Institutional learning and teaching strategies in English higher education

In 1998 the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)commissioned a survey of the extent to which institutional learning andteaching strategies were being used in English higher education. Thesurvey was seen by HEFCE as a necessary precursor to the enactment ofits policy decision to allocate a component of institutional funding onthe basis of the possession of (and subsequent activation of) aninstitutional learning and teaching strategy. Responses from 116institutions showed considerable variation in the extent to which theyhad developed a strategic approach to learning and teaching.Over the coming years there is likely to be a marked increase in thelevel and sophistication of strategic planning to develop learning andteaching across whole institutions. The article concludes by drawingupon the organisational development literature to suggest some ways inwhich this shift might be facilitated.     

The UGC's Research Rankings Exercise

The UGC's ranking of research strengths was part of a wider, radical revision of university funding. Inevitably, the exercise aroused much hostile academic criticism which stemmed from both science-based and arts-based sources: this has focused specifically on the methodology employed, the secrecy surrounding it, and the denial of appellate provision. Additional criticisms made here are: (i) the techniques devised were inadequate for the task; and (ii) that they represented a mechanistic approach to an essentially organic problem. Although the UGC exercise was deeply flawed, evaluation per se seems to have been generally accepted, however reluctantly. The exercise is unlikely to be repeated in the same form since it has been overtaken by events. Proposals for contract funding and a three-tier university system suggest that assessments will be of a different kind in future.     

Research Information Management: How the Library Can Contribute to the Campus Conversation

This article describes a project undertaken as part of a cross-campus strategic planning effort. The project documented current campus practices and systems in use for collecting, analyzing and reporting key research metrics. The project identified organizational issues around siloed data collection and lack of clarity on data stewards, data stakeholders, and data reporting schedules. The work highlighted to University Administration the need and importance of effective research information management (RIM) and the key role that the University Libraries can play in this area.     

Bacteriophage and their roles in biotechnology

Molecular biology has undergone a transformation in the last decade and become important in many biological disciplines. The advent of one aspect, genetic engineering, can be traced back to some elementary work on bacteriophage. The biotechnological exploitation of this research has rather obscured an appreciation of the ecological role of these bacterial parasites. This article attempts to place these two different types of investigations into perspective.     

Database choices in endocrine systematic reviews

Objective

The choice of bibliographic database during the systematic review search process has been an ongoing conversation among information specialists. With newer information sources, such as Google Scholar and clinical trials registries, we were interested in which databases were utilized by information specialists and systematic review researchers.

Method

We retrieved 144 systematic reviews and meta-analyses from 4 clinical endocrinology journals and extracted all information sources used during the search processes.

Results

Findings indicate that traditional bibliographic databases are most often used, followed by regional databases, clinical trials registries, and gray literature databases.

Conclusions

This study informs information specialists about additional resources that may be considered during the search process.     

Classing schools

School prospectuses and promotional videos appeal to parents by presenting idealised images of the education a school provides. These educational idealisations visually realise the form of discipline a school is expected to provide, depending on the social habitus of the parents. This paper presents a content analysis of the images used in 33 sets of marketing materials from a maximally diverse sample of schools from the state of Victoria. These images are interpreted using the lenses of Bernstein's control and Bourdieu's habitus and cultural capital. The promotional images are found to vary systematically in terms of content and form depending on the perceived social class of the students which the schools attract.