This paper presents a descriptive analysis of the impact of tuition fee increases in England on the full-degree mobility of undergraduate students from the European Union. First, we investigated whether the increase in tuition fees reduced the number of EU students in English higher education institutions. Our analysis shows that, on average,…

This paper explores how university staff in Denmark, Germany, and England perceived higher education (HE) policy as impacting the experience of being a student in their respective countries. While, in each nation, different policy mechanisms were identified as having triggered transformations in the experience of being a student, the…

Three influential theories are used to understand why employers value and seek out educational credentials in hiring. Qualifications can function as proof of productive skills (Human Capital Theory), as a signal of desirable characteristics (Signalling and Screening theories) or as a means for social closure (Closure Theory). Although these…

Europe is, in many ways, of central importance to discussions about higher education. Various European initiatives, such as the Bologna Process and the Erasmus mobility programme, have had a direct and material impact on the shape and nature of higher education across the continent. They have also been linked to wider political objectives, such as…

This article contributes to conceptualisations of public engagement as part of academic practice in higher education. It uses Hannah Arendt's idea of action in the public sphere, which is underpinned by the belief that all have the capacity to contribute to the renewal of the world, and that we are equally different. It argues that public…

University is a remarkable institution which is always expected to change the world through its constantly innovative technology and science advancement and civilization promotion. Academic institution relies on its efficacious leader with vision and implementation to fully accomplish its missions. However, limited attention goes to this crucial…

This paper addresses the challenge of developing a conceptual framing for the meaning of value with respect to higher education. The author argues that criteria derived from analyses of the life histories of longstanding graduates, which often take the form of counternarratives and proceed from that which matters to them, can inform an evaluative…

Student-mothers who study vocationally related higher education programmes are a relatively under-researched group. Specifically, there is a paucity of research into the emotions that these learners experience. This article discusses a qualitative investigation that examined the emotional narratives that a group of vocational student-mothers…

The question addressed in this paper is why expanding Higher Education (HE) has become the default policy position in England. One answer concerns the reluctance by employers to train. The paper adopts an historical perspective on the policy reviews into this issue which have displayed a remarkable policy amnesia, employers have not been engaged.…

Conservatoires train musicians to high levels of proficiency in performance and other 'principal study' disciplines, but often, teaching is perceived as a second-class profession, and little is known about how music students learn to facilitate music making in others. Yet, conservatoires have a responsibility to contribute to the development of…

Educational transitions experienced within a context of wide and growing inequalities such as England result in very different transition experiences to those experienced by young people growing up in relatively equitable societies with strong communal links. Transitions of working class young people in England are beset with competition,…

This article provides a response to the other contributions in this special issue and explores the range and scale of the opportunities for policy learning across the four UK nations. It addresses the importance of locating FE and skills policy within wider national policy contexts, national choices between markets and systems and the wider…

Learning outcomes are presented as a tool that can enhance teaching and learning in higher education, in particular by fostering student-centred learning. However, the ways in which this change can and should take place and the specific kinds of enhancement involved are often unclear. This article analyses common claims about the advantages of…

With the policy of developing a transparent and competitive European higher education sector, learning outcomes (LOs) are attributed a foundation stone role in policy and curriculum development. A premise for their implementation is that they bear fundamental similarities across national, institutional or professional/disciplinary contexts. In…

Specifying learning outcomes (LOs) in higher education as part of the European Qualification Framework (EQF) has resulted in a variety of experiences in the national contexts of England and Norway, as well as in different institutional and disciplinary settings. This article contributes to a contextualised understanding of the kind of management…