Promoting quality enhancement in the uk the experience of collaboration between national agencies

There has been a substantial and potentially significant shift in the UK approach to quality in higher education in the last few years. In England, Wales and Scotland there has been a growing interest in quality enhancement to supplement existing frameworks for quality assurance. In the words of the Chief Executive of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)¹ Peter Williams, We are now developing a more active strategy for our contribution to quality enhancement [Williams (http://www.qaa.ac.ure/)]. In this paper, we consider the growing interest in, and attention to, quality enhancement in higher education at a national level in the UK. We trace the rise to prominence of the concept itself and briefly examine the landscape of agencies that have been funded to engage in quality enhancement activity. We then examine the trend towards greater collaboration between these agencies at a national level that led to the formal proposal to bring many of them together into a new national body, which is known as The Higher Education Academy (Academy). We exemplify this collaborative trend by describing how, in the run up to establishing the Academy, the working relationship between two of these agencies the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN)² and the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) National Co-ordination Team (NCT) was facilitated. In the final part of this paper, we engage in a more speculative consideration of the nature of collaboration at a national policy level and relate this to the literature on change management. We look at the barriers to successful collaboration and the prospects for future collaborations in higher education policy agenciesDisclaimer. Although all the authors have worked for, or with, the organisations discussed in this paper, the views expressed are theirs alone and not those of the organisations for which they work or have worked     

Psychosocial Adjustment among Children Experiencing Persistent and Intermittent Family Economic Hardship

Much research on family economic hardship and its effects on children has been cross-sectional in nature, has focused primarily on white children, and has assessed the impact of episodic rather than chronic economic difficulties. In contrast, the present research was designed to study outcomes associated with persistent economic hardship among a heterogeneous group of children over time. Results showed that, for both black and white children, a broad range of difficulties was associated with enduring economic hardship. Children who experienced persistent family economic hardship were more likely than those who did not to have difficulties in peer relations, show conduct problems at school, and report low self-esteem. Children who experienced intermittent family economic hardship fell between the other 2 groups. Connections between persistent economic hardship and psychosocial adjustment were more pronounced for boys than for girls. Consistent with suggestions by a number of investigators, the impact of economic hardship on children in the present sample was mediated in part by its association with parental behavior.     

Sound–spelling consistency in adults' orthographic learning

Forty‐eight adults were trained on monosyllabic pseudowords and their meanings and then tested in vocal spelling. The orthographic inconsistency of the rime (e.g. orn, awn for ‘glorn’) and the number of learning trials affected accuracy and response latency in the vocal spelling test. In addition, orthographic typicality as assessed by neighbour statistics predicted item spelling accuracy. Spelling accuracy on orthographically consistent items significantly increased with training, suggesting that unfamiliar monosyllables are not necessarily spelled by reliance on sound–spelling correspondences at the rime level. Analysis of spelling errors revealed that good spellers made more spelling errors containing alternative rime spellings and fewer errors that were phonologically inappropriate than poor spellers.     

Anxious solitude across contexts: girls' interactions with familiar and unfamiliar peers

Cross-situational continuity and change in anxious solitary girls' behavior and peer relations were examined in interactions with familiar versus unfamiliar playmates. Fourth-grade girls (N=209, M age=9.77 years, half African American, half European American) were identified as anxious solitary or behaviorally normative using observed and teacher-reported behavior among classmates. Subsequently, girls participated in 1-hr play groups containing 5 same-race familiar or unfamiliar girls for 5 consecutive days. Results support both cross-situational continuity and change in anxious solitary girls' behavior and peer relations. Although anxious solitary girls exhibited difficulty interacting with both familiar and unfamiliar playmates relative to behaviorally normative girls, elements of their behavior improved in unfamiliar play groups, a context in which they received less peer mistreatment.     

Moving on: A cooperative study of student transfer

With no statewide student tracking system in place for California's tripartite postsecondary education system, three of the state's leading institutions joined in a study of the effectiveness of student transfer—the bridge between community college and university-level education. Transfer success was measured by student preparation, persistence, and performance both before and after transfer. The study examined whether the need for remediation before transfer affected students' progress and degree attainment. The findings run counter to the traditional notion that few remedial students persevere and transfer. A comparison of graduation rates with other community college transfers and with native university students indicated these transfers performed better.Presented at the Thirty-first Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Francisco, May 26–29, 1991.     

The relationship between dominance and spawning inHerotilapia multispinosa (Pisces: Cichlidae)

The outcomes of fights between all possible pairs of same-sexed individuals were used to infer the within-sex dominance rank of six male and six femaleHerotilapia multispinosa. The resulting dominance hierarchies were compared with the order in which all 12 fish spawned when placed together in a large aquarium. Two replications of dominance rank assessment and spawning order were carried out. The spawning order of females was highly correlated with their dominance rank in both replications. Males spawned in a similar order in both replications but did not form a stable dominance hierarchy as inferred from the outcomes of fights. It is suggested that this finding may be due to the importance of site attachment in the agonistic behavior of maleH. multispinosa.     

Are blogs putting youth at risk for online sexual solicitation or harassment?

OBJECTIVE: In light of public concern about the dangers to young people from maintaining online journals or "blogs," this exploratory paper examines whether bloggers are at increased risk for online sexual solicitation or harassment. METHOD: A national telephone survey of 1,500 youth Internet users, ages 10-17, conducted between March and June 2005. RESULTS: Sixteen percent of youth Internet users reported blogging in the past year. Teenagers and girls were the most common bloggers, and bloggers were more likely than other youth to post personal information online. However, bloggers were not more likely to interact with people they met online and did not know in person. Youth who interacted with people they met online, regardless of whether (AOR=2.42, p<.01) or not (AOR=2.36, p<.001) they blogged, had higher odds of receiving online sexual solicitations. Bloggers who did not interact with people they met online were at no increased risk for sexual solicitation (AOR=1.41, ns). Moreover, posting personal information did not add to risk. However, youthful bloggers were at increased risk for online harassment, regardless of whether they also interacted with others online (AOR=2.65, p<.01) or not (AOR=2.55, p<.01). CONCLUSION: Prevention messages about blogging need to directly address the risks of interacting with people youth meet online and the risk of online harassment.     

It Takes a Village: Developing Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms

The Library of Congress (LC) is in the process of developing a separate thesaurus of genre/form terms, which describe what a work or expression is, rather than what it is about. From the beginning, LC policy specialists realized that to accomplish this undertaking, it would be both necessary and desirable to collaborate with the library community. This article examines and evaluates the various methods of collaboration used by LC in the creation of the genre/form thesaurus.     

Book review

Higher Education in an Era of Digital Competition: Choices and Challenges. Donald E. Hanna & Associates (Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing, 1999, 362 pp., $29.95).