This article presents the findings of a small study in a single school of a post-1992 university. The study considered the roles of the online academic and ascertained perceived competencies in these roles. The findings suggest gender differences in perceptions of the importance of online roles and gaps between roles and perceived competencies in…

This study provides a qualitative test and illustration of a model of how students cope with the demands of part-time study. The model shows that students who are successful in finding the time to complete the requirements of part-time courses do so by adopting three mechanisms; sacrifice, support and the negotiation of arrangements. All three…

Reflection, in a classroom setting, presents educators with a method for narrowing the theory-practice gap. Material from the practice environment can be brought into the classroom and used as the substance of learning from experience. Enabling students to understand and value reflection is an essential part of this process. It is also a process…

In helping students manage the transition into higher education, there must be (i) an understanding of the needs and expectations of the students, and (ii) a process that inducts the students into the needs and expectations of higher education. This premise underpins the on-line Spiral Induction Programme (onSIP) developed at Southampton…

A key factor in the transition to university is the enculturation of new students into both the discipline they are studying and effective study practices. Most significantly, students, whatever their chosen discipline, must learn to become autonomous learners. Too often this process is either left to chance or seen as a natural attribute of the…

This article reports on a small-scale study of feedback on music students' written work, in which staff and students were asked to evaluate existing practice and suggest potential modifications. The value of feedback as a communicative learning tool is illustrated through students' participation in a range of research tasks, including rating the…

The First Destination Survey of new graduates provides only a snapshot of graduate employment. This longitudinal study explores more fully the career pathways taken by undergraduates from two programmes and examines which skills acquired at university contributed to successful employment and development of their careers. It was found that 99…

It is argued that a positive response to lifelong learning policies involves the use of imaginative curriculum design in order to attract learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who are otherwise alienated from higher education. In this article a case study is presented based on the popularity of science fiction within popular culture, beginning…

In UK higher education a primary aim of business IT-related qualifications is the preparation of students for a relevant career. In this article we discuss an approach to teaching business IT ethics in a university context that prepares students for the ethical problems that they may meet in their future IT careers, and we demonstrate how this…

Learning styles research has been widely applied within the fields of management education and development. This article introduces an alternative concept of learning styles approach to learning which has scarcely impacted on the field of management learning. The development of an approach to learning instrument, the Revised Approaches to Studying…

This article is based on the experiences of 25 PhD students at a New Zealand university who came to do research and soon found themselves taking on substantial teaching loads. Teaching was highly valued and it helped students develop their professional identity as they broadened their subject knowledge and practised a disciplinary research…

This article reports a study on the effectiveness of university teachers training involving 22 universities in 8 countries. A training group of teachers and their students were studied at the start of their training and one year later. A control group of new teachers received no training and both they and their students were studied in the same…

Many teachers of higher education wish to provide instruction that supports student learning while not always finding it easy to implement the desire. The model for a unit of instruction described here provides a mental map to overlay decisions about instructional strategies in order to assess the extent to which they align with theories of…

A shift in emphasis from teaching to learning in the UK higher education sector has resulted in universities considering more efficient learning and teaching strategies. This has included embracing and adopting new technologies, such as the Internet, as an aid to more effective learning and teaching for the student and the teacher. This strategy…

Six academics in a new university were seconded to the role of part-time learning technology support. It was necessary to have an informed view of the IT skills level of all academic teaching staff. A selfassessment questionnaire was designed based on the core competencies in the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). The results were used to…