Research evidence indicates that an unusually broad range of issues take on strategic significance in a merger and that organisational cultures are critical to the successful integration of staff, students and other stakeholders within a newly combined higher education institution (HEI). This study was based on two specialist higher education (HE)…

In this paper, a framework for developing first-year students' learning is proposed. Its aim is to increase university managers' and teachers' awareness of two issues: (1) that the currently predominant "skills" approaches to the enhancement of student learning are based on a deficiency model and achieve little more than remedying the overt…

Taking as a starting point Eric Ashby's proposal that academic staff should swear to inculcate "the discipline of constructive dissent", this paper explores the question of whether or not contemporary society's ethical expectations of higher education should be codified. Three types of relationship between the university and its communities are…

This paper is based on a research project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England which investigated employers' needs for information on higher education quality and standards. A key issue was identifying the type of knowledge that employers utilise in graduate recruitment. A finding of the study was that information on quality…

Recent widening participation policies have been subject to a number of criticisms; they focus on aspirations rather than differences in performance; they place less value on the aspirations of the "disadvantaged" comparing them to a middle class norm; they subordinate what was a radical agenda to the demands of the economy and so constrain the…

European universities are being shaken by two revolutions. One is a radical change in the way research is funded, the other is the increased emphasis on the teaching role of the universities. This interview study examines what effects these radical institutional changes have had on academic freedom. Based on a small number of in-depth interviews…

This paper uses data from the Scottish School Leavers Surveys and the England and Wales Youth Cohort Study to analyse changes over time in gender and social class inequalities in the opportunities of young people to participate in higher education (HE) in Scotland, England and Wales. The results show that in Great Britain, in the period from the…

The persistence of the social class gap in higher education (HE) participation presents one of the biggest challenges for the English HE sector at the start of the 21st century. This paper considers the evidence collected by the Aimhigher partnerships in the South West of England to assess the progress towards closing the social class gap in HE…

Universities are challenged to maintain a work environment where academic staff fulfil traditional academic duties while responding to a diverse student population, a competitive research environment, and an escalation of administrative tasks within an accountability-based climate. This paper analyses the development and implementation of a…

With nearly two million students and over 100 higher education institutions (HEIs) in a relatively small country, it might be thought that locational issues were not of much significance in English higher education. This paper argues to the contrary, by exploring the distribution of students (full-time and part-time, undergraduate and…

The increasing dominance of an economic ideology of higher education, that its principal role is to contribute to national competitiveness, has increased focus on the employability of graduates and their transition into the labour market. Drawing on a major study of the early career paths of 1995 graduates from 38 UK higher education institutions,…

This paper examines the impact of entrepreneurial initiatives within universities on scientific careers. Based on the career accounts of university-based bioscientists involved in a government-sponsored entrepreneurship training initiative, the paper explores the concept of academic entrepreneurialism. Three groups were identified in the data.…

This paper contributes to the debate on institutional diversity in higher education systems by looking at the phenomenon from a comparative (cross-national) and longitudinal perspective. Despite the attention to diversity in policy debates, surprisingly, only a limited amount of studies address methodological issues. In addition, the number of…

This paper analyses the profile and motivation of over 1,300 academics employed on part-time, fixed term or temporary contracts at 10 post-1992 UK universities, whom it categorises as "non-standard academics". Based on a questionnaire survey, it investigates their demographic background, including age, gender and ethnic background, as well as the…

Significant factors within UK higher education include explicit competition, regulatory demands and pressures to maintain student numbers despite tuition fee increases. Universities have responded by more actively managing finances and quality but seemingly not staff time. This paper sets out findings on the processes and practices surrounding…