The determinants of undergraduate degree performance: How important is gender?

This study uses data drawn from three recent cohorts of undergraduates at the University of Sussex to investigate the key determinants of degree performance. The primary theme of the study is an examination of the gender dimension to degree performance. The average ‘good’ degree rate for female students was found to be superior to the male rate. The modest raw gender differential in first class degree rates favoured women but was found to be attributable to their better endowments, particularly pre-entry qualifications. The largest differential favouring women was in the II:i classification, where almost all of the difference was attributable to differentials in coefficient treatment rather than endowments (or characteristics). The analysis undertaken also allowed the investigation of a number of sub-themes relating to the effects on degree performance of, inter alia, pre-entry qualifications, ethnicity, socio-economic background and health disability. The largest effects were reserved for the role of pre-entry qualifications with more modest effects detected for ethnicity and socio-economic background.     

The production and reproduction of news: broadcast students at journalism school

This paper examines the occupational socialization of graduate journalists. It demonstrates the strength of the relationship between vocational training and occupational demands through an examination of the teaching arrangements for broadcast training. In the first training term the broadcast course is indexed by weak classification and strong framing, corresponding to the pedagogy of technicisation characteristic of other highly vocational courses. Second‐term training is indexed by overt weak framing because students work independently from staff in the construction of the dummy news programme. This does not contradict the technicisation thesis, however, but rather suggests that second‐term teaching reinforces the relationship between training and occupational work. Finally it is suggested that where overt weak framing disguises an covert form of strong framing, the demands of the occupation assume a naturalness or inevitability as students learn how to perform the routine tasks of occupational work.     

21st century universities – less regulated but more accountable

This paper was presented as the Eighth Annual Lecture of the Association of University Administrators on 12 October 2005 at the CBI Conference Centre, London     

The impact of teachers’ individualized practices on gifted students in rural,heterogeneous classrooms

Several factors have increased teachers’ frustrations in the regular classroom as they try to meet the needs of students with varying levels of ability. Limited educational funding, the attitude that gifted students can do without special services, and a push for increased heterogeneous grouping have all contributed to the teacher's problem. The Mustard Seed Project was developed and supported by a grant from the Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education program to train teachers to differentiate for student needs by curricular adaptations. The training for teachers modeled the process of individualization for each learner's level, pace and style. A follow‐up support system of human and material resources was implemented to sustain the teachers through the difficult transition required of change. The sites participating in this study were all rural, ethnically diverse, and economically disadvantaged. Profiles of six gifted fifth‐graders were developed using interviews and classroom observations. The research questions sought to determine the extent of the gifted child's intellectual challenge, exploration of in‐depth selected topics of interest, and social and emotional satisfaction in adapted classrooms.