Tertiary education: an investigation of location selection criteria and preferences by international students – The case of two Australian universities

This paper identifies and analyzes factors that influence international student selection of universities and the role that education marketing plays in the process. The research for the paper was inspired by work done by Canterbury on education marketing, published in the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education. The study empirically tests key constructs in service marketing. According to Canterbury it is time that higher education marketing theoreticians and practitioners alike looked beyond our similarities to other applications of service marketing to understand how some of our markets and our services might differ. To this end, the current study examines the views of international students undertaking their studies in two universities, one on the east coast and the other on the west coast of Australia. It reports the findings of international students’ choice factors in selecting an Australian university environment.     

Invisible Statues of Colonisation: Regulatory Curriculum Requirements in South African Higher Education

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the South African higher education (HE) system has become increasingly regularised. All programmes offered at South African public universities have to be registered and accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET); the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) under the auspices of the Council on Higher Education (CHE); as well as the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Such accreditation, registration and quality assurance is subject to a growing series of stringent regulatory frameworks that must be adhered to, chief amongst which are the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF) and the Classification of Educational Subject Matter (CESM) manual and the later Addendum. Increased calls from both students and government for curriculum transformation and the decolonisation of HE require a critical review of the regulatory regime as one of the barriers to curriculum transformation at South African universities. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual analysis of the CESM and its regulatory context within a decolonial framework in order to show that the regulatory requirements for curricula have created a rigid and colonised conception of what universities may and may not teach. The CESM categories and their concomitant requirements have become the so-called invisible statues of colonisation based on narrow and morally decadent Western conceptions of academic disciplines in current university curricula.     

Conceptions of Contemporary European Universities: to do research or not to do research?

The article examines the extent to which the notion of a publicly-funded university as an institution engaging in both teaching and research is likely to be sustained in the European higher education space of the future, given the variety of pressures (including funding and mass higher education) on such a conception of a university and changes in how national governments regard the purposes of higher education. Relevant literature on the changing purposes of universities is reviewed. For illustrative purposes, the article uses an example of recent legislation, the 2004 Higher Education Act, in England, whereby research degree awarding powers are no longer a pre-requisite for the conferral of university status. The position in England's higher education system with regard to research and teaching is contrasted with that of a second UK country, Scotland, which has contrasting policies on teaching and research in universities. The article examines the research-teaching debate from the perspective of individual academics, universities and policy-makers, using recent empirical data where available. It is suggested that whilst academics and their institutions (for different reasons) may be in favour of retaining a link between teaching and research and may resist changes to this, policy-makers faced with rising demands on the public purse may see such links as suited only to an academic elite. Such pressures apply equally to other member countries of the European Higher Education space, so the outcomes of this policy debate about the centrality of research and teaching to universities have many implications for the future shape of European higher education.     

Research planning and management in non‐traditional research discipline areas

Abstract

In its drive for higher efficiency and effectiveness in higher education, the Australian Commonwealth Government released its policy on higher education, Higher Education: A Policy Statement during the late 1980s which contributed to the introduction of performance indicators to manage and assess the performance of the higher education system. The research component of annual Commonwealth funding to universities, called the Research Quantum, is now distributed by a set of performance indicators: external research income, publications count and higher degree research completions. This paper analysed the impact of these indicators on the research activities of Australian university academics based on Leibenstein's model of X‐efficiency. Although the impact of performance indicators on university academics was found to follow the pressure‐effort relationship, for some respondents, the increase in effort as a result of heightened pressure had involved strategic behaviour. Two conditions that are identified for the minimisation of an institution's X‐inefficiency despite high staff effort are a high ratio of maximising to non‐maximising decisions for both the staff and institution, and for all the institution's essential objectives/activities, and not just those which are measured by the performance indicators. The implications of these findings for the development and application of performance indicators are discussed.     

The entrepreneurial university and academic discourses: The meta‐synthesis of Higher Education articles

The innovative teaching, knowledge and technology production and societal service activities of academics are largely discussed within the entrepreneurial university discourse in Higher Education journals. Therefore, this research focuses on a meta‐synthesis of Higher Education articles to better understand the concepts of the entrepreneurial university and entrepreneurial academic. After the systematic elimination based on keywords and titles, 25 articles have been selected from the top 10 Higher Education journals in the SCImago Journal Rankings. Content analysis was performed on these articles to highlight the common operational areas in entrepreneurial universities and activities of entrepreneurial academics. The meta‐synthesis shows that, both for universities and academics, entrepreneurship is overwhelmingly characterised by the commercialisation of scholarly activities that enrich institutional income revenue as well as academics’ personal income. However, such an approach can distance universities from their mission of public good; so Higher Education administrators should create mechanisms that would allow both to take place in a balanced way.     

