In 2007, Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills standards (QTLS) were introduced for all teachers working in UK further education institutions, with the expressed aim of improving professional standards within the sector. British Sign Language (BSL) teaching is largely delivered by deaf native signers through evening classes at local FE colleges,…

Various initiatives at national and faculty levels are carried out to improve teaching quality at Malaysian universities. Measures such as auditing and accrediting university programs and obtaining certification for quality management help improve program management and standardize students' learning experiences. However, these do not…

There is a long history of universities perceiving residences as pivotal in the learning process. Over the last 50 years, the nature and efficacy of residential environments as an educational tool have been extensively researched. However, within some sections of the tertiary residential sector, in the United States, the United Kingdom, New…

The importance of education in developing ethically sensitive individuals who use principled moral reasoning when facing dilemmas has been widely acknowledged (Pascarella and Terenzini 1991; Rest et al. 1999b). However, ethics is typically omitted from the higher level curriculum and, if raised at all, comprises a very minor element of the course…

This paper seeks to explore the need for and possibility of teaching current and potential problem solvers--undergraduate students in the economic and business field to define problems, to generate and choose creative and useful ideas and to verify them. It aims to select an array of quick and easy-to-use creative problem solving (CPS) techniques.…

As a part of the next generation of critical qualitative scholars, we hope to challenge the current connections (or lack thereof) between methodological paradigms and lived action in order to achieve marked social change. Yet we operate within institutionalised boundaries and an academic culture that does not often encourage critical…

Higher education in further education colleges has a long history and has expanded in recent years. However, higher education in further education colleges is often treated as being unproblematic. This paper rejects the argument that higher education is simply a level of study, noting that it is a contested concept. As such, the paper seeks to…

This paper takes critical lenses to interpret what students find enjoyable in their learning in specific "subject" environments within the prevailing socio-economic climate in higher education. It considers student dispositions that emerged from dialogues with two groups of students attending a non-traditional university and taking…

Higher education is considered by some to be synonymous with learning gained in an institution named as a university. The credentials gained from learning in such locations allow the holders to enter into the elite, which reproduces social exclusion to the benefit of that elite. In England, policy reform has opened up access to higher education to…

The PhD viva has been described as mysterious (Burnham 1994; Morley et al. 2002), unpredictable (Rugg & Petre 2004) and potentially frightening for students (Delamont et al. 2004), with its form and duration a function of the predilections of individual examiners as well as a function of differences across disciplines. Despite its myriad…

The aim of this article is to examine the role taken by the Institute for Learning (IfL) in England to promote the nature of professionalism in the lifelong learning sector. It raises the possibility that the decisions taken by the IfL, since its inception in 2002, are leading to the de-professionalisation of teachers. It is argued that what is…

As autism is a social learning disability it is a disadvantage in any social setting such as a classroom. The 1990s saw a surge of young people diagnosed with autism who are now approaching college age; indeed there is evidence that students with autism are becoming a significant cohort in further education. However, anecdotal evidence suggests…

In the context of the tension between classroom observation as a form of empowerment and as an instrument of control, the partnership between three 16-19 colleges and a university School of Education in delivering a programme of sustained observation over eight years is explicated. Drawing on the literature about continuing professional…

This article is an analysis of middle-class rejection of higher education. The author uses accounts of the educational decision-making of three female students, all identified to be from broadly middle-class backgrounds, from within full-time vocational further education in the United Kingdom, as a means to consider two issues. First, the author…

The purpose of this article is to review the models of sustainable leadership which are currently available in the compulsory sector to establish whether the models are appropriate for post-compulsory education, and in particular for general further education colleges. Due to the complexities of the environment in which further education colleges…