Fees,flows and imaginaries: exploring the destination choices arising from intra-national student mobility

ABSTRACT

Are intra-national student flows driven by the same forces as international student mobility? This paper addresses this question by analysing cross-border student mobility in the UK. The paper identifies four principles that one might expect to drive the destination choices of students from Scotland enrolling in English universities. Following a statistical analysis of student destination choices, it is argued that cross-border moves from Scotland to England are stimulated by some of the same global forces as international student mobility (such as a desire to accumulate cultural capital), but in terms of destination choice the imaginaries held by Scottish students of ‘good’ places to study in England to accumulate cultural capital are constructed differently from the imaginaries of international students.     

Classroom groups in theory and practice

Summary

Children hold a wide range of ideas about what science is, but boys tend to have very stereotyped ideas about scientists, exclusively depicting them as male and often seeing in science something weird or magical — this is the antithesis of what science claims to be, and yet it is easy to see how the ideas can become fused or confused. Girls in this study did not see science as an exclusively male preserve and are more likely to view science in a ‘realistic’ way than are boys. In interviews with the teachers of these children (all women) awareness of the need to avoid gender stereotyping was expressed. This study shows that among their girl pupils at least, their attempts are beginning to bear fruit.     

Assessment as an equity issue in higher education: comparing the perceptions of first year students, course coordinators, and academic leaders

Assessment practices that aim to promote both quality and equity may be compromised in a higher education market where students are consumers and grades the currency exchanged for measures of success. In such a climate, academics report feeling pressured to make course content and assessment less challenging in order to obtain positive student evaluations, and they may lose faith in university quality assurance processes that seem focused on ensuring student satisfaction with education as a product. To explore these issues from the perspectives of the main stakeholders in assessment, this paper investigates assessment perceptions of students, course coordinators, and faculty Associate Deans responsible for teaching and learning at The University of Queensland. The findings highlight differences in what these groups consider to be important assessment issues and differences in how they should be addressed. First year students are identified as a disadvantaged group due to perceptions of the role of feedback and formative assessment that may be influenced by their secondary school assessment experiences.