In defining successful collaborative international projects within the theory of change or logic model, focus is often on 'outcome' and 'impact'. Less empirical information is available regarding the 'input' and 'activities' aspects of this model. To address this knowledge gap and to offer insight into pivotal elements for management, this study…

This article reports on an investigation into the role of academic identity within collaborative research in higher education in South Africa. The study was informed by the literature on academic identities, collaborative research and communities of practice. It was located within a multi-site study, with involvement of researcher collaborators…

'Inclusive pedagogies' have been recommended as an approach for addressing increased student diversity in the university classroom. However, to date, no research has sought to map the field of inclusive pedagogies in higher education (HE) to establish how researchers have conceptualised and investigated this phenomenon. In this systematic scoping…

While a number of studies report on how a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has been implemented in particular disciplines or faculties, arguably much less is known about how this can be achieved university-wide. This paper brings the lens of SoTL retrospectively, from the vantage position of a university leader, to a range of teaching…

One of the challenges of research into social practice is finding a way to take both the structural aspects of the social contexts and individual agency into account. This article describes the use of Bourdieu's social practice theory, together with Lave and Wenger's situated learning theory, to understand how the learning of practice takes place…

This paper reports on the use of a framework developed from Bhaskar's critical realism and Archer's social realism to analyse teaching- and learning-related data produced as a result of the first cycle of institutional audits in the South African higher education system. The use of the framework allows us to see what this cycle of audits did…

Unethical behaviour has become an increasingly controversial issue in Higher Education institutes. There have been debates about the reasons for the increase in unethical behaviour. But many of those debates contain problems. A key problem has been the lack of empirical results about faculty members' perceptions of their role in the phenomenon,…

Student learning inventories are used by both researchers and educators as tools to identify "at risk" students. This article critically interrogates the results of one of these inventories, the 18-item Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory. In-depth interviews were held with a purposive sample of 10 first-year engineering…

Academics are the core of a university and their performance impacts the quality of student learning and university experience thereby influencing the contribution that higher education institutions are able to make to society. This study compared the impact of organisational support and external reputation on the affective commitment and…

Entrance assessment and standardized testing is a feature of the South African higher education landscape, with many universities using assessment and testing as benchmarking, placement or, in some instances, gatekeeping exercises. Entrance assessment practices seek to inform universities about the capabilities of students. In this paper we…

The role of research-embedded higher education is regarded as one of the driving forces of any growing economy. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are recognized, among their peers, for their quality of research outcome. Hence, with growing emphasis on research worldwide, HEIs strive hard to improve their research output. The proposed study…

Despite numerous supports for undergraduates, low success rate has been a growing concern in the South African university system. Guided by Moore's [1993. "Theory of Transactional Distance." In "Theoretical Principles of Distance Education," edited by Keegan, 22-38. London: Routledge.] transactional distance theory, this…

This article reports on an international study investigating university educators' ideas about the diversity of their students, carried out by using semi-structured email interviews. The information obtained from participants was analysed using a phenomenographic approach to obtain an outcome space, in which the narrowest conception ignored any…

This paper tracks policies in the governance of higher education over the first decade of South Africa's democracy. The first democratically elected government of 1994 was faced with the formidable task of dismantling the structures of apartheid education. The foundations for a new policy were laid by a National Commission that reported in 1996,…

The present paper reports on early-career academics' (ECAs) experiences of support for teaching in a research-intensive university in Africa. Through conducting a questionnaire and follow up in-depth interviews greater insight into how ECAs perceive and experience support for developing their teaching practice, is gained. Our analysis suggests…