Equitable research: a bridge too far?

This paper is written in response to Angela Chapman and Allan Feldman’s research study, “Cultivation of science identity through authentic science in an urban high school”. I utilize this forum piece to extend the call for “awakening a dialogue” that critically assesses the effectiveness of current K-12 science education research in addressing the needs of populations of color. I take the opportunity to first discuss elements of what an equitable research focus might look like. I finish by critiquing and ultimately commending the authors on the degree to which they succeed in demonstrating an equitable approach to the design and carrying out of their study.     

Learning in higher education – how cognitive and learning styles matter

The cognitive and learning styles research domain is a highly complex one which has recently been the focus of rigour–relevance debates (Coffield et al. 2004; Evans and Sadler-Smith 2006; Rayner 2006). There is considerable support for the existence and value of style as a construct (Sternberg 1996) even though further work is needed to evidence greater impact on practice. This paper shares the work and experiences of one international research community – the European Learning Styles Information Network (ELSIN) and its attempts to advance understanding of the theory and application of cognitive and learning styles in higher education and other contexts. In so doing it highlights the principles around the development, collation and integration of research as exemplified by the ELSIN experience and considered by other research domains in higher education. Future directions for cognitive and learning styles research within the context of higher education are outlined along with the role of ELSIN in highlighting and leading on these.     

Vocational education and the binary higher education system in the Netherlands: higher education symbiosis or vocational education dichotomy?

The Netherlands has a binary higher education system in which academic education and higher professional education at EQF levels 5–8 co-exist. There is also secondary vocational education at EQF levels 1 up to 4. In this paper, I analyse policy documents resulting from the Bologna Process and argue that under neo-liberal conditions, higher professional education brings opportunities for both students and employers, but also creates a socio-economic tension in terms of employability. The gap between higher professional education and secondary vocational education adds to the formation of a labour market in which higher professional education graduates are prepared to an international labour market but employability pressure is being put on lower skilled employees, creating unequal employability opportunities for vocational education graduates.     

Shifting the blame in higher education – social inclusion and deficit discourses

The principles of social inclusion have been embraced by institutions across the higher education sector but their translation into practice through pedagogy is not readily apparent. This paper examines perceptions of social inclusion and inclusive pedagogies held by academic staff at an Australian university. Of specific interest were the perceptions of teaching staff with regard to diverse student populations, particularly students from low socio-economic (LSES) backgrounds, given the institution's reasonably high proportion of LSES student enrolment (14%). A mixed-method approach was utilised: (i) in-depth interviews with a representative sample of academic staff and (ii) an online survey targeting all academic staff across the institution. The results point to the dual responsibilities of students and institutions in enacting inclusivity in order to move beyond reductive standpoints that simply apportion blame.     

Value types in higher education – students’ perspective

The purpose of the paper is to propose the service-dominant logic in marketing as a framework for analysing the value co-creation process in the higher education sector and present the results of a quantitative study (a survey) conducted among business students from four Polish public universities. The results of the study led to identification of 40 factors of importance, later classified into seven value types expected by business students from their universities: functional, relational, intrinsic, epistemic, conditional, extrinsic and emotional value, with the first three types of value being the most important from students’ perspective. These findings lead to several managerial implications regarding the teaching methods and academic curriculum design, which are presented in the final section of the paper.     

Mix and match? Further and higher education links in post-devolution Scotland

This article examines the links between Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) at the time when the power to determine Scottish educational policy was being devolved to the new Scottish Parliament. It examines the educational context in which elections to the new Parliament took place especially questions of access and provision. Events following the elections, where educational policy became a key issue, are then outlined. We conclude by speculating about the future of FE-HE links in post-devolution Scotland.     

Introducing school-based assessment as part of junior cycle reform in Ireland: a bridge too far?

Assessments and examinations play a critical role in certifying student achievement in secondary education. Prompted by concerns about the negative effects of examinations on curriculum, teaching and learning, elements of School-Based Assessment (SBA) have been introduced into certification systems, sometimes modelled on practice in other jurisdictions. This case study investigates factors influencing efforts to introduce SBA in lower secondary education in the Republic of Ireland and reactions from the main stakeholders. Policymakers’ perspectives were informed by national consultations, results of international assessments, trends towards skills-based curricula and practices in relation to SBA as part of high-stakes assessment internationally. Despite broad enthusiasm for the reforms from most stakeholders, teachers remained opposed. A series of compromise proposals shifted the reforms far from their intended nature, leaving in place a dual system of assessment that incorporates continued centralised examining by the state along with some non-certified SBA by teachers. The efficacy of this solution in relation to the original aims of the reform remains to be seen. The analysis explores relevant substantive and methodological issues. The complex interplay between international, national and very local influences on policy implementation is highlighted, suggesting the need for due diligence in anticipating and managing stakeholder responses to reform initiatives. Readers’ attention is also drawn to the intricacy of undertaking qualitative case study inquiry and the need for awareness in relation to possible alternative interpretations of data.     

