Personal tutoring is renowned for the positive role it can play in supporting student satisfaction, engagement and attainment outcomes in higher education. Surprisingly though, few studies have specifically investigated the demands of this role from the perspective of the personal tutor. Through the theoretical lens of Role Theory, this study…

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 necessitated changes in the working practices of many organisations such that online meetings suddenly became the norm. Governing board meetings were no exception. However, little is known about the impact of online meetings on the work of boards. Here we draw on empirical evidence from observations of…

The current research aimed to evaluate UK student mental health during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we were interested in exploring factors that contribute to students' anxiety levels about COVID-19. Demographics, mental health symptomatology and well-being-related variables were tested as predictors of COVID-19…

Hybrid approaches to teaching, where there is a proportion of online (asynchronous or synchronous) teaching as well as face-to-face synchronous teaching, were adopted almost ubiquitously by UK higher education institutions throughout the 2020/2021 academic year amidst disruption caused by national and international COVID-19 restrictions. One…

Employability is rapidly becoming a primary aim of PhD programmes. Internships have been shown to maximise students' chances of employment; however, there is limited evidence for how relevant this approach is to social science PhD students. This article reports on a mixed methods study, designed to utilise secondary and primary programme…

Over the course of the previous two decades, successive governments have attempted to attract students from diverse backgrounds as part of an overarching ambition to widen participation in Higher Education (HE). As part of those efforts, there has been a proliferation of Further Education Colleges (FECs) utilised to meet those ends. In 2021,…

This paper examines the PhD by publication in the humanities and social sciences in US, UK, Canadian and Australian universities. A set of PhDs by publication from each of these countries were collected for the study. The theses were analysed to see to what extent they fitted, or not, with discussions of thesis types described in previous research…

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes to the student experience. Thus, there is a need to centre students' lived experiences in pedagogical research which explores the effects of the pandemic on student life. The current study aimed to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted undergraduate students, with a focus on students'…

This paper discusses different sources of students' expectations of university, beginning with a thematic analysis of 21 semi-structured interviews with a diverse set of students at a UK University. We find that students draw on several different sources to develop their ideas of what university will be like; some of these sources are trusted more…

Studying at university and obtaining a degree is not only an appealing prospect, but now considered a necessity in the current economic climate in the UK. Concurrent financial, social, and academic challenges can converge and present a threat to student wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges whilst adding novel…

We analyse an institutional curriculum change initiative from the perspective of academics in a physics department to identify the barriers faced when curriculum change is used as a process to increase equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). We explore what curriculum means in physics, how power relationships within the university affect the…

The literature on internationalisation of higher education usually focuses on the student perspective, with intercultural competence often featuring as a graduate attribute. However, given the high proportion of international teaching staff in UK higher education institutions, more attention needs to be paid to intercultural competence of…

The concept of 'professional boundaries' -- widely used in sectors where professional relationships between adults are regulated -- has not commonly been drawn on in higher education (HE) to understand and denote appropriate relationships between faculty or staff and students. Nevertheless, in recent years the question of how to regulate sexual…

The aim of the Foundation Year of university is to prepare students for their undergraduate study. Part of this preparation is enculturation into ways of speaking. Undergraduate study involves small group interaction in which students are expected to use educational dialogue to co-construct conceptual understanding and engage in critical thinking.…

Gifted mathematicians often struggle to remain motivated when pursuing higher-level study, yet Further Education institutions rarely offer effective tailored support, prioritising lower-attaining learners. Having identified Vygotskian social learning as a potentially suitable theory for aiding motivational pedagogical-design, two gifted students…