The university years are an important life phase for academics that shapes their transition from adolescence to adulthood. Here, we aimed to contribute to a better understanding on how alumni construe both nostalgic memories and regrets about this period. In line with Self-Determination Theory, we assumed that we would find frequent references to…

Due to global influence and local demand, Taiwan's higher education system has experienced great changes in policy agenda and system reform over the past few decades. After President Tsai took the presidential office in 2016, the Ministry of Education (MOE) shifted its focus towards universities' autonomy and social responsibility, which…

Efforts to recruit international students to higher education must be matched with preparation of the campus community for engaging with this diverse population. The motives of international students for pursuing international studies, including academic and career goals, are facilitated through building strong relationships with members of the…

This paper contributes to research on teaching excellence by extending the current body of literature pertaining to mentoring pedagogies in undergraduate research settings across diverse social, institutional and disciplinary contexts. Our data comes from in-depth interviews with 32 international faculty who have received excellence awards for…

The representation of scientific knowledge and information on Wikipedia is controversial. While some entries present established scientific fact, other entries are devoid of information or present information of questionable rigour. Taking this and the problems associated with essay topics as assessment tasks into consideration, an assessment task…

We explored how frequently academic staff serve as role models for women undergraduate students, how this compares to the family context, and the qualities associated with potential role models in both contexts. Participants were 138 psychology students at a Dutch university. They completed a self-administered, online survey about inspirational…

The model of emotional support to students in Higher Education for over 40 years has been one of "person-centred therapy". Factors now challenge the supremacy of this approach, including its delivery format in an environment of extra-curricular demands, academic timetabling, students' financial restrictions (often requiring them to take…

The invasion of managerialism in universities has changed the prerequisites for academic work. Decision making and control over academic work based on the expertise of academics have declined; in turn, managers have gained more decision-making power. Our study's target group comprises academics representing educational sciences in two Finnish…

This paper examines the kinds of higher education policy discourses embedded in major Cambodian higher education policy texts related to educational reform efforts undertaken by the government. The focus is on post-conflict Cambodia, that is, Cambodia since 1993 when the first national elections were organized after more than two decades of armed…

University rankings have proliferated in recent years and have been diverse, with a variety of profiles. This paper deals with the task of obtaining one single summarized ranking based on a selection of the most widely known rankings, in short, a meta-ranking. Five of the best-known rankings were selected and a database compiled with the major…

The demands for academic research placed on contemporary universities are closely related to the levels of innovative research they are expected to produce. Concurrently, both governments and university management strive to make the production of academic research more cost-efficient and have implemented measures to ensure this. Top-down policies…

Enrollment at university can be based on personal interests (intrinsically motivated) as well as financial prospects (extrinsically motivated). I investigate whether and how these qualities of motivation for enrollment influence achievement motivation and well-being of university students at the beginning of their studies. Thereby, I relied on…

Evaluation systems including global university rankings have been recently introduced as mechanisms for assessing overall academic quality, appraising research reputation and as a basis for funding and policy decisions. This study explores the concept of research reputation in terms of how it is defined, constituted and assessed. Eight…

What aspects of student character are expected to be developed through disciplinary curricula? This paper examines the UK written curriculum through an analysis of the Quality Assurance Agency's subject benchmark statements for the most popular subjects studied in the UK. It explores the language, principles and intended outcomes that suggest…

Students as partners (SaP) is gaining momentum as both a practice and as a subject of analytic inquiry. This study draws on interviews to explore how formal, senior leaders responsible for teaching and learning conceptualise and imagine the implementation of SaP. While leaders saw SaP as occurring within a range of activities, the concept was…