Despite relatively recent, higher education has evolved into a consolidated field of study. This paper examines how this field evolved in Portugal. The goal was to understand when it first appeared, how it evolved over time, which scientific areas was it associated with, and what have been its main objects of study. Tight's classification of…

Students' integration into the environment of the higher education institution (HEIs) is a shared concern found in the literature. This notion of integration is particularly relevant in the first year in higher education, when students face increased difficulties of adapting to a new environment, being the year when a higher number of students…

Drawing upon a wider piece of research, this paper focuses on the validation of a 'use of assessment' scale in five Portuguese public universities with 5549 students. The study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the scale, to describe how students look at assessment uses, to analyse their utility perceptions of assessment, and to…

This paper discusses how the "emergence" and assumption of the knowledge society as an ideological integration in the European Union (EU) and in the European Research Area (ERA), along with Managerialism and Neoliberalism influences, resulted in precarious and insecure employment relations in the Portuguese scientific system. The…

The literature on higher education student success offers a considerable set of definitions of this concept, reflecting its semantic polysemy. This is understandable, inasmuch that the highly competitive environment where higher education institutions operate requires that they constantly seek legitimation and competitive advantage based on their…

During the past two decades, a shared set of norms and ideas on doctoral education and its purposes has emerged. As the EU strives to transform itself into a knowledge society, countries are expected to have more doctorate holders and orient doctoral education towards the non-academic labour market. However, the interaction between the changes on…

Researching across languages and cultures is a theme increasingly studied in diversified contexts due to the internationalisation of higher education. At the level of doctoral studies, this impacts on the process of doing and supervising a PhD. In Portugal, research concerning this issue is scarce and this paper intends to discuss the meanings and…

The paper examines the still unexplored role played by quality of academic life (QAL) related to Higher Education Institution (HEIs) students in fostering regional development. The work aims to assess the nature of the relationship between satisfaction and the QAL of HEIs' students; and also to evaluate whether the QAL is associated with the…

English-medium instruction (EMI) has been growing rapidly in higher education institutions worldwide as one of the chief language policy initiatives related to internationalisation. Acknowledging the centrality of teachers in EMI implementation and their role as micro-level actors in language policy and planning, this paper sets out to identify,…

Internationalization is a key contemporary debate within Higher Education (HE). Many universities worldwide proclaim their "international" status, citing quantitative indicators, particularly international student and staff recruitment and outbound student mobility data to illustrate this. In this paper, we focus on the non-mobile…

This research examined strategic actions in European universities through the institutional evaluation reports of the EUA. EUA reports for 21 universities from seven European countries were included in the data set. Qualitative inquiry was carried out and six sub-sections in the reports were used as established themes. The findings were then…

This article addresses academics who innovate in higher education and their characteristics. We undertake a qualitative case study of six individuals who implemented disruptive and transformative pedagogical approaches and curricular practices in their departments and/or at their institutions. Our findings point to six common…

This paper intends to construct an analytical framework for understanding quality assurance in international joint programmes and to test it in a case analysis of a European--Chinese joint doctoral degree programme. The development of a quality assurance system for an international joint programme is understood as an institutionalization process…

Today's universities are, accordingly to Clark's entrepreneurial model, sustained by managerialism, whereas collegialism may remain in contrast or work in a different way. More recent literature suggests the clash such as the potential for coexistence between managerialism and collegialism. The study analyses data from a survey of 26 universities…

Recognizing the strategic relevance of higher education, various countries have established ambitious objectives for the percentage of graduates in their population by 2020. In some cases, without effective policies aimed at increasing domestic rates of participation in higher education, such goals will not be met. However, successful measures are…