Competing notions of what a Ph.D. has been, is and should be are undercurrents in doctoral education. A longitudinal study of Ph.D. supervision based on interviews and concept mapping was used to surface understandings of the purpose of a Ph.D. This research tracks change over time for both the student and the supervisor. The data were analysed…

New Labour's extended schools initiative added to existing models of community schooling. The paper identifies the key principles behind extended schooling, making comparisons with historical models and contemporary trends in community education. Part one examines New Labour's use of extended schools to deliver their social policy agenda. Part two…

For many years there has been a sharp division between project-based learning, and problem-based learning, with the former adopting a more technical rationalist approach while the latter adopts a more Socratic or dialogic approach. This article argues that current notions of project-based learning are too narrow and that combining the two…

This paper will present a study that explored the perceived impact of spatial practice in "Second Life" (SL) on teaching and learning from the point of view of participants in higher education (lecturers, developers and researchers). Narrative inquiry was used to access stories and experiences of space and spatial practice from staff perspectives.…

It is time to replace the examination regime at 16 and 18 by something more appropriate. The coalition government has been solidifying its place by its Baccalaureate reforms at both ages, but this is a move in quite the wrong direction. Whatever the wider purposes that the examination system may serve, its core aim is to find out how well students…

As China has appeared only recently as an important knowledge producer with growing global economic significance, little is known internationally about how these processes develop and are managed within China. The rapidly expanding Chinese higher education system is playing an increasingly important role in China's knowledge economy and therefore…

Aimhigher was discontinued on 31 July 2011. This paper reviews the literature analysing its contribution to widening participation to higher education in the UK. Successes of Aimhigher are considered alongside its challenges; particularly the necessity to situate policy within the diverse demands of 42 areas covering England. These issues are…

Brainstorming is the default method of idea-generation in organisations, and is widely applied in higher education by students, academics and support staff. Its popularity is mainly attributable to an illusory belief that groups working together are more productive than individuals working apart. Shared responsibility, the need for collaboration…

Between 2008-2010 the School of Medicine at Queen's University Belfast funded and supported two unique and intensive three week interdisciplinary performance projects in which medical and drama students worked together to create an experimental dance theatre piece. One of the unique aspects of this collaboration was that the medical students who…

This article argues that creativity has the greatest potential to flourish if a learning environment is embedded within a community that emphasises a deep sense of place. Yet in a globalised world, rootedness is often regarded as antithetical to creativity. But far from representing dead artefacts that are anti-modern and non-economic, culture and…

Many organisations are under increasing pressures to recruit and retain creative individuals as a core asset in the emerging knowledge economy. In universities, such people are often academics who focus on high impact, innovative and interdisciplinary research. Yet, instead of feeling supported, many of these academics face structural,…

Whilst much of the rhetoric of current educational policy champions creativity and innovation, structural reforms and new management practices in higher education run counter to the known conditions under which creativity flourishes. As a review of recent literature suggests, surveillance, performativity, the end of tenure and rising levels of…

Humanities within universities faced challenges in the latter half of the twentieth century as their value in the modern world was questioned. This paper argues that there is strong potential for the humanities to thrive in the twenty-first century university sector. It outlines some of the managerial implications necessary to ensure that this…

The period since the election in May 2010 has seen a number of very far-reaching reforms enacted in the higher education system in the UK, and especially England. These have been driven in large measure by the economic situation, but also by the aim to introduce a more market-based approach into the sector. At the same time, the higher education…

This paper is written in the context of practice at Nottingham Trent University, using elements of its management as example or counterbalance to the literature. The challenge at the heart of the paper is that of practically balancing a managerial and business-focused culture and processes to support the aspirations and motivations of the…