This article analyses speeches made by UK higher education ministers, from the election of the Conservative government in May 2015 through to September 2020. The article uses disruptive innovation as a theoretical framework through which to analyse ministers' perspectives on innovation. The methodology is content analysis with a directed approach.…

This paper presents a critical interrogation of the recent drive towards the 'inclusive curriculum' in higher education (HE). Our arguments are grounded in the findings of a systematic scoping review that sought to understand how researchers have, to date, understood, conceptualised and theorised the inclusive curriculum in HE. The findings…

Globally, performance-based research funding aims to support the most deserving academic institutions and researchers. However, overcoming entrenched assumptions about quality is a persistent challenge for higher education research policies worldwide; traditionally powerful institutions tend to maintain dominance. Research impact as a performance…

This article shows how the Scottish Government's (SG) political management of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has reinforced the economic goals of lifelong learning (LLL) under the skills for work agenda. Youth unemployment has been prioritized as the main social problem to be addressed, and most of the limited public resources for LLL have been…