Following the pivot to online teaching as a result of COVID-19, a longstanding debate as to whether higher education should abandon traditional face-to-face lectures has reignited. In this paper, we set out our reflection on this issue based on the evidence available. We conclude that traditional on-campus lectures, and the recordings of those…

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…

This paper discusses the role of the lecture in contemporary higher education. Moving beyond the polarised perspectives that characterise recent debates on the subject, it considers both the potential problems and possible pedagogical, practical and social benefits of the lecture as a mode of teaching and learning. Through an examination of…

This paper offers a perspective on the relationship between communities that conduct research on teaching and learning in higher education, focusing on Higher Education Studies (HES) and science Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). The paper responds to HES debates about the strength of its epistemological base and who belongs to that…

The question of why the works of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Derrida are often attributed to France by HE lecturers and students when the origins or developments of their key ideas come from northern Africa is examined from critical and personal standpoints. The article joins the call for the decolonisation of the HE curriculum…

This paper analyses how community, national and ethnic identities are affirmed, negotiated, marginalized as a part of hegemony-making and resistance in the context of English education in Indian universities. We argue and demonstrate that a complex and ambivalent hegemony that has been operational since the colonial times, continues to shape…

In response to the current demands and trends within education, the disciplines as one of the core long-standing organizing structures within knowledge production and transmission are questioning and shifting what and how they teach. Universities are increasingly offering interdisciplinary subjects and programmes as an alternative to or alongside…

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 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…

Empirical research signals that self-assessment is an important factor supporting and engaging students with learning. Despite this, there has been no explicit comparison or evaluation of recent models used across educational sectors or within them. To the uninitiated, self-assessment often appears as an amorphous, unique process. This paper…

Rapid change in higher education (HE) has lead to a reappraisal and debate about the role and "mission" of the university and the university teacher. In the diversification of the HE sector, it is possible to see a shift away from the "advancement of knowledge" as the primary purpose of the HE sector as a whole. This article…

Higher education (HE) professionals generally work in an information and communication technologies (ICT) rich environment. There are expectations that the existence of ICT benefits them, their students, and the overall learning environment. This paper investigates and debates the complex interplay between two aspects of HE that have witnessed…

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…

The paper draws on an extensive literature search about the 'research-teaching nexus', insights from interviewing twelve university history lecturers about student progress in undergraduate degrees, and ideas about the role of disciplines in student learning to argue (i) that the educational goal for students of 'becoming a practising historian'…

Postgraduate supervision, until recently, was regarded as an extension of research rather than as a form of teaching. Research students were assumed to be "always/already" autonomous scholars at the beginning of their candidature. So too, postgraduate supervisors were assumed to be "always/already" effective at supervising once they had endured…