Total quality management in higher education: Myths and realities

Summary This paper has addressed a number of issues inherent in the adoption of the principles of TQM by the HE sector. It has not set out to provide all the answers but has intended to stimulate discussion and to suggest possible approaches. Where applicable, it has used South Bank University’s experience as a case study. Issues have been addressed in terms of popular misconceptions in TQM along with suggested approaches thought to be more realistic. The conclusion is that TQM has much to offer HE but that it is not just a case of translating BS5750 from a product-based to a service-based system. Sensible application of TQM principles in HE in order to show a realistic improvement will take time, commitment and considerable investment by top management. In my view the starting point should be a better understanding of customer needs, which can then be addressed through a process of service quality improvement which permeates the organisational structure. The author draws attention to the fact that certain aspects of this paper have changed in the period since it was delivered (August 1994).     

Development and Validation of a Rubric for Diagnosing Students’ Experimental Design Knowledge and Difficulties

It is essential to teach students about experimental design, as this facilitates their deeper understanding of how most biological knowledge was generated and gives them tools to perform their own investigations. Despite the importance of this area, surprisingly little is known about what students actually learn from designing biological experiments. In this paper, we describe a rubric for experimental design (RED) that can be used to measure knowledge of and diagnose difficulties with experimental design. The development and validation of the RED was informed by a literature review and empirical analysis of undergraduate biology students’ responses to three published assessments. Five areas of difficulty with experimental design were identified: the variable properties of an experimental subject; the manipulated variables; measurement of outcomes; accounting for variability; and the scope of inference appropriate for experimental findings. Our findings revealed that some difficulties, documented some 50 yr ago, still exist among our undergraduate students, while others remain poorly investigated. The RED shows great promise for diagnosing students’ experimental design knowledge in lecture settings, laboratory courses, research internships, and course-based undergraduate research experiences. It also shows potential for guiding the development and selection of assessment and instructional activities that foster experimental design.     

Statutory assessment of the class? Supporting the additional needs of the learning context

The dialogue of this paper operates at two levels. First, it seeks to rethink the various perspectives on social justice evident in the academic literature, reviewing what is collectively known about it and where current thinking is taking and/or should be taking us. Second, it reports on research concerning the schooling of students with disabilities or, more accurately, research concerning the practices of teachers in relation to the inclusion of students with disabilities within ‘mainstream’ classrooms. These two discussions come together through their collaborative interest in recognizing social justice when they ‘see’ it; the data from the research are used to inform the theory it illustrates and the theory is used to explain teachers' practices. In this critical sense it is more than a dialogue, with its parts dialectically related. The paper's critique also extends to questioning whose interests are served (and whose are not) by various social justice perspectives and their applications to schooling. It concludes that ‘a critical theory of social justice must consider not only distributive patterns, but also the processes and relationships that produce and reproduce those patterns’ (Young 1990: 241).     

A fluid dynamic investigation of the Big Blade and Macon oar blade designs in rowing propulsion

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the fluid dynamic characteristics of the two most commonly used oar blades: the Big Blade and the Macon. Scaled models of each blade, as well as a flat Big Blade, were tested in a water flume using a quasi-static method similar to that used in swimming and kayaking research. Measurement of the normal and tangential blade forces enabled lift and drag forces generated by the oar blades to be calculated over the full range of sweep angles observed during a rowing stroke. Lift and drag force coefficients were then calculated and compared between blades. The results showed that the Big Blade and Macon oar blades exhibited very similar characteristics. Hydraulic blade efficiency was not therefore found to be the reason for claims that the Big Blade could elicit a 2% improvement in performance over the Macon. The Big Blade was also shown to have similar characteristics to the flat plate when the angle of attack was below 90°, despite significant increases in the lift coefficient when the angle of attack increased above 90°. This result suggests that the Big Blade design may not be completely optimized over the whole stroke.     

Mergent Intellect: Centralizing business research on a single platform

Abstract

Management is one of the most fundamental business concepts. The author of this chapter provides overviews of the most important Web sites related to management information, including sites from academic institutions and professional organizations.     

An Istanbul Odyssey: A Microcosm of High-Ability Issues

Severe socioeconomic inequality strongly suppresses and distorts the discovery of aspirations and the concomitant development of talents among the gifted. More comprehensive understanding of this suppression and distortion is available through a wide-ranging interdisciplinary search for research findings and theories that illuminate economic, ideological–political, historical, philosophical, and psychological contextual influences on bright young people. This theoretical synthesis draws from multiple disciplines to reveal some of these contextual influences and then provides some recommendations for ways in which educators and policymakers might attempt to counteract some of the most pernicious effects of growing inequality on the gifted.     

The university in the global age: reconceptualising the humanities and social sciences for the twenty-first century.

Abstract

By any metric, the twentieth century university was a successful institution. However, in the twenty-first century, ongoing neoliberal educational reform has been accompanied by a growing epistemological crisis in the meaning and value of the humanities and social sciences (HaSS). Concerns have been expressed in two main forms. The governors of tertiary education systems—governments, private investors, university managers and consultancy firms—have focused on how HaSS can adapt to the perceived research needs of the 21st century. At the same time, a competing set of discourses has been generated by scholars and researchers employed within the critical HaSS themselves. This article considers what these differing perspectives mean for reconceptualising HaSS for the twenty-first century. After surveying the contemporary climate, this article examines the findings of key reports on the future of the humanities from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Alongside those of Western Europe, these university systems are arguably the key drivers for the global university system. It is argued that these reports provide an opportunity for emerging universities to reflect on their research priorities and developmental strategies. The article concludes with some reflections on the wider consequences of the globalising of the university system, the increase of China's influence in Asia, and ponders the prospect of post-human/ist futures of the humanities.