In response to the early Education Reform Proposal's recommendation to provide more diverse opportunities for lifelong learning at the senior secondary level and beyond, there has been a considerable expansion in the post-secondary education sector--Professional and Vocational Education (PVE)--in Hong Kong over the past ten years. The…

This paper is based on a one-year research project in the UK designed to investigate teachers' strategies for motivating learners and managing non-compliant behaviour in the further education sector. Carried out in collaboration with 203 teachers in three colleges of further education, the inquiry set out to identify, through the use of…

This paper examines leadership in Australia's vocational education and training (VET) sector. VET leaders make a vital and growing contribution to learners, industry and society, yet research on their work is limited. This has direct implications for ensuring leadership is most effective, and for framing evidence-based capacity development.…

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…

In 2008 there were 87,339 people enrolled on foundation degrees (FDs) in the UK (Foundation Degree Forward, 2009), and educational institutions in the UK offered 1700 different foundation degrees in over 25 subjects, with nearly 900 more in development (Action on Access, 2010). In addition, student views are seen to be of importance, as…

Exploring student and teacher perspectives on approaches to learning and teaching reveals interesting insights and new understandings for practice by involving the two key groups of participants in the learning and teaching story. Do students understand and experience learning and teaching similarly or differently from the way teachers intend them…

The term "applied track" in UK further education has been used to refer to the applied A level, the vocational, coursework-based version of the traditional academic A level. Vocational and coursework-based courses are often criticised for being easier than academic courses, for only attracting students who do not satisfy the requirements to take…

Vocationally based higher education programmes are meant to prepare people for employment in their chosen fields of study. In nursing, historically, employment after qualifying has been almost assured, with sufficient vacancies available for newly qualified nurses. Recently, however, for a number of reasons, primarily related to economic…

This paper reports on the findings of a recent small scale study into the experiences of mature students of a foundation degree (FD) in health and social care. This was an exploratory study that evaluated one particular FD health and social care programme in order to gain an insight into some of the issues involved in delivering higher education…

Developing academic relationships between vocational colleges and universities in Australia has been problematic, with exchanges between the two sectors limited to linear articulation and prescribed credit transfer. Whilst some very good examples of collaboration exist, in general the two sectors operate independently of each other. The isolation…

The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) Associate Certificate in Environmental Management course is designed to raise the professional competence of aspiring and existing environmental practitioners. Successful completion entitles the individual to become an associate IEMA member. A dedicated evaluation model was developed…

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…

Over the last 35 years Australian higher education policy, like that of most countries, has undergone radical changes. This article reviews these changes in terms of four key periods, beginning with the abolition of student fees, through to the recent unprecedented levels of government control and intervention. Policies are compared with each…

Further education (FE) colleges have long been regarded as the "Cinderella service" of English education. From their origins in the technical institutes of the nineteenth century, through the years of haphazard growth in the early twentieth century, and for most of the era of local authority control from 1944 until the early 1990s, FE tended to be…

This article explores the recent development of new spheres of public engagement within UK higher education through an analysis of the foundation degree qualification. These, according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), were designed to equip students with the combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and…