The global rise of 'neo-populism', culminating in the election of the populist Republican candidate Donald Trump to the US presidency, has been accompanied by a notable backlash and resistance to what has been categorised as governing/dominating 'elites', including HE academic institutions. Populist critiques centre on a perceived climate of…

Team-teaching is arguably shifting from the realm of pedagogic choice to that of necessity in a complex and demanding Higher Education (HE) landscape. This research gives a voice to staff collaborating in team-teaching, considering their motivations and approach, to identify key challenges and opportunities. Results indicate that the changing…

This article contributes to contemporary debates about the significance of emotions within Higher Education. Using a psychoanalytic lens we analyse the ways in which experiences of anxiety and tension are essential for learning. The anxiety associated with learning can stimulate meaningful and reflexive outcomes but "learning inaction"…

The paper argues that powerful regional knowledge is necessary and possible and that there are historical precedents supporting these claims. Regional knowledge is being used in a double sense: the first Bernsteinian, the second in relation to knowledge generated outside the academy. Both are important if the debate is not to be confined solely to…

This paper discusses a student-centred learning and teaching approach, "Marketing Downloads", designed to support students in transition into Higher Education. The move from secondary to tertiary education can be stressful for students and it impacts on their academic performance, their social life and general sense of well-being.…

This essay offers some reflections for the theory and practice of research supervision drawn from the field of employment relations. It argues that rethinking supervision in terms of the employment relationship can advance dialogue and debate about supervision. This is twofold. (1) Reframing supervision in terms of the employment relationship can…

This paper takes up issues raised in two articles by Nick Zepke and portrayed here as "the Zepke thesis". This thesis argues that the literature on, interest in and practices around student engagement in higher education have an elective affinity with neo-liberal ideology. At one level this paper counters many of the assertions that…

Nursing and the construction industry arguably enjoy uneasy membership of the academy. As both move closer towards university-based learning, debates remain about where discipline-specific training should best be provided and the importance of softer, graduate skills for the professions. This paper contextualises that debate by describing both…

This paper presents a philosophical approach to undergraduate curricula. The approach, informed by research, has been conceptualised as "socially critical vocationalism" (SCV). SCV is neither training nor pure traditional academic provision but an approach to curriculum that is academically defensible, practically relevant and socially…

This paper considers both the difficulties and the opportunities created by the mounting political pressures on UK universities to increase the "employability" of undergraduate students. Using the subject of criminology as an example, the paper considers tensions that can be created when practitioners are brought into the academy to…

This article engages with contemporary debates about the absence/presence of emotion in higher education. UK higher education has traditionally been constructed as an emotion-free zone, reflecting the dominance of Cartesian dualism with its rational/emotional, mind/body, male/female split. This construction has been challenged in recent years by…

In this paper, we discuss the characteristics of a form of pedagogy capable of addressing differences across nations and cultures in ways that do not inflate differences. We suggest that those conceptual insights are particularly relevant to the teaching of "global citizenship". We have labelled this a "worldly" pedagogy,…

In this article, the author offers a personal view on the meaning of "teaching excellence" in higher education which makes connections with the particular historical moment people are living through--which has been variously described as "post-traditional", "postmodern", or "reflexive modernity". The author…

In highlighting a gulf between inclusive policy intentions inherent in the advent of mass higher education in the UK and the lived experiences of students and staff, this paper aims to stimulate critical debate about the impact of this changed environment upon traditional personal tutoring relationships. In drawing upon qualitative research with a…

This article talks about a meeting on "Higher Education in Recessionary Times" on March 24, 2010, which was hosted by the Society for Higher Education Research Policy Network. Although the meeting did take place in the context of an expected General Election, and on budget day, there was a general sense on the day that whoever won the…