Quality assurance for public higher education: context,strategies and challenges in Kenya

Quality assurance (QA) mechanisms used to be highly dependent on national administrative traditions but nowadays there is a convergence of mechanisms. Compared to more developed higher education (HE) systems in the world, QA systems in Africa are still at an infant stage and thus confronted by many challenges. The purpose of this article is to present some of the findings derived from a study analysing the crucial issues and unique challenges facing Kenya's public HE as it struggles to develop QA mechanisms. Using purposive sampling, the researcher chose two public universities who indicated their willingness to participate and a national QA Agency (QAA). The study was done through in-depth interviews and a review of historical materials and records. Overall, respondents strongly emphasised the need for Kenyan universities to have compulsory and effective external and internal QA mechanisms. They indicated that the trends facing HE make it necessary for HE in Kenya to review their traditional QA structures and to create new systems of external QA. The numerous comments in this research indicate deficiency not only in the QAA focus and work but also in the internal QA frameworks within public universities.     

The role of private universities in the provision of higher education in Uganda: Growth and challenges

Abstract

Although the first private university in Uganda was founded in 1988 and the private university sector has since grown rapidly to become one of the most prominent features of higher education (HE) in Uganda, the contribution of private universities (PUs) to the provision of HE has remained largely unexplored and as such, less understood. The purpose of this paper, then, is to analyse the contribution of PUs to the provision of HE in Uganda, using theories of the non-profit organisations and Geiger's conceptual framework about rationales for growth of the PUs. The paper is based on data that were collected through qualitative interviews conducted in 2008 with six faculty deans from Uganda Christian University (UCU); reviews of paper and web-based documents from the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and the PUs in Uganda; and reviews of national and internal literature about private higher education (PHE). Data analysis reveals that excess demand for HE, per se, was not responsible for the growth of the PUs in Uganda; instead, it created opportunities for individuals and organisations to establish PUs. Because of their diverse backgrounds and the policy environment in which they exist, PUs undertake various roles in the provision of HE.     

Contract cheating in UK higher education: A covert investigation of essay mills

Contract cheating is currently a concern for universities and the higher education (HE) sector. It has been brought into the spotlight in recent years through the growth of online essay mills, where students can easily commission and purchase written assessment responses. This study contributes to the wider literature on academic integrity in HE by examining the phenomenon of contract cheating from a supply‐side perspective, thereby considering the essay mill offering and student interaction with it. The authors covertly engage with five essay mills, before successfully completing an assignment purchase with two of these providers. The pre‐purchase stage of an assignment transaction is first examined, unpacking ten reassurance cues used by essay mill providers in the text of their websites. These reassurance cues help to ensure the attractiveness of the essay mill product to potential student consumers. The analysis then moves to explore the ethical discourses around academic integrity that essay mills provide, revealing inconsistencies in their stance towards the potential for academic misconduct from the use of essay mill services. Finally, the article explores the quality of the essay mill product, through grading and Turnitin^® reports for the two purchased essay mill assignments. Following recent calls for the outlawing of essay mills, this article provides a timely addition to current understanding of this phenomenon, and the associated challenges of contract cheating in HE.     

Managing International Branch Campuses: What Do We Know?

Over the last decade, the growth of the international branch campus (IBC) has been one of the most striking developments in the internationalisation of higher education. There are now over 200 IBCs across the world, mostly in the Middle East and East and South‐east Asia. Despite the growing numbers of IBCs and the considerable financial and reputational risk they pose to their home universities, relatively little is known about the challenges of managing these foreign outposts. This paper reviews the growing, but still fragmented, literature in this increasingly important sector of higher education. It finds that managers of IBCs are faced with a range of challenges, which primarily stem from dealing with key stakeholder groups: students, staff, home and host country quality regulators, the home university and the host government, as well as the IBC's local joint venture partners. It concludes that further work is required to better understand the factors which influence and constrain IBC managers in balancing the competing interests of stakeholders.     

