In this paper we examine the creation and expansion of the English university system. We show how the enormous increase in student numbers, which began with the Robbins Report (1963), led to successive governments cutting universities' funding and compelling them to act more like business enterprises than educational institutions. In turn,…

The paper explores two universities' strategies of impact and engagement and their perceptions by local economic and policy stakeholders in a post-industrial city of Scotland. The concept of structural embeddedness is used to unpack the logics and repertoires of action of local universities and to relate discourses and actions to the nature…

This paper analyses the current state of student representation in Russia as deeply rooted in the institutional structure of the Soviet higher education system. The study traces the origins of existing institutional arrangements for student representation at the level of university governance and analyses how representation practices have been…

Student representation in Poland has a relatively short but turbulent history. This article offers an historical appraisal of the development of student representation at the national level in the context of rapid and deep structural changes in Polish higher education. Based on a desktop analysis of official documentation, legislation, ideological…

The transition from one-party rule and other forms of authoritarianism to multiparty democracy in the 1990s has had a profound impact on the organisation and role of student politics in Africa. Against the background of student involvement in African politics in the twentieth century, leading up to student participation in Africa's…

Following the trend of many comparable countries, Australian universities are now part of a massified system which is a significant contributor to the national economy. The commercial university is solicitous as to its product and its position in the market, but must also navigate the regulatory environment. Uncontrollable aspects of the…

This article focuses on higher education research and policies in small and/or peripheral countries that usually occupy a marginal position in contemporary international debates. The region discussed here is South-eastern Europe and especially the Western Balkans. First, an outline of emerging research centres and the developments in higher…

Initially emerged in 1978, higher education research institutes (HERIs) in Mainland China have experienced rapid expansion and have become a major force in higher education reform in the last three decades. The development of these research institutes is closely related to the substantive growth of the higher education system itself as well as…

A historically informed analysis of the academic board or senate in Australian universities, and in the wider higher education environment, particularly the UK, indicates that the role and function of academic boards has fundamentally changed in the past 30 years. Within the context of universities being repositioned to serve global knowledge…

This article outlines the main cases for and related objections against student representation in university governance found in the relevant literature, and proposes a way in which variations in student representation within institutions may be understood and justified. It contextualises the modern origins of student representation in the…

This article focuses on historical dimensions of knowledge creation and transformation by university academics. It explores their often overlooked role in the broadcast output of BBC radio in disseminating knowledge and ideas outside the educational environment, directly into the homes of the audience. Examples of this activity include the Open…

International competition drives research universities to find ways to anchor globalization for academic productivity and innovation through cross-border collaboration. This article examines the case of pre- and post-colonial Hong Kong and how its universities transited from undergraduate institutions to highly ranked research universities within…

This article is a review of two dominant approaches to academic writing instruction in higher education, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which is used internationally, and Academic Literacies, which has become an influential model in the UK. The review was driven by a concern that Academic Literacies has been mainly focused on the situations…

Drawing on the work of Bernstein and Maton and using a case-study approach, this study explores the formation of an undergraduate history curriculum at the University of Cape Town. This article focuses on two periods of curriculum formation referred to as history as canon and history as social science. With respect to these two curriculum periods…

The argument that cultural and other forms of diversity enhance the educational experience of all students is generally associated with post-1960 efforts to expand the presence of disadvantaged groups on the campuses of America's universities and colleges. Yet, in the case of UC Berkeley, arguments on the merits of cultural diversity have…