the threshold of student–faculty partnership

The importance of student engagement in higher education is increasingly recognised. As a result, questions have arisen regarding how best to inspire and support students in taking greater interest in and more active responsibility for their learning. Student–faculty partnerships that position students as consultants in explorations of pedagogical practice inspire and support engagement and responsibility that carry over from those partnerships into students' classroom participation. However, such partnership constitutes for many students a ‘threshold concept’. Because partnering with faculty in analyses and revisions of teaching and learning both requires and inspires students to redefine their roles, responsibilities and sense of themselves, student–faculty partnership proves troublesome, transformative, discursive, irreversible and integrative. In a case study of one partnership programme at a liberal arts institution in the Northeastern USA, we discuss how crossing the threshold constituted by student–faculty partnership in pedagogical exploration fosters in students greater engagement in, and responsibility for, learning. Implications for higher education include the potential of reconceptualising our classrooms as more democratic spaces and the work of teaching and learning as more of a shared responsibility.     

The personal tutor–student relationship: student expectations and experiences of personal tutoring in higher education

The personal tutor plays a key role in the student experience at university, and personal tutoring embodies the student relationship with the university, suggesting that it has the potential to provide insights beyond that specific relationship to the institution and higher education context. A focus session with first year undergraduate students explored expectations and experiences of personal tutoring from the student perspective. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore students’ lived experiences, and identified superordinate themes of expectations, experiences and relationships, with cluster themes including independence and authenticity. Developing a positive and genuine relationship with the personal tutor was found to ‘buffer’ against some of the first year challenges and contribute towards a sense of belonging. Importantly, this study provides evidence that experiencing poor personal tutoring is worse than not having a personal tutor at all, as this can lead to students experiencing strong negative emotions and re-evaluating their decision to go to university. Implications of these findings in the current higher education context of fee-paying students and competing institutional demands are discussed.     

Scottish higher education, 1987–2001: expansion through diversion

A pressing question about the expansion of higher education is whether it tends to be inclusive, in the sense of bringing in larger proportions of persons from disadvantaged backgrounds, or diversifying, in that higher education tends to differentiate as it expands, or both, by bringing more persons into an increasingly stratified system of higher education. This paper addresses the question with evidence on higher education expansion in Scotland. Data are drawn from six waves of the Scottish School Leavers Survey from the late 1980s to the start of the new millennium. Binary and multinomial logit models are estimated to examine changes in inequality during this period, which was characterised by substantial expansion in both secondary qualifications and postsecondary enrolment. The results show that, in contrast to the general pattern of stable inequality observed in most nations, overall social inequalities in Scottish higher education enrolment declined over time. However, this decline did not occur in all sectors but was limited to the lowest-status institutions. These findings illustrate how expansion can serve both inclusive and diversifying ends.     

The “real value” of field trips in the early weeks of higher education: the student perspective

The benefits attributed to field trips by science educators are: social development; observation and perception skills; giving meaning to learning; providing first-hand experience and stimulating interest and motivation. Arguably, the “real value” of field work is attributed by students. In this study, 100 first-year students took part in an analysis of the value of a residential field trip. The field trip was a purposeful combination of personal development and academic activities. Pairwise comparison showed that the attributed value score for “Personal and Social Development” was significantly higher than scores for “Provide First-hand Experience” and “Observation and Perception Skills”. The attributed value for “Stimulate Interest and Motivation in the Subject” also scored more highly than “Provide First-hand Experience”, and “Observation and Perception Skills”; “Give meaning to Learning” was significantly higher than that for “Observation and Perception Skills”. In addition, the “educator” was also able to significantly improve students’ scores for “Stimulate Interest and Motivation”. This insight into students’ perceptions of field work recasts our thinking as educators; social capital is a key factor in student persistence and subsequence academic success. Field trips should be considered a valuable addition to retention strategies in a way that is tangible for students themselves.     

