The article looks back 35 years to a challenge on examination practices, based on common assumptions at the time. It notes that many although not all of these assumptions are still accepted in much of current practice, although some have been examined by researchers and found wanting extensively in the intervening time. The particular assumptions…

This short paper explores the contribution or otherwise that could be made by using a test akin to the American Scholastic Assessment Test or SAT to select students for undergraduate degrees in the UK. It examines the political context to the debate about the potential value of such a test, before outlining how SAT results in America vary along…

In the last decade there have been many attempts to mount online distance higher education programs on a global scale, led by the e-learning industry and university companies and consortia, some with government support: e.g. Universitas 21 Global, Cardean University, Fathom, NYUOnline and the UKe-University. A primary commercial objective has been…

The paper draws on analysis of industrial economic development to contrast two models of internationalisation in universities. The first is based upon copying and serving large corporations. The suggestion is that adopting this approach would imply significant failures in the educational process. In the extreme, it would result in a world with a…

Current discourse around widening participation emphasises the importance of partnership and collaboration. For example, the Learning Skills Council and government policy all cite the need to adopt collaborative approaches to assist with widening participation and student progression. In 1998 the Higher Education Funding Council for England…

Since 1997 there has been a series of far-reaching constitutional changes in the UK through the devolution of power from Westminster to new legislatures and executives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition, an elected assembly in London and the English regional development agencies have been established. This paper examines policy…

During 2002-2003 there was an enquiry into the future of Research Assessment Exercises in Britain. Learned societies in Arts and Social Sciences who copied their submissions to the author for meta-analysis held very similar views. However these views are not strongly represented in the published report, because only a small minority of societies…

The article explores the proposals put forward in the Lambert Report for reforms in university governance. It compares the recommendation for a Code with the analogue Combined Code which regulates corporate governance in companies and draws a distinction between attempts, from the Cadbury Report in 1992 to the Higgs Review in 2003, to create board…

The Lambert Model Code of Governance proposes to institutionalise the dominance of governors from commercial and industrial organisations as core members of compact and effective boards controlling UK universities. It is the latest expression of a fashion for viewing university governance as an overly-simple example of an obsolete system, where…

A series of reviews over the past six years from Dearing ( NCIHE, 1997) to Lambert (Lambert, 2003) have addressed the question of whether the structure and process of governance in higher education is fit for modern times. This is a proper question to ask as operating environments change and pressures on institutional resources increase. Indeed,…

Institutional responses to changes in the higher education environment have caused movements in the roles and identities of administrative managers in UK universities. These shifts have highlighted the problem for individuals of balancing traditional public service considerations of administration with institutional innovation and development.…

This paper considers tensions between corporate models of governance focused on the governing body and more traditional, consensual academic approaches. It argues that despite these tensions, a decline in the role of the academic community in matters of institutional governance (shared governance) is neither desirable nor inevitable, and that…