Positioning university as a brand: distinctions between the brand promise of Russell Group, 1994 Group,University Alliance,and Million+ universities

Branding is now widely used by higher education (HE) institutions, yet questions still surround the transference of private sector concepts to a university context. This article reports on findings from studies that investigated the brand promises of four UK universities – one from each of the HE ‘mission groups’. The evidence indicated that, contrary to existing published presumptions, there is considerable potential for the application of branding in HE, but in differing and nuanced ways. Clear branding themes emerged across the cases such as environment, experiences, aspiration, and global positioning. While these enabled the universities to position their brands with distinction, the overriding method used across the cases – and the key point of differentiation – proved to be the presence of a core brand promise.     

Ivory-tower or market-oriented enterprise: the role of higher education institutions in shaping graduate employability in the domain of science

This article researches higher education (HE) managers’ perception of graduate professional success and higher education institutions’ (HEI) activity aimed at enhancing graduate employability. The issue is worth examining not only because of growing relative unemployment rates among HE graduates but also because it is a part of a heated discussion on the contemporary evolution of HEIs. We analysed 36 semi-structured interviews with representatives of HEIs offering studies in the field of science in six countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey). Our analysis showed that there are three approaches observed, depending to a large extent on the balance between different HE stakeholders within subdomains (triple-helix theory). Our results support the hypothesis of diversification of HEIs’ models varying from the traditional ivory-tower-type university (with a dominating role of academic oligarchy) to the market-oriented educational enterprise (where the business sector is a key driver of change).     

Higher Education Research in Asia: a Publication and Co‐Publication Analysis

This study explores higher education research in Asia. Drawing on scientometrics, the mapping of science and social network analysis, this paper examines the publications of 38 specialised journals on higher education over the past three decades. The findings indicate a growing number of higher education research publications but the proportion of Asian publications in relation to the total world publications in higher education research remains stationary. The higher education research community in Asia is heavily concentrated in a few countries and universities, resting on a relatively small number of core scholars who publish research in the international specialised higher education journals. In response to increasing challenges in Asian higher education systems, the paper suggests that the higher education research community in Asia needs to be expanded and include more regional and international collaborations     

Measuring Progress: an Evaluative Study of Aimhigher South West 2003–2006

The persistence of the social class gap in higher education (HE) participation presents one of the biggest challenges for the English HE sector at the start of the 21st century. This paper considers the evidence collected by the Aimhigher partnerships in the South West of England to assess the progress towards closing the social class gap in HE participation within their region. Since Aimhigher is a complex, long‐term initiative, these partnerships have adopted a multi‐strand approach to evaluation through a combination of secondary data, activity and quality indicators, and a longitudinal tracking study. Encouragingly, the social class gap is beginning to narrow as the number of applicants from upper social groups has fallen slightly while those from other social groups increased by 25 per cent between 2000 and 2004. HE awareness, aspirations, attainment and educational progression are also increasing. The paper raises three policy issues concerning targeting, sustainability and vocational progression. Engaging the ‘right’ beneficiaries remains a key concern. The tracking study indicates that, although over 80 per cent of Aimhigher beneficiaries have the ability to progress to HE and would be first‐generation entrants, only one in three comes from a manual background. The findings, however, indicate that compared with their peers whose parents have HE experience, these first‐generation entrants were less well informed about HE, less likely to aspire to HE by year 11, to progress to level 3 or to study A‐levels. These findings suggest that the focus on first‐generation entrants remains appropriate. Second, although wider participation in HE is beginning to happen, there is still a long way to go. Sustaining the Aimhigher programme into at least the medium term is essential if it is to complete the work it has begun and maintain the trust of the communities within which it works. Finally, the paper finds that the Aimhigher cohort includes learners who want to take a vocational route into and through HE and who are at present less well served by current provision.     