Measuring academic progress: the course–credit system in American higher education

The course–credit system in the United States is the standard means of measuring academic work. Typically, an academic degree is the sum of required and other courses measured by the course credit system. Generally, each course consists of 3 credits (the meaning of each credit is one hour of in-class or laboratory work over a 16 week semester). The system is a means of measuring the time spent on study and not the quality of the work. Since the 19th century, the course–credit system has been the major “currency” in American higher education.     

Opportunity or exploitation? Women and quality assurance in higher education

Based on interviews with 18 UK women academics and managers on quality and power in higher education, this article interrogates the impact of quality assurance discourses and practices on women in higher education. Micro‐level analysis of the effects of audit and the evaluative state seem to suggest that hegemonic masculinities and gendered power relations are being reinforced by the emphasis on competition, targets, audit trails and performance (Morley, 2003a Morley, L. 2003a. Quality and power in higher education, Buckingham: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Furthermore, pedagogic space for exploring social justice issues is closing with the emphasis on learning outcomes and student consumerism (Morley, 2003b Morley, L. 2003b. “Reconstructing students as consumers: new settlements of power or the politics of assimilation?”. In Higher education and the lifecourse, Edited by: Slowey, M. and Watson, D. Buckingham: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Yet women are also gaining new visibility as a consequence of the creation of a new cadre of quality managers. Quality assurance, as a regime of power, appears to offer both repressive and creative potential for women. This article will explore whether quality signs and practices are gendered and whether these represent opportunity or exploitation for women in the academy.     

OBE,RPL and adult education: good bedfellows in higher education in South Africa?

As its title suggests, this paper explores the compatibility of outcomes-based education (OBE), the recognition of prior learning (RPL) and adult education in higher education in South Africa. OBE and RPL entered the consciousness of South African educators in the 1990s, when policymakers, responding to economic and political imperatives to develop a more skilled and flexible workforce, turned to overseas models of integrated education and training systems. OBE and RPL are often described as ‘learner-centred practices’, meaning that learning goals, teaching and assessment processes, content and pace of learning are mutually determined by the tutor and student. Such practices are grounded in a humanistic approach to adult education which places emphasis on the person as a holistic being and allows for considerable differences which characterize mature adult learners. The paper explores the relationship between OBE, RPL and the andragogical model of adult education proposed by Malcolm Knowles, whose theories have acquired the status of established doctrine in South Africa. The paper points to areas of compatibility and difference between OBE, RPL and adult education, and concludes that problems which arise in introducing OBE and RPL in higher education have more to do with features of the context, and the processes of design and implementation, than with inherent defects in the theories underpinning them.     

Monitoring of education for sustainable development in Germany – insights from early childhood education,school and higher education

In Germany, the implementation of the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for sustainable development (ESD) 2015–2019 aims to implement ESD more profoundly within the structures of Germany’s educational system. In this context, a national monitoring has been set up in order to analyze the extent and quality of ESD implementation in all educational areas. The paper contains the results of an indicator-based desk research comprising a content analysis of key documents in three areas of education: early childhood education, school education and higher education over a period of 5 years (2011–2016). Overall, the main results indicate that, at the level of key documents, the goal of a broad implementation of ESD is not yet achieved, while there are considerable differences among the federal states. ESD and related concepts can be found more frequently particularly in documents that are more recent. At the same time, ESD is increasingly predominating other educational concepts such as environmental education. The results are one component of a comprehensive monitoring process of ESD-implementation on the level of documents and offer important insights relevant for further (political) activities aiming at a mainstreaming of ESD.     

Stairway to employment? Internships in higher education

This article aims to shed light on the current debate regarding the role of internships in higher education in graduates’ employability. In specific, it analyses empirical data on a large-scale study of Portuguese first-cycle study programmes, in order to explore indicators of the professional value of internships in the employability of higher education graduates. Results demonstrate that study programmes that include internships tend to significantly enhance graduates’ employability, particularly within the universe of polytechnic and public higher education institutions. Besides the instrumental value of internships, the impact of the nature and structure of the internship on the percentage of unemployed graduates are also discussed. Mandatory internships and the inclusion of multiple, shorter internships throughout the degree are negatively associated with unemployment levels. Results indicate work-based learning can be used as a successful strategy to bridge theoretical knowledge and practice and enhance graduate employability. These findings provide important insights for the evaluation and/or the design of internship programmes in higher education.     

