American research universities play an important role in the ongoing campaign to improve the status of women academics. During the last four decades, the practice of producing 'status of women' reports has been widely developed as part of the policy and management repertoire to understand the barriers women academics may face in their…

No topic in private higher education study has attracted as great attention globally as has growth. This is appropriate as private growth has soared to nearly a third of the world's total higher education enrolment. But while private growth continues to be the dominant trend, important declines in private shares have emerged. These must be…

Over the past three decades, university research activities have increasingly become organized towards external economic and social worlds. In this essay, we reflect on the observations and explanations made in papers published in Higher Education Policy on this topic, and discuss their contributions towards understanding university third stream…

This paper reflects on the contributions to the journal "Higher Education Policy," celebrating its twenty-fifth birthday. It describes and analyses the themes addressed by the authors and the institutional background of the 1,172 contributors to the 812 papers. The analysis confirms the focus of the journal on higher education policy,…

The fiscal climate of restraint in the Canadian province of Ontario has led to increased calls for a more diversified higher education system. Significant diversity in the university sector in Ontario has not been achieved that underscores the importance of understanding government policy and its related influences on institutional diversity. This…

The debate on sustainable development is not new and the search for new approaches, methods and means to further the case of sustainability in a higher education context is needed today more than ever. This paper reviews the status of sustainable development at universities and presents issues which need to be considered in ensuring sustainable…

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology that allows higher education institutions (HEIs) to promote, to evaluate and to report on sustainability. The ultimate goal of the afore-mentioned methodology is to help HEIs achieve sustainability. First, a model entitled Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (SusHEI) that generally…

For-profit institutions are more visible today among policymakers, researchers, and investors, due in large part to the sharp rise in the number of students attending them over the last decade. From 2000 to 2009, enrollment in the for-profit sector tripled while enrollment in the public and not-for-profit sectors increased by less than 25 percent.…

For-profit institutions are more visible today among policymakers, researchers, and investors, due in large part to the sharp rise in the number of students attending them over the last decade. From 2000 to 2009, enrollment in the for-profit sector tripled while enrollment in the public and not-for-profit sectors increased by less than 25 percent.…

This report, which was commissioned as part of the Institute for Higher Education Policy's Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative, seeks to highlight how specific institutional policies and faculty-driven, classroom-based practices at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) can change in an effort to better support the academic and social…

Universities are increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) to support delivery of their objectives. It is crucial, therefore, that the IT investments made lead to successful outcomes. This study analyses the governance structures and decision-making processes used to approve and prioritise IT projects. Factors influencing an…

An increasingly globalised world means that higher education institutions are employing a diverse set of academic staff from across the world, and a better understanding of these scholars and their work roles is important for effective teaching, learning, and institutional management. Using the most recent data available from the "National…

This paper explores perceptions of the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) and its implications for individuals, institutions and wider academia through an analysis of media coverage of the REF over a 2-year period. In recent years, the importance attached to the REF has become an increasing focus of concern for academics and other…

Between 2005 and 2013, student loan debt in the US increased at a rate of 13.3 per cent per annum. This rise in collegiate student debt has become the focus of any number of new proposals and policies at both the state and national levels. While considering broad policies to stem this rising tide are admirable, they do little to help a graduating…

We test the hypothesis that academic entrepreneurship, resisted in the past by some as being in conflict with the long-standing Mertonian norms of open science and free enquiry, has now become widely accepted within the academy, or "taken for granted", as an institutional shift. Using responses to a series of attitudinal questions about academic…