Procuring a sustainable future: an action learning approach to the development and modelling of ethical and sustainable procurement practices

This paper contributes to an understanding of the processes by which organisational actors learn how to affect positive and sustainable social change in their local region through action learning, action research and appreciative inquiry. The paper is based on a critically reflective account of key findings from an ongoing action research project, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The project is an attempt to alleviate poverty in the Leeds City Region through the identification and spread of ‘good practice’ in large local organisations. The paper is based on insights into the tensions involved in accomplishing such modes of action research and action learning in this particular context, and how these findings can relate to similar research in other domains of inquiry, action and cross-organisational learning. Through this, the paper discusses the inherent challenges faced when attempting to use action research and action learning approaches to help large organisations to learn and develop as ethical and sustainable agents.     

Different paths,one goal: Southeast Asia as knowledge society

The article charts the extent to which selected societies of Southeast Asia can be seen as knowledge societies. Beginning from the premise that the global world of knowledge is changing from the former bipolar model of the West and the Rest, towards a more multi-polar world in which Asia figures more prominently, the analysis proceeds to use China, the most prominent example of this shift to the East, as a benchmark for Southeast Asia. Charting China's rising knowledge profile is followed by a consideration of the notion of a knowledge society, including the work of Nico Stehr and Manuel Castells, and its transformation into the contemporary, and more instrumental, knowledge economy. The five Southeast Asian states of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam are selected for analysis, revealing both a common intent of moving towards a knowledge society (often now more commonly expressed as a knowledge economy), but rather different outcomes, and knowledge profiles. National innovation indices are compared; as are research and development (R&D) measures, including by sector, production of papers and citations, and moves to develop “World Class” universities, against a backdrop of brain drain effects, and the differential impact of corruption.     

Private tutoring in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: policy choices and implications

Private tutoring has become increasingly visible in Eastern Europe and Central Asia since the collapse of the socialist bloc in the early 1990s. Yet, this unprecedented growth of private tutoring, in its varied forms and arrangements, has remained largely unnoticed by policymakers in the region. Based on the data from the cross‐national studies of private tutoring in 12 countries, this explorative study examines factors driving the demand for private tutoring and discusses government responses to private tutoring in Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine (research conducted in 2004–2005) and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan (research conducted in 2005–2006). The article analyzes various policy contexts and examines challenges that confront education stakeholders and policymakers as they formulate their responses to the rapidly‐spreading and constantly‐changing phenomenon of private tutoring. Finally, the article discusses whether, and to what extent, the existence of regulatory mechanisms influences the scope, nature, and implications of private tutoring across the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.     

Supply issues for science academics in Australia: now and in the future

Australia, like the rest of the developed world, is in the midst of dealing with notable issues related to the age structure of its academic workforce. These issues are widespread and have been articulated in the Australian context most comprehensively by Hugo (2008). This paper investigates issues with demographic change and other key factors related to the desirability of a science or mathematics academic career within Australian universities. It draws on the findings of a research project undertaken in 2008 for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The findings show that while demographic issues are not as dire for science academics compared to the entire sector, issues relating to tenure, workload and retaining young science academics in Australia are a threat to the long-term sustainability of science faculties in Australian universities.     

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.     

Skills development for the knowledge economy in Asia: Some conclusions from the OECD experience

The development of a knowledge-based economy relies greatly on developing the skills and education needed for inclusive and sustainable development so that growth will reach all parts of the society. Addressing skills development for all is challenging for all OECD countries; Asian economies are working towards developing integrated pathways of skills and employment. This paper addresses some key aspects of skills development in OECD countries through a case study of small and medium enterprises as a key sector in both OECD and Asian economies. It extracts some lessons from this analysis that apply to the unique nature of skills development in Asia.     