Peer-assessment in higher education – twenty-first century practices,challenges and the way forward

Peer assessment in higher education has been studied for decades. Despite the substantial amount of research carried out, peer assessment has yet to make significant advances. This review identifies themes of recent research and highlights the challenges that have hampered its advance. Most of these challenges arise from the manual nature of peer assessment practices, which prove intractable as the number of students involved increases. Practitioners of the discipline are urged to forge affiliations with closely related fields and other disciplines, such as computer science, in order to overcome these challenges.     

Who aspires to higher education? Axes of inequality,values of education and higher education aspirations in secondary schools in Luxembourg and the Swiss Canton of Bern

This article reports a study that investigated secondary school students’ higher education aspirations (towards university studies, ISCED 6 and above) and how these differ between student groups as well as how these are impacted by values of education. Panel data of more than 300 secondary school students in two countries, Luxembourg and Switzerland (the Swiss Canton of Bern) was analysed. Schools are structured differently in the education systems of Luxembourg and the Swiss Canton of Bern. The results of our analysis show that students in the Luxembourgish sample more often aspire to higher education than in the Swiss sample. Disparities in higher education aspirations were also more pronounced in the Luxembourgish sample, boys and students from families of low socio‐economic status (SES) were less likely to aspire to higher education. While the effects of values of education are generally scarce, stimulation in terms of anticipated enjoyment and interest derived from participation in higher education seems to have a positive effect on higher education aspirations.     

Will bribery and fraud converge? Comparative corruption in higher education in Russia and the USA

This study analyses the issue of comparative corruption in the national higher education sectors in the United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation (RF). Corruption in higher education, as well as the way it is addressed in legislation and court cases and reflected in the media, appears to be consistent with the trajectory and pace of reforms that take place in the USA and the RF. The continuing massification of higher education, with increasing enrolment rates in both countries, as well as the emergence of the for-profit sector, necessitate more control and coordination on the part of the governments, educational institutions and the public. The two systems of higher education slowly and independently converge. In both systems, professional hierarchies based on meritocracy clash with managerialism based on the thriving for-profit principle. As a result, forms of corruption in higher education may become more similar.     

Is higher education in really ‘internationalising’?

It is a widely accepted maxim that, like business generally, higher education is globalising. For many countries, higher education is now an important export sector, with university campuses attracting international students from around the world. Licensing production, in the form of franchising degree provision to international partners, is beginning to mutate into foreign direct investment as many universities set up campuses in other countries. While there are clearly parallels between the globalisation of business and higher education, this paper examines the supply- and demand-side drivers within the university sector. It argues that an alignment of special factors, rather than an inexorable trend towards commercialisation, has caused the recent internationalisation of higher education and concludes that current trends are unsustainable in the medium-term.

Alternatives in higher education — Who wants what?

A survey of undergraduate students enrolled on eight campuses of The University of California yielded information about the magnitude and structure of desire for programs of study different from the traditional, full-time programs in which these students are enrolled. These preferences were elicited about both undergraduate and graduate programs of study. Although a desire for alternative programs is greater for the graduate level, both graduate and undergraduate orientations toward alternative programs have two principal sources: (1) a desire for greater time and space flexibility in access to higher education, which arises out of objective familial and financial impediments to easy, full-time enrollment; and (2) a negative view of established forms and modes of higher education. The kinds of programs which students feel will meet these needs are characterized by instructional modes which do not require the student to attend a single center of learning but which, nevertheless, retain interpersonal contacts among students and faculty members. The most attractive single feature endorsed by those desiring alternative modes of instruction is the design of the course of study by the student himself. The implications of these findings for future changes in traditional higher education are discussed.The first author is Director of Research and Evaluation, Office of the Vice President - Extended Academic and Public Service Programs, Office of the President, University of California. The second author is President of the University of Utah and was formerly Vice President - Extended Academic and Public Service Programs, University of California. This paper is adapted from a background paper which the authors prepared for the Conference on Future Structures of Post-secondary Education, Paris, France, June, 1973, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.     

The hollowed-out university? A critical analysis of changing institutional and academic norms in UK higher education

This article argues that UK universities are at risk from a process of ‘hollowing out’ – that is, of becoming institutions with no distinctive social role and no ethical raison d'etre – and that this is a process which undermines the possibilities for meaningful institutional and academic identities. It begins with a condensed, and necessarily partial, review of recent UK higher education policy trends to indicate the historical context and direction of change and to highlight the growing separation of management and academic agendas and the linked rise in gloss and spin compared to academic substance. In the remainder of this article we focus on the normative dimension of these changes and unpack their implications for the nature of the university and of academic work. In so doing, we illustrate the breadth and depth of the threat posed by ‘hollowed-out’ universities, indicate alternative, more positive currents and call for a ‘re-valuation’ of the UK university.