Staff–student collaboration: student learning from working together to enhance educational practice in higher education

The association of research and teaching, and the roles and responsibilities of students and academic staff and the nature of their interrelationship are important issues in higher education. This article presents six undergraduate student researchers’ reports of their learning from collaborating with academic staff to design, undertake and evaluate enquiries into aspects of learning and teaching at a UK University. The students’ reflections suggest that they identified learning in relation to employability skills and graduate attributes and more importantly in relation to their perceptions of themselves as learners and their role in their own learning and that of others. This article draws attention to the potential of staff–student collaborative, collective settings for developing pedagogic practice and the opportunities they can provide for individual student's learning on their journey through higher education.     

Who owns the curriculum of higher education?

The European University has passed through four main phases of dominance of the curriculum since its medieval origin. They are (1) priestly, (2) aristocratic, (3) professional, (4) democratic. Vestigial remains of (1), (2) and (3) are still with us and (4), the rise of student/consumer sovereignty, has implications which the British universities still fail to accept. We need universities for the scholarly few and higher education, pluralistically funded, for everyone.     

What we can learn from the use of student data in efficiency analysis within the context of higher education?

The main purpose of the paper is to estimate the efficiency of a big public university in Italy using individual student-level data, modeling exogenous variables in human capital formation through a heteroscedastic stochastic frontier approach. Specifically, a production function for tertiary education has been estimated with emphasis on inefficiency and its determinants, taking explicitly into account the role played by students’ socio-economic and educational background. The empirical evidence, based on 48,338 freshmen, leads towards the use of individual-level data in order to control for the portion of the student academic achievement affected by the personal characteristics and effort, and the portion ascribable to the resources or organization of the institutional activities. Within the limit of external validity allowed by operating within only one university, efficiency scores derived from using both individual-level and aggregate level data do offer an important instrument to the university and governance structures.     

Routes through higher education: BME students and the development of a ‘specialisation of consciousness’

With changing demographics and the advent of mass higher education, there has been a significant impact on graduate transitions which has led to greater inequalities in access to social support during the transitionary period between undergraduate study and entrance into the labour market. This article explores the experiences of students in their final year of undergraduate study by drawing on 43 interviews with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students. Using Bourdieu, we argue that BME students preparing to enter the labour market display a ‘specialisation of consciousness’: a set of practices framed by their prior background and experience, choice of university and the support derived from attending university. ‘Specialisation of consciousness’ is an ongoing process in which BME students identify and understand racial inequalities in higher education and accept the limiting consequences these have on transitions into the labour market or further study.     

Teachers and students’ perception of competence-based education in the agricultural higher education system (Case of a student cooperative in Iran)

Purpose: This quantitative study sought to investigate the perceptions of teachers and students regarding competency-based education (CBE) principles at the College of Agriculture at Razi University.

Design: This research is a comparative analysis of two groups. The first group consists of undergraduate and graduate students majoring in agriculture who are members and non-members of student cooperatives (n?=?256). The second group consists of agricultural faculty members (n?=?59).

Findings: The results of this study show that students and teachers have different views with regard to the extent to which CBE principles are practiced in the College of Agriculture. Moreover, students with different learning patterns had different perceptions regarding the extent to which CBE is practiced, whereas teachers with different teaching patterns had the same perception of the application of CBE principles in the College of Agriculture.

Practical implications: This study has practical implications for agricultural higher education in general and colleges of agriculture in particular. Colleges of agriculture across Iran could encourage their students to establish and engage in student cooperatives so that the ‘what’ and ‘how’ aspects of CBE are put into practice.

Theoretical implications: This study has theoretical implications for CBE principles. For example, student cooperatives can be utilized by faculty members as one of the main strategies for developing CBE in agricultural colleges.

Originality/value: This study is original in that it moves from theory to practice when considering CBE.     

Formative computer‐based assessment in higher education: the effectiveness of feedback in supporting student learning

A formative computer‐based assessment (CBA) was one of three instruments used for assessment in a Bachelor of Education course at Queen’s University (Ontario, Canada) with an enrolment of approximately 700 students. The formative framework fostered a self‐regulated learning environment whereby feedback on the CBA was used to support rather than measure student learning. The four types of feedback embedded in the CBA included: (a) directing students to a resource, (b) rephrasing a question, (c) providing additional information and (d) providing the correct answer. Although students originally reported positive experiences with the formative CBA, two follow‐up surveys revealed that they found the four types of feedback to be moderately effective in supporting their learning.     