Student voice and engagement: connecting through partnership

This paper draws on research conducted across an English higher education partnership to investigate the ways in which student voice was engaged in further education colleges offering university awards through partnership arrangements. Such collaborations are characterised by the marginal presence of higher education students in an environment that is dominated by further education structures, culture and practice. This provides challenges for both colleges and universities in developing higher education student identity and appropriate mechanisms of student engagement that comply with expectations within the higher education sector but also recognise the contextual situation of students within the college environment. It is argued that student partnership collaboration can be a positive driver in an increasingly marketised global environment, where student voice and feedback mechanisms are at the forefront of quality assessments and institutional reputation. An ideal types framework is suggested as a heuristic device for the evaluation of college strategies of engagement.     

Trainee teachers in unpaid teaching posts: volunteering,risk and vulnerability

This paper explores the experiences and perceptions of a little-known category of in-service trainee teachers in the Further Education (FE) and Skills sector in England: those who meet the practical teaching requirements of their course mainly through unpaid teaching as ‘volunteers’. The paper reports findings from mixed-methods research which used surveys, interviews and focus groups involving trainee teachers within a large FE–HE partnership. Themes relating to motivations to volunteer, the development of teacher identity within marginal roles, and the risks associated with unpaid teaching are discussed. For increasing numbers of trainees, unpaid teaching provides an opportunity for career entry. However, the quality of teaching experience gained is mixed, with some trainees receiving high levels of support, whilst others experience marginalisation and limitations on their developing teacher identities. The paper highlights the specific challenges to professionalism posed by unpaid teaching within the FE and Skills sector, and relates these challenges to a broader context of insecurity and risk. As work experience becomes an increasingly valuable commodity, this paper illustrates the pressures individuals face as they exchange payment and security for the opportunities volunteering provides.     

A struggle of civilization against barbarism: about universities as autonomous zones

This paper takes a longue durée look at universities at the core of the world economy, where the modern idea of intellectuals as trustees of the reflexive structures of society has achieved its most enduring institutional form. To wrest thinking away from a conformism that makes us see universities as nothing more than organisations amongst organisations forever in process of adapting themselves to the exigencies of world ordering, we focus on three moments of rupture: (i) the ‘prehistory of higher education’, when the work of the medieval renaissance was ‘largely done’ and original universities where founded in the folds of the nascent European économie-monde, (ii) the crisis of the Bretton Woods world order, and (iii) the present juncture     

Skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR): The case of Tajikistan

Vocational education and training (VET) can contribute to the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A key to economic and social progress is the training of better-qualified individuals and skilled enterprise staff who will be more productive, improving goods, increasing incomes and adapting to changing markets. Experts from international cooperation agencies see VET projects as suitable instruments for poverty alleviation in target groups working in the informal sector and rural economy. The recent shortages and high prices of rural products in many developing countries support this position. For the past two years a skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR) project has been running in rural areas of Central Asia to address rural poverty. The approach and findings of the project are discussed against the background of the international debate on VET in the context of poverty alleviation. It is hoped that the conclusions will contribute to optimising the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of similar VET projects.     

What motivates Chinese women to study in the UK and how do they perceive their experience?

This paper addresses two crucial questions facing the UK HE sector: what motivates female Chinese globally mobile graduates to continue their education in the UK?; and, are they satisfied with their experience? First, this mixed methods study revealed that the primary motivations were: early and mid-career gains, competitive advantages derived from completing a 1-year master’s programme, favourable exchange rates, and the opportunity to travel. Alongside these, a number of challenges and concerns were also noted, including: high UK tuition fees and living costs, shifting Chinese employer perceptions of an overseas education, and punitive UK visa regulations. Second, findings indicated mid- to high levels of satisfaction with the experience. Students believed that the main strengths and benefits of a UK-based education related to the high levels of tutorial participation and interaction which facilitated increased subject-matter engagement, as well as to the development of interpretation and application skills. Nevertheless, respondents reported that there are many ways in which we need to improve, such as by: offering clearer language guidance, closing the assessment requirements expectations gap, offering more opportunities for classroom participation, cutting class sizes, reducing fees, and ironically, attracting students from geographical zones other than China to facilitate academic development and programme diversity.