Why study abroad? Sorting of Chinese students across British universities

This research contributes to the booming literature on the mobility of international students in higher education. We analyse university-level factors that affect the sorting of Chinese international students across British universities. We produced a unique data-set merging university-level data from the 2014 UK Higher Education Statistics Agency and the Higher Expectations Survey, supplemented by qualitative evidence from six focus groups for illustrative purposes. Our results, using nationally representative evidence for the first time, confirmed that university prestige is the most important driver for the sorting of Chinese students across British universities, together with further effects of the broader social and cultural offerings that the universities provide. Interestingly, the cost of study and marketing strategies deployed by universities do not seem to drive the Chinese students’ university choices. Our findings underline the importance of diffuse institutional factors such as university rankings and their taken-for-granted status by students themselves.     

Change Readiness among Teaching Staff at Anadolu University,Turkey

Turkey’s Anadolu University is one of the world’s largest mega‐universities. It is engaged in strategic planning in response to changes in the expectations of the Turkish Higher Education Council and the community at large. In re‐examining its vision and strategic directions, Anadolu University needs to be informed on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of its teaching staff, and the systems and support needed to assure their change readiness. This article examines the literature of organizational and educational change and its implications for the university. It reports on a study based on the relevant constructs from the literature and is designed to gauge the extent and nature of teaching staff knowledge, skills, practice, and research in educational and technological change, motivating and de‐motivating factors, change adopter types, and perceptions of the organizational climate for change. It considers the implications of these findings and draws conclusions about what would be needed to improve staff readiness for change.     

Bundled or unbundled? A multi-text corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the relationship between teaching and research in UK universities

Creating and disseminating knowledge through research and teaching has long been regarded as the hallmark of the modern university. However, new university business models have called into question the ‘bundling’ of teaching and research, and sustained research on the relationship between teaching and research has found little evidence of an insoluble connection between the two activities. In this article, we explore the relationship between teaching and research from the perspective of universities’ institutional discourse. We use corpus-assisted discourse analysis to examine the relationship between research and teaching as presented in two sets of institutional texts currently influential in UK Higher Education: Research Excellence Framework environment statements and Teaching Excellence Framework provider submissions (a total of 2143 documents and 12,492,071 words). Our findings show that, while universities emphasise the value of research to their teaching, they do not always emphasise (or sometimes even decry) the influence of teaching on their research. We empirically evidence that, according to what universities themselves write in institutional texts, teaching and research are not always in a mutually beneficial entanglement, but often rather a one-way relationship in which research expertise and institutional prestige are used to bolster claims of teaching excellence. This has implications for the communication of both the vision and the purpose of a university in regulatory exercises and wider policy, but also speaks to the broader idea and practice of being a university in the twenty-first century.     

Executive power and scaled-up gender subtexts in Australian entrepreneurial universities

Deputy Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor positions have proliferated in response to the global, corporatised university landscape [Scott, G., S. Bell, H. Coates, and L. Grebennikov. 2010. “Australian Higher Education Leaders in Times of Change: The Role of Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor.” Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 32 (4): 401–418]. Senior leadership is the sphere where academic and management identities are negotiated and values around the role of the university are decided. This paper examines the changing and gendered nature of the senior leadership setting and its implications for diversity in and of university leadership. The analysis draws from a three-year empirical study funded by the Australian Research Council on leadership in Australian universities. It focuses on executive leaders in three universities – one which is research-intensive, the second, in a regional site, and the third, university of technology. The article argues that the university landscape and its management systems are being restructured in gendered ways. It utilises the notion of organisational gender subtexts to make explicit how gender works through structural and cultural reform.     

Leading in the eye of a storm: how one team of administrators exercised disaster resilience

Higher Education - Global climate change threatens university campuses around the world. However, prior research suggests that universities around the globe tend to prioritize preventing further...     

The third Amendment to the Higher Education Law of the German Federal Republic

The article describes and analyses some of the important changes which have been brought about by the most recent Amendment to the 1976 Higher Education Law. It attempts to show the rationale for some of these changes and to give a flavour of the public debate surrounding the new legislation. The following issues are discussed: university democracy, research, staff structure, the curriculum, the problems of non-university institutions and the position of comprehensive universities.     

“校企合作”项目化教学模式改革探索——以高职市场营销专业为例

文章提出了基于工作过程的高职市场营销专业校企合作教学模式的改革方法,指出高职市场营销专业基于工作过程校企合作开展项目化教学是促进职业教育的人才培养模式改革和有人力资源供给、富有成效地服务地方经济社会发展需要的重要途径。     

Logos,ethos, pathos and the marketing of higher education

ABSTRACT

This article utilises rhetorical analysis as a method to investigate course level marketing communications for undergraduate fashion marketing degrees in England. The purpose of this method is to explore the persuasive appeals of Aristotle’s triad of logos, ethos and pathos, how they are used and how these appeals could differ by university type. Sixteen course pages were analysed, with the analysis of course web pages shows a clear distinction between ‘types’ of university, with Post 92 institutions relying heavily on appeals to emotion (pathos) and giving more focus to ‘value for money’ that would be a concern to their students. Russell Group and Specialist universities rely more on appeals to ethos (credibility) and logos (fact/data) to market their courses. This research finds evidence of market segmentation, demonstrated through the different use of persuasive appeals to express the course focus, and giving insight to their target audience.     

Beyond the Mission Statement: Alternative Futures for Today's Universities

ABSTRACT

Many post-secondary institutions utilize the mission statement as the key tool for positioning and marketing their strategic direction. Unfortunately, most mission statements found in higher education are far too simplistic and general to give substance and direction to differentiation and positioning of universities. This paper presents findings from a three-month participatory action research process at a large urban Canadian university seeking to establish a marketing mind set. Five possible futures reflecting the range of thinking regarding the role of universities emerged from the research process. Each alternative represents separate and different possible directions, the implications of which become more evident by contrast.     

Implementing the Framework Agreement in a small HEI: From principles to practice

‘Leeds University is recruiting its first marketing director – one of a new breed in the sector, equivalent in status to pro vice‐chancellors…According to Leeds, the marketing director will be the “guardian of the brand”’ (Times Higher Education Supplement, 23 July 2004)

‘A brand revamp…is on the cards for Anglia Polytechnic University…[with] marketing work to develop the university’s reputation in a few high‐quality disciplines.’ (Times Higher Education Supplement, 6 August 2004)     

Education,vocationalism and economic recovery: the case against witchcraft1

Abstract

The widening of access to higher education for mature students has been placed on the policy agenda by the government, in part as a response to demographic changes which will reduce the number of young graduates entering the labour market. This article examines the current position of students in the over 30 age group in UK universities with reference to their entrance qualifications, degree attainment and first destinations on leaving university. It compares the experience of men and women in this age group with young students in the conventional undergraduate population and questions whether a university degree is sufficient to overcome the barriers to the labour market experienced by older graduates. Finally it challenges the access model of equal opportunity implicit in the government's White Paper on Higher Education.     

Learning Difficulties of Part‐Time Mature Students

Abstract

The parents of university students are one of the major stakeholders in Higher Education, yet there appears to be little investigation of their views. A postal questionnaire was distributed to a sample of some 640 parents or parent substitutes having at least one child currently taking a first degree at a British university. 335 completed questionnaires were returned. These give a very consistent and homogeneous picture, with no important variations related to university, subject studied, or level of parents’ education, and almost none related to sex of parent. In general, parents take a clearly traditional view of Higher Education, with research as the most important activity of universities followed by teaching students. The latter should gain personal maturity and a useful qualification from their studies. There is a very strong preference for students to live away from home. These views are highly consistent with those of students themselves, both at university and before; but less so with trends in Higher Education seen by many experts.     

Managing Quality by Action Research—Improving Quality Service Delivery in Higher Education as a Marketing Strategy

ABSTRACT

This paper demonstrates how the use of self directed and self initiated research by staff in an International Office in one of Australia's largest universities can be a useful tool in improving the quality performance of service delivery to full fee paying international students as a deliberate means of improving the marketable image of the university, accepting that the university marketing strategy recognises that ‘word of mouth’ or informal marketing forms one part of the overall scheme. This paper describes two action research projects undertaken by staff in the International Office to engender improved quality of service delivery and subsequently an improved image of the university in the process of informal marketing. The results of the action research projects have produced specific outcomes, further planning and changes to management practices in the International Office, all related to improving the quality of services being delivered and the quality of management, a strategy that can be adopted in universities worldwide. Each research project was small, but facilitated changes or improvement to a target, strategically identified and discussed with management. These projects did not occur as strategic parts of an overall marketing plan, but were recognised as making contributions to effective outcomes of the existing marketing process. The paper then discusses the role of management in employee empowerment and the action research process arguing that management's role is to ensure that stimuli such as this are not Stifled.     

Universities’ attractiveness to students: The Darwinism effect

Due to significant government cuts to Higher Education funding in Southern European systems, their already underfunded universities were forced to increasingly compete for students as sources of additional revenue. Concurrently, families and students that continued to afford participation in Higher Education became more selective when choosing a university, realising the riskier investment that Higher Education participation had become. Through a competing destinations model and relying on all Italian private and public universities, this study finds that the competition forces characterising universities’ attractiveness over the last decade have changed since the financial crisis of 2008. In a context of lower demand for Higher Education, the competition for students grew and universities in close proximity were better prepared to face the new challenges, leading to the growth of Higher Education clusters.     

Education for sustainability in university studies: A model for reorienting the curriculum

A decisive factor for achieving a culture of sustainability is university training for future professionals. The aim of this article is to bring new elements to the process of reorienting university studies towards sustainability. Presented here is the ACES model (Curriculum Greening of Higher Education, acronym in Spanish), which is the result of a project involving a network of 11 European and Latin American universities. The methodology of the project is based on participatory action research. The ACES model is defined by 10 characteristics, detailed in this article, which can orientate a diagnosis of the level of curriculum greening and the design and application of the strategies and actions in order to facilitate incorporating the sustainability dimension in higher education. The potentialities and limitations found are also discussed. The ACES model has started a process for reorienting higher education studies towards sustainability.