Does continuous assessment in higher education support student learning?

A distinction is often made in the literature about “assessment of learning” and “assessment for learning” attributing a formative function to the latter while the former takes a summative function. While there may be disagreements among researchers and educators about such categorical distinctions there is consensus that both types of assessment are often used concurrently in higher education institutions. A question that often arises when formative and summative assessment practices are used in continuous assessment is the extent to which student learning can be facilitated through feedback. The views and perceptions of students and academics from a discipline in the Humanities across seven higher education institutions were sought to examine the above question. A postal survey was completed by academics, along with a survey administered to a sample of undergraduate students and a semi-structured interview was conducted with key academics in each of the seven institutions. This comparative study highlights issues that concern both groups about the extent to which continuous assessment practices facilitate student learning and the challenges faced. The findings illustrate the need to consider more effective and efficient ways in which feedback can be better used to facilitate student learning.     

Applying brand management to higher education through the use of the Brand Flux Model™ – the case of Arcadia University

Within an increasingly more competitive landscape, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are becoming more marketized and promotionalized. Brand building is becoming a strategic administrative goal, yet clear brand management models are lacking. This paper utilizes the Brand Flux Model^? to assist in tracking the fluxing nature or historical patterns of branding practices, and provides a graphic representation for following changes in branding or changes in position that result in either Reinforcing an existing brand, or Revitalizing, Refocusing, Renaming, or Retiring a brand. Through a case analysis of an HEI that eventually underwent a radical renaming, the various phases of the Brand Flux Model^? are explored and the critical aspect of ongoing brand management efforts is reinforced. The paper also highlights why periodic brand audits are necessary to ascertain that what the institution believes it is promoting and projecting is consistent with the actual brand image held by stakeholders, and suggests that benchmarking brand management efforts and correlating them with the stage and actions of the Brand Flux Model^? can assist in understanding branding as a growth platform for service organizations. For practitioners, this study provides a model to assist in brand management and renaming scenarios, and offers insight into channels for optimal corporate strategy. It demonstrates that making changes in branding or changes in position in order to Revitalize, Refocus (rebrand and reposition) or even Rename a brand, and then Reinforce those decisions, is critical to maintaining brand health.     

‘Widening Access’ to higher education: the reproduction of university hierarchies through policy enactment

Patterns of participation in higher education (HE) in the UK, as elsewhere, have been marked by social inequalities for decades. UK Governments have responded with a plethora of policies and agendas aimed at addressing this broad social issue. However, little is known about how higher education institutions (HEIs) interpret and ‘enact’ these policies in relation to institution-specific contexts. Drawing on concepts from policy sociology this paper examines how HEIs in one nation state, Wales, enact its Government’s policy on ‘widening access’ to higher education. Interviews with a range of ‘policy actors’ along with analyses of institutional ‘widening access’ policy documents, reveal divergences between HEIs in how this policy agenda is interpreted and delivered. These differences reflect institution-specific contexts – not least their internal politics and assumptions about the type of students they admit, but also their interests and priorities in relation to their positions within a global, marketised, HE system. The implications of this for the reproduction of university hierarchies in the UK, as well as social inequalities more generally are brought to the fore.     

‘The accommodation I make is turning a blind eye’: faculty support for student mothers in higher education

The levels of support which faculty provide to students have been linked to a number of positive effects on students such as lower rates of attrition, greater satisfaction with college life, enhanced self-concept, improved academic performance and more likelihood of remaining enrolled in college through stressful life periods. There are surely fewer periods of life that are busier than new motherhood. This paper presents research carried out at a higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates. We look at the ways in which faculty interact with new student mothers and employ interviews to explore ways in which faculty acknowledge and offer academic and pastoral support to the new mothers. Their perceptions of students’ coping strategies when they combine motherhood and college studies are reported, and the ways in which faculty navigate college policy which relates to the student mothers. Faculty saw themselves as being extremely supportive and flexible towards new mothers. Whilst undergraduate student motherhood was uncommon in their home countries, it was generally felt that the increased organization, efficiency, time management and resilience witnessed in student mothers were assets to the college community. This study also has wider applicability to faculty support of non-traditional students